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Anna Edwards

10899 Posts
Factories May Be Leaving China, but Trade Ties Are Stronger Than They Seem

Factories May Be Leaving China, but Trade Ties Are Stronger Than They Seem

The United States has spent the past five years pushing to reduce its reliance on China for computer chips, solar panels and various consumer imports amid growing concern over Beijing’s security threats, human rights record and dominance of critical industries.But even as policymakers and corporate executives look for ways to cut ties with China, a growing body of evidence suggests that the world’s largest economies remain deeply intertwined as Chinese products make their way to America through other countries. New and forthcoming economic papers call into question whether the United States has actually lessened its reliance on China — and…
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A Miracle in Missouri? The Nun Who Put Her Abbey on the Map.

A Miracle in Missouri? The Nun Who Put Her Abbey on the Map.

Four years after her death, the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster has not decomposed, her fellow nuns said. Believers come from all over to see for themselves.WHY WE’RE HEREWe’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In the hills north of Kansas City, Mo., a small abbey has become a destination for Catholics hoping to see a miracle.By Ruth GrahamPhotographs by Katie CurridReporting from Gower, Mo.Sept. 9, 2023In life, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was known to her fellow nuns for her devotional poetry, her sense of humor and her fierce piety. “I’m Sister Wil-hel-mina,” she was known to…
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An A.I. Leader Urges Regulation and a Rethink

An A.I. Leader Urges Regulation and a Rethink

Mustafa Suleyman is one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence entrepreneurs, having co-founded not one but two start-ups at the cutting edge of the most transformative technology since the internet.Mr. Suleyman, 39, is C.E.O. of Inflection AI, the company he started last year with Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn. In June, the firm closed a $1.3 billion funding round that included Microsoft and Nvidia, the leading A.I. chip maker, and that reportedly valued the company at about $4 billion. (Its chatbot, Pi, is designed to be a personal digital companion.)Mr. Suleyman also co-founded DeepMind, an A.I. pioneer that Google…
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China’s Government Offers Love, but Entrepreneurs Aren’t Buying It

China’s Government Offers Love, but Entrepreneurs Aren’t Buying It

In the darkest moments of the financial crisis in 2008, former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao lectured a group of U.S. government officials and business executives in New York. “In the face of economic difficulties,” he said, “confidence is more precious than gold.”The Chinese economy then was teetering. Today it’s sputtering, facing the dimmest prospects in decades, and China’s leaders are learning the hard way exactly what Mr. Wen meant.Beijing unveiled a 31-point set of guidelines on Wednesday to bolster the confidence of the private sector. After three years in which the government cracked down on private companies, stamped out innovation…
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Fed Officials Will Parse Jobs Numbers to Assess Economy’s Momentum

Fed Officials Will Parse Jobs Numbers to Assess Economy’s Momentum

Federal Reserve officials are likely to closely watch employment numbers on Friday for further signs that the economy’s momentum is slowing, an important consideration for them in deciding whether to lift interest rates further.Fed policymakers have sharply increased borrowing costs over the past year and a half, to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent, from near-zero as recently as March 2022. Those moves were meant to slow the economy by making it more expensive to borrow to buy a house, purchase a car or expand a business.Now, central bankers are contemplating whether they need to raise interest rates one…
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Photos: Scenes From Morocco’s Deadly Magnitude-6.8 Earthquake

Photos: Scenes From Morocco’s Deadly Magnitude-6.8 Earthquake

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck about 50 miles from the city of Marrakesh in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, killing more than 2,000 people, turning houses and buildings into rubble and terrifying residents.Morocco has a history of serious earthquakes, and the one that hit shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday was the largest to strike the area in more than a century. The full extent of the casualties and damages was not known.“It didn’t last long,” said one person who experienced the quake in Amizmiz, which is about 30 miles southwest of Marrakesh, “but felt like years.”SundayA damaged mosque in…
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Takeaways From a New Elon Musk Biography: Ukraine, Trump and More

Takeaways From a New Elon Musk Biography: Ukraine, Trump and More

A new biography of Elon Musk portrays the billionaire entrepreneur as a complex, tortured figure whose brilliance is often overshadowed by his inability to relate on a human level to the people around him — his wives, his children and those on whom he relied to help develop the space exploration and electric car businesses that made him the wealthiest man on Earth.Mr. Musk’s life so far — his difficult childhood in South Africa, his stormy romantic relationships, his success as a visionary who built SpaceX and Tesla, and his impetuous decision to buy Twitter — is detailed through scores…
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J.F.K. Assassination Witness Breaks His Silence and Raises New Questions

J.F.K. Assassination Witness Breaks His Silence and Raises New Questions

He still remembers the first gunshot. For an instant, standing on the running board of the motorcade car, he entertained the vain hope that maybe it was just a firecracker or a blown tire. But he knew guns and he knew better. Then came another shot. And another. And the president slumped down.For so many nights afterward, he relived that grisly moment in his dreams. Now, 60 years later, Paul Landis, one of the Secret Service agents just feet away from President John F. Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas, is telling his story in full for the first…
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Wages Rose Only 0.2% in August, Easing Inflation Fears

Wages Rose Only 0.2% in August, Easing Inflation Fears

American workers got smaller pay increases in August. That could be welcome news for policymakers at the Federal Reserve.Average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent from July, the slowest pace of monthly growth since early last year. Pay was up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, versus a peak growth rate of nearly 6 percent in March 2022.The earnings data is preliminary and can be skewed by shifts in the industries that are hiring, among other factors. But the slowdown in wage gains is consistent with other evidence suggesting a gradual cooling in the labor market. Employers are posting fewer job…
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