BUSINESS

Wednesday Briefing

In recent weeks, China has been practicing unusual maneuvers off its southern coast involving three special barges. The vessels have linked up one behind another, forming a long bridge that extends from deeper waters onto the beach. That feat has been a warning to Taiwan. The vessels’ debut suggests that China’s People’s Liberation Army may … Read more

Two state elections say a lot about Trump Two states held elections yesterday that will provide hints as to how Americans feel about President Trump after 10 weeks back in office. In Wisconsin, a race for a State Supreme Court seat has morphed into a referendum on Elon Musk’s role in politics. The billionaire, who … Read more

Charlotte Webb, who as a young woman helped code breakers decipher enemy signals at Britain’s top-secret Bletchley Park, died on Monday. She was 101. Her death was confirmed by the Women’s Royal Army Corps Association and by the Bletchley Park Trust. Ms. Webb, known as Betty, was 18 when she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, … Read more

More than 230 passengers and crew members have been sickened in an outbreak of norovirus during a 29-day round-trip luxury cruise from England to the Eastern Caribbean, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Queen Mary 2, the flagship ocean liner of Cunard Lines, left from Southampton, England, on March 8, according … Read more

The Taliban’s former ambassador to Spain was detained by U.S. immigration officials while entering the United States on Saturday, and remained in custody after a federal judge declined to order his release on Monday. The former Afghan diplomat, Mohammad Rahim Wahidi, was detained at Washington Dulles International Airport under what his lawyer described as a … Read more

Lawyers for Venezuelan migrants accused of being members of a violent street gang asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to continue a temporary block on President Trump’s use of a wartime powers law to send hundreds of people to a prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration has asked the justices to intervene and lift … Read more

Iceland Residents Evacuate Town Threatened by Volcano Eruption

The incoming German chancellor, more convinced than ever that the defense and trade relationship with Washington is crumbling, has made plans to execute on his goal of “independence from the U.S.A.” He’s not the only one. The new Canadian prime minister said last week that “the old relationship we had with the United States” — … Read more

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats overseas to scrutinize the social media content of some applicants for student and other types of visas, in an effort to ban those suspected of criticizing the United States and Israel from entering the country, U.S. officials say. Mr. Rubio laid out the instructions in a long … Read more