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Trump’s tariff time-bomb threatens to blow up transatlantic trade

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

BRUSSELS — The next big transatlantic trade fight is primed to explode. Negotiators from Brussels and Washington are scrambling to solve a five-year dispute over steel and aluminum dating back to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on European imports. They have until October to get a deal but are still so far apart that European officials now fear the chances of an agreement are slim. Without a deal, both sides could reimpose billions of dollars worth of trade tariffs on each other’s goods — potentially spreading well beyond steel to hit products including French wines, U.S. rum, vodka and denim jeans.While U.S. negotiators are still hopeful that an agreement can be reached in time, the political fallout of failure for President Joe Biden would be serious, with U.S. exports facing a hit just ahead of his potential re-election battle in 2024. More broadly, another breakdown in trade relations between Europe and the United States would heap furthe...

Moore: Government must stop paying people not to work

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

A policy question these days that has befuddled federal lawmakers is why so many millions of people have not returned to the workplace in the post-COVID-19 era. The labor force participation rate among employable adults is near a record low today. There are at least 2 million to 4 million employable adults who could and should be working but aren’t.Very few people with even minimal skills can credibly say they can’t find a job. Employers report some 10 million job openings. Small business owners say their biggest problem is finding competent workers.There are many explanations for why so many people aren’t working — fear of COVID-19, the skills mismatch, more people taking early retirement, and so on. But a major factor is that the federal government is back to doing what it did in the 1970s and 1980s. The welfare state today is paying people not to work — even a single hour.That problem went away in the 1990s after many states, such as Wisconsin and Michigan, bega...

April brings shower of fresh performances on Boston’s art scene

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

Apologies to T. S. Eliot but April is not the cruelest month. Eliot lived in Cambridge for plenty of Januarys. He should know better.April is actually pretty nice. Or it can be if you ignore the 50 degree days with rain and focus on the arts calendar. With an eye to spring-has-sprung type stuff, here’s your monthly guide to bright and blooming arts offerings.Our Journey, Apri 6-16, Opera HouseThe Boston Ballet continues to inject new art and energy into the form. This program features two new (or new-ish) works. “La Mer” is a huge piece – 33 dancers, eight singers, and 45 musicians combine for a 45-minute exploration of our romantic feelings toward the oceans. Choreographed by Nanine Linning using two compositions by Claude Debussy, this world premiere was created with help from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. “Everywhere We Go” should generate just as much excitement. It is the brainchild of Justin Peck, choreographer for Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and indie rock ...

High school boys outdoor track preview: Shot, high jump a battle for second

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

Two of the most dominant athletes of the indoor season have their eyes on new personal bests this spring.Carver high jumper Cam Allain had an electrifying win at the Adidas Nationals when he soared to a personal best of 6 feet, 8 inches. With a national title in his back pocket, Allain now has his sights set on clearing 7-feet and he believes it is well within reach.In the shot put, Jacob Cookinham of Bishop Stang had the best throw in the country and thoroughly dominated New England competition. Breaking the 70-foot barrier is high on Cookinham’s list of goals outdoors.Cookinham is in a class by himself, but Allain could face some competition from Arlington’s Rowan McConkey, who had a breakthrough winter campaign after placing eighth in last June’s All-State meet. Zachary Traficante of North Andover, Stoughton’s Matt Singletary and Drew McStay could also be in the mix.The 400 should be a loaded event once again with a field of sub 50-second athletes that inc...

Jacqueline Winspear’s ‘White Lady’ a must-read

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

BOOK REVIEW“The White Lady”By Jacqueline WinspearHarper, $30Grade: AIf Daphne du Maurier rewrote a John le Carré manuscript, it might resemble “The White Lady.”Best known for 17 novels featuring detective Maisie Dobbs — which are not only set in the first half of the 20th century but read like they could have been written then (when du Maurier was churning out bestsellers) — Jacqueline Winspear launches a possible new series with “White Lady.”It takes place in 1947 and introduces Elinor De Witt, who became a World War I heroine as a teenager in Belgium, contributed further derring-do in World War II, and is now a semiretired busybody in rural England.Every bit of that description will be familiar to Dobbs fans. Winspear doesn’t venture far from that character in creating Elinor, who undoubtedly would be pals with the similarly kind, curious, haunted-by-war-trauma Maisie. The key difference is that, instead of helping charwomen locate missing...

Kathryn Hahn takes on relatable role in Hulu’s ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

It’s a boom time for Kathryn Hahn who stars in Hulu’s “Tiny Beautiful Things” Friday.After decades of steady, often surprising work, she scored an Emmy nomination as centuries-old witch Agatha Harkness in the Disney+ “WandaVision” (2021).  She’s a regular on “Central Park” the AppleTV+ animated musical series. Now in “Tiny Beautiful,” adapted from the same-named book by best-selling author Cheryl Strayed (“Wild”), Hahn is a very troubled Clare.Her husband and daughter have ejected her from the house. Yet things change when she becomes an advice columnist. “I did not see her life as a ‘wreck’ but when we meet her, she’s not at a great point in her life,” Hahn, 49, allowed during a Zoom interview.“Honestly, at this age if you just scratch beneath the surface, most people you find are not totally satisfied with exactly what is going on in their lives at that particular moment.“To me, this particular age is a time of reckoning. A time of like, Whoa, where am I? Is this what I want? Is t...

Lucas: Trump-targeting Dems take page from foul playbook

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

Who would have thought Donald Trump would be arrested before Vladimir Putin?Or Hunter Biden.But it happened.And unlike Putin, who, holed up in the Kremlin, has adopted a “come and get me” stance, Trump at least had the decency to show up for his arraignment Tuesday.He could have held out at his Florida Mar-a-Lago headquarters protected by his Secret Service detail, like Putin is doing in Moscow.Or he could have said that his antagonist, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had no jurisdiction over him.That what Putin’s response when he was indicted for war crimes in March by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. He joins such company as the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who ended up dead in a ditch.Putin practically snarled at the ICC, in essence asking, “How many divisions does the ICC have?”Which is what Soviet Union dictator Joe Stalin said about the Pope when he was told the Vatican wanted to play a role in the ending of World War II. “How many divisions...

Asian shares mostly fall amid worries about slowing economy

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

By YURI KAGEYAMA (AP Business Writer)TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mostly lower Thursday as investors turned their attention to upcoming earnings reports and other economic indicators. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 1.1% in morning trading to 27,507.65. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3% to 7,214.90. South Korea’s Kospi fell nearly 0.8% to 2,476.08. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was virtually unchanged, inching up less than 0.1% to 20,277.01. The Shanghai Composite slipped less than 0.1% to 3,312.22. While efforts to cool inflation by raising interest rates are designed to slow overheated economies, the worry is that central bank policymakers might overdo it, leading to recession. Many regional economies are seeing weakness in exports due to softer demand in major markets like the United States. That has dulled the impact of a rebound in China as its economy recovers from pandemic-related disruptions. Stocks on Wall Street mostly slipped Wedn...

Curtis Sittenfeld & readers have fun with ‘Romantic Comedy’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

BOOK REVIEW“Romantic Comedy”By Curtis SittenfeldRandom House, $28Grade: A-I am a big fan of Curtis Sittenfeld, and particularly love her reality-adjacent work — riffing on Hillary Clinton in “Rodham,” Laura Bush in “American Wife,” and on “Pride and Prejudice” in “Eligible.” OK, perhaps “Pride and Prejudice” is not an example of reality, but “Eligible” is an example of how much fun Sittenfeld has playing with existing characters and story structures.Here, the reality is “Saturday Night Live,” reimagined as “TNO,” “The Night Owls.” It’s run by Nigel, not Lorne, and “Weekend Update” is called “News Desk,” 30 Rock is called 66, and most of the details — the pitch meetings, the table reads, the run-throughs, the 11:30 airtime — seem to be modeled directly on the many “SNL” memoirs that Sittenfeld said she read as research for t...

Editorial: Warren & Pressley slam bank for wanting loans repaid

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:23 GMT

In a little more than a month, the COVID pandemic will be over – at least on the books.As has been reported,  the Biden administration plans to let the coronavirus public health emergency expire on May 11. COVID is still here, but this move signals that Capitol Hill sees the pandemic as something more manageable, and no longer the crisis it was three years ago.States have long since opened up, businesses are doing their best to recover, mask mandates are lifted, we’re flying, going to public performances and enjoying a near-full return to normalcy.But in progressive circles, it’s March of 2020, and the wolf is at the door.The wolf, in this case, is in the form of banks who want student borrowers to start making payments on their loans again.The student loan payment pause started in March of 2020, and it allowed federal student loan borrowers  to skip payments. The interest rate on their loans was set to 0%. Pause extensions followed, as did the Administration’...