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Economy of the United States

An older white man in a long black coat walks

Foreign aid cuts could make US less secure

Trump administration

The White House put out its annual spending blueprint Monday, and once again, the Trump administration proposes dramatically slashing funding for foreign aid.

Hundreds of brightly colored shipping containers are stacked around a port

Chinese Americans fear extra scrutiny as Trump slaps China with new tariffs

Economics
A container ship at the port of New Orleans. China is the US’ largest trading partner — the US imported $540 billion worth of goods from China last year.

Trump says trade wars are ‘easy to win.’ (They’re not.)

Monessen, Pennsylvania, was once a prosperous steel town. The small city, 27 miles south of Pittsburgh, has fallen on hard times since its steel mills shut down in the 1970’s and ‘80’s.

Forgotten and crumbling, a PA steel town turned to Trump. Two years later, it’s a mixed bag.

The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Trump’s tariffs cause headaches for his own industry: hotels

Economics
Republican vice-presidential candidate U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan speaking in front of the campaign's "national debt clock" in Dover, New Hampshire September 18, 2012. 

US debt is eclipsing the rest of the world. So, where have the deficit hawks gone?

Just a few years ago, Republican Party leaders couldn’t stop warning us about the perils of the debt. But once in power, their voices have gone silent. The US is now one of the most indebted nations on earth.

People build a snowman outside the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2018.

House approves government spending bill despite conservative revolt

Business, Finance & Economics

The Republican-led chamber backed the measure 256-167, sending it to the Senate ahead of a midnight Friday deadline. But 90 of the 238 House Republicans ignored pleas for support from House Speaker Paul Ryan and voted against it.

A cropped image of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Two Sisters (On the Terrace)."

A Chicago museum outs Trump’s ‘Renoir’ painting as fake

Arts

According to a former Trump biographer, the US leader claims to own the original “Two Sisters (On the Terrace),” an oil-on-canvas painted by the French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1881. But the Art Institute of Chicago begs to differ.

Guantanamo Bay protest

A US nursing association sides with a Navy nurse who refused to force-feed Gitmo prisoners

Global Scan

When a naval nurse decided that force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay was unethical, the potential career consequences were severe. Now fellow nurses are supporting the act of conscience. Meanwhile, a British couple gets fined for writing a critical hotel review on TripAdvisor. And Indian street vendors take on Walmart, in today’s Global Scan.

The World

Commission: BP, Transocean, Halliburton to Blame for Gulf Oil Spill

Environment

Last November, we reported on a commission appointed by the president to investigate the causes of last summer’s BP oil disaster. At the time, the commission said there was really no one to blame for the accident. However, the commission’s final findings contradict that early sentiment, saying the accident could have been avoided. In an […]