Obama sidesteps Congress with rules to curb corporate flight
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced rules on Monday that are aimed at making it more difficult for American companies to lower their tax bills by relocating overseas and that would wipe out the benefits for those that do. It is the administration’s latest move to sidestep a paralyzed Congress and tackle a politically charged element of President Barack Obama’s agenda.
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HONG KONG — Thousands of Hong Kong university students abandoned classes Monday to rally against Chinese government limits on voting rights, a bellwether demonstration of the city’s appetite for turning smoldering discontent into street-level opposition.
U.S. and allies hit Islamic State targets in Syria
WASHINGTON — The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border.
Plaintiffs challenge Texas voter ID law, claim the law is biased
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A law requiring Texas voters to show government-issued identification before casting a ballot is the latest example of the state’s long history of discrimination against minorities and puts unjustified burdens on the right to vote for more than half a million Texans, lawyers challenging the law told a federal judge here on Monday.
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Four of five inmates who escaped from a jail in central California and were considered “armed and dangerous” were captured Saturday, the authorities said.
It’s always sunny at the Institute
Sunshine and light winds are expected to continue this week as strong high pressure is poised to dominate the northeastern United States. A broad high pressure system currently centered over the Ohio Valley will merge today with a secondary high currently located over eastern Canada. The combined high will move over New England tomorrow, bringing clear skies and calm winds to the region. Light southwesterly flow may prevent a sea breeze from developing this afternoon, keeping temperatures a few degrees warmer than they will be tomorrow. A coastal storm will have a chance of glancing the Massachusetts coastline on Thursday, but current indications do not appear favorable for the storm to make it this far north.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Lawrence J. Ellison is retiring as chief executive of Oracle Corp., a company he founded in 1977 that has transformed the business world and made him one of the world’s richest people.
Finding their gym on the city’s streets
NEW YORK — As dawn began its daily blanching of the bright lights in Times Square one morning, a cluster of early birds cheerfully dragged one another in wheelbarrow formations, pair by pair, up the steps of the TKTS booth. Yawning workers in suits hustled past, while police officers looked on ambivalently A couple of tourists raised their cellphones to capture the spectacle for posterity, or at least for Instagram.
Apple update keeps data private, even from police
Apple wants to make clear that it wants nobody snooping around in your device, not even the police.
UNTITLED
ANTAKYA, Turkey — The Islamic State released the latest in a series of propaganda videos Thursday, a slickly produced introduction to what it promised would be a multipart series on the group and the folly of efforts by the United States to fight it. The segment is a sharp departure from the IS’s recent grisly videos showing a black-clad executioner beheading Western hostages in the desert, which helped galvanize international support for wider military action against the group.
Much at stake as Xi Jinping, Chinese leader, visits India
NEW DELHI — India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, celebrated his 64th birthday on Wednesday by hosting President Xi Jinping of China in his home state of Gujarat, as the leaders of Asia’s two giants lay the foundation for a long-term relationship that carries huge stakes for both.
US seeks to curb dangers of antibiotic resistance
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday announced measures to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, outlining a national strategy that includes incentives for the development of new drugs, tighter stewardship of existing ones, and improvements in tracking the use of antibiotics and the microbes that are resistant to them. The actions are the first major White House effort to confront a public health crisis that takes at least 23,000 lives a year, and many experts were pleased that a president had finally focused on the issue. But some said the strategy fell short in not recommending tougher measures against the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture, which, they argue, is a big part of the problem. Researchers have been warning for years that antibiotics are losing their power because of overuse. Some warn that if the trend is not halted, we could return to the time before antibiotics, when it was common for people to die from ordinary infections and for children not to survive strep throat.
Sunny skies in store
The last weekend of astronomical summer will be a pleasant one, as a high pressure system moves into place over the northeastern United States. Today will be a bit chillier than normal, as a sea breeze develops in the afternoon, bringing cooler air from over Massachusetts Bay, where sea surface temperatures are currently around 60°F (16°C). Tonight will be especially chilly, as clear skies and calm winds allow the land surface to efficiently radiate heat away, bringing temperatures down to the middle 40s (°F) early tomorrow morning. However, winds will shift to be from the south tomorrow as the high pressure begins to lift and a cold front approaches from the west. These southerly winds will bring warmer air up to New England, raising the temperature to near 70°F (21°C) tomorrow, and several degrees higher than that on Sunday. Expect a chance of showers on Sunday night, and temperatures returning to the 60s (°F) in its wake at the beginning of next week.
Cool, dry weather to return soon
Cambridge experienced a nice taste of fall this weekend with clear, blue skies and lows approaching the 40s (°F) . The high pressure system associated with this benign weather is now moving off into the Atlantic. Expect unsettled weather today as a low pressure system approaches from the southwest and a weak frontal boundary pushes through the area. Scattered showers this morning should give way to mostly cloudy skies in the afternoon. Expect moderate westerly winds behind that front.
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Microsoft agreed Monday to buy the creator of Minecraft, the world-building computer game, for $2.5 billion, in a move meant to add the immensely popular title to its stock of content.
US responds to Islamic State’s plan to enter through Mexico
WASHINGTON — Militants for the Islamic State have traveled to Mexico and are just miles from the United States. They plan to cross over the porous border and will “imminently” launch car bomb attacks. And the threat is so real that federal law enforcement officers have been placed at a heightened state of alert, and an American military base near the border has increased its security.
Study points to well leaks, not fracking, for water contamination
A study of tainted drinking water in areas where natural gas is produced from shale shows that the contamination is most likely due to leaky wells rather than the process of hydraulic fracturing used to release the gas from the rock.
Number of Americans with health insurance increases
Federal researchers reported on Tuesday that the number of Americans without health insurance had declined substantially in the first quarter of this year, the first federal measure of the number of uninsured Americans since the Affordable Care Act extended coverage to millions of people in January.
US is still open to talking to Iran about Islamic State
PARIS — Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the Obama administration would keep the door open to confidential communications with Iran on the security crisis in Iraq, despite sarcastic criticism from Iran’s supreme leader, who said the American plan for bombing Islamic militants, their common enemy, was absurd.