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A statue of Teddy Roosevelt that has greeted visitors for nearly a century at NYC's Museum of Natural History is set to be removed ... at the behest of the museum.

Honchos at the AMNH broke the news Sunday, saying a statue of the great trust-busting President that has stood at the foot of the entrance doors since 1940 will soon be gone.

In case you haven't seen it, the sculpture shows Teddy -- who once served as Governor of New York -- on horseback, with a Native American man on one side, and an African man on the other ... both of whom are below him.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says the museum asked the City for permission to remove the statue, because ... "it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior." He added, "It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue." It goes without saying ... New York's City Council has approved the request.

The statue has been a hot-button issue for a while -- some folks saw it as promoting imperialism and colonization ... which was alive and well in Teddy's day.

The museum justified the move, explaining ... "Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd." They added, "We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism. Simply put, the time has come to move it."

While Teddy's officially out ... another historical statue in our nation's Capitol, no less, is currently on the hot seat -- and may very well be the next slated for removal, unless protesters get to it first. Out in D.C., the Emancipation Statue featuring Honest Abe is being discussed as the next to go ... because of racial insensitivity.

There's a slave below Abe breaking free from his shackles, with AL hovering above him. A petition's circulating to remove it.

Less than a week after New York City said no more chokeholds to cops, an NYPD officer used one while making an arrest ... to the point the person he's subduing loses consciousness.

A handful of NYPD officers were filmed Sunday near Rockaway Beach attempting to detain and arrest a black man -- with one of the cops wrapping his entire arm around the guy's neck and putting his body weight on him from the ground, while the others put cuffs on.

You hear bystanders -- who are filming the whole thing -- start to scream out in a panic, telling the officer to stop choking him, which eventually gets him to release.

At that point, it appears the man being arrested has gone limp and is unresponsive -- some of the folks standing around say "he's out." He had indeed passed out and was led away by police moments later.

It's unclear if and when he regained consciousness -- his current condition is also unknown.  We also don't know why he was being arrested, and the NYPD isn't saying.

The NYPD did say, "We are aware of the video and there is an active investigation underway by the Internal Affairs Bureau. This matter is taken extremely seriously and we expect to have an update this evening as the investigation unfolds."

Bear in mind ... the City JUST made it illegal for cops to do this, unless their lives are in immediate danger. They even named the law after Eric Garner.

Again, and again ... what is so remarkable about these encounters is that cops know they're being videotaped but it doesn't seem to deter much.

Skaters from Cali to Texas hopped on their boards in unison this weekend to peacefully protest and show support for the Black Lives Matter movement -- and the scene is unreal.

This weekend proved to be another few days filled with anti-racism demonstrations to decry the death of George Floyd and others, but none were quite as creative as skateboarders coming together and going for a communal ride through the streets of S.D., L.A. and Austin.

They call it Skate for Peace, or Push for Peace. Pretty straightforward.

Sounds cool, right? Wait till you see it in action ... it's like something out of a movie, honestly. Nothing but the sound of wheels rolling across the pavement -- purely awesome.

Now, these types of get-togethers have been going on for weeks nationwide -- but this weekend's skate protest was especially noteworthy because of the sheer numbers -- and the fact that they took up entire streets without too much pushback, it seems.

Ja Rule has made his services widely available to the general public -- the dude's offering up private party bookings now ... something his old foe, 50 Cent, finds awfully hilarious.

The rapper made an appearance this weekend at a private house party in New Jersey, where it looks like he was hired by a bunch of hotties to perform a few hit songs and hang out for a bit. One classic jam of his that he got around to playing ... "I'm Real," featuring J Lo.

Everyone was having a good ol' time, and Ja certainly had no shame in announcing that, yes, people CAN book him for gigs like this now. He's partnered up with ICONN, and there's an official way you can go about getting Ja to come to your shindig ... for a pretty penny.

Sounds neat, but of course ... there's always haters lurking in the back ready to pounce. In this case, Ja's nemesis, Fitty, came with a bag of jokes ready to fly at JR's expense.

He took to IG and wrote, "if you don’t want to end up doing private birthday parties for 15 people. 🤷🏽‍♂️stay out of my way, OK." Some folks credit 50 with stunting Ja's career -- at least that's how 50 sees it -- and he rides that narrative to no end ... constantly clowning the guy.

Florida Man is back with a vengeance -- this time, he's fighting his way into a Walmart, which has a mandatory face mask policy ... but FM NEEDS his discounts, 'rona be damned.

This wild scene went down Saturday in Orlando, and it starts off right in the thick of the action. An elderly man tries storming his way into a Walmart without a face covering -- but gets stopped by an employee at the front door. That wasn't gonna stop gramps here though.

He immediately got physical and started pushing his way through -- even shoving the masked employee out of his way ... to some success, at first. The guy did get by him -- after taking a tumble during the struggle -- and then started heading for some aisles. But, this Walmart employee (of the year?) caught up to him and held his ground ... give him a raise!

On the second go, he had backup with him -- just a regular Joe, it seems -- who chimed in and told the guy to get the hell out. He also noted the dude was getting his germs all over the place by making such a big fuss -- meanwhile, almost everyone else had coverage.

It seems the two-man press was enough for the old-timer to call it quits and scram, empty-handed at that. Guess he'll have to wait to get his weekly batch of $5 DVDs ... too bad.

Anyway, the whole time you can hear the cameraman laughing it up -- and while we'll admit it's pretty funny watching this absurdity unfold ... it's also pretty jarring and surreal.

One of the 4 ex-cops charged in the brutal killing of George Floyd was confronted by an angry shopper who bristled when he told her he was sorry she felt the way she did.

J. Alexander Kueng was shopping at Cub Foods in Plymouth, Minnesota Saturday when a woman spotted him. Kueng was captured on video standing by as Derek Chauvin mercilessly put his knee on George Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

Kueng acknowledged who he was as the woman recorded him, and when he told her he was sorry she was feeling the way she was ... she was more than eager to display her feelings.

Elon Musk's newest sweet ride has gone from the Tesla stage to the public stage -- 'cause his Cybertruck made what appears to be its public debut for the first time this weekend.

The Cybertruck was rolled out (literally) this weekend in L.A. and put on display for public viewing at the Petersen Automotive Museum -- where tons of cool and historic whips are featured for an up-close-and-personal viewing. And for now, the Cybertruck is one of them.

Sounds like this would be one of the few times anyone besides a Tesla employee has gotten to inspect this beast of a vehicle in detail and with their own eyes. Of course, Elon and co. did an up-and-down unveiling in November, but since then ... the car's been mostly MIA.

Welp, the good folks over at Electrek did the hard work of going to check it out for themselves ... and they did a proper write-up on what they found upon seeing it in person.

Long story short, they say it's about as cool as it looked the first time it was shown off -- and it's actually not all that intimating when you get a closer look. Electrek breaks down all the features that Tesla revealed in the fall -- and got some sweet close-up shots of the exterior.

They note it's pretty freaking big, but not all that imposing when you're right up next to this thing. Despite its out-of-this-world design, Electrek notes a lot of the car parts are very much so of our time and are quite practical. The steering wheel and side mirrors are bit different (or non-existent) which leads to questions about how it'll actually drive on the road.

Time will tell, we suppose. In the meantime ... LOOK 👀

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heaped praise on countless teens who punked Donald Trump and his campaign Saturday night in a big, big way.

Trump and co. had been touting that huge crowds -- 100,000 strong -- would show up for his Tulsa rally, yet he couldn't even fill a 19,000 seat arena ... it was only 2/3 full.

Enter TikTok users and K-pop fans, who started their own campaign, registering for tickets to the Trump rally with obviously no intention of going. This is why, in part, the Trump campaign bragged 1 million people had registered.

AOC was beside herself, saying ... "you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID. Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud."

Donald Trump's being accused of being petty again ... and this time it's got Petty written all over it.

Tom Petty's family is outraged the Trump campaign dared to use the song, "I Won't Back Down," Saturday night at his Tulsa rally.

Tom's widow, Dana, and other family members said the song is about all of us and it should not be played "to further a campaign that leaves too many Americans and common sense left behind”

The family said ...“Tom wrote this song for the underdog, for the common man and for everyone ... We want to make it clear that we believe everyone is free to vote as they like, think as they like, but the Petty family doesn’t stand for this. We believe in America and we believe in democracy. But Donald Trump is not representing the noble ideals of either.

And, the family added this ... "We would hate for fans that are marginalized by this administration to think we were complicit in this usage. Concurrently, we have issued a cease and desist notice to the Trump campaign.”

So, the family has fired off a cease and desist letter to the campaign.

The Petty family is not alone. Among the singers who have railed against Trump for using their music ... Elton John, Prince, Aerosmith, REM, Adele, the Rolling Stones, Guns N Roses, Rihanna, Neil Young, Pharrell, Queen and Earth Wind and Fire have also denounced the president’s use of their music.

The founder of a gaming company is seeing the light -- she's aborting efforts to create a "Black Lives Matter" board game, and admits, despite good intentions ... there's a better way to fight racism.

Shari Spiro's the owner of AdMagic Inc., and last week she filed to trademark the 'BLM' phrase. Spiro told TMZ her plan was to help the organization create some type of educational tool -- possibly a 'BLM' card or board game -- to teach people about the movement.

Spiro added, she was not doing it for financial gain or publicity, and told us she was even going to donate the trademark -- if approved -- back to the Black Lives Matter org.

A couple days later, however, she reached out to tell us she's abandoning her application ... saying she now understands it was "tone deaf" to try it in the first place.

Spiro says even though her goal was to do good for the BLM movement, she recognizes "that 'good intentions' can still be unhelpful."

She adds ... "Moving forward, I will listen and learn so that I can be a better ally in the fight against racism." Spiro says her withdrawal of the trademark will be officially on the books within a few days.

It should be noted ... Spiro's not the first person to run to the trademark office since BLM protests started spreading after the death of George Floyd. Another businessman also recently withdrew applications for "Black Lives Matter" and "I Can't Breathe."

Megan Fox didn't walk the walk a few days back ... and that's because she didn't have to, courtesy of Machine Gun Kelly!!!

The couple hung out at The Beer Hunter bar in La Quinta, near Palm Springs, with some friends at a table inside the bar.

Folks in the bar say there was no doubt ... Megan and MGK are together.

They split after just shy of an hour, and MGK helped Megan take a load off, and she loved it!

Megan and MGK have gotten super close ... he even declared his love for her on social media.

Megan and Brian Austin Green have split. He was seen recently with Courtney Stodden, but they claim to just be friends.

Dennis Quaid threw a block party Saturday ... and a legendary musician provided essential backup.

Dennis, whose job description can fairly read, "Actor/Musician," had all the trappings for his Brentwood neighbors ... food, drink and music.

Dennis and his band performed, with a special guest ... Robby Krieger from The Doors played guitar for the blues and rock set.  Robby and Dennis aren't strangers ... they've played together before.

Dennis' fiancee, Laura Savoie, was cheering with approval from the sidelines.

Not only is the coronavirus still here, but guess what ... ditto for murder hornets ... and Animal Planet's Forrest Galante says the clock's ticking to eradicate them before it's too late.

The Animal Planet star tells TMZ ... murder hornets are such a threat to our environment, biologists are literally hunting down the invading species. It's no joke ... biologists may as well be called the Ghostbusters 'cause Forrest says they're hunting the hornets with sniffing dogs, heat sensing technology and all kinds of tools to track their whereabouts.

So, why's it important to find them? Forrest tells us the murder hornets are detrimental to the environment if they're roaming and foraging all across the U.S. of A. He says there's still a murder hornet population in Washington.

BTW, timing's huge, too, if biologists are going to find the hornets. Check out the video ... Forrest explains why NOW is the prime time to find them and get rid of them. And, that's just one of the obstacles biologists are dealing with.

The L.A. Lakers 14k gold & diamond championship ring that Kobe Bryant gifted to his father just hit the auction block and it's expected to bring in a QUARTER-MIL!!

Here's the deal ... 20 years ago -- following Los Angeles' title-winning '99-'00 season -- Mamba bought 2 additional rings and gifted them to his parents, Pamela and Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.

The rings are IDENTICAL to the bling Kobe, Shaq, and the rest of the Lakers squad received.

We're talking real gold and 40 diamonds on each massive ring.

Goldin Auctions -- who recently sold Pamela's ring for $206k -- is now offering "Jellybean's" ring ... and GA tells us they expect it to sell for over $250,000.

FYI, Pamela and Joe sold the rings -- along with other memorabilia -- back in 2013 for a total of $280,000.

And, get this, there's more awesome Kobe swag for sale:

- Kobe Bryant worn and signed cast from when he broke his wrist during the preseason in 1999. Expected to bring in about $20k.

- A 1996-1997 Topps Chrome Refractors Kobe Bryant rookie card (a very rare card). Expected to go for around $75k.

- A Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant signed basketball. Expected to sell for $20k to $25k.

Emile Hirsch is hoping the abandoned bus made famous by his 2007 film, "Into The Wild," lands in a safer location than the Alaskan wilderness ... and he's got the perfect spot.

Emile played the main character, Chris McCandless, and tells TMZ ... if it were up to him, he would put the bus in an area for people to visit without fear of getting lost in the wild or losing their lives in a raging river ... somewhere like, say, Emile's backyard!!!

As we reported ... the abandoned bus from the film -- based on a true story -- was a major, and sometimes deadly, tourist attraction in a remote area of Alaska's Denali National Park. On Thursday, the National Guard airlifted the bus from its location in the interest of public safety.

While Emile says the symbolism around the bus made a huge impact on fans around the world, he knows it presented some dangerous problems for people making the backcountry pilgrimage. Five Italian tourists had to be rescued earlier this year, and a woman died last year hiking to the bus, which spurred local officials to call for its relocation.

Emile says the cautionary tales were tragic to see, and he hopes the bus ends up somewhere safer ... as long it's not broken down and sold for scrap parts. For now, it's being held in a secure location until authorities find a new home for it.

If dad's rockin' it, it must be cool ... At least that's how these adorable celebrity mini-mes seem to feel!

These cute kids have been posted proudly twinning with their famous fathers and we're sharing all the sweet snaps with you, in celebration of today!

From stars such as Andy Cohen and John Legend to Ryan Lochte and Trey Songz, there are plenty of pics of these dynamic duos to go around!

Take a look at all the other celeb kids having matching moments with their dads by scrolling through our gallery of celebrity dads with mini-mes!