John Oliver called for the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a searing monologue Sunday night.
“RFK needs to go. And by impeachment if necessary,” Oliver said on Last Week Tonight.
Oliver echoed an April 9 statement from Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, leader of the American Public Health Association, which outlined many of the devastating deaths and losses resulting from policy changes and budget cuts after Kennedy’蝉 first three months at HHS.
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Donald Trump thinks it’蝉 time for Republican lawmakers to stop playing nice with town hall disruptors.
The president told Republican lawmakers to take a harsher stance against “infiltrators” after Republican Rep. Mike Lawler’蝉 town hall in Rockland County, New York quickly went off the rails on Sunday night.
“The Radical Left Democrats are paying a fortune to have people infiltrate the Town Halls of Republican Congressmen/women and Senators,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “These Great Patriot Politicians should not treat them nicely. Have them immediately ejected from the room - They are disruptors and troublemakers.”
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President Donald Trump seems to have undergone a drastic change of heart on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after Pope Francis’蝉 funeral service.
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump said he was “very disappointed” about Russia’蝉 deadly airstrike on Kyiv last week as he took on a more sympathetic tone toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I think the meeting went well,” Trump said of his conversation with Zelensky. “We’ll see what happens over the next few days. We’ll probably learn a lot. I was very disappointed that missiles were flying—by Russia—very disappointed.”
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60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley blasted the show’蝉 parent company for currying favor with the Trump administration during a Sunday night broadcast.
He also firmly stood by the venerable newsmagazine’蝉 former executive producer, who resigned last week in protest.
During the show’蝉 “Last Minute” segment Sunday, Pelley addressed Bill Owens’ decision to leave the program by criticizing Paramount for closely supervising its content. Pelley claimed Paramount kept a close eye on 60 Minutes because it needed the Trump administration’蝉 approval to finalize a business merger it hopes to reach with entertainment company Skydance Media.
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President Donald Trump was spotted with a new member of his entourage: Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. The pair were filmed disembarking Marine One in Washington, D.C. Sunday, just a day before the Super Bowl champion Eagles are set to visit the White House. The NFL star hitched a ride with Trump after spending the afternoon with him at his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. A photo of Barkley and Trump at the club subsequently went viral, showing the pair sitting with a group at a table filled with “Make America Great Again” hats. The president had nothing but praise for Barkley, telling reporters back in Washington: “What a nice guy he is. I wanted to race him but I decided not to do it.” The Philadelphia star’蝉 cozy appearance with Trump came just a few days after the team’蝉 quarterback, Jalen Hurts, refused to answer a question about whether he would travel to Washington with his team to celebrate their Super Bowl victory at the White House.
]]>.@POTUS on Eagles running back @saquon Barkley: “What a nice guy he is. I wanted to race him but I decided not to do it.”pic.twitter.com/DiNFvs4SHS
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 27, 2025
(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
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How’蝉 this for timing? The final Broadway show opening in time to vie for Tony Award nominations has one of the best show-stopping numbers of the entire season.
In the middle of the second act of Real Women Have Curves (James Earl Jones Theatre, booking to Oct. 5), the song “Curves”—featuring the group of Latina women and close friends who work as seamstresses in a small East Los Angeles clothing factory—sees the main cast stripped to their undergarments, singing loudly and dancing wildly in praise of being proud of the bodies they have.
The response of the audience to this joyous number—standing ovation, rapturous applause—says everything about how the song hits home with an audience all too aware of pressures and insecurities attendant on notions of the body beautiful.
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In one of the most impressive word-of-mouth campaigns in recent memory, Ryan Coogler’蝉 Sinners has continued to prowl its way to the top of the box office, earning $45 million domestically and posting the smallest second-week drop since Avatar in 2009. Set in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s, Sinners follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) as they return home to open a juke joint only to find that a sinister threat is eager to sink its teeth into their new venture. The horror flick, which essentially opened to universal acclaim last weekend, has made $161.6 million worldwide so far and has easily endowed fresh life into what’蝉 mostly been a struggling film market this year. Coming in second place this week was a special 20th anniversary re-release of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, which grossed around $25.2 million over the weekend. Rounding out the top five are The Accountant 2 (starring Ben Affleck), A Minecraft Movie, and horror video game adaption Until Dawn which earned around $24.5 million, $22.7 million, and $8 million respectively.
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President Donald Trump has vowed to bring Columbus Day “back from the ashes.”
In a Truth Social post Sunday, the president announced that he would be “reinstating” the federal holiday and blamed the Democratic Party for doing “everything possible” to “destroy” the reputation of its namesake, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.
“I’m bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes. The Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much,” Trump penned.
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Saturday Night Live‘蝉 Chloe Fineman ran into Demi Moore, but things didn’t go as expected. In a TikTok posted Saturday, the comedian said she and her sister were having the “best day” when they walked into a restaurant in Manhattan. “I sit down, and then I look up and it’蝉 Pilaf Little Mouse, the celebrity dog of Demi Moore, and I see Demi Moore,” she recalled. “I was like, “Oh, hi! We’ve met once or twice, and I’ve held Pilaf, because Pilaf was backstage at an SNL show.’” Things quickly took a turn, however, when the restaurant manager came up to Fineman. “The guy’蝉 like, ‘What are you doing here? Ma’am, come, come, come with me. Now. Now.’” Fineman said the manager then informed her that she needed to check in with staff before entering the restaurant. “I said, ‘Calm down. I’m not nobody. I’m on SNL.’ And he was like, ‘I don’t care who you are. I treat everybody the same. You have to talk to me first.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, well, you’re being rude.’” The awkward interaction ended with Fineman and her sister leaving the restaurant. “You could call it a Karen,” she said. “I also call it living in New York, and everyone is rude as f–k.”
]]>@chloefineman Chaotic Story Time
? original sound - Chloe Fineman
The Daily Beast’蝉 unmissable newsletter The Swamp has all the real news from the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner’蝉 weekend of parties. In this exclusive extract learn about the biggest star of the weekend on the biggest absentee. And sign up here to learn about a jaw-dropping racial blunder, which Cabinet secretary went to a $500,000 members’ club’蝉 sales pitch and much much more.
Donald Trump may have snubbed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner for Pope Francis’ funeral but the second biggest newsmaker of the past few months was full frontal across the party weekend.
Jason Isaacs exposed all in a scene for the third season of The White Lotus and he was on view all weekend in Washington.
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Bill O’Reilly has split with President Donald Trump on one issue in particular: the case of a wrongfully deported Maryland dad whose return the Supreme Court has ordered the administration to “facilitate.”
The legendary conservative pundit said the president, whom O’Reilly has steadfastly supported over the years, is making a “mistake” in defying the judiciary.
The former Fox News host said Saturday that the Trump administration should bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”
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An Irish woman who had legally been living in Santa Cruz for more than 30 years was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this month after returning home from an overseas trip.
Green-card holder Cliona Ward, 54, first ran into legal trouble in March after arriving back in the U.S. from a trip to Ireland to visit her father with dementia, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her sister, Orla Holladay, to cover legal costs.
She was detained and questioned by customs at the San Francisco airport over her past criminal record, which stretched between 2003 to 2008 and included some felony charges pertaining to the possession of drugs, according to NBC Bay Area.
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Mike Myers has no regrets after his very public dig at President Donald Trump and his right hand man Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live.
The Canadian Austin Powers star caused a stir by wearing a “Canada is Not for Sale” shirt during the closing credits on SNL last month.
Over the weekend he told The New York Times that the message was meant as a rebuke of both men’蝉 threats to annex the U.S.’ northern neighbor and make it the “51st state.”
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This year, for the first time since inviting a comedian to headline in 1983, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner promised there would be no entertainment. In that regard, it delivered.
I didn’t attend Saturday night’蝉 dinner, partly out of principle after the White House Correspondents’ Association disinvited a comedian at the Trump administration’蝉 request, and partly because no one invited me.
But I wrote speeches and jokes for President Obama, and then a book about writing speeches and jokes for President Obama. So I’ve spent more time thinking about the Correspondents’ Dinner than any self-respecting human should.
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A Virginia woman got more than what she paid for after a snake fell from the restaurant ceiling and into her margarita. Carletta Andrews told 8News that she and her husband were dining at Patron Mexican Restaurant and Cantina in Sandston earlier this month when she felt something touch her skin. “I leaned in to take a sip and I noticed something hit me in the forehead and I looked at my husband like what was that,” Andrews said. “When I turned around, I saw the snake in my margarita.” Another customer eventually grabbed the snake and released it outside. Andrews said the restaurant offered to move her to another table but she was already headed out. “I left shaking,” she said. “I was traumatized.” The restaurant owner told 8News that the snake likely got into the establishment through the air conditioning unit. When asked what precautions were put in place to avoid a repeat of the incident, the owner reportedly told 8News: “Nothing.” Records obtained by 8News showed that the restaurant had several violations during a December 2024 inspection, including leaky ceiling tiles and mold. The issues were corrected in a follow-up inspection a week later.
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A Black Hawk helicopter pilot who collided with a passenger plane over Washington D.C. in January reportedly failed to follow instruction from her co-pilot to change course seconds before the crash.
In a new report published Sunday, The New York Times details the many missteps that led to the fatal collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport earlier this year, which killed all three military personnel aboard the helicopter and all 60 passengers, plus four crew members, aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 flying in from Kansas.
Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, who joined the Army in 2019, was piloting the helicopter as part of an annual flight exam, according to The Times. Her co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, was also serving as her flight instructor while a third crew member, Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, was helping with technical equipment in the back.
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Legendary football coach Bill Belichick may be decades older than his girlfriend Jordon Hudson, but she showed the world who wears the pants in their relationship during a Sunday interview.
Belichick, 73, was prodded into answering questions about his relationship with Hudson, 24, as he spoke to CBS News’ Sunday Morning journalist Tony Dokoupil. Describing Hudson as a “constant presence” at Belichick’蝉 side, Dokoupil asked the former New England Patriots head coach about how he felt about all the attention paid to their relationship.
“I’ve never been too worried about what everyone else thinks,” said Belichick, who is gearing up to step into his role as head football coach at UNC-Chapel Hill. He added that he just tries to “to do what I feel like is best for me, and what’蝉 right.”
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When it gets too hot, a splash of cold water is deliciously welcome. And so it is on Broadway at this time of year when a gaggle of shows scramble to open before the stroke of midnight Sunday, the cutoff time to be eligible for this year’蝉 Tony Awards, whose nominations will be announced Thursday.
All the conventional heat comes from celebrities in starring roles, and spectacular shows with big budgets. While there is nothing wrong with well-executed Broadway maximalism, the joy at this time of year is also seeing shows working in a different register, with less bombast and celebrity—still going big but creatively swimming in a different current to the Broadway mainstream.
Oh, Mary! and Maybe Happy Ending are two such shows, and the exceptional Dead Outlaw (Longacre Theatre, booking to July 27) now joins them as a standout singular creation. Its title turns out to be shockingly literal.
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Anywhere between 50 to 100 people left with approximately $300,000 after bags of cash fell out of an armored truck in a Chicago suburb. The Oak Park Police Department in Illinois said that the back door of a truck owned by Brinks Home Security Company “opened by unknown means” on Tuesday, causing three bags of cash to fall onto the road. The employee driving the truck said that when they returned to the scene, dozens of people were already running away with the money “on foot” and “in vehicles.” A spokesperson for Village of Oak Park, where the incident took place, said that no arrests have been made. This is not the first time Brinks has lost money from a moving truck. In 2018, the doors of a Brinks armored truck swung open on an interstate in Indianapolis, leaving around $600,000 all over the lanes, state troopers estimated. Indiana State Police would not give the exact amount, but said that a “substantial amount” of money had fallen out.
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President Donald Trump’蝉 border czar, Tom Homan, says it doesn’t matter whether the children of undocumented migrants are U.S. citizens: They should be deported anyway.
“Having a U.S. citizen child doesn’t make you immune from our laws of the country,” Homan told Face the Nation on Sunday. “American families get separated every day by law enforcement.”
Homan’蝉 comments came after a Trump-appointed federal judge demanded the government explain why it deported a 2-year-old child who was a U.S. citizen to Honduras with what appeared to be “no meaningful process” alongside her mother.
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Lawmakers in New York state are moving to shut down Elon Musk’蝉 Tesla dealerships in yet another blow to the billionaire CEO.
New York State Sen. Patricia Fahy and other lawmakers are fighting to remove a waiver that allows Tesla to operate five in-person dealerships in New York, instead forcing the company to sell their vehicles through dealer franchises, The New York Times reported Sunday.
“No matter what we do, we’ve got to take this from Elon Musk,” Fahy said in March when she first introduced the bill against Tesla. “He’蝉 part of an effort to go backwards.”
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叠别测辞苍肠é teased the stage setup for her upcoming Cowboy Carter tour in a Sunday post on Instagram that sent her fans into a frenzy. The black-and-white clip appeared to be taken at the Los Angeles SoFi stadium, where her tour will kick off Monday. 叠别测辞苍肠é captioned the post with, “SHE COMING.” And just as much as fans expressed their excitement for the tour—which is expected to span 32 stadium shows across the U.S. and Europe, USA Today reported—some fans have expressed frustration over how tickets have been dolled out. A handful of fans have claimed that they paid hundreds of dollars for some tickets that have since been discounted at a lower price, the Independent reported. The outlet reported that tickets for the tour have decreased in price because several dates have not sold out. “Next time 叠别测辞苍肠é sends me a presale code for a tour, I’m ignoring it,” quipped one of the singer’蝉 fan accounts on X. “The way floor seats are way cheaper than stand seats I bought and [Ticketmaster] won’t let me exchange.” Still, 叠别测辞苍肠é is projected to make around $300 million from the tour, according to Billboard.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer again rebuffed calls to step down as retiring Democrats call for new leadership and members of his caucus urge him to make way.
“I am staying put, and I’m fighting the fight every day, as is our caucus, in a united and successful way,” he said on CNN’蝉 State of the Union Sunday. “We’re showing America how bad Trump is, and showing that Republicans who embrace Trump do so at their peril.”
Schumer’蝉 remarks came as multiple Senate Democrats have urged the party to embrace younger talent.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio forgot the Gospel According to Donald Trump on Sunday by admitting that anyone on U.S. soil is entitled to a fair hearing before being removed from the country.
“Yes, of course,” Rudio said in response to the host’蝉 question of whether the Fifth Amendment still applies under Trump during his morning interview with MSNBC. “That’蝉 what the law says!”
Perhaps conscious of having contradicted the latest White House statements and directives on the matter, he then scrambled to tell the network that “if you’re in this country illegally, you have no right to be here and you must be removed.”
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MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’蝉 reporter boyfriend admits he kisses up to President Donald Trump with not-so-hard-hitting questions.
“My job as a conservative journalist is to ask questions that highlight the good things that he’蝉 doing for this country that a lot of the media outlets in there simply won’t ask,” Brian Glenn, a reporter for right-wing Real America’蝉 Voice, told the New York Times in an interview published Friday.
Glenn added on Sunday that he asks questions that “highlight” the good Trump has done for the country as follow-ups to the harsher questions “legacy” reporters ask the president, according to Politico’蝉 Playbook.
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A prime suspect behind Kim Kardashian’蝉 2016 Paris robbery has died before he could stand trial for the highly publicized crime.
Kardashian was staying at the H?tel de Pourtalès to attend Paris Fashion Week when a group of men dressed as police officers entered her hotel room, tied her up, and held her at gunpoint. They stole an estimated $10 million in jewelry from the reality TV star. Marceau Baum-Gertner, 72, was responsible for finding a buyer for the stolen goods, The Daily Mail reported.
According to the Mail, Baum-Gertner died March 6, but officials had been in the dark about his death. He was due to stand trial on Monday along with 10 other men and at least one woman in their 60s and 70s deemed “grandpa robbers.”
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had no clue whether President Donald Trump had actually spoken to China to negotiate tariffs—days after Trump said they were happening.
“I think that the Chinese will see that this high tariff level is unsustainable for their business model,” Bessent said on ABC’蝉 This Week on Sunday.
Host Martha Raddatz asked Bessent why China would lie about negotiations if the two countries were engaged in talks. “Why would they deny that the negotiations are going on?”
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Donald Trump Jr. has stoked conspiracy theories that Virginia Giuffre was murdered.
Some sections of the internet were immediately suspicious of the announcement Saturday that Giuffre, 41, arguably the most prominent Jeffrey Epstein survivor, had died by suicide.
Several other individuals connected to the Epstein story have died by suicide, including Epstein himself; Jean-Luc Brunel, a French model agent who was involved in Epstein’蝉 sex trafficking operation; and Mark Middleton, a former aide to President Bill Clinton who acted as a point of contact for Jeffrey Epstein’蝉 visits to the White House in the early 1990s, authorizing several of Epstein’蝉 entries and reportedly flying on Epstein’蝉 private jet once.
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The Trump administration has secretly allowed immigration agents to invade homes without a warrant for over a month, according to a leaked internal memo.
The memo, obtained by USA Today and issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi March 14, orders Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to break into the homes of suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without a warrant.
It stated that ICE can curb the “proactive procedures” put in place to obtain a warrant, since they “will not always be realistic or effective in swiftly identifying and removing alien enemies.”
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President Donald Trump has ramped up his pressure campaign against the justice system by claiming it was not possible to give migrants the trials they’re entitled to under the law.
In a Truth Social post, Trump expressed a desire to circumvent immigration courts and skip due process despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that affirmed migrants’ ability to seek judicial review before getting deported.
“It is not possible to have trials for millions and millions of people,” Trump wrote late Saturday. “We know who the Criminals are, and we must get them out of the U.S.A. ?— and FAST!"
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A former Social Security chief under both the Bush and Obama administrations says Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) goons have devastated the welfare agency by running it as if it were a tech start-up.
“I think you have a group of very immature people coming out Silicon Valley bro culture, and they have decided federal agencies are filled with bad people doing bad things, and if you go in and hack away, and you don’t have to know what you are doing, you can improve it because less is more,” Michael Astrue told the Washington Post Sunday.
Astrue’蝉 comments come as Democrats, after months of uncertainty and bickering over the best line of attack against the GOP’蝉 gutting of Social Security.
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President Donald Trump might want to take stock of a historic new poll that has him down as the worst president since modern polling began.
“These numbers are just horrible—there’蝉 no way to sugarcoat it,” CNN data guru Harry Enten said while diving into the results of a new survey the network released on Saturday.
Full results of CNN’蝉 poll show the MAGA president’蝉 ratings have plummeted by seven points since the end of February to a measly 41 percent. That’蝉 the lowest for any president within 100 days of assuming office—usually a honeymoon period for a new president—since Dwight D. Eisenhower first took office in 1953.
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At least nine people are dead and a 30-year-old man is in police custody after allegedly driving into a street festival on Saturday night in Vancouver, Canada.
Thousands of Filipinos were gathered to celebrate Lapu-Lapu Day when a black SUV mowed into a crowd, injuring more than 20 and killing others, Reuters reported.
According to police, the driver was identified as a Vancouver man after he was chased down and stopped by festival attendees until police arrived. Police said the suspect is believed to have acted alone, and he apologized to the crowd as he was detained, the New York Post reported.
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Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher (update links).
The New Abnormal’蝉 Danielle Moodie and Andy Levy think it might be time to pull the plug on the White House press pool after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave conservative influencer Tim Pool the front “new media” during an April 22 briefing.
Pool was among six conservative commentators mentioned in an indictment against a media company accused of being a front for a Russian propaganda operation, the Associated Press reported.
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A top White House reporter called out former President Joe Biden’蝉 “decline”—and the media’蝉 failure to cover it adequately—while accepting an award at Saturday’蝉 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“President Biden’蝉 decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception,” said Axios reporter Alex Thompson, who accepted the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence for reporting on Biden and his cognitive issues.
“We—myself included—missed a lot of this story. And some people trust us less because of it," he added. “We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows.”
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RuPaul’蝉 Drag Race star Jiggly Caliente, a fan favorite who went on to serve as a judge on Drag Race: Philippines, has died. She was 44. Real name Bianca Castro-Arabejo, the star’蝉 family confirmed her death in a social media update after she recently underwent a partial amputation of her right leg due to complications from a severe infection. “It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Bianca Castro-Arabejo, known to the world and cherished by many as Jiggly Caliente,” they posted in a statement to her Instagram page. “Bianca passed away peacefully on April 27, 2025, at 4:42 am, surrounded by her loving family and close friends.” Jiggly Caliente placed eighth on season 4 of RuPaul’蝉 Drag Race, but her sense of humor and dancing ability made her a standout on the show. She returned to compete in season 6 of RuPaul’蝉 Drag Race All Stars, where she placed 12th before going on to participate in several drag-related showcases and appeared in FX’蝉 hit show, Pose. “She touched countless lives through her artistry, activism, and the genuine connection she fostered with fans around the world,” her family added.
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The resignation of the executive producer of one of the most venerated news shows in the United States marks yet another notch in MAGA’蝉 belt.
It won’t be the last, with President Trump on the warpath and media conglomerates cowering to avoid retribution. And more ominously, it shows that these attempts to rule over corporate overlords by fear are working.
In a parting statement to staff, 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens lamented his diminishing ability—after nearly forty years as an effective and beloved boss—to make independent news judgments about what airs on the long running show. Pointedly, he cited interference from network executives into practices that have apparently impeded its long-standing reputation for destination news reporting.
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Sign up here to make you you never miss our weekly updated on the best soap opera anywhere: The ups and downs of the British royals.
Prince Andrew’蝉 disgrace is now set in stone
The death by suicide of Virginia Giuffre, 41, has brought a tragic end to the royal scandal that engulfed Prince Andrew —and with it, any remaining hopes of rehabilitating his reputation.
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The Real Housewives have exposed their lives in a plethora of ways, from cancer scams to drunken arrests and all the alleged pirate conquests between. Now, they’re traversing their most vulnerable challenge yet: dating on camera.
Four of Bravo’蝉 most renowned Housewives have checked into the Love Hotel for an 8-episode journey to find love, or at least a good time. The first-ever Bravo dating competition, Love Hotel takes a page out of The Golden Bachelor‘蝉 winning recipe, with the camp that makes the Real Housewives reality TV’蝉 best franchise, and a splash of The White Lotus for good measure.
The man charged with stealing a Gucci purse from U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is in the U.S. illegally, according to a new interview given by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Speaking with NBC News, Ed Martin said that the man charged with stealing Noem’蝉 purse from a Washington, D.C., restaurant last weekend is in the country illegally, but that the theft is not believed to be politically motivated, or a response to Noem’蝉 anti-immigrant rhetoric. Martin told NBC, “There is no indication it was because of that… [F]rankly, it was a nice-looking purse.”
The theft occurred last Sunday night at The Capital Burger, a restaurant in downtown D.C. Noem’蝉 designer bag, containing $3,000 in cash, was stolen by a man wearing dark clothing and a surgical mask.
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President Donald Trump’蝉 eldest child is following in his father’蝉 footsteps and embarking upon another business venture; this time, it’蝉 a stone’蝉 throw from the White House.
Donald Trump Jr., investment banker Omeed Malik, and a slew of investors are opening up a new invite-only members club in Washington D.C., according to an invitation obtained by Politico.
Membership at Executive Branch, which will be located in Georgetown, comes with a steep price tag of approximately $500,000 per year—and the club reportedly already has a waitlist. The club’蝉 first official event was an after-party held Saturday night following the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which no Trump administration officials attended.
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President Donald Trump was half a world away getting called out at Pope Francis’ funeral in Italy, but he still cast a shadow over Saturday night’蝉 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The soirée was an entertainment-free experience because the Trump administration took offense at comments made by comedian Amber Ruffin, who was set to host the event, on a Daily Beast podcast last month.
Ruffin told hosts Samantha Bee and Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles that the Trump administration is “kind of a bunch of murderers,” and that playing to both sides “makes them feel like human beings, but they shouldn’t get to feel that way, ‘cause they’re not.”
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A new book on the life and career of James Gandolfini, the man best known for bringing Tony Soprano to life and helping to usher in a golden age of prestige television, contains at least one shocking revelation: The Sopranos creator David Chase initially worried Gandolfini wasn’t “threatening enough” to play the troubled mobster.
In an excerpt from Jason Bailey’蝉 new book, Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend, which was published in Vulture, Bailey details the casting process for the role, which started with Nancy Sanders, one of Gandolfini’蝉 managers, contacting Chase to tell him that she had just the actor in mind.
After viewing Gandolfini’蝉 reel, Chase called her back and told her, “Alright, here’蝉 the deal. I think he’蝉 brilliant. I have one concern, and that is: Is he threatening enough?”
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Two months ago, Henry Blodget took to Substack to announce his new publication, Regenerator, which he dubbed “the publication for people who want to build a better future.” Earlier this week, he unveiled one of his first big projects, a “native-AI newsroom” staffed entirely by different ChatGPT personalities—then promptly tried to hit on one of them.
Prior to this, Blodget was best known for being charged with civil securities fraud resulting from his stint at Merrill Lynch, settling the charges with a $4 million payment and a permanent ban from the securities industry. As a result, he returned to his first love, journalism, co-founding Business Insider in 2007 before eventually stepping down as CEO in 2023.
Still determined to pursue his own brand of techno-optimist journalism, Blodget launched Regenerator, where he plans to “analyze the most important questions in innovation.” So far, his newsletters have all focused on Trump’蝉 trade war—save for one.
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A crew of Californians are striking back at a Cybertruck driver who motored around San Francisco offering up Nazi salutes to passersby. Marco Diaz looked similar to Tesla billionaire Elon Musk at a Trump rally while making the hateful gesture—and seemed to think he could get away with it. In the digital age? Not a chance. Someone recorded the incident, which also reportedly involved somebody in the vehicle using a homophobic slur, then posted the video online. Within days, people flooded Yelp with horrible reviews of his Modesto company, Cyber Electric, which was written on the side of the car. “Is this who you want in your home, around your family performing repairs? Disgusting,” wrote one reviewer. By Thursday, commenting had been temporarily disabled on the company’蝉 page due to “increased public attention,” according to a new disclaimer. Diaz’蝉 company has also disabled its own Instagram and Facebook accounts. Diaz apologized via SFGATE for his discriminatory actions. He said he was “intoxicated” and “reacted foolishly to provocation,” but that he takes full responsibility for the revolting gesture. He denied making any homophobic statements.
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The makers of any show based on the life of a famous person—especially when the subject is long-dead—have a substantial checklist to work through before a word is written. Is the figure well-enough known to merit an audience wanting to come see a production about them, many years later? If they’re not, is the actor playing them well-enough known to lock in a modern-day audience?
What does the audience already know about the subject? Is that subject compelling enough to have a story told about them—and, if they are, how much are you going to tell and how deep will you go in telling it?
All of these questions swirled through my mind watching Jonathan Groff gamefully sing his way through the life of Bobby Darin in the jukebox bio-musical Just in Time (Circle in the Square, booking to July 27). The beguiling Groff is fresh from deservedly winning the Tony for playing Franklin Shephard in the Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along, in which he co-starred—or rather co-shone—alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez.
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CNN reports that at least 14 people are dead, six people are missing, and 750 have been injured following a massive explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas in southwestern Iran. While no cause has yet been given for the explosion, which sent a massive plume of thick smoke into the air, the government has said it was likely connected to the chemicals being stored in that corner of the port. Firefighters are continuing to battle the blaze in incredibly windy conditions, and Iranian authorities have declared a state of emergency in the city to protect citizens, particularly given the “significant rise in air pollution” resulting from the blast. Citizens are advised to stay indoors, avoid outdoor activities, and keep all windows closed. Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for Iran’蝉 government, said it may be a while before an official determination can be made about the cause of the explosion. “Until the fire is extinguished, it’蝉 hard to ascertain the cause,” she said.
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Family members of Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’蝉 most prominent victims, have spoken to the media for the first time since her death on Friday.
Speaking to People Magazine, Giuffre’蝉 sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, said, “The world lost a fierce warrior,” adding, “She wished for all survivors to get justice. That is who she was.”
Roberts continued through tears, “We lost our sister. Her children lost their mother, and her mother lost her daughter.”
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RFK Jr.’蝉 vision for America is rapidly becoming reality, with the number of measles cases skyrocketing across the country, bringing the number of confirmed cases to a total of 884.
According to data published by the CDC on Friday, there have been 884 cases of measles reported across 29 states, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York and Texas.
Just last month, the Health and Human Services Secretary appeared to argue in an interview with Sean Hannity that natural immunity was the best defense against the highly infectious disease. In other words, Kennedy believes that it would be great if everyone got measles.
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Another judge has blocked Donald Trump’蝉 deportations under a 200-year-old wartime law that the president has used to justify his campaign to rid America of undocumented immigrants.
Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones, of the border city El Paso, has halted west Texas deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, and ordered the release of a couple accused of being part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, according to the Associated Press.
“There is no doubt the Executive Branch’蝉 unprecedented peacetime use of wartime power has caused chaos and uncertainty for individual petitions as well as the judicial branch in how to manage and evaluate the Executive’蝉 claims of Tren de Aragua membership, and the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act as a whole,” wrote Briones, a nominee of former President Bill Clinton, in his ruling.
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An Australian woman has set a Guinness World Record thanks to her extensive movie merch collection. The New York Post reported that Liesl Benecke has assembled her 1,035-piece collection of Despicable Me Minions over 15 years. “They are in every room and on every spare wall,” she said, adding that the back of her car is filled with Minions, “and when I stop at traffic lights I see people pointing and laughing at all the Minions in my car.” Benecke said she has even been branded “Minion Lady” by her coworkers. Benecke went to Singapore to celebrate her birthday at Universal Studios with the Minions, and she got the chance to visit Minion Land at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, where her daughter captured the emotional moment when she first entered the park. But her merch has been gathered from Singapore, Japan, Italy, the U.S., Portugal, Taiwan, and China—and it includes clothing, movie posters, stuffed dolls, keychains, figurines, and a tattoo. “So many people and kids comment on the tattoo and we start talking about our mutual love of Minions,” she said. About her obsession with the yellow character, “I remember laughing so much at the cute, little pill-shaped henchmen. They certainly made a huge impression on me,” she said.
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MSNBC’蝉 Rachel Maddow slammed President Donald Trump as a would-be dictator who can’t even get authoritarianism right on Saturday.
“I do think we’re in the middle of an attempted authoritarian overthrow of American democracy,” Madow said on The Katie Phang Show, further eviscerating the Republican leader for being too “incompetent” for more than a “botched” attempt at an “authoritarian overthrow.”
“I mean, I think everybody who predicted that was right, but I don’t think he’蝉 any better at it,” she said.
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The Trump administration revoked Biden-era protections for journalists in leak investigations Friday, allowing authorities to compel reporters to testify against their sources once again.
“Federal government employees intentionally leaking sensitive information to the media undermines the ability of the Department of Justice to uphold the rule of law, protect civil rights, and keep America safe,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a memo obtained by NPR. “This conduct is illegal and wrong, and it must stop.”
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants a fellow Republican to end his bid for state lieutenant governor over a nude picture scandal—but the candidate claims he’蝉 getting pushed out because of his sexuality.
John Reid, the Old Dominion state’蝉 first openly gay candidate for statewide office, clinched the GOP lieutenant governor nomination over opponent Pat Herrity on Monday, the Washington Post reported. In Virginia, the lieutenant governor is elected independently of the governor. Reid will go on to face a slew of other candidates for the spot in a November election.
Yet Reid said his win was short-lived after he got a call from Youngkin’蝉 office about some lewd photos posted to an old social media account that allegedly matched Reid’蝉 current social profiles.
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A battle between aides in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’蝉 Pentagon didn’t end when the entangled parties were ousted from the Pentagon, according to a Saturday report in The Guardian.
In fact, the spat seems to have become even more bitter, with one staffer reportedly making calls to establish whether another used cocaine at a previous job, in an effort to turn up dirt for a lawsuit.
Colin Carroll was one of three high-ranking Hegseth aides—along with Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick—who were fired earlier this month amid an investigation into whether they had leaked information to the media.
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A zesty exchange between the presidents of France and the United States added more sourness to Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump’蝉 long-standing handshake showdown.
In footage from CNN’蝉 coverage of Pope Francis’ funeral, Trump took a meeting with Ukrainian Premier Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the ceremony. Before the two world leaders sat down together, they were briefly joined by Macron, who offered a warm hug and handshake to Zelensky—but left Trump’蝉 outstretched hand empty.
Macron and Trump have an established history of bizarre greetings. At their latest White House meeting in February, they were seen exchanging macho hugs and grit-toothed handshakes while touching each other’蝉 knees and slapping each other’蝉 backs.
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Tesla billionaire Elon Musk better start brainstorming baby names—and let’蝉 hope they don’t contain random numbers. A writer from The Atlantic suggested in a Friday podcast that the father of 14 might actually be the baby daddy for more than 100 children. Elizabeth Brueing said during the Sanity podcast that “people who spoke to the Wall Street Journal for their exposé on his childbearing habits suggested the number is much higher. I have heard people estimate [it] at 100 or more." Bruenig, who wrote The Harem of Elon Musk, said the number is “definitely” higher than 14. There’蝉 a reason the kids haven’t come forward to claim their nepo-baby status. Sanity co-host Alisyn Camerota added that “he makes his baby mamas sign NDAs and he’蝉 very lawyered up” and he “does suit them if they speak.” Camerota added that Musk gives out a lot of hush money—he paid one of his recent lovers $15 million and a $100,000-a-month living stipend to stay quiet. Camerota called it “dystopian” and called Musk out for pretending he has “family values.” The accusation comes as the White House brainstorms ideas with pro-natalists on how to make women have more babies for the nation.
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The body of missing Princeton student Lauren Blackburn has been found. The young man was pulled from the waters of Lake Carnegie Friday less than a week after disappearing. Blackburn was last seen alive on April 19 at around 6 p.m. He was wearing a yellow T-shirt, a black hoodie, and ripped jeans near the school’蝉 central campus in New Jersey. At around midnight, authorities detected a phone signal in the vicinity of the man-made reservoir Lake Carnegie, and search crews promptly headed there to investigate. The uniform nine-feet deep lake was used for practice by the school’蝉 rowing team. Blackburn was an Indiana native majoring in English. He was set to graduate next year. After days of searching, the junior was found Friday morning. The cause of death has not yet been revealed. “Our hearts are heavy and we share our deepest condolences with Lauren’蝉 family and friends,” Dean of Graduate Students Regan Crotty wrote in a message to students. “It is during these difficult times that we must draw strength and support from one another and from those in our community who are available to us for counsel and care.”
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Luigi Mangione is being surveilled—and not just by his American fans. Lawyers say that someone is spying on the alleged killer and illegally listening to his private phone calls.
Mangione—the suspect in healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’蝉 shooting—pleaded not guilty to federal murder charges on Friday. During his arraignment, his attorneys alleged in court that prosecutors were “eavesdropping” on Mangione’蝉 highly confidential conversations.
“We were just informed by state court prosecutors that they were eavesdropping on his attorney calls,” his lawyer, Karen Agnifilo, said. “They said it was inadvertent that they listened to a call between Mangione and me. I am the lead attorney.”
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An awkward moment unfolded at Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday as Melania Trump had to prompt her husband, President Donald Trump, to follow Catholic protocol for the ceremony.
The first lady’蝉 urging also helped ensure that her husband didn’t snub French President Emmanuel out of a handshake.
During the Sign of Peace portion of the late pontiff’蝉 Saturday funeral mass, when the mourners were supposed to shake each other’蝉 hands, Trump initially neglected to participate.
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President Donald Trump’蝉 former chief strategist thinks a paltry piece of paper like the Constitution can’t stop the president from serving a third term.
“This is being fought behind closed doors right now, and I’m telling you, with the massive tax cut [...] he’蝉 going to give the working class and the middle class, the math only works out if you actually increase taxes on the wealthy,” Steve Bannon said during a Friday appearance on NewsNation. Bannon’蝉 estimated net worth stands just north of $20 million,
“President Trump, I strongly believe [he] will do it,” he went on. “One of the things he talked about is… politically, it might hurt him. Politically, it’蝉 going to help him in his re-election in 2028.”
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President Donald Trump admitted Saturday that he may have been wrong to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants peace in the war against Ukraine, and threatened further sanctions.
Shortly after talking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral, Trump took to Truth Social to decry Russia’蝉 attacks on civilian areas in the last week.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’蝉 just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!” the president wrote.
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Guests trickled into the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., for its annual pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner celebration Friday night.
As if on cue, a light rain fell on guests dressed in suits and cocktail dresses as they walked into the brick palace decorated with coats of arms and portraits of King Charles and Queen Elizabeth II. Many hopped into a red phone booth at the entrance for a photo op.
President Donald Trump’蝉 lawsuits against the numerous news outlets represented at the dinner hung over the event. Trump—who is boycotting the event along with most of his administration—and Paramount are currently in mediation over a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News. And, earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the White House to restore the Associated Press’ access to presidential events.
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Getting ready to welcome your little one? Better stock up quickly. President Donald Trump’蝉 major tariffs are about to slam new mothers, CEOs warn. The price of baby gear— including car seats and strollers—has already started to climb. Amid Trump’蝉 push for women to have more babies, his tariffs have taken a toll on parents who can’t afford the skyrocketing prices of essentials, which are already up 30 percent. Even sippy cups and high chairs will soon increase in price by hundreds of dollars. Chinese company Babylist—which makes 97 percent of strollers and 87 percent of car seats—bashed the “baby tax” for making it harder for parents to bring their newborns home safely and raise them in healthy environments. Munchkin CEO Steve Dunn also added that no infrastructure in the United States is capable of producing enough reliable baby products for American families. The rising prices come as the White House solicits ideas on how to get more women to procreate and counter the record-low birth rates. Dunn said that laying “punitive tariffs” on top of an already challenging economy “doesn’t protect the American dream—it taxes it.”
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard defended the Trump administration’蝉 use of Signal while also taking aim at Biden-era officials for doing exactly the same in an interview Friday.
“Limited use of end-to-end encrypted apps like Signal is not only authorized under this administration, it was used prolifically under the Biden administration as well,” Gabbard said on Fox & Friends.
She added the platform remains “the most secure form of communication” provided it’蝉 not used “to communicate classified information” before going on to claim she had been “told by people who have first-hand experience” that Biden administration officials like former National Security Adviser and ex-Secretary of State Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken “communicated prolifically and in great detail using the Signal app.”
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Lana Del Rey threw shade at country star Morgan Wallen in the lyrics of her new song, 57.5. Rey, backed by a full live band and Southern-inspired stage visuals, premiered the song during her set at California’蝉 Stagecoach country music festival on Friday night. She sang “I kissed Morgan Wallen / I guess kissing me kind of went to his head / If you want my secret to success / I suggest don’t go ATVing with him when you’re out west,” TMZ reported. The barb marked another public blow to Wallen’蝉 reputation after he seemingly snubbed the cast of Saturday Night Live last month with an abrupt exit after performing on the March 29 episode of the sketch comedy show. Wallen appeared to address his abrupt exit with an Instagram post captioned, “Get me to God’蝉 country.” The SNL cast wasted no time roasting the country singer for the stunt during the following week’蝉 episode. Although Rey did not divulge when exactly she had her alleged kiss with Wallen, it all seemed to be behind her. Rey announced last September that she had married her alligator tour guide boyfriend, Jeremy Dufrene.
Lana Del Rey - 57.5 (new song) pic.twitter.com/OMmysXvhE5
— opium (@opiumoon) April 26, 2025
Read it at https://x.com/opiumoon/status/1916002895402516991
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MAGA is rejoicing after the FBI arrested a Wisconsin judge accused of trying to help an undocumented immigrant evade arrest.
The Friday arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan has sparked outcry from top Democrats, who condemned it as an escalation of President Donald Trump’蝉 attacks on his foes—in this case, the judiciary.
But the big MAGA media names are cheering the move as a justified crackdown on liberal officials’ standing in the way of the president’蝉 deportation effort.
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Rosie O’Donnell spilled the tea Saturday about how often she still chats with good friend and convicted murderer Lyle Menendez.
The comedian told Page Six that they talk “about two or three times a week” as he and his brother Erik Menendez serve out their life sentences for murdering their parents in 1989.
O’Donnell cozied up with the Menendez brothers in 2022 after watching the Netflix-famous documentary about their conviction. The case has come under scrutiny after the film exposed Menendez’蝉 father allegedly sexually abusing both his children for years.
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Trump fanboy and comedian Bill Maher used this week’蝉 tragic passing of late Pope Francis to launch a brutal comedic assault on the Trump administration Friday night.
“Pope Francis was the first pope from South America,” the comedian riffed during his opening monologue. “So his body will rest in repose in the Vatican for eight days, and then ICE will toss him in a van and ship him to El Salvador.”
Perhaps a little sore from the massive backlash to his adulatory dinner with President Donald Trump earlier this month—not least with his description of the president as “gracious and measured,” which prompted a vicious New York Times takedown from fellow comedian Larry David on Monday—Maher didn’t let up, taking further potshots at the Vice President JD Vance.
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Not even the death of Pope Francis could bring President Donald Trump to make nice and ride with former President Joe Biden.
Sitting President George W. Bush rode with former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton on Air Force One to the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II’蝉 in 2005. Yet when Trump was told that Biden would also be attending the Saturday ceremony, he didn’t give his political rival much thought.
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Julius (Jacob Elordi) is a drifter, moving from one city to the next. After being released from serving in the Korean War, he lacks purpose and direction—anything that makes him feel complete.
In On Swift Horses, a sumptuous queer romance directed by Daniel Minahan, Julius finds the person he’蝉 secretly longed his entire life for in Henry (Diego Calva). And the pair gets off to a smoking hot start—resulting in some of the best sex scenes of the year.
This week:
- The Last of Us is getting everyone mad about spoilers.
- My favorite viral video of the week.
- The Oscars come to their senses.
- The best concert of the week.
- The best diva moment of the week.
The Viral Video of the Week
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We asked the Daily Beast team to review two books with serious ambitions to be best-sellers... from women who are definitely not needing the money.
After walking away from marriages to famous men, Melinda French Gates and Maria Shriver both felt lost and uncentered. While each had spent decades traveling the globe—Gates as co-chair and founder of The Gates Foundation and Shriver as a prominent journalist—they realized that they’d “never been to me.”
In memoirs published just two weeks apart, both Gates and Shriver share their journeys toward healing and, as the chart shows, there’蝉 a great deal of overlap. Fortunately, the two did the hard, inner work that enabled them to come out the other side of divorce a bit wiser… a bit kinder… and a whole lot richer.
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Look, I get it. President Trump’蝉 first 100 days have been a disaster, the worst first 100 days for any U.S. president in history. And I say that knowing that William Henry Harrison only made it 32 days into his term before dying.
Nonetheless, these first three horrible, lunatic months of malevolence and failure have also coughed up a few hairballs of hope.
We are still, for now, a democracy. The inherent goodness of the majority of Americans is translating into growing resistance to the damage this government is doing. Issues that might seem remote from the lives of many—such as the illegal detention and expulsion to a foreign prison camp of apparently innocent individuals—have stirred anger and activism in every corner of the country. Protests are increasing. New entrants to politics are signing up, standing up and speaking out.
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Prince Andrew’蝉 ex-girlfriend, Lady Victoria Hervey, gloated over the death-by-suicide of Andrew’蝉 sex accuser, Virginia Giuffre, a mother of three.
In a vile message on Instagram, Hervey posted a screenshot of the news of Giuffre’蝉 death with the caption, “When lies catch up with you, there’蝉 no way out.”
She then posted another message, saying, “I have taken the decision to pause my posts on Virginia Giuffre at this time. Irrespective of the circumstances, suicide in anyone at any time is tragic, and in a young mother who has children, even more so.”
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President Zelensky’蝉 office put out photos of the Ukrainian president deep in conversation with President Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday. The iconic image captures the two men sitting on a pair of chairs dwarfed by the majesty of St. Peter’蝉 Basilica. Zelensky tweeted that they discussed the on-going war in Ukraine. It marked their first in person meeting since their disastrous confrontation in the White House earlier this year. President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom also joined the pair in conversation at one stage. It is not known exactly what was discussed, but the three European leaders hold very different views about Ukraine to President Trump, and indeed Valdimir Putin, who was not invited to the funeral. Zelensky posted afterwards: “We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”
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President Donald Trump may have gotten his front row seat at Pope Francis’ funeral, but the Pope rebuked him from beyond the grave anyway.
The posthumous criticism came after Trump was mobbed by a group of world leaders, including France’蝉 President Emmanuel Macron, Britain’蝉 Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Ukraine’蝉 President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’蝉 funeral.
The pressure from European leaders appeared to pay off after Trump sat down briefly with Zelensky before the funeral, and then the White House announced that he would meet with him again afterwards.
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President Donald Trump, wearing a blue suit in a sea of black, was seated in a prized front-row seat for the funeral of Pope Francis.
The seating location will likely be a source of great satisfaction for the famously thin-skinned president, who mercilessly mocked Joe Biden after he was seated in the 14th row at Queen Elizabeth’蝉 funeral in 2022.
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Pope Francis I, the humblest of popes, was laid to rest in an irresistible orgy of pomp and splendor at the Vatican on Saturday, during a funeral attended by kings, queens, and heads of state.
President Donald Trump was unexpectedly allocated a front-row seat, as was President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Trump and his wife Melania, who arrived in Italy on Friday night on Air Force One, and spent the night at Villa Taverna, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador, were given a privileged moment with the pope’蝉 coffin inside St Peter’蝉 Basilica, before the casket was brought outside for the funeral mass in Saint Peter’蝉 Square.
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A federal judge has ordered a hearing to determine whether the Trump administration deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen with “no meaningful process.”
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty set the date of May 16 to resolve the matter of the New Orleans-born child who, he said, appears to be in Honduras with her mother.
The issue, as Politico reported Friday, stemmed from the deportation of the child’蝉 Honduras-born mother. Trump administration officials claimed in court that the woman had told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that she wanted to bring her 2-year-old with her. They offered a handwritten letter in Spanish purportedly from the mother saying as much.
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Erik and Lyle Menendez have filed a new motion calling for the district attorney involved in their case to recuse himself in an effort to secure a resentencing hearing for the pair.
The motion argues that “the record shows a conflict,” which makes it unlikely that the Menendez brothers will be able to receive a fair resentencing hearing as long as District Attorney Nathan Hochman is involved in their case.
In October, then-District Attorney George Gascón moved to have the pair’蝉 sentence reduced from life without parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole. Unfortunately for the Menendez brothers, Gascón lost the November election, and his successor, Hochman, withdrew his predecessor’蝉 resentencing recommendation upon entering office.
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Gayle King is not one to let harsh words online get her down. The television personality and Oprah’蝉 BFF is focusing on the positives of her recent trip to space with Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, and the rest of the Blue Origin crew. King told The Hollywood Reporter at the TIME 100 Gala Thursday night, “I’m not even focusing on backlash. What I know is that we did something that was incredible.” She continued, ”All of us feel proud and brave of what we did, and I know the difference it’蝉 making for young women and girls and even some boys. So, I’m not focusing on negativity.” As for whether she’蝉 eager to return to space, despite many critics decrying the trip as gluttonous, wasteful, and an example of rich women showing off, she said that while she wasn’t going back any time soon, she’蝉 “definitely open to it.”
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President Donald Trump’蝉 immigration enforcement is about to get a high-powered boost as Elon Musk’蝉 DOGE goons are tinkering away on a “master database” to speed up the identification, detention, and deportation of undocumented migrants, CNN has reported.
The project is mining sensitive data from across various federal government departments—including the IRS, Social Security Administration, and Health and Human Services—with help from Palantir Technologies, the controversial Silicon Valley data analytics firm co-founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel.
Sources who spoke with CNN under anonymity describe it as an unprecedented attempt to centralize personal information from multiple agencies into a single source. Officials say the aim is to generate rapid “targeting lists” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Critics, however, warn it could amount to a civil liberties disaster.
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Bill Maher, still nursing a bruised ego days after comedian and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David published a satirical article eviscerating the HBO host’蝉 decision to visit the White House, took the opportunity to complain about it once again during the Friday night episode of his politically minded talk show.
In the piece, published in The New York Times earlier this week and titled “My Dinner with Adolf,” David likens Maher’蝉 decision to dine with President Donald Trump at the White House to a fictional radio host in 1939 deciding to accept a dinner invitation from Adolf Hitler.
Maher has vociferously defended his decision to dine with Trump in the weeks preceding and following the dinner, making grand statements about the need to engage with the other side, something Democrats have failed to do, joking that he should be called a “hero” for dining with Trump and describing the president as ”gracious and measured.”
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The Agriculture Department has scrapped a Biden-era proposal to limit salmonella in raw chicken and turkey products, saying it would be an “overwhelming burden” on small producers. Food safety experts are crying fowl over the decision—“The message they seem to be sending to consumers is: you’re on your own,” said Brian Ronholm of Consumer Reports. The policy, which had yet to come into effect, would have blocked the sale of meat contaminated with the bacteria that makes 1.3 million Americans sick each year. The National Chicken Council crowed about the cost of the measure, calling it “legally unsound,” but consumer advocates argue they just couldn’t be bothered to impose the rule. “It was just an effort they weren’t willing to make,” Sarah Sorscher from the Center for Science in the Public Interest said. The USDA insists the move will have no impact on food safety. Guess we’ll all just have to wing it.
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Shortly before Luigi Mangione appeared in Manhattan federal court on Friday, prosecutors filed a document that made official something U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi expressed in April.
NOTICE OF INTENT TO SEEK THE DEATH PENALTY.
“The United States of America… notifies the Court and LUIGI NICHOLAS MANGIONE, the defendant, that the United States believes the circumstances of the offense… are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified.”
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Bruce Logan, the British-born visual effects innovator behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died at 78. Logan passed away on April 10 in Los Angeles after a short illness, his family has confirmed. “Before CGI ruled the screen, there were visionaries who lit the future by hand,” Logan’蝉 daughter, Mary Grace Logan, wrote in tribute to her father on Instagram. “My dad didn’t just work on movies—he made magic. A rebel with a camera, a pioneer with a story, and my personal hero.” A self-taught animator, Logan was hired at 19 to help create the ground-breaking visuals for Stanley Kubrick’蝉 2001 and later played around with napalm while creating the infamous Death Star explosion in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. With an illustrious career spanning five decades, Logan worked with some of Hollywood’蝉 biggest names, served as the cinematographer for Tron, and shot cult-classics like Airplane! and Firefox. The two-time Emmy winner leaves behind a significant legacy in cinema.
]]>Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’蝉 most prominent abuse survivors, who alleged she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, has died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia.
She was 41 years old.
Giuffre was recently hospitalized, claiming she had kidney failure following a collision with a bus. At the time, she posted on Instagram that she had been given four days to live, writing: “I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time.”
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Following a tumultuous few months at the hands of newly-installed board chair President Donald Trump, the Kennedy Center has canceled several events that were scheduled for Pride Month in June.
Several artists and producers for Tapestry of Pride, which was scheduled to be held at the center from June 5 to 8, told the Associated Press that their events had been quietly canceled or relocated to other venues. In response, DC’蝉 Capital Pride Alliance has disassociated itself from the center.
Deputy director of the alliance June Crenshaw told the AP, “We are a resilient community, and we have found other avenues to celebrate. We are finding another path to the celebration… but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing.”
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AmeriCorps has become the latest target of Elon Musk’蝉 Department of Government Efficiency, with $400 million in grants on the chopping block.
According to The Washington Post, DOGE has ordered the national service program deploying thousands of volunteers across America to terminate nearly 41 percent of its total 2025 funding. More than 32,000 AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers are affected alongside 1,031 partner organizations.
The cuts are the latest in a series of DOGE-y attacks on AmeriCorps. Last week, most of the service’蝉 roughly 650 full-time federal staff were placed on immediate paid administrative leave and barred from accessing agency systems. Hundreds of AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) members—young Americans serving 10-month stints on disaster relief, housing, and education projects—were also abruptly discharged. Just 15 percent of AmeriCorps’ workforce remains active.
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Several top Democrats have condemned the FBI’蝉 arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan.
On Friday, FBI director Kash Patel announced that Judge Dugan had been arrested on charges of obstruction after evidence emerged that she had assisted an undocumented immigrant in evading arrest in her courthouse.
An attorney for Dugan said in a statement, “Hannah C. Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge. Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated.”
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President Donald Trump, while en route to Italy for Pope Francis’ funeral, seemed to be more focused on football. The president criticized NFL team owners on Truth Social for opting against drafting former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, son of Hall of Fame receiver Deion Sanders, in the first round Thursday. “What is wrong with NFL owners, are they STUPID?” wrote Trump, whose apparent grudge against the league goes back decades and includes several unsuccessful attempts at buying a team. “Deion Sanders was a great college football player, and was even greater in the NFL. He’蝉 also a very good coach, streetwise and smart! Therefore, Shedeur, his quarterback son, has PHENOMENAL GENES, and is all set for Greatness.” Sanders should be drafted “immediately,” Trump added. Sanders, who was widely projected to be a first-round pick, was still available in the second round as of publication. The 23-year-old was the Big 12 offensive player of the year last season. And clearly a favorite of the current president’蝉.
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Former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had some choice words for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following her ouster from the Pentagon’蝉 Defense Policy Board.
Her sacking was announced late Thursday evening, the Defense Department issuing a statement that read, “changes are needed to support the new strategic direction and policy priorities of the department and to ensure departmental resources are used efficiently.” However, the dismissal came after a top Pentagon official accused several advisory committee members of being responsible for the endless stream of leaks from the department in recent weeks.
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A majority of voters view President Donald Trump’蝉 actions as “chaotic” and “scary,” a new poll has found.
According to a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Friday, 66 percent described Trump’蝉 second term as “chaotic,” while 59 percent opted for “scary.” Many of those same voters, the Times notes, nevertheless approved of Trump’蝉 job performance.
On that point, the president’蝉 approval rating sits at 42 percent, and he’蝉 also underwater on a host of issues: immigration, managing the federal government, the economy, international trade, foreign conflicts, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
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Ioan Gruffudd and Bianca Wallace have officially gotten hitched just two years after the Welsh actor’蝉 extremely public divorce battle with ex-wife, actress Alice Evans.
The newlyweds revealed their marriage on Friday in a grainy video posted to Instagram in which they exchange vows against a coastal backdrop. Gruffudd, 51, and Wallace, 32, captioned their posts: “Mr & Mrs Gruffudd. Marriage now, wedding later.”
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a “dramatic increase” in laser strikes targeting aircraft cockpits at Washington State airports. According to the agency, “Pilots landing at the airports have experienced a laser illuminating and tracking the cockpit of their aircraft” while on approach to land, especially at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Spokane International Airport. In March, the Federal Aviation Administration recorded 43 laser incidents in Washington, according to TheStreet. The FBI said it doesn’t believe the incidents in Seattle and Spokane are connected and suspects that multiple individuals are behind the laser strikes. Police on April 18 arrested a 45-year-old man near the Spokane airport after he allegedly struck a Spokane Regional Air Support Unit (SRASU) helicopter with an “intense green laser.” Lasers can distract or momentarily blind pilots during landing, endangering the crew, passengers, and citizens in the local area, the FBI said. They can also inflict eye injuries, with the FAA recording 328 incidents of pilots who suffered eye damage due to laser strikes since 2010. Aiming a laser at an aircraft is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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The White House reportedly shut down plans to return wrongfully deported Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. from an infamous El Salvador mega-prison.
Federal attorneys “began discussing how to undo the mistake” and return Garcia, 29, almost immediately after his March 15 deportation, The Atlantic reported on Friday. That included an idea to have the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador make a personal plea to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for Abrego Garcia’蝉 release.
Attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security also discussed requesting that Abrego Garcia be separated from inmates associated with the Barrio 18 gang. Abrego Garcia said in his U.S. asylum case that members of the gang threatened him and his family in San Salvador, which is why he fled to the U.S. and entered illegally at 16.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi is warning judges who dare to cross the Trump administration that they will be brought before the court themselves.
Bondi issued her threat after two judges were arrested for allegedly sheltering migrants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Las Cruces, New Mexico.
In a new escalation of the administration’蝉 war on the judiciary, she insisted that judges are not above the law.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Pentagon advisory committee members after another ousted top official accused them of being the source of a series of embarrassing leaks.
Former President Obama adviser Susan Rice, who sat on the Defense Policy Board, was among those sacked.
Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the purge in a statement late Thursday.
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