Author: News Room

The Federal Reserve pressed pause on interest rate cuts last month. The minutes from its January meeting suggest the hiatus is likely to be a long one.A record of the central bank’s Jan. 28-29 meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that officials have not written off rate cuts completely, and they still expect to lower borrowing costs over time. But slow progress on taming inflation, combined with significant uncertainty about how President Trump’s economic agenda will shape up, has solidified their position that the best course of action for now is to stand pat until they have more clarity on the…

Anyone who wants to keep up with President Trump’s views knows to go to his Truth Social account. There, one finds his reasoning on a panoply of issues, including military strikes in Somalia, tariffs on Canada and Mexico, relations with Russia, the causes of a deadly aircraft collision, American ownership of the Gaza Strip and a budget bill now before Congress.On Wednesday, for instance, after initial cease-fire talks between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine, he employed the account to attack Ukraine’s leader. “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States…

KFC, the company so associated with Kentucky that state flags flew at half-staff when its founder Colonel Sanders died, is leaving the state.The company formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken will move its corporate headquarters and about 100 employees to Plano, Texas, from Louisville, Ky., its parent company, Yum Brands, said in a statement on Tuesday. Yum Brands also owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and the Habit Burger and Grill.The move put an end to decades of the brand’s history in the state, and drew condemnation from Kentucky’s governor. While Yum cited “greater collaboration among its brands” as a reason…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will skip a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations in Cape Town next week, according to people familiar with his plans, deepening the rift between the United States and South Africa over policies the Trump administration believes are anti-American.The decision to forgo such a major economic gathering is highly unusual for a Treasury secretary, particularly one who was confirmed to his post three weeks ago.It follows a boycott of a similar meeting of foreign ministers this week in Johannesburg by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Rubio said he…

Less than a year after introducing its artificial intelligence capabilities, Apple is bringing the feature to its most affordable iPhone.On Wednesday, the company unveiled an iPhone that will cost $599 and feature an A.I. system it calls Apple Intelligence. The device brings A.I. features like notification summaries and writing recommendations in English to the company’s lowest-priced iPhone model as it prepares to expand those features to other languages in the coming months, including Chinese, Portuguese, and localized English for India.The new phone, which Apple is calling the iPhone 16e, does not feature a home button or Touch ID, which have…

During the Biden administration, Donald J. Trump would sit in his mirrored and gold-trimmed salon at Mar-a-Lago where he had once hosted China’s leader, Xi Jinping, brooding to visitors about the outcome of the trade agreement he signed with China in 2020.Mr. Trump would castigate “stupid people” in the White House for failing to honor “my trade agreement,” and muse about how, if he won a second term, he could strike the deal of a century with Mr. Xi.Now back in the Oval Office, President Trump is eyeing the possibility of a new trade deal with China.More than half a…

Nikola, an electric vehicle start-up that had once hoped to become the Tesla of heavy trucks, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday.Founded in 2015, Nikola promised to develop long-haul semi trucks powered by hydrogen and electricity, and listed itself on the stock exchange in 2020 before it had sold a single vehicle. Its share price surged briefly as individual investors and some Wall Street firms clamored to bet on companies that they thought could replicate Tesla’s success and its soaring stock price.Investors’ short-lived enthusiasm for Nikola made its founder, Trevor Milton, and other early investors wealthy. But before long, significant…

We’re taking a look at President Trump’s plans to consolidate control over many of the agencies that oversee business, including the S.E.C., the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.For years, industry has complained about the alphabet soup of agencies, which often compete with one another. Some officials argue that is a feature, not a bug, while others have called for a complete rethinking of the regulatory apparatus in the country. What do you think?Meanwhile, President Trump is expected to speak on Wednesday at the Saudi-hosted FII Priority conference in Miami Beach, the event…

In the Wichita courtroom, Hanes offered his only public reflection on the bank collapse. Wearing a gray suit, he walked up to the lectern, glancing nervously at his former friends in the gallery. “I’m sorry,” he told the judge. Until the very end, he explained, he thought he was involved in a legitimate business deal. In January 2024, he told the court, he made a futile attempt to recoup the lost money, flying to Perth, Australia, where some of his nonexistent business partners had supposedly been based. He was in touch with them until the moment he landed at the…

Last week, Michelle King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, sought to reassure Democrats on Capitol Hill about the presence of two of Elon Musk’s allies at her agency.The Social Security Administration keeps medical information, bank account numbers and other sensitive personal data about the roughly 70 million Americans it provides with more than $1 trillion in benefits annually. In the Feb. 11 letter to Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, Ms. King said that the two representatives, from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, had not yet seen personal information — and said any disclosures…