Viral

Elon Musk appears to be flip-flopping on whether Twitter considers NPR to be state-run media -- although it's unclear if he's gonna take that label off their account.

The Twit-in-Chief was directly asked about this by an NPR reporter this week ... and when he was shown the hard numbers on where NPR gets its funding -- with only 1% of it coming from the U.S. government, and a majority of it coming from donors -- he relented a bit.

According to the journo -- citing an email exchange he says he was having with Musk personally -- EM apparently didn't understand the difference between public media and state-sanctioned media ... and replied, "Well, then we should fix it" as it pertains to NPR's status.

Musk then supposedly asked for the breakdown of their finances, which the reporter says was provided to him ... to which Musk then apparently responded, "The operating principle at new Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as govt, then we should do the same for US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here."

Earlier in the day, Musk said NPR's new state-affiliated media label --  which Twitter has yet to remove -- seemed "accurate." But now, based on this new reporting, it sounds like he's not sure. Musk reportedly told this reporter Twitter would mull over a final decision.

Of course, NPR is not state-controlled media -- unlike the ones in North Korea, China and Russia ... it's a nonprofit news org that operates independently and has provided accurate reporting for years. In light of Twitter's designation, NPR has stopped tweeting altogether.

Terrifying moment at the Masters on Friday ... two huge pine trees fell near the 17th tee at the famed Augusta National golf course -- nearly crushing spectators.

It all went down just minutes ago during the second round of the prestigious golf tournament in Georgia ... as Sergio Garcia was stalking a putt on a nearby green.

You can see in video of the tourney's broadcast, the trees came down quickly ... sending fans scurrying away to avoid being crushed.

Thankfully, according to Masters officials, no one was injured ... a small miracle considering the sheer amount of people who attended the event Friday.

Play was suspended as workers used chainsaws to clear the debris from the course. Masters officials later called off the second round, saying golfers will need to finish on Saturday morning before beginning their rounds.

WWE apologized on Friday for showing a photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp where more than 1 million Jews were murdered ... during a WrestleMania promo Saturday night.

The company faced backlash from fans, media, and even the Auschwitz Memorial once it became clear they used the image to promote the Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio match.

But now, the WWE is apologizing, saying they had no idea the image was used.

"We had no knowledge of what was depicted. As soon as we learned, it was removed immediately,” the company told The Washington Post.

It remains to be seen if the explanation will be enough ... the Auschwitz Memorial ripped into WWE before the apology, saying, "The fact that Auschwitz image was used to promote a WWE match is hard to call 'an editing mistake.'"

"Exploiting the site that became a symbol of enormous human tragedy is shameless and insults the memory of all victims of Auschwitz."

According to Auschwitz Memorial's website, the Germans established Auschwitz in 1940 in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and it was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps.

Samuel L. Jackson's got nothing on the South African pilot who made an emergency landing this week after finding a surprise stowaway on his hip -- a snake that easily could've killed him!!!

Rudolf Erasmus says he had to ground his aircraft Monday while flying 4 people in a small twin prop plane, because he realized -- while up in the air -- something cold was rubbing against his skin from under his shirt.

At first, he thought his water bottle was leaking on him ... but then he looked down and saw the serpent.

It wasn't just any snake either ... Erasmus says he recognized it was a Cape cobra, which has enough venom in its fangs to wipe out 9 people with a single strike. So, yeah ... deadly.

The pilot says he tried grabbing it and getting it under control -- refraining from telling the passengers to avoid a panic -- but eventually, he had to break the news 'cause the cobra was on the loose under his seat. When he did, he says everyone stayed calm.

Here's the kicker ... when Erasmus landed, he says he pulled his seat forward and spotted it all curled up, but when a crew member inspected, they lost it again. In other words, the snake ended up going MIA in the end.

Donald Trump might have had his worst day ever ... but Stormy Daniels had her best day on a popular pornography website.

The good folks over at Pornhub tell TMZ ... Donald's arrest has been a boom for Stormy's adult videos, with searches for her pornos spiking while Trump was getting booked.

We're told Pornhub users searched "Stormy" more than 650,000 times Tuesday ... it's a staggering figure on its own, but when it's compared to her daily search average over the first three months of the year, it works out to a whopping 32,400% increase.

Seems like there's a lot of interest out there as to why Trump allegedly had an affair with her.

Diving deeper into the numbers ... by 1:00 PM ET, as folks were waiting for Trump's motorcade to arrive at Manhattan Criminal Court, Pornhub says "Stormy" searches were six times their normal level ... which usually isn't peak horny hours.

Trump flew back to Mar-a-Lago on his private jet after his first day in court ... but some folks still have "jail" and "prison" on the brain ... Pornhub says searches with those two keywords this week are more popular than normal.

Trump's accused of paying Stormy $130,000 to shut up about the alleged affair. As for how much Stormy is making off the recent spike in her videos ... Pornhub is mum.

There's a new Snapchat filter in town and it's become a viral sensation ... so much so, it's been used over 1 billion times, making it one of the most popular ever on the app.

The "disgust" lens depicts users looking -- as the name suggests -- totally disgusted at someone or something, and apparently there's lots going on to disgust folks. Politics, sports, and even Bud Light come to mind in recent days.

A rep for Snapchat tells TMZ … it just went live Sunday, and Snap users have already uggo'd up their faces 1.5 billion times and counting.

Celebs such as "House of Gucci" star Jared Leto, singer Meghan Trainor and influencer Charli D'Amelio have hopped on the trend ... with Meghan using it on her husband Darryl Sabara.

We're told, "disgust" just surpassed "sad" ... in the Snap filter world, at least.

The sad, or crying face, filter was similarly used 1.3 billion times in its first three days. For what it's worth ... the "shook" lens had 1 billion engagements when it launched.

Timing is everything, because the sad filter blew up last year right around the time when Amber Heard went viral on social media crying on the stand in her infamous defamation trial against Johnny Depp.

Elon Musk has ordered his company, Twitter, to strip the New York Times of their verified checkmark effective immediately -- and it appears he targeted them out of pure spite.

Here's the deal ... the NYT lost its blue/gold checkmark Sunday (we can't even keep up with the colors anymore), which guaranteed verification and authenticated the account as a legit news organization. The timing and reason is no secret ... Elon made the call from the top.

The reason we know that is because EM himself commented on the state of the Times from his personal Twitter account, kinda crapping on them ... literally. He writes, "The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting."

Elon adds, "Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable. They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles. Same applies to all publications." BTW, the Times is the only major legacy news co. to lose its check so far.

Now, as for why the NYT was quite clearly singled out ... well, it seems like Elon was made aware that they publicly said they wouldn't be shelling out to pay for their gold check going forward -- something that all companies will now have to do at a rate of $1,000/month.

They went on record this past week to say ... "We aren't planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts." They also said they wouldn't be reimbursing most employees for their own verified accounts either ... except a select few.

They were far from the only media companies to say something similar, FWIW -- CNN, WaPo and the LA Times (just to name a few) are planning to do the same thing ... AKA, not pay.

However, in what looks to be since-deleted tweets from Elon ... he was allegedly only notified about the Times' defiant stance, specifically -- and based on these screengrabs from Twitter sleuths, it sounds like he may have taken it personally and pulled the trigger on 'em early.

One alleged tweet of his says he's going to give folks a few weeks to make the shift (to paying either $8/mo or $1,000/mo) but when he learned the NYT already dug their heels in ... he appears to have said, "OH YEAH?!?" Wouldn't you know it -- now NYT is unverified.

Elon Musk and co. are making a major change to Twitter starting this month -- and it's going affect just about every verified celeb out there ... many of whom aren't happy about it.

Of course, we're talking about the coveted blue checkmarks -- which, for years, have served as the official verification system on the bird app ... to distinguish prominent public figures and other people of note from all the normies. Word is, that's all coming to an end in April.

Going forward, Elon has said he's going to start charging people $8/month for Twitter Blue subscriptions -- giving 'em the option to buy their blue check. Not just that, but he's discontinuing legacy verifications ... that stripping-down is supposed to start today, April 1st.

In other words, all the stars that have enjoyed official verification status are going to be just like the rest of us -- and a good handful are already mourning, Chrissy Teigen included.

She jokingly bid her blue check status farewell with a cheeky response ... indicating she ain't ponying up the cash to stay verified. Ditto for a ton of other celebs, some of whom seem genuinely peeved about this. Jason Alexander says he's outta here if he loses his check.

William Shatner also recently sounded pretty annoyed by the lack of checks and balances in Twitter's new space, writing ... "Hey @elonmusk what’s this about blue checks going away unless we pay Twitter? I’ve been here for 15 years giving my ⏰ & witty thoughts all for bupkis. Now you’re telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free? What is this-the Colombia Records & Tape Club?" And Dionne Warwick, too, griped about it.

She writes, "I am not paying for a blue check. That money could (and will) be going towards my extra hot lattes." Ice-T said something similar this week ... vowing to go blue check-less if push comes to shove. As we reported ... LeBron James promised something similar.

A lot of stars seem to be willing to lose their verification if it means they gotta pay, but as of now -- just about everyone still has their checks ... so maybe this is an April Fools' joke?

Probably not. Just a couple days ago, Elon was pointing folks in the direction of Twitter's Verified Organizations system -- which seems geared toward making sure companies, news orgs and other notable entities continue to stay verified on Twitter ... sans impersonation.

Everyone else, though -- including individual journos, etc. -- might have to shell out if they want their blue checks. It's sure to be a s***show for a bit ... we'll see where the chips land.

A death metal concert became a calamity Friday night after a vicious storm ripped through an Illinois auditorium, killing one person and injuring 28 others.

The packed show at the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, IL, kicked off about 30 minutes before the massive storm rolled into town, causing the roof to collapse onto some of the more than 260 concertgoers.

Morbid Angel, Revocation, Crypta and Skeletal Remains were all scheduled to hit the stage, but the roof came crashing down and people got trapped underneath the wreckage.

Check out video that surfaced online ... showing the aftermath of the destruction during the mad rush to find victims under the debris.

Firefighters responded to a "mass casualty" incident around 7:30 PM.

Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle announced one person was killed and over two dozen were injured.

Five of the surviving victims were seriously hurt, five others suffered minor injuries, and 18 more sustained moderate injuries. All 28 were hospitalized.

Everyone who attended the performance was accounted for by 10:15 PM.

Colleges in China are giving students a spring break mission -- don't just hook up, get to know each other and maybe even fall in love ... as the country's seeing a drastic decline in birth and marriage rates.

Nine colleges, all run by the Fan Mei Education Group, are asking students to use their annual week-long hiatus to "get in touch with nature, and with your heart feel the beauty of spring," and most importantly ... "Go fall in love."

The schools have a heavy focus on romance this time around, although the break's been an annual event since 2019 ... just without the boning angle.

The love-making plea comes at a pretty fitting time -- China's facing massive dips in marriage and birth rates, and the country's been going all-in on getting those numbers back up ... with this college instruction being one of the latest methods.

Many businesses and provinces have reportedly been trying to come up with other effective ways to boost the stats ... like implementing a 30-day paid marriage leave or campaigns looking for city women to hook up with older rural men. We smell a reality show!

Looks like all the schools participating are vocational schools, specializing in aviation -- so go do your homework and join that mile-high club!

Billie Eilish isn't letting mother nature rain out her parade -- when a severe storm forced her to cancel a show in Mexico, Billie played on with an acoustic set for her drenched fans.

The singer hit the stage at the Foro Sol CDMX Wednesday night in Mexico City ... the latest stop on her Happier Than Ever Tour -- but instead of performing her usual concert, Billie announced she had to switch things up.

She told the crowd she'd be unable to perform due to the heavy rain ... and she'd been told everyone had to go home.

Clearly, though, Billie wasn't leaving that easily.

She told fans, "I thought it was stupid for me to leave without coming out saying thank you for being here, and standing in the f***ing pouring rain." Then she added she was still going to sing a few songs acoustically if the fans were down.

Of course, it wasn't the show anyone had planned ... but the mini-show seemed to go over well with fans as they cheered and sang along with Billie. She promised to make up the full concert at a later date. It's now been announced the rescheduled concert will be Thursday night.

Billie was joined onstage by her brother and music partner Finneas O'Connell ... who strummed an acoustic guitar as she sang her heart out.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is amused by Elon Musk and others who think AI technology is a threat to humanity ... he thinks the doomsday bunch are watching too many movies.

We got the famed astrophysicist at LAX Wednesday, and he snickered at Musk, Steve Wozniak and 1,100 others who sounded the alarm in an open letter that AI has become a "dangerous race" that could imperil our very existence ... they want a 6-month moratorium on AI development to assess the risks.

The way Neil sees it ... it's nothing new. We have seen the twists and turns triggered by the technological revolution for more than 100 years. When jobs get replaced by machines, people find new jobs. And here's the big point ... if AI eventually takes over all jobs, we can all go to the beach. After all, going to work is not embedded in our DNA, so society could reimagine how humans live.

The beach vs. work ... so who you rootin' for?

The growth of AI technology is going too far too quickly and dangerously -- at least, according to tech giants Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak ... who've joined a huge group of leaders asking developers to temporarily call it quits.

Musk, Wozniak and more than 1,100 others in the technology industry all signed an open letter from Future of Life Institute ... calling out developers of AI software, because they might not be aware of the "catastrophic" risks that can come with it.

The concerned leaders call the rapid growth a "dangerous race," and they're asking labs to take a 6-month break to allow for further risk assessment on AI. They're also asking the government to intervene if developers refuse to pause.

The signees go on to point out that competing AI labs are pushing hard to develop the best version out there, and might not be aware of what could come from it ... with the eerie possibility that AI could soon no longer need human interference to make its own decisions.

Others standing with Musk and Wozniak are Andrew Yang, the co-founder of Pinterest, professors from across the nation, and loads of AI researchers.

Keep in mind, Elon co-founded the company OpenAI, which created ChatGPT ... one of the leading AI programs currently available to the public. So, if HE wants to slow down AI, it's gotta make you think.

A California skydiver's jump on Monday nearly ended in tragedy -- she crash-landed into power lines -- but, thankfully, she was able to miraculously walk away from the scene unharmed.

The Riverside County Fire Department said it got a call regarding the stuck skydiver at around 11:53 a.m. on Monday.

Firefighters rushed to the scene in Lake Elsinore ... but they had to leave the woman hanging for 40 minutes as utility workers needed to cut the power from the wires before they could safely extract her.

In photos from the scene, you can see the woman was entwined in a powerline as first responders raced to get her down safely. Eventually, they were able to untangle her and bring her down to the ground, where she was evaluated by medics.

Thankfully, the woman was uninjured ... and later explained to NBC Los Angeles that she was trying to avoid another power line on her way down to the landing zone, causing her to crash.

The female skydiver, a student at Skydive Elsinore, was apparently jumping for the first time with her own equipment.

"The parachute opened properly and was in perfect working order," Skydive Elsinore said to NBC Los Angeles.

"At some point during the parachute descent, the jumper became confused and flew away from an open landing area and into to powerlines."

Glad everyone made it out safely.

Adnan Syed, the man whose murder conviction was overturned after 23 years behind bars, is heading back to court -- his conviction's been reinstated, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's going back to prison.

Here's the deal ... the family of Syed's victim, Hae Min Lee, successfully appealed the overturning of his conviction -- a decision prosecutors in Maryland made last year, but the family said they were completely blindsided by his release.

On Tuesday, a Maryland appeals court reinstated Syed's murder conviction, and now a new hearing will take place ... where new DNA evidence supporting his claim of innocence could be presented.

As we reported, the family of Hae Min -- who was murdered in 1999 -- didn't think the new evidence was enough to release Syed, and they were upset it was never presented during trial.

Bottom line: They want their day in court, because they still believe Syed -- whose case was heavily publicized on the "Serial" podcast -- is responsible for Hae Min's murder.

The appeals court move will, at least, give them that -- with the conviction reinstated, the evidentiary hearing will ultimately determine whether Syed remains free or returns to prison.

BTW -- Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby told us back in September her team tried many ways to notify the Lee family about Syed's release, insisting they wouldn't have dug deeper on the DNA evidence without first contacting them.

You'll recall, Syed filed multiple appeals while behind bars, but was constantly rejected. The popularity of "Serial" in 2014 brought his case national attention ... and made many listeners question his guilt.

Antoine Dodson -- the guy who became Internet famous for a very memorable interview says he's fine with white people using Black memes ... because they pay for it, literally.

We spoke to the viral star -- whose iconic quotes from the 2010 WAFF news piece, including "hide your kids, hide your wife," were turned into a catchy song -- and he weighed in on the CNN digital Blackface controversy. As it turns, out, he has quite a bit to say about it.

Antoine tells us the argument that whites are maliciously mocking African Americans -- intentionally or otherwise -- through the use of GIFs/memes just isn't his experience. If anything, he says he's only encountered reverence from Caucasians for his own meme fame ... which has translated to cold hard cash when they hire him as talent. Top dollar, at that.

Check out AD's perspective for yourself, because the way he breaks this down is unique ... and sorta scathing. He says if anyone has made him into a joke, it's other Black people.

Antoine says he doesn't really do Black-sponsored engagements 'cause it doesn't compare to the treatment he might get from whites. As he puts it ... if white people are only out to make him a punchline for their amusement, they're going to expensive lengths to do so.

Bottom line ... Antoine feels like the notion we gotta restrict white people's meme usage is ridiculous -- which is how a lot of Twitter users felt about it this weekend, frankly.

While some might agree with the writer, John Blake, the consensus seems to go in the opposite direction -- and Antoine's in that camp. BTW, he also touches on his sister's real-life scary incident being turned into humor ... and he explains why he's good with that too.

Last year Antoine got into the adult beverage business partnering with an Alabama brewery to craft "Run N Tell That" lager and just recently launched his own hot sauce.