Author: News Room

Voice of America, the federally funded broadcaster to the world, has long prided itself on serving as an accurate and fair source of news and on being independent of whichever president and party are in power in the United States.Since the election of President Trump, that independence is increasingly being tested.In recent months, Voice of America’s parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has opened human-resources investigations into Voice of America journalists for reporting on criticism of Mr. Trump or for making comments that were perceived as critical of him, according to several employees. Some journalists raised concerns about…

President Trump’s escalating initiative to drastically cut the federal work force has reached the Social Security Administration, a crucial program that keeps millions of older Americans out of poverty, which said on Friday that it would reduce its head count by more than 12 percent.The Social Security Administration, which sends about 73 million retired and disabled beneficiaries more than $126 billion each month, said it had plans to cut roughly 7,000 workers from its 57,000-member work force.The agency will also shutter six regional offices, which coordinate and provide support to workers on the front lines who serve beneficiaries, bringing the…

A year ago, France embarked on an ambitious goal: To craft the world’s widest ranging ban on the use of harmful “forever chemicals” in everyday products.On Friday, that effort culminated in a national ban on PFAS that environmental and health experts hailed as a big step forward, with one notable exception.After campaigning by the home appliances manufacturer, Tefal — including a rowdy rally by employees wielding pots and pans — nonstick pans and other PFAS-containing cookware were excluded from the ban.“Victory against PFAS in the National Assembly! France confirms that it can lead the way in protecting public health,” Nicolas…

Mr. Schwarz says on his website biography that he lives in the Midwest. (A P.O. box in Ringwood, Ill., is listed on the People’s Union USA website.) On social media, he goes by TheOneCalledJai and has directed supporters of his organization to follow his personal accounts under the same name as he sells merchandise and solicits donations for the People’s Union USA on GoFundMe, collecting more than $93,000 as of Friday afternoon.The money from the GoFundMe will be used for “building the website, pushing this movement forward, and working toward officially unionizing and forming a nonprofit,” according to the People’s…

Senior leadership at the Guggenheim will not be taking pay cuts, according to a museum spokeswoman, Tina Vaz. The cuts are spread over six departments, including advancement, education, publications and archives, but do not affect curators and top executives. Additionally, the museum’s chief curator, Naomi Beckwith, who is organizing two major exhibitions in Europe for outside institutions, will continue in her role (and she is finishing work on a major solo exhibition for the artist Rashid Johnson, a former museum trustee, which opens at the Guggenheim in April).Mariët Westermann, the Guggenheim Museum’s director and chief executive, said, “Our overall financial…

Federal student loan borrowers are temporarily unable to apply to income-driven repayment plans, a decades-old safety net which ties their monthly loan payment size to household income levels, as the U.S. Education Department reviews a recent federal court ruling.The department closed applications to the repayment plans last week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld and expanded a temporary suspension of the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, known as SAVE.That income-driven program, a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s policy agenda with eight million enrolled borrowers, generated lower payments than previous plans. Given its high cost,…

Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of the entertainment giant Paramount, delivered a crucial message to her board a few weeks ago.For months, Paramount’s lawyers had been jousting with representatives for President Trump, who had sued the company’s CBS News network over its segment on former Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump accused the network of deceptively editing the interview; CBS said Trump’s lawsuit was without merit.But when the board gathered this month, Ms. Redstone was clear: She was in favor of resolving the issue, two people familiar with the matter told DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch and The New York Times’s Ben…

The stock market’s shine in the wake of President Trump’s election fully wore off in late February, with the new administration’s early policy priorities and weak consumer sentiment making investors uneasy about the economy.Stocks climbed to new highs in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Trump’s win, as traders geared up for lighter regulation and tax cuts — anticipating they would add up to accelerating growth. But that rally stalled in recent weeks as anxiety about the inflationary impact of new tariffs began to grow. A slump in technology stocks this week also weighed on the broad market.By midday Friday, the…

After nearly a decade of trying, Apple finally gave up its effort to produce an electric car last year, canceling a project that soaked up $10 billion.But last year in China, the electronics maker Xiaomi launched its first electric car after just three years of development and delivered 135,000 vehicles. It has vowed to double that number in 2025.Xiaomi’s ability to succeed where Apple could not shows how thoroughly China has come to dominate the supply chain for electric vehicles. Chinese companies have mastered electric vehicle manufacturing. By tapping that infrastructure, Xiaomi was able to get components quickly and cheaply.More…

Getting inflation under control since the worst surge in decades has been a bumpy process in recent months. New data on Friday showed a little progress, but also an unexpected pullback in consumer spending, complicating the path forward for the Federal Reserve as it debates when to restart interest rate cuts.The central bank’s preferred inflation measure, released on Friday, climbed 2.5 percent in January from a year earlier, slightly lower than the previous reading of 2.6 percent but still well above the central bank’s 2 percent target. On a monthly basis, prices increased 0.3 percent, in line with December’s pace.The…