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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

Ukraine is preparing to open 10 weapons export centers across Europe and begin production of Ukrainian‑designed drones in Germany, marking a shift from wartime arms recipient to emerging arms exporter. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told students at the Kyiv Aviation Institute that the export hubs—planned for 2026 across the Baltic and Northern European states—will sell systems built with Ukrainian technology, with German production to start in mid‑February and lines already running in the UK. A

Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. federal custody in New York, where he and his wife, Cilia Flores, face a superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York on narco‑terrorism, cocaine‑importation conspiracy, weapons and related charges. Prosecutors allege that for years Maduro and senior Venezuelan officials worked with Colombian guerrilla groups and traffickers to move large quantities of cocaine from Venezuela toward the United States, using state resources and

Lil Jon said this week that his son, Nathan Smith, has died after authorities recovered a body from a pond in Georgia believed to be the 27-year-old. Smith, who performed under the name DJ Young Slade, had been reported missing days earlier. Officials said confirmation from the medical examiner is still pending. The news has drawn widespread attention and sympathy. In a statement to TMZ, Lil Jon described the loss in personal terms. “I am profoundly heartbroken over the tragic loss of our son,

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said this week that New Yorkers will soon be able to access the cupola atop the David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building, opening a civic space long closed to the public. The announcement was made in a video posted on X, where the mayor described the structure as “one of the most magnificent government buildings in the world.” Named for the city’s first Black mayor, the building occupies a central place in Manhattan’s civic landscape. City officials framed the plan as a

Savannah Guthrie’s 84‑year‑old mother, Nancy, is still missing in Arizona, and investigators now say they believe she was abducted from her home outside Tucson. Authorities and Guthrie’s family have shared key details of the case in an ongoing timeline from ABC News. Nancy was last seen on the night of January 31, when family members dropped her at her house after dinner; by the next morning, church friends raised the alarm when she didn’t show up to Sunday services. Deputies later found her ca

Lil Jon’s son, DJ Young Slade, is reportedly missing. The 28-year-old artist was last seen in Milton, Georgia, on Tuesday (Feb.3).  TMZ reports that Young Slade—real name Nathan Murray Smith—was allegedly last seen fleeing his home on foot around 6 a.m. It was also reported that Smith left with no belongings. Questions have arisen about Smith’s state of mind. According to police reports, Smith was reportedly disoriented and allegedly naked at the time he left. The official missing person alert