Author: NY TIMES

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube3. Johnny London: “Drivin’ Slow”Two years after the studio opened, Phillips launched his own label, Sun Records, out of the same building. Though Sun would come to be best known for distributing rock and rockabilly singles, its first release was this casually cool jazz number by the 16-year-old alto saxophone player Johnny London.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Elvis Presley: “That’s All Right”An 18-year-old Elvis Presley first showed up at Sun Studio on July 18, 1953, to record two demos; legend has it that he wanted to give his mother a…

Syria’s main international airport in Damascus will reopen next week, the new government said on Saturday, as it tries to re-establish a sense of normalcy after the uprising that toppled President Bashar al-Assad.The announcement came amid tensions along the border between Syria and Lebanon, where four Lebanese solders were wounded in clashes on Friday night. The Lebanese military said that Syrian militants had fired at Lebanese soldiers along the border.Ahmad al-Shara, Syria’s new de facto leader, faces the challenge of imposing order on a country that has been devastated by 14 years of civil war that split it into multiple…

The Catholic priest stood at the altar in the hilltop church for the mass baptism, dunking dozens of heads in water and tracing a cross with his finger on each forehead.Then he rejoiced at Christianity’s recovery of souls in a land where the vast majority of people are Muslim — as the men, women and children standing before him had been.The ceremony was one of many in recent months in Kosovo, a formerly Serbian territory inhabited largely by ethnic Albanians that declared itself an independent state in 2008. In a census last spring, 93 percent of the population professed itself…

As signs emerged that President Biden was gearing up to stop the Japanese steel maker Nippon Steel from acquiring Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, top Japanese officials repeatedly warned that quashing the merger would hinder economic ties between the allies.Japan’s biggest business lobby, Keidanren, said in September that America’s investability would be tarnished if Nippon Steel’s $15 billion bid was blocked. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan reached out to Mr. Biden asking him to approve the deal during what he called a critical juncture.In the United States, during a heated presidential campaign, both Mr. Biden and his opponent, Donald J. Trump,…

The two sides in the momentous clash at the Supreme Court over a measure that could shut down TikTok made their closing written arguments on Friday, sharply disputing China’s influence over the site and the role the First Amendment should play in evaluating the law.Their briefs, filed on an exceptionally abbreviated schedule set last month by the justices, were part of a high-stakes showdown over the government’s insistence that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, sell the app’s operations in the United States or shut it down. The Supreme Court, in an effort to resolve the case before the law’s Jan. 19…

Alcohol is a leading preventable cause of cancer, and alcoholic beverages should carry a warning label as packs of cigarettes do, the U.S. surgeon general said on Friday.It is the latest salvo in a fierce debate about the risks and benefits of moderate drinking as the influential U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans are about to be updated. For decades, moderate drinking was said to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. That perception has been embedded in the dietary advice given to Americans. But growing research has linked drinking, sometimes even within the recommended limits, to various types of cancer. Labels…

When Venkata Datta Sai met PV Sindhu, a champion badminton player, on a plane, there was a spark, but her popularity concerned him. “She’s like the LeBron James of this side of the world,” he said.

With that, the Osmond Brothers were introduced to a broader audience and eventually became a recurring part of the show. In the early 1970s, they changed their name from the Osmond Brothers to just the Osmonds, Ms. Cook said. The radio hits and touring followed.“The Osmonds present a kind of theater‐in‐rock ‘n’ roll,” The Times wrote in 1973. “With tight choreography, taken perhaps from Black soul groups, they wheel and strut around the stage, regimented and disciplined, programmed to draw that last squeal out of an ecstatic weeny bopper.”As a child, Wayne Osmond had a brain tumor that he was…

Syria’s new leaders met the French and German foreign ministers in the capital, Damascus, on Friday in one of the highest-level Western diplomatic visits since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last month.Annalena Baerbock of Germany and her French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, arrived in Damascus for the first such trip in years on behalf on the European Union, as world powers have begun building ties with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that leads the new Syrian government.Ms. Baerbock and Mr. Barrot met with Ahmad al-Shara, the group’s leader. Earlier in the day they visited the notorious Sednaya prison, where…

Washington Commanders quarterback Jaden Daniels, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold and Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowles, the league announced Thursday Ranked among the 2025 Pro Bowl starters.The Baltimore Ravens lead all teams with nine players selected to the Pro Bowl, while the Detroit Lions (seven players), Minnesota Vikings (six), Philadelphia Eagles (six), Dallas Cowboys (five ) and the Kansas City Chiefs (5) each have at least five players on the roster.The four teams without anyone on the initial Pro Bowl roster are the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans.While he hasn’t played in…