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      Supreme Court to Hear Starbucks Challenge to Labor Ruling

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      The case, which stems from the firing of seven Starbucks workers in Memphis, seeks to limit the National Labor Relations Board’s ability to obtain a court intervention in labor cases.The Supreme Court is set to hear Starbucks’s challenge on Tuesday to a federal judge’s order to reinstate workers who were attempting to unionize a store in Memphis.Starbucks is asking the court to make it harder for the National Labor Relations Board to obtain intervention by judges in cases where a company is accused of violating labor law. The case stems from the February 2022 firing of seven workers who let local journalists into a closed store to conduct interviews about their unionization efforts.Starbucks, which has faced hundreds of accusations of labor law violations across the country, argues that there is a patchwork of standards under which the N.L.R.B. can seek a court injunction. The appellate court in this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, applies a lower standard, and Starbucks is pushing the Supreme Court to apply a more strict, uniform standard that is in line with other circuits.Starbucks said the workers were fired because admitting the journalists into the store violated several company policies. Starbucks Workers United, the union representing the company’s workers, filed an unfair labor practice charge over the firings, arguing that the company selectively enforced the rules against organized workers. The labor board issued a complaint against Starbucks two months later.A federal judge granted the labor board’s request to reinstate the workers while proceedings over the firings played out, which could take years. An appellate judge upheld the reinstatements last year, and the company requested the Supreme Court review. The high court agreed to hear the case in January.Lisa Blatt, a partner at the law firm Williams & Connolly, is representing Starbucks and is a veteran of the Supreme Court bar. In the past two years, she won rulings in favor of Google — a closely watched case seeking to make tech companies liable for content posted by its users — and for Jack Daniel’s in an intellectual property case against the seller of a dog toy.Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, is representing the labor board. She has represented the government in several high-profile cases, including Dobbs v. Jackson in June 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutionally protected right to an abortion. More

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      G.M. Reports Big Jump in Profit on Gasoline Car Sales

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      General Motors has struggled with electric vehicles and in foreign markets but it is selling lots of combustion engine cars and trucks in North America.General Motors on Tuesday reported a big jump in profits for the first three months of the year, based on the strength of its gasoline vehicle business, and raised its outlook for the rest of the year.The company saw slow growth in electric vehicles, but robust sales of internal combustion vehicles, especially pickup trucks, helped raise its profit to $3 billion in the first quarter, a 24 percent jump from the same period a year ago. G.M. also said that it now expects to make $10.1 billion to $11.5 billion in profit this year, up from a previous forecast of $9.8 billion to $11.2 billion.“We’re maximizing the strength of our ICE business, we’re growing our E.V. business and improving profitability,” G.M.’s chief financial officer, Paul Jacobson, said in a conference call with reporters, using the shorthand for internal combustion engine.Mr. Jacobson said G.M. has ironed out production difficulties in battery pack manufacturing and is ramping up output. He repeated an earlier forecast that G.M.’s battery-powered cars and trucks would start generating profits in the second half of this year.G.M. made all of its profit in North America and lost money in the rest of the world, including a $106 million loss in China; a year earlier, the company reported an $83 million profit in that country.G.M. sold 895,000 vehicles globally in the first quarter, an increase of 4 percent.In the first three months of the year in the United States, G.M. sold 9,385 electric vehicles that use its latest battery technology. That’s an increase from 972 in the same period a year ago, but significantly fewer than G.M. had originally expected.The company plans to add several new electric vehicles this year that utilize the new Ultium batteries. They include a GMC Sierra pickup truck that is supposed to have maximum range of 440 miles, and a Chevrolet Equinox sport-utility vehicle that G.M. said would have a starting price of $34,995 and a range of up to 319 miles. More

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      Taiwan Quakes: Aftershocks From Deadly Temblor Hit Island

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      No injuries or deaths were immediately reported, but two buildings partially collapsed in the tremors, which followed a powerful April 3 quake that killed 17 people.Taiwan was shaken by a series of earthquakes on Monday and early Tuesday, the strongest with a magnitude of 6.3, partially toppling two buildings and keeping frightened residents up overnight. The tremors were aftershocks from the magnitude 7.4 quake that killed 17 people three weeks ago, the authorities said.The tremors began just after 5 p.m. on Monday local time with a 5.5 magnitude quake in Hualien County on Taiwan’s east coast, according to Wu Chien-fu, the director of the Taiwanese Central Weather Administration’s Seismological Center. It was followed by a series of smaller tremors some minutes later in the same area.Two buildings in the city of Hualien partially collapsed, some residents were evacuated and schools and offices in Hualien County were ordered to close on Tuesday because of the threat of continuing tremors, according to local news outlets. No injuries or deaths had been reported by Tuesday morning.Mr. Wu said at a news conference on Monday night that the quakes were aftershocks from the deadly April 3 quake, which was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years. The epicenter of that earthquake was also in the Hualien County area.Maps: Earthquakes Shake Eastern TaiwanView the location of each quake’s epicenter and shake area.By Tuesday morning, more than 180 shocks had been recorded in the previous 24 hours, according to the Central Weather Administration. The strongest were at 2:26 a.m., at magnitude 6, off Taiwan’s eastern coast, and 2:32 a.m., at magnitude 6.3, about 10 miles from Hualien County. The latest big tremor came at about 8 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Central Weather Administration.Chen Mei-hui, 58, a retired saleswoman who lives in Hualien, said the tremors had put her in a “very torturous mood.”“I have been unable to sleep well since the earthquake this month,” she said on Tuesday morning. “We can only pray that our house is strong enough to get us through this difficult time.”Chris Buckley More

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      A Night Different From Others as Pro-Palestinian Protests Break for Seder

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      On the first night of Passover, the singsong of the Four Questions echoed from Jewish homes and gatherings around the world, including from unlikely, contested spaces: the center of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia and other universities where demonstrations are taking place.As evening fell over Columbia’s tent encampment on Monday, about 100 students and faculty gathered in a circle around a blue tarp heaped with boxes of matzo and food they had prepared in a kosher kitchen. Some students wore kaffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian scarf, while others wore Jewish skullcaps. They distributed handmade Haggadahs — prayer books for the Passover holiday — and read prayers in Hebrew, keeping to the traditional order.But there were also changes and additions, like a watermelon on the Seder plate to represent the flag of Palestine. There were repeated references to the suffering of the Palestinian people and the need to ensure their liberation. There was grape juice instead of wine to respect the alcohol-free encampment, which was started last Wednesday and, despite a police crackdown last week, was stretching into its sixth day.The question asked each year — Why is this night different from all other nights?— echoed with new meaning.Jewish students served matzo at Columbia University at what they called a Gaza Liberation Seder on campus.Bing Guan for The New York TimesThe students read from handmade Haggadahs.Caitlin Ochs/ReutersAt other pro-Palestinian encampments and protests that have cropped up this week, similar scenes played out. Some protest organizers and participants are anti-Zionist Jewish students, and at Columbia, roughly 15 of the students who have been suspended for their involvement in the encampment are Jewish, organizers said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As College Students Protest, Harris Keeps Her Focus on Abortion

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      Vice President Kamala Harris, campaigning on Monday in Wisconsin, again took sharp swipes at former President Donald J. Trump for his actions on abortion, a hot topic across the country. But she stayed silent on the war in Gaza, another issue erupting elsewhere among the critical bloc of young voters she has been courting.The split screen captured the advantages and challenges for Democrats as they head into the presidential election in November. Even as the party is looking to galvanize voters over the wave of abortion restrictions in numerous states since Roe v. Wade was overturned, it is facing internal divisions among key parts of its coalition.On Monday, as demonstrations gripped college campuses on the East Coast, Ms. Harris kept her attention squarely focused on Mr. Trump and what she described as his attacks on women. She cast the 2024 election as a choice over the preservation of freedom, which she called “fundamental to the promise of America.”“This is a moment where we must stand up for foundational, fundamental values and principles,” she told roughly 100 people at a community center in La Crosse, in the western part of the state. “When we think about what is at stake, it is absolutely about freedom.”Abortion rights have become a focus of President Biden’s re-election bid, and Ms. Harris has had a leading role.Her La Crosse event was part of daylong trip to the battleground state that was focused on official and campaign duties centered on health care and reproductive rights. Earlier in the day, Ms. Harris met for a round-table discussion with health care workers and leaders and unveiled two Biden administration rule changes meant to benefit hundreds of thousands of health care workers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      On Columbia’s Campus, a Protest Encampment Grows and Tensions Flare

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      With a light blue academic robe tucked under her arm, Professor Marianne Hirsch hurried to get through a security line at a Columbia University entryway on Monday morning. To pass the gates, everyone had to scan IDs, in compliance with an announcement from the university’s administration that only students and faculty would be allowed on campus.Dr. Hirsch was not on her way to a graduation ceremony, however, but to protest the university’s president, Nemat Shafik. Last Wednesday, Dr. Shafik testified at a tense congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses, and the next day she called in the police to empty an encampment of demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza and the university’s ties to Israel. More than 100 students were arrested.“I am here because of her infringement on academic freedom in the congressional hearing and because of her decision to bring police on to campus to arrest students,” said Dr. Hirsch, a professor emerita in the English and Comparative Literature Department.Around and on Columbia’s campus on Monday — as protests unfolded under perfect blue skies, just hours before the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover — there was one sentiment shared by nearly everyone, no matter their viewpoint on the war: anger at Dr. Shafik.Students have been sleeping in tents on campus for several nights, and confrontations between protesters and counterprotesters have occasionally broken out both inside and outside Columbia’s gates. On Monday, the action on Broadway began at about 9:30 a.m., when several dozen people, several wrapped in Israeli flags, listened to a speech from Professor Shai Davidai, who has been a vocal critic of Columbia’s response to antisemitism on campus.A trio of women who live nearby saw Dr. Davidai’s posts saying he would be at Columbia and felt an urge to attend, despite needing to prepare Passover meals for dozens of guests.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Using Police to Clear Protesters, Universities Struggle to Calm Campuses

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      Students were arrested at N.Y.U. and Yale on Monday. But at Columbia, that approach led to a new encampment and demonstrations outside its gates.Police arrest protesters outside of New York University on Monday night. Adam Gray for The New York TimesAt New York University, the police swept in to arrest protesting students on Monday night, ending a standoff with the school’s administration.At Yale, the police placed protesters’ wrists into zip ties on Monday morning and escorted them onto campus shuttles to receive summonses for trespassing.Columbia kept its classroom doors closed on Monday, moving lectures online and urging students to stay home.Harvard Yard was shut to the public. Nearby, at campuses like Tufts and Emerson, administrators weighed how to handle encampments that looked much like the one that the police dismantled at Columbia last week — which protesters quickly resurrected. And on the West Coast, a new encampment bubbled at the University of California, Berkeley.Less than a week after the arrests of more than 100 protesters at Columbia, administrators at some of the country’s most influential universities were struggling, and largely failing, to calm campuses torn by the conflict in Gaza and Israel.Despite arrests at Columbia last week, protests continued on campus on Monday.C.S. Muncy for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      NYT Crossword Answers for April 23, 2024

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      Judy Bowers makes her New York Times debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — It’s been over 75 years since the first New York Times Crossword, and language has significantly evolved. And yet there has been little change in much of the field’s crosswordese — i.e. vowel-heavy words that frequently appear in crosswords, but hardly ever apply in everyday speech.We are still just as likely as ever, for example, to encounter H.G. Wells’s “Eloi,” from a novel he wrote in 1895. And though the era of the Oldsmobile has ended, puzzles have yet to stop featuring its final model, the “Alero.” I occasionally explain such terms in Tricky Clues, especially if I’ve just learned them, but improving one’s solving skills is largely a matter of learning these well-worn words by rote.That’s why I have to hand it to Judy Bowers, the constructor of today’s crossword. In this, her New York Times debut, she has managed to do something remarkable with a different constraint — without sacrificing flashes of relevance.Today’s ThemeRead carefully, because the revealer at 54-Down describes just about every part of the crossword in its hint to unlocking today’s theme. We have to identify the “Number of letters in every word of the answers to the starred clues.” Simply put, we’re looking for a number — and since “Plethora” (57A) solves to a fairly straightforward SLEW, we can assume via crossings that it’s the number TWO.Maybe the above number was all you needed for your “aha!” moment. But if you’re like me, you needed more information. And while “Follow our lead!” (32A) is a straightforward DO AS WE DO, other expressions in the theme aren’t so common and may require more crossings to solve: 37-Across, for example, solves to HI MA, I’M UP (its clue being “Morning, mother!”).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More