Author: NY TIMES

Another “Black Woman” musician, the trumpeter Ted Daniel, was a childhood friend of Sonny’s from Ossining, N.Y. “She was one of a kind,” Daniel said in an interview. “I haven’t heard anybody sing with the raw passion and just that kind of freedom that she approached in her singing with Sonny in that band.”Released on the Vortex subsidiary of Atlantic Records, the trailblazing “Black Woman” failed to find a larger audience. A few years later, the couple put together the Savages, a working band that could play out regularly. The group included steel drums and Latin percussion and gigged at…

Israel launched strikes into southern Lebanon on Monday against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, which said one of its senior commanders had been killed there, adding to concerns that Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza could erupt into a wider regional war.Hezbollah and Israel have shelled and fired rockets at each other frequently over the past three months, in some of the most intense fighting along the Lebanese border since Israel and Hezbollah were at war in 2006.The killing of the commander came amid Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s latest trip to the Middle East, part of the Biden administration’s…

When the Nordiques left Quebec nearly 30 years ago, the hockey team’s departure fueled the kind of mythologizing and nostalgia familiar to fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers.The Nordiques’ stint in Quebec, playing there in the N.H.L. from 1979 to 1995, overlapped with the French-speaking province’s two failed attempts to secede from the rest of Canada, and the team’s identity melded with that of their fans: a linguistic minority struggling to assert itself in a part of the world dominated by English speakers.The Nordiques wore their politics on their sleeves, literally, putting the Quebec flag’s fleur-de-lis on their uniforms. They also…

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, setting off some AFC playoff dominoes. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills locked up playoff spots after losing to the Jaguars. This also allowed the Houston Texans to win the AFC South Championship.The Bills then defeated the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night to win the AFC East title.advertiseAdditionally, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers punched their ticket to the playoffs on Sunday with a slow-down victory over the Carolina Panthers to win the NFC South title. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears to clinch the final NFC Wild Card spot.Here’s…

After winning the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Dec. 28 in Orlando, Fla., Kansas State’s football team gathered on the field around a garage-size toaster that was protected by a pair of mall cops wearing “Snack Security” shirts.An unusual chant erupted — “Toast that mascot! Toast that mascot!” — as Strawberry, a giant Pop-Tart with limbs, climbed to the top of the toaster, bopping along to the disco-era beat of “Hot Stuff,” by Donna Summer.“We will always love you, Strawberry,” the announcer Jason Ryan Perry said over the stadium’s public address system. “Can’t wait to eat you.”For nearly three hours, Strawberry had…

The chief executive of JetBlue Airways, Robin Hayes, said on Monday that he planned to step down after nine years in the role and while in the middle of trying to carry out a merger with Spirit Airlines that could reshape the industry, if it isn’t blocked in court.Mr. Hayes will be replaced by Joanna Geraghty, the company’s president and chief operating officer, on Feb. 12, which would make her the only woman to lead a major U.S. airline. Mr. Hayes, 57, will remain on JetBlue’s board and serve as a strategic adviser to the company.In a lengthy statement, Mr.…

When the Louisiana parole board met in October to discuss the potential release of a convicted murderer, it called on a doctor with years of experience in mental health to talk about the inmate.The parole board was not the only group paying attention.A collection of online trolls took screenshots of the doctor from an online feed of her testimony and edited the images with A.I. tools to make her appear naked. They then shared the manipulated files on 4chan, an anonymous message board known for fostering harassment, and spreading hateful content and conspiracy theories.It was one of numerous times that…

“Purple Rain,” Prince’s breakout rise-of-a-rock-star film, is being adapted into a stage musical featuring some of the pop musician’s best-loved songs.Orin Wolf, the producer who previously shepherded the Tony-winning adaptation of “The Band’s Visit” to the stage, and who is currently backing the theatrical adaptation of another music industry movie, “Buena Vista Social Club,” announced on Monday that he is developing the musical, based on the 1984 film.The stage adaptation will feature a book by the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant winner whose family drama, “Appropriate,” is now running on Broadway. The director is Lileana Blain-Cruz, whose…

As Israel prepares this week to face accusations at the International Court of Justice that it has committed genocide in the Gaza war, it has appointed one of the country’s most prominent jurists as the ad hoc judge to sit on the bench on its behalf.The choice of Aharon Barak, a retired Israeli Supreme Court president who fled Nazi-occupied Lithuania as a boy, was immediately praised by many Israelis after it was announced on Sunday — and greeted with surprise and even criticism by others.While Mr. Barak, 87, is an internationally respected legal authority, he has also been at the…

The mayor of London on Sunday announced that a planned strike that would have ground the city’s underground Tube system to a halt this week had been suspended.“Londoners and visitors to our city will no longer face several days of disruption,” the mayor, Sadiq Khan, announced on social media late Sunday afternoon. “This shows what can be achieved by engaging with trade unions and transport staff rather than working against them.”The planned walkouts were to be so widespread that the authorities had warned people to travel on the London Underground only if their journeys were “essential,” and the strike would…