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Kenan Thompson was taken aback by Morgan Wallen’s behavior on Saturday Night Live this past weekend.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Thompson said he’s not sure why Wallen walked off the SNL stage over the weekend.

“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that,” Thompson told EW. “I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way.”

What happened to Morgan Wallen on ‘Saturday Night Live’?

Wallen, who appeared as a guest on the March 29 episode of SNL and performed two songs, abruptly walked off the stage at the end of the show. The country singer’s exit was a shock for Thompson and his colleagues, who normally send off their guests with hugs at the end of the show while the credits roll.

“You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping,” Thompson said. “I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.”

He added, “It’s definitely a spike in the norm. We’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.’ So when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, hmm, I wonder what that’s about?”

Adding to the bizarre night, Wallen went to social media after leaving the show and posted a photo of a private jet along with a caption that read, “Get me to God’s country.” 

“The ‘God’s country’ of it all is strange because it’s like, what are you trying to say?” Thompson said. “You trying to say that we are not in God’s country? We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella? That’s not necessarily my favorite. But whatever. Moving on, we got a new show. We got Jack Black this week. We will be fine.”

Why did Morgan Wallen Walk Off ‘Saturday Night Live’?

According to Variety, sources closes to Wallen said the country singer didn’t have any issues with the show and had a good time while filming. One guest who was in attendance for the dress rehearsal said Wallen also walked off at that time.

Thompson said Prince did something similar when he was a guest on SNL, but the cast wasn’t surprised at that time because “Prince was notoriously kind of standoffish.”

“Saturday I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt,” Thompson said, per EW. “And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible. You know what I’m saying? It was a pretty visible thing.”

March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual recognition meant to raise awareness of trans individuals and trans issues. This year’s Trans Day of Visibility is the first since Donald Trump returned to the White House, and it comes as the U.S. federal government has rolled back previous administrations’ policies and placed restrictions on trans recognition and opportunities.

Recognizing trans individuals and issues

International Transgender Day of Visibility, recognized on March 31 of each year, is an event meant to recognize trans individuals and foster connections and community. The event was founded in 2009 by psychotherapist Rachel Crandall-Crocker of Michigan, who said that the event “means we will resist, and we’re not going back into the closet — it’s a unified, strong voice saying, ‘We are here. We are here, and we’re not leaving,’” according to The Hill. This year, the event will include acts of protest against the Trump administration and its policies, with over a dozen lawmakers expected to join a demonstration on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Past recognition and controversy

Crandall-Crocker created Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009 as an addition to the preexisting Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual event marked in November that remembers victims killed by anti-trans violence. Later that year, then-President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which made violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity federal hate crimes. President Joe Biden regularly issued White House proclamations on Transgender Day of Visibility. This routine led to controversy in 2024, as Easter also fell on March 31, leading to false accusations that the White House or trans activists intentionally caused the event to fall on the same day as one of the most holy days in Christianity as an insult to Christians.

Trump policies put trans issues in new spotlight

This year’s day of visibility comes amid a variety of restrictions placed on trans rights by the Trump administration. One of the executive orders signed by Trump on Inauguration Day announced the government would only recognize male and female genders, and it reversed previous policies on transgender and gender-nonconforming recognition. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have also objected to transgender people serving in the U.S. military. Another Trump order called for a ban of transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports, though an attempt to reinforce this ban through federal legislation was killed in the U.S. Senate.

The politics of transgender identity are perhaps more visible than ever, even as the people involved face exclusions and rollbacks of previous recognition. With these various policies being put in place, this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility comes at a pivotal moment for trans individuals and the United States as a whole.

Stephen Graham, the star and co-creator of Netflix’s Adolescence, sat down for an interview with The Sun and talked about the racial abuse he faced as a child. The 51-year-old star said he often faced racial slurs as a mixed-race child.

“I was called horrible words that I don’t even want to say, and little monkey boy,” Graham told The Sun.

The Netflix star previously opened up about racism when he spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and reflected on his role in the 2006 film This Is England. Graham told the outlet that he was taken back to his childhood experience as he played the role of a racist character who attacked a Black man.

What did Stephen Graham say about facing racism and mental health struggles?

“It was life-changing. I lost myself quite a bit within that character,” Graham said at that time, according to the Daily Mail.

The 51-year-old actor said he came home crying after filming the movie and struggled with his mental health for a while. Graham also spoke in detail about his mental health struggles when he sat down for an interview with The Sunday Times in 2019. The award-winning actor said at that time that he faced “really bad depression” and tried to cope with alcohol. He also added that he tried to take his own life.

“Thankfully, the rope snapped and I’m here today,” Graham told The Sunday Times, per the Daily Mail.

After filming This Is England, Graham said he struggled to find another role and nearly quit his acting career.

“For about eight months, I couldn’t get an audition,” he said. “I almost packed it all in. I was going to be a youth worker.”

Who supported Stephen Graham when he faced mental health struggles?

Graham, who has a Jamaican grandfather, was raised by his mother and stepfather, Mike, who worked as a head pediatric nurse. Graham’s mother, who worked as a social worker, died in 2022. The Adolescence star also remains close with his biological father. Graham said his family was his biggest supporter as he faced mental health struggles.

“They supported me throughout everything,” he said.

“A lot of people, their early experiences with seafood were at a Red Lobster,” Adamolekun told CBS News. Adamolekun became CEO in September 2024 He was appointed the company’s new CEO in September, following the closure of more than a […]

The Social Security Administration has announced that the next round of payments will go out on April 9 as part of its staggered distribution system, which schedules checks according to people’s birth date and the date they started to receive benefits. According to the administration, the beneficiaries who will receive the next round of payments are people born between the 1st and 10th of any month and those who began receiving payments after May 1997, per Newsweek.

How does the Social Security Administration distribute payments?

The SSA issues payments in three waves every month. If a person started receiving benefits after May 1997 and their birthday falls between the 1st and 10th, they get their payments on the second Wednesday of the month.

For people born between the 11th and 20th, payments arrive on the third Wednesday. Those born between the 21st and 31st get their payments on the fourth Wednesday.

People who started receiving benefits on or before May 1997 follow a different schedule. Those beneficiaries receive their checks on the 3rd of the month regardless of their birth date.

What is the latest COLA adjustment for 2025?

The payments issued in 2025 will include a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The COLA, which went into effect in January, aims to offset inflation and rising costs of living.

How much can beneficiaries expect to receive?

For people who retire at age 62, the maximum benefit they can receive is a monthly payment of $2,831. People who wait until the full retirement age of 70 can get a maximum monthly payment of $5,108.

What happens when there is a delay in Social Security payments?

Beneficiaries who are missing payments are advised to wait three business days before contacting the administration. They’re also asked to check their My Social Security account for updates. Beneficiaries experiencing delays can contact the SSA at 1-800-772-1213.

Singer/rapper Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, learned on Friday that a Florida court found them guilty of defrauding several businesses. During the hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the court found the pair guilty on all counts in their federal wire fraud trial, NBC News reported.

Kingston and Turner were accused of defrauding various businesses, including a jewelry store, a luxury bed company, a used luxury and exotic car dealership and a microLED TV provider.

Kingston allegedly used fake wire transfers for years

According to the indictment, Kingston persuaded the businesses to deliver the items he wanted before making any payments. He and his mother then used fraudulent wire transfers to pay for the items, repeating the scheme for years, the indictment stated.

Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was arrested in Fort Irwin, California, in May after the Broward County Sheriff’s Office in Florida issued a warrant. His home in Southwest Ranches, a Broward County community, was raided by a SWAT team. In July, a federal grand jury indicted the mother and son.

What’s next: house arrest, jail time and sentencing

They were both left in tears after hearing the verdict. While Kingston did not testify during the hearing, defense attorney Humberto Dominguez spoke in Turner’s defense, saying she was trying to protect her son from people who wanted to take advantage of him. According to Dominguez, she was suspicious of the businesses mentioned in court.

“This case is about a woman’s intuition,” Dominguez said in court, per NBC News.

However, Judge David S. Leibowitz said Turner’s testimony “makes it impossible to believe she wouldn’t do anything for her son.” The judge added that her statements amounted to obstruction, which is why she was remanded into federal custody.

While Kingston was ordered to house arrest, Turner was taken into custody, where she will remain until sentencing. Both are scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.

Kingston was born in Miami but raised in Jamaica. He broke out in 2007 with the hit song “Beautiful Girls.” His other notable songs include “Fire Burning,” “Eenie Meenie” and “Beat It.”