A comet must have landed at the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The members of R.E.M. had joked only hours before it would take "a comet" to get the band to perform together one last time. Yet there they were, reunited during the gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City Thursday night.
The annual event celebrated a talented group of songwriters that included R.E.M., Steely Dan and Timbaland, who conducted a medley of his massive hits.

Pope Francis on Friday clowned around with over 100 top global comedians including Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon before leaving to address a summit of G7 leaders in Italy.
"Instead of reading my speech, I'll just do this", the grinning 87-year-old said, as he stuck his thumb in his ear and wiggled his fingers at a room full of humorists.

Death has taken many forms in cinema. It's been Bengt Ekerot. Ian McKellen. John Cleese. Even Brad Pitt with blonde highlights. But in " Tuesday," filmmaker Daina O. Pusić's bold, fantastical and affecting debut, death looks like a lot like a macaw that's seen better days.
Covered in a thick layer of grime and oil with patches of feathers missing, "Tuesday's" Death can be as big as a room or as small as an ear canal. Its booming, gravelly voice (that of actor Arinzé Kene) sounds ancient and otherworldly. And it all adds up to something profoundly unsettling. Not exactly a comforting welcome into the afterlife, or whatever comes next.

Françoise Hardy, a French singing legend and pop icon since the 1960s, has died. She was 80.
Her son, musician Thomas Dutronc, announced her death on social media, sharing a poignant photo of himself as a child with his mother. Hardy had lymphatic cancer since 2004 and died Tuesday.

Mammoth South Korean loudspeakers blaring BTS music. Large North Korean balloons carrying manure, cigarette butts and waste batteries. Small South Korean civilian leaflets slamming North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Day after day, the Cold War-style yet bizarre campaigns continue at the heavily fortified border of the rivals who haven't had any serious talks for years.

Romania's minister of culture says she will ask French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton to acknowledge that a traditional Romanian blouse directly inspired items in one of its 2024 collections.
"We will request that Louis Vuitton recognize the heritage and cultural value of the traditional blouse model with ribbons," Raluca Turcan wrote on Facebook late Monday, adding it's an opportunity for international recognition of the "inestimable value" of Romanian tradition.

Donald Trump has joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House, and posted from a UFC fight two days after he became the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges.
"It's an honor," Trump said in the TikTok video, which features footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night. The video ends with Trump telling the camera: "That was a good walk-on, right?"

A daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt filed paperwork to legally remove "Pitt" from her name on the day she turned 18.
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt submitted a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court on May 27 to change her name to Shiloh Nouvel Jolie, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Jennifer Lopez has canceled her 2024 North American tour, representatives for Live Nation confirmed to The Associated Press.
"Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends," they said in a statement.

Actor Michael Douglas on Sunday paid a solidarity visit to an Israeli kibbutz that was hit hard in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked Israel's war against the Islamic militant group.
Douglas met with members of Kibbutz Be'eri and visited burnt-out homes destroyed in the Oct. 7 attack. Be'eri was among the hardest hit communities, with roughly 100 people killed and 30 others taken hostage.
