U.S./World category, Page 843

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel says German officials have agreed to a four-week shutdown of restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters and other leisure facilities in a bid to curb a sharp rise in coronavirus infections. Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors, who are responsible for imposing and easing restrictions, agreed...

OAKLAND, Calif. — Twenty-six words tucked into a 1996 law overhauling telecommunications have allowed companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to grow into the giants they are today. Those are the words President Donald Trump’s administration has challenged directly via executive order, one that would strip those protections if online...

MORRIS, Ill. — At a busy intersection in this small Illinois town, Lynn Vermillion smiles at passing drivers who honk their support for the colorful posters she and friends wave: “Save Our Children. Save their Children. Save ALL the Children.” As the U.S. presidential campaign heated up in recent months,...

CLEVELAND — Two conservative operatives facing criminal charges in Michigan were indicted in Cleveland on Tuesday for organizing tens of thousands of hoax robocalls — made to predominantly Black Midwestern cities — that falsely warned people information gleaned from their mail-in ballots could lead to their arrest or forced vaccinations....

DETROIT — A judge on Tuesday blocked a ban on the open display of guns near Michigan polling places on Election Day, agreeing with critics who said a Democratic secretary of state failed to follow state law with her sudden order. Gun-rights groups accused Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of...

WASHINGTON — Medicare will cover the yet-to-be approved coronavirus vaccine free for older people under a policy change expected to be announced shortly, a senior Trump administration official said Tuesday. The coming announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aims to align the time-consuming process for securing Medicare...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The U.S. casino industry is seeking tax and regulatory relief from the government as it tries to recover from the coronavirus outbreak, which cost states more than $2 billion in lost tax revenue while casinos were shut down for four months this year. While 90% of...

NEW YORK — Disgraced self-improvement guru Keith Raniere, whose NXIVM followers included millionaires and Hollywood actors, was sentenced to 120 years on Tuesday for turning some adherents into sex slaves branded with his initials and sexually abusing a 15-year-old. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis called Raniere “ruthless and unyielding” in...

The woman who got trapped in the back of her husband’s Miami Police SUV died of heat stroke, the county medical examiner’s office investigation has ruled. Clara Paulino’s death was also deemed an accident. The 56-year-old woman died on the afternoon of Aug. 21 after she climbed into the back...

At least four people, including two young children, died Tuesday when a boat carrying at least 19 migrants capsized off France while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain, French authorities said. Fifteen migrants have been saved so far and rescue and search operations were still under way, according...

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — Police in Tanzania shot dead at least nine citizens amid unrest over alleged fraud ahead of the presidential election, a major opposition party asserted Tuesday, while officials denied it and one of Africa’s most populous countries watched internet service slow to a crawl ahead of Wednesday’s vote....

ROME — Pope Francis’ decision to forgo wearing a mask has been noticed, with some concern, by the commission of Vatican experts he appointed to help chart the Catholic Church’s path through the coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath. The Rev. Augusto Zampini, one of the key members of the pope’s...

President Donald Trump spent four years upending seven decades of American trade policy. In what became his defining economic act, Trump launched a trade war with China. On another front, he taxed the steel and aluminum of U.S. allies. And he terrified America’s own corporations by threatening to wreck $1.4...

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump’s request that the United States replace him as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit alleging he raped a woman in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. The decision by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came after...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A powerful bomb blast ripped through an Islamic seminary on the outskirts of the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning, killing at least eight students and wounding 136 others, police and a hospital spokesman said. The bombing happened as a prominent religious scholar during a...

HONG KONG — Three members of a former student group advocating independence for Hong Kong were arrested Tuesday under the city’s new national security law on suspicion of publishing content inciting secession on social media platforms. The three include former Studentlocalism leader Tony Chung and former members William Chan and...

SPOKANE, Wash. — Workers from the state Department of Agriculture managed to destroy the first nest of so-called murder hornets discovered in the United States without suffering any stings or other injuries, the agency said Monday. The nest, located in Whatcom County near the Canadian border, created concern because the...

LANSING, Mich. — Federal prosecutors have asked for more time to hand down grand jury indictments in their kidnapping conspiracy case involving Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, saying the recent discovery of bomb components could lead to new charges, including terror-related charges. In a court filing Monday, prosecutors asked for a 40-day...

BOSTON — A man was charged with setting a Boston ballot drop box on fire and damaging dozens of ballots, police said Monday. Worldy Armand, a 39-year-old Boston resident, was taken into custody late Sunday, hours after he started a fire inside a drop box outside the Boston Public Library...

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Police videos showing a suburban Chicago police officer fatally shooting a Black man and wounding a Black woman are expected to be released once relatives have seen the footage, the city’s mayor has said. Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said Sunday during a prayer vigil for Marcellis Stinnette,...