Eastern Herald

John Mulaney became the first comedian in Wrigley Field's 111-year history to headline the ballpark on July 12, drawing a sold-out crowd for the 'Mister Whatever' tour. David Letterman, Fred Armisen, and Buddy Guy joined the night that officially put stadium comedy on a new map.

Online entertainment is no longer only about content. Whether users are watching live streams, joining creator communities, buying digital items, playing mobile games, or subscribing to interactive services, payments now sit much closer to the center of the experience. The shift is quiet but important: entertainment platforms are becoming financial interfaces as much as media destinations. That change has brought new attention to digital wallets, instant settlement, stablecoins, fraud prevention

Noah Kahan completed a record-breaking four-night Fenway Park residency on July 11, drawing 151,000 fans as the first artist to sell four consecutive sold-out shows at the Boston stadium. Massachusetts declared July 11 as Noah Kahan Day and inducted him into the Fenway Music Hall of Fame.

FIFA confirmed Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Burna Boy for the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final halftime show on July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium. The Global Citizen production aims to raise $100 million for children's education globally.

AMC confirmed Mayfair Witches Season 3 is heading to Salem, Massachusetts, for a 2027 premiere on AMC and AMC+. Alexandra Daddario returns as Thomas Schnauz joins Esta Spalding as co-showrunner, with Eliza Scanlen, James Frain, and Omar Maskati among new additions.

Jay-Z delayed the final Yankee Stadium show three hours after 10,000 fans surged entry gates, holding the concert until the crowd outside was safe. The night ended near 2:45 a.m. after surprise sets from Rihanna, Beyonc, Usher, Pharrell Williams, and Teyana Taylor.

The 2026 MLB All-Star Game arrives in Philadelphia without Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Cristopher Snchez gets the NL start after Zack Wheeler declined, with Dylan Cease opposing for the AL at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night.

Caitlin Clark became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 600 career assists in 72 games during Indiana Fever's road rout of the Las Vegas Aces. Sophie Cunningham scored 27 points with six three-pointers, more than the entire Aces roster managed, as Indiana won 109-75.

Ryan Blaney survived a three-hour rain delay and wall contact in the closing stages to win the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway in overtime Sunday night. Bubba Wallace, who crossed the line in apparent second, was penalized for passing below the yellow lines and dropped to 29th place.

Sam Neill, New Zealand actor and star of Jurassic Park and Peaky Blinders, died in Sydney on Monday at 78. His family said the death was sudden and unexpected, three months after he announced he was cancer-free.

A 65-year-old man was hospitalized after a bull bison charged his campsite at Yellowstone National Park on July 10, launching him eight feet into the air in an attack captured on video by a professional photographer. The incident renews calls for stricter visitor compliance with the park's 25-yard wildlife distance rule.

Randolph Mantooth, who played firefighter-paramedic Johnny Gage on NBC's Emergency! for seven seasons, died Thursday at 80 at a hospice in Ventura, California. His show is credited with helping spread paramedic practice to 46 states and transforming American emergency medicine.

Amazon Prime Video launched Elle this month, an eight-episode Legally Blonde prequel following Elle Woods through her high school years in Seattle. Showrunners say TV's depth beats film and with Season 2 already wrapped, Amazon has placed its bet.

Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Soccer dominated China's box office with a $73.6 million two-day opening, accounting for nearly 75 percent of all ticket sales in the country. The spiritual successor to 2001's Shaolin Soccer stars Zhang Xiaofei and Dilraba Dilmurat as an all-female martial arts squad.

Iran struck US bases in five Gulf nations Sunday, from Qatar's Al Udeid to Oman's Port of Duqm, as Trump declared the ceasefire 'over' and ordered new strikes on Iranian territory. Brent crude surged 4 percent to $79 a barrel as Hormuz traffic fell to near zero.

Trinity Tatum and Bryce Dettloff claimed the Love Island USA Season 8 title Sunday on Peacock, with Bryce splitting the $100,000 prize in the finale's key moment. Runner-up Aniya Harvey and Carl Schmidt fell short, ending a season that had set streaming records for the platform.

Disney's live-action Moana opened to $43 million domestically and $95 million worldwide, drawing a 90% audience score against a 34% critic rating. The gap between fan enthusiasm and critical skepticism will determine whether the $250 million film finds its financial footing.

Preliminary DC medical examiner findings confirm Senator Lindsey Graham died of an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. South Carolina Governor McMaster must appoint a replacement, with a special election set for August 11.

Paramount is weighing a move out of California if AG Rob Bonta sues to block its $110 billion Warner Bros. deal. Advisers have flagged relocation to New Jersey or Texas as a live option, with $30 billion in annual content spending potentially leaving the state.

Mitch McConnell broke twenty-eight days of public silence on Sunday, saying his absence from the Senate was caused by a fall at his Washington home that led to a hospitalization and subsequent pneumonia. The 84-year-old minority leader gave no timeline for his return.

Christopher Nolan called pre-release backlash against The Odyssey 'irrelevant' at a Mumbai premiere on July 11, invoking Homer's own earthy text to defend modern dialogue and Lupita Nyong'o's casting as Helen of Troy. The film opens Thursday.

Tom Kim fired a final-round 64 at The Renaissance Club on Sunday to win the Genesis Scottish Open, ending a PGA Tour victory drought of 1,001 days. The South Korean heads to Royal Birkdale on Thursday to tee off in the Open Championship with momentum unseen in two years.

A midnight fire at the Na Ladprao pub in Bangkok killed 27 people and injured 63, with many victims found trapped in back restrooms. Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul said a musician saw smoke from a stage circuit breaker before power failed and smoke engulfed the venue.

Reed Jobs, son of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has opened the first close of Yosemite's second fund targeting $350 million, betting that AI-accelerated drug discovery and a philanthropic investment model can help solve a problem that shaped his own life. The oncology-focused venture firm now manages roughly 25 portfolio companies across both funds.

Amazon Prime Video has renewed House of David for a third season, with creators Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn promising the most defining chapter of David's life yet. Season three follows the biblical king as a hunted outlaw forced to hide among his enemies and maintain a dangerous deception.

Ariana Grande has stepped away from American Horror Story Season 13, the long-awaited Coven sequel, due to a scheduling conflict with her Eternal Sunshine concert tour. The tour concludes August 23, leaving insufficient filming time before the FX series premieres September 24.

Jay-Z will perform at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 4 as part of a 2026 run marking The Blueprint's 25th anniversary and 30 years of his career. The tour also includes Yankee Stadium shows on July 10 and 11, Paris on September 10, and Los Angeles on October 23.

Chicago has claimed the top spot on Orkin's 2026 Bed Bug Cities list for the fifth consecutive year. Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, and Indianapolis round out the top five as Nashville and Oklahoma City each climbed ten positions in the annual ranking.

A sand tiger shark bit a Jones Beach swimmer on the Fourth of July weekend, and Rockaway Beach in Queens has closed 23 times since May with 16 shutdowns in the first five days of July alone. East Coast shark sightings are surging from Long Island to Connecticut as summer 2026 peaks.

Katherine Heigl has listed her Utah mountain estate in Oakley for $10.6 million after fourteen years as the family's full-time home. The Grey's Anatomy actress and her husband Josh Kelley are downsizing to a Victorian farmhouse as their three children approach adulthood.

Dozens of Waymo vehicles stalled and were towed in San Francisco's Fourth of July gridlock, including one that drove over a live firework. Four days later, NHTSA gave the robotaxi industry until month-end to fix emergency-scene detection failures or face enforcement action.

The Chicago White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky No. 1 overall in the 2026 MLB Draft, making him just the third college shortstop ever taken first. He hit .320 with 21 homers and 36 walks, with MLB Pipeline comparing his ceiling to Troy Tulowitzki.

Former 'Entertainment Tonight' host Samantha Harris recalled how Tom Cruise stopped a 500-pound Ducati from crushing her during a 2010 shoot in Seville, Spain. The actor caught the bike with both arms, righted it, then told her to try again.

Cristina Sanz, who appeared in all four seasons of A&E's Emmy-winning documentary series 'Born This Way,' died Monday at 36 from sudden cardiac arrest at her day program. Her parents announced the death Wednesday, calling it 'a total shock and unexpected.'

Iran's IRGC used precision drones to strike US HIMARS surface-to-surface missile launchers in Kuwait on Sunday, the Fars news agency reported, claiming all installations ready to strike Iranian territory were destroyed. The attack was part of a broader Iranian barrage against US military infrastructure across five Gulf states, coming hours after US Central Command struck approximately 140 Iranian targets in its third round of strikes this week.

The stablecoin market lost over $10 billion since May, its steepest drop since the 2022 Terra-Luna collapse, with Tether falling to $184 billion and USDC to $73 billion. Analyst Paul Howard sees no systemic signal in the decline as regulated newcomers Paxos and Anchorage grow.

The UAE dispatched five humanitarian aid convoys carrying 792 tonnes of supplies to the Gaza Strip over one week under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, the Emirates News Agency reported Sunday. The deliveries, routed through the UAE Humanitarian Aid Logistics Centre at Egypt's El Arish port, are among the most sustained aid flows into Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire took effect.

Bob Spitz's biography of the Rolling Stones reveals Bill Wyman kept a journal of 1,800 sexual encounters while Keith Richards counted only four. The disparity, and the detail that Richards was reportedly the most romantic of the three, runs through a book that strips mythology down to number.

Justin Baldoni broke 14 months of public silence on July 8, posting an Instagram video with wife Emily addressing the Blake Lively legal battle without naming her or the film. Their May settlement left $7.5 million in legal fees unresolved.

Sudan's army recaptured Kurmuk from the RSF on July 8 after 107 days of occupation, ending the paramilitary's hold on the Blue Nile border town that guards approaches to the Al-Roseires Dam. But in El-Obeid, RSF drone strikes have killed at least 50 civilians over ten consecutive days, prompting warnings of imminent atrocities from 28 countries.

Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler died July 9 at 75 in Portugal, following complications from emergency surgery for a perforated intestine that had left her in a medically-induced coma since June. Her 1983 recording 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' reached number one in both the US and UK.

Christopher Nolan told Matt Damon he wanted him lean but strong for The Odyssey, and the actor shed 33 pounds, gave up gluten permanently, and shot on Moroccan beaches and mountaintops. At 55, Damon called it unquestionably the hardest film of his 80-picture career.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person convicted in the Jeffrey Epstein case, has filed an amended habeas petition arguing the Epstein files released under the transparency law expose constitutional violations that render her 2021 conviction invalid. She claims 29 of Epstein's associates received secret DOJ settlements while she alone was prosecuted.

Brad Garlinghouse disclosed this week that Ripple's leadership seriously considered shutting down and distributing XRP to shareholders during the SEC's $1.3 billion lawsuit. The four-year legal battle cost $150 million but produced a ruling that reshaped how U.S. regulators treat digital assets.

Ukrainian drone strikes left one person dead and five injured in the Lugansk People's Republic and one killed, three wounded in Russia's Belgorod Region over the weekend. Russian forces struck vessels at Ukraine's Chornomorsk port with Geran-4 drones, the Defense Ministry said, aiming to cut Black Sea military supply routes.

Anthony Hopkins, 88, has signed with Decca Classics to release debut album 'Life Is a Dream' on August 21. The two-time Oscar winner has been composing music since the 1960s, with the oldest piece, 'Bracken Road,' written during his first professional acting job in 1963.

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini said Sunday that Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic all refused to participate in NATO's 70 billion euro Ukraine funding pledge at the Ankara summit, naming both leaders directly. The declaration was signed unanimously by all 32 allies; the financial participation, Pellegrini said, was narrower.

Iran's supreme leader adviser Mohsen Rezaee declared the Strait of Hormuz more important than dozens of nuclear bombs on Sunday, as Tehran vowed to defend its closure by force. The US military disputed the closure, insisting the route remains open both sides now asserting authority over the same 33-kilometer passage.

The median US home price hit a record $440,600 in June as NAR reported a 2.4% monthly sales drop, the 36th consecutive decline. First-time buyers fell to just 30 percent of transactions, below the 40 percent historical norm, as mortgage rates above 6.6 percent and thin supply kept millions priced out.

Governor Henry McMaster must appoint a temporary senator after Lindsey Graham's death Saturday, with a special primary set for August 11. President Trump told NBC News he already has someone in mind but won't say who, while Rep. Nancy Mace is seriously weighing a run for the vacant seat.