Markets are marking time, but leaning higher, as investors hunker down ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision. Global stocks have stretched their rally to a third day, with US and Europe futures pointing up, but the mood is more cautious grind than full-on risk-on. Traders are largely shrugging off geopolitical noise for now, choosing instead to sit tight and wait for the next signa...
Markets are marking time, but leaning higher, as investors hunker down ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision. Global stocks have stretched their rally to a third day, with US and Europe futures pointing up, but the mood is more cautious grind than full-on risk-on. Traders are largely shrugging off geopolitical noise for now, choosing instead to sit tight and wait for the next signal from central banks. Asian shares rose 2%, led by memory-chip names like Samsung that are seen as less exposed to the war in the Middle East. Oil is doing some of the heavy lifting. Brent has slipped back toward $100, easing inflation nerves and giving both equities and bonds a bit of breathing room. Yields are ticking lower, the dollar is softer, and the overall feel is positioning. While no change is expected Wednesday, policymakers will set projections on the rates path in coming months. Traders will also scrutinize Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference for the central bank’s views on rising energy prices against signs of a softening labor market. Bottom line: it’s a holding pattern. Stocks are supported, but not surging; risks are known, but not resolved. For now, investors are willing to look through the headlines, but with the Fed up next and energy markets still in flux, it wouldn’t take much to shake things loose. What You Need to Know Today Iran signaled it’s digging in , launching fresh missile and drone attacks across Israel and Gulf states after the killing of senior security figure Ali Larijani , while vowing retaliation as the conflict grinds into its third week. The US, meanwhile, is escalating its own efforts, striking Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz with bunker-buster bombs in a bid to reopen the chokepoint for global oil flows, even as President Donald Trump insists the war could end “in the near future.” That optimism sits uneasily against the reality on the ground: attacks are widening, energy infrastructure is increasingly in the crosshairs,...
Justin Paget The world’s largest oil and gas companies ratcheted back investment in the energy transition in 2025, marking the first annual decline in eight years, according to BloombergNEF. Spending on low-carbon technologies by oil and gas majors fell by more than a third over the past year, to $25.7 billion from more than $38 billion in 2024, according to a report published Wednesday. Low-carbo...
Justin Paget The world’s largest oil and gas companies ratcheted back investment in the energy transition in 2025, marking the first annual decline in eight years, according to BloombergNEF. Spending on low-carbon technologies by oil and gas majors fell by more than a third over the past year, to $25.7 billion from more than $38 billion in 2024, according to a report published Wednesday. Low-carbon spending accounted for 6.5% of the companies’ total capital expenditure compared to almost 10% the previous year. That’s the lowest share in five years, according to BNEF analysts Claudio Lubis and David Doherty, the report’s authors. Not all firms retreated from energy transition-related spending. Repsol SA ( REPYY ) and Saudi Aramco ( ARMCO ), the largest investors in low-carbon technology in 2025, each committed about $4 billion — more than the previous year. “Since early 2025, policy volatility under the Trump administration – including permitting delays and stop-work orders – has materially increased execution risk for capital-intensive offshore wind projects,” the analysts wrote in the report. Investment by oil and gas majors is expected to continue moderating in the coming years, they added. According to a report last month, a group of shareholder activists and pension funds were pressuring BP ( BP ) to justify its strategy of shifting spending away from renewable energy to oil and gas projects. Exxon Mobil (XOM ) said in November it would "pace" spending on low-carbon projects because there were not enough customers willing to buy products such as hydrogen and biofuels, and that climate policies designed to support decarbonization "frankly aren’t working." Major U.S. and European oil and gas companies include Exxon ( XOM ) , Chevron ( CVX ) , BP ( BP ) , Shell ( SHEL ) and TotalEnergies ( TTE ) . Green energy ETFs: ( ICLN ), ( TAN ), ( FAN ), ( GRID ), ( QCLN ), ( ERTH ). Oil ETFs: ( USO ), ( UCO ), ( DBO ), ( OILK ), ( USL ). Natural Gas ETFs: ( UNG ), ( BOIL ), ...
Intelligent Protection Management ( IPM ) has filed to allow NewtekOne ( NEWT ) to sell up to 9M shares over time. These shares were issued as a part of a merger deal and can be gradually converted into common. The company will not receive any proceeds from the shares sold by the existing shareholder ( NEWT ). It has about 9.1M common shares and 4M preferred shares outstanding, with the share pric...
Intelligent Protection Management ( IPM ) has filed to allow NewtekOne ( NEWT ) to sell up to 9M shares over time. These shares were issued as a part of a merger deal and can be gradually converted into common. The company will not receive any proceeds from the shares sold by the existing shareholder ( NEWT ). It has about 9.1M common shares and 4M preferred shares outstanding, with the share price traded around $1.96 under the Nasdaq ticker (IMP). The company can issue up to 50M common shares and 10M preferred shares (of which 9M are Series A), confirming room for future dilution. Going forward, the earn-out may be paid in preferred shares, with up to 5M additional shares that could still be issued. IPM shares traded lower by 4.88% to $1.85 in after-hours trading on March 17 . More on Intelligent Protection Management Intelligent Protection Management Corp. (IPM) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Intelligent Protection Management Historical earnings data for Intelligent Protection Management Financial information for Intelligent Protection Management
A Manchester-set tale of money laundering and divided loyalties pairs slick visuals with well-worn genre beats, an engaging if uneven stab at a sweeping gangster epic A sizeable wedge of this film’s budget was clearly thrown at its opening scenes: they are set at a lavish British-Pakistani wedding, a shiny Lamborghini coiling around the venue like a polished snake. (Helpfully, the voiceover explai...
A Manchester-set tale of money laundering and divided loyalties pairs slick visuals with well-worn genre beats, an engaging if uneven stab at a sweeping gangster epic A sizeable wedge of this film’s budget was clearly thrown at its opening scenes: they are set at a lavish British-Pakistani wedding, a shiny Lamborghini coiling around the venue like a polished snake. (Helpfully, the voiceover explains that guests have mostly hired their cars for the day to keep up appearances.) Elsewhere, Apnas is flimsy and no-frills, dangling the promise of doing something new with the British crime drama, then ticking off all the genre’s boxes, from shotgun-wielding criminals to gangsters sitting in garages feeding wads of cash into money counters. James Greaney plays Awais, a wide-eyed British Asian accountant in Manchester who embarks on a thrilling new life as a “washer” in his uncle’s drugs empire, laundering drug money using cryptocurrencies. Except that Awais really does embody the stereotype of a mild-mannered accountant, so it’s his cousin Majid, AKA MK (Asim Ashraf), who is living it large, bumping off rivals and generally making a flashy show of being a drug dealer, to the despair of his father, who hides his crime network behind the facade of being a prominent politician in Pakistan. In the end, Apnas’s resources don’t quite stretch to meet its ambitions for a sprawling crime epic. It’s got plenty of front and chutzpah, and there is an interesting-ish family drama involving Awais dealing with issues around his identity as a second-generation British Asian. His father, Aslam (Nitin Ganatra) is a taxi driver with high expectations for his kids: Awais to be financially successful, a good marriage for his sister. Her journalling gives the film its voiceover – but it’s a weak link, partly because her character is thinner than the paper of the pages on which she writes her diary. Continue reading...
Given that novels are routinely touted as the new version of some previous chartbuster, Almost Life will doubtless be heralded as One Day meets Normal People for a sexually fluid generation. Featuring romantic indecisions spanning many years and an unironic take on the youthful psyche, it already reads as familiar. The novel opens in Paris in 1978 with a moment of affinity on the steps of Sacré-Co...
Given that novels are routinely touted as the new version of some previous chartbuster, Almost Life will doubtless be heralded as One Day meets Normal People for a sexually fluid generation. Featuring romantic indecisions spanning many years and an unironic take on the youthful psyche, it already reads as familiar. The novel opens in Paris in 1978 with a moment of affinity on the steps of Sacré-Coeur when students Laure Boutin and Erica Parker first glimpse each other, and then teases the reader with more than 400 pages of will-they-won’t-they misunderstandings, ecstasies and sorrows. This is a tale of missed chances, of the choices we make, and of queer and bisexual love in different social climates. With her “slightly terrifying aura”, uncompromising Parisian Laure “hadn’t expected to meet an angel on the basilica’s steps”. Erica, six years younger, gauche and beautiful, presents as the nervous English tourist she is. Supposedly straight, she is spending the summer in France before starting uni, whereas Laure is a queer seducer who treats her conquests with comparatively little emotion. Until Erica swings into view. Coup de foudre. Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an award-winning children’s and historical novelist, and Paris in the late 1970s is rendered convincingly but at a length which, along with an abundance of drunken philosophical discourse, mars the pace. Erica is soon pulled into the boho-on-a-budget world of Laure and her intellectual friends, with all its art, literature, bar crawls and theorising. The two women are in love, although they manage to taint the ardour with classic youthful paranoia and over-interpretation. Laure is developing a problem with alcohol, and Erica is struggling with sexuality and self-doubt. Now, and ever after, she plays “versions of her life on fast forward, staying, not staying”. double quotation mark Joy and brilliant tension lies in the scenes between them rather than in the sections when their separate stories meander Erica re...
A red-flag alert has been issued by one genocide-prevention organisation. This is not the time for empty condemnations but sanctions and arms embargos Anyone following Israeli media discourse in recent days may be experiencing a severe case of deja vu. Alongside euphoric reactions to the US-Israeli pummelling of Iran (backed by 93% of the Jewish-Israeli population ), politicians and prominent comm...
A red-flag alert has been issued by one genocide-prevention organisation. This is not the time for empty condemnations but sanctions and arms embargos Anyone following Israeli media discourse in recent days may be experiencing a severe case of deja vu. Alongside euphoric reactions to the US-Israeli pummelling of Iran (backed by 93% of the Jewish-Israeli population ), politicians and prominent commentators are now clamouring for an escalation in Lebanon – hoping to see a repeat of the devastation Israel has wreaked in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have already killed close to 1,000 people in the past two weeks, after Hezbollah resumed its rocket fire into northern Israel in support of Iran. The Israeli army has issued blanket evacuation orders covering a vast area in the country’s south, displacing over a million people from their homes. On Monday, it announced the launch of a “targeted” ground invasion , and officials have briefed the media that they are preparing to mobilise hundreds of thousands of reservists in order to implement “the Gaza model, but in Lebanon”. Ben Reiff is deputy editor at +972 magazine Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...
Saraswati Gurnaik Johal An ambitious Indian panorama Saraswati’s characters are the descendants of a proscribed intercaste marriage in 19th-century Punjab. Sejal and Jugaad have seven children, each of whom they name for a river. A century and a half later, their descendants include a Canadian rock musician, a Kenyan archaeology professor and a Mauritian entomologist who specialises in yellow craz...
Saraswati Gurnaik Johal An ambitious Indian panorama Saraswati’s characters are the descendants of a proscribed intercaste marriage in 19th-century Punjab. Sejal and Jugaad have seven children, each of whom they name for a river. A century and a half later, their descendants include a Canadian rock musician, a Kenyan archaeology professor and a Mauritian entomologist who specialises in yellow crazy ant removal. Beginning and ending in a near-future version of India, the narrative takes us to Svalbard, Tibet, rural British Columbia and the Chagos Islands. Brief interludes after each section tell the family origin story through a series of “qisse” – Punjabi folktales, passed on orally. “Saraswati” was the name of Sejal and Jugaad’s seventh child. It is also the name of a mythical river that, as any Indian will tell you, meets – in a sacred rather than geographical sense – the Ganga and Yamuna at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad). Saraswati derives its title, and its plot, from a theory that claims that the Saraswati was a real river that originated at Mount Kailash in Tibet and flowed to the Arabian Sea. The novel opens with water returning to a dry well on the Hakra farm: once Sejal and Jugaad’s home, now inherited by a young Londoner called Satnam. The water is a sign not of the workings of heaven but of the melting of Himalayan glaciers. But it is soon seized upon as the former – by frauds as well as true believers, and then by India’s newly elected Hindu nationalist government, which embarks upon a nationwide scheme to revive the ancient Saraswati, in part by abrogating the Indus Waters Treaty (a magnificent bit of novelistic prescience; after the book went to press, India did in fact revoke the treaty in response to a terror attack in Kashmir). Johal’s imaginative sympathy is undercut by the homogenising evenness of his prose – every character speaks and thinks in the same register, that of London journalism – and by the heavy-handedness of his...
PixelsEffect/E+ via Getty Images Investment thesis Kimberly-Clark ( KMB ) disappointed me with its financial results for 2025, and in general, my recommendation to buy shares back in August was wrong – the shares have since fallen by 24%. My investment idea didn't work out, and I have to admit it. I was too positive about the company's prospects in the near future, but the reality turned out to be...
PixelsEffect/E+ via Getty Images Investment thesis Kimberly-Clark ( KMB ) disappointed me with its financial results for 2025, and in general, my recommendation to buy shares back in August was wrong – the shares have since fallen by 24%. My investment idea didn't work out, and I have to admit it. I was too positive about the company's prospects in the near future, but the reality turned out to be much harsher. Kimberly-Clark did not meet either my expectations for financial results or the expectations of the market, which resulted in a prolonged correction of the stock throughout the year. At the same time, things are not so bad in the company's affairs – the transformation process continues, free cash flow remains high, the debt burden is low, and the dividend yield reaches 5%. Kimberly-Clark is not the company from which you should expect high growth rates. The company is more interesting as a stable, mature business that pays high dividends. In my estimation, through the DCF model, the shares should be worth 4-6% more than the current market price ($100 at the time of writing). But this is a very small upside, and I don't see any prerequisites for a stronger stock growth at the moment. That's why I'm downgrading the rating from Buy to Hold. In my opinion, the optimal strategy is to hold shares and buy them back when the price drops more strongly. Shift to Higher-Margin Segments with Near-Term Cash Flow Pressure I recommend reading my first article about Kimberly-Clark , among other things. There, in addition to financial analysis, I also deeply analyzed the company's business model, described its development strategy, the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy, and the key growth drivers and risks inherent in Kimberly-Clark. This will help to understand this energy giant more deeply and better understand the reasons for the company's current financial situation. Investor Presentation 2025 proved to be a difficult year for the company in terms of financial res...
Got story updates? Submit your updates here. › Caerus Investment Advisors LLC, a financial advisory firm, has purchased a new stake of 41,272 shares in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) valued at approximately $1.39 million during the third quarter, according to a recent SEC filing. This represents 0.6% of Caerus Investment Advisors' total holdings, making Intel the 22nd largest position in their po...
Got story updates? Submit your updates here. › Caerus Investment Advisors LLC, a financial advisory firm, has purchased a new stake of 41,272 shares in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) valued at approximately $1.39 million during the third quarter, according to a recent SEC filing. This represents 0.6% of Caerus Investment Advisors' total holdings, making Intel the 22nd largest position in their portfolio. Why it matters Intel is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies and a major player in the global technology industry. This new investment by Caerus Investment Advisors suggests the firm sees potential upside in Intel's stock despite the company facing some challenges in recent years, including increased competition and a shift towards mobile and cloud computing. The details According to the SEC filing, Caerus Investment Advisors purchased the 41,272 shares of Intel stock during the third quarter. This new stake represents approximately 0.6% of the firm's total investment portfolio, making Intel the 22nd largest holding. The purchase was likely driven by Caerus' belief that Intel's stock is undervalued and has room for growth, despite the company facing headwinds in certain market segments. Caerus Investment Advisors purchased the Intel shares during the third quarter of the year. The players Caerus Investment Advisors LLC A financial advisory firm that manages investments for clients. Intel Corporation A leading global semiconductor company that designs and manufactures computer processors and other hardware components. Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›
Singapore sits just one degree north of the equator, where the air rarely drops below 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity clings year round. It is, by most measures, one of the worst places on Earth to cool a data centre. Yet the city state crams more into its small footprint than almost anywhere else. Home to more than 70 facilities and over 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, Singapor...
Singapore sits just one degree north of the equator, where the air rarely drops below 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity clings year round. It is, by most measures, one of the worst places on Earth to cool a data centre. Yet the city state crams more into its small footprint than almost anywhere else. Home to more than 70 facilities and over 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, Singapore has one of the highest densities of data-centre infrastructure per capita on the planet – a testament both to its lofty AI ambitions and a booming regional industry. Advertisement Data centres have mushroomed across tropical Southeast Asia in recent years amid surging demand for processing power. These power-guzzling facilities play a central role in the ongoing artificial intelligence revolution, but are increasingly being put under the microscope for their energy efficiency – or lack thereof – in the equatorial heat. The International Energy Agency estimated in 2024 that data-centre electricity demand would then double by 2030 if current trends continued. In some markets, that consumption is projected to account for as much as 30 per cent of total national electricity demand – raising serious concerns about the strain it places on the power grid. In some markets, data-centre power consumption is projected to account for over one-fifth of total power demand by the end of the decade. Photo: Shutterstock Modern data centres need to maintain operating temperatures in the range of 18 degrees to 27 degrees, according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ guidelines. That is cooler than the typical ambient temperatures in Singapore, Johor or Jakarta.
The chief designer on the J-20 stealth fighter jet has been removed from the website of China’s national research institute, amid a sweeping campaign to stamp out corruption in the defence sector. Yang Wei, 62, had been listed as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the top academic body for science and technology. But as of Monday, his name was no longer on the site, according to a snapsh...
The chief designer on the J-20 stealth fighter jet has been removed from the website of China’s national research institute, amid a sweeping campaign to stamp out corruption in the defence sector. Yang Wei, 62, had been listed as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the top academic body for science and technology. But as of Monday, his name was no longer on the site, according to a snapshot from Internet Archive, which seeks to preserve online content. Advertisement Yang has not appeared in public for more than a year. No explanation has been given for his absence, or for the removal of his name from the site. 10:01 What do we know about China’s two next-generation aircraft? What do we know about China’s two next-generation aircraft? Yang was promoted to the position of deputy manager of AVIC in 2018. The aircraft manufacturer is a key player in China’s military modernisation and a major supplier and developer of fighter jets.
Cheap drones are reshaping modern warfare — and catching the U.S. off guard AFP via Getty Images and U.S. Air Force/Collage by Emily Bogle/NPR Wladimir van Wilgenburg stands in a residential neighborhood in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and points out incoming drones high in the sky. "The U.S. defense systems, as you can see, are taking down the drones," he says in a video recorded durin...
Cheap drones are reshaping modern warfare — and catching the U.S. off guard AFP via Getty Images and U.S. Air Force/Collage by Emily Bogle/NPR Wladimir van Wilgenburg stands in a residential neighborhood in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and points out incoming drones high in the sky. "The U.S. defense systems, as you can see, are taking down the drones," he says in a video recorded during the first days of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and sent to NPR. First one, then another, is obliterated in a puff of smoke, sending explosions reverberating through the apartment block several seconds later. Van Wilgenburg, a journalist based in Erbil, says drones — sent by Iran to attack U.S. facilities in the region — have become a daily occurrence over the city in recent weeks. So, too, have the interceptions. Sponsor Message "Most of these drones … don't reach their destination," he says. With Operation Epic Fury well into its third week, there are two increasingly urgent questions: how long U.S. defense systems can continue to hold off such attacks — not just in Iraq, but throughout the Middle East — and whether the U.S. underestimated the threat of Iran's drones in the first place. toggle caption U.S. Army Over the Gulf region right now, relatively cheap Iranian drones are being taken out by costly and difficult-to-manufacture U.S. interceptor missiles. A typical Shahed-136 costs Tehran roughly $20,000 to $50,000, while interceptors, such as the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), cost millions. That disparity has allowed Iran to drive up the cost of the conflict for the U.S., according to Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a think tank aimed at enhancing international peace and security. And after just a few weeks of fighting, there are already indications that the U.S. may run out of interceptors before Iran depletes its drone supply. Early in the war, U.S. officials who were not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that the...
Do you understand this billboard? If not, that's the whole point toggle caption Chloe Veltman/NPR Billboards in San Francisco used to be easy to understand, whether advertising Coca-Cola, Toyotas, iPhones or AirBnB. But these days, that's often not the case. Ads bearing slogans like "Agents don't work without evals," "Too much B2B SAAS," and "Intelligent AF" have sprung up across the city over the...
Do you understand this billboard? If not, that's the whole point toggle caption Chloe Veltman/NPR Billboards in San Francisco used to be easy to understand, whether advertising Coca-Cola, Toyotas, iPhones or AirBnB. But these days, that's often not the case. Ads bearing slogans like "Agents don't work without evals," "Too much B2B SAAS," and "Intelligent AF" have sprung up across the city over the past couple of years, in a bid to grab attention by AI startups flush with venture capital cash. "I look at these billboards and have absolutely no idea what they're advertising," said Louise Mozingo, who runs the urban design program at the University of California, Berkeley, and has studied the tech sector in the context of corporate landscaping extensively over the years. "They're quite clearly not advertising to the average consumer." toggle caption Chloe Veltman/NPR And yet these billboards are everywhere. Billboard rental revenue in the city grew by around 30% between 2023 and 2025, according to data provided by the outdoor advertising company Outfront Media. And advertisers said they are waiting many months for spots in the most desirable locations to open up. Sponsor Message Intentional exclusivity These ads are meant to be inscrutable to most passersby. "The goal is intentional in a kind of 'if-you-know-you-know' type of way," said Mike Bilodeau, head of marketing at the AI infrastructure startup Baseten. The company has many billboard, bus shelter and street kiosk ads across the city, bearing slogans like "Own your models," "Own Your SLAs," and "Own Your Nines." toggle caption Chloe Veltman/NPR "For a lot of folks, the ads don't really mean anything," Bilodeau said. "But we're selling to engineers. They're like, 'Oh, we know exactly what this is.'" The difference between this messaging and that of a traditional billboard campaign is intent. "Traditional campaigns often try to clearly explain a product to a defined audience," said Outfront Media's west region seni...
Sen. Mullin faces confirmation hearing to lead Homeland Security Department toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin will take questions from fellow senators on Wednesday as he seeks to become the second secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under this Trump administration. President Trump selected Mullin for the post earlier this month after announci...
Sen. Mullin faces confirmation hearing to lead Homeland Security Department toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin will take questions from fellow senators on Wednesday as he seeks to become the second secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under this Trump administration. President Trump selected Mullin for the post earlier this month after announcing that he would remove DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from running the agency and instead appoint her as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a regional coalition of Latin American countries. The swap in leadership comes after a tumultuous few months at DHS. An immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota resulted in protests and the deaths of two U.S. citizens. Sponsor Message The hearing is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET. Watch it live: Noem faced bipartisan criticism for her handling of their deaths and oversight of immigration enforcement more broadly, as well as spending at the department and management of disaster relief . She becomes the first Cabinet secretary to leave the administration in Trump's second term. The agency is currently shut down as Democrats push for changes to how immigration officers operate. Over 100,000 employees are furloughed or working without pay, including those who have nothing to do with immigration, such as workers in the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mullin is expected to face questions from the Homeland Security Committee about his response to the recent turmoil — as well as what tone he takes on mass deportations and internal oversight at DHS. "How the Homeland Security Secretary responds to a crisis sends signals to everyone from the department's own personnel, to the American people, and to the entire world," the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters, Mich., is set to say in his prepared opening remarks, which were shared with NPR. "It's not the role of the secretary to be a...
The Federal Reserve is facing tough choices as the economy faces deep uncertainty toggle caption Saul Loeb/AFP The Federal Reserve's balancing act is getting harder. The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday as policymakers face growing signs of a softening job market even as the war in Iran puts more upward pressure on prices. That's leaving policymakers...
The Federal Reserve is facing tough choices as the economy faces deep uncertainty toggle caption Saul Loeb/AFP The Federal Reserve's balancing act is getting harder. The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday as policymakers face growing signs of a softening job market even as the war in Iran puts more upward pressure on prices. That's leaving policymakers caught between competing goals of encouraging hiring — while also discouraging inflation. At its last meeting in late January, the Fed's rate-setting committee pointed to signs that the labor market was stabilizing. But that sunny outlook has been clouded by recent reports from the Labor Department, showing U.S. employers cut 92,000 jobs in February as the unemployment rate inched up to 4.4%. Job gains for December and January were also revised downward. That means the economy has added virtually no jobs in the last six months. Sponsor Message Meanwhile, the war with Iran has disrupted global energy markets, driving gasoline and diesel prices sharply higher in the last two-and-a-half weeks. While the Fed typically pays less attention to changing energy prices, since they bounce up and down frequently, a sustained jump in the cost of diesel fuel would raise the cost of transporting numerous goods that move by truck or train. "It's going to put big, upward pressure on inflation in the near term," said Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, a global forecasting and advisory firm. "At the same time, it's going to affect the real economy. That rise in prices is going to restrain the pace of consumer spending. The policy outlook this year I think has been completely scrambled by this new shock." Even before the war began, January's inflation rate was clocked at 3.1% according to the Fed's preferred measure — well above its 2% target. In December, Fed policymakers were projecting that inflation would cool to 2.5% by the end of this year while unemployment woul...
The threats to Minnesota's Medicaid funds are unprecedented. Other states could be next toggle caption Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America When Sarah Lindbo's 14-year-old daughter Greta is thriving, she is playful, engaged and not in pain. Greta, who has cerebral palsy, requires a range of supports to get to that point. That includes doctors, medical equipment, prescriptions, a paraprofessi...
The threats to Minnesota's Medicaid funds are unprecedented. Other states could be next toggle caption Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America When Sarah Lindbo's 14-year-old daughter Greta is thriving, she is playful, engaged and not in pain. Greta, who has cerebral palsy, requires a range of supports to get to that point. That includes doctors, medical equipment, prescriptions, a paraprofessional at school and a care assistant at home. Many of these services depend on Medicaid. " Medicaid makes a huge impact in our day-to-day life," Lindbo said. "It is the foundation of what gives Greta her experience at school and in our community and our family." But lately, Lindbo has been nervous. She and her family live in Minnesota where hundreds of millions of dollars — and possibly billions — for the state's Medicaid program are in limbo as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on fraud. It came after federal prosecutors last year alleged that billions may have been stolen from Minnesota's Medicaid program over the years and charged a number of people with Medicaid fraud. Sponsor Message Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has argued that widespread fraud has persisted for too long, hurting both taxpayers and those who rely most on the program. "This is not a problem with the people of Minnesota. It's a problem with the leadership of Minnesota and other states who do not take Medicaid preservation seriously," he said at a press conference on Feb. 25. But health care policy experts say the threats to Medicaid funding are unprecedented — going far beyond the typical steps to address fraud and at a scale that could disrupt services for patients. "If this becomes the framework for addressing fraud, it's really destabilizing," said Allie Gardner, a health policy researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. " It risks the coverage and care for those that depend on the program." CMS declined ...
Israel is a key issue in Democratic primaries as support for the U.S. ally drops toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images From New Jersey to North Carolina to Tuesday's primaries in Illinois, Israel has risen as an issue in Democratic primaries. That's come as polling shows a decline in support for Israel among Americans, especially those who are young and identify as Democrats. And primaries in ...
Israel is a key issue in Democratic primaries as support for the U.S. ally drops toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images From New Jersey to North Carolina to Tuesday's primaries in Illinois, Israel has risen as an issue in Democratic primaries. That's come as polling shows a decline in support for Israel among Americans, especially those who are young and identify as Democrats. And primaries in the most blue districts draw the most progressive candidates and activists. In Illinois, groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent tens of millions of dollars in the primary campaign, and the spending became a political flashpoint, as WBEZ has reported. What the politics are AIPAC is a leading lobby group that endorses — and puts money behind — pro-Israel candidates. For decades, the group has spent money on politics, trying to shape U.S. policy toward Israel and the views of everyone from members of Congress to the president himself. For about as long, the group has also been mired in controversy. Sponsor Message It clashed with Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Ronald Reagan over U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. It pushed back hard against Republican George H.W. Bush's demands that Israel freeze settlement expansion for loan guarantees. Twenty years ago, a Pentagon analyst pleaded guilty to sharing secrets with the group. During the Obama presidency, AIPAC lobbied heavily against the Iran nuclear deal. In today's politics, many progressives heavily oppose AIPAC because of its strong support for Israel. Israel's occupation of Gaza and its response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks have come under sharp criticism as well as led to mass protests in many corners of the world. At the same time, there has also been a rise in antisemitic attacks, including at a synagogue in Michigan last week, the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia in December 2025, and the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Jewish Museum i...