(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys representing the Department of Justice and Donald Trump informed a federal judge on Monday that the president plans to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
ABC News has reported that Trump was planning to drop the suit in exchange for the creation of a $1.776 billion compensation fund for those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, during a confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Two Republican challengers, Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming, will advance to a runoff election in Louisiana’s closely watched GOP primary, The Associated Press projected Saturday — a defeat for Sen. Bill Cassidy who had drawn the ire of President Donald Trump.
Letlow had been endorsed by Trump in a three-way race that was seen as a test of the president’s influence among Republicans.
Letlow and Fleming will face off again in the runoff on June 27.
With nearly 100% of the estimated vote counted, Letlow led with about 45% of the vote, followed by Fleming with about 28%, according to the AP. Cassidy trailed with about 25% of the vote.
The primary defeat marks a stunning loss for Cassidy and a potential warning to other Republicans who risk defying the president, as Trump has sought to oust those he views as disloyal. Trump-backed candidates recently defeated several Indiana state senators who opposed his redistricting plans.
Cassidy’s defeat makes him the first sitting senator to lose a primary since 2017 and the first elected incumbent senator to lose a primary since 2012 — when Indiana GOP Sen. Richard Lugar lost his race to a Tea Party challenger.
Cassidy expressed gratitude for his time in office and acknowledged the race didn’t go like he would have liked.
“But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen,” he said. “You don’t manufacture some excuse –you thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege, and that’s what I’m doing right now.”
He also took a thinly veiled jab at Trump without naming him.
“Our country is not about one individual, it is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution,” he said. “And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and our Constitution, to which I am loyal.”
Trump celebrates
In a post on his social media platform, Trump celebrated Cassidy’s projected defeat and congratulated Letlow.
“Julia Letlow is a fantastic person and, after taking care of some additional business, will make a brilliant Senator for the Great People of Louisiana,” Trump said in the post.
In speech to supporters in Baton Rouge on Saturday night, Letlow opened her remarks thanking Trump.
“I want to say thank you to a very special man, who you all know – the best president this country has ever had: President Donald Trump,” Letlow said.
“When he endorsed me in January, I knew this was going to be a tough race, but tonight Louisiana sent a clear message — that they want a candidate to represent them in the Senate who will always put America first and never turn her back on Louisiana voters,” Letlow continued.
Fleming expressed full confidence he will win the runoff.
“I embrace this challenge enthusiastically. The runoff starts today, and I could not be more energized,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
“The people of Louisiana deserve a senator who cannot be bought, will not be bossed, and will never back down,” Fleming said.
On the campaign trail
On the campaign trail, Letlow, a three-term congresswoman, was anything but shy about Trump’s endorsement, casting Cassidy as disloyal and Fleming as out of touch with the president. Her campaign messaging focused in part on defending parental rights and securing the border.
Fleming, a former congressman who later served in various roles in the first Trump administration, pitched himself to voters as the most staunch conservative, though he did not receive a public endorsement from Trump.
For his part, Cassidy, a physician who was first elected to the Senate seat in 2014, argued his record proved he delivered for Louisianans and sought to tie himself to Trump — campaigning on a conservative agenda, arguing against abortion, supporting “strong borders” and co-sponsoring the SAVE America Act, a legislative priority for Trump.
Trump’s endorsement
Trump upended Cassidy’s reelection bid in January when he encouraged Letlow to enter in hopes of defeating Cassidy.
Trump sought to punish Cassidy, who broke with the party as one of seven senators to vote to convict Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The 57-43 vote fell shy of the 67 vote threshold needed to convict Trump.
In a Saturday morning social media post — roughly two hours after polls opened –Trump again ripped on the two-term incumbent while endorsing Letlow. He called Cassidy “disloyal” and castigated him for using his name throughout the campaign.
Despite their fraught relationship, Cassidy has, at times, supported Trump’s agenda. Cassidy, a physician and longtime proponent of vaccines, grilled Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a vaccine skeptic — during his confirmation hearing but cast the deciding vote to advance his nomination.
Yet for some, Cassidy’s vote to convict Trump may have been enough to do him in.
Robert Hogan, a political science professor at Louisiana State University, told ABC News ahead of the primary that some voters still had a “visceral” reaction to Cassidy’s vote to convict the president.
“The Republican activists have been unforgiving,” Hogan said. “This says less about Cassidy, I would say, than it says about the nature of the attraction that voters have towards Trump.”
A star-studded cast has come together to star in the upcoming transgressive psychological thriller film The Servant. Deadline reports that Colman Domingo, Nicholas Hoult, Noah Jupe and Emma Corrin have been cast to star in the movie that will be directed by Francis Lee. The movie is set in 1950s New York City and follows Tony (Hoult), a British man who moves into a Central Park apartment and becomes embroiled in power play with his manservant, Barrett (Domingo) …
Here comes The Bride! The Warner Bros. Pictures film by director Maggie Gyllenhaal has set its streaming debut. It will be available to watch on HBO Max on May 22. The movie stars Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale and also features Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal and Penélope Cruz …
The final week of guests for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert have been announced. Jon Stewart and Steven Spielberg will appear as guests on the May 19 show, while Colbert himself will take “The Colbert Questionert,” a segment which will feature special guests, on the May 20 episode, according to a press release. The series finale of the show will air on May 21 …
Healthcare workers receive training on administering the Ebola vaccine in a study carried out with the support of the World Health Organization as part of the fight against the Ebola virus in Kampala, Uganda on February 14, 2025. (Photo by Nicholas Kajoba/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Sunday that a “small number of Americans” are directly affected by an Ebola outbreak occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The CDC is working with other U.S. agencies to coordinate the safe withdrawal of the Americans,” the CDC said in its statement. The agency did not confirm the number of people affected, the type of exposure or whether any individuals had experienced symptoms.
“We don’t discuss or comment on individual dispositions,” Dr. Satish Pillai, the CDC’s incident manager for Ebola, said during a press briefing on Sunday. “It is a highly dynamic situation, and at this point, what I would say is, we continue to assess, we will continue to keep you posted as we learn more.”
On Saturday, the World Health Organization said in a statement that the ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda constituted a “public health emergency of international concern.”
As of Sunday, the CDC said there were 10 confirmed Ebola cases and 336 suspected cases in the DRC. There had been 88 suspected deaths in the DRC, as well as two confirmed cases and one confirmed death in Uganda from people who had traveled to the DRC.
The CDC said that the risk to the American public remains low. Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person and does not spread through casual contact or air.
“CDC has extensive experience and expertise in responding to Ebola outbreaks,” CDC acting Director Jay Bhattacharya said on a call with reporters on Friday. “It is a large outbreak, and we were just informed yesterday about it.”
He added, “We’re absolutely committed to making sure that they can get resources as they need. We have helped with other Ebola outbreaks in the past … We have lots of hard-earned lessons. The key thing here is to know that we are absolutely involved.”
It is the DRC’s 17th outbreak of Ebola since the disease emerged in the 1970s, according to the WHO.
This strain of Ebola is caused by Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no therapeutics or vaccines, the WHO said.
The WHO has declared international public health emergencies over previous Ebola outbreaks as well as COVID-19 and mpox.
This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)
(NEW YORK) — Members of the House Oversight Committee on Monday are set to interview a former prison guard who was on duty at the Metropolitan Corrections Center in New York when convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019.
The interview of Tova Noel — believed to be the last person to have seen Epstein before his death — comes amid renewed scrutiny of Epstein’s death.
Epstein died by suicide according to an autopsy conducted by the New York medical examiner, though a series of missteps by prison officials have long fueled conspiracy theories about his death.
Noel is alleged to have spent the hours ahead of Epstein’s death scrolling the internet, rather than performing the required headcounts of the prisoners in the unit where the disgraced sex offender was housed. Prosecutors in 2019 charged Noel and another prison guard with falsifying records to make it seem as if they did the required checks, and both ended up reaching a deal with prosecutors to have the charges dropped.
The recent release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice has brought renewed attention to Noel’s actions, and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said she was called to testify because some lawmakers “aren’t confident 100% that Epstein’s death was by suicide.”
“No one’s accusing her of any wrongdoing, but we have a lot of questions about Epstein,” Comer told Fox News in March.
Lawmakers have highlighted that Noel received a series of cash deposits between April 2018 and July 2019 totaling $12,000 — with most taking place before Epstein was arrested — and that the last deposit was made prior to Epstein’s death. Documents released by the DOJ also show that Noel made a series of internet searches about Epstein the night he died, including “latest on Epstein in jail.”
While those documents have attracted public attention, investigators appear to have already probed those matters. Grand jury transcripts released from the case against Noel released by the DOJ earlier this year showed that the FBI examined her bank records and found no evidence of a bribe.
She also told the DOJ inspector general that she did not remember searching the internet for Epstein, but may have read an article about Epstein.
Surveillance video from the jail also showed a flash of orange appearing near Epstein’s cell the night he died, and a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded the video showed a corrections officer “believed to be Noel” carrying linen to the area near Epstein’s cell.
In a sworn interview in 2021, Noel claimed she “never gave out linen,” and denied providing Epstein with excess linen that may have been used to form a noose.
Luigi Mangione (R) appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing Luigi Mangione’s murder case in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is set to issue a critical ruling Monday on what evidence and testimony prosecutors can use during the accused assassin’s murder trial.
New York Judge Gregory Carro is considering Mangione’s request to prohibit prosecutors from using the evidence that police seized from Mangione’s backpack — including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession — as well as Mangione’s statements to law enforcement when he was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the shooting.
Mangione’s state murder trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8, and Carro’s decision will help define the contours of the high-profile criminal trial. If he limits the use of evidence from Mangione’s backpack, prosecutors would be barred from showing the jury the purported murder weapon, writings allegedly outlining his escape route, a fake driver’s license, and thousands of dollars in cash.
Prosecutors would still have available surveillance footage of Thompson’s shooting death, as well as fingerprint and DNA evidence and a phone retrieved by police.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett — who is overseeing Mangione’s federal stalking case — reached a ruling in January allowing the use of the same evidence during Mangione’s federal trial, which is scheduled to begin in January 2027. In that case, Judge Garnett decided that the evidence in the backpack would have inevitably been discovered by law enforcement.
However, defense lawyers have argued that the search of the backpack without a warrant violated Mangione’s rights, and have repeatedly urged Judge Carro to block prosecutors from using the evidence.
“At the hearing, Altoona law enforcement officers repeatedly attempted to justify their warrantless search of Mr. Mangione’s backpack … instead, all these officers demonstrated was an utter disregard for a defendant’s constitutional rights and a shocking ignorance of basic search and seizure caselaw,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in a state court filing.
Lawyers from the Manhattan district attorney’s office pushed back on those claims, arguing the officers acted “in deliberate and painstaking fashion” when they searched the backpack.
“At every step, the Altoona officers responded to this unexpected and alarming situation reasonably,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote in a court filing, adding that officers later obtained a warrant for the bag “establishing an independent source for recovering the backpack’s contents.”
Mangione pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges after he was arrested for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a husband and father of two, on a Midtown Manhattan street in December 2024.
As Mangione prepares for his upcoming trial in September, his supporters continue to fund part of his legal defense. Earlier this month, on Mangione’s 28th birthday, his legal defense fund surpassed $1.5 million.
Teddy Swims’ new single, “Mr. Know It All,” may sound like a standard breakup song, but he’s actually singing about a phenomenon first identified by sociologist Robert K. Merton.
Merton coined the term “self-fulfilling prophecy,” along with its flip side, the “self-defeating prophecy,” also known as “the prophet’s dilemma.” Imagine doctors predicting a flu outbreak, prompting everyone to run out and get vaccinated. Because so many people get the flu shots, the outbreak never happens — and the doctors, the “prophets,” are criticized for being wrong.
In “Mr. Know It All,” Teddy applies those ideas to love. He becomes convinced his girlfriend is going to break up with him, so he either subconsciously sabotages the relationship — the self-fulfilling prophecy — or tries so hard to save it that it creates problems — the self-defeating prophecy. Either way, the outcome is the same: She leaves him.
“If you see the future coming, like something falling apart, you can have the … That’s So Raven effect, right? Where you do everything you can to keep it from happening and that’s why it happens,” Teddy tells ABC Audio. “Versus maybe the other side is self-fulfilling … because you see it happening and that’s what happens. And so it’s like you’re kind of doomed if you do, [doomed] if you don’t.”
“Love is kind of its own contradiction in a way, that way,” he explains. “You can protect it too hard and lose it or you can know it’s coming and just lose it. … So I just kind of got obsessed with that sort of prophet’s dilemma, and that’s ‘Mr. Know It All.'”
Sociology concepts aside, “Mr. Know It All” is the first single from Teddy’s still-unannounced new album.
Sir Brian May speaking at the announcement of the Jane Goodall Earth Medal, and the next Starmus science and arts festival, at the Royal Society in London.. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)
Queen’s Brian May has lent his guitar chops to a new song that will be featured in the upcoming movie Masters of the Universe.
The rocker appears on the track “Eternia” from British composer Daniel Pemberton, who has previously scored such films as Project Hail Mary and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.
“We Have The Power !!! HE-MAN rocks !!” May wrote on Instagram.
Masters of the Universe stars Red, White & Royal Blue star Nicholas Galitzine as Adam Glen/He-Man, the former prince of Eternia. The film, which also stars Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Jared Leto and Alison Brie, hits theaters June 5.
This isn’t the first action film May has been associated with. In 1980, Queen recorded the soundtrack to the movie Flash Gordon, which featured the song “Flash,” a top-10 hit in the U.K. The band also recorded several songs for the 1986 film Highlander, including their classic “Who Wants to Live Forever.”
Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in the film ‘Michael.’ (Lionsgate)
Michael reclaimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, dethroning previous two-week champ The Devil Wears Prada 2.
The Michael Jackson biopic brought in $26.1 million in its fourth weekend of release. That brings its total domestic gross to $283 million.
The Devil Wears Prada 2, starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, fell to the #2 spot with an $18 million haul, while the weekend’s new horror release, Obsession, debuted at #3 with $16.1 million.
Mortal Kombat II and The Sheep Detectives round out the top five with $13.4 million and $9.3 million, respectively.
Here are the top 10 films at the box office this week:
1. Michael — $26.1 million 2. The Devil Wears Prada 2 — $18 million 3. Obsession — $16.1 million 4. Mortal Kombat II — $13.4 million 5. The Sheep Detectives — $9.3 million 6. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — $4.5 million 7. Project Hail Mary — $3.9 million 8. Top Gun/Top Gun: Maverick (2026 rerelease) — $3.1 million 9. In the Grey — $3 million 10. Is God Is — $2.2 million
