A beauty pageant controversy has ignited a cross-border feud between Nigeria and South Africa, with ride-hailing apps Uber and Bolt becoming the unlikely battlegrounds. The Miss South Africa controversy Last month, Chidimma Adetshina was forced to withdraw from the Miss South Africa contest after becoming a finalist due to xenophobic backlash. The 23-year-old law student says she was born in Soweto, South Africa to a Nigerian father and South African mother with Mozambican roots. After withdrawing from Miss South Africa, Adetshina later accepted an invitation to participate in Miss Universe
Chicago-based TikTok star Jools Lebron, known for her “very demure,” “very mindful,” and “very cutesy” lingo that has taken social media by storm, is now facing a trademark battle. Others have rushed to trademark variations of her viral catchphrases before she could, but the Puerto Rican creator recently reassured fans that the matter is being “handled.” A not-so demure Trademark Battle Lebron was a store cashier before her sudden rise to internet fame. Shortly after her phrases went viral, several individuals filed trademark applications for variations of “very demure.” Jefferson
Enerpoly, a cutting-edge battery technology company led by Eloisa de Castro, has opened the world’s first zinc-ion battery megafactory. This new facility, located in Rosersberg, near Stockholm, is a massive step in the global efforts to transition from reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy. Safer, Greener Batteries Batteries are vital to the transition away from fossil fuels, but energy storage needs to increase six-fold to meet COP28 goals of tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030. The new 6,500m² Enerpoly Production Innovation Center (EPIC) aims to produce 100 MWh of
A Pennsylvania mother has won the right to sue TikTok over the tragic death of her 10-year-old daughter, Nylah Anderson. Federal law has long shielded Big Tech companies from lawsuits for hosting content created and uploaded by third parties. However, this landmark ruling by the US appeals court asserts that companies can be held accountable for “knowing distribution and targeted recommendation” of harmful content. The Deadly TikTok Challenge Nylah Anderson died in December 2021 after attempting the “blackout challenge,” a viral trend that encouraged users to choke themselves until they
On Friday, Brazil’s top court ordered the immediate suspension of X—formerly Twitter—in the country following a months-long feud with owner Elon Musk. Now, rival platforms are benefiting. Bluesky Sees Surge in Sign-Ups Bluesky, which fully opened to the public in February 2023, is seeing massive surge in users, reportedly gained one million new users in just three days. The decentralized social app started off as a project by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2019 when he was Twitter’s CEO. It has since become an independent public benefit corporation, with Twitter founder
Heman Bekele, a 15-year-old high school student from Virginia, has been named TIME’s Kid of the Year 2024 for inventing a soap that could one day treat and prevent multiple forms of skin cancer. While the product may take years to reach the market, Bekele is already working in a lab at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, dedicated to making his vision a reality. A Young Scientist’s Vision Bekele’s journey into science began at a young age. He experimented with household chemicals and later received a
Dr. Kenvi Phillips recently made history as the inaugural Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library, the first fully digital presidential library in the United States. Her appointment, which kicked off on June 16, 2024, sees Phillips overseeing all programs and activities at the library. A New Era in Presidential Archives The Barack Obama Presidential Library is unique within the network of 15 presidential libraries managed by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—it is entirely digital. An estimated 95% of the records from the Obama administration were born digital,
ChurchSpace is changing how churches use their spaces by turning underutilized real estate into vibrant community hubs. Nicknamed the “Airbnb for churches,” this innovative app allows churches to generate additional income by renting out their facilities as commercial kitchens, event venues, and meeting spaces. Created by the millennial pastors’ kids Day Edwards and Emmanuel Brown, ChurchSpace addresses church leaders’ financial pressures and offers a new model for community engagement. Empowering Communities Through Church Real Estate Launched in 2019, ChurchSpace aims to strengthen local communities by repurposing church real estate. “Church
Nigeria will be sending its first citizen to space as part of collaboration between its National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), a global space agency. SERA will reserve a seat for a Nigerian citizen on an upcoming Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital spaceflight. First Nigerian in Space Announced on June 19, 2024, this initiative is part of a broader effort to include nations historically underrepresented in space exploration. “Until now, space has been an exclusive domain, with over 80% of all astronauts
Latinas face the steepest drop in representation as they climb the corporate ladder, according to Lean In’s first-ever report on the state of Latinas in corporate America. Despite Latinas accounting for nearly 1 in 10 people in the US, they hold less than 1 in 20 entry-level corporate jobs and only 1 in 100 C-suite positions. Disparities in Advancement and Pay In 2023, white men’s representation increased by nearly two-thirds (64%) from entry-level to C-suite positions, while Latinas’ representation decreased by over three-quarters (78%). Latinas also experience the largest pay
