Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersPolice in France shot an armed suspect dead Friday morning after he attempted to torch a synagogue, authorities said.The attack unfolded in the northwestern city of Rouen. Responding officers “neutralized” the man who was “clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced in a post on X. He also congratulated officers for their “responsiveness and courage.”Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said in his own post that there were “no victims other than the armed individual.” Read more at The Daily Beast.

Go Coogs X@vic4uh via ReutersFerocious thunderstorms brought chaos to Houston on Thursday, with at least four people killed and almost 1 million homes and businesses left without power as hurricane-speed winds ripped down trees and damaged buildings while torrential rains flooded the streets.Houston Mayor John Whitmire confirmed the fatalities at an evening briefing. He also advised workers to stay at home Friday and said school classes are also canceled. “Stay at home tonight,” Whitmire said. “Don’t go to work tomorrow, unless you’re an essential worker.”Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said early information suggested that two of the deaths were caused by falling trees. A third was caused by a crane being “blown over” by the strong winds, Peña added. No information was given about how the fourth victim was killed.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThis week, we examine the ways in which RFK Jr. can throw a “hand grenade” into the presidential debates. Plus, we go inside a new Democratic PAC that is aiming low, and get a preview of Biden’s “uncommitted” critics landing some delegates for the Democratic National Convention.Amid a flurry of news earlier this week on the newly announced slate of presidential debates, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled a Trumpian move by preemptively declaring he will meet the standards and qualify to appear.He also accused his opponents of “colluding” to keep him off the debate stage. But if Kennedy can actually make the debates, it could open a can of brain worms for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersPrince Harry and Meghan Markle’s tour of Nigeria, the suggestion that they will do more such foreign tours, and Harry’s statement claiming his father King Charles III had refused to meet him have combined to reactivate the simmering feud between the two families. Relations are “as bad as they have ever been” according to one friend of the Windsors.The Sussex tour of Nigeria, whilst being hailed as a tremendous success by their camp and garnering positive global headlines, has aroused suspicions and stoked fears of a “rival” royal operation disrupting careful overseas messaging by the family.One former royal staffer told The Daily Beast: “Overseas visits might look like jollies, but they are actually a matter of foreign policy. They are about promoting the U.K. and building diplomatic and trade alliances on behalf of the government.Read more at The Daily Beast.

William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty ImagesDonald Trump poses an existential threat to liberal democracy; therefore, a reasonable reaction to his possible return to power has been to throw everything but the kitchen sink at him.This ranged from supporting his impeachment and removal, to voting for his adversaries (including Nikki Haley), to charging him with 88 criminal offenses in four criminal cases.But a new theory has emerged that suggests the latter example of this confrontational approach was unwise and counterproductive. And it is coming from the unlikeliest of sources: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.With all of the focus and attention on Donald Trump, the Supreme Court is quietly taking steps to hasten the end of democracy as we know it.That’s according to Dahlia Lithwick, author of Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America, who joins The New Abnormal this week to put the spotlight back on SCOTUS.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/NetflixWhenever I go out these days (roughly once every seven months), I am baffled and bereft. No one announces my presence as I enter the ball. Not a single person is wearing a corset. There’s not a bushy sideburn to be found. And the music? It’s not an orchestral arrangement of a recent pop hit, but an actual pop hit that is playing. The scandal of it all! Worse, when I go to spread the gossip for all to hear, it’s not Lady Whistledown’s latest newsletter that I am directed to, but a rancid place of toxic disrepute called “X” instead.My fervent desire each year for the romantic escapism of Bridgerton surprises me, but it’s more potent now than ever—especially after I’ve seen the episodes of Season 3 that dropped this week. I’m not a person who is comforted by the coziness of Hallmark Christmas movies; in fact, I find myself rather allergic to them. I’m never whisked away by the period romances that enamor so many people—unless you count being whisked straight to a bored social media doomscroll. Yet I relish being transported to the Ton each new season.(Warning: Some spoilers for Bridgerton Season 3.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

NetflixThelma (Brittany Howard) has spent a lifetime dreaming of bigger, better opportunities. Hoping to exchange her farm-pony life for one as a musical sensation, Thelma and her donkey pals Otis (Will Forte) and Reggie (Jon Heder) are The Rusty Buckets, a band ready for their big break. They may have just found it, as they get a chance to audition for the concert of the year—Sparklepalooza. But before they can play a single note, the judges reject them, callously saying they have no “it” factor.Luckily for Thelma, she’s about to get the makeover of a lifetime, courtesy of a very funny freak accident, in which barrels of glitter and pink paint spill all over her. Throw in a carrot glued to her forehead, and Thelma goes from humble pony to shimmering unicorn in an instant, immediately launching her powerful singing voice into superstardom.Directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) and Lynn Wang (Unikitty!), Thelma the Unicorn is the latest feature from Netflix’s animation arm. You typically have an idea of what to expect from older animation studios like Disney, Ghibli, or Laika, but Netflix has been all over the place, largely using third parties to animate their films. Lately, the streaming service has shifted to in-house projects and co-productions like Klaus, The Sea Beast, Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood, and Wendell & Wild. Those four examples contain four drastically different animation styles—traditional, CG, rotoscope, and stop-motion—so it’s hard to know what exactly to anticipate from Netflix.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Paramount+There were exactly four weeks between when the newbie Ru Girls of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16 sashayed away and the seasoned Drag Race All Stars Season 9 queens stomped their stilettos back into the show’s workroom. (To the average civilian, that’s 28 days, but to a gay man—who must subtract his hangovers, k-holes, and/or blackouts caused by the severe emotional distress of shorts weather returning—it’s about six days.) Drag Race moves fast so its producers can maintain its status as a cornerstone of reality television. But all of that rushing and scheduling can become tiresome. Even the strongest of us viewers can get fatigued by the onslaught of new seasons, which is why Drag Race All Stars 9, which premieres May 17 on Paramount+, is switching things up in a major way.This season, all of the returning queens are competing for charity. And no, they’re not trying to raise money for the Alexis Michelle Colored Contacts Foundation, or donating to the Daya Betty Insulin Institute. They’re playing for actual charities, ones that don’t have a wire straight to a Florida surgeon who performs Brazilian butt lifts on the cheap. All the contestants are here to knock out the competition for a chance to donate to causes near and dear to their hearts. But there’s another twist: No one’s going home this season. Most All Stars installments see the girls eliminating each other, but that wouldn’t be very charitable, would it? Instead, each cast member will compete in challenges to win Beautiful Benefactress Badges, scoring them $10,000 for their charity. The BBBs (that’s one more “B” than I’m sure these girls are used to seeing, if you catch my drift…*cough* bareback *cough*) will be tallied at the end of the season, and whoever has the most badges will take home $200,000 for their charity of choice.Maybe it’s the fact that the money is going someplace other than these queens’ own bank accounts that makes All Stars 9 so lighthearted. This really is RuPaul’s Best Friend Race, fulfilling a prophecy that Lashauwn Beyond spoke into fruition back in Drag Race Season 4. The queens are not afraid to be more raucous and messy than they usually are, and watching them have fun together without so much pressure is downright infectious. That cheerful atmosphere might even be the reason that one queen could walk away from the premiere unscathed and alive, after delivering a read so vile, so rotted, and so absolutely hysterical that even the notoriously unpredictable RuPaul couldn’t help but laugh at his own expense.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ben Blackall/Paramount+ with SHOWTIMEWe’ve reached the end of A Gentleman in Moscow, but we can’t wrap things up without one final escapade for Alexander (Ewan McGregor), Anna (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Sofia (Beau Gadsdon). Before the finale wraps, they’ll need to become spies for the American government—this way, Sofia will have a ticket out of the corrupt Russian leadership.The plan sounds simple enough. While Sofia is off performing at the conservatory in Paris, she’ll sneak off in the middle of the show to deliver the important tapes Alex recorded from dinner a few nights ago. She’ll head to the American Embassy in Paris, hand over the evidence, and Richard (Lucian Msamati) will get her on the next plane to the United States. Then, once everything has arrived safely, Richard will call every phone at the Metropol Hotel, alerting Alex to his child’s safety.Sofia is fitted for her recital dress—really one of the most gorgeous dresses I’ve seen all year, a fit that would look marvelous on Anne Hathaway—by Marina (Leah Harvey), and Alex is speechless. “You look so grown up,” he says through tears. Wait…am I also crying? This is kind of adorable. I’ve spent weeks complaining about how much I want this show to end, but now, I’m a little sad it’s coming to a close. Just two episodes ago, Sofia was giggling while hiding a thimble in Alex’s room—now, she’s a woman.Read more at The Daily Beast.

TwitterA House Oversight Committee hearing—which was supposed to be cover contempt proceedings for Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday night—quickly devolved into chaos after repeated interruptions from a certain far-right representative from Georgia.The meeting, originally intended to advance a measure to hold Garland in contempt for refusing to hand over audio of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, quickly fell off the rails, with Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) responsible for much of the drama and delay. Republicans have been obsessed with Hur’s investigation ever since the special counsel claimed that revealed Biden suffered memory loss during the interview. Biden on Thursday blocked access to the audio by invoking executive privilege, which was met with typical criticism from the committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer (R-KY).Read more at The Daily Beast.

David Eulitt/Getty ImagesMissouri’s top prosecutor is baying for justice after accusing Kansas City of having “doxxed” Harrison Butker, the Chiefs kicker who has come under fire in recent days for a controversial commencement speech in which he urged women to get back in the kitchen.State Attorney General Andrew Bailey said his office was “demanding accountability,” declaring that he would “enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion” and telling his X audience to “stay tuned.”Bailey’s heated response came after the official X account of Kansas City tweeted “a reminder” on Wednesday night that Butker did not live in Kansas City, but in a named city around 25 minutes’ drive away.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NewsNationKevin Spacey sat for his first U.S. television interview in seven years on Thursday, telling NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that he is eager to “get back to work” in show business after a series of sexual misconduct accusations derailed his career.When asked by the Cuomo host about some of Spacey’s peers in the industry—like Liam Neeson and Sharon Stone—publicly stating their desire to see his return, Spacey said their support “means a tremendous amount.”“These are people that I have conversations with who have been really helpful on my path, and I’m very, very grateful to them,” he said. “But look, Chris. Here’s the thing: I just want to go back to work. I would much rather play you in a movie than to be sitting here answering questions on your show.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBCFormer president Donald Trump is not allowed to publicly complain about his ongoing trial without risking a gag order violation, so Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and a clown car of Republican suck-ups flew to Manhattan Thursday to aid his defense.After sitting through hours of the proceedings, she attempted to give an impassioned speech outside the courthouse, only to be drowned out by a sea of heckling New Yorkers who got creative rather than sticking with the tried and true “boos” often used to disrupt public addresses.They chanted “Beetlejuice!” at Boebert, referring to the 2023 scandal where she was kicked out of a public theater for vaping and groping her date—all of which was caught on camera.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Isabel Infantes/ReutersKing Charles on Thursday night stepped out as his plans to resume his royal schedule during cancer treatment appear well underway.The 75-year-old took to the stage at the Royal Opera House after attending a special gala performance to pay tribute to Sir Antonio Pappano, the opera house’s longtime music director who is stepping down.The appearance came hours after Queen Camilla provided an update on the King’s health while attending a garden party in East Sussex, telling an audience that Charles is “getting better.” Captured by Royal Editor of The Sunday Times Roya Nikkhah, Camilla followed up her update adding, “Well, he would if he behaved himself.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Fox NewsIn 2018, when NBA stars LeBron James and Kevin Durant criticized then-President Donald Trump, Fox News host Laura Ingraham complained that they should just “shut up and dribble” rather than weigh in on political matters.Six years later, Ingraham didn’t have a problem with Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker giving a commencement speech at Benedictine College ranting against President Joe Biden, Pride Month, the “COVID fiasco,” the pro-choice crowd, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, the “tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and the “growing support for degenerate cultural values and media.”Butker, whose mother is an accomplished physicist, also encouraged the women graduates—who had just earned their degrees—to embrace their roles as homemakers and wives.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters/GettyA feud that unfolded behind the scenes of a glitzy Los Angeles magazine cover story starring pop icon Billie Eilish left one photographer so aggrieved that he pulled his name from the finished product and ended his working relationship with the magazine altogether.A source familiar with the photoshoot told The Daily Beast that the photographer, Shayan Asgharnia, wanted his name removed after the magazine gave final approval over the photographs to Eilish’s team during the session. Editor-in-chief Shirley Halperin confirmed in emails to The Daily Beast that Asgharnia did, indeed, ask for his credit to be scrapped from the December shoot as it went to press, but she said she did not know why.Halperin said the magazine “worked closely” with Eilish and her team for the shoot “as is standard with major talent,” but she denied Eilish or her team had cover approval or creative control. A representative for Eilish also characterized the magazine cover shoot as a “unique collaboration” and a “collaborative affair,” but they said they did not get “final approval.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesRep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) is calling it quits on his marriage of 12 years, filing for divorce from his oncologist wife earlier this month even as Capitol Hill insiders report seeing him cozy up to another Republican lawmaker.A petition for divorce was filed by McCormick on May 3, according to Gwinnett County court records. A mutual restraining order was filed in the case docket on the same day.The Daily Mail first reported the pending divorce on Thursday. Asked by the outlet about her husband’s reasons for the divorce, Dr. Debra Miller replied in a text that she wasn’t sure McCormick would be “forthcoming.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scouted/The Daily Beast/Artem Makovskyi/Maxim Fesenko/iStock.Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.The months preceding your wedding day are undoubtedly stressful for a laundry list of reasons. You’ve found your dress, triple-confirmed your guest list, secured your catering and cake situation, and double-checked with your venue that they’re ready to host you on the big day—and the list goes on.Now that the essential to-do list items are (hopefully) out of the way, you get to deal with planning your wedding day beauty look. Aside from locking in a makeup and hair team (and I suggest doing a test run with your team a month or two before the date so that everyone’s on the same page), you may be thinking about how to get your complexion as glowing, smooth, and photo-ready as possible by tapping the in-office aesthetic treatments and targeted skincare. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesA group of MAGA loyalists and wannabe heavy-hitter lawmakers played hooky from the Capitol on Thursday and made their way up to Manhattan to support Donald Trump in court.While the merry band of court jesters, headlined by Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), may have been there to demonstrate their personal devotion to the former president and publicly attack the judge on his behalf, sources close to Trump sure don’t seem impressed.In fact, three well-placed Trumpworld sources who spoke with The Daily Beast all suggested this latest court-crashing contingency did more to embarrass themselves than anything.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyOver the weekend, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College. He covered a remarkable amount of ground: in just 20 minutes, he attacked IVF, abortion, birth control, Pride Month, Biden, surrogacy, and—in the most viral clip— working women. As he said:“I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you, how many of you are sitting here now about to cross the stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you’re going to get in your career... But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”I can’t say I was fantasizing about motherhood as a 22-year-old; personally, I wanted to be the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tom Williams/Getty ImagesThe Biden administration on Thursday announced its support for the Justice Department to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug under federal law, loosening the currently strict regulations on the substance.Under the reclassification, marijuana would join the same category as prescription drugs including ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone. It would no longer be classified alongside Schedule I substances like heroin and LSD.In a video posted to X, President Biden called the move “important” for “reversing long-standing inequities.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty ImagesTexas Governor Greg Abbott pardoned a man Thursday who had been convicted of shooting and killing a protester at a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration.After a year-long investigation into the case, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that Daniel Perry be pardoned on Thursday, a decision which Gov. Abbott immediately approved. In May 2023, Perry was found guilty of murdering Garrett Foster, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Leon Bennett/Getty ImagesEric Andre is moving with the tide. Just six months after joining with a slew of stars who signed an open letter to Joe Biden, thanking the President for his stance on Israel, the Jewish and Haitian comedian has posted a new Instagram video, “Stop weaponizing antisemitism,” in a new Instagram post. “As a self-loving Jew, let me just say: Permanent ceasefire, end the siege on Gaza,” he added.Andre has seemingly had a change of heart, according to his new Instagram video, which he posted in collaboration with If Not Now, a Jewish-American organization that aims to “end U.S. support for Israel's apartheid system and demand equality, justice, and a thriving future for all.”“Let Gaza live, impeach Netanyahu,” Andre declares in the video. “Jewish and Palestinian safety is intertwined.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty ImagesA pair of Las Vegas naturists claim they are being harassed by authorities for hosting fully-nude travelers at their home, accusing “authoritarian” local officials of trying to shut them down over their free-spirited ways.Max and Corinne Dufloo insist their three-bedroom B&B, known as the “No Tan Lines Republik,” is not a business, but a non-profit “spiritual” association welcoming nudists who are “seeking peace and protection from our consumerist society,” according to a federal lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast.“NTLR dedicates its donations and contributions to collectively helping, exploring, practicing, and sharing joy and well-being in harmony with our bodies,” the Dufloos self-filed complaint states. “NTLR also offers and practices nude yoga, as well as sophrology and meditation in the nude. All NTLR members are fully aligned with these principles and practices and gather for this purpose. In this environment, Max, a recovering alcoholic (member of AA) sober for 18 years, shares the spiritual values of AA with other addicts who are still suffering, and wish to avoid the temptations of the Strip.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

ReutersA British coroner said this week that Georgia Brooke, a 26-year-old dance teacher said to have been fatally strangled by her boyfriend, had died from a “reckless sex game gone wrong.” British authorities said Brooke’s boyfriend, 31-year-old Luke Cannon, took his own life by hanging just after he learned his lover had died in a local hospital—unable to recover from cardiac arrest.The coroner, Martin Fleming, added Wednesday that drugs may have played a factor in the tragedy, with traces of GHB and cocaine found in both of their bodies after the February 2022 incident, Yorkshire Live reported.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Luzerne County Correctional FacilityA Pennsylvania man was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday for threatening to kill President Joe Biden and the members of his Cabinet, according to the Department of Justice.Jordan Gee, 37, of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, was charged with three felony counts of threats against the president and one count of interstate threats, the department said in a news release.Federal prosecutors allege that Gee uploaded several threatening videos online ahead of Biden’s campaign visit to Scranton last month. According to the federal indictment, Gee made remarks like “Joe Biden: I’m going to kill you and your whole cabinet” and “If you come to my city in Scranton, Pennsylvania, I’m cutting your fucking head off in front of everybody; I promise.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Mihai Malaimare / American ZoetropeAbout midway through a press screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s much-discussed and long awaited Megalopolis at the Cannes Film Festival, the screen went black and someone ascended the stage in front of it. For a moment, you could feel the entire theater on edge as if something had gone desperately wrong. Maybe there was a technical issue? Maybe we would need to evacuate? Instead, the person took out a mic and “played” the role of a reporter asking questions of Adam Driver’s character at a press conference following a major disaster. Driver, of course, remained on screen and when his answer was finished the man left the stage and returned to his seat in the front row.In a movie full of bizarre and baffling choices, this was maybe the most inexplicable. Does Coppola imagine this happening at every screening of the film? And if so, what are the logistics of that? And what is the point? To ostensibly represent living humanity in his movie about the future? Or just for kicks?That said, the sequence, live actor included, also may have predicted what is to come for Megalopolis. This is the kind of movie that will live on in midnight screenings. The phrase “destined to be a cult classic” gets thrown around a lot these days and mostly inaccurately—something that is weird but popular and critically acclaimed does not a “cult classic” make—and yet it seems to actually apply here. Megalopolis is stilted, earnest, over the top, CGI ridden, and utterly a mess. And yet you can picture a crowded theater shouting along with Jon Voight as he says in one key scene, “What do you make of this boner I got?”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesDonald Trump calls them “Perry Mason moments.” The 77-year-old likes to reference the TV series from his childhood and the dramatic legal showdowns in real life which so far seem to be the only things keeping him fully awake during his own trials.That altercation finally came midday Thursday, as his lead lawyer Todd Blanche eventually shed the apologetic tone he’s maintained during two days of questioning Michael Cohen. The former prosecutor replaced his milky tone with an aggressive bark as he turned up the heat on the Manhattan District Attorney’s star witness against his former boss.“That. Was. A. Lie!” Blanche raised his voice, jabbing the pen in his right hand accusatorily at Cohen. “You did not talk to President Trump on that night... you admit it!”Read more at The Daily Beast.

ABCAmid the storm of backlash over his religious, anti-Biden tirade, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker can count on one unlikely defender: Whoopi Goldberg.Butker has been getting tons of media attention this week for the virulent commencement address he made over the weekend at Benedictine College, during which he knocked what he saw as several major issues that could be blamed on the Biden administration. “Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from pervasiveness of disorder,” Butker said.The NFL player also voiced his conservative Catholic beliefs, saying, “Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally.” Biden proves, according to Butker, that simply “being Catholic is not enough.”Read more at The Daily Beast.