Author: News Room

The line fell silent.In a phone call from the Oval Office, President Trump had just delivered unwelcome news to three of America’s most powerful auto executives: Mary Barra of General Motors, John Elkann of Stellantis and Jim Farley of Ford.Everyone needs to buckle up, Mr. Trump said on the call, which took place in early March. Tariffs are going into effect on April 2. It’s time for everyone to get on board.The auto chiefs, like the leaders of other industries, had been arguing that Mr. Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on cars coming from Canada and Mexico would wreak havoc on…

A jury in California on Friday awarded $50 million in damages to a Los Angeles delivery driver who was badly burned by a cup of hot tea that spilled into his lap in a Starbucks drive-through in 2020, court records show.The driver, Michael Garcia, 30, received multiple skin grafts and underwent other medical treatments on his genitals after a hot tea spilled on him when he picked it up from a drive-through window in 2020, according to the negligence lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.“This jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks accountable for…

Lee Shau-kee, a Hong Kong real estate tycoon who made his immense fortune building tens of thousands of apartments for middle-class descendants of refugees who had fled Communist mainland China, died on Monday. He was 97.His death was announced by the company he founded, Henderson Land Development. It did not say where he died or cite a cause.Well into his 70s, Mr. Lee became even wealthier through shrewd financial investments that prompted some to call him Hong Kong’s Warren Buffett. At his death, Forbes magazine estimated his worth at $29.2 billion, making him the 63rd wealthiest person in the world.Mr.…

The race to build the best artificial intelligence products is resulting in a worldwide search for new energy sources to power tech giants’ data centers. Karen Weise, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, describes how these A.I.-specific data centers are more power-intensive and how tech companies are investing in new ways to bring more electricity to the grid.

The growing trade war and rapid policy shifts are expected to drag down economic growth in the United States and around the world, according to projections released on Monday.The resilience that was evident last year is slipping, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in its latest interim economic report, which estimated that global growth would dip to 3.1 percent in 2025 and to 3 percent in 2026, from 3.2 percent last year. The United States is likely to see a sharper drop, falling to 2.2 percent this year and to 1.6 percent next year, from the 2.8 percent…

Even chatbots get the blues. According to a new study, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT shows signs of anxiety when its users share “traumatic narratives” about crime, war or car accidents. And when chatbots get stressed out, they are less likely to be useful in therapeutic settings with people.The bot’s anxiety levels can be brought down, however, with the same mindfulness exercises that have been shown to work on humans.Increasingly, people are trying chatbots for talk therapy. The researchers said the trend is bound to accelerate, with flesh-and-blood therapists in high demand but short supply. As the chatbots become more…

Spy accusations inflame an H.R. rivalryOne of the most bitter rivalries in the world of H.R. service providers just took a turn that wouldn’t be out of place in a spy thriller.Rippling on Monday sued Deel, accusing its competitor of hiring a mole in its Dublin office to comb through Rippling’s trade secrets, a scheme that reached its rival’s highest ranks, DealBook’s Michael de la Merced reports. Rippling said it had uncovered the defector through a “honeypot” trap — a Slack channel set up specifically for the ruse that was mentioned in a letter to top Deel executives.“We’re all for…

During President Trump’s first week back in the White House, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency identified an early focus of the cost-cutting operation: canceling leases for federal buildings that were considered underused.Mr. Musk’s team has since claimed credit for terminating leases for hundreds of properties across the country, including some that house federal workers at the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the Energy Department and the National Park Service.So far, Mr. Musk’s group has said that the effort will save around $500 million. But the Trump administration’s attempt to cancel leases and offload vast amounts of…

When Eleanor H., 66, called the Social Security Administration last month seeking details about her retirement benefits, she didn’t expect to comfort the representative who answered. The woman started sobbing.“I asked her what was wrong, and she said she and her co-workers were informed by email to accept a taxable $20,000 payout or risk termination,” said Eleanor, who lives in New Jersey (she asked to use only her first name out of privacy concerns).The rep still answered all of Eleanor’s questions. “Through her tears she said, ‘What am I going to do?’”The Social Security Administration, which sends retirement, survivor and…

Just days after President Trump won the 2024 election, Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, sidestepped a question about how the central bank would grapple with a toxic combination of high inflation, stagnating growth and rising unemployment.“The whole plan is not to have stagflation,” Mr. Powell told reporters. “Knock on wood, we’ve gotten this far without seeing a real weakening in the labor market.”Two months later, Mr. Trump’s aggressive tariff pronouncements, slash-and-burn cuts to the federal government and the resulting frenzy in financial markets have put the Fed in an incredibly uncomfortable spot.Outright stagflation remains a remote prospect:…