Author: News Room

Apple and Google restored TikTok to their app stores in the United States on Thursday evening, several weeks after they removed the short-form video platform in compliance with a new law that banned it in the country.President Trump tried to pause enforcement of the TikTok ban with an executive order, but the companies were reluctant to bring TikTok back until they were certain they were not breaking the law.The law, signed last year, had called for ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner by Jan. 19. The law targeted app store operators and internet hosting…

Crafters, quilters, knitters and makers across the country received bleak news on Wednesday when they learned that Joann, the arts-and-crafts retail giant, was preparing to close more than half of its stores in the wake of its latest bankruptcy filing — its second in less than a year.Possibly as early as this weekend, pending court approval, the company will begin closing 500 of its roughly 800 stores nationwide. To its loyal customer base, the news represented more than just the decline of a chain that sells yarn, art supplies, sewing machines and fabrics. It also symbolized the demise of a…

Jim Guy Tucker, a former governor of Arkansas who was caught up in the long-running investigation that unsuccessfully targeted his predecessor as governor, Bill Clinton, died on Thursday in Little Rock, Ark. He was 81.His death, at a hospital, was caused by complications of ulcerative colitis, said his daughter Anna Ashton.The Whitewater investigation, which looked into purportedly fraudulent land deals in northwest Arkansas, was led by a Republican special prosecutor and consumed much of the Clinton presidency. But it wound up netting only secondary players on minor charges.Mr. Tucker was one of them. He had been among the most promising…

In a case that could have major implications for abortion access in the United States, a Texas judge on Thursday ordered a New York doctor to stop prescribing and sending abortion pills to patients in Texas and to pay a penalty of more than $100,000 for providing the medication to one woman.The case is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court and become a pivotal test in the escalating battle between states that ban abortion and states that support abortion rights. It essentially pits Texas, which has a near-total abortion ban, against New York, which has a “telemedicine abortion shield…

President Trump on Thursday set in motion a plan for new tariffs on other countries globally, an ambitious move that could shatter the rules of global trading and is likely to set off furious negotiations.The president directed his advisers to come up with new tariff levels that take into account a range of trade barriers and other economic approaches adopted by America’s trading partners. That includes not only the tariffs that other countries charge the United States, but also the taxes they charge on foreign products, the subsidies they give their industries, their exchange rates, and other behaviors the president…

On Dec. 7, Rupert formally filed his petition to strip Prue, Liz and James of their voting power. The three children quickly filed an objection, arguing that their father was abusing the narrow amendment that enables him to make changes to the family trust. Though the public was still unaware of the escalating turmoil roiling the family, the legal battle was now underway.Since leaving the family empire, James had become a private investor, backing media firms, A.I. start-ups and a cannabis-edibles company. He was also a board member at Tesla and hired one of the automaker’s law firms, the heavy-hitting…

Skylar Holden, a cattle rancher in Missouri, had signed a $240,000 cost-sharing contract with the Agriculture Department to add fencing and improve the watering system for his property. But after the Trump administration abruptly froze federal funding, Mr. Holden said, he was suddenly out tens of thousands of dollars and on the hook for tens of thousands more in labor and material costs, and risked losing his farm.“Whenever my farm payment comes due, there’s a good chance that I’m not going to be able to pay it,” he said in an interview.Mr. Holden’s situation underlines the potentially precarious position of…

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Last summer, as I worked on an article about the global fan base of the N.B.A. star LeBron James, I bragged to a friend that I had interviewed a resident of every continent.“Even Antarctica?” she asked.Well, no.But I loved the idea, so I followed the thread, not knowing exactly where it would lead. Surprisingly, it took me to a different sport, and a different fandom, entirely, resulting in one of my favorite articles of all I’ve written, about Buffalo Bills fans…

Elon Musk said in a court filing late Wednesday that he would withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to control OpenAI if the company dropped a longstanding effort to change its corporate structure.Mr. Musk and a consortium of investors had offered on Monday to buy the assets of the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, escalating a yearslong feud between Mr. Musk and OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, over the future of artificial intelligence. Mr. Altman is in the middle of changing OpenAI’s corporate structure by shifting control of the company from the nonprofit to OpenAI’s investors, including Microsoft.Two days later, OpenAI’s board…

Hot inflation has raised the stakes of President Trump’s plans to escalate his use of tariffs on the country’s biggest trading partners, risking even higher consumer prices and pushing back the prospects of the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates soon.New inflation data released this week showed price pressures intensifying. The unexpected jump in January’s Consumer Price Index reflected in part seasonal quirks that tend to crop up at the start of the year, but the increase overall was large enough to fuel fresh apprehension about the outlook.Mr. Trump was quick to point fingers at his predecessor — a line of…