Metallica Life Burns Faster at Sphere artwork. (Courtesy of Live Nation)
Metallica has announced the exact dates for the six newly added shows to the band’s upcoming Life Burns Faster residency at the high-tech Sphere venue in Las Vegas.
The updated schedule now includes performances on Oct. 8 and 10, Nov. 5 and 7, and Jan. 28 and 30, 2027. Presales for members of Metallica’s Fifth Member fan club begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT.
Those shows join the previously announced dates taking place Oct. 1 and 3, 15 and 17, 22 and 24, and 29 and 31. Each pair of performances takes place on a Thursday and a Saturday, with no repeated songs between the Thursday set and its corresponding Saturday concert.
Presales for the initially announced shows are ongoing, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. PT.
Cast of ‘Tyler Perry’s Where There’s Smoke’ begins production in Atlanta (Courtesy of Netflix)
Step aside Chicago Fire and 9-1-1, there’s a new firefighter drama series on the way. Netflix has announced Tyler Perry’s Where There’s Smoke, his latest project as part of his going partnership with the streamer.
Where There’s Smoke will follow the personal and professional lives of a group of firefighters in 16 hourlong episodes, all of which Perry wrote, directed and produced. Helping to bring the story to life are stars Tyler Lepley, Da’Vinci, Mike Merrill, Eltony Williams, Brittany S. Hall, Brock O’Hurn and Karen Obilom, who have all worked on previous Tyler Perry projects, as well as real-life fire captain Joe Hunter, Mariah Goodie, Jordan Rodriguez and Judi Moon.
Angi Bones and Tony Strickland of Tyler Perry Studios also lend their hand, serving as producers for Where There’s Smoke, which has officially kicked off production in Atlanta.
In the meantime, part 2 of the second season of Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black is set to make its premiere on March 19.
Julian Casablancas of The Strokes performs during the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on October 04, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Amy E. Price/FilmMagic)
The Strokes are headlining the 2026 Outside Lands festival, taking place Aug. 7-9 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
The bill also includes Turnstile, The xx, Djo, Empire of the Sun, Geese, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, Wet Leg, Lucy Dacus, The Temper Trap and Not for Radio, among may others.
Presales begin Tuesday at noon PT. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday at noon PT.
Megan Moroney and Ella Langley are currently making history as the first women ever to top the all-genre Billboard 200 and Hot 100 at the same time.
It has happened before, however — just never with two female artists.
The first time was April 30, 1977, when the Eagles’ Hotel California reigned atop the album tally and Glen Campbell’s “Southern Nights” topped the song chart.
To find the next three instances, you have to fast forward all the way to the next century.
In July 2023, Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was #1, just as Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” reached the pinnacle of the song tally. A little more than a year later in August 2024, Post Malone and Shaboozey picked up the baton with F-1 Trillion and “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
The fourth instance would come a couple months later, with Shaboozey’s song still hanging on at #1, and Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken topping the album ranking.
Next up, we’ll all be watching to see if Megan’s Cloud 9 and Ella’s “Choosin’ Texas” can hang on to their titles for another week.
Elton John and David Furnish attend the press conference during Elton John AIDS Foundation’s 33rd Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on March 2, 2025 in West Hollywood. (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Elton John AIDS Foundation)
Elton John: He’s not just like us. We’ve got our family photos framed on a shelf, but he’s got hisfamily photo hanging in one of London’s most famous museums.
A portrait of Elton, his husband David Furnish, their sons Elijah Furnish-John, 13, and Zachary Furnish-John, 15, plus their two Labrador Retrievers, Joseph and Jacob, has been unveiled at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The portrait was taken by photographer Catherine Opie, who has a new exhibit opening at the museum.
The U.K. paperThe Telegraph quotes Elton and David as saying, “To have our family photographed by Catherine Opie and on display at the National Portrait Gallery is a huge honour. We are huge admirers of her work, and proud to have her beautiful and poignant images in our collection.”
The photo was taken at the couple’s home in Old Windsor, England. According to the paper, Opie took the portrait three days before Christmas in the library of the house. She’s quoted as saying, “It is truly an honour to photograph Elton, David, Zachary and Elijah. For me, it represents the humanity of what family can be.”
American travelers in the Middle East like Shekinah Lee are speaking out. Lee spoke with ABC News via video. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — American travelers are sharing their stories of being stranded in the Middle East after the joint U.S.-Israel attack against Iran triggered retaliatory strikes, impacting at least 11 countries in the region.
President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Saturday, with strikes targeting military and government sites. Iran has since responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases in Gulf nations and American diplomatic facilities.
Shekinah Lee, who lives in Chicago, told ABC News she and her boyfriend had been traveling in the United Arab Emirates and are now trying to return home.
“I’m anxious, I’m scared, and I’m desperate to get home,” Lee said Tuesday morning.
According to Lee, she hasn’t been able to get any answers from her airline about flights back to the U.S.
“We’re not getting any support from our airline. We’ve been trying to get in contact with them but due to the volume of the situation, they’re not able to field calls, so none of our questions are getting answered,” Lee said.
In a statement Tuesday on social media, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the agency is in touch with thousands of Americans abroad and working to secure flights to help.
“Yes, the State Department is actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East,” Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, wrote on X in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ve been in direct contact with nearly 3,000 Americans abroad. American citizens should call [the State Department] for assistance with departure options.”
The State Department also issued instructions for travelers abroad on its own social media account Monday, urging Americans to contact the State Department.
While Lee and her boyfriend wait for a flight out of Dubai, she said they had to stay overnight in their hotel parking garage until they could find further accommodation.
“The parking garage was packed with families from all over the world, just desperate to know what’s going on,” Lee said. “Right now, our priority is getting a flight out of here.”
American citizen Alyssa Ramos is using social media to document her struggles returning to the U.S. Ramos shared on Instagram that she and a group of friends paid $1,200 for a nearly eight-hour journey over the land border from Kuwait City to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, Ramos said in an Instagram story that her plane from Riyadh never left the airport.
“I’ve never been more happy and also more scared to be on a plane,” Ramos wrote in part. “There were attacks here in Riyadh earlier today and they usually strike more at night … please keep sending your positive energy and protective thoughts.”
The State Department is urging Americans to exercise caution worldwide “following the launch of U.S. combat operations in Iran.”
“Americans worldwide and especially in the Middle East should follow the guidance in the latest security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. They may experience travel disruptions due to periodic airspace closures,” the department advised.
For the United Arab Emirates, the State Department has set a level 3 travel advisory, ordered the “departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of government personnel on March 2,” and is advising Americans to reconsider travel to the country “due to the threat of armed conflict and terrorism.”
The State Department has similar warnings for Americans in at least five other Middle Eastern countries.
In Beirut, Lebanon, drone strikes have been continuing in the capital city, according to Samer Bawab, an American citizen living in the city.
“I haven’t been able to sleep very well within the last three days, only a few hours per night,” Bawab told ABC News. “That’s because we’re getting awoken in the middle of the night sometimes by loud explosions and being caught off guard.”
Former Team USA basketball player Destiny Littleton said in an interview that aired Monday on “Good Morning America” that she is in Israel where she plays professionally.
Littleton said she could “hear the interceptor missiles … blow up the missiles coming towards us and that was very scary,” adding, “We’re in survival mode.”
American Kristy Ellmer told ABC News that she and her partner Matt Carwell were in Dubai on vacation when the strikes against Iran began. She said they’re uncertain when they will be able to return home to New Hampshire.
“It was definitely very destabilizing … you could actually feel it and you could hear it,” Ellmer said of the explosions.
The State Department recommends Americans check each country’s Travel Information Page for developing details and entry requirements and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, for safety updates and information on how to get help in an emergency.
Pigs are raised by farmers in a rural area of Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, China, July 11, 2022. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Over the weekend, health officials in Spain reportedly informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of a possible human case of swine flu that may have been caused by person-to-person transmission.
The WHO’s reference laboratory for influenza in Britain is conducting additional tests to confirm the diagnosis, according to Reuters. The patient in Spain did not have direct contact with pigs, according to the wire agency.
Even though health officials reported that the risk to the general public is low, public health experts noted that some people may be concerned about spread after the U.S. experienced dozens of human bird flu cases in 2024 and 2025.
They told ABC News that, while the Spain case may put those who work in public health or who live in the area where it was detected on alert, widespread concern is not necessary yet.
“When we’re in any flu season, we see these sporadic swine flu cases globally,” Dr. Meghan Davis, an associate professor in the department of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News. “If you’re in the immediate area, certainly pay really close attention to any directives from public health authorities, local health departments, et cetera.”
Davis emphasized the importance of staying informed when it comes to potential public health dangers.
“But someone who’s living at a distance, who is not working directly with animals, just having the awareness to pay attention to any health messaging around this for further guidance, that’s what I recommend,” she said.
What is swine flu?
Swine flu is a respiratory disease commonly found in pigs, which is caused by influenza type A viruses. Just like influenza viruses found in humans, there are different subtypes and strains of swine influenza viruses.
Humans are not typically infected with swine flu viruses, but there have been reports of human infections with influenza viruses that normally circulate in swine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Notably, in 2009, the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic — sometimes referred to as the swine flu pandemic and caused by bird, swine and human flu viruses — led to an estimated 60.8 million cases, 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the U.S., CDC data shows.
Occasionally, these virus strains “spill over and can infect humans, but the origin is in swine, and so the majority of these non-human influenza variants are infecting humans because they are in very close contact with swine, so they’re in the pig or pork industry,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at University of California, Davis Health, told ABC News.
“Those are the majority of cases, and most cases are transmitted directly to humans and there’s very few cases that are human-to-human transmission,” he added.
Should we be concerned?
Davis said she considers the Spain case to be of high concern for public health but not a major concern for the public currently.
“What that means is, those of us whose job it is to think about and worry about these always worry a bit more when there’s the potential for human-to-human transmission because that may also be a signal that the virus itself is showing characteristics of adaptation,” Davis said.
This is because the more adapted to human-to-human transmission a swine flu virus is, the greater the potential it has to go from person to person without weakening.
“But the public, there are some criteria that I think about in terms of public concern,” Davis added. “If you start hearing about something, for example, like the early days of COVID when it was clear that there were clusters that were circulating in people and that was going person to person, when you start to see a lot of that, that’s when you started to get much more concern.”
Blumberg agrees that there’s no need for major concern yet and that the Spain case points to the need for more surveillance because of the virus’ potential to mutate.
Additionally, researchers will need to characterize the current strain to see if it is more easily transmitted from human to human, he said.
“There’s additional studies that can be done locally to see if there’s been asymptomatic infection of the population that hasn’t been detected yet,” Blumberg said. “And that will help determine whether there’s been more widespread circulation. … I think it does point to the importance of supporting public health so that they can get a handle on this to see if this is something that requires additional attention.”
Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings tour admat (Courtesy of Live Nation)
Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings are set to tour the U.S. as The Guess Who for the first time in 23 years.
The Canadian duo has announced dates for a U.S. leg of the Takin’ it Back Tour, with former Eagles guitarist Don Felder on board as special guest.
The dates kick off June 25 in Shakopee, Minnesota, outside Minneapolis, and wraps Aug. 22 in Seattle, Washington.
“Randy and I are incredibly grateful that our music has endured all these years,” Cummings said in a statement. “Knowing that people still want to hear these songs live means everything to us, and when we go out on stage, our goal is to truly honor the music.”
Bachman added, “I’m really excited about reuniting with Burton and touring again as The Guess Who. He noted, “We created an amazing body of work together, along with memories that have lasted for decades, and those songs are still as strong as ever. I can’t wait to sing them with everyone very soon.”
A Citi presale for tickets begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time, followed by an artist presale at 12 p.m. local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
Before the U.S. shows, Burton and Cummings will launch the Takin’ it Back Tour in Canada, starting May 26 in Moncton. A complete list of dates can be found at TheGuessWho.com.
Jennifer Hudson attends the 8th Annual American Black Film Festival Honors at SLS Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Beverly Hills on February 16, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Savion Washington/WireImage)
Jennifer Hudson may be your favorite daytime television host, but she’s getting back to the music this summer when she joins Josh Groban for a few of his North American shows. In an interview with People, she says she’s excited for the opportunity “just to perform again.”
“Music is the base for me,” she says. “I can’t wait to get back to the musical base in concert form.”
“That is what I’m most looking forward to doing right now, is getting out there on tour and performing,” she continues. “[There’s] nothing like it.”
On whether boyfriend Common will make an appearance during her set, JHud says, “You know what? We’ll see. We’ll see. I wouldn’t count that out.
“How the music hits us is how we respond,” she goes on. “So, if it’s on his spirit, my spirit, [our] spirit, you may get to see that.”
Josh’s 2026 North American Summer tour starts June 2 in Montreal and wraps nearly a month later with a July 3 show in Salt Lake City. Tickets are currently on sale.
Ryan Hurst as Kratos and Callum Vinson as Atreus on the set of ‘God of War.’ (Leah Gallo/Prime Video)
The creator of the God of War video game is making his thoughts on the upcoming TV series adaptation known.
David Jaffe, who is the game designer and director of the Playstation video game franchise, recently shared a YouTube video criticizing the first-look photo Prime Video released of its new series adaptation of God of War.
Jaffe said the photo, which features protagonist Kratos, as played by Ryan Hurst, in the woods with his son, Atreus, played by Callum Vinson, is “so bad in so many ways.”
“I’m sure everybody’s trying real hard,” Jaffe said, before laughing and saying, “It’s so dumb.”
Jaffe continued, saying that although he does not like the first-look photo of the series, he believes in the talent involved in creating the show.
“But let’s be incredibly clear, OK? Two things can be true. This can be a terrible image, and it is. It is so bad in so many ways,” Jaffe said. “And Ron Moore is awesome, who is the showrunner … This guy is a juggernaut of a talented fellow. I have absolutely no doubt it is going to be a good show.”
The God of War creator then went on to say that he does not mind that Hurst does not exactly resemble the video game version of Kratos, but instead, he takes issue with the expression and pose he uses in the photo.
“Kratos in this pose with this expression, not the guy’s face, but this expression, he just looks stupid,” Jaffe said. “If you’re going to reveal, to most people, a brand new character that you hope is going to carry your series, for the first time, and they’ve never really seen this before, and this is the way you introduce them?”
God of War has already received a two-season order from Prime Video.
ABC Audio has reached out to Prime Video for comment.
