Singer Paul Rodgers was born in Middlesbrough, England.
Rodgers would go on to form the rock band Free in 1968 with drummer Simon Kirke, guitarist Paul Kossoff and bassist Andy Fraser. The band landed a #1 hit with ”All Right Now,” which Rodgers co-wrote with Fraser.
After their breakup, Rodgers and Kirke formed the supergroup Bad Company with Mott The Hoople’s Mick Ralphs and the King Crimson’s Boz Burrell.
Bad Company’s self-titled debut album was released in 1974 and hit #1 thanks to such classic songs as “Can’t Get Enough” and the title track. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.
After leaving Bad Company in 1982, Rodgers launched a successful solo career and fronted the band The Law, featuring former Faces drummer Kenney Jones. He also toured and recorded an album with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers.
In 2023, Rodgers released Midnight Rose, his first solo album in almost 25 years, and revealed to the world he had suffered a series of strokes starting in 2016 that nearly took away his ability to sing.
Gil Gerard as Captain William “Buck” Rogers (Photo by Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Actor Gil Gerard, best known for playing the title role in the sci-fi series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century has died, according to a Facebook post by his wife, Janet Gerard. He was 82.
“Early this morning Gil – my soulmate – lost his fight with a rare and viciously aggressive form of cancer,” she wrote. “From the moment when we knew something was wrong to his death this morning was only days.”
She added, “No matter how many years I got to spend with him it would have ever been enough. Hold the ones you have tightly and love them fiercely.”
Janet also posted a message from Gil on his Facebook page that read, “My life has been an amazing journey. The opportunities I’ve had, the people I’ve met and the love I have given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying,” adding, “It’s been a great ride, but inevitably one that comes to a close as mine has.”
Finally, he offered, “Don’t waste your time on anything that doesn’t thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere in the cosmos.”
Gerard starred on NBC’s Buck Rogers from 1979 to 1981. The two-hour pilot of the series was originally released in theaters, before the network picked it up as a series. The show centered around an astronaut, William “Buck” Rogers, who gets frozen in space for over 500 years and is woken up in the year 2491.
His early career included a three-year stint on the NBC soap opera The Doctors.
Gerard was married five times; his third marriage was to actress Connie Sellecca. They were married from 1979 to 1987 and had one child together.
The trailer for season 2 of The Artful Dodger has arrived. Hulu has released the official trailer for the new season of the Australian comedy-adventure series starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis and MaiaMitchell. The show returns on Feb. 10 …
Simu Liu is about to make his Broadway debut. The actor, known for his starring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, will take to the stage on the Great White Way for the first time in the hit comedy Oh, Mary! Liu will play Mary’s Teacher in his upcoming run in the show, which is set for Feb. 3 to April 21 …
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt is set to make her feature film acting debut in an upcoming holiday rom-com. She made the announcement on her Instagram, telling fans, “Here’s your Christmas present…but you can’t open it till next year.” She also posted an Instagram Reel about all of the unsuccessful auditions she took part in that led her to this new holiday film, which has the working title All for Love …
In this photo illustration a man holds a iPhone, that shows Netflix, Warner Bros and Paramount streaming apps on his phone screen on December 9, 2025 in Bristol, England. (Anna Barclay/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The board at Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said early on Wednesday that its members had unanimously recommended that shareholders reject Paramount Skydance’s bid for the company in favor of Netflix’s earlier bid.
“Following a careful evaluation of Paramount’s recently launched tender offer, the Board concluded that the offer’s value is inadequate, with significant risks and costs imposed on our shareholders,” Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., board chair, said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — When Alyssa Burkett arrived at her Texas workplace one fall morning in 2020, the 24-year-old mother of one didn’t know a deadly plan against her was already unfolding.
On the morning of Oct. 2 that year, Burkett pulled into the parking lot of the Greentree Apartments in Carrollton, where she worked as an assistant office manager, right before tragedy struck.
A new “20/20” episode, “Ride or Die,” airing Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 10 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
According to authorities, a black Ford Expedition pulled up next to her, and the darkly dressed driver shot her through her car window. Miraculously, Burkett managed to get out of, but as she tried to escape into her office, the assailant stabbed and slashed her 44 times.
Carrollton Police Detective Jeremy Chevallier, who responded to the crime, told “20/20” that the scene was extremely disturbing.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years,” he said. “When I arrived, it was the most brutal scene I think I’d ever been to.”
Given the violent nature of the crime, investigators believed it could have been a crime of passion.
Burkett had been engaged in a custody battle with Andrew Beard over their 1-year-old daughter Willow. Beard, who was 10 years older than Burkett and worked as a power tools salesman, had initially met her online, according to investigators.
The day after the killing, while canvassing a neighborhood near Beard’s home, police noticed a vehicle consistent with the one driven by Burkett’s assailant. Upon searching the car, they found a hole drilled into the side of the car that could have been a gun port alongside dark colored makeup and a fake beard, officials said.
Beard soon surrendered himself to the Carrollton Police Department, and he eventually faced federal charges and pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, using a dangerous weapon resulting in death and discharging a firearm in Burkett’s death. He was sentenced to 43 years in prison in May 2023.
However, Beard claimed to authorities that his fiancée Holly Elkins, whom he started dating in 2020, was actually the one who masterminded Burkett’s killing.
Beard pointed authorities to texts between him and Elkins where she said “I need to know you’re my ride or die” and “I’m not coming home unless I know you did this.”
In July 2023, investigators believed that they had collected enough evidence to charge Elkins. She was coming back from a trip in the Dominican Republic when police arrested her at the airport in Miami.
At her trial, Elkins pleaded not guilty and argued that it wasn’t her who committed the crime or installed trackers on Burkett’s vehicle as authorities alleged. Her attorneys also rejected the notion that she was the “mastermind” behind the killing.
She was convicted of conspiracy to stalk, stalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death, and brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and given two consecutive life sentences.
In December 2025, Elkins had her conviction on the firearm charge overturned on appeal, reducing her sentence to life without parole.
In an exclusive new interview with “20/20,” Beard said that his biggest regret was letting down his daughter.
“My message to my daughter is simply this: Willow, my sweet baby girl. You instantly became our world. I’m sorry for letting you down the way I did, honey,” he said. “Maybe one day you can forgive me for that … I love you with every inch of my heart. I truly do.”
Beard has not seen or had any contact with his daughter since he was arrested. Teresa Collard, Burkett’s mother, adopted Willow, whom she told “20/20” reminds her of her late daughter.
“They are a spitting image of each other. I mean, even the way Willow walks … Willow turns around and walks off and I see Alyssa walking off,” Collard said.
Men work in construction in Manhattan on December 16, 2025 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal government released two major economic reports this week, easing a backlog of data pent up by the 43-day government shutdown.
The data flashed some warning signs, showing the unemployment rate had ticked up to its highest level in four years and retail sales had stalled at the outset of the holiday season, some analysts told ABC News. Even so, the reports offered bright spots and elicited a dose of skepticism about numbers released after a weeks-long delay, analysts added.
The latest snapshot of the economy arrives at a wobbly period, landing amid a slowdown of hiring alongside an uptick of inflation.
The jobs report on Tuesday “paints a sobering picture of a job market that may officially be turning frigid after a prolonged cooling period,” Laura Ullrich, director of economic research in North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told ABC News in a statement.
Even so, Ullrich acknowledged, “the incomplete and unconventional jobs report may always need an asterisk attached to it.”
Mark Blyth, professor of political economy at Brown University, echoed that view, saying the fresh numbers should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.
“Eventually you’re just left with salt,” Blyth told ABC News.
The U.S. added 64,000 jobs in November, which marked a significant decline from 119,000 jobs added in September, the most recent month for which complete data is available, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6% in November from 4.4% in September. Unemployment remains low by historical standards but has inched up to its highest level since 2021.
Partial data for October — limited by the government shutdown — showed a staggering loss of 105,000 jobs that month, though the decline owed largely to employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer by the federal government earlier this year.
“The October payrolls figure is jarring,” Elyse Ausenbaugh, head of investment strategy at JP Morgan Wealth Management, told ABC News in a statement.
A retail sales report on Tuesday also sounded a cautionary note about consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Retail sales were left unchanged in October from September, meaning performance remained flat despite the ramp up of the holiday season, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.
“October was supposed to be the big holiday shopping kickoff,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told ABC News. “About half of holiday shoppers planned to begin making purchases before the end of October, but consumer pullbacks elsewhere left October retail sales right where they were in September.”
“Retail sales seem to be losing momentum at a crucial time of year,” Rossman added.
To be sure, the fresh data offered up some positive signs. As in previous months, the health care sector stood out as a robust source of hiring in November, adding 46,000 jobs, the BLS said. The construction and social assistance industries also contributed to the uptick in hiring.
Unemployment ticked up due to a larger number of people searching for work and in turn counting toward the tabulation, rather than a rise in the count of people out of work altogether, the Royal Bank of Canada economics team told ABC News in a statement.
On Tuesday, the White House touted continued growth in the labor market.
“The strong jobs report shows how President Trump is fixing the damage caused by Joe Biden and creating a strong, America First economy in record time. Since President Trump took office, 100% of the job growth has come in the private sector and among native-born Americans — exactly where it should be,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Retail sales, meanwhile, demonstrated some areas of strength. Core retail sales, which strips out volatile items like auto fuel, exceeded economists’ expectations, Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, told ABC News in a statement.
“Even if October’s retail sales data is dated, it reinforces a central theme for investors and the Fed: The resilience of US consumers,” Kenwell added.
The fresh jobs data arrived less than a week after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point in an effort to boost the sluggish labor market. The move amounted to the third rate cut this year, bringing the Fed’s benchmark rate to a level between 3.5% and 3.75%.
Interest rates have dropped significantly from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell touted the rate cut as an effort to improve the labor market, but he suggested the central bank may be cautious about further rate reductions.
“We’re well-positioned to wait and see how the economy evolves,” Powell said.
(ST. CLOUD, Minn.) — For Justice Anne McKeig, the high-stakes endeavor of deciding cases on the Minnesota Supreme Court is increasingly an exercise in stress management and risk tolerance.
“It is an overwhelming responsibility,” said McKeig, an amateur musician and the first indigenous woman justice anywhere in the country.
An unprecedented surge of violent threats directed at state and federal judges in Minnesota and across the country has created taxing new dimensions to life as a judge and to upholding rule of law in America.
“I think people are extremely unhappy, and they don’t know where to take out their anger, or how to take out their anger in a way that is not involving violence,” McKeig told ABC News.
Nearly three quarters of Minnesota judges have reported receiving threats, according to a 2024 report from the Minnesota District Court Judges Association. About as many say they fear for their safety because of the job they do.
“Also, it’s the public response to the decisions that we make,” McKeig added. “We’re in the press more than some of our district court colleagues, but all of our families get impacted by this.”
As courts at all levels of the judiciary raise alarm about an influx of vitriolic phone calls, swatting and doxxing incidents involving judges’ personal homes, and social media posts threatening bodily harm, Justice McKeig says many arbiters of justice have been searching for new ways to cope.
“I thought, OK, we need to find out a way to have some fun, because this is a pretty serious job,” McKeig said.
Her answer is called the Reasonable Doubts, an all-judge rock band that meets twice a month to blow off steam and jam together inside an old law library.
“The job is tough, and you have to have outlets for something to get you out of your own head every once in a while,” said retired Judge Dale Harris, who plays guitar.
The group of 9 from across the state plays classics from Johnny Cash to contemporary hits from Elle King, part of a diverse repertoire that has a decidedly law and order vibe.
“Being a judge is not only stressful, but there’s a lot of secondary trauma. We sit through trials where you have victims testify who have suffered through some really difficult criminal experiences,” said Sarah Hennessy, an associate justice of the state Supreme Court.
“This is therapy for us. This is a way to use something creative to feel better,” she said.
The judges — which hail from rural, suburban, and urban communities and include Republican and Democrat appointees — have also begun performing in public, taking the stage at community gatherings.
“I think that it shows people a side of judges that they don’t expect,” McKeig said. “It’s like, well, no, actually, we’re people.”
The band is believed to be the only of its kind in the country — heightening public exposure of the judges at a time when safety risks have kept many others shying from the spotlight.
Recent cases of political violence in Minnesota, in particular, have unsettled McKeig and her peers. Earlier this year, a gunman killed the top Democrat in the state House and her husband, and wounded a state senator and his wife, both at their homes.
“I tell my kids, you are to never acknowledge that I’m your mom,” McKeig said, “and that’s a sad statement. If somebody says, is your, mother Anne McKeig, you say no. I don’t want them to get hurt.”
Federal judges have also experienced a wave of threats, particularly those who have handed down rulings against the Trump administration.
Federal District Court Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island, who recently ordered the Trump administration to pay out SNAP food benefits in full during the shutdown, says he’s had six credible death threats against his life.
“I’ve been on the bench almost 15 years, and I must say it’s the one time that actually shook my faith in the judicial system, in the rule of law, in the work we do,” McConnell said earlier this year during a rare public forum of active federal judges speaking publicly about security concerns.
Dozens of federal and state judges nationwide have reported cases of unsolicited pizza deliveries to their personal homes as acts of intimidation.
A delivery to Judge McConnell’s home was in the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of federal Judge Ester Salas of New Jersey who was murdered in 2020 by a disgruntled lawyer posing as a delivery man outside Salas’ home.
“To hear that my beautiful son’s name — everything that Danny stands for is love and light, you know — and to hear people using it as a weapon, weaponizing his name to inflict fear on Judge McConnell,” said an emotional Judge Salas during the forum. “Now Florida judges, state judges that are just doing their jobs, are getting pizzas in my beautiful boy’s name.”
Members of the Reasonable Doubts say they hope the band can inject a spirit of humanity into divisive public rhetoric around courts and judges and maybe even deepen respect for those tasked with upholding rule of law.
“You can have disagreements, but it doesn’t mean that we have to be at war with each other,” McKeig said.
An Israeli flag and flowers are laid outside Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach as people gather to mourn in the wake of a mass shooting on December 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Audrey Richardson/Getty Images)
(SYDNEY) — The 24-year-old man who allegedly opened fire alongside his father on a Jewish gathering at Australia’s Bondi Beach has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and dozens of other offenses, the New South Wales Police said on Wednesday.
Naveed Akram has been charged with 59 offenses, including 40 counts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder, police said in a statement.
Akram, who remains under police guard in a hospital, was expected to appear in court on Wednesday via a video link, police said.
He allegedly opened fire alongside his father, Sajid Akram, 50, at an event at the beach on Sunday, killing fifteen people and injuring another 41, according to officials. The alleged assailant’s father, who was also alleged to have fired on the group, was shot and killed by police, law enforcement said.
The NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team is leading an investigation into the shooting, after Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon declared it to be terror-related.
“Police will allege in court the man engaged in conduct that caused death, serious injury and endangered life to advance a religious cause and cause fear in the community,” the investigators said in announcing the charges. “Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS, a listed terrorist organisation in Australia.”
Akram has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder, 40 courts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to person with intent to murder, discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, causing a public display of a prohibited terrorist organization’s symbol and placing an explosion in or near a building with intent to cause harm, according to police.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters Tuesday that the father and son traveled to the Philippines in the weeks leading up to the attack and may have been inspired by the ISIS terrorist organization.
“It would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organization, by ISIS,” Albanese told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.
Twenty of those who were injured in the attack were still being treated at hospitals across Sydney, officials said on Wednesday. Two of the injured were police officers. A constable was listed on Wednesday in critical but stable condition, while a probationary constable was listed in stable condition, police said.
“Doctors. Nurses. Surgeons. Radiologists. Pathologists. And so many more. We’ve seen humanity at its very best, as you’ve worked tirelessly to save lives,” Albanese said on Wednesday on social media. “We can’t thank you enough.”
Brett Young & Taylor Mills Young (Disney/Michael Le Brecht)
As the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season consumes many of us these days, take comfort from Brett Young.
Even he has trouble finding that perfect gift, which is complicated by the fact that his wife, Taylor Mills Young, is so good at it.
“She’s like the most thoughtful gift giver,” Brett says. “I’m sure that no matter how well I do, I’ll still be like in the shadows of whatever her idea was.”
“And it’s always even more special because I don’t know when she had time to, like, think it up and make it happen,” he continues. “So, it’s demoralizing. I can never win the gift-giving game, but I’ve surrendered to it at this point.”
Brett and Taylor tied the knot in November 2018 and have two daughters, 6-year-old Presley Young and 4-year-old Rowan Young.
