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Morning Martini
5/6/2025: Popemobile to the Rescue!

5/6/2025: Popemobile to the Rescue!

PLUS: Buffett Lives!; Diddy Trial: Day 1; and VE Day Parade

May 06, 2025
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Morning Martini
Morning Martini
5/6/2025: Popemobile to the Rescue!
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Today is Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

It is the 126th day of the year.

239 days remain.

WHAT’S ON TAP

NOTABLE & NOTEWORTHY: A car chase takes a frightening turn in Oakland.

DAVE PORTNOY is choosing education over retaliation when it comes to an antisemitic incident at his Philadelphia bar. More on that in SHOWBIZ.

CHAPPELL ROAN is considering a career change and ADAM LAMBERT joins the cast of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Details in CASTING CALL.

The Royal Familiy steps out for VE Day celebrations in ROYALS.

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TARIFF TALK

– PRESIDENT TRUMP is expanding his tariff plan to include movie production, slapping tariffs on films that are made outside the United States. Like so many things in Trumpworld, exact specifics will be forthcoming. Per his post on Truth Social, he’s directed the Commerce Secretary and US Trade Representative to add this project to their portfolios. NETFLIX’s stock was down 1.3% on the news.

– Japanese news agency Kyodo reports that American negotiators have denied Japan’s request to repeal all reciprocal tariffs. Trump administration officials maintain that the 10% baseline tariff is non-negotiable, as well as 25% tariffs on automobiles and steel.

– Details of a forthcoming deal with India have begun leaking, which could include a “zero for zero” policy specifically on steel and auto parts.

###

UPDATE: Despite plans to retire as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, WARREN BUFFETT will remain with the company as board chairman.

Buffett’s choice to succeed him, Greb Able, was also approved at a weekend board meeting. He’ll begin his tenure at the start of next year.

The company’s shares were down more than 5% on Monday on the news. [via AP]

###

California Highway Patrol officers miraculously avoided disaster after a driver threw a live grenade out the window during a car chase over the weekend.

Police began a traffic stop when they encountered the stolen vehicle, but the driver refused to stop. During the pursuit, the driver tossed a bag onto the street. An officer approached the bag to find a grenade with the pin partially pulled inside.

After swiftly clearing the area, a bomb team determined the grenade was live and capable of explosion – but fortunately it wasn’t fully triggered.

The driver was eventually arrested. No word where he got his hands on the device. [via CBS San Francisco]

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One of POPE FRANCIS’ final wishes before passing away was to donate one of the “Popemobiles” he used to public health efforts in Gaza.

The glass-enclosed vehicle that he used for travel in Bethlehem in 2014 is being retrofitted to function as a mobile clinic, which will include “rapid tests, suture kits, syringes, oxygen supplies, vaccines, and a small fridge for storing medicines,” according to an official statement from the Vatican.

A trained driver will accompany the vehicle, along with a team of doctors. Allowing the vehicle to enter Gaza will first require permission from Israel, which has blocked humanitarian aid from entering the region since the discovery of collusion between relief groups and Hamas terrorists. [via BBC]

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A Wisconsin woman has been found “alive and well” after going missing 60 years ago.

In July 1962, 20-year-old Audrey Backeberg left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, hitchhiked to Madison, and got on a Greyhound bus bound for Indianapolis.

Backeberg’s case eventually went cold, until this year when Sauk County detective Issac Hanson started reviewing cold cases.

Scouring the evidence that had been collected and re-interviewing witnesses, Hanson says it was a familial connection made on Ancestry.com that led to him finding the missing woman.

Keeping her location a secret, Hanson says he obtained an address and asked the local sheriff’s department to stop by. Ten minutes later, Backeberg called him. Without disclosing too many details from their conversation, Hanson says that an “abusive husband” may have been a factor in her disappearance.

“She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets,” he told WISN. [via WISN]

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