Author: NY TIMES

In his first new rock song in nearly two decades, Billy Joel sings about striving to rekindle a romance that has faded to indifference or worse. He blames himself; he longs for forgiveness; he wonders if there’s a second chance; he vows not to give up on “trying to find the magic that we lost somehow.” It’s a stately piano ballad, an heir to “Piano Man,” with Joel’s forthright, unmistakable voice and an orchestral buildup to match the narrator’s rising heartache. JON PARELES“It was a big love, she said,” Tracyanne Campbell sings on Camera Obscura’s new single. “That’s why it…

The PGA Tour announced on Wednesday that it had reached a deal to raise at least $1.5 billion from a group of U.S. investors, a move that raises new questions about whether a proposed alliance with a rival tour backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund will come to fruition.The influx of money into the PGA Tour, which could end up being as much as $3 billion, is led by the Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club. The tour is simultaneously negotiating a partnership with its well-funded competitor, LIV Golf.That deal,…

Ever since the breakout, the people of Kingussie have been following the whereabouts of a fugitive in the Scottish highlands.There he was, breaking into a backyard to scoop up some food as a couple filmed in shock. A drone spotted him from above, stalking underneath the branches of a tree. Some cheered him on in his bid for freedom; others were simply impressed he had managed to elude his finders for so long.But on Thursday the search was over: Animal keepers finally captured a monkey days after he broke out of his enclosure in Highland Wildlife Park.The Japanese macaque, who…

It’s U.S. women’s soccer captain Lindsay Horan’s last morning in the United States before flying to France to join her club team, Olympique Lyonnais.She was in the hotel lobby, sitting at a table with Competitor Spend an hour talking about her experience leading a team in the spotlight, how she sees her role during this transition, and most importantly:”Can we think about football?”Horan’s comments came almost exactly five months after then-U.S. Women’s head coach Vlatko Andonovski was named captain of the national team along with Alex Morgan (when the two took the field at the same time Horan won the…

Making the most of whatever space you have is just good sense — whether you’ve recently bought your dream home or, like many people, are staying put until the housing market calms down.The obvious place to start? Your bedroom.Sure, it’s used for sleeping at night, but what about the rest of the time? With a little planning, it could double as a home office — or maybe a library or a playroom. It could even be a place to make cappuccino.“It’s something we’re being asked to do more and more,” said Sean Anderson, an interior designer based in Memphis. “A…

As he prepares to take the reins as Macy’s chief executive on Sunday, Tony Spring has a tall order: He must contend with the existential crisis that mall-based department stores are facing to try to stay relevant in an increasingly e-commerce world.But trying to infuse Macy’s with new ideas and win over the next generation of young shoppers shapes up as a long-term effort, and some investors have already lost their patience.In December, an investor group submitted a bid that would take Macy’s private at a value of $5.8 billion. The investors, Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, say that…

For my entire adult life, whenever I’ve had a question about the world or needed to track down something online, I’ve gone to Google for answers.But recently, I’ve been stepping out on Google with a new, A.I.-powered search engine. (No, not Bing, which is dead to me after it tried to break up my marriage last year.)It’s called Perplexity. The year-old search engine, whose founders previously worked in A.I. research at OpenAI and Meta, has quickly become one of the most buzzed-about products in the tech world. Tech insiders rave about it on social media, and investors like Jeff Bezos…

Monday night featured a special guest: Laraaji, the titan of improvised new age music. When he arrived, the tenor of the room instantly changed. Playing zither and kalimba, a solar-intense Laraaji unlocked sheafs of astounding, ethereal noise, an unintended, confident rebuke to what had been happening before his arrival.The true anchor of the group was Niño, who played deeply dimensional percussion, stacking layers of jagged and coarse sounds: a gong, a few broom-like shakers, a contraption that sounded like chiropractor bone-cracking. At times, he was almost rancorous, nudging André to noodle more aggressively.He also understood that the audience, and its…

President Biden said on Tuesday that he had decided on a U.S. response to the drone attack on a remote outpost in Jordan on Sunday that killed three American soldiers and injured more than 40 others, leaving unstated what that decision was. Asked by reporters outside the White House whether he had decided on a response to the lethal attack, Mr. Biden said, “Yes” but declined to provide further details.John F. Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, refused to elaborate on Mr. Biden’s remarks other than to say it was “very possible” that the United States would carry out “a…

The top court of the United Nations ruled on Friday that it would take up the question of whether Ukraine committed genocide in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions, an accusation at the heart of Russia’s argument for its 2022 full-scale invasion.The ruling came in a case brought by Ukraine to the International Court of Justice. The court said that Ukraine’s claim that there was no credible evidence that Kyiv was “responsible for committing genocide” in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions was admissible and that it would examine that claim on its merits.The case, which will likely take many months to…