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    Feed Title: The Daily Beast Latest Articles
    - AJ McDougall

    Mike Segar/ReutersThe bodies of two workers who fell into the Patapsco River after a massive container ship slammed into and destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this week were recovered on Wednesday morning, authorities confirmed. The search for four others was suspended, with authorities citing conditions in the water that made it too dangerous for dive teams to continue.The two men were found around 10 a.m. in a red pickup truck submerged in 25 feet of water, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., secretary of Maryland State Police, said at an evening news conference. They were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, originally from Mexico; and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Maryland, who was from Guatemala.Both were part of a construction crew fixing potholes on the bridge, as were the four men who remain missing, Butler said. He explained that the missing are believed to be “encased” within the mangled debris of the 1.6-mile-long bridge. “We have exhausted all search efforts in the area around this wreckage,” he said.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - William Vaillancourt

    MSNBCBaltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) responded to some of the bizarre criticisms coming from conservatives following the cargo ship-induced collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning by saying the term DEI—when applied derogatorily to him—means “duly elected incumbent.”On MSNBC’s The Reid Out, host Joy Reid prefaced her interview with Scott, who is Black, by calling attention to a tweet describing Scott as “Baltimore’s DEI mayor.” That post, which references the acronym that stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, has generated more than 25 million views, along with a clarifying community note on X.“I cannot believe I have to say this,” Reid began. “Brandon Scott was elected with 70 percent of the vote in 2020 in a city that is 61 percent Black. So by right-wing logic, a ‘diversity hire’ would have been a white man.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Tom Sykes

    Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyKing Charles’ decision to issue a pre-recorded address to the nation at this year’s Maundy Thursday service and attend another service on Easter Day in person is “a clear statement that he is still in charge,” a source has told The Daily Beast.The king, who is under doctor’s orders to avoid large crowds while being treated for cancer, which was discovered when he was being treated for a benign enlarged prostate, will deliver a pre-recorded speech, which sources say will not touch on his recent health travails, to be played on big screens at Worcester Cathedral.Parts of the audio message were revealed late Wednesday, with the king noting how Jesus set an “example of how we should serve and care for each other,” and how “we need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - William Vaillancourt

    Carlos Barria/ReutersJon Stewart responded with characteristic wit Wednesday after a New York Post story, centered around a right-wing commentator’s tweet, tried to depict the Comedy Central host as a hypocrite after he criticized Donald Trump’s justification of bank fraud as a “victimless crime.”The Post quoted podcaster Tim Pool, who baselessly wondered whether Stewart committed “fraud” when he sold his New York City penthouse for $17.5 million in 2014. The publication based its conclusion on the fact that assessor records from that year showed the property’s estimated market value sitting at $1.882 million. According to the Post, the property’s assessor valuation was under $850,000.On Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, Stewart explained why Donald Trump’s claim that his bank fraud judgment for inflating property values to secure better loans—and then using lower values for tax purposes—was not a “victimless crime.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Hussein Ibish

    Hazem Bader/Getty ImagesThe Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel—and the subsequent Gaza war—are rarely understood in their primary political context, which is the power struggle among Palestinian factions.The near-universal assumption is that Hamas viewed its surprise offensive as another phase in a long-term war against Israel. There’s some truth to it, but that misreads why Hamas decided now to deliberately provoke a massive Israeli response—which is the long-standing power struggle between the Islamists in Hamas and their smaller ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), against the secular nationalists of Fatah who control the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and, more importantly, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which represents Palestinians diplomatically.Fatah, of course, knows this full well, but a surge of nationalist sentiment and shared outrage at the mass killing and suffering of the 2.2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza muffled nationalist leaders like President Mahmoud Abbas (also the chairman of the PLO) in publicly acknowledging Hamas’ breathtaking cynicism.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Roger Sollenberger

    Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/GettyWhen conservative icon Matt Schlapp announced Tuesday that the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against him was dropped, he and his allies were quick to note that the ordeal ended without him or the American Conservative Union—the right-wing organization he runs—paying his accuser a single dollar.But what Schlapp didn’t disclose was that the Republican operative who sued him was, in fact, paid to drop the lawsuit, according to two people with knowledge of the payout. It was just that the money came from ACU’s insurance company, these two people told The Daily Beast. (Minutes before this article published, CNN ran a story also revealing that the lawsuit was dropped only after Schlapp’s accuser was paid $480,000 from ACU’s insurer—an amount one of the sources confirmed to The Daily Beast.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Tim Teeman

    BBC/Sky/ITV News/Handout via ReutersIn an audio message to mark Maundy Thursday, King Charles will say how Jesus set an “example of how we should serve and care for each other,” and how “we need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need.”Charles’ words—which come after daughter-in-law Kate Middleton revealed her cancer diagnosis, and as he himself undergoes treatment for the disease—do not directly refer to either her or his current medical challenges, but may be seen by some as an oblique reference to the supportive responses to both. Kate, Prince William, and Charles have all thanked the public for their well-wishes in the wake of announcing their diagnoses. In a previous statement, Charles said he was “so proud” of Kate following her public announcement.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Josh Fiallo, Matt Young

    ReutersA judge on Wednesday recommended John Eastman–a now-infamous former lawyer for Donald Trump during the chaotic final days of his presidential term–be disbarred in California, the result of a case centered around his desperate attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Trump’s favor. “Eastman’s wrongdoing constitutes exceptionally serious ethical violations warranting severe professional discipline,” the court states in its decision. Eastman, 63, can no longer practice law in California, unless he wins an appeal. The decision from Judge Yvette Roland means his law license will now be deemed “inactive” until a decision on whether he will appeal or not. The move to an inactive status comes into effect three calendar days after the order is served. Absent a challenge, the recommendation goes to the California Supreme Court for review, the State Bar of California said.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Edith Olmsted

    Alex Wong/Getty ImagesA man who made threatening phone calls to Nancy Pelosi and United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was sentenced to 11 months in prison on Wednesday.David Allen Carrier, 44, pleaded guilty to two counts of making threats against a federal official, according to a press release from the United States District Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California.In Jan. 2021, when Pelosi was still the House Majority Speaker, Carrier left a voicemail on her office line in which he threatened to assault her. The call came within a month of the Capitol riots, at which point Pelosi was directing criticism toward Donald Trump for being an “accessory” to the incident which left five people dead. At the time, Pelosi had been inexplicably identified by the far-right as the villain of the riot.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - AJ McDougall

    Gilles Sabrié for the Washington Post via Getty ImagesJoe Lieberman, the independent-minded politician who served as a U.S. senator from Connecticut for nearly a quarter of a century and ran on the Democratic ticket alongside Al Gore in 2000, died on Wednesday in New York City. He was 82.His family, who confirmed his death in a statement to The Washington Post, said the cause was complications from a fall.“His beloved wife, Hadassah, and members of his family were with him when he passed,” the statement said. “Senator Lieberman’s love of God, his family and America endured throughout his life of service in the public interest.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - AJ McDougall

    J Pat Carter/Getty ImagesAuthorities in Oklahoma released the complete autopsy and toxicology report in the case of Nex Benedict on Wednesday, as LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocacy groups reiterated calls for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding 16-year-old nonbinary student’s February death.“The full report does little to fill in the gaps in information about that day or the more than a year of bullying and harassment that led up to it,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “It does not answer the questions of so many in Oklahoma and across the country.”The full 11-page report released by the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner maintains that Benedict’s death was, as previously reported, a suicide by “combined toxicity” of two drugs, brand names Prozac and Benedryl. The report details the amounts of both the antidepressant and antihistamine found in Benedict’s system upon their Feb. 9 autopsy.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Helen Holmes

    Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagicWhile many artists and brands would leap at the chance to be affiliated with Kim Kardashian, perhaps the world’s foremost and most successful influencer-entrepreneur, the late minimalist Donald Judd, whose eponymous foundation sued Kardashian on Wednesday, is not one of them. Kardashian, the Judd Foundation alleges, is guilty of passing off knockoff Judd furniture as the real thing in a promotional YouTube video for her skincare brand SKKN. “Two minutes and twenty seconds into the video... Ms. Kardashian pointed to two tables with sets of chairs seamlessly tucked under the tables and said, ‘If you guys are furniture people—because I’ve really gotten into furniture lately—these Donald Judd tables are really amazing and totally blend in with the seats,’” the lawsuit states. Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Josh Fiallo

    Getty Images/James DevaneyPop megastar Beyoncé gave fans some more insight into her highly-anticipated foray into country music on Wednesday, revealing the track list for Cowboy Carter and hinting that it may include a cover of a beloved Dolly Parton classic and feature Willie Nelson himself.Beyoncé posted the titles for the 27-song album in a graphic on Instagram, which wasn’t accompanied by a caption. The album is set to drop Friday—Beyoncé’s first since 2022, when her Renaissance album was released to universal acclaim.Among the titles shared Wednesday included the track “Jolene,” the name of one of Parton’s most beloved tracks, which has also been covered by The White Stripes, Miley Cyrus, and the late Olivia Newton-John. Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Shannon Vavra

    Ognen Teofilovski/ReutersSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic issued a grim statement about an unspecified threat to his country in a social media post on Tuesday, raising alarm bells about a possible geopolitical conflict.“Difficult days are ahead of Serbia,” he said in a Facebook post. “At this moment, it is not easy to say what kind of news we have received in the last 48 hours, [but] they directly threaten our vital national interests, both of Serbia and [Republika] Srpska,” he added, referring to the ethnically Serb Republika Srpska.He vaguely alluded to Serbia fighting and winning in a difficult challenge ahead.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Justin Baragona

    Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyThe open revolt that played out on MSNBC’s airwaves over Ronna McDaniel’s NBC hiring may have made compelling television for political media junkies, but it didn’t do much to expand the cable-news channel’s overall audience.According to Nielsen, the network’s primetime ratings on Monday night were virtually unchanged from the previous three weeks, even as host after host blasted NBC management for hiring the former Republican National Committee chairwoman as an on-air political analyst. Even MSNBC’s biggest star Rachel Maddow, who used the first half-hour of her show to tear apart the hiring and urge NBC executives to reverse their “inexplicable” decision, saw no boost in the ratings that evening.Following last week’s announcement that McDaniel had joined the network, NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd condemned the hiring during a stunning segment of Sunday’s Meet the Press, opening the floodgates for other on-air stars within the NBC family to follow suit.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Alex Tzelnic

    Scouted/The Daily Beast/Fjallraven. Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.The clocks have sprung ahead, and spring shower season has officially begun. Early spring tends to be muddy, chilly, and wet, so having the proper jacket for tackling spring adventures can help flip the script on seasonal doldrums. My favorite? Fjallraven’s Vardag Hydratic Anorak, which is available for both men and women.Why an anorak? Personally, I love the coziness offered by a pullover layer compared to a traditional rain jacket. They feel more enclosed and protected, and Fjallraven’s Vardag Hydratic Anorak features a side zipper, making this an easy layer to change into. Plus, when I’m going to be out in the rain for an extended period, an anorak offers increased defenses, as the lack of a front zipper means less chance for rain to seep in. On my rainy-day bike commutes, the front of my jacket takes the majority of the moisture, so I arrive at my destination dry and cozy. Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Nick Schager

    Courtesy of ITN DistributionDue to notoriety far more than quality (which it wholly lacked), last year’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey proved an indie horror hit. Thus, the world will now be subjected to additional entries in what British writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and production companies Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios have dubbed the “Twisted Childhood Universe,” which aims to bring together various iconic children’s-lit characters who have entered the public domain and, consequently, are fair game for juvenile schlockmeisters.This will all build to a crossover event film dubbed Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, whose Avengers-esque title primarily suggests multiple dirty puns. Yet before that undoubtedly Z-grade effort materializes, Frake-Waterfield continues expanding his A.A. Milne-inspired series with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, a sequel that ups the ante in virtually every way—none of them good.Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, which is now in theaters, boasts a bigger budget, higher production values, and an entirely new cast. Alas, when it comes to the things that matter most—like writing, directing, and acting—it’s as chintzy and inept as its predecessor. It’s also crude, ugly, and decidedly misogynistic, but more on that later.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Barry Markson

    Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/ReutersKari Lake built her entire political brand on MAGA lies which she insisted were true. And yet, on Tuesday she and her lawyers decided they won’t mount a defense in a suit brought by an Arizona GOP election official who accused her of defaming him “falsely and with actual malice.”As an Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2022, she co-opted former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election as the basis of her campaign, and when early primary results showed her losing her race, she immediately alleged election fraud and corruption. And yet, she ended up winning the GOP primary, and suddenly the fraud disappeared.But Lake lost the general election that November, and her claims of corruption and a stolen election returned. She declared herself to be the “lawful governor” of Arizona until she announced her campaign for Senate last year.Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Eboni Boykin-Patterson

    James Devaney/Getty ImagesSocial media has shown a disturbing trend of women saying they were punched while out and about in New York City, and this week, Real Housewives alum Bethenny Frankel said she was the victim of a similar random attack.Frankel shared her experience in a now-deleted comment on fashion student Mikayla Toninato’s viral TikTok video. In the video, Toninato says she was punched in the face while leaving a class in New York City.“I turned the corner and I was looking down at my phone and texting, and then out of nowhere this man just came up and hit me in the face,” Toninato recalled. “I just texted my friends like, ‘Hi, I just got punched in the face,’ and then they sent me a TikTok of this other girl in New York who got punched in the face.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

    - Laura Bradley

    Disney/Gizelle HernandezThe past few years have been rough for The Bachelor fans. Season after season on the franchise’s flagship series, we’ve faced uncharismatic leads, racism scandals, and problematic cads. Emotional intelligence has been nowhere to be found, and too often, any sense of real humor has proven just as elusive. In other words, the bar was through the floor. But then, in walked Joey Graziadei. Joey’s Bachelor season wrapped up on Monday night with a historic finale that brought out the tears in the best way possible. I’ve already praised Joey as the best Bachelor we’ve had in recent history, but now that his run is complete, I think we can all agree that his season was actually the best of all time. As someone who has been watching The Bachelor religiously since middle school but has felt her devotion waver, this man has single-handedly restored my faith in televised romance. Bachelor host Jesse Palmer has dubbed this phenomenon “Joey Mania.” But what was it that made this tennis coach’s season so compelling? Does the explanation begin with those green eyes and end with that gorgeous head of wavy hair? Bachelor Nation has been starved for a real hunk for far too long, but I suspect there’s also something deeper at play.Read more at The Daily Beast.

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