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Senator Ted Cruz says Jon Stewart has it all wrong ... he supports veterans, but wasn't down to support the bill that just went down in flames ... saying the Democrats were guilty of a cheap trick that would cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

We got the Texas Senator Thursday at Reagan National Airport and asked about the GOP's opposition to the PACT Act -- a bill designed to expand healthcare coverage for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their service.

Jon Stewart went nuclear on Republicans, especially Senator Pat Toomey, after the PACT Act was shot down ... calling him a "F*****g coward" for voting against the bill.

Cruz says he actually supports the PACT Act -- despite voting against it -- because he says the Democrats were using it as a vessel to spend way more over the next ten years. It gets super technical, but Cruz thinks the bill would open the door to allow Democrats to spend another $400 billion on programs unrelated to veterans. That's certainly not the way Democrats and veteran groups see it.

Stewart was recently floated as an appealing Democratic Presidential candidate in 2024 ... we tried to ask Cruz his thoughts on Stewart as a politician, but he bounced ... saying he had to catch a flight.

Ivana Trump was laid to rest at her ex-husband's golf course this month -- and now, photos of her gravesite have emerged ... which are getting a major side-eye from the Internet.

Here's the deal ... Donald and his kids had their late mother buried at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ about a week and change ago -- which might sound like a strange place to entomb a loved one ... but, hey, to each their own. It's a family decision.

The problem now is that pictures of her actual gravesite have surfaced for the world to see -- this after being snapped and published by the New York Post -- and people are shaking their collective heads at the images ... which many are calling sad, bare and disrespectful.

Indeed, her burial plot does appear a bit ... bland. And not just that, but it's completely isolated -- without any adornment or much of anything else to honor her, save for a small bouquet of white flowers and a marble plaque that seems slapped down at her feet.

As some pointed out, her gravestone inscription has barely any writing on it at all -- just her name and her DOB and DOD ... that's about it. No other words of remembrance for Ivana.

While it might seem like a bizarre sight -- and just a weird and inappropriate place to bury DT's ex-wife -- this is actually something The Donald has reportedly been gunning for for a while ... namely, getting authorization for a decent amount of burial plots on his property.

Will Smith waited 4 months, but he's now telling the world he's remorseful, and Beyonce has dropped her latest album, and it's all the talk. So, we gotta ask ...

Drake's been on a roll with iconic music acts lately, and he kept that going with OVO Fest this week ... kicking off the event with a performance from none other than Nelly Furtado.

It's true ... Drizzy was able to book the reclusive Canadian singer Thursday for his North Stars concert, Day 1 of the event -- which is a big deal ... NF hasn't hit a stage publicly since at least 2017, and hasn't really performed much in general dating back to 2007.

Of course, she was hot stuff in the 2000s ... with a slew of fan-favorite hits, some of which she sang side by side with Champagne Papi and the rest of the crowd, who went nuts.

You gotta watch this, because Drake certainly hyped it up ... telling the audience that he needed them to sing as loud as possible for the next artist he was gonna bring up, noting it was a bit of a mission to get her to come out like this. Then, Nelly emerges ... and it's wild.

She sang "Promiscuous Girl" and "I'm Like a Bird," among other tracks ... and her set essentially became a sing-along. At one point, Drake even said she had a choir on her hands that night -- so yeah, she was feeling the love from the OVO-goers. Super cool moment.

Britney Spears' tell-all is finally completed, sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ, but we've learned there's a delay in releasing it and it all has to do with .... THE SUPPLY SHORTAGE!

Sources close to Britney tell us ... she recently wrapped up the dishy memoir, which is set to be published by Simon & Schuster. We're told Britney and co. are aiming for a release date in January -- but there's a paper shortage that has upended the plan.

What's more ... our sources say there's no clear date on when the shortage will be resolved ... hence, there's not a firm release date.

A report from Publishers Weekly earlier this year pointed to a couple of major factors for the shortage -- more people started ordering books during the pandemic, decreasing paper supply. There's more -- people walked off their manufacturing jobs at paper plants, causing an ongoing labor shortage.

As we reported ... Britney's tell-all deal she signed back in February scored her a $15 million advance. The deal was one of the biggest for a memoir, behind the Obamas -- who signed with Penguin Random House for over $60M.

Of course, Britney's book will have plenty of material -- from her days as a child star, to finding superstardom and the falling out with her family during her conservatorship.

IG model Gena Tew says for years she thought she was testing for HIV when she'd get STD checks, but that wasn't the case, and a recent breakdown of her body led to her finding out she has AIDS.

Gena has gone viral on social media, telling her story and urging the importance of young people getting tested. She tells us the symptoms have been horrible -- she's lost mobility, control of her bowels and has gone blind in her left eye.

Gena says the diagnosis has changed her life, as well as the life of her mom, who helps to care for her.

She says she's still not sure when she contracted HIV, but has called her sexual partners to let them know of her status. Gena says everyone she's called has been very supportive, checking in on her and making sure she's doing OK. She says so far, no one else has tested positive.

One thing Gena wants to clear up -- blogs have speculated she's been intimate with Chris Brown and Nick Cannon in the past -- something Gena says is just not true.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is not monkeying around when it comes to monkeypox ... she just declared a disaster emergency for the entire state to curb the growing spread of the disease.

On Friday night, Hochul tweeted the announcement, highlighting that 1 in 4 monkeypox cases in the U.S. originate in New York so, therefore, she wants to generate a faster response to combat the virus and get more people vaccinated.

Her announcement comes just one day after the New York State Commissioner of Health called monkeypox an “imminent threat to public health.”

Although the viral disease is almost never fatal, it can spread across the body, forming rashes and lesions on extremities and genitals.

New York and California are at the top of the list of states with the most recorded cases of monkeypox ... New York has 1,345 cases and California is second with 799, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hochul's executive order allows for EMS personnel, pharmacists, midwives, physicians and certified nurse practitioners to administer vaccinations.

Move over Elon Musk ... there's a new billionaire in town after a lottery player from Illinois won a whopping $1.28 billion during Friday night's second-largest Mega Millions jackpot ever.

The winning numbers were 13, 36, 45, 57, 67 and a Mega Ball of 14, but the Illinois lottery has not yet released the lucky person's identity or where the ticket was purchased. The next drawing is set for 11 PM ET Tuesday.

Over the last few weeks, the jackpot had been rising steadily because no one could beat the odds to win, which are 1 in 302,575,350.

The biggest Mega Millions jackpot -- $1.537 billion -- was won by a single ticket holder in South Carolina back in 2018.

Hey, look up in the sky ... it's a bird, it's a plane ... no, it's another Chinese rocket crashing to Earth.

That's right. China, it seems, is about to do it again with its disastrous space program expected to rain debris down on our planet -- possibly as soon as Saturday, some experts warn.

China reportedly launched the 23-ton spacecraft, dubbed the Long March 5B, earlier this week and it's supposed to make an uncontrolled re-entry somewhere in the world, but no one knows where, making people even more nervous.

Of course, China's space program is crashing and burning of late ... the most recent example was Wednesday when a cargo spacecraft mostly evaporated due to massive heat as it reentered the atmosphere.

All that was left of the Tianzhou-3 ship were small pieces that luckily didn't hit anyone on land, but, instead, dropped in a predetermined area of the South Pacific, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The cargo ship serviced China's orbiting space station and had been docked there until July 17 as the country tries to make the artificial satellite fully operational.

The mishap follows 2 other incidents that clearly underscore China's struggles with space exploration. Back in May 2021, debris from a Chinese rocket dropped from the sky into the Indian Ocean. A year earlier, metallic objects from another Chinese spacecraft showered villages in the Ivory Coast, but, thankfully, no one was injured.

Bill Maher thinks Elon Musk is worried about population collapse because it's a convenient excuse not to wear a condom ... it was a jk, but his point is ominous. Stay with us.

Bill is back on 'Real Time' after a month's hiatus, and he used the occasion to talk about the ridiculous push to add more people to planet Earth. We are now at 8 billion and counting ... the head honcho at the U.N. is celebrating and welcoming the diversity that comes with it, but B.M. couldn't be more scornful, and he's got a solid point.

Aside from climate change -- which is undeniably real, despite the climate deniers -- we are losing our resources, and the math is simple. More people = fewer resources, like food, trees, sand, you name it ... there'll be fewer of all of it, and eventually, it's gonna run out.

And, that brings him to Elon, who has worried out loud that we are in a world crisis because our population is tanking. Huh, Bill asks?

Some positive news on the Brittney Griner front from Colin Allred ... the U.S. congressman says officials have made "a very good offer" to Russia for the WNBA star -- and he's now as confident as ever that she'll be able to return home.

The representative couldn't get into specifics of the trade that America has sent to the Russians ... but he did tell TMZ Sports he believes the proposed swap is exactly what the foreign country is looking for in a deal for Griner.

"The ball is entirely in the Russians' court," Allred said Friday out on Capitol Hill ... before adding, "I think prospects, in my opinion, look better now than they have really at any point since she was taken."

But, Allred said he's under the impression Russia would like to impose a sentence on the 31-year-old Phoenix Mercury center before it moves forward with accepting any trade offers.

The ex-Baylor football player, though, said he's optimistic it will eventually go down at some point hopefully soon.

"I think it's a matter of time," Allred tells us, "but I think it's going to get done."

Griner has been detained in Russia since mid-February after authorities said she had hashish oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport. She's since pled guilty to the charges, and is facing a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars.

WARNING: There's been a hot hazard alert all month as celebs have been supplying you with some serious scorching Bae Watch selfies, and the heat doesn't stop at the shore ... they're breaking thermometers around the globe with all kinds of scalding locations.

Of course Carmen Electra is leading the Bae Watch pack with her tailored swimwear, and Kim Kardashian and KJ Apa are not too far behind with their washboard abs and picture-perfect physiques.

Nick Bostic, the heroic pizza delivery guy who saved 5 kids from a burning house, is getting some serious recognition for his life-saving actions ... and it might make his NASCAR dreams come true.

Nick tells us honchos at NASCAR reached out to him and invited him to be a special guest at Sunday's race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It sounds like Nick will be in for a bunch of surprises when he's a VIP at the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, he's not sure what's in store, but he's hoping to get behind the wheel of a race car.

Nick says it's always been his dream to be a NASCAR driver, he sounds confident he might blow his hosts away with his racing talent, if he's given the chance to show what he can do.

Remember ... Nick was driving through Lafayette, Indiana back on July 11 when he spotted a house engulfed in flames with no firetrucks or other emergency vehicles in sight.

Nick acted quickly, rushing into the home and leading 4 children safety before realizing there was a 6-year-old girl trapped still inside. He found her and jumped from a second-story window with her in his arms, using his body to cushion the fall and saving her life.

It's good to see Nick getting the recognition he deserves ... and it sounds like his recovery is going well.

Polo G and the cops certainly didn't exchange any pleasantries during his arrest back in 2021, we've obtained additional body cam footage from the encounter, video his attorneys were pissed hadn't been released sooner.

The footage shows the aftermath of Polo G's "Hall Of Fame" album release party in Miami, where the Chicago rapper is in handcuffs and stuffed into a police cruiser. Polo was allegedly first pulled over for window tints and got combative when he was asked to roll down his window.

In the body cam footage, Polo G demands to be seen by paramedics and complains of both police brutality and having issues breathing inside the police cruiser.

Polo was eventually taken to a hospital, but his transporting officer first has issues finding the clasp on his $15,000 chain and later admits he's never even heard of him, spawning a debate with the younger cops, who were familiar with Polo G and his new album.

As for how the case ended ... Polo completed anger management classes, and charges for going after the officer were eventually dropped.

There are only 'A Few Good Men' out there, and Kevin Bacon is definitely at the top of the list ... If you think you truly mean business, step into your most dapper suit and pick out the minor differences in these shots of good ole' Kev.

The actor was spotted out in New York City while doing press for his new horror film "They/Them" and now it's your job to locate the changes made in these two shots! Remember you are not partaking in 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' ...

Jennifer Lopez is putting the final touches on her performance — going through dress rehearsals for her charity concert over in Italy — and it looks like she's preparing to bring the house down.

J Lo is slated to roc the mic Saturday at a UNICEF benefit for Ukraine ... and by the looks of rehearsals, she'll be wearing an animal print ensemble, unless of course, she’s got multiple costume changes.

It also appears J Lo will have some flashy backup singers and disco balls, all the indications of a real party on stage.

J Lo also practiced some of her dance moves before busting out an animal print coat.

As we reported ... J Lo is sticking around in Europe for the benefit concert after vacationing with new husband Ben Affleck in France.