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The remaining section of the collapsed condo building in Florida has been demolished ... it went exactly according to plan and could actually help in the rescue/recovery effort.

Explosives were detonated in the middle of the night Sunday ... bringing down the remaining structure of the tower. Authorities made the move to get ahead of a looming tropical storm, which could have caused the structure to fall to the ground ... severely hampering the search.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett warned extreme winds could have destabilized what remained of the Champlain Tower South, endangering search crews.

Residents in nearby buildings were urged to stay inside and close all windows to prevent debris and dust from coming in.

The demolition could actually assist in the search efforts ... rescuers are now able to access the underground garage, which had not been accessible before.

So far, 24 bodies have been found ... 121 people are still unaccounted for, but it's been 11 days since the collapse and after the first few hours no one has been pulled out alive.

Search teams resume their work Monday

Miley Cyrus gave a solo performance in Vegas for the 4th, but she also joined a chorus ... as in the "Free Britney" chorus.

Miley hit the stage for the opening of Resorts World ... as she sang her biggest hit, "Party in the U.S.A." ... she added the Britney Spears chant -- "Free Britney!"

She sang, "The taxi man turned on the radio, he turned to me and said, 'Free Britney, Free Britney!"

The song has lyrics about Jay-Z and Britney ... Miley said, "We love JAY-Z, but we got to free this bitch. It's stressing me the f*** out!"

This isn't the first time Miley's supported Britney. During a performance on the NFL's TikTok Tailgate Super Bowl Pregame show, she screamed out, "We love Britney." She did something similar during a 2019 Memphis concert when she repeated the refrain, "Free Britney."

Mark Zuckerberg looks like a modern-day George Washington crossing the Delaware River -- but instead of sneaking across on a boat, he's tearing through on an e-surfboard.

The Facebook honcho posted an Independence Day tribute ... and it's patriotic enough, we suppose. The dude's riding one of those eFoil electric boards that basically lets you coast along the top of any body of water. He's super into it ... has tons of videos of him on one.

This time, he looks to be in Lake Tahoe -- where he owns a massive compound, right on the shore -- and as he maintained his balance going at a good speed, he was carrying an American flag with him.

He also overlayed his clip with John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" -- which is a great tune, and definitely screams 'Merica ... but doesn't really quite fit for this setting, at least in our minds. Maybe the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA" would be more appropriate???

At any rate, you can definitely see the historical note he was going for here ... and we'll give him this, it's a cool idea. Twitter, of course, isn't really having it right now -- people on there are making tons of jokes at Mark's expense ... not to mention all the other tech billionaires having a ball with their cool toys lately. People really don't like the uber-rich these days. 😅

New Orleans will have fireworks once again this year -- this after almost having to scrap the show because of a lack of dough ... and it's all thanks to Will Smith, who threw down big time.

The actor -- who's filming his latest movie, "Emancipation," down in NOLA right now -- caught wind of the city planning on skipping this year's big firework show due to a lack of funding ... and, of course, they had to refrain from last year's show as well -- due to COVID.

He wasn't about to let that happen though, it seems ... the dude ponied up a whopping a $100,000 -- with the help of his company, Westbrook -- to help pay for the fireworks and for the festivities to carry on as originally planned -- which will come to fruition later tonight.

So, basically ... he's the local hero for this 4th of July, and the gesture didn't go unnoticed. He got tons of thanks from city officials, as well as locals who are more than happy to have their firework display back. The big boom will go down over the Mississippi River at 9 PM ET.

BTW, this movie that Will's working on right now sounds like classic Oscar bait. It tells the story of a slave named Peter on a Louisiana plantation, who escapes and ends up fighting for the Union in the Civil War. It's based on a true story too -- you've probably seen the photo.

"Peter" is also known as Gordon ... and he's the slave who posed for that iconic photo, showing off the whipping scars on his back -- which shed a light on the brutality of slavery.

Rachel Nichols -- a star anchor for ESPN, covering all things NBA -- was caught on camera last year talking to LeBron James' publicist about how to prevent a fellow female anchor, who's Black, from taking over her job during the Finals ... and the fallout seems devastating.

The New York Times published a bombshell report Sunday, detailing the drama at the sports network over the past year and change ... this after a video of Nichols talking to Adam Mendelsohn was secretly recorded by an ESPN employee, leaked ... and spread like wildfire.

Nichols was working/filming from a hotel room last May just as the NBA Playoffs were getting underway (due to the pandemic) and it appears she left her camera on somehow, and the thing was still recording when she had this chat with Mendelsohn ... with the feed going back to the ESPN studio, where somebody captured the damning words exchanged.

In the first snippet posted by the Times, you can hear Nichols venting to Mendelsohn -- who's a PR/comms wiz -- about how ESPN had approached her with the idea of doing sideline reporting during the Finals that year, as opposed to hosting -- a task Nichols has shared on and off lately with Maria Taylor, another rising star ... who's African-American.

Check out the convo ... Nichols basically says she declined ESPN's offer, because she knew it would make way for Maria to handle hosting duties full-time, essentially pushing Nichols out of the picture ... something she was clearly not down for, as she wanted to maintain her gig.

Nichols goes on to say of Maria shortly thereafter ... "If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity -- which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it -- like, go for it." She adds, "Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away."

In a 2nd audio snipped ... Mendelsohn is heard giving advice to Nichols about how she could frame the dynamic of ESPN pitting two females against each other in order to gain leverage, even if it would potentially be at Maria's expense. He also had some interesting thoughts on #MeToo and BLM, saying he had "nothing left" and was exhausted ... in what sounds like what he (and perhaps Nichols) considered phony pandering/appeasing at the executive level.

After this video/audio was spread around among ESPN workers internally, it eventually reached the higher ranks ... and the NYT reports the network has been in damage control mode ever since, with fears that Nichols might sue -- and that Taylor might leave entirely.

Bill Cosby has weighed in on the drama over his one-time costar, Phylicia Rashad, and her new bosses at Howard University ... agreeing that if they can her, they gotta refund him.

The freshly-released Cosby tweeted about the fallout from Phylicia's controversial comments last week -- in which she ecstatically celebrated Bill's conviction being overturned, calling it "justice" -- and he did so by simply concurring with another person's POV on the sitch.

Singer/actress Stephanie Mills actually spilled on how she felt about it, writing ... "I love you @phyliciarashad ❤️❤️❤️. If it’s true that Howard University wants to terminate her Position  because they feel her comments about Mr. Cosby were insensitive, then they should give back the millions of dollars that he donated to the university."

Cosby responded to that quite simply, writing ... "Thank you @iamstephaniemills your voice has always been powerful!" So, in other words, he seems to be fully in her corner on that.

A quick note ... it's not entirely clear how much, if any, dough Cosby has given Howard -- there doesn't seem to be any hard numbers on a donation. That doesn't mean he hasn't chipped in though -- and we know he's been generous when donating to HBCUs.

He famously gave Spelman College $20 million in 1998 -- also, he's an honorary degree holder at Howard. So, it's not outside the realm of possibility he's lined their pockets before.

The funny thing about Bill rushing to Phylicia's defense here ... we're almost certain she doesn't want it -- at least not publicly anyway. She low-key put this matter to bed this past week ... removing her "FINALLY" tweet, and even apologizing to the Howard student body.

So, BC reopening the scab like this probably isn't doing her any favors. If anything, she probably doesn't want Bill's name and Howard brought up in the same sentence around her at all. BTW ... it doesn't look like Howard will fire PR ... they admonished her and that's it.

Fireworks got started early in Maryland this weekend -- a good chunk of their stash went up in flames (and booms) well before the sun went down ... right at ground level, no less.

A truck carrying a crap ton of fireworks in Ocean City accidentally detonated Sunday AM, freaking out bystanders who were in the area ... but ultimately serving as an early indicator of what was to come. Seriously, it was like a full-blown firework show right there on the sand.

Of the mishap, the Ocean City Fire Dept. says ... "There was an unintentional discharge of fireworks that were being set up on the beach for the Town’s fireworks show." They added, "During the unintentional discharge, employees of the fireworks company received minor injuries and refused transport to the hospital by Ocean City Paramedics."

Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt ... but this could have turned ugly fast. In fact, it's eerily similar to another detonation gone wrong right here in L.A. from last week -- when the LAPD's bomb squad tried safely disposing of thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks they'd confiscated ... but ended up sending shockwaves through a southside neighborhood instead.

Joey Chestnut is again a hot dog eating-champion, breaking his own record for a stunning 76 wieners ... something that would've been great to see, but made impossible by ESPN.

The annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was held once more Sunday -- a 4th of July tradition now -- and JC was gunning for an even higher count than last year's haul ... which clocked in at 75, a new world record at the time. In 2021, he surpassed it by one.

Joey was scarfing down dogs on camera, but when the crucial moment arrived for hot dogs 75 and 76 ... the broadcast glitched up big time, and a still shot of Joey stayed frozen on screen for a good few seconds. Moments later, time had jumped ... and everyone missed it.

As incredible of a feat it was for Joey, his performance was unfortunately outshined by the technical issue ... which is going more viral than even Joey is right now. Some folks captured the flub live and reposted it on the internet ... and yeah, it's as bad as they're making it out to be.

Anyway ... congrats to Joey for taking the big prize (again) and holding on tightly to the belt. It's not an easy task, especially when you're pretty much tasked with one-upping your own stomach year after year ... something he's done successfully for quite a long time now.

Henry Winkler thinks the world needs to go through a "cataclysmic event" to help bring people together since we're so dang divided -- but his idea is getting a big fat ... HUH?!?

The actor tweeted out the controversial sentiment Sunday, seemingly out of nowhere and without much context. He wrote ... "We are So divided as a country .. only a cataclysmic Event , that makes us depend on one another again , can bring us back together."

Like we said ... not a whole lot of info here to get a sense of what Henry's talking about exactly -- but it could be anything ... frankly, we ARE quite divided these days -- from politics to just about everything else.

With that said ... his call for a big boom moment is being called insensitive, tone-deaf and weirdly out of touch -- especially since we, you know, just went through (and are still going through) a worldwide pandemic ... which you would think fits HW's criteria for this.

People obviously pointed this out to Henry, and he received the message ... but responded somewhat cryptically, writing ... "The Pandemic pushed the world inside creating a world apart." What we think he's saying is ... this pandemic isn't the catastrophe he had in mind -- if anything, he seems to believe COVID has only pushed us further apart.

A spa in Los Angeles became the site of brutality this weekend after protests took place against a trans person ... who allegedly revealed themselves to women in the female section.

Several people took to the streets of Koreatown Saturday for what you may consider anti-trans demonstrations ... which were met by counter-protesters, with both groups clashing in violent ways -- much of which was filmed and circulated online and made for crazy video.

Some of the counter-protesters were likened to "Antifa" -- with a handful of them dressed head-to-toe in all black, while also covering their faces -- but it's hard to sort out who's with who. All we know is that the counter-protesters were NOT having the anti-trans sentiments.

In addition to accosting/provoking some of the protesters, they also reportedly tore up signage that they apparently considered bigoted and discriminatory. On the flip side ... some of the anti-trans demonstrators also allegedly threatened and/or committed violence themselves.

One person claims they had a Wi Spa protester pull a gun on them ... and posted video of a man who appears to take a firearm out of a backpack, and then tuck it into his waistband. When asked what it's for, he's heard on camera saying ... "Something to shoot you with."

The chaos all stems from a now-viral video from last week that shows a woman confronting the Wi Spa staff over what she claimed was a man who was sitting naked in the women's side of the spa ... allegedly exposing his penis and genitals to adults and children alike.

The Wi Spa staff seems to be fine with it ... explaining to her that they respect trans people's rights -- and that, apparently, includes letting 'em go to the part of the facility they feel most comfortable in. That didn't sit well with this woman -- who essentially said she felt violated.

She gets into with other patrons ... some of whom tell her to pipe down and to have some respect, but she stands her ground -- repeatedly saying the trans person had a "d***."

Pet owners might be able to rest easy soon now that a COVID-19 vaccine seems to be making its way to the animal kingdom ... as it's getting a mass trial run at a California zoo.

Oakland Zoo officials announced this week that they had received a substantial shipment of the experimental 'rona jab manufactured by pharmaceutical company Zoetis ... which presumably cooked their recipe up specifically for wild creatures, across the board.

We say that because OZ says it's already administered the vaccine to a good portion of their furry friends ... including their lions, tigers, bears and ferrets. Oh my, indeed!

The zoo was one of the first recipients of 11,000 doses Zoetis made (and tested) ... and apparently, more are being rolled out to other animal facilities in the coming weeks. This is a donation, BTW -- for this time around at least -- so very generous on Zoetis' part.

The USDA has said this vaccine -- which was reportedly first tested out on minks -- can be used on a case-by-case basis ... but it clearly works to a high degree, because Oakland is straight-up inoculating their animals seemingly en masse. It's unclear if more animal types will be included at some point -- but ya gotta figure they will be if the trial run goes well.

This is big news ... not just because different animals at zoos have contracted the virus -- including tigers and primates at places like the SD Zoo (which got a small shipment of Zoetis earlier this year to test on the latter) -- but it could have ramifications for dogs/cats.

Dan Schneider -- the ex-king of Nickelodeon programming -- has addressed a long-held theory that he's into feet, and channeled that on his shows ... something he says isn't true.

The one-time TV producer -- responsible for creating a number of hit series on Nick over the years, including "iCarly," "Drake & Josh," "The Amanda Show," "Zoey 101" and countless others -- did an interview with NYT ... which straight-up asked him about the foot fetish rumor.

Several people have compiled still shots from different shows of his, and they seem to find a common theme among his child actors ... they seemed to be in a lot of bare feet scenes.

Dan responded with this ... "The comedy was totally innocent," going on to say the foot fetish claims were "ridiculous" and chalked it up to kids finding feet funny/goofy ... insisting he never attempted to sexualize his stars.

Some of his on and off-camera behavior with said stars have been called into question -- suggesting Dan was, at the bare minimum, creepy and unaware of boundaries.

It's all much ado about nothing, though ... according to Dan, who also clarified his reasons for parting ways with Nick in 2018, after a historic 30-year run with the network -- saying he was simply attending to other personal matters in his life that he'd let "go by the wayside."

However, NYT reports an in-house investigation into Dan's workplace practices got underway around that time ... this after claims of verbal abuse from his ex-staffers. Apparently, the review found merit to some of those claims ... which made him seem high-strung and difficult.

What the HR didn't find any credence in ... allegations of sexual misconduct, something else that had been speculated about Schneider, especially amid the height of #MeToo and his coincidental departure around the same time, when allegations were flying like crazy.

The British influencer who underwent 18 surgeries to look like BTS singer Park Jimin says the K-pop band isn't their reason for identifying as Korean ... it's the country as a whole.

Oli London, who identifies as non-binary and changed their name to Jimin, tells TMZ ... they became transracial after falling in love with Korean culture while living in the Asian nation, and their BTS obsession is a physical inspiration that led to a load of plastic surgery.

While Oli tells us they worship Jimin the BTS singer like a god and aspire to be like him in every single detail, their transition is really more about a love for everything that makes up Korea ... the food, the people and the lifestyle.

As you know ... the influencer is identifying as Korean after going under the knife a whopping 18 times for a variety of plastic surgeries, including loads of work on their eyes, nose and jaw.

Oli says the transition started long before their first plastic surgery ... and they say Rachel Dolezal provided the inspiration to come forward with their truth.

TMZ broke the story ... Rachel, a white woman who infamously identifies as Black, is embracing Oli's choice to identify as Korean.

Howard University says it stands with survivors of sexual assault, but it's also standing by Phylicia Rashad following her controversial tweet about Bill Cosby ... which it acknowledges "lacked sensitivity."

As we reported, Rashad -- who was recently named Dean of Howard's College of Fine Arts -- responded to Cosby's stunning prison release Wednesday by saying, "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"

Her comment swiftly drew backlash and outrage, and although she followed up by saying she fully supports sexual assault survivors ... she did not apologize or back down from her support of Cosby.

Howard University seems to be okay with that, while also distancing itself from her comments. A University rep tells TMZ ... "Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies."

Howard U. says "Survivors of sexual assault will always be our priority," adding ... "We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice."

As for Rashad, the school says "her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault." That's it for admonishment ... at least so far.

Rachel Dolezal has no problem with Oli London's decision to identify as Korean after having surgeries to look Asian, but her bigger point is live and let live ... something that didn't happen to her.

We talked to Rachel about what Oli calls "coming out as transracial" ... asking her on "TMZ Live" how it landed for her when Oli said they felt trapped in a white man's body.

Check out her response -- it's a very interesting take from someone who's been through the wringer for making a very similar claim. Remember, Rachel is a white woman who infamously identifies as Black.

The long and short of her answer here is ... doesn't society have bigger fish to fry than someone -- whether it be her or Oli -- claiming to be transracial? Specifically, she says our time would be better served stamping out institutional racism.

Rachel also makes a distinction between cultural appropriation, and just being true to oneself. For her, the difference lies in one's intentions. You can see our full interview with Rachel on Thursday's "TMZ Live" (check local listings).

While she doesn't feel she's owed an apology, Rachel says she just wants to be treated with kindness and compassion, instead of being mocked and ridiculed for the choice she's made ... and, clearly, continues to make 6 years after her story blew up.

Interestingly enough ... Oli, who now goes by Jimin -- after the BTS singer they attempted to emulate through surgery -- has a bit of a different take on the Dolezal comparison.

The LAPD bomb squad's attempt to detonate illegal fireworks turned into a catastrophe when one of its trucks exploded ... injuring 17 people and obliterating a neighborhood.

According to the LAPD, its bomb squad officers were in the process of seizing over 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks Wednesday night in South L.A. Cops say some of the fireworks were being stored in its bomb squad semitruck for precautionary reasons.

It's unclear why, but when the bomb squad detonated the fireworks inside the iron chamber of its semitruck, LAPD chief Michel Moore said there was a "total catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle."

Moore added, "Clearly protocols were followed and pursued, but something happened in that containment vehicle that should have not happened and we don't know why."

The blast was caught on video, and you can see it wreaked havoc. At least 17 were injured -- 10 officers and 7 civilians ... including 3 with serious, but not life threatening injuries. The blast also damaged several homes and displaced as many as 9 families.