A federal judge said on Monday that she intended to temporarily block the Trump administration from imposing a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, adding to the pushback against an effort by the White House’s Office and Management and Budget. The statement by the judge, Loren L. AliKhan of the…

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York signed a bill on Monday intended to give the state’s health care providers an extra layer of protection to shield them from prosecution in states that ban abortion. The newly signed law comes days after a New York doctor was indicted in Louisiana for prescribing and sending abortion pills…

President Trump’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China included a little-noticed but significant change to how online purchases will be taxed when they enter the United States. One provision of Mr. Trump’s executive order will increase costs for more than 80 percent of U.S. e-commerce imports. The decision could shift the…

Parts of Northern California that saw up to half a foot of rain last weekend are bracing for more this week as a series of powerful storms up and down the West Coast threatens to bring scattered flooding, mudslides and debris flows in the lower elevations and heavy snow in the mountains. Parts of Southern…

Through nearly 16 months of war in Gaza, politicians and analysts debated competing proposals for the territory’s postwar governance, but no clear direction emerged while the fighting continued. Now, as a fragile cease-fire holds and as Israel and Hamas prepare for negotiations to extend the truce, four rival models for Gaza’s future have begun to…

A key stretch of Pacific Coast Highway reopened on Monday to regular traffic, nearly four weeks after wildfires burned surrounding neighborhoods and displaced thousands of people. The reopening of the iconic highway will allow traffic to flow along the coastal stretch between Santa Monica and Malibu, possibly improving access for local residents and making it…

A French court convicted the director Christophe Ruggia on Monday of sexually assaulting the actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, handing him a four-year sentence — two years under house arrest and the rest suspended. It was the first major case to examine an accusation of sexual misconduct in French cinema since the…

Police Department anti-crime units are stopping, frisking and searching too many New Yorkers unlawfully — and at levels far outstripping those of regular patrol units, a court-appointed monitor said. The monitor, Mylan L. Denerstein, filed a report in federal court in Manhattan on Monday that found that the units, the Neighborhood Safety Teams and Public…

Bret: Which, as any honest employer will tell you, at least privately, tends to devolve in practice into a de facto system of set-asides based largely on the identity of an employee or contractor. And also, in some cases, a quiet but damaging erosion of standards, like the weakening of the Army’s fitness requirements that…

This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Houses in the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods were still ablaze when talk turned to the cost of the Los Angeles firestorms and who would pay for it. Now it appears that the total damage and economic loss could be more…