Well, that soft launch has officially become a full-blown hard launch.

Sydney Sweeney just made things very Instagram official with Scooter Braun – and fans wasted approximately three seconds before turning the comments section into a full FBI investigation.

The Euphoria star dropped a Stagecoach photo carousel on Friday that looked innocent enough at first: cowboy vibes, festival lights, karaoke chaos. Then came the cuddling photos.

One snapshot showed the pair squeezed together in a photo booth making goofy faces, while another featured Braun literally carrying Sweeney bridal-style through the crowd like this was the final scene of a rom-com nobody saw coming.

There was also a clip of them singing karaoke together and another of Sweeney perched on his shoulders during a performance because apparently subtlety has officially left the chat.

“cowboy kind of weekend,” she captioned the post — which may be the understatement of the year.

Braun had already hinted at the romance weeks earlier after posting Sweeney on his Instagram Story, but this is the clearest confirmation yet that the two are no longer trying to keep things low-key.

The pair reportedly started dating in September 2025 after meeting at the lavish wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice.

Since then, they have been spotted on multiple dates and holding hands publicly.

Now? The internet has officially upgraded them from rumour to relationship status.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday broadening US sanctions against the Cuban government, two White House officials told Reuters, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader.

The fresh sanctions target people, entities and affiliates that support the Cuban government’s security apparatus or are complicit in corruption or serious human rights violations, as well as agents, officials or supporters of the government, the officials said.

It was not immediately clear who exactly had been hit with sanctions under the order, which was first reported by Reuters.

But a copy of the order released by the White House said the sanctions could apply to “any foreign person” operating in the “energy, defence and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.”

The order authorises secondary sanctions for conducting or facilitating transactions with those targeted under the order, the officials said.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the new “coercive” measures reinforce the US’s “brutal, genocidal” blockade against the island.

“The blockade and its reinforcement cause so much harm because of the intimidating and arrogant behaviour of the world’s greatest military power,” Diaz-Canel wrote on social media.

Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said the sanctions measures, which were announced as the island held its traditional May Day celebrations, aim to impose “collective punishment on the Cuban people” and that Cubans would not be intimidated.

Ratcheting up pressure on Cuban government

Jeremy Paner, a former sanctions investigator at the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said the move was the most significant one for non-American companies since the US embargo against Cuba began decades ago.

“Oil and gas, mining companies, and banks that have carefully segregated their Cuba operations from the United States are no longer protected,” said Paner, who is now a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, a law firm.

The new sanctions are the latest broadside by the Trump administration against Cuba, which the president has repeatedly declared is near a state of collapse.

Under Trump, US forces have launched strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off Venezuela and gone into Caracas to seize President Nicolas Maduro. Trump has said, without providing specifics, that “Cuba is next.”

The officials said Trump’s order contained an implicit warning to Cuba, accusing the Havana government of aligning itself with Iran and groups like Hezbollah.

“Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military, and terrorist operations less than 100 miles from the American homeland,” one official said.

The US has long demanded Cuba open its state-run economy, pay reparations for properties expropriated by the government of former leader Fidel Castro and hold “free and fair” elections. Cuba has said its form of socialist government is not up for negotiation.

The US heaped additional sanctions and pressure on the island early this year, when it halted Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after ousting Maduro on January 3. Trump later threatened to slap punishing tariffs on any other country that sent crude to Cuba, prompting Mexico, another top supplier, to stop shipments to the island.

The fuel shortage in Cuba has contributed to major national-level blackouts and prompted many foreign airlines to suspend flights to the island.

Meryl Streep has taken a swipe at the Marvel Cinematic Universe while promoting the long-awaited sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, suggesting that modern superhero films have made cinema “boring”. 

Speaking in a recent interview alongside co-stars Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt, the 76-year-old Oscar winner claimed that the film industry has a tendency to “Marvel-ize” stories by stripping away character depth.

She argued that the genre often relies on flat depictions of good versus evil, whereas the “messier” reality of life and more nuanced films like her latest project offer a far more realistic and interesting view.

Streep explained that she finds the complexity of human nature far more compelling than the traditional superhero tropes found in franchises like Iron Man or Captain America. 

She noted that what makes a story truly interesting is when heroes are flawed and villains are human, possessing their own unique strengths. 

It is this lack of simplicity that she enjoys about returning to the world of high fashion, noting that the sequel manages to locate something true about how the business has changed in the twenty years since the original 2006 film was released.

Beyond critiquing the state of cinema, the cast also shared their thoughts on the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace. 

When asked if Miranda Priestly would ever use AI, Streep joked that her character simply has assistants for such tasks. 

Anne Hathaway added a warning for job seekers, revealing she had caught several applicants using ChatGPT to write thank-you notes, which she found “hilarious” and transparent. 

Streep was less amused by the trend, calling it “tragic” and urging young women to hold onto their humanity, famously adding that since “the future is female,” they shouldn’t let technology replace their individual voices.