Judge Puts Infowars Purchase By ‘The Onion’ on Hold

A Texas judge has temporarily halted The Onion’s auction purchase of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' site Infowars, and the site is live again—for the moment. Bids were submitted in secret, which Jones' lawyers complained about during a Thursday hearing. In response, according to Variety, Judge Christopher Lopez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas said, “No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.” He added later: “I don’t care who wins or loses [the auction]. I care about process.” In a statement to Variety, Ben Collins, the CEO of The Onion’s parent company and a former Daily Beast reporter, commented on the process, which saw families of Sandy Hook school shooting victims forgo a portion of their adjudicated recovery from Jones in order to increase The Onion’s winning bid. “The joint bid from Global Tetrahedron and the Connecticut families has been selected as the winning bid for Infowars. The sale is currently underway, pending standard processes,” Collins said. Judge Lopez said he would hold an evidentiary hearing next week.

Jim Carrey’s older sister Rita Carrey, a radio personality, died “peacefully and quietly” on Thursday, her husband Alex posted in a statement to her Facebook page. Alex, her partner of 16 years, wrote of his late wife’s “loving soul” and love for the holidays. She “wanted to help everyone, even total strangers,” he wrote, and asked for donations in Rita’s name to support the domestic violence survivor organization Gillian’s Place in her native Canada. “She filled everyone’s heart with joy with every step she took and I will never forget this beautiful and amazingly talented woman,” he also wrote in the heartbreaking post, “Goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend, until we meet again.” He did not mention a cause of death. Jim Carrey, 62, has not yet made a public statement about his sister’s passing. Rita was one of his three siblings. Their brother John died aged 60 in 2019.

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Donald Trump has selected Steven Cheung to serve as assistant to the president and communications director in the White House, the president-elect announced on Friday. Cheung previously served as director of communications on Trump’s presidential campaign, where he was known for issuing combative statements while exhibiting his quiet competence. Steve Bannon dubbed him “the hardest worker in all of Trumpland.” Cheung has been with Trump for years, serving before that as the White House director of strategic response. Trump is also bringing on Sergio Gor, who runs the company that publishes his books, as another assistant to the president and director of the presidential personnel office. “Steven Cheung and Sergio Gor have been trusted Advisors since my first Presidential Campaign in 2016, and have continued to champion America First principles throughout my First Term, all the way to our Historic Victory in 2024,” Trump wrote.

Despite rumors circulating on who could be joining Donald Trump’s new administration, Jamie Dimon is counting himself out. The JPMorgan CEO received a shoutout on Trump’s Truth Social account on Thursday, with the president-elect posting: “I respect Jamie Dimon, of JPMorgan CHASE, greatly, but he will not be invited to be a part of the Trump Administration.” However, the billionaire banker had no plans to regardless. “First of all, I wish the president well, and thank you, it’s a very nice note,” Dimon said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Lima, Peru. “But I just want to tell the president also, I haven’t had a boss in 25 years and I’m not about ready to start.” In June, Trump told Bloomberg that he would consider Dimon for a role like Treasury Secretary, and many had wondered if he’d join the administration. The president-elect later walked back the quote, and said that he didn’t “know who said it.”

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Shortly after Megyn Kelly called her a “pig,” Rachel Zegler apologized for her post-election take. Last week, Zegler reportedly wrote “f*** Donald Trump“ in her Instagram stories, followed by: “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” The sentiment set off conservative Kelly, who used her Sirius XM show to call for Zegler’s firing from Disney’s live-action Snow White film. “She has to go right now,” Kelly said, echoing other outraged Trump supporters. “There’s something wrong with this person.” Zegler has since apologized. “I let my emotions get the best of me,” she wrote in her Instagram stories on Thursday. “Hatred and anger have caused us to move further and further away from peace and understanding, and I am very sorry I contributed to the negative discourse.” While the “week has been emotional for so many of us,” she continued, “I firmly believe that everyone has the right to their opinion, even when it differs from my own. I am committed to contributing positively toward a better tomorrow.”

An American visiting Japan with his family has been arrested on suspicion of vandalism after allegedly desecrating Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Shrine. According to Reuters, the 65-year-old (identified as Steve Lee Hayes) clawed five letters representing family names into a pillar of the Torii gates with his fingernails. He allegedly etched the characters “just for fun,” according to Tokyo Weekender, and was taken into custody at his hotel. The incident is one in a string of similar defacements, visitors having graffitied pillars at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo twice already this year. Reuters reports that “overtourism” may be to blame: 27 million people visited Japan between January and September, injecting the equivalent of $37.5 billion into the economy but also saddling the country with drunken, rowdy visitors who leave their trash in the streets and strain transportation systems and generally make life more difficult for locals. As for Hayes, he’s reportedly receiving assistance from the U.S. Embassy.

Conan O’Brien is set to host the 2025 Oscars. “America demanded it, and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme. In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars,” O’Brien said in a statement released by ABC. O’Brien left late-night in 2021 after nearly 30 years on the air, and now hosts the popular podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” He was selected to host the awards after four-time host Jimmy Kimmel turned it down, as well as comedian John Mulaney. “I know how much work goes into [the Oscars], so I thought, ‘Yeah, I don’t necessarily want to do this ever again,’” Kimmel told the Los Angeles Times. An Academy Awards hosting gig used to be a feather in the cap for established comedians, but has become almost radioactive amid declining ratings and social media backlash. The show had no host from 2019 to 2021. Viewership hit 19.5 million at this year’s Oscars, a four-year high. Though before 2018, viewership never dipped below 32 million. This is O’Brien’s first time hosting the Oscars, though he did host the Emmys in 2002 and 2006.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team reportedly has a list of military officers they want to boot from the Pentagon, and it could unprecedentedly include the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Two sources told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity, that Trump is still in the early stages of planning and the list could grow as he gets closer to taking office. Trump reportedly has yet to give the official go ahead for the firings, though he has spoken often in recent weeks about getting rid of “woke” generals and officers connected to the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. Insiders also predict that Trump could focus his firings on military officers connected to Mark Milley, Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported Reuters. Milley was quoted in Bob Woodward’s book War calling Trump “the most dangerous person ever,” and someone who could not control his authoritarian tendencies while in the White House. Milley added, “I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist.”

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A woman who claims she had sex with former Florida congressman—and current attorney general nominee—Matt Gaetz while she was a minor testified about the encounter in front of the House Ethics Committee, ABC News reported Thursday. The network cited sources familiar with the Justice Department investigation into Gaetz, which ultimately resulted in no charges against the Republican firebrand. He has continually denied all charges of impropriety. The news comes just as the committee was scheduled to meet to consider releasing a report on its findings this week. Since Gaetz is no longer in Congress, however, its release is up in the air. The lawyer for the woman who testified, John Clune, has called on the committee to make it public, saying of his client: “She was a high school student and there were witnesses.” Gaetz said following Thursday’s report that the “allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress.” He added: “This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.” The Justice Department investigation did result in an 11-year prison sentence for a former friend of Gaetz’s, Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of the woman when she was under 18.

Billionaire Elon Musk has quickly become the public face of the new Trump administration. After being appointed to a government “department” that does not exist, the Tesla billionaire took time out from hobnobbing with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago to meet with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, according to The New York Times. Two Iranian officials told the publication the meeting took place on Monday in New York, where their discussion focused on softening tensions with Iran and the United States. Musk requested the meeting, according to the report. Ultimately, the meeting with Musk and Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani was “positive” and good news," said the officials, who added that the meeting, held at an undisclosed location and chosen by the ambassador, lasted for more than an hour. “We do not comment on reports of private meetings that did or did not occur,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, told the Times. Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s transition spokeswoman, said, “The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world. When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that.” Just last week, the Justice Department announced federal charges in connection with a failed Iranian plot to kill Trump.