Aurelia Butler

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    New Trump Executive Order Calls for ‘Reform’ to the U.S. Diplomatic Corps

    President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday calling for “reform” to the Foreign Service, America’s corps of professional diplomats, “to ensure faithful and effective implementation” of his foreign policy agenda.It was the latest of several recent moves by Mr. Trump to assert greater control over the federal work force, which the president largely views with a blend of suspicion and hostility. Mr. Trump and his allies believe that left-leaning bureaucrats will work to thwart his agenda and that he should have far more power than past presidents to install proven loyalists throughout the government.To that end, Mr. Trump’s order, titled “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations,” directs the secretary of state to “implement reforms in recruiting, performance, evaluation and retention standards.” It also directs officials to “revise or replace the Foreign Affairs Manual,” along with “any handbooks, procedures or guidance” governing diplomacy.The executive order also makes explicit the price of defying Mr. Trump’s orders. “Failure to faithfully implement the president’s policy is grounds for professional discipline, including separation,” it says.All foreign policy arms of the government, it adds, must devise “an effective and efficient means” of ensuring that the president’s orders are followed.The executive order would appear to challenge basic and longstanding principles of the Foreign Service: that career diplomats should be hired based on their qualifications and expertise, not their political views, and that dissent should be welcomed and not punished.As part of the federal civil service, professional diplomats enjoy special job protections against partisanship and political retribution. Mr. Trump seems intent on weakening those protections.In an initial statement, the American Foreign Service Association, which represents professional diplomats, said it was still assessing the impact of the order. But the group noted that its members posted around the world “carry out the foreign policy initiatives of the president, regardless of party.”“We hope that any administration would value the expertise and knowledge of the Foreign Service, including its ability to provide advice on foreign policy matters,” the statement said, adding that the group would “always defend the integrity and nonpolitical nature of the Foreign Service so that our members can continue to serve the American people.”Separately, State Department officials are grappling with more proposed cuts to personnel. Some ambassadors have been told this week to present lists of cuts of 10 to 20 percent of employees who are local citizens, said a person briefed on the demands, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.Edward Wong More

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    Elon Musk’s X Settles Trump Lawsuit

    X has agreed to pay in the range of $10 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump over the 2021 suspension of his account on the social media platform, according to a person briefed on the matter.The company, then known as Twitter, removed Mr. Trump from its platform after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, citing his inflammatory posts and arguing they could lead to more violence. Mr. Trump sued, claiming Twitter and other tech firms that removed his accounts had wrongfully censored him.Elon Musk, now X’s owner and a close adviser to the president, reinstated Mr. Trump’s account shortly after acquiring the company in 2022. Mr. Musk has thrown his support behind Mr. Trump, donating more than $250 million to his campaign, and is now running a government cost-cutting initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency.The settlement further cements the relationship between Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump. Details of the agreement were not made public in court filings, but X and Mr. Trump notified the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday that they had agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. Both parties agreed to pay their own costs, according to a court filing.The settlement amount was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for X did not respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear what entity would receive the money.Mr. Trump sued Twitter, Facebook and Google, the parent company of YouTube, after the platforms suspended his accounts in the wake of the attack on the Capitol. After the riot, Mr. Trump had used his Twitter account to praise his supporters, calling them “patriots.”Mr. Trump also posted that he would not attend the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., which Twitter’s safety teams said at the time could have signaled his supporters to stage another attack on that event. Twitter said it suspended Mr. Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, settled its lawsuit last month, agreeing to pay the president $25 million. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has also courted Mr. Trump in recent months, donating to his inauguration fund and making sweeping changes to Meta’s policies to allow for more types of speech across the company’s apps.In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit by Mr. Trump. ABC News said it would donate the money to Mr. Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum.Meta agreed to similar terms in its settlement with Mr. Trump. About $22 million will finance Mr. Trump’s presidential library, with the remaining $3 million set aside to for Mr. Trump’s legal fees and other plaintiffs who joined the lawsuit. More

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    Joann, the Arts and Crafts Chain, Will Close 500 Stores Across U.S.

    The announcement came one month after the company’s second bankruptcy filing in less than a year.Joann, the financially troubled arts-and-crafts retailer, announced Wednesday that it was preparing to close 500 of its 800 remaining stores after its latest bankruptcy filing.The announcement came one month after the eight-decade-old company filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year, as consumers pull back on spending. If the District of Delaware Bankruptcy Court gives its approval, the company said in a statement that it would shut underperforming stores across the country, from New York to Alaska.“This was a very difficult decision to make, given the major impact we know it will have on our team members, our customers and all of the communities we serve,” the company said in an emailed statement.Joann, whose outlets were once called Jo-Ann Fabrics, is based in Hudson, Ohio. The chain has long sold art supplies, such as yarn, sewing machines, fabrics and other seasonal products. The company currently has stores in 49 states.In March 2024, Joann filed for bankruptcy to reduce debt, resulting in the publicly-traded company’s being taken into private ownership. That initial filing closed in August 2024.The retailer continued its downward spiral after a short-lived boost during the pandemic. The company said on Wednesday that it faced “significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment, which, coupled with our current financial position and constrained inventory levels, have forced us to take this step.”Going-out-of-business sales at stores could start as early as Saturday, according to a customer FAQ shared by the company.The retail chain is also seeking court authorization to stop accepting gift cards both online and in stores within the next two weeks. Joann has already stopped selling gift cards and no longer accepts them on its website. Returns will stop being accepted two weeks after the court’s approval of Joann’s restructuring plan, the company said.J. Edward Moreno More

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    Stocks Drop After Hotter Than Expected Inflation Reading

    Investors are now betting that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates just once more this year, a drastic shift in expectations since late 2024.Stocks on Wall Street slumped at the start of trading on Wednesday, dragged lower by data that showed consumer prices rose more than expected in January, leaving the Federal Reserve little cause to lower interest rates again soon.The S&P 500 fell roughly 1 percent as trading got underway. The Nasdaq Composite index, which is chock-full of tech stocks that have come under pressure recently from rising global competition to develop the chips that will power the development of artificial intelligence, also fell around 1 percent.Fresh inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday showed that prices rose 3 percent for the year through January, up from 2.9 percent in December. The “core” Consumer Price Index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.3 percent year-over-year.Signs of continuing price pressure is likely to encourage the Fed to refrain from further interest rate cuts in the coming months. For stock investors, higher interest rates means slower business activity, which can weigh on companies’ earnings and stock prices.The uptick in inflation in January “does not derail the longer-term downward trend in inflation,” said Kyle Chapman, a foreign exchange market analyst at Ballinger Group. But, he said, “it does reaffirm the consensus that cuts are going to come much more slowly than we had thought towards the end of last year.”Investors are now betting that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates at their current level until December. It’s a drastic shift in expectations since last year, when traders were expecting as many as four cuts for 2025, and even just a few weeks ago investors expected the next cut in rates as soon as June.The two year Treasury yield, which is sensitive to changes in investors’ interest rate expectations, rose sharply after the inflation report, up 0.1 percentage points to 4.36 percent, close to its highest level of the year.Wednesday’s drop comes after a bumpy three weeks for traders, with whipsaw swings in stock prices reflecting investors’ struggle to parse the flurry of executive actions taken by President Trump since he returned to the White House for a second term.The S&P 500 has risen roughly 3 percent since the start of the year and has nudged up 1.2 percent since inauguration day, despite the volatility.Impending tariffs are adding to concern about an acceleration in inflation. On Monday, Mr. Trump announced tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. He has already imposed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods, and broad 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico are set to take effect in March, after being delayed for a month.“Rising prices already appear to be a headwind, and the prospect of new trade barriers have the potential to further fuel inflationary pressures by increasing costs for businesses and consumers,” said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede, a wealth management firm. More

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    8 Inspectors General Fired by Trump File Lawsuit Seeking Reinstatement

    Eight former inspectors general who were summarily fired by President Donald J. Trump last month filed a lawsuit on Wednesday asking a judge to declare their removals illegal and order the government to reinstate them.“The purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes — each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the president — to protect inspectors general from precisely this sort of interference with the discharge of their critical, nonpartisan duties,” the complaint said.The lawsuit asserts that the plaintiffs remain the lawful inspectors general of their agencies because Mr. Trump’s dismissals broke the law. It asks for an injunction requiring the executive branch to allow them to return to work and awarding them back pay.Four days after Mr. Trump returned to office last month, the White House notified as many as 17 inspectors general in tersely worded emails that they were being terminated because of “changing priorities.”Those were all in direct conflict with statutory restrictions on firing such officials in the Inspector General Act of 1978 and strengthened by lawmakers in the bipartisan Securing Inspectors General Act of 2022.That statute says that before an inspector general is removed, the president must provide Congress with 30 days’ advance notice, including a written explanation with “the substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons for any such removal.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Hegseth Says Return to Ukraine’s Pre-War Borders Is ‘Unrealistic’

    A return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is “an unrealistic objective” and an “illusionary goal” in the peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump wants to accomplish, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday at a NATO meeting in Brussels.In his first meeting with NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers, Mr. Hegseth told them that Mr. Trump “intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table.” But for Ukraine to try to regain all of the territory Russia has seized since 2014, as it insists it must do, “will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Mr. Hegseth said. “We will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield,” he said.Mr. Hegseth also told the meeting that Mr. Trump expected Europe to bear more financial and military responsibility for Ukraine’s defense.Europe, he said, must take more responsibility for its conventional defense and spend more money on its armed forces, up to 5 percent of national output, as the United States deals with its own security risks and the challenge of China.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Housing Crisis Forces Change on a Low-Rise Pocket of Brooklyn

    A contentious plan to build two 10-story towers illustrates how a pressing shortage of affordable apartments has started to change the politics around development.Change doesn’t always come easily in Brooklyn’s liberal strongholds.But New York’s push to build more housing in every corner of the city — even in places that have sometimes been skeptical of new development — is set to clear a significant hurdle on Wednesday, when a key City Council committee is expected to approve a zoning change that will clear the way for new apartment towers on the border between Park Slope and Windsor Terrace.Two 10-story buildings are planned for the site of an industrial laundry business, Arrow Linen. Forty percent of the 250 units will rent below market rate.The so-called Arrow Linen proposal had all the makings of the sort of fight that has become familiar in middle-class parts of the city with enough political influence to alter or defeat unpopular projects. It was subject to more than a year of contentious debate.Yet the conclusion demonstrates just how much the politics around development have started to morph as the housing crunch has become one of the city’s most pressing crises.That dynamic is playing out beyond New York, too, as leaders in liberal communities across the country are confronting housing shortages so profound that some of their once-reliable voters have begun to drift rightward, expressing skepticism about Democrats’ ability to tackle affordability issues.Progressive politicians who are often sharply critical of real estate developers when running for office have become increasingly supportive of new construction once they are elected.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Museum With Renowned Dinosaur Fossils Gets a $25 Million Gift

    The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, home to the Tyrannosaurus rex holotype and a famous Diplodocus, will benefit from Carole and Daniel Kamin’s donation.Carole Kamin first walked through the doors of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1975 after taking a job as a buyer for the Pittsburgh museum’s gift shop. Awe-struck by the fossils on display, she would style herself as a “dinosaur queen” for the next 20 years.She sourced dino-patterned fabric from India for barbecue aprons. She worked with a toy manufacturer to produce models of the museum’s ancient creatures. She persuaded a candy supplier to make caramel-filled “Sweet Beasts.”Now Kamin and her husband, Daniel, are donating $25 million toward renovating the museum, which was founded in 1895 and has one of North America’s largest museum collections of fossils. The gift comes at a time when dinosaurs are as firmly entrenched in the zeitgeist as ever, thanks in part to record-setting fossil auctions and blockbuster films.The Carnegie museum’s holdings include the species-defining fossils — known as holotypes — of the terrifying predator Tyrannosaurus rex and the giant herbivore Apatosaurus louisae.It also displays arguably the most famous dinosaur skeleton on Earth: the remains of Diplodocus carnegii, a long-necked dinosaur found in 1899 during an expedition funded by the steel baron and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Replica casts of the dinosaur, known as “Dippy,” reside in museums around the world.The Diplodocus carnegii skeleton at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is known as “Dippy.” Replica casts of the dinosaur reside in museums around the world.via Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Photo by Joshua Franzos, Treehouse MediaWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More