Andrea Renault/AFP via Getty ImagesHundreds of people assembled in Manhattan on Monday afternoon to march uptown to the Met Gala in protest of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. Police made multiple arrests as the rally splintered into smaller groups, with protesters moving through Central Park and down heavily-police-barricaded streets adjacent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, skirting close to the main event but failing to disrupt the Gala directly.Protesters assembled at Hunter College for what Within our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian group, had characterized as a “Citywide Day of Rage For Gaza,” masked up, carrying drums, and toting picket signs, including one that read “No Met Gala While Bombs Drop in Gaza.”As the largest group of protesters made its way up Fifth Avenue, drawing near to the museum’s red carpet, they circumvented and broke through police barricades. Later, pink and green smoke bombs were set off by protesters on Park Avenue, as well as at least one flare; drawing cheers from Upper East Siders filming on the sidelines.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Comedy CentralThere have been few stories throughout the 2024 presidential campaign that have gathered as much attention as Cricket-Gate, in which vice presidential hopeful Kristi Noem casually confessed in her new book that she once purposely shot and killed her fourteen-month-old dog, Cricket. It’s the sort of thing that, for The Daily Show correspondent and co-host Jordan Klepper, raises more questions than answers.“I’m not a political expert, but I think if I had to give a politician advice, I would say the top thing is to not shoot your puppy,” he said. “The second thing would be to not write about shooting your puppy.”Klepper tried to give the South Dakota governor the benefit of the doubt, but unfortunately Noem’s follow-up admission in her book—where she claims that she also murdered her billy goat — didn’t do her any favors either. An astonished Klepper asked, “What did the goat do?” It sounds like she saw it and was like, ‘well, I can't leave any witnesses.’”Read more at The Daily Beast.

NewsmaxNewsmax host Eric Bolling on Monday wondered whether the controversy over Kristi Noem’s admission in her forthcoming memoir that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy in a gravel pit was somehow the work of a rogue, “liberal plant” in the book’s publishing house.Bolling prefaced his interview by framing the story as “the liberal media folks” having “a field day over trying to take down a potential Trump vice presidential pick,” even though Noem’s actions have spurred bipartisan criticism.Bolling then essentially told Noem how she was right to complain about her recent interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, having written on X shortly afterwards that the anchor, Margaret Brennan, kept “interrupt[ing]” her. (Noem’s evasive replies often prompted Brennan to try to get an answer out of her, including whether she actually met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as she had claimed in the book.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/InstagramIf you’ve scrolled through TikTok in the last week, the voice of Megan Boni singing about a tall blue-eyed finance bro is likely living rent-free in your head.“I’m looking for a man in finance, trust fund, 6’5”, blue eyes. Finance, trust fund, 6’5” blue eyes,” Boni sings to the camera in a faux British accent to an EDM-style beat.“I’m looking for a man, I’m looking for a man, I’m looking for a looking for a, looking for a, looking for a finance, trust fund 6’5,” blue eyes finance, trust fund, 6’5”, blue eyes.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Juliette Michel/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday that it had opened a fresh investigation into Boeing after the aircraft manufacturer disclosed that its employees might have bypassed some required inspections of its 787 Dreamliners.The federal air-safety regulator said in a statement that Boeing had “voluntarily” come forward in April with the information that it might have skipped checks on “adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage,” or body, of certain 787 planes. As part of its inquiry, the FAA said, it is probing into whether Boeing’s employees may have falsified aircraft records.With the investigation ongoing, the agency said that, “Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesWhite House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre weighed in Monday on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s apparent suggestion that President Joe Biden’s dog should be put down by saying the admitted puppy killer is only making things worse for herself.“We find her comments from yesterday disturbing. We find them absurd,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing. “And we are a country that loves dogs, and you have a leader talking about putting dogs down—killing them—and that’s a disturbing statement to say.”“[What] I would say to her is she should probably stop digging herself in a hole,” Jean-Pierre added.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Julia Nikhinson-Pool/Getty ImagesDonald Trump is ready to serve time to protect his constitutional right to freedom of speech, which he insists includes continuing to flap his gums about the people involved in his criminal hush-money case in New York.The former president said as much in remarks to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Monday, the 12th day of his trial.“I have to watch every word I tell you people… because this judge has given me a gag order and said, ‘You’ll go to jail if you violate it,’” Trump said. “And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

GoFundMeMica Miller, the South Carolina pastor’s wife who mysteriously turned up dead last month, allegedly told her sister before her death that if she was found with a bullet in her head, it was the work of her husband. Mica’s body was found in a North Carolina state park on April 27 with a gunshot wound to her head, police said.It’s the latest chilling detail to emerge in Mica’s case, which went viral after her pastor husband, John-Paul Miller, claimed she committed suicide at the end of an otherwise normal sermon on April 28, just a day after her body was found. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Schipper/Getty Images for The Alliance for Women in MediaABC News’ outgoing president Kim Godwin’s very public exit tour continued Monday with her husband attempting to form a bizarre PR campaign to boost her image following the veteran newswoman’s sudden resignation on Sunday.“It is with earnest humbleness, I am requesting your assistance in sharing how Dr. Kimberly Godwin Manning, has profoundly changed your life,” her husband Derrick Manning wrote in a lengthy Instagram post on Sunday night praising her career just as news of her resignation became public. “Please post your heartfelt expressions of support via the following hashtag: #thankyoukimgodwin.”The public call for submissions came a day after Godwin announced her abrupt retirement from the broadcast journalism industry, citing “considerable reflection” as she weighed her future plans. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty ImagesNathan Wade, the former Fulton County special prosecutor in Trump’s election interference case, has spoken out for the first time since his affair with District Attorney Fani Willis. “Workplace romances are as American as apple pie. It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us,” Wade said in the interview that aired in full on Monday on ABC News’ Good Morning America. “You don’t plan to develop feelings. You don’t plan to fall in love. You don’t plan to have some relationship in the workplace. You don’t set out to do that. Those things develop organically. They develop over time. And the minute we had that sobering moment, we just continued,” he added. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyThe celebrities came ready to slay, delight, outrage, and garner as many headlines as possible—and if any outfits didn’t immediately seem to echo the theme, the Met Gala’s grand organizer, Vogue’s global editorial director and Condé Nast’s chief content officer, Anna Wintour, had already taken responsibility for it. Wintour told the Today show’s Jenna Bush Hager that she “deeply apologized” for “unleashing a lot of confusion” around what to turn up in after “The Garden of Time” was named as the dress code, its name taken from J.G. Ballard’s dystopia-streaked 1962 short story. “I imagine we’ll see a lot of flowers,” Wintour said.This year’s Met Gala is the grand opening to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s latest exhibit, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (May 10-Sep. 2), a survey of around 250 of the museum’s most ancient garments. While the Gala guest list remains a mystery until the first wild outfits appear, the chairs of the Gala are well-known: Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Zendaya, and Chris Hemsworth. Yes, Wintour told Today, she has advised attendees on what to wear in previous years, suggesting to Serena Williams when she co-chaired that she should wear sneakers: “She has said many times that she was grateful for that suggestion.”Asked about her grandchildren, Wintour said they were “magical and amazing and funny, and they bring a perspective to everything.” What do they call you, Hager asked. “Anna,” Wintour replied, confirming something she had originally revealed in 2022.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesDonald Trump was fined $1,000 and was once against held in contempt of court Monday, this time for violating a gag order. That marked the 10th time the ex-president has been held in contempt, inching Judge Juan Merchan closer to throwing him behind bars, he warned. Merchan asserted that he doesn’t want to have Trump imprisoned ahead of his trial’s completion, but said the court-imposed fines—totaling a mere $10,000—have done little to deter the billionaire businessman-turned-politician from behaving during his hush-money trial.If Trump were to be thrown in the clink, he’d be the first U.S. president to spend time behind bars. However, he’d be far from the first world leader to find himself imprisoned. Below are some notable politicians to be jailed and how they ended up there. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesTwelve GOP senators vowed to go after the UN court that prosecutes individuals for war crimes if it issues an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection with his relentless military campaign in Gaza.In a letter that was first reported by Zeteo, the Republican senators, led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, promised to target the International Criminal Court and its employees if it issues a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest—an act several Israeli leaders believe is imminent.“Target Israel and we will target you,” the letter reads. It threatens to use the 2002 Bush administration American Service-Members’ Protection Act—also known colloquially as “The Hague Invasion Act”—to compel the ICC to release any U.S. person or ally it detains.Read more at The Daily Beast.

XRep. Mike Collins (R-GA) was forced to walk back his praise for a group of pro-Israel counter protesters at Ole Miss who were caught on video jeering at a lone Black pro-Palestine demonstrator—including one fraternity member who made monkey noises at the woman while acting out crude primate mannerisms. Collins, who helped make the clip go viral by sharing it Friday with the caption “Ole Miss taking care of business,” conceded in a statement Monday that the video included behavior that “none of us should seek to glorify.”“If that person is found to have treated another human being improperly because of their race, they should be punished appropriately, and will hopefully seek forgiveness,” Collins wrote.Read more at The Daily Beast.

YouTube/screengrabBill Maher said the times we live in are too “amazing” to worry about Donald Trump becoming president again. In the newest episode of his podcast Club Random, Maher sat down with Jerry Seinfeld, who most recently came under fire for accusing “the extreme left” of ruining sitcoms, to the delight of many conservative talking heads. And the Real Time host will probably extend his right-wing bonafides as well with his latest comments.Even though “climate change is probably gonna get us at some point” and “there’s lots of things going on behind the scenes that are horrible” in the world, Maher says “we live in the most amazing fucking times”—so much so that he doesn’t mind if Trump becomes president again: “I’m not gonna go nuts again if he wins another term.”Climate change hasn’t gotten us “yet,” Maher said, “We walked out here today [and] we weren't like, evaporated by the rays of the sun or something. It was a beautiful day. The grass is green. The sky is blue.” He went on to say that while he acknowledges that “there's lots of poisons everywhere and lots of terrible things,” he’s realized with age that these are wonderful times. “Trump could do this, and democracy, and blah, blah, blah—nuclear war,” he added, but “I’m not gonna fucking go nuts a again, if he wins another term. I just can’t.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesIf Donald Trump is actually jailed for what appears to be a near-pathological inability to abide by a gag order handed down by the New York State Supreme Court judge overseeing his criminal hush-money trial, the logistics of such an undertaking will present a first-of-its-kind quandary for authorities.On Monday, Judge Juan Merchan fined Trump $1,000 for violating the gag order yet again, cautioning the former president that he was playing with fire.“I’ll find you in criminal contempt for the tenth time,” Merchan warned from the bench. “It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent. Therefore, going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Stringer/Getty ImagesTwo-time European weightlifting champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko died fighting for his home country of Ukraine in its war with Russia, the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation said Monday. He was 30 years old.“It is with great sadness that we announce that today the heart of the honored master of sports of Ukraine, two-time European weightlifting champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko, stopped beating,” the UWF wrote in Ukrainian on its Facebook page.Pielieshenko won the 2016 and 2017 European weightlifting titles in the men’s 85-kg class and competed in the 2016 Olympics, finishing just off the podium in fourth place.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty ImagesA U.S. soldier was detained in Russia last week, according to multiple reports on Monday.The service member, an unidentified male staff sergeant stationed in South Korea, had traveled to Russia on his own, three U.S. officials told NBC News, which first reported the Thursday detention. He is reportedly being held on suspicion of theft.Sources familiar with the matter soon confirmed it to several other outlets. Officials told ABC News that the soldier’s family had been notified, while CNN reported that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was trying to get access to him.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesSen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced his intention Monday to seek another term in the U.S. Senate.The 82-year-old independent is already the second-oldest member of the chamber, and if elected, would be 88 by the time his fourth term is up.He outlined the reasons behind his decision in a video posted to social media Monday morning, in which he called this year’s election cycle “the most consequential election in our lifetimes.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesThe case against Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of drunkenly running over her cop boyfriend and leaving him for dead in a blizzard, took another turn on Monday when a prosecution witness was accused of lying.”It’s very clear to us that Katie McLaughlin perjured herself,” defense lawyer David Yannetti told Judge Beverly Cannone before jurors entered the courtroom for the second week of the murder trial.Prosecutors allege that Read hit her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV after a night out drinking and abandoned him there. Defense attorneys and Read’s fans, however, insist she is being “framed” for O’Keefe’s murder in an elaborate police cover-up.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Prince Williams/Getty ImagesDrake’s destructive rap battle with Kendrick Lamar was littered with friendly fire after Sunday night’s release of “The Heart Part 6,” in which he angrily denied Kendrick’s wild suggestion that he may have preyed on underage women—an effort meant to quash the nasty rumors that instead likely drew even more attention to them.Drake started out on the defensive Sunday night, at a distinct disadvantage since Kendrick released the back-to-back stompers “meet the grahams” and “Not Like Us” on Friday and Saturday. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper pummeled Drake on a number of fronts, but the most serious allegation was over the Canadian rapper’s red flag-raising relationships with younger women.“Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one,” Kendrick raps on “Not Like Us,” a reference to the statistic that sex offenders, especially pedophiles, are more likely to be killed in prison than other inmates.Read more at The Daily Beast.

ReutersHatem KhaledHamas said it agreed to a ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar on Monday, just as Israel prepares to launch a controversial military operation in Rafah—a city in the southern Gaza Strip that’s currently home to tens of thousands of war refugees. That agreement doesn’t appear to have satisfied Israel, however. An unnamed official told Reuters the agreement was “softened” from what Israel has demanded, reportedly adding that it was too “far-reaching” for Israel to give its own green light. Details on what the agreement entailed were not released, and it remains unclear if the deal will have any impact on Israel’s planned operation in Rafah. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chris Ratcliffe/Getty ImagesAt the start of the same week a damning docuseries about his alleged sexual abuse is set the premiere, actor Kevin Spacey decided to offer up his endorsement for “loyal friend” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-shot 2024 presidential bid.“There’s a lot I can learn from this man. When the world turned its back on me, Bobby leaned in,” Spacey tweeted, along with a prayer hands emoji. “He’s a formidable fighter for justice and a loyal friend that’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes.”Spacey posted his message in response to a new 30 minute campaign video from the independent candidate, narrated by another Hollywood friend Woody Harrelson, that Kennedy claims Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta “doesn’t want you to see.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Amazon MGM StudiosWhen I saw the trailer for The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway as a 40-year-old single mom who falls in love with a musician (okay, pop star, but we’ll take what we can get) months ago, I instantly felt seen: “If I’m not the target audience for this who is, amirite?” I muttered to, probably, the dog.As a 39-year-old single mom, who has been on a musician kick for years, and has, from time to time (okay, more often than not) dated younger men, there was almost no way this movie wouldn’t get at least something right. I hoped. Portrayals of single moms rarely hit home. Usually, they depict us as sad, struggling, overworked, and just hoping to meet some medium-income, medium-attractive 40-something grown-up frat boy to settle down with. You know, to save us from the utter brutality of our lives, or something.This week, I streamed the new flick as soon as it dropped on Amazon Prime, and a few minutes in, I knew that this portrayal was striving to offer something different. In one of the first scenes, Hathaway’s character, Solène, celebrates her 40th among friends, and they ask her how she feels about the milestone birthday. Her response is about being grateful for where she is in her life. And why wouldn’t she be? Though she has complicated feelings about the end of her marriage, she’s also thriving in her career as an art dealer. She’s finished with a subpar marriage. She’s mostly done the work of raising her child, who is a junior in high school, and who she calls her “favorite person.” In many ways, her life is just beginning, and even if she never meets a partner, she says she’s fine with that.Read more at The Daily Beast.

As Donald Trump continues to try Judge Juan Merchan’s patience, the former president—who inexplicably compared himself to South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela while previously discussing the possibility of his being incarcerated—is now several steps closer to seeing the inside of a jail cell than ever before.If Trump is locked up for continuing to flagrantly ignore Merchan’s order, it is unclear where he would be taken. But, according to New York City Department of Correction (DOC) spokeswoman Latima Johnson, if he were handed over to local authorities, they would make sure he was looked after properly.“For clarification, it is not our decision to make,” Johnson told The Daily Beast. “However, the Department would find appropriate housing for him if he winds up in our custody.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyJurors who will determine Donald Trump’s fate got their first look at the damning paperwork tying the former president to his porn star hush-money coverup, with testimony from the buffoon accountant who took notes of a meeting that set it in motion.“I made a boo-boo,” Jeffrey S. McConney admitted when describing the erroneous math he scribbled on “TRUMP” corporate letterhead.The former Trump Organization controller testified about the notes he took during a 2017 meeting that laid out how the family real estate company was going to surreptitiously reimburse attorney Michael Cohen for fronting the $130,000 that silenced the porn star Stormy Daniels. That payment kept her from going public about her decade-old, one-night stand with Trump in the days before the 2016 presidential election.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesAn Indian lawmaker whose party is allied with the country’s prime minister is believed to have fled to Germany amid allegations that he sexually assaulted or raped as many as 400 women, reports say.Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former Indian prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, allegedly fled after thousands of flash drives were left in public places including parks and bus stands last month in the southern state of Karnataka, where Revanna holds office. The drives contained videos allegedly showing the abuse which Revanna filmed himself, according to The Times.The Janata Dal (Secular) or JDS party, which is allied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), last week suspended Revanna amid the allegations. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the claims has reportedly sought the help of Interpol in locating the 33-year-old, who allegedly left the country using a diplomatic passport.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via GettyA super PAC backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to sue Meta this week, alleging that the parent company to Instagram and Facebook “brazenly” censored a documentary about the candidate.Meta insists that American Values 2024 is being melodramatic. In a statement to The Daily Beast, a spokesperson said the film was “mistakenly blocked” and that the problem was “quickly resolved” after it was flagged. The company previously told The New York Times that the resolution took at most a few hours.According to a press release issued by American Values on Monday, many Facebook and Instagram users were unable to share the 30-minute, Woody Harrelson-narrated documentary about the candidate, Who Is Bobby Kennedy?Read more at The Daily Beast.

ADAM ROSEINGLEWOOD, Calif. — There’s locker-room talk, and then there’s what the entire global Netflix subscriber base may have witnessed Sunday night.Seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady allowed his former teammates, coach, owner, his longest on-field rival, a couple of celebrities and a pack of truly unleashed comedians go off on him in the largest-attended, longest-ever and most likely most-watched live broadcast of a comedy roast from the Kia Forum for the Netflix is A Joke Fest. The old Friars Club roasts in New York City may have gone longer and featured as much raunch back in the day, but none of those events were ever live streamed globally to a potential audience in the mega millions.Kevin Hart set the tone and the bar below the belt from the get-go as the roast’s host, saying this about the Forum’s previous sports dynasty owners of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. “They called this place Showtime because Jerry Buss used to show everybody his dick in this building,” Hart joked. “A lot of nasty shit has happened in this building … I wish I had a blacklight right now, I’d turn that bitch on now so y’all can see all the cum stains you sitting on in these nasty-ass seats.” He then cackled, adding: “Hahaha! That’s right. You better get comfortable being uncomfortable, baby!”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik via ReutersRussian President Vladimir Putin has ordered military drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, his Defense Ministry announced Monday, in an apparent retaliation to comments made by Western leaders about Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine.The Defense Ministry statement announcing the exercises said they came “in response to provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation.” The announcement follows a furious reaction from the Kremlin last week to recent remarks from British and French politicians.Although Russia’s strategic nuclear forces routinely conduct exercises, Moscow has not previously publicly announced drills for the use of tactical nukes. Tactical nuclear weapons typically feature less powerful warheads than those arming strategic missiles and are designed for battlefield use rather than the destruction of city-sized targets.Read more at The Daily Beast.