Meghan Trainor appears on ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’ on ABC (Disney/Eric McCandless)
Meghan Trainor doesn’t care about all that mom group drama.
The singer has gotten caught up in the viral articleAshley Tisdale wrote for The Cut about how she had to leave her “toxic” mom friend group after experiencing what she described as “mean-girl behavior.” Based on past social media posts, fans believe said group included Meghan, Mandy Moore and Hilary Duff.
In a TikTok posted Thursday, Meghan shared a video of herself typing on a computer keyboard and looking concerned, with the overlay text, “Me finding out about the apparent mom group drama.” She captioned it with #stilldontcare, a reference to the title of her current single, which also soundtracked the post.
Meghan is the latest to respond to the story; Hilary’s husband, musician Matthew Koma, previously posted an Instagram Story in which he seemingly called Ashley “the most self obsessed tone deaf person on earth.” Mandy posted an Instagram Story Wednesday praising Matthew as “talented and generous.”
For what it’s worth, Ashley’s rep told TMZ that her article wasn’t about Hilary, Meghan or Mandy.
Kenny Chesney Live at Sphere Las Vegas (Messina Touring)
Even though Kenny Chesney just got a Pollstar nomination for residency of the year for his time at Sphere Las Vegas, he’s working to take his show to a new level.
“Having spent last year’s residency coming to really understand this dynamic technology and how it deepens the way we all – me, the band, the fans – experience the music, I wanted to get back in there and really push what was possible,” he explains. “We all had ideas. We were told certain things. But what I really took away is how much fun – and different kinds of experiences people can have – no matter where they experience the show from.”
Fans who came in 2025 can rest assured they’re in for something new in 2026.
“Knowing what we know now, we’re working on new songs, some things we can’t do in stadiums, new visuals, new momentum to the set,” Kenny says. “Having watched No Shoes Nation taking it all in, we have a much better sense of how to make Sphere even more.”
Brandon Boyd of Incubus on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
Back in the spring of 2025, Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd said that the band’s next album would be released in October and its first single would be dropping “very soon.” Well, October has come and gone and the whole calendar has flipped to a new year without any Incubus single or album.
Boyd has now addressed the absence of new Incubus material in an Instagram post.
“It’s a long story but we went back into the studio to write and record more after thinking we were done,” Boyd writes.
He adds, “I’ll pop back in soon and update you on when new music will be ready to share.”
Incubus’ most recent album is 2017’s 8. Since then, they put out an EP, Trust Fall (Side B), in 2020 and a rerecorded version of their 2001 album, Morning View, in 2024.
(SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C.) — At least 99 new measles cases are being reported in South Carolina amid the state’s outbreak.
This brings the total number of cases in the state to 310. There are currently 200 people in quarantine, according to health officials.
The outbreak has been ongoing as state health officials continue to push for vaccinations. The majority of cases are located around Spartanburg County.
“The number of those in quarantine does not reflect the number actually exposed,” Dr. Linda Bell, the state epidemiologist, said in a press releases. “An increasing number of public exposure sites are being identified with likely hundreds more people exposed who are not aware they should be in quarantine if they are not immune to measles. Previous measles transmission studies have shown that one measles case can result in up to 20 new infections among unvaccinated contacts.”
South Carolina’s department of public health said it sent a statewide health alert on Jan. 7, “advising health care providers and facilities of the importance of heightened awareness for measles and recommended measures for the use of masks and rapid isolation of suspect measles cases to protect people in health care settings from exposures.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years. During the 2024-2025 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Luigi Mangione attends 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 Shannon Stapleton-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione could stand trial by the end of the year, the judge in his federal case said Friday at a hearing in a Manhattan courtroom that was filled with Mangione’s supporters.
Mangione was back in federal court, where the defense presented arguments seeking to dismiss the death penalty counts against him if he is convicted of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett did not rule on the death penalty question at the conclusion of the hearing, but suggested that if the death penalty remains on the table, jury selection would begin in early September, and the trial would commence sometime in December or January.
If the death penalty is excluded, the judge suggested the trial could start in September.
She set a date for the next hearing on Jan. 30.
Judge Garnett also ruled Friday that Mangione’s backpack was lawfully seized by police when Mangione was apprehended in a Pennsylvania McDonalds’s five days after the shooting.
Two women who flew in from Sicily and came straight from the airport were among those in the courtroom gallery, which was filled with Mangione’s supporters, mostly young women. Many of them were wearing green, the color that has come to represent advocacy for Mangione.
“We have a full house here today,” Judge Garnett said at the outset of the hearing. “It is very important that decorum be maintained.”
The appearance of Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, follows a three-week hearing in state court during which Mangione sought to convince the judge in his state case to exclude some of the critical evidence police said they found in his backpack, including writings and the alleged murder weapon. The judge has yet to issue a ruling.
Judge Garnett, in issuing her ruling on the legality of the backpack’s seizure, said, “I don’t think it’s really disputed that if you’re arrested in a public place, the police are supposed to safeguard your personal property.”
Garnett said she does not need to schedule a hearing to determine whether to exclude evidence taken from the backpack, but that she reserves the right to reconsider that decision. She has yet to rule on what, if anything, should be suppressed.
“The Government searched the contents of the defendant’s notebook pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant that expressly covered, among other things, handwritten materials, including notebook entries, contained within the defendant’s backpack,” prosecutor Sean Buckley argued in an earlier court filing.
“To the extent that the defendant now seeks to challenge the validity of the Government’s warrant — an argument the defendant similarly did not make in either his moving or reply papers — that argument would also fail on the merits because the warrant, which disclosed the initial search of the defendant’s backpack by the Altoona Police Department, was supported by ample probable cause,” wrote Buckley.
Paresh Patel, a lawyer from Maryland who recently joined Mangione’s defense team, argued stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty.
Mangione entered the courtroom with his ankles shackled but his hands free. Unlike his recent appearance in state court, when he wore slacks and blazer, Mangione was dressed in a beige smock and pants and a white long-sleeve T-shirt as he took a seat at the defense table between defense attorneys Karen and Mark Agnifilo.
Earlier this week, prosecutors disputed a defense claim that Mangione should not face the death penalty because of a purported conflict of interest by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The defense said Bondi is continuing to benefit from a 401k established while she worked at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which represents UnitedHealthcare.
Prosecutors said Ballard has made no contributions to her retirement plan since her Senate confirmation as attorney general, and argued that she stands to gain nothing from a “capital outcome” in the Mangione case.
“There is simply no factual basis for the assertion that outside corporate interests influenced the Attorney General’s charging decision in any fashion. The defendant’s insinuations otherwise rest on an inaccurate financial narrative,” Buckley wrote in a court filing.
Fetty Wap attends the Abyss by Abby show with preformance by Fetty Wap at Paraiso South Beach tent on July 14th, 2022, in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Manny Hernandez/Getty Images)
Fetty Wap is officially a free man. After three years in prison, the rapper returned home — three years earlier than anticipated. He was released from custody Thursday, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, and later confirmed the news with an Instagram Story reading, “Home.”
Publicist Abesi Manyando also shared a carousel on her Instagram, including a video from YouTuber DJ Akademiks of Fetty walking down a hallway as fans applaud him. Another clip finds him giving an interview, while a third features a statement provided by her team to Okayplayer.
Born Willie Junior Maxwell, Fetty was sentenced in 2023 to six years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to the Department of Justice. Prosecutors said he and five others transported drugs from the West Coast to Suffolk County, New York, via USPS and vehicles with hidden compartments, storing drugs and distributing them to dealers in Long Island and New Jersey. Authorities say their operation distributed more than 100 kilograms of cocaine. Fetty was identified as a “kilogram-level redistributor for the trafficking organization,” according to the DOJ.
People tend to a memorial for Renee Nicole Good near the site of her shooting on January 8, 2026 in Minneapolis. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mom fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday in an alleged vehicle-ramming incident, “sparkled” and “was made of sunshine,” her wife said in an emotional statement to Minnesota Public Radio.
Becca Good told MPR Friday that on Jan. 7., she and her wife “stopped to support our neighbors” before the incident, which was caught on video and has sparked outrage and protests, occurred.
“We had whistles. They had guns,” she said, according to the statement.
Videos of the incident where Good is seen in her maroon Honda SUV as ICE agents confronted her have gone viral and sparked outcry from people around the country who say that Good was unnecessarily killed.
According to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, Good was allegedly “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers” with her car when an ICE officer fatally shot her.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have disputed the federal government’s claims surrounding what led up to the shooting, saying video of the incident shows the agent’s actions were not self-defense.
Messages of sympathy for Renee Good have been pouring out since the shooting.
“Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow,” Becca Good said in her statement.
“Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole,” she added.
Renee Good was a 2020 graduate from Old Dominion University in Virginia, according to the school’s president, Brian Hemphill, who said it is “with great sadness that Old Dominion University mourns the loss of one of our own.”
She graduated from the College of Arts and Letters with a degree in English, according to Hemphill.
“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” he said in a statement. “My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”
Walz said that Good is survived by a 6-year-old child. During a news conference Thursday the governor offered his “deepest sympathies” to her family “on an unimaginable tragedy.”
Renee Good was also the mother of two other children, according to her wife. The 6-year-old’s father died, according to Becca Good.
“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way,” she told MPR.
Becca Good told MPR she and her wife moved to Minnesota “to make a better life for ourselves.”
“Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles,” she said.
Becca Good talked about the “vibrant and welcoming community,” the two met once they arrived.
“Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever,” she said.
“We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine,” Becca Good added.
DHS, along with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has called the agent’s actions “self-defense” and said he followed ICE training.
Noem said during a press conference on Wednesday that Good was using her car as a “deadly weapon” and said it was an “act of domestic terrorism.”
Minneapolis police said preliminary information indicates that she was in her car and blocking the road.
“At some point, a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot, and the vehicle began to drive off,” police said. “At least two shots were fired … the vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
“There is nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity,” police added.
Becca Good told MPR that on Jan. 7. she and her wife “stopped to support our neighbors.”
“We had whistles. They had guns,” she said.
Renee Good suffered gunshot wounds to the head and was transported to an area hospital, where she died, according to city officials.
Following the shooting, a large crowd gathered in the area, which is less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed in May 2020.
Gov. Walz said he has issued a “warning order” to prepare the Minnesota National Guard, saying there are soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed “if necessary,” while urging “peaceful resistance.”
“End of Beginning” was initially released in 2022 on the Djo album Decide. It then became a viral TikTok smash in 2024, making it Djo’s breakout hit.
In now conquering the Official Singles Chart, “End of Beginning” received a boost from the series finale of Stranger Things. Djo frontman Joe Keery, of course, played the character Steve Harrington on the Netflix sci-fi series.
The post-Stranger Things bump also led “End of Beginning” to reenter the Billboard Hot 100 at #16. Billboard reports that it could jump to the top 10 in the coming week, which would beat its previous Hot 100 peak of #11.
The most recent Djo album is 2025’s The Crux, which includes the singles “Basic Being Basic” and “Delete Ya.”
Robby Krieger and John Densmore attend Reel To Reel: The Doors: Break On Thru – A Celebration Of Ray Manzarek at the GRAMMY Museum on February 06, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy )
The Doors’ John Densmore and Robby Krieger have teamed with Playing For Change, a multimedia project that aims to connect the world through music, to release a reimagined take on the Doors’ 1971 classic “Riders on the Storm.”
The new recording, part of Playing For Change’s Song Around The World project, is noted as a tribute to the late Doors band members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. It has Densmore and Krieger joined by Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson, Foo Fighters’ keyboardist Rami Jaffee, Sierra Ferrell, Don Was and over 20 international artists across eight countries.
“Vocally, Lukas Nelson filled Jim Morrison’s leather pants quite well!” Densmore says. “Ray would be proud of the way Rami Jaffee ‘channeled’ the piano solo.”
“Anytime Densmore and I get together with our instruments, it always works out well. I loved the final cut … seeing all the players on screen,” adds Krieger. “I’d like to thank everyone for their participation for such a special cause. Luckily, it’s never difficult to find great players to play Doors songs.”
The just-released video for the song first premiered in December at the rerelease of the Doors’ 2009 documentary, When You’re Strange, directed by Tom DiCillo and narrated by Johnny Depp.
In addition to the song, a special limited-edition “Riders on the Storm” Song Around The World T-shirt and hat are now available. Proceeds benefit the Wicahpi Olowan Music Program, which was the first Playing For Change Foundation music program established in America serving Indigenous youth and communities.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House will host America’s oil titans Friday as President Donald Trump is expected to lay out his plan for a post-Nicolas Maduro Venezuela with an economic revamp of its oil industry as its centerpiece.
The president, who said a recovery plan for Venezuela could require years of American involvement, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday that the U.S. would be “running the oil” and that he expected “at least $100 billion” of investment from the major companies.
“We’re going to rebuild the oil and the oil infrastructure, we’ll be in charge of it,” Trump said. “It’s going to do great, make a lot of money, and we’re going to take it from there, but we’re going to rebuild the country. And ultimately, you’re going to have elections.”
A White House official told ABC News that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has led the administration’s Venezuela policy, will attend the meeting that will include Chevron, Exxon, Conoco Phillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.
A handful of those companies are European.
Only hours after American aircraft returned from an audacious mission in Caracas to arrest Maduro and take him to the U.S. for prosecution, Trump identified oil as the key to the U.S. strategy, asserting that American oil companies would quickly seize on a market newly friendly to them, generating revenues for America’s energy industry and establishing favorable ties with Venezuela. Trump and Rubio have said those revenues would ultimately benefit the people of Venezuelan people, some 82% of whom live in poverty, according to a 2024 report by the United Nations.
A risky choice for private industry
Experts told ABC News that the plan’s heavy reliance on the private American oil sector will present the industry with a risky choice to do business in a country some argue is less stable and harder to predict after the toppling of its president.
“The very first thing on oil all the oil companies checklist is going to be the outlook for political stability – durable political stability – that, by the way, needs to last a lot longer than the Trump administration,” said Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Centers for Strategic and International Studies who focuses on energy security.
On Tuesday, the White House announced Venezuela would relinquish 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., which would then sell the crude on the market and store revenues in American accounts.
Rubio on Wednesday fleshed out a three-phase strategy, including stabilization in Venezuela, economic recovery, and finally, a political transition there.
“They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the United States,” Rubio said. “And that’s what we are going to [see] happen.”
Rubio said the U.S. would continue enforcing a legal “quarantine” of illicit oil tankers transiting to and from Venezuela to bend Caracas to Washington’s will, citing the U.S. seizure of two such tankers this week. A third was seized Friday morning.
“We don’t want [Venezuela] descending into chaos,” he said, arguing the threat to the tankers would force the government, run by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, to the table.
Venezuela’s leadership, which has condemned the U.S. attack on its capital and the ouster of its president, has signaled a lukewarm embrace of cooperation on oil.
“Venezuela is open to energy relations where all parties benefit,” Rodriguez said.
Democrats called what the administration labels “leverage” as a form of brute control over the country.
“This is an insane plan,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat. “They are talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for a period of time – undefined – as leverage to micromanage the country. I mean, the scope and insanity of that plan is absolutely stunning.”
‘Realist’ view of facts on the ground
Kimberly Breier, a former assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs during the first Trump administration, said the U.S. plan – which removed Maduro from power but kept the rest of his regime, including other U.S.-sanctioned officials, in place – was a “very realist” view of the facts on the ground.
“I think this is a transition to a transition,” Breier said. “I think this current situation is an intermediate step where there’s a hope and a plan that you’re going to be able to get the regime to do some of the harder things that are going to need to be done to allow for a real democratic transition to the rightfully elected government.”
Whether the energy dimension of the plan, which would require U.S. energy companies to work with the same regime that was hostile to them, is only “a hope and an aspiration” at this stage, said Seigle. “We don’t know how feasible it is.”
Oil executives who will sit down with the president in Washington will bring a checklist of questions on sanctions, tax regime, property rights, and political stability, experts told ABC News. Investments the White House might ask of them, which would include rebuilding and modernizing infrastructure, would require years and billions of dollars, they said.
“When it comes to energy, item number one is giving confidence in enduring political stability,” Seigle said.
The administration knows that oil companies “are looking for stability,” said Breier, who is now a senior adviser at Covington. “I think they’re looking for a leader that they think is not a transitional leader.”
“Certainly, oil companies operate all over the world in places that are not democracies. But from a policy standpoint…the durable, lasting leadership of Venezuela is the democratically elected one,” she said, referring to Edmundo Gonzalez, who won the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election but has been exiled.
Oil execs may not be ready to jump in
Oil companies will “express interest and to sincerely look into the matter and try to understand what their contributions could be and maybe some of the associated planning,” Seigle predicted. “But I do not think that we will see major new commitments from U.S. oil companies to leap into the Venezuelan operating environment until a lot of things on their checklists are satisfied.”
“The problem is [the administration] got the sequence backwards,” he said. “The sequence is the oil companies need to see that Venezuela is an attractive environment with a long runway of stability, and then in the future, the oil can flow.”
Breier said the energy dimension of the president’s plan is part and parcel of a broader set of objectives to counter migration and drug flows and promote a democracy in the country.
ABC News reported that the administration has made two demands to Rodriguez that must be met for the U.S. to allow the country to pump more oil. Venezuela must cut its economic ties with China, Russia, and Iran, sources said, and must agree to partner exclusively with the U.S. on oil production and favor America when selling heavy crude oil.
Breier said the reporting rings true with her experience at the State Department, where she worked with the former opposition leader of Venezuela, another elected president in exile, Juan Guaidó.
“With the Guaidó team, there were conversations about…not going [through] all this trouble for [Venezuela] to then cut deals with the Russians and the Chinese and the oil sector,” she said. “So that’s a very consistent approach.” Breier said the administration’s approach will be “private sector led” by Western companies, including the Europeans.
The White House “view[s] US companies as the most nimble and able to go in and start rebuilding the sector quickly so that you don’t end up with the U.S. taxpayer having to put the tab for reconstructing Venezuela,” she said.
