Carlos Barria/ReutersDonald Trump’s hush-money trial will resume Monday with more cross-examination of Michael Cohen, the former president’s one-time lawyer and fixer who is at the epicenter of the historic case.It will probably be Cohen’s final day on the stand after already delivering explosive testimony about his old boss’ alleged involvement in the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about a sexual liaison with Trump. Trump’s defense attorneys will likely continue with questioning designed to chip away at the credibility of Cohen—the last prosecution witness in the trial.Prosecutors claim Trump broke the law by falsifying business records to conceal the hush-money payment to Daniels. He did so, they claim, to protect his 2016 presidential campaign from Daniels’ potentially damaging story of an extramarital one-night stand coming to light. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges in the case and has denied having sex with Daniels.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Paramount+During its trailblazing heyday, Lollapalooza provided an unparalleled platform for the alternative. The problem was that by doing so it made the alternative mainstream, which ultimately caused the summer music festival to betray its roots—an inevitable evolution that stands as the most fascinating aspect of Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza, a nostalgia-fest which understands that all good underground things must either die or become the very thing against which they rebel.Ironically, Michael John Warren’s three-part Paramount+ docuseries (May 21) is somewhat undercut by a similar dynamic, given that its own desire to end on a happy note means that it must ignore the fact that there’s no going home again to recapture the magic that made a sensation truly sensational in the first place. As a result, it’s ultimately more promotion than critique.Lollapalooza launched in 1991 as the brainchild of Perry Farrell, frontman for the paradigm-shifting band Jane’s Addiction, who—along with cofounders Ted Gardner, Don Muller, and Marc Geiger—viewed it a way to channel the spirit of England’s Reading Festival (and its ilk) by bringing together an assorted line-up of artists on a single stage. Designed as a farewell for Jane’s Addiction, which planned to disband once this run of shows was completed, it quickly blossomed into an invigorating new take on an old format. Attendees were offered not just one great performance after another, but a common area filled with local avant-garde artists, social activist booths that sought to raise awareness about guns, the environment, and voting, and additional attractions that made it an immersive day-long experience directly attuned to the era’s youth culture.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyKHARKIV, Ukraine—Fighting on the front lines has taken a disastrous turn for the worse after Russia broke through Kharkiv’s line of defense on May 10. Throughout Eastern Ukraine, the brutal repercussions of the six-month-long pause in new U.S. aid led to massive losses on the battlefield. Ukrainian soldiers risking their lives for their country are suffering from physical and psychological trauma. With few ways to decompress from the all-encompassing effects of war, many are turning to drugs and alcohol as a way to cope, which has plunged the military even deeper into darkness.Alcohol is banned in Donbas, the region that has been the epicenter of the war, and all stores and restaurants are forbidden from selling it, but still it makes its way to the front lines via off-rotation soldiers, volunteers, smugglers who charge outlandish prices, or journalists, who bring it in as a peace offering before they begin their interviews.Multiple soldiers who spoke to The Daily Beast claim that some of those defending Ukraine are also abusing illegal substances that they buy through shady online businesses run by the country’s mafia. Some, they say, are drunk at military positions. The men claim that some of their comrades have been so drunk or high that they have killed civilians, soldiers, and animals in a blind rage or while driving under the influence.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Liam Daniel/NetflixDearest gentle reader, I recognize that the laws of attraction can be fickle. The very same features that might make one person quiver beneath her bodice might, in fact, stir nothing but disgust for another. The flirtatious habits that once made a bachelor’s eyes sparkle during one season might bore him to tears in another. Nevertheless, I must ask: What the hell is going on with the hottest brother in Netflix’s Bridgerton? No, I’m not talking about Anthony, the dreamy (now married) Viscount played by Jonathan Bailey. I’m talking about his younger brother, Benedict, whose love life has been a hot, sexy mess for three seasons. Sex appeal might be subjective, but as far as this writer is concerned our boy Benny checks all the right boxes: He’s got gorgeous blue eyes, witty ballroom comments, and a soul-meltingly mischievous smile. Also, he’s the most reliable of his many, many siblings. Too bad Bridgerton can’t seem to decide what to do with him. Next season will likely belong either to Benedict or his younger sister, Eloise, who already made a catastrophic debut on the Ton’s marriage mart in Season 2. But if we really are moving on to Benedict, it’s going to take some real finessing to stick the landing.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/NBCWhen Parks and Recreation first premiered in spring 2009, we were all living in a different world. Wide belts, baker boy hats, and multi-colored tights were all the rage. Everyone was worried about swine flu. And a charismatic politician named Barack Obama had just been inaugurated as our first Black president. For many, it was a time of hope. It’s no wonder Amy Poehler’s unforgettable public servant Leslie Knope and her many, many eccentric neighbors and colleagues stole our hearts.Parks and Rec might’ve faced a shaky reception during its first season on NBC, but it didn’t take long before the long-running sitcom became inescapable. Most of its core cast have become famous in their own right—Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, and even smaller players like Ben Schwartz and Jenny Slate. Part of that success might have to do with the show’s organizing mantra, known internally as “The Poehler Rule.” The directive, said co-creator Mike Schur, was always to hire the funniest possible person for any given role—whether it was a bit part or a season-long arc.“It seems so obvious, but a lot of shows don't always do that,” Schur told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed during a recent conversation about the show’s legacy and longevity. “They have some other criterion that they think is more important. It turns out, there's nothing more important for comedy than just being funny.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty ImagesA search-and-rescue team looking for the remains of a crashed helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi found the heavily damaged aircraft early Monday morning—but reported “no signs of life” were detected in the area and that “no survivors” had been found, according to state media.No official death announcement has been made as of midnight Eastern Time, though one official told Reuters that Tehran was rapidly losing hope that Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and the seven other people on board were still alive—especially given the harsh terrain and freezing conditions in the northern mountains near the country’s border with Azerbaijan, where the helicopter went down.“President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash ... unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” the official said.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Stephen J. Cohen/Getty ImagesBob Ritchie, a.k.a Kid Rock, will readily admit he lives in his own world—“and it’s great,” as he insisted to a Rolling Stone journalist in a recent interview. The rules of that world, though, apparently dictate that Ritchie can do as he likes, including get “belligerently” drunk in front of someone with a tape recorder. After switching from white wine to bourbon and Coke midway through a sitdown with Rolling Stone, the MAGA-loving rocker began “shouting” at the journalist, David Peisner, who reports that his subject proceeded to pull out a handgun and wave it in his face. “And I got a fucking goddamn gun right here if I need it!” he writes Ritchie yelled. “I got them everywhere!” To be fair, the preceding two hours of the interview were also pockmarked with bizarre exchanges, including a moment where Ritchie railed against immigrants before crying out “9/11!”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyMost podiums don’t jiggle jiggle—they stand firm and proud, as much a testament to American craftsmanship as they are a metaphor for American exceptionalism, ready at a moment’s notice to shield a speaker’s lower half from a rapt audience, no doubt as spellbound by the lectern’s lacquer finish as its lecturer’s sparkling rhetoric.But one errant podium wiggle wiggled for sure at one of Donald Trump’s recent stops along the campaign trail, bringing shame down upon the good name of soapboxes everywhere as the former president leaned slightly too hard on it mid-speech, causing it to buckle under his weight.“What a crappy contractor this was,” Trump quipped to laughter at the annual Minnesota GOP dinner, observing that his podium “keeps tilting to the left—like too many other things.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/HBOIn the sixth episode of The Sympathizer, the General (Toan Le) is preparing a militia to invade Vietnam and stage a second Vietnam War. Great. Awesome. Definitely what the world needs: More war! But as the Captain (Hoa Xuande) tours the General’s secret military base in the plains of California, he finds out something even worse about this mess—his best friend Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) has volunteered for this doomed-to-lose army.Captain could’ve just avoided this shitshow entirely if it wasn’t for Bon. Sure, whatever! Send everyone back to Vietnam to lose the war all over again. But now, he has to defend his friend. Ugh. Captain sends a coded message to Man (Duy Nguyễn) that their side will end up killing Bon if the two of them don’t do anything to protect their non-Commie friend. While he waits for a response, Captain does some digging to figure out where the funds for this militia are coming from.They’ve got to be coming from one of the many characters Robert Downey, Jr. is playing, either CIA informant Claude or politician Ned Godwin. It’s the latter, so Captain volunteers for the campaign to get insider information on the donations—proof, essentially, to send back to Man. Captain schmoozes around with Ned’s wife (Veronica Della Vedova) to get access to the senator’s private drawing room, where, later, he takes the donation documents.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Courtesy of Candice MatthewsA Black civil rights activist in Texas who is notorious for “dropping the hammer for accountability on corruption” and was targeted with a racist hate letter and noose has spoken about how the threat will not stop her mission from protecting foster children of color in the Lone Star State from abuse.In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Dr. Candice Matthews said she was scared “at first,” but that didn’t deter her.“At the end of the day, I’m the voice of the people. I’m the voice for children, the voiceless. My job is to protect the unprotected and that’s what I’m going to,” she said.Read more at The Daily Beast.

60 MinutesPope Francis on Sunday railed against conservative bishops in the United States who oppose his efforts to revitalize the Catholic Church.When quizzed by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell over the issue on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, the 87-year-old provided an unexpected response.“You used an adjective, ‘conservative,’” Pope Francis said. “That is, conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyIt was the wobble felt around the world.Well—at least by a room of Minnesota Republicans who watched Donald Trump’s podium teeter during a speech Friday night. And, of course, the 450,000-some X-users who came upon a clip of Trump swaying on stage courtesy of a Biden-Harris campaign account that’s seeking to cast the former president as over-the-hill.As Trump delivered a speech to the annual Minnesota GOP dinner, a budget-looking podium buckled as he leaned forward to make a point. An exasperated Trump then teed off, bemoaning that the “freaking place is falling down” and chiding that the lectern was tilting further and further left like “too many other things.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyOver the last few days, Hunter Biden has lost his bid to delay his federal gun trial, tried to get his tax trial postponed, and learned that the benefactor funding his legal defense is out of cash.But President Joe Biden’s scandal-scarred son is ready for another fight.Three weeks ago, his attorney sent a legal letter to Fox News threatening to sue the media empire for allegedly conspiring with Trumpland operatives and pro-Russia foreign nationals to defame him, and for exploiting his image for profit.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyAnother day, another pathetic move from disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.On Sunday morning, Diddy posted a public apology video via Instagram following the release of a surveillance video which showed him physically attacking his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016.“I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,” Diddy says. “I’m disgusted.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Screenshot/Brian Glenn/XBrian Glenn, the boyfriend of a certain “bleach-blonde” U.S. representative, shocked devotees of the MAGA YouTube channel Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) on Saturday as he declared his sudden departure from the outlet. The announcement came at the beginning of RSBN’s coverage of the NRA Convention, where the network had dutifully followed its idol Donald Trump to his planned speech. Glenn opened his broadcast with the news.“Today, here in Dallas at NRA, is my last day on air with RSBN,” Glenn said. “I’ve gotta say, it has been an amazing nearly four years.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Arsene Mpiana/Getty ImagesAmerican citizens appear to be among a group detained in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for their alleged involvement in a failed coup attempt, authorities in the African nation said Sunday.The arrests were made after a deadly shootout near a government official’s home in the capital Kinshasa, which killed three people. Congolese army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge said the coup, which was enacted by both Congolese and foreigners, had been quickly thwarted by national security forces.The U.S. ambassador to the country, Lucy Tamlyn, said on X that she had been informed of the alleged involvement of American citizens and said the embassy was cooperating with the Congolese government.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Anna Moneymaker/GettyRep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) attacked Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream on Sunday after Bream brought up a December 2022 New York Times article that chronicled Stefanik’s transformation from a moderate Republican to a Donald Trump acolyte—one that cited Stefanik’s own public comments attacking Trump.Bream noted the article’s use of Stefanik’s former friends and its reference to a radio interview Stefanik gave in 2015, where she described Trump as “insulting to women,” to ask her what changed to make Trump more palatable to her. The question enraged the House Republican, a potential pick for Trump’s vice-presidential slot, who called it a “disgrace” that Bream would cite the Times and anonymous sources.“It’s a disgrace that you would quote The New York Times with nameless, faceless, false sources,” Stefanik said, shouting over Bream’s rebuttals. “They’re not quoting my friends. Those names are not included because they are false smears.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Lev Radin/Getty ImagesThe man accused of randomly punching actor Steve Buscemi in the face two weeks ago has been arraigned and is being held in New York City on $50,000 cash bail.According to the complaint, Clifton Williams, 50, is charged with one count of assault in the second degree and one count of assault in the third degree. Williams allegedly punched a separate male victim nine minutes before he assaulted Buscemi, the complaint says, leaving them both with “bruising, swelling, and substantial pain,” the complaint said. It did not name either of the victims, although enough information was given to identify Buscemi as the second.At the time of the attack, police said Buscemi had been walking with a female companion in midtown Manhattan on May 8 when the attacker strolled up, punched him in the face, and then ran away, evading capture for over a week. The attack was confirmed by Buscemi’s publicist, who characterized it as “a random act of violence.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Elijah Nouvelage/GettyPresident Joe Biden’s commencement speech at Morehouse College on Sunday went off mostly without a hitch, though a handful of students and faculty turned their backs on him as he spoke while some walked out altogether—a muted response for a modern president as pro-Palestinian sentiments continue to roil higher education.Biden’s speech at the historically Black men’s college touched on many of his campaign’s pillars, including his economic wins and his calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, while acknowledging policies that have boosted Black Americans. The speech was Biden’s first direct interaction with college students after a month of protests across U.S. college campuses, including Columbia, the University of California-Los Angeles, and the University of Florida.Biden was greeted with a standing ovation from multiple Morehouse alums as he took the stage, according to a video posted on social media, though students largely remained seated. About six students turned their backs towards Biden as he spoke, according to NBC News, in a continuation of various protests at commencements nationwide over the war. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jakub Porzycki/Getty ImagesA Bronx mother is suing American Airlines for the wrongful death of her 14-year-old son, which she claims the airline failed to prevent. She also says the airline “lost” crucial evidence in the case.Melissa Arzu claims American Airlines broke Federal Aviation Administration policy by flying with a faulty defibrillator on board, failing to properly train flight attendants to use the machine, and then failing to provide the device when her lawyer attempted to obtain it, according to a complaint filed in the Northern District of Texas on May 13.In June 2022, Arzu and her son Kevin Greenidge were flying from Honduras to Miami on their way back home to New York when Greenidge suddenly “experienced a medical emergency,” the complaint says. Greenidge was allegedly unconscious and unresponsive, the complaint continues, and “after some delay,” airline personnel assisted by directing medically-trained passengers to give the boy CPR.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean \"Diddy\" CombsIn a video posted to social media on Sunday morning, Diddy claimed to “take full responsibility” for his actions in the disturbing video that showed him beating his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a violent fit of rage in 2016.“I was fucked up,” Diddy said in the video posted to his Instagram account, before adding, “I’m sorry.” “I mean, I hit rock bottom. I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Akintunde Akinleye/ReutersMeghan and Harry counter ‘free flight’ claimsSources in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s camp have defended the couple after claims were made in the Daily Mail that they were flown around Nigeria for free “by an airline whose chairman is a fugitive wanted in the U.S.”The Mail said that the founder of Nigerian airline Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema, which provided the Sussexes with air transport during their tour of Nigeria, is wanted in the US, “facing multiple charges linked to millions of dollars’ worth of alleged fraud set down in a federal indictment filed in November 2019.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBC/screengrabAbout midway through the final “Weekend Update” of Saturday Night Live’s 49th season, Michael Che told a joke about King Charles and Meghan Markle that drew loud enough groans from the studio audience that he felt the need to remark, “I thought they’d like that, Colin.”But that reaction was nothing compared to what followed at the end of the segment when Che and Colin Jost brought back their recurring “joke swap” bit where they each cold-read the most offensive jokes the other could think of for them to say on live television. And while the last time they engaged in this ill-advised pursuit in December, Che invited a (fictional) civil rights icon to sit beside Jost as he told his jokes, this time he welcomed a woman who he claimed was an “actual practicing rabbi.”With that in mind, Jost kicked off the proceedings by reading this joke about the student walk-out that greeted Jerry Seinfeld’s recent commencement address at Duke University. “I think that's disgraceful. During these difficult times it’s important to support our Jewish friends. That’s why the only chant you’ll hear from me is ‘Free Weinstein.’’Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/ReutersListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher.Representative Jasmine Crockett may well be The New Abnormal’s Hero of the Week for taking on America First Legal’s vice president Gene Hamilton over Project 2025—a blueprint for radical government changes should Donald Trump be re-elected as president.“It calls for eliminating the Department of Education, eliminating the Department of Commerce, deploying the military for the use of domestic law enforcement against protestors under the Insurrection Act of 1807,” Crockett told Hamilton during a Republican-led House Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government earlier this week. “It also has the repealing of Schedule F status for thousands of federal employees to allow a president to replace career civil servants with unqualified partisan loyalists. That’s probably my favorite of it. It also prohibits the FBI from combating the spread of misinformation and disinformation like Russia and China who are actively trying to interfere with American elections.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty ImagesJERUSALEM—Israel is crippling the ability of NGOs and human rights organizations to address the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, by smearing, threatening and torturing aid workers while using their power to limit or deny visas to people who want to come and help.The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the backbone of aid, education and support to millions of Palestinians, has been hard hit by bombing attacks on its staff and infrastructure in Gaza but also by the iniquity of red-tape facing its international staff in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.The U.N. said its first foreign aid worker was killed by an Israeli tank attack on his marked vehicle this week in the latest escalation.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBC / SNLThe season 49 finale of Saturday Night Live opened with a message from James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump. Airing from “his new home, the barricades outside of a Manhattan courthouse,” Trump confessed to his supporters that he hasn’t been loving the past few weeks.“They say very mean things about me while I’m trying to sleep,” he complained, before insisting that he would love to testify in court himself. “I’m not afraid to testify at all. I’m just not going to, out of fear. You see, they do a terrible thing when you testify, which is they write it down, and we don’t like that…”As he talked, a member of the jury (played by cast member Sarah Sherman) walked on stage. She quickly realized she was on camera, panicked, and walked off. “Oh, that was a juror, did you see her face?” Trump said. “Everyone just saw her face and now her life is over, folks. My people are going to screenshot her face and dox her to hell. Oh, we love to dox.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

via X A suspected meteor lit up the sky over Portugal and Spain late Saturday night, prompting witnesses to flood social media with videos of the spectacular blue fireball.One video, apparently filmed on a driver’s dash-cam, shows a burst of blue light blazing across the sky. Another captures a crowd reacting with awe and dismay as the entire sky turns neon blue while the apparent meteor falls.Authorities in Viseu, Portugal, told Publico they had been alerted to reports of an object falling in the sky but that they had so far not been able to find whatever it was that came crashing down to Earth. The outlet said the Civil Protection agency initially reported a “meteorite fall” but then retracted that statement.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Howard L. Bingham“We were flying by the seat of our pants,” Stax legend William Bell recently recalled of the early days of the venerable label that tracked the rise of the civil rights movement. “A lot of us came in from the gospel arena, right out of church, just neighborhood kids. We learned how to craft a song as young kids, 14, 15 years old, but really, we just wanted to hear our voices on the radio.”According to legend, Stax Records replaced cotton as the single biggest product coming out of Memphis, Tennessee, during its late-1960s heyday. And if you know the Stax story, it’s not hard to believe.But if you only know the hits, and not the rags-to-riches tale of the label that made stars of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave, the Staple Singers, and so many more, then you couldn’t do better than STAX: Soulsville U.S.A., a four-part documentary that premieres on Max on May 20 and tracks its remarkable, and often heartbreaking, history.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/MaxHaving a one-night stand seems to have become veteran comic Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) go-to method in confronting the two most painful moments from her past: losing a late-night talk show and losing her husband to her younger sister in one fell swoop.In both of the last two seasons of Hacks, Deborah has had fleeting encounters that prove she has the capacity for self-reflection after a night in the sack with a hot guy—which is true even when Deborah breaks her own “no married men” rule.(Warning: Spoilers ahead for the latest episodes of Hacks.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Netflix/Getty ImagesHave you ever professed feelings to the love of your life while a Pitbull song was playing in the background? Oh, you haven’t? You should give it a try sometime. Clearly, it works wonders—because in Bridgerton, it leads to one of the series’ greatest love stories. Pitbull is a romantic genius.(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 3, Part 1.)Let’s set the scene: Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is having a tense carriage ride back to her home across from the Bridgerton estate. She’s fed up with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), who has vexed her for years as the charming boy next door. He just ruined her one chance at marriage by intercepting a proposition at a ball. And yet, he still does not seem to love her. Why, then, must he continue to take such a vested interest in her love life?Read more at The Daily Beast.