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In a shocking turn of events, comedian Dave Chappelle has taken aim at Oprah Winfrey,

claiming that the media mogul may be involved in a web of manipulation and control orchestrated by Hollywood’s elites.

Chappelle, known for his outspoken views,

has ignited a new wave of speculation regarding Winfrey’s alleged role as a handler for the powerful figures in the entertainment industry.

Chappelle, who has often expressed his skepticism and questioned the narratives presented by mainstream media, has now put Oprah Winfrey in the spotlight. In a recent video, he suggests that the story goes beyond any one individual and delves into a realm of conspiracy theories that connect dots that perhaps should not be connected.

Oprah Winfrey, a prominent figure in the media landscape, has often been in the news for her philanthropic efforts and influential interviews. However, the recent video sheds light on the darker side of Oprah’s associations and friendships, raising questions about her involvement with individuals facing serious allegations.

One of the most significant accusations against Oprah is her questionable friendships, including her association with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein, convicted for sexual assault, was once a close friend of Oprah’s, leading to public scrutiny and accusations of her complicity in his actions.

Moreover, the video points to Oprah’s endorsement of controversial figures like John of God, a Brazilian healer facing serious allegations of sexual misconduct. The comedian alleges that Oprah, knowingly or unknowingly, provides a platform for individuals involved in shady practices.

The spotlight intensifies when examining Oprah’s interviews with celebrities like Tony Braxton, where the singer claimed that Oprah’s questioning and judgment on her financial troubles negatively impacted her career. The accusations suggest that Oprah might not always have the best interests of her guests in mind and may contribute to their public downfall.

The video also delves into Oprah’s association with Michael Jackson’s accusers, questioning her role in giving a platform to stories that tarnish the legacy of the late pop icon. Critics argue that Oprah’s actions might be driven by a hidden agenda, potentially aligning with the interests of Hollywood elites.

In response to these allegations, Oprah has faced criticism from various corners, with some accusing her of being out of touch with the struggles faced by ordinary individuals. The controversy surrounding Oprah’s actions raises important questions about the integrity of media figures and their responsibility to the public.

As the debate unfolds, it remains to be seen whether these allegations against Oprah Winfrey are rooted in conspiracy theories or if there is substance to the claims. The public, no doubt, will be closely watching as the story continues to unravel, questioning the motivations and connections of one of the most influential figures in the media industry.

Kevin Hart made a comeback at Kat Williams.

During their game against the 76ers on Friday night, Kevin Hart got back at Katt Williams, the NBA Unplugged star blurting some absurd Knicks “facts” about his fellow comic.

The response comes after Williams criticized Hart for his comedic ascent to popularity two days prior when he was a guest on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast, Club Shay Shay.

“Another fun fact about the New York Knicks, I don’t know if you guys know this, but Katt Williams bought the Knicks,” Hart claimed about the Knicks vs 76ers game on Friday. “And it’s rumoured that he took the Knicks back, returned them with a receipt.”

“He’s the first person to ever do that,’ Hart added. ‘He bought them for 15 days and returned them.”

Two of the most well-known stand-up comedians in the world, Hart and Williams have had their work featured in films and television shows.

On Friday night, during the New York Knicks’ game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Hart was a guest on NBA Unplugged.

NBA Unplugged is a substitute broadcast, much to Peyton and Eli Manning’s Monday Night Football arrangement, for the league’s games on one of ESPN’s networks.

While Hart wasn’t the only stand-up comedian or public figure targeted by Williams on Wednesday, given their contemporary parallels, he could have been the most important.

On his very first night, he witnessed a Chinese attack on a position to his left.

Michael Caine is one of the most well-known and highly-regarded British actors of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is famous for roles in movies like Zulu, Get Carter, The Eagle Has Landed, The Italian Job, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, and a host of others spanning an acting career of 70 years.

GETTY

While he has become a household name across the globe, a fact that many people don’t know about Michael Caine is that he served in the British Army and saw combat in the Korean War. It was a harrowing experience for the actor and one that would scar him for many years.

Caine’s birth name was Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, and he was born in 1933 in South London to a working-class family. Caine’s father fought in the Second World War. His family, including the young Maurice (Michael), was evacuated from London due to the risk of bombing by the Luftwaffe.

Behind the scenes on the location set of the film Zulu with stars Michael Caine and Stanley Baker.
After gaining his School Certificate at the age of sixteen, he worked for a time as a messenger and filing clerk for a film company in order to a get a foot into the door of the industry.

He was called up for national service from 1952 to 1954. He served with the British Army’s Royal Fusiliers, an infantry regiment.

At first, he was posted to serve with the British Army Of The Rhine (BAOR), the British occupation force that had been stationed in Germany after the end of the Second World War. However, after serving there for a few months, he opted to transfer to Korea where a war was raging.

Royal Navy and Army personnel are watching guns being towed across the Rhine after completing building of the bridge.
 

The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45. Assault on the Rhine and Capture of Wesel. Commandos make their way over a bomb crater.
Going into combat would turn out to be an experience that would change Caine forever.

Caine landed at Kure, in southern Japan, and underwent two weeks of combat training. After this, he was sent to the South Korean front, near Pusan.

The front was unlike anything Caine had ever experienced. There were hordes of rats and vast swarms of mosquitoes as well as the ever-present stink of human excrement used to fertilize the fields. And, of course, there was the presence of thousands of North Korean and Chinese soldiers hell-bent on killing Caine and every other opposing soldier there.

He spent his first few nights in a trench on a hill around a mile from the Chinese lines. On his very first night, he witnessed a Chinese attack on a position to his left. He watched with both awe and horror as the Chinese troops – who were clearly unafraid of death and fanatical in their cause – charged headlong into machine gun fire.

Troops await North Korean attacks across the Naktong River from positions on the Pusan Perimeter, September 4, 1950.
He would end up being on the receiving end of more than one of these charges while manning an American .30 caliber machine gun. Some nights he would go out on patrol, and these were the most terrifying experiences he underwent in Korea.

Sometimes, enemy bombardment of the trenches would continue for up to 24 hours without pause. Caine would simply lie in his camp bed in the bunker, listening to the shells whining and exploding, and wonder how he was going to get out alive.

Soldier takes aim with a tripod-mounted M1919A4 in Korea, 1953
On one occasion, he came alarmingly close to being killed. Caine and two other men were out on patrol, creeping through the elephant grass at night. They suddenly heard the tell-tale clicking of rifle bolts snapping shut all around them, accompanied by hushed voices speaking excitedly in Chinese.

They were surrounded and heavily outnumbered, and all three men were convinced they were about to die.

In that moment, however, Caine recalls that he felt no fear. He “decided that whoever was going to take [their] lives was going to pay dearly.” So the three of them charged, roaring maniacally, at the voices.

A .50 Cal. Machine gun squad fires on North Korean patrols along the north bank of the Naktong River, Korea.
The Chinese opened up but were firing at the place where Caine and his companions had been a few seconds earlier, not where they were running to. The British mortars spotted the Chinese muzzle-flares in the darkness and opened up on them, scattering the enemy. Caine and his friends managed to get back to British lines and lived to fight another day.

Caine stated that as the child of a working family who had grown up poor, he had been sympathetic to communism prior to his experience in Korea. But after he had fought the fanatical proponents of communism and saw firsthand how it dehumanized people, he changed his mind about it and came to greatly oppose the idea.

M26 tank west of Masan during Pusan Perimeter engagement, late summer 1950.
All in all, he was in Korea for a year. He spent six weeks at a time in the trenches followed by two weeks in Seoul for R&R, during which time many of his fellow soldiers were infected with gonorrhea. Caine, due to his refusal to see prostitutes, never contracted the disease.

He left Korea a profoundly changed man, grateful at having survived the war. He had been forced to grow up very quickly, and he’d learned a lot about himself and the world.

Michael Caine stars in “Ashanti,” filmed at the Moon Valley above Eilat, Israel.Photo: Government Press Office (Israel) CC BY-SA 3.0

He used his military experience in a number of roles in which he played military men and, despite his humble background, ended up becoming an icon of British and international film.

Caine, currently 90 years old, is still acting and has no plans to retire as yet.

Williams shares daughters Olympia, 6, and three-month-old Adira with tech entrepreneur husband, Alexis Ohanian

Serena Williams gets candid about reality of being a mom. Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Serena Williams TikTok

Serena Williams is getting candid about being a mom!

The tennis legend, 42, shared a light-hearted TikTok clip of her real-life parenting world Wednesday that opened with her posed in the black sequin gown with puff sleeves she wore to the recent 2023 CFDA Awards.

In a relatable moment for parents everywhere, the camera then switched to an image of her pumping breast milk and letting out a deep sigh.

“What my life is really like… It’s not as glamorous as you think,” the mother-of-two wrote in her caption.

Earlier this month, Williams — who shares daughters Olympia, 6, and three-month-old Adira with tech entrepreneur husband, Alexis Ohanian —  revealed that Olympia is successfully “navigating” being an older sister to Adira.

“She loves it,” Williams told Entertainment Tonight at the CFDA Awards. “Adira’s like a tiny little baby, so Olympia just calls her her little sis.”

Per the outlet, Williams explained that Olympia “prayed for a sister” but revealed she herself was a little “worried” ahead of Adira’s arrival.

“I was like, ‘OK, I don’t know if I can like anyone as much as I love Olympia,’” Williams said. “I was really nervous about that. But I feel like it all worked out.”

Serena Williams gets candid about being a mom. Serena Williams TikTok

Despite Williams sharing her reality of motherhood, the star became the first athlete to win the fashion icon honor from the Council of Fashion Designers of America at the CFDA Awards, following in the footsteps of Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell, Rihanna and Zendaya.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve used fashion as an outlet to express myself,” Williams told the CFDA ahead of the ceremony while wearing the elegant black dress designed by CFDA Chairman Thom Browne. “Fashion gave me the confidence to step on the court and own who I was, and where I knew I was going,”

New research suggests the Chelmno group followed their water burials with mass deposits of bronze jewelry and artifacts

An excavation of the dry Papowo Biskupie lakebed unearthed over 550 bronze artifacts. A. Piasecka / Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Researchers have determined that a hoard of bronze jewelry found in a Polish lakebed may be related to ancient ritualistic water burials.

Metal detectorists discovered the jewelry last year at Papowo Biskupie, the site of a long dried-up lake in Poland. In the excavations that followed, researchers recovered over 550 bronze artifacts, as well as human bones—making the site “one of the most eloquent testimonies of ritual activity from the Lusatian period in Poland,” according to a study published this week in the journal Antiquity.

Between 1200 and 450 B.C.E., the site was occupied by the Chełmno group, a faction of a larger northern European culture called the Lusatian population, which was active during the late Bronze and early Iron Age, according to the researchers. Previously, historians knew that other Lusatian groups used metal for ritualistic purposes, but the Chelmno group wasn’t thought to have engaged in this practice—until the recent findings at Papowo Biskupie.

A recreation of a multistrand necklace, complete with beads and charms, found at the site A. Fisz / Antiquity Publications Ltd.
“The scale of metal consumption at the site is extraordinary,” study co-author Łukasz Kowalski, an archaeologist at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, tells Live Science’s Jennifer Nalewicki. “Until now, we thought that metal was a weak partner in the social and ritual strategies of the Chełmno group, in contrast with the metal-hoarding madness [practiced by the other Lusatians].”

Researchers also recovered skeletal remains from at least 33 human bodies—including infants, children, adolescents and adults—in the lakebed. After conducting radiocarbon testing, they determined the bones date to between 1040 and 780 B.C.E.

The trove of artifacts found at the site includes arm and neck accessories, such as a necklace made with oval- and tube-shaped beads and “swallow-tail pendants,” write the researchers, who think many of the metal pieces were made by locals. However, a glass bead from the same necklace appears to have traveled a longer distance, offering new insights into the community’s participation in trade.

“The bead is made of low-magnesium glass that was sourced from the Eastern Mediterranean region,” Kowalski tells Live Science. “This increases the use of evidence that power-elites of the Chełmno group became parties to a metal trading network that connected much of the European continent in the first millennium B.C.E.”

Researchers created this example of a Chełmno woman’s burial using the jewelry found at the site. A. Fisz / Antiquity Publications Ltd.
Radiocarbon dating suggests that the metal jewelry was buried in the lake sometime after the bodies. According to a Facebook post from Antiquity, this gap sheds light on a cultural shift within the Chelmno group: The community may have first buried only bodies in the lake, later adding the metal as they adopted new traditions.

“While the Chelmno group differed in many ways from others in Lusatian culture, it seems the ritual practices and their belief system aligned later on,” writes Newsweek’s Robyn White.

The researchers completed their study with illustrations imagining what a Chelmno woman’s burial might have looked like. In one of these images, she is seen lying down with her head turned to the side, adorned with some of the metal jewelry recovered from the site.

Pearl Harbor science

(Image credit: Public domain)

Although over 80 years have passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many details of the event remain shrouded in mystery and debate. Even so, historical researchers and scientists have been able to shed light on at least some of the many lingering questions. Here are nine stories of secrets and science from the “date which will live in infamy.”

Purple/Magic

A long-standing conspiracy theory suggests that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt or his military advisors knew in advance of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but neglected to act on the warnings, for political purposes, hoping to force the U.S. to join World War II.

The accusations were first made public by FDR’s political opponents during his campaign for re-election in 1944, but all of the 10 official inquiries into the events of the attack on Pearl Harbor have dismissed these ideas. The latest such inquiry took place in 1995.

Much attention has focused on a U.S. espionage effort, code-named Purple, which aimed to decipher Japanese radio communications picked up by U.S. listening stations around the Pacific Ocean. The deciphered messages produced by the Purple decipherment machine (pictured above) were code-named Magic.

But making sense of the Magic messages involved a complex and slow process; they were protected by two layers of codes and ciphers that changed each day, and most of these messages also needed to be translated from Japanese.

Although the Purple program was able to read some Japanese diplomatic communications before 1941, researchers have shown that the codes and ciphers used by the Japanese military were not broken until much later in the war. Japan’s military was distrustful of the country’s Foreign Office, and shared no details of the impending secret attack on Pearl Harbor with their ambassadors in the U.S.

One key Magic communication did relate to the attack: the famous “14-part message” between the Japanese foreign office in Tokyo and the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., which was intercepted on Dec. 6, 1941.

The message indicated that Japan would formally break off peace negotiations with the U.S. at 1 p.m. in Washington, D.C., the next day. This corresponded to dawn in Hawaii on the day of the Japanese attack.

Several U.S. officials read the message, and interpreted it as a strong sign that a Japanese attack was imminent.

But the message did not say anything more, and at the time, the U.S. was expecting Japan to invade Thailand and the British colony of Malaya — which the Japanese did do on Dec. 8, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Spies in Hawaii

Several foreign spies are known to have operated in Hawaii on behalf of the Japanese military before the Pearl Harbor attack. (Image credit: U.S. National Archives)
Several foreign spies are known to have operated in Hawaii on behalf of the Japanese military before the Pearl Harbor attack.

Among them was Otto Kuhn, a “sleeper agent” for Germany’s Abwehr military intelligence service, who had lived for many years in Hawaii with his family before the war. Kuhn was related to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who arranged for Kuhn’s posting to Hawaii in 1935 to spy for the Japanese.

Kuhn trained his teenage son and daughter to listen for military secrets, while his wife was responsible for compiling the information the family gathered. Although the Kuhns diligently produced many espionage reports for many years, the family of spies failed to impress their Japanese controllers. Historical researchers have said the Kuhns gathered little information of real value. All four members of the family were arrested in February 1942, a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Kuhn, his wife and his daughter were imprisoned for spying, and returned to Germany after the war.

Japan, however, had its own master spy in Hawaii: a young intelligence officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy named Takeo Yoshikawa, who worked undercover at the Japanese consulate in Honolulu as a junior diplomat named Tadashi Morimura.

Yoshikawa was posted to Honolulu in March 1941, and lost no time making a thorough inventory of U.S. naval activity by touring the island via car and boat, taking photographs from hills overlooking the harbor, and chatting with taxi drivers. He even rented a small plane for aerial reconnaissance and went diving near the warships in the harbor while breathing through a hollow reed.

U.S. counterspies intercepted and deciphered some of the many messages Yoshikawa transmitted to Japan, but none of these messages gave any direct warning of an attack on Pearl Harbor — until his final message. This transmission, sent on Dec. 6, described the positions of the U.S. warships in the harbor. Unfortunately, U.S. experts did not decipher that message until after Japanese attack had begun.

Secret Fleet

Many historical researchers highlight two major factors in the success of the Pearl Harbor attack: the effectiveness of Japanese torpedoes and the strict secrecy surrounding the movements of the Japanese warships making the attack.

Japan went to a great deal of trouble to disguise the movements of its strike force (Kido Butai) of six aircraft carriers, 414 aircraft, and more than 40 other warships and submarines. This force left northern Japan under strict radio silence in late November 1941.

Many of the radio operators from the ships were left behind at their bases in Japan, where they continued to send transmissions as if still on board their vessels. This was an effort to fool the U.S. military, which was known to be listening in on Japanese radio communications.

At first, the Japanese fleet sailed almost due east, far north of the regular shipping lanes. The force had orders to destroy any commercial ships it encountered that might betray the fleet’s position, but reportedly only a single Japanese ship was sighted.

On the Dec. 4, 1941, the strike force turned southeast toward Hawaii, and finally approached the islands from the north — where the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa had reported few U.S. air patrols were carried out, because the seas there were thought to be too rough for an attack.

Thunder Fish

The Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa also reported that the water in Pearl Harbor was not deep enough to use torpedoes. The U.S. Navy apparently thought the same, and later U.S. inquiries into the attack found that this was one of the reasons that no anti-torpedo nets were installed to protect the largest warships on Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row.

The Japanese answer to the shallow waters was to devise a new type of aerial torpedo (shown here in the center) that could be dropped from an aircraft into shallow water without burying itself in the mud of the harbor floor.

Two wooden fins were added to the torpedo to keep it stable after it dropped from the aircraft. The fins broke off when the torpedo entered the water, where a sophisticated control mechanism prevented the weapon from rolling out of control as it sped toward its target, a few feet below the surface.

The Japanese aerial torpedoes, nicknamed “thunder fish in the sky” (“koku gyorai”), devastated warships in the harbor, sinking more vessels than any other weapon used by the attacking aircraft, which included regular aerial bombs and armor-piercing anti-ship bombs.

At least 13 of the 40 torpedoes launched in the first wave of the Japanese aircraft attacks hit the U.S. battleships, which were then considered the most important warships in the American fleet.

“Missing” Carriers

That all three U.S. aircraft carriers based at Pearl Harbor were away at sea on the day of the Japanese attack has fueled rumors that senior U.S. officials knew in advance about the attack, and that they had dispatched the carriers on a distant mission to protect them from harm.

The fortunate survival of the carriers USS Lexington (shown here), USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise was an important boost to U.S. morale in the days after the Pearl Harbor attack. But historical researchers point out that the U.S. Navy did not consider aircraft carriers important until after the Pearl Harbor attack had shown the effectiveness of air attacks on warships.

Although aircraft carriers would later dominate the war in the Pacific, in December 1941, the U.S. Navy thought its battleships would be the most important warships in any war to come, as the ships had been since the First World War.

The Japanese also considered the American battleships to be their main target. And thanks to the country’s spy in Hawaii, Takeo Yoshikawa, Japan already knew that the U.S. carriers were not in harbor on the day before the attack, but that eight U.S. battleships were.

Naming the Dead

After 75 years, efforts continue to identify the remains of many of the victims of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, where more than 2,400 Americans died.

Researchers for the Department of the Defense based at Pearl Harbor are trying to establish the identity of hundreds of sailors and marines from the wreck of the battleship USS Oklahoma, using DNA analysis and dental records.

The Oklahoma capsized on Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row with more than 400 crew on board on the day of the attack, after Japanese torpedoes hit the ship.

Most of the badly damaged human remains from the Oklahoma were initially buried in mixed caskets at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, but the researchers have said they hope to eventually identify each individual.

So far, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has identified 392 distinct sets of DNA in the remains from the Oklahoma, and has positively identified the remains of more than 60 servicemen.

Mystery Catalina

Alongside the major wartime shipwrecks in Pearl Harbor, including those of the battleships USS Arizona and USS Utah, many smaller military wrecks still hold secrets.

Among them is the wreck of a Catalina PBY flying boat in Kane’ohe Bay, on the northeast side of the main island of Hawaii, which underwater archaeologists investigated in 2015.

Investigators have tried to identify the wrecked seaplane for many years, but so far its identity and that of its crew remain unknown.

The researchers said it may have been destroyed soon after it took off during the Japanese attack.

Submarine Wrecks

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) has explored the wrecks of two Japanese submarines that took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, to mark the 75th anniversary of the events.

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) live-streamed video from the ROV as it explored the wrecks.

The subs were among five Japanese submarines sent to infiltrate Pearl Harbor before the first air attacks. Each was armed with two torpedoes, but all failed in their mission.

One of the Japanese subs explored by the ROV was sunk by the USS Ward near the entrance of the harbor. Divers re-discovered the wreck in 2002.

The wreck of the second sub was found in 1951, before it was raised by the U.S. Navy and dumped in deeper waters.

Leaking Oil

The damage to U.S. warships by the Japanese raid has left a lasting impact on the marine environment of Pearl Harbor.

Oil continues to leak from the USS Arizona, which had taken on nearly 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million liters) of fuel on the day before the attack, in preparation for its return to the U.S. mainland that month.

Today, the wreck of the USS Arizona spills more than 2 gallons (8 L) of fuel oil a day, and some scientists have warned of a potential environmental disaster if the estimated half a million gallons of fuel remaining in the wreck escapes.

The National Park Service, which administers the wreck of the USS Arizona as a national monument, monitors the fuel spilling from the ship, but so far no major efforts have been made to contain the leakage.

But the fuel leaking from the ship may not be the greatest environmental threat to the waters of Pearl Harbor. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 5 million gallons (19 million L) of spilled fuel have collected in an underground plume beneath a fuel storage area near the main gate of the Pearl Harbor military base.

The U.S. Navy said some of the spilled fuel in the plume dates back to activities at the base during World War II – the rest comes from fuel spills and leaks that have occurred at the base in years since then. Although the Navy said there is no danger of the heavy fuel seeping into the water, scientists have warned of a major environmental disaster if such seepage ever occurs.