Sebastien De La Cruz, 11, performed the National Anthem at Game 3 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio on Tuesday night, filling in for country crooner Darius Rucker, who had to cancel at the last minute.

By all accounts, Sebastien, a former "America's Got Talent" performer, brought the house down with his rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Some viewers, however, fired off racist comments on social networks like Twitter following the performance.
The young singer spoke with KENS-5 about the backlash.
"With the racist remarks, it was just people how they were raised. My father and my mama told me you should never judge people by how they look," Sebastien said.
The singer specializes in mariachi-style singing and performed the National Anthem in a black-and-silver suit, inspired by his hometown Spurs.
"When I started mariachi, I knew there was gonna be a lot of politics," Sebastien told KENS-5. "And I'm just a proud American, to be honest."
San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro tweeted his support for Sebastien.

05:49:00

The new update to the iPhone and iPad operating system is much more than just a fresh veneer. Beyond its flattened user interface that no longer tries to mimic real-life textures, you'll find that iOS has been rethought as much as its been redesigned.

Every core app that Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) includes with iOS has been given a facelift. In many cases, those apps have been newly conceived. For example, the Photos app now models itself after Facebook's (FB) Instagram, and the music app baked in some crucial, Pandora-esque (P) streaming functionality.
It's true that many of the revamped, improved and new features found in iOS 7 are examples of Apple playing catch up with Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) Android and Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows Phone.
New features like Control Center, which lets you quickly tweak settings, appears ripped straight from Google. A new card metaphor for app switching first appeared on the ill-fated Palm Pre in 2009. In iOS 7, every app will have the ability to run in the background and update itself without user interaction, just like Android. And the daily agenda view in Notification Center very much feels like a response to Google Now.
Still, these much-needed, overdue changes address some substantial problems that had been plaguing iOS for years. Just because Apple didn't think up these ideas doesn't mean that iOS isn't better for employing them, and adopting the better parts of its competition only helps to accentuate Apple's undeniable strengths, such as its app ecosystem.
And even if they're less pronounced, Apple still showed off some new innovations in iOS 7.
Apple didn't just go "flat" with its new user interface -- it went one step further than what Android and Windows Phone have been doing. Apple skillfully used layers and translucency to re-introduce a sense of depth to iOS. Some people in the tech community, including Gizmodo's Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, have argued "depth" is the next step after the flat UI craze.
A feature like the parallax wallpaper, which orients itself differently depending on how you hold the phone, adds enough of a "gee whiz" factor without getting in the way. It may seem totally superfluous, but those kind of design innovations give some humanity to iOS.
With iOS 7, Apple has positioned itself a half-step ahead of the pack in the design arena. That's a major achievement given how archaic iOS was starting to look.
Consider the fact that, under the leadership of design chief Jony Ive, Apple overhauled the entirety of iOS in less than a year. That process began immediately after CEO Tim Cook kicked Scott Forstall, iOS' former leather-loving boss, to the curb and restructured Apple's leadership.
If iOS 7's performance meets the expectations that its new design has set, it serves as a promising sign that Apple's executive team is capable of keeping the company humming along. Apple may not be light-years ahead of the competition like it once was, but at the very least, iOS again resembles a modern mobile operating system.
Now, Apple can once again focus more on innovating and less about preventing itself from from falling on its face.

06:02:00

Taksim Square, the focus of days of protest, is now largely cleared.
But protesters have regrouped in nearby Gezi Park, whose proposed redevelopment sparked anger which has widened into nationwide anti-government unrest.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said there will be no tolerance of people he accuses of seeking to harm Turkey.
The demonstrators accuse Mr Erdogan of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state.

Mr Erdogan is due to meet a group of people - including an actress, a singer and a writer - who he hopes can mediate with the protesters.

It had been suggested he would hold talks with protest organisers, but they told the BBC that they had not been approached by the prime minister - and would refuse to meet him even if they were.
They added that they did not recognise any of the group that Mr Erdogan was due to meet as representatives of the protesters in the park.
Throughout Tuesday, riot police had repeatedly clashed with protesters throwing bottles, stones and firebombs. Many peaceful demonstrators were also caught in the clashes.
Thousands converged on the square as night fell and were repelled by water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas.
Dispersed demonstrators sought shelter nearby, including in Gezi Park. Police said they did not plan to enter the park.
Volunteers set up makeshift clinics to treat anyone injured.
Security forces cleared the square, only for the demonstrators to return.Twelve days in Taksim Square Protests in Taksim Square since 1 June

05:28:00