Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence Marc Ramirez, USA TODAYSun, June 7, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC 0 As bullets flew during the fateful shootout in which the Mexican drug kingpin known as El Mencho would be fatally wounded, did he seek help in his final moments by murmuring desperate prayers to St.

Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence

Marc Ramirez, USA TODAYSun, June 7, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC

As bullets flew during the fateful shootout in which the Mexican drug kingpin known as El Mencho would be fatally wounded, did he seek help in his final moments by murmuring desperate prayers to St. Jude?

Among Mexico's most wanted fugitives before being killed in February in a Mexican military raid, Nemesio Oseguera, co-founder and head of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), had spent his final days in a high-end Jalisco villa featuring a makeshift shrine topped with Catholic saints and a handwritten copy of the Bible's Psalm 91.

The brutal cartel is the country's most prolific trafficker of cocaine, heroin and meth ― and, according to the U.S. State Department, a pipeline for fentanyl onto American soil. And yet, on El Mencho's homemade altar, there they were, icons of a typical Catholic upbringing: Figures of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico; St. Martín Caballero, patron saint of soldiers and travelers; and St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of desperate situations.

"It couldn't have been more orthodox Catholic," said Andrew Chesnut, professor of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and an expert in Latin American Catholicism.

How could someone steeped in narcoviolence reconcile such a life with Catholic devotional practice? Chesnut said El Mencho, raised in the deeply Catholic Mexican state of Michoacan, echoes other criminal actors who've balanced villainy and veneration, bypassing traditional religious frameworks to absolve ― or even justify ― the deeds that reap their daily bread.

"It's completely divorced from the moral compass of Christianity," he said. In that sense, he added, El Mencho and other narco traffickers are not unlike Italian mafiosi who've relied on Catholic saints for protection, prosperity and justification for their own activities.

A makeshift altar with Catholic saints and a handwritten psalm stood inside the house where Mexican drug cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, better known as 'El Mencho', spent his final hours before he was injured in a military raid and subsequently died while being transported in a helicopter, outside Tapalpa, Mexico, February 24, 2026. REUTERS/Liberto Urena

Along with the saints found on El Mencho's altar, another saint embraced in narco culture is the Santo Niño of Atocha, a childlike Christ figure known as the patron saint of prisoners and those in danger, said Robert Almonte, a law enforcement trainer and consultant in San Antonio, Texas. Ovidio Guzmán, the drug lord son of notorious Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, sported a pendant bearing the Holy Infant's image when he was detained in 2019, Almonte said.

The most popular saint among Mexican drug traffickers, he said, is St. Jude Thaddeus, first embraced by Colombian narcos. As the patron saint of lost causes or difficult situations, St. Jude is who Catholics beg for help with, for example, a terminally ill relative ― but for cartels, Almonte said, "if they're traveling down the highway in a vehicle loaded with drugs, they're calling on St. Jude to help the drugs reach their destination."

However, experts note it's often Mexican folk saints unrecognized by the Catholic church to whom narcos direct their prayers ― figures such as Santa Muerte (Holy Death) or Jesus Malverde, whose followings reach far beyond the criminal underworld.

That's one of the advantages of folk saints, Chesnut said: Because they operate outside the confines of Catholicism, one can ask them for anything. "They don't operate within Christian morality, so if you want to ask them to bless a shipment of fentanyl to Atlanta, it's kosher," he said.

People celebrate the 110th anniversary of folk saint Jesus Malverde's birth, in Culiacan, state of Sinaloa, Mexico, on May 3, 2019.

Folk saints fill a void in a largely Catholic country where most saints, many with olden European roots, don't always resonate. Jesus Malverde, for instance, a Robin-Hood-like figure based on a fabled, green-clad Mexican bandit who shared his plunder with the poor, found favor among the feared Sinaloa cartel.

"If you're dissolving bodies in vats of acid, your weekly job doesn't square well with attending Mass on Sunday," said Robert Bunker, an international security and counterterrorism consultant who studies cartels. "You're not living a good Christian life. You can only say so many Hail Marys and it still doesn't clean the slate for you."

Alignment with Jesus Malverde has added powerful symbolism for narcos who've funded local improvements where government has not, as the journal Cultural Geographies once noted. One such kingpin, it said, had "built a church, a kindergarten and a volleyball court in his hometown of Guamuchilito."

As Almonte puts it, "Mexican cartel members often see themselves as doing the right thing."

The rise of Santa Muerte

The other folk saint tied to narco culture is Santa Muerte, whose Grim Reaper appearance and relative obscurity prompt assumptions of malevolence. News reports dub her "the cartel patron saint," while a Texas governor's office news release noting a Santa Muerte altar found at a stash house bust in 2023 said it indicated "a connection to Mexican cartels."

A table with a bible, an image of Jesus Christ and a figurine of Santo Nino de Atocha stand covered in dust and debris in the luxury apartment complex where drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva was shot in Cuernavaca in December 2009. Beltran Leyva, a cartel chief dubbed "The Boss of Bosses," was felled in a spray of bullets by elite navy troops. REUTERS/Valente Rosas/El Universal

Chesnut said the demonization of Santa Muerte began with former Mexican president Felipe Calderón, whose military-led clampdown on cartels, starting in 2006, included the razing of numerous Santa Muerte shrines.

"He fingered Santa Muerte as public enemy number one," said Chesnut, author of "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint." "There's no denying that Santa Muerte has a robust following with the cartels. If you're wanting to bring death to your enemies, or if you're looking for protection from death, who better to ask for more grains in the hourglass than death herself?"

Santa Muerte, often depicted with a crown and scythe, a globe in hand and an owl at her feet, is the product of religious overlap dating to the Spanish conquest. Scholars say 16th-century Catholic missionaries introduced Europe's Grim Reaper figure to Mexico's indigenous population, believing fear of death would instill a desire for salvation and convert them to Christianity.

Instead, Chesnut said, indigenous people linked the figure with the death deities of their own ancient belief systems. The fusion gave rise to what would eventually become Santa Muerte despite church efforts to stamp her out, and by the 1940s, she was seen mainly as a love sorceress, called upon by women to bring back wayward partners "under punishment of being whacked with a scythe."

Then, in 2001, a devotee in the Mexico City barrio of Tepito set her life-sized Santa Muerte effigy on the sidewalk outside her home because she no longer had room for it, unintentionally sparking what Chesnut calls "the fastest growing religious movement on the planet." The figure is now in a glass case attached to the woman's home, he said, the most famous Santa Muerte shrine in the world.

A devotee wears a medal depicting Santa Muerte, or Holy Death, at a shrine in the Mexico City barrio of Tepito in November 2007. At the time, Santa Muerte's following in Mexico was estimated at about 2 million people.

Chesnut now estimates Santa Muerte's following at between 13 and 14 million worldwide, the vast majority in Mexico and the American Southwest.

Most tend to be practicing or cultural Catholics who look to Santa Muerte for her reputation as a quick fixer, according to University of Michigan professor William Calvo-Quirós. In his book "Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions," Calvo-Quirós said veneration of Santa Muerte is a form of spiritual pragmatism "less concerned with the afterlife than the afflictions of the present."

In Mexico, Santa Muerte has found appeal among the poor and marginalized, especially those subject to narcoviolence or other dangers, who look to "The Bony Lady" for protection. As the Institute for Economics and Peace's Vision of Humanity reported earlier this year, Mexico's homicide rate nearly doubled between 2015 and 2019 from 15.1 to 28.2 deaths per 100,000 people, an uptick that coincided with the national expansion of El Mencho's CJNG cartel.

"She's particularly popular for people for whom death might be right around the corner," Chesnut said. "That includes Mexican law enforcement and soldiers. I call her the patron saint of the narco wars, writ large."

A man carries a statue of Santa Muerte during the folk saint's feast day celebration in Mexico City's Tepito neighborhood on October 31, 2025.

Temples devoted to Santa Muerte have sprung up from Guadalajara and Los Angeles to villages in Michoacan. Adherents share offerings and prayers on Reddit while Santa Muerte statues, medals and bracelets are commonly found at botanicas ― Latino-oriented spiritual goods stores ― throughout the American Southwest; in Dallas, Botanica La Luz held a "Noche de Santa" in December to celebrate the folk saint.

"It's a belief for Catholics too," said shop co-owner Zennia Vitela, who though not a Santa Muerte adherent herself, stocks the items for those who are. "My tías were believers."

The Catholic Church is not pleased. When Pope Francis addressed Mexico's bishops in 2016, he referred only vaguely to Santa Muerte and her cartel ties but expressed concern "about those many persons who, seduced by the empty power of the world, praise illusions and embrace their macabre symbols to commercialize death in exchange for money."

A statement issued the following year by the Catholic bishop of San Angelo, Texas, called Santa Muerte worship "spiritually dangerous" and "a perversion of devotion to the saints."

A devotee places her hand on a figure of Santa Muerte (Holy Death) in reflection during the main celebration in a market in Mexico City's Tepito neighborhood on November 1, 2012. Santa Muerte is a folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico and the southwestern United States, a syncretism between Mesoamerican and Catholic beliefs, although strongly condemned by the Catholic Church.

Such declarations mean little to devotees like Marta Azcona, proprietor of Botanica La Fe a la Santísima Muerte in Fort Worth, Texas, whose shop is a warren of Santa Muerte statues, candles, bracelets and figurines. Occasionally, she holds potluck-style Santa Muerte gatherings in the parking lot with a bonfire under the full moon.

Azcona, 47, said those who visit her botanica for blessings and spiritual cleansings have felt shunned in traditional religious settings, either because of their sexuality, tattoos or other factors. Some hide Santa Muerte altars at home from relatives and friends because of the negative connotations.

"They've gone to church, but they feel like they're being judged," said Azcona, who was raised Catholic. "Here, there's no judgment. People who come to her feel everybody has turned their back on them. Where are they going to run to? To somebody who feels the same pain."

Azcona extends her forearms, revealing tattoos of Jesus on one and Santa Muerte on the other.

"With God and the Santa (Muerte) by my side, who could be against us?" she said. "No one."

Marta Azcona, owner of Botanica La Fe A La Santisima Muerte in Fort Worth, Texas, displays arm tattoos of Santa Muerte and Jesus Christ. Azcona's spiritual goods shop is entirely devoted to Santa Muerte, a folk saint that despite condemnation by the Catholic church has millions of adherents in Mexico and the American Southwest. The Grim Reaper-like figure has also found appeal among Mexican cartel members.

That sort of mentality worries people like Bunker, who said such devotion can become perilous when what's permissible under Santa Muerte is malleable and she becomes seen not as an intermediary but "a goddess in her own sense. That's when it turns into something totally different. It's like a meatball. You're making stuff up."

Almonte, the San Antonio consultant, agreed.

"Cartel members believe no matter how much criminal activity they're involved in, as long as they pray to Santa Muerte she's going to take them to heaven," Almonte said. "That makes them that much more dangerous. Because they're not afraid to die."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: For some narcos, saints both aid, justify life of violent crime

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Published: June 7, 2026 at 07:54AM on Source: PRIME TIME

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Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence

Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence Marc Ramirez, USA TODAYSun, June 7, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC 0 As bullets flew du...

Woman Thought She Found a Binder of Her Late Grandmother&x27;s Taxes, but Never Expected What Was Actually Inside (Exclusive) Tereza ShkurtajSun, June 7, 2026 at 9:28 AM UTC 0 Peggy Kelpe's celebrityfilled binder.Credit: Madelyn Mikelson After her grandmother&x27;s death, Madelyn Mikelson found a black binder she thought contained documents or tax records Instead, it was filled with celebrity photos and notes, including pages dedicated to Aha singer Morten Harket The TikTok video of Mikelson&x27;s discovery quickly went viral, surpassing 5 million views and prompting an outpouring of support a...

Woman Thought She Found a Binder of Her Late Grandmother's Taxes, but Never Expected What Was Actually Inside (Exclusive)

Tereza ShkurtajSun, June 7, 2026 at 9:28 AM UTC

Peggy Kelpe's celebrity-filled binder.Credit: Madelyn Mikelson -

After her grandmother's death, Madelyn Mikelson found a black binder she thought contained documents or tax records

Instead, it was filled with celebrity photos and notes, including pages dedicated to A-ha singer Morten Harket

The TikTok video of Mikelson's discovery quickly went viral, surpassing 5 million views and prompting an outpouring of support ahead of her grandmother's celebration of life

When Madelyn Mikelson began cleaning out her grandmother's bedroom after her death earlier this year, she assumed the black binder sitting among piles of paperwork contained tax records.

It would have made perfect sense for a woman who "loved finances" and spent years serving as treasurer for various clubs and organizations. But when the 28-year-old opened it, she discovered page after page dedicated to celebrity crushes, carefully cataloged facts and one very specific obsession.

"I wasn't expecting to see Morten Harket when I opened the binder, but I wasn't surprised either," Mikelson tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The quirky discovery came in May 2026, while Mikelson was helping sort through the belongings of her grandmother, Peggy Kelpe, who died of cancer in February at the age of 82.

While other family members had also been working through much of the house, they saved Kelpe's bedroom for Mikelson because of the close relationship the two shared over the years.

At first glance, Mikelson honestly thought the binder would be filled with tax papers, given that her late grandmother always completed her own taxes. But instead of receipts and financial records, the binder contained photos of celebrities alongside handwritten notes about their birthdays, heights and other personal details.

While the contents may have seemed unusual to outsiders, Mikelson immediately recognized pieces of her grandmother's personality throughout the collection. Kelpe had loved numbers, facts and statistics, making the detailed cataloging feel surprisingly on-brand.

Yet even among all the familiar quirks, there was one revelation that caught the family off guard.

"The only thing that was kind of surprising was the zodiac signs," Mikelson reveals. "Nobody in our family realized that she was interested in zodiac signs, so we got to learn that about her from her binder."

Madelyn Mikelson and her late grandmother, Peggy Kelpe.Credit: Madelyn Mikelson

Among the many celebrities featured in the collection, Morten Harket, the frontman of the synth-pop band A-ha, was clearly a favorite. But his presence throughout the binder wasn't exactly shocking to those who knew Kelpe.

Her admiration for Harket was well documented long before the binder surfaced. She belonged to multiple fan clubs, kept photos of him around her home and even traveled to Germany with her daughter to see the band perform.

"She was sick for a long time, so seeing them live was one of the last big things she wanted to do while she still had the strength," Mikelson explains.

The binder also featured a few names that made Mikelson laugh. While Matthew McConaughey stood out because he seemed different from many of her grandmother's usual celebrity crushes, another actor helped explain a memory that had puzzled her for years.

"I giggled when I saw Keanu Reeves," she recalls. "A few years ago I spent my spring break with her and she made me watch all of the John Wick movies with her. Now I know why!"

Madelyn Mikelson and her late grandmother, Peggy Kelpe.Credit: Madelyn Mikelson

Nevertheless, looking through the pages, Mikelson couldn't help but see the binder as something more meaningful than a celebrity scrapbook.

Created during her grandmother's retirement years in 2013, the collection reflected a woman who had embraced a sense of fun and curiosity that many tend to lose as they get older.

"I like to believe that with age and free time, she was able to embrace a little bit more girlhood whimsy and hope than the rest of us adults," Mikelson says, adding that the timing of the binder's creation only strengthened her theory.

"This binder was made around the time she joined the Morten fan clubs and named a cat after him, so I think this was just her Morten era," Mikelson laughs.

Madelyn Mikelson's late grandmother, Peggy Kelpe.Credit: Madelyn Mikelson

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What initially began as a video intended for family quickly became an internet sensation. Mikelson posted a TikTok of the binder's contents and was stunned when it took off, eventually racking up more than 5 million views.

The timing made the response even more meaningful. Mikelson shared the video just one day before her grandmother's celebration of life. As family and friends gathered to honor her grandmother, Mikelson's phone was constantly buzzing with notifications from strangers online who had fallen in love with the binder.

Everyone loved the book so much, in fact, that Mikelson's mom put it on display at the celebration of life.

Momentos from Madelyn Mikelson's grandmother.Credit: Madelyn Mikelson

Instead of facing the difficult day with only grief, Mikelson and her family found themselves reading messages from people around the world who were celebrating Kelpe's humor, personality and unapologetic devotion to her celebrity crushes.

The unexpected outpouring of support brought moments of laughter and comfort at a time when they needed it most.

"Everyone celebrated her and her binder, with lots of people calling her queen, diva and a baddie," Mikelson tells PEOPLE. "All the love, support, and jokes that the video received really brightened our spirits on what could've been a really hard day."

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June 07, 2026

Woman Thought She Found a Binder of Her Late Grandmother's Taxes, but Never Expected What Was Actually Inside (Exclusive)

Woman Thought She Found a Binder of Her Late Grandmother&x27;s Taxes, but Never Expected What Was Actually Inside (Exclusi...

New Photo - Suspect in James Handy's murder allegedly flagged down police to tell them 'he was the one they w...

The son of Handy's girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Handy, an actor, appeared on television and in films like &34;Top Gun: Maverick&34; and &34;Jumanji.&34; Suspect in James Handy's murder allegedly flagged down police to tell them 'he was the one they were looking for' The son of Handy's girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Handy, an actor, appeared on television and in films like &34;Top Gun: Maverick&34; and &34;Jumanji.&34; By Sharareh Drury June 5, 2026 3:50 p.m. ET :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/JamesHandyJumanji0605267b7681af5c3a44eebe4ccc89f9d0ebce.

The son of Handy's girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Handy, an actor, appeared on television and in films like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Jumanji."

Suspect in James Handy's murder allegedly flagged down police to tell them 'he was the one they were looking for'

The son of Handy's girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Handy, an actor, appeared on television and in films like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Jumanji."

By Sharareh Drury

June 5, 2026 3:50 p.m. ET

James Handy wearing a baseball cap in Jumanji

James Handy in 'Jumanji'. Credit:

- James Handy died on Wednesday after being stabbed to death.

- The son of Handy's girlfriend, who has been arrested for his murder, allegedly called 911 to report the stabbing and said, "I just killed the man of sin."

- Handy appeared in movies such as *Top Gun: Maverick* and *Jumanji*, as well as on many TV shows.

Newly released video shows the moment the suspect in James Handy's murder was arrested after the *Top Gun: Maverick* actor was stabbed to death on Wednesday morning.

Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department allege that Handy was killed by his girlfriend's 44-year-old son, Michael Gledhill. He was arrested and taken to Van Nuys Jail, where he was booked on one count of murder, with bail set at $2 million.

In video obtained by *TMZ* from the LAPD, Gledhill can be seen surrounded by officers while standing with his hands cuffed behind his back. *TMZ* also obtained Ring camera footage allegedly showing Gledhill walking down a sidewalk in the neighborhood after the stabbing, while police car sirens and helicopters can be heard in the background.**

James Handy in Top Gun: Maverick

James Handy in 'Top Gun: Maverick'.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Authorities said in a news release that on June 3, officers responded to a 911 caller who said over the phone, “I am the son of man. I just killed the man of sin." When officers arrived at a residence in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, they found Handy unconscious and suffering from a stab wound in the chest in the front yard.

According to police, Gledhill "flagged down nearby responding officers, telling them he was the one they were looking for."

Handy was taken by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was 81.

James Handy, 'Jumanji' and 'Top Gun: Maverick' actor, fatally stabbed at 81

James Handy in 'Jumanji'

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Handy appeared in the 2022 *Top Gun* sequel, playing a bartender. He also appeared in 1995's *Jumanji* as an exterminator. Handy's other film roles include *Arachnophobia* (1990) and *The* *Rocketeer* (1991). His television roles include appearances on* NYPD Blue*, *Beverly Hills, 90210, Law & Order*, *Rizzoli & Isles*, *The Young and the Restless*, and *9-1-1.***

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Published: June 7, 2026 at 02:38AM on Source: PRIME TIME

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Suspect in James Handy's murder allegedly flagged down police to tell them 'he was the one they w...

The son of Handy's girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder . Handy, an actor, appeared on television and in films like ...

Where does the Royal Family get its money from? Fri, June 5, 2026 at 10:47 AM UTC 55 King Charles in the foreground of the image looks away to the left of the frame, whilst his younger brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is seen behind him, slightly out of focus. The first report into royal residences for 20 years has revealed that Andrew MountbattenWindsor received rental income from subletting three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate.

Where does the Royal Family get its money from?

Fri, June 5, 2026 at 10:47 AM UTC

King Charles in the foreground of the image looks away to the left of the frame, whilst his younger brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is seen behind him, slightly out of focus.

The first report into royal residences for 20 years has revealed that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received rental income from sub-letting three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate.

The report, by public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO), also said that the King pays the rent for accommodation in royal palaces for Mountbatten-Windsor's daughters Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.

The Royal Family receives tens of millions of pounds each year from the Sovereign Grant and uses it to cover the cost of official duties, but this is not the only source of their income.

Andrew was sub-letting Royal Lodge cottages, watchdog reveals

How much public money does the Royal Family get?

The Sovereign Grant provides public funding for the running costs of the monarchy.

This includes core staff costs, running expenses of the King's official household including receptions, maintenance of palaces in England and travel costs for royal engagements.

For 2026-27, the Sovereign Grant stands at a record £137.9m, in the second year of a two-year hike to pay for building work at Buckingham Palace.In 2025-26, it stood at £132.1m and in 2024-25 it was £86.3m.

The grant has more than tripled in real terms since it was introduced, at £31m a year, in 2012. It brought together public funding into a single payment, replacing a mix of grants from a range of government departments.

However, the funds could soon be reduced for the first time.

"The government is committed to bringing forward legislation to reset the grant to a lower level from 2027-28 once Buckingham Palace reservicing works are completed," Financial Secretary to the Treasury Lord Livermore told the House of Lords in March.

The Treasury has said the forthcoming legislation would allow for a cut to the grant for 2027-28, but only as a one-off measure. It is not known how much the reduction would be.

Separately, the Royal Household's annual financial statement said additional income increased to £21.5m in 2024-25, following a record number of visitors to Buckingham Palace.

How is the Sovereign Grant worked out?

Profits of the Crown Estate - a property business owned by the monarch but run independently - go to the Treasury.

The level of profit is used to calculate the funding given by the government to the Royal Family.

The Crown Estate had assets worth £15bn in 2024-25, with billions of pounds worth of properties in London, including Regent Street, as well as nearly half the land along the coast of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The estate is not the King's private property but belongs to the monarch for the duration of their reign. The King cannot sell its assets or keep any profits for himself.

The Sovereign Grant was initially worth 15% of the Crown Estate profits generated two years previously. That increased to 25% in 2017-18, to help pay for the Buckingham Palace repairs, before reducing to 12% since 2024-25.

However, soaring profits from the Crown Estate have still led to large increases in the Sovereign Grant, including a £45m increase in 2025-26.

Under the Sovereign Grant Act 2011, if the Crown Estate's profits fall, the monarch still currently receives the same amount as the previous year, with the government making up the difference.

What is the Sovereign Grant spent on?

The King and other working members of the Royal Family use the money to pay for expenses related to their official duties.

The vast majority is spent on the upkeep of properties and staffing, but it also covers costs such as travel to royal engagements.

Members of the Royal Family carry out about 2,000 official UK and overseas engagements each year.

Buckingham Palace says that about 70,000 people are entertained at dinners, lunches, receptions and garden parties at the Royal residences.

What does King Charles do and who else is in the Royal Family?

Why did Harry and Meghan leave the Royal Family?

How else does the Royal Family receive money?

The King also receives money from a private estate called the Duchy of Lancaster, which is passed down from monarch to monarch. This income is known as the Privy Purse.

The Duchy of Lancaster covers over 18,000 hectares of land in areas such as Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as property in central London.

Whoever holds the title of Duke of Cornwall (currently the Prince of Wales) benefits from the Duchy of Cornwall.

It mainly covers land in south-west England. In the year to the end of March 2025 it had assets worth £1.1bn and had made annual profits of £22.9m.

The King and Prince William receive the profits from the duchies personally, and can spend them as they wish. However, they are not entitled to any proceeds from the sale of any estate assets, which must be reinvested.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor moved to a property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk

The monarch also owns the royal palaces (which are not part of the Crown Estate) and part of the Royal Collection of art, but these do not generate income.

Some palaces are looked after and funded by the Royal Family itself. Others - such as the Tower of London - are managed by Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity.

The King also privately owns properties such as Balmoral and Sandringham. The King's brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, moved to Sandringham, in Norfolk, earlier in 2026.

In addition, some Royal Family members have private art, jewellery and stamp collections which they can sell or use to generate income as they wish.

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Do members of the Royal Family pay tax?

In 1992, Elizabeth II volunteered to pay income tax and capital gains tax on her personal income, and the King does the same.

The two duchies are exempt from corporation tax, but the King and Prince William voluntarily pay income tax on the revenue they generate. However, the amount of tax they pay is not made public.

They do not pay capital gains tax because they do not benefit personally from any increase in the duchies' assets.

Members of the Royal Family pay tax on any income generated from privately-owned assets.

King Charles does not have to pay inheritance tax on the money he received when the late queen died, under the "sovereign to sovereign" exemption agreed in 1993 by then Prime Minister John Major.

King Charles, on the left wearing a red uniform with medals attached, faces Queen Camilla, wearing a light blue jacket and a beige hat. She is also looking at himWhat about security and other costs?

The Sovereign Grant does not cover the Royal Family's security arrangements, which are usually paid for by the Metropolitan Police, although the cost is not disclosed.

Some major events are also not included. The late queen's funeral in 2022 cost the government an estimated £162m.

The Coronation of the King cost taxpayers £72m, including £22m for policing.

Republic, a group campaigning for an elected head of state, has argued that factors such as security need to be included in the cost of the Royal Family.

The group claims that the total cost of the monarchy is about £510m a year.

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Published: June 6, 2026 at 05:00AM on Source: PRIME TIME

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Where does the Royal Family get its money from?

Where does the Royal Family get its money from? Fri, June 5, 2026 at 10:47 AM UTC 55 King Charles in the foreground of the image lo...

New Photo - Will Forte's wife threatened to divorce him over his clumsy reaction to her bangs: 'What happened...

The actor explained that his wife was &34;hunched over&34; on FaceTime in a way that made her bangs look &34;more like Spock.&34; Will Forte's wife threatened to divorce him over his clumsy reaction to her bangs: 'What happened to you?' The actor explained that his wife was &34;hunched over&34; on FaceTime in a way that made her bangs look &34;more like Spock.&34; By Emlyn Travis :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/EmlynTravisauthorphotocba6765b433b4f93b9398d18053153b1.jpg) Emlyn Travis Emlyn Travis is a news writer at . She has been working at EW since 2022.

The actor explained that his wife was "hunched over" on FaceTime in a way that made her bangs look "more like Spock."

Will Forte's wife threatened to divorce him over his clumsy reaction to her bangs: 'What happened to you?'

The actor explained that his wife was "hunched over" on FaceTime in a way that made her bangs look "more like Spock."

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis author photo

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

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June 4, 2026 1:23 p.m. ET

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Will Forte's wife threatened to divorce him over his clumsy reaction to her bangs: 'What happened...

The actor explained that his wife was &34;hunched over &34; on FaceTime in a way that made her bangs look &34;more like Spo...

Avoid Zillow: This Infrastructure Redirect Is a “NoBrainer” Buy as the Housing Market Stalls Alex SiroisSat, June 6, 2026 at 12:22 AM UTC 0 ewg3D / E+ via Getty Images Every headline this week wants you to buy Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z) on the back of an earnings beat and a fresh AIplatform pitch from CEO Jeremy Wacksman. But here is what you should actually be watching. Zillow is a leveraged bet on a housing market that the company itself, in its own forward guidance, describes as "planning for the macro housing environment to continue to bounce along the bottom of the cycle".

Avoid Zillow: This Infrastructure Redirect Is a “No-Brainer” Buy as the Housing Market Stalls

Alex SiroisSat, June 6, 2026 at 12:22 AM UTC

ewg3D / E+ via Getty Images

Every headline this week wants you to buy Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z) on the back of an earnings beat and a fresh AI-platform pitch from CEO Jeremy Wacksman. But here is what you should actually be watching.

Zillow is a leveraged bet on a housing market that the company itself, in its own forward guidance, describes as "planning for the macro housing environment to continue to bounce along the bottom of the cycle". That setup reads as a value trap dressed in an AI costume, not a retirement-portfolio anchor.

The Z Beat Is Hiding Real Damage

Yes, Q1 EPS of $0.53 topped the $0.46 estimate, and revenue of $708 million grew 18.39%. Look under the hood. Traffic to Zillow apps and sites declined 3% year over year to 220 million average monthly users. Gross margin compressed 350 basis points. Incremental legal spend on the FTC trial expected in the first half of 2026 is dragging Adjusted EBITDA margins by 160 basis points. Industry purchase mortgage origination volume is down approximately 1% year over year.

The market has already cast a vote. Shares trade at $35, down 48.7% year to date and 47.34% over the last year, with a trailing P/E of 140. Paying that multiple for a transaction-dependent platform staring at elevated mortgage rates, historically low existing-home inventory, and a housing market that remains thoroughly locked up qualifies as wishful thinking.

The Quiet Beneficiary: Caterpillar

A more durable alternative sits with Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), the unsexy infrastructure giant that just printed $17.415 billion in Q1 revenue, up 22.2%, with EPS of $5.54 against a $4.6439 estimate. Three reasons stand out.

1. Caterpillar is an AI data center play. The Power Generation product line, large reciprocating engines and turbines feeding hyperscaler buildouts, hit $2.817 billion in Q1, up 41% year over year. Jim Cramer put it bluntly in April: "CAT represents infrastructure money, construction money and data center money." Picks and shovels for the AI capex cycle, without the 60x semiconductor multiples.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Caterpillar didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

2. A record backlog the housing cycle cannot touch. Construction Industries revenue rose 38% to $7.161 billion with segment margin expanding 1.6 points to 21.4%. North America revenue jumped 32%. CEO Joe Creed said "A record backlog provides a strong foundation for continued positive momentum." That backlog is fed by long-term legislative funding bills like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and global reshoring trends, sources insulated from 30-year mortgage rates.

3. A cash machine returning real money. In Q1 alone, Caterpillar deployed $5.028 billion on share repurchases and roughly $0.7 billion on dividends. Operating cash flow rose 45.1% to $1.870 billion. The stock is up 53.55% year to date and 151.68% over the past year, yet the forward earnings multiple sits at 38x with an analyst target of $920.14.

The tariff line is real. Q1 Resource Industries segment profit fell 39% on 7 points of margin compression from tariff-driven manufacturing costs. Caterpillar beat through it anyway. Zillow has no such cushion.

The retirement-focused investor does not need another lottery ticket on a housing rebound that management is openly disavowing. For investors weighing the two, the yellow machines powering data centers, highways, and reshored factories look better positioned than the headline-chasing Zillow narrative.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Caterpillar didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL Money"

Source: Money

Published: June 5, 2026 at 09:18PM on Source: PRIME TIME

#ShowBiz#Sports#Celebrities#Lifestyle

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June 05, 2026

Avoid Zillow: This Infrastructure Redirect Is a “No-Brainer” Buy as the Housing Market Stalls

Avoid Zillow: This Infrastructure Redirect Is a “NoBrainer” Buy as the Housing Market Stalls Alex SiroisSat, June 6, 2026 at 12:2...

Reporter Spent Years Tracking Down the Man Behind a Deepfake Porn Website, then Recruited Paris Hilton to Help Expose Him (Exclusive) Janelle GriffithFri, June 5, 2026 at 10:10 PM UTC 0 Paris Hilton and Laurie SegallCredit: Courtesy of Mostly Human Journalist Laurie Segall spent three years investigating the person behind Mr.

Reporter Spent Years Tracking Down the Man Behind a Deepfake Porn Website, then Recruited Paris Hilton to Help Expose Him (Exclusive)

Janelle GriffithFri, June 5, 2026 at 10:10 PM UTC

Paris Hilton and Laurie SegallCredit: Courtesy of Mostly Human -

Journalist Laurie Segall spent three years investigating the person behind Mr. Deepfakes, a site that allowed users to upload and view AI-generated deepfake pornography

The investigation led Segall to confront the site's owner in Markham, Ontario, and helped contribute to the site's shutdown in 2025

Her hunt is the subject of a new 14-part docuseries Searching for Mr. Deepfakes,streaming exclusively on Paris Hilton's TikTok account in collaboration with Segall's Mostly Human Media

In 2022, technology journalist Laurie Segall came across a website so disturbing that it spurred her to launch an investigation into the person behind it.

The site, Mr. Deepfakes, allowed users to upload and view AI-generated deepfake pornography. The site hosted hundreds of thousands of sexually explicit, digitally altered images featuring celebrities and every day people and, at its peak, drew 17 million monthly visitors, according to Segall.

"It's the story of innovation without guardrails, where women and girls are some of the first to be impacted negatively," Segall tells PEOPLE. "So I decided that we needed to track the guy behind the anonymous site, and that took quite a bit of investigating."

Segall, who previously worked at 60 Minutes and CNN, assembled a team that included journalists, cybersecurity experts and other specialists. Together, they spent three years investigating the site, a pursuit that ultimately led Segall to confront its owner in Markham, Ontario, face to face, and helped contribute to its shutdown.

The investigation is the subject of a new 14-part docuseries Searching for Mr. Deepfakes,streaming exclusively on Paris Hilton's TikTok account in collaboration with Segall's Mostly Human Media. Since its release a week ago, the campaign has garnered 26 million video views across Hilton and Mostly Human Media's social channels.

Hilton has her own experience with online exploitation. At age 19, an ex-boyfriend shared a private video of the two having sex, which was later distributed online and from which she says she never profited.

"People assume that because these images are fake, the impact somehow isn't real, but it is," Hilton tells PEOPLE. "Knowing strangers are creating and sharing content designed to humiliate or exploit you is something no one should have to experience."

In January, Hilton traveled to Capitol Hill to advocate for a bipartisan bill, the DEFIANCE Act, legislation that would allow victims of deepfake exploitation to take legal action against those who create and distribute such content. Segall watched as Hilton spoke at a news conference alongside Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Laurel Lee, a Florida Republican, who co-sponsored the bill.

"I said to my husband, 'I've got to team up with Paris Hilton on this, she gets it, and she's speaking out,' " Segall recalls. "It's not just about her lending us a platform, her story is important as a part of this."

Hilton appears in the series and discusses being a victim of deepfake abuse. "I hope people walk away understanding the real human impact behind these images and the harm this causes victims every single day," Hilton says. "One in eight girls know someone impacted by deepfake pornography, and this can happen to anyone."

The Simple Life star says there are more than 100,000 deepfake images of her online. "I'm fortunate to have a team helping report and remove them, but the process is incredibly time-consuming because you have to go platform by platform," she tells PEOPLE. "Thankfully, the Take It Down Act is now law, which means platforms are required to remove this content quickly and face consequences if they don't."

Adds Segall: "Back in the day, it was one video and now it's 100,000 sexually explicit images. And now, you don't even have to take a photo of yourself or a video. Now you just have to exist."

— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

During the reporting process, Segall and her team pieced together a portrait of Mr. Deepfakes by tracking down his online and offline portrait. They also used AI facial recognition software to uncover his identity.

"We were able to plug it in and see a name from a wedding card, see him at a music festival, figure out his orbit, and it kept taking us further and further," Segall says.

They eventually learned he is a father and worked as a pharmacist. "We ended up calling a local baby store and that is how we ended up getting his home address, because he had a baby registry," she says. By calling various pharmacies they were able to hone in on where he was working. Mr. Deepfakes shut down in May 2025 after a service provider withdrew its support, halting the site's operations, Segall says. He has not faced any legal consequences or answered to the allegations.

Still, much has changed since the investigation began. Women now have more recourse.

"The conversation is also moving to platforms, payment providers, who else is liable in this ecosystem that enables this," Segall says. "Those are conversations that we can have now. And my hope is that this story enables us to have that conversation."

The 14-part docuseries Searching for Mr. Deepfakes is now available in full on Paris Hilton's TikTok account. Additional audio content related to the investigation and its characters will roll out on the Mostly Human with Laurie Segall podcast every Thursday through June 25.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL Entertainment"

Source: Entertainment

Published: June 5, 2026 at 06:36PM on Source: PRIME TIME

#ShowBiz#Sports#Celebrities#Lifestyle

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June 05, 2026

Reporter Spent Years Tracking Down the Man Behind a Deepfake Porn Website, then Recruited Paris Hilton to Help Expose Him (Exclusive)

Reporter Spent Years Tracking Down the Man Behind a Deepfake Porn Website, then Recruited Paris Hilton to Help Expose Him ...

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