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President Biden's just declared monkeypox a public health emergency, and while it's already having a huge impact on gay communities, it could quickly spread outside that bubble ... according to a doctor on the front lines.

Dr. Anne Rimoin, a UCLA professor of epidemiology, joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live" and revealed there's already been a spill-over between communities in the U.S., and that won't stop unless we take appropriate action.

She explains "an infection anywhere can be an infection anywhere" -- meaning, it's time for ALL Americans to draw the line before the virus becomes more prevalent in society, in general.

The World Health Organization's put Dr. Rimoin on its Emergency Committee to tackle the monkeypox crisis, and she says this virus has been a simmering problem for years in Africa ... where she's been doing research since the early 2000s.

She recalls a 2017 outbreak in Nigeria and the symptoms were different from the ones she'd seen prior, showing how it can mutate over time.

The pilot who mysteriously died just before a plane made an emergency landing last week -- allegedly "jumping" out of the aircraft -- may have actually fallen after trying to examine the damaged landing gear.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... one of the operating theories is that co-pilot Charlie Crooks went to the back of the cargo plane and opened the back cargo door to inspect the landing gear that was damaged and accidentally fell out as the plane headed for the airport.

As reported first by WRAL, the pilot radioed air traffic control that Charlie had "jumped" out of the plane. A close friend of Charlie's who has flown with him tells TMZ, the notion of Charlie jumping is absurd. The friend tells us, Charlie was excited a few days before the fatal flight at the prospect of being promoted to captain. The friend says he was in a great head space.

The 23-year-old told his friend, the day before he died, the chief pilot from the company that owned the plane was coming out from Colorado Springs to fly with him for 2 days last week ... to evaluate Charlie with an eye toward making him a captain.

As for Charlie jumping out of panic, the close friend scoffs at that notion as well, saying Charlie was cool as a cucumber in the air, recalling that there was a mechanical mishap in one of the planes a while back and Charlie landed it so well -- although the landing was rough -- the company he was working for at the time actually gave him a piece of the plane as a thank you.

The photo (above) shows Charlie at the back of the plane ... sitting on the very door that is being looked at as the one he possibly opened to look underneath at the landing gear.

He posted the pic on social media with a joke "If there's anything we can do to make your journey more comfortable, there is an exit ramp at the rear of the airplane that we will gladly open for you."

The NTSB and other federal agencies are currently investigating the fall and the plane.

"SlamBall is back, baby!"

That's Mason Gordon, founder of SlamBall -- basketball mixed with football and MMA on big trampolines -- announcing to TMZ Sports ... the sport is returning in 2023!

"There have been all kinds of people clamoring for SlamBall to come back. There has been #BringBackSlamBall media, viewed over 200 million times in the last 12 months. So, I'm ready to announce next summer, 2023, SlamBall is coming back, live!"

If you haven't seen a SlamBall game, it's pretty damn awesome. Huge air, big hits ... it's great. And, that's why so many people waited for this day, including Celtics star Jayson Tatum, a SlamBall fan.

Gordon says he's had endless opportunities over the years to bring the game back, but he didn't want to do it until all the conditions were perfect for making a return.

"We've gotten opportunities pretty much every couple of months, there will be an opportunity to bring SlamBall back in some form. My partners and I have always looked at it and said, 'we're not gonna come back until the market conditions are like really optimal,' and the alternate sports marketplace is on fire."

Gordon and his partners felt it was the perfect time to strike ... especially since kids are decreasingly watching entire 3-hour sporting events.

"SlamBall just kind of fits the bill. They're 20-minute games. Television half hours. People obviously have really gravitated to the action, and it's this incredible mash-up between basketball, football, hockey, little bit of gymnastics, little bit of video games, that's just SlamBall."

SlamBall was built for social media -- and when it comes to the TV side of things, Gordon has a secret weapon -- producer/director Mike Tollin is a partner on the project ... the man behind "The Last Dance" and "The Captain," amongst many others.

A 911 call was placed by 2 FAA staffers after they got word a pilot of the cargo plane that was about to make an emergency landing had jumped from the plane.

One of the FAA employees is on the call telling the North Carolina 911 dispatcher, "This is from Raleigh Airport ... We have a pilot who was inbound to the field. His co-pilot jumped out of the aircraft. He made impact to the ground and here are the coordinates."

The employee went on to say the co-pilot, 23-year-old Charles Hew Crooks, "jumped out without the parachute, so he might have impact to the ground."

He went on ... "I am sure the pilot is going to be shaken up. I have no idea. He literally just said, 'My pilot just jumped out.'"

And, then there's this ... 'I guess at this point in time, all we can do is recovery. I don't know. I don't know. This is the craziest thing ever."

Presumably, the 911 call was placed so local authorities could recover the body, which they found in a backyard 30 miles from the airport.

The plane, which had landing gear issues, crash-landed ... the pilot suffered minor injuries and was taken to the hospital but released the same day.

There is something bizarre about this investigation ... It's been days, and the pilot who landed the plane still has not been identified and nobody -- the NTSB, FAA, FBI -- has said a word about interviewing him or what he said.

Aviation investigators are scratching their heads over a 10-person plane that took off with 2 pilots, but returned with just one ... after one of them fell to his death while they were midair.

An emergency landing went down at Raleigh Durham International Airport after 23-year-old co-pilot Charles Hew Crooks either fell or jumped to his death Friday while they were in the skies, according to federal authorities.

They were trying to get back to the ground as safe as possible after the plane lost its right wheel ... when Crooks exited the small 10-seater.

His body was found roughly 30 miles away, stuck in the trees of someone's backyard -- he had no parachute on him and authorities believe he fell 3,500 feet.

Both the Federal Aviation Authority and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating whether or not he died before the fall.

The other pilot was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries, and released the same day.

Crooks' father, Hew Crooks, told WRAL he's unable to process the news ... saying his son "wouldn’t trade places with anybody in the world. He loved where he was.”

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?

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is getting support in the wake of the backlash over his Vogue cover shoot ... and it's from orgs helping his people on the frontlines.

A rep for NOVA Ukraine, a nonprofit that spreads awareness of the war while providing aid to Ukrainians, tells TMZ the article was "brilliantly written" ... wondering if the people criticizing the story even read it.

As we reported, Zelensky and his wife, Olena, were dragged online after appearing on the latest cover of Vogue. Some saw it as the President turning this crisis into the Zelensky show ... while looking for pats on the back along the way.

The rep for NOVA Ukraine says the photo shoot brings much-needed attention to the war ... as media coverage has dwindled as the conflict drags on. The way NOVA sees it, the focus should be on Ukraine's leaders who have "led a country which is being blown to pieces day by day, and continue to lead with their head high."

Michael Capponi, President of the Global Empowerment Mission, tells us the photo shoot does a lot of good .. Zelensky is using his PR skills to call upon the world for help, unlike previous Ukrainian presidents.

Michael's org sends first responders to disaster zones in Ukraine ... first responders who are critical in the rebuilding effort. He says Americans don't fully understand the impact of this war, likening it to a daily Hurricane Irma.

A 22-year-old man suffered a gruesome death on his Mykonos vacay when he was struck by helicopter blades ... and authorities looking into it think it could be a case of a photo op gone tragically wrong.

Jack Fenton and his 3 friends were recently getting off their hired black Bell 407 helicopter, coming back from the Greek isle, according to a report from The Sun.

They were taken away from the vehicle and to a private lounge as they waited for a plane to take them back to London, but Jack headed back toward the helicopter at a fast pace ... as others shouted at him to come back.

Witnesses who spoke to Greece’s committee for aviation accidents say he had a phone to his ear as he went toward the back of the helicopter, where the blade was still spinning -- he was stuck in the head, killing him instantly.

Those who saw the incident could only describe it as "horrifying. The pilot of the helicopter, who was "deeply traumatized," was arrested ... along with 2 ground technicians.

Cops are looking into every possibility, which reportedly includes "the possibility of the boy going there to take a selfie in the excitement of the moment."

It's not just the waves crashing in SoCal's famed Surf City -- a plane slammed into the Pacific, just a few dozen yards from the beach ... and the miracle here is the pilot's condition.

The small plane went down Friday in Huntington Beach around 1:30 PM, and was so dangerously close to shore, a guy chilling in the sand captured crystal clear video of the crash.

The guy's reaction as the plane crashed into the surf might be the most SoCal reaction ever -- he yelled out, "Oh, dude!!! I have it on video!"

The fact the pilot went down so close to shore might have played a factor in his survival -- you can see lifeguards immediately sprung into action. Huntington Beach city officials tell TMZ ... those lifeguards were able to pull the pilot from the plane and quickly get him on land. He was not seriously injured, but went to a hospital to get checked out.

Interestingly, there was a junior lifeguard competition on that section of the beach, but they were not involved in the rescue. Can't beat that kinda on-the-job training, though.

Donald Trump was exposed Thursday night in the very building where he fanned the flames of insurrection ... and the outtake of his speech to the nation January 7th makes it clear -- the only thing he cared about was propagating the lie that he won the election.

The outtake is both shocking and, frankly, comical. When he gets to the part where he talks about the rioters breaking the law, he stops and exclaims, "I can't say that!" There's another part where he's supposed to say the election is over, but he won't say the words.

The January 6th Committee made it clear ... Trump only gave the speech because there was a move both in The White House and Congress to get him out of the Office of President, either by the 25th Amendment or impeachment.

There's a part of the outtake right out of the 'Mary Tyler Moore Show' with Ted Baxter. Trump is talking about what happened the day before and after flubbing the word "Yesterday," he says, "Yesterday is a hard word for me."

In another outtake, shot on January 6th, where Trump is supposed to quell the violence by calling off the insurrectionists, he begins with his grievances over the election results and ends with it as well.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger delivered rousing, impassioned remarks about Donald Trump and the impact of what he has done to American democracy. It's definitely worth watching.

The Secret Service barely made it out of the Capitol January 6th along with Vice President Mike Pence ... and never-before-seen video shows just how close they came to calamity.

The January 6th presented video Thursday night showing a portion of the frantic 13 minutes in which the Secret Service tried to snake its way through the riot-torn building and bring the Veep to safety.

You hear and see the sheer desperation as one of the agents says if they don't get out now they may lose their ability to leave the building. They were literally feet from the mob, which was chanting "Hang Mike Pence."

An anonymous White House official testified how grim the scene was -- there were agents asking home base to contact their families to say goodbye. It was that desperate, and you hear and feel it.

Texas lawmakers digging into the Uvalde disaster seem astounded 21 people were killed after so many cops -- nearly 400 -- responded to the shooting scene, and they're blaming “egregiously poor decision-making.”

The 80-page investigative report, released by a committee from the Texas House of Representatives Sunday, reveals a total of 376 officers responded in May to the tragedy at Robb Elementary School, yet it's “almost certain” at least 100 shots were fired inside before they entered.

According to the report, no one assumed command once arriving on the scene, despite there being hundreds of officers from all over the area.

A commander of a Border Patrol tactical team also waited for a bullet-proof shield to arrive for them, as well as a master key for the classrooms, further delaying the response inside.

Pete Arredondo, the now-former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief, tried locating keys as well, but no one checked to see if the doors were locked, according to the report.

The report says he also considered the shooter a “barricaded subject,” because he didn't have visual contact with the gunman.

One Uvalde officer said he heard about 911 calls coming from inside a classroom -- his understanding was that police on a certain side of the building were fully aware that victims were trapped inside, yet nothing was done.

The report puts the blame on law enforcement, saying "they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”

It's a sign of the times ... a glass door shattering was enough to turn the Vegas strip into full-blown panic.

Tourists heard loud sounds Saturday night on the Strip, which they mistook for gunfire ... and it created a domino effect, sending hundreds of terrified folks running for their lives.

Turns out it was just a glass door shattering, but that was enough to send people scrambling. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said, "There is no evidence of gunfire in the area and the event is under investigation."

People ran out of the MGM Grand and New York-New York. One person suffered minor injuries after falling during the stampede out.

One person was detained ... the one who broke the glass door. That individual was stopped on suspicion of destruction of property. Unclear if there were any arrests.

It's really a scary situation ... you see cops descending on the area with guns drawn as they try to figure out if there is indeed an active shooter.

The World Series of Poker was interrupted by the incident but the gamblers soon returned.