Author: NY TIMES

KOMITAS, born Soghomon Soghomonyan, was brought up in a seminary near Yerevan after losing his mother and father at an early age. (The names “Komitas” and “Vardapet” were bestowed upon him later.) He emerged as a talented composer for voice, choir and piano despite protestations from the clergy. But, as he later spent time in Berlin and Paris, his most important contribution to Armenian music was as an avid collector of his country’s folk music.He was more concerned with capturing and preserving an imagined spirit of folklore than in recording it with strict discipline, though he also pioneered modern-day approaches…

Israeli officials increasingly believe that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior government officials on charges related to the conflict with Hamas, according to five Israeli and foreign officials.The Israeli and foreign officials also believe the court is weighing arrest warrants for leaders from Hamas.If the court proceeds, the Israeli officials could potentially be accused of preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and pursuing an excessively harsh response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, according to two of the five officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of…

Britain’s newly ratified plan to put asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda has drawn objections from human rights groups, British and European courts, the House of Lords and even some members of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party.To that list, add another aggrieved party: Ireland.The Irish government said last week that asylum seekers in Britain who fear being deported to Rwanda are instead traveling to Ireland. It is drafting emergency legislation to send them back to Britain, triggering a clash with its neighbor, which said it would refuse to accept them.Irish officials estimate that 80 percent of recent applicants…

NEW ORLEANS — Rory McIlroy stood on stage at TPC Louisiana on the 19 Green with a beer in one hand and a microphone in the other. With Mardi Gras beads around his neck, he stood next to one of his best friends, Sean Lowry, as the drunken New Orleans crowd chanted.”Rory! Rory! Rory!”Do you know any songs from the 1980s?” the band leader asked.Then “Journey” starts playing.The four-time major champion belted out “Don’t Stop Believing” on Sunday evening, throwing his head back and burying his chest in the notes. Lowry just laughed and drank his beer, watching his partner…

In the city of Duisburg in Germany’s industrial heartland is a vast steel complex that is one of Europe’s largest polluters. But alongside the mill’s furnaces and smelters, technicians have developed a machine that could soon play a vital role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.By using electricity to split water into its two elements, the device, a test model called an electrolyzer, produces hydrogen, a carbon-free gas that could help power mills like the one in Duisburg. If adopted widely, the devices could help clean up heavy industry, such as steel-making, in Germany and elsewhere.“We are maybe in one of…

He enjoyed a home-cooked dinner in Montana with a former U.S. senator. He visited Telluride, Colo., and Moab, Utah, a vacation spot known for its national parks. And he chatted about start-ups with Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI.After pleading guilty to a money-laundering violation in November, Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, did not sit still. A federal judge denied his request to return home to Dubai, but Mr. Zhao, 47, was free to roam the United States. So he spent the past five months traveling the country, networking with other entrepreneurs and laying the…

When the choreographer Kate Prince set out several years ago to create a dance show based on the music of Sting, she was unsure what story she might be able to tell using his varied songbook.Then she saw photos of young Syrian refugees taking desperate risks to reach safety in Europe, and she had an idea. She would use some of Sting’s and the Police’s most affecting music, songs like “Desert Rose” and “Every Breath You Take,” to tell the story of a family displaced by war.The result is “Message in a Bottle,” which premiered in London in 2020 and…

Israeli negotiators, offering a hint of hope for negotiations over a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, have reduced the number of hostages they want Hamas to release during the first phase of a truce, three Israeli officials said on Monday.For weeks, cease-fire talks have been at a standstill. Now, with the new proposal in hand, a mid-ranking delegation from Israel was planning to fly to Cairo on Tuesday to resume them — but only if Hamas agrees to attend, according to two of the officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.Hamas did not respond…

Fears of renewed ethnic slaughter in the Sudanese region of Darfur, where genocidal violence killed as many as 300,000 people two decades ago, have soared in recent days, with a looming assault on an embattled city that is already threatened by famine.The contest for control of El Fasher, the last city held by Sudan’s military in Darfur, has prompted alarmed warnings from American and United Nations officials who fear that mass bloodshed may be imminent. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, told reporters on Monday that the city was “on the precipice of a large-scale massacre.”El Fasher…

Welcome to the Monday Tennis Briefing, Competitor will explain the story behind what happened in court last week.This week marks the first week of the coveted Madrid Masters 1000, where the stories on the court are matched by the drama off the court as the Grand Slams and tennis tours continue their beauty contest for the future of the sport.If you’d like more tennis coverage, click here.Are the “guarantees” for the safety of Saudi Arabian players enough?Daria Kasatkina, the highest-ranked openly gay player in women’s tennis, was asked on Sunday how she felt about the WTA’s choice to hold its…