he Department of Justice (DOJ) seal on the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is seeking to denaturalize a former diplomat who was caught spying for the Cuban government.
For nearly 40 years, Manuel Rocha acted as a spy for the Cuban government under the guise of being a U.S. diplomat, according to the Justice Department.
Rocha is a native of Colombia, but became a “great friend” of the Cuban government. The lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in the Southern District of Florida alleges that he lied on his naturalization paperwork when he filed it in the late 1970’s.
“Under no circumstances should an agent of a foreign adversary be permitted to hold the title of American citizen,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said in a statement. “Our mission is clear: to root out these fraudsters and preserve the sanctity of the naturalization process for those who adhere to our laws. Any individual who lied during the naturalization process to gain a foothold in this country will be met with the full weight of the Department of Justice.”
He had worked at the State Department and held various leadership posts since the early 1980’s, according to the Justice Department. All of that unraveled when he was caught on video outlining all of his crimes to an undercover agent in 2022.
“Rocha celebrated his activities on behalf of the DGI and against the United States’ interests, and explained why and how he continued to preserve the secrecy of those activities,” according to court records unsealed in 2023.
He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason A. Reding Quiñones said that Rocha was not a “low level operative” but rather “a senior government official who admitted he secretly served the Cuban regime for decades.”
Muse has premiered the video for “Cryogen,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, The Wow! Signal.
The clip finds Matt Bellamy and company performing on ice in front of what appears to be a waterfall of blood. It’s a fitting setting for a song that mentions the icy Jupiter moon of Europa in between Bellamy declaring, “Cryogen, I’m freezing over.”
You can watch the “Cryogen” video streaming now on YouTube.
The Wow! Signal, the follow-up to 2022’s Will of the People, is due out June 26. It also includes the singles “Unravelling” and “Be with You.”
Ariana Grande, ‘hate that i made you love me’ (Katia Temkin)
Ariana Grande will be giving fans a first taste of her new era later this month.
She’ll release the first single from her new album, petal, on May 29. It’s called “hate that i made you love me” and it’s available to presave now. You can also preorder the song in two different 7-inch vinyl versions, plus CD and cassette versions, at Ari’s website.
On Instagram, Ariana writes that “hate that i made you love me” is “one of my favorite songs i’ll ever write, produced by my favorite collaborators and dearest human beings in the world, the brilliant @ilya_music, the one and only max martin (and me).”
“i simply cannot wait for it to be yours” she adds.
Petal will be out July 31. Meanwhile, Ariana’s Eternal Sunshine tour begins June 6 in Oakland, California.
The Pentagon, heaquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air on February 8, 2025, in Washington, DC. (J. David Ake/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon on Friday began to release declassified unidentified flying objects (UFO) files from various federal agencies, some dating as far back as the late 1940s.
The release is in keeping with President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this year that he directing agencies to make public files related to UFOs, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) and “extraterrestrial life.”
The documents, which the Pentagon said includes “never-before-seen” files, are being posted on a new government website.
“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly. The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place — no clearance required,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The department said it will release more files “on a rolling basis.”
There are some redactions in the files, but this is the first time ever that complete case files have been released. In recent years, the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has been reviewing these historic documents and has released public summaries and reviews to the public.
So far, none of their reviews have found anything that has led them to conclude that UFOs or UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
NBA YoungBoy performs onstage during the MASA TOUR at State Farm Arena on October 15, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Julia Beverly/Getty Images)
Those traveling to see NBA Youngboy perform at Rolling Loud in Orlando will no longer see the rapper take the stage. NBA announced that he has dropped out of the lineup, citing his need for a break.
“To my Rolling Loud family, I won’t be making it this time. I just need some time away from traveling and performing right now,” he wrote on his Instagram Story Thursday. “Love to everybody supporting me, I’ll forever appreciate y’all!”
He was slated to headline the show on Sunday but following his announcement, has been replaced by Ken Carson.
“PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEW SUNDAY HEADLINER, @kencarson,” Rolling Loud wrote on Instagram, alongside an updated poster for the festival lineup.
The festival kicks off at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, marking its first time in the city and the only U.S. iteration of the event for 2026. Don Toliver is on headlining duties, while Playboi Carti will headline Saturday’s show.
Sexyy Red, Chief Keef, Bossman Dlow and more will also be taking the stage.
Fans unable to attend in person will be able to livestream the event via Amazon Music’s Twitch Channel, app and Prime Video. The stream will also feature backstage interviews with some of the artists, hosted by Speedy Morman, Lola Clark and Sadprt.
Taylor Swift ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ (Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott)
You don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe: That’s what Taylor Swift’s lawyers are saying to Maren Wade, a Las Vegas performer whose cabaret show is called Confessions of a Showgirl.
As previously reported, Maren had filed a complaint claiming that Taylor’s album The Life of a Showgirl infringes her trademark, which she filed in 2015. She’d requested an injunction barring Taylor from selling any merch while the lawsuit moves through the courts.
But in a filing on Wednesday, obtained by ABC News, Taylor’s legal team argues that before she filed her complaint, Maren “repeatedly” attempted to associate herself with Taylor and her album. They provided over 40 examples of Maren’s “deliberate attempts to cause association between herself and Ms. Swift and/or the Album … in a manner seemingly designed to create false association or confusion.”
In addition, the team argues that Taylor’s album and merch are “expressive works … protected by the First Amendment,” so they can’t violate a trademark.
The legal team says that the “likelihood of confusion” among consumers in the marketplace is unlikely, since Maren’s “cabaret productions” are “dissimilar” to “any future musical concerts where Ms. Swift may perform.” In other words, fans are unlikely to confuse Maren’s shows with a Taylor Swift tour.
The lawyers also argue that “music — and in particular Ms. Swift’s music” is subject to “a high degree of care,” making it so “confusion is unlikely.” That means that fans are deeply invested in Taylor’s music, so they wouldn’t confuse Maren’s output with Taylor’s.
So, the lawyers conclude, Maren has “failed to demonstrate a likelihood of confusion or irreparable harm” if Taylor continues to sell The Life of a Showgirl merch, and are asking for her motion to be denied. A judge will consider the matter at a hearing later this month.
Poul Thorsen was extradited Thursday from Germany with U.S. Air Marshals, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. (Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General)
(NEW YORK) — A former influential scientist who did work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is back in the grasp of U.S. law enforcement, facing financial fraud charges — after more than a decade out of federal authorities’ reach, according to officials.
Poul Thorsen was extradited Thursday from Germany with U.S. Air Marshals, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. It comes 15 years after he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia.
His work, and the fraud allegations against him, have long lingered in the lexicon of conspiracy theorists seeking to question the safety of vaccines.
Thorsen helped lead research for the CDC studying infant disabilities, according to prosecutors. Thorsen’s work included co-authoring papers that found no link between autism and childhood vaccination — science which, according to medical experts, still stands today.
Separate from Thorsen’s pursuit of peer-reviewed medicine, prosecutors say he schemed to divert research grant money to his own coffers.
Thorsen was indicted in 2011 after he allegedly “absconded” with over $1 million in CDC grant money for autism research and was charged with 13 counts of wire fraud and 9 counts of money laundering. He was arrested in Germany in June 2025.
Thursday, Thorsen was flown in handcuffs from Germany to Atlanta, also the home of CDC headquarters.
In a statement to ABC News, an HHS-OIG spokesperson lauded the work that brought Thorsen’s extradition to bear.
“Mr. Thorsen is alleged to have stolen more than a million dollars in federal research funds – money intended to advance critical scientific work and improve public health outcomes. His betrayal harms taxpayers, researchers, and the communities who depend on this research,” said HHS-OIG spokesperson Yvonne Gamble.
“HHS-OIG remains committed to protecting the integrity of federal health care programs and ensuring that individuals who misuse public funds are held accountable. We are grateful for our federal and international law enforcement counterparts, whose coordinated efforts made this extradition possible,” Gamble said.
In the 1990s and early aughts, Thorsen worked as a visiting scientist from Denmark at the CDC’s Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities — just as new public health initiatives in the area were flourishing and flush with fresh funding. Thorsen, at the time, vigorously advocated for grants for Danish research on infant disabilities. His push was successful: from 2000 through 2009, the CDC awarded over $11 million to two Danish government agencies for the research, according to prosecutors.
Thorsen quickly assumed responsibility for the research money he had pushed for. In 2002, he moved back to Denmark and “became principal investigator responsible for administering the research money awarded by the CDC,” the indictment said.
Thorsen began funneling the funds elsewhere, prosecutors said. He forged signatures and documents with official CDC letterhead and submitted fake invoices he claimed were for research, according to the indictment. Meanwhile, Thorsen was actually moving the funds into personal accounts within CDC’s credit union, the indictment said. He would then withdraw the money for his own personal use, including the purchase of a Harley Davidson motorcycle, cars and a home in Atlanta.
From February 2004 through June 2008, Thorsen submitted for reimbursement more than a dozen fraudulent invoices purportedly signed by a CDC lab boss. He claimed it was for expenses incurred in connection with the CDC grant. They were not, prosecutors said.
“In truth, the CDC Federal Credit Union accounts were personal accounts held by defendant Thorsen. He used the accounts to steal money under the CDC grant,” the indictment said.
Thorsen’s alleged crimes have, since his indictment, also become attractive fodder for conspiracy theorists, attempting to conflate his financial fraud with his medical research. Among his published works are findings of “strong evidence against the hypothesis” that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine causes autism. Some anti-vaccine groups have used Thorsen to paint a picture of corruption at the highest echelons of medical exploration.
Among those groups: the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a group that pursues anti-vaccine causes. CHD was also once led by now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long shared vaccine-skeptic views.
There is a page dedicated to Thorsen’s “criminal conduct” on CHD’s site, linking to a lengthy 2017 paper in which a group chaired by RFK Jr. levied accusations of “questionable ethics and scientific fraud” that “have resulted in untrustworthy vaccine safety science.” The paper called Thorsen a “key figure” in “shaky research” on vaccines and autism.
Decades of research has found no link between autism and vaccines or any vaccine preservative. Thorsen was indicted on wire fraud and money laundering, not for falsifying medical research.
Thorsen is expected to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Atlanta, according to an HHS-OIG official.
The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood on ‘The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon,’ May 7, 2026. (Todd Owyoung/NBC)
The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday night, where he talked about The Stones’ new album Foreign Tongues.
During the chat it was revealed that Wood recorded a nine-minute guitar solo for a song called “Back in Your Life,” although he said it was eventually cut down to four or five minutes.
“I’ll tell you what, I was so moved that day, and disappointed and sad and I had so much feeling because Brian Wilson died that day,” Wood said, referring to the late Beach Boys legend, who died in June 2025. “And that week Sly Stone died too and I thought, oh no, it’s so sad. It came out through my guitar, the feeling you know.”
Wood added that he did the solo in one take, but noted, “I didn’t do that, the guitar played itself.”
Another tidbit about the album: Fallon mentioned that it features a cover of the Amy Winehouse track “You Know I’m No Good,” which appeared on her 2006 Grammy-winning album Back to Black.
Foreign Tongues, The Stones’ first album since 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, will be released July 10. It is available for preorder now.
(WASHINGTON) — The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday overturned the state’s redistricting ballot measure, delivering a major setback to Democrats who hoped the new map would allow them to flip up to four congressional seats.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Charli XCX attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating ‘Costume Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026 in New York City. (Arturo Holmes/MG26/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Charli XCX’s new era has begun with the release of her single and video “Rock Music” — except it’s not really “rock music,” despite the presence of some crunchy electric guitars.
In the mostly black-and-white video for the two-minute song, Charli pushes an amplifier out a window and struts around New York City in a bra and jeans. She also smokes a mountain of cigarettes and starts a mosh pit. The video ends with a freeze-frame of her face in close-up, which turns into a wall-size photo that a bunch of moshing guys bust through.
“I think the dance floor is dead/ So now we’re making rock music,” she jokingly sings, before making fun of the trappings of the genre.
“I’m really banging my head/ I’m really hurting my neck/ The nerve damage is real/ But it’s the only way to feel something,” she sings.
“Rock Music” is Charli’s first new song since she released the album she created for the movie Wuthering Heights in February.
As previously reported, after British Vogueclaimed in a recent article that she planned a “rock reinvention,” Charli clarified that that wasn’t exactly true by sharing a video of her in the studio making this new single. The caption read, “a video of me making a song called ‘rock music’ that is not actually rock music which is funny because i never said i was making a rock album.”
