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A California jury has ruled that comedian Bill Cosby is liable for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman more than 50 years ago, adding another chapter to the long legal saga surrounding the once-dominant television star. The verdict, delivered Monday in California, orders Cosby to pay $59.25 million in damages to Donna Motsinger, a former waitress who accused the comedian of assaulting her in 1972. Jurors awarded $17.5 million for past emotional trauma and another $1.75 million for future s

military aircraft conveying dozens of Colombian soldiers has crashed near the country’s southern border with Peru, officials confirmed on Monday. The crash involved a Hercules transport plane which came down near Puerto Leguízamo in Putumayo province shortly after take-off, BBC reports. According to Colombian military authorities, about 80 soldiers were on board the aircraft when the incident occurred. Emergency responders have been dispatched to the area as authorities begin efforts to reach

Leonid “Leo” Radvinsky, the owner and CEO of the porn-friendly platform, OnlyFans, has passed away at 43 after a long battle with cancer. The billionaire entrepreneur helped turn the company into one of the most profitable subscription-focused digital media platforms to date. While often steeped in controversy for its promotion of adult content, OnlyFans has created a narrative shift on how sexual content is produced, consumed, and monetized.  The company confirmed his passing on Monday (Mar.2

Chuck Norris, the martial artist and action film star known for his commanding presence on screen, has died. He was 86. Norris died Thursday morning in Hawaii, according to a statement shared by his family. Loved ones said the actor passed away peacefully while surrounded by relatives. “It is with heavy hearts that our family shares the sudden passing of our beloved Chuck Norris,” the statement read. “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by

A judge in the US has ruled that the effective closure of the Voice of America (VOA) last year was "illegal" and that hundreds of its journalists should be reinstated. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth has given authorities one week to put the international broadcaster back on air.  The VOA was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda. Just weeks after returning to office as president, Donald Trump issued an executive order to close the broadcaster which his officials accused

Former NBA star Shaq, real name Shaquille O’Neal, has pledged to cover funeral expenses for 12-year-old Jayda West, whose death has shaken communities west of Atlanta. O’Neal announced Tuesday that he would pay for the final arrangements after learning about West’s case through media coverage. The gesture came days after the girl died following a confrontation near a school bus stop in Georgia. “This story touched my heart the moment I saw it in the media,” O’Neal said. “As a father, my heart

Kiki Shepard, actor and longtime host of Showtime at the Apollo, has died at age 74. According to her rep, Shepard (born Chiquita Renee Shepard) passed away on Monday (March 16) after reportedly suffering a massive heart attack, per an exclusive TMZ report. Shepard was best known as the co-host of the syndicated variety show Showtime at the Apollo between 1987 to 2002, sharing the stage with Steve Harvey for seven years and helping to introduce aspiring performers at the Harlem theatre. In re

A fake “Florida man kidnapped by dolphins” story just became one of the clearest examples of how fast satire turns into “real news” online. The viral post claimed Lee County deputies found a 33‑year‑old man barefoot, sunburned and disoriented on the Sanibel Causeway, telling them he’d been taken “against his will” by a pod of dolphins off Fort Myers Beach and forced to help them build an underwater city. The write‑up included fabricated booking details and a whole subplot about him sketching bl

A 12-year-old middle school student in Georgia has died after an after-school fight with another student, prompting an ongoing police investigation and raising concerns about bullying and student safety. The girl, identified as Jada West, was a student at Mason Creek Middle School in Villa Rica, Georgia. According to reports, the incident began with an argument on a school bus that escalated into a physical fight after the students got off in a neighborhood near her home. Witness videos circul

A woman fired several shots into the Beverly Hills-area home of pop star Rihanna on Sunday, and a round penetrated a wall of the mansion, a law enforcement source told The Times. Los Angeles police responded to the report of the shooting at 1:21 p.m. Sunday in the Beverly Hills Post Office neighborhood, a spokesperson said, and a 30-year-old female suspect was taken into custody. The pop star was home, the source said. According to police, the suspect fired multiple rounds from inside her veh

An explosion shook the US embassy in Oslo, Norway, in the early hours of Sunday, causing what local authorities described as “minor material damage.” The blast comes amid heightened tensions at US diplomatic missions worldwide following escalating hostilities between the United States, Israel, and Iran. Several US diplomatic facilities in Gulf countries hosting American troops have recently been targeted by Iranian retaliatory strikes, including in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. According to Oslo po

Over the weekend, a fatal shooting took place amid the grand opening of a new Marathon Burger in Long Beach, CA. The franchise restaurant was founded by Nipsey Hussle’s brother, Blacc Sam, in honor of the late rapper.  KTLA reported that the fatal incident has left one person dead and two others injured. An investigation of the events is currently underway, say police officials. According to the outlet, the details of what exactly led up to the fatal shooting are still unclear. That said, a rep

US President Donald Trump has said he would direct every federal agency to immediately stop using technology from AI developer Anthropic. "We don't need it, we don't want it, and will not do business with them again!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday. Anthropic is mired in a row with the White House after refusing demands that it agree to give the US military unfettered access to its AI tools. The refusal led US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to say he's deemed Anthropic a "supply

Eric Dane, the actor best known for his roles on Grey's Anatomy and Euphoria, has died less than a year after revealing he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 53.  Dane starred as family patriarch Cal Jacobs on hit HBO teen drama Euphoria. Before that, he was perhaps best known as Dr Mark Sloan, or "Dr McSteamy", on medical drama Grey's Anatomy. The California-born actor shared his ALS diagnosis in April 2025 and spent his final months raising funds and awareness for the most commo

The world grieves the loss of Civil Rights icon Rev Jesse Jackson, who passed away surrounded by family at home in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday morning (February 17). The cause of death has not been given at this time. He was 84. Jackson’s family confirmed the icon’s passing and also shared that he died peacefully. The Jackson family issued a public statement on Tuesday with the confirmation. It reads: “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voicel

Jesse Jackson, pastor, civil rights leader and two‑time Democratic presidential candidate who helped carry the torch from Martin Luther King Jr. to the Obama era, has died at 84. His family said Jackson “died peacefully” on Tuesday surrounded by loved ones, after more than a decade of health challenges that included Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. A protégé of King, Jackson was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968 and went on

The latest release of more than three million pages of Jeffrey Epstein–related documents by the U.S. Justice Department is triggering a wave of resignations, investigations and public apologies across Europe. The files detail social and professional ties with Epstein that continued long after his 2008 conviction, links that have proved politically untenable even where no criminal conduct is alleged. In the UK, the fallout has engulfed Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government after documents sug

Former President Barack Obama is breaking his silence regarding a racist video posted by Donald Trump on Truth Social. The now-deleted video depicted Obama and the former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.  During an interview with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, the pair discussed how political discourse has gone downhill. Coehn brought up several examples of inflammatory comments by Trump and his cabinet, as well as the recently deleted video. “There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in

Meta, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms are facing landmark “social media addiction” trials in California, where juries are weighing whether features like endless feeds and autoplay are harming young users. A lead Los Angeles case brought by a woman known as K.G.M. has become the template for hundreds of similar suits, and TikTok and Snap have already quietly settled while denying wrongdoing—signaling some companies may prefer deals over having their recommendation engines dissected in open co

In a series of X posts on Friday (Feb.13), Wiz Khalifa revealed that his father, Laurence W. Thomaz, sadly passed away at 63 years old.” Today, my father decided not to wake up. I will always love him, miss him, and be grateful for the things he taught me,” he wrote.  In another post, Wiz recalled one of the last conversations he shared with his dad. “The last conversation i had with my dad was him telling me how proud of me he was for the movie i was in and I promised him i would do more. LT F

As President Donald Trump changed tariff agreements with a number of countries, there was one constant: goods became more expensive for US companies and consumers. In research released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a group of analysts and economists found that in 2025, the average tariff rate on imported goods rose to 13% from just 2.6% at the start of the year. The New York Fed found that 90% of the cost of increased tariffs, which Trump imposed on goods from Mexico, China

The Merchant’s House Museum, a slim 19th-century townhouse in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, has discovered a link to the underground railroad just in time for Black History Month. Spectrum New York News 1 broke the news on Tuesday (Feb. 9). Located on East Fourth Street, the building is long celebrated for its preservation of the “old New York.” The building’s underground railroad discovery is set as a concealed passageway hidden inside the landmarked home, which likely served as a safe haven

The US House of Representatives has voted to rescind US President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods. In a 219 to 211 vote, six Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to back a resolution that seeks to end the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada last year.  The vote is largely symbolic as it will still need to be approved by the US Senate and then approved by Trump, who is very unlikely to sign it into law.  Since his re-election, Donald Trump has imposed a series of tariffs on Canada, recen

Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20‑year federal sentence for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors and is now trying to cut that term short through clemency and politics rather than further appeals. In 2021, a New York jury convicted Maxwell on sex‑trafficking and related counts tied to recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein over many years; she was sentenced in June 2022, with the judge calling her conduct “heinous and predatory.” Her direct appeals have effectiv