Author: NY TIMES

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III spoke by phone on Tuesday with Russia’s new defense minister, Andrei Belousov, the Pentagon said, in a rare conversation between the Biden administration and Moscow.This was the first phone call between the two men since Mr. Belousov, an economist, replaced Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s long-running defense minister, in a Kremlin shake-up in May.Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said that Mr. Austin “emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.”Mr. Austin initiated Tuesday’s call and “believes that keeping lines of communication open are important,” General…

The debate surrounding the U.S. men’s national team heading into Sunday’s Copa America group-stage opener is about the balance between performance and results.Everyone agreed: in a tournament, results are what matter.Hopefully the performance will be consistent with that and there will be positives in both areas against Bolivia. The U.S. dominated possession and created many chances. They limited Bolivia to little real goal threat. They got the most important result: a 2-0 win.deeperChristian Pulisic starts smiling – here’s whyThe United States will now head into the midfield match of the group stage against Panama, knowing that a win will guarantee…

Jennie Suk, 27, has gotten really into wearing blush in recent months, inspired by videos from TikTok influencers and celebrities, like the singer Sabrina Carpenter, whose dewy, flushed cheeks have become her calling card.Drawing from her personal arsenal of about 25 blushes, Ms. Suk says she enjoys experimenting with layers of different creams and powders for a rosy glow.“A couple years ago, I probably only had one or two blushes — I would rarely use it,” said Ms. Suk, who lives in Houston and works in social media for a veterinary services company. “Now I can’t leave the house without…

In a bid to acquire a key supplier, Boeing has shifted how it plans to pay for the deal, according to two people familiar with the negotiations, a move that could help the plane maker preserve money as it addresses safety and quality problems.Boeing would use stock instead of cash to buy Spirit AeroSystems, said the two people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal. One added that Boeing would pay more than $4 billion for Spirit, which produces aviation parts, including the body of the Boeing 737 Max, the company’s most popular plane.One of the people…

“I’m going to sound like such a dork,” Chad Smith said as he drove a golf cart around the grounds of Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s pastoral summer home in the Berkshires. “I love Tanglewood so much.”He stopped the cart, and looked out beyond the manicured campus to rolling, tree-covered hills and the still waters of Stockbridge Bowl. It reminded him, he said, of the environment at the prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria. But Salzburg isn’t attached to an orchestra and a music institute like Tanglewood has been since it’s founding in 1940.“This is the sense of innovation that is…

An Israeli strike killed a top official in charge of ambulance services in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said on Monday, as the Israeli defense minister met with top American officials in Washington about a possible new phase in the Israeli offensive.The official, Hani al-Jafarawi, who was the director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, was killed in a strike on a health clinic in Gaza City, the Gazan Health Ministry said.The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. It said earlier on Monday that it had killed another man, Muhammad Salah, whom it called…

Two of America’s most decorated Olympic swimmers will ask Congress on Tuesday to hold the global antidoping agency accountable for failing to properly police allegations of cheating by elite Chinese athletes.In testimony prepared for delivery on Tuesday night to a House subcommittee, Michael Phelps, the 23-time Olympic gold medalist, and Allison Schmitt, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, urged Congress to push for reforms of the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. They said the uncertainty about whether Chinese swimmers have been using banned substances is deeply unfair to competitors heading into the Summer Games next month in Paris.The hearing comes two…

CHICAGO — With 43.4 seconds left in the game and the clock stopped for a foul, Angel Reese walked alone to the distant Chicago Sky basket, smiling with a familiar expression on his face and applauding.Forget Vogue and the Met Gala, this is a proper runway.Two games after losing to the Hoosiers in Indianapolis, Reese and the Sky are on top, in control, and Reese knows it.While the rest of the basketball after that moment was, to put it better, a little crazy, Reese and the Sky defeated Caitlin Clark and the Fever 88-87 on Sunday in a loud, packed…

At 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning, with New York City under a heat advisory, a gaggle of sailing enthusiasts, dressed in polo shirts and summer dresses, boarded a ferry for Governors Island to watch towering F50 catamarans race along the skyline of Lower Manhattan and in front of the Statue of Liberty.It was the second day and the finals of the New York Sail Grand Prix, part of SailGP, the growing international sailing competition in which teams, grouped by country, compete in $5 million-dollar boats that race up to 60 miles per hour.The competition was founded in 2018 by Larry Ellison,…

A pillar of the N.F.L.’s meteoric rise over the past six decades has been its strategy of making nearly all games available mostly free to fans on national networks. The league has stuck to this approach even as Major League Baseball, the N.B.A. and other leagues moved more of their games onto cable and satellite broadcasters and subscription streaming services.The strategy has paid off: Ninety-three of the 100 most-watched programs on television last year were N.F.L. games, according to Nielsen.Yet N.F.L. games are not cheap and ubiquitous enough for all fans. This month, the league has been in federal court…