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Donald Trump is no longer persona non grata on the bird app ... all thanks to Elon Musk, who just made the decision to bring him back into the fold.

The announcement was made Saturday by EM himself, who wrote ... "The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei." He also linked to the results of a poll he posted Friday, which posed the question of whether DT should be allowed to return.

The results were pretty close, but ended up being in favor of letting Trump back on Twitter ... with 51.8% of the more than 15 million people who voted saying "Yes." 48.2% were opposed.

Elon was pretty impressed by the numbers on his own question ... saying earlier in the day that it was fascinating to see the results pour in, and later noting that at least 134 million had viewed the poll -- seemingly referencing some internal data he has access to.

Now, while Trump's account is, in fact, accessible again to the public -- this after being nothing but a blank page for well over a year now after being permanently banned post-Jan. 6 -- it doesn't appear Trump has tweeted anything yet ... and possibly might not at all.

Reports say he was quoted on Truth Social last month, saying he was going to stick to his own platform and that he was done with Twitter ... even amid the prospect of EM ownership.

His last public tweet dates back Jan. 8. Interestingly, DT's follower count took a nose-dive into the hundreds of thousands, but it's steadily climbing right now. Trump was once one of the most followed Twitter accounts at his peak, and "the people" clearly want him back.

Flavor Flav's beef with Spirit Airlines is making him a hot commodity with a rival carrier -- Southwest Airlines has entered the chat and it comes bearing valuable gifts.

Sources close to the rap icon/reality TV star tell TMZ ... Flav and his camp were contacted by a Southwest honcho after they got wind of his Las Vegas airport rant after missing a Spirit flight.

We're told the exec is a friend of someone on Flav's team, and made him an offer you'd think he simply can't refuse -- flying for free with Southwest whenever he wants.

TMZ broke the story ... the Public Enemy rapper lost his cool, when he was denied entry to his Spirit flight. He claimed the agent shut the door in his face, setting off a heated back and forth.

Spirit investigated the incident and decided the customer was right -- the airline refunded FF and upgraded him to "Gold", its highest frequent flier tier.

Now that the dust has settled, Flav's got options! A rep tells us he's getting an outpouring of love from flight attendants with several airlines -- including Delta and American. Southwest even sweetened the pot, throwing in a buddy pass to go with his free ride.

Flav has a good history with Southwest -- he played honorary flight attendant during a past flight into Vegas -- so, maybe the airline is in the driver's seat for his business.

Brazilian jiujitsu coach Joaquim Valente is a hero in the BJJ community -- but it's got nothing to do with kimuras and omoplatas -- it's because ... GISELE!!

TMZ Sports ran into Rigan Machado, a well-known BJJ coach who counts Keanu Reeves and Ashton Kutcher amongst his celeb clientele, at Toast in Beverly Hills on Thursday, and we asked about Valente, the world's most high-profile martial artist.

"He's my hero! My hero now," Rigan joked.

Of course, Valente is currently with the former supermodel and her two kids, Ben and Vivian, in Costa Rica.

Our Gisele sources say Joaquim is there to act as a teacher for the kids while they're away ... he's acting as a sort of jiujitsu gym teacher.

But, many people aren't buying the explanation -- despite people close to Bündchen adamantly denying there's anything romantic going on -- the rumors have persisted.

Joaquim and Gisele have known each other for over a year ... and even appeared in a magazine spread together.

Usher's looks over the years are so fine they'll make you 'Scream!'

Here is a 26-year-old version of the R&B singer looking stage-ready with his blinged-out accessories and perfectly groomed goatee at the Staples Center in Los Angeles back in 2004 (left). This was the same year his song "Yeah" became a smash around the world!

And, 18 years later the papa bear recently decked out in all white and shined bright in diamonds at a benefit in Atlanta (right) ... also, he was just photographed roller-skating in London for a new music video!

Can you say, "Yeah!?"

The question is ...

'Real Housewives' star Lisa Rinna says she'd be down to have anyone on the reality show with her, Kathy Hilton included ... this coming after Kathy said she's not comin' back unless Lisa is out.

We got Lisa leaving Jayde's Market in Bev Hills ... and Kathy's ultimatum doesn't seem to bother her -- saying there isn't a soul she can't work with.

Unclear if Lisa's actually coming back ... mums the word on whether she'll make a return.

As we reported, Kathy called Lisa and Erika Jayne "bullies" after they went ham on her, calling her out for bad-mouthing the cast, including her sister, Kyle Richards. The explosive reunion episodes showed in living color the toll it all took on the siblings.

Hidden behind this puffy-cheeked figure is an actor who, as a teen, learned there is truth to things being cheaper by the dozen ... can you trace around the mashed-up image and identify the unknown star?

This 'Sharkboy' is no stranger to being strong and powerful, especially when he kicked his workout regimen into full gear during the late 2000s ... physique on fleek! This was also the time he became a household name alongside Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. In 2013, he was quite the "Christmas Surprise" on "Saturday Night Live."

Trey Songz is on the police's radar in New York after a woman claims he brutalized her last month -- a claim he's calling BS on ... TMZ has learned.

NYPD sources tell us the alleged victim filed a report in late October, claiming Trey punched her in the face repeatedly while inside a bowling alley bathroom. We're told she also alleges TS dragged her by her hair ... and that she was taken to the hospital for what cops noted were visible minor injuries.

Our sources say the woman is a worker at this establishment, but it's unclear what might've precipitated this. There's not much context beyond her account ... although, our sources say the woman recognized Trey and identified him by name to the police after the fact.

In any case ... we're told there's now an active case for this, and the cops are interested in talking to Trey at the very least. This is certainly not the greatest news for him, considering other accusations hurled at him these past few years. An NYPD spokesperson confirms to TMZ that the investigation into this is ongoing.

As we've reported ... Trey was sued for rape recently, but the case was dismissed over a statute of limitations. There've been other instances of alleged sexual impropriety attributed to the singer as well -- all of which he's denied and characterized as a shakedown.

He's also been accused of being violent with people -- including women -- in the past.

A brutal assault of an older couple leaving the Elton John concert at Dodger Stadium this week was captured on camera -- as were the alleged assailants ... and TMZ has the video.

This incident has been going viral on social media the past couple days, and for good reason ... a man and a woman, both in their 60s, were senselessly attacked Thursday night by what we're told were a group of at least 4-6 people, this while trying to exit the parking lot.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the older couple, who'd gone to the concert by themselves, were getting ready to leave when a woman allegedly punched their sideview mirror, causing the husband to get out, confront her and and seek an explanation.

We're told the woman then tried to swing on the older man, who blocked her. At this point, our sources say the gentleman was mobbed by at least two men who started wailing on him ... part of which is on video. This footage is graphic, but you can see him being pummeled.

Sadly, it wasn't over yet ... we're told the wife hopped out to help her husband, only to allegedly be body slammed to the ground as well by some men in the group. She was knocked unconscious, and both of them were left there helplessly as people stood around.

Our sources say bystanders filmed it, but not much else to help these poor folks. As the group tried to walk away from the scene, one man followed them and recorded ... only to apparently be attacked himself when the guy in black noticed him and pounced.

Eventually, we're told the couple was helped back into their car and the wife came to. Our sources say they were waiting for EMS to show up ... but that it took far too long for any first-responders and/or stadium security to arrive. After some time, the wife felt okay enough to drive both of them to the hospital ... where we're told the husband was admitted.

At some point, somebody recorded what we're told was one of the women who was allegedly involved being questioned by what looks like a cop. Our sources say the officer didn't realize she was one of the people who was allegedly in the mix ... and was cut loose.

The children of this couple -- who were not present during the night in question -- are now desperately pleading with the public to come forward with any information to identify the 6 people they claim thrashed their parents, and have filed a police report to boot.

As you can imagine, they want justice for their family ... as their parents could've easily been killed, and as of now -- the alleged attackers have seemingly gotten away with it scot-free.

Our law enforcement sources tell us the LAPD is aware of the incident and are investigating. No arrests have been made. We've reached out to Dodger Stadium ... no word back yet.

Ticketmaster is spelling out what went wrong with their Taylor Swift tour sales -- and the justification for the fiasco was basically chalked up to ... a necessary evil to defeat bots.

The Live Nation company posted an explainer Friday night, giving an in-depth breakdown of why so many people had such a hard time buying tickets to TS's 'Eras Tour' during the presale window this week ... and it consisted of both an apology and a defense of the chaos.

For starters, Ticketmaster acknowledges what TayTay said ... that she was told they were anticipating an unprecedented amount of traffic and were prepared. However, TM adds that despite this ... when the digital doors actually opened, their expectations were exceeded.

Ticketmaster posted a graph that shows just how many people (and not-real-people) flooded their site ... even though they had a rigorous registration system in place to make sure real, authenticated fans were able to buy tickets, as opposed to spammers who would otherwise snap them up in bulk and hawk them on the resale market with massive markups.

Regardless of this seemingly airtight system being in place -- consisting of 3.5 million users successfully preregistering/confirming their IDs -- Ticketmaster says that on the day of the sale, even more unregistered fans and bots came flocking in ... partially crashing the site.

To resolve this record amount of traffic while simultaneously taking care of the folks who should've been guaranteed a chance to buy passes ... Ticketmaster says it started staggering queues, the result of which ended with longer wait times and, inevitably, frustrated users.

Ticketmaster says they know this caused confusion -- and in some cases, people to lose their spots outright -- but insists it was the best option under the circumstances. TM also proudly touts the fact 2.4 million tickets were, in fact, ultimately sold to authenticated fans ... and that less than 5% of the tickets sold ended up for resale, a W in the site's book.

Ticketmaster says it regrets the fact some were left empty-handed, but also adds this perspective ... it's unfeasible to please everyone, especially at this level of interest.

TM says, "[B]ased on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing) … that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years. While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve ... and that’s what we’re focused on."

Louis Vuitton has done the impossible --- getting two soccer G.O.A.T.s to play nice off the pitch ... doing so with a nice and quiet classic board game.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are both featured in a new LV campaign that got posted/announced Saturday. It's a photo of the two of them playing chess on top of a Louis Vuitton suitcase ... using the signature squares as spaces for their pieces.

The company described the collab this way ... "Victory is a State of Mind." They add, "In addition to a long tradition of crafting trunks for the world’s most coveted sporting trophies, the Maison celebrates two of the most talented football players today."

The picture was shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz ... who's contributed to countless spreads like this. But, the Messi and Ronaldo one is perhaps more relevant than ever ... the 2022 World Cup is just one day away, with the first match scheduled Sunday.

Neither guy's teams -- Argentina and Portugal -- are playing until Tuesday and Thursday of next week, respectively, but it could prove to be their last WC appearances ever. LM has already said he's bowing out after this, and Ronaldo has also suggested he may retire soon.

Quentin Tarantino says he wishes he would've confronted his longtime collaborator Harvey Weinstein -- especially in the wake of the criminal allegations that have surfaced.

The director was grilled by Chris Wallace on his CNN show Friday night ... getting asked why he didn't do more to protect women in HW's orbit if he was, in fact, aware of the film producer's behavior -- something Tarantino has alluded to in recent years.

QT clarified that while he had heard things about Weinstein ... he insists he was never privy to anything regarding rape or sexual assault -- which, among other things, has been alleged against the ex-movie mogul by a lot of women ... dating back to the '90s.

Tarantino says his understanding of Weinstein's alleged MO was comparable to something from "Mad Men" -- AKA, office bosses chasing their secretaries around the desk and trying to get handsy. This is the characterization Tarantino says was communicated to him back then. He notes, yes, this was still wrong ... but denies knowledge of anything more serious.

Wallace asks if he has any regrets, and Tarantino says he does -- not about working with HW, though, but not confronting him about his supposed playful skirt-chasing. The reason Tarantino says he didn't talk to him about it is because he thought it was pathetic ... and didn't want to approach his friend, who was also kinda his boss, about something so juvenile.

CBS has started what could be a devastating ripple effect on Twitter ... hitting the pause button, indefinitely, on posting new tweets amid uncertainty under Elon Musk's stewardship.

The network's news division, CBS News, announced Friday it'd be suspending all Twitter activity from its official profiles as it continues to monitor things. CBS News says it's doing this out of an abundance of caution and in light of all the tumultuous updates.

Word of CBS News' decision was first reported Friday during that night's broadcast of "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell," during which reporter Jonathan Vigliotti seemingly announced the move on behalf of the entire company. CBS confirmed it shortly thereafter.

Vigliotti was reporting on the rumored chaos at the bird app's HQ ... where a majority of employees are said to have quit recently, leaving Twitter as a bare-bones operation and at risk of completely shutting down. That hasn't happened quite yet, but the fear is there.

CBS News's last original tweet links to a story about ex-WH Press Sec. Jen Psaki's failed effort to quash a subpoena she's been roped into. The account also retweeted a TV segment discussing the DOJ's new special counsel investigating Trump. Both of those were posted almost a full 24 hours ago, and CBS News hasn't tweeted anything new since.

Ditto for local affiliates, it seems. KPIX -- the Bay Area's CBS News arm -- hasn't tweeted anything since yesterday either ... and that policy seems to apply to most, if not all, of CBS's stations across the country. We should note, they're still posting stories to their home pages.

The reason this is a big deal -- assuming it carries on for an extended amount of time -- is because Twitter has become the go-to source for news ... not just for users, but for news organizations themselves. A lot of outlets rely on Twitter to get news out quickly, not to mention the traffic captured as one of the key social media sites and the wide reach it carries.

CBS News refusing to tweet is a major statement, and if it catches on among other big publishers ... it could make Twitter even less relevant, sparking a true mass exodus.

Chris Brown says he was supposed to put on a big tribute to Michael Jackson during the AMAs this weekend -- but claims honchos pulled the plug last minute out of nowhere.

The singer posted a lengthy video Saturday that shows him in a dance rehearsal with a group of people ... and he's putting on some serious MJ-inspired moves to a few classic hits, which Chris says would've been part of a showstopping number during Sunday's broadcast.

The songs featured include "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Starting Something" and "Thriller." Presumably, this is in line with the 40th anniversary of Mike's best-selling album.

Chris's original caption reads, "U SERIOUS?" He followed up in a later comment, writing ... "WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown." IG users are mostly in support of Chris, openly asking why they scrapped it if it was this good.

Of course, there's speculation as to why CB's performance may have been nixed. Frankly, he's controversial ... even all these years later. Michael himself is obviously also polarizing ... especially in more recent years with the allegations highlighted in the documentary "Leaving Neverland."

Still, Chris's tribute would've been a nice full-circle moment -- the guy has famously done MJ tributes in the past, like in 2010 when he did a big one at the BET Awards ... a year after Michael had died.

There's also the nonstop comparisons made between himself and the King of Pop. Akon recently brought it up again, saying Chris could've been as great if he had a cleaner crew.

A truck that had malfunctioned during a parade route in North Carolina hit a young woman in a freak accident ... only to have been stopped in its tracks by a group of brave men.

This incident went down Saturday morning near downtown Raleigh, where the annual Christmas parade was being held. Around 10:25 AM ET, a lifted pickup truck that was pulling one of the floats failed to slow down as it was trailing a dance group full of young people.

The driver was reportedly blasting his horn and shouting at people to clear the lane, as he had lost control of the vehicle and couldn't stop. It seems the brakes may have failed.

Videos of the truck wading through is absolutely terrifying, as no one seems to know what's going on or if it's part of the parade or not. It definitely wasn't ... and the truck rolled on and began picking up speed. Some of the dancers were reportedly as young as 5 years old.

Reports say the truck started to hit a downhill area just after the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Boylan Ave. -- and after the crowd realized what was happening ... cops and other bystanders sprung into action, running in front of the truck and pushing back on it.

About 6 men, including 2 cops, halted the truck to a standstill ... at which point the driver was able to exit. Some damage had already been done though -- at least one girl, who was with the dance troupe, was struck and hospitalized. The extent of her injuries are unknown.

The rest of the parade was canceled and an investigation is underway.

Two of the slain University of Idaho students made a series of frantic phone calls to their friend just before all 4 victims were massacred, this according to one of their relatives.

Kaylee Goncalves, 21, was found butchered with Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and his girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, 20, following Sunday's savage attack inside an off campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. The killer/killers have not been identified and are still at large.

Kaylee’s sister, Alivea, sat down Friday with "Inside Edition" and revealed her sibling initially placed 6 CALLS to a pal named “Jack" between 2:26 AM and 2:44 AM. Then Madison phoned Jack 3 times before Kaylee gave it one more shot. Jack apparently never answered.

Also Friday, the Moscow Police Department and Latah County Coroner released new details on the probe ... the victims were each stabbed several times as they awoke from their sleep. Some of them had defensive wounds. None were sexually assaulted.

Police believe the two surviving roommates did not participate in the slayings and were also sleeping at the time. Luckily, the pair escaped unharmed, but they did not call 911 for whatever reason. The name of the 911 caller -- who phoned police 9 hours AFTER the murders -- has not been publicly released.

Adele barely got through opening night of her Vegas residency ... repeatedly dissolving into tears, saying she was super scared to take the stage.

The Caesars Palace Colosseum was unsurprisingly packed Friday night, as Adele told the crowd she was "so scared and nervous."

As for why ... as you know, the residency was scrapped at the last minute in January after there were production disputes and COVID concerns. She took heat for the cancelation, and a reboot seemed uncertain.

Adele told the crowd, “I should be giving you a standing ovation. Thank you so much for coming back to me. I really appreciate it. You look amazing and it looks just what I imagined it would look like, it's perfect."

She went on ... "I'm so scared and nervous, but I am so happy. I don't know what I was thinking putting piano ballads at the top of the set ... hopefully over time my nerves will disappear. I would also really like to thank Caesars because there have been a lot of rumors and they never once asked any questions, they've been amazing."

Adele's man, Rich Paul, son Angelo, and good buddy James Corden were all front and center.