Elections

The man, Andrew J. Gallo, 40, of Bristol Township, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb, is accused of raping or sexually assaulting six women he met on dating sites.A Pennsylvania man accused of drugging at least six women he met online and raping or sexually assaulting them while they were impaired was arrested on Wednesday, the authorities said.Over a year, the man, Andrew J. Gallo, 40, of Bristol Township, Pa., met the women and a minor through a dating website called Sugardaddymeet.com and invited them to his home, giving them drinks laced with drugs in order to violently assault them, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. They ranged in age from 17 to 30, the prosecutor’s office said.Sugardaddymeet.com describes itself as a place for “successful men and attractive women looking for mutually fulfilling relationships.”Mr. Gallo is being held under $500,000 bail at the Bucks County Correctional Facility. It was unclear on Wednesday whether Mr. Gallo had legal representation or how he intended to plea.“He methodically carried out what was clearly preplanned crimes with the sole purpose of satisfying his deviant sexual desire,” Jennifer Schorn, the district attorney in Bucks County, in suburban Philadelphia, said during a news conference on Wednesday.Mr. Gallo was arraigned on Wednesday on five counts of rape by causing impairment, six counts of drug possession, four counts of strangulation, two counts of providing alcohol to minors and one count of corruption of minors, the authorities 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

This is a tale about two sides of the same street.A little after 10 a.m. on Sept. 11, way down on the tip of Lower Manhattan, a Chevrolet Suburban was pulling into the firehouse at 42 South St., which belongs to Engine Company 4, Ladder 15.The men of 4-15 look after Wall Street; the massive emblem hanging inside their firehouse depicts the statue of the Charging Bull, wreathed in flame. On this day, they wore their best class A suits, all crisp navy and patent leather, and crowded around the Chevy. A door opened and out stepped former President Donald J. Trump. The firefighters lined up to shake his hand, to give him a pat on the back.Mr. Trump made the rounds. “Hey, fellas, I didn’t see you over there,” he said, turning to shake the hand of one particularly awe-struck firefighter. “Mr. President,” said the firefighter, “great job last night.”Mr. Trump thanked him, paused and then added, “We had three-on-one.”He was talking about his televised debate, the night before, with Vice President Kamala Harris. To Mr. Trump, his opponents also seemed to include the two moderators from ABC News, who he said treated him unfairly.“There was three-on-one,” he repeated.What was that tone in his voice? Not quite ashamed, or embarrassed, exactly, or even sullen — but resigned, perhaps. Resigned to the fact that he had been bested by Ms. Harris. She had called him a “disgrace” to his face, several times, with more than 60 million people watching. She had hit him where it hurt, taunting him about the people who leave his rallies early. Perhaps what was most devastating was the fact that it all seemed to work — he had taken her bait, allowed himself to get knocked off course, and now even his friends on Fox News seemed to think he got played for a sucker.But inside the firehouse, he was still a champion.“They were going at you,” the firefighter chuckled. “You did a great job, though.” He stuck out his hand for another shake. Mr. Trump took it again, and thanked him again.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

Parker Higgins needs our help making good matches.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — Parker Higgins, the constructor of today’s puzzle, made his New York Times Crossword debut in 2022 with one of my favorite puzzles of that year. I remember thinking that Mr. Higgins had a flair for developing brain-twisting themes, and today’s crossword left me feeling no different.The only thing solvers will need to understand Mr. Higgins’s puzzle is familiarity with a certain type of clue. I’m not saying that this kind of clue is actually in the grid, but it will definitely help to know about it.If you’re not sure what kind of clue I’m referring to, here’s a hint: It’s in the “More Types of Crossword Clues” section of our guide, “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.”Today’s ThemeMr. Higgins has taken a fairly common cluing device and turned it on its head. We typically see partner clues, not partner answers.A partner clue wants you to come up with a word that is typically paired with a word in the clue, separated by “and.” An example would be the clue [Partner of live], with the answer being LEARN, as in “live and learn.” The trick to solving partner clues is to run through all the idioms you know that contain the clue word, add the word “and,” and then figure out which idiom fits.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

Federal prosecutors began their case against three former Memphis police officers with an explosive accusation, while defense lawyers said that the officers had acted in line with their training.Federal prosecutors on Wednesday opened their case against three former Memphis police officers involved in the fatal beating last year of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx worker, accusing them of having doled out the blows to punish him for leaving a traffic stop.It was the “run tax,” said Elizabeth Rogers, an assistant U.S. attorney, using what she said was internal Memphis police slang for the punishment delivered to anyone who fled — extra punches or kicks that would never be reported.The lawyers of the three former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — instead framed the fatal encounter as the unintended consequence of a chaotic stretch for a group of officers tasked with policing high-crime areas of the city. They said that the officers had responded in line with their training to someone who did not answer to their commands and ran away.The former officers face charges of violating Mr. Nichols’s civil rights and conspiring to lie about what happened, and could face life in prison if convicted. Mr. Nichols, who is Black, died on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating from the officers, all of whom are also Black.Mr. Nichols was just minutes from his home in Memphis when he was pulled over by the police and fatally beaten in 2023. Nichols family, via Associated PressAfter Mr. Nichols’s death, hours of video footage were released that showed officers kicking and punching him even as he showed little resistance, horrifying the city of Memphis and the nation. Several other officers and emergency personnel were fired, including two officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., who pleaded guilty to federal charges.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

Cairo will receive its full military aid allotment of $1.3 billion after the secretary of state also said it had made progress on releasing political prisoners and protecting Americans.For the first time under the Biden administration, the United States will send Egypt its full allotment of $1.3 billion in annual military aid, waiving human rights requirements on the spending mainly in recognition of Cairo’s efforts to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, U.S. officials said.The decision, which the State Department notified Congress of on Wednesday, marks a striking shift for the administration. President Biden came into office promising “no blank checks” that would enable Egypt’s rights abuses, and in each of the past three years, his administration had withheld at least some of the congressionally mandated aid to Cairo, a close American ally.But the decision shows how the administration’s calculus has changed as Mr. Biden prioritizes trying to halt the violence in Gaza, one of the key goals he has set for himself in his final months in office.In response to longtime concerns about human rights abuses in Egypt, U.S. law places conditions on about a quarter of the military aid to Egypt each year. To release it, the secretary of state must certify that Cairo has complied with a range of human rights requirements.A State Department spokesman said the secretary, Antony J. Blinken, had found that Egypt had only partly met the human rights requirements but had overridden them, employing a legally permitted waiver “in the U.S. national security interest.”Mr. Blinken’s decision was based on Egypt’s monthslong role as an intermediary between Hamas and Israel as the two sides try to negotiate a cease-fire deal that would free Israeli hostages in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid into the territory, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Desert, the spokesman 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

Serena y sin perder la compostura, Kamala Harris usó sus palabras, y sobre todo su lenguaje corporal, para desestabilizar a Donald Trump, provocar su ira y luego simplemente dejar que se hiciera daño a sí mismo.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Ella lo miró con una ceja arqueada. Un suspiro calmado. Una mano en la barbilla. Una risa. Una mirada compasiva. Un movimiento de cabeza desdeñoso.Desde los primeros momentos del debate contra Donald Trump, Kamala Harris explotó hábilmente la mayor debilidad de su oponente.No se centró en su historial. Tampoco en sus políticas divisivas ni en sus múltiples declaraciones incendiarias.En vez de eso, se enfocó en una parte mucho más básica de él: su ego.En sus mítines, en sus serviles redes sociales y cuando está rodeado de aduladores en Mar-a-Lago, a Trump nadie lo cuestiona, nadie le discute, nadie se burla de él.Eso cambió durante 90 minutos el martes en Filadelfia, cuando la mujer que nunca antes se había reunido con él logró, poco a poco, penetrar su seguridad y provocar su enfado y su ira.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

During his decade in power, he revived the economy and crushed two violent leftist insurgencies. But he was forced out in a corruption scandal and later imprisoned for human rights abuses.Alberto Fujimori, who during his decade-long presidency in Peru rebuilt the nation’s economy and quelled two deadly leftist insurgencies, but who was forced out by a corruption scandal and was later imprisoned for human rights abuses, died Wednesday. He was 86.His daughter Keiko Fujimori confirmed his death in a post on X. Mr. Fujimori, who suffered from arrhythmia and other ailments, died of cancer at Ms. Fujimori’s home in Lima, the capital.A son of Japanese immigrants, Mr. Fujimori was an obscure agricultural engineer and political novice when he ran for the presidency in 1990, famously campaigning aboard a tractor. He stunned the nation by placing a close second in a crowded field and then defeating the establishment favorite, the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, in a runoff.In office, Mr. Fujimori tamed hyperinflation, unemployment and mismanagement; lifted economic growth and standards of living; and cracked down on drug trafficking. But he also showed little regard for Peru’s laws and institutions. He temporarily shut down Congress, governing by fiat for months. He was lauded for subduing the two insurgencies, Shining Path and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, but the brutality of his methods ultimately drew global criticism and landed him a lengthy prison sentence.Mr. Fujimori waved the flag of Peru as he and former hostages of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement arrived at a military hospital in Lima in 1997. The hostages had been held at the Japanese ambassador’s residence before being freed by troops.Luis Chiang/ReutersHis downfall seemed as improbable as his ascent. Toppled in 2000 after a television channel broadcast a videotape showing his intelligence chief trying to bribe a congressman, Mr. Fujimori fled to Japan, where he submitted his resignation by fax from a hotel in Tokyo. After five years in exile, he traveled to Chile to try making a political comeback; instead, he was extradited to Peru.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

In an effort to prevent another attack on the Capitol, the Department of Homeland Security has declared Jan. 6, 2025, to be a special event that requires added security measures when Congress meets to certify the winner of the 2024 presidential election.The designation of a National Special Security Event, announced by Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the director of homeland security, on Wednesday means that significant federal, state and local resources will be directed toward the Capitol a few months from now to increase the security protections and a comprehensive security plan will be put in place.The Secret Service will oversee the security plan.“National Special Security Events are events of the highest national significance,” Eric Ranaghan, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, said in a statement, adding that Secret Service officials, in collaboration with federal, state and local partners, “are committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated security plan to ensure the safety and security of this event and its participants.”The Capitol was overrun on Jan. 6, 2021, by a pro-Trump mob that sought to halt the counting of the Electoral College votes from the 2020 election to disrupt the certification of President Biden’s victory. The Capitol Police force was caught unprepared for the mob violence, even though Mr. Trump had summoned the crowd to Washington days earlier and promised a “wild” rally.After the attack, during which more than 150 police officers were injured and several people died, the Government Accountability Office recommended consideration of the special security designation. More