Author: NY TIMES

Invited onto Tokyo’s jazz circuit, he sat in on “incredibly moving” gigs with John Coltrane’s drummer Elvin Jones in 1979 and ’81. (Shimizu’s bebop phrasings can be heard in “L’Automne à Pékin,” his electronic revamp of the American songbook, from 1983.) He also formed lifelong partnerships with Sakamoto (who died in 2023) and with touring regulars like the bassist Bill Laswell, who enlisted Shimizu into often raucous free improv sessions at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, a Tokyo jazz club. “He has a voice,” Laswell said in a phone interview.In Japan, the cello suites made Shimizu’s reputation. The American composer Carl…

The Israeli defense minister tried on Friday to turn up the pressure on Hamas to release more hostages, saying Israel was preparing to seize more territory in Gaza and intensify attacks by air, sea and land if the armed Palestinian group does not cooperate.The remarks by the defense minister, Israel Katz, came days after a cease-fire that had been in place for more than two months was shattered with a renewed Israeli bombardment and more limited ground operations inside Gaza. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed since Israel restarted attacks on Tuesday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which…

As Franck Verhaeghe and two friends planned a March trip to Mexico City, they plotted out not only where they would stay and which museums they would visit but also the language they would speak: French. “It’s not that I think it’s unsafe for Americans,” said Mr. Verhaeghe, 65, who lives in California, but “I can imagine people there aren’t very happy with us. So my friends and I decided that on this trip, we would all just speak French to each other.”Two months into his second term, President Trump has set off panic in Europe about the potential collapse…

London’s Heathrow Airport was closed for all of Friday, shutting down one of the world’s busiest airports and causing worldwide travel disruptions after it lost power because of a fire nearby.The closure disrupts an important travel hub for Britain, Europe and the world. Daily, an average of more than 220,000 passengers traveled through the airport last year on flights offered by 90 airlines to more than 180 destinations around the globe.On Friday morning, planes were scheduled to arrive from as far away as Vietnam, India and Brunei, and passengers were expecting to take off for destinations like Tokyo, New York…

LOS ANGELES – USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb and her star player Juju Watkins were invited to the annual Los Angeles Dodger Foundation Blue Diamond Dinner in May. In a world of la glitterati, Gottlieb was flocked by many people. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and boss Mark Walter want to see her. Magic Johnson and his wife Cookie came over. Part of the Los Angeles Lakers is also interested.Gottlieb said: “I was spinning everywhere, these fans and these guys went, ‘juju! juju!”’ “She was like any Dodgers (her) bread (hair style) that was recognizable and was the biggest star. I’m back…

When President Trump ordered military strikes last weekend against the Houthi militia in Yemen, he said the militia’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea had harmed global trade.“These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk,” he said on Truth Social.But getting shipping companies to return to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal could take many months and is likely to require more than airstrikes against the Houthis. For over a year, ocean carriers have overwhelmingly avoided the Red Sea, sending ships…

Elon Musk declared last month that the federal government was engaged in “utterly insane” activity, claiming without evidence that it had distributed $100 billion to people without Social Security numbers.Two days after Mr. Musk’s comments, one of his key lieutenants, Steve Davis, began pressing the Social Security Administration for information. Mr. Davis called the agency’s leaders to insist they give a young engineer from Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to databases that contained sensitive information about Americans.Mr. Davis’s demand was “unprecedented,” Tiffany Flick, a former Social Security official, said in a sworn statement this month for a…

The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that it would delay by 30 months a requirement that food companies and grocers rapidly trace contaminated food through the supply chain and pull it off the shelves.Intended to “limit food-borne illness and death,” the rule required companies and individuals to maintain better records to identify where foods are grown, packed, processed or manufactured. It was set to go into effect in January 2026 as part of a landmark food safety law passed in 2011, and was advanced during President Trump’s first term.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has expressed interest…

Every week, our critics spotlight notable new songs on the Playlist. Here’s more about 11 artists behind them, selected by the pop music critics Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz; a culture reporter, Joe Coscarelli; and Caryn Ganz, the pop music editor for The New York Times. (Listen on Spotify and Apple Music.)an interview withJensen McRaeJensen McRae writes constantly: journals, poems, fiction, screenplays and, most publicly, songs. “I’ve always wanted to do a million things with regard to writing and telling stories,” she said. “But music was always the first choice.”Born in Santa Monica, Calif., and still based in…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was expected on Thursday to formally fire the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, despite growing street protests and scuffles over the move that have further roiled a deeply divided country still at war.The Israeli cabinet was set to convene for a nighttime vote on the dismissal of the Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar, just days after Mr. Netanyahu announced his intention to oust him, citing a lack of personal trust between them. It comes after Israel’s military resumed a deadly campaign in Gaza that has raised concern among many Israelis about…