LOS ANGELES, United States: Pop star Liam Payne had multiple drugs including crack cocaine and methamphetamine in his system when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina, according to initial toxicology reports cited by US media on Monday.
The British singer and former One Direction member died last week at the age of 31, after plunging from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires.
ABC News and TMZ said a cocktail of drugs called “pink cocaine” — containing methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA — had been found during a partial autopsy, citing anonymous sources familiar with the preliminary tests.
Crack cocaine and benzodiazepine were also listed.
An “improvised aluminum pipe to ingest drugs” was also found in the room, ABC reported.
Payne — who was found dead after staff called emergency services twice to report a guest “overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol” was “destroying” a hotel room — had spoken publicly about struggles with substance abuse and coping with fame from an early age.
Post-mortem results indicated that he was alone at the time of the fall and “was going through an episode of substance abuse,” prosecutors had previously said.
The singer suffered “multiple traumas” and “internal and external hemorrhaging,” they said.
The Clarin newspaper published photos last week of what it said was the interior of Payne’s room, with white powder visible on a table next to a piece of aluminum foil and a lighter. The pictures also showed a television with a broken screen.
The prosecutor’s office said substances that appeared to be “narcotics and alcoholic beverages” had been found in the room, amidst pieces of broken furniture and other objects.
A hotel employee suspected of providing Payne with drugs on the day he died has been interviewed by officials, but not arrested or charged, local police told ABC News.
Payne was a member of One Direction, the hugely successful pop group whose fame began in 2010 on the British television talent contest “The X Factor.”
One of the highest-grossing live acts in the world, the group went on indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Payne went on to enjoy solo success, but in recent years spoke openly about struggles with alcoholism and fame.
He was the father of a seven-year-old boy shared with Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy.
Toxicology tests show Liam Payne had ‘multiple’ drugs in system: reports
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Toxicology tests show Liam Payne had ‘multiple’ drugs in system: reports
- The British singer and former One Direction member died last week at the age of 31, after plunging from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires
Oracle says data center outage causing issues faced by US TikTok users
WASHINGTON: Oracle on Tuesday said issues faced by US users of social media app TikTok are the result of a temporary weather-related power outage at an Oracle data center, after California Governor Gavin Newsom linked the issues to what he called the suppression of content critical of President Donald Trump.
“Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok,” Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said in an email.
A powerful winter storm struck much of the US over the weekend.
“The challenges US TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve,” Egbert said.
On Monday, Newsom said his office was launching a review to determine if TikTok’s content moderation practices violated state law.
“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” Newsom’s office had said.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, last week finalized a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC that will secure US data, to avert a ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans. The deal was praised by Trump.
The joint venture has denied censorship, saying “it would be inaccurate to report that this is anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed.”
Each of the joint venture’s three managing investors — cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX — will hold a stake of 15 percent. The deal provides for American and global investors to hold 80.1 percent of the venture while ByteDance will own 19.9 percent.
The joint venture said on Tuesday it “made significant progress in recovering our US infrastructure with our US data center partner” but noted that US users may still face some technical issues, including when posting new content.
With more than 16 million followers on his personal TikTok account, Trump credited the app with helping him win the 2024 election.
Last week’s deal was a milestone for TikTok after years of battles with the US government over Washington’s concerns about risks to national security and privacy under Trump and former President Joe Biden.
