Republicans accused the mayors of New York, Chicago, Denver and Boston of providing sanctuary to criminals, while Democrats pointed to falling crime rates and defended helping the needy.

Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, had drawn rebukes from the Biden administration for his opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza and his support for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The Police Department said several demonstrators were taken into custody during the sit-in at the college’s main library.

Seven people are now charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Mr. Nordquist, a transgender man whose killing has drawn national attention.

Wind blasts dislodged the aircraft from its moorings in South Padre. The blimp drifted all the way to the Dallas area, where it crashed into power lines.

Democrats argue that Elon Musk’s criticism of the program and push to squeeze savings from it is a prelude to benefit cuts. Republicans and President Trump say they plan no such thing.

The talks marked a significant departure for the United States, which has generally refused to talk directly with groups Washington has designated as terrorist organizations.

Google announced Wednesday it is expanding its AI Overviews to more query types and users worldwide, including those not logged into Google accounts, while introducing a new "AI Mode" chatbot feature. AI Mode, which resembles competitors like Perplexity or ChatGPT Search, will initially be limited to Google One AI Premium subscribers who enable it through the Labs section of Search. The feature delivers AI-generated answers with supporting links interspersed throughout, powered by Google's search index. "What we're finding from people who are using AI Overviews is that they're really bringing different kinds of questions to Google," said Robby Stein, VP of product on the Search team. "They're more complex questions, that may have been a little bit harder before." Google is also upgrading AI Overviews with its Gemini 2.0 model, which Stein says will improve responses for math, coding and reasoning-based queries.

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At least seven senior officials have left the group, setting off deep concerns about its future as it confronts scrutiny from congressional Republicans.

Also, meet the man who wants to save the world from bad sound. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.

Back-to-back storms are expected over the next 10 days, potentially bringing a key measure of the state’s crucial water supply up to normal levels.

European nations have heightened security after a series of suspected sabotage attacks on submarine infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, with officials increasingly pointing to Russia as the likely culprit. Finnish authorities detained the tanker Eagle S in December after it allegedly damaged three undersea fiber-optic connections with Estonia and one with Germany. The vessel, carrying Russian oil as part of a "shadow fleet" evading sanctions, made suspicious course changes while crossing cable routes. In November, two more submarine cables in the Baltic were damaged, with investigations focusing on Chinese-owned cargo ship Yi Peng 3, which reduced speed near the cables and turned off its transponder. NATO launched Baltic Sentry in January to enhance surveillance, deploying ships and naval drones off Estonia's coast. The alliance also established a coordination cell following the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. Russia has denied involvement, accusing NATO of using "myths" to increase its Baltic presence.

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“Shock and awe” didn’t end well in Iraq and it won’t end well in the United States.

Party leaders opted for a soberly delivered, centrist counter to the president’s speech, but the dominant image of Democratic pushback was a liberal congressman waving his cane in protest.

President Trump has complained that American banks are restricted from operating in Canada. They can, but are hamstrung.

Nintendo has trumpeted its latest legal success in the company's ongoing fight against pirated games as "significant" not only for itself, "but for the entire games industry." From a report: The Mario maker today confirmed it had won a final victory over French file-sharing company Dstorage, which operates the website 1fichier.com, following years of legal wrangling and repeated appeals. Nintendo's victory means European file-sharing companies must now remove illegal copies of games when asked to do so, or be held accountable and cough up potentially sizable fines as punishment. In 2021, the Judicial Court of Paris ordered Dstorage pay Nintendo $1 million in damages after it was found to be hosting pirate games. Dstorage launched an appeal, which then failed in 2023, and was ordered to pay Nintendo further costs. But the case didn't end there. Dstorage finally took the matter to the highest French judiciary court, where it argued that a specific court order was required before it needed to remove content from its hosting services. This bid has also now failed, ending the long-running matter for good.

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Officials have suggested that the pause in weapons shipments and intelligence sharing could be relatively short-lived if Ukraine’s president bends to White House demands.

Researchers identified a gene that seems to help slow brain aging in women, and studied links between hormone therapy, menopause and Alzheimer’s.

The move came after Chief Justice Roberts temporarily paused a trial judge’s order requiring the administration to release more than $1.5 billion.

Geoffrey.landis writes: Over the last three months of 2024, more than 800 cases of GPS interference were recorded in Lithuanian airspace. Estonia and Finland have also raised concerns, accusing Russia of deploying technology to jam satellite navigation signals near Nato's eastern flank. A group of British scientists -- dubbed the "Time Lords" -- are working on a solution: to develop portable atomic clocks. By carrying a group of atoms cooled to -273C on the plane itself, rather than relying on an external signal, the technology can't be interfered with by jamming. But the problem is that the equipment is still too large to be used routinely on planes. The UK Hub for Quantum Enabled Position Navigation and Timing (QEPNT) was set up last December by the government to shrink the devices on to a chip, making them robust enough for everyday life and affordable for everyone. Henry White, part of the team from BAE Systems that worked on the test flight, told BBC News that he thought the first application could be aboard ships, "where there's a bit more space".

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