Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers guitarist and Stax Records legend, dies at 84

Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers guitarist and Stax Records legend, dies at 84 Janelle AshDecember 3, 2025 at 10:36 PM 0 Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers band member and Booker T. & the MG's guitarist, has died. He was 84. Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, told the that Cropper's family notified her of his death. Cropper died Wednesday in Nashville, according to Worley. Worley's foundation operates at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, where Cropper's former employer, Stax Records, used to be. Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper has died at 84.

- - Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers guitarist and Stax Records legend, dies at 84

Janelle AshDecember 3, 2025 at 10:36 PM

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Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers band member and Booker T. & the MG's guitarist, has died. He was 84.

Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, told the that Cropper's family notified her of his death. Cropper died Wednesday in Nashville, according to Worley.

Worley's foundation operates at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, where Cropper's former employer, Stax Records, used to be.

Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper has died at 84.

A cause of death for Cropper has not been shared. Eddie Gore, a longtime friend of Cropper, told the outlet that he visited the musician at a rehabilitation center on Tuesday. Gore said that he suffered a recent fall and was working with Cropper on producing new music.

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"He's such a good human. We were blessed to have him, for sure," Gore told the outlet.

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Cropper was a key figure in shaping the Memphis music scene. Cropper's name is featured in Sam & Dave's 1967 hit "Soul Man." Sam Moore says "Play it, Steve!" before the guitarist takes it away.

In 2020, Cropper spoke to the about his career.

Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi with Steve Cropper in back performing with The Blues Brothers in 1980.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Cropper, founding member of Booker T. & the MG's and the Blues Brothers Band, performed in 2018.

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"I listen to the other musicians and the singer. I'm not listening to just me. I make sure I'm sounding OK before we start the session. Once we've presented the song, then I listen to the song and the way they interpret it. And I play around all that stuff. That's what I do. That's my style," Cropper said at the time.

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Al Jackson, Booker T. Jones, Donald 'Duck' Dunn, and Steve Cropper of the R&B band Booker T & the MGs in 1968.

Cropper is most known for his time in Booker T. & the MG's. The band consisted of Cropper, keyboard player Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn and drummer Al Jackson. They were a racially integrated band, which was rare for the time.

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"When you walked in the door at Stax, there was absolutely no color. We were all there for the same reason — to get a hit record," Cropper told AP in 2020.

Steve Cropper playing a Fender Telecaster guitar on stage, circa 1990.

Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.

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Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers guitarist and Stax Records legend, dies at 84

Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers guitarist and Stax Records legend, dies at 84 Janelle AshDecember 3, 2025 at 10:36 PM 0 S...

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Goldie Hawn breaks into tears honoring late “First Wives Club” costar Diane Keaton: 'She was like lightning in a bottle'

Goldie Hawn breaks into tears honoring late "First Wives Club" costar Diane Keaton: 'She was like lightning in a bottle' Raechal ShewfeltDecember 3, 2025 at 11:52 PM 0 Amy Sussman/Getty; Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage Goldie Hawn on Dec. 3, and Diane Keaton in 2019 Goldie Hawn was deeply affected by the death of Diane Keaton. The women, who began their careers around the same time — the late '60s for Hawn, the early '70s for Keaton — famously costarred in the hit 1996 movie First Wives Club.

- - Goldie Hawn breaks into tears honoring late "First Wives Club" costar Diane Keaton: 'She was like lightning in a bottle'

Raechal ShewfeltDecember 3, 2025 at 11:52 PM

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Goldie Hawn on Dec. 3, and Diane Keaton in 2019

Goldie Hawn was deeply affected by the death of Diane Keaton.

The women, who began their careers around the same time — the late '60s for Hawn, the early '70s for Keaton — famously costarred in the hit 1996 movie First Wives Club. But, as Hawn noted in an emotional speech Wednesday at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment event, they were also neighbors.

So it was a shock to Hawn, she explained, when Keaton, 79, died Oct. 11.

"Diane lived right below me. My house was higher up, and I went down, and I said, you know, we can talk to each other," Hawn recalled tearfully from the podium. "We would laugh, because we were so close, and, literally, I said, 'Let me get a megaphone.'"

Hawn said there was a comfort in knowing the star of movies including Annie Hall, Father of the Bride, Baby Boom, and Something's Gotta Give was nearby.

"It was just the greatest thing knowing that she was just below me," Hawn said. "I would go and do my flowers and stuff, my rose garden, and it was right on the edge there. And I remember looking over and wondering, 'What in the world is she doing now?' She was always on my mind. She was so close to me."

She was in her rose garden when she found out that Keaton had died.

"I happened to learn in my backyard. And I went over to my backyard, to my rose garden, and I just looked down at her house and [thought], She can't be gone. She just cannot be gone," Hawn said. "No one like that should ever die. She just brought so much joy, so much life, so much exuberance. She was like lightning in a bottle. There wasn't anything that she couldn't do. There wasn't any world that she couldn't live in. She was just an extraordinary human being."

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Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler star in 'The First Wives Club' in 1996

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Hours after Keaton's death, Hawn paid tribute to her on social media.

"We agreed to grow old together, and one day, maybe live together with all our girlfriends," she wrote. "Well, we never got to live together, but we did grow older together. Who knows... maybe in the next life. Shine your fairy dust up there, girlfriend. I'm going to miss the hell out of you."

Their First Wives Club costar Bette Midler also lamented the loss.

Midler called Keaton "hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star." She added, "What you saw was who she was."

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Goldie Hawn breaks into tears honoring late “First Wives Club” costar Diane Keaton: 'She was like lightning in a bottle'

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Kim and Kourtney Kardashian Had Chilling Conversation About 'If We Were Ever' Robbed Hours Before Kim's Paris Robbery

Kim and Kourtney Kardashian Had Chilling Conversation About 'If We Were Ever' Robbed Hours Before Kim's Paris Robbery Julia MooreDecember 4, 2025 at 12:30 AM 0 Jamie McCarthy/Getty; Arturo Holmes/MG22/Getty Kim Kardashian (left); Kourtney Kardashian (right) On the Dec. 4 episode of The Kardashians, Kim Kardashian returned to Paris to testify in the trial where ten people faced charges related to her 2016 robbery She was tied up, held at gunpoint and robbed of over $10 million in jewelry during the October 2016 attack Hours before that, Kim and her sister Kourtney Kardashian had a conversation ...

- - Kim and Kourtney Kardashian Had Chilling Conversation About 'If We Were Ever' Robbed Hours Before Kim's Paris Robbery

Julia MooreDecember 4, 2025 at 12:30 AM

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Jamie McCarthy/Getty; Arturo Holmes/MG22/Getty

Kim Kardashian (left); Kourtney Kardashian (right) -

On the Dec. 4 episode of The Kardashians, Kim Kardashian returned to Paris to testify in the trial where ten people faced charges related to her 2016 robbery

She was tied up, held at gunpoint and robbed of over $10 million in jewelry during the October 2016 attack

Hours before that, Kim and her sister Kourtney Kardashian had a conversation about what they would do "if we were ever getting robbed," Kourtney revealed during the episode

The timing of Kim Kardashian's 2016 Paris robbery was eerie.

In the Dec. 4 episode of The Kardashians, fans were brought along as Kim, 45, returned to Paris to testify in the trial where ten people faced charges related to the $10 million jewelry heist, and she, along with her friends and family, reflected on the frightening night when her life changed.

"In 2016, my life changed forever," Kim said during the episode, as she detailed her trip to Paris for Fashion Week alongside her sisters and friends Kourtney Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Simone Harouche and Stephanie Shepherd.

Harouche, who was in the hotel room below Kim when the men entered, dressed as policemen, said she heard "sheer terror" in Kim's voice during the ordeal, while Kourtney recalled getting a text from Simone that said, "I just heard Kim say, 'Take anything you want.'"

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian West attend the Dior Men's Fall 2020 Runway Show

In a confessional, Kourtney, 46, revealed why the timing of the robbery was so odd. "We had just had that conversation at lunch," she recalled. "[We were] saying that, if we were ever getting robbed, that we would say, 'Take whatever you want.'"

"It was just so crazy," Kourtney said of the timing of the conversation.

Kim has always said that her older sister was the person on her mind during the ordeal — during which she was tied up, held at gunpoint and was "sure I was going to be raped," as she said during her May testimony — as she feared that the robbers would kill her and Kourtney would come home to find her dead body.

"I said a prayer," she remembered during a confessional of the moments during the robbery. "I always know that there's a bigger plan, and it's always God's plan, and so you kind of make peace with that. No matter what, it's going to be okay."

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LEO VIGNAL/AFP via Getty

Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner leave the Assize Court in Paris on May 13, 2025 after Kim's testimony

The mom of four has previously said that she's grateful she was the one who was targeted over her other sisters.

"I remember you said, 'Thank god it happened to me, because if it had happened to anyone else, they wouldn't have been able to survive, and it wouldn't have happened the same way,'" her mom, Kris Jenner, recalled on a 2023 episode of The Kardashians.

Kim remembered that comment clearly. When it was done, I was just like, thank God it was me and not one of my sisters." she said. "Because it would f--- them up for life."

"I don't know anyone who could've handled what you did," Kris said. "I'm so proud of you, every single day, for the way that you live your life. I wish everybody knew how beautiful and delicious your heart is, and they would never say one bad thing about you."

New episodes of The Kardashians premiere Thursdays at 12 a.m. ET on Hulu.

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Why Hugh Jackman fought for hometown Milwaukee premiere for 'Song Sung Blue'

Why Hugh Jackman fought for hometown Milwaukee premiere for 'Song Sung Blue' Piet Levy and Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY December 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM 1 Hugh Jackman didn't just visit Milwaukee — he channeled it — during the hometown premiere of "Song Sung Blue." Jackman, 57, and director Craig Brewer attended the Tuesday, Dec. 2, event for the film about the reallife Milwaukee couple Mike and Claire Sardina (Kate Hudson), who performed in a Neil Diamond tribute band, Lightning & Thunder, from the late 1980s through the mid2000s.

- - Why Hugh Jackman fought for hometown Milwaukee premiere for 'Song Sung Blue'

Piet Levy and Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY December 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM

1

Hugh Jackman didn't just visit Milwaukee — he channeled it — during the hometown premiere of "Song Sung Blue."

Jackman, 57, and director Craig Brewer attended the Tuesday, Dec. 2, event for the film about the real-life Milwaukee couple Mike and Claire Sardina (Kate Hudson), who performed in a Neil Diamond tribute band, Lightning & Thunder, from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s.

Sardina attended the premiere along with her daughter, Rachel Cartwright, portrayed by Ella Anderson ("The Glass Castle"). The family joined Jackman and Brewer for a 12-minute introduction before the film. "This is one of the most amazing stories that celebrates Milwaukee, that celebrates Neil Diamond and family and love," Jackman said in his introduction.

"I thought that this is the kind of movie I want to be in, this is the kind of movie we need, and tonight, after this five-year journey, is the most important night so far," the actor continued.

Writer/director Craig Brewer, Claire Sardina, Rachel Cartwright and Hugh Jackman gather together for a photo on the blue carpet during the premiere of "Song Sung Blue" at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the evening of Dec. 2, 2025.

During the opening remarks, the filmmakers also surprised Sardina with an engraved bench dedicated to Lightning & Thunder. The bench will have a permanent home at the Wisconsin State Fair, where the band often performed and where the couple even got married.

The packed theater was filled with relatives and longtime friends of the Sardina family, who frequently burst into cheers, as well as Greg Kohs, the documentary director. "Do you think that Lightning is here tonight ...?" Claire Sardina called out to cheers, honoring her husband Mike, who died in 2006. "I love you, honey. I love you."

Hugh Jackman serves up Song Sun Blueberry custard to fans at Kopp's Frozen Custard

Before the premiere, Jackman posted an Instagram video wearing a Cheesehead hat. "First time in Milwaukee and I am so excited," Jackman said in the Instagram video. "And, I'm never taking cheese off my head again. I can't believe I went 57 years without it."

Jackman and Brewer then visited Milwaukee's famous Kopp's Frozen Custard, where they served a limited edition flavor, Song Sun Blueberry custard, to fans.

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'Song Sung Blue' is a 'Milwaukee story that people don't even know about'

Speaking on the blue carpet before the premiere, director Brewer said Jackman pushed for the journey back to Milwaukee for the gala. "I remember very early on Hugh telling me, 'You've got to take this to Milwaukee. You've got to make sure you have a screening or a premiere in Milwaukee,'" Brewer said. "It's a Milwaukee story. What I like most about it is that it's also a Milwaukee story that people don't even know about."

Jackman wanted "this to be kind of a legendary thing, like something that's lore of Milwaukee, that Lightning & Thunder started here."

"Song Sung Blue," based on the 2008 documentary of the same name, opens Dec. 25 in theaters and had its premiere in Hollywood in October.

Contributing: Hannah Kirby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hugh Jackman hits Milwaukee for 'Song Sung Blue' hometown premiere

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Venmo users have trouble sending and receiving money during service outage

Venmo users have trouble sending and receiving money during service outage AUDREY McAVOY December 3, 2025 at 10:48 PM 0 FILE A Venmo mobile app shows it is not available during the Amazon Web Services outage, Oct. 20, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File) () Users of the payment app Venmo experienced trouble sending and receiving money on Wednesday amid widespread social media posts about service issues. Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, showed reports that problems began spiking at about 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

- - Venmo users have trouble sending and receiving money during service outage

AUDREY McAVOY December 3, 2025 at 10:48 PM

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FILE - A Venmo mobile app shows it is not available during the Amazon Web Services outage, Oct. 20, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File) ()

Users of the payment app Venmo experienced trouble sending and receiving money on Wednesday amid widespread social media posts about service issues.

Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, showed reports that problems began spiking at about 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Venmo said in a post on the social platform X that it was working to address the breakdown.

"We're aware that some users are experiencing issues with Venmo right now," the company said. "Our team is working on a fix, and we'll update you as soon as it's resolved."

Some social media accounts replied that they were unable to pay for medication or buy dinner.

Later in the evening, multiple people reported the app was back up, but there was no official announcement.

Peer-to-peer payment apps have exploded in popularity in the last decade. Venmo had 92 million active users as of last year.

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Venmo users have trouble sending and receiving money during service outage AUDREY McAVOY December 3, 2025 at 10:48 P...

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How a sperm bank for cheetahs might one day save the fastest land animal

How a sperm bank for cheetahs might one day save the fastest land animal GERALD IMRAYDecember 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM 0 FILE A cheetah descends from on top of a mound in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, Kenya, July 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) () CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — For 35 years, American zoologist Laurie Marker has been collecting and storing specimens in a cheetah sperm bank in Namibia, hoping conservationists never have to use them. But she worries that the world's fastest land animal might be on the brink of extinction one day and need artificial reproduction to save it.

- - How a sperm bank for cheetahs might one day save the fastest land animal

GERALD IMRAYDecember 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM

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FILE - A cheetah descends from on top of a mound in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, Kenya, July 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) ()

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — For 35 years, American zoologist Laurie Marker has been collecting and storing specimens in a cheetah sperm bank in Namibia, hoping conservationists never have to use them.

But she worries that the world's fastest land animal might be on the brink of extinction one day and need artificial reproduction to save it.

Marker says the sperm bank at the Cheetah Conservation Fund she founded in the southern African nation is a "frozen zoo" of cheetahs she's been building since 1990. It would be utilized in a worst-case scenario for the big cats, whose numbers have dropped alarmingly in the wild over the last 50 years.

"You don't do anything with it unless until it's needed," Marker, one of the foremost experts on cheetahs, told The from her research center near the Namibian city of Otjiwarongo. "And we never want to get to that point."

Conservationists mark World Cheetah Day on Thursday with less than 7,000 of them left in the wild, similar numbers to the critically endangered black rhino. There are only around 33 populations of cheetahs spread out in pockets mainly across Africa, with most of those populations having less than 100 animals, Marker said.

Like so many species, the sleek cats that can run at speeds of 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers per hour) are in danger from habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and the illegal animal trade. Their shrinking, isolated groups mean their gene pool is shrinking also as small populations continuously breed among themselves, with repercussions for their reproduction rates.

Globally, cheetah numbers in the wild have dropped by 80% in the last half-century and they've been pushed out of 90% of their historical range.

Scientists believe that cheetahs already narrowly escaped extinction at the end of the last ice age around 10,000-12,000 years ago, which first reduced their gene pool.

Marker said the lack of genetic diversity, along with the fact that cheetahs have 70-80% abnormal sperm, mean they might need help in the future.

"And so, a sperm bank makes perfect sense, right?" Marker said.

A common conservation tactic

Storing sperm is not unique to cheetahs in the wildlife world. It's a tactic that conservationists have developed for other species, including elephants, rhinos, antelopes, other big cats, birds and others.

The value of animal reproductive research, Marker said, is seen in the desperate battle to save the northern white rhino from extinction.

There are just two northern white rhinos left, both females, making the species functionally extinct with no chance of reproducing naturally. Their only hope lies in artificial reproduction using northern white rhino sperm that was collected and frozen years ago.

Because both remaining northern white rhinos — a mother and daughter — can't carry pregnancies, scientists have tried to implant northern white rhino embryos in southern white rhino surrogates. The surrogates haven't managed to carry any of the pregnancies to term, but the conservation team has committed to keep trying to save northern white rhinos against all odds.

Other efforts around artificial reproduction have been successful, including a project that bred black-footed ferrets using artificial reproduction after they'd been reduced to a single wild population in Wyoming in the United States.

Last resort

Marker doesn't chase down cheetahs to collect their sperm but takes samples opportunistically. In Namibia, cheetahs are mostly in danger from farmers who view them as threats to their livestock, meaning Marker's team are called out for cats that have been injured or captured and will collect samples while treating and releasing them.

Sperm samples can also be taken from dead cheetahs. "Every cheetah is actually a unique mix of a very small number of genes. We will try to bank every animal we possibly can," Marker said.

The samples from approximately 400 cheetahs and counting are now stored at ultralow temperatures in liquid nitrogen at the Cheetah Conservation Fund laboratory. Marker's research does not involve any artificial insemination as breeding wild animals in captivity is not allowed in Namibia.

Should cheetahs be threatened with extinction again, the first backup would be the roughly 1,800 cats living in zoos and other captive environments. But, Marker said, cheetahs don't breed well in captivity and the sperm bank might be, like the northern white rhinos, the last resort.

Without it, "we're not going to have much of a chance," Marker said.

___

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How a sperm bank for cheetahs might one day save the fastest land animal

How a sperm bank for cheetahs might one day save the fastest land animal GERALD IMRAYDecember 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM 0 FI...

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Ex-Honduran leader thanks Trump for pardon on US drug trafficking charges

ExHonduran leader thanks Trump for pardon on US drug trafficking charges Michael Rios, Lex Harvey, CNNDecember 3, 2025 at 11:09 PM 0 Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez presents his national statement as a part of the World Leaders' Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 1, 2021. Andy Buchanan/Reuters Honduras' former President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked US President Donald Trump for pardoning his US drug trafficking conviction amid criticism from lawmakers that the pardon undermines the White House's efforts to stop drug trafficking.

- - Ex-Honduran leader thanks Trump for pardon on US drug trafficking charges

Michael Rios, Lex Harvey, CNNDecember 3, 2025 at 11:09 PM

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Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez presents his national statement as a part of the World Leaders' Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 1, 2021. - Andy Buchanan/Reuters

Honduras' former President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked US President Donald Trump for pardoning his US drug trafficking conviction amid criticism from lawmakers that the pardon undermines the White House's efforts to stop drug trafficking.

"My profound gratitude goes to President (Trump) for having the courage to defend justice at a moment when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the truth," Hernández wrote on X Wednesday.

President of Honduras from 2014 until 2022, Hernández was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking offenses. Hernández insisted he was innocent, claiming his trial was "rigged" and that it relied on the accusations of criminals who sought revenge against him.

Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have criticized Trump's decision to pardon someone with a drug trafficking conviction when his administration has been so focused on disrupting drug trafficking in Latin America, ramping up military activity and launching controversial strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Several lawmakers have pointed out the inconsistency in pardoning Hernández while going after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is wanted in the US for similar charges.

"Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner! Don't understand why he is being pardoned," GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy posted on X.

GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar told CNN she felt Trump's announcement sent a mixed message and she "would have never done that."

Trump, however, defended his decision to grant Hernández clemency, telling reporters Tuesday that he feels "pretty good about it."

"Well, he was the president, and they had some drugs being sold in their country, and because he was the president, they went after him – that was a Biden horrible witch hunt," Trump said. "A lot of people in Honduras asked me to do that, and I did it."

Prosecutors had accused Hernández of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.

Several people in Trump's orbit lobbied for Hernández's pardon, including his longtime ally Roger Stone. Stone said he called on Trump in June to pardon Hernández, claiming the former Honduran leader was targeted by the Biden administration.

Though the White House is blaming Biden for targeting Hernández, Hernández's brother was prosecuted during Trump's first term by Emil Bove, who went on to become Trump's personal attorney.

Hernández has now been released from prison, according to his attorney. A US Bureau of Prisons database also shows that the former Honduran president was released from a prison in West Virginia.

In his social media post Wednesday, Hernández promised the people of Honduras that he would "continue defending everything we built together," but didn't say whether he has any plans to return to the country.

He added that he would share more "soon."

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Ex-Honduran leader thanks Trump for pardon on US drug trafficking charges

ExHonduran leader thanks Trump for pardon on US drug trafficking charges Michael Rios, Lex Harvey, CNNDecember 3, 2025 ...

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