Dan Ladden-Hall

Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports via ReutersTravis Kelce says he didn’t agree with “just about any” of what his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Harrison Butker said during his extremely controversial commencement speech at a Catholic college earlier this month.The backlash was swift and furious to Butker’s speech, in which he took swipes at abortion and Pride Month and emphasized to the young women graduating the importance of being a “homemaker.” He also appeared to invoke the lyrics of Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, at one point, saying: “As my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’”“I think Pat said it best where he is every bit of a great person and a great teammate,” Kelce said on Friday’s episode of his New Heights podcast, which he hosts alongside his former NFL player brother, Jason Kelce. Travis Kelce was referring to comments made earlier this week by Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, in which he said he judged Butker by “the character he shows every single day, and that’s a good person.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Steve Granitz/GettySean “Diddy” Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura on Thursday released an emotional statement thanking people who reached out to offer their love and support following the recent release of a video showing the rapper assaulting her in a hotel in 2016.“The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning,” the singer wrote in a post on Instagram. “Domestic Violence is THE issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become. With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past.”Ventura’s comment came after CNN published a video showing him throwing her to the ground and kicking her multiple times. Diddy subsequently released an apology saying his actions in the footage were “inexcusable” and that he was “disgusted” with what he had done. The violence appeared to corroborate claims of violence that Ventura had made—and which Diddy previously denied—in a lawsuit which was settled last year.Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Washington Post via GettyThe Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Republican National Committee was placed in lockdown on Wednesday morning after vials of blood were sent to the building.A hazardous materials unit with the U.S. Capitol Police traveled to the site after a suspicious package was found. Police say the package contained two vials of blood, while a source further told CNN that it also had two ice packs and a Korean Bible.The network said that an all-clear was given at the site just after 9 a.m. E.T.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Alessandro Bianchi/ReutersFrench film star Gérard Depardieu allegedly punched a photographer dubbed “the king of paparazzi” three times in the face during an altercation in Rome on Tuesday.The incident took place at Harry’s Bar on the city’s Via Veneto. The 75-year-old actor allegedly struck Rino Barillari after the photographer was repeatedly asked to stop taking pictures, according to a journalist who witnessed the scuffle.Gianni Riotta, an Italian newspaper columnist who claims to have seen what unfolded at Harry’s bar, told The New York Times that Barillari was followed out of the venue by a shouting woman who had been sitting with Depardieu. The actor then reached Barillari and “hit him, hit him, hit him,” Riotta said. “There was a lot of blood.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Biden-Harris HQ / TikTokPresident Joe Biden’s campaign dragged Donald Trump for sharing a clip making reference to “the creation of a unified Reich” by getting Biden himself to make a TikTok reaction video.Trump eventually deleted the video echoing the rhetoric of Nazi Germany amid an outraged response, with his own campaign blaming a “staffer who clearly did not see the word” for sharing it on the Republican’s Truth Social account in the first place. Biden’s TikTok shows him shaking his head as he apparently watches the offending video and then, in disbelief, asking someone out of shot: “Is this on his official account? Wow.”“A ‘unified Reich?,’” Biden continues in the clip. “That’s [Hitler’s] language. That’s not America’s. He cares about holding on to power. I care about you.” In the TikTok version of the video, the audio dips out when Biden says “Hitler,” and the subtitles for the sentence read: “That’s H!t1er’s language,” presumably in an effort to stop the video from potentially being flagged for its content.Read more at The Daily Beast.

CNNOstensibly, the rapper Cam’ron appeared on CNN on Monday night to give his thoughts on the video of Sean “Diddy” Combs violently beating his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and his subsequent apology.Instead, the interview rapidly went off the rails and descended into Cam’ron using his airtime to chug a sex supplement drink, promote his podcast, and ask: “Who booked me for this joint?”Host Abby Phillip began the interview asking Cam’ron—real name Cameron Giles—if he recognized the Diddy on display in the 2016 video showing him attacking Ventura in a hotel. Cam’ron said that everything in the clip was “egregious.” “When I seen the video, yeah, I was kind of upset with it,” he continued. “Being that I know him—he’s not necessarily a friend—but yeah, I was upset when I seen it.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Mark Peterson/ReutersEven in the closing stages of Donald Trump’s hush money trial, there’s seemingly no end to the drama.Defense witness Robert Costello—a former federal prosecutor called by Trump’s attorneys as they seek to undermine the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen—will be back on the stand Tuesday. His return comes the day after extraordinary scenes in the Manhattan courtroom that prompted Judge Juan Merchan to repeatedly rebuke Costello for his “contemptuous” behavior, even threatening to strike all of his testimony.After Cohen finished his fourth day of testimony, jurors heard from Costello—a lawyer who once advised Cohen and acted as a backchannel between Cohen and Trump’s White House in 2018.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Azin Haghighi/Anadolu via Getty ImagesAn Israeli official has gone on the record to deny their country was behind the helicopter crash which claimed the lives of Iran’s president, foreign minister, and others Sunday.President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and the six other passengers on board the chopper that went down in poor weather conditions were all confirmed dead Monday by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. An anonymous Israeli official told Reuters that Israel was not responsible for the incident, simply saying: “It wasn’t us.”The wreckage of the crash was found early Monday in a mountainous area following a massive search and rescue operation that ran through the night. Reports had emerged a day earlier that the helicopter had suffered a “hard landing” as Raisi was traveling from the Iran-Azerbaijan border—where he’d been inaugurating a dam—on the way to the Iranian city of Tabriz.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Hollie Adams/ReutersA London court on Monday ruled that Julian Assange can appeal against his extradition to the United States, a decision which will be welcomed as a significant victory by his supporters but one which is also likely to extend his lengthy legal battle in Britain.The ruling comes after two High Court judges in March deferred a decision about whether the WikiLeaks founder could launch a new appeal against an order from the U.K. government for him to be sent to the U.S. to face trial on espionage charges. The justices said at the time that Assange would be granted leave to appeal unless the American government could provide “satisfactory” assurances about the rights that Assange would have during a prospective trial.The U.S. Embassy in London in April made assurances that the Australian journalist would not be “prejudiced by reason of his nationality” and said that he would be able to seek First Amendment rights. American officials also said he would not face the death penalty in his case.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Carlos Barria/ReutersDonald Trump came out swinging Monday morning, pushing back on claims that he froze up during a speech over the weekend and asserting that an apparent mishap involving a wobbly podium was, in fact, a stunning feat of his physical talents.On his Truth Social platform, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee first took issue with the way his lengthy mid-speech pause at the National Rifle Association convention Saturday had been made out to be an unintentional gaffe. He said it was actually a “standard” part of his speeches and blamed President Joe Biden’s campaign for the supposed misinterpretation of what happened.“My Speech in Dallas this weekend at the NRA’s ‘Endorsement of President Donald J. Trump,’ was attended by a Record Crowd of very enthusiastic Patriots,” he wrote. “The Biden Campaign, however, put out a Fake Story that I ‘froze’ for 30 seconds, going into the ‘Musical Interlude’ section, when in actuality, the 30 to 60 second period of silence is standard in every one of my Speeches where we use the Music.”Read more at The Daily Beast.