Author: News Room

Last Friday’s power outage in Heathrow Airport disrupted vacations across the world, causing countless thousands of travelers to miss prepaid reservations and forgo long-anticipated adventures.Among them were Sheila Addison, a therapist from Seattle, who missed out on a four-day whisky-tasting in the Scottish Highlands, forfeiting a $500 nonrefundable hotel room and a rare break from her work routine; Zachary Wang and friends from Brown University, who lost $260 in “Les Misérables” tickets, $180 from an Airbnb reservation and two days of spring break in London; and Steve Wehr of Hyde Park, N.Y., who missed two days in Jordan — including…

It’s another blow to late-night television.CBS said on Wednesday that it was canceling “After Midnight,” the network’s 12:30 a.m. comedy show, after the host, Taylor Tomlinson, decided to return full time to stand-up comedy.The late-night comedy genre confronts significant financial challenges as the entertainment world transitions away from traditional television to streaming. The number of late-night shows is dwindling, and many of the survivors are facing pressure to cut their budgets. Audiences and advertising revenue for late-night TV are getting smaller by the year.Further, the genre, which depends on a large number of episodes and topical humor, has not worked…

Congressional Republicans laced into PBS and NPR on Wednesday, accusing the country’s biggest public media networks of institutional bias in a fiery hearing that represented the latest salvo against the American press by close allies of the Trump administration.Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who organized the hearing — which she called “Anti-American Airwaves” — opened her remarks by deriding PBS and NPR as “radical left-wing echo chambers” that published skewed news reports and indoctrinated children with L.G.B.T.Q. programming.The leaders of both PBS and NPR testified that those claims were untrue, arguing that their stations served as a crucial…

The U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills by late May if Congress does not raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.The forecast puts added pressure on Congress and the Trump administration to address the borrowing cap, which restricts the total amount of money that the United States is authorized to borrow to fund the government and meet its financial obligations. A protracted standoff later this year could rattle markets and complicate President Trump’s plans to enact more tax cuts.The C.B.O. noted that its forecast is subject to uncertainty over…

The British government on Wednesday laid out plans for higher military spending and cuts to social benefits, as it sought to keep the nation’s finances on track in what it called a “more uncertain world.”Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the Exchequer, said there would be an extra 2.2 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) for defense in the fiscal year that begins next month. And she reiterated recently announced reductions to the benefits system that were expected to save about £5 billion by 2030.The changes come as President Trump’s economic policies have disrupted the global economy, putting more demands on the British…

One is a veteran TV executive. The other emerged from the world of digital media. Both are now chief executives of major public media organizations appearing before Congress on Wednesday, where they will face tough questioning from lawmakers.Here’s a look at their backgrounds.Katherine MaherC.E.O., NPRMs. Maher, 41, has spent much of her career leading digital media organizations. She joined NPR last year after serving as chief executive of Web Summit, an organization that holds technology events around the world. Before that, she was the chief executive of The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.Ms. Maher joined…

Dollar Tree is selling the Family Dollar brand to two private capital firms for just over $1 billion, the company announced on Wednesday after years of struggling with Family Dollar’s operation.The private equity firms Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management are buying Family Dollar together, according to the statement. In the announcement, Dollar Tree’s chief executive, Michael Creedon, called the sale a “major milestone in our multiyear transformation journey.”Dollar Tree purchased Family Dollar in 2015 for about $9 billion, hoping the merger would help both stores reach more customers. But it struggled to effectively manage the Family Dollar brand.…

One is a veteran TV executive. The other emerged from the world of digital media. Both are now chief executives of major public media organizations appearing before Congress on Wednesday, where they will face tough questioning from lawmakers.Here’s a look at their backgrounds.Katherine MaherC.E.O., NPRMs. Maher, 41, has spent much of her career leading digital media organizations. She joined NPR last year after serving as chief executive of Web Summit, an organization that holds technology events around the world. Before that, she was the chief executive of The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.Ms. Maher joined…

No Kumbaya moment President Trump has opened a new front in his attack on Big Law.On Tuesday, he signed an executive order that targeted Jenner & Block, a major white-shoe firm, days after issuing a far-reaching memorandum threatening to punish any law firm that he contends has unfairly challenged his administration.One of the biggest questions has been whether Big Law would band together amid Trump’s barrage. So far, the opposite has happened: Corporate law firms are using Trump’s assault as a competitive opportunity, The Times reports.As Paul, Weiss was dealing with its own executive order this month, rival firms dove…

International tourists detained at U.S. borders. Steep tariffs imposed on trade partners. Threats against longtime allies.The onslaught of contested policies and language by the Trump administration in recent weeks is causing tourists around the globe to either cancel or reconsider travel to the United States. A growing number of visitors say they feel unwelcome or unsafe and are reluctant to support the economy of a country that some foreign officials say is waging trade wars and destabilizing its allies. A draft of a new travel ban circulating through the administration could restrict citizens from up to 43 countries, including Belarus,…