Author: News Room

Hundreds of employees at The Washington Post sent a letter to Jeff Bezos on Tuesday evening, asking the Amazon founder for a meeting amid widespread concern about the future of the newspaper.The letter, which was signed by more than 400 employees, including many prominent reporters and editors, does not criticize anyone by name. But it says that the signatories are broadly concerned with the leadership of The Post.“We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency, and prompted some of our most distinguished colleagues…

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday banned the use of Red Dye No. 3 in food, beverages and drugs, more than three decades after the synthetic coloring was first found to cause cancer in male laboratory rats.The dye, a petroleum-based additive, has been used to give candy, soda and other products their vibrant cherry red hue. Consumer advocates said the F.D.A.’s decision to revoke the authorization was long overdue, given the agency’s decision in 1990 to ban the chemical for use in cosmetics and topical drugs.Under federal rules, the F.D.A. is prohibited from approving food additives that cause cancer…

Soon after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, Virginia King sat in an outpatient clinic in Santa Fe, N.M, while a nurse injected her with a powerful drug to slow damage to her spine, where the disease had spread.Even though the drug had a list price of about $2,700, the hospital that owned the cancer center billed Mrs. King’s insurance company $22,700. Her insurer paid $10,000, but the hospital wanted more.She got a bill for over $2,500 — “more than half my take-home salary for a month,” said Mrs. King, 65.She had unknowingly sought care from a hospital that participates…

The Biden administration unveiled a proposal on Wednesday to cut the level of nicotine in cigarettes, a last-minute push on a plan that could meaningfully cut cancer rates nationwide and extend the lives of millions of cigarette smokers.If finalized, the proposal would require cigarette makers to significantly reduce the levels of nicotine in their products in an effort to make smoking less addictive and less satisfying. Research has suggested that the move would result in fewer people taking up the habit and would help the nation’s roughly 30 million smokers quit or switch to less harmful alternatives like e-cigarettes.The policy…

A swath of the nation’s largest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, reported quarterly and annual financial results on Wednesday that beat analysts’ expectations, and largely expressed a go-go attitude about what’s ahead for the economy after President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated next week.JPMorgan, the nation’s biggest bank, said it earned $14 billion in profits in the fourth quarter, and nearly $59 billion for the full year. Wells Fargo made $5.1 billion in the fourth quarter and $20 billion for the year and said wealthy depositors were plowing more money into its higher-end savings products. Citi,…

After decades of mounting damage from climate-fueled natural disasters, researchers have compiled many misery-filled data sets that trace the economic fallout over weeks, months and years.The fires still burning in Los Angeles are sure to rank among America’s most expensive — but there is no perfect analogue for them, making it difficult to forecast the ultimate cost.The main reason is that wildfires have typically burned in more rural locations, consuming fewer structures and attacking smaller metropolitan areas. The Los Angeles conflagration is more akin to a storm that hits a major coastal city, like Houston or New Orleans, causing major…

While leading the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration, Russell T. Vought took steps to force federal employees to work without pay during a government shutdown, froze military aid for Ukraine and railed against “wasteful spending” such as foreign aid and organizing unions in other nations.Mr. Vought, whom President-elect Donald J. Trump has tapped to head the budget office in his next term, has since developed an even more expansive view of the White House budget director’s role.In his writing and speeches, Mr. Vought has made clear that he sees the role as an opportunity to…

Germany’s economic growth shrank for a second straight year in 2024, data released Wednesday showed. How to revive it this year has become a central issue as voters prepare to go to the polls next month to elect a new government.Manufacturing of automobiles and machinery fell sharply last year, as increased competition, especially from China, and flagging demand in Europe led to a 3 percent drop in output compared with the previous year. Construction, hurt by high interest rates and rising costs, fared even worse, falling 3.8 percent compared with 2023.The German economy, which is Europe’s largest, has been weighed…

The number of Americans receiving psychotherapy increased by 30 percent during the pandemic, as virtual sessions replaced in-person appointments — but new research dampens the hope that technology will make mental health care more available to the neediest populations.In fact, the researchers found, the shift to teletherapy has exacerbated existing disparities.The increase in psychotherapy has occurred among groups that already enjoyed more access: people in higher-income brackets, living in cities, with steady employment and more education, researchers found in a series of studies, the most recent of which was, published Wednesday in The American Journal of Psychiatry.Among those who have…

China’s record trade surplus of almost $1 trillion last year has a nearly perfect mirror image on the other side of the world: an American trade deficit last year that is expected to clock in at around $1 trillion.But only a third of China’s surplus was with the United States. And only a third of the American trade deficit was with China.That tricky math awaits President-elect Donald J. Trump, who will take office on Monday promising tariffs to reduce America’s trade deficits. Raising taxes only on goods from China may do little to whittle down the overall U.S. trade imbalance.Countries…