8 mins read

Space for music on late-night TV has dwindled. New media seeks to offer an alternative

NEW YORK | When CBS ended “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” earlier this year, it also shuttered the program’s robust music offerings — a major blow for artists whose television platform was already dwindling. Performing on late-night has historically been a unique avenue for musicians hoping to access new audiences — think of a […]

8 mins read

Space for music on late-night TV has dwindled. New media seeks to offer an alternative

NEW YORK | When CBS ended “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” earlier this year, it also shuttered the program’s robust music offerings — a major blow for artists whose television platform was already dwindling. Performing on late-night has historically been a unique avenue for musicians hoping to access new audiences — think of a […]

3 mins read

Music Review: Ariana Grande’s ‘Petal’ displays a pop star at her most restrained

NEW YORK | Gone is the big-belter Ariana Grande. On “Petal,” her eighth studio album and first full-length release since both the end of her “Wicked” run and 2024’s “Eternal Sunshine,” the pop powerhouse looks inward across 12 tracks of real restraint. Lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” with its muted reception […]

4 mins read

Ancient mummy DNA provides scientific evidence that colonization brought smallpox to the Americas

NEW YORK | Ancient mummy DNA recovered in Chile has yielded the firmest evidence yet that European colonization brought smallpox to the Americas. Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in human history before it was eradicated in 1980, largely thanks to vaccination. For centuries, the virus had killed about one-third of the people it […]

4 mins read

Music Review: Charli xcx remains one of pop’s great contrarians on ‘Music, Fashion, Film’

NEW YORK | When Charli xcx released the barely two-minute, glitched-out “Rock Music,” the first single from “Music, Fashion, Film,” she was almost immediately labeled a provocateur. The song, with its hyperpop affectations and cheeky, lyrical dedication to craft — “I think the dance floor is dead/So now we’re making rock music” — confused and […]

3 mins read

Musk likely to face tough questions during SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company

NEW YORK | Investors in Elon Musk’s space company get a chance to question him Tuesday after SpaceX issues its first quarterly earnings since going public. SpaceX shares are down by half from their June peak as investors worry Musk may have oversold them on its future prospects. They’re also bracing for volatile trading as […]

9 mins read

Ken Martin hunkers down at the Democratic National Committee as a storm gathers around party leader

NEW YORK | Ken Martin is in survival mode. Desperate to save his job as chair of the Democratic National Committee, he is avoiding media appearances, monitoring his critics’ social media posts and refusing — at least so far — to make any substantive changes at his troubled organization. A half dozen state leaders and […]

5 mins read

At creative reuse centers, old art supplies get a new life at a fraction of the cost

NEW YORK | Charlene Catalano was looking for a ball of green-and-white yarn to crochet this year’s winter scarf. Instead of going to a big-box retail store, she found what she needed at Brooklyn Creative Reuse, along with gently used crochet kits, hooks, labels and other bits. It all cost just $6. “Nowadays, art is […]

10 mins read

Of thee I sing: A guide to US patriotic songs, from ‘The Liberty Song’ to Jay-Z and Kanye West

NEW YORK | The history of American patriotic songs offers a lesson about the different ways you can say you love your country. Composers have celebrated endurance under fire ( “The Star-Spangled Banner” ) and invoked divine approval (“God Bless America”). While Toby Keith’s “Made in America” dares anyone to question American eminence, Woody Guthrie’s […]

3 mins read

Study suggests the threat of mold-associated illnesses may be underappreciated

NEW YORK | A first-of-its-kind U.S. study suggests invasive mold infections may be an underappreciated — and potentially deadly — threat. The researchers detected about 450 cases in Atlanta-area hospitals over five years. About a third of the patients died in the hospital. The findings, published this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control […]