Author: NY TIMES

Listen on YouTube◆ ◆ ◆Mandla Mlangeni, trumpeterMalcolm Jiyane Tree-O, “Life Esidimeni”“Life Esidimeni,” from trombonist Malcolm Jiyane’s debut album, “Umdali,” weaves together a story of those forgotten and sometimes neglected by society. With its hauntingly lyrical trumpet improvisation, the piece laments an often neglected part of our recent history, the Life Esidimeni tragedy, which left 144 people dead at psychiatric facilities in the Gauteng province. Malcolm’s musical arrangement is both a reminder and an ode to the voiceless and dispossessed. Part of the pervasive beauty of South African jazz is that it recounts histories that we sometimes choose to forget or…

After his first two national election victories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India easily set his own terms, with his Bharatiya Janata Party winning clear majorities.The result was different in this vote. It was still a victory, but one that left him dependent on a host of coalition partners — particularly on two other politicians from regional parties who could make or break Mr. Modi’s ability to form a government.Of the more than a dozen parties that make up the B.J.P.’s coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, most won just one or two seats. The ones Mr. Modi needs the most…

The Unstoppables is a series about people whose ambition is undimmed by time. Below, Lauren Hutton explains, in her own words, what continues to motivate her.I turned 80 in November. Sometimes I feel like I’m 33. Sometimes I’m 572. I’ve been writing a book — a memoir — writing almost every day and, doing it, I realized I’ve had an extremely lucky life. Obviously anyone who has success has luck, but there are three or four other things you need — intelligence, a certain amount of talent for the gig, a strong work ethic.I’ve said this before, but modeling was…

The Fed’s shadow over the E.C.B. Thursday is a big day for the European Central Bank. It is widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter percentage point, its first cut since 2019 — and outpace the Fed in lowering borrowing costs. Investors will watch to see how that would influence monetary policy beyond Brussels, as well as its effect on global trade, stock markets and the dollar.The big questions on our mind: Will Christine Lagarde, the central bank’s president, signal further cuts at its July and September meetings? And how far can the E.C.B. go if the Fed…

Nile Rodgers’s very first professional recording session, in the late 1970s, got off to a bumpy start. He wasn’t the only guitarist booked to work with Luther, a group fronted by Luther Vandross, but Rodgers was the youngest, making him an easy target when Paul Riser, the Motown veteran arranging the session, noted something he didn’t like.“He heard some things that were not correct on the chart,” Rodgers said, and “assumed it was me.” After an expletive-peppered exchange, Vandross stepped in and smoothed out the discord. From then on, Rodgers and Vandross were good friends and collaborators. (Rodgers said Vandross…

Amanda Knox, an American who was convicted and then exonerated of murdering her housemate while they were studying in Italy, on Wednesday lost another trial in an Italian court against slander charges related to the 2007 killing.Ms. Knox was convicted by a court in Florence on charges that she had slandered a man who ran a bar where she worked by unjustly accusing him of killing her housemate, the 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in 2007. Ms. Knox was sentenced by the court to three years in prison, time she has already served.Ms. Knox was initially found guilty of slandering the man,…

Juliet has been to many weddings, and she’s a pro. While the happy couple are exchanging vows, she comes out of a dark box and hops onto the gloved arm of Duncan Blake, her handler. With a 270-degree turn of her head, she takes in her surroundings.A squeaky sound suddenly jolts her into motion. Whoosh — off she flies down the aisle, two rings in a little pouch tied around her skinny ankles. Gasps come from the humans sitting below her stretched wings. Seconds later, she lands on another outstretched arm, often belonging to the best man, other times to…

Wandering alone along the southern fringes of Saudi Arabia’s mountainous Asir Province, some eight miles from the Yemeni border, in a nondescript town with a prominent sculpture of a rifle balanced on an ornately painted plinth, I met a man, Nawab Khan, who was building a palace out of mud.Actually, he was rebuilding the structure, restoring it. And when I came across him, he hadn’t yet begun his work for the day; he was seated on the side of the road beneath its red-and-white windows — cross-legged, on a rug, leaning over a pot of tea and a bowl of…

Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war with Gaza, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation.The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the State of Israel, four Israeli officials said. The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out, according to…

MTV was still in its infancy in 1983, and it was fortuitous that Lauper’s debut album, “She’s So Unusual,” came out just as the network was ascending. She saw her public image as a visual art form. Her makeup artist was a painter, and her stylist was a vintage buyer.“People sometimes get the wrong idea that it was very thrown together,” Laura Wills, the founder of the vintage shop Screaming Mimi’s, said of the singer’s style. “People just didn’t look like that.” In the early ’80s, Lauper worked for Wills, often bartering her labor for clothes. When her career took…