Author: NY TIMES

Paul Sperry, a tenor who championed little-known American art song and spiky contemporary works, and was praised for his incisive performances of the classics, died on June 13 in Manhattan. He was 90.His death, in a hospital, was caused by heart failure, his son Ethan said.In a discipline where his peers tended to stick to tried-and-true German and French classics from the 19th and 20th centuries, Mr. Sperry carved out a niche, singing songs by living composers from his own country. But he also took on some of the most difficult late-20th-century Europeans, like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Hans Werner Henze,…

Last year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a speech that he was proud to be Britain’s first prime minister of Asian heritage, but “even prouder that it’s just not a big deal.”On Friday, Mr. Sunak said he was “hurt” and “angry” after a man campaigning on behalf of Reform U.K., an anti-immigration party, was recorded on video using a racist slur to describe him. The same man also called for migrants to be used as target practice.The comments appeared in an exposé by Channel 4 News, in which an undercover investigator secretly filmed Reform campaigners in Clacton, a seaside…

DETROIT — Myles Russell’s pants didn’t fit. He didn’t mean to show off his ankle during Thursday’s first-round game at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. However, his recent measurement of the inseam no longer applies. Soon after he started growing rapidly and is now 5 feet 7 inches tall, but still wears 5 feet 6 inches of trousers. At the same time, his waist is almost non-existent. He weighed 120 pounds and had a 28-inch waist with a “tight belt.”Russell took a stroll around Detroit Golf Club on Thursday, flashing his ankles with every step.This is the life of a 15-year-old…

Martha J. Egan has spent decades rummaging around markets and antique stores across Latin America in search of the rare, carefully crafted devotional pendants called relicarios.Her hunt has led her to amass more than 400 of the objects — pronounced reh-lee-CAR-yos; in English, reliquaries — and to write two books about what she has come to view as an overlooked genre within the body of religious art created during the Spanish colonization of the New World.Of course, “there was not much art in the colonial era that was not religious,” said Ms. Egan, 78, who has a bachelor’s degree in…

The Supreme Court on Friday reduced the authority of executive agencies, sweeping aside a longstanding legal precedent that required courts to defer to the expertise of federal administrators in carrying out laws passed by Congress.The precedent, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, is one of the most cited in American law. There have been 70 Supreme Court decisions relying on Chevron, along with 17,000 in the lower courts.The decision threatens regulations in countless areas, including the environment, health care and consumer safety.The vote was 6 to 3, dividing along ideological lines.The conservative legal movement and business groups have long objected…

Michael Jackson’s debts and creditor’s claims at the time of his death in 2009 totaled more than $500 million, according to a court filing by the pop superstar’s estate that provides details of his financial woes toward the end of his life.Jackson owed about $40 million to the tour promoter A.E.G., according to the filing, which was made in Los Angeles County Superior Court this month and earlier reported by People magazine. The filing said that 65 creditors made claims against the singer after his death, some of which resulted in lawsuits, and that some of his debt had been…

Forty-eight hours before President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump clashed onstage in Atlanta on Thursday, the leaders of Britain’s two major parties, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, went head-to-head in Nottingham, England.To say their debates were different doesn’t begin to capture the Atlantic Ocean-sized chasm that separated them.In content, tone and atmosphere, the British debate showcased two politicians in their prime, sparring over the issues — frequently heated, not without personal jabs, but focused on the policy nuances of taxes, immigration and health care. Neither Mr. Sunak, 44, nor Mr. Starmer, 61, brought up his golf…

The fall couture shows in Paris, which ended Thursday, were held earlier than the usual July dates to avoid clashing with preparations for the Olympic Games, but the season still offered some Parisian high jewelry houses a chance to shine brightly.Their presentations capped a series of glamorous events around Europe, as several houses continued the trend of taking high jewelry debuts on the road: Bulgari showed in Rome; Cartier in Vienna; Chanel in Monaco; Dior in Florence, Italy; and Louis Vuitton in St.-Tropez, France.In Paris, the 67-piece Hermès collection, Les Formes de la Couleur (the Shapes of Color), was the…

shoptalk/ˈmə-nē dis-ˈmȯr-fē-ə/A nagging insecurity about one’s finances — even when one is on solid footing — that is most prevalent among Gen Z and millennials.By Elizabeth LazarowitzThis article is part of Shop Talk, a regular feature that explores the idioms of the business world: the insider jargon, the newly coined terms, the unfortunate or overused phrases.Flashy cars. Five-figure handbags. Island vacations.With the steady stream of conspicuous consumption on social media, it may be easier than ever to feel that you’re always on a beer budget, even if you can afford a bit of champagne.And there’s a name for that: “money…

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug: “Havana”I’ll be honest with you: I personally am not feeling the faux-subversive, macro-budget hyperpop left turn Camila Cabello is attempting to pull off on “C, XOXO.” So let’s instead return to a simpler time, specifically 2018, when this sweat-kissed and relentlessly catchy earworm ruled the airwaves. It still sounds like summer.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube5. Geri Halliwell: “Look at Me”If you were not, say, an impressionable 11-year-old girl when it happened, it might be difficult to fully understand the cataclysmic shock waves that rippled…