Author: News Room

President Trump’s keynote this week at a Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s conference in Miami Beach might have seemed like another jubilant pep rally attended by adoring fans and key lieutenants.Elon Musk sat in the front under a vast rotunda, not far from the real estate billionaire Steve Witkoff, now a White House special envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. All received shout-outs from Mr. Trump, and frequently laughed at the president’s early jokes during his 90-minute talk.But in the venue’s packed lobby, which had been repurposed as an overflow room with television screens set up…

Even by Washington standards, the second Trump presidency has begun in frenetic fashion: mass firings at federal agencies, tariff threats against allies and foes alike, and haggling over how to get a Republican budget through a narrowly divided Congress.Business leaders and corporate investors are confident that things will turn out fine, at least for them. “Markets aren’t showing all that much concern,” Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at the Glenmede Trust Company, noted.But that could change, with high-stakes implications for the markets and the U.S. economic outlook.Investors fully expect the tax cuts from President Trump’s first term,…

The good news for cryptocurrency investors arrived just after 8 a.m. on Friday: Coinbase, the largest crypto marketplace in the United States, had reached a deal with U.S. regulators to dismiss a lawsuit that had hung over the industry for years.But within hours, the crypto market descended into a new crisis. At 10:51 a.m., Bybit, another leading crypto exchange, said it had been hacked — with industry analysts estimating the loss at nearly $1.5 billion, the largest theft in crypto history.The prices of Bitcoin, Ether and other major cryptocurrencies plunged. Even Coinbase’s share price had dropped 8 percent by the…

When Xi Jinping, China’s leader, made his entrance at a symposium with a group of top entrepreneurs this week, he seemed to be in good spirits.China has had a few good weeks. The artificial intelligence models by the start-up DeepSeek sent U.S. stocks tumbling and Western commentators screaming, “Sputnik moment.” Then an animated film based on Chinese mythology raked in nearly $2 billion. Mr. Xi signaled that he stood behind the private sector at the meeting on Monday, pushing the Hong Kong stock market to its highest point in three years.For China, it all provided a respite from two years…

These should be wonderful times at Finca El Puente, a coffee plantation carved into the mountains of southwestern Honduras. On world markets, the price of ordinary coffee has more than doubled over the past year. The specialty varieties of coffee harvested at the farm have long commanded a hefty premium, reflecting their status as the source of aromatic brews savored like fine wine from Seattle to Seoul. On a recent afternoon, a buyer from Malaysia was visiting to taste the latest offerings.Yet the owners of the operation — Marysabel Caballero, a fourth-generation coffee farmer, and her husband, Moises Herrera —…

A prominent group of chief executives said almost six years ago that making profits for shareholders was only part of their business — and not necessarily the main part.Speaking collectively as the Business Roundtable, C.E.O.s from companies like Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, Wells Fargo and Amazon said that, really, they were devoted to serving employees and customers, protecting the environment and treating suppliers ethically.Thank you, I wrote in a column back then. And may I sell you a bridge?Now that many companies are muting their commitments to programs embracing diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as to environmental sustainability, I…

A veterinarian and 13 trainers, seeking an edge at a Pennsylvania racetrack, injected pain medications into the joints of more than 100 horses in violation of federal rules, the federal agency that now regulates the sport said on Friday.Afterward, 30 percent of the horses never raced again and 10 percent were declared lame post-race by a regulatory veterinarian. Three horses were euthanized as a direct result of injuries sustained in races, while four more died later, said the agency, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, or HISA.The veterinarian, Dr. Allen Post Bonnell, and three of the trainers, Kim Graci, Marlin…

Patsy Grimaldi, a restaurateur whose coal-oven pizzeria in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge won new fans for New York City’s oldest pizza style with carefully made pies that helped start a national movement toward artisan pizza, died on Feb. 13 in Queens. He was 93.His nephew Frederick Grimaldi confirmed the death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital.Mr. Grimaldi began selling pies in 1990 under the name Patsy’s. In those days, legal skirmishes periodically disturbed the city’s pizza landscape, and it wasn’t long before threatening letters from the lawyers of another Patsy’s led him to rename the place Patsy Grimaldi’s, then simply…

Stocks slumped on Friday, with the S&P 500 wiping out almost all of its gains since President Trump took office last month, after a widely watched measure of how consumers feel about the economy showed mounting fears over stubborn inflation.The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent, adding to a modest dip on Thursday and notching the worst week of Mr. Trump’s second term, which began five weeks ago. The index is now just 0.3 percent higher since Inauguration Day. Other stock indexes also fell, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropping over 2 percent on Friday.Fueling the decline was an unexpected drop…

The Associated Press filed a lawsuit on Friday against top White House officials, accusing them of violating the First and Fifth Amendments by denying A.P. reporters access in retaliation for references to the Gulf of Mexico in its articles.The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It named as defendants Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff; Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.In the complaint, The A.P. said that the White House had ordered it to use certain words in its reporting…