Author: NY TIMES

When Michael Jordan and his right-hand man, Curtis Polk, bought a NASCAR team in 2020 with the driver Denny Hamlin, they were prepared to endure short-term losses. Drivers, mechanics and a sales staff had to be hired. The Next Generation cars that were introduced in 2022 would cost top teams about $18 million a year to run before paying a driver, and their team, 23XI, had two. Paying for a new building to house the cars would cost tens of millions of dollars more.But they believed they’d make that money back over time because NASCAR had a lot of room…

Duane Eddy, who broke new ground in pop music in the 1950s with a reverberant, staccato style of guitar playing that became known as twang, died on Tuesday in Franklin, Tenn. He was 86. The cause of his death, in a hospital, was complications of cancer, said his wife, Deed (Abbate) Eddy.Mr. Eddy had tremendous success as a strictly instrumental recording artist in the late 1950s and ’60s, selling millions of records worldwide with growling, echo-laden hits like “Rebel Rouser” and “Forty Miles of Bad Road.” In the process, he played a major role in establishing electric guitar as the…

When voters in England and Wales go to the polls on Thursday to elect mayors and local council members, the outcome will inevitably be seen as a barometer for Britain’s coming general election. Given the sour public mood and the Conservative Party’s dire poll ratings, the storm clouds are already forming.The big question is not whether the governing Conservatives will lose seats — that is a foregone conclusion among pollsters — but whether the losses will exceed or fall short of expectations after 18 months in which the Tories have consistently trailed the opposition Labour Party by yawning margins.“If a…

The sleek mansion in the hills overlooking Las Vegas could have been featured on MTV’s “Cribs.” But the highlight of Aubrey Garza’s weekend stay there wasn’t the palatial rooms or the marble fireplace. It was meeting her Airbnb host: Christina Aguilera.“It just felt like a dream,” Ms. Garza, 26, said. When she was growing up, her bedroom was decorated with posters of the pop star. Ms. Garza had nabbed one of the “once-in-a-lifetime” promotional stays that Airbnb has occasionally listed in recent years.The popular, if rare, listings have included not only private hangouts with celebrities but also stays in a…

Richard Tandy, the keyboardist for the British rock band Electric Light Orchestra, who helped shape the futuristic blend of Beatles-esque pop and orchestral arrangements that catapulted the group to global fame in the 1970s, has died. He was 76.His death was announced by Jeff Lynne, the band’s frontman and leader, in a social media post. Mr. Lynne, who called Mr. Tandy his “longtime collaborator,” did not specify when Mr. Tandy had died or the cause of death.Born on March 26, 1948, in Birmingham, England, Mr. Tandy joined E.L.O. after the release of its first album in 1972. He initially played…

Nearing the end of a whirlwind Mideast trip this week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken finished meetings with the Israeli president and relatives of American hostages held by Hamas, left his beachside hotel in Tel Aviv and shook hands with protesters gathered outside.He looked them in the eye and said there was a new hostages-for-cease-fire deal on the table that Hamas should take.“Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do, and we will not rest until everyone — man, woman, soldier, civilian, young, old — is back home,” he said.That public show…

U.S. Navy sailors aboard nuclear-powered submarines have long trained in the Arctic, learning to hunt their Russian counterparts in case of war. But America’s sub force is sharpening its combat skills at the edge of the world as Russia expands military operations there.One day in March, the black metal sail of a 360-foot attack sub armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and torpedoes punched through the dense ice of the Beaufort Sea during Operation Ice Camp.For many of the 152 sailors on board the U.S.S. Hampton, it is their first patrol.In the sub’s nerve center, where sailors navigate the boat and…

Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged and signaled that they were wary about how stubborn inflation was proving, paving the way for a longer period of high borrowing costs.The Fed held rates steady at 5.3 percent on Wednesday, leaving them at a more than two-decade high, where they have been set since July. Central bankers reiterated that they needed “greater confidence” that inflation was coming down before reducing them.“Readings on inflation have come in above expectations,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said at a news conference after the release of the central bank’s rate decision.The Fed stands at…

Back Story: Aspirin reduces the odds of certain complications.The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel of experts that issues national guidance, has for 10 years been recommending that women who are at risk for pre-eclampsia start taking baby aspirin when they are 12 weeks pregnant.Both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine support the recommendation, saying low-dose aspirin is safe and not likely to cause complications. The optimal time to start is before 16 weeks of pregnancy, though it can be initiated later, the groups advise.Those at risk for developing pre-eclampsia include…

Two New York Philharmonic players sued the orchestra on Wednesday, saying they had been wrongfully suspended after a recent magazine article revived allegations of misconduct against them.The players, Matthew Muckey and Liang Wang, filed separate lawsuits in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The men claimed that the Philharmonic had removed them without cause and in violation of an arbitrator’s ruling, which had ordered the orchestra to reinstate them in 2020 after an earlier attempt to fire them. The players also sued their union, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, accusing the organization of failing to provide them fair…