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Maitland Ward might as well be an unofficial member of Ben Savage's congressional campaign team ... she's coming out strong to support him, and bashing other ex-costars who aren't doing the same.

We got Maitland in Beverly Hills, where she was rocking a "Savage For Congress" shirt, and our photog asked why Ben's got her vote ... and why other "Boy Meets World" stars aren't banging the drum for him.

The former teen TV star-turned-porn star says Ben's a good man who deeply cares about his community -- he's running for CA's 30th district, which includes parts of Los Angeles and its northern suburbs -- and she says she likes his forward-thinking.

Remember, Maitland's been on Ben's side since he filed back in January to begin his run for Congress. To her point about their other 'BMW' costars ... Rider Strong says he's not going to endorse Ben just because they starred on a TV show together as teenagers.

Rider made his feelings known on the podcast he hosts with other "Boy Meets World" stars Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle ... and Maitland thinks they're just bitter Ben didn't want to cohost the pod, and they're holding it against him.

3:27 PM PT -- The State of Israel is fuming over Elon's pledge to help Gaza -- with its Minister of Communications saying his attempt to intervene is only going to bolster terrorists.

Shlomo Karhi took to Twitter to write, "Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight this.  HAMAS will use it for terrorist activities. There is no doubt about it, we know it, and musk knows it. HAMAS is ISIS."

He adds, "Perhaps Musk would be willing to condition it with the release of our abducted babies, sons, daughters, elderly people. All of them!  By then, my office will cut any ties with starlink."

Elon, meanwhile, has responded ... "We are not so naive.   Per my post, no Starlink terminal has attempted to connect from Gaza.   If one does, we will take extraordinary measures to confirm that it is used *only* for purely humanitarian reasons.  Moreover, we will do a security check with both the US and Israeli governments before turning on even a single terminal."

Elon Musk is coming to the rescue in Gaza -- which is currently being infiltrated by Israel ... and which is effectively cut off from the world in terms of communication and connection.

The multibillionaire tech boss announced this weekend that he'd be lending his Starlink satellite services to people on the ground there ... which will provide Internet access amid a blackout in the area as Israeli forces move in amid their delayed ground operation.

Elon actually broke the news in response to one of his famed foes, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- who was decrying the fact that Israel had made Gaza go totally dark overnight.

Seemingly unprovoked, EM responded directly to the NY congresswoman, writing ... "Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza." He went on to reiterate this with others, highlighting the UN as one of the orgs that'd get connected.

Of course, his specificity here speaks to the fact that Hamas terrorists are still all throughout Gaza -- which is who the Israelis are attempting to root out and eradicate ... despite an overwhelming call for a ceasefire worldwide, which has erupted into pro-Palestine protests.

In trying to find the ones responsible for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel -- which claimed more than 1,400 innocent lives -- thousands of Palestinians have been killed in retaliation.

The war has become incredibly polarizing, especially here in the States ... but Elon's stepping up and seemingly showing some compassion for Palestinians caught in the middle of this.

Mike Pence is throwing in the towel on his bid for the presidency, 'cause he says it's simply not his time to be commander-in-chief ... but it sounds like politics are still in his future.

The ex-Veep announced Saturday that he was suspending his presidential campaign, which has been going for about 5 months now ... but without much traction, it seems. He dropped the bombshell during a speech he gave for the Republican Jewish Coalition in Vegas.

In MP's remarks, he cites a Bible verse that says "there's a time for every purpose under heaven," adding that after much thought and prayer -- he's realized right now isn't his.

You can kinda hear people in the crowd react with shock ... which changes into cheering.

Pence says while he might be exiting the 2024 race, he isn't abandoning his mission of fighting for "principled conservative values" and helping elect GOP leaders. It's a pretty shocking development -- especially considering he was one of the higher-profile candidates.

Pence positioned himself as a traditional Republican ... aka, someone who stood against Donald Trump/MAGA -- even though he was 45's right-hand man in the WH for 4 years.

That allegiance to Trump -- which was strong throughout his entire presidency -- waned toward the end ... when Pence was thrust into the Jan. 6 insurrection as one of the primary targets ... all because he refused to do Trump's bidding in overturning the election results.

In the years since Jan. 6, Pence has come out firmly against his old boss ... but as far as making an impact as a would-be contender -- he never really gained any serious steam.

Time will tell how long the others can hold out -- at this rate, Trump is far and away the favorite to secure the Republican nomination ... no one else is seriously threatening that.

Cheryl Hines says The White House can no longer avoid husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s need for Secret Service protection ... not in the wake of 2 scary incidents at their home.

The actress and comedian joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday and told us she had a front-row seat to the intruder who attempted to get inside their home, not once but twice.

Cheryl says she was on Instagram Live at the family's Brentwood estate Wednesday morning when she looked out the window and noticed a strange man in the yard, being apprehended by security.

For Cheryl, it was an alarming moment hitting way too close to home ... and we don't just mean the fact it happened at their home. There's another dimension to this -- the Kennedy's tragic family history.

Robert was only 9 years old when his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and then just 5 years later his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was shot and killed in L.A. while running for President.

Cheryl says the home intruder underscores the need for RFK Jr. to have Secret Service protection and not just private security watching his back as he runs as an Independent in the 2024 Presidential Election.

She says they've tried to get President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security to authorize Secret Service protection for RFK Jr. but have been denied ... which she finds very puzzling.

DHS' explanation for rejecting the request, at that time, was RFK Jr. wasn't polling high enough -- at least 15 percent -- to warrant protection, but the most recent poll shows him pulling 19% in a 3-way race with Biden and Trump.

She's hoping Biden reconsiders and seems to think The White House may be denying RFK Jr. protection because of the very real chance he'll be a big factor in the outcome next year.

If that's the case, Cheryl says the White House can't ignore this latest incident ... which we first reported.

A fitness instructor is being accused of tearing down a poster of kidnapped Israeli kids outside a popular Los Angeles gym  ... and he says he's "proud" to be doing it.

The incident went down Wednesday outside the iconic Gold's Gym in Venice -- the man crumpled up the poster and chucked it in the trash. He's asked about why he ripped it down, telling the man filming he's proud of himself, before adding "Get the f*** away."

The man in question has been identified as model and fitness trainer Zaid Shaat -- his social media profiles say he's a "Lifetime Natural Athlete," and that he loves to "motivate people to live a healthy lifestyle. I am passionate about helping people achieve their goals and dreams."

Worth mentioning that Joe Gold, the founder of Gold's Gym, was Jewish ... and folks online have been letting Shaat have it over what he did outside the L.A. hot spot.

As you know, Hamas first attacked Israel on Oct. 7 killing thousands and taking more than 200 civilians hostage -- all of which sparked war as Israel retaliates.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta made sure to design Facebook and Instagram so they are super hard to quit, and the result has been bad for society ... at least that's the allegation from Tennessee's Attorney General, and 41 other AGs.

Jonathan Skrmetti, the Volunteer State's top cop, joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" to lay out why 41 states -- and Washington, DC -- are suing Facebook and Instagram's parent company for allegedly harming our nation's youth.

He says the social media apps are intentionally designed to take advantage of the way we're all wired -- making the platforms extremely addicting with features like infinite scrolling, reminders and notifications, just to name a few.

Skrmetti says Meta is fully aware the apps are hard to quit and bad for folks -- he says they cause sleep deprivation, anxiety, ADD, depression and potential suicide.

In his eyes, there's only so much parents can do to stop their kids from getting hooked on social media, and it's at a point now where the government needs to step in to make changes.

Tons of Hollywood stars are banding together to pressure Hamas to release all hostages taken by the terrorist group in Gaza ... and they're asking President Biden to help make it happen.

Tiffany Haddish, Bradley Cooper, Justin Timberlake, Chris Rock, and Gwyneth Paltrow are among the big names who signed an open letter to Biden, which calls on Hamas to set all prisoners free.

The open letter is part of a new campaign out of Hollywood, led by Jewish celebs and executives, called #NoHostageLeftBehind.

It's a truly extraordinary number of Hollywood honchos who have signed on, and it's clearly well-intentioned ... but what's clearly lacking is how the letter brings Hamas hostages home ... not that we're expecting celebs to figure that out.

Seems Hollywood is looking to the White House for a hand here ... the letter also thanks Biden for his leadership in bringing home two American hostages Friday ... though the celebs say their "relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death."

Hamas also released two Israeli hostages on Monday, but their spouses still remain in captivity.

Donald Trump allegedly once asked his wife, Melania Trump, to strut her stuff in a two-piece to entertain some dudes he was hosting ... this according to a new secret recording.

The story comes courtesy of NYT/'60 Minutes Australia' -- which just aired a segment citing conversations that Aussie billionaire Anthony Pratt claims to have had with DT while he was in office ... and some of his anecdotes about 45 were apparently captured on tape.

In one of the audio clips, you can hear Pratt recount a time he claims went down sometime in 2019 -- when Trump was apparently hanging with him and some other business big shots during a dinner. Pratt says Trump told them about once asking MT to walk around a pool in her bikini ... so that all the other men there could get a look at what they were missing.

Unclear when exactly Trump might've made this request or where -- but from the sounds of it ... he said it sometime during his presidency. In any case, Pratt says Melania fired back at her husband ... allegedly saying, "I’ll do that when you walk around with me in your bikini."

It's not all that surprising Trump might say something like that -- but what's somewhat shocking is that he potentially said this while he was serving as POTUS and her FLOTUS.

Of course, Melania comes from a modeling background ... something DT has always taken pride in. But to hear that Melania took his odd request and turned it on her hubby is pretty wild too -- especially when you consider they don't seem to be all that close these days.

Anyway, there are larger bombshells in this report ... including claims Pratt made about DT allegedly spilling state secrets to him very casual-like. The bigger takeaway that the Times notes here is special counsel Jack Smith has talked to Pratt as part of his probe into DT.

The Prime Minister of Italy is pretty clearly not into threesomes, because she just broke up with the father of her child after he apparently floated the idea to another woman.

PM Giorgia Meloni said she was dunzo with Andrea Giambruno, her partner of 10 years, writing on Instagram ... "I thank him for the splendid years we spent together, for the difficulties we went through, and for giving me the most important thing in my life, which is our daughter Ginevra."

Giambruno was involved in numerous shenanigans, reportedly musing about having a "threesome, even a foursome."

He also reportedly asked a colleague of his, "Can I touch my balls while I talk to you?"

And, according to Italian media, he was caught on a hot mic asking a woman, not his partner, for sex.

He's made many outrageous comments, including a warning to women not to get drunk if they wanted to avoid rape. BTW ... the PM co-signed on that thought.

As for Meloni ... she said, "I will defend what we were, I will defend our friendship, and I will defend, at all costs, a seven-year-old girl who loves her mother and loves her father, as I was unable to love mine."

President Biden is urging Americans to support the war efforts in the Middle East and Ukraine ... he says we all have to come together to help defeat terrorists and tyrants.

The Prez just made his case for Congress to approve billions more in military aid to help Israel fight Hamas and Ukraine fight Vladimir Putin ... selling Americans on the battle between good and evil.

In a rare speech Thursday from the Oval Office, Biden says Americans must put their petty differences aside and unite against the bad guys ... he says if the U.S. gives up the fight in Gaza and Ukraine, it will only embolden our enemies across the globe.

POTUS says he's going to ask Congress to approve more military aid to help fight wars overseas ... while reiterating he won't send American troops to fight Russia.

We haven't seen a lot of rah-rah speeches from Biden in office ... and he's pretty animated here, at least by his standards.

The Prez says it's all part of keeping up with America's calling as a global leader ... and he says the world is watching and counting on us to save the day.

Historian Peter Kuznick fears for the fate of humanity ... warning of a third world war and a nuclear winter if conflicts across the globe continue to escalate.

The author and American University professor joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday, and we asked him just how close we are to World War III, given the war in the Middle East.

Peter says things were already trending towards a doomsday scenario as a result of the war between Ukraine and Russia and the situation in Taiwan ... and he fears recent developments in Gaza may push things over the edge.

The way Peter sees a nightmare situation unfolding -- Israel invades Palestine, forcing Hezbollah to join the war -- and then other countries are drawn into battle.

From there, Peter says it's an all-out world war ... and it's pretty much guaranteed nuclear warheads will be used.

Peter explains how even a small number of nukes would create a nuclear winter capable of killing 2 billion people across the globe ... telling us it would be worse than ever imagined.

President Joe Biden is siding with Israel over the bombing Tuesday that killed hundreds of people in a Gaza hospital ... claiming it was not Israel that unleashed the weapon.

Israeli intelligence officers said Tuesday's rocket attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was the work of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) -- an independent Muslim paramilitary organization. They said the jihadists were launching rockets at Israel and one of them misfired and came crashing down on the medical center.

Coupled with the footage, Israeli officials released a purported audio clip of two Hamas terrorists talking about the deadly explosion and blaming PIJ. Hamas, which controls the Palestinians in Gaza, has a tense relationship with PIJ, but the two groups sometimes work together.

In the audio clip, one alleged terrorist says, "They are saying (the rocket) belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It's from us?"

The other responds, "It looks like it. It misfired and fell on them... God bless - couldn't it have found another place to explode?"

However, the Palestinian Health Ministry issued a statement, saying Israeli airstrikes were responsible for the bombing at the medical facility, which was housing thousands of displaced people from the war.

Death tolls from the hospital blast ranged from 200 to 500 people, depending on which side you asked.

Major protests throughout the Middle East flared up as a result of the hospital attack. Hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators took to the streets in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.

A Palestinian-American child was stabbed to death by his landlord -- this according to law enforcement, who says the boy's Muslim background was the motivation for the crime.

71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba has been charged with first-degree murder in the Chicago area after he allegedly knifed 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume over the weekend ... with cops saying the kid was stabbed upwards of 26 times at his apartment over the weekend.

Wadea's mother, Hanaan Shahin, was also stabbed a dozen times during the attack, per officials, but she survived her ordeal and is expected to live. For her injuries, Czuba is also being charged with attempted murder ... not to mention two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

The feds are involved in this case now ... as law enforcement has claimed that Czuba shouted "You Muslims must die" during the alleged killing. Officials believe Czuba did this as a direct result of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict in the Middle East.

As far as how this happened ... cops say Czuba -- who apparently had no issues with these tenants in the past -- knocked on their door out of the blue, and when Hanaan opened it ... he allegedly pounced on her, attempting to choke her ... and went on to use his knife.

State officials have since said this was an isolated incident and that no credible threat of terror attacks beyond this has manifested in the community. The death of Wadea has spurred outcry nationally ... with President Biden condemning his killing in a statement.

'Tis the season to get spooky, and one collegiate professor thinks nothing's scarier than American politics ... which is reflected in his awesome Halloween home decorations.

Check out what Matt Warshauer has done to his West Hartford property out in Connecticut ... where his crib has essentially turned into a carnival-style fun house that's completely D.C.-inspired -- and touches on all the hot-button issues in the U.S., including Trump!

Take a look for yourself ... Warshauer's place is decked out and then some with creative constructions -- like the panel of skeleton Supreme Court justices, meant to show that America's trust in SCOTUS is dead, at least from his POV.

There's another featurette with even more bags of bones -- which are crafted to depict Ron DeSantis' fight with Disney over LGBT issues. This is part of a rotating merry-go-round-style stage ... and each "scene" portrays what he considers a frightening political scene.

And yes, there's a DT clown reference, too ... his painted-on caption here says it all.

The name of this neighborhood attraction, as Warshauer describes it, is "United States Fun House" ... and while it might, perhaps, turn off certain adults (depending on their actual politics) -- it's undoubtedly a head-turner, and something people are flocking to see.

BTW, this is more than just a standing spectacle ... it's actually interactive, as the home-owner looks to have incorporated built-in games into the decorations on his front lawn.

Here's a chance to get your hands on a historic item from the Guinness World Records Book ... a letter signed by 14 U.S. Presidents is hitting the open market ... and it's on sale for 6-figures.

It's the only document in the world with 14 presidential signatures ... and it's been autographed by basically every president from Herbert Hoover on down, save for John F. Kennedy and Joe Biden.

The record-setting presidential parchment is going up for sale through Moments In Time ... with a $175,000 price tag.

The story behind the letter is super cool ... as reported in the Amarillo Globe-News ... it all started in October 1932 when a Texas man named Richard C. Corbyn wrote to Franklin D. Roosevelt about a potential campaign stop in Arizona. FDR wrote back and signed his autograph at the bottom.

Corbyn was 18 years old when he got FDR's response in the mail, and 30 years later in 1962 he realized the letter would have even more value if he could just get other presidents to leave their John Hancock on the same piece of paper ... and he set out to get more signatures.

The second to sign was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1962 ... and in 1963 the letter added signatures from Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Hoover.

Corbyn tried to get JFK's autograph ... but the Kennedy assassination derailed those plans ... and he went 12 years before getting another signature until Gerald Ford signed in 1975 while in office.

Jimmy Carter signed in 1976; Richard Nixon signed in 1978; Ronald Reagan signed in 1980; George H. W. Bush signed in 1988; Bill Clinton signed in 1993 and George W. Bush signed in 2002.

Barack Obama proved to be a little more difficult ... it took the Corbyns 7 years to get Obama's signature ... finally getting him to sign in November 2015.

Judge Mathis is applauding California's new Ebony Alert for missing Black children and women ... he says it's long overdue, and he's glad Gov. Gavin Newsom got it done.

We got the TV magistrate Friday at Via Alloro in Beverly Hills and asked him about the state's new system to report and find missing Black kids and women, which Newsom just signed into law.

Judge Mathis says missing Black girls are the most underserved group of people, and he thinks the Ebony Alert will go a long way towards righting that wrong.

Remember ... there was a ton of outrage earlier this week when the Ebony Alert was announced, with some folks saying it was modern-day segregation because it's completely separate from the longstanding Amber Alert.

Judge Mathis isn't buying that argument ... he says that's just not the way society operates, and until there's a true level playing field for all, special programs like the Ebony Alert are needed for marginalized groups.

The author behind the bill, California State Senator Steven Bradford, previously told us the new system was needed because law enforcement was doing its job when it came to missing Black folks, and there weren't enough resources either.