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Feds Accuse Ozy Founder of Sneaky Last-Minute Move Before Trial Matthew Eisman/Getty Images for Ozy MediaFederal prosecutors say they have “significant authenticity concerns” about nearly half of the defense exhibits submitted by Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson just days ahead of his trial on fraud charges stemming from the alleged use of bogus documents to dupe lenders and investors.“The authenticity concerns are especially acute here because the government anticipates that it will prove at trial, among other things, that the defendants conspired to falsify and forge business agreements on numerous occasions, including by changing dollar figures and modifying other key terms to make them appear more favorable to the company,” states a May 27 letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to U.S. District Judge Eric R. Komitee. “At this late stage of the case, the government has no realistic means of confirming that the agreements the defendants have identified in its latest disclosure are accurate and authentic.”Watson, 53, was arrested in February 2023 and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. His trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Nicole Brown Simpson’s Sisters Are Still Haunted by O.J. ABC News“How did you live with 30 years of rage and heartbreak?” Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer asked at the beginning of her interview on Tuesda with the three sisters surviving Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of O.J. Simpson, who was murdered alongside her friend Ron Goldman in June of 1994. “A lot of therapy,” Tanya Brown, the youngest of the Brown sisters, told Sawyer. “It was rough. Unresolved grief. Everything bit me hard 10 years later.”“Sometimes I would think, ‘Gosh, I am just staggeringly sad today.’ And I would realize that it was the day she was murdered, or it was her birthday or something, or some memory would come up,’” Dominique Brown added. Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Putin Hints at Bombing Other ‘Densely Populated’ Nations Getty Images Russia’s Vladimir Putin lashed out Tuesday at European countries that are considering giving permission to Ukraine to use their weapons for strikes on Russian territory.Speaking in Tashkent during a two-day visit to Uzbekistan, Putin warned of “serious consequences” if Western weapons are allowed in attacks on Russian soil.“In Europe, especially in small countries, they should realize what they are playing with. They should remember that they are countries with small, densely populated territories... This is a factor they should keep in mind before talking about striking Russia,” he said.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Pope Francis Apologizes After Being Accused of Using Homophobic Slur Guglielmo Mangiapane/ReutersA Vatican spokesperson on Tuesday said Pope Francis “extends his apologies” after Italian media reports claimed he used a homophobic slur during a closed-door meeting last week.The reports cited anonymous attendees at a May 20 annual meeting of Italian bishops. Francis allegedly used the word when he was asked if seminaries should allow gay men to join in order to be ordained as priests.Francis allegedly answered that gay men shouldn’t be allowed to join the priesthood colleges, joking that there’s already too much “frociaggine” in them. Italy’s ANSA news agency reports that the derogatory word stems from the Italian word for “f****t” and translated the specific term the pope used as “f****tness.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Robert De Niro Argues With MAGA Hecklers About Jan. 6 Outside Trump Trial Fox NewsOscar winner Robert De Niro on Tuesday delivered a pro-Biden speech outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is facing trial. A crowd of MAGA protesters looked on before shouting at the star that Capitol police officers ”lied under oath” about the Jan. 6 insurrection.De Niro did not take too kindly to the interruptions. With the Trump hush-money trial heading into closing arguments, De Niro held the press conference surrounded by several law enforcement officers, including Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn, who were attacked by Jan. 6 rioters at the Capitol.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Trump Lawyer Closes Trial by Scorching Michael Cohen Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s final message to New York City jurors was a simple twist on a classic excuse: It’s exactly what it looks like.Yes, there was a non-disclosure agreement in the closing days of the 2016 election that shut up porn star Stormy Daniels from mouthing off about a supposed sexual affair. And yes, Trump paid the man who cut that deal $35,000 a month for a year in 2017—and even signed those checks from the White House.But on Tuesday morning, lead defense lawyer Todd Blanche told the jury that the paperwork only shows that the real estate mogul was on the receiving end of an extortion scheme and later paid a lawyer to do his job as “personal attorney to the President of the United States.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Alleged Child Rapist Caught After 33 Years Using Family Tree Technique, Police Say Western Australia Police Force / FacebookPolice in Australia say they were able to arrest an alleged child rapist this week after almost 33 years thanks to “groundbreaking” investigative techniques using DNA to build a family tree of the suspect.Gavin Jeffery Durbridge, 54, appeared in court Tuesday on a count of deprivation of liberty and two counts of aggravated sexual assault in relation to an alleged 1991 attack on a 13-year-old boy, WAtoday reports. Durbridge was arrested a day earlier in connection with the incident—the details of which a judge described as being among the worst he’d ever heard.The alleged assault took place on Oct. 25, 1991, when the young boy was riding his bicycle in the Carine Open Space—a park and recreation area in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Authorities say the boy—who has not been named—was traveling to a friend’s house when he was confronted by a man who allegedly threatened the child with a knife before restraining and assaulting him.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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The Traumatic True Story Behind ‘The Zone of Interest’ Courtesy of Warner Bros. PicturesJonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest—a fictionalized study of the domestic life of Rudolf Höss, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp commandant whose family lived right beside his workplace—is a film about monstrous detachment, willful blindness, and moral rot. It’s apt, then, that The Commandant’s Shadow, a documentary about this true story, tackles similar themes, albeit from the unique perspective of the descendants of both Höss and one of the camp’s survivors. A powerful portrait of the need to face and investigate the past, and also the terrible difficulty of doing so, Daniela Völker’s non-fiction feature (May 29, in theaters) is an overpowering work of excavation and confrontation—as well as a timely and urgent warning about the continuing threat of antisemitism.Hans Jürgen Höss had a happy upbringing alongside his siblings and his parents Rudolf and Hedwig, and at age 87, he claims that he knew little about what was going on outside the family’s Auschwitz villa, which sat less than 200 yards away from one of the concentration camp’s gas chambers. “As children we thought this was a prison and he was the boss,” he confides in The Commandant’s Shadow, further stating, “I had a really lovely and idyllic childhood in Auschwitz.” Though he seems sincere, his son Kai, a Christian preacher, cannot fathom his father’s supposed ignorance of the horrific events that took place next door to his home (the crematorium stacks were visible from Hans’ bedroom window) and the backyard garden and pool where the family played and entertained. “That is just mind-blowing when you think about it,” Kai says. To him, it’s clear that his dad is in severe denial. “I don’t think he dealt with anything personally. I can’t imagine it.”As Kai persuasively surmises, Hans appears to have buried the truth so deep within his subconscious that it barely exists, and he’s perpetuated his obliviousness by avoiding all contact with tales about his father, including Rudolf’s autobiography Commandant of Auschwitz. Rudolf wrote that confession while awaiting execution, and passages from it are read in voiceover in The Commandant’s Shadow by Klemens Koehring. Those passages detail his pride at being selected by Heinrich Himmler to construct the camp, and his dedication to overseeing every aspect of its operation first-hand (including being in the gas chambers themselves, with a mask on, during exterminations) because he believed that his work (i.e. saving Germans from their Jewish adversaries) was justified. In both traditional interviews shot against black backdrops (the better to cast him as adrift in darkness), and in conversations with his son Kai, Hans comes across as a man unwilling to grapple with the legacy of his beloved father as, per Kai, “the greatest mass murderer in human history.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Israel Responds to Global Outcry by Sending Tanks Into Central Rafah for More Carnage Hatem Khaled/ReutersIsraeli tanks were spotted Tuesday in the center of Rafah for the first time, according to a report, after weeks of attacks on the city in southern Gaza where over a million displaced people had sought refuge from the war.Witnesses told Reuters tanks and armored vehicles armed with machine guns and had been seen close to Al-Awda mosque, a notable landmark in the center of Rafah. The report comes the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a “tragic mistake” had occurred in an airstrike on a camp for displaced people in the city over the weekend which, according to local health officials, killed at least 45 people.Residents say tank fire and airstrikes continued in Rafah overnight even after the international condemnation of the tent camp fire Sunday which left dozens of Palestinians dead, Reuters reports. The news agency said the Israeli military confirmed only that its forces continued in the area of the city without specifically commenting on the claims of tanks in central Rafah.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Neighbors Say Stabbing Spree Suspect Lost It After Spat Over Roommate Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/InstagramThe Martha’s Vineyard man accused of stabbing six people in Massachusetts over the weekend had reportedly been involved in a heated dispute with neighbors just beforehand that culminated in him hurling a shovel through their window.Jared Ravizza, 26, is due to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Ravizza is accused of going on an unprovoked rampage on Saturday night in which he randomly stabbed four girls inside a movie theater before later attacking two employees at a McDonald’s. He was taken into custody after allegedly leading cops on a chase that ended with him crashing his Porsche.Hours before that chaotic chain of events, Ravizza had flipped out when his neighbors in Connecticut called the police on his roommate for allegedly trespassing on their property, according to the New York Post. The roommate, identified only as Bruce, had been staying with Ravizza at a home he was renting in Deep River and had been known to walk around the neighborhood with his pet poodle. But some neighbors said Bruce would sit on their porches without permission, leading to police being called Saturday.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Disabled Woman Speaks Out on Alleged Nick Carter Assault ID/screengrabBackstreet Boys superstar Nick Carter has been dogged for years by allegations of sexual assault, and those claims take centerstage in Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter, a four-part ID docuseries in which three women detail how their encounters with the singer turned into scarring nightmares. It’s a #MeToo-inspired censure of fame and the power and privilege it breeds, and in its final episode (airing Tuesday, May 28), the series focuses on one of those individuals, who is disabled, claims that Nick took ugly advantage of her when she was just a kid—and is now fighting to hold him accountable.Shannon “Shay” Ruth was a 17-year-old Mormon with cerebral palsy and autism when, in 2001, she attended a Backstreet Boys concert at Washington state’s Tacoma Dome. Waiting with others to get autographs after the show, she was invited by Nick to check out his tour bus. Once inside, she claims she was given drugged alcohol (which she'd never had before) and was then forced to perform oral sex, and to endure it being given to her by Nick, who afterwards threatened her and called her a “retarded bitch.”In this exclusive clip from the episode, Shay and her lawyer Mark Boskovich stand at a podium during a press conference to announce Shay’s lawsuit against Nick, which she filed in December 2022. As Boskovich notes, “According to Disabilityjustice.org, 83% of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted during their lifetimes, and just 3% of those assaults will be reported.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Trump Trial Lawyers Enter Final Battle Before Jury Deliberations Brian Snyder/ReutersThe end is finally in sight for Donald Trump’s hush money trial, with prosecutors and defense attorneys beginning their closing arguments Tuesday before jurors will decide if Trump should become the first former American president to be convicted of felonies.The legal teams will use the arguments, which are expected to last all day, to make their last pitch to the 12 members of the jury. Judge Juan Merchan will then instruct jurors on the law before they start deliberations to deliver their historic verdict.The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case revolves around a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to prevent her from speaking about a sexual tryst she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Child of Famed Jewish Family Funded Pro-Palestinian Protests Justin Sullivan/GettyTens of thousands of dollars pumped into organizations involved in recent anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses originated in the fortune of one of America’s most venerable and politically active Jewish families—one that includes a sitting U.S. congressman and a former contender for ambassador to Jerusalem.A much-publicized recent report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, an Israeli-backed think tank, ranked the Bafrayung Fund as the single largest sponsor of pro-Palestinian activist groups involved in campus demonstrations and adjacent actions.The Institute’s tabulations appear to include donations to any organization that has ever supported or promoted pro-Palestinian events. Nonetheless, The Daily Beast’s own research confirms that the Bafrayung Fund, based in Covina, California, ranks among the most consistent supporters of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which played a major role in the rash of encampments that spread through U.S. colleges this year. The Fund has also contributed substantially to two of the Palestinian Youth Movement’s allies: the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and Critical Resistance.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Opinion: John Roberts May Be the Worst Chief Justice in Supreme Court History Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.With all of the concurrent scandals roiling the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s easy to forget that there was another path Chief Justice John Roberts could have taken: stricter ethics rules and more accountability for judges whose life tenure makes them some of the most powerful people in the country.That’s the message Lisa Graves, the host of a new Supreme Court-focused podcast called Grave Injustice, wanted to convey on this week’s episode of The New Abnormal.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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‘Atlas’: J.Lo’s New Movie Spits in the Faces of AI’s Critics NetflixThere 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.Skip: AtlasRead more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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The ‘Garfield Movie’ Product Placement Is So Very Depressing SonyLasagna is not healthy. You can hear the sound of hundreds of meat tenderizers slapping the palms of some angry Italian hands right now, but it’s true. Even a cat like Garfield, who adores lasagna, is acutely aware of this. But much like pulling the blanket back over his head after his Monday morning alarm goes off, chowing down on lasagna is one thing that the plump orange tabby is reluctant to give up. I’m not a veterinarian (too sad), but all that saturated fat can’t be good for him!Perhaps that’s why, in The Garfield Movie, Garfield is trying to cut back on his cholesterol and fats. Yet, it’s hammered over the viewers’ heads from the opening scene that this stout little guy still loves his baked pasta, so much so that he can’t stop maxing out his owner Jon Arbuckle’s credit card to place delivery orders. That’s why, when Garfield saddles up next to a big bag of cheddar-flavored Popchips—a “healthier choice” snack that, here, is computer-animated with truly disturbing photorealism—everything we know and love about Garfield is thrown out of whack.This glaring example of brand sponsorship is just one of many in The Garfield Movie, plunked into one of this lazy feline’s most generic outings yet. It’s almost as if the producers and Sony Pictures, the distributor behind the film, hoped these disappointing cash grabs might somehow ground the movie’s story more firmly in our reality. In a way, that’s true: Our existence is more inundated with advertisements and branding than at any other point in history thanks to our phones being a direct portal to capitalist hell. But seeing this much product placement in a kid’s movie (and an animated one, no less) has the opposite effect. The Garfield Movie’s in-universe brand sponsorships sully what could have been a much more delightful film without them, and point to a grim future where art may not be able to reach the masses without commercial interruption.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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William Jackson Harper: the Making of a Very Modest Leading Man Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyWhen he heard that he had been nominated for a Tony Award for Lead Actor in a Play, William Jackson Harper didn’t believe it, and—shocked and confused—called his agent.The Emmy-nominated star of The Good Place thought his character, the lovelorn, restless doctor Astrov in Lincoln Center’s revival of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (booking to June 16), would surely be defined as a featured role. The lead actor/lead character nomination, if awarded to anyone to anyone in the production, would surely go to Steve Carell, in his Broadway debut playing Vanya himself.“I was hopeful, sure,” Harper, 44, told The Daily Beast of receiving the nomination, “but expecting it? Absolutely not at all. I guess the real surprise was the category I was in. I asked my agent, ‘How did this happen? What the fuck is going on?’ And he told me that there had once been a production of Vanya where the guys playing Astrov and Vanya were listed above the title, meaning both could be considered as lead actors. Because of that precedent, it was decided to consider me as a lead actor. For me, this is an ensemble show. Everyone has about the same amount of stage time. Honestly, we should all be in the ‘featured’ category together.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Teen Miraculously Survives 400-Foot Fall Down a Canyon Mason County Sheriff's OfficeA 19-year-old plummeted more than 400-feet down the side of a canyon in Washington state over the weekend—and walked away with only minor injuries.The teen was attempting to hike beneath the High Steel Bridge in Mason County on Saturday when he fell and took the steep 420-foot plunge, Fire Chief Matthew Welander of West Mason Fire told King 5. Mason County Sheriff’s Office shared a Facebook post confirming the rescue, including photos from the scene, in which the teenager’s face is blurred out and a team is seen sending a harnessed firefighter down off the bridge. Officials were forced to use binoculars to spot the teen.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Bob Menendez Is Blowing Campaign Gold on Lawyers—and Pricey Steaks Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters/GettyFighting to keep himself out of prison has cost Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) a lot—but not his appetite, campaign finance records show.The embattled Democrat, now on trial for allegations he accepted gold bars and envelopes of cash from New Jersey businessmen in exchange for favors for them and their patrons in Egypt and Qatar, spent $2 million on legal fees in April, the latest filings show. This figure represents more than a third of his entire warchest accrued over 18 years in the U.S. Senate, and comes on top of $1 million the campaign gave the firm in November—all before the actual courtroom action started earlier this month.But these swelling expenses, and the anemic $95,538.86 the campaign has raised so far this year, hasn’t kept the senator from dining on his donors’ dime: his New Millennium Political Action Committee has picked up eight checks totalling $7,012.51 this year at Morton’s Steakhouse in D.C., a favorite Menendez hangout where the filet mignon starts at $56 and the tomahawks top out at $139.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Jason Kelce Defends His Wife Against ‘Homemaker’ Hecklers Lisa Lake/Getty ImagesJason Kelce didn’t mince words while shutting down a social media troll’s harsh criticism of his wife and her role in their family.Days after denouncing Harrison Butker’s viral commencement speech—in which the Chiefs kicker told female graduates that their “most important title” in life would be “homemaker”—Kelce responded to an X user who called him “hypocritical.”“Your wife is a homemaker,” the critic wrote. “But you can’t support butker. And your wife is a homemaker whose home is a mess. Sorry but it is dirty and messy on television. Seems you’re a bit hypocritical.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Deadly Bomb Strikes, Murdered Keepers and Lion Attack at Ukraine Zoo Targeted by Putin HandoutDodging Russian bullets and bombs, zookeepers and volunteers, who were risking their lives to save big cats, bears, apes and thousands of other creatures at a besieged Ukrainian zoo, captured hearts worldwide. The Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv had been shelled relentlessly since the conflict began on Feb. 24, 2022. Throughout it all, a handful of fearless park staff stayed to care for the animals caught in the crossfire.The compelling new documentary Checkpoint Zoo chronicles the extraordinary courage and compassion of a small group of men and women scrambling to evacuate 5,000 terrified and starving animals trapped in the zoo behind enemy lines.Two years ago as the drama around Feldman Ecopark was unfolding, filmmaker Joshua Zeman had just finished filming The Loneliest Whale when he was captivated by the haunting image of a chimpanzee named Chichi walking alone around Freedom Square in Kharkiv. “Seeing this animal searching for his freedom or enjoying that freedom of escaping a zoo, while here you have this country that was under siege and fighting for its freedom and its own sovereignty immediately drew me,” he told The Daily Beast.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Jimmy Kimmel’s Son Undergoes His Third Open-Heart Surgery Bruce Glikas/WireImage/GettyJimmy Kimmel’s 7-year-old son, Billy, successfully underwent his third open-heart surgery over the weekend, the late-night host has revealed.Kimmel shared the news in an Instagram post on Monday, writing, “This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery. We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid.” His message was accompanied by a photo of a smiling Billy in a hospital bed.Billy, whom Kimmel shares with his wife Molly McNearney, was born with a congenital heart disease in 2017. A month after his son’s birth, the host returned to Jimmy Kimmel Live! with an emotional monologue in which he revealed that Billy’s official diagnosis was “tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia,” meaning his pulmonary valve was blocked and there was a hole in his heart.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Trump Just Sold His $10M Jet to One of His Megadonors Vivaldi/Wikimedia CommonsAfter nearly half a billion dollars in legal judgments against him this year, Donald Trump’s company opted to offload one of his private jets this month, public filings show. And the buyer is a Republican megadonor who poured nearly $250,000 into a political committee tied to Trump’s 2020 campaign.The plane, a 1997 Cessna jet, is worth in the range of $10 million, according to evoJets, though terms of the transaction couldn’t be confirmed.Federal Aviation Administration records show that on May 13, the aircraft’s registration changed from the Trump Organization’s DT Air Corp to a Texas entity called MM Fleet Holdings LLC. State records tie that company to Mehrdad Moayedi, an Iranian-American construction and development tycoon who lives near Dallas and runs Centurion American Custom Homes.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Richard Dreyfuss Slammed for Sexist, Transphobic Rant at ‘Jaws’ Screening Gregg DeGuire/GettyRichard Dreyfuss’ appearance at a Massachusetts theater’s screening of Jaws went off the rails when the actor went on a sexist and homophobic rant, prompting the venue to issue an apology.“The views expressed by Mr. Dreyfuss do not reflect the values of inclusivity and respect that we uphold as an organization. We deeply regret the distress that this has caused to many of our patrons,” The Cabot theater in Beverly, Massachusetts, said in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. “We regret that an event that was meant to be a conversation to celebrate an iconic movie instead became a platform for political views. We take full responsibility for the oversight in not anticipating the direction of the conversation and for the discomfort it caused to many patrons.”On Saturday, The Cabot hosted a screening of the 1975 blockbuster along with a Q&A discussion with Dreyfuss, 76, who starred in the film. However, things took a sharp turn when, according to social media posts from attendees, the Oscar-winning actor began sharing offensive comments about women and trans youth.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Rancher and His 34 Cattle Become Latest Victims of Deadly Weekend Weather Drew Angerer/GettyA 51-year-old rancher and 34 of his cattle became the latest victims of a spate of severe weather over the weekend. According to press accounts in Jackson County, Colorado, rancher Mike Morgan was feeding his cattle with hay from his trailer on Saturday when a bolt of lightning killed him and knocked over 100 of the animals, roughly a third of which died. “As best I can tell, it hit him on the trailer. The cattle were bunched up around the trailer and it hit them all,” county coroner George Crocket said, as reported by the Colorado Sun.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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NBA Legend Bill Walton Dies at 71: ‘Truly One of a Kind’ Ethan Miller/GettyBill Walton, a former National Basketball Association MVP and Hall of Famer who built a second career as an equally legendary broadcaster, died Monday at 71. The cause of death was cancer, the NBA said in a statement on Monday afternoon, adding that Walton was surrounded by his family at the time of his passing.“Bill Walton was truly one of a kind,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in the statement. “What I will remember most about him was his zest for life. He was a regular presence at league events—always upbeat, smiling ear to ear and looking to share his wisdom and warmth. I treasured our close friendship, envied his boundless energy and admired the time he took with every person he encountered.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Cannes Security Guard Gets in a THIRD Tussle After Kelly Rowland Incident Pascal Le Segretain/GettyDays after skirmishing with Destiny’s Child alum Kelly Rowland on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, a security officer was scorned by the internet for her treatment of a K-pop star—marking her third uncomfortable run-in with a celebrity so far. Rowland went viral for pointing her finger at the guard during their encounter last week. She later explained that she felt she had been mistreated and shooed off the red carpet because of her race.“The woman knows what happened. I know what happened,” Rowland said. “I have a boundary, and I stand by those boundaries. And that is it.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Trump Freaks Out at New York Trial Judge as Jury Deliberation Nears Justin Lane/Pool via ReutersDays before closing arguments in his hush-money trial in New York, former President Donald Trump unleashed on the judge, Juan Merchan, in an all caps-laden social media post.“The reason the Radical, highly Conflicted Judge Juan Merchan had to come up with three FAKE options for the jury to choose from, without requiring them to be unanimous, which is completely UNAMERICAN AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL, is because the Corrupt, Soros backed D.A., Alvin Bragg, couldn’t come close to proving that any crime was committed,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “THERE WAS NO CRIME,” he continued, arguing in a meandering way that he had legally paid a non-disclosure agreement to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election—which prosecutors have argued was an illegal attempt to shore up his chances of defeating Hillary Clinton.Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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Mom Says Movie Theater Stabbing Suspect Was ‘Laughing the Whole Time’ Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via GettyThe 26-year-old man who allegedly stabbed four girls at an AMC theater in Massachusetts on Saturday was “laughing the whole time” during the attack, the mother of three of the victims said in a new interview with CBS affiliate WBZ-TV.“They had just sat down, they had just got their concessions. I guess he came up behind them. They were in like the second row,” said Lisa Dembowski, who added that her daughters and their friend were alone in the auditorium at the time.“My oldest was leaned over to get something, he got her in the back. My other daughter in the chest. My last daughter across her arm,” she continued. The attacker was “laughing the whole time. Then [he stabbed] their friend and ran off. The two older girls chased him outside, then they realized what was going on.”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com
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This QAnon Candidate Could Cost Trump a Key Swing State Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyMark Robinson, the hardcore conspiracy-theorist Republican running for governor in North Carolina, has been posting through it ever since his rise to power in 2021 as the state’s first-ever Black lieutenant governor.He’s called the Holocaust “hogwash” and described the Nazis as “upstart amateurs in terms of manipulation and murder.” Robinson’s also drawn the attention of online extremist groups, including the white supremacist forum Stormfront, a website founded in the 1990s by a Ku Klux Klan leader in Alabama.Robinson’s ties to the forum were previously reported in a Washington Post story in March, which mentioned a 2021 thread praising him as “the negro N. Carolina Lt. Gov” who “goes off on CRT, trans, jews, and anti-Americans. LOL!”Read more at The Daily Beast.thedailybeast.com