Jax Ulbrich, 21, the son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, prank-called NFL prospect Shedeur Sanders as he awaited news on which team would select him after being considered a top draft pick.
Benson Boone‘s new song “Mystical Magical,” which was first heard at Coachella 2025, tops this week’s new music poll. Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (April 25) on Billboard, choosing the pop star’s latest single as their favorite new music […]
The 7.4 million people who get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks will get them twice in May. Recipients will get checks on May 1 and 30, Newsweek reported. SSI checks are for “for disabled and blind Americans with little to no income or assets.”
Although checks are usually sent on the 1st, the Social Security Administration adjusts the payment dates when the 1st of the month falls on a weekend or federal holiday. Under this circumstance, the SSA brings the payment date forward.
Why will SSI recipients get two checks in May?
“When the first day of the month falls on the weekend or a Federal holiday, you receive your SSI payment on the last business day before the first day of the month,” the SSA said on its website. “That means you may get two SSI payments in the same month.”
The administration adds that the system is designed to make sure people get their checks on time.
“We do this to avoid putting you at a financial disadvantage and make sure that you don’t have to wait beyond the first of the month to get your payment,” the SSA stated. “It does not mean that you are receiving a duplicate payment in the previous month, so you do not need to contact us to report the second payment.”
Recipients are advised to wait at least three days before contacting the administration if they don’t get their payments on time.
How much should Social Security recipients expect to receive?
The SSA may send a maximum monthly payment of $967 for an individual in 2025. Couples may get a maximum monthly payment of $1,450. Still, each payment will be determined by factors such as a person’s income, another family member’s income or various living circumstances.
Single people who earn less than $2,019 per month from work may be eligible for SSI. The recipients may also get the benefit if they earn less than $988 per month from other sources such as unemployment or pensions. Couples and parents who apply for children get a higher income limit.
Two days after getting into a terrifying car crash, Alijah Arenas is no longer in a medically induced coma. However, Arenas remains intubated, the family said in a statement, per People magazine.
Arenas, the son of NBA veteran Gilbert Arenas, sustained serious injuries when his Cybertruck crashed into a tree/fire hydrant in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles on Thursday.
Though he remains intubated, ESPN stated that his family said that he has “shown significant signs of progress within the last 24 hours.”
What happened to Alijah Arenas?
As ESPN reported, Arenas’ family said he “remembered the smoke from the crash and wrote to ask, ‘Did anyone get hurt?’”
A bystander who spoke to ESPN said he rushed to save Arenas when he heard banging coming from the burning car.
“I remember hearing banging on the car window, but I couldn’t see anything because the smoke was so thick. That’s when I realized someone was inside,” the bystander told ESPN. “I tried to break the window, but it wouldn’t give. Then I saw one of the windows was cracked just enough and we used everything we had to bend it and pull him out. The car was on fire. We just knew we had to get him out.”
The Arenas family later thanked the bystander in a statement and added that Alijah’s “incredible will to survive” is “nothing short of miraculous.”
“The family continues to ask for the public’s prayers and support as their miracle baby fights his way back to a full recovery,” the family stated, per People. “They remain deeply grateful for the exceptional care provided by his medical team and the overwhelming love and encouragement from the community.”
Who is Alijah Arenas?
Arenas, who is Gilbert’s second-oldest child, committed to the University of Southern California after establishing himself as one of the country’s top basketball recruits. The 18-year-old star, who will graduate in 2026, currently attends Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles.
One of the suspects in the armed robbery of Kim Kardashian said he plans to take responsibility for his role in the 2016 high-profile heist and will apologize in court as the trial begins Monday (April 28) in Paris.
Yunice Abbas, 71, who has publicly acknowledged his participation in the heist, is among 10 suspects facing charges including armed robbery and kidnapping.
“I will apologize,” Abbas told The Associated Press. “I mean it sincerely.”
Trending on Billboard
Kardashian, 44, is expected to testify in person at the trial scheduled to run through May 23. In interviews and on her family’s reality TV show, she has described being terrified as robbers pointed a gun at her to steal millions of dollars worth of jewelry in an apartment where she was staying for Paris Fashion Week. She said she thought she was going to be raped and killed.
Abbas said he acted as a lookout at the reception area on the ground floor, ensuring the escape route was clear. He said he was unarmed and did not personally threaten Kardashian, but acknowledged he shared responsibility for the crime.
He was arrested in January 2017 and he spent 21 months in prison before being released under judicial supervision. In 2021, he co-authored a French-language book titled I Sequestered Kim Kardashian.
In her account to investigators, Kardashian described two men forcing their way into her bedroom and pointing a gun towards her, asking for her ring. She said she was tied up with plastic cables and tape while the intruders were looking for jewels, including her engagement ring worth millions of dollars.
In a 2020 appearance on David Letterman’s Netflix show, she tearfully recalled thinking: “This is the time I’m going to get raped. I’m like, ‘What is happening? Are we gonna die? Just tell them I have children. I have babies, I have a husband, I have a family’.”
She told investigators the men brought her in the bathroom before they ran off and she managed to free herself.
The residency’s concierge, held at gunpoint and forced to lead the robbers to her apartment, also suffered psychological impact.
Investigators found Abbas’ DNA on plastic ties used to tie the hands of the concierge.
Asked about the trauma Kardashian suffered, Abbas said: “It’s true, I didn’t think about it. I recognize that because I did not brutalize her myself… I was not blaming myself regarding this aspect, and yet I’m responsible for it too.”
According to Abbas, minutes after the raid started, his accomplices came down from Kardashian’s apartment and gave him a bag of jewelry.
As he was fleeing the scene on a bicycle, he saw a police car, but officers were not yet aware of the robbery. Abbas said as he rode the bicycle the bag containing the jewelry became caught in the front wheel and he fell to the ground, spilling the contents of the bag. “I picked the jewels up and left,” he said.
The following morning, a passerby found a diamond-encrusted cross in the street and handed it to police. That was the only jewel from the robbery that was ever recovered.
French justice estimated stolen items to be worth $6 million in total.
Abbas said he didn’t know Kardashian’s identity at the time of the robbery.
“I was told about a famous person, a rapper’s wife. That’s all the information I had,” he said. “Until the next morning, when I heard on TV about the influencer. That’s when I understood who she was.”
He said he will detail his role during the trial, which will be conducted with a jury, a procedure in France reserved for the most serious crimes – yet he would not denounce his accomplices.
“I’m only an outsider. I’m not the one who masterminded the case. I take my share of responsibility,” he said.
Most of the suspects have denied involvement, except for Abbas and another man whose DNA was also found at the scene.
Thierry Niemen, the journalist who co-authored Abbas’ book, said Abbas approached him because he wanted to “tell his own truth” amid what he saw as inaccurate or sensationalized accounts.
The book also revealed investigative details, including how the FBI helped French police identify Abbas’ DNA despite him wearing gloves.
“This is the case of all superlatives,” Niemen said. “The FBI overseeing an investigation on French territory — that’s already a superlative.” Kardashian was then the top influencer in the world and the case was the most popular topic on the social media in 2016, Niemen stressed.
Abbas’ earnings from the book have been frozen pending the outcome of the trial.
Kardashian’s lawyer, Michael Rhodes, has said the reality TV star and entrepreneur wants the trial “to proceed in an orderly fashion in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case.”
Doechii lands her first top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Alligator Bites Never Heal jumps 24-10 on the May 3-dated chart. The set shoots up the list following its wider availability on vinyl, as well as its first release on CD.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 3, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 29.
The 2025 Billboard Woman of the Year’s Grammy Award-winning Alligator Bites Never Heal climbs the Billboard 200 following a wider availability on vinyl and its first release on CD. The set earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending April 24 (up 43%) in the United States, according to Luminate. Of that figure, SEA units comprise 18,500 (down 3%, equaling 25.9 million on-demand official streams of the songs on the streaming edition of the set; it moves 28-27 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 14,000 (up 325% — the best sales week for both the album and the artist; it reenters at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, the set’s first week atop the list) and TEA units comprise 500 (down 12%).
Trending on Billboard
Vinyl purchases comprise just over 11,000 of the album’s sales for the week.
Alligator Bites Never Heal was released in 2024 as a 19-song album. It was reissued in March with one bonus track — the gone-viral breakout hit “Anxiety” — on “extended” digital download and streaming editions. The addition of “Anxiety” helped the album hit its previous high of No. 12 on the March 29 chart.
All physical versions of Alligator Bites Never Heal contain the original 19-song tracklist. Through April 17, the set was only available to purchase as a download and in two vinyl variants. On April 18, it garnered a wider availability on vinyl, including two new vinyl editions (both color variants) exclusively available via Target and Urban Oufitters, along with a widely available CD.
“Anxiety” reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated March 29 (rising 13-10), marking Doechii’s first top 10. The album yielded an earlier top 40-charting hit with “Denial Is a River” (hitting No. 21 in February).
Kehlani got on camera to give a statement regarding the cancellation of their upcoming performance at Cornell after the university’s president said the singer “has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Cornell had booked Kehlani to headline the school’s annual Slope Day, an annual celebration following the last day of classes, set for May 7 this year. Earlier this week, the invite was rescinded.
Kehlani’s performance was officially canceled on Wednesday, per an email Cornell president Michael I. Kotlikoff sent to students and faculty. According to a New York Times report, Kotlikoff wrote in the email that “the selection of Kehlani as this year’s headliner has injected division and discord … In the days since Kehlani was announced, I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt and confused that Slope Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos and on social media.”
“I am being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again, for the millionth time, that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew,” Kehlani said on Saturday (April 26) in a video uploaded on Instagram.
“I am anti-genocide, I am anti the actions of the Israeli government, I am anti an extermination of an entire people, I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women — that’s what I’m anti,” they spelled out.
Kehlani continued: “In fact, the very first Live that I did in the beginning of this genocide was with a really beautiful Jewish organization called Jewish Voices for Peace, and I still continue to learn from and work alongside really impactful Jewish organizers against this genocide.”
“I want to be very clear in stating that I do believe God has plans for me and that’s not gonna stop nothing that I have going on, but I’m asked to clarify because this keeps coming up as a means to silence me, as a means to stop things that happen in my career, as a means to change the course of my life, and I just don’t believe that,” said Kehlani, who also noted they were in the studio working on new music. “So here’s the clarification that you needed. I hope this is everything you needed. Straight from my mouth, not a written statement with a white background from my notes.”
“Back to my album,” they concluded. Kehlani’s next full-length release will be the follow-up to 2024’s Crash.
Kehlani has been transparent about their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel in the Israel-Hamas war. In the singer’s 2024 “Next 2 U” video, they wore kaffiyehs, had dancers waving Palestinian flags, and featured the phrase “Long Live the Intifada.” In 2023, the musician joined a coalition of musicians to sign the Artists Against Apartheid letter, which called for a ceasefire.
Watch Kehlani’s Instagram reel from this weekend below.
Netflix’s thriller series You has had audiences in a chokehold since Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) first charmed and alarmed viewers back in 2018. From stalking in bookstores to scheming among London’s elite, the show has kept fans guessing — and cringing — every step of the way.
Now that You has officially wrapped after five wild seasons, it’s time to look back and rank each installment. Here’s how all five seasons stack up, from good to absolutely unforgettable.
[embedded content]
Season 5
There may be some recency bias here. But at the very least, Season 5 is a top-two season of You. The show ends perfectly, and it also ends in really the only way the show could have ended. It is the closest thing to a “happy ending,” and it is all surprising and satisfying at the same time. We also got a return of Tati Gabrielle as Marienne.
The highlight of the season is a dynamic, standout and scene-stealing turn by Anna Camp as twins Reagan and Maddie Lockwood — probably the best supporting characters since Shay Mitchell’s Peach in Season 1. Charlotte Ritchie’s Kate is given a much, much better storyline and development after the character was one of the weaker parts of Season 4. Madeline Brewer’s twist on Joe’s “You” for the season, Bronte, threw viewers a loop, and it all ended with the greatest showdown in the show’s history. While it would have been great to close the show with a Jenna Ortega or Shay Mitchell surprise cameo, it’s 10s across the board for You Season 5. Following two seasons that don’t rank as high on this list, the show fully regained its mojo to go out on a high note.
Season 1
It’s hard to get better than the original. When watching this Lifetime original, it was hard to deny that this show would explode once it found the right platform and audience. It was disturbing and unsettling to watch a show where… a stalker is the lead? But somehow, it worked. Elizabeth Lail is so endearing as you see her perspective as the inaugural “You.” The aforementioned Peach is a hoot, and John Stamos is creepy and charismatic. You don’t think the show is about to do what it does, and it does it anyway… and yet you can’t see it going any other way. This is a great season of television.
Season 2
Season 2 was heavily engaging due to the fact that the show didn’t flounder under the success of Season 1 and had a super compelling and strong co-lead with Victoria Pedretti’s Love Quinn. However, a divisive aspect of the season was Love’s brother Forty (James Scully) and their storyline.
Still, somehow the show was able to flourish post-Beck (Lail) and reinvent itself, some parts new and some parts old. And that moment when the audience learned that Love was just trying to match Joe’s freak, so to speak… gagworthy!
Season 3
This is where things get tricky. While Seasons 5, 1 and 2 are pretty clearly the top half of this ranking, Season 3 is where things start to get really mixed. Season 3 had a genius, new center of Joe’s affection in Gabrielle’s Marienne. It also had incredible comic relief in Sherry and Cary (Shalita Grant and Travis Van Winkle).
However, Love and Joe’s tit-for-tat, while it started off great, began to lose steam as the season went on. Also, Madre Linda just wasn’t as exciting as New York or Los Angeles. This season also kind of changed what we know to be the formula of the show. Then, there’s the ending where Love was left for dead and framed by Joe. We saw it coming, but still, something felt a bit off.
Season 4
While not a bad season at all, it is clear that Season 4 is the weakest of the bunch. The location change to London had potential, but the supporting characters that surrounded Joe this season weren’t as interesting as in past seasons and didn’t have a lot of depth. Kate was introduced this season as Joe’s new “You,” and while this isn’t any fault of Ritchie’s, Kate was no Beck, Love… or even Marienne. Fortunately, Kate was done justice in Season 5.
Similar to how we learned that Joe’s interactions with Marienne were in his head, it was revealed that Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers) was also in Joe’s head once he killed him. This is a decent, watchable season of the show, but it just isn’t as good as the others.
Los Angeles police have released video from the shooting of author Jillian Lauren, the wife of a Weezer band member, during a chaotic backyard confrontation that culminated in a volley of gunfire.
Lauren’s wounds were not life-threatening in the April 8 shooting in the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock, where the 51-year-old wife of Weezer bass player Scott Shriner emerged from her home with a gun as city police and the California Highway Patrol searched the area for three people who fled a car wreck.
Lauren — listed by police as Jillian Lauren Shriner — was released on a $1 million bond on suspicion of attempted murder pending further investigation. She is scheduled to appear in court April 30.
Police released the excerpts from body camera recordings, surveillance video and audio of 911 dispatch conversations on Friday (April 25). The video clips show officers peering over a high wooden fence into a yard and shouting over the noise of a surveillance helicopter at a woman to put down her gun or risk getting shot. The fence obscures from the cameras what is on the other side.
“Ma’am, we’re trying to help you. Put the gun down,” a voice says. “You’re going to get shot. It’s the police.”
An officer indicates that the woman has cocked a gun — “Oh, she racked it” — immediately before the sound of at least six shots rings out.
In a separate segment of silent surveillance video from Lauren’s backyard, she can be seen exiting the home barefoot and carrying a pistol in her right hand. Another segment shows Lauren from behind, apparently raising a gun that is briefly visible. Dirt kicks up near her feet, and she turns and walks toward a doorway to the house.
Further body camera video shows Lauren lying prone in the middle of a residential road as police place handcuffs behind her back, while noting that she has a wound on her arm.
Lauren’s published works include two bestselling memoirs, 2010’s Some Girls: My Life in a Harem and 2015’s Everything You Ever Wanted.
Weezer is a Los Angeles-based band, beloved especially for their 1994 record unofficially known as the “Blue Album,” with songs including “Say It Ain’t So.” Shriner joined the band in the early 2000s.
Lana Del Rey‘s debut on the Stagecoach lineup has come and gone, but the live intro to her upcoming new record set the stage for its visual components, like the personal style she seems to be leaning into for this album cycle.
Gracing the stage in pretty, tea-length dresses, with hair set in brushed-out waves and lips painted a color described by Lisa Eldrige’s cosmetics brand as an “iconic, late 1950s/early 1960s salmon-pink,” Del Rey’s physical presence at the country music festival served a mid-century, on the bayou aesthetic.
Positioned at a mic stand in front of a rural southern home set on the stage, she looked perfectly poised as she sang sweetly about being by her husband’s side, “where the baby alligators play” and “no one talks to me like you do, or takes care of us so good this way.” (The dark side peeked through, too: “Should I turn on the light or burn down the house?” she later contemplated in the premiere of “Quiet in the South,” a track of quiet rage over the worry her man might not make it home that night. “Feet up on the back porch, the wind’s blowing through/ I’m staring at the propane, like, what’s a girl to do?”)
Trending on Billboard
A handful of never-before-heard songs from her unreleased, untitled next record — formerly known as Lasso or The Right Person Will Stay, depending on when you asked Del Rey — made the Stagecoach set in Indio, Calif., Friday night (April 25): the aforementioned “Husband of Mine” and “Quiet in the South,” and “57.5,” which will be remembered as the one where Del Rey called out Morgan Wallen. She also sang the hauntingly beautiful “Henry, Come On” live for the first time, and her new ballad “Bluebird” was the star of a hologram interlude.
The first dress Del Rey wore, in demure, cream lace, was custom Valentino, stylist Molly Dickson noted in an Instagram Story.
When the “Summertime Sadness” singer returned to the stage post-interlude in red to sing an iconic line from the Born to Die track (“I got my red dress on tonight”), she was in custom Sugar Ferrini, according to Dickson. The strapless number complemented the earlier Valentino silhouette, with its fitted bodice, bow accent at the waist and full skirt.
Hair stylist Anna Cofone offered a how-to on achieving Del Rey’s coiffure in an Instagram post on Saturday. She listed Authentic Beauty Concept’s Glow Spray Serum for prepping mid-length and ends, and Tymo’s Airhype Lite hair dryer for smoothing before styling. She added Authentic Beauty Concept’s Airy Texture Spray and Nude Powder Spray to Del Rey’s roots as a “base for backcombing,” incorporated Remi Cachet Clip-In Deluxe hair extensions prepped with Curl Pro Stylist Mist, and set the singer’s hair using Tymo’s Cues curling iron with a 1/2-inch barrel. She brushed out Del Rey’s waves with an Olivia Garden Essential Style Double Tunnel Brush and finished the style with a mist of strong-hold hairspray.
Makeup artist Pamela Cochrane posted beauty notes as well, with a list of Lisa Eldridge products she used on Del Rey: Skin and Makeup Enhancing Mist, Seamless Skin Foundation in a mix of shades 5 and 10, Elevated Glow Highlighter in Crystal Nebula on her cheekbones, Kitten Lash Mascara “in the inner corners next to the lashes and underneath,” Kitten Flick Liquid Eyeliner “finely drawn along the outer half of eye with a small flick,” and Lip Pencil in shade 1W with Rouge Experience Refillable Lipstick in shade 189, Audrey.
See Lana Del Ray all dolled up in a clip of her singing “Henry, Come On” below, via Stagecoach’s official X account.
Stay up to date on exciting projects and upcoming events from the Black Promoters Collective.
©2024 Black Promoters Collective (BPC) All Rights Reserved.
