Author: NY TIMES

A Croatian techno-rocker named Baby Lasagna strutting onto TV screens worldwide? It must be time for the Eurovision Song Contest.Since 1956, Eurovision has been pitting countries against each other in a fierce battle of over-the-top pop music, outlandish costumes and go-for-broke stagings. Fans of minimalism should abstain, because at Eurovision, even a modest ballad can be performed with wind machines, fur-lined capes or musicians playing upside down in a gigantic hamster wheel.The format is fairly simple: Each country chooses an act to represent it, and those acts perform live in two semifinals and one “grand final.” After the performances, the…

Fencing is a niche but fundamental sport in the Olympics, contested at every Summer Games since 1896. Yet despite its genteel reputation and simple objective — touch an opponent with your blade before being touched — the sport has long been rife with drama and suspicion.Two months before the Paris Olympics, international saber fencing is engulfed by questions about the integrity of refereeing, accusations of preferential treatment and concerns among top athletes and coaches that their sport’s tangled connections may be helping decide who gets to compete at the Games.The federation that governs fencing in the United States, USA Fencing,…

In the week leading up to the Met Gala, tabloids volleyed predictions about Taylor Swift’s possible attendance: She would be there with her football player boyfriend, Travis Kelce! Actually, she wouldn’t! She might go but leave Mr. Kelce at home!On Monday night, fans finally got their answer. The party of the year would have to go on without Ms. Swift.Other notable absences from the red carpet: Beyoncé, who had not been expected to attend, and Rihanna, who seemed poised to be the closing act of fashion’s annual parade of one-upmanship.Last year, every other guest had walked the carpet — as…

If you’re planning to attend the Paris Olympics and see a bit of Europe this summer, you have a variety of plush new hotels from which to choose (though they’re likely to fill up quickly). Whether you’re going to the Games or simply going on vacation, you’ll find fresh boutique properties in Paris and many more that are an easy flight away, be it to the French Riviera, Rome, or fittingly, an island in Greece, the birthplace of the ancient games.ParisHôtel BalzacBeginning June 1, after a two-year renovation, Hôtel Balzac, a member of Relais & Châteaux, the luxury hotel and…

Pixies, ‘Where Is My Mind’ (1988)For the first record he recorded outside of his friend circle, Albini used the buzzy Boston band Pixies as lab animals for his sonic ideas: loading its debut album, “Surfer Rosa,” with off-the-cuff studio chatter, refusing to use silence in between songs and making the bassist Kim Deal sing the reverb-soaked background vocals on “Where Is My Mind?” in the studio’s echo-y bathroom. In retrospect, Albini said his production touches were intrusive, but the next generation of alt-rock titans found them invigorating. “‘Where Is My Mind?’” later became one of the records that other bands…

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain will tell university leaders on Thursday to do more to combat antisemitism on college campuses, in a sign of rising dissatisfaction within government about the recent growth of encampments set up by students protesting the war in Gaza.Vice chancellors from some of Britain’s prominent universities have been invited to Downing Street to discuss “escalating antisemitic abuse toward Jewish students in the U.K.,” Mr. Sunak’s office said in a statement issued in advance of the meeting.Britain has so far not seen the sort of unrest witnessed on American campuses. But small-scale, largely peaceful protest encampments…

This article is part of our Design special section about water as a source of creativity.The first things you notice upon entering Long Pond Studio are the glass windows and doors. They’re huge — the doors are eight-feet square — and frame pastoral scenes of grass, trees and water. Picture windows looking onto a pond would be merely pretty in a house. But in this setting — a recording studio in the countryside near Hudson, N.Y. — they’re startling.That’s because recording studios more typically resemble gambling dens; they are dark, airless spaces where light and a view to the outside…

The numbers behind a big fundOn Wall Street, one mystery has been whispered about for months: How accurate is the valuation of Blackstone’s flagship real estate fund?The speculation has arisen because the fund, the $59 billion Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust — more commonly known as BREIT — has managed to keep an “appraised” value of its assets that far exceeds virtually every other real estate fund. Many rivals have fallen in value, some quite dramatically, in the face of high interest rates and a flagging property market.BREIT’s performance has floated above its competition, and it has boasted a 10.5…

The British Board of Film Classification has been busy.Last year, the group rerated more than 30 older films to meet contemporary standards. In February, it gave a stricter rating to “Mary Poppins” because of racial slurs. And last week, it began using an updated set of guidelines after surveying thousands of British moviegoers to gauge shifting public attitudes.Based on that survey, the new guidelines acknowledge that audiences have grown more lenient about depictions of cannabis use but are more concerned about intense violence and, for younger viewers, bad language.“We follow what people tell us, and we update our standards as…

President Biden acknowledged on Wednesday that American bombs have been used to kill Palestinian civilians as he warned that the United States would withhold certain weapons if Israel launches a long-threatened assault in southern Gaza.In some of his strongest language to date on the seven-month war, Mr. Biden said the United States would still ensure Israel’s security, including the Iron Dome missile defense system and Israel’s “ability to respond to attacks” like the one Iran launched in April.But he said he would block the delivery of weapons that could be fired into densely populated areas of Rafah, where more than…