4/29/2025: Extra Tequila, Hold the Snake 🐍

PLUS: Tariff Talk; Rock & Roll Inductees; and Meg and the Kids

Today is Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

It is the 119th day of the year.

246 days remain.

Photo by Brian Jones on Unsplash

WHAT’S ON TAP

NOTABLE & NOTEWORTHY: The stage is set to elect a new pope beginning next week.

DIDDY wants to claim incompetence and TOBY KEITH’s horse will race in the Kentucky Derby. More in SHOWBIZ.

JOHN LITHGOW doesn’t think one’s opinion on political issues should crossover into casting decisions. Details in CASTING CALL.

MEGHAN SUSSEX shows off her lovely garden -- and her kids’ red hair in ROYALS.

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TARIFF TALK

– Chinese factories in the export hubs of Yiwu and Dongguan have begun cutting production or shutting down completely in response to cratered demand from American buyers as a result of the new tariff scheme. Factories that output toys and sporting goods have been particularly hard-hit, one analyst tells CNBC.

– Treasury Secretary SCOTT BESSENT underscored again on Monday that he expects China to de-escalate the ongoing trade war, noting that they sell five times more to the US than vice versa. Bessent said a potential deal with India will be coming in the coming days, alongside 15-18 other “important trading relationships.”

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The College of Cardinals has set May 7 for the first round of voting to elect a new Pope. Here’s what else to know:

– There are 252 cardinals but only about half will be eligible to vote; a Cardinal over 80 years old cannot cast a ballot.

– The candidate who receives a two-thirds majority of those present is elected.

– Cardinals will live in modest, hotel-suite-like apartments at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where they are largely sequestered from outside information. Pope John Paul II had the facility constructed in the 1990s so that Cardinals had a place to stay while visiting the Vatican. Previously, Cardinals would sleep on cots scattered wherever they could find room. The late POPE FRANCIS kept his full-time apartment in the building instead of the formal quarters in the Apostolic Palace.

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Over 50 years ago, the Soviets launched the Cosmos 482 mission en route to Venus, but the booster rocket failed prematurely. Since then, it’s been orbiting Earth, and is expected to re-enter the atmosphere some time on May 9 or 10.

While most rockets would uneventfully burn up during re-entry, the landing capsule on board the ship might survive the fiery process, as it was designed to survive entering the harsh atmosphere on Venus. (Its sister probe, Venera 8, did successfully land on Venus in 1972 and returned data to Earth for nearly an hour).

Most analysis suggests the 482 mission will burn up after all, but the countdown is on to identify when and where it could crash. [via Space]

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Last week, a Chinese student living in Japan made an emergency call while hiking Mount Fuji after experiencing altitude sickness. Fortunately, the 27-year-old was promptly rescued.

Four days later, the unnamed victim hiked again – this time to recover his phone and other belongings he left behind. And once again, he required an emergency evacuation, though this time he was discovered by other hikers who found him unable to move.

No word if he ever found his phone. [via CBS News]

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A Virginia woman says she was “left shaking” and “traumatized” after discovering a small snake in the margarita she ordered at a Mexican restaurant.

"I leaned in to take a sip, and I noticed something hit me in the forehead, and I looked at my husband like, 'What was that?' " the woman, Carletta Andrews, told local media. "When I turned around, I saw the snake in my margarita." That’s when the snake started slithering up her straw. In a panic, she alerted restaurant workers, who failed to collect the snake with a stick. Eventually a brave diner grabbed the snake and took it outside.

GO FIGURE: The restaurant was slapped with health code violations by the Virginia Department of Health last year, though they were corrected within a week. [via People]

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