Taylor Swift’s new song “Ruin the Friendship” isn’t about Blake Lively, as some fans first assumed. 

Instead, many believe it pays tribute to her late high school friend, Jeff Lang, whom she honored at his funeral in 2010. 

The track, from her latest album The Life of a Showgirl released Oct. 3, reflects on unrequited love and loss. 

“When I left school I lost track of you / Abigail called me with the bad news,” Swift, 35, sings. “It was not an invitation / But I flew home anyway … I whispered at the grave, ‘Should’ve kissed you anyway.’” 

Swift and Lang attended Hendersonville High School in Tennessee, where he was among the first to hear her early songs. 

After his passing at age 21, Swift performed at his funeral and later told the audience at the 2010 BMI Country Awards, “I used to play my songs for him first.” 

Lang’s mother, Susan, told The Tennessean that the two shared a rare friendship. 

“They hung out at her house a lot, always joking around,” she said, adding that she still keeps a photo of them together. 

Swift’s heartfelt track appears to immortalize the friend who inspired her long before fame arrived.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Indian government faced intense backlash after women journalists were barred from attending Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s press conference in New Delhi, Indian media reported.

Muttaqi is on a six-day visit after getting a temporary exemption on his travel ban by UN Security Council (UNSC) Committee. It was the first such trip to India by a Afghan Taliban leader since 2021.

India, a day earlier, upgraded ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, giving a boost to the diplomatically isolated group, by announcing it would reopen its embassy in Kabul that was shut after the Taliban seized power in 2021.

During the visit, the visiting foreign minister held a press conference at the Afghanistan embassy in Delhi, wherein the women journalists were stopped by the security staff and Delhi Police officials from attending the event despite multiple requests.

Opposition parties condemned the Modi administration for its silence over the exclusion of women reporters from the high-profile event, calling it an “insult to every Indian woman”.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said women have the right to equal participation in every field, adding that the incident sends a message that Modi is “too weak to stand up for their rights.”

“Mr Modi, when you allow the exclusion of women journalists from a public forum, you are telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them,” he wrote on X.

“In our country, women have the right to equal participation in every space. Your silence in the face of such discrimination exposes the emptiness of your slogans on Nari Shakti [woman power],” he added.

Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi demanded that the Modi government clarify its position on the issue.

“If your recognition of women’s rights isn’t just convenient posturing from one election to the other, then how has this insult to some of India’s most competent women been allowed in our country, a country whose women are its backbone and its pride,” she asked.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram also criticised the media’s handling of the event, saying male journalists present at the briefing “should have walked out in protest.”

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra went further, slamming the government for “disgracing every Indian woman” through its complicity. “By allowing such discrimination on Indian soil, the Modi regime has surrendered the country’s dignity,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs distanced itself from the controversy, claiming it had “no role” in the arrangements for the event.

According to the ministry, the invites for the press meet went to select journalists from Afghanistan’s Consul General in Mumbai who were stationed in Delhi for the Afghan minister’s visit. The Afghan Embassy territory does not come under the jurisdiction of the Indian government, it pointed out.

Scott Cooper, the director of the Bruce Springsteen biopic, just shared what the movie is about.

On Sunday, September 28, the 55-year-old American filmmaker and former actor attended the New York Film Festival premiere of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, where he chatted with PEOPLE magazine.

Cooper told the outlet that the forthcoming biopic, which stars Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, will “shed light” on the celebrated singer-songwriter and guitarist’s mental illness and the struggles he is facing.

He said, “This is probably his most painful chapter, most vulnerable chapter of his life.”

The director of Hostiles added, “He was just coming off of The River tour to great acclaim and success. Instead of chasing the roar of arenas and hit singles, he had the courage to look inward and face a lot of unresolved trauma that he had dealt with.”

Cooper went on to note that what came from this self-reflection “is — well, I think — his best album and one of the best albums of the last 50 years.”

He stated, “So to be able to tell that story and to shed light on Bruce’s mental illness, my hope is that folks who are struggling and don’t know how to get the help or the will to help will see that this is a very relatable story and will seek the help they need.”

The creator believes that seeing Springsteen “going into therapy will hopefully destigmatize” the negative notion attached to therapy, especially for men.

“We didn’t speak about it really because it isn’t a message movie about mental illness, but I think it’s a part of his creative process and when you see his creative process is about mining this unresolved trauma from his childhood that we all have in one form or another.”

“I think it’s a very relatable and powerful story, but it isn’t a message movie. There’s a lot of music in the film, but it just happens to be his record Nebraska and not Born in the USA,” Cooper remarked.

It is pertinent to mention that Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is scheduled to be released on October 24, 2025.