The man accused of orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur will finally stand trial nearly three decades after the hip-hop icon was gunned down in Las Vegas. 
Duane &#8220;Keffe D&#8221; Davis, 63, a longtime member of the South Side Compton Crips, has pleaded not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon. He spent years publicly discussing his involvement in the events surrounding Shakur&#8217;s killing, including in interviews and his memoir, statements that eventually helped revive the cold case investigation that led to his arrest, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tupac-shakur-killing-1996-alleged-organizer-trial-las-vegas-duane-keffe-d-davis/">reported</a>.
Jury selection begins Monday, with the trial expected to last about a month.
Prosecutors do not claim that Davis fired the fatal shots. Instead, they contend that he orchestrated the attack and provided the gun used to kill Shakur.
Shakur was a massive hit in the rap world when he was gunned down on September 7, 1996, while waiting at a red light in the car driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion &#8220;Suge&#8221; Knight. The pair had just watched a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas and were headed to a club where Shakur was expected to perform. 
Shakur died six days after the drive-by shooting. Knight sustained minor injuries.
Grand jury testimony placed the killing against the backdrop of several overlapping rivalries, including beef between Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records and between two Los Angeles-area gangs, the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru, a Bloods-affiliated gang. 
Bad Boy Records was founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs and included the Notorious B.I.G., while Death Row Records included big names such as Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre. 
Davis’ defense has accused the prosecution of relying on sources who did not witness the crime. His attorneys also tried to block excerpts from his book, “Compton Street Legend,” along with an interview Davis gave to police, from being used at trial. They argue the book is “fictionalized” and written with a co-author, making it unreliable as an account of what actually happened. 
The book describes a confrontation hours before the shooting in which Shakur and others attacked Davis&#8217; nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson. 
&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,&#8221; the book says, adding that Shakur had “crossed the line.” 
In the book, Davis recalls how a gun was passed to individuals in the backseat of the car. According to his account, Shakur appeared to reach for a gun before someone in the backseat opened fire. Davis wrote, &#8220;One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin&#8217; back.&#8221;
Police found no weapons in the vehicle after the shooting, per the police detective assigned to the case. 
Anderson has been suspected of being the gunman but was never charged in Shakur&#8217;s killing. He was killed in 1998 in an unrelated gang shooting. The other two passengers who were in Davis&#8217; car that night have also died.
Knight, who was seated beside Shakur at the time of the shooting, is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for voluntary manslaughter. He had previously said he would not testify in Davis&#8217; case.
Combs could also become part of the trial after Davis previously claimed that Combs offered him money to kill Shakur. Combs has denied involvement in Shakur&#8217;s murder.
Combs is currently serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was acquitted of the more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges.

Tupac Shakur

Nearly 30 Years After Tupac’s Murder, A Suspect Is Finally Going On Trial

California

Crime

Entertainment

Las Vegas

Los Angeles

Murder

Nevada

Rap Music

Sean 'Diddy' Combs

“Heya pal, got a cigarette?”
Frank Sinatra was walking outside the Moulin Rouge in Los Angeles, heading west. Outside the club, the guests at the evening’s charity event had started heading out, getting some fresh, damp spring air to cure their mild drunkenness — not as drunk as Spencer Tracy or Clark Gable, but enough that a few stumbles were caught beneath the circular words, perched on the building’s broad side facing Sunset Boulevard: “Thru These Portals Pass The Most Beautiful Girls In The World,” and the rendering of a woman’s profile illuminated in neon — a relic that the club’s manager, Frank Sennes, wouldn’t dare remove, lest the cache of the club go down in the dumps with it. No, this was Hollywood and no one made a move without having some well-connected friends or a bulletproof reputation. Frank Sinatra had both.
Lighting his cigarette, Sinatra stared up at the neon goddess and kept walking. Somewhere in the night, the HOLLYWOOD sign was staring down from Mount Lee, above Beachwood Canyon, right over 6230 Sunset Boulevard. Its blinking marquee lights had been taken down years before, but its looming presence remained, overlooking its Pacific desert empire, daring young men and women to follow their ambitions. Fortunes and reputations and dreams were made and lost here ­— Peg Entwistle’s ghost would oversee all of it from the top of the Hollywood “H.” Sinatra, by this May 13 night in 1960, had been through it all. And now he was back on top.
To an outsider, there was no better place to be than in the Sinatra orbit. Post-WWII America was still in the midst of a national boom and tiptoeing up to a decade-long transition that would wave a wistful goodbye to one Golden Age and then oversee its burial without realizing how rich we had it.
Sinatra had taken over the original Rat Pack from his pal Humphrey Bogart, who hosted the group in a revolving-door style in the Holmby Hills home he shared with his wife Lauren Bacall. And they made a show of it in this showbiz town. David Niven, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Swifty Lazar, Sinatra, Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Lana Turner. They stayed at The Garden of Allah and dined at Romanoff’s. They drank Rusty Nails and champagne and played practical jokes, had affairs, danced, romanced, gossiped, and broke up. They started rumors and ended them. And when Bogart died in 1957, a part of that world went with him.
It was a new, old era. Sinatra had gathered his permanent crew, rebranded the Rat Pack in his swinging image, and set off for Las Vegas. He, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford had a standing show at The Sands Hotel and Casino. “Ocean’s 11” was being filmed; casinos up and down the strip were headlining the stars of the day that would be buried by the counterculture of tomorrow. But the Old Guard&#8217;s code still worked. There was carousing and drinking, gambling, smoking, showgirls, money, drugs, sex, parties, and the ease of life that was confident in the present. Untouchable. It was a brotherhood of Rats but clad in black tuxedos, endearing itself to a nation at the cusp of revolution. And the genius of it all — what made it work — was the adherence to a line of respect that came down to what it meant to be a man.
By 1960, Rock and Roll had weaved its way into the mainstream. Romonoff’s skipped over Wilshire Boulevard, moving from North Rodeo Drive to South Rodeo. It preserved the original building&#8217;s mood, but the cultural shift proved too much to bear, and the restaurant closed its doors two years later. The Brown Derby on Wilshire was also shuttered, followed years later by the Brown Derby on Sunset — the one that created the Cobb salad and the sticky-sweet Shirley Temple — relics of an age that seemed like it would live forever until one day it didn’t. The culture never offers an explanation; only an autograph at the bottom of an IOU.
It was, at its core, a town of men, just like any town. And here was Sinatra, smoking a heater, a little drunk, and in a full Indian squaw outfit. The Moulin Rouge party had a Western theme, and the crooner showed up in drag with a feather-topped headdress. It was a deliberate move to tempt the entertainment gods into a fight, and that night, the god was John Wayne.
Wayne showed up as himself because he was always John Wayne, and performed his act on stage and received his applause and laughs and cheers. But not from Sinatra. The leader of the pack had beef to settle with Duke. In that town, nothing is as good as the story behind the story, and this was one for the papers. The two Big Men of the Golden Age were at odds over politics, scripts, the Blacklist, Albert Maltz, and the art of being a man — an uncompromising commitment to reputation, honor, and a Code. And so, in the small hours of a Saturday morning with half of Tinsel Town in Cowboys-and-Indians, Sinatra called out, “Hey Duke, why’d you run your mouth?” The five-foot-seven Sinatra, who registered 150 pounds soaking wet, shoved the 220-pound Wayne, a towering figure at six-foot-four even without his hat.
Wayne didn’t move; he didn’t have to. He had the advantage of size and posture and a lifetime spent being the final word in the room. Sinatra had the advantage of nerve. This was not merely a fight between two famous men. It was a collision between two competing ideas of manhood, both shaped by the old Hollywood machine but ultimately a reflection of the American Man: overcoming challenges, flaws, and sins (because&#8230; who among us?), and stepping into responsibility and danger and sacrifice for honor, reputation, the friends beside you and the family behind you.
 The romance of the Rat Pack era, when stripped of the smoke, dazzling lights, crinoline-lined dresses, whitewalls, and the cultural sins of the age, rested on aspiration. A man wanted to be better than he was. He wanted to sing better, dress better, tip better, dance better, and love better. Masculinity was not victimhood. It was not a podcast grievance. It was not a rented sports car photographed at a low angle. It was movement — toward a woman, toward a friend, toward the door, toward the next town, toward the next chance to prove that style was not a costume but a discipline. And if you stepped out of the Moulin Rouge on a starry night below the Hollywood Hills with a heater and an attitude and moccasined feet right into your custom, two-toned 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and headed toward Route 91, the crystal desert air giving way to the razzle-dazzle of Sin City, a man just might find that discipline refined in ways that only shone under the electrified oasis.
That is the thing about the lure of this show town, embedded in the ethos of Las Vegas in its heyday: glamour that is too easy to misunderstand from a distance. It was not simply the tuxedos, the cigarettes, the neon, the women, the jokes, the drinks, the swagger, the snap of a cufflink, or the band hitting the downbeat while a man in a dinner jacket leaned into a microphone as if the whole country had been waiting for him to explain the meaning of cool. It was performance, but performance with obligations. You had to be funny. You had to be generous. You had to be able to take a joke, buy a round, show up for your friend, and know that the woman across the table was not an accessory to your mythology but the reason the mythology had any stakes at all. The Beautiful Babies who understood that what it meant to be a lady was just as important as what it meant to be a man.
This is why the film “Swingers,” released in 1996 and set inside the hungry, half-broke, retro-cool Los Angeles of aspiring actors and late-night bars, understood the Rat Pack better than most nostalgia ever could. Set against the backdrop of the revival-swing era, an underground, niche scene that was at its best when it was still below the surface — a spontaneous zeitgeist that originated in small, intimate venues in Southern California — was a reaction to the heavy-handed hair bands and carbon-copy grunge rockers popular at the time. The players never took themselves too seriously, and it reflected the upbeat, carefree fun of the original American Swing of the 1930s and ’40s, but with a punk/ska twist. It only became cringe when GAP mainlined it into its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ735krOiPo">khaki commercial</a>, and Super Bowl XXXIII featured one of the more commercially successful bands, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Doug Liman’s film, written by Jon Favreau, was not about men who had made it. It was about men rehearsing for the possibility that they might. Mike was heartbroken, broke, embarrassed by his own need. His friend Trent was loud enough to cover the terror beneath confidence. Rob, Sue, Charles — all of them were orbiting the same dream factory Sinatra had conquered and the same city that keeps a ledger of everyone who thinks wanting something badly enough makes it inevitable.
But “Swingers” is not cruel to Mike. That is its grace. His friends tease him, push him, dress him up in their borrowed bravado, drag him to Vegas and back, and tell him he is money long before he believes it. Their friendship is noisy, immature, and occasionally ridiculous, but it is also tender. The movie knows that male friendship, at its best, is a rescue mission disguised as a bit.
And the women in &#8220;Swingers&#8221; matter precisely because they are not merely trophies in the boys’ recovery narrative. Nikki’s answering machine becomes a tribunal — a trainwreck of a scene that rivals any horror flick. Mike humiliates himself not because a woman is cruel but because he’s upended by his own panic. Lorraine (Favreau ahead of the curve, utilizing an old-fashioned name before it became trendy, again), when she arrives, is not conquered. She is met. She is another person in Los Angeles trying to begin again. The happy ending is not that Mike gets the girl as a reward for suffering. It is that he becomes capable of speaking to her without dragging the wreckage of his old life into the conversation. He becomes, in the old sense, a gentleman — not because he wins, but because he finally stops making his pain someone else’s problem.
And here’s the thing that made Swing revival the understated hero: Swing music wasn’t meant to be heard over speakers. It was meant to be live. It was meant for dancing — partner dancing. With a live swing band playing and a postage stamp dance floor, a guy who wasn’t afraid to dance had no shortage of girls to dance with. It was an immediate icebreaker. No stupid pickup lines; all you had to ask was, “May I have a dance?” Hell, maybe she’d buy you a drink if you made her look good. It was a real-life part of the L.A. scene.
Favreau frequented the Los Feliz Derby, a version of one of the original Brown Derby restaurants, located in the Los Feliz neighborhood in the greater Hollywood area of Los Angeles, abutting Hollywood and encompassing part of the Santa Monica Mountains. The Hollywood location was the haunt of Bogart and the boys, and the spirit was the same: There was no animosity between men and women; no “trad,” no longhouse. There is no patriarchy, matriarchy, manosphere, feminazis, cat ladies, or chads. There were beautiful babies and cool cats, and no one took it or themselves too seriously.
A few members of the cast of “Swingers” recalled that mood in a 2014 interview in <a href="https://grantland.com/features/an-oral-history-swingers/">Grantland</a>:
<blockquote>
Vince Vaughn: When Jon moved to L.A., I started to take him out to a lot of these swing music places. A lot of the old punk rock bands started to play swing. It was an alternative to the alternative scene — great live music, people dressing up, and the dancing was fun in a fun, intimate way. You would go and dance with a girl and hang out. It was really conversational. It was like being back in Chicago, where people would actually talk.
Glen “The Kid” Marhevka (trumpet player, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy): When we first started playing, we would show up at a club in suits and fedoras and people would just trip. They stared at us like we were aliens. But you’d go out and you’d dance. You’d dance with people. There was physical contact. It was kind of romantic. And just plain cool.
Morris: It was Hollywood personified. I mean, it was as hip as any club I have ever been into ever.
</blockquote>
There is a line running from Sinatra’s Vegas to Favreau’s Los Feliz, from the Sands to The Derby, from the tuxedo to the bowling shirt, from “Luck Be a Lady” to “You’re so money and you don’t even know it.” It is not a straight line of virtue. It is a line of posture, music, friendship, romance, and the belief that life is worth dressing up for even when your checking account says otherwise. The swing revival of the 1990s understood that glamour was democratic if you had the nerve to enter the room. You didn’t need to own the casino. You needed a jacket, a friend, a song, and enough self-respect not to confuse rejection with oppression.
In the Golden Age of aspiration, risk, men with ambition, men in love and the beautiful babies they pursued — from the mahogany booths of The Brown Derby, the glitz and red lips of the Sands and the showgirls at the Flamingo; hard-boiled toughness of Bogart and the easy swagger of Wayne — post WWII America placed a lot of expectations on men and men were up to the challenge.
The grifter, by contrast, never risks the room. He broadcasts from a throne he built out of insecurity and charges admission to men who have not yet learned that no woman, no friend, no city, no world owes them applause, and when life breaks your heart, call your buddy. Put on the jacket. Go hear the band. Try again. “Cock your hat — angles are attitudes,” Sinatra said.
This is the inheritance worth keeping from the Rat Pack’s long shadow: not the vices, not the swagger for swagger’s sake, not the belief that masculinity is proven by intimidation, but rather the American wager that a man can lose, get dressed, meet his friends, hold onto the woman in front of him, and still walk into the night as if the band is playing his song. That’s money, baby.
***
Editor&#8217;s note: Part two of the Sintara-Wayne Saga, Las Vegas, the new Western Frontier, and a shifting Americana will appear next week.

Frame 1618875293

Sinatra, ‘Swingers,’ And America’s Golden Age

DW Opinion

Frank Sinatra

Hollywood

John Wayne

Swingers

The Rat Pack

Police arrested a heavily armed transgender-identifying man who they said had a history of threatening mass violence after he parked a car loaded with firearms outside a Las Vegas-area casino.
Andrew Walsh of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department said Tuesday that law enforcement arrested 36-year-old “Allison” Howlett on Saturday on multiple charges, including “threats related to an act of terrorism.” 
Howlett was arrested outside of the Sunset Station Casino in Henderson after police received a phone call from his spouse claiming that he had stolen a vehicle full of weapons and had previously threatened “to commit suicide by cop and carry out a mass shooting.”
Howlett faces charges including gun theft, theft of a car, resisting an officer with a gun, and making a threat of terrorism or false information about an act of terrorism. During a Tuesday <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUu4-95nBaw">briefing</a> on the case, officers played a recording of a person purported to be Howlett making threats of mass violence. 
“I swear to God, if the FBI doesn’t come f***ing arrest me, there’s gonna be a f***ing mass shooting,” a person reportedly identified as Howlett said in the recording. “There’s one day you’re gonna be pissing me the f*** off, and it’s gonna be the last f***ing straw.” 
Howlett has <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/suspect-arrested-with-stockpile-of-weapons-at-sunset-station-faces-judge-3845342/?utm_campaign=widget&amp;utm_medium=section_row&amp;utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_term=Suspect%20arrested%20with%20stockpile%20of%20weapons%20at%20Sunset%20Station%20faces%20judge">denied</a> any accusations that he wanted to hurt anyone or made previous threats of mass violence. 
“Allison denied wanting to hurt anyone and denied making any prior threats to commit a mass shooting,” a police report obtained by the Las Vegas Review Journal said. “Allison stated that everyone is out to get her and are setting her up.”
Henderson Police Department Chief Reggie Rader said that Howlett was found in a vehicle outside the Sunset Station Casino on June 27 with music loudly blaring and refusing to leave the car. 
“The quick-thinking officers developed a plan to take her into custody as an opportunity arose when she reached for the water. Officers used that moment to gain control over her hands and remove her from the vehicle,” Rader said, using female pronouns for Howlett, who is listed as a male in booking records. 
Rader played footage showing several police officers surrounding the car and pulling Howlett out. Rader said that Howlett had been sitting on a handgun and had access to a fully automatic machine gun in the back seat of the vehicle. 
Investigators recovered 22 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including multiple handguns and rifles, in the car. Later, they found an additional 30 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition at Howlett’s residence. 
A judge has set bail for Howlett at $500,000. A preliminary hearing date is set for July 15.

MixCollage-02-Jul-2026-10-56-AM-8045

Police Take Down Heavily Armed Transgender Suspect Outside Of Casino

Police Nab Well-Armed Transgender Suspect Outside Of Casino

Terrorism

Transgender

Today on &#8220;Dystopia Now,&#8221; we take a look at something called the Enhanced Games, where nearly 40 athletes compete while doped up on performance-enhancing substances. You can catch them at Resorts World Las Vegas in late May.
A Legion of Doom-worthy coalition of tech billionaires is funding the Enhanced Games, including Peter Thiel, the Winklevoss twins, Saudi prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, and Donald Trump Jr. According to their materials, it’s &#8220;a diversified revenue model designed to capitalize on the growing global demand for sports entertainment, performance enhancement and longevity products.&#8221;
As Richard Dawson said in &#8220;The Running Man,&#8221; “Without further ado, it’s time to start running!”
A major driver behind the Enhanced Games is German tech billionaire Christian Angermayer, the author of the Next Human Agenda. He is <a href="https://christianangermayer.substack.com/p/the-future-is-enhanced">pushing the games</a> as &#8220;a significant economic driver for the biotech pharma industry in the years ahead.&#8221;
 If the Enhanced Games sounds suspiciously like an advertisement for Compound V, the superhuman-making substance in &#8220;The Boys,&#8221; it should. This isn’t a sports gambit — it’s an advertisement for the “longevity” industry, based on big tech’s obsession with expanding the human lifespan and human vitality. 
The problem is, Compound V can create metahumans like Homelander, who is a total psychopath but is essentially evil Superman, but it can also create people with the power to shoot octopi out of their butts, or some such thing. We know that these substances aren’t steroids or cocaine, but we don’t know much else about them, or about their long-term effects. The Enhanced Games is promising sprint records, but A-Train, the super-sprinter on &#8220;The Boys,&#8221; has extreme heart issues and a dependency on Compound V.
Some athletes — who are either being paid very well, desperate for glory, or both — don’t seem to care. Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev broke a 50-meter freestyle world record in an Enhanced Games trial last year, making a million dollars in the process. As Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/josipamajic/2026/04/06/pro-doping-enhanced-games-raise-12-billion-before-a-single-race/">reported</a> this week, “Irish swimmer Max McCusker, also an Olympian, said publicly that his decision to join was a &#8220;no-brainer&#8221; after earning less than $10,000 across four years of professional swimming.”
<div id="attachment_1076275" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1076275" class="size-large wp-image-1076275" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Enhanced-Games-II-1024x549.jpg" alt="Screenshot: Enhanced Games/YouTube.com" width="1024" height="549" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Enhanced-Games-II-1024x549.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Enhanced-Games-II-300x161.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Enhanced-Games-II-768x411.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Enhanced-Games-II-1536x823.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Enhanced-Games-II.jpg 1960w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot: Enhanced Games/YouTube.com</div>
So what&#8217;s the endgame? Clearly, life expansion is a mantra of the day, slotting in alongside at-home helper robots, personalized flight, Mars colonization, and the AI singularity. We seem to be heading toward a bifurcated, Gattaca-like future, with “optimized” people at the top of the pyramid and a vast mass of suboptimal people at the bottom, Elois performing feats of strength at Resorts World for an audience of barely human Morlocks.
All this reminds me of the opening credits of the “Six Million Dollar Man,” “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability of making the world’s first bionic man. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster.” (Of course, today, six million is rounding error).
This future is actually kind of appealing, even interesting. We should at least try to see if the current billionaire obsession with hyperbaric cold plunges and blood transfusions and liquid megavitamins and genetic manipulation works. My own program of fish-oil pills, probiotics, not eating like crap, and standing on my head a few times a week seems to be working just fine, but I haven’t really started into the peak of my decline yet.
The real test of Enhanced Games technology won’t be how it affects super-swimmers or Olympic sprinters, who are already close to Peak Personhood. When they start injecting nootropics into people like me, to see if they can make the Substack posts a little snarkier and the decision-making at the $400 No-Limit Hold Em poker tournaments a little smarter, then we’ll see how well it works. Just remember that, sure, there are a lot of super-people in &#8220;The Boys.&#8221; But most of them end up with exploding heads.
* * *
Neal Pollack, “the greatest living American writer,” is the author of 12 semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction and is a three-time “Jeopardy!” champion.

enhanced games

The Enhanced Games And The Billionaire Dream Of Superhumans

Drugs

Humor

Olympics

Performance Enhancing Drugs

Sports

Steroids

Swimming

Technology

Television

Track and Field

Pop singer Jennifer Lopez is getting mixed reactions for a move she made during her performance at the 2025 American Music Awards (AMAs) on Monday night.
The 55-year-old was wearing a bedazzled jumpsuit while performing a medley of songs during the show’s opening when she unexpectedly kissed one of the male dancers on stage, then turned to a female dancer and kissed her, too. 
While many fans praised Lopez’s performance, others called it “trashy” and accused the singer of ripping off Madonna, who infamously locked lips with both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera while performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2003.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Jennifer Lopez&#39;s opening performance at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AMAs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AMAs</a> gets steamy. <a href="https://t.co/nV6rIfStD4">pic.twitter.com/nV6rIfStD4</a>
&mdash; Variety (@Variety) <a href="https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1927155536123875700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Desperate attempt to return to relevancy,” one reply <a href="https://x.com/PriceOnCulture/status/1927162366136852931">said</a>. 
“Aging rough. Gross,” another person echoed.
“Pretty trashy,” a third commenter <a href="https://x.com/SPMadMax/status/1927216070517043205">wrote</a>.
“I can smell the desperation for attention,” another reply <a href="https://x.com/1UPCJ/status/1927217223623458947">said</a>. “Lady you&#8217;re 55&#8230; stop embarrassing yourself and just call it quits.”
Despite the audience having a negative reaction online, the night’s next presenter had nothing but praise for Lopez. &#8220;How cool is it to have a total superstar like J.Lo hosting the AMAs?&#8221; actress Tiffany Haddish told the audience gathered at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. 
&#8220;Our host has just danced to 23 hits in six minutes,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Just from that opening number alone, Jenny from the Block has got all her steps in for the day, and she got all her kisses in. Save a dancer for me, J.Lo. Damn! You ain&#8217;t the only one out here single.&#8221;  
The night’s big winner was Billie Eilish, who won in all seven categories for which she was nominated, including major accolades such as Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year.
Lopez made headlines last summer when she filed for divorce from actor Ben Affleck, with whom she had been married for about two years. The pair was previously engaged and broke up in 2002, then reconnected years later and made much ado about their rekindled romance. The “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” singer is currently single.

Jennifer Lopez

‘Desperate’: Viewers React To Jennifer Lopez Making Out With Dancers At AMAs

'Desperate:' Viewers React To Jennifer Lopez Kissing Male, Then Female Dancer At AMAs

Awards

Celebrities

singer

U.S.

Fans of the popular YouTube content creator MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) who paid for an “immersive” experience in Las Vegas are demanding their money back, saying they didn’t get anything close to what was advertised.
The event at Resorts World Las Vegas was advertised as an &#8220;immersive&#8221; and &#8220;unforgettable.&#8221; It was supposed to include exclusive games, a MrBeast-themed menu, and mystery bags filled with limited-edition merchandise. There was also supposed to be at least one bag containing a $10,000 gift voucher.
All of these details were meant to justify the $1,000 per-ticket price tag for the three-day event, which took place from April 13 to April 15.
“It should have been like mini-games, meet and greets, photo ops, special drinks, and things,” participant Theresa Metta <a href="https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/mrbeast-fans-seek-refunds-after-las-vegas-event/">told</a> Vegas-based outlet 8NewsNow. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get any of that.”
&#8220;I was told to wait in my room for two days for a package to come, so I legit spent two days in my room for a package to come, and it was a box of chocolates,&#8221; she continued.
&#8220;They said there would be mystery bags or boxes, and that one person would win $10,000, and then there would be a limited edition merchandise inside the boxes,&#8221; another guest, Jamie Yacksyzn, told <a href="https://people.com/mrbeast-fans-seek-refunds-for-usd1k-per-ticket-las-vegas-event-after-disappointing-experience-11716907">People</a>. 
&#8220;They also said the contents of the boxes are secret and not to be found out until you get the box,” she added. “So it alluded to the fact that there was going to be more special surprises in the box, and that there would be immersive experiences throughout the hotel floor and restaurants and activations.&#8221;
Yacksyzn continued, &#8220;I had seen things about the experience reported on MrBeast pages. Knowing how MrBeast is, and he does secret surprises and things, the hotel had also mentioned that it would be aligned with MrBeast&#8217;s reputation for being generous and his generosity.&#8221;
One guest posted a complaint on X with similar gripes about the lack of “experience” and the special merchandise being nothing more than “leftover shirts that cost $9.”
This prompted Donaldson to <a href="https://x.com/MrBeast/status/1912299963838509240">reply</a> from the MrBeast X account, saying, &#8220;Hey! This definitely isn&#8217;t the experience we hoped they&#8217;d deliver. My team&#8217;s already on it–I&#8217;d love to personally make it up to you and anyone else by inviting everybody affected to tour my actual studio! Can&#8217;t wait to meet you all and my team is reaching out to everyone :D.&#8221;
Resorts World took responsibility for the ordeal, admitting that &#8220;expectations were not met during the MrBeast experience.&#8221; The hotel said in an email that customers would be refunded in the next three to five days.

MrBeast

MrBeast Fans Demand Refund After $1K Per Ticket Vegas Experience Disaster

General

influencer

YouTube

The Justice Department announced Wednesday night that another “high level” MS-13 gang member wanted in connection to multiple murders had been arrested in New York. 
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Joel Vargas-Escobar, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, had been arrested on Tuesday and charged with a racketeering conspiracy involving 11 murders. Vargas-Escobar, who was previously deported in 2018, is suspected of being part of the command and control structure of MS-13 in Las Vegas and California. 
Vargas-Escobar was charged with racketeering conspiracy, two counts of murder-in-aid of racketeering, and multiple gun charges. He was detained by law enforcement on Long Island. 
“The American people are safer following the arrest of yet another MS-13 leader thanks to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Joint Task Force Vulcan,” Bondi said. “This terrorist entered our country illegally and is accused of orchestrating 11 murders — under President Trump’s leadership, we will not rest until this terrorist organization is completely dismantled and its members are behind bars.”
Vargas-Escobar is accused of operating MS-13’s “Parkview” clique in Las Vegas and personally ordering two murders and orchestrating nine more, according to the DOJ. The murder victims were taken to remote mountain or desert locations and tortured before being killed.  
“The arrest of yet another violent and dangerous MS-13 leader is a major win for our FBI agents, law enforcement partners, and safer American streets,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Our agents and analysts are continuously coordinating across multiple field offices and investigating with our valued partners to keep this work going — and we will not stop until that work is done.”
The alleged gang leader first appeared in court Wednesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York – Central Islip. He will be sent to Nevada for his trial, where he could face life in prison if convicted. 
This arrest follows an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-arrests-top-ms-13-leader-just-outside-d-c-america-is-safer-today" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement last week</a> the FBI had arrested 24-year-old Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, who the DOJ said was the top leader of MS-13 for the East Coast. He was arrested and charged with immigration and gun crimes last week during a predawn operation in Virginia.

EL SALVADOR-PRISON-GANGS-INMATES

FBI Arrests ‘High Ranking’ MS-13 Member Accused Of ‘Orchestrating’ 11 Murders

Department of Justice

kash patel

MS-13 Gang

New York

Pam Bondi

UFC Fight Night, brought to you in part by <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/">Jeremy’s Razors</a>, is storming back into the UFC Apex in Las Vegas tonight with a <a href="https://www.ufc.com/event/ufc-fight-night-march-01-2025">main event</a> that promises to set the flyweight division ablaze. 
Headlining the card is a thrilling showdown between Manel Kape and Asu Almabayev — a clash of styles and wills that’s sure to redefine the flyweight landscape. This is a Fight Night you won’t want to miss!
<h3>Kape vs. Almabayev</h3>
Manel Kape, the Angola-born powerhouse, steps into the cage with a chip on his shoulder. Known for his blistering speed and knockout artistry, Kape has been on a mission to prove he’s the next big thing in the flyweight division. Kape enters the bout with a 20-7 record, and he’s coming off a win in his last fight. 
Facing Kape is Asu Almabayev, a Kazakh sensation who brings an unrelenting grappling game and a suffocating pace that’s left opponents gasping for air. Sitting at an impressive 21-2 record, Almabayev is hungry to cement his name among the elite.
<h3>Brundage vs. Marquez</h3>
In this slugfest, two Americans — Cody Brundage and Julian Marquez — square off for an all-important middleweight fight. Brundage loves to wear down his foes with pressure and grit. Meanwhile, Marquez, dubbed “The Cuban Missile Crisis,” is all about chaos — packing serious power and a flair for dramatic finishes. 
Both men are coming to throw down and rebound from their last fights — which was a no-contest for Brundage and a loss for Marquez. Expect this one to end with someone staring at the ceiling before the final bell.
<h3>Haqparast vs. Ribovics</h3>
Morocco’s Nasrat Haqparast (17-5) enters with his signature razor-sharp boxing and a wealth of experience, looking to build on his recent momentum after a strong 2024. Known for his technical striking and durability, he’s a tough out for anyone. Across the octagon, Argentina’s Esteban Ribovics (14-1) is riding a three-fight win streak, capped by a stunning knockout of Drew Dober, showcasing his explosive finishing ability and dynamic style. With Haqparast’s precision meeting Ribovics’ chaos, this bout promises a high-paced striking war that could end in a highlight-reel moment. 
<h3>Amil vs. Gomis</h3>
The Hyder Amil faces off against William Gomis in this featherweight bout that’s sure to keep everyone guessing. Amil, an American powerhouse with a flawless 10-0 record, brings his relentless aggression and devastating knockout power to the cage. 
Meanwhile, Gomis, the 27-year-old French sensation is riding a 14-2 record and has his sights set on cracking the featherweight top 15. 
<h3>Lane vs. Pinto</h3>
In this heavyweight bout, former NFL player Austen Lane is looking to string together back-to-back wins. Known for his physicality and wrestling background, Lane could lean on takedowns to control the fight, but his recent losses by knockout highlight a vulnerability against heavy hitters.
Pinto, meanwhile, is making his UFC debut, arriving on the scene with momentum from a first-round TKO of Luis Camacho on Dana White’s Contender Series in October 2024.
<h3>Stars on the Rise</h3>
Don’t miss the prelims on Saturday, which feature brawls that could steal the show. Numerous matches, including two women’s bouts, will keep the crowd on the edge of their seats. 
UFC Fight Night on March 1 isn’t just another event — it’s a proving ground for some of the hungriest fighters in the game. With the flyweight division heating up, Kape vs. Almabayev could shake up the title picture, while the undercard is primed to deliver knockouts and submissions. The prelims kick off at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT, with the main card dropping at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT, streaming live on ESPN+. Whether you’re a diehard fan or just love a good scrap, this night at the Apex is going to be pure adrenaline from start to finish.
***
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UFC Fight Night: Kape v Almabayev

UFC Fight Night: Kape vs. Almabayev – A Flyweight Firestorm Awaits Tonight

Jeremy's Razors

President Donald Trump on Saturday floated the idea of sending nearly 90,000 new IRS agents to the southern border after pausing hiring at the agency.
Trump spoke at a rally at the Circa Resort &amp; Casino in Las Vegas over the weekend, and he joked that the tens of thousands of new IRS agents — hired under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — would be fired or reassigned to work at securing the border.
“They hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 workers to go after you and we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them, or maybe we’ll move them to the border,” he told supporters
“I think we’re going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns. You know, they’re so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we will probably move them to the border,” he said to cheers from the crowd.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Trump suggests sending IRS agents to the border <a href="https://t.co/ljTsu78o1I">https://t.co/ljTsu78o1I</a> <a href="https://t.co/1HyeL9HCr7">pic.twitter.com/1HyeL9HCr7</a>
&mdash; New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1883531902323511376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office freezing hiring for any “Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025,” for 90 days with some exceptions.
“This order does not apply to military personnel of the armed forces or to positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety. Moreover, nothing in this memorandum shall adversely impact the provision of Social Security, Medicare, or Veterans’ benefits. In addition, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may grant exemptions from this freeze where those exemptions are otherwise necessary,” the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/hiring-freeze/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order</a> states.
The Inflation Reduction Act granted about $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS, with most of those dollars, $46 billion, allocated toward enforcement, according to the <a href="https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-did-inflation-reduction-act-2022-affect-irss-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tax Policy Center</a>. Operations support received $25 billion, and most of the rest went toward modernizing systems and taxpayer services.
Republicans have promised to rescind the additional funding allocated to the IRS under the 2022 Biden-era legislation.

Donald Trump

Trump Jokes That He’ll Send 90k IRS Workers To The Border

Trump Jokes That He'll Send 90k IRS Workers To The Border

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/las-vegas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department</a> (LVMPD) released a letter from the man who blew himself up in a Tesla Cybertruck this week that they located on one of two cellphones they recovered from inside the vehicle.
The letter was located on an app on the cellphone belonging to Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, the U.S. Army Green Beret who they identified as the person who shot himself inside the vehicle moments before the explosives he placed in it detonated.
FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans said that the incident was “a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who is struggling with PTSD and other issues.”
In the letter, Livelsberger said that the U.S. was &#8220;the best country&#8221; to ever exist, but that in its current state, it was &#8220;terminally ill and headed toward collapse.&#8221;
He talked about the decline in traditional values in the letter and warned that political elites view the masses as &#8220;cattle.&#8221;
He warned that most people had no purpose in life and were &#8220;just sitting around waiting to die.&#8221;
&#8220;No sunlight, no steps, no fresh air, no hope,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Our children are addicted to screens by the age of two.&#8221;
He said that Americans were &#8220;too fat to join the military yet we are facing a war with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran before 2030.&#8221;
He called for focusing on increasing strength and winning in society and removing those from government who do not like those ideals; ending the war in Ukraine through a negotiated settlement as fast as possible; ending wealth inequality and improving conditions on America&#8217;s streets so there were not so many homeless people; and stop obsessing over diversity.
&#8220;We are all diverse and DEI is a cancer,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Thankfully we rejected the DEI candidate and will have a real President instead of Weekend at Bernie’s.&#8221;
He said that his decision to detonate the bomb he created was &#8220;not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call.&#8221;
&#8220;Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence,&#8221; he said. &#8220;What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?&#8221;
He said that he did it because he needed to &#8220;cleanse&#8221; his &#8220;mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.&#8221;
He called on Americans to rally around some of the biggest figures in the Republican Party &#8220;and ride this wave to the highest hegemony for all Americans!&#8221;
Livelsberger said that the U.S. was being led by &#8220;weak and feckless&#8221; leaders who only care about enriching themselves.
He called for taking action against the individuals in the U.S. government whom he said were ruining the country, warning &#8220;they all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.&#8221;

Cybertruck Explosion Outside Trump International Hotel Investigated For Terror Ties

Police Release Manifesto From Suspect Who Blew Up Cybertruck

PTSD

Tesla

Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, the U.S. Army Green Beret who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck on New Year&#8217;s Day in front of the Trump International Hotel in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/las-vegas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Las Vegas</a>, reportedly suffered from PTSD and other personal issues when he decided to take his own life this week.
Officials from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), FBI, and ATF shared updates from their investigation into the incident at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
They revealed that they have found no connection between the incident in Las Vegas and the Islamic terrorist attack that unfolded just hours prior to the incident in New Orleans where more than a dozen people were murdered.
Law enforcement confirmed Livelsberger&#8217;s identity through a variety of investigative techniques, including DNA matching.
LVMPD Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said that Livelsberger documented his activities during the 10 days prior to the explosion in an app on his cellphone, including where he traveled, weapons he bought, camping gear he bought, and more. They said that at the moment, there did not appear to be any significant meaning behind his decision to commit the act in a Tesla Cybertruck.
Koren said that the incident was being viewed as a suicide via a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED), even though he took his life with a single gunshot wound to the head just moments before the explosion.
Police released the following excerpts from writings they discovered on one of his cellphones that they recovered from inside the vehicle:
<ul>
<li>&#8220;Fellow Servicemembers, Veterans, and all Americans, TIME TO WAKE UP! We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives? Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I&#8217;ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;We are the United States of America, the best country people to ever exist! But right now we are terminally ill and headed toward collapse.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
Koren suggested that more excerpts from his writings could be released in the future.
&#8220;He does offer additional information that is varying on the spectrum in terms of political grievances, issues about the conflicts elsewhere, not here, domestic issues, societal issues, a variety of other things, including personal challenges as well,&#8221; Koren said. &#8220;We are intending to release those initial letters so people can understand the best they can what the person&#8217;s thought process was at one point in time.&#8221;
FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans said that law enforcement has not been able to identify any information indicating that Livelsberger belonged to any kind of a terrorist group or had any contact with one.
&#8220;Investigative steps have discovered, and information from the Army indicates, that he likely suffered from PTSD, and we are also aware that there were potential other family issues or personal grievances in his own life that may have been contributing factors,&#8221; Evans said.
He said that the Livelsberger &#8220;considered, planned, and thoughtfully prepared for this act alone.&#8221;
Evans again added that the incident was &#8220;a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who is struggling with PTSD and other issues.&#8221;
He addressed an email that was released on a popular podcast that is allegedly from Livelsberger, saying that the FBI has &#8220;not conclusively determined that that&#8217;s from the subject, but feel confident, based on evidence that we&#8217;re uncovering on his devices, that that was, in fact, from [the suspect].&#8221;
&#8220;So in terms of the so-called manifesto that&#8217;s circling or circulating online, we have strong evidence to suggest that it was the subject that wrote it, but we haven&#8217;t conclusively proven that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And that evidence relates to other evidence that we&#8217;re finding, that we&#8217;re able to compare that lead us to believe it was in fact him who sent it.&#8221;
Evans said that Livelsberger was not on the FBI&#8217;s radar because he had no criminal history.

Man Who Blew Up Cybertruck Was ‘Struggling With PTSD And Other Issues,’ Officials Say

Legendary guitarist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/carlos-santana-takes-the-stage-once-again-after-canceling-tour-dates-following-collapse">Carlos Santana</a> announced that he must postpone his upcoming 2025 residency in Las Vegas after he suffered a “hard fall” and broke his finger.
The residency &#8212; which was scheduled to kick off at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on January 22 &#8212; has been postponed after the 77-year-old guitarist suffered an “accidental fall” at his vacation home in Hawaii, a statement on his <a href="https://www.santana.com/">website</a> from Michael Vrionis, President, Universal Tone Management, read.
“I am sorry to say that Carlos was out taking a walk at his vacation home in Kauai,” Vrionis said in the statement. “He took a hard fall, and he broke his little finger on his left hand. He had to have pins inserted in the finger.”
“Unfortunately, he won’t be able to play guitar for approximately six weeks,” he added. “Doctors do say that he will recuperate fully. Carlos is doing well and is anxious to be back on stage soon. He just needs to heal.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Carlos Santana Postpones Las Vegas Residency Shows Due to Broken Finger<a href="https://t.co/kEmcLi2nTQ">https://t.co/kEmcLi2nTQ</a>
— billboard (@billboard) <a href="https://twitter.com/billboard/status/1875275474512798099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
“Santana profoundly regrets these postponements of his upcoming performances, but accidents happen, and his health is our number one concern,” the statement continued. “He is looking forward to seeing all of his fans very soon.”
The Vegas residency is now scheduled to start again May 14 with the postponed dates from the first part of the 2025 residency to be announced at a later time, <a href="https://variety.com/2025/music/news/carlos-santana-postpones-las-vegas-residency-accidental-fall-broken-finger-1236264849/">Variety</a> noted.
According to his website, the other dates scheduled as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist’s “Oneness Tour” are still set to happen, with the U.S. part of the tour still scheduled to kick off in “Highland, CA at Yaamava’ Resort &amp; Casino at San Manuel on April 16,&#8221; making stops in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nashville.
The Europe and U.K. portion of the tour is still currently set to begin on June 9 in “Lodz, Poland with stops throughout Europe and the UK, ending in Copenhagen, Denmark on August 11,” it added. Tickets went on sale in December. The entire list of tour dates can be found <a href="https://www.santana.com/">here</a>.
In 2022, Santana made headlines after he was forced to cancel and postpone several shows following his sudden collapse on stage during a show in Michigan, after reportedly suffering from a “serious medical issue,” as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/carlos-santana-collapses-on-stage-during-concert-due-to-serious-medical-issue">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported.
The performer’s rep later announced that several dates would be rescheduled “out of an abundance of caution for [his] health&#8221; and said he just needs rest and to recuperate fully. The legendary rocker resumed his tour weeks later.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/legendary-guitarist-carlos-santana-a-woman-is-a-woman-a-man-is-a-man" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Legendary Guitarist Carlos Santana: ‘A Woman Is A Woman, A Man Is A Man’</a>

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