Donald Fagen performs onstage at the Second Annual LOVE ROCKS NYC! A Benefit Concert for God’s Love We Deliver at Beacon Theatre on March 15, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for God’s Love We Deliver)
Donald Fagen last played under the name Steely Dan in March 2024. So what’s he been doing since then? According to his stepdaughter, he’s “enjoying his retirement,” though he’s still making music and performing occasionally.
Fagen’s stepdaughter Amy Helm — daughter of Fagen’s late wife Libby Titus and the late Levon Helm of The Band — tells Vulture that Fagen is “doing fantastic,” adding that he’s living in Woodstock, New York, where she and her family are based, “full time.”
“We’ve been playing a lot of music. He’s enjoying his retirement,” adds Helm, a singer and songwriter who organizes the ongoing series of concerts known as the Helm Family Midnight Ramble.
“He’s playing piano and singing the occasional rock-and-roll cover with our family band at the Midnight Ramble, and we’re having a great time,” she says. “He’s working on music with my son as well. They’re working on an album, and that’s been fun. So it’s a nice time for the family.”
Helm says that Fagen has no plans to perform with Steely Dan, explaining, “Right now he’s really enjoying being retired and not having any expectations or pressure. We drive around, we listen to music, and he picks fun covers for us to try at the Midnight Ramble. He’s just enjoying the downtime, but I guess you never know.”
Helm gave Vulture the update after some Instagram videos she posted to promote the Midnight Ramble went viral simply because Fagen was seen in the background.
“All of a sudden friends were texting me and letting me know that it was really resonating with Steely Dan fans,” Helm tells Vulture. She adds, “Someone asked him what he thought about having a viral moment, and he said, ‘We must really have our finger on the pulse of the nation.’”
‘The Boys’ season 5 on Prime Video. (Amazon MGM Studios)
The Boys are back for one final fight. The fifth and final season of the Prime Video series premieres Wednesday, and it follows The Boys’ attempt stop the unchecked power of the egomaniacal Homelander. It’s also building to a big finale that Karl Urban, who plays Boys leader Butcher, promises will be satisfying for fans.
“One hundred percent. We’re actually all super-confident of the fact that the rocket ship has landed in a wonderful way,” Urban tells ABC Audio. “We can’t wait for audiences to see the fun, exciting, action-packed season that we’ve got in store for them and also to experience … heartaches along the way.”
Urban warns, “‘Don’t get attached to … too many characters,” adding that there are “consequences being dealt.”
One positive change this season? Karen Fukuhara’s unstoppable character, Kimiko, regained the power to speak at the end of season 4 and can now fully express her personality. “It was just fun to be able to play a new side of Kimiko that we hadn’t discovered,” she tells ABC Audio.
In the premiere, Homelander is running the country and imprisoning those who oppose him in “freedom camps.” Parallels between the show and the real world are inevitable, but Jensen Ackles, who plays Soldier Boy, insists it wasn’t planned, especially since the show was scripted and shot two years ago.
“The show doesn’t necessarily comment on what’s going on … it’s more showing a reflection of what we all see and then turning it on its head in a wild way,” Ackles explains. “But it’s definitely … wild how reflective and how much of a mirror image, certain aspects of the show are in real life.”
The first two episodes of The Boys are now available. Episodes will drop weekly, with the finale streaming May 20.
(WASHINGTON) — An 11th hour plea from the prime minister of Pakistan appears to have swayed both President Donald Trump and the Iranian regime to agree to a two-week ceasefire deal in exchange for temporarily opening the Strait of Hormuz, at least temporarily staving off Trump’s promise to bomb Iran back to the “stone ages.”
With just hours to go until Trump’s 8 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — one of the key mediators attempting to the end the conflict — issued a public call to Trump, urging him to allow more time for negotiations.
“Diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future,” Sharif said. “To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks.”
Sharif also implored Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz as a “goodwill gesture.”
Just after 6:30 p.m. ET, Trump posted on his social media platform that he would suspend military attacks.
“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two week,” he wrote.
“We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate,” Trump continued, referring to an Iranian counterproposal transmitted to negotiators after rejecting plans for a longer ceasefire on Monday. “Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.”
Within the hour, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council claimed that the U.S. agreed to its plan which includes numerous concessions.
In a lengthy statement on Iranian state media, the council said the U.S. “committed in principle to non-aggression, continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of enrichment, lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions.”
Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, said Iran would agree to a ceasefire if attacks against it are halted. He also said passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be allowed during the two-week period if coordinated with Iran’s armed forces.
The White House did not respond to specific questions Tuesday evening on whether the U.S. agreed to Iran’s 10-point plan — which includes lifting all primary and secondary sanctions and withdrawing combat troops from the region — or what it made of Iran saying the Strait of Hormuz would open with coordination from Iran’s military.
In response, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement:
“President Trump’s words speak for themselves: this is a workable basis to negotiate, and those negotiations will continue. The truth is that President Trump and our powerful military got Iran to agree to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and negotiations will continue.”
Despite Trump calling Iran’s counterproposal a “workable basis” for negotiations, it contains many terms the U.S. and the president himself have long rejected and was previously described by administration officials as “maximalist.”
After the two-week ceasefire was announced, mediators began making arrangements to hold the first round of talks following the implementation of the ceasefire on Friday in Islamabad, but the White House said late Tuesday that it had not yet committed to any plans.
Before Sharif’s proposal was made public, two U.S. officials cautioned that although talks showed signs of progress, the Trump administration and Iranian regime still appeared to be far apart on core issues, expressing doubt that a broad deal could be reached on such a tight timeline.
One U.S. official also said the dynamic proposed by Sharif mirrored confidence-building measures under discussion behind closed doors, but up until the president and Iranian authorities accepted the terms, it was unclear whether both sides could be brought on board.
Fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz is a top priority for U.S. officials, who indicated that any agreement with Iran would have to lead to near-immediate progress on that front.
Asked about the state of negotiations with Iran on Tuesday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped “to have more news” later in the day and called Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz “a big problem for the world.”
“The whole world’s been impacted unfortunately because Iran is violating every law known by striking commercial vessels in the Straits of Hormuz,” he said. “I mean this is a regime that doesn’t believe in laws, rules or anything like that — it’s a State Sponsor of Terrorism, so it’s not surprising that they’re now conducting terrorist activity against commercial vessels.”
Iran sees the strait as equally important and has signaled publicly and in private negotiations that it is highly reluctant to agree to any terms that would see it losing leverage over the waterway.
Iran’s counterproposal issued Monday stipulated that the country would fully open the Strait of Hormuz but set the rules for passage through the waterway and extract a toll of $2 million per vessel, a situation the Trump administration has repeatedly said would be untenable.
Kehlani is set to perform as the latest guest on Amazon Music Presents: In the Paint, “which brings basketball and music together by reimagining artists’ most essential songs in a cinematic, courtside setting,” as per a press release. Her episode premieres Thursday and will air during the NBA on Prime Video postgame show, NBA Nightcap, after its New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics livestream. It arrives ahead of her self-titled album, due out April 24.
It’s Been Awful for Isaiah Rashad, and he’s planning to explain how. His new album, his first in five years, is set to release May 1. He announced the news via a cinematic trailer, which shows the rapper with open, bloody wounds as he limps across a field after seemingly being beaten. It ends with him lying on the ground as two people stand over him. It’s Been Awful will serve as the follow-up to 2021’s The House is Burning. Its single, Same Sh!T, is now available for presave. A snippet of an instrumental can be heard on the website.
Al Green, Patti LaBelle and Public Enemy are on the lineup for the Stern Grove Festival, a set of free concerts taking place in San Francisco this summer. Patti is scheduled to play on Aug. 9, and Public Enemy will take the stage on Aug. 15. Al’s performance will follow on Aug. 16.
Beyoncé’s Lemonade is the latest album to get the Rockabye Baby treatment. The songs have been reimagined as instrumental lullabies and compiled on an album titled Lullaby Renditions of Beyoncé’s Lemonade. It arrives on Friday and follows the 2017 release Lullaby Renditions of Beyoncé. The animation for “Hold Up” is available to watch on YouTube.
Brent Smith of Shinedown performs in concert during Rocklahoma at Rockin’ Red Dirt Ranch on August 31, 2025 in Pryor, Oklahoma. (Gary Miller/Getty Images)
Shinedown has added four dates to their upcoming Dance, Kid, Dance Act II U.S. tour.
The newly announced shows take place July 26 in Charlotte, North Carolina; July 28 in Camdenton, Missouri; Sept. 5 in Grand Island, Nebraska; and Sept. 7 in St. Louis.
The bill will also include Skillet and From Ashes to New in Charlotte; From Ashes to New in Camdenton; Dexter and the Moonrocks in Grand Island; and Winona Fighter in St. Louis.
Presales begin Wednesday, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. local time. For all ticket info, visit Shinedown.com.
The Dance, Kid, Dance Act II tour, the sequel to 2025’s Dance, Kid, Dance tour, launches in May. It supports the upcoming new Shinedown album, EI8HT, due out May 29.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building, April 7, 2026, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used his first news conference Tuesday to shrug off any suggestion that he would use the Justice Department to more aggressively target perceived enemies of President Donald Trump, as he heaped praise on his ousted predecessor Pam Bondi.
“First of all, we have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now, and it is true that some of them involve men women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and that believe should be investigated,” Blanche said. “That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that, meaning, to lead this country.”
Blanche denied he views President Trump’s public statements urging the prosecutions of his enemies as “pressure” on him in serving as the head of the DOJ. Trump, naming several of his perceived political foes in a September social media post, said, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!“
“I do not view this as pressure,” Blanche said. “I do not view this as something that is going to keep me up at night, except to make sure that we are investigating every case that we that we have to the fullest extent of the law and using all the resources we can.”
Trump announced Thursday that Bondi was being ousted as his attorney general in a post on his social media platform, saying she’ll move to a role working in the private sector. Blanche said it remains a mystery why Bondi was ousted, despite widespread reporting that it was due to Trump’s frustration with her lack of successful prosecutions against his political opponents and her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general, except for President Trump,” Blanche said.
Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense attorney in the cases brought against him by former special counsel Jack Smith and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, repeatedly sparred with reporters at Tuesday’s press event, accusing the media of ignoring years of so-called “weaponization” under the Biden administration.
“When I’m asked questions, or when I see reporting about shock and awe at this supposed weaponization of this Department of Justice, it means nothing to me, because it’s completely false,” Blanche said. “People say the president wants to go after his political enemies. No, the president has said time and time again that he wants justice.”
With the news conference happening amid uncertainty over President Trump’s Tuesday morning threat to destroy the “civilization” of Iran, ABC News pressed Blanche on whether the DOJ is providing advice to the White House about what kind of military strikes could constitute potential war crimes.
“The Department of Justice, as it always does, supports the Department of War, the White House, Department of State to the extent that’s involved, and our intelligence communities, to the extent that that’s something that’s appropriate, and we provide counsel to them, and we have been doing that, as you would expect,” said Blanche, who declined to engage on the topic of potential war crimes.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a news conference in James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 06, 2026, in Washington, DC. President Trump spoke about the successful military mission to rescue a weapons systems officer whose F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down in Iran. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The world’s largest association of historians is suing the Trump administration over a recent effort to justify the president keeping his official records rather than turning them over to the National Archives.
The American Historical Association and a second organization, American Oversight, filed the suit in Washington, D.C., District Court Monday, describing the case as an attempt to “preserve the historical record that belongs to the American people, before it is forever lost.”
“This case is about the preservation of records that document our nation’s history, and whether the American people are able to access and learn from that history,” the complaint said.
Last week, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an advisory opinion that stated Trump “need not further comply” with the decades-old law governing the handover of presidential records for public preservation after a president leaves office.
American Oversight, which is a nonprofit watchdog group, and the American Historical Association, which was founded in 1884 and is comprised of more than 10,000 historians, are asking a federal judge to declare that the Presidential Records Act is constitutional and to block Trump from using the opinion to justify keeping official records for himself.
“The Administration’s actions nullifying a law duly enacted by Congress, based on a legal determination that contravenes a decision of the Supreme Court, violate the separation of powers twice over,” the complaint said.
Passed by Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Presidential Records Act established that official presidential records — such as emails, phone records, and other materials created by White House staff over the course of their official duties — become public property and are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.
After his first term in office, Trump was accused of violating the Presidential Records Act by storing boxes of sensitive presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago estate and taking steps to thwart the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
He was indicted for allegedly retaining classified information and obstructing justice, though the case was dismissed over U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s concerns about the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.
Mountains outside Patterson, California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(PATTERSON, Calif.) — The FBI is at the scene of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting that happened in Patterson, California, on Tuesday near the I-5, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
According to Lyons, ICE officers were attempting to arrest a man they claimed was an 18th Street gang member when he “weaponized his vehicle” and attempted to run over an officer.
Lyons claimed that the suspect is wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents and the public,” Lyons said.
The motorist was taken to a local hospital, Lyons said. The individual’s condition is unclear.
Earlier Tuesday, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying they were assisting with the shooting and had closed the on and off ramps in the area.
Patterson is an agricultural city in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Gerhardt Konig testifies during his attempted murder trial in Honolulu, April 2, 2026. (Pool via ABC News)
(OAHU, Hawaii) — Closing arguments are underway in the trial of a Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife on a hiking trail.
Dr. Gerhardt Konig, 47, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder. Prosecutors allege the anesthesiologist attacked his wife, Arielle Konig, near a cliff while on the Pali Puka Trail on Oahu on March 24, 2025, by pushing her near the edge and then beating her multiple times with a rock.
The defense, meanwhile, has alleged that Arielle Konig attacked her husband first, and that he hit her with the rock in self-defense.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday afternoon local time. If they are unable to find Gerhardt Konig guilty of second-degree attempted murder, they will consider whether he is guilty of attempted manslaughter based upon extreme mental or emotional disturbance, first-degree attempted assault, second-degree assault or third-degree assault.
Both Gerhardt Konig and his wife, who have two young sons together, took the stand during the three-week trial in Honolulu, presenting widely differing accounts of what happened on the hike.
Arielle Konig testified that the two had traveled to Oahu from their home in Maui to celebrate her birthday. She said they had been working on repairing their marriage after her husband found what she characterized as “flirty” WhatsApp messages between her and a colleague in December 2024 in what she said was an “emotional affair.”
Arielle Konig testified that during the hike, her husband pushed her toward the edge of the cliff. As they wrestled on the ground with him on top, pinning her down, he produced a syringe and vial, she said.
Arielle Konig further testified that her husband proceeded to beat her with a rock as many as 10 times, and that she believed he was trying to knock her unconscious in order to drag her over the edge of the cliff.
Arielle Konig testified that she fought back by biting her husband’s forearm and pleaded with him, saying, “You can’t do it,” and that “our kids will be orphans — you’ll go to jail and I’ll be dead.”
“He’s saying, ‘You’re done. We’re done with you. We don’t need you anymore. You’re done. You’re done,'” she told the court.
Arielle Konig testified that she yelled, “He’s trying to kill me,” and screamed for help, and two female hikers happened upon them. One of the hikers told a 911 operator, “Someone’s currently being attacked on the top of Pali Puka. There’s a man trying to kill her,” according to audio of the call played in court.
Prosecutors showed photos of Arielle Konig’s bloodied face following the incident. She testified that she crawled away from her husband and was helped down the rest of the trail by the two women. She said she was treated at a hospital for “severe complex scalp lacerations” and showed the court scarring on her scalp.
Gerhardt Konig testified in his own defense over two days, maintaining that he never intended to hurt his wife and acted in self-defense when he struck her with the rock.
He told the court that his wife pushed him near the edge after they got into an argument about her affair, and that she hit him with a rock first while they struggled on the ground. He admitted to hitting her with the rock while on top of her, saying he struck her twice, though he denied having any syringes or trying to pull her toward the cliff’s edge.
Gerhardt Konig testified that he felt suicidal after the incident.
“I just felt hopeless at that point in terms of everything,” he said. “I felt horrified about what I did to her, that I had caused this to her, that I had resorted to violence against my wife, the person who I love the most in the world. And I just kind of felt hopeless in terms of our relationship, too.”
Shortly after the incident, Gerhardt Konig testified, he made a FaceTime call to his 20-year-old son from his prior marriage, Emile Konig, to say goodbye.
His son testified about the FaceTime call during the trial. Asked by the prosecutor to recount what his father said during the call, Emile Konig responded, “That he would not be making it back to Maui and to take good care of the younger kids, and that Ari, my stepmom, had been cheating on him, and that he tried to kill her.”
“During that call, the next plan that he said was to jump off the cliff,” Emile Konig testified, adding that his father said he was “at the end of his rope.”
Gerhardt Konig pushed back against his son’s testimony and denied making any confession. He told the court that what he said during the call was, “She said I tried to kill her.”
Gerhardt Konig was arrested following an hourslong manhunt, prosecutors said.
Arielle Konig filed for divorce in May 2025, seeking full custody of the couple’s two children.
Gerhardt Konig, who worked as an anesthesiologist on Maui, has been in jail since his arrest. Following his arrest, Maui Health said his medical staff privileges at Maui Memorial Medical Center have been suspended pending investigation.
BTS has dropped the third visual from their new album, ARIRANG. This one is for “Hooligan,” and it’s a futuristic scenario where the guys perform with a crew of masked dancers, attend what looks like a goth cocktail party, dance on a red platform and sing in dark room as people fly above them. There’s also a black-and-white sequence where a masked woman twirls swords around, and a scene where RM raps into a microphone that looks like it was made out of human bones and power cables. “Hooligan” follows the videos for “SWIM” and “2.0.”
Teddy Swims has revealed when we can hear his new song: “Mr. Know-It-All” arrives Thursday at 6 p.m. ET. It’s not clear if it’s a standalone single, or the first taste of a new album.
Want to live in the mansion that Sabrina Carpenter robbed in her video for “House Tour”? According to Wallpaper, the 13,000-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills is on the market for $36.8 million. If you’d prefer to rent, it’s just $165,000 per month. That does get you an infinity pool, a basement nightclub, a firepit, an outdoor kitchen, six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.
Starting Wednesday on YouTube, you can watch a video series documenting the recent concerts that Freya Skye played in London. Called Freya Skye Stars Align Tour: Live from London, it premieres at 4 p.m. ET on Freya’s YouTube channel. Meanwhile, Freya’s hit “silent treatment” just became her first to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
