Dave Chappelle appears onstage at the 51st AFI Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute Celebrating Eddie Murphy at Dolby Theatre on April 18, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Dave Chappelle is planning to make fans laugh at the Netflix Is a Joke Fest. He’ll perform at the Hollywood Palladium May 7 through May 9, with a lineup of surprises guests from the music and comedy world also on the schedule. No phones will be allowed.
The news was announced via a trailer on YouTube, in which Dave is seen smoking on a rooftop as Morgan Freeman speaks in a voice-over.
“Netflix Is a Joke Fest is happening again. Third time in LA. Beautiful Los Angeles. Bigger, louder, everywhere. On paper, complete. But it’s missing something. Or someone: Dave.”
“Yeah, that Dave. My friend Dave. Dave’s pulling up, and now we got a ball game. Cue the f****** drones,” he continues, as the festival logo appears on a billboard in front of Dave.
The 2026 Netflix Is a Joke Fest takes place in Los Angeles May 4–10. Other performers include Donnell Rawlings, Katt Williams, Durand Bernarr, Busta Rhymes, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish and Wanda Sykes.
A still from ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85.’ (Netflix)
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 has been renewed for season 2.
Netflix has renewed the animated Stranger Things TV series for a second season just one week after the first season premiered on April 23. Season 1 landed at #7 on the weekly Netflix English TV list, having brought in 2.8 million views in its opening weekend.
This new series brought audiences back to Hawkins, Indiana, during the winter of 1985.
“Our heroes Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max have settled back into a normal life of D&D, snowball fights, and quiet days. But beneath the ice, something terrifying has awakened,” its official synopsis reads. “Our heroes must race to solve this mystery and save Hawkins in this untold story set in the Stranger Things universe.”
Brooklyn Davey Norstedt voices Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport voices Max, Luca Diaz voices Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams voices Lucas, Braxton Quinney voices Dustin, Ben Plessala voices Will and Brett Gipson voices Hopper.
Stranger Things creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer serve as executive producers on the show, as do Hilary Leavitt, Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Eric Robles is its showrunner and executive producer.
“Working on season 1 has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Now that it’s out in the world, seeing fans connect with these characters—whether they’ve loved them for years or are just meeting them for the first time—has been truly special,” Robles said in a press release.
As for what fans can expect in season 2, Robles said, “The Hawkins Investigators Club is back, and a new paranormal threat has emerged from the town’s abandoned silver mines. I can’t wait for fans to discover where this entity and the mysterious blue flower we last saw blooming in the Upside Down at the end of season 1 take our young heroes.”
A wooden judge’s gavel and sounding block on a desk with a blurred courtroom in the background. (imaginima/Getty)
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Army special forces soldier who was indicted last week on charges of using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Manhattan federal court and was released on bond.
Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke appeared in the same courthouse complex where Maduro appeared following the raid on his Caracas compound that Van Dyke helped plan and execute.
Judge Margaret Garnet asked how he pleaded to charges including unlawful use of confidential governmental information for personal gain.
“Not guilty, your honor,” Van Dyke said.
He was accompanied in the courtroom by his attorneys, Zach Intrater, Mark Geragos and Tina Glandian, following his arrest last week at Fort Bragg, where he is posted.
Van Dyke is currently on leave from the Army. His ultimate military status is “unsettled,” Intrater said.
The defense attorney said he expected few disputes over the factual allegations. Instead, Intrater said the case would “largely rise and fall” on motions to eliminate certain evidence and to dismiss the charges.
“This is anything but a usual case,” Intrater said.
In what is believed to be the first case of insider trading on a prediction market, prosecutors alleged that Van Dyke used inside knowledge to place 13 bets on the outcome of the Maduro operation.
According to the indictment, Van Dyke opened a Polymarket account the day after Christmas and began placing bets on Dec. 27 through the evening of Jan. 2 — hours before soldiers entered Venezuelan airspace for the pre-dawn operation. After Trump made the operation public that day, Van Dyke allegedly profited $409,881 from his $33,034 in bets.
Prosecutor Ryan Finkel said there were no plans to add defendants or bring additional charges against Van Dyke but said, “I would not entirely rule it out.”
Judge Garnet released Van Dyke on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond. His travel is restricted to California, where his family lives, North Carolina, where he is posted and New York, where he is being prosecuted.
He has surrendered his firearms. Garnet said she would modify that condition if his military service required him to possess and use a gun.
Finkel said there is a “moderate” amount of evidence in the case including Polymarket records, bank transactions, cryptocurrency exchanges and email accounts. There could also be a certain amount of classified information that would require special handling.
“The events covered by the classified information have now occurred,” Garnet said. She said the case would move faster “if evidence could be declassified to the greatest extent possible.”
Van Dyke’s next court date is Monday, June 8.
Following his arrest on Thursday, Van Dyke briefly appeared in a North Carolina courtroom on Friday. He signed a bond after acknowledging that he understood the charges and potential penalties.
His case is being overseen in New York by the same judge who is presiding over the high-profile federal case against alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione.
Amid mounting criticism of prediction markets for allegedly enabling insider trading, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said his company is “constantly” monitoring for suspicious activity and referring cases to authorities. Coplan argued that the public nature of prediction markets makes it easier to crack down on insider trading.
“The transparency afforded by onchain markets makes global compliance more effective than ever. Every trade is public, permanent, and auditable. Bad actors leave a trail,” he said.
Timothy Brown speaks at a press conference on April 28, 2026, in New York. (WABC)
(NEW YORK) — A man who was seen on video being beaten and wrongfully arrested by two NYPD officers at a liquor store in Brooklyn has filed a notice saying he plans to sue the department over the incident.
Timothy Brown told reporters Tuesday that he felt “humiliated, disrespected and embarrassed” by the arrest and will never be the same after the April 14 incident.
Brown, a home health aide and security guard, was buying wine at the liquor store after work when he was suddenly approached by two plainclothes detectives who allegedly seized him and attacked him as other customers looked on in shock, according to the notice of claim that he filed with the city.
“What happened to me should not happen to anyone else. It was wrong and it was disgusting. My life will never be the same,” Brown, who was seen with an apparent limp in his walk, holding a cane, and wearing an arm brace, said Tuesday.
The New York Police Department has not immediately commented on the notice, which seeks $100 million in punitive damages over several alleged claims including negligence, false arrest, assault and battery.
The incident was filmed by bystanders and the detectives were not wearing body cameras, according to the notice.
The notice states that NYPD policy requires officers to wear or activate body worn cameras during narcotics enforcement operations.
The NYPD claimed that the undercover detectives allegedly witnessed a narcotics purchase of crack cocaine and that the suspect was seen wearing the same clothes as Brown.
Police said there were no drugs or contraband found on Brown after his arrest, and that he was not the suspect they were looking for. However, the NYPD issued Brown a ticket for resisting arrest and obstruction of government administration.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office ultimately dismissed the charges against Brown.
Brown contests the accusations that he resisted arrest.
“I never resisted arrest not at all,” he said. “There was nothing I could do, I was being beating and battered.”
The detectives did not identify themselves “adequately” when confronting Brown and used “gratuitous and excessive force,” according to the notice.
The notice contends that Brown was beaten for eight minutes, “slammed into a glass display wall and shelving stocked with glass bottles, causing numerous bottles to shatter” and thrown and dragged across the floor “through broken glass.”
Brown suffered “contusions, lacerations, a black eye, head and facial trauma and injuries to his leg,” according to the notice that he filed.
The two detectives involved in the incident — identified by the department as Volkan Maden and Michael Algerio — are under internal NYPD investigation, had their badges and guns stripped, and are serving on modified duty, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Additionally, the narcotics module responsible for the incident has been disbanded, the supervising sergeant involved in the incident was placed on modified duty and six other detectives were reassigned, according to the notice. The NYPD has not confirmed these actions.
“We will have more to say about it as the investigation unfolds, but I understand the community’s interest in it, because it is an upsetting video,” Tisch told reporters during an unrelated news conference on April 15.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoed that sentiment in a social media post a day after the incident.
“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way,” he said.
Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro, however, criticized the mayor’s comments in a social media post on April 15 and called for more facts to come out.
“NYPD detectives put their lives on the line daily, doing the dangerous work politicians would never have the courage to do,” he said.
Brown and his mother told reporters that they were disappointed that have not been contacted by the mayor or Tisch.
James Comey is seen on May 20, 2025 in New York City. (Patricia Schlein/Star Max/GC Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal grand jury in North Carolina has indicted former FBI Director James Comey over a controversial Instagram post from last year that President Donald Trump and members of his administration claimed was a threat against the president.
Renewing efforts to prosecute one of Trump’s longtime adversaries, Department of Justice prosecutors brought the case after a judge last year threw out an indictment against Comey on unrelated charges.
The new indictment centers on a controversy that erupted nearly a year ago when Comey, in a since-deleted Instagram post, shared a picture showing the numbers “86 47” written in seashells on the beach with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Citing the slang meaning of “86” as to “nix” or “get rid” of something, allies of the president alleged that the post was a veiled threat against Trump, and the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service quickly launched investigations into the posts.
CNN was first to report news of the indictment.
Prosecutors will likely face a high legal bar to prove that the Instagram post constituted a “true threat,” which the Supreme Court in 2023 found required showing an individual understood their message would be perceived as threatening. With the phrase “86 47” increasingly adopted by protesters of the Trump administration, the case could carry sweeping implications for the First Amendment.
When asked about the post last year, Trump suggested that Comey should be prosecuted over the post, which Trump alleged was a call “for the assassination of the president.”
“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear,” Trump told Fox News last year.
At the time, Trump said he would leave a decision about charging Comey to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, though he insisted that Comey was a “dirty cop.”
“When you add his history to that … he’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I’m going to let them make that decision,” Trump said.
Following backlash over the post, Comey removed the photo from Instagram and said he was unaware that the post could be associated with violence.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey said on May 15.
The post drew swift criticism from the Trump administration, with White House staff describing the post “deeply concerning” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard calling for Comey to be imprisoned.
“James Comey in my view should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” Gabbard told Fox News.
Comey is not the first public figure to face pushback for invoking number “86,” with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drawing criticism in 2020 for appearing during a television interview with a small figurine of the numbers “86 45” on a table behind her, and similar “86 46” references appearing online during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Comey was indicted last year on unrelated charges for allegedly lying to Congress and obstruction related to his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020. Comey’s lawyers moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing the case was politically motivated and that the grand jury never saw the charges in their entirety, and the case was ultimately dismissed over issues with the legitimacy of the prosecutor who brought the case.
The new indictment comes as the Department of Justice in recent weeks has ramped up investigations of some of Trump’s perceived political foes under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is heading up the Justice Department following Trump’s ouster of Pam Bondi.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice removed a top career prosecutor from a controversial investigation in Florida after sources told ABC News that she had expressed concerns about a rushed effort to bring criminal charges against former CIA Director John Brennan.
Prosecutors in April also secured an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center — frequently criticized by conservatives for their assessment of hate groups — for bank fraud and money laundering offenses related to its paying of informants to infiltrate such groups. The organization has denied all wrongdoing.
Anne Hathaway stars as Verity Crawford and Josh Hartnett as Jeremy Crawford in ‘Verity.’ (Alisha Wetherill)
The official teaser trailer for Verity is here.
Amazon MGM Studios has released the first trailer for its upcoming film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling psychological thriller.
Anne Hathaway stars alongside Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett in the movie, which finds Hathaway also producing and Johnson executive producing.
The film follows author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), and Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson), “a struggling writer who relocates to the remote Crawford estate to ghostwrite for Verity,” according to its official synopsis. “After Lowen uncovers what appears to be Verity’s chilling autobiographical notes, she wrestles with the disturbing and twisted confessions about Verity’s husband Jeremy (Hartnett), and finds it hard to separate fiction from reality, manipulation from attraction, and opportunity from obsession.”
This new teaser starts with Johnson’s Lowen wearing a white silk robe as she crawls on top of Hartnett’s Jeremy and kisses him. When Lowen pulls away from the kiss, she finds that Jeremy is nowhere to be seen, and she’s sitting on the lap of Hathaway’s Verity. The latter grabs Lowen and forcibly kisses her again, and this time, when they pull apart, Lowen has a bloody lip and Verity gives her a toothy, bloody smile in return.
“Even with my generous warning, you’re going to continue to ingest my words,” Verity says in a voice-over. “But know one thing. There is no light where we’re going. Darkness ahead.”
Michael Showalter directed the film from a screenplay by Nick Antosca, which was produced by Hoover.
Jason Sudeikis and Hannah Waddingham in ‘Ted Lasso’ season 4. (Apple TV)
Believe it — the teaser trailer and premiere date for Ted Lasso season 4 have arrived.
Apple TV has announced that the fourth season of its hit comedy series will make its global debut on Aug. 5. The streaming service also released the first trailer for the new season.
According to the streamer, season 4 finds Ted returning to Richmond to coach a second division women’s football team. The official description calls it Ted’s biggest challenge yet.
“Throughout the course of the season, Ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would,” the synopsis reads.
Jason Sudeikis is back starring as the titular coach. Also returning are fan favorites Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Jeremy Swift.
New to the show this season are Tanya Reynolds, Jude Mack, Faye Marsey, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern and Grant Feely.
The teaser finds Ted walking around in South London when he encounters an AFC Richmond fan.
“Welcome back, coach,” the man says to Ted, who replies, “Thank you, sir.”
“Too bad you’re coaching a bunch of girls, ya wanker,” the man tells him.
New episodes of Ted Lasso will premiere to Apple TV each Wednesday from Aug. 5 to Oct. 7.
A gas pump stands at a station in Manhattan on April 21, 2026 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Gasoline prices in the United States hit their highest level in four years on Tuesday as negotiations over the Iran war appeared to show little signs of a resolution.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon on April 24, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Kid Rock and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a ride in AH-64 Apache attack helicopters around the Washington, D.C., area on Monday, just weeks after the Army drew scrutiny for allowing the same type of aircraft to hover near the pro-Trump musician’s home.
Both helicopters are assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, according to a U.S. official, the same formation whose aircraft initially flew near Kid Rock’s Nashville-area home, where the musician later posted video of himself waving at and saluting the Apaches as they hovered near his backyard.
“Joined my friend @KidRock — and some of our great @USArmy Apache pilots — for a ride this morning. (More to come on that!),” Hegseth said in a statement on social media. “Kid Rock is a patriot and huge supporter of our troops.”
After the Apaches visited the home of Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, in March, the pilots were initially suspended. Hegseth immediately intervened, saying at the time, “No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.”
One U.S. official with knowledge of the situation said that the flight on Monday will be made into a promotional video for the Pentagon.
ABC News has reached out to Kid Rock for comment.
The reversal of the suspension marked an unusual end run around the military’s normal chain of command and investigative process. Hegseth has repeatedly sidestepped traditional Pentagon channels, much of it aimed at the Army, where he has had internal clashes with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
Driscoll, who is relatively popular in national security spaces and Capitol Hill, has long been rumored as a potential successor should Hegseth be fired or depart the Pentagon. Hegseth also recently blocked the promotions of four Army colonels to brigadier general and fired the service’s top officer, Gen. Randy George, without public explanation.
Kid Rock, the rock musician and conservative activist, has become one of President Donald Trump’s most visible celebrity allies, regularly appearing at campaign rallies and other political events.
Military flyovers are not unusual, but they are generally coordinated for major public events, including sporting events, air shows or large ceremonial gatherings, rather than conducted in close proximity to private residences.
“The visit today provided an opportunity for Kid Rock to thank service members, highlight the professionalism of the men and women supporting the mission, and recognize their continued sacrifice in honor of our nation,” Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement.
Former NBA player Damon Jones departs after his arraignment hearing at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on November 24, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he tipped off sports bettors about an injured LeBron James and used his own celebrity to lure high rollers to rigged poker games.
Jones, 49, is the first defendant in either case to plead guilty following the arrests of nearly three dozen people at the start of the pro basketball season.
Jones, who wore a black suit and black shirt, entered his guilty pleas during back-to-back hearings Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.
“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Jones said during the hearing before Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
