Author: News Room

Small-ticket items shipped to the United States from China will no longer be exempt from tariffs starting on Friday, when a decision by President Trump to shutter a shipping loophole he calls a “scam” takes effect.The move is expected to send ripples through the economy as American consumers, who have gotten used to buying cheap shoes, Hawaiian shirts, holiday decorations and other products made in China, suddenly find those products much pricier. The fallout is also expected to extend to independent online vendors who have based their businesses on the ability to cheaply import Chinese-made goods.Mr. Trump is set to…

From long lines to overpriced food and scarce seating, airports are rife with pitfalls.For some people, said Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going, an app for cheap flights, “airports are like travel purgatory: You’re neither here nor there.”But technology, advance planning and a few creative strategies can help you parry airport problems.Calculate your transit timeYour airport journey can begin as early as 24 hours before departure, when you should check in, pay checked bags fees, which will expedite bag drop, and sign up for flight notifications by text to keep up with scheduling.Next, determine when you should leave for…

Jeju Air Flight 2216 did not have to end in such a catastrophe.Early on Dec. 29, a clear Sunday morning, the Boeing 737-800 made an emergency landing on its belly at South Korea’s Muan International Airport. The aircraft skidded past the end of the runway, smashed into a concrete structure and burst into flames. Of the 181 passengers and crew members aboard, 179 were killed.Runway excursions — when an aircraft overruns or veers off the runway during landing or takeoff — have for years been among the most common type of aviation accident. But in the vast majority of cases,…

The growing list of major economies warning of weaker growth because of U.S. tariffs has a new member.The Bank of Japan said on Thursday that it expects the Japanese economy to grow 0.5 percent in the fiscal year that started on April 1. That is a sharp downgrade from the 1.1 percent the central bank had forecast in January.Explaining the change, the Bank of Japan cited “trade and other policies” leading to a slowdown in overseas economies and a decline in domestic corporate profits. The outlook was released alongside an announcement that the central bank would keep interest rates unchanged…

As a maker of prosthetic eyes, Christina Leitzel was told as an apprentice to treat her craft much as an expert art forger would: create a perfect match of one of nature’s most intricate canvases.But just as there are many ways to lose an eye — to cancer or to a fall; to a broom that strikes the wrong part of the brow — Leitzel wants to show there are many ways to gain one.On a damp afternoon in Portland, Ore., a man in his 30s who had recently lost his eye to a BB gun stepped out of her…

European carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Volkswagen, said Wednesday that the chaos and upheaval caused by the tariffs introduced by President Trump had left them struggling to assess the impact and unable to plan for the future.After years of sluggish demand and high inflation, Europe’s carmakers headed into 2025 with a raft of new battery-powered models and high hopes that they would lure back customers.Instead, they are faced with global uncertainty surrounding supply chains and customer demand, set off by Mr. Trump’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on all cars, steel and aluminum coming into the United States.On Wednesday,…

One hundred days of President Trump. Seventy days of whipsaw trading in financial markets. Thirty three days of losses. More than $6.5 trillion wiped from the value of public companies.For financial markets, the 9 percent drop in the S&P 500 is on track for the worst start to a presidential term since Gerald R. Ford took over from Richard M. Nixon in August 1974 after the Watergate scandal. The slump is worse even than when the tech bubble burst at the turn of the century, and George W. Bush inherited a market already in free fall.In contrast, Mr. Trump inherited…

Trump’s price war At a rally in Michigan last night, President Trump declared that “we’re ending the inflation nightmare.” But corporate chiefs are bracing for the opposite, revealing a split-screen view of the future that has sharpened as trade uncertainty grows.Companies have warned for weeks that tariffs could scramble supply chains, force them to tear up their financial outlooks and raise prices. (More on that below.) Yet they now face a new dilemma: Should they be transparent with shoppers about why prices are increasing, or — as Amazon learned on Tuesday — risk drawing Trump’s fury?A recap: Trump called Jeff…

President Trump’s tariffs have roiled financial markets and upended global trading patterns. Now they are disrupting measures of economic growth as well.U.S. gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, declined at an 0.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was, on the surface, a stunning reversal from the strong growth at the end of last year, when the economy expanded at a 2.4 percent rate.But the first quarter figure was misleading, the result of quirks in the way economic activity is measured. More reliable data on consumer spending and business…

During President Trump’s first U.S.-China trade war in 2018, American companies flocked to Vietnam to sidestep escalating tariffs, and the country became increasingly critical to their bottom lines.But in Mr. Trump’s escalating trade fight across the globe, Vietnam has become a new target. Tensions were so high that there were doubts about whether American diplomats would attend Wednesday’s events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.Here’s how some U.S. businesses have come to rely on the country:In all, American firms have enjoyed the benefits of cheaper Vietnamese manufacturing and calmer geopolitics.That changed in April when Mr.…