Author: News Room

The U.S. consumer has seemed unstoppable in recent years, spending throughout soaring inflation and the highest borrowing costs in decades. That resilience helped to keep at bay a recession that many thought inevitable after the pandemic. Consumer spending has fueled the economy Year-over-year percentage change in retail and food service sales Source: U.S. Department of Commerce Note: Data is seasonally adjusted. President Trump’s tariffs and their scattershot rollout have once again raised concerns that the United States may soon face an economic downturn. While the odds of an outright recession have fallen as the highest levies have been paused, there…

This is what Elon Musk’s personal feed on X looks like.He follows more than 1,000 people: right-wing influencers, conspiracy theorists, anti-transgender activists and dozens of his own superfans.His feed represents a flattering alternate reality filled with boundless praise — for him, for Tesla, for X, for his politics.And it mirrors his own deepening allegiances to the far-right. Note: These posts were selected by The New York Times and are shown in chronological order. Some posts were truncated for length. Source: X In Mr. Musk’s own telling, his political views were shaped by X.In a recent interview with Fox News, Mr.…

The World Economic Forum, the organization behind the annual gathering of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, is investigating allegations of improper behavior by its founder, Klaus Schwab.The board of the World Economic Forum opened an inquiry into Mr. Schwab in April after receiving a letter, anonymously attributed to current and former staff members, claiming that he improperly used the organization’s funds and describing comments that the letter said had made women uncomfortable, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The people requested anonymity because details of the letter remain confidential.Mr. Schwab, 87, stepped down as chair of the board…

Nine years ago, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence scientists singled out an endangered occupational species.“People should stop training radiologists now,” Geoffrey Hinton said, adding that it was “just completely obvious” that within five years A.I. would outperform humans in that field.Today, radiologists — the physician specialists in medical imaging who look inside the body to diagnose and treat disease — are still in high demand. A recent study from the American College of Radiology projected a steadily growing work force through 2055.Dr. Hinton, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics last year for pioneering research in A.I.,…

Beau Bronzage, the acclaimed self-tanning brand led by beauty entrepreneur Victoria Hargrave, has revealed a major advancement in the tanning space: an innovative fragrance technology that eliminates the well-known ‘biscuit smell’ that has long plagued the self-tan experience. Far from a simple masking technique, this new technology represents a complete reimagining of how self-tanning products interact with the skin during the development phase. In blind product trials, users reported a distinct absence of the usual DHA odour. Instead, they praised a subtle, sophisticated scent featuring pear and freesia—directly inspired by Hargrave’s personal perfume of choice. Victoria’s journey in the beauty…

The strategy is an old one for Republicans: Cut taxes for a few years, avoiding the need to account for their cost over the long term, and bet that the reductions become popular enough that Congress will later vote to continue them.The tax bill that Republicans are now putting together on Capitol Hill takes the gambit to a whole new level.Almost all of the new tax cuts that Republicans have included in the bill, which could evolve over the coming weeks, will last only until the end of 2028, just days before President Trump is set to leave office. That…

Newark Liberty International Airport has faced many disruptions in recent weeks. Technology outages, air traffic controller shortages and runway construction at the busy hub have led to scores of canceled and delayed flights.The Federal Aviation Administration says it’s trying to improve the situation, including with software and hardware upgrades. On Wednesday, it met with airline executives to discuss how to run things smoothly by reducing the number of flights at the airport on any given hour.In a Senate hearing on aviation safety on Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, said the agency has had a “multiyear failure to keep…

Before the sun could rise over Los Angeles International Airport on a recent Tuesday, hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers had formed a queue nearby, stretching around the block. It was 5 a.m., and the waiting game was about to begin.In a few minutes, the line of cars would file into a fenced-off parking lot, a mile from the arrival terminals. It is known officially as the Transportation Network Company Staging Area, but drivers call it the “pen,” where they wait to be matched with passengers getting off flights.The spot used to be a prime place to catch rides and…

“A lot of checks”Business leaders who had high hopes for the second Trump administration hadn’t signed up for the turmoil of his trade war. President Trump’s deals-focused visit to Saudi Arabia is more of what they had in mind.Leaving aside questions of how many of the multibillion-dollar agreements the administration announced on Tuesday were actually new, the first leg of Trump’s trip to the Middle East underscores that his transactional instincts are what corporate leaders have been betting on.Here are highlights of what was announced on Tuesday:A nearly $142 billion defense agreement involving over a dozen American companies and covering…

It’s not Max. It’s HBO Max — again.In a surprise pivot, Warner Bros. Discovery executives announced Wednesday morning that the streaming service Max would be renamed HBO Max, reinstating the app’s old name and abandoning a contentious change that the company introduced two years ago.The reason for the change, executives explained, was straightforward.People who subscribe and pay $17 a month for the streaming service wind up watching HBO content like “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us,” as well as new movies, documentaries and not a whole lot more.“It really is a reaction to being in the marketplace for…