Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki circled back when caught falsely claiming in a new book that President Joe Biden never checked his watch during a ceremony for soldiers killed during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Axios reported Psaki, now a host on MSNBC, wrote in “Say More” that “the president looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended. Moments later, he and the First Lady headed toward their car.”

She also claimed that Biden’s critics engaged in “misinformation” and used the image of Biden checking his watch to make “him appear insensitive, concerned only about how much time had passed.”

Psaki denied that Biden checked his watch despite photo evidence, media fact-checks, and statements made by Gold Star parents of a U.S. service member killed in the Kabul airport attack who were in attendance during the ceremony at Dover Air Force Base.

New: Psaki wrote in her new book Biden didn’t check his watch during ceremony for the Abbey Gate soldiers

It was “misinformation,” she wrote, contradicting news photos & the Gold Star families

Psaki initially didnt comment but says it will be correctedhttps://t.co/EAd4lnJA9n pic.twitter.com/KYZWl0PW0f

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 13, 2024

“I watched you disrespect us all 5 different times by checking your watch!!! What the f*** was so important that you had to keep looking at your watch????” said a Facebook post from Shana Chappell, mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui.

Mark Schmitz, father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, testified to Congress that “while I stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again, all I wanted to do was shout out, ‘It’s two f***ing thirty, a**hole.’”

Psaki’s book also misattributed sentences taken from USA Today to The Washington Post to point out that Biden looked at his watch after the ceremony — even though the article said elsewhere that Biden checked his watch during the ceremony, too.

Axios received a statement from Psaki after its report was published, saying that the “detail in a few lines of the book about the exact number of times he looked at his watch will be removed in future reprints and the ebook.”

Psaki insisted her story was “really about the importance of delivering feedback even when it is difficult told through my own experience of telling President Biden that his own story of loss was not well received by the families who were grieving their sons and daughters.”

The book mishap drew blowback on social media.

“Jen Psaki lied in her book about an easily provable fact,” RealClearPolitics co-founder and president Tom Bevan said in a post to X.

In another post to X, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) said, “Calling Gold Star families liars — even when there’s photographic proof — is a pathetic partisan attempt to defend your boss and a bad look.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has abolished its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program.

UNC Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees voted Monday to cut funding for diversity programs in next year’s budget – and approved a change that would divert $2.3 million toward public safety and policing.

The vote to shift more funding to public safety comes as continued pro-Palestinian protests on UNC’s campus have resulted in several arrests in recent weeks.

The campus made national headlines after members of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity took it upon themselves to shield the US flag after protesters replaced it with the Palestinian flag.

The budget committee vice-chair Marty Kotis said law enforcement has already been forced to react to protests, but they need more funding to keep the university ‘safe from a larger threat.’

‘It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so that may want to disrupt the university’s operations,’ Kotis said.

‘It takes away resources for others.’

Budget chair Dave Boliek said the decision gives the university an ‘opportunity to lead on this’ and get ahead of the vote by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors’ on its diversity policy.

Last month, the statewide board’s Committee on University Governance voted to reverse and replace its DEI policy for 17 schools across the state.

The change would alter a 2019 diversity, equity and inclusion regulation that defines the roles of various DEI positions — and it would appear to eliminate those jobs if the policy is removed.

The full 24-member board is scheduled to vote next week on the policy change. If the alteration is approved, it will take effect immediately.

In March, the University of Florida eliminated its chief diversity officer position, scrapping the program’s staff jobs and halting any contracts involving the subject because of a new law passed last year that was pushed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

In that case, the $5 million that had been earmarked for the DEI program will be diverted into a faculty recruitment fund.

A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it.

Republican lawmakers in about two dozen states have filed bills seeking to restrict DEI initiatives this year. They are countered by Democrats who have sponsored supportive DEI measures in about 20 states.

Altogether, lawmakers have proposed about 150 bills this year that would either restrict or promote DEI efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Parishioners in a southern Louisiana Catholic church accosted and removed a suspicious-looking teenager armed with a gun as about 60 children readied themselves for their first Holy Communion service on Saturday, according to reports.

The Abbeville Police Department (APD) received the report at 10:35 a.m. from the St Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, Chief of Police Mike Hardy said in a Saturday press release. “The person was confronted by parishioners and escorted outside. Upon arrival, Officers arrested the suspect and placed him in custody.”

“The suspect, a 16 year old…is being charged with Terrorizing and 2 counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Juvenile,” Hardy added, according to the press release. The charges followed a police interrogation of the suspect in the presence of his parent and a psychological evaluation of the suspect at the Abbeville General Hospital Behavioral Unit, the press release noted.

No one was injured and police found no other threats after conducting a sweep of the parish premises with assistance from the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office (VPSO), according to the press release.

The incident was livestreamed, according to reports. A portion of the video of the full service aired by local outlet KADN News 15 captured the incident, showing parishioners distracted from the consecreation liturgy by what appeared to be children’s voices in the background, while someone quietly interrupted the officiating priest, appearing to inform him of the incident. The priest could be seen asking the parishioners to resume sitting, then leading them in Hail Marys as parishioners grabbed their children and officers entered the church, at which point the priest took cover behind the altar.

“So guys, just get ahold of your children, go slowly. We did apprehend a young man. He is in custody, he is in the police custody,” an amplified voice could be heard saying. “Calm down and just get next to your child, and go slowly.”

“We are thankful to God that a tragedy was avoided,” Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette said of the incident, according to Catholic News Agency. “Let us pray for an end to all threats of violence to innocent human life.”

It appeared that the children ended up receiving the sacrament once the commotion died down. “The joy that these kids experienced today upon receiving their First Communion is beyond words. Congratulations!” the church posted on Facebook.

“While we realize this was a frightening experience for those in attendance, we are incredibly grateful to both parishioners and police officers for acting quickly to ensure the safety of all,” the church said in a statement via the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, NBC News reported. The church also thanked the law enforcement agents and parishioners for their swift response to the incident and added that uniformed law enforcement agents would guard its masses from then on, according to the outlet’s report.

Chief Hardy in his statement thanked Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) staff, VPSO deputies, and the church’s leaders and laity “for their quick response and remaining calm throughout this matter.” The incident remained under investigation, he added.

The incident comes on the heels of a livestreamed May 5 incident in Pennsylvania showing homicide suspect Bernard Polite attempting to shoot at a pastor in mid-sermon. The gun failed to fire. Polite faces homicide charges after police later discovered his cousin’s body in his apartment.

Melinda French Gates is stepping down from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, three years after announcing her separation from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

In a statement posted on her Instagram account, she said that as part of her agreement to step down from the foundation, she will retain $12.5 billion that she plans to put toward her ongoing work supporting women and families.

“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates wrote. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”

In a separate statement, Bill Gates said, “I am sorry to see Melinda leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”

Now worth $75.2 billion, the Gates Foundation has over the course of its three-decade lifespan made $77.6 billion worth of grant payments, making it one of the largest donor organizations in the world, with a focus on health and developmental goals. It is one of the largest contributors to the World Health Organization, and played a key role in efforts to address the Covid pandemic.

In 2015, French Gates founded Pivotal Ventures, an initiative focused on advancing opportunities for women and minorities in the United States, especially in technology.

French Gates, 59, shares three children with Bill Gates. The couple divorced in August 2021.

Here is her statement in full:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Melinda French Gates (@melindafrenchgates)

Former lawyer Michael Cohen took the witness stand Monday morning in the New York criminal case against former President Trump.

Cohen’s testimony is central to the case against Trump, as he is alleged to have been the go-between for Trump’s alleged hush money payments to pornography actress Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office argue Trump falsified his business records in relation to the payments.

Cohen appeared visibly nervous as he took the stand. Prosecutors began by asking him about his family history and other innocuous topics. He also recounted how he came to work for Trump, revealing that he ultimately had a salary of some $525k per year at the time of the 2016 election.

Prosecutors have been building toward Cohen’s testimony for weeks, also calling Daniels to the stand last week.

Trump was joined by a large group of powerful supporters as he entered the courtroom on Monday. Among his retinue were Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-NY, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Trump’s son, Eric Trump.

Cohen testifies that he spoke to Trump ‘every single day’

Former lawyer Michael Cohen testified Monday that he spoke to former President Donald Trump “every single day, and multiple times a day” before the 2016 election.

Cohen, who is a central witness in the prosecution’s case against Trump, noted that he could reach Trump via multiple cell phone numbers or even by stopping by his office, but added that Trump never used email and would often make comments about people “getting in trouble” or “gone down as a direct result of using emails.”

The former lawyer added that he was also frequently meet Trump in his office at variously points through the day, saying that he did not have to make an appointment with Trump because of Trump’s open door policy.

Trump, defenders show up in force ahead of Cohen testimony

Former President Donald Trump was joined by a bevy of high-profile supporters Monday morning outside the Manhattan courtroom, where the NY v. Trump trial will hear from key witness Michael Cohen.

As Trump spoke to the media early Monday morning, Republican supporters such as Ohio Sen. JD Vance, New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, his son Eric Trump, and others were seen standing behind the 45th president for what is anticipated to be an action-packed day in court.

Trump’s comments ahead of court Monday focused on his argument the case is a “baseless, politically motivated prosecution” promoted by the Biden administration, while highlighting a recent poll showing him leading Biden in key battleground states.

“The New York Times just came out with a poll that shows us leading everywhere by a lot. This is the cover story. And I think you’ll find it very interesting, but I’m sure you’ve all read it. Leading in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Nevada, we are leading actually by 12 points, which is generally a Democrat state,” Trump said.

‘Convicted liar’: Cohen claims he often lied and bullied people for Trump in trial testimony

Former lawyer Michael Cohen testified Monday that he would often lie to others for former President Donald Trump because it “was needed in order to accomplish the task.”

The former lawyer also said he would also often bull people because “the only thing on my mind was to accomplish the task, to keep him happy,” Cohen said, referring to Trump.

Cohen, who noted that he called Trump “boss” or “Mr. Trump” during his time working for the organization said that he enjoyed his time working for Trump, saying that the organization “was fantastic… working for him of those 10 years was an amazing experience… there were great times, there were less than great times, but for the most part, I enjoyed the responsibilities given to me.”

The former Trump lawyer added that Trump also liked to be frequently informed on tasks Cohen was carrying out, especially if that matter was troubling for Trump.

Cohen’s credibility has been questioned by Trump allies, with top GOP lawmakers Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., arguing that the former lawyer is a “convicted liar.”

Cohen pleaded guilting in 2018 to campaign finance violations, making false statements to Congress and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

After the head of the United Nation’s atomic watchdog agency warned that Iran has enough uranium to produce “several” nuclear bombs, a firebrand Iranian lawmaker declared on Friday that the Islamic Republic of Iran possesses atomic weapons.

“In my opinion, we have achieved nuclear weapons, but we do not announce it. It means our policy is to possess nuclear bombs, but our declared policy is currently within the framework of the JCPOA,” Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani told the Iran-based outlet Rouydad 24 on Friday, according to an article published by the independent news organization Iran International in London.

The JCPOA is an abbreviation for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA in 2018 because, his administration argued, the accord did not stop Iran’s drive to build atomic weapons.

The JCPOA provides massive economic sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for assurances it will not, within a limited time period, build a nuclear weapon.

Ardestani, who was re-elected to Iran’s quasi-parliament in March, added, “The reason is that when countries want to confront others, their capabilities must be compatible, and Iran’s compatibility with America and Israel means that Iran must have nuclear weapons,”

The Iranian parliament member noted, “In a climate where Russia has attacked Ukraine and Israel has attacked Gaza, and Iran is a staunch supporter of the Resistance Front, it is natural for the containment system to require that Iran possess nuclear bombs. However, whether Iran declares it is another matter.” Fox News Digital sent press queries to Iran’s Foreign Ministry in Tehran and its U.N. mission in New York.

Experts on Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program warned about the seemingly speculative comments made by Ardestani. Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the U.S.-based United Against a Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital that “Ardestani is only a member of parliament, and he’s not in the inner core of the regime’s nuclear decision-making circle, so while his comments are interesting, I think they have to be weighed properly given his access and standing.”

Just two days before Ardestani’s announcement, the president of the Iranian Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Kamal Kharrazi, told Al-Jazeera Network Qatar, “I announced two years ago, in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV, that Iran had the absorptive capacity and the capability to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran still has that capability, but we have not made the decision to produce a nuclear bomb. However, if the Iranian interests are threatened in this manner, we may change this doctrine. The military officials in Iran have announced that if our nuclear facilities would be attacked, we may change our military doctrine, with regard to the nuclear facilities.” The U.S.-based Middle East Media Institute (MEMRI) translated and published Kharrazi’s May 8 interview.

Brodsky said, “Kharrazi’s comments are part of an increasingly loud chorus of threats from Iranian officials that they will change Iran’s nuclear doctrine if Israel attacks them. The current advanced state of Iran’s nuclear program provides it with the luxury to make these threats as it hopes to deter Western policymakers from launching pressure campaigns on Tehran.”

Critics of the Biden administration’s Iran policy argue the White House strategy of de-escalation and containment targeting Iran’s atomic program has backfired. Iran’s regime – the world’s worst state-sponsor of international terrorism – is moving at an astonishingly fast pace to secure an operational nuclear weapon.

Nuclear security alarm bells are ringing over Iran’s illicit atomic program in Europe. Fox News Digital obtained the April intelligence agency report for Germany’s most populous state, Nordrhein-Westfalen.

The German intelligence report notes, “The Islamic Republic’s continued intensive procurement efforts by Iran in Germany continues” for its “nuclear and missile program.” The German experts added “proliferation-relevant activities by Iran to circumvent existing sanctions in favor of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs can still be assumed.” A State Department spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital, “As the president and the secretary have made clear, the United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. We continue to use a variety of tools in pursuit of that goal, and all options remain on the table.”

David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital, “The distance from where Iran is purported to be to an actual deliverable device is still a ways away, provided the information that we have in our operating from is correct. And that is quite a proviso. We know that North Koreans have been interacting with the Iranians, and we know relations with North Korea go back many, many years.”

The communist state of North Korea previously aided Syria in building its illicit nuclear reactor. Israel’s air force knocked out the reactor in 2007.

Wurmser warned, “As since intelligence is generally incomplete and is inherently seeking to discover that which is given to being opaque with much hidden, we have to assume surprises. I realize in the Iraq war we imagined there was more there than there actually was – and there was more than what is popularly understood – but Iraq is actually a very rare circumstance. The Pakistani, the Russian, the Chinese, the Indian, and even the South African programs all were ahead of what we had expected when they were exposed. For that matter, that was the case with Libya as well.”

The non-proliferation expert noted, “So, on balance, I doubt Iran has a nuclear weapon yet, but I also doubt that the program is in a stable state, even a stable state regarding weaponization. I think Iran is pushing ahead and has every intention to go all the way. So time on this may still be there, but it is short and running out fast. And of course, the consequences of an Iranian bomb are catastrophic for the region, for Israel’s survival, and for the status of American power in the globe.”

The recent saber-rattling over Iran’s nuclear weapons program from regime officials and lawmakers coincides with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi’s May 8 statement that his organization was working “very hard with [Iran] to prevent [nuclear weaponization] from happening.”

The Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War wrote this suggests “that Iran has already obtained or is close to obtaining the ability to procure nuclear weapons.”

It seems no one is safe on the streets of the Big Apple these days – not even beloved hometown actor and Brooklyn native Steve Buscemi.

Buscemi, 66, was strolling through Kips Bay last week when a brute walked up and struck the “Boardwalk Empire” star in a broad-daylight attack – one of the latest unprovoked assaults in the five boroughs, law enforcement sources told The Post.

The actor suffered swelling to his face and left eye and was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, his deranged assailant took off and is still on the lam, police sources said.

“Steve Buscemi was assaulted in Mid-Town Manhattan, another victim of a random act of violence in the city,” Buscemi’s publicist said in a statement to The Post.

“He is ok and appreciates everyone’s well wishes, though incredibly sad for everyone that this has happened to while also walking the streets of New York.”

Cops said the random attack happened around 11:48 a.m. on Wednesday in front of 369 Third Ave.

“I saw he was with a woman, and then through the corner of the window I saw him trip and fall backwards,” a worker in the area who witnessed part of the assault told The Post. “He right away got up and ran in the opposite direction. I didn’t see who hit him.

“It worries me for when we close because we close at 11 and it can get scary around that time,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only as Nat.

The NYPD released surveillance photos of the alleged attacker, a bearded man wearing a baseball cap, a blue t-shirt and black sweatpants.

The actor, a former FDNY firefighter, has a movie career that has spanned four decades, and includes roles in award-winning films like “Fargo” and “Reservoir Dogs.”

Buscemi earned wide acclaim for his portrayal of corrupt Atlantic City pol Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in the hit HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.”

Last week’s unprovoked attack makes him the second actor from the popular series to fall victim to random New York City street violence this year.

On March 31, actor Michael Stuhbarg, who played gangster Arnold Rothstein on the show, was out for a run on the Upper East Side when he was struck in the back of the neck with a rock.

The NYPD arrested a deranged vagrant, Xavier Israel, 27, in the assault, which took place around 7:45 p.m. near East 90th Street and East Drive.

Israel had previously been arrested for assault and robbery in 2022.

Stuhlbarg chased after the thug and into the hands of police stationed outside the Russian Consulate.

Meanwhile, an NYPD spokesperson said Sunday that Buscemi’s attack remains at large.

Buscemi has been a beloved figure in his native New York and famously rushed to the site of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 terror attacks to join his former fire company, Engine 55.

The former Emmy Award winner was one of New York’s Bravest in the 1980s.

In 2021, he dressed up as a character he played in the hit show “30 Rock” to hand out candy to children on Halloween from a stoop in Park Slope.

Former President Donald Trump is leading President Biden in five critical, toss-up swing states — all of which Biden won in 2020, a new set of polls revealed.

Surveys by the New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer found that Trump was more popular than Biden among voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, while Biden led among voters in only one battleground state, Wisconsin.

All six of the battleground states looked at in the polls were won by Biden in 2020, and victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2024 would be enough for Biden to secure his re-election, as long as he did not lose any of the states he won four years ago.

The poll numbers revealed how issues like the cost of living, the economy, the Israel-Hamas war, and immigration have caused widespread dissatisfaction among Americans, all while raising concerns over Biden’s ability to improve their quality of life.

Nearly 70 percent of voters polled said the country’s political and economic systems need a major overhaul — and only 13 percent of Biden’s supporters believe he would be able to bring about such change during a second term.

Almost 40 percent of Trump supporters polled said the economy or cost of living was the most important issue in the election, with many doubting the Biden administration’s insistence that the economy is improving.

Many of the voters polled even admitted that even while they dislike Trump, he would be the candidate to drive much-needed change.

Trump and Biden are tied among 18- to 29-year-olds and among Hispanic voters, even though over 60 percent of the demographic voted for Biden in 2020.

Trump has also secured 20 percent of black voters’ support — the highest level of black support for any Republican presidential candidate since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the Times poll.

The former president’s newfound popularity among young and nonwhite voters has seemingly opened up the electoral map, pushing him ahead in more diverse states like Arizona, Georgia and Nevada where Biden was previously successful.

Despite this, Biden seems to have maintained much of his foothold among older and white voters who, as a group, seem to be demanding fewer fundamental changes. As a result, Biden has become more competitive in swing states with a greater population of white people, like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Abortion continues to be a hot-button issue among voters, with 64 percent in battleground states saying abortion should always or mostly be legal, including 44 percent of Trump supporters, according to the polls.

The surveys also found that nearly 20 percent of voters blame Biden more than Trump for the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, a shocking statistic that will likely drive the president to work to rebuild trust among that group of voters.

Still, voters prefer Biden over Trump to handle the issue of abortion by 11 points, 49 to 38 percent.

Trump, meanwhile, is polling well among voters who believe the political and economic systems need to be torn down, including 2 percent of “very liberal” voters who went for Biden in 2020, according to the polls.

Additionally, about 13 percent of voters who voted for Biden in 2020 but do not plan to again said his foreign policy on the war in Gaza was their most important issue. About 17 percent of those voters said they sympathized with Israel.

The polls surveyed 4,097 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from April 28 to May 9.

Russian state media is confirming a huge breaking development that President Putin has removed his longtime Defense Minister and personal friend Sergei Shoigu as defense chief, who has overseen the Ukraine war since its beginning in Feb. 2022. He will now serve as head of the nation’s security council.

“Sergei Shoigu is likely to lose the post of Minister of Defense of Russia to acting First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov,” English-language RT is reporting. “His candidacy was proposed by President Vladimir Putin, the Federation Council announced on Sunday.”

Putin has also reportedly dismissed Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, according to Interfax.

This appears in order to shuffle Shoigu into that position. Putin has now appointed Shoigu as new Secretary of the Russian Security Council. Likely Patrushev is also being moved to another position too.

The proposed candidate for new defense chief, Belousov, has a background in Russia’s central bank and economics and finance…

Below is some background on Belousov and his last two decades of government experience, though specific military decision-making or army experience on a strategic level appears to be absent, interestingly:

2000‒2006: General Director, Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting.

2000‒2006: External adviser to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

2006‒2008: Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Deputy Minister of Economic Development.

2008‒2012: Director, Government Department of Economy and Finance.

2012‒2013: Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

2013‒2020: Presidential Aide.

21 January 2020: First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, appointed by executive order of the President of Russia.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov addressed this lack of military experience as follows in a late Sunday press briefing:

Explaining Shoigu’s replacement with a non-military official, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “natural” for Putin to decide that a civilian official to head the Defense Ministry.

“The Defense Ministry must be absolutely open to innovation, to introduce advanced ideas and to create conditions for economic competitiveness — that’s why the president chose the candidacy of Andrei Removich Belousov,” Peskov told reporters.

According to more details of Putin’s big reshuffling via RT:

Senators are scheduled to engage in consultations regarding the nominees put forth by the president during committee sessions on May 13 and during a Federation Council meeting on May 14, as announced by the upper house of the Russian parliament.

No further alterations have been made to the roster of candidates Putin has submitted for cabinet positions. His nominations include Vladimir Kolokoltsev for the position of interior minister, Alexander Kurenkov for minister of emergency situations, Sergey Lavrov for foreign minister, and Konstantin Chuichenko for justice minister.

Denis Manturov, who served as deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade during Putin’s last term in office, has been nominated for the position of first deputy prime minister.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, says the Kremlin wanted to appoint an economic official to run the defense ministry after Russia’s security budget ballooned to 6.6 per cent of gross domestic product.

“This demands special attention,” he told reporters.

— max seddon (@maxseddon) May 12, 2024

And TASS has this further confirmation and backgrounder on Belousov (machine translation)…

“Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the candidacy of Andrei Belousov for the post of Minister of Defense, which was previously held by Sergei Shoigu. This is stated in a message on the Telegram channel of the Federation Council. In the previous government, Belousov worked as first deputy prime minister.”

“65-year-old Belousov at various times held the positions of assistant to the head of state Vladimir Putin on economic issues, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, director of the Department of Economics and Finance of the Government of the Russian Federation, general director of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, and worked at the Russian Academy in 1981-2006 Sciences (until 1991 – USSR Academy of Sciences). From April 30 to May 19, 2020, during Mishustin’s hospitalization with coronavirus infection, Belousov served as acting head of the Cabinet.”

The Broadway box office numbers for the week of May 5 revealed that Hillary Clinton-produced stage play “Suffs” is on the bottom rung of shows in terms of filling capacity.

Broadway Theatre Industry official site “The Broadway League” shared the weekly grosses from the 35 shows currently playing on Broadway, which include “Suffs,” “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child,” and classics like “Romeo & Juliet,” Sweeney Tod” and “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”

According to the data, Clinton’s play only reached 81% capacity across eight performances that week, placing it among the bottom eight productions in that category – the bottom 23% of all 35 shows for the week.

Noting that the play’s lagging numbers look even worse considering it’s a new show, Breitbart News argued the performance “should still be drawing big crowds during Broadway’s peak season – the month before the Tony Awards,” which is right now.

The play first opened on Broadway last month, following an Off-Broadway run that started in 2022 in New York City’s “The Public” theater. The musical was by singer-songwriter Shaina Taub, directed by Leigh Silverman, and produced by lead producers Jill Furman and Rachel Sussman, along with co-producers Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai.

Breitbart also noted that Vice President Harris’s niece, Meena Harris, is another producer on the stage play.

The three-hour-long play brings the women’s suffrage movement of the early 1900s to the stage. According to the show’s website, Suffs “boldly explores the victories and failures of a struggle for equality that’s far from over.”

The play features an “entirely female and non-binary cast – among them Tony winner Nikki M. James, Jenn Colella, Emily Skinner, and Grace McLean as President Woodrow Wilson,” according to Playbill.com.

Clinton stated she relates to “all of” the characters in the play, telling the Associated Press last month she knows “how hard it is to make change.”

“I know how important it is to have relationships with the people you’re working for, as you’re taking risks and you’re doing things that have never been done, whether it’s running for president in my case or having a march on Washington in 1913 to try to convince the president and the Congress to adopt the amendment to let women vote,” she said.

The former U.S. Secretary of State added, “But more than that, I see it as relevant today. We have a lot of challenges in our country.”

BroadwayLeague.com’s numbers also revealed that last week’s numbers for “Suffs” were even worse, with the show only filling 78% of its 7,784 total seats across performances.

With over 100 million users, the encrypted messaging service app Signal is touted as private and secure; however, a new report reveals the app was allegedly not only launched with government funds but is headed by National Public Radio’s (NPR) CEO, Katherine Maher.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, released a piece Monday about the alleged connections between the U.S. government, Maher and Signal. The platform, which prides itself on privacy for users, has been endorsed by notable figures, including National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Eric Snowden, Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Signal’s technological foundation, however, was originally funded “in part” by government resources, Rufo claims. The technology — used in the Facebook messaging app, WhatsApp — for the platform — which also ran as a nonprofit foundation — reportedly received a $3 million grant awarded by government agency Open Technology Fund (OTF) sometime between 2013 and 2016, according to Voice of America (VOA).

While the OTF is reportedly a spin-off of a government-funded private news service, Radio Free Asia, the technology fund claims their goal is to “advance internet freedom in repressive environments by supporting the research, development, implementation, and maintenance of technologies that counter censorship and combat repressive surveillance to enable all citizens to exercise their fundamental human rights online,” according to their site.

Awards from the OTF to technology platforms are not uncommon; a 2020 VOA report shows the government agency awarded millions to others in addition to OTF. The connection between OTF and Signal, though, is allegedly deeper than just the grant. An anonymous source who “worked extensively with OTF” claimed to Rufo that, over time, it appeared “the project was actually a State Department-connected initiative that planned to wield open source Internet projects made by hacker communities as tools for American foreign policy goals.” The initiative allegedly empowered “activists [and] parties opposed to governments that the USA doesn’t like,” Rufo reported.

In addition to the implications of Signal’s background, the company’s current chairman of the board is Maher, according to Rufo and her NPR bio. One of the NPR CEO’s digital communications positions was working as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) program officer for the National Democratic Institute. The Institute claims it works “around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms and values to secure a better quality of life for all” by partnering with American foreign policy campaigns.

Maher was allegedly recruited for her position with Signal by the foundation’s current president, Meredith Whittaker, due to their mutual connection to OTF, the anonymous insider told Rufo. Maher reportedly serves as an advisor to OTF as well as another nonprofit, Access Now, which focuses on “digital rights of people and communities at risk,” according to their site.

Maher received massive backlash online in April 2024 after an NPR whistleblower and senior editor, Uri Berliner, revealed details of the outlet’s apparent bias against former President Donald Trump during his term. While Maher defended NPR’s reporting during the time, her previous comments about the First Amendment and support of President Joe Biden resurfaced. In November 2020 Maher announced online her support of Biden; in June 2021 the CEO was recorded claiming the First Amendment poses obstacles to countering “bad information.”

Maher’s comments from an August 2021 TED Talk video also resurfaced, with the NPR CEO claiming the “reverence” for truth may be a “distraction” to finding “common ground and getting things done.”

“Perhaps for our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth might not be the right place to start,” Maher claimed in her presentation. “In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”

“Clearly, the search for the truth has led us to do great things, to learn great things. But, I think if I were to really ask you to think about this, one of the things that we could all acknowledge is that part of the reason we have such glorious chronicles to the human experience and all forms of culture is because we acknowledge there are many different truths.”

The terrifying future of crime-fighting has arrived in the form of drones that are now capable of pursuing criminals in action.

One police force has recruited the technology seemingly straight out of science fiction to tackle theft and other petty crimes.

Police in Bensalem Township, Pennslyvania, just 30 minutes northeast of Philadelphia recently released footage of drones tracking down and helping catch suspected thieves to local ABC News affiliate WPVI.

Detective Glenn Vandegrift explained that their “small fleet” of drones is part of a Bensalem Secure Task Force, meant to address growing retail theft issues.

“Our goal is to bring our business community together in collaboration with law enforcement to reduce theft with practical and sustainable solutions,” reads the task force’s website.

Last year, the county reported nearly 900 retail thefts; up around 50% from just four years prior.

In 2019, they reported only 484 retail theft incidents.

Part of the effectiveness of the drones is credited to the speed at which they can be dispatched and locate suspects.

Because they are airflown, and not bound by traffic patterns or traditional road routes, the police say an operator can typically get a device on the scene within two minutes.

“Our clearance rate for retail thefts is 62%. That is significantly higher than the national average,” said Vandegrift.

The detective believes the success of his department should serve to inspire other departments to invest in drone technology.

How It Works

When a call is made regarding a shoplifting incident, the department immediately dispatches a drone, equipped with a camera that allows real-time footage and video recording to search for and go after the thief.

Once the drone operator locates a perpetrator, they track the individual until law enforcement can apprehend them.

In one instance, a perpetrator stole a bicycle and was caught using drones.

A description of the thief, the bike, and the location of the incident were provided to the police and a drone was able to locate and follow the suspect.

Less than a mile from where the bicycle was stolen, officers made an arrest using information fed to them by the drone operator in pursuit.

Another suspect, in an undisclosed crime, was also seen being arrested on drone footage.

“This guy would have been able to get away if the drone was not involved,” contented Vandergrift.

The video revealed the fleeing suspected thief looking over his shoulder as he ran through a parking lot before crossing a road.

Shortly after making his way across the road, two police cars pull up and officers jump out, apprehending the suspect.

While some might think that this is an excessive amount of effort for shoplifting, Vandergrift has a different perspective.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s $20 or $200, we’re coming at you just as hard,” he said.

Their drone technology might also one day be used in other criminal investigations and chases.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Saturday that another one of the hostages abducted during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel has died.

Hamas released a video saying that Nadav Popplewell, who was taken hostage from the southern Israeli community of Kibbutz Nirim, died after being wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

The Israeli military did not offer immediate comment on the latest video. It has referred to previous videos of hostages released by Hamas as psychological terror.

It has also denied some of the previous accusations by Hamas that hostages were killed by Israeli fire.

Earlier on Saturday Hamas released an undated video of the 51-year-old captive in front of a white wall, with a bruise on his right eye, and speaking his name.

Hours later, in the second video, it said Popplewell died of wounds sustained a month ago in an Israeli air strike.

Hamas said Popplewell, whom it said was also a British citizen, was being detained with a woman hostage when the place they were being held was targeted by an Israeli missile.

“He died because he didn’t receive intensive medical care at medical facilities because of the enemy’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza,” the Hamas armed wing spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said in a statement.

Of 252 people abducted on Oct. 7, 128 remain in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. At least 36 of them have been declared dead by an Israeli forensic committee.

Israel says securing the release of the hostages is the aim of its offensive in Gaza, along with eliminating Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007.

Popplewell, according to the hostages support group, was captured with his mother from her home in Kibbutz Nirim. His brother was killed during the attack. His mother was freed during a brief truce in November.

Sen. Bob Menendez is charged with more than a dozen corrupt acts that span the globe. But no detail gripped the public like the gold bars found stashed in his New Jersey home.

Not only did federal investigators find 13 gold bars in the summer of 2022, but Menendez’s own curiosity about their value shows up in repeated Google searches. Three separate times, according to prosecutors, Menendez searched online for the cash value of the gold.

Those details and more are expected to emerge at the senator’s criminal trial that begins Monday.

Prosecutors allege that the senator or his wife, Nadine Menendez, took bribes to influence state and federal prosecutors to go easy on his associates, aid the government of Egypt and help seal a deal between an associate and an investment company led by a member of the Qatari royal family — even as he was one of America’s most powerful officials on international affairs, as a leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

To prove their case, prosecutors will need to tie those gold bars to things the senator is alleged to have done to receive them. It helps that prosecutors have years of the senator’s phone and electronic records, including Google searches.

Prosecutors say those searches largely followed interactions involving the Menendezes and Fred Daibes, a New Jersey businessperson who is accused of bribing Menendez. The senator is alleged to have tried to help Daibes avoid legal troubles and to seize on a business opportunity involving an investment company run by a member of Qatar’s royal family.

Another co-defendant in the case, Egyptian-American businessperson Wael “Will” Hana, is also alleged to have provided the Menendezes with gold bars. Nadine Menendez is said to have sold some of them before investigators searched the couple’s home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts she controlled.

Here’s how prosecutors have framed the timing of each Google search:

‘How much is one kilo of gold worth’

In mid-October 2021, Menendez and his wife had just returned from a trip to Qatar and Egypt, where they’d met with Egyptian officials and had dinner with Hana. They were picked up at JFK Airport by Daibes’ driver, according to the federal indictment.

Federal prosecutors allege Menendez tried to get other prosecutors to go easy on Daibes, who is facing separate fraud charges in New Jersey federal court.

The driver took the Menendezes to their home in New Jersey.

The next day, the senator searched for “how much is one kilo of gold worth.”

‘Kilo of gold price’

In January 2022, Daibes’ driver — who is not named in the indictment — called Nadine Menendez and then she texted Daibes, “Thank you. Christmas in January.”

About two hours later, the senator called a federal prosecutor handling Daibes’ case — the first time the senator had ever called the person, according to federal prosecutors.

Several days later, the senator searched for “kilo of gold price.”

The driver’s fingerprints were later found in the couple’s New Jersey home on an envelope containing thousands of dollars in cash. The envelope also had Daibes’ DNA and his return address.

‘One kilo gold price’

In May 2022, after a meeting between Menendez and Daibes, the Qatari investment company signed a letter to invest in a major real estate project Daibes had been working on in New Jersey.

“Thereafter,” according to the indictment, “Daibes provided Menendez with at least one gold bar.”

Three days after the letter was signed, the senator, his wife and Daibes had dinner in Edgewater — the New Jersey town where Daibes’ development would be. Later that evening at around 10:30 p.m., the senator hit Google again, searching for “one kilo gold price.”

Former President Donald Trump attracted a massive crowd to a Saturday rally in New Jersey, with attendance estimates ranging from 80,000 to 100,000 people, Fox News reported.

At the rally in Wildwood, a south Jersey beach city with a year-round population of 5,157 according to the 2020 census, Trump energized the crowd and predicted a sweeping victory in the upcoming November election.

Republican New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a former Democrat, described the event as the largest political gathering in New Jersey’s history, according to Fox News.

In Wildwood, NJ waiting for President Trump with my colleagues Reps. Jeff Van Drew & Chris Smith, as well as our friend @JrzyJoePiscopo pic.twitter.com/kDfjHzenuf

— Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis) May 11, 2024

“Welcome to the LARGEST political rally in the HISTORY of the state of New Jersey.” — U.S. Congressman Jeff Van Drew @Congressman_JVD pic.twitter.com/g3ZWh7npsc

— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) May 11, 2024

Republican North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a former 2024 candidate for president, also flew with Trump to the rally and gave the first speech of the night, according to the New York Post.

Trump calls out Doug Burgum at NJ rally amid speculation he’s a top contender for VP.

“Just get ready for something, just get ready!” Trump says of Burgum. pic.twitter.com/1HxOGmLYU2

— Diana Glebova (@DianaGlebova) May 11, 2024

Doug Burgum exits Trump Force One on his way to Wildwood, NJ rally.

👀@nypost pic.twitter.com/UvgBlesVXZ

— Diana Glebova (@DianaGlebova) May 11, 2024

“We’re going to win New Jersey,” the former president said. “As you can see today, we’re expanding the electoral map because … we’re going to win the state of New Jersey. I think we’re going to win them all. All across America, millions of people, so-called blue states, are joining our movement based on love, intelligence, and a thing called common sense.”

Trump also heavily criticized President Joe Biden and accused him of enacting damaging economic and border policies that have significantly increased living costs for New Jersey families.

President Trump: “I have been indicted more than Al Capone on bull shit.”

Then the massive crowd started chanting “bull shit.” Trump’s Wildwood, New Jersey rally is must watch TV. pic.twitter.com/ZhRYxt0Piu

— Charles R Downs (@TheCharlesDowns) May 11, 2024

“The Biden price hikes are continuing to drain over $1,000 from the typical New Jersey family budget every single month,” Trump said, the outlet stated. “You look at the Afghanistan disaster, you look at the border, you look at the economy — the real economy, not the fake economy — everything [Democrats] touch turns to, what?”

“Shit!” the crowd answered the former president.

TRUMP: “Everything they touch turns to what?”

Crowd: “SH*T” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/c6mdF4ALSW@bennyjohnson

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 12, 2024

Trump promised to discard Biden’s policies on his first day back in office. “On Day One, we will throw out Bidenomics, and we will reinstate MAGAnomics. And we’re going to bring manufacturing, tourism and other industries back to New Jersey like we’ve never seen before,” he added.

5/11/24 | Wildwood, NJ… pic.twitter.com/WkuQe4CYSM

— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) May 12, 2024

Lawrence Taylor was a lifelong Democrat. And then the Hall-of-Fame linebacker met Donald Trump.

‘I just wanted to say I grew up a Democrat and I’ve always been a Democrat until I met this man right here,’ the 65-year-old Taylor told Trump supporters at a campaign event along the Jersey Shore on Saturday. ‘He will not have to worry nobody in my family ever voting for a Democrat again.’

Taylor is a beloved figure in New Jersey, where helped lead the East Rutherford-based New York Giants to a pair of Super Bowl titles during his decorated – and troubled – NFL career.

It’s unclear when he and Trump first met, although the real estate mogul did own a USFL team in the 1980s that shared a stadium with Taylor’s New York Giants.

Taylor was joined on stage by his former teammate, retired running back Otis Anderson.

‘Don’t you just love that guy?’ Anderson asked, referring to Trump. ‘Don’t you just love that guy? I tell you it has been a very exciting day. You guys, not one person left here. You’re still here yelling and screaming.’

BREAKING: ‘I will never vote for Democrats again’, Lawrence Taylor and Otis ‘OJ’ Anderson, New York Giants Icons, Declare Support for Trump at MASSIVE New Jersey Rally. WATCH pic.twitter.com/qTU0gLpOL0

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) May 12, 2024

Taylor’s support comes with a bit of controversy, not that Trump seemed to mind on Saturday.

The pass rusher extraordinaire has battled personal problems away from the football field, both during and after his career, which ended in 1993. In one 1995 incident, the retired Taylor choked long-time Giants reporter Ernie Palladino after a verbal altercation.

In addition to numerous drug-related arrests, the former University of North Carolina star declared bankruptcy in 1998 and has had at least two stints in drug rehab. He was also arrested following a 2009 hit-and-run crash in the Miami area, although no one was injured.

He was arrested the following year and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of sexual misconduct and sex with an underage prostitute. He received a sentence of six-years’ probation, but was ultimately arrested in 2022 for failing to report an address change.

Taylor has stayed in the public eye following retirement, appearing on ABC’s ‘Dancing With the Stars’ in 2009 and starring alongside Al Pacino in ‘Any Given Sunday’ in 1999.

An avid golfer, Taylor has been hosted at several of Trump’s country clubs and was pictured on the company’s Facebook page alongside Anderson at Mar-a-Lago in 2021.

Trump’s ‘Fabulous World of Golf’ – a Golf Channel show that ran for two seasons – included one episode with Taylor and San Francisco 49ers legend Jerry Rice.

President Joe Biden’s campaign plans to host a major fundraiser in Los Angeles next month with former President Barack Obama and Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, according to a campaign official.

The star-studded lineup is expected to boost Biden’s fundraising efforts at a time when Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are aiming to close the cash gap now that the former president has won the delegates needed to secure the nomination, allowing him to use all the GOP tools at his disposal.

The high-profile Biden event, set for mid-June, will feature a contest with Clooney and Roberts run across the campaign’s social media platforms to engage grassroots donors, as well as top celebrities and surrogates, according to details first shared with NBC News. The two Academy Award winners will also lend their names for campaign emails and text messages, in hopes of attracting more contributions.

The campaign plans to promote the Los Angeles fundraiser in a fashion similar to the glitzy evening Biden held with Obama and former President Bill Clinton in New York City in late March, which brought in $26 million. Biden campaign aides said that amount was a Democratic fundraising record for a single event.

The president is also expected to hold a fundraiser with Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the East Coast early this summer, according to a source familiar with the plans, first shared with NBC News.

For months, the Biden campaign has had a cash advantage over Trump, allowing it to build out infrastructure in battleground states and hire staff.

“We’re not under any illusion that he’s not going to narrow the gap,” a Biden campaign adviser said. “But what he can’t get back is the time we’ve had with all this money to do what we’ve done.”

Biden just concluded a West Coast fundraising swing through Northern California and the Seattle area this weekend, raking in $10 million in two days, according to a source familiar with the total amount who first shared the details with NBC News.

News of another marquee fundraiser comes as the campaign is bracing for new campaign finance filings that may for the first time show Trump’s campaign eating into what had been Biden’s biggest advantage so far in the 2024 race.

The Biden campaign ended March with $85.5 million in cash on hand after raising $43.8 million that month — nearly tripling the Trump campaign’s haul in that period, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. The Biden campaign’s financial position when factoring in the Democratic National Committee is almost double that of Trump and the Republican National Committee — $131 million versus $67 million.

Team Biden’s strong March was boosted by the three-presidents fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall. But Trump answered back quickly with his own high-dollar affair in Palm Beach, Florida, in early April. His campaign said the event raised $50.5 million, portions of which will likely be reflected in the next FEC filing.

The Republican National Committee said this month that along with the Trump campaign it expects to report raising a combined $76 million in April.

The Biden campaign expects to release its April fundraising figures closer to the May 20 deadline. One campaign official said it’s to be expected that Trump’s fundraising would pick up now that the Republican nomination fight is over, but insisted that Biden’s fundraising pace remains strong.

Speaking with reporters last week, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said regardless of what Trump’s tally is from April, the president’s campaign has long been leveraging its cash advantage to build out a significant re-election effort on the ground and boost its message across the battleground state airwaves.

“I’ll take that over whatever dollar figure Trump and his team actually end up filing in their report,” Tyler said.

Biden has often seen significant spikes in small-dollar donations around major events, like Trump’s victories this year in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, as well as the State of the Union address in March. April, though, was largely dominated by Trump’s court cases as Biden held a series of battleground-state visits to discuss the economy, abortion rights and student debt.

Biden attended only two high-dollar fundraisers — in Chicago and the New York area — in April. One New York-based Biden campaign donor who serves on the national finance committee said the number of events featuring not just Biden but other surrogates has “dried up” as donors felt tapped out after the event with Obama and Clinton. But the donor expects the pace to pick up again this summer.

Obama has been a key part of Biden’s fundraising efforts. In April, the campaign launched a series of digital ads featuring Obama and Biden pitching viewers to make small-dollar donations. In the year since Biden kicked off his re-election effort, small-dollar solicitations from Obama have helped generate more than $17 million, the campaign said.

The Biden and Obama teams continue to discuss the scope of the former president’s engagement, including a recent in-person meeting between Obama and Biden senior adviser Mike Donilon, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Obama is also expected to do fundraisers in the coming months for the Democrats’ Senate and House campaign committees, as well as the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, according to an Obama official.

A graduation ceremony for nursing students at Howard University ended abruptly and in chaos after angry family members chanted “Let us in!” and pounded on the doors and smashed a window after being locked out when the auditorium hit capacity.

Loved ones of students in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences packed into the Cramton Auditorium in Washington, DC, on Thursday, but not all relatives made it inside the building before the ceremony was abruptly canceled during the keynote address.

Chaotic video footage shows dozens of people standing outside the auditorium chanting “Let us in! Let us in!” as the ceremony began.

Pictures showed a glass door had been shattered during the commotion as people banged on the doors and tried to push past security to go inside.

“While they were doing the keynote speaker, there was, like, loud banging, even before that, for like 10 minutes straight,” graduate Bria Flowers told NBC Washington. “Just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.”

School officials told students and their families mid-ceremony that the fire department had come to shut things down.

“Because of the size of the room and because our relatives sometimes do not know how to act, the fire department is now here to shut us down,” Dr. Gina S. Brown, dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences, said to a roaring response of boos.

However, D.C. Fire and EMS denied shutting down the graduation.

“D.C. Fire and EMS did not shut down tonight’s event,” the department said.

“At 6:42 p.m., we responded to the Cramton Auditorium for a medical local at the request of campus police. The patient was evaluated and refused transport, and D.C. Fire and EMS departed.”

1 hurt in chaos after Howard University nursing graduation ceremony reaches maximum capacity 📹: @Dream_Girl_MG https://t.co/BEL54p8OVJ pic.twitter.com/v82nASe5b9

— Allison Papson (@AllisonPapson) May 10, 2024

Students and their families were left shocked and upset by how quickly things got out of hand.

“I’m confused why it got so crazy, how it got so quick, so bad so fast,” graduate Kiana Hamilton said.

Fellow graduate Halle Ragoonanan said the incident was especially heartbreaking for her and her family because she didn’t get to walk during her high school graduation in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I didn’t even get to walk,” she said. “I didn’t get to walk. I graduated magna cum laude and I didn’t even get to walk. I’m the class of 2020. I didn’t get to walk for my high school graduation and I didn’t get to walk for my college graduation.”

Other graduates lamented over how much money their families had spent to be there for their special day just for it to be canceled.

This mother’s day weekend Howard University shutdown graduation and blamed the families instead of taking accountability for poor planning. What did you expect when you have the largest graduating class and no headcount limit per graduate. Let them walk at commencement! pic.twitter.com/PipTkmr7D1

— Dee (@darling_daphney) May 10, 2024

“All the money we spent,” an unnamed student told the station. “My father and grandmother came down from North Carolina.”

Howard said security removed someone from the building before the ceremony who returned and smashed the glass door outside the auditorium.

One student was found with cuts on their hands from the broken glass.

“This incident led to a disturbance among guests outside of the facility, resulting in a disruption of the program,” Howard’s statement said. “Guests in attendance were immediately dispersed following this incident.”

Some of the affected students were able to walk in the university’s main commencement ceremony on Saturday, while individual awards were given out to students on Friday.

Roger Corman, the “King of the Bs” who helped turn out such low-budget classics as “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and gave many of Hollywood’s most famous actors and directors early breaks, has died. He was 98.

Corman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California, according to a statement released Saturday by his wife and daughters.

“He was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,” the statement said. “When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a filmmaker, just that.’”

Starting in 1955, Corman helped create hundreds of B-movies as a producer and director, among them “Black Scorpion,” “Bucket of Blood” and “Bloody Mama.” A remarkable judge of talent, he hired such aspiring filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese. In 2009, Corman received an honorary Academy Award.

“There are many constraints connected with working on a low budget, but at the same time there are certain opportunities,” Corman said in a 2007 documentary about Val Lewton, the 1940s director of “Cat People” and other underground classics.

“You can gamble a little bit more. You can experiment. You have to find a more creative way to solve a problem or to present a concept,” he said.

The roots of Hollywood’s golden age in the 1970s can be found in Corman’s films.

Jack Nicholson made his film debut as the title character in a 1958 Corman quickie, “The Cry Baby Killer,” and stayed with the company for biker, horror and action films, writing and producing some of them. Other actors whose careers began in Corman movies included Robert De Niro, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn.

Peter Fonda’s appearance in “The Wild Angels” was a precursor to his own landmark biker movie, “Easy Rider,” co-starring Nicholson and fellow Corman alumnus Dennis Hopper. “Boxcar Bertha,” starring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine, was an early film by Scorsese.

Corman’s B-movie directors were given minuscule budgets and often told to finish their films in as little as five days. When Howard, who would go on to win a best director Oscar for “A Beautiful Mind,” pleaded for an extra half day to reshoot a scene in 1977 for “Grand Theft Auto,” Corman told him, “Ron, you can come back if you want, but nobody else will be there.”

“Roger Corman was my very first boss, my lifetime mentor and my hero. Roger was one of the greatest visionaries in the history of cinema,” Gale Ann Hurd, whose notable producing credits include the “Terminator” film franchise, “The Abyss” and “The Walking Dead” television series, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Initially only drive-ins and specialty theaters would book Corman films, but as teenagers began turning out, national chains gave in. Corman’s pictures were open for their time about sex and drugs, such as his 1967 release “The Trip,” an explicit story about LSD written by Nicholson and starring Fonda and Hopper.

Meanwhile, he discovered a lucrative sideline releasing prestige foreign films in the United States, among them Ingmar Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers,” Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” and Volker Schlondorff’s “The Tin Drum.” The latter two won Oscars for best foreign language film.

Corman got his start as a messenger boy for Twentieth Century-Fox, eventually graduating to story analyst. After quitting the business briefly to study English literature for a term at Oxford University, he returned to Hollywood and launched his career as a movie producer and director.

Despite his penny-pinching ways, Corman retained good relations with his directors, boasting that he never fired one because “I wouldn’t want to inflict that humiliation.”

Some of his former underlings repaid his kindness years later. Coppola cast him in “The Godfather, Part II,” Jonathan Demme included him in “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia” and Howard gave him a part in “Apollo 13.”

Most of Corman’s movies were quickly forgotten by all but die-hard fans. A rare exception was 1960’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” which starred a bloodthirsty plant that feasted on humans and featured Nicholson in a small but memorable role as a pain-loving dental patient. It inspired a long-lasting stage musical and a 1986 musical adaptation starring Steve Martin, Bill Murray and John Candy.

In 1963, Corman initiated a series of films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The most notable was “The Raven,” which teamed Nicholson with veteran horror stars Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone. Directed by Corman on a rare three-week schedule, the horror spoof won good reviews, a rarity for his films. Another Poe adaptation, “House of Usher,” was deemed worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress.

“It was my privilege to know him. He was a great friend. He shaped my childhood with science fiction movies and Edgar Allen Poe epics,” John Carpenter, director of “Halloween,” “The Thing” and other classic horror and action films, said on X. “I’ll miss you, Roger.”

Near the end of his life, Karloff starred in another Corman-backed effort, the 1968 thriller “Targets,” which marked Peter Bogdanovich’s directorial debut.

Corman’s success prompted offers from major studios, and he directed “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” and “Von Richthofen and Brown” on normal budgets. Both were disappointments, however, and he blamed their failure on front-office interference.

Roger William Corman was born in Detroit and raised in Beverly Hills, but “not in the affluent section,” he once said. He attended Stanford University, earning a degree in engineering, and arrived in Hollywood after three years in the Navy.

After his stint at Oxford, he worked as a television stagehand and literary agent before finding his life’s work.

In 1964 he married Julie Halloran, a UCLA graduate who also became a producer.

He is survived by his wife, Julie, and children Catherine, Roger, Brian and Mary.

The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday.

Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the pig kidney would last for at least two years.

The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement it was deeply saddened by Slayman’s passing and offered condolences to his family. They said they didn’t have any indication that he died as a result of the transplant.

The Weymouth, Massachusetts, man was the first living person to have the procedure. Previously, pig kidneys had been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months.

Slayman had a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, but he had to go back on dialysis last year when it showed signs of failure. When dialysis complications arose requiring frequent procedures, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant.

In a statement, Slayman’s family thanked his doctors.

“Their enormous efforts leading the xenotransplant gave our family seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts,” the statement said.

They said Slayman underwent the surgery in part to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.

“Rick accomplished that goal and his hope and optimism will endure forever,” the statement said.

Xenotransplantation refers to healing human patients with cells, tissues or organs from animals. Such efforts long failed because the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. Recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike.

More than 100,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant, most of them kidney patients, and thousands die every year before their turn comes.