Author: News Room

Markets catch their breath Investors are breathing a bit easier on Monday, with markets rallying in Asia and Europe on hopes for a reprieve on tech tariffs. The optimism seems to contradict President Trump’s own words.The president has signaled that yet another round of levies are on the way, sowing more confusion among business leaders about what’s on, what’s off — and how to deal with their new reality.Is Trump undermining his own position? If the tariffs are in fact being watered down, that could erode his bargaining power — not to mention his argument that high-tech imports fall into…

After a Honduran immigrant arrived in the United States in 2022, officials ordered him to use a government-issued app as part of an immigration surveillance program.At least once a week, the immigrant, a former police officer in Honduras who was living in Louisiana, would take a selfie through the facial-recognition powered app to confirm his identity and location. By trading some of his privacy, he avoided being put in a detention center and obtained a work permit.In February, he received a message: report to an immigration office so the tracking technology could be updated. When he arrived, federal agents were…

President Trump last week issued executive orders designed to revive the use of coal in power plants, a practice that has been steadily declining for more than a decade.But the effort is likely to fail, energy experts said, because the fossil fuel faces some critical hurdles. The power that coal plants produce typically can’t compete with cheaper, cleaner alternatives. And many plants that burn coal are simply too old and would need extensive and expensive upgrades to continue running.“It will be very difficult to reverse this trend,” said Dan Reicher, an assistant energy secretary in the Clinton administration and a…

During a 24-hour swing through Copenhagen last month, Eric Slesinger met with engineers making maritime drones, developers of war-planning software and an adviser to NATO. He had recently visited London for a dinner with a senior British intelligence official and would soon head to the Arctic to learn about the technologies that could handle extreme climates.The packed schedule would seem more common for Mr. Slesinger in his former job as an officer at the Central Intelligence Agency. But now the 35-year-old was in high demand as he parlayed his spy agency credentials into a career as a venture capitalist focused…

The Federal Aviation Agency said late Sunday that a sightseeing helicopter company was shutting down its operations immediately after a deadly crash last week on the Hudson River.The helicopter, operated by New York Helicopter Tours, was carrying six people when it crashed into the river on Thursday. None survived.The F.A.A. said in statement on Sunday that it would launch an immediate review of the tour operator’s license and safety record, as well as cooperate with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the crash.It was not immediately clear if New York Helicopter Tours had shut down voluntarily or under orders…

In a career spanning more than 30 years, John Pettigrew has seen big changes in the electricity industry. He started out in 1991, working to introduce natural gas-fired power plants to the grid, gradually replacing polluting coal plants. .Now, once again, he is managing a tectonic shift to an electrified economy that runs on renewable energy like wind and solar power. But these sources of power generation are far trickier to manage than their coal and gas predecessors.“Effectively, what we’re doing is reconfiguring the whole network,” said Mr. Pettigrew, chief executive of National Grid, which owns and operates the high-voltage…

In a world besieged by turmoil, Jacob Rothman thought he had secured a refuge.Mr. Rothman, 52, grew up in California but has spent more than two decades in China, overseeing factories that make grilling accessories and other kitchen items for Walmart and retailers around the globe. Well before the rest of the business world, he grasped the pressures bearing on the relationship between his native country and the one where he runs his business.President Trump used his first term to impose tariffs on imports from China. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. advanced that policy. The pandemic exposed the pitfalls of…

Markets in Asia moved higher on Monday after a weekend that brought more shifts in strategy from President Trump about tariffs.Stocks in Japan rose a little over 1 percent while benchmarks went up 2 percent in Hong Kong and less than 1 percent in mainland China. S&P 500 stock futures, which let investors bet on how the index might perform when it opens in New York, were about 0.50 percent higher.The modest rally followed another chaotic week on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 starting with losses but ending with its best weekly performance since November 2022. The gains were…

Sarah Palin’s yearslong defamation case against The New York Times, potentially testing the extent of First Amendment protections for journalists, will soon go to trial in federal court in Manhattan.Again.Three years ago, a federal jury and judge each ruled against Ms. Palin, the onetime Republican vice-presidential nominee and Alaska governor. She had claimed that an editorial that The Times published in 2017 had defamed her by wrongly suggesting that an ad from her political action committee had inspired a mass shooting.But Ms. Palin successfully appealed the verdict, and a retrial was ordered. It is scheduled to begin on Monday.Much of…

China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.The official crackdown is part of China’s retaliation for President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started on April…