UPDATE (Sept. 12): In an order Friday evening, Judge Lewis J. Liman denied Justin Baldoni’s request to depose Taylor Swift after the current discovery deadline, stating that Baldoni’s team “failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence” after only recently reaching out to Swift’s camp about scheduling the deposition. This means Baldoni has lost his shot at deposing Swift, foreclosing what could have been an intense court battle over whether the pop star would be forced to sit for questioning.

PREVIOUSLY: Taylor Swift‘s lawyers say the pop superstar has not agreed to sit for a deposition in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s bitter legal feud over the movie It Ends With Us, refuting claims from Baldoni’s camp that the star had consented to the sit-down.

Baldoni’s attorneys wrote in a request for a discovery schedule extension on Thursday (Sept. 11) that Swift “has agreed to appear for deposition” but cannot do so earlier than Oct. 20 because of “preexisting professional obligations” — presumably referring to the rollout of her highly anticipated twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, which arrives on Oct. 3.

But Swift’s longtime attorney Douglas Baldridge says in a Friday (Sept. 12) court filing that this is false.

“My client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes,” wrote Baldridge.

Baldoni has been saying for months that Swift’s friendship with Lively makes her a key witness in the lawsuit, in which Lively alleges Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us and then orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign after she complained.

In June, the federal judge overseeing the legal battle granted Baldoni’s request to access Swift and Lively’s text messages as part of the document discovery process. Now, Baldoni wants to depose Swift.

The current discovery schedule has all depositions concluding by the end of September, in anticipation of a March 2026 trial date. But lawyers for Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, asked for an extension on Thursday for the Swift deposition.

Swift’s reps have previously slammed Baldoni for “creating tabloid clickbait” by dragging the star into the case despite her minimal involvement in It Ends With Us. Baldridge reiterated this position in his letter to the court on Friday, writing, “Since the inception of this matter we have consistently maintained that my client has no material role in this action.”

Lively’s lawyers have similarly lambasted Baldoni for involving Swift in the litigation, writing in their own Friday court response that the strategy is designed “to generate a media spectacle.”

The Lively team is against extending the discovery cutoff to question Swift, saying it’s Baldoni’s own fault for waiting until this week to contact the singer’s counsel about scheduling her deposition.

“The Wayfarer defendants’ lack of diligence, and disrespect for Ms. Swift’s privacy and schedule, is astounding,” wrote Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb. “Ms. Swift is someone whose calendar should be presumed to be packed with professional obligations for months in advance. At any point over the past six months, the Wayfarer defendants could have noticed a deposition, served a subpoena and negotiated an agreeable time and place for this deposition. But they did not.”

Judge Lewis J. Liman has not yet ruled on Baldoni’s discovery extension request.

The fiery legal battle between Lively and Baldoni has been in full force since last December, when the actress brought sexual harassment and retaliation claims against her It Ends With Us co-star and director.

Baldoni vehemently denied the allegations and countersued Lively and her inner circle for defamation, though Judge Liman later dismissed Baldoni’s counterclaims as legally invalid. Now, only Lively’s original allegations are headed toward trial this coming spring.

The Baldoni team has sought to involve Swift since the early days of the case, writing in court filings that Lively weaponized the “influential and wealthy celebrities” in her orbit to gain leverage over him while making It Ends With Us.

This story was updated on Sept. 12 at 2:27 p.m. ET to reflect that Swift has not agreed to a deposition.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Two separate boat accidents this week in northwestern Congo killed at least 193 people dead and left scores missing, authorities and state media reported Friday

The accidents happened on Wednesday and Thursday, about 150 kilometers apart in the Equateur province.

One boat with nearly 500 passengers caught fire and capsized Thursday evening along the Congo River in the province’s Lukolela territory, Congo’s humanitarian affairs ministry said in a report. The report said 209 survivors were rescued following the accident, involving a whaleboat near the village of Malange in Lukolela territory.

A day earlier, a motorized boat capsized in the Basankusu territory of the province, killing at least 86 people, most of them students, state media reported. Several people were missing, but the reports did not give a figure of how many.

It was not immediately clear what caused either accident or whether rescue operations were continuing Friday evening.

State media attributed Wednesday’s accident to “improper loading and night navigation,” citing reports from the scene. Images that appeared to be from the scene showed villagers gathered around bodies as they mourned.

A local civil society group blamed Wednesday’s accident on the government and claimed the toll was higher. Authorities could not be immediately reached for comment.

The capsizing of boats is becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are abandoning the few available roads for cheaper, wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods.

In such trips, life jackets are rare and the vessels are usually overloaded.

Many of the boats also travel at night, complicating rescue efforts during accidents and leaving many bodies often unaccounted for.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa