Early on Friday, Elon Musk shared a post written by an X user about the actions of three 20th century dictators — then quickly deleted it after it sparked a backlash. The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, the communist leader of the Soviet Union until 1953; Adolf Hitler, theContinue Reading
Carl Lundstrom, the heir to a Swedish crisp bread fortune who financed the Pirate Bay, a notorious file-sharing service that was popular in the mid-2000s, was killed on Monday in a small plane crash in Slovenia, according to Alternative for Sweden, the far-right party that he supported. Mr. Lundstrom, 64,Continue Reading
Investors watching the S&P 500’s plunge this week are processing a mix of signals. Will the threat of tariffs push the economy into a recession or is this simply a retrenchment from the highly valued technology companies that some analysts and investors argued were due for a pullback? There isContinue Reading
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. From the time Beulah Henry was a child in the late 19th century, she dreamed of ways to make life easier. That impulse would eventually drive herContinue Reading
A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency. The investor, AntonioContinue Reading
Tariff threats. Growing uncertainty about the economy. And a push for much lower oil prices. For all of their bravado about U.S. energy dominance and enthusiasm for deregulation, American energy executives are beginning to worry about President Trump’s agenda. Their concerns crept into conversations in hotel meeting rooms and overContinue Reading
The impact of the tariffs would vary by car model, since some rely more on imported parts than others. But rather than vastly increasing the price of specific vehicles, the industry is likely to spread increases across all types — “like peanut butter” — to smooth out the price increases,Continue Reading
Listen to and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube | iHeartRadio This week, as the long-promised new Siri faces increasing delays, we explore why Apple seems to be falling even further behind in artificial intelligence. Then, the New York Times reporter Adam Satariano joins us to explainContinue Reading
The Chinese government has strongly criticized a planned deal by a Hong Kong conglomerate to sell ports in Panama and elsewhere to an investment group led by an American asset manager, warning that the deal would deprive China of needed influence over key shipping routes. The criticism marks an abruptContinue Reading
Here are some things I believe about artificial intelligence: I believe that over the past several years, A.I. systems have started surpassing humans in a number of domains — math, coding and medical diagnosis, just to name a few — and that they’re getting better every day. I believe thatContinue Reading
CrossFit, the crisis-riddled fitness company, is for sale once again. The sale comes against the backdrop of several tumultuous years for the fitness brand, after a drowning at last year’s CrossFit Games, a significant drop in registrations for its annual membership-wide competition and deepening financial concerns. The company, which hasContinue Reading
The results of a rare, closely watched auction in Japan that ended this week are about to be released. But there were no paintings or antique cars on the auction block. The government is selling 165,000 tons of rice — equivalent to roughly two billion bowls — from its emergencyContinue Reading
Officials in Beijing are increasingly worried that President Trump’s tariffs on Mexico may be the start of a broad campaign to force developing countries around the world to choose between trade with the United States or with China. Ever since Mr. Trump imposed extensive tariffs on goods from China duringContinue Reading
Questions linger over what this year’s layoffs and ranger protests at the National Park Service will mean for travelers, who made a record 331 million visits to park properties last year. Adding to the confusion is the federal court ruling on Thursday that the firings were done unlawfully and agenciesContinue Reading
For the second time this week, President Trump has threatened to disrupt trade with a close ally for retaliating in a trade war that he started — a tactic that could lead to compromise, or to economic spats that spiral further out of control. On Thursday morning, Mr. Trump triedContinue Reading
It’s not clear who will benefit if President Trump follows through on his threat to impose 200 percent tariffs on all wines and alcoholic beverages from the European Union, but it certainly would not be American consumers. The tariff warning was posted by Mr. Trump on social media Thursday inContinue Reading
Earlier this year, everything seemed set for a major renovation to make two Chicago apartment buildings for mostly lower-income elderly residents more energy efficient. An affordable-housing organization had secured a federal loan, a state loan and money from private investors. But the project, which was to start in a fewContinue Reading
The world’s most widely followed stock-market benchmark slid into a correction on Thursday, a drop that underscores how the two-year-long bull market is running out of steam in the early days of the Trump administration. The move stems from investors’ growing pessimism about the whipsawing policy pronouncements from Washington overContinue Reading
Mercedes-Benz said on Thursday that the latest version of its least expensive sedan would be available first as an all-electric car and then as a hybrid. And the company will no longer sell a gasoline-only version of the car. That’s a big break from how Mercedes and other established carmakersContinue Reading
Nervous investors seeking news about the plunging markets on Monday afternoon would have been out of luck if they turned to the websites of The New York Post, The Daily Caller, One America News or The Blaze. Not one of those right-leaning outlets featured articles about the sell-off as theContinue Reading
Follow the latest news on the Trump administration. As a presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump promised an economic “boom like no other.” But eight weeks into his presidency, Mr. Trump is refusing to rule out a recession — a striking change in tone and message for a man who rodeContinue Reading
Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite communications company, fought behind the scenes for months to break into India’s internet business. The market is dominated by two local giants, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, which seemed united in trying to keep Starlink out. Then, suddenly, this week each of them announced a partnershipContinue Reading
The cloud behind the inflation silver lining Even upbeat economic news can offer little comfort to markets and the C-suite. Stocks look set to open lower as relief over Wednesday’s better-than-expected inflation report fades, and concerns grow that a trade war could sap consumer spending and corporate profits. That’s ledContinue Reading
Niantic, the company behind the runaway hit Pokémon Go, said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its video game business for $3.5 billion to Scopely, a company owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Pokémon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, became a cultural sensation when it was releasedContinue Reading
A man who looks like Musk, only 20 years younger and better rested, eats hummus before another cut to belly dancers with large breasts, shapely hips and full beards. This jarring sequence brings us to the chorus: “Trump Gaza, shining bright/golden future, a brand-new light/feast and dance, the deed isContinue Reading
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 0.2Continue Reading
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 members were cut, including Breakthrough Energy’s unit in Europe, its team in the United States working onContinue Reading
Tesla is getting crushed in China, its most important market outside the United States and one that it had dominated for years. When Liu Jie, 32, decided to buy an electric car in October, Tesla was one of her top choices. But after test-driving a few Chinese cars, she wentContinue Reading
Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies. Sarah Wynn-Williams last week released “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” a book that describesContinue Reading
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 almostContinue Reading
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 fromContinue Reading
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 0.2Continue Reading
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,Continue Reading
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 thatContinue Reading
Galina Timchenko, publisher and chief executive of the investigative newsroom Meduza, thought she was ready for anything. The site, based in Latvia and known for its fearless reporting on Vladimir V. Putin’s regime, had prepared for cyberattacks, legal threats and even poisonings of its reporters. One thing she hadn’t anticipated:Continue Reading
The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday that so-called memecoins — novelty digital assets — are not subject to regulatory oversight because they are not considered securities. The determination could have big ramifications for the crypto industry and President Trump, who issued his own memecoin days before his inauguration.Continue Reading
For days, Attorney General Pam Bondi had talked about releasing the “Epstein files,” supposedly secret documents the federal government has on some of the powerful men who were in the orbit of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. But the roughly 200 pages of documents that Ms. Bondi released on ThursdayContinue Reading
“People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.” The projects terminated include H.I.V. treatment programs that had served millions of people, the main malaria control programsContinue Reading
Since the 2022 launch of ChatGPT set off an artificial intelligence frenzy in Silicon Valley, Google has tried to reassert its role as an A.I. pioneer. On Wednesday, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, said the company could lead the industry in artificial general intelligence — when machines match or becomeContinue Reading
Tesla became the latest part of Elon Musk’s business empire to make it clear that criticism of the chief executive is unacceptable by firing a manager last month after he objected to a post on social media by Mr. Musk that referred to Nazi leaders. Jared Ottmann, a manager andContinue Reading
When OpenAI started giving private demonstrations of its new GPT-4 technology in late 2022, its skills shocked even the most experienced A.I. researchers. It could answer questions, write poetry and generate computer code in ways that seemed far ahead of its time. More than two years later, OpenAI has releasedContinue Reading
The United States economy is starting to show signs of strain as President Trump’s abrupt moves to shrink federal spending, lay off government workers and impose tariffs on America’s largest trading partners rattle businesses and reverberate across states and cities. Funding freezes and firings of federal workers combined with theContinue Reading
When Saori Kawano arrived in New York City in 1978 from Yokohama, most Americans’ ideas of Japanese food ended at instant ramen and onion volcanoes. Since then, if you’ve enjoyed hand-cut soba noodles or an omakase dinner, or admired the graceful curves of a rice bowl or the flash ofContinue Reading
I am not a coder. I can’t write a single line of Python, JavaScript or C++. Except for a brief period in my teenage years when I built websites and tinkered with Flash animations, I’ve never been a software engineer, nor do I harbor ambitions of giving up journalism forContinue Reading
The Republican Party won the last election in no small part because of its new appeal with working-class voters, a shift that left many in Washington wondering if a sustained political realignment was afoot. But the economic agenda Republicans are now putting together on Capitol Hill would by and largeContinue Reading
A union takes on Tesla over its stock price As Elon Musk’s norm-shattering influence in Washington has grown — consider his unprecedented cameo at President Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday — he has drawn intense scrutiny and opposition. The latest pushback comes from the American Federation of Teachers, oneContinue Reading
“Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” are two of the biggest holdouts of the streaming revolution, available only on traditional broadcast television. Not for much longer. Sony Pictures Entertainment, the owner of the popular game shows, said on Thursday that it was soliciting bids from major media and tech companies forContinue Reading
It’s a tax season unlike any other: As millions of Americans dutifully file their returns, the Trump administration is calling for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service and plans to fire as many as 7,000 workers — all while Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is seeking access toContinue Reading
BP, the energy giant, said on Wednesday that it would increase spending on oil and gas while sharply paring back investments on various forms of clean energy. The move, described as a “reset,” appears to be a response to a combination of investor pressure for higher returns and a realizationContinue Reading
The founding family of 7-Eleven’s Japanese parent company has failed to secure the money to buy it out, the company said Thursday, months after they launched a bid worth over $50 billion to fend off a foreign takeover. Seven & i Holdings, which sits atop a vast network of 85,000Continue Reading
