Author: Eka Gerona

The Trump administration is immediately pulling $400m (£310m) of federal funding from Columbia University, saying it failed to fight antisemitism on campus. A statement by four federal agencies said the funding cut was due to “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.The New York college was the epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last year against war in Gaza and US support for Israel. Earlier this week, President Trump had threatened to pull funding from schools and universities that allow “illegal protests”. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in Friday’s statement that Jewish students on…

Ben King and Robin Levinson KingBBC NewsReporting fromLondon, UK and Toronto, CanadaReutersThe former Bank of England boss, Mark Carney, is seen as the most likely successor to Justin Trudeau as the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party. Does he have what it takes to be the face Canada’s ongoing battle against President Trump’s tariffs?Mark Carney was the first non-British person to become governor of the Bank of England in its more than 300-year history when he took the job in 2013.He had previously steered his home country through the Great Recession as the governor of the Bank of Canada, the country’s…

Wind and waves are set to be included in calculations of the size of countries’ economies for the first time, as part of changes approved at the United Nations.Assets like oilfields were already factored in under the rules – last updated in 2008.This update aims to capture areas that have grown since then, such as the cost of using up natural resources and the value of data. The changes come into force in 2030, and could mean an increase in estimates of the size of the UK economy making promises to spend a fixed share of the economy on defence…

Trump says cabinet will cut staff with Musk ‘watching’US President Donald Trump called a meeting of his cabinet secretaries on Thursday to discuss Elon Musk and his efforts to slash government spending and personnel numbers.It turned heated, according to media reports.Musk accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of failing to cut enough staff at the state department, reports the New York Times.The tech mogul told Rubio he was “good on TV”, according to the newspaper, pointedly skipping any praise of his work as America’s top diplomat.The billionaire also clashed with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over whether Musk’s Department of Government…

Nadine Yousif and Ali Abbas AhmadiBBC News, TorontoWatch: Canadian liquor store clears out US alcohol in response to tariffsNot long after the US imposed their tariffs on Canada, a local neighbourhood pub in Toronto began removing all American products off their menu.That means nachos, wings – and of course, beer – must all to be made now with local Canadian ingredients, or wherever not possible, non-US products from Europe or Mexico.For Leah Russell, manager at Toronto’s Madison Avenue pub, the boycott was a no-brainer. She adds that it is “pretty set in stone,” even if the tariffs themselves are not.”I’m…

Natalie ShermanBusiness reporter, New YorkWatch: Trump signs order pausing some Mexico and Canada tariffsIt may have been drowned out this week as US President Donald Trump walked back tariffs on his closest neighbours – and biggest trading partners – almost as soon as they were in place.But despite the dizzying back-and-forth with Canada and Mexico, the White House made clear that it is serious about its economic vision. And it is willing to pay the price of some short-term economic harm to pursue it.”There’ll be a little disturbance,” Trump warned in his address to Congress on Tuesday. “But we’re okay…

US President Donald Trump’s cuts to the government workforce have started to hit, but overall hiring last month remained stable as growth in other sectors offset those losses. The Labor Department said federal employment dropped by 10,000 in February.Across the economy, employers added 151,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%, from 4% in January.The monthly report from the government is a closely-watched signal of economic health that was under particular scrutiny this month, amid rising concern about the economic disruption sparked by Trump administration policy changes. Analysts had been forecasting about 170,000 new jobs. The monthly gain…

The US owner of the Boots pharmacy chain is being taken over by a private equity firm in a $10bn (£7.8bn) deal.The price being paid for Walgreens Boots Alliance is a fraction of what the company was worth a decade ago, reflecting its struggles with growing debt and shoppers going online for cheaper products. There have been reports that the Boots chain could be sold off seperately by its new owner, US private equity firm Sycamore Partners.Walgreens chief executive Tim Wentworth said the firm was navigating the “challenges of a rapidly evolving pharmacy industry and an increasingly complex and competitive…

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to establish a strategic reserve for Bitcoin, making the US one of the few countries in the world to create a national stockpile of blockchain assets.The reserve will hold cryptocurrency forfeited to the federal government as part of criminal or civil proceedings, White House AI and crypto tsar David Sacks said in a post on X.The US will not sell any Bitcoin deposited in the reserve, said Sacks, and will instead keep it as an asset.Trump – who just four years ago said Bitcoin “seems like a scam” – now says he…

Will GrantMexico Correspondent, BBC NewsAFPWhen tariffs were avoided in February, President Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico borderIn announcing the decision to postpone some tariffs on Mexico for another month, US President Donald Trump was at pains to praise his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum.”I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum”, he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. “Our relationship has been a very good one and we are working hard, together, on the border.”The comments were in stark contrast to the kind of language he has used for the…