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The United States plans to impose new sanctions on Iran in the coming days to punish it for attacks on Israel over the weekend, US officials said on Tuesday.Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said in a statement that the sanctions will target Iran's "missile and drone program" and entities that support the country's military groups.“These new sanctions and other measures will continue to apply sustained pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capability and effectiveness and address the full range of its problematic behaviors,” Sullivan said.Sullivan did not specify how sanctions might undermine Iran's weapons programs, but a Treasury official, who declined to be named to discuss private deliberations, said the United States was looking for ways to cut off...

Federal regulators on Tuesday issued new protections for miners against a type of dust long known to cause deadly lung disease — changes recommended by government researchers half a century ago.Mining companies will have to limit concentrations of airborne silica, a mineral commonly found in rocks that can be lethal if ground up and inhaled. The new requirements affect more than 250,000 miners who mine coal, a variety of metals and minerals used in products such as cement and smartphones. Tuesday's announcement is the culmination of a tortuous regulatory process that has spanned four presidential administrations.The miners paid dearly for the delay. As progress on the rule stalled, government researchers documented with growing alarm a resurgence of severe black lung afflicting youn...

Israel's difficult choices on Iran.

Microsoft said Tuesday it will make a $1.5 billion investment in G42, an artificial intelligence giant in the United Arab Emirates, in a deal largely orchestrated by the Biden administration to defeat China as Washington and Beijing battle over who will exert technological influence in the Persian Gulf region and beyond.As part of the partnership, Microsoft will grant G42 permission to sell Microsoft services that use powerful AI chips, used to train and fine-tune generative AI models. In exchange, the G42, which has been under scrutiny by Washington for its ties to China, will use Microsoft's cloud services and adhere to a security agreement negotiated in detailed conversations with the US government. The agreement places a number of protections on AI products shared with G42 and in...

Israeli leaders were discussing Tuesday how to best respond to Iran's unprecedented airstrike over the weekend, officials said, weighing a series of options calibrated to achieve different strategic outcomes: deterring a similar attack in the future, appeasing the American allies and avoid an all-out war.Iran's attack on Israel, a huge barrage that included hundreds of ballistic missiles and explosive drones, changed the unspoken rules in the rivals' long shadow war. In that conflict, large air strikes from the territory of one country directly against the other had been avoided.Given this change in precedent, the calculus by which Israel decides its next move has also changed, said Israeli officials who requested anonymity to discuss Iran.“We cannot resist this kind of aggres...

Lindsey McNeil and her 7-year-old daughter, Noelle, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, were shocked by a notice they received from the Florida Department of Children and Families late last month that Noelle would lose her Medicaid coverage for 10 days After.From then on, their lives began to fall apart, Ms. McNeil said. Noelle has stopped seeing the four therapists she sees every week and she is running out of medications she needs to prevent her seizures from flaring up. Monday brought some relief: Ms. McNeil learned that Noelle's coverage had been temporarily reinstated pending a resolution on an appeal she filed with the state.“We have worked really hard to grow our family, our life and a home for this baby,” Ms. McNeil said. “It's a little disheartening to think about what...

The old Stock Exchange building in central Copenhagen – one of the city's oldest structures, known for its elaborate spire of intertwined dragon tails – partially collapsed in a major fire late Tuesday.It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but social media images and videos showed flames on the roof of the structure and dark clouds of smoke lingering over the city.“It is absolutely terrible to see Borsen in flames,” Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Denmark's culture minister, said in an interview late Tuesday, using the building's Danish name. “The building represents over 400 years of Danish history. It is one of the last Dutch Renaissance-style structures in the world, where trade took place during the entire period."Copenhagen police said on social media that they had eva...

In his office on one of the upper floors of the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizing committee, Franz Regul has no doubts about what is about to happen.“We will be attacked,” said Regul, who leads the team responsible for defending against cyber threats against this year's Summer Games in Paris.Companies and governments around the world now have teams like Regul's operating in spartan rooms equipped with banks of servers and screens with indicator lights that warn of incoming hacker attacks. In the Paris operations center there is even a red light to warn staff of the most serious danger.So far, Mr. Regul said, there have been no serious disruptions. But as the months between the Olympics shrink to weeks and then days and hours, he knows the number of hacking attempts and...

Israeli settlers shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank on Monday, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials, as tensions continued to rise in the Israeli-occupied territory.The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health identified the two men as Abdelrahman Bani Fadel, 30, and Mohammad Bani Jama, 21. The circumstances of their deaths near the city of Aqraba remained unclear.The Israeli army said the two men were killed during a "violent exchange" between Israeli settlers and Palestinians following reports that a Palestinian had attacked an Israeli shepherd. An initial investigation indicated that the shots "did not come" from Israeli soldiers, the military said.The two Palestinians appeared to have been shot by Israeli settlers at the scene, said an Israeli security offici...

Dr. David Egilman, a physician and expert witness who, over a 35-year period, testified in nearly 600 corporate wrongdoing trials, winning billions of dollars in awards for victims and their survivors, died April 2 at his home in New York. Foxborough, Massachusetts. He was 71 years old.The cause was cardiac arrest, his son Alex said.Many medical experts have a sideline in court, offering their informed opinions on the witness stand and helping to validate or undermine plaintiffs' claims. But few make it a career-long passion like Dr. Egilman has. He taught at Brown University and ran a private practice, but spent most of his time consulting and testifying in as many as 15 cases a year.He did more than just give opinions from the gallery. A tenacious researcher, he dug up incrimina...