Author: News Room

Northvolt, Europe’s biggest hope for producing batteries in the region to power the transition to electric vehicles, will be split up and sold after it filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday in its home country, Sweden.The company, which just a few years ago appeared to be Europe’s best chance to compete against Chinese rivals, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States last year in an attempt to buy it more time to raise money.But securing funds proved too difficult. On Wednesday, Northvolt said in a statement that a court-appointed Swedish trustee would take over the process of selling…

Intel, a fallen Silicon Valley icon trying to restore its reputation as America’s most prominent semiconductor company, has named Lip-Bu Tan, an experienced business and technology leader, as its new chief executive.Mr. Tan, 65, will be responsible for reviving the fortunes of a chip-making company that has fallen from grace. Once one of the best-known names in technology, the semiconductor giant has been hobbled in recent years by its struggles to innovate and failure to claim a share of the market for chips used in smartphones and artificial intelligence.Intel’s problems became so pronounced that last year it ousted its chief…

This week, the top copy editor of The New Yorker announced that the magazine had completed a “reëxamination” of its house style.A few things were changing. But its dedication to the dieresis — those two little dots that float above certain vowels, beloved by New Yorker editors and almost nobody else — was not.“For every person who hates the dieresis and feels like it’s precious and pretentious and ridiculous, there’s another person who finds it charming,” Andrew Boynton, the head of the copy department at the magazine, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.The magazine, which doesn’t look a day…

President Trump has tapped Michelle W. Bowman, a Federal Reserve governor, to be the next vice chair for supervision at the central bank, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly.The position was vacated at the end of last month by another Fed governor, Michael S. Barr, who stepped down from the role to avert a protracted legal fight in the event that the president followed through on threats to fire him.Ms. Bowman, whom Mr. Trump appointed to the Fed’s seven-seat Board of Governors during his first term, was long seen as the top contender…

Inflation eased more than expected in February, a welcome sign for the Federal Reserve as it grapples with the prospect of higher prices and slower growth as a result of President Trump’s trade war.The Consumer Price Index was up 2.8 percent from a year earlier, after rising another 0.2 percent on a monthly basis. That was a step down from January’s surprisingly large 0.5 percent increase and came in below economists’ expectations.The “core” measure of inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel prices to give a better sense of the underlying trend, also ticked lower. The index rose 0.2…

Inflation eased more than expected in February, a welcome sign for the Federal Reserve as it grapples with the prospect of higher prices and slower growth as a result of President Trump’s trade war.The Consumer Price Index was up 2.8 percent from a year earlier, after rising another 0.2 percent on a monthly basis. That was a step down from January’s surprisingly large 0.5 percent increase and came in below economists’ expectations.The “core” measure of inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel prices to give a better sense of the underlying trend, also ticked lower. The index rose 0.2…

President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum went into effect on Wednesday, inviting immediate retaliation from the European Union and escalating tensions with other trading partners reeling from his on-and-off approach to steep trade penalties.Mr. Trump’s tariffs of 25 percent hit metal imports from every country that sells steel and aluminum to the United States. Many domestic steel and aluminum makers support the move, saying it will help protect their industry against foreign competitors. But the tariffs are expected to raise costs for American businesses that use foreign metals, including manufacturers of cars, canned food and drinks, solar…

Egg prices continued their upward climb in February despite some easing in overall inflation, further straining consumers seeking relief from rising prices in the grocery aisles.Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Wednesday showed that egg prices rose 10.4 percent from the previous month, to nearly $5.90 for a dozen large Grade A eggs, as an outbreak of avian influenza continued to contribute to a nationwide shortage. That is slightly lower than the 15 percent-plus surge in January, the largest monthly increase in egg prices in a decade. But since last year, egg prices are up nearly 60…

Policymakers are grappling with “exceptionally high” uncertainty, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, said on Wednesday, just hours after the European Commission announced tariffs on U.S. imports in response to levies imposed by the Trump administration. Later, Canada announced a new round of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports.The unpredictability of trade policy and geopolitics, which is likely to mean more large economic shocks, will make it harder for central bankers to keep inflation at their 2 percent target, Ms. Lagarde said.There was a somewhat bewildered mood among some of the E.C.B. officials, economists and analysts at an…

Breakthrough Energy, an umbrella organization funded by Bill Gates that works on a sprawling range of climate issues, announced deep cuts to its operations in an internal memo on Tuesday.Dozens of staff were cut, including Breakthrough Energy’s unit in Europe, its team in the United States working on public policy issues and most of its employees working on partnerships with other climate organizations, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.The change shows how Mr. Gates is retooling his empire for the Trump era. With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and the…