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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Grinning Trump Goon Says Shooting Settles Debate Over $1B Ask
Face the Nation/CBSA shooting outside the White House on Saturday should put to rest any questions about the president’s funding request for his East Wing makeover, Donald Trump’s top economic adviser says. A bill that would provide $1 billion dollars in taxpayer funds to cover security enhancements related to the $400 million ballroom was the cause of a rift in the GOP this week that led to the funding being shelved.Now, Kevin Hassett, the director of the president’s National Economic Council, says the case has been made for the funding to be approved. Read more at The Daily Beast.
Trump, 79, Brags About Deal That Doesn’t Exist Yet
Carlos Barria / REUTERSPresident Donald Trump is putting the cart before the horse.Trump, 79, boasted on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon that his peace deal with Iran, which, by his own admission, “isn’t fully negotiated yet,” is already leagues better than former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote. “Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
Rogue Republican Massie Drops Melania Epstein Files Bomb
NBC NewsRep. Thomas Massie has claimed that Melania Trump “knows” Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running his child sex abuse ring alone.Massie, 55, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday and confirmed that he personally planned to reveal more names from the Epstein files after a lack of clear action from the acting attorney general.“Todd Blanche is violating the law. There’s still millions of files they haven’t released,” he said.Read more at The Daily Beast.
Leader of Famous Rock Band Comes Out as Gay
Erika Goldring / Getty ImagesSinger and musician Caleb Shomo came out as a “proudly gay man” on Instagram. Shomo, 33, is best known as the lead vocalist of the band Beartooth. “This is something I’ve been unpacking and reckoning with in my life for quite some time now,” he wrote on Instagram on Saturday. The singer has been married to Fleur Shomo since 2012, and his wife also took to Instagram to express her support, writing that it has been “a very disorienting and hurtful time to navigate” for both her and her husband. “I spent a decade burying feelings with alcohol, and honestly when I decided to put it down and focus on exploring why I felt this way for so long, it’s been a direct path to me reconciling with my sexuality in hopes that it will eventually lead to me experiencing self love,” Shomo wrote. The vocalist thanked those who have supported him throughout his journey and vowed to express himself “whole heartedly and fully” on his upcoming album. “Love you all, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction to loving myself one day,” Shomo concluded his post.Read it at Page SixRead more at The Daily Beast.
CDC Announces Enhanced Screenings at Busiest U.S. Airport
Eva Korinkova / REUTERSSome travelers passing through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will now be subject to enhanced Ebola screening measures. In a Saturday press release, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that travelers arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan will be required to undergo additional screenings for the disease. As of May 24, there have been 83 confirmed cases of Ebola and nine deaths in the DRC. An estimated 176 people are suspected to have died from the Bundibugyo strain of the disease, with 750 suspected cases in the DRC and a handful of confirmed cases in Uganda. Before the CDC’s announcement, all flights carrying passengers from the listed countries were diverted to Washington’s Dulles International Airport, the sole designated landing site for further screening. The CDC says this step is just one part of their plan to prevent the spread of the disease to the United States, which also includes overseas exit screening, airline illness reporting, and post-arrival public health monitoring. The Trump administration has already banned non-citizens who have traveled to the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past few weeks from entering the country.Read it at PeopleRead more at The Daily Beast.
Pop Star Reveals Secret Birth of First Baby
InstagramGirls Aloud star Nicola Roberts has given birth to her first child. “Our beautiful baby girl is here. We haven’t stopped staring at her perfect little face or kissing her softest little head,” Roberts, 40, announced on Instagram. “She arrived healthy and content a couple of weeks ago at 38 weeks weighing 6.5lbs and is thriving. It’s heaven on earth with her and we can hardly believe she’s ours.” Roberts is engaged to Mitch Hahn, a businessman and semi-professional soccer player, who she has been dating since 2022. They got engaged in 2024. The couple first announced the pregnancy in a Christmas post last year. “Mitch and I have had the most magical Christmas Day sharing the most precious news with our families. We’ve been keeping a secret. We are five months pregnant! We can’t wait to meet our little one in the spring,” she said. The ‘Love Machine’ singer revealed that she had undergone surgery at 22 weeks to prevent the baby from coming too early. The couple has not shared the baby’s name. Read it at PeopleRead more at The Daily Beast.
Far-Right Florida Candidate Abruptly Marries New Woman After Split
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/ReutersA far-right candidate for Florida governor bizarrely announced he was married to a mystery woman—less than three months after he was publicly flaunting a different woman as his girlfriend.James Fishback, a right-wing investor currently running against a Trump-backed candidate in the gubernatorial race, announced on X on Saturday that he had tied the knot with his unnamed, previously unknown partner.“Logging off for a bit. Getting married. Brb,” Fishback wrote.Read more at The Daily Beast.
‘Real Housewives’ Star Reveals Graphic New Health Scare
Brandi UnfilteredReality TV star Brandi Glanville took oversharing to the next level when she revealed on her podcast Brandi Unfiltered that she thinks she has sexually transmitted ringworm in her throat. Ringworm is a fungal infection of the hair, skin or nails that spreads through skin-to-skin contact, including, potentially, sexual contact. Glanville asked her guest, retired pornographic film star Lisa Ann, if she had ever heard of sexually transmitted ringworm and then followed up with: “I feel like I have it… in my throat.” Ann replied that not a lot of people know what to look for, and claimed that in the adult film industry, “we had to train our makeup artists” to check performers’ bodies for signs. Glanville revealed she thinks she got it from dating “somebody in that industry.” Glanville has a history of unique health issues. Her face was paralyzed following complications from a leaking breast implant, and earlier this year she got a garlic clove stuck in her ear. She had inserted it in a bid to help with congestion from a cold. Read it at Page SixRead more at The Daily Beast.
Trump Family Faces Damning New Grift Revelations
Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagA key government agency is dismantling efforts to regulate online betting markets and crypto as President Donald Trump and his family deepen their ties to the booming industries. The Trump family’s growing footprint in crypto and prediction markets has translated into billions in new wealth, fueled by digital coin offerings and deals with prediction market firms.Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., is both an investor in Polymarket, through his investment firm 1789 Capital, and an adviser to Kalshi and Polymarket. The president’s publicly traded media company partnered with Crypto.com last October on what the firms called an exclusive prediction market venture.Read more at The Daily Beast.
MAGA Rapper Selfie Snub Dragged Into Brutal Civil War Beef
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesNot getting a selfie with MAGA’s favorite rapper is the latest insult being thrown around in an explosive Republican civil war.On Saturday, a tense exchange between Senator Ted Cruz, 55, and former Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz devolved into a spat in which MAGA’s favorite rapper was invoked as a rhetorical jab.“Sorry you’re still salty that I prevented you from getting a picture with Nicki Minaj after you came running after her like a school girl,” 29-year-old Bruesewitz wrote to Cruz at the end of a heated exchange on X.Read more at The Daily Beast.
Huge Music Star Makes History With Chart-Topping Albums
Simone Joyner / Getty ImagesDrake is the first artist ever to hold the top three positions on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Iceman is at number one, selling 463,000 equivalent album units, while Habibti is in second with 114,000 units, and Maid of Honour is third with 110,000 units. Iceman marks his 15th chart-topper, tying him with Taylor Swift for the most number ones among solo acts, second only to the Beatles, who have 19 number ones. Iceman had the second-largest sales week of the year, behind BTS’s comeback album Arirang, which sold 641,000 units. Drake had been teasing the release of Iceman since the summer of 2025 by livestreaming the songs “What Did I Miss?” and “Which One” last July. The addition of the two extra albums was unexpected and was only announced via the album covers during a final livestream prior to Iceman’s release. Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide fell from first to fourth after Drake’s three releases. Read it at VarietyRead more at The Daily Beast.
A-Lister’s Daughter Claps Back After ‘Worst Comments’ About Her Looks
ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty ImagesFrancesca Scorsese, daughter of legendary filmmaker Martin, has revealed the vile abuse she received after announcing some exciting career news.“Hey. So I have to say that on my most recent like repost about this new amazing role that I just got... it has some of the worst comments I have ever seen about me,” the 26-year-old said in a TikTok video shared Saturday.“I’ve gotten hate for years, okay, it just comes with the territory. But this is something else,” the actress added.Read more at The Daily Beast.
Rory Culkin Welcomes First Child With Girlfriend
Aude Guerrucci/REUTERSRory Culkin, the youngest of the Culkin siblings, has welcomed his first child with his cinematographer girlfriend, Kate Arizmendi. In an Instagram story, Arizmendi, 38, shared a photo of their newborn while revealing the baby’s name. “Havoc Moon born 5/23 at 9:51,” she wrote, adding, “we’re so in love w you.” Arizmendi and Culkin, 36, have been together since 2023, and they announced they were expecting in January. In another post, Arizmendi shared a tender snapshot of her newborn daughter peering curiously into the camera. “15 mins after pushing her out and so alert and excited about life already,” she wrote. “Also hello girl baby Rory.” Arizmendi is known for her work on films and TV series, including Succession, which stars Culkin’s brother Kieran Culkin. Kieran, 43, shares three children with his wife Jazz Charton, while the third Culkin brother in the public eye, Macaulay, 45, is a father of two with his wife Brenda Song. Read it at TMZRead more at The Daily Beast.
Murdoch Paper Sounds Alarm on Who Really Holds ‘Trump Card’
Kevin Lamarque / ReutersThe Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal blasted President Donald Trump for losing the upper hand over the Strait of Hormuz in an editorial published on Sunday evening.The conservative newspaper lambasted the 79-year-old president’s strategy for putting an end to his war in the Middle East as details of a proposed deal between the United States and Iran began to surface over the weekend.Read more at The Daily Beast.
Trump Goons Buy Themselves More Time to Fix Boss’s Mess
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERSThe White House is once again pushing the finish line farther down the track after President Donald Trump boasted about closing in on a peace deal with Iran.Trump officials were busy buying themselves more time to finally put an end to the heavily criticized war, that the president started almost three months ago, by revealing a 60-day window for a final agreement. Read more at The Daily Beast.
ICE Barbie Catches Stray as GOP Senator Torches Hegseth
REUTERSOne Republican senator used the fired former Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, as a point of comparison for how poorly Pete Hegseth is doing his job.Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said that Hegseth’s tenure as Defense Secretary makes even the embattled ICE Barbie look good.“Do you think the president has been advised well by Secretary Hegseth on this war?” host Jake Tapper asked the 65-year-old senator.Read more at The Daily Beast.
‘60 Minutes’ Airs Star’s Plea to Protect First Amendment
60 MinutesCBS News’s flagship program broadcast a call to protect the First Amendment in spite of a Trump administration that has repeatedly threatened its integrity.As part of its “The Last Minute” feature on Sunday’s weekly broadcast, the Absence of Malice star Sally Field shared a personal story about what freedom of speech guaranteed by the United States Constitution means to her.“When I was in the seventh grade, I was asked to memorize something that I never forgot,” Field, 79, said. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peacefully to assemble.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
Trump’s Favorite Band Serenades Marco Rubio With Cringe Birthday Song
Julia Demaree Nikhinson / via REUTERSSecretary of State Marco Rubio enjoyed an early birthday treat in India, soundtracked by President Donald Trump’s favorite band.Rubio, who turns 55 on Thursday, attended an early celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi on Sunday, with musical entertainment from the 1970s disco group the Village People.The secretary of state arrived in India on Saturday ahead of a meeting with members of the Indo-Pacific alliance. Read more at The Daily Beast.
‘General Hospital’ Star Quits Show After Three Years
Christine Bartolucci / Christine Bartolucci/DISNEY via Getty ImagesKate Mansi is departing General Hospital after a three-year run on the soap opera. Mansi, who has portrayed Kristina Corinthos Davis since joining the show in 2023, opted not to renew her contract, telling soap journalist Stephanie Sloane that she was pursuing other projects. “I’ve made the very difficult decision to leave General Hospital,” Mansi, 38, said. “I have a few new projects that require my full attention, and with my husband currently producing a series filming primarily abroad, I needed the flexibility to travel while continuing to develop and work in Los Angeles.” Mansi is married to producer Matt McInnis. She added, “It’s been such a meaningful and unforgettable ride. I’ve loved being a fiery Corinthos-Davis girl in such a phenomenal family.” For her portrayal of Kristina, a role previously played by Lexie Answorth, Mansi received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2025. General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini told Sloan, “We love Kate and support her decision to leave. The door is always open, and we appreciate all that she added to the show these past three years.”Read it at VarietyRead more at The Daily Beast.
CBS Chickens Out of Bid to Censor Stephen Colbert’s Final Trump Troll
screen grabCBS has explained why it issued online takedown notices for Stephen Colbert’s first TV appearance since the company axed The Late Show.The day after his final CBS show, Colbert, 62, showed up on Michigan public-access television as a guest host for an episode of the series Only in Monroe. The show mixed famous guests, including Donald Trump’s musical nemesis, Jack White, with local content about the town.“It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV,” Colbert began, before taking another dig at the parent company of his canceled show. “I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community Media before they also get acquired by Paramount,” he said.Read more at The Daily Beast.
Far-Right Florida Candidate Melts Down After Wedding Reveal
Octavio Jones / REUTERSA far-right candidate for Florida governor has clapped back at the online reaction to his surprise wedding.James Fishback, a right-wing investor currently running against a Trump-backed candidate in the gubernatorial race, posted on X on Saturday, “Logging off for a bit. Getting married. Brb.” He then posted a photo at the altar with the caption “Mr. and Mrs. Fishback.”Three months ago, the 31-year-old was flaunting a different woman as his girlfriend, the cryptocurrency influencer Francesca Raine, who once called herself “Crypto Barbie.”Read more at The Daily Beast.
Reporter Who Went Viral After Shootout Beside White House Responds
screen grabNBC News reporter Julie Tsirkin has managed to laugh at herself after her confused reaction to a shooting near a White House security checkpoint launched a deluge of mocking memes.In footage posted by NBC 10 in Boston on Saturday night, a confused Tsirkin is shown asking “What is that?” twice, as shots were heard in the background. A cameraman can be heard saying, “sounds like fireworks” as Tsirkin looked in the direction of where the noise was coming from.Her puzzled face and the “what is that?” question was then seized by social media users. The footage went viral as social media users superimposed her reaction onto everything from Stephen Colbert dancing to alien invasions.Read more at The Daily Beast.
Tourists Flock to White House One Day After Shootout Incident
Kylie Cooper / REUTERSTourists have returned to the White House, one day after a man approached a security checkpoint on Saturday evening and began firing at officers. The suspect in the shooting, Nasire Best, a 21-year-old Maryland man, had been barred from returning to the White House after a previous arrest for entering a restricted area, according to The New York Times. He was shot by the Secret Service and died in hospital. Reuters interviewed tourists on Sunday who were still visiting White House, despite the alarming events of the previous evening. “Apart from the shooting, yes, it feels nice, it feels calm, like nothing happened yesterday,” one man told the outlet. “Everything is as normal, as it is expected.” A family who were visiting the U.S. for the first time said, “We wanted to start with seeing the White House because it’s so epic and an amazing place.” A shattered window with a bullet hole was visible at The People’s House: A White House Experience museum. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement on Sunday that his officers saved lives with their “decisive response.” A bystander struck by gunfire during the incident remained in serious but stable condition Sunday.Read more at The Daily Beast.
NHS spends record £241m outsourcing scan analysis to private firms
Radiologists say ‘ballooning’ costs reflect staffing failures, forcing a reliance on lower-quality private scan reportsThe NHS is paying private firms record sums to analyse diagnostic scans because hospitals are too busy and understaffed to do the work themselves, research has revealed.The amount being spent on outsourced the interpretation of CT and MRI scans is “spiralling out of control” and reflects a short-sighted failure to train enough doctors, ministers are being told. Continue reading...