President Donald Trump’s decision to turn the White House into a UFC arena drew fierce backlash, with D.C. residents branding the taxpayer-funded spectacle a “circus” and a “clown show.”

The event, dubbed “UFC Freedom 250,” was staged Sunday as part of celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary—but conveniently coincided with Trump’s 80th birthday.

More than 4,000 spectators packed a specially constructed arena on the South Lawn, where Trump watched from cageside alongside first lady Melania Trump and UFC CEO Dana White.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Failed MAGA Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt says he’s partnering with his former opponent’s brother in legal action over a devastating wildfire that tore through the city last year.

“I am proud to be teaming up with Karen Bass’ brother in suing his sister for her reckless negligence that led to the destruction of our homes,” Pratt posted on X Sunday. “I hope their Thanksgiving dinner isn’t too awks. I know ours hasn’t been the same since last year…”

Pratt, 42, a former star of the reality TV show The Hills who failed in his bid to run against Bass last week, lost his home in the Palisades Fire last year and has been a vocal critic of the city’s handling of the catastrophe. The blaze, which broke out on Jan. 7, 2025, claimed 12 lives and destroyed almost 7,000 homes and other buildings.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump slathered his hand in makeup for his big UFC birthday party.

The 80-year-old president sat ringside in the temporary octagon arena on the South Lawn of the White House Sunday to watch Sunday night’s mixed martial arts bouts.

But despite not doing any of the punching himself, his hands appeared to have taken a brutal beating, with multiple images from the event showing discoloration and a thick layer of concealer.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A sleepless Donald Trump went on a furious early-morning rant to push his latest big obsession.

Hours after his super-tacky UFC birthday bash at the White House finally wrapped up after 1 a.m., the 80-year-old launched a Truth Social tirade to declare that he will not support renewing controversial surveillance powers used by U.S. intelligence agencies unless his so-called SAVE America Act is passed.

Congress rejected a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—which the CIA, the National Security Agency, and other agencies use to conduct surveillance of foreign individuals deemed national security risks without a warrant—last week, meaning the authority lapsed for the first time since the program began in 2008.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pope Leo’s MAGA brother, beloved by Donald Trump, got an invite to the president’s tacky White House UFC event.

“I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA,” the president posted on Truth Social in April, referring to Louis Prevost, the eldest brother of Pope Leo XIV. “He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!”

Prevost has repeatedly praised the Republican leader in online posts, applauding his attacks on the trans community and the Democratic Party, and once even shared a video that referred to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a “c--t.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump is kicking off a summit of major industrialized nations in France by threatening a new trade war with the hosts over its tax on his billionaire backers in Silicon Valley.

“I asked them not to charge American companies, and if they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100 percent tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France,” the president, who turned 80 on Sunday, told the New York Post. “All [French President Emmanuel Macron] has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure.”

His warning comes ahead of Monday’s annual G7 summit, which brings together Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. to discuss issues of trade and security. This year’s edition is being held in Evian-les-Bains, France.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s surreal UFC event on the White House grounds finally came to an end after a delayed start and a series of embarrassing moments.

The final bout finished just after 1 a.m. ET on Monday, with Justin Gaethje pulling off a major upset by defeating Ilia Topuria to become the UFC’s undisputed lightweight champion. Gaethje shook Trump’s bruised and make-up-covered hand moments after winning the fight.

Away from the fighting, the UFC event—staged as part of the America250 celebrations, but which just so happened to coincide with Trump’s 80th birthday—also featured a number of shocks and controversial incidents.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

America’s top-selling stand-up comic has been busted rubbing shoulders with MAGA royalty at Donald Trump’s 80th birthday bash UFC fight.

Nate Bargatze, who has hosted Saturday Night Live twice, had largely escaped the limelight at the dizzying spectacle at the White House on Sunday until Cheryl Hines, the wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., uploaded a snap of the trio together on Instagram, with Vice President JD Vance in the background.

Bargatze, though, posted nothing to his 3.1 million Instagram followers. It was crickets over on X, too, with no mention of his weekend foray into the heart of MAGA.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Masters of the Universe, Amazon MGM’s entry into the growing Mattel Cinematic Universe that exploded with 2023’s Barbie, has failed to take off, suffering a massive drop in its second week. The film, based on Mattel’s He-Man and starring Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man, has earned just $45.7 million in North America and $84 million worldwide, with $8.6 million of that coming in its second week from 3677 locations across North America. Considering its production budget of almost $200 million, the film is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest box office bombs. The film is the second attempt to bring the Masters of the Universe franchise to the silver screen, following 1987’s effort starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. The failure of the 2026 adaptation comes despite the film boasting a star-studded cast including Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, Kristen Wiig, Jared Leto, and Idris Elba. The film has a rating of 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience score is more favorable at 87 percent. The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager described the film as a “faithful and boisterous old-school spectacular,” adding, “as an exercise in pure, undiluted throwback exuberance, [director Travis] Knight’s film has the power.”

Read it at Variety

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump had a shock reaction after a UFC fighter spat out an offensive slur against Michelle Obama after winning his bout at the president’s tacky cage-fighting gala at the White House.

Trump staged a UFC Freedom 250 card on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday to mark his 80th birthday, with the divisive event delayed by weather and then running until after 1:15 a.m.

But a comment made by a UFC fighter personally selected by Trump to take part in his birthday bash threatened to upstage the actual event, where each of the seven fights staged ended in a stoppage.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Academy Award-winner and longtime critic of Donald Trump, Robert De Niro, took aim at the president’s latest tacky spectacle during a speech at a protest event on Sunday.

Speaking at the Rise Up, Sing Out concert hosted by the Committee for the First Amendment in New York City on Sunday night, De Niro made fun of Trump’s 80th birthday UFC extravaganza.

Hosted in a specially constructed arena on the White House South Lawn, the event, which featured musical guests, aerial displays, and a seven-fight card, was officially planned to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary; unofficially, it was held on the president’s 80th birthday, and he made sure that he was the star of the show.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

UFC champion Sean Strickland, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, was escorted out of a UFC viewing party near the White House by Secret Service agents.

The UFC’s reigning middleweight champion had claimed that he had been banned from participating in the UFC spectacle Trump is hosting for his 80th birthday over his criticism of the president.

But as the event got underway on Sunday evening at the arena built on the White House South Lawn, Strickland appeared at the fan fest on the Ellipse, just steps from the White House, where thousands of spectators had gathered to watch the fights on massive screens.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s 80th birthday bash UFC fight has turned nasty with a slur against former first lady Michelle Obama.

Part of Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 card, held on the South Lawn of the White House, saw Derrick Lewis take on Josh Hokit. Heavyweight prospect Hokit, 28, already created controversy on Saturday when he appeared to spit and vomit on himself during the official weigh-in.

After winning his match Sunday night via a TKO to Derrick Lewis in the second round, Hokit let loose in a post-match interview.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Eric Trump has been forced to address allegations of cheating at his father’s UFC birthday event.

The bombshell came after retired UFC fighter Daniel Cormier appeared to post–and then delete–a string of direct messages allegedly sent between himself and Trump’s second son.

The messages, which Trump, 42, said were “completely fake,” see the president’s son apparently chatting to Cormier, 47, about Sunday’s UFC White House match, which also doubled as a celebration for his father’s 80th birthday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump deserves exactly as much credit for the “deal” with Iran that he has announced as a spouse abuser does for announcing he will stop beating his wife.

Actually, that is not fair. He deserves less credit.

It is more a like a wife beater wanting to be congratulated for announcing he may at some point in the next few days begin to discuss reaching an agreement to stop hitting his partner—if they can in that time period agree to resolve difficult issues that have had them fighting as long as they have known each other.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s youngest son was in attendance at his father’s birthday UFC event on Sunday night, marking his first public appearance in months.

Barron Trump, 20, was last seen at an official event with his parents in February for the State of the Union, joining his siblings and their spouses in the audience for the president’s record-breaking 108-minute-long address.

In a photo posted to Instagram Stories by Eric Trump ahead of the State of the Union, Barron posed with his siblings in front of his father’s Presidential Walk of Fame.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The White House has transformed the interior of one of its most iconic buildings into a sweaty locker room ahead of President Donald Trump’s ridiculous birthday bash.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, recognized as a National Historic Landmark, received a macho makeover for Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House’s South Lawn, the MMA fight night planned to celebrate Trump’s 80th birthday.

“The inside of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building looks a little different tonight👊,” the White House’s official X account shared on Sunday night in response to the UFC’s post depicting the room’s ridiculous renovation.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s birthday extravaganza was soundtracked by one of the music industry’s most disgraced figures.

Thousands of spectators on Sunday flocked to the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where giant screens have been set up to broadcast the UFC fights Trump is hosting for his 80th birthday in an arena built on the White House South Lawn.

As the spectators waited for the games, which were delayed an hour due to stormy weather, music from Sean “Diddy” Combs blasted from the speakers—an eyebrow-raising choice given the rapper’s dramatic fall from grace.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has received an unwanted birthday present—a new poll showing his approval rating has hit a new low in his second term as president.

Trump, who turned 80 on Sunday, crashed out in the latest NBC News poll, awkwardly released on his birthday.

The polling found his approval rating among all American adults currently sits at 39 percent. Trump’s approval rating among registered voters dropped to 42 percent, matching his lowest point from July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the reaction to the murder of George Floyd.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday celebration, a UFC event being held at the White House, has been delayed due to intense weather warnings.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m. for the Washington D.C. area. Forecasters have warned of the risk of hail, wind gusts of up to 70mph, and lightning.

The fights, which were scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., are now expected to begin an hour later at 9 p.m.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s cognitive health is deteriorating at a rapid pace, according to a clinical psychologist.

“Look at Donald Trump today, because that’s the best Donald Trump you’re ever gonna see,” Dr. John Gartner, a clinical psychologist and former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told The Daily Beast Podcast host Joanna Coles. “It only goes downhill from here,” he added.

Gartner, who has spoken extensively about Trump’s cognitive health and has suggested that the 80-year-old president has been “showing signs of frontotemporal dementia since 2019,” claims that stress and lack of sleep are having an increasing impact on him week by week.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A cat walked on stage during a performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Imperial Russian Ballet Company in İzmir, Turkey, crashing the dramatic final scene. The orange tabby appeared onstage and sat down next to the prone body of just-drunk-the-poison Romeo, while a now-awake Juliet danced her lament around him. The cat, unaffected by the dancer’s movements, then began clawing at Romeo’s hair, and, it appears, playfully biting him. When Juliet dragged her dead lover further away from the cat, it hopped up on the stools that are on stage as part of the set, giving it the best seat in the house for the tragic love story’s conclusion. Theater-goers can be heard laughing throughout a video of the unexpected cameo, the cat’s antics providing some levity during a tragic scene.

Read it at X.com

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Rod Stewart, 81, was spotted drinking at a World Cup soccer match on Sunday, just two days after canceling a concert due to illness. The British singer announced on Friday that he would not perform in San Diego as part of his One Last Time farewell tour, canceling the show just 45 minutes before it was due to start. He later clarified that doctors had diagnosed him with an acute upper respiratory infection that led to laryngitis. Yet on Saturday, the Maggie May singer posted a video on Instagram showing him on a private jet with his sons as they flew to Boston to watch Scotland play Haiti in a World Cup match. “No Scotland, no party!” Stewart said in the clip and was later photographed drinking at the match, which Scotland won by one goal. A representative for Stewart told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the singer’s decision to cancel the show was “accurate,” adding that he had been given “a few rounds of steroids and treatment in the hope of being able to perform.” The representative also said Stewart was only able to text during the match “because he had no voice.” The next scheduled concert on the tour is set for June 15 in Colorado. The Daily Beast has reached out to Stewart’s representatives for comment.

Read it at New York Post

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s team is drawing ridicule for lashing out at a weather channel that warned of storms during the president’s outdoor 80th birthday extravaganza.

The White House spent months planning for the UFC cage fight Trump is staging on the South Lawn for his 80th birthday on Sunday—only for forecasters to warn that thunderstorms could crash the party.

In a post on X Sunday morning, The Weather Channel declared, “RAIN, 30 MPH WINDS AND MOSQUITOS ON THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bettors are putting their money on President Trump’s tacky UFC birthday wrestle being delayed—if not wholly ruined—by the weather.

On Sunday afternoon, crypto-based prediction site Polymarket posted on X: “JUST IN: A single lightning strike within 8 miles of the White House would reportedly trigger an automatic 30-minute freeze at UFC Freedom 250.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The nightmare war in the Middle East started by President Donald Trump is apparently over, according to the birthday boy himself.

Trump announced on Truth Social, just in time for his big 80th birthday bash at the White House on Sunday, that the war he started with Iran nearly four months ago was “complete.”

“Congratulations to all!” he wrote.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

American singer-songwriter Oliver Tree, 32, died in a helicopter crash near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sunday, according to CNN Brazil. The California musician, known for songs like “Life Goes On” and “Miss You,” was among six people killed after two helicopters collided mid-air above Recreio dos Bandeirantes, southwest of Rio de Janeiro, the outlet reported. Tree had just performed in São Paulo, Brazil, on June 6 as part of “The World’s First World Tour,” to support his latest album released in April, “Love You Madly Hate You Badly.” The June 6 show was only the fourth of more than 60 performances scheduled for the world tour. The artist, known for his signature bowl cut and 1980s-era aesthetic, signed to Atlantic Records in 2016 and released his first single “Welcome to L.A.” The former dubstep producer-turned-alt pop genre bender had garnered a massive social media following, amassing over 2.5 million followers on Instagram and upwards of 15 million on TikTok. Also among those killed in Sunday’s dual-helicopter crash was Argentinian YouTuber Gaspar Prim, known online as Gaspi.

Read it at Variety

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jimmy Kimmel sarcastically celebrated Donald Trump’s 80th birthday with a jab at the president’s ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Kimmel, 58, shared an unsightly post to Instagram on Sunday that alluded to the infamous birthday card Trump allegedly gave Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.

The late-night host’s photo depicts a crude outline of what appears to be Trump’s physique, including fat flaps and the president’s signature neck folds, along with text inside the silhouette.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Twelve people, including the pilot, were killed when a private plane crashed in Missouri shortly after takeoff Sunday. The plane crashed around 11:30 a.m. after departing from Butler Memorial Airport. The plane was unable to climb to a sufficient altitude before attempting a landing near Business 49 Highway in Butler, about 65 miles south of Kansas City. The crash victims were reportedly employees and customers of Skydive Kansas City, and their pilot. Their identities have not been released. The company has been in business since 1998, serving the Kansas City, Topeka, and Overland Park communities. All lanes of the highway were closed on Sunday, with authorities investigating the crash. The FAA told The Daily Mail that the plane was a Pacific Aerospace P-750. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the crash.

Read it at The Daily Mail

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The FBI raged at The New York Times for its latest damning report on Director Kash Patel being behind a paywall. On its official X account, the FBI Rapid Response team claimed, “The FAILING @nytimes seems to be having a hard time adjusting to a new reality. That’s why everything is behind a paywall because they need the money!” It then claimed that the outlet would be held “accountable” for its reporting. In reality, the Times is the most subscribed to newspaper in the U.S., boasting at least 10 million subscribers. Nearly every article from the Times is placed behind a paywall. The report from the Times detailed Patel’s six defamation lawsuits filed against news media companies over the last seven years, including his most recent lawsuit demanding $250 million in damages from The Atlantic over its bombshell report detailing allegations of “erratic” behavior and heavy drinking.

The FAILING @nytimes seems to be having a hard time adjusting to a new reality.

That’s why everything is behind a paywall because they need the money!

If the fake news LIES. They WILL be held accountable 🤷🏼‍♂️

Facts over click bait! pic.twitter.com/9bCe37ocjH

— FBI Rapid Response (@FBI_Response) June 14, 2026

Read it at The New York Times

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Steven Spielberg is back with another hit. Disclosure Day opened with $93 million globally, earning $44 million at the domestic box office and $48.9 million internationally. Starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, the story follows their attempt to deal with the government’s cover-up of alien life. With a $115 million production budget and an additional $80 million spent on marketing, the movie needs to show staying power to recoup its investment for Universal. Meanwhile, Michael is still going strong in its eighth weekend of release, earning another $21 million globally and bringing its total to $932.2 million worldwide. If it reaches $975 million, it will surpass Oppenheimer as the highest-grossing biopic of all time. On the flip side, Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe made only $8.4 million internationally in its second weekend, with $84 million overall on a massive $200 million production budget. A similar story unfolded for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which made $7.1 million in its fourth weekend of release. While the film is set to make money for Disney, it is the lowest-earning installment of the hugely popular franchise.

Read it at Variety

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to unravel during a live TV interview on Sunday when the news anchor pushed back on the lines he’d seemingly prepared to praise his boss.

Hegseth, 46, appeared on Face the Nation and was talking up President Donald Trump’s “success” in Iran when he became flustered as host Margaret Brennan began to challenge his claims.

“It’s been military pressure and strength from President Trump that’s compelled Iran to this deal,” Hegseth said of a deal touted by Trump on social media a day earlier, which Brennan quickly noted had yet to be finalized.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Vice President JD Vance gave a halting answer when asked whether President Trump talks to him about a potential White House bid.

Vance, 41, was joined by his wife, Usha Vance, 40, on CBS Sunday Morning, where the couple spoke with journalist Robert Costa about faith, family, and a potential 2028 presidential candidacy.

The vice president appeared to initially laugh off a question about whether he and President Donald Trump, 80, discuss the future, before later giving a stuttering response about how those conversations are going.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was taken to the hospital Sunday, a statement from his office said. “Senator McConnell was admitted to the hospital this morning. He is receiving excellent care,” the statement read. McConnell’s office did not provide more details of his hospitalization. The Daily Beast has reached out for comment. McConnell, 84, was hospitalized last year with flu-like symptoms, and has shown signs of frailty on the job, stumbling while fielding questions about ICE in October. McConnell, who is retiring when his term ends this year, is the longest-serving Senate majority leader, with a career spanning four decades. The Republican leader has criticized Donald Trump, 80, and members of his administration over foreign policy, and voted against appointing Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.

Read it at The Guardian

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump had a birthday blowup with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over their unpopular war in Iran.

The president told Axios that he was “p---ed off” when his advisors told him that Israel had struck Lebanon, as the Trump administration is trying to negotiate an end to the conflict it started.

“It is so bad — I couldn’t believe it. An hour before we are supposed to sign the deal,” Trump told the outlet on his 80th birthday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s birthday bash isn’t as popular as he thinks it is.

Trump, 80, wants to mark his birthday on Sunday with a full-blown UFC cage-fighting event on the South Lawn of the White House. The president, Cabinet officials, and some 4,000 spectators are expected to attend the mixed martial arts event, for which a massive structure nicknamed “The Claw” has been erected on the White House lawn.

But beyond those expected to attend, there aren’t many other fans. Harry Enten, CNN’s resident pollster, delivered a stunning blow to the bash on Sunday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

It was his birthday, and Emperor Hadrian wanted to throw a party.

Over six days in Rome, he put on a gladiatorial show that involved the slaughter of 100 lions and 100 lionesses. The animals were forced to fight either with one another or with men.

The spectacle 1,900 years ago was by no means a one-off. When Hadrian was four, and the Colosseum was opened in AD 80 to great fanfare by Titus, over 9,000 wild and tame animals were slain over the inaugural games that went on for 100 days.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Three-time Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet says the New York Knicks’ winning NBA championship game was better than the most esteemed film awards ceremony. In a video posted to social media, Chalamet can be seen leaning into a camera after the game and saying, “Way rather this than the Oscars, come on baby! Knicks are champions baby.” Chalamet, a New Yorker and long-time Knicks fan, was at game five in San Antonio when the Knicks came from behind to win 94-90 against the Spurs on Saturday, sealing their championship. They won the series 4-1, after losing game three at Madison Square Garden with President Donald Trump in attendance. Chalamet is often seen at the Garden for Knicks games, sometimes attending with girlfriend Kylie Jenner at his side on Celebrity Row.

Read it at X.com

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A 21-year-old woman was thrown to her death in what appeared to be a freak bungee jumping accident on Saturday. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, fell 130 feet to her death in Limeira, São Paulo, after the bungee cord was not attached to her before the jump. Video of the horrific incident that was posted on social media shows de Freitas being carried towards the edge of the ‘Skeleton Bridge,’ and thrown off it by staff. After she falls, a person filming points to the bungee cord on the ground and then shouts, “Guys, the rope!” The woman was there with her fiancé, who watched the whole thing unfold, police said. Earlier, she had posted on social media, “Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?” Emergency services were called, but she died at the scene. Police arrested six people in relation to the incident, including three at the scene, two of whom they had to track down by a helicopter after they tried to flee, military police said.

Read it at The New York Post

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s top aides suspect highly classified discussions in the Situation Room may have been secretly recorded.

An unnamed source in the administration told Axios that officials fear the audio recordings were handed over to New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman for their forthcoming book on the inner workings of the Trump White House.

“We’re afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded,” the source told Axios, adding that they “have no idea which ones.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump, 80, is already not a fan of birthdays. But an already fraught day was made worse when those close to him drew attention to his increasingly frequent public lapses.

The president’s birthday on Sunday coincided with a New York Times report detailing interactions with Trump in which he had a few mental slip-ups. His allies recounted instances in which Trump, the oldest president ever inaugurated, forgot someone’s name and described him as more tired than usual.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A former executive at Dana White’s UFC is accusing him of fabricating his story that Donald Trump saved the organization.

White has for years claimed that Trump single-handedly saved the UFC in 2001 when the mixed martial arts group, facing severe public backlash and financial turmoil in the early 2000s, held an event in Trump’s former Atlantic City, New Jersey property, the Trump Taj Mahal.

But former executives from that era say Trump had nothing to do with the event.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Actor Seth Rogen, 44, has spoken out about the current state of his relationship with former longtime friend and decades-long collaborator James Franco, 48, following allegations of sexual misconduct in 2018. “I honestly think the nuance of it is too personal for me to get into right now,” Rogen said in an interview with The New York Times after revealing they no longer speak. The two actors were collaborators for over two decades, working together on shows like Freaks and Geeks and for hit movies such as The Interview and The Disaster Artist. However, after allegations surfaced that Franco behaved inappropriately toward female students at an acting school he co-founded, Rogen said he would not work with Franco again. “It is a very personal thing. There’s the public-facing side of it, which I’ve spoken about, and I have the same stance publicly that I’ve had, and I think the proof is in the pudding — I have not worked with him in years,” Rogen added. On a personal level, Rogen says their relationship is more complicated. “But the personal side of it is just so nuanced, and it involves people that I don’t know if I should be dragging into this. I don’t know what I would benefit from getting deeply into it.” Franco settled a class action lawsuit with his accusers in June 2021, paying $2.235 million to a group of women who alleged they paid monthly tuition to attend his acting school for opportunities but were instead subjected to “intimidating and sexual objectification.”

Read it at Hollywood Reporter

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Stephen A. Smith has thrown down the gauntlet after the famously fickle president accused him of being a “low IQ individual.”

Smith, 58, spoke on State of the Union Sunday, and was asked by host Kasie Hunt whether 80-year-old Donald Trump seemed “sharp enough” to fulfill his role.

The ESPN pundit gently began: “Well, I don‘t know anybody that would associate the word ‘sharp’ with him, because he doesn‘t seem that sharp with some of the decisions that he makes sometimes to be quite honest with you.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tucker Carlson says Donald Trump may be turning 80, but he still does not like being reminded of it.

In an interview published Sunday to mark Trump’s 80th birthday, Carlson told the New York Times that Trump does not enjoy discussing his age.

“He’s really uncomfortable with it,” Carlson told the newspaper.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Members of Donald Trump’s inner circle are scrambling to explain away his increasingly public lapses as he enters his ninth decade.

The president, who turned 80 on Sunday, has continued to draw public concern following appearances in which he appears to doze off during Oval Office meetings, White House events, and, most recently, a Knicks game.

At the same time, the White House has refused to acknowledge such incidents—or even that Trump is the oldest president ever inaugurated.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters are falling over themselves to pay public birthday tributes to the now 80-year-old president.

From his Cabinet to online influencers, MAGA is out in full force to demonstrate their devotion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a video montage of Trump, with the caption, “Happy birthday to the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

There’s a profound lack of explanation for where we are, how we got here, and why so many truly odious people have been able to take charge of our broken system and become so important in our lives. All we seem able to do is shake our heads and hold to the slim reed that someone will emerge to save the day. But before we truly fix the mess, we might need to explain how we got into it. So I’m going to start recommending books that I believe do that. First up is City on the Edge by Jonathan Weber. That city is San Francisco, the epicenter of technology and some of this generation’s leading Democrats. Weber’s is the story of how, in thirty years, the tech industry, as a function of its own avarice, drive for power, messianic mission, and the peculiar people in it, takes over the nation, propelling its political partners with it. Looking past Donald Trump—whose second term has been very much driven by tech money and power—we can clearly see the next crisis of democracy on the horizon: a system overwhelmed by the interests of this industry and the power structure it has created.

For more of Michael Wolff’s reading list, subscribe to HOWL on Substack.

Read it at Substack

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump hopes to ring in his birthday with a cage-fight extravaganza, but organizers are scrambling to please him while grappling with the one thing no one can control: the weather.

The Sunday event is set to take place on the same day as heavy thunderstorms are expected in Washington, DC, with lightning and even the possibility of a tornado threatening to disrupt plans for the America 250 celebrations.

“Standard contingency plans for weather are in place to ensure the safety of the president and all patrons,” a White House official said in a statement to The Hill.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

It’s the one landmark Donald Trump did not want his name on.

The president turned 80 on Sunday, and he has made it very clear that he wasn’t celebrating.

He was born on June 14, 1945, nearly three months before the official end of World War Two.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

It is a privilege to grow old and watch your dark hair turn to white. Or in Donald Trump’s case, watch your dark hair turn to brassy blond and then to white.

And even though Trump has just turned 80, don’t call him old. “I’m not a senior,” he insisted in early May. “I’m far younger than a senior. It’s true. I feel like—I feel the same as I felt 50 years ago. I don’t know. There’ll be a—there’ll be a period of time when I don’t tell you that. There’ll be—because I’m honest. I’ll say, it’s not looking good. I have to be careful…”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The ancient ritual of Trooping the Colour, held to mark the British monarch’s official birthday, took place on a glorious summer Saturday in London, and The Royalist was there to see it all unfold.

It was the same weekend as across the pond, President Donald Trump, who shares a warm relationship with King Charles, prepares for his own birthday celebrations at the White House.

Royalist subscribers can watch the full video on Substack, covering everything from the procession to the balcony appearance in real time.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump is facing a backlash for turning the White House and Washington, D.C., into a circus for his UFC birthday spectacle.

The White House and its surroundings were filled with eyebrow-raising events for the America 250 celebrations over the weekend. At the top of the bill is a UFC fight on Sunday night, also Trump’s 80th birthday.

The hijinks got started Saturday morning with the weigh-ins of the fighters, who promoters warn will get hurt and bloodied in Sunday’s seven wild spectacles. Heavyweight Josh Hokit walked unsteadily and appeared to drool, dribble, or vomit at the weigh-in. “So what? Maybe I was drinking last night,” the bare-chested fighter told spectators. “Who wouldn’t be? I have a giant Black man that wants to knock me out.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Knicks fans celebrated their first NBA championship in 53 years on Saturday by declaring victory over an unlikely opponent: the “Trump curse.”

Moments after the New York Knicks completed a dramatic comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 and clinched the NBA title, social media filled with speculation that the supposed curse hanging over the team had finally been broken.

“The Trump Curse is broken!!!” one fan wrote on X.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump spent valuable time Saturday posting self-promoting Truth Social messages about what a capable, fearless, adventurous fellow he is.

Despite the Iran war, skyrocketing gas prices, an inflation jump, depressed wages and mounting grocery costs, the president spent time on Saturday golfing, and revealing what he imagines are his multiple victories.

One post featured a younger Trump, in a suit, hands clasped, sitting wistfully alongside Central Park’s Wollman skating rink.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Melinda French Gates became visibly emotional while recalling her first and only meeting with Jeffrey Epstein, saying she immediately sensed the disgraced financier was “evil.”

The billionaire philanthropist appeared to fight back tears during an interview with The Guardian when asked what had so disturbed her about the encounter.

French Gates, who has previously said meeting Epstein left her with nightmares, grew visibly shaken as she reflected on the experience.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Russell Crowe thinks the people behind Gladiator II never understood what made the original film a hit.

The Oscar-winning actor took aim at the 2024 sequel during an appearance at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, arguing the follow-up “failed” because it abandoned the moral center that drove director Ridley Scott’s 2000 blockbuster.

Crowe made the comments while reflecting on his own battles behind the scenes of the original film, revealing that he repeatedly resisted pressure to include a romance between his character, Maximus, and Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump raised the chilling specter of an “ultimate alternative” if the current deal he says is pending with Iran fails to materialize.

The president, 79, appeared to imply a nuclear attack against Iran in a Truth Social post on Saturday, after claiming the deal to end the war will be signed Sunday. His post was also critical of former President Barack Obama.

“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Trump wrote.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kristi Noem’s political comeback tour hit an awkward snag when a simple geography question produced an embarrassing mistake.

The former Homeland Security secretary—known as “ICE Barbie” for her habit of cosplaying on the job—was mocked online after appearing to confuse Central and South America during a live interview on Newsmax on Saturday.

Asked by host Greta Van Susteren, “Who’s our best friend in South America at this point?” Noem rattled off a list of countries she said had become important U.S. partners.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A woman swimming laps close to shore was attacked by a shark at Sydney’s Coogee Beach on Saturday morning. Witnesses said the woman was bitten on the torso, and there was a lot of blood in the water. “The woman was pulled from the water by members of the public who commenced first aid before the arrival of emergency services,” a New South Wales Police spokesperson said. The 35-year-old woman was given first aid at the scene while they waited for a helicopter to airlift her to hospital. “Police cleared nearby Coogee Oval to facilitate the landing of the Careflight helicopter to airlift the woman to hospital.” Waverley Council, the municipal body that oversees Coogee beach in Sydney’s inner-east, said they had closed all beaches following the attack as a precaution. Since January, there have been nine reported shark attacks off the Australian coast, four fatal.

Read it at News.com.au

Read more at The Daily Beast.

An NBA star was arrested on a misdemeanor charge in Texas after he was caught carrying a firearm. James Harden, the 36-year-old point and shooting guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, was arrested in Houston around 3:41 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to Harris County court records. The charging document filed by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, obtained by People magazine, indicated that Harden was knowingly carrying a handgun outside of a holster in plain view inside his vehicle. It was not immediately clear why authorities pulled him over. The basketball star was released on a $100 bond later in the day and a hearing date has been set for June 22. In a statement to People, a representative for the Cavaliers said the team was “aware of the arrest of James Harden this morning and are in the process of gathering additional information.” “We are in contact with James and his representation and will continue to monitor developments as they become available,” the spokesperson added. “At this time, we will have no further comment.”

Read it at People

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s 80th birthday UFC extravaganza has been touted by one of its star players as a helpful “distraction” from the troubles the president himself created for Americans.

The UFC’s all-time knockout leader, Derrick Lewis, described the upcoming event as a much-needed respite.

“The country needs something like this,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “We can distract the American people from all that’s going on,” Lewis, 41, said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kristi Noem says she has a new mission after she was fired as Homeland Security secretary and given a new hastily created role in government. In an interview on Saturday discussing her work as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, Noem said she’s planning to take on gangs in Haiti that control around 90 percent of the capital and have displaced around 1.5 million people, according to the United Nations. “Haiti is an area that has been a lost cause for a very long time,” Noem, 54, told Newsmax anchor Greta Van Susteren, 72. “We’ve got some gang suppression forces that we’re going to be working to get into that country,” she added. Noem, the first Cabinet member to be removed by President Donald Trump, 79, in his second term, went on to predict that the Shield of the Americas will be “stronger than NATO” as it brings countries “into alignment with American values.” In her previous role, Noem was widely mocked for wearing law enforcement and military-style gear for photo-ops, though her new role does not seem to have afforded her that opportunity. “My background is I’m a farmer and a rancher that served in government, in Congress, as governor, and then as Secretary of Homeland Security,” Noem said at a summit in March, where she thanked Trump for creating the role for her.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump is not particularly excited about becoming an octogenarian, says his longtime biographer.

Author Michael Wolff said the 79-year-old president’s aides have attempted to discuss messaging around his age, having seen the controversy that enveloped former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, but he claims they have been dismissed by Trump.

“I know that there has been—this is a difficult and awkward discussion inside the Trump circle, this birthday,” Wolff told Inside Trump’s Head co-host Joanna Coles. “I know of one situation in which this was brought up, how to kind of counterprogram against this. And also, against the background of Biden and how that affected his age and the perception of his age, and the fact that they failed to successfully program against that affected his presidency.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Joe Rogan said he had expected something vastly different from the man he helped elect as president.

“We’re all p---ed,” Rogan said Friday in a conversation with author and bowhunter Cameron Hanes on The Joe Rogan Experience.

The podcaster, who endorsed Donald Trump, 79, on the eve of the 2024 presidential election, listed a series of grievances, including the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files, questions over the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and the war in Iran.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has slammed President Donald Trump’s birthday fight night on the White House lawn. Speaking to NewsNation, the former MAGA darling said taxpayer money should not be used to support the event. “I don’t think Americans’ taxpayer dollars should have to be paying for that,” she said. “We have a lot of other important things that we should pay for.” Once one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, Greene has harshly criticized the president in recent months, particularly over his handling of the Epstein files and for going to war with Iran. Federal agencies and the UFC have spent upwards of $60 million on the 92-foot-tall Octagon-shaped fighting ring. A White House official reported that the idea originated with Trump as a way to celebrate his 80th birthday and the nation’s 250th anniversary. A recent poll found that only 16 percent of Americans believe holding the UFC event at the White House is appropriate.

Read it at The Guardian

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump has once again proclaimed that a deal with Iran is imminent—this time, claiming it will be signed on his 80th birthday on Sunday.

“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday afternoon.

Not missing a chance to take a shot at one of his favorite targets, former President Barack Obama, Trump claimed his deal is much better than what his predecessor achieved.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Summer is here, which means it’s officially chafing season. Rising temperatures, sticky humidity, and more time spent outdoors in leg-baring outfits (dresses, skirts, and shorts) create the perfect storm for skin irritation.

While the inner thighs tend to be the most common trouble spot, chafing can also strike the underarms, waistband area, beneath the breasts, and anywhere skin—or clothing—creates repeated friction. This can lead to redness, irritation, and discomfort that can quickly put a damper on even the best summer plans.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

ICE has requested and obtained local voter data from election officials in Texas and North Carolina as part of a probe into alleged voter fraud.

ICE’s investigative arm requested the individual voter files this May and in November 2025, and has made similar requests since, Axios reports. The move appears to be the latest evidence of President Donald Trump’s long-running crusade against an exceedingly rare form of voter fraud turning into a multi-agency effort.

Emails shared with Axios by Democracy Forward, a legal organization that investigates potential abuses of government power, show that records on specific voters were turned over to Homeland Security Investigations from Webb County in Texas and Forsyth County in North Carolina.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump appears to have lost the confidence of some of his most loyal supporters on the issue Americans care about most.

An analysis by The New York Times found that the 79-year-old president has experienced a striking shift in voter sentiment, particularly among blue-collar white voters, his most steadfast supporters.

A review of polling shows a marked shift in attitudes toward Trump’s handling of the economy from the period leading up to the 2018 midterm elections to now, ahead of this fall’s elections.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A luxury resort planned by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner faces a new challenge from villagers who say their land was wrongfully sold by an accused gangster.

The president’s daughter and her husband plan to develop a $1.4 billion resort on the uninhabited island of Sazan in Albania, as well as a wider hotel development along the Zvërnec coastline worth around $4.7 billion. Weeks of protests have raised concerns that the wildlife-rich area, with its flamingos and sea turtles, could be at risk from the project.

Adding to the controversy is the revelation from Reuters that some of the land earmarked for the project is at the center of a tense legal dispute over ownership. A dozen residents of the village of Zvërnec have alleged that their land was wrongfully sold for development since 2024, the year Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, struck a deal to proceed with the project.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tyra Banks is suing Netflix for defamation over the docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which premiered on the streaming platform in February and prominently featured the model. In a copy of the lawsuit filed by the 52-year-old Banks on Saturday and obtained by People, she claims that just 16 minutes of her three-hour interview were used in the docuseries, and that the clips were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.” Banks alleges the producers created a “false narrative,” claiming she was not informed that contestant Shandi Sullivan, 44, who appeared in the docuseries, would later describe being sexually assaulted while filming America’s Next Top Model, and that she was not given an opportunity to respond to accusations. It also states that during her Netflix interview, Banks acknowledged she remembered Sullivan’s account. The Daily Beast has reached out to Netflix for comment.

Read it at People

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A federal judge has slapped down President Donald Trump’s crusade to rewrite history at National Parks.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley directed the National Park Service to stop implementing Trump’s March 2025 executive order aimed at “restoring truth and sanity to American history” by cracking down on “improper partisan ideology.”

In a scathing 63-page memorandum, Kelley sided with a coalition of national park and history advocates who sued to stop the Trump administration from taking down signs, displays, and exhibits at parks that it deemed “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Gio Reyna used a World Cup goal celebration to reveal that he and his wife are expecting their first child during the final moments of the United States’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday. The midfielder came off the bench and put the finishing touch on the USMNT’s World Cup opening match with a spectacular shot in added time. After celebrating with teammates and manager Mauricio Pochettino, Reyna, 23, tucked the ball under his jersey and sucked his thumb. The move is a longtime soccer tradition used to announce a pregnancy. “My wife’s pregnant,” Reyna revealed after the match. “I’ve known for a couple of months now, so I was waiting for the perfect time. And this sort of felt like it.” The goal was the first World Cup goal of Reyna’s career and his 10th for the national team. Reyna’s strike capped a dominant night for the Americans, with Folarin Balogun scoring twice and an own goal helping secure three points in the first match of Group D. Next, the U.S. will face Australia in Seattle on Friday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bill Ritter has signed off for the last time. The 76-year-old local news anchor, who has worked for New York City’s ABC affiliate, ABC7, since 1998, told viewers on Friday that the broadcast would be his last because he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “I am going to so miss reporting the news to all of you, with the truth and with facts, no matter where they fall,” Ritter said. “It has been my honor to do just that. But for now, I wish you health and peace, and let’s take care of each other.” Ritter lost his father to the same disease and said he would continue to report on the issue. “This station wants to dig deeper into the rising tide of Alzheimer’s, and other similar diseases—including how it’s affecting patients and their families, how the price of treatment and the price of caring for patients is simply unaffordable, and how this country might begin to change that,” he said. He is currently undergoing treatment for the debilitative brain disease, but, Ritter said, “there is no guarantee, because there’s no cure yet for Alzheimer’s.”

Read it at The Guardian

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bill Maher is trashing Donald Trump’s 80th birthday festivities as a cheap spectacle.

In his opening monologue for Real Time with Bill Maher, he said that while many are celebrating the FIFA World Cup and the NBA Championships, “the really big sporting event” is happening in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

“I’m sure you know what’s going on, our redneck president is turning 80, and to celebrate there is a UFC fight on the [White House] lawn,” he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The long-awaited removal of Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center was shielded from public view in an apparent bid to soften the blow for the president, the day before his 80th birthday.

In the early hours of Saturday, workers began removing Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts façade, following a ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper that the name change was unlawful.

The removal came after the Friday deadline set by Cooper had passed, following a thunderstorm that swept through the nation’s capital. It also came after the center’s Trump-aligned board of trustees launched a last-minute appeal to block the decision, which was rejected.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Anthropic has pulled its most advanced AI models offline after the Trump administration blocked foreign users from accessing the technology. The Commerce Department ordered Anthropic on Friday to make its newly released Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models unavailable to foreign nationals. The move aims to prohibit access by foreign governments, companies, individuals, and even foreign nationals living in the United States. Anthropic said it had no choice but to disable the models entirely to ensure compliance. Experts say the government is concerned that bad actors could circumvent Claude Fable 5’s safeguards to identify software vulnerabilities and exploit weaknesses in critical computer systems. The move marks one of the most aggressive government interventions yet in the rapidly escalating AI race. Mythos 5 has been used by businesses and governments to detect cybersecurity flaws, and experts warn the shutdown could disrupt security efforts across industries. Anthropic, which recently filed confidentially for an IPO, called the decision an overreaction and said it would restore access as quickly as legally possible.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Only a man like Donald Trump would respond to the widespread criticism of his demolition of the East Wing by thinking to himself (inasmuch as Trump thinks these days) that “them’s fightin’ words,” and then taking it literally by defacing the White House grounds even further still.

Construction crews have now built a large-scale cage on the South Lawn of the White House, dwarfed in turn by a massive arched lighting grid called “The Claw.” But before you worry that this set-up is a new development in the White House’s deportation agenda, know that it’s all for the “UFC Freedom 250” extravaganza scheduled for June 14—Flag Day and, not coincidentally, Trump’s 80th birthday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Texas Republicans’ bid to project unity backfired spectacularly when a live elephant marched onto the convention floor—and promptly peed all over it.

The elephant was paraded through the convention hall in Houston as a “larger-than-life surprise” for attendees gathered to elect party leaders and prepare for November’s midterm elections.

Videos shared online showed the animal walking through the crowd wearing a banner reading “UNITY DRIVES VICTORY” alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign logo.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has announced that the U.S. carried out a “swift and deadly” strike to execute the leader of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua crime group.

Trump, the self-styled “President of Peace” who remains embroiled in war with Iran, said that a targeted U.S. strike killed Héctor “El Niño” Guerrero. He said the attack was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike hit a compound in Venezuela and was conducted in collaboration with local forces.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Lower ratings in the CBS time slot formerly occupied by Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show could harm the network’s other programming, media experts say.

After Colbert’s cancellation, CBS brought in comedian and business executive Byron Allen to host Comics Unleashed, for which Allen Media covers all production costs. But Nielsen data viewed by Status also reveal lower ratings than Colbert generated toward the end of his run. Specifically, ratings for the comedy panel show fell 64 percent.

That may have broader implications across the network.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has conjured up a mind-blowing villain for skyrocketing gas prices in America in an interview on Fox News.

“Thank Gavin Newsom for that,” he snapped Friday when asked by host Aishah Hasnie about the public’s growing fury over mounting gas prices.

Those prices, with a national average still well above $4, are universally believed to be the result of Trump’s ongoing war with Iran, and have never previously been blamed on California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bright lights from the site of Donald Trump’s UFC birthday extravaganza on the White House lawn are partially blinding flight crews approaching a major U.S. airport, a pilot has alleged.

Powerful lighting used during the construction and testing of the octagon on the South Lawn allegedly shone directly into the cockpit of an aircraft approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, creating a serious visibility hazard during landing.

The pilot—who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly—tells Meidas Touch that the glare was “10 times worse than any laser illumination event” they had previously experienced.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Television actor Ronnie Schell, who played Marine Pvt. Duke Slater in the 1960s hit sitcom Gomer Pyle: USMC, has died of natural causes at 94. He was the last surviving cast member of the popular program. Schell played the more worldly best pal of Gomer, who was played by Jim Nabors as a naive “aw shucks” private with a heart of gold. Nabors had earlier played Pyle as a sweet gas station attendant in the fictional town of Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show, who somehow stumbled into the Marines. Nabors and Schell were close friends in real life, and their camaraderie translated to the screen. Schell called Nabors the “older brother I never had.” Schell left Gomer in the fourth season for another program but later returned for the final season. It ran for five seasons from 1964 to 1969. Schell had some 150 TV acting credits and appeared on programs including Charlie’s Angels, The Patty Duke Show, Mork & Mindy, and One Day at a Time. He died at UCLA Medical Center on Friday after hospitalization following a fall.

Read it at People

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pope Leo’s return to the Vatican hit an unexpected snag on Friday after a technical issue grounded his plane, forcing him to accept a lift home from the King of Spain. The pontiff had already boarded an Iberia-operated flight in Tenerife at the end of his week-long visit to the Canary Islands when the aircraft developed a problem before departure. After being seen off by King Felipe VI and other dignitaries, Pope Leo was escorted back to the terminal alongside the Spanish monarch. Passengers said the captain later announced that an engine had likely failed to start due to strong winds and that the issue could not be resolved immediately. The Spanish government said the king offered to provide a Falcon jet from the Spanish Air Force to fly the Pope and several members of his delegation back to Rome. Other delegation members and journalists were expected to travel separately. Iberia said the plane had experienced an unspecified technical issue and that a replacement aircraft was being dispatched.

Read it at The Independent

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former model Jerry Hall has not seen her ex-husband Rupert Murdoch since their “traumatic” divorce six years ago, she revealed in a new interview with British Vogue.

Their marriage ended four years ago after the right-wing media mogul—worth an estimated $23 billion, by Forbes estimate—coolly informed his fourth wife, to whom he had been married for six years, that they were breaking up in an email.

“Jerry, sadly, I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage,” Murdoch, 95, allegedly informed her in his missive. “We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do… my New York­ lawyer will be contacting yours immediately.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The UFC event at the White House on Donald Trump’s birthday is “as corrupt a MAGA event as there could possibly be,” a top political commentator alleges.

David Rothkopf tells The Daily Beast Podcast that the president’s 80th birthday occasion, which coincides with Flag Day, should be viewed as a state-sponsored promotion of the mixed martial arts organization, with Paramount also benefiting.

“The last time [Trump] thought that he had a peace deal with Iran, he went to a UFC event in Miami with Marco Rubio. And here we are again, another peace deal brewing,” Rothkopf, the Daily Beast’s chief global affairs correspondent, told co-host Joanna Coles. “But this thing is different, because it’s incredibly corrupt.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s former FBI deputy director melted down in a profane tirade against Tucker Carlson, whom he bizarrely likened to the right’s version of MS Now host Rachel Maddow.

Dan Bongino unloaded on the former Fox News host, accusing him of peddling conspiracy theories about the probe into the assassination attempt against Trump in Pennsylvania.

The blowup came after Carlson claimed Bongino had privately told him Trump had intervened to halt the investigation into the attempt on his life.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Patton Oswalt has one piece of advice for hosts caught up in President Donald Trump’s ongoing battle against late-night TV: Never give in.

“The most obvious lesson is: if you kowtow to Trump, he hates you,” Oswalt, 57, who just debuted a new comedy special, Tea & Scotch, told Obsessed: The Podcast. “If you don’t kowtow to him, he might still hate you, but he’ll respect you, and other people will respect you, and you will have a career going forward.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Joe Rogan says he would never have approved MMA fights on the White House lawn if he ran the UFC, dumping on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday plans.

On his hugely popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on Friday, Rogan’s guest, author and bowhunter Cameron Hanes, brought up the spectacle, saying he felt uncomfortable with the government being in the business of entertainment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show wasn’t the only highly rated show that CBS axed this year.

According to a report from Variety, the network, which was acquired by Donald Trump’s billionaire pal David Ellison in August as part of Skydance’s Paramount deal, also axed the medical drama Watson, which drew 6.4 million viewers during its second and final season. The show, which stars Morris Chestnut, made the report’s Top 100 Broadcast/Cable/Streaming Shows of 2025-26 for total viewership across multi-platform, cross-season ratings, ranking 74th.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A Venezuelan migrant took his wife, a fan of President Donald Trump, on a road trip to Trump National Doral to celebrate their marriage—but he ended up detained and in federal custody for months.

Bryan José Rojas Galofre and his wife, Socorro Zaragosa, road tripped from Wisconsin to Miami in January 2025, hoping to catch a glimpse of Trump during a Republican retreat at his hotel.

Things took a turn for the worse when they went through a hotel security checkpoint, the couple now tells Noticias Telemundo. Rojas, 34, was detained and taken to an ICE facility, setting off a legal battle that he says has drained his savings and left Zaragosa, 22, alone to look after their newborn baby for months.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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One of the founders of a popular Scottish bag maker revealed why the Princess of Wales continues to carry its designs year after year.

Strathberry’s chic Multrees chain wallet ($445) has been a staple of Kate Middleton’s accessory rotation for years, putting the brand in the spotlight and ultimately leading it to reframe its business strategy, according to co-founder Leanne Hundleby.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A Love Island USA star’s appearance became the target of rumors and online bullying after viewers discovered her past modeling work.

After the show’s eighth season kicked off on June 2, fans were eager to learn everything they could about the new islanders.

Fans of the hit Peacock dating competition were stunned to learn that contestant Melanie Moreno, 24, used to work as a plus-size model.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Spencer Pratt has responded to his loss in the Los Angeles mayoral race in a fiery rant posted to Instagram. “Hey morons, I didn’t get in this for political power,” says Pratt, a Republican and former reality TV star. “I got in this to expose this corrupt machine, and nothing’s changed.” Despite Pratt’s third-place finish, nine points behind the incumbent Karen Bass and 2.7 points behind Councilwoman Nithya Raman, he declared he will maintain influence over the country’s second-largest city. “It’s war,” Pratt says in the clip, adding, “You think you can get rid of me that easily?” He also listed people who he claims will leave the city because of his loss. “You have no idea how bad things are going to get for this city,” he claimed, adding that he is sitting on incriminating video of one of the two “commie animals” currently still in the race, referring to Raman and Bass, who are both Democrats. He gave no details on the contents of this video or how he obtained it, but claims the FBI will be “breaking down [their] doors.”

Read it at ABC 7

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The pomp and spectacle of Donald Trump’s 80th birthday might be disrupted by serious weather, but nothing can stop the president from joining a small group of current global leaders who are octogenarians.

Just 16 world leaders among the United Nations’ 186 member states are older than Trump, according to analysis from the Pew Research Center.

That makes Trump older than 91 percent of his counterparts.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Steven Spielberg says he was “crushed” when Harrison Ford turned down the lead role in Jurassic Park.

The legendary filmmaker made the revelation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast after its host, Josh Horowitz, asked whether Ford had passed on playing paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster.

“Yes, he did,” Spielberg replied. “He may not remember that, but I sure do.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A longtime 60 Minutes producer who has been with CBS News for more than four decades has resigned amid upheaval at the storied newsmagazine.

Michael Gavshon will stay on until the end of June, he wrote in a memo to colleagues, the New York Post reported.

“Thirty-four of my forty-one years at CBS News have been at ’60 Minutes,’” Gavshon wrote. “The old chestnut, I have stood on the shoulders of giants, couldn’t be more true.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski’s essay about her experiences dating as a single mother sparked an online frenzy, with many commenters calling her “out of touch.”

On Friday, Ratajkowski, 35, wrote about her experiences with sex after divorce in an essay titled “Mother F---er: After becoming a single mom, I began compulsively dating in order to figure out what kind of woman I wanted to be,” published in The Cut.

“I decided to f--- my way into a new kind of woman,” Ratajkowski wrote about her post-divorce life. “I wanted to destroy the Madonna, the special girl I’d worked so hard to be before an eight-pound baby had torn my vagina in two, and replace her with the wh---.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.