Black users make up some of social media’s most engaged , influential audiences. They are now also among the thousands of people who have left X, formerly Twitter, citing a flood of bots, harassment and partisan ads surrounding the polarizing presidential election. With throngs of people leaving, “Black Twitter” may become a thing of the past as more users move to alternative text-based social media apps. “I don’t think that Black Twitter is going to exist within the next couple of years,” said Jonathan Johnson, a 29-year-old behavioral therapist in Houston and a longtime Twitter and X user. The future is unclear for Black Twitter, an unofficial group of users self-organized around shared cultural experiences that convenes sometimes viral discussions on everything from social ...

The Summary Nearly 12 million cases of dengue fever have been recorded in the Americas this year, close to triple last year’s total. New research suggests that climate change is responsible for nearly a fifth of the world’s dengue burden. That share is likely to rise significantly in the future, according to the findings. It has been an exceptionally bad year for dengue fever: Nearly 12 million cases were recorded in the Americas through October, close to triple last year’s total of 4.6 million. Research being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on Saturday quantifies the role that climate change has played in the trend, attributing nearly a fifth of the existing dengue burden to rising temperatures. By 2...

Social media star Jake Paul defeated legendary boxer Mike Tyson via unanimous decision late Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in one of the most improbable matchups in the sport’s history. All three judges ruled the fight in favor of Paul, with scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73. The win improves Paul’s professional record to 11-1 while dropping Tyson to 50-7. "He's exactly what I thought, one of the greatest to ever do it," Paul said after the fight. Tyson was asked if he was officially done boxing. He said he wasn't sure. "I don't think so," Tyson said on the broadcast. "Maybe the brother (Logan Paul)." Paul, 27, a social media star with more than 27 million Instagram followers and nearly 21 million YouTube subscribers, cruised in the bout. After a first ...

With President-elect Donald Trump ’s trade and foreign policy team taking a hawkish stance toward China , U.S. companies are increasingly concerned a hard-line approach could stunt their prospects in the world’s second-largest economy — and turn them into targets of Chinese retaliation. Trump has threatened to hit China with at least 60% tariffs and vowed to end reliance on the country. That alone would be disruptive. It would force companies to scramble to find other sources of supply, American consumers to pay higher prices at the store, and, according to many experts, lead to job losses. More from CNBC ‘Political malpractice’ if Trump undoes climate-geared Biden projects, U.S. energy secretary says Argentina’s Milei is a VIP at Mar-a-Lago as Trump and...

A 44-year-old Florida woman accused of using her mother’s identity to apply for hurricane aid told a Bradenton city employee that she looked so much younger because of botox, the police department said Saturday. Veronica Torres was charged with a third-degree felony count of filing a false public assistance claim after she applied for and received almost $8,000, the Bradenton Police Department said. She used her mother’s ID, name and social security number to file the assistance claim, saying that she was forced to move out of her home due to hurricane damage, police said. When the Torres arrived to pick up the check Thursday a city employee challenged her on her appearance compared to the age in the application. “Her explanation of ‘botox treatments’ failed to convince the emp...

KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the war with Russia ends next year through diplomacy, commenting at a decisive moment after Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election win and Russia’s grinding battlefield gains. However, Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin was not interested in agreeing to a peace deal, and argued it was convenient for Moscow to sit down to talk while continuing to fight. “From our side, we must do everything so that this war ends next year, ends through diplomatic means,” Zelenskyy said in a Ukrainian radio interview aired on Saturday. Moscow’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said on Thursday that Russia would be open to negotiations on an end to the war if they were initiated by Trump, although he ad...

In the days following the presidential election, a familiar strain of denialism and conspiracy thinking began to emerge in the corners of some social media platforms. On the right, familiar conspiracy theories about voting popularized by President-elect Donald Trump continued to circulate. But similar ideas also took hold among some supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and have continued to spread. NewsGuard, a firm that monitors misinformation, found that nearly 800 social media accounts and video channels had published false or egregiously misleading claims about the 2024 election starting on Sept. 1, along with over 960 websites and more than 1,200 “partisan sites masquerading as politically neutral local news outlets.” Sam Howard, NewsGuard’s U.S. politics editor, said ...

A North Carolina lawmaker is going viral on TikTok after his office allegedly told a female constituent in an email to “move to China” after she raised concerns about the state’s abortion policy. The constituent, who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns for her safety, told NBC News on Saturday that she sent an email to Republican state Sen. Danny Britt on Nov. 7 to say that her family “desperately wants to expand.” “But because of You, [President-elect Donald] Trump and the republican party and the strict abortion laws in this country we cannot,” she wrote in the email, a copy of which was shared with NBC News. “Thanks for ruining our futures! You all are terrible people.” In response, Britt’s legislative assistant Camille McDougald allegedly told the constituent to ...

The human head that washed ashore in South Florida this week belonged to a missing 19-year-old swimmer, police said Friday. Victor Enrique Castaneda Jr. went missing Saturday near the jetty area at South Pointe Drive, Miami Beach police said. Castaneda was not found after a three-hour search, police said. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner on Friday confirmed remains found Tuesday near Key Biscayne belonged to Castaneda, police said. Witnesses said that a good Samaritan saw Castaneda and his sister struggling in the water and saved the sister first, a police spokesperson said Saturday. By the time, the good Samaritan went back for Castaneda, he was nowhere to be found, the spokesperson said. A cause and manner of death for Castaneda was not released. The police sp...

Jordan Neeley’s death was a direct result of the chokehold Daniel Penny held him in, a medical examiner testified Friday, rebutting assertions from the defense team that the former Marine did not apply enough pressure to kill the subway rider and that his death could have had some other cause. “It’s my medical opinion that there are no alternative reasonable explanations for Mr. Neely’s death,” the medical examiner, Dr. Cynthia Harris, told jurors. Harris ruled Neely died from “compression of neck (chokehold)” days after his killing. More than a month later, a grand jury indicted Penny on a manslaughter charge. Attorneys for Penny, who is also charged with criminally negligent homicide, have refuted the medical examiner’s findings . In his opening statement, o...