Author: NY TIMES

The ever-surprising bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding persuaded the mystical and ingeniously tuneful Brazilian songwriter Milton Nascimento, 81, to collaborate on a full album that was recorded in 2023 and is due in August. Its preview single is “Outubro” (“October”), a song that Nascimento originally wrote and recorded in the 1960s. Its asymmetrical melody carries lyrics that reflect on solitude, mortality and the possibility of joy. Nascimento no longer has the pure, otherworldly vocal tone of his youth, but Spalding bolsters him, singing in Portuguese alongside him and probing the harmonies with springy bass lines. Near the end, she comes…

Ukraine has asked the Biden administration to provide more intelligence on the position of Russian forces and military targets inside Russia as Ukrainian troops struggle to hold ground in the war, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.A group of Ukrainian Parliament members also met with members of Congress in Washington to press for the United States to allow Kyiv to use American weapons in Russia.Ukraine’s requests have become more urgent in recent weeks as Russia has taken advantage of delays in shipments of American weapons and intensified military operations in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.But White House officials said…

Since 2006, Cartier has championed female entrepreneurs whose business ventures have a positive effect on society and the environment.Cartier, the Richemont-owned jewelry house, is doing this through a program called the Cartier Women’s Initiative. The initiative awards women-owned or female-led businesses from any sector with grant money, networking opportunities, loans and professional advice designed to help them overcome barriers including underfunding and lack of access.Until last year, the program was exclusively female-focused. But in 2023, Cartier invited men into the fold: The company introduced a new diversity, equity and inclusion pilot award to the program to reward entrepreneurs — regardless…

As protests over the war in Gaza unfolded blocks away, last week’s Met Gala was largely devoid of political statements on the red carpet. That the organizers of fashion’s most powerful annual spectacle (one for which tickets cost $75,000 this year) achieved this proved surprising to many observers. Less than two weeks later, though, a fast-growing online protest movement is taking shape. At least, it is on TikTok, the social media platform that was a sponsor of the Met event.Blockout 2024, also referred to as Operation Blockout or Celebrity Block Party, targets high-profile figures who participants feel are not using…

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Neil Young and Crazy Horse: “Don’t Cry No Tears”Another one from “Zuma,” this jangly pop-rocker was adapted from “I Wonder,” a song Young wrote as a teenager and later released on the first volume of his archives project.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube5. Neil Young: “Vampire Blues”The night’s biggest surprise was this deep cut from Young’s great, admirably uncompromising 1974 solo album, “On the Beach.” Its caustic sendup of the oil industry — “I’m a vampire, babe, sell you 20 barrels worth” — is quite appropriate for a tour called…

Three Spanish tourists and one Afghan were killed by a gunman in central Afghanistan on Friday, Taliban officials said, in the first fatal attack on tourists in the country since the Taliban seized power in 2021.Four other foreigners and three Afghans were also injured the shooting in Bamiyan Province, a serene stretch of valleys, lakes and ancient relics northwest of the capital, Kabul.The shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m., when at least one gunman opened fire on the group of tourists as they left a bazaar in the capital of the province, eyewitnesses said. Safiullah Rayed, the director of information for…

It was drizzling outside, but under the awning that covered the 10-foot-long red carpet in front of the Hard Rock Hotel, it was hot. Supermodels of every era stayed dry and picture perfect as they arrived in Midtown for a celebration of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue’s 60th anniversary.The issue has four cover stars: Gayle King, Chrissy Teigen, Kate Upton and Hunter McGrady. Ms. King’s cover has been widely celebrated, mainly for continuing the magazine’s progress in moving away from what had long been its trademark: young, perky cover models.As Ms. King made her way over the red carpet, she…

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism will clear the way to resume a score of court cases that involve the agency but were frozen during the legal challenge, potentially including new rules for payday lenders and penalties against a money transmitter. But the ruling falls far short of eliminating the bureau’s legal obstacles.Immediately after the ruling was announced, lawyers for the bureau, which is charged with preventing consumer abuse in the financial industry, began preparing dozens of legal filings to try to unfreeze its activities. Among them are requests to federal judges…

Hotel surveillance footage published by CNN on Friday showed Sean Combs physically assaulting and kicking Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend, in a manner consistent with allegations she made against him in a lawsuit that she filed and settled last year.The video shows Mr. Combs, a hip-hop mogul known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, wearing a towel and confronting Ms. Ventura while she waits for an elevator. It shows him grabbing her and throwing her to the ground, kicking her twice, grabbing some of her possessions, and beginning to drag her down the hallway by her sweatshirt.Mr. Combs, who is facing…

The police shot and killed a man in northern France on Friday after he tried to set fire to a synagogue in the city of Rouen and attacked officers who tried to stop him, the French authorities said.Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the mayor of Rouen, a city of about 110,000 people, told reporters that firefighters had brought the outbreak of flames under control and that no one other than the assailant had been harmed.The identity and motives of the man who attacked the synagogue were not immediately clear, but the French authorities were treating it as an antisemitic act. Local prosecutors have…