Author: Shekari Philemon

Teenagers and artificial intelligence make for an increasingly common pairing, especially when it comes to food. Millions of young people now turn to AI chatbots to help them plan meals, manage weight and track nutrients. But a new study suggests that this growing habit may be doing more harm than good. Research published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition found that AI-generated meal plans for adolescents consistently underestimate calorie needs by an average of nearly 700 calories per day. That is roughly the equivalent of skipping an entire meal, and scientists say the gap is wide enough to carry serious…

Leaving an abusive marriage is not the end of the story. For many survivors, it is the beginning of a longer and less charted journey, one that involves rebuilding not just a home or a routine but an entire sense of self. For one woman who escaped an abusive relationship, finalized her divorce in 2019 and later processed the unexpected grief of her former husband’s death in 2023, that journey unfolded gradually through therapy, a supportive network and six discoveries that helped her feel reconnected to who she was becoming. Healing through the act of writing it down During some…

Ricks spent his final Wednesday evening inside the Huntsville Unit prison strapped to a gurney, using what little time he had left to look across a glass partition and say sorry. The people on the other side had been waiting over a decade for something, though whether an apology was ever going to be enough is a question only they can answer. It was a moment that felt both intimate and impossible, grief and closure occupying the same suffocating room. Cedric Ricks, 51, was executed for the 2013 killings of Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa. The…

There is a version of the Steph Curry story that focuses entirely on what he did on the basketball court, the three-pointers, the handles, the championships, the records. That version is compelling enough on its own. But the people who knew him before any of it happened tend to tell a different story, one about who he is rather than what he has accomplished, and their accounts are remarkably consistent. A former classmate from Davidson College, where Curry played before entering the NBA, recently reflected on how little the Golden State Warriors superstar has changed since their days together. His…

It lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to send the internet into a full spiral. At the 2026 Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles on March 12, Zendaya found herself in an impromptu moment with fellow actor Marsai Martin, who decided to press the Dune star directly about the swirling rumors that she and Tom Holland had quietly gotten married. The crowd leaned in. Zendaya smiled. And then, instead of saying a single word, she raised her hands toward her face. On her left ring finger, clearly visible in the moment, was a thin…

More than two decades after a tape featuring Ray J and Kim Kardashian first surfaced, the story surrounding it is anything but settled. The singer and rapper has escalated his long-standing accusations against Kardashian, claiming in recent legal filings submitted to Los Angeles Superior Court that she provided false testimony regarding how the footage came to be released publicly. Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, have both firmly denied any role in orchestrating the tape’s release. Now a new voice has entered the conversation. Ray J’s mother, Sonja Norwood, has stepped forward publicly with a message that makes clear she…

There are performances in sports that transcend statistics, nights so singular they become permanent fixtures in cultural memory. For Kobe Bryant, that night came in the 2005 to 06 season, when the Los Angeles Lakers guard put up 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in a performance that left the basketball world searching for comparisons. Only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game stood above it in the record books. It was the peak of a remarkable season. Bryant averaged 35.4 points per game on 45 percent shooting, leading the league in scoring and doing so in an era shaped by fewer possessions,…

Lil Nas X appeared at a Los Angeles courthouse on Thursday for a hearing connected to a felony battery of a peace officer charge, the latest development in a legal case that began with his arrest in the summer of 2025. The Grammy-winning rapper, who rose to global prominence with Old Town Road and Montero (Call Me by Your Name), arrived with his attorney, who made an immediate and consequential request of the court. His legal team asked the judge to grant a delay in proceedings, seeking time to file a motion that would allow the case to be transferred…

At a logistics event in Hebron, Kentucky, on March 11, President Donald Trump did what he has now done at least three times in public. He brought up the way former President Barack Obama walks down stairs. The moment was brief but oddly magnetic, the kind of aside that somehow overshadows everything else said in a room full of policy talk and political theatrics. Standing before a crowd of supporters, Trump described what he called a bobbing or bopping motion he claimed Obama used when descending stairways at the White House. He framed it as unpresidential while simultaneously suggesting he…

There is never a dull moment when LaVar Ball opens his mouth, and his latest take is no different. The outspoken father and longtime architect of the Ball family brand is now publicly challenging the Charlotte Hornets to sign all three of his sons, Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo, insisting the move would transform the franchise into something the NBA has never seen before. The idea arrived on the family’s podcast, where LaVar made his case with the same unfiltered confidence that has defined his public persona for years. He pointed to Charlotte’s current roster, acknowledged the team’s emerging young talent…