Cover art for Muni Long’s ‘Richest’ (Def Jam Recordings)
Muni Long gets vulnerable on her new song, “Richest.”
“Over the last year, I learned wealth looks different than I thought…I’d like to share with you everything I gained when I stopped measuring my life by what I lost,” she wrote in an Instagram post teasing an announcement.
She followed the message with the release of the new song. “This song is pure love to me. Being rich can apply to ANYTHING. The love for your mother or father, your significant other, your children, your friends…that’s what I like most about it,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Richest” serves as Muni’s first new music since 2025’s “Delulu.”
She had been scheduled to join Brandy and Monica last year for their Boy is Mine tour but dropped out due to severe health issues.
Ebola survivors leave the ALIMA Ebola Treatment Center at Rwampara General Hospital following their recovery from the disease, as a health worker sits beside a disinfectant sprayer and disinfects their shoes during discharge procedures on June 16, 2026 in Rwampara near Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Michel Lunanga/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has surpassed 1,000 Ebola cases as the country’s deadly outbreak continues.
The DRC Ministry of Health reported 1,003 confirmed cases and 254 confirmed deaths as of Sunday evening. There are 365 patients either hospitalized or in isolation, according to the ministry.
Contact tracing remains a concern, officials said. The Ministry of Health said only 58% of identified contacts have been followed up with, far below the desired 90% to 95% target needed to contain the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Bonheur Baeni, project manager for the Ebola emergency for the humanitarian NGO CARE, told ABC News that there has been a great amount of misinformation in affected communities that has made it difficult to contain the virus.
“It is in fact among the great challenges, the misinformation that is characterized by rumors, rumors that circulate on social networks, rumors that also circulate mouth-to-mouth,” he told ABC News in French. “It really makes the population resistant.”
Baeni said the group is working with the Ministry of Health and other partners to engage with the community and answer questions that people have. They are also working with trusted leaders within the community to help combat the misinformation.
“You see that it creates a climate of trust,” Baeni said. “It creates a confidence climate because it’s their brother, it’s a member of the community.”
The Ministry of Health wrote on X that “response teams continue active investigations, epidemiological surveillance, and prevention actions in affected areas.”
Health officials added that eight more people have recovered from Ebola, bringing the total number of recoveries to 100.
Meanwhile, UNICEF warned on Monday that an estimated 2.95 million children and adolescents aged 18 and under — representing 54% of the population in 31 affected health zones — are at risk from Ebola and the breakdown of essential services in the eastern DRC.
“Our teams in Ituri [province] have met children who have lost their mothers, and in some cases both parents, to Ebola,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, said in a statement. “Children are trying to make sense of the threat while surrounded by rumors and online misinformation.”
UNICEF said children and adolescents make up about 15% of confirmed Ebola cases and more than 25% of confirmed deaths in the eastern DRC as of June 19, and that children and adolescents with confirmed Ebola are almost twice as likely to die as adults
In Ituri province, which is the epicenter of the outbreak, dozens of children have been orphaned, according to UNICEF. The agency said that 135 of those children are receiving support, including psychosocial care.
In neighboring Uganda, there are at least 20 confirmed cases, in large part linked to cross-border transmission from the DRC, and two deaths, according to UNICEF. The agency said children have also been affected in Uganda, with at least one child who has tested positive and 19 children under quarantine monitoring.
“Children are especially vulnerable because they depend on caregivers and cannot distance themselves from a sick parent or sibling in the same way that an adult can,” Russell said. “To better protect children, we need sustained access, and the resources needed to reach every affected community.”
ABC News’ Dada Jovanovic and Zoe Magee contributed to this report.
Amy Lee from Evanescence performs at Marvel Stadium on November 08, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Sam Tabone/Getty Images)
Amy Lee’s voice is being brought to life in a different way than usual.
The Evanescence frontwoman’s vocals have been turned into a score for an upcoming short film called The Seventh Turn.
According to a press release, composer Michael Wandmacher “sculpted a complete sonic metamorphosis of Lee’s voice by transforming her vocal DNA into a ‘biological synthesizer’ generating bells, keys, percussion, strings, FX, and complex atmospheres, proving that a single human voice can generate an entire cinematic world.”
The release adds the project was completed without “physical instruments, synthesizers, samplers, and AI.”
“I had an unusual idea, if it is possible to create an entire score with only voices—not just the choral, vocal, and FX parts, but the whole score, where the voices substitute for the instruments, yet it doesn’t sound like that,” Wandmacher says in a statement.
“It’s very inspiring when there is this wild concept, and it gives you a bit of a roadmap,” Lee adds. “I thought, ‘Here are our parameters of what we’re allowed to do, and what we’re not.’ There are no instruments, no nothing, just only vocals. Even if they are effected or put through things, that’s fine. Every single thing is sourced from a voice. You can imagine how fun that is for a vocalist to hear that assignment and hearing it work so well.”
You can check out a preview of what that will sound like in the teaser for The Seventh Turn. The film will premiere July 1 via the streaming platform Kinema.
Lee is currently on tour with Evanescence in support of their new album, Sanctuary.
Roger Waters performs onstage at Crypto.com Arena on September 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Roger Waters has released a new interpretation of Pink Floyd’s iconic tune “Comfortably Numb.”
“Comfortably Numb Re-imagined” has Waters collaborating with Palestinian artist Mona Miari, and features new verses in both English and Arabic.
According to the description posted with the song’s video, “[T]he work reframes the song through themes of displacement, memory, loss, and the enduring pursuit of justice and human dignity. … [T]his audio-visual piece transcends borders and languages, offering a powerful reflection on resilience, truth, and the shared humanity that binds us all.”
“Comfortably Numb,” written by Waters and David Gilmour, appeared on Pink Floyd’s 11th studio album, 1979’s The Wall. Released as a single in 1980, it has gone on to be one of the band’s most popular tunes.
Keanu Reeves attends the 78th annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 8, 2025, in New York City. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Keanu Reeves is looking to enter the world of Lego.
The actor is in negotiations to star in a live-action and animation hybrid Lego film, ABC Audio has learned. His Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley will direct him in this new film for Universal Pictures based on the popular toy franchise.
Universal Pictures had no comment when reached by ABC Audio.
While plot details are being kept under blocks, the film is said to combine animation and live-action. Jill Wilfert and Ryan Christians are set to produce it through The Lego Group.
Universal landed the rights to Lego in 2020. Several Lego films, including 2014’s The Lego Movie and 2017’s The Lego Batman Movie, were released through Warner Bros. Pictures and remain part of that studio’s library.
Reeves voices the Toy Story character Duke Caboom, who first appeared in Cooley’s 2019 sequel Toy Story 4. The actor reprised the role in the franchise’s fifth film, which is currently in theaters after its June 19 debut.
Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz makes a speech during the ’10th Austrian World Summit’ climate conference at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, June 16, 2026. (Salih Okuroglu/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Monday tossed out multiple Justice Department subpoenas to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials tied to a federal investigation regarding the state’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, according to a newly published legal opinion.
Patrick Schiltz, chief judge of the Minnesota federal district court, found that the subpoenas were “part of a broader campaign to coerce state and local officials” to aid the Trump administration in supporting federal immigration activities that “played out against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s well-established history of using criminal investigations to retaliate against and pressure the President’s political and personal adversaries.”
“The fact that connections between the information sought in the subpoenas and any possible criminal violation range from extremely weak to nonexistent only adds to the overwhelming evidence that these subpoenas were not issued to investigate, but to harass, coerce, and retaliate,” Schiltz wrote in his order released Monday.
The subpoenas, which were issued on Jan. 20 against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration surge in Minnesota that drew widespread protests, sought an expansive amount of information from Walz and others including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and Board of Commissioners.
In his opinion quashing the subpoenas, Schiltz lambasted the government for their “extraordinarily broad” request examining materials “that largely if not entirely relate to constitutionally protected conduct.” It’s almost unheard of for federal judges to quash criminal subpoenas from Justice Department prosecutors.
“The Department has launched a significant incursion into matters that the Constitution reserves to sovereign states, and one would expect that the Department would not have done so unless it was aware of compelling evidence of criminal or at least suspicious behavior,” Schiltz said.
Pointing to a series of statements from President Donald Trump, including social media posts previewing a “DAY OF RECKONING AND RETRIBUTION” was coming for Minnesota — followed by a leak just three days later of a purported federal investigation in Walz and Frey — Schiltz said there was a clear pattern established of the government using its powers purely to punish Trump’s adversaries for their refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
justify the subpoenas, which he said had such a remote connection to potential criminal conduct “as to be spurious.”
“The Department suggests that requiring city officials to report known ICE activity to the City Council could result in the dissemination of that information-and that dissemination of that information could, in turn, result in other individuals evading or interfering with future ICE activity,” Schiltz wrote. “This reasoning piles speculation upon speculation, while also taking aim at perfectly legal-indeed, constitutionally protected-behavior. As a general matter, any citizen who happens across law-enforcement activity has a constitutional right to observe it, to record it, and to mention it to anyone they’d like-including members of the Minneapolis City Council.”
The order follows a similar move by the chief district judge in Washington, D.C., in March that quashed subpoenas tied to the DOJ’s investigation of then-Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, after Judge James Boasberg determined the probe was based on no clear evidence and appeared purely rooted in Trump’s animus towards Powell.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the rule of law and our democracy. A federal district judge found that the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into me and other Minnesota elected officials was politically motivated, unconstitutional, and meritless,” Walz said in a statement.
“The U.S. Justice Department is pursuing criminal investigations into the President’s political opponents,” Walz said. “This case was just one example of that, but we are seeing daily reminders of this administration’s lawlessness — in Minnesota and around the country. We all must continue to seek justice and uphold the rule of law.”
Frey, in his own statement, said that “criticism of our government is not a crime.”
“One of the defining strengths of our democracy is the ability to challenge those in power without fear of retribution,” Frey wrote. “Elected officials have both the right and the responsibility to speak honestly about how government decisions affect the people they serve.”
In a statement responding to the ruling, a DOJ spokesperson did not say whether the Justice Department plans to appeal Schiltz’s order.
“The department takes the unlawful obstruction of federal law enforcement operations extremely seriously and will continue to act in full compliance with the law to investigate these matters,” the spokesperson said.
John Cooper of Skillet performs at the Marquee Theatre on September 2, 2019 in Tempe, Arizona. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Skillet is looking to the future and the past with a pair of announcements.
One of the announcements is that a new Skillet song called “Scream” is due out July 10. It will mark the band’s first fresh material to follow their 2024 album, Revolution.
“We went back to Memphis and worked with a producer who knew the band before we’d made our first record,” frontman John Cooper says of the origins of “Scream.” “Life has taken some great turns, but it’s also taken some painful turns. Now we’re here, and we still have more of a story to tell. The music kept getting heavier, and I said, ‘We’ve got to go all-in.'”
The other announcement is that Skillet is embarking on a U.S. tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 2006 album, Comatose.
The Comatose: 20 Years, Still Screaming tour launches Sept. 30 in Schenectady, New York, and wraps up Nov. 10 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
“At every show, someone tells me that [Comatose] helped them through the darkest times of their life,” Cooper says. “That is why we wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Comatose by doing something we have never done—commemorating the album by dedicating a large portion of the show to these songs that are so meaningful to the band and so many others.”
“Some of them we have played a thousand times. Others we have never played,” he continues. “We are excited to perform them alongside our catalog on this once in a lifetime tour.”
Presales begin Tuesday, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 1 p.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Skillet.com.
Madonna’s new album, Confessions II, exists because she kept on getting blocked from telling her life story.
As she tellsInterview magazine, her planned biopic, for which she spent two years writing the script, fell apart because the studio wouldn’t give her the money she wanted. “I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget,” she says. “They couldn’t get their heads around it.”
As a result, she says, “I was in limbo … and then Netflix reached out to make a series [about my life].”
“That was a whole other long process, because I couldn’t use the script I had with Universal unless I bought it from them for an extortionist’s price, even though I wrote it,” she continues. So she spent “eight or nine months” trying to find a writer, with no success.
“I was like, ‘Good thing I have another job because I need to work, I need to create. I need to do what I was put on this earth to do,'” she tells Interview.
She reached out to Stuart Price, who produced her 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor, because she felt that “people need to dance.” At the same time, there were several deaths in her family. “So I wrote about a lot of family trauma, and then we started making dance music,” Madonna says.
In the middle of the process she found a writer for the Netflix series, but she felt, “I can’t turn back now.” Plus, her daughter Lourdes Leon wanted to collaborate with her.
“She approached me about writing a song together as a way to heal our relationship,” Madonna says. “It was a really important moment, and it solidified the idea that now is the time to make this record.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Monday blocked a Trump administration voter-screening database, ruling that the government’s “haphazard” system unlawfully consolidated “the private information of millions of Americans” in an effort to purge non-citizens from voter rolls.
In her order, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said the federal government “has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
