Luke Combs has both a new album and a new baby on the horizon in 2026, all while his latest hit, “Days Like These,” seems on track to be his next #1.
“You know, it’s a pretty simple tune and it was literally born on just this day where I was just having a great day,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Man, you know, I wish I had more of these. I’ve got to write about this to some extent.'”
His sixth album, the follow-up to 2024’s Fathers & Sons, is also getting its finishing touches.
“New record’s done,” he told ABC Audio just before November’s CMA Awards. “I’m done with my part. It’s not quite turned in yet, but it should be turned in in the coming weeks and be out sometime early next year.”
“So I’m excited for people to hear it,” he adds. “It’s gonna be really good, I think.”
As for Luke’s third child, he and wife Nicole Combs have only revealed it’s due sometime this winter.
The Actor statue on display before the 24th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 21, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Turner)
Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie and Abbott Elementary actress Janelle James have been tapped to present the nominations for the 32nd annual Actor Awards.
The live nomination announcement will take place on Jan. 7 at 1:00 p.m. ET from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson Screening Room. It will stream on YouTube.
In addition to Storrie and James, the nominations announcement will also feature Grey’s Anatomy actor JasonGeorge and Grand Hotel actress Elizabeth McLaughlin as the stunt presenters.
SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin will also appear during the nominations announcement broadcast to give opening remarks.
The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA is the new name for the ceremony formerly known as the SAG Awards.
According to the guild, which announced the name change on Nov. 14, 2025, this decision was made in order to align the show’s name with the physical statuette itself, which is known as The Actor.
“Evolving the show’s name to align with the award itself made obvious sense,” SAG-AFTRA said at the time in a FAQ section on its website. “We wanted to provide clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about for our domestic and global audiences – we honor actors in film and television. Laser-focusing the name on those two things became the clearest and most straightforward path for this new chapter of the show.”
The guild also said that as the awards ceremony has expanded its global audience due to streaming on Netflix, the timing felt right to make the name change so as to “step confidently into the show’s next era.”
Busta Rhymes at 2025 Espys (Disney/Frank Micelotta)
Busta Rhymes is entering 2026 with a sense of happiness he’s eager to share. Speaking to ABC’s On the Red Carpet, he says that fans can expect exactly that from him this year.
“My 2026 is definitely going to be filled with an abundance of sharing this happiness that I’ve been feeling. I just want to share this joy. I want everybody to feel just as happy, if not more happy than how I’m feeling, because I’m extremely happy and I’m grateful to everything and everyone that contributed to that happiness that I finally figured out exists for real,” he shares.
He says he also aims to use his music “to shift the climate” amid “what’s happening in the environment right now,” noting, “We don’t need to do a deep dive.”
Much like his performance at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest with DJ Cassidy, Wyclef Jean and T.I., Busta says his 2026 will feature more collaborations.
“We’re gonna have an unparalleled 2026 because this is what we need to show more of. This coming together, this collective effort, common destiny, common cause this united front of being able to give people the smoke no matter what level of smoke, through what we do and through what we love and that’s what it’s about,” he shares. “So just look forward to a whole lot more of that 2026.”
Tim McIlrath of Rise Against performs onstage during day 2 of Warped Tour at Shoreline Waterfront on July 27, 2025 in Long Beach, California. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath didn’t swing away his chance to play a historic guitar.
The Chicago punks recently visited the Martin Guitar Museum in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, which houses the very first Martin guitar ever made.
Upon being presented with the instrument, McIlrath sat down with it and started strumming the Rise Against song “Swing Life Away” while singing the first verse.
You can watch footage of the performance now via the Rise Against Facebook.
Martin would later manufacture the 1959 D-18E that Kurt Cobain famously played during Nirvana‘s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance. That particular guitar sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction in 2020.
Rise Against will launch a U.S. tour in March in support of their latest album, 2025’s Ricochet.
Miley Cyrus attends the 2025 Academy Awards (Disney/Scott Kirkland)
It’s been a while since Miley Cyrus had a major acting role. She played herself in the 2022 TV movie Dolly Parton’s A Magic Mountain Christmas and had an uncredited part in the 2024 film Drive Away Dolls, but the last non-musical thing she actually starred in was a 2019 episode of Black Mirror. So, what would it take her to get back behind the camera?
“If the opportunity or the script or the character was right or was designed in a way that I would make sense [in it], I’m totally there,” she told Entertainment Tonight.
But right now, Miley is focused on getting an Oscar nomination for her Avatar: Fire and Ash song “Dream As One,” and preparing something for the 20th anniversary of Hannah Montana, which is coming up on March 24.
Asked about her plans for the latter on a red carpet on Sunday, Miley told Variety, “We’re working hard on ’em.” Asked to give “one little tease,” Miley shook her long, blond, Hannah-esque hair and said, “You see the bangs!”
KATSEYE pose in the press room during the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 07, 2025 in Elmont, New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for MTV)
The Grammys are Feb. 1, and KATSEYE is nominated for the best new artist Grammy, up against artists including Olivia Dean, Alex Warren, sombr, Lola Young and Addison Rae.
Group member Sophia Lafortezatells People that initially, they thought the idea of them being nominated for a Grammy at this point in their career was “impossible” and “just insane,” so when they got the good news, she says, “We died.”
“It’s literally just the biggest, biggest honor … When we found out, we were all in tears, screaming, crying,” adds KATSEYE’s Lara Raj.
And if they do win? Lara says, “First, we’re all going to probably call our parents … because most of us are away from our families. And then, I don’t know, every time after we have a performance, we love to sleep. So, we might sleep.”
“But I think if we win a Grammy, we’re going to need to have a party,” she adds. “We’re going to need to do some celebration, the six of us, for sure.”
As for what 2026 holds for the “Gabriela” group, Sophia says, “We’re definitely working on a lot of new things and a lot of new music, and we never really do want to spoil anything too crazy. All we can say is for EYEKONS to standby and continue to hang on with what we’re going to release, because we plan to do this for a long time.”
Musician Mike Garson, former member of David Bowie’s touring band, performs onstage during the second annual Above Ground concert benefiting MusiCares at The Fonda Theatre on September 16, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
Saturday marks 10 years since David Bowie’s death and his longtime pianist Mike Garson is opening up about the last time he spoke with the rock legend.
Garson tells Gold Derby that their last conversation was quite hopeful, despite the fact that Bowie was secretly battling cancer.
“It was only a few weeks before. He reached out to me, talking about continuing the trilogy of the Outside album,” Garson says, referring to Bowie’s 1995 album, and planned sequels that never happened. “He never gave up hope. … He was dying, and yet he was saying, ‘Let’s do this.’ So, of course, I got excited.”
Garson also recalls the last message he got from Bowie, noting he knew it was the end even though he was unaware of Bowie’s illness.
He says he had just listened to Bowie’s discography which left him “awestruck,” prompting him to send Bowie an email. Garson says, “And within three seconds, he emailed me back, saying, ‘Mike, we did a great body of work together.’”
Garson said the “finality” of that statement had him telling his wife “that’s the last time I’m going to hear form him.” “I don’t know if it was just my intuition,” he explained. “I did not know he was dying then, because he kept [his illness] secret from everyone. … But we had a very special connection.”
Garson is set to headline a trio of shows, Bowie’s Piano Man: A Decade in the Stars, at the Sun Rose West Hollywood in Los Angeles Jan. 8-10. The shows will celebrate Bowie’s birthday and the 10th anniversary of his death, and will feature guest appearances by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Bowie touring bassist Carmine Rojas and others.
Noel Gallagher performs during the Oasis Live ’25 world tour at MetLife Stadium on August 31, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
It doesn’t sound like James Bond will be looking back in anger anytime soon.
Following U.K.tabloid reports that Oasis is being lined up to record the theme song for the next film in the long-running spy franchise, Noel Gallagher tells talkSPORT that they haven’t been approached for the gig.
“This James Bond thing? What, Oasis? No,” Gallagher replied when asked about the rumors.
However, that doesn’t mean Gallagher wouldn’t be open to an Oasis Bond song.
“It’d be an absolute honor,” Gallagher said. “I think those kind of things should be done by Brits, and not Yanks.”
If Oasis did end up recording a new Bond song, it would mark their first fresh material since the band’s 2025 reunion tour, which saw Noel and his formerly estranged brother Liam Gallagher sharing the live stage for the first time in 16 years. The “Wonderwall” outfit hasn’t announced any future plans since completing the run in November, instead declaring, “There will now be a pause for a period of reflection.”
A$AP Rocky is setting the tone for his Don’t Be Dumb era with the release of the album’s lead single, “Punk Rocky.”
The indie, subversive track arrives with a music video directed by The Three Musketeers made up of Rocky, Folkert Verdoorn and Simon Becks. In the visual, Rocky, sporting pink hair rollers, rehearses in a garage with his punk rock band before police interrupt, slamming the group against a car and checking their pockets, before letting them go. Rocky ends up with a black eye, which becomes a character of its own, as it sings throughout the video.
As the band resumes rehearsing, they spark mixed reactions from their neighbors. One neighbor, played by Winona Ryder, embraces the noise, dancing along and even bringing them a treat, while another is visibly upset, triggering a fight that lands the band in jail.
After taking mugshots, the group turns up inside their cell before eventually being released on bail. They later perform a concert on the roof of a house, where Ryder’s character is spotted in the crowd.
As Rocky tries to reduce the swelling of his eye, he’s interrupted by a man crashing through his window. Rocky escapes through another window, fires his gun and is arrested once again. While handcuffed in the back of a police car, he attempts to light his lighter, and the video ends in what appears to be a crash or explosion.
Now available on YouTube, the “Punk Rocky” video brings the Don’t Be Dumb artwork to life, featuring several of Rocky’s alter egos, specifically five of the six depicted. It also features cameos from Danny Elfman, Thundercat, A$AP Nast and more.
Don’t Be Dumb is Rocky’s first studio album following 2018’s Testing; it’s set to arrive on Jan. 16.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as President Donald Trump addresses the media during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club on Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Who is running Venezuela and how?
Confusion continued Monday amid seemingly contradictory messages from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio about how the U.S. is dealing with the country after American forces captured dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.
Trump on Sunday night doubled down on his assertion that the U.S. was “in charge” of the South American nation, after first proclaiming on Saturday the U.S. would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
“We’re dealing with the people. We’re dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial,” Trump told reporters on Sunday as he flew back to Washington from Florida.
“What does that mean?” a reporter asked him.
“It means we’re in charge,” said Trump, who talked about extracting oil riches and potentially putting boots on the ground.
The president’s comments appear to be at odds with the less definitive characterization Secretary of State Marco Rubio made earlier Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” Rubio is one of the Cabinet officials Trump said would “run” the country.
While Trump stated plainly that his administration was in charge and running things in Venezuela, Rubio was more circumspect, suggesting the U.S. would use economic leverage to impose its will.
“What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is, we have leverage. This leverage we are using. And we intend to use. We started using already,” Rubio told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, referring to the U.S. quarantine on sanctioned oil tankers.
Rubio, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, said the Trump administration control plan relates to policy changes.
“But it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States first and foremost, because that’s who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously. We want a better future for Venezuela,” Rubio said.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz echoed Rubio on Monday, telling the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. is “not occupying a country.”
“As Secretary Rubio has said, there is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades. The United States arrested a narco-trafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States in accordance with the rule of law for the crimes he’s committed against our people for 15 years,” Waltz said.
Waltz and other administration officials have described the capture of Maduro as a law enforcement operation that was facilitated by the U.S. military.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by U.S. forces early Saturday in the capital of Caracas.
Trump, speaking in-depth on the operation from his Mar-a-Lago club that morning, said the U.S. would “make Venezuela great again.” American companies would soon start selling the country’s vast oil reserves, he said.
But when pressed about who exactly would be running Venezuela, Trump said that it was some of the people “behind” him, which also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
On Saturday, a U.S. official gave more details about what the U.S.-run Venezuela would look like, saying that top administration officials would “continue to diplomatically engage with those remaining in the Venezuelan government” and also engage with oil executives as they begin to expand industry there.
Maduro and his wife made their initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday to face federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine. They pleaded not guilty. Maduro declared he is “innocent” and “still president.”
Meanwhile in Venezuela, the country’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as the interim president on Monday.
Trump on Saturday said Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, didn’t have the “respect” to govern the country.
He also had said that Rodriguez was cooperating with the U.S., a claim she appeared to dispute in an address to Venezuelans when she called for Maduro’s immediate release.
Asked on Sunday night to clarify where he stands with Rodriguez, Trump said: “I don’t have to tell you. I just say that she will face a situation probably worse than Maduro, because, you know, Maduro gave up immediately.”
In a more conciliatory message on Sunday night, Rodriguez said she would “prioritise moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela, and between Venezuela and other countries in the region, premised on sovereign equality and non-interference.”
“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. This has always been President Nicolas Maduro’s message, and it is the message of all of Venezuela right now. This is the Venezuela I believe in and have dedicated my life to,” Rodriguez wrote in a social media post.
ABC News’ Mike Pappano and Brianna Sanchez contributed to this report.
