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NEW YORK (WCBS) — Streamer and YouTuber Kai Cenat says he wants to do another giveaway in New York City, nearly two years after his unsanctioned event in Union Square turned into chaos.

In an interview posted on Cenat’s YouTube channel Monday, he asked Mayor Eric Adams if there was a way he could give back on a big scale, but in the right way.

“You sit down with my team. I get the agencies involved. You map out what your plan is,” Adams said. “Now you got the city in alignment to make sure you can execute the plan.”

The mayor addressed his interview with Cenat at a press briefing Tuesday.

“He’s an impressive young man, and I really enjoyed speaking with him,” Adams said. “He had good intentions. It was the lack of coordination. And so I encouraged him … and I was really impressed with his desire to give back as a young man from the Bronx.”

Cenat did not say when his next giveaway would be, but said he got the green light from Adams.

Unsanctioned 2023 Kai Cenat giveaway ends in chaos

In August 2023, Cenat promoted a meet-and-greet and PlayStation 5 giveaway in Union Square, but he did not have a permit for the event.

Thousands of people flooded the park, and the large gathering eventually resulted in chaos and vandalism with dozens injured and more than 60 people arrested. The damage cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Cenat was initially charged with felony rioting, inciting a riot and unlawful assembly. In May 2024, the case was dismissed after Cenat apologized for the incident and he and two others paid a total of $57,099 in restitution to the Union Square Partnership.

In his apology, Cenat said he “learned a very valuable lesson” and thanked Adams, the district attorney and the NYPD for their hard work.

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CNN

By Lisa Klaassen and Saskya Vandoorne, CNN

(CNN) — It was around 1.30 a.m., after the crowds had thinned from the streets of Bordeaux, when Manon felt the prick of a hypodermic needle going into her arm.

“Someone tapped my left forearm. I started to feel numb in the muscle, like you do when you get a vaccine. After about 30 minutes, the injection mark appeared,” she recalled to CNN.

Despite not knowing what she had been injected with – or who had done it – she said she “didn’t want to panic.”

Manon, 22, was one of nearly 150 people in France who reported being pricked with syringes during a nationwide street music festival at the weekend. According to the interior ministry, it remains unclear if date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB were used in the “needle spiking” attacks, which took place across the country and appear to have involved multiple perpetrators.

Ahead of the festival, which drew crowds of millions of people to the streets, a feminist influencer had warned that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes.

After spending 4 a.m. to 7.a.m on Sunday in the emergency room, Manon shared a video of her experience on TikTok.

“It was important for me to raise awareness, because I hadn’t seen any testimonies from people who had been injected,” said Manon, who declined to give her last name for safety reasons.

“We had been told on social media to be careful, but I think people want to know more – how it happens, the symptoms, how it unfolds. It reassured me to talk about it, because at the time, I was completely alone.”

After she got home from the hospital, Manon filed a police report. “It’s important because if we’re too lax, if we say, ‘oh, others will file complaints’, nothing ever changes. I told myself maybe it can have an impact.”

Since Saturday, French police have detained 14 men – aged between 19 and 44 and including both French citizens and foreign nationals, police spokeswoman Agathe Foucault told Radio France Tuesday – but have made no arrests in connection with the needle spikings.

“The police have not identified any perpetrators behind the injections, but the incidents are confirmed,” Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin told CNN affiliate BFMTV Tuesday.

The minister said authorities would also pursue those who had called for the attacks online.

“We are implementing a criminal policy to prosecute those responsible on social media for these very unhealthy injection games targeting women,” Darmanin said.

The feminist influencer Abrège Soeur, who before the festival had warned men on social media were planning such attacks, told CNN the perpetrators’ “objective isn’t only to drug women. It’s to instill fear in them.”

“When people start saying that there will be needle attacks, it spreads in the form of rumor –– some people mention it in group chats, others pick it up, it just gets amplified,” she said, adding, “We need to help women feel safer.”

Manon, who faces a wait of three weeks for her toxicology results, said she had “barely slept the last few days” – but she refuses to be cowed by her experience.

“The Fête de la Musique is meant to be a time of good vibes, music, dancing, having fun. Someone wanted to ruin that moment, to kill that spirit. I told myself I wasn’t going to let it defeat me. I don’t want to be sad or angry. I don’t want to let them win.”

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WTVD

By Diane Wilson

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JOHNSTON COUNTY, North Carolina (WTVD) — A Johnston County family desperate to get home to the Triangle after their dream vacation to Hawaii in April became a medical emergency.

Ellen Ennis Smith, her 37-year-old special needs son Geoffrey, and her husband Patrick, who goes by PJ, an Air Force veteran, arrived in Hawaii on April 9th. “It has always been my dream to come to Hawaii. He surprised me and he said, ‘Let’s do the trip now. Let’s make memories now.’” The three of them made memories together as they did a land and sea cruise around the islands. When they got off the cruise, PJ started feeling sick.

Ellen says her husband said to her, “I feel like I can’t breathe and we took him to urgent care. We called an ambulance and he’s been in the hospital since April 20th.”

PJ is still in the hospital in Hawaii, and Smith and Geoffrey are staying in a hotel as they did not want to leave PJ in Hawaii for the last three months. Smith adds, “He ended up with a fungal lung infection, which is difficult for someone who’s had a transplant. They can’t fight it with their immunity.”So sick that doctors intubated PJ and put him in a medically induced coma. “There were a lot of conversations, and we were preparing ourselves to say goodbye and that PJ would pass in Hawaii, but he’s a fighter,” Smith said.

PJ did fight, and he is now awake, but still in the hospital. Smith says she found a hospital here in the Triangle to accept PJ, as the goal is for them to get home to North Carolina. “It has been a long three months. I need to get back to work and start getting a paycheck again.” Smith says she also has to get back to Four Oaks for Geoffrey as he has cerebral palsy and needs to get back to his team, “My son rides horses with the North Carolina equestrian team, and if he is not back by a certain date, he loses his place on the team and this is his physical therapy. It’s his emotional therapy, and it’s been very difficult for him here because he doesn’t have a home.”

PJ’s medical team says he is not strong enough to get back to North Carolina on a commercial flight; instead, it must be by medical transport, and the quoted cost is $139,900.

Smith says, “His private insurance says no, they’re not going to pay. They would take him to the closest hospital, but they felt he was getting adequate care here. So they’re not paying towards transport.” Smith filed a claim with the trip insurance she bought, and it was approved, but it’s not enough coverage. “They’ll do the $50,000 and that is it. So, either I’ve got to find funding, or I’ve got to get him strong enough in the next couple of weeks to be able to get on that commercial flight, or I have to leave him in Hawaii, and that hurts my heart. I feel like if I don’t take Geoffrey home, I’m a bad mom. If I don’t stay here, my husband, I’m a bad wife, and I love them both. And I, you know, it’s just a difficult situation.”

Smith says she had no idea that travel insurance would not be enough coverage to get PJ home. “We had money in savings, but all of that’s gone now. You just never think you’re being responsible and doing these things, that it won’t step forward and take care of you when it happens.”

Time and options are running out for Smith as she’s desperate to find a way to get her husband, PJ, home to the Triangle. “My plan is to leave around the second week of July, but the way it stands right now, I will be leaving PJ in Hawaii unless I can find a way home, and I don’t want to do that.”

Smith says she has reached out to several charity flight options to see if they can help, but so far no luck. An online fundraiser has been started for the family to try and get them the additional funds needed, as the travel insurance of $50,000 is just not enough to cover the $140,000 medical transport.

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CLARMORE, Oklahoma (KJRH) — Rogers County deputies said they found an illegal dog breeding operation in Claremore and Oologah on June 23. They found one hundred dogs at the Oologah location and forty-eight in Clarmore, packed in cages and with little food.

Roma Ramthun, a dog lover herself, said she’s been complaining about the treatment of dogs down the street from her Claremore home for years.

“You can’t treat them like they’re just an object because they’re living beings and need so much from us, it’s a terrible thing,” said Ramthun.

Deputies said they searched the two homes with a search warrant. That’s when they say they discovered the illegal dog breeding operation. Ramthun said the situation was heartbreaking.

“I can’t understand why people would treat dogs like I said like they’re a crop,” said Ramthun.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said they identified one of the suspects and are looking for another.

“I don’t think it’s an example of agriculture in any way, shape, or form. This is some sick-minded people that found a way to make some money,” said Walton.

Sheriff Walton said they found another location with even more dogs. As of June 23, they did not say where.

Walton said they worked with the Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture and the Humane Society of Tulsa on June 23 to rescue the dogs and treat them. Ramthun said she was glad the dogs were getting help.

“Just something the neighborhood has been against for a very long time, going to be grateful as a group to put an end to this,” said Ramthun.

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(CNN) — There is much to unpack with the portion of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding invitation that was leaked to the world. The explicit request for no gifts — the only option, really, for the one of the world’s richest individuals; along with the donation pledge to UNESCO’s Venice office, the Corila research program into the Venice lagoon, and Venice International University — a declaration of care for a city whose inhabitants are protesting the couple’s very presence. But perhaps the most surprising element of all is the invitation’s design.

Printed in a wistful italic font and decorated haphazardly with doves, shooting stars, butterflies and the Rialto Bridge, the invitation appears homemade, but not in an artisanal sense. (The illustrations, which include two gondolas, have been compared with those available in Microsoft Word’s generic image library). Instead, Bezos and Sanchez’s invitation looks like a bit of an afterthought — which, considering the number of guests, the ongoing threat of protesters, which has already resulted in a last-minute venue change, and increasing media attention, may well be the case.

Many took to social media to express their disappointment, criticizing the invitation for falling flat — expectations that have been largely set by assumptions of a billionaire’s wedding budget. The decision makes more sense, however, when you consider the dressed-down approach typically associated with tech bros in this class bracket. Bezos himself is often found in jeans, polo shirts and sneakers — though for this occasion he is sure to shape up — and, according to a Wired profile from 1999, he once wore shirts with “hidden snaps under the collar for easy tie removal.” Speed over style and efficiency over glamor. Old habits die hard.

But invitations are more than just carriers of logistical details. For major events, they are the first glimpse of what attendees can expect from the day.

For King Charles and Queen Camila’s coronation in 2023, British artist Andrew Jamieson hand-painted an intricate, garden-themed border in watercolor and gouache complete with folklore motifs and coats of arms of the Monarch. The design was then reproduced and printed over 2,000 times on recycled card with gold foil detailing. Similarly, Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, had each of their wedding invitations in 2018 printed using a machine from the 1930s. The pair even went as far as using American ink on English card to symbolize their transatlantic unity.

Fashion designers, too, have long harnessed the power of a memorable invite as important extensions of their world-building efforts. On Friday, while high-profile guests step out to celebrate the Bezos wedding, a fashionable set of attendees will gather in Paris for another hotly-anticipated event: The debut of a new chief designer at Dior. Jonathan Anderson — a certified hype-generator and master of storytelling on the runway — also distributed his official invitations this week. Guests received porcelain plates with a trio of baby pink eggs glued to the surface and “Dior” printed on the underside. Like all good teasers, the invitation poses more questions than it answers, but it also sets the tone for what’s to come on the catwalk. Expect subversion, something a little weird, traditional craft turned cerebral.

Anderson, of course, is not the first designer to capitalize on an operational necessity in this way. In 2023, Alaïa sent attendees a collapsible stool, which they were instructed to carry to the show location. The year before, Balenciaga posted out “genuine artifacts from the year 2022”: iPhone 6Ss, each engraved with the guest’s name and show details — often cracked or smashed. More recently, Gucci produced a special edition of the classic “Timor” calendar from Italian designer Enzo Mari and sent it to guests for its Milan Fashion Week show.

Some designers, however, still prefer the ephemeral. Jacquemus, for example, hand-wrote its invites in 2018, and wrapped them in a cotton towel along with a loaf of freshly baked bread.

For sentimental souls, any invitation is a memento of the day — but great invites, such as those designed by luxury fashion houses, can become prized possessions. (Or be sold on eBay for thousands).

With Anderson’s Dior debut and the Amazon founder’s nuptials overlapping, anyone who found themselves double booked (Kim Kardashian, Anna Wintor, perhaps?) faced a tough decision. Perhaps, the invitation was the clincher.

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