Author: News Room

As Israel faces a doctor shortage, Jonathan Gray, the president of the investment firm Blackstone, and his wife, Mindy, are donating $125 million to Tel Aviv University’s health science and medical school.The donation, through the Grays’ foundation, is the largest ever to Tel Aviv University, and is expected to allow the medical school enrollment to increase by a quarter. The funds will support, among other things, a new 600-bed dormitory, scholarships and new teaching facilities.Israel’s limited capacity for medical training has contributed to a persistent shortage of doctors. As of 2020, the number of doctors per capita was about 10…

Top officials from the Trump administration will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this week, the first formal meeting about trade between the United States and China since President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to triple-digit levels last month.Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, and Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, plan to meet with Chinese officials during a trip to Geneva, where they will discuss trade and economic matters, according to separate announcements from the office of the trade representative and the Treasury Department.A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that He Lifeng, the…

The share of U.S. imports from China in the first quarter of the year fell to its lowest point in over 20 years, as the high tariffs President Trump has put on Chinese goods clamped down on trade.U.S. imports from China reached $102.7 billion in the first three months of the year, data released by the Commerce Department showed Tuesday. That puts the share of imported goods from China at just 11 percent in the first quarter, down sharply from over 22 percent seven years ago.While the share of imports from China tends to fluctuate with seasonal swings in purchasing,…

Few people want beefs with their neighbors to become public. That includes Elon Musk.In March, Mr. Musk’s team lobbied officials in the upscale city of West Lake Hills, Texas, to keep quiet the details of one of his mansions and security operations, according to emails to city employees obtained by The New York Times through public records requests.In those emails, the tech billionaire’s employees asked West Lake Hills officials to make private a public meeting in April — where neighbors might speak about his $6 million house. They pointed to Mr. Musk’s work with the Trump administration as reason that…

The Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Frank Bisignano as commissioner of the Social Security Administration, which has been thrown into turmoil after a three-month stretch steered largely by Elon Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency.President Trump’s nominee was confirmed by a vote of 53 to 47, as had been expected, and was split along party lines.Mr. Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, will take the helm at a critical juncture. A series of recent changes led by DOGE, from deep job cuts to exploiting sensitive databases, have rattled current and former employees, former commissioners of both parties, beneficiaries and…

Hours after Donald J. Trump was sworn in for a second term, he issued an executive order laying the groundwork for mass deportations of immigrants and denying them legal assistance.Public interest groups focused on immigrant rights teamed up to fight the order and called in Gibson Dunn, a major law firm with the resources to help take on the White House. In January, Gibson Dunn, working with the groups, sued the Trump administration seeking to restore legal help for immigrants facing deportation.Two months later, Gibson Dunn changed its tune.Even though lawyers from the elite New York law firm had already…

DoorDash announced two deals worth billions of dollars on Tuesday, saying it has agreed to acquire Deliveroo, the British food delivery company, and SevenRooms, a platform used by hotels and restaurants to manage reservations and marketing.The acquisitions would enable DoorDash, the dominant food delivery app in the United States, to expand overseas and add reservation management technology to be used by global businesses.DoorDash said its agreement to buy Deliveroo, a British food delivery service, in a roughly $3.9 billion deal would give it a larger footprint in Europe and a presence in the Middle East, covering millions of users in…

Less than a week ago, President Trump suggested that children may have to make do with fewer toys this year.“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know?” He said those two dolls may “cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”On Monday, Mattel, the U.S. toy company and maker of Barbies, said it would raise prices on U.S. toys because of Mr. Trump’s 145 percent tariffs on imports from China. Mattel, which produces 20 percent of its U.S.-sold goods there, said in its first-quarter earnings presentation that it aims to reduce that…

Britain and India agreed to a trade deal on Tuesday, strengthening economic ties between two of the world’s largest economies amid President Trump’s upheaval of the global trade system.The deal, which the British government said would increase bilateral trade by £25.5 billion ($34 billion), comes three years after the negotiations began. Intense talks between Jonathan Reynolds, Britain’s business and trade secretary, and Piyush Goyal, India’s commerce minister, took place last week to finalize the outstanding issues.The British government said India had reduced 90 percent of tariffs on goods, and within a decade most of those would become tariff free. Duties…

OpenAI backtracksOpenAI’s decision to scale back its ambitious corporate reorganization has drawn lots of scrutiny, including what the plan means for artificial intelligence safety, potential profits for investors and an ongoing fight with Elon Musk.What’s emerging is that in some ways, how OpenAI operates isn’t changing much. But there are still plenty of questions about the future of the consequential A.I. developer.The latest: OpenAI announced a smaller-scale change to its famously complex structure. Remember that it was founded as a nonprofit. But in 2019, it set up a for-profit subsidiary to start raising money from investors to finance its eye-wateringly…