Walk through central Beijing today and one thing quickly becomes apparent: foreigners are back. They are taking photos outside the Forbidden City and sitting in cafes around Gulou and Sanlitun. The shift is visible online, too; YouTube is increasingly filled with videos titled “China Shocked Me” or “My First Week in China”. Most of the…
A judge has approved a $1.5 million penalty levied against Elon Musk that will settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit despite having “significant misgivings” about it. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan noted that her court would accept the settlement, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, which cited her court opinion. Sooknanan’s approval settles a lawsuit filed by…
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories The United States has temporarily lifted oil sanctions on Iran, allowing the country to sell its oil in U.S. dollars on the…
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the National Park Service from removing or revising signs, films and other materials at national parks across the country to comply with a directive from President Trump. The ruling pauses enforcement of an executive order that called for removing or covering up materials at national parks that “inappropriately…
A federal appeals court on Wednesday evening upheld a decision that blocked Alabama from using nitrogen gas in an execution scheduled for this week, forcing the state to turn to an alternate method if it is going to carry out the death penalty against Jeffery Lee, a convicted murderer. Alabama officials had appealed a decision…
A federal judge in Georgia ruled Wednesday that the federal government did not have to return 2020 election records seized by the F.B.I., rejecting a request from Fulton County that the materials be returned. After F.B.I. agents carried out an extraordinary seizure of about 660 boxes of records from Fulton County’s elections hub, county officials…
(RNS) — A Chicago-area church led by bestselling author and pastor Dane Ortlund must pay $93,000 in back wages and damages to a former staffer after a judge ruled the church retaliated against her. Administrative Judge Azeema Akram of the Illinois Human Rights Commission ruled last week that Naperville Presbyterian Church’s firing of Emily Hyland…
A federal magistrate judge raised concerns on Monday that the man accused of trying to kill President Trump and top cabinet members at an annual press gala had been placed in unusually punitive detention for days while awaiting next steps in court. During a hastily scheduled hearing in Washington, Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui demanded…
President Trump has made no secret of his desire for total control over the historically independent Justice Department, publicly directing prosecutions and declaring that government lawyers must follow his interpretation of the law. It is a norm-busting approach that has resulted in criminal investigations into several of his perceived political enemies. But his extraordinary influence…
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a series of decisions that wind and solar developers say have throttled hundreds of renewable energy projects across the country. Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit that a coalition…
