A hantavirus outbreak tied to a luxury cruise ship has now reached Canada. British Columbia health officials confirmed Saturday that one Canadian passenger tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus after leaving the MV Hondius, a Dutch cruise ship that departed Argentina on April 1 on an Antarctic expedition. The infected traveler, who officials said is from Yukon, developed mild symptoms and is now in stable condition while isolating along with three other exposed Canadians on Vancouver Island. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, said the four travelers did not come into contact with the public after arriving in Victoria for testing and isolation. According to the World Health Organization, the Andes strain linked to the cruise outbreak can cause severe lung illness and can be fatal in up to 50 percent of cases. Hantaviruses are typically spread through rodents, though health officials note the Andes strain can, in rare cases, spread between people.

Read it at Reuters

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The search for the remaining four missing Italian cave divers in the Maldives was suspended on Saturday after a member of the search team died trying to reach them. The divers, believed to be deep inside an underwater cave, are believed to have died exploring a cave at a depth of about 160 feet in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday. Recreational divers are not meant to descend beyond 98 feet in the Maldives. The President of the Maldives announced the death of Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, on X on Saturday. A spokesman for the president told the AP Mahudhee had died from underwater decompression sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital. He said the search was on hold until at least Sunday, when a group of three Finnish deep water diving experts will arrive to join the search team. The other victims have been identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

Read it at The AP

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pope Leo XIV was caught looking bewildered Saturday as he was coerced into performing a nonsensical brainrot meme popularized by Gen Alpha. The awkward encounter happened as he was leaving a church service, when he was called over to the side by a priest and Catholic radio DJ who asked Pope Leo to join a group of kids in doing the notorious “six-seven” gesture, complete with the palms up hand wiggle and mindless phrase. The trend has vexed parents of schoolchildren and become so stubbornly ubiquitous that a Connecticut wrestling coach was even arrested for allegedly assaulting a student who made the “six-seven” joke. But Pope Leo, fortunately, proved more tolerant. Footage of the bizarre moment in papal history shows confusion on his face as he struggles to make sense of the gesture and do it himself, quietly mumbling “six-seven” before quickly making his getaway. One X user pointed out that the pope is the 267th person to hold the highest Catholic office. As of writing, the video had over 4 million views on TikTok alone.

Read it at TikTok

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has gone scorched earth on “impulsive” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his decision to downgrade the Army’s top command overseeing Europe and Africa.

As a result of the downgrade, NOTUS revealed that the Pentagon is replacing four-star Gen. Christopher Donahue with a three-star general or lieutenant general.

The North Carolina senator condemned the move as a “careless decision” and called out Hegseth and his “political henchmen” for what he said was an effort to push out some of the military’s top officers, calling it “amateur hour at best and deadly at worst.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

One of President Donald Trump’s former Border Patrol goons has been on a tirade against his administration, claiming officials are retreating from the mass deportation crackdown that was initially promised.

Greg Bovino retired as Border Patrol “commander-at-large” earlier this year amid backlash for his leadership in Minnesota, where two protesters were shot dead by federal agents. Now, he is blasting the Trump administration’s supposedly softened immigration policy.

Bovino, 56, has been making his rounds across conservative media, speaking with Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones, and Ann Coulter in the last week, trashing leadership at the Department of Homeland Security along the way.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Smithsonian Institution has reinstated a key detail it removed from President Donald Trump’s portrait at a popular exhibit.

In a revamped exhibition showcasing “America’s Presidents” at the National Portrait Gallery, text on Trump’s wall once again references the two impeachments he faced during his first term as president, The New York Times has revealed.

This comes after references to the impeachments were removed from the wall in January, when the gallery in Washington, D.C. updated Trump’s portrait. It also stripped out the accompanying text noting his two impeachments, replacing it with a more minimal listing of his dates in office.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Veterans are railing against the “disrespect” FBI Director Kash Patel displayed when he embarked on a snorkel trip at Pearl Harbor.

Patel went on a “VIP snorkel” last year around the U.S.S. Arizona, which serves as both a memorial and a grave for more than 900 Navy sailors and Marines killed at Pearl Harbor. Snorkeling excursions there are not available to the public.

William M. McBride, a Navy veteran and professor emeritus of history at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, told The New York Times that he thought Patel’s trip was “horrifying.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Yet another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter has been arrested—the latest for allegedly threatening a man with a gun in a church parking lot.

Ryan Nichols, 36, a former Marine who bragged on social media that he was going to “bring violence” to the U.S. Capitol in 2021, has been arrested in Texas on a deadly conduct charge.

Harrison County Sheriff B.J. Fletcher told a local news station in East Texas this week that Nichols had followed a man out of church to the parking lot, where he proceeded to lift his shirt and flash a gun.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s cankles made a brief appearance during the president’s three-day state visit to China this week.

While Trump, 79, managed to keep his lower legs largely hidden throughout the trip, a CNN segment with Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins on Friday featured footage of the president sitting next to Chinese President Xi Jinping with his swollen ankles very much visible.

Additional video of the two leaders taking a walk shows Trump appearing to lumber as they walk down a concrete pathway, with Xi pointing out an off-camera feature to his American counterpart.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bill Maher has taken aim at President Donald Trump for his “fantastic” trip to China and its impact on U.S.-China relations.

“I can just tell they’re better now. I ordered take out today [and] the menu said go ahead, make some substitutions,” he joked in his opening monologue for Real Time With Bill Maher.

The late-night host didn’t pull any punches in his scathing assessment of Trump’s China trip. Painting the 79-year-old president as easily distracted by pomp and ceremony, and no match for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s negotiating prowess.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The $499 Trump-branded phone at the center of a MAGA revolt has sparked fresh scrutiny for a slick promo video that appears to rely heavily on AI.

Trump Mobile had moved quickly to quell a growing rebellion from paying customers earlier this week, releasing a video on Wednesday to announce that those who had put down a deposit would finally start receiving their T1 Phones soon, with shipping to start “this week.”

The move appeared to be a direct response to customers increasingly questioning whether they’d ever get the phones. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s phone venture repeatedly delayed shipment of its “T1” smartphone, from August to October and now to May.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Nearly 100 days after Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother vanished from her Tucson, Arizona home, sources have delivered a grim new update—there have not been any new leads in months, reports Page Six. Investigators have largely been working off limited evidence, including a single strand of hair, a glove discovered near the property, and unsettling doorbell footage showing an armed, masked man at the property around the time of her disappearance. “There’s not one single lead since that footage was released,” one source told Page Six. “Although you don’t see his face, you can see his eyes, we know how tall he is, there’s a recognizable backpack….come on.” Those close to the family are reportedly growing frustrated by the lack of progress in the case as they return to their everyday lives, including Savannah, who has returned to hosting the Today show. The Guthrie family reportedly has not hired a private investigator, with the case remaining under the control of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI, which is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Read it at Page Six

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s plan to create a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded pool through the IRS will have little oversight, a new report alleges.

The so-called “Truth and Justice Commission” will be under no obligation to disclose how it is spent, and the identities of recipients can be kept private, sources tell ABC News.

The funds will reportedly be used to pay Trump’s allies who claim to be victims of government “weaponization” by the Biden administration, including Jan. 6 insurrectionists that the president has already pardoned

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump isn’t too optimistic about his own party’s odds in the midterms, insiders have revealed.

Trump, 79, has even told aides he doesn’t care about the outcome of the crucial November elections, sources familiar with his comments told The Wall Street Journal as his party scrambles to hold on to its razor-thin majority in Congress.

Those same sources say the president has privately raged against the GOP for, as he sees it, failing to do enough of his bidding. Among other grievances, Trump has vented frustrations over the party’s failure to enact his controversial SAVE Act, a measure that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The most-watched news program on CBS is expected to undergo “massive changes” once its season ends on Sunday, a new report alleges.

An insider tells The Guardian that the network’s MAGA-curious news boss, Bari Weiss, is plotting sweeping changes at 60 Minutes, which is already set to lose two of its top correspondents in Sharyn Alfonsi and Anderson Cooper.

“People are afraid, and they’re waiting for something monumental to happen here,” the longtime network insider told the paper.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

British actor David Burke, known for playing Dr. John Watson in the 1980s series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, has died at 91. The actor died on May 10 and is survived by his actress wife, Anna Calder-Marshall, and son, Tom Burke, who stars in the hit Netflix series Legends. His agent, Scott Marshall Partners, announced the news on Friday, as reported by The Independent. Burke trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before working in theatre, where he met his wife. According to The Times, Burke declined to appear in the second season of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes because he felt “terribly guilty” about leaving his wife and son behind while filming. “I remember walking around London the morning after it had gone out thinking: ‘So, this is what it’s like to be famous,’” Burke said about his time playing Dr. Watson. His son, Tom, later revealed that he also felt guilty that his father “had given up this brilliant opportunity” for him. In 2014, Burke said he never pushed his son to act, but that whenever he watched him perform, he would grin and tell his wife: “Darling, do you realize that’s our son!”

Read it at The Independent

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Follow Tom Sykes’ royal reporting at The Royalist on Substack, and get exclusive insight on everything going down behind the palace gates.

Richard Eden of the Daily Mail was much ridiculed when he first unveiled his “Project Thaw” narrative—the idea that King Charles III is secretly engaged with a group of civil servants trying to ease Harry back into public life in the United Kingdom.

But the coordinated messages now coming out of Harry’s office and the King’s office have taken this idea out of the realm of fact-free conspiracy theory.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

California’s Straus Family Creamery has voluntarily recalled a small production run of specific flavors and carton sizes of its organic ice cream due to concerns that they may contain metal fragments. The ice cream was distributed in 17 states from May 4, according to the Food and Drug Administration. There have been no reports of injuries. Straus advised buyers not to consume the ice cream but to discard it. The recall covers Straus Family Creamery Organic Super Premium Ice Cream, sold in paper cartons with a seal and lid, in quart and pint sizes. The recall only concerns Vanilla Bean pints with “best by” dates of December 23 and 28, 2026; Strawberry pints with a best-by date of December 25, 2026, and Strawberry quarts with a best-by date of December 24, 2026; Cookie Dough pints (December 26), Dutch Chocolate quarts (December 27), and Mint Chip pints (December 30). For the UPC barcodes of the recalled products, check here. Consumers seeking more information or a voucher for a replacement product can contact Straus.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

MS NOW’s Jen Psaki devoted part of her Friday night episode of The Briefing to fact-checking Eric Trump after he threatened to sue her and the network over a Thursday report on his business interests.

“Today, the adult son of the President of the United States, Eric Trump, came after us on social media and accused us of lying,” the former Biden press secretary told viewers.

“Specifically, Eric took issue with us describing him as a member of the board of… a company called ALT5.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kash Patel has reportedly turned another FBI work trip into a luxury date-night excursion.

The embattled FBI director, 46, allegedly flew with girlfriend Alexis Wilkins, 27, on the bureau’s Gulfstream V jet to a country music concert in May last year before returning later that same night.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Pentagon is being accused of cutting corners on explosive safety as the military races to weaponize cheap drones for the battlefield.

A newly surfaced Army memo claims the Defense Department’s push to rapidly scale low-cost combat drones is causing “basic explosive safety principles” to be ignored, according to CBS News.

The memo was written by an explosive safety specialist after a mini-drone exploded during troubleshooting exercises involving Army Special Forces soldiers.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The White House has unleashed a frantic new push to move ahead with construction on President Donald Trump’s ballroom, which they now say is also needed to give the aging president a “state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche delivered the latest startling revelation in a court filing late Thursday that sounded as if much of it had been pulled straight from one of the 79-year-old president’s Truth Social tirades. It hailed the planned $400 million ballroom as a “gift to the People of the United States” that is being hampered only by preservationists suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to halt construction of the project in December after the East Wing was demolished to make way for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom without first obtaining approval. A federal judge blocked above-ground construction, though that order was stayed while an appeals court panel reviews the case, with oral arguments now scheduled for June 5.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Actor-turned-musician Kiefer Sutherland is apologizing to American fans for canceling a planned concert tour promoting his fourth album, Grey, because of lackluster ticket sales. The news comes on the heels of a successful European tour by the two-time Emmy winner. The 24 star called his latest album his “most personal yet.“ ”With great disappointment I am going to have to cancel the U.S. leg of my tour due to very low ticket sales,” Sutherland, 59, wrote in an Instagram post. “I don’t think it’s fair to the people who have bought tickets, or the venues, to play to half empty houses.” Sutherland, who is the son of the late actor Donald Sutherland, said he looks forward to touring the U.S. in the future “at a more suitable time.” He also noted that ticket purchases will be refunded. “I hope you understand,” he added.

Read it at People

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump defended his admission that he hasn’t been thinking about “Americans’ financial situation” while negotiating with Iran.

The president, 79, sat down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in Beijing to discuss his three-day state visit to China as well as his ongoing war with Iran, which is now 10 weeks old.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Prominent 2020 election denier Tina Peters, who was sentenced to nine years in prison over attempted vote interference, is being freed in a shock commutation by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis—a Democrat.

Polis told The New York Times that he wasn’t trying to placate Donald Trump amid the president’s continued baseless claims that the election he lost was rigged, but that he believed Peters’ sentence was too harsh. She was a first-time, nonviolent offender, he noted.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Alex Murdaugh’s legal team is mapping out its strategy for a second trial after a South Carolina judge overturned the disbarred lawyer’s double murder conviction. Murdaugh, 57, was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh, in 2021. But in a 5-0 ruling on Wednesday, the court declared that former Colleton County clerk Rebecca Hill improperly influenced jurors while promoting her book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders. Now, defense attorney Jim Griffin says the retrial will zero in on evidence he claims investigators either ignored or failed to properly pursue. Speaking to NewsNation on Thursday, Griffin pointed to unidentified male DNA allegedly found beneath Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails that he says was never entered into CODIS, the national law enforcement DNA database. The defense also plans to revisit tire marks near the crime scene that Griffin claims investigators never followed and instead “trampled over.” He further blasted the coroner’s estimated timeline of death, mocking the process as placing “his thumb under the armpits of Maggie and Paul to guesstimate what time of death it was.” Despite the overturned conviction, Murdaugh remains in prison, where he is serving a 40-year federal prison sentence and a concurrent 27-year state sentence for financial crimes.

Read it at New York Post

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump appeared both physically and metaphorically diminished beside Chinese President Xi Jinping as America’s stature seemed to shrink alongside him, one foreign policy analyst says.

David Rothkopf, appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, said the 79-year-old president came away from his visit to China “deeply frustrated.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kimberly Guilfoyle is apparently America’s new fast food ambassador. The Fox News host-turned-U.S. ambassador to Greece (with a stint in between as Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée) turned up at a McDonald’s ribbon-cutting in Athens this week, hailing the chain as a delivery system for “American culture.” “American businesses investing here create jobs and bring American culture—and delicious food—to the Greek people,” Guilfoyle wrote in a post on Threads alongside photos from the event. She also called it “the most technologically advanced McDonald’s in all of Europe.” Photos showed Guilfoyle posing beneath the golden arches with executives before taking part in a glossy photo shoot surrounded by McDonald’s branding. The spectacle quickly drew attention because of President Donald Trump’s legendarily enthusiastic relationship with the fast food giant. Trump has long treated McDonald’s as part of his personal brand, once even serving fast food at the White House during his first term and staging a campaign stunt working the fryer at a Pennsylvania franchise during the 2024 election. Now, as ambassador to Greece, Guilfoyle appears to be redefining American soft power—one burger at a time.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A swarm of “thousands” of bees briefly took over the White House’s North Lawn on Friday.

Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence was among the journalists outside when the swarm came buzzing by, flying in close proximity to the executive residence before eventually forming a bivouac in a tree on the grounds.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

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I’ve been through a lot with my hair: too much bleach, heat, and aggressive styling over the years. I’ve worked hard to bring my hair back to a healthy state, and it’s finally in a good place. But lately, I’ve found myself paying attention to my hair in a way I never really did before. At 41 years old, hormones suddenly feel less theoretical than they did a decade ago. Friends are talking openly about perimenopause now. GLP-1 medications come up in everyday conversation. And subtle things—like noticing more strands in the shower—start to feel a bit concerning.

That’s part of why I was intrigued by Omi’s new Harmonize Hair Growth Peptides launch, one of two new iterations of the Kris Jenner-approved gummies. I’d already been taking the brand’s original formula and had noticed some great results: less shedding and hair that looked healthier than ever. So, when the brand introduced a version specifically formulated for hormone-related hair concerns, I quickly made the switch.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Combative conservative commentator Megyn Kelly railed against Stephen Colbert and David Letterman on Friday for blasting CBS.

“I’m humiliated for him that he stayed on the air all this time,” Kelly said on her SiriusXM show. “He made the whole year about the fact that he was fired and was leaving,” she added, calling the host’s sentimental goodbye interviews and deferences from fellow late-night hosts “ridiculous.”

Letterman joined Colbert on The Late Show on Thursday, where the pair destroyed some “CBS property” by throwing it off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater, and Letterman told the network, “To the folks at CBS, in the words of the great Ed Murrow, good night and good luck, motherf---ers.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Oscar-winning director Ryan Coogler needed almost no effort to convince Danielle Deadwyler to star in his upcoming The X-Files reboot.

“He said, ‘Hi, I’m Ryan Coogler.’ And I said, ‘Bet,’” Deadwyler, 44, joked on Obsessed: The Podcast.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has rebuffed calls to recuse himself from a major looming decision.

A coalition of liberal groups asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to look into Alito’s involvement in the case, which involves energy companies ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy as they look to throw out a Colorado lawsuit seeking damages for harms related to climate change. The left-leaning groups cite Alito’s stock holdings in energy companies as the reason he should recuse himself.

But Alito, 76, is ignoring these calls, with a court spokesperson saying, “Alito does not have a financial interest in any party” involved in the case, and that his counsel has advised that “his recusal is not required.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

John Travolta arrived in Cannes wearing an accessory that was less Pulp Fiction and more The Postman Always Rings Twice.

The actor, 72, revealed his bold new fashion sense at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, his directorial debut, on May 15.

He wore a timeless black three-piece suit with a white button-up shirt, tie, and pocket square. The black-and-white look was accessorized with a pair of round gold glasses and shiny black loafers, seemingly without socks.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The father of a Republican lawmaker who has been missing from the public eye for more than two months has offered a vague explanation for his absence.

New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr., 57, last voted in the House on March 5, sending his Republican colleagues into a panic over their already razor-thin majority. Even GOP leadership has been kept in the dark about his absence, according to Punchbowl News.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump boasted to Xi Jinping that the U.S. is better at spying than China.

The president revealed that he told Xi Jinping that American spooks have targeted China in ways that Beijing has no clue are happening.

Asked on board Air Force One if he asked Xi about China’s cyberattacks targeting the U.S., Trump said: “I did. And he talked about attacks we did in China. You know, what they do, we do too. We spy like hell on them, too.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Emmy-winner Alec Baldwin weighed in on MAGA’s anti “woke” campaign against Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which has found its central voice in centibillionaire X owner Elon Musk.

Musk has led a conservative onslaught against the Oscar-winning director, targeting his supposedly “racist” casting of Lupita Nyong’o, who he claims shouldn’t play “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Helen of Troy, as depicted in the Greek epic.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Actress Chloe Cherry revealed she’s passed a unique milestone in her cosmetic treatment journey.

Cherry, 27, plays Faye Valentine on the HBO drama Euphoria. In the May 3 episode, an eyewitness identifies Faye for her role in a robbery by picking out a specific facial feature.

“It’s a woman, [the getaway driver] has gigantic lips,” says Magick, played by Rosalía.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Eric Trump is threatening to sue Jen Psaki and MS NOW over comments The Briefing host made about the 42-year-old’s trip to China and his business activities.

On Thursday, Psaki shared details of a New York Times report that the Justice Department is considering settling President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS—on the condition that the IRS drop any audits of the president, his family members, or businesses.

“That unprecedented protection from financial scrutiny would not just extend to Trump, but to his two adult sons and the Trump family businesses, who have all been making money off of his presidency,” Psaki said. “Which reminds me: guess where Trump’s adult son Eric is right now? Well, he’s with his father in China.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

This week:

• The James Bond Hunger Games officially begin.
• The best person at the Kevin Hart roast.
• Suddenly, we’re all tennis superfans.
• SNL UK is, like, actually really good.
• Taylor Swift wedding news.

License to Speculate

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The plastic surgery boom is straining the South Korean military.

While taking leave from military duties is often linked to mandatory surgeries and injury-related downtime, a new report claims that elective surgeries are now affecting South Korea’s military readiness.

The article, which examines the burden of Gen-Z soldiers’ cosmetic treatments on “Korea’s military readiness,” was originally published in the Korean-language daily newspaper Hankook Ilbo and translated for its English-language sister publication, The Korea Times.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former NFL player Josh Mauro overdosed from a combination of fentanyl, cocaine, and ethanol, a preliminary medical examiner’s report obtained by the California Post has revealed. Mauro, 35, died on April 23, his father Greg announced in a heartbreaking Facebook post. “With many tears and broken hearts, yet anchored in the unshakable certainty that our precious Josh Mauro is now healed and made new—living in the presence of the Lord—we humbly covet your prayers as our family walks through the devastating loss of our amazing son, brother, uncle, grandson, and friend,” he wrote. Now, the Post writes that an autopsy in Phoenix, Arizona, determined that his manner of death was accidental due to “acute combined fentanyl, cocaine, and ethanol intoxication.” Mauro was born in the U.K. but moved to Texas when he was three. He starred at his suburban Dallas high school and went on to play at Stanford University. He then played seven seasons in the NFL, including four with the Arizona Cardinals, before ultimately retiring after the 2021 season.

Read it at https://nypost.com/2026/05/15/sports/ex-giants-defensive-end-josh-mauro-cause-of-death-revealed/

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus said Elaine and Jerry’s friends with benefits storyline ignited a behind-the-scenes blowup with the show’s production company.

Louis-Dreyfus, 65, who played Elaine in the series, revealed that Larry David, 78, the show’s co-creator, got into a “big fat argument” with Castle Rock Entertainment over her and Jerry Seinfeld’s characters’ unconventional relationship.

“There was a big fat argument on set about that,” she said recalled on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, recalling the fallout from the Season 2 episode, “The Deal.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s media enforcer doesn’t seem to have high hopes about what his legacy will be after he launched a crusade against broadcasters that have angered the president.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr suggested there wasn’t much he could do at this point to change the way he’ll be remembered.

“I’m sure The New York Times has already written my obituary,” he said. “And there’s not a lot that I can do to improve upon it or make it worse at this point in time.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Vice President JD Vance received only “tepid” applause during an at times cringey speech at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service.

The weak applause came during an address in which Vance slammed Democrats for supposedly allowing those who injure or kill cops to have “free rein,” despite his own boss, President Donald Trump, pardoning Jan. 6 insurrectionists who assaulted law enforcement.

“You can never get rid of evil, you’re always gonna have terrible people who want to do the worst things,” Vance said Friday. “But allowing so many of those people free rein, allowing them to strike at our law enforcement officers, that was a policy choice.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Claudine Longet, the French pop singer whose career became overshadowed by a deadly Olympic scandal, has died at 84. Her nephew, Bryan Longet, announced the death in a heartfelt social media tribute, writing: “You have been a true inspiration in my life and you will always be... another star in the sky. Thank you for everything, my aunt.” Longet first found fame in the 1960s with soft pop albums like Claudine and songs including “Nothing to Lose.” But her name became permanently linked to the 1976 shooting death of 31-year-old Olympic skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich. The Olympian was fatally shot once with a Luger pistol at the couple’s Aspen, Colorado home, and died en route to the hospital alongside Longet. The singer maintained the shooting was accidental and happened while Sabich was showing her the gun. Longet was ultimately convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to 30 days in jail, two years’ probation, and a $250 fine. Following the scandal, Longet briefly reunited with her ex-husband Andy Williams, who helped cover her legal expenses. The former couple shared three children together.

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Read it at The Independent

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Flying back to the U.S. from Beijing, Donald Trump made it clear that he knew his state visit to China was a flop.

He was in a lousy mood.

In his answers to question after question from the press, he revealed that the trip produced no true deliverables. Some of these answers underscored the degree to which Trump was pretty much just a prop, used by China’s president Xi to illustrate China’s ascendancy.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Warm weather, good food, and time with people you love—Memorial Day weekend is hard to beat. If you’re aiming to avoid the beer during the festivities, Cycling Frog’s cannabis-infused seltzers are a great alternative. Its non-alcoholic drinks deliver a mild buzz without the regret. From May 18 to May 25, save 20 percent on orders up to $200 and 25 percent on orders over $200.

With more than 2,000 five-star reviews, Black Currant is Cycling Frog’s most popular drink. The sweet, tart flavor profile makes it easy to reach for when the goal is to wind down without the fear of a hangover. Each can delivers 10mg of CBD alongside 5mg of THC, with a 10mg THC option available for those who prefer a more potent buzz.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tennis icon Venus Williams is heading back to Roland Garros to reclaim a spot at a tournament she once dominated alongside her younger sister Serena.

The 45-year-old announced she will return to the French Open for the first time in five years when the clay-court Grand Slam kicks off May 24 in Paris. Williams is set to compete in doubles alongside fellow American Hailey Baptiste, 24, after the pair secured direct entry based on their combined rankings.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s media attack dog admitted that the Federal Communications Commission took an unusual step in its long-simmering feud with Disney.

Brendan Carr, the chairman of the newly MAGAfied agency, said the FCC’s decision to call in the licenses of eight ABC stations for early renewal was one that hasn’t been made in decades—and denied that it had anything to do with a Jimmy Kimmel joke that ticked off the first lady.

Just a day after Melania Trump publicly complained about a joke on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last month, the FCC sent Disney a letter demanding license renewal applications for eight ABC stations even though they weren’t due for several more years. Stations receive licenses from the FCC to broadcast their programming over publicly owned airwaves.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The White House’s latest grab at social media attention has dragged Canadian megastar Drake into the fold.

The administration rode the wave of hype the rapper generated at midnight on Friday, when he surprise-released three albums in one day—his first in two years since his feud with fellow Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar.

There was a notable twist, however, when the White House posted a photo of one album, which Drake titled Iceman.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s niece has launched a meme coin brutally mocking her uncle.

Mary Trump announced Friday she was selling the coin $MARY, unveiling a launch page filled with digs at the president.

“They said I’d never touch crypto 😏,” she wrote on X. “So I built my own coin. oops. 👀”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson and his now ex-girlfriend, Elsie Hewitt, will continue to “adjust” to parenting without being a romantic item.

According to The Sun, which was the first to report the news, the couple is calling it quits five months after welcoming their baby girl, Scottie.

“Pete and Elsie are working on things,” a source told People of the couple. “They want one another to succeed and be happy.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump ripped into the Department of Justice for its “appalling” and “reckless” lack of candor in a case involving gender-affirming health care for minors.

Last year, the DOJ began sending out sweeping administrative subpoenas demanding detailed sensitive medical information about minor patients who had received gender-affirming care at hospitals nationwide.

When Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) received a subpoena demanding the names, Social Security numbers, addresses, diagnoses, clinical histories, and family information of its patients, it began negotiating with the DOJ over the subpoena’s applicability and scope, Rhode Island District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote this week in an order quashing the subpoena.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

An Olympic gold-medal swimmer gave a poignant response to critics who say his appearance is now unrecognizable.

On Thursday, Ryan Lochte, 41, shared a video on his Instagram stories with a caption, “I guess aging is frowned upon?! What’s happening lol.”

In the video, originally posted by his girlfriend, kindergarten teacher Molly Gillihan, Lochte gives a candid response to comments about his looks.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A CNN panel erupted in laughter when a MAGA podcaster desperately tried to suggest that Donald Trump being “crazy” is actually a positive.

During a typically argumentative roundtable on CNN’s NewsNight, the panelists discussed the president’s visit to China and why it may have been a good thing that he did not weigh in on the thorny issue of Taiwan during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Bobby Ghosh, a columnist and geopolitical analyst, said Trump could not afford to ruffle feathers about the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own, during the summit, and that “there’s some language you use and there’s some language you don’t use” when you are a guest in China.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s constant flip-flopping is deepening Iranians’ distrust of Americans, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday as peace negotiations remain stalled.

Abbas Araghchi, 63, said Iran “cannot trust the Americans at all” after Washington and Tehran rejected each other’s peace proposals earlier this week, leaving the war to drag on toward its third month.

Araghchi described Iran’s mistrust of the U.S. as “the main obstacle to any diplomatic effort” as he spoke to reporters during the BRICS summit in New Delhi.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Al Robertson, son of Phil and Miss Kay Robertson from Duck Dynasty, is opening up about his wife Lisa’s affair. In a promotional interview for their forthcoming documentary Faith & Forgiveness, Robertson, 61, is revealing how, despite his wife’s cheating 15 years into their marriage, he believes infidelity doesn’t need to end in divorce. “I think the reason I was willing to fight for my marriage was that I had made a lot of mistakes on my own,” he admitted. “When I first met Lisa, she was actually a good girl, who had experienced some hard things in her life up until that point, but really was looking for what she called her ‘knight in shining armor,’ someone to take her hand and lead her out of some things. And I just wasn’t that guy in the early years.” Robertson detailed that while he found work as a pastor, Lisa, 60, was left at home, which he called “a huge mistake.” “What changed my mind and heart about Lisa was her,” he said. “It was obvious to me from talking to friends who were with her that she wanted this marriage to stay together. She was very sorry for what had happened.”

Read it at Fox News

Read more at The Daily Beast.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz escalated a high-profile spat with President Donald Trump on Friday, saying he wouldn’t advise children to study or work in the United States under the president’s leadership.

“I would not recommend to my children today that they go to the U.S. to get an education and to work,” Merz said at a Catholic Congress panel in the city of Wuerzburg, citing concerns about the “social climate” that has developed in the country under the second Trump administration.

“Even the best educated in America have great difficulty in finding a job,” said Merz.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

One of the nation’s top infectious disease officials overseeing the hantavirus outbreak specialized in penile implants and erectile dysfunction before taking on the role.

Dr. Brian Christine, who serves as Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was well regarded in the medical field for his expertise in sexual health, including surgical procedures to treat erectile dysfunction, to the point of hosting a YouTube series, Erection Connection, aimed at urologists treating the condition.

As an Alabama-based urologist, he also performed complex procedures involving inflatable penile implants for incontinence and sexual health, according to The Washington Post.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Matthew McConaughey came clean about the dramatic way he “grounds” himself.

McConaughey revealed on the No Magic Pill podcast that he “clicks out” of Hollywood and goes by a different name to “reaffirm his identity.” One such trip was a 22-day self-imposed exile in Peru, where he lived in the jungle and went by “Matteo.”

“I needed to get my feet on the ground,” he explained. “So, I click out. Boom. Go to Peru. I needed to find it, to check the validation. I knew I had it, I just had to go prove it again.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A five-month investigation has revealed the names of 13 victims of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s airstrikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration is thought to have killed almost 200 people in what it has described as an effort to stop “narco-terrorists” from bringing drugs into the U.S. The report, the work of 20 journalists at the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism, revealed that the 13 came from poor backgrounds across the Caribbean and Latin America. CLIP co-founder María Teresa Ronderos said, “What is actually happening is that young people living in extremely precarious conditions, doing whatever work they can to support their families, are being targeted.” “There are communities where they stopped fishing for several weeks—and if they do that, people go hungry—because they were terrified of being bombed.” She said the report shows “that these were flesh-and-blood people.” Three were already identified after their families sued the White House. Eight victims were Venezuelan, three Colombian, two Ecuadorian, two Trinidadian, and one Saint Lucian. Their names were Juan Carlos Fuentes, Luis Ramón Amundarain, Eduard Hidalgo, Dushak Milovcic, Robert Sánchez, Jesús Carreño, Eduardo Jaime, Luis Alí Martínez, Alejandro Andrés Carranza Medina, Ronald Arregocés, Adrián Lubo, Pedro Ramón Holguín Holguín, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Solórzano, Chad Joseph, Rishi Samaroo, and Ricky Joseph.

Read it at Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism

Read more at The Daily Beast.

With The Comeback just wrapping its final season and only two episodes of Hacks left, therapists for pop-culture superfans who care far too deeply for this kind of stuff are doing the Lord’s work right now. (Shout to you, Sharon!)

Rather than wallow and obsess alone over the last stretch of episodes of Hacks, I did something far healthier and way more fun: I interviewed the show’s co-creator, Jen Statsky, about them for a new episode of Obsessed: The Podcast.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Charlie Neal, the pioneering broadcaster credited with helping bring HBCU sports into the mainstream, died on Wednesday at 80. ESPN confirmed Neal’s death on Thursday in a tribute honoring the longtime announcer’s impact on Black college athletics. “Neal’s long career helped elevate #HBCU football & basketball on television,” the network wrote on X, noting he also called the first college football game ever aired on ESPNU when the channel launched in 2005. Before joining ESPN, Neal spent 24 years at BET, arriving in 1980, and eventually became the network’s lead play-by-play announcer and executive producer for sports. Neal once shared, the network “gave me a platform to expose, tell the stories and bring to the forefront what’s happening around historically Black colleges and universities as far as athletics is concerned.” Before BET’s rise, he noted, HBCU athletics rarely received national television exposure outside occasional games involving popular programs like Grambling State Tigers. For his decades-long contributions to sports media, Neal was inducted into the MEAC Hall of Fame, CIAA Hall of Fame, and the Black College Football Hall of Fame. He is survived by his wife and their three children.

Read it at The Sun

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump couldn’t resist praising Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s viral Nike tracksuit.

Asked aboard Air Force One whether he had seen the secretary in the briefing room and what he thought, Trump immediately knew what was being referred to and responded: “You talking about his outfit?”

“I thought he looked very good in the outfit,” Trump, 79, said, adding, “Listen, I don’t know if I’d do it, but I thought he looked very good.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright briefly forgot which country President Donald Trump dragged the U.S. into a war against.

While speaking about soaring energy prices resulting from Trump’s war, Wright mixed up the reason for the steep rise.

“But California had massively expensive oil and diesel before we decided to disarm Iraq’s nuclear program—Iran’s nuclear program,” Wright said on CNBC on Friday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump took a swipe at his on-again, off-again ally Keir Starmer as the British prime minister’s future looks increasingly uncertain.

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Friday, the 79-year-old president was asked if he believes Starmer–who has refused to help Trump’s war in Iran–will survive growing calls to stand down from members of his own party.

Trump said it’s a “tough thing” for Starmer to be facing before attacking the prime minister’s policies and launching into a tirade about one of the president’s old nemeses: green energy and wind turbines.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump was fined for late disclosure of tens of millions of dollars in stock trades.

Under federal law, the president is required to disclose stock transactions exceeding $1,000 within 45 days of the trade, a requirement the 79-year-old president reportedly did not meet.

According to a Washington Post analysis of financial disclosure forms released Thursday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the president was fined $200 in both March and August for failing to report stock transactions on time.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A bus driver has celebrated winning $5 million in the lottery by cracking on with his daily route. D.C.-area operator Maurice Williams, 59, headed into 7-Eleven to cash a $50 win on the $5,000,000 LUXE game, and used the money to buy another ticket. He almost didn’t realize it had won him life-changing money. “I didn’t notice I had a matching number at first, until I scanned it,” the Hyattsville man told Maryland Lottery. “It’s crazy because the matching number was 59 and I just turned 59 the other day.” “I just sat there stuck, I mean, I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “I had to get my head straight.” To do so, he called his mom, who helped settle his nerves, before he carried on with his working day, using his lunch break to call the lotto firm to arrange an appointment. Now he says he’s going to use the money to buy her a house, and will sit on the rest until he knows for sure what he wants to do with it.

Read it at USA TODAY MONEY

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pete Hegseth’s caricaturist pitched a doomed joke about the Defense Secretary, only for it to then happen in real life.

Saturday Night Live cast member Colin Jost was speaking on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, when he revealed he thought it would have been funny to do a bit about Hegseth using a fake prayer from Pulp Fiction.

Jost, 43, often depicts Hegseth, 45, satirizing his so-called warfighter mentality, bro-culture sensibilities, and relationship with alcohol.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Billionaire Kim Kardashian has bailed out an inmate after 29-years on death row, TMZ reports. Richard Glossip was convicted for his role in the killing of his boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in Oklahoma City in 1997. He has lived through nine execution dates and eaten his “last meal” three times. Film producer Scott Budnick has been pushing for his release. “AFTER 29 YEARS INNOCENT ON OKLAHOMA’S DEATH ROW - RICHARD GLOSSIP WALKED OUT AS A FREE MAN THIS AFTERNOON!!!!” Budnick wrote in a post on Instagram. “Well, he has to be released on bail, that was GRACIOUSLY paid for immediately by @kimkardashian who’s been fighting for Rich’s freedom for years.” His release on bond was granted by Oklahoma Judge Natalie Mai on Thursday, who set it at $500,000 one year after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and ordered a retrial, The Guardian reports. Van Treese was beaten to death with a baseball bat by Justin Sneed, who agreed to plead guilty and testify against Glossip. “The court hopes that a new trial, free of error, will provide all interested parties and the citizens of Oklahoma, the closure they deserve,” Mai said.

Read it at TMZ

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s wealthy ex-boyfriend has revealed that he gifted her $7.2 million when they split—but the convicted sex trafficker still demanded “more.”

That is according to Gateway founder Ted Waitt, who recalled Maxwell “not being happy with the amount” and “wanting more” in new testimony to the House Oversight Committee.

Waitt, whose net worth peaked at $4 billion before the dot-com bubble crash, testified that he did not give Maxwell any additional funds after their split and that, in hindsight, he regrets ever associating with her.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A sixth diver escaped death in the Maldives only because she chose not to enter the water, as investigators piece together what killed her five Italian colleagues in an underwater cave. The survivor, a student at the University of Genoa, remained aboard the yacht as her companions descended into the caves of Vaavu Atoll. She is now returning to Italy. The five who dived never resurfaced. One body has been recovered from inside a cave; authorities believe the remaining four are in the same cavern. The victims include marine biologist and University of Genoa professor Monica Montefalcone, 51, and her 22-year-old daughter Giorgia Sommacal, along with colleagues Muriel Oddenino, 31, Gianluca Benedetti, 44, and Federico Gualtieri, 31. Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, said his wife was an “expert” diver and “never reckless.” “Something happened down there,” he said. Investigators are examining several potential causes. There was no local guide accompanying the group, as required by Maldivian law, and it remains unclear whether the divers used a safety rope—mandatory in certain caves—to navigate the underwater cavern. Police have not ruled out oxygen toxicity, poor visibility caused by bad weather, or panic triggering fatal errors. Local officials called it the worst single diving accident in the nation’s history.

Read it at Daily Mail

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert took aim at Donald Trump’s health after the president and his Chinese counterpart shared an uncomfortably long handshake ahead of bilateral talks in Beijing.

Xi Jinping greeted Trump, 79, on the steps of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the first day of the president’s high-stakes visit to China. The two leaders exchanged a prolonged 14-second handshake, which Colbert joked was “an inspiring display of hyper-masculine hand dominance.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The infamous Kars4Kids jingle may finally be disappearing from California airwaves. A judge has permanently barred the nonprofit from broadcasting its catchy “1-877-Kars4Kids” ads in the state unless the commercials clearly disclose where donation money actually goes. The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by California resident Bruce Puterbaugh, who donated his 2001 Volvo to the charity before later claiming he felt misled by the organization’s advertising. Puterbaugh argued the commercials gave the impression that proceeds benefited underprivileged children broadly across California and the U.S., without mentioning the charity’s ties to Orthodox Jewish educational programs primarily based in New York and New Jersey. The court ultimately sided with Puterbaugh, finding the omission amounted to deceptive advertising. The lawsuit accused the organization of primarily using donated funds to help finance trips to Israel and other programs for Orthodox Jewish teens rather than the broader children’s causes many donors may have assumed they were supporting. The judge also ordered Kars4Kids to reimburse Puterbaugh $250 for his donated vehicle along with covering legal costs.

Read it at Mediaite

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump appeared to briefly confuse Taiwan with Iran on Friday while responding to a question about a possible U.S.-China conflict during a rambling exchange aboard Air Force One.

The 79-year-old president was speaking to reporters while returning to the U.S. after his state visit to China. In his first state visit to Beijing since 2017, Trump held high-stakes meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with topics reportedly including Taiwan and the conflict in the Middle East.

Beijing’s official readout of their bilateral talks said that Xi warned Trump that mishandling the Taiwan issue could trigger confrontation between the U.S. and China.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump was noncommittal when pressed on whether he would follow through on plans to supply Taiwan with billions of dollars’ worth of arms after crunch talks with China’s President, Xi Jinping.

While speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from the Beijing summit, Trump assured reporters that Xi does not want to start a war with Taiwan and downplayed concerns that the thorny issue of the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own, could even result in a U.S.-China conflict.

When Trump was asked about the $14 billion worth of arms the administration has promised Taiwan amid threats of invasion by China, the president replied: “I’ll make a determination over the next fairly short period.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Late-night legend David Letterman didn’t hold back on his old network over its decision to oust his successor.

On Thursday, Letterman returned to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to help send off his friend, whose last show airs May 21. While the pair threw CBS-owned furniture from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater, where the show is filmed, Letterman delivered a pointed message to the network.

“To the folks at CBS, in the words of the great Ed Murrow, good night and good luck, motherf---ers,” Letterman, 79, said to the camera, subverting the famous sign-off by CBS broadcasting icon Edward R. Murrow, as Colbert, 61, stood beside him smiling.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Africa’s top public health body has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo, with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases recorded in a remote eastern province near the borders with Uganda and South Sudan. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cases have been concentrated in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones of Ituri province, more than 620 miles from the Congolese capital. Preliminary laboratory results detected the Ebola virus in 13 of 20 samples tested, with sequencing ongoing to confirm the strain. Early results suggest it is not the Ebola Zaire strain—the variant responsible for Congo’s past outbreaks and the one targeted by the existing Ervebo vaccine, of which Congo holds around 2,000 doses. “Four deaths have been reported among laboratory-confirmed cases,” the agency said. “Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, pending confirmation.” Officials flagged several factors raising the risk of further spread, including heavy population movement, mining activity in Mongwalu, ongoing insecurity in affected areas, and gaps in contact tracing. The agency convened an urgent coordination meeting with health authorities from Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan, alongside U.N. agencies and other partners. The outbreak comes around five months after Congo’s previous Ebola outbreak was declared over, following 43 deaths.

Read it at AP News

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Newly installed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin isn’t just inviting his predecessor Kristi Noem’s critics back into the fold—he’s also pushing her allies out the door as part of his effort to rehabilitate his embattled department’s image.

President Donald Trump fired Noem, 54, in March following public outcry over her department’s violent immigration raids, which resulted in the killings of American citizens Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and concerns about financial mismanagement.

She was quickly replaced by Mullin, 48, a former senator from Oklahoma who has been tasked with lowering the department’s profile and avoiding any scandals between now and the November midterms, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A Roman-era Egyptian Mummy has been found laid to rest with a fabled Greek text. Homer’s Iliad was discovered in a clay packet outside the wrappings of a 2,000-year-old mummy in the Oxyrhynchus necropolis, which may have been used to help guide the dead through the afterlife. The papyrus relic was located by a team from the University of Barcelona’s Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, led by Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, and is thought specifically to be from Book 2’s “Catalog of Ships” of the 24-book epic poem. The team spent six years piecing together, stabilizing, and translating the papyrus until they could finally decode its contents. “The find is incredibly significant, primarily for the discovery of such a papyrus with Greek literary text in its original context,” University of Chicago Egyptologist Foy Scalf told The New York Times. “We have evidence that such Greek literary texts could be used as magical amulets and that Homer was frequently cited in such amulets, as well as in the large handbooks now known as ‘The Greco-Egyptian Formularies.’ The new find directly supports that indirect knowledge.”

Read it at The New York Times

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A reality TV star running for mayor of America’s second-largest city has signed a contract to turn his campaign—and potentially his time in office—into a television show, according to TMZ.

Spencer Pratt, best known as the villain of millennial reality staple The Hills, inked a deal with Los Angeles production company Boardwalk Pictures to document his run against Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, sources with direct knowledge told TMZ.

Cameras are reportedly about to begin rolling with Pratt, his wife, and fellow Hills star Heidi Montag, and their children. Crucially, the contract specifically provides that filming would continue if Pratt wins and is sworn into office. Sources told TMZ the production team and Pratt have not yet discussed the logistics of filming inside the mayor’s office, but the deal is signed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been brutally snubbed by the Boss.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band were playing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday night as part of his Land of Hope and Dreams U.S. stadium tour, where the Republican former U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey was spotted in the front row throwing down.

Several clips have emerged of joyous Trump foe Christie, 63, fist-pumping, head-bobbing, pointing, drumming, and playing air guitar to the sounds of President Donald Trump’s nemesis.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Residents of a quiet residential neighborhood are going spare at the number of driverless Waymo cars invading their area. Locals on Battleview Drive in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia, say their cul-de-sacs are being clogged by dozens of cars every day after appearing two months ago. WSB-TV 2 spoke to incensed residents who are now pleading with the autonomous driving tech firm to stop. “It’s almost every little cul-de-sac around our area, so I think it’s a real problem,” one resident told the station. “Yesterday morning, we had 50 cars that came through between six and seven.” They erected a makeshift bollard to stop them from entering the cul-de-sac, which only created a terrible traffic jam. “We had... eight Waymos that were stuck, trying to figure out how to turn around,” the resident said. Locals said the increase in traffic was making them worried about the kids and pets in the area, especially since children are trying to catch the school bus in the mornings. One told Atlanta News First that they had seen a cat and a dog have near-misses in two separate incidents. “We would just like to see them stay on main traffic roads,” one said.

Read it at WSB-TV

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The award-winning director behind Wendy’s iconic “Where’s the beef?” advert has died at the age of 92. Joe Sedelmaier died at his home in Chicago last Friday, his son J.J. confirmed, according to The New York Times. He was featured in Esquire and 60 Minutes, pieces that delved into his talent for touching the fears of everyday life in just seconds. Among his most famous works was the FedEx advert featuring speed talker John Moschitta Jr., with the tag line, “Federal Express: When it absolutely has to be there overnight.” In an email to the Times following Sedelmaier’s death, former Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield praised how he “overstated by understatement. Human movement was reduced to near paralysis. Voices were monotone. The camera was locked at dead center. Nobody even blinked. Maximal minimal minimalism. And the effect was absurdity.” Speaking about his craft to the Chicago Tribune in 1993, Sedelmaier said, “I don’t feel there’s that much to be serious about in a commercial… You’re serious about selling the guy’s product, but comedy has a way of putting things in perspective.” He added, “What I find funny is when people play things straight. I don’t like comedy that winks at you.”

Read it at The New York Times

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Self-professed master negotiator Donald Trump has left China with not much more than the promise of a bag of seeds.

After a tour of Beijing’s sacred Zhongnanhai temple on Friday, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed to send Trump the seeds of flowers the 79-year-old had admired at the compound, the president described his three-day trip as “incredible.”

But, in reality, Trump has left with zero tangible progress or diplomatic achievements. He failed to stand up to China on Taiwan or rare earth minerals, sold out American farmers, and secured only one deal, which fell short of expectations and tanked Boeing’s stock price.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior and repetition are raising red flags with medical experts who have sounded the alarm that the president is showing signs he’s mentally unfit for office.

“This is not normal. This is dangerous. And worse, this is a man who has access to nuclear weapons,” said Dr. Henry David Abraham, professor of psychiatry emeritus at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Abraham has been looking into Trump’s appearances over the past 40 years for mental abnormalities.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Late-night comic Seth Meyers tore into tech billionaire Elon Musk for his bizarre public displays during Donald Trump’s state visit to China this week.

Meyers set up his brutal takedown by noting how right-wing commentators were strangely silent on Trump’s decision to take son Eric with him to China, compared to, say, if Joe Biden had invited his son Hunter along on a similar visit.

“But if you’re worried that Eric Trump might be lonely on this trip, fear not,” the comic said. “The Trumps are joined by some of their billionaire bros,” he went on, noting Musk’s attendance along with Jensen Huang, CEO of AI chip giant Nvidia, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump accused the media of “treason” in a furious rant about negative coverage aboard Air Force One on Friday.

“You’re a fake guy, and guys like you write about it incorrectly,” the president, en route back to the U.S. after his state visit to China this week, raged to New York Times journalist David Sanger over questions about Trump’s war with Iran.

“We’ve had a total victory, except from people like you, who don’t write the truth,” he went on, after listing all the reasons he believes the conflict, which remains subject to a shaky temporary ceasefire, has been a “complete” success.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump has insisted that people “love” the 22-foot golden statue of himself that has been erected at his Miami golf resort.

While flying back from his Beijing summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the 79-year-old decided people would want to hear an update on “Don Colossus.”

“This is a statue, now standing at Doral, that was commissioned by a large group of political supporters who just wanted a statue of yours truly. I very much appreciate their support, and all that they went through to get it done,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Two people have died after a small aircraft they were on board crashed into a home in Ohio, erupting into a wall of flame, the local fire department has said. Authorities in the city of Akron reported that the impact took place just shy of 4 p.m. Two people were found dead inside the 1963 Piper Cherokee, which had taken off from Akron Fulton Airport just after 2 p.m. They are yet to be identified. No one inside the house at the time was hurt, though its occupants and neighbors were evacuated as a safety measure. Footage shared on social media and broadcast by ABC News shows dense black smoke billowing over a suburban street, with orange flames flickering toward the base of the column. The crash is under investigation.

Read it at ABC News

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump interrupted his own Fox News interview to rant about a “stupid” CBS News correspondent who infuriated him by asking a question about the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

During an April 26 appearance on 60 Minutes, Trump told Norah O’Donnell she was “horrible” for reading part of a manifesto left by 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, who is accused of attempting to assassinate administration officials during this year’s gala dinner.

In the manifesto, Allen allegedly wrote that he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” prompting Trump to rage at O’Donnell, “I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody… I’m not a pedophile.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump struggled to explain what Chinese leader Xi Jinping had committed to following bilateral meetings, offering vague descriptions of their discussions while touting an unconfirmed Boeing jet deal.

“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to settle, and the relationship is a very strong one,” Trump, 79, said at the start of bilateral discussions in Beijing on Friday, without specifying what issues had been resolved.

Pressed by Fox News’ Sean Hannity about what Xi wanted from the U.S., Trump appeared unable to provide specifics.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A jealous Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ballroom in a suck-up post following the Beijing summit.

While flying back from China, the 79-year-old president whined that “China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A”—while suggesting a deadline for his own $400 million vanity project at the White House.

“It’s under construction, ahead of schedule, and will be the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the U.S.A. Thank you for all the support I have been given in getting this project going. Scheduled opening will be around September of 2028,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has revealed his secret process for coming up with withering nicknames for his political enemies.

The president provided a rare glimpse into the coveted inner workings of his creative practice during a Thursday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, breaking down how he came up with his latest barb for members of the Democratic Party.

Trump was coy at first. “I came up with a new name, I don’t know if I should…” he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump can’t seem to get over how tall Chinese President Xi Jinping is—just like a Chinese leader should be.

During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday, the 79-year-old president slipped into one of his trademark movie-star comparisons, noting that if someone was making a film featuring a Chinese leader, they wouldn’t have to look beyond the 72-year-old Communist Party chief.

“If you went to Hollywood and looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie,” Trump told Hannity, “he’s Central Casting. You couldn’t find a guy like him.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan got into a tailspin after he was confronted about his dismissive words regarding Donald Trump’s failure to lower gas prices.

During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the top Trump ally was pressed on how the president’s war in Iran has prevented him from delivering on his 2024 campaign promise to get gas prices under $2 a gallon.

“Well, gas prices were coming down until we had to deal with this situation,” Jordan said. “But that’s life, that’s dealing with the world and the world we live in.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump wasted no time in plotting his next MAGA makeover of Washington, D.C., after wrapping up his state visit to China.

Barely an hour after Air Force One went nose up from Beijing, the president offered an update on his “National Garden of American heroes,” a park along the Potomac designed to celebrate great American figures.

“The National Garden of American Heroes will feature the MOST BEAUTIFUL collection of statues of AMERICAN HEROES, featuring our Illustrious Founding Fathers, Military Warriors, Religious Leaders, Civil Rights Champions, World Class Athletes, Artists, Entertainers, and MORE,” he declared in a Truth Social post on Friday morning.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has suddenly announced a complete one-eighty on his campaign pledge to American farmers that he’d stop Chinese nationals buying up land in the U.S.

Fox News host Sean Hannity pressed him on why he had abandoned his promise to intervene on Thursday during his trip to China.

“It’s not that I love it,” Trump said, as he conceded that his promise has been withdrawn.

Read more at The Daily Beast.