Yuki Iwamura-Pool/GettyA New York judge did not hold back on Tuesday as prosecutors pushed to hold Donald Trump in contempt for attacking jurors and witnesses—just seven days into his landmark hush money trial.“There’s two systems of justice in this courtroom? That’s what you’re saying?” Merchan asked Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche.On top of the 34 criminal counts Trump is already facing, prosecutors say his “willful violations” of a limited gag order handed down last month by the judge have crossed the line into outright contempt.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chris Parypa/GettyThe Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident at John F. Kennedy International Airport in which a Swiss Air passenger jet was put on a possible collision course with several other aircraft, reports say.The Airbus A330-300 was cleared for takeoff on April 17 and was in the initial stages of its run when the crew spotted three planes crossing their path further down the tarmac, according to Simple Flying. The pilots aborted the takeoff and informed Air Traffic Control that there was traffic on the runway.The three other aircraft—two Delta Air Lines planes and an American Airlines jet—had all landed on another runway and had been given permission to cross the one being used by the Swiss Air plane about 40 seconds before the Swiss Air crew were given clearance for takeoff, according to Aero Inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Rabbani and Solimene Photography/GettyA luxury handbag designer was sentenced to 18 months in prison Monday after pleading guilty to illegally importing merchandise that had been made using the pelts of protected wildlife.Nancy Gonzalez, the 71-year-old founder of Gzuniga, was arrested in Cali, Colombia, in 2022 and later extradited to the U.S. Gonzalez and others had been charged with one count of conspiracy and two counts of smuggling for “illegally importing designer handbags made from caiman and python skin from February 2016 to April 2019,” the Justice Department said in a press release.The DOJ previously said the average retail price for the bags was more than $2,000, alleging that Gonzalez and others would ask friends, relatives, and employees of her manufacturing business in her native Colombia to smuggle the bags into the U.S. by carrying them “on their person or in their luggage while traveling on passenger airlines.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

AFP via Getty A Russian lawmaker took to the stage of a forum on internet safety Tuesday and briefly lost it, complaining that the younger generation should be ashamed for valuing their lives too much.Alexei Zhuravlev, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma’s defense committee, seemed disappointed that more young Russians weren’t eager to be used as cannon fodder.“What if there’s a big war tomorrow? What if we go into battle tomorrow? Who will fight? Our generation has been raised for 30 years [like] ‘What is our main value? Life is the main value!’ From childhood I was taught: first I have a country, then my family and friends, then some of my values, and only then my own life,” he said, according to video of his remarks circulated in Russian media.Read more at The Daily Beast.

via VKChechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has responded to a bombshell report that he is on the brink of death and the Kremlin is actively searching for his successor by doing exactly what Vladimir Putin himself would probably do: posting a cringe video of himself working out.“Remember, taking care of your health is an investment in the future, and consistency and perseverance will lead you to success, both in sports and in life,” the self-proclaimed Putin foot soldier wrote in a post on social media. Kadyrov squeezed himself into a bright blue jogging suit for an accompanying one-and-a-half-minute video in which he can be seen doing his stretches before lifting weights.Tellingly, the video seemed to play up Kadyrov’s aides struggling with the workout, before showing a clearly rehearsed–and maybe a little homoerotic–moment in which the Chechen tyrant easily tosses his aide to the ground.Read more at The Daily Beast.

David Dee Delgado/ReutersA video posted online Monday night appears to show actor Alec Baldwin slapping a phone out of a woman’s hand as she repeatedly demanded that he say “free Palestine” and heckled him about his ongoing manslaughter case.The footage was posted on the X account of Crackhead Barney & Friends. “White devil Alec Baldwin attacked me While I was trying to get coffeee [sic]” a caption alongside the video read.It’s unclear when the incident took place, but it appears to have happened in a Maman coffee shop in New York City, according to the New York Post. The footage appears to show the 66-year-old being accosted by the woman as he stands near the cash register.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Shawn Thew/Getty ImagesRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) thinks Donald Trump’s opponents don’t just want to see him jailed for his alleged crimes, they actually want him dead.Joining conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his Infowars show on Monday, the Georgia Republican said she believes Democrats are using “rigged” trials against Trump in the hope that he will be imprisoned for the rest of his life and possibly “murdered somewhere in jail.” “This is how serious they are,” she said.Greene’s comments came after the opening of Trump’s trial in Manhattan where he faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records in an effort to cover up an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied the charges as well as all of the others in three other criminal cases.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesMelania Trump’s soft launch back onto the campaign trail—or at least the fundraising circuit—began in earnest over the weekend, with the former first lady making an appearance for Log Cabin Republicans at a quiet Mar-a-Lago event.Although she was with former President Donald Trump for a high-dollar soirée in Palm Beach earlier this month, Melania’s Saturday evening cameo for gay Republicans was her first solo appearance this election cycle. And as far as headliners for LGBT conservatives, the former first lady was a major get, as the Log Cabin Republicans group officially kicks off its 2024 election season.Melania—wearing a black Michael Kors pantsuit with a taut black belt and a pair of Christian Louboutin heels to match—was introduced by gay Republican Ric Grenell, who served in the Trump administration and is now a “shadow secretary of state” for Trump. (Grenell was Trump’s U.S. ambassador to Germany before becoming acting Director of National Intelligence for three months, making him the first openly gay person to serve in a presidential Cabinet.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesCall them the FLEAS: Failed Leaders Exploiting America.Much like the third-tier expat British bankers in Hong Kong once known as the FILTH (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong), a steady stream of disgraced British politicians are now beating a path across the Atlantic, reinventing themselves as political seers with the aid of a flattering chyron and a cut-glass British accent.Take, for example, the latest of these arrivals, Liz Truss, the “former British Prime Minister” now flogging her book, Ten Years to Save the West, which she has not always managed to hold the right way up when she appears on TV, to the right-wing blogosphere on an American speaking tour.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyPrince Louis turns 6 tomorrow and it’s fair to say that the youngest child of the Waleses has vastly added to the gaiety of the nation, indeed the world, since he was introduced to the world on the steps of London’s St Mary’s Hospital’s Lindo Wing in 2018 in the arms of his mom Kate Middleton, with dad Prince William standing by. The child made his next appearance with his proud-as-punch family in July 2018, when he was christened in a small ceremony at St James’s Palace. His full name? A very restrained Louis Arthur Charles.Louis made his first cover when he was snapped with his grandpa, then-Prince Charles—aka Grandpa Wales—by trusted photographer Chris Jackson. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty ImagesIn recent days, we have witnessed chaos on and around the Columbia University campus, as threats against Jewish students have created an intolerable and combustible atmosphere.A woman attempting to hide her identity held up a sign with an arrow pointing toward pro-Israel students that read “Al-Qasam’s Next Target,” a reference to Hamas’ military wing. Other protesters told students, “Go back to Europe. Go back to Poland.”Another protester shouted, “The 7th of October is going to be every day for you,” in reference to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Others sang a chant, which included the words, “We support Hamas’ fight!” and “Hamas we love you. We support your rockets too!” An Arab-Israeli journalist was allegedly assaulted by agitators. These are just a few of the alleged threats and assaults that have been documented on or near this campus.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe below is an excerpt from Married… With Children vs. the World: The Inside Story of the Shock-Com that Launched FOX and Changed TV Comedy Forever by Richard Gurman.Season 3 of Married… With Children was to the family sitcom what The Godfather Trilogy was to the gangster film, except Married had more senseless violence, gratuitous sex, and a less sympathetic family.The blood started flowing early on Married when we shot what was supposed to be our third season (1998–1999) opening episode, “A Period Piece.” The period in question was a shared menstrual cycle—Peggy, Kelly, and Marcy—which came, as fate and sitcom traditions would have it, at the worst possible time. Not only did it disrupt a temporary truce among the usually hostile Bundy/Rhoades neighbors who had decided to share a weekend vacation together in a one-room cabin in the wilderness, it triggered primal instincts in wild animals that surrounded the cabin, trapping the families in.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.It may be early days, but the judge handling Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial—in which the former president is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election—has already made some important rulings.That’s according to The New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy, who explains on this week’s episode that among those decisions from Judge Juan Merchan is a ruling that will allow prosecutors to ask Trump about both verdicts rendered against Trump in defamation cases brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Courtesy of Paul BlumenthalFred Armisen. Kate McKinnon. Ryan Gosling…Lots of actors have parodied, or at least played characters inspired by, Robert Durst, the real estate heir and convicted murderer who died in 2022.But to actually play Durst in the miniseries that made him a household name, HBO’s The Jinx?Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ed Miller/NetflixBaby Reindeer is not the sort of show you’d necessarily expect to take over Netflix. It’s not a sensational true-crime drama, a flashily produced adaptation of pre-existing IP, or a genre show about a gaggle of adorable kids venturing into the Upside Down. Instead, writer-actor Richard Gadd’s surprise viral hit is a shattering, deeply humane, and personal story about his experience with a stalker. Really, Gadd’s seven-episode series unfurls two parallel narratives. In the present, he’s dealing with Martha—a relentless stalker whom he met while working at a bar. At the same time, the ordeal also forces him to process an even more traumatic experience that happened five years beforehand, when he was an aspiring comedian in his early twenties.In the series, which is currently the No. 1 show on Netflix in the U.S., Gadd plays Donny Dunn—a fictionalized version of himself. Speaking with the streamer’s editorial site Tudum, Gadd confirmed the show’s introductory text, which states that the series is a true story.Read more at The Daily Beast.

MGM /Courtesy Everett CollectionThere are roughly 47,000—oh, wait, a new Netflix Original just dropped; make that 47,001—TV shows and movies coming out each week. At Obsessed, we consider it our social duty to help you see the best and skip the rest.We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t. That’s why we created See/Skip, to tell you exactly what our writers think you should See and what you can Skip from the past week’s crowded entertainment landscape.See: ChallengersRead more at The Daily Beast.

Comedy CentralIf loving a good David Pecker joke is wrong, Jessica Williams doesn’t want to be right. The former Daily Show senior correspondent dropped by her old stomping grounds on Monday to weigh in on Donald Trump’s hush-money trial—and to tell former boss Jon Stewart to stop complaining.Stewart started off his Monday monologue by calling out the many media outlets who are tracking Trump’s every move surrounding the trial, including his daily drive from Midtown to Lower Manhattan to simply arrive at the courthouse (with helicopters tracking his vehicle’s every last turn).“Seriously, are we gonna follow this guy to court every fucking day,” Stewart wanted to know. “Are you trying to make this O.J.? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Brendan McDermid/ReutersOn the eve of Tuesday’s contempt hearing in New York regarding whether Donald Trump repeatedly violated the gag order in his criminal trial, the indicted former president appeared to do so yet again, criticizing the jury as being from “a purely Democrat area” and lamenting that it’s a “very unfair situation” for him.Trump began by taking aim at Judge Juan Merchan, echoing comments he made last week. “This judge, who is a totally conflicted person, by the way—he should not be the judge of this case. He’s so conflicted, nobody’s ever been as conflicted as him, just about, but this judge said I can’t get away from the trial. You know he’s rushing the trial,” Trump said Monday night on Outside the Beltway, a radio show on Real America’s Voice, before moving on to the jury.“That jury was picked so fast—95% Democrats. The area is mostly all Democrats. You think of it as just a purely Democrat area,” the former president added. “It’s a very unfair situation, that I can tell you.” Trump did not cite a source for his claims.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Reuters/Sam WolfeDonald Trump is poised to receive an additional 36 million shares of Trump Media on Tuesday—a so-called “earnout” bonus that’d be worth more than $1 billion at Monday’s closing price. To officially secure the earnout, the former president needs Trump Media, the parent company of his Truth Social app, to be trading at more than $17.50 per share when the closing bell rings on Tuesday afternoon. With Trump Media trading at double that amount per share on Monday, it’d take a last-second implosion for Trump to not qualify for the share infusion that will add a significant chunk to his net worth. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Getty Images/Faith AktasA New York University official confirmed the NYPD made “a number of arrests” on its campus Monday evening, claiming a demonstration in front of its business school spiraled into an impromptu encampment that included “intimidating chants” from hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters.In a statement to The Daily Beast, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university called on cops—who, according to NYU’s student-run newspaper, arrived in riot gear along with massive buses to whisk away detained protesters—for assistance after demonstrators refused to leave an on-campus plaza. “Today’s events did not need to lead to this outcome,” Beckman said.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty ImagesColumbia Journalism School alumni descended into a heated row last week after a film director and producer who graduated from the school referred to some campus demonstrators as “murderous crackpots” and “pro-terror wack jobs,” prompting fierce backlash from other alumni in a Facebook thread.Norman Green, a 67-year-old Brooklyn-based producer and director who worked on True Life and Paranormal State—among other television shows, came under fire Thursday after responding to a message condemning the arrests of some 100 demonstrators protesting against the war in Gaza last week.“These protesters are unhinged. Nihilistic, pro-terror wack jobs. I’ll post a link,” Green wrote on a Columbia alumni Facebook thread reviewed by The Daily Beast, linking to several videos from the campus protests. “Maybe murderous, genocidal narcissists merit a response”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Fox NewsJesse Watters on Monday lamented the “cruel and unusual punishment” inflicted on Donald Trump in the form of a mandatory court appearance four days a week.In the latest instance of Watters dutifully having the indicted former president’s back, the Fox News host spinned a woeful, hyperbolic tale of all that was unfair with Trump having to abide by the legal process.“The guy needs exercise. He’s usually golfing. And so you’re going to put a man who is almost 80 sitting in a room like this on his butt for all that time? It’s not healthy. You know how big of a health nut I am,” Watters said on The Five.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThere is a simple solution to the student protests at Columbia University and a growing number of other campuses over the Israel-Hamas war: universities should enforce their own student conduct codes and only ask for police help when a crime has been committed.The botched response that saw Columbia simultaneously seeking the arrest of students as well as imposing suspensions and expulsions without going through their normal disciplinary process reflects an abandonment of principles, as well as common sense.The situation started with the pressure applied by loudmouth billionaires like Bill Ackman, whose selective outrage over students expressing their First Amendment rights ignored his own expressions of support for a the vigilante shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two unarmed people and maimed a third at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesFor reporters at Columbia University’s independent, student-run paper the Columbia Daily Spectator, covering the chaos flaming the university’s metal gates over the Israel-Hamas war has become both a mission to get the first draft of history right and a quest to make sure the national press doesn’t get it wrong.“Our reporters have really been working overtime,” said Esha Karam, the 21-year-old managing editor of the Daily Spectator. “We've been on the ground, covering protests both inside and outside of campus at all times and all hours. We've faced unique challenges both as students who are living on campus and reporting at the same time. We've tried to gain a diverse array of perspectives.”Columbia has had to deal with hordes of protestors in and outside its gates, an uprising from its staff and students, a shift to virtual classes, and calls for President Minouche Shafik to join other Ivy League leaders in resignation over her decision to allow the NYPD to clear out a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that resulted in the largest mass arrests on Columbia’s campus since 1968, when officers used violence to clear out students protesting the Vietnam War. It followed her testimony before Congress to address antisemitic incidents on campus—which a small group of Spectator reporters bussed down to Washington, D.C. to cover.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tom Williams/GettyTony Bobulinski, the former Hunter Biden business associate who became the House GOP’s “star witness” in its sputtering and largely evidence-free impeachment campaign against President Joe Biden, filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Monday.Accusing the Maryland Democrat of “deliberately and maliciously besmirching the character” of Bobulinski, the latest complaint adds to a growing list of lawsuits filed by Bobulinski against Democrats and anti-Trump figures over allegations they’ve made about him and his impeachment testimony.Much like previous suits he’s filed in recent weeks, Bobulinski first demanded a complete retraction and deletion of the alleged defamatory remarks before filing his multi-million dollar complaint. In this instance, Bobulinksi sent his demand letter to Raskin on April 10, claiming that the congressman neither responded nor complied with the request.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Associated PressThose who’ve held the highest office in the U.S. have come from a number of different backgrounds and campaigned on myriad different issues over the centuries. Behind closed doors, however, many shared a single scandalous trait—they cheated on their wives, both in and out office. While some turned into legacy-defining scandals, like Bill Clinton, others remained largely a secret. Below is a list of eight presidents who (allegedly) cheated on their spouses.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for PEN AmericaWriters group PEN America has canceled its 2024 literary awards ceremony following months of protests by pro-Palestine writers who criticized its stance on Gaza as milquetoast and too sympathetic to Israel.Instead of holding the planned April 29 Manhattan event, PEN America released the names of its finalists and winners. Some authors had chosen to withdraw their names from consideration in the nominee pool, but PEN said they had selected winners before the exits were made.In a release, the organization’s Literary Programming Chief Officer, Rosaz Shariyf, called it a “very difficult decision” not to move forward with the public celebration.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / GettyOn Monday—the first day of substance in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump for alleged election interference—a few important aspects of the case started to come into focus.Reading the tea leaves, the “You Can’t Trust Michael Cohen” approach probably isn’t going to cut it, and the defense will likely have to scramble to come up with at least a backup strategy to prevent a conviction. Trump’s defense team is currently on a losing streak in a run of attempted procedural maneuvers designed to stymie the prosecution.How has Trump’s team fared, specifically, in its efforts to throw whatever roadblocks it could to try to impede this case?Read more at The Daily Beast.

David Dee Delgado/Getty ImagesA Jewish Israeli professor at Columbia found his access to campus denied on Monday morning as he attempted to join a planned counter protest, exacerbating tensions over competing pro-Israel and Palestine demonstrations even as the university tries to keep the pressure from spilling over.Video of the incident shows Prof. Shai Davidai, who organized the counter-protest in support of Israel, attempting to access campus only to find his ID card deactivated.“I am a professor here, I have every right to be everywhere on campus. You cannot let people that support Hamas on campus, and me, a professor, not go on campus,” he says in the video, addressing Columbia’s Chief Operating Officer Cas Holloway.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Victor J. Blue-Pool/Getty ImagesDonald Trump just can’t help himself.New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan handed down a gag order last month—which he expanded last week—barring the former president from badmouthing or threatening jurors, potential witnesses, attorneys, court staff, or their family members, due to Trump’s penchant for making “threatening, inflammatory, [or] denigrating” statements about those who dare cross him.Still, the 45th commander-in-chief—now facing 34 felony charges for falsifying business records related to, among other things, a $130,000 payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels to shut her up in the days leading to the 2016 presidential election about a one-night stand she says they had—was unable to hold back on Monday.Read more at The Daily Beast.