A United States judge has rebuked the administration of President Donald Trump, saying that reports of deportations to South Sudan appear to violate his previous court order.
On Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts, US District Court Judge Brian Murphy held a virtual hearing to weigh an emergency motion on behalf of deported migrants reportedly on board a flight to South Sudan.
He asked lawyers for the Trump administration to identify where the migrants were. He also indicated that he could ask for the flight to be turned around.
“Based on what I have been told, this seems like it may be contempt,” Judge Murphy told Elianis Perez, a lawyer for the Trump Justice Department.
In a recent annual report, the US Department of State accused South Sudan of “significant human rights issues”, including torture and extrajudicial killings.
But the Trump administration has been looking abroad for destinations to send undocumented immigrants currently detained in the US, particularly those whose home countries will not accept them.
In Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Murphy said the flight to South Sudan appeared to violate a preliminary injunction he issued on April 18, which prohibited migrants from being deported to third-party countries that were not their own.
That injunction required the Trump administration to give the migrants an adequate opportunity to appeal their removal.
The migrants, Judge Murphy ruled, were simply seeking “an opportunity to explain why such a deportation will likely result in their persecution, torture, and/or death”.
He cited the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to due process: in other words, a fair hearing in the US court system.
Earlier this month, on May 7, lawyers for the migrants had indicated that their clients were slated to be sent to Libya, another country with significant human rights concerns.
Judge Murphy, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ruled that such a deportation would be in violation of his injunction.
In Tuesday’s emergency court filing, the lawyers for those migrants emphasised how close a call that incident was. The migrants in question were already on a bus, sitting on the tarmac of an airport, when they were ordered to be returned.
The emergency motion identifies the migrants only by their initials and countries of origin, Myanmar and Vietnam among them.
But it explains what allegedly happened to them over the last 24 hours and seeks immediate action from the court.
The lawyers allege that one migrant from Myanmar, called NM in the court filings, received a notice of removal on Monday. It identified the destination as South Africa. Within 10 minutes, the court filing said the email was recalled by its sender.
A couple of hours later, a new notice of removal was sent, this time naming South Sudan as the destination.
In both instances, NM refused to sign the document. Lawyers in the emergency petition indicate that NM has “limited English proficiency” and was not provided a translator to understand the English-language document.
While one of NM’s lawyers stated her intention to meet with him on Tuesday morning, by the time their appointment time came, she was informed he had already been removed from his detention facility, en route to South Sudan.
The emergency filing includes a copy of an email sent to the lawyers from the family members of those deported.
“I believe my husband [name redacted] and 10 other individuals that were sent to Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, TX were deported to South Africa or Sudan,” the email begins.
“This is not right! I fear my husband and his group, which consist of people from Laos, Thailand, Pakistan, Korea, and Mexico are being sent to South Africa or Sudan against their will. Please help! They cannot be allowed to do this.”
Libraries across the United States are cutting back on ebooks, audiobooks and loan programs after the Trump administration suspended millions of dollars in federal grants as it tries to dissolve the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Federal judges have issued temporary orders to block the Trump administration from taking any further steps toward gutting the agency. But the unexpected slashing of grants has delivered a significant blow to many libraries, which are reshuffling budgets and looking at different ways to raise money.
Maine has laid off a fifth of its staff and temporarily closed its state library after not receiving the remainder of its annual funding. Libraries in Mississippi have indefinitely stopped offering a popular ebook service, and the South Dakota state library has suspended its interlibrary loan program.
Ebook and audiobook programs are especially vulnerable to budget cuts, even though those offerings have exploded in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think everyone should know the cost of providing digital sources is too expensive for most libraries,” said Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Assn. “It’s a continuous and growing need.”
Library officials caught off guard by Trump’s cuts
President Trump issued an executive order March 14 to dismantle the IMLS before firing nearly all of its employees.
One month later, the Maine State Library announced it was issuing layoff notices for workers funded through an IMLS grant program.
“It came as quite a surprise to all of us,” said Spencer Davis, a library generalist at the Maine State Library who is one of eight employees who were laid off May 8 because of the suspended funding.
In April, California, Washington and Connecticut were the only three states to receive letters stating the remainder of their funding for the year was canceled, Hohl said. For others, the money hasn’t been distributed yet. The three states all filed formal objections with the IMLS.
Rebecca Wendt, California state library director, said she was never told why California’s funding was terminated while the other remaining states did not receive the same notice.
“We are mystified,” Wendt said.
The agency did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Popular digital offerings on the chopping block
Most libraries are funded by city and county governments, but receive a smaller portion of their budget from their state libraries, which receive federal dollars every year to help pay for summer reading programs, interlibrary loan services and digital books. Libraries in rural areas rely on federal grants more than those in cities.
Many states use the funding to pay for ebooks and audiobooks, which are increasingly popular, and costly, offerings. In 2023, more than 660 million people globally borrowed ebooks, audiobooks and digital magazines, up from 19% in 2022, according to OverDrive, the main distributor of digital content for libraries and schools.
In Mississippi, the state library helped fund its statewide ebook program.
For a few days, Erin Busbea was the bearer of bad news for readers at her Mississippi library: Hoopla, a popular app to check out ebooks and audiobooks, had been suspended indefinitely in Lowndes and DeSoto counties due to the funding freeze.
“People have been calling and asking, ‘Why can’t I access my books on Hoopla?’” said Busbea, library director of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System in Columbus, a majority-Black city northeast of Jackson.
The library system also had to pause parts of its interlibrary loan system allowing readers to borrow books from other states when they aren’t available locally.
“For most libraries that were using federal dollars, they had to curtail those activities,” said Hulen Bivins, the Mississippi Library Commission executive director.
States are fighting the funding freeze
The funding freeze came after the agency’s roughly 70 staff members were placed on administrative leave in March.
Attorneys general in 21 states and the American Library Assn. have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration for seeking to dismantle the agency.
The institute’s annual budget is below $300 million and distributes less than half of that to state libraries across the country. In California, the state library was notified that about 20%, or $3 million, of its $15-million grant had been terminated.
“The small library systems are not able to pay for the ebooks themselves,” said Wendt, the California state librarian.
In South Dakota, the state’s interlibrary loan program is on hold, according to Nancy Van Der Weide, a spokesperson for the South Dakota Department of Education.
The institute, founded in 1996 by a Republican-controlled Congress, also supports a national library training program named after former first lady Laura Bush that seeks to recruit and train librarians from diverse or underrepresented backgrounds. A spokesperson for Bush did not return a request seeking comment.
“Library funding is never robust. It’s always a point of discussion. It’s always something you need to advocate for,” said Liz Doucett, library director at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine. “It’s adding to just general anxiety.”
Zhajiangmian was one of the first dishes my mother taught me how to make. I’d stand beside her in the kitchen, watching her stir fermented soybean paste into sizzling ground pork, the smell sharp, earthy and instantly familiar. A pot of noodles boiled nearby as I carefully julienned cucumbers, proud to contribute to one of my favorite comfort meals. When the ingredients were ready, we’d build our bowls with noodles, sauce and a handful of crisp veggies. Then came the best part — mixing it together until every noodle was slick with sauce. It wasn’t fancy, but it was fast, filling and always hit the spot.
According to Tian Yong, head chef of Bistro Na in Temple City, humble zhajiangmian may date back to the Qing Dynasty, when minced meat noodles became popular in Beijing for its affordability and ease of storage. Another origin story tells of an empress dowager who, fleeing an invasion, encountered a zhajiangmian-like dish in Xi’an.
However it came to be, zhajiangmian, or “fried sauce noodles,” is everyday comfort food in China and a staple of northern Chinese cuisine. “It carries cultural nostalgia and a sense of regional identity, particularly for Beijing natives,” says chef and cookbook author Katie Chin, founder of Wok Star Catering in Los Angeles. At its core, the dish is built on a simple foundation of wheat noodles (often thick, chewy and hand-pulled or knife-cut), ground pork and a deeply savory sauce made from doubanjiang, fermented soybean paste.
Like many regional Chinese dishes, zhajiangmian is fluid, shaped by geography, ingredients and personal taste. “It doesn’t just vary between regions of China — it even varies between households in different parts of Beijing,” Yong explains.
Chin uses several types of soybean paste in her zhajiangmian, each bringing its own personality to the bowl. Traditional Beijing-style relies on pungent yellow soybean paste for its salty, umami-rich depth. Tianjin-style leans on sweet bean sauce for a milder, more balanced flavor, while some versions use broad bean paste to add heat and complexity.
Then there’s the Korean-Chinese adaptation, jjajangmyeon, introduced to Korea by Chinese immigrants in the early 20th century. It swaps fermented soybean paste for chunjang, a Korean black bean paste that’s sweeter and less salty. “The dish is served over softer noodles and typically mixed together before eating, unlike the Chinese version where toppings are placed separately,” Chin says.
The vegetable toppings are essential to the dish’s character. “They can vary according to Beijing’s four seasons and traditional agricultural calendar,” says Yong. In spring, you might see spinach shoots, mung bean sprouts or radish greens; summer brings julienned cucumber, lotus root and edamame; fall offers carrots, garlic chives and bok choy; winter, Napa cabbage and wood ear mushrooms. While zhajiangmian is one of China’s most beloved noodle dishes, in the U.S., the spotlight tends to shine on familiar favorites like chow mein, lo mein or dan dan mian. But zhajiangmian has a deserved place alongside those staples in the canon of Chinese noodles.
I set out to find the best versions in Los Angeles and discovered dozens of interpretations. Some stayed true to tradition, others took creative liberties. But each bowl shared the same sense of comfort I remembered from my childhood — that salty, savory, soul-satisfying mix of noodles and sauce. Here are 11 of the best places to try zhajiangmian and jjajangmyeon in L.A.
WASHINGTON — An appeals court has cleared the way for President Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.
The Friday ruling came after the Trump administration asked for an emergency pause on a judge’s order blocking enforcement at roughly three dozen agencies and departments.
A split three-judge panel in the nation’s capital sided with government lawyers in a lawsuit filed by unions representing federal employees. The majority ruled on technical grounds, finding that the unions don’t have the legal right to sue because the Trump administration has said it won’t end any collective bargaining agreements while the case is being litigated.
Judge Karen Henderson, appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Justin Walker, appointed by Trump, sided with the government, while Judge Michelle Childs, appointed by Democratic President Biden, dissented.
The government says Trump needs the executive order so his administration can cut the federal workforce to ensure strong national security. The law requiring collective bargaining creates exemptions for work related to national security, as in agencies like the FBI.
Union leaders argue the order is designed to facilitate mass firings and exact “political vengeance” against federal unions opposed to Trump’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government.
His order seeks to expand that exemption to exclude more workers than any other president has before. That’s according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which is suing to block the order.
The administration has filed in a Kentucky court to terminate the collective bargaining agreement for the Internal Revenue Service, where many workers are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. They say their IRS members aren’t doing national security work.
Other union employees affected by the order include the Health and Human Services Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission.
May 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump has directed the firing of almost 600 employees with the publicly-funded Voice of America, representing about a third of the broadcaster’s staff.
“Today, in compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order titled, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, dated March 14, 2025, the US Agency for Global Media initiated measures to eliminate the non-statutory components and functions to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” U.S. Agency for Global Media Senior Adviser Kari Lake said on the agency’s website late Thursday.
“This action will impact the agency’s workforce at USAGM, Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and all Grantees. Most USAGM staff affected by this action will be placed on paid-administrative leave beginning Saturday, March 15, 2025, and remain on leave until further notice.”
“Buckle up. There’s more to come,” Lake said in an email to the Washington Post.
The USAGM is the agency responsible for VOA, which provides non-partisan news content in countries across the world, including China, Iran, Russia and others with limited freedom of the press.
The bulk of Voice of America’s approximately 1,350 full-time employees were not affected by the latest executive order, which targets mostly contractors.
VOA director Michael Abramowitz told staff he is “heartbroken,” The Post reported, citing an internal memo.
“Some of VOA’s most talented journalists have been [personal services contractors] – many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America’s story of freedom and democracy,” Abramowitz wrote in the memo.
Trump’s executive order aims to continue “the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.”
The president has previously called the agency “anti-American” and accused it of broadcasting “propaganda.”
The news comes despite a federal judge in April ordering the Trump administration to restore funding and staffing to Voice of America and its affiliated news services. At the time, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth deemed the administration’s cuts to be unconstitutional.
Trump in mid-March signed an executive order to reduce the scope of the federal government, which targeted the USGM and VOA.
Lake in her statement said the agency would continue its international broadcast of U.S. news, but vowed once again to cut excessive spending.
“While at USAGM, I vow to fully implement President Trump’s executive orders in his mission to reduce the size and scope of the federal government,” Lake said in the statement, adding the reductions are within what is “statutorily required by law.”
“The US Agency for Global media will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview and shed everything that is not statutorily required. I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” Lake wrote.
Fans will have to wait until near the end of the evening to see the bookies’ favourite, KAJ of Sweden, who is 23rd in the lineup.
Meanwhile, British hopes rest with the country pop group Remember Monday. Band members Charlotte Steele, Holly-Anne Hull, and Lauren Byrne are sixth in the lineup with their energetic song, What the Hell Just Happened?
After the UK finished 18th last year, and 25th in 2023, Remember Monday will be hoping they can return to the successes of 2022, when Sam Ryder came second.
Now, as you watch the action unfold, you can keep track of your favourite performances by playing along with our interactive widget. Simply rate the artists out of 10 to choose your favourite. Then check back to see how your score tallies with the opinions of other Eurovision fans.
Meanwhile, as fans wait for the excitement to start on Saturday, why not take our quiz to test how well you know Europe’s premier song contest?
Can you recall the year Bucks Fizz performed Making Your Mind Up, when Abba met their Waterloo, or even as far back as Sandy Shaw and Puppet on a String? Or perhaps you came late to the Eurovision party and have fond memories of more recent winners Netta, Maneskin, and last year’s champion Nemo?
To help get you in the mood for Eurovision we’ve prepared a quiz testing your knowledge of all the cheesiest Eurovision classics.
All you have to do is guess the year of the song and performer. Use the slider to choose the year. Points are awarded for how close you get to the right answer, with 10 for being spot on, nine for one year out, eight for two, seven for three, and so on until you get to 10 years out.
Eurovision 2025 lineup (in running order)
1. Norway: Kyle Alessandro – Lighter 2. Luxembourg: Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte Le Son 3. Estonia: Tommy Cash – Espresso Macchiato 4. Israel: Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise 5. Lithuania: Katarsis – Tavo Akys 6. Spain: Melody – ESA DIVA 7. Ukraine : Ziferblat – Bird of Pray 8. United Kingdom : Remember Monday – What The Hell Just Happened? 9. Austria: JJ – Wasted Love 10. Iceland: VÆB – RÓA 11. Latvia: Tautumeitas – Bur Man Laimi 12. Netherlands: Claude – C’est La Vie 13. Finland: Erika Vikman – ICH KOMME 14. Italy: Lucio Corsi: Volevo Essere Un Duro 15. Poland: Justyna Steczkowska – GAJA 16. Germany: Abor & Tynna – Baller 17. Greece : Klavdia – Asteromáta 18. Armenia: PARG – SURVIVOR 19. Switzerland: Zoë Më – Voyage 20. Malta: Miriana Conte – SERVING 21. Portugal: NAPA – Deslocado 22. Denmark: Sissal – Hallucination 23. Sweden: KAJ – Bara Bada Bastu 24. France: Louane – maman 25. San Marino: Gabry Ponte – Tutta L’Italia 26. Albania: Shkodra Elektronike – Zjerm
A judge approved a plan Friday to move more than 100 youths out of a troubled Los Angeles juvenile hall that has been the site of riots, drug overdoses and so-called “gladiator fights” in recent years.
Los Angeles County Superior Judge Miguel Espinoza signed off on the L.A. County Probation Department’s plan to relocate dozens of detainees from Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, months after a state oversight body ordered the hall to be shut down.
The Downey facility, home to approximately 270 youths, most of whom are between the ages of 15 and 18, has been under fire since last December, when the Board of State and Community Corrections ordered it closed because of repeated failures to meet minimum staffing requirements. The probation department has faced a years-long struggle to get officers to show up to work in the chaotic halls.
But the probation department ignored the state board’s order to shut down. Since the body has no power to enforce its own orders and the California Attorney General’s Office declined to step in, Los Padrinos continued to operate in defiance for months. In that time frame, several youths suffered drug overdoses, a teen was stabbed in the eye and 30 probation officers were indicted for allegedly organizing or allowing brawls between youths.
Roughly three-quarters of the youths at Los Padrinos are awaiting court hearings connected to violent offenses including murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery, kidnapping and gang crimes, according to the probation department.
The probation department made its plan to de-populate Los Padrinos public earlier this month, promising to remove 103 detainees from the facility by June.
Under the department’s plan, youth who are awaiting trial on cases that could land them in the county’s Secure Youth Treatment Facility will be moved to Barry J. Nidorf Hall in Sylmar. Others will be moved out of Los Padrinos and into the lower-security camps, where some juvenile justice advocates say teens perform much better and are far less likely to act violent.
“This plan reflects our continued commitment to balancing public safety, legal compliance, and the rehabilitative needs of the young people in our care,” the department said in a statement. “It is key to note that the court denied an indiscriminate mass release of youth, and that Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall will not be fully depopulated or closed.”
Espinoza originally weighed shutting down the facility last year when the public defender’s office questioned the legality of its continued operation in defiance of the BSCC. On Friday, he declined to adopt a plan from the Probation Oversight Commission that could have resulted in the release of some youths through a review process.
Some members of the oversight body expressed frustration that Espinoza’s order won’t solve the larger issues that have plagued the probation department for years. Milinda Kakani, a POC board member and the director of youth justice for the Children’s Defense Fund, also noted the moves might cause some youths to backslide by returning them to Nidorf Hall after they had already graduated from the prison-like SYTF, which some derisively refer to as “The Compound.”
“I imagine it’s deeply damaging to a young person to go back to the facility they had worked so hard to get out of,” Kakani said.
Espinoza warned he could take further action if the department’s plan does not bring it into compliance with state regulations. It was not clear when the next BSCC inspection of Los Padrinos would take place and a spokeswoman for the oversight body did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The probation department must provide Espinoza with an update on conditions at Los Padrinos by July.
Halle Bailey secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against rapper DDG, alleging that the father of their son Halo was abusive throughout their two-year relationship and has continued to behave badly since they broke up last year.
The “Little Mermaid” star, 25, and the rapper-blogger, 27, whose real name is Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr. split up in October, declaring at the time that they were “still best friends.” Son Halo was born in December 2023 after Bailey worked hard to keep her pregnancy off the radar.
“Throughout our relationship and continuing to date, Darryl has been and continues to be physically, verbally, emotionally, and financially abusive towards me,” she said in court documents reviewed by The Times. “I am seeking orders to protect myself and our son Halo from his ongoing abuse.”
The TRO was granted by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Bailey indicated in court documents that she was concerned for her safety and that of their son, Halo Saint Granberry, and asked that DDG be ordered to stay away from both of them. No advance notice was given to DDG because Bailey was afraid he would retaliate with violence or by taking Halo out of the area, the documents said.
DDG appeared to find out about the restraining order Tuesday in the middle of a profanity-laden livestream, prompting his co-streamers to decry what appeared to be a phone alert as fake news.
“That can’t even be real,” DDG said, staring at his phone.
He is temporarily prohibited from approaching Bailey and his son or contacting them through any means including electronic.
In her declaration, Bailey accused DDG of “badmouthing” her to his millions of fans on Twitch and YouTube whenever he “wants to cause upset.”
“He claims I am withholding our son and that I am with other men. As a result, I then receive threats and hate on social media. He seems to try to set up drama for his fans. He goes ‘live’ ranting about me and alleges that I am keeping Halo from him. This is false. I have requested a set schedule, which he refuses.”
She also said he frequently calls her “b—” and says she is “evil.” She also detailed one physical altercation from January of this year.
DDG went to Bailey’s house on Jan. 18, she said in the declaration, to pick up Halo. She said she asked DDG when he would return the child and alleged he wouldn’t give her an answer.
“The discussion continued as I walked with him outside to assist to put Halo into the car seat. I was buckling the baby into his seat and physically got into the back seat to adjust the car seat. I had left my front door open and was not even fully dressed as I was not even wearing shoes. Darryl kept repeating ‘Get out of my car, B—.’ Halo was crying.”
Bailey said she was nervous leaving the baby with her agitated ex and repeatedly pleaded with him to stop calling her a b—. Then the argument escalated, she said.
“The next thing I knew, things got physical between us. We fought each other, wrestling and tussling. At one point, Darryl was pulling my hair. He then slammed my face on the steering wheel, causing my tooth to get chipped. I then stopped fighting back as I was in a lot of pain,” Bailey wrote.
“I wanted to get out of the car with Halo but was now stuck. Darryl then said that since I would not leave the baby in the car, he would take me with them. He drove quickly towards his house. When we arrived at his house, I was crying and told his family what happened. I begged his family who were there to help me figure out a schedule with him. They said just leave Halo and go. I left hysterical. I had bruises over my arms and a chipped tooth.”
Bailey also detailed a violent incident on March 7 that ended up with her filing a police report. She and Halo were home sick with RSV when DDG came over to see his son, whom Bailey didn’t want to leave the house because of his illness. That angered DDG, she said, and he started yelling and calling her names.
“He then saw that the Ring camera was recording; he unplugged the Ring camera, opened the side door, and threw the Ring camera out of my home. I went outside to retrieve the Ring camera. He then locked me out of my house,” Bailey said in the declaration.
“I went around the back and came into the house through another entrance. I plugged the camera back in and called my family member for help. With her on the phone line, I repeatedly asked Darryl to please leave. I told him that he was being rude, and I was too sick to deal with him. He would not leave. When he realized that my family member was on the phone line, he became enraged. Around this same time, I noticed that he also saw the Ring camera was back on so he smashed the camera. I have this recorded and will bring the recording to the hearing.”
Halle Bailey and DDG, who share son Halo, broke up last October.
(Scott Garfitt / Invision / Associated Press)
She said DDG then grabbed her phone and hung up on her relative while she managed to get Halo away from him.
“Darryl then ran out of the house with my phone. I followed, begging to please give my phone back. He got into his car and closed the car door on me while I was holding Halo. Darryl then drove off and threw my phone out the window and yelled ‘GO GET IT B—.’ As a result of this incident, I filed a police report.”
Both parties have been ordered to participate in a May 30 mediation teleconference to determine custody or visitation if the two fail to come up with a plan before then using online court tools. A court hearing is scheduled for June 4.
In her Tuesday declaration, Bailey said that their relationship “ended in 2024 because of Darryl’s temper and lack of respect towards me. There have been numerous incidents of physical abuse, even before Halo was born.”
The document contains other alleged acts, including DDG declaring on social media that she was with another man on Mother’s Day. She said she was not, then mentioned that he had riled up his fans so that they accused her online of withholding the child and sleeping with other men. She also said DDG has never paid child support and she has never asked him to do so.
Bailey is also asking the court to allow her to take Halo to Italy for eight weeks while she is filming a movie.
“This is not child-centered,” she said of the conflicts between them, “and Halo is only being used to further his fan base and online presence.”
That’s a far cry from the rosy picture she painted in interviews while they were a couple.
Bailey and DDG first sparked romance rumors in January 2022, then made things red carpet official at the 2022 BET Awards that June. Speaking to Essence in August 2022, Bailey said she had been aware of DDG since 2015 from his YouTube channel. Their relationship began with private messages on social media, she said.
“I grew up being on YouTube and would always see the young Black creators and was constantly inspired by them,” she told the magazine. “He was one of them.”
When the magazine asked Bailey whether she was in love with DDG, she replied, “Yes. For sure I am.”
But shortly after the live-action version of “The Little Mermaid” premiered in May 2023, DDG released the song “Famous.”
In the explicit song, he raps, “Hardest things I did was fall in love with a famous b—.” If that wasn’t enough of a nod to his girlfriend, DDG’s lyrics also seemingly hint at Halle’s Ariel falling for co-star Jonah Hauer-King’s Prince Eric (“Filmin’ a movie now you kissing dudes”) and their time on the press tour (“Why is y’all holdin’ hands in the photo?”).
DDG, and his relationship with Bailey, quickly drew criticism online. One X user slammed DDG and his “embarrassing antics,” while another said “the whole song is the nastiest thing he could’ve done” to his girlfriend.
Amid the backlash, DDG said Halle heard the song, and said, “It’s just music.”
Bailey seemed to recover after that drama. “You know, you have puppy love experiences, you think that’s love,” she told Cosmopolitan in September 2023. “But this is my first deep, deep, real love.”
Times staff writers Carlos De Loera and Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this post.
