Author: NY TIMES

Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay more than $310 million to settle claims and cover costs stemming from the February 2023 derailment of a freight train carrying hazardous materials in an Ohio town, the federal government said on Thursday.The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency said the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal court, requires Norfolk Southern to improve rail safety and pay for cleanup costs and health and environmental monitoring in and around East Palestine, Ohio, where the accident happened.On a Friday night in early February last year, 38 rail cars on a…

The Justice Department on Thursday sued Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, asking a court to break up the company over claims it illegally maintained a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.In the lawsuit, which is joined by 29 states and the District of Columbia, the government accuses Live Nation of dominating the industry by locking venues into exclusive ticketing contracts, pressuring artists to use its services and threatening its rivals with financial retribution.Those tactics, the government argues, have resulted in higher ticket prices for consumers and have stifled innovation and competition throughout the industry.“It is time…

In more than a dozen states, doctors and nurses have resorted to paper and handwritten treatment orders to chart patient illnesses and track them, unable to access the detailed medical histories that have long been available only through computerized records.Patients have waited for long stints in emergency rooms, and their treatments have been delayed while lab results and readings from machines like M.R.I.s are ferried through makeshift efforts lacking the speed of electronic uploads.For more than two weeks, thousands of medical personnel have turned to manual methods after a cyberattack on Ascension, one of the nation’s largest health systems with…

Cassie, the singer who accused Sean Combs of years of physical and sexual abuse in a lawsuit that she settled, on Thursday addressed footage of the music mogul assaulting her that emerged last week, saying in an Instagram post that domestic violence had broken her down to “someone I never thought I would become.”“Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to take this matter seriously,” the singer, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, wrote in the post. “My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart…

Iran’s president will be laid to rest in his hometown on Thursday, capping days of funeral observances after his death in a helicopter crash left the country without one of its highest-profile leaders.The deceased president, Ebrahim Raisi, will be buried at the Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad, one of the holiest sites of Shiite Islam. Before that, his body was flown from Tehran, the capital, to the eastern city of Birjand for a funeral procession. Photos and videos posted by the state news media showed a smaller crowd in Birjand compared with the tens of thousands…

Top NewsIsrael’s military said on Thursday that it was fighting in neighborhoods near the heart of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, apparently expanding its campaign against Hamas in a week when Israel has faced mounting diplomatic and legal pressure over its war effort.The fighting came as the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the top court of the United Nations, said it would respond on Friday to a South African petition for the court to order an immediate halt to the ground assault in Rafah. The court has no means of enforcing its orders, but a call…

Victor Wembanyama just accomplished something no other NBA player has ever accomplished.The towering San Antonio Spurs big man became the first rookie in league history to be named to the All-Defensive First Team on Tuesday.Wembunama joins Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo, New Orleans Pelicans guard/forward Herb Jones and Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Day Weiss joins the first team.Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso, Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs, Boston Celtics guard Derrick White, Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels and Celtics Yankees guard Jrue Holiday was named to the second team.Gobert led the voting, receiving…

This year’s Super Bowl was many things to Kristin Juszczyk.It was a crushing loss for her husband’s team, the San Francisco 49ers. But it was also the culmination of weeks of frenzied interest in the clothes she made by hand and wore to N.F.L. games. (The Super Bowl happened to take place on her 30th birthday, too.)“This really all started as a hobby for me,” said Ms. Juszczyk, whose hobby — repurposing vintage team gear into one-off pieces — eventually made global headlines.From early January to mid-February (or the N.F.L. playoff season, roughly), her Instagram following grew by one million…

TikTok said on Thursday that it was introducing new measures to limit the spread of videos from state-affiliated media accounts, including Russian and Chinese outlets, as the company deflects criticism that it could be used as a propaganda tool in a major election year.The company in 2022 started labeling state-affiliated media accounts — like those from RT, the global Russian television network, and People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. It said it would no longer allow videos from such accounts into users’ main feeds if they “attempt to reach communities outside their home country on current…

In 2021, David Sacks, a prominent venture capital investor and podcast host, said former President Donald J. Trump’s behavior around the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol had disqualified him from being a future political candidate.At a tech conference last week, Mr. Sacks said his view had changed.“I have bigger disagreements with Biden than with Trump,” the investor said. Mr. Sacks said he and his podcast co-hosts were working on hosting a fund-raiser for Mr. Trump, which could include an interview for their “All In” show. They also extended an invitation to President Biden, he said, but the Trump…