Nile Rodgers & Chic have made some great music to dance to — and now Peloton fans will be able to work out to them, as well. Peloton just revealed on Instagram that Rodgers’ music will be the focus of its latest Peloton Artist Series, with classes starting February 1.
“Le Freak, C’est CHIC!” Peloton said in their announcement. “Freak out to the hits of multi-Grammy Award-winning music legend @nilerodgers in an Artist Series like no other.”
The Rodgers series will include four live classes, two 30-minute rides, one 30-minute run and one 20-minute upper body strength class.
In other Nile news … He recently revealed that he’s been in the studio with St. Vincent. He shared a picture with the artist aka Annie Clarke, writing, “Working on new music with St. Vincent is the real deal f-ing wonderful I’m trying not to lose my mind too.”
Last year, Harry Styles received a special commemorative banner at New York’s Madison Square Garden, in recognition of the fact that he sold out 15 shows at the legendary venue. Now, he’s received a similar honor on the West Coast.
Fan footage from Sunday, which was his 15th show at the Kia Forum, shows a huge green banner with Harry’s name and “15 Sold Out Shows” written on it, hanging from the ceiling of the venue, and Harry gazing up at it and raising his fists in triumph while the audience cheers.
Tonight and Wednesday night, he’ll perform at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, CA, and head back to LA for the Grammys this weekend: He’s nominated for six awards at Sunday’s ceremony, including album, record and song of the year. He’ll then resume his Love On Tour trek in Perth, Australia on February 20.
Jessica Simpson is dishing all about the time a member of the Backstreet Boys and a member of *NSYNC were pursuing her.
In a new excerpt from her short story, Movie Star: They Always Say They’re Single, Jessica, 42, remembers a moment from the 2001 MTV VMAs after party, when she was avoiding calls from both of the men.
“Earlier, at the hotel, I had separate calls going with them at the same time… I kept switching between the calls, putting each on hold when talk became too serious about when we were actually going to meet up,” she wrote, according to Bustle. “I was good on the phone and could talk the talk, but in person, I knew my shyness meant I wouldn’t even be able to look them in the eye.”
Simpson didn’t reveal the names of the boy-banders, but she did leave some hints. Of the Backstreet Boy, she reminisced about standing in the front row at one of his concerts.
“During a song, he poured a bottle of water all over himself, gyrating his body as he looked at me the whole time,” she said.
As for the *NSYNC member, the pop star said he told her “he was living in his car by choice.”
“I knew enough about the industry to know that money in those boybands was always … iffy, but he seemed to double down on this conviction. ‘I’d be fine doing it the rest of my life,’ he said. ‘Just keep a few belongings. He used that word — ‘belongings,'” she said. “I pictured myself trying to cram all the stuff my Cancer heart wouldn’t let go of into his car. That was not going work.”
Movie Star: They Always Say They’re Single is out as an ebook and audiobook on February 1.
Since they were married in 2012, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have gone viral lovingly poking fun at each other over social media, and Blake has gotten the last laugh, thanks to Ryan’s ownership of the Welsh football club Wrexham FC.
In a now-vanished Instagram Story captured by the Mirror, Lively showed snaps of Ryan losing his mind watching the team he co-owns with Always Sunny‘s Rob McElhenney taking the fight to a much higher-ranked squad, Sheffield United, on Sunday night.
“I bought ESPN+ today. Just to watch my husband experience crippling anxiety live,” Lively commented, as Ryan both celebrated and lamented as his Red Dragons led, but ultimately tied, the other squad. “Worth it,” she snarked.
For his part, Ryan ‘grammed a photo of himself celebrating on the sidelines, “When @robmcelhenney and I got into this it all felt so impossible. But impossible is @wrexham_afc‘s favourite colour. That was one of the most exciting things I’ve EVER seen. Thank you each and every Wrexham supporter who came out and aimed your heart at that pitch tonight.”
And speaking of Internet snark, Hugh Jackman, another of Ryan’s troll targets, took the time to say congratulations to the underdogs for their performance — but only to McElhenney.
Ryan and Rob’s trials and tribulations getting the team back on its feet can be seen in the FX series Welcome to Wrexham.
(NEW YORK) — An ice storm slamming Texas this week is crippling roads, closing schools and canceling flights.
The freezing rain began Monday and is expected to last through Wednesday morning. The ice will stretch from Texas through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and into Kentucky.
Some areas have already seen 1 to 2 inches of sleet on top of a glaze of ice, creating a traffic nightmare.
By Tuesday evening, the ice will be falling in Austin and Dallas as well as Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis and near Nashville, Tennessee.
On Wednesday morning, the heaviest ice will be in Texas from Midland to Austin and into Dallas.
Ice accumulation could near 1 inch in some spots, covering power lines, roads and sidewalks.
The ice could weigh down power lines and trees, so officials are urging Texans to be prepared for power outages and be mindful of the possibility of trees falling onto cars and homes.
The National Weather Service is urging people to avoid driving if possible. Many Dallas-area schools closed for Monday and Tuesday.
There had been nearly 1,000 flights canceled in the U.S. as of Tuesday morning.
A devastating ice storm in February 2021 crippled the state’s power grid and left millions without power or running water for days in freezing weather.
Meanwhile, the Midwest is facing dangerously cold temperatures.
On Tuesday morning, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — plunged to minus 27 degrees in Minneapolis and minus 9 in Chicago.
In Peter Sinks, Utah, the temperature fell to minus 62 degrees on Monday, marking the coldest day in the state this century.
For the Northeast, the coldest air of the season is on its way. On Saturday morning, wind chills are forecast to drop to minus 11 degrees in New York and minus 35 degrees in Boston.
Parts of Maine could see wind chills at minus 50 degrees, which would be the coldest seen there since the 1980s.
Despite the bitter temperatures, this month still marks the warmest January on record for dozens of cities, including in the Upper Midwest and Northeast.
(ISLAMABAD) — A suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a mosque in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing and wounding hundreds of worshippers, officials said.
The blast occurred at a Sunni mosque inside a major police facility in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, not far from the country’s border with Afghanistan. More than 300 people were said to be praying there when the suicide bomber struck. An eyewitness told ABC News that the roof collapsed from the impact.
Security and government officials confirmed the explosion was from a suicide bomber. The Pakistan Taliban — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — have claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least 88 people were killed and more than 170 others were injured in the blast, a local hospital spokesperson told ABC News. Most of the wounded have since been discharged from the hospital but 65 remain for treatment. Many of the dead were police officers, according to the hospital spokesperson.
It was unclear how the suicide bomber was able to gain entry into the walled compound and get to the mosque. The facility also houses the police headquarters for Peshawar and is itself located in a high-security zone with other government buildings.
Pakistani Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif, who visited the scene in Peshawar on Monday, condemned the bombing and urged people to donate blood to help save the wounded.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also issued a statement condemning the “horrific attack.”
Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(LONDON) — The use of the death penalty under the rule of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman, has almost doubled annually since they rose to power, according to a new report seen by ABC News.
The report, published on Tuesday by the non-profit European Saudi organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) and the anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, titled “Bloodshed and Lies: Mohammed bin Salman’s Kingdom of Executions,” says that the average number of executions has risen 82% under their rule, even as the country has projected a modernizing image to the outside world.
The number of executions annually has risen from an average of 70.8 between 2010-2014, to 129.5 per year since 2015, when the current king and crown prince came to power. Despite official claims that the death penalty does not apply to minors, at least 15 child defendants have been executed in the Kingdom since 2010, according to the data published by the human rights groups. Over 1,000 executions have been carried out in Saudi Arabia since 2015, the report said.
The report also looked into the increasing use of mass executions, such as the record number of 81 people executed on a single day in March of last year on a range of charges, including terrorism. The UN’s High Commissioner Human Rights groups condemned the mass execution, saying that the regime had implemented “an extremely broad definition” of terrorism that includes non-violent acts.
“The explosion in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia under Mohammed bin Salman is a crisis the international community cannot continue to ignore,” Reprieve Director Maya Foya shared in a statement. “Every data point in this report is a human life taken … And all while MBS lies to the world that he has reformed the system to reduce the number of people executed. When the US, UK and EU go along with these lies, it makes the next mass execution more likely.”
Human rights groups have long expressed concerns that the kingdom’s human rights record has been overlooked by the international community in favor of geopolitical and economic interests. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
However, the BBC received a statement from the Saudi Embassy in London in response to an investigation into the death penalty, which said other countries around the world use the death penalty at their own discretion.
“As we respect their right to determine their own laws and customs, we hope that others will respect our sovereign right to follow our own judicial and legislative choices,” the statement said.
The judicial system that convicts defendants for capital crimes is shrouded in secrecy, according to the report, with the government often not notifying the defendants’ families and returning their bodies.
“This report provides a glimpse at what Saudi justice looks like now that MBS has been emboldened by Western governments that have failed to hold him accountable for the killing of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as numerous other crimes and abuses including Yemen war,” Abdullah al Oudah, whose father currently faces a death sentence, said in a statement shared with ABC News. “My father is possibly facing the death penalty any moment just because he called for peace and tweeted for reforms.”
The premiere of Three Women, starring Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise, Betty Gilpin and Blair Underwood, has been scrapped at Showtime, despite having completed production, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The drama series is one of three to get the axe, along with Let the Right One In and American Gigolo, as a result of the premium cable channel’s consolidation with Paramount+. The move follows the announcement that Showtime’s linear network will be rebranded later this year as Paramount+ on Showtime. Three Women sparked a bidding war back in 2019 and is expected to be picked up by another outlet…
Apple TV+ on Monday renewed the comedy series Acapulco for a third season. The series, inspired by the feature film How to Be A Latin Lover, follows a young Mexican man who lands the job of a lifetime at the hottest resort in Acapulco, but learns the job harder than he imagined. In season three, “it’s a time of reconciling past mistakes and exciting new beginnings,” per the streamer. “In the present story, older Maximo — played by Eugenio Derbez — finds himself returning to a Las Colinas he no longer recognizes. While in 1985, younger Maximo continues his climb up the ladder of success while potentially jeopardizing all the relationships he’s worked so hard to build.” Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming globally on Apple TV+…
Reboot, the comedy series from Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan, has been canceled at Hulu after one season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Reboot followed the cast of a fictional sitcom who reunite in an effort to reboot the series for Hulu. Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville and Judy Greer starred alongside Paul Reiser and Rachel Bloom…
The Nigerian singer released the music video for the song on Monday. It follows the artist as he returns to a village in Nigeria and takes on the role of a regular person, although the community is well aware of his stardom. From helping to make food, to helping push a stalled car, the video highlights the everyday stories of ordinary people in the country and conveys the message that the Grammy Award-winner hasn’t forgotten his roots.
“Common Person” is from Burna Boy’s sixth studio album Love, Damini, which was released in July 2022, and is available to stream now.
(NEW YORK) — Now that the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs are officially set to face-off in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12, one mom faces the ultimate dilemma: Who should she root for?
Donna Kelce is the first mother to have two children go head-to-head in a Super Bowl. Her sons — Jason Kelce on the Eagles and Travis Kelce on the Chiefs — will be competing in a few short weeks for the Lombardi Trophy.
“My mom can’t lose,” Travis Kelce told the press in a post-game interview on Sunday.
Jason Kelce, meanwhile, acknowledged his brother’s win Sunday night, shortly after the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20, tweeting that he’s “officially done being a Chiefs fan this season!!”
The brothers grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and played as teammates at the University of Cincinnati in 2008.
On Sunday night, Donna Kelce tweeted “#HeightsHighandUCBearcatSuperBowl” to celebrate both her sons.
Jason Kelce, the older brother of the two, was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011 and has since played 12 seasons with the team as a center, according to ESPN. Just two seasons behind his brother, Travis Kelce has played as a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs for 10 seasons after he was drafted in 2013.
The Kelce brothers are both offensive players for their respective teams so the two won’t be on the field at the same time during the competition. Both are looking to claim their second Super Bowl titles.
