Author: News Room

The Trump administration’s move to gut an agency that aims to support minority-owned businesses has alarmed Democratic lawmakers and nonprofits, who say the action could harm job growth and businesses that rely on the agency’s services.President Trump signed an executive order last month that would effectively dismantle seven agencies “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” including the Minority Business Development Agency. Housed in the Commerce Department, the agency funds more than three dozen centers across the country that provide technical assistance to minority-owned businesses with the goal of helping them secure loans and contracts.Nearly all of the agency’s…

Two of China’s biggest state-owned automakers are in advanced discussions to merge, in a deal that would create a formidable manufacturer of cars and military vehicles but could also create problems for their American and Japanese partners.Dongfeng Motor and Changan Automobile have conducted detailed talks on how to combine their operations and told their foreign partners of their intentions, said two people with detailed knowledge of the discussions who were not authorized to comment.Although little known outside China, each company produces slightly more cars for its own brands and through joint ventures than global automakers like Mercedes-Benz or BMW. Dongfeng…

China’s Xiaomi, a consumer electronics giant turned automaker, said it is cooperating with a police investigation into a fatal crash involving one of its electric vehicles while the driver was using the car’s autonomous driving features.A Xiaomi SU7 sedan drove into a concrete guardrail on an expressway in eastern China late on Saturday night at around 60 miles per hour, according to a post on Xiaomi’s official social media account. On Tuesday, local media published reports about the collision and ensuing fire, which killed three college students, along with pictures of the charred remains of the vehicle.Xiaomi said the driver…

Women in blue cloth hairnets sew the finishing touches on plush pink piggies and orange stuffed foxes, before tossing them onto giant piles in Maria Liao’s factory in southern China. They will be boxed and shipped to the United States, where many of Ms. Liao’s clients are based.The factory is quieter than it should be. Orders are down this year, as Ms. Liao’s customers hesitate in the face of a succession of tariffs that President Trump has put on products coming from China, another round of which will probably come this week. The duties have upended small businesses in the…

What’s behind door No. 1? President Trump likes a big splash, and he’s not holding back for Wednesday’s introduction of reciprocal tariffs on America’s trading partners: Expect a major announcement in the Rose Garden.Otherwise, detail is lacking. That prompted a major stock sell-off, with the S&P 500 experiencing its worst one-month loss since 2022 as economists warn of a potential trade war that reignites inflation and dents global growth. (The futures market points to another rough open for the benchmark index on Tuesday.)“If it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate, and we will use it,” Ursula von…

Hooters, the restaurant chain known for its chicken wings, its all-female serving staff in revealing outfits and its slogan — “delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” — has filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court, the company announced on Monday.Under the bankruptcy agreement, a group that includes the company’s founders — who independently run about a third of the franchised locations in the United States — will buy the company-owned restaurants in the United States from the private equity firm that owns the chain.The complicated bankruptcy filing is a way to keep many of the restaurants open.“Our renowned Hooters restaurants are here…

The world’s biggest powers were deep in a trade war. Economic losses from the tariffs that President Trump had imposed on most of the world, along with global retaliation, were accumulating. Jobs were being lost, inflation was ticking up and the world was both frustrated with and anxious about the United States.While the stakes were real, the trade war was not. Instead, it was a simulation to better understand how a global trade fight might unfold.Last month, two dozen trade experts from the United States and other countries gathered at a Washington think tank to try to simulate what could…

Chris Bergen, who runs a commercial greenhouse business in northern Minnesota, finds himself “walking a tightrope” roughly two months into President Trump’s second term. Acute uncertainty about how the administration’s trade and immigration policies will unfold and affect the economy has made him much more cautious about any expansion plans.As one of the country’s biggest producers of bedding plants, perennials and other flowers, Bergen’s Greenhouses is exposed on many fronts.Every June, it trucks in more than six million pounds of peat moss from Manitoba. Suppliers have stopped quoting prices until they have more clarity on tariffs. The plastic flower pots…

Amazon’s movie strategy is finally ready for its close-up.After a decade-long dalliance with big-screen theatrical releases, the giant tech company will take center stage this week at the annual convention for theater owners, spending several millions of dollars to parade a stream of A-list stars including Ryan Gosling, Ben Affleck and Chris Hemsworth. It is the first time the company has ever taken on such a role.The point: to prove that its movie arm, Amazon MGM Studios, is serious about releasing around 14 big, broad commercial films a year to theaters nationwide and around the world.The appearance is the culmination…

A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston on Monday rejected Johnson & Johnson’s request to approve a $9 billion settlement with tens of thousands of people who are suing the company over claims that its talcum powder products caused cancer.The proposal would have resolved nearly all current and future claims that the company’s talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer. Like the previous two efforts — in 2021 and 2023 — the deal tried to use an element of the bankruptcy system to settle the claims.Johnson & Johnson claims that its products did not contain asbestos and that there was no…