Daily Beast

CNNHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), speaking to CNN right after his cold reception by pro-Palestine Columbia University student protesters, said he wasn’t surprised by the situation, since he was there to essentially issue a reprimand.Johnson told Erin Burnett that he and the other Republican lawmakers who joined him on campus had a message for the students.“I’m not surprised that they didn’t welcome our visit, because we’re calling out their activities,” Johnson said. “The point we tried to make today is that this is not who we are as Americans. This is not an expression of the First Amendment. This is not an exchange of ideas. This is threats and intimidation of violence against Jewish students for who they are, for their faith, and that’s a terrible trend that’s going on in the country right now.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Buckingham Palace via InstagramWhat timing!Buckingham Palace posted a high-production advertisement Wednesday for its own brand of strawberry jam—just days after Meghan Markle unveiled her own jam line as part of a new lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard.The ad was posted to the palace’s Instagram on Wednesday morning, showing a woman’s hand slathering strawberry jam on a scone, a crumpet, a croissant, and on toast.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Reuters/Paul MorigiRep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ) died Wednesday, succumbing to complications from a heart attack he suffered earlier this month, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday. He was 65.Payne had been unconscious since his heart attack on April 6, which his office said stemmed from diabetes.He was in the middle of his sixth term in Congress, representing Newark and parts of Essex, Hudson, and Union Counties. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scouted/The Daily Beast/Retailers.Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.I have a reputation as a thoughtful gift-giver. Of course, as any great athlete will tell you, playing your best means being unafraid to take a big shot, and those shots don’t always make it in. As my wife and I approach our 9th wedding anniversary, I can assure you I’ve swung and missed quite a few times. However, the best athletes also never hang their heads after a loss, and instead use it as a learning experience.With that approach in mind, I’ve decided to turn my Ls into Ws by offering you my hard-earned wisdom. What follows is advice on what NOT to give your partner this Mother’s Day, paired with some winning alternatives to consider instead. Whether for your own wife, mother, mother-in-law, or stepmom, here is what to avoid gifting the moms in your life on Mother’s Day. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Marc J. FranklinThe last Uncle Vanya to cause a stir in New York was far more modest in physical size than the Broadway production opening tonight at Lincoln Center Theater’s Vivian Beaumont Theater (to June 16), yet left a more emphatic impression. It took place in a Flatiron loft, with the audience seated in two rows running the length of the property’s living room, with its brilliant actors—including Bill Irwin, Marin Ireland, David Cromer, and Will Brill (now starring in the season’s deserved biggest hit, Stereophonic)—performing inches from audience members’ feet. As hearts broke, guns appeared, and so many feelings went unsaid, all felt viscerally immediate and clear.The much-anticipated LCT production—the Hollywood star Steve Carell’s Broadway debut—is, first of all, such an odd duck to look at. The Beaumont stage is Lincoln Center’s biggest, but what fills it here? Not much, and not much logically and engagingly. A picnic table. Random tables, chairs (kind of looks mid-century modern). The actors are in modern dress, and drift and shimmy all over the expanse—the floor looks like the cross section of tree. They sometimes seem to get lost, and so—despite some standout performances—unfortunately do we.This production of Vanya, directed by Lila Neugebauer, has been adapted by Heidi Schreck, the playwright and performer of the exquisite, and rightly acclaimed, What the Constitution Means to Me for which she received Tony nominations for Best Play and Best Actress (this season, Playbill reports, it’s America’s most produced play). Schreck told Playbill she is a “big Russian literature nerd” who first fell in love with Chekhov when performing in a production of Three Sisters while in college. She studied Russian, taught in Siberia, and worked as a journalist in St. Petersburg. She and her husband, director Kip Fagan, met while working on a production of The Seagull. “Chekhov’s been a very big part of my life for a long time,” Schreck told Playbill.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Oklahoma State Bureau of InvestigationA fifth suspect has been arrested in connection with the deaths of two women who went missing last month and were later found buried in a rural Oklahoma cattle pasture.The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced it picked up 31-year-old Paul Grice on Wednesday, who was booked into the Texas County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree. He and four others are accused of killing 27-year-old Veronica Butler and 39-year-old Jilian Kelley, who disappeared on March 30.The two were driving to pick up Butler’s two kids for a weekly visit amid an intense custody battle between Butler and the youngsters’ grandmother, 54-year-old Tifany Machel Adams, when they were ambushed and murdered, according to police.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesA corporate restructuring attorney at a high-powered New York City law firm is suing his ex-boyfriend for allegedly dognapping his beloved miniature poodle and holding her hostage at an apartment in Midtown Manhattan, plunging him into a grievous state of emotional distress.In a six-figure civil lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast, Akin Gump associate Taylor Leighton says he wants back his pet—who is named for onetime child actress Raven-Symoné and a member of The Real Housewives of New York City cast—plus more than $200,000 in damages.“Raven is more than a dog to me,” Leighton wrote in an affidavit submitted alongside a complaint filed Tuesday in New York State Supreme Court. “I consider her to be my child. As an illustration to this Court of my love for Raven, I planned an extravagant first birthday party for her in the apartment. I spent several days planning and decorating, including blowing up hundreds of balloons and placing decals on the wall to give Raven a special day. Defendant, of course, participated in the festivities but it was me who took the lead on all planning and implementation.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Reuters/David Dee DelgadoNEW YORK — House Speaker (R-LA) Mike Johnson trekked to Columbia University’s New York City campus on Wednesday—and was immediately greeted with a chorus of boos.The crowd loudly heckled and booed Johnson as he approached a podium and launched into his speech, railing against “antisemites” who “gnash their teeth and demand to wipe the State of Israel off the map and attack our innocent Jewish students.”Moments after making that declaration, a loud chant broke out of “we can’t hear you,” to which Johnson responded, “Enjoy your free speech.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty ImagesSeveral pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested by law enforcement on Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin, as they gathered to oppose Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, with more arrests likely to follow.Local police, alongside state troopers in riot gear, were dispatched to the South Lawn at UT Austin, where hundreds of students gathered to call on the school to cut ties with weapons manufacturers that have continued to arm Israel. At least 10 protesters have already been arrested by police after they were told to disperse, according to the Texas Tribune. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety threatened to arrest any protesters who remained on the South Lawn for trespassing, according to KXAN’s Ryan Chandler. The arrests quickly turned violent, with one video of the protest showing police pushing into the crowd of protesters, shoving them to the ground, and handcuffing them.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Christopher LohThe World Bank has decided to pull funding for a controversial tourism project following accusations it has led to extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and the sexual abuse of local villagers in Tanzania.Launched in 2017, the program aimed to improve the management of natural resources and tourism in Southern Tanzania, including Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA), which has been tied to a cascade of human rights abuses, according to the Oakland Institute, a California-based advocacy group.The World Bank has already disbursed $100 million of the $150 million project, known as REGROW, according to The Oakland Institute.Read more at The Daily Beast.