The Daily Beast Latest Articles
The Daily Beast Latest Articles
Student Arrested After Georgia Teen Collapses and Dies at School
GoFundMeLoved ones of a 15-year-old girl who collapsed and died inside an Atlanta high school this week said Tuesday that one of her classmates was arrested in connection to her death. Mia Dieguez died Monday after going into cardiac arrest at Dunwoody High School, with first responders unable to revive her despite school authorities placing the campus on lockdown to facilitate medical attention to her. Dieguez’s sister, Pamela Dieguez, posted to Facebook that her sister died from an overdose of drugs laced with fentanyl—the highly deadly synthetic opioid that was responsible for 200 American deaths a day in 2022. Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Panera Bread Nixes ‘Charged Lemonade’ After Deaths
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty ImagesThree lawsuits later, Panera Bread is getting rid of its highly caffeinated “Charged Lemonade” drinks. The chain plans to replace the infamous beverage with new drink options, over the course of the next two weeks, according to an internal memo sent to employees on Monday, which was obtained by Bloomberg. Not all Panera employees said they’d received the memo, however, according to NBC.Panera framed the decision as part of a “recent menu transformation,” which will introduce several new products to its menu, according to Forbes, rather than a response to a recent spate of lawsuits, which allege “Charged Lemonade” is dangerous to consume. Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Bette Midler Reveals Why She Should Have Sued Lindsay Lohan
CBS via Getty ImagesIn a bit of celebrity beef you probably never saw coming, Bette Midler has said she regrets not suing Lindsay Lohan.During an interview on David Duchovny’s podcast Fail Better, Midler discussed some of her various career failures, which she said includes not “asserting” herself after her early-aughts sitcom Bette began to fall apart. Lohan, who was around 14 years old at the time, had signed on to play Midler’s daughter on the show, but backed out after shooting the pilot. She was later replaced with actress Marina Malota for the remainder of Bette’s one and only season, but Lohan’s exit threw things into chaos, Midler said.“Lindsay Lohan was cast as my daughter in the pilot,” she began. “Well, after the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didn’t want to do it, or she had other fish to fry. So Lindsay Lohan left the building—and I said, ‘Well, now what do you do?’” Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Law Firm Claims Netflix Star Julia Haart Won’t Pay Up
Paul ZimmermanFormer modeling mogul and Netflix star Julia Haart’s legal battles are mounting—and this time, she’s facing off against her own lawyer.Houston-based law firm Ajamie LLP sued Haart on Monday, alleging the former Elite Models CEO owes them more than $1 million in legal fees from her sprawling court fight against her ex-husband.According to the federal civil complaint, Haart hired Ajamie in February 2022 to assist on two of the ongoing lawsuits between her and Silvio Scaglia. She hired the firm that March to represent her before U.S. Customs and Border Protection regarding duties she allegedly owed on imported goods, the complaint saysRead more at The Daily Beast.
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Boy Scouts of America Gets New Name to Reflect Its Newest Members
David Ryder/GettyAfter more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America are getting a rebrand.On Tuesday, the organization announced that it will be changing its name to Scouting America, to reflect the organization’s thousands of female members.The new name is the extent of the organization’s rebrand, as girls have been welcomed into the group, which teaches leadership, civic responsibility, and wilderness training to kids, for over five years. According to the announcement, the organization serves more than 176,000 girls and young women across all its programs. More than 6,000 have earned the rank of Eagle Scout.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Jailed U.S. Soldier Was Warned Against Visiting Girlfriend in Russia
Gordon Black Via Facebook/via ReutersThe parents of Gordon Black, an American soldier who was arrested in Russia last week, had warned him against flying to the city of Vladivostok to meet his “girlfriend,” according to his stepfather.Black’s stepfather, Martin Jones, told The Daily Beast that the American soldier had mentioned wanting to visit Russia when they last spoke over Facebook a few weeks ago.“He mentioned it once and we told him, ‘Don’t you dare do it,’” Jones, 53, said in a phone interview. “I told him he needs to get back to the States. That’s all I told him. I told him he had no business being there.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
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TikTok Takes to U.S. Courts to Have Nationwide Ban Scrapped
DADO RUVICTikTok’s parent company sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, alleging it violated Americans’ First Amendment rights by forcing it to either sell the social media company or have it outright banned in the states. ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, had hinted that a lawsuit was imminent for weeks after lawmakers—on both sides of the aisle—combined to pass legislation to crackdown on TikTok last month, with President Joe Biden signing it into law on April 24.The legislation requires ByteDance to sell off TikTok, which is estimated to be worth tens of billions, to a non-Chinese buyer. If it fails to do so, U.S. app stores and web hosting services will be required to stop hosting it, amounting to a ban. ByteDance has until by Jan. 15, 2025—or until April 24, 2025, if the White House grants an extension—to sell.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Everyone Is Thirsting Over Kennedy Grandson Jack Schlossberg—for Good Reason
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / GettyIn Pablo Larráin’s 2016 film Jackie, Natalie Portman—playing John F. Kennedy’s wife Jaqueline Kennedy, following her husband’s death—bleakly mutters, “There won’t be another Camelot, not another Camelot.” She’s referring to the mythic perception of JFK’s presidency, one that some viewed as the ideal marriage of a country and its leader. The line is an abridged version of a real quote from Kennedy, but unfortunately for her, she was wrong.There will be another Camelot. In fact: We’re in it right now, thanks to Jackie Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg.If you’re unfamiliar with Schlossberg, there’s no need to feel left behind. The only grandson of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis has only just blown up on the internet, thanks to X users picking up one of Schlossberg’s recent Instagram stories. Schlossberg is a graduate of Yale and Harvard’s Business and Law schools, but like all men with a sense of vivacity and an irrepressible joie de vivre, he’s put public service on hold and instead is becoming a confounding Instagram personality. Several videos of Schlossberg have gone viral, with people online thirsting over his shirtless content and applauding his candid ridiculing of cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Everything You Need to Know About Stormy Daniels
ReutersLong before Stormy Daniels was at the center of Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial in New York City, where she testified Tuesday, the porn star was leading a unique life in the spotlight.Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is a 45-year-old Louisiana native who’s 32 years the junior of Trump, who turns 78 next month. The two infamously had an alleged affair during a celebrity golf tournament on the shores of Lake Tahoe in 2006, a year into Trump’s marriage with third wife Melania. That alleged affair—and the hush-money the former president is accused of paying her to keep quiet—has turned Daniels into a household name in the United States. Here is a look at her life leading up to her testimony this week, including Hollywood acting and a (brief) foray into GOP politics.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Weinstein Sent to Rikers After Backlash to ‘Cushy’ Hospital Digs
GettyNotoriously noxious Hollywood has-been Harvey Weinstein was transferred from a hospital prison unit to notoriously noxious Rikers Island—but his spokesperson is pushing back on claims that he was getting VIP treatment.“Calling his lawyer isn’t VIP service; it’s standard for someone facing trial,” Juda Engelmayer told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “There was no cushy treatment.”Weinstein—who is locked up while awaiting retrial on rape charges—was moved from Bellevue Hospital’s intensive care unit for detainees to the Rikers infirmary on Monday evening. Engelmayer said the transfer was unwarranted because Weinstein’s “medical issues were being handled properly and he needs the care.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Macklemore Blasts Biden, Jabs Drake in Pro-Palestine Protest Song
Joseph Okpako/Getty Images“Thrift Shop” rapper Macklemore is back with a fiery new song in which he slams both President Joe Biden and Columbia University’s police response against pro-Palestine student protestors. The Seattle rapper—who’s never been shy about expressing his political opinions and who has previously been accused of antisemitism—titled the song “Hind’s Hall,” after the Columbia building that student protestors recently occupied and renamed in honor of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas.Protests have recently erupted at universities all over the country as students demand that their schools divest from businesses that profit from Israel. And while many of those demonstrations have been interrupted by police crackdowns, Macklemore aims most of his ire at Columbia specifically with the song’s title and accompanying visuals.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Kristi Noem Blows Up at Fox Anchor Pressing Her on Puppy Murder
Fox Business NetworkIn what has devolved into the TV equivalent of tweeting through it, Kristi Noem appeared for yet another cable news interview on Tuesday morning. The beleaguered South Dakota governor seems to be on a mission to salvage her exceedingly slim hopes of becoming Donald Trump’s running mate.It did not go well for her.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Police Report Shooting Outside Drake’s Toronto Mansion Amid Tense Rap Beef
Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty ImagesToronto police responded to a shooting outside of Drake’s mansion dubbed “The Embassy,” just days after the palatial home was featured on the cover of a diss track by Kendrick Lamar.The shooting, which reportedly took place around 2 a.m. Tuesday according to the Toronto Police, left a male security guard seriously injured. The suspect fled in a vehicle, police said in a post on X.At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Inspector Paul Krawczyk of the Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force said that the victim worked at Drake’s residence and was standing outside of the front gates. Read more at The Daily Beast.
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The Long-Lost Beatles Doc ‘Let It Be’ Is a Musical Treasure
Apple Corps/Courtesy of the Everett Collection“I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we’ve passed the audition.”So yukked jokester John Lennon from the top of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row in London on Jan. 30, 1969, concluding the tune “Get Back” as perplexed police officers made it clear it was time to wrap up the lunchtime stunt. No one knew it at the time, but this utterance would be the final thing a member of the Beatles would say as a Beatle to the public. It’s a bit of music-hall schtick, but oddly poignant, and it comes at the very end of long out-of-circulation film Let It Be, available once again on Disney+.Coming as the last track on their last album, the off-hand zing now has cosmic significance. It’s a query from Lennon to future listeners, and also to himself: Will what we’ve done last? By contrast, just before Lennon’s quip, a more direct Paul McCartney shouted, “Thanks, Mo!” to Maureen Starkey, Ringo Starr’s wife, who had let out a particularly loud “yay!” Here’s a guy always ready to please the crowds.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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‘Unfrosted’ Is So Bad, It Made the Capitol Riots Worse
John P. Johnson/NetflixEveryone has been gabbing about Jerry Seinfeld’s lackluster new Netflix comedy Unfrosted—which has hit the top of Netflix’s most popular movies—particularly one scene in which Mad Men’s Don Draper (Jon Hamm) rises from the dead. But perhaps we’ve lost sight of the scene we should actually be talking about when it comes to this dull comedy: the moment in which Hugh Grant stages a cereal-based scene of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.(Warning: Spoilers for Unfrosted ahead.)The moment comes right after we see Don and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) developing an ad campaign—who want to name the Pop-Tart the “Jelle Jolie” and market it as a sexy breakfast—which is just so jarring to watch, one after the other. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch flirtatious Don saunter around an ad sales office, then, immediately after, Tony the Tiger in full MAGA gear? Oh, you weren’t curious about that? Too bad. Now you can experience this total comedic whiplash.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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K-Pop Fans Fume at Met Gala Paparazzi’s Racist Jabs
Taylor Hill/Getty ImagesFans of the K-Pop band Stray Kids have unleashed a wave of disgust at paparazzi after photographers allegedly spewed racist stereotypes and comments as the group made their Met Gala debut.Fans around the world were quick to voice their disdain with Met Gala photographers on social media as celebrities waltzed outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Monday night. The eight members of the Stray Kids—Bang Chan, Changbin, Felix, Han, Hyunjin, I.N., Lee Know, and Seungmin—entered the Met Gala with long, navy blue coats.However, photographers were quick to display their ignorance with the performers from South Korea.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Stormy Daniels Shows Up to Trump Trial Dressed for a Funeral
Drew Angerer/GettyShe walked in wearing all black and a long flowing sweater—her thick heeled boots clacking on her way into the courtroom—a porn star turned political lightning rod ready to deliver damning testimony that could electrify the prosecution of Donald Trump and toss his 2024 presidential campaign into a maelstrom.Stormy Daniels has finally arrived.Tuesday marked the 13th day of the former president’s ongoing criminal trial in New York City, which is now in its fourth week. It took that long to put together a jury, have lawyers deliver opposing versions of the story about him paying off an adult film star to keep her quiet about a sexual affair, and have prosecutors present the boring documents that detailed the cover-up.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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This Norwegian Billionaire Salmon Heir Won the Met Gala
Taylor Hill/Getty ImagesWith all the audacious outfits on display at the Met Gala, it can be difficult to catch the eye. But one man leapt out from the crowd in a salmon-colored bodysuit with a huge flowing train: Meet Gustav Magnar Witzøe, the Norwegian billionaire heir to a salmon fishing empire.The 31-year-old model, who commands an estimated $3.9 billion fortune, made quite a splash among fashionistas with his debut at the event in 2023 and is once again making best-dressed lists with his dramatic look this year. “You don’t say no when you’re invited by the Met Gala,” he said in a statement before the glamorous get-together in New York on Monday. “I’m a bit more interested in fashion than average and when Versace says they want to dress me up, I think it’s fun.”He wasn’t the only person who thought his appearance at the event was fun. “Idk who this man is, all I know is he is now the standard for all men, if you’re not dressed like this don’t even approach me #MetGala,” one X user captioned a picture of Witzøe. Another said he resembled the mythical warrior Achilles, while a third wrote simply: “His bejeweled abs are killing me though.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Opinion: Benjamin Netanyahu Is America’s Worst Ally
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / GettyIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, over the past several days, cemented his position as America’s worst ally. In fact, given his behavior, real questions exist whether he is even an ally at all.America has had bad allies in the past. Joseph Stalin, for example, while an invaluable partner during World War II, did immediately thereafter turn on the West and launch the Cold War. (He also happened to be a historic tyrant and brutal mass murderer of his own people.) The alliances with figures like the Shah of Iran, the government of South Vietnam, and our brief cooperative dalliance with Saddam Hussein have also certainly not aged well.But, in the modern era, no one else is in the class of Netanyahu. He has taken advantage of the long-standing ties between his country and the United States while in turn providing, especially in recent years, very little except damage, burdens, complications, and worse.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Ukraine Says It Thwarted Russian Plot to Murder Zelensky as ‘Gift’ for Putin
Thomas Peter/ReutersRussian agents plotted to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top Ukrainian military officials as a “gift” to Vladimir Putin as he’s sworn in for a fifth term—but Ukrainian security officials caught wind of the plan and thwarted the operation.That’s according to the Security Service of Ukraine, which said Tuesday that two colonels in the State Security Administration were detained after it was discovered they’d been taking orders from Moscow. The two colonels, who have not been identified, were “leaking secret information to Moscow” as Russia’s Federal Security Service developed plans to take out Zelensky, the SBU said in a statement.The pair was reportedly part of a network of moles operating in Ukraine that was acting on behalf of the FSB. Among other things, the group was tasked with finding someone in Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and then kill him, according to the SBU.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Jon Stewart’s ‘Everybody’s in L.A.’ Guest Spot Could Get John Mulaney ‘Sued‘
Adam Rose/NetflixJohn Mulaney’s free-wheeling, ongoing Netflix special Everybody’s in L.A. might want to start informing their guests that they’re being recorded live. On Monday night, Mulaney’s guest Jon Stewart seemed to forget that little detail before possibly defaming the loud-dressing millionaire and Lakers superfan Jimmy Goldstein on stage. Or was it all a bit?Just like the series premiere on Friday, Monday’s sophomore episode welcomed a beloved comedian to play a notorious Angeleno. First, it was Will Ferrell playing record producer and beret aficionado Lou Adler, and on Monday night, we got Andy Samberg in a long gray wig and a fully bedazzled cowboy get-up that’s a pretty spot-on match for Goldstein’s usual court side attire.“I know I’m unconventionally handsome,” Samberg-as-Goldstein told his hosts. “Some people might even say I look like a lascivious side character in an Oliver Stone film that gets cross-cut with night footage of a snarling wolf. And people can say their jokes about me, but I think it takes great courage to dress this way.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Business Insider EIC to Step Down Months After Ackman Fiasco
Noam Galai/Getty for for American Society of Magazine EditorsBusiness Insider’s top editor Nicholas Carlson is stepping down.“Team!” he wrote in an email to staffers, which was obtained by The Daily Beast. “Something I hope you know about me is that I believe life is an adventure. That we only have so many heartbeats and we should use them to live life to the fullest. In that spirit, I’ve decided to make a very big change in my life: Later this summer, I will be stepping down from my position as Global Editor-in-Chief.”The news of his exit was first reported by Semafor.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Trump Plan to Limit Stormy Daniels’ Juicy Details Goes Sour
Lucas Jackson/ReutersA last-ditch effort by Donald Trump to halt jurors from hearing the more salacious details of his sexual affair with porn star Stormy Daniels blew up in his face on Tuesday, as the judge used the former president’s very same reasoning to arrive at the completely opposite conclusion.With Daniels set to testify later Tuesday, Trump had his lawyers start the morning by asking Justice Juan Merchan to block prosecutors from questioning the porn star too closely about their one-night stand on July 13, 2006, during a charity event at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on the Nevada state line with California.Susan Necheles, a Trump defense lawyer, argued that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office shouldn’t be allowed to ask what exactly happened at the hotel that night.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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King Says He’s Too Busy With Work to See Harry During London Trip
Gary Miller / Getty ImagesPrince Harry arrived in London Tuesday afternoon and then dramatically announced his father King Charles had said he was not able to meet him during his sojourn in the capital, despite the fact they will be just a few miles apart. Harry arrived in London on Tuesday afternoon for a church service celebrating his Invictus Games project on Wednesday, and shortly thereafter his office made a statement which said Harry would not be meeting the king due to the king’s “full program.”In a statement provided to The Daily Beast, Harry’s spokesperson said: “In response to the many inquiries and continued speculation on whether or not the Duke will meet with his father while in the UK this week, it unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Alleged Mushroom Murderer Mom Pleads Not Guilty in Killer Lunch Case
Jason Edwards/Newspix via Getty ImagesA woman in Australia accused of serving a meal intentionally made with poisonous mushrooms pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.Erin Patterson appeared at Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court via video link from a prison in Melbourne, in the southeastern state of Victoria, where she has been held since her November arrest in connection with a fatal meal at her home four months earlier. Three of her guests who ate the beef wellington she’d made died, while a fourth became seriously ill but survived.The 49-year-old mom denied murdering her former parents-in-law, Gail and Dom Patterson, both 70, as well as Gail Patterson’s sister, 66-year-old Heather Wilkinson. One of the five counts of attempted murder relates to the meal’s survivor—Wilkinson’s husband Ian—while the other four concern Erin Patterson’s alleged attempts to kill her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, with whom she has two children.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Harvard Pro-Palestine Protests May Be Approaching a Whimpery End
Joseph Prezioso/AFP via GettyPro-Palestine protesters at Harvard did not get the satisfaction they hoped for on Monday night.The Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) coalition had set a deadline on Instagram, demanding that the university begin negotiations with the group by five o’clock on May 6. And to show that they were serious, the protesters set up an outdoor conference room across from University Hall. The “Take a Seat” sign and flowers were nice, breezy touches.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Trump Posts—Then Quickly Deletes—Post on Bombshell Witness
Peter Foley/Getty ImagesDonald Trump launched into a new attack on the judge in his New York hush money case on Tuesday morning complaining that he’d just learned who would be testifying later in the day.“I have just recently been told who the witness is today,” Trump wrote in the hastily-deleted post on his Truth Social platform, according to screenshots of the text shared on social media. “This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare. No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way.”The vanishing post comes the day after Judge Juan Merchan once again held the former president in contempt for violating a gag order intended to stop Trump intimidating people closely connected to the case—including witnesses. After noting that $1,000 fines didn’t seem to be stopping Trump from breaching the order, Merchan made it clear that he would jail Trump if the violations continued.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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World Leaders Snub Putin but Hollywood Action Star Saves the Day
Sergei Bobylev/Kremlin via ReutersMost world leaders were a no-show at Vladimir Putin’s swearing-in ceremony Tuesday, but that’s okay, because the Russian leader had B-list action movie stars, a leather-clad pop star, and resident lawn gnome/Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov to cheer him on.A total of six European Union countries sent envoys to attend the inauguration ceremony, including France, whose president recently floated the idea of sending troops to Ukraine. Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, Malta, and Cyprus were also represented at the Kremlin ceremony, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.Most other countries opted to boycott the event, with Estonia’s foreign minister issuing a public reminder on X that Putin may be Russia’s leader but he is also “wanted for war crimes.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Boeing’s Historic First Crewed Starliner Launch Scrubbed After Rocket Issue
Steve Nesius/ReutersBoeing’s hopes to blow away some of the recent negative headlines about its brand with a historic first crewed launch of its Starliner capsule fizzled on Monday night as a problem with a valve on the rocket led to the flight being scrubbed.The mission to carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station was called off about two hours before the scheduled liftoff due to the fault on the Atlas V rocket that was set to carry the capsule into orbit.United Launch Alliance CEO Tony Bruno explained at a press conference that the issue with his company’s rocket related to a oxygen pressure-relief valve in the vehicle’s upper stage was opening and closing, creating a “buzzing” that had previously been noticed in earlier, uncrewed missions.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Tanks Block Off the Only Way Out of Gaza After Israel Rejects Ceasefire Deal
IDF XIsrael’s military on Tuesday said it had seized control of the crucial Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt as part of what it called a “precise counterterrorism operation.”The move came just hours after Hamas said late Monday that it had accepted a ceasefire deal brokered by international mediators. A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hamas proposal was “far from meeting Israel’s core demands” and that the war cabinet had unanimously decided to continue the operation in Rafah to “apply military pressure on Hamas.”The Israel Defense Forces shared images of its tanks on X and said its forces had established “operation control of the Gazan side of the crossing” in eastern Rafah after the military received intelligence that it was being “used for terrorist purposes.” It also claimed that mortars fired from the area on Sunday killed four Israeli soldiers.Read more at The Daily Beast.
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