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Trump open to again extending TikTok deadline if necessary
President Trump said he would 'probably' extend the deadline for the sale for social video app TikTok if a deal is not reached by April 5. Trump said Thursday there was 'a lot of interest' in TikTok and that 'right now we have at least another month, so we don't need an extension' in response to questions at the White House about the app's status. At the same time, Trump said he is willing to extend the deadline if necessary. 'If I needed an extension, I'd probably get it extended,' Trump said. 'We have a lot of interest in TikTok. And China is going to play a role, so hopefully China will approve of the deal, but they are going to play a role,' he added, without specifying the interested buyers. A bipartisan law previously set a Jan. 19 deadline for Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. to sell the app and the service's US operations temporarily went dark. But Trump upon taking office signed an executive order offering a reprieve for 75 additional days. Since then, Trump has said that he wants to help broker a sale — and that he believes the US government should be granted a 50 percent stake in the company as a condition. It's not clear if Trump could legally offer a significant additional extension under the law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, without an agreement. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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HEALTH
Rise in vaping is offsetting the US decline in smoking rates
Disposable flavored electronic cigarette devices displayed for sale at a store in Pinecrest, Fla.
Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press
The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that vaping is climbing more quickly than smokers quit cigarettes. The number of US adults who exclusively smoke cigarettes decreased by 6.8 million between 2017 and 2023, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, approximately 7.2 million adults started exclusively using e-cigarettes, according to the study. Tobacco companies, including Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris International Inc., have increasingly shifted their focus toward alternative products such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches. They market these products as less harmful than traditional cigarettes, helping to retain existing customers who want to switch. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
TRADE
Toys are expected to cost more by fall due to new US tariffs on Chinese imports
Mash'ems, from Basic Fun!, displayed at the Toy Fair, in New York's Javits Center.
Richard Drew/Associated Press
As toy inventors, toy manufacturers, and buyers for stores that sell toys met for a four-day annual trade show in New York last weekend, a topic besides which items were destined for holiday wish lists permeated the displays. President Trump had announced days before that he planned to increase the extra tariff he put on Chinese imports in February to 20 percent. Would he? By Tuesday, the last day of the Toy Fair, attendees had their answer, and the talk about how it would affect the prices of playthings grew more urgent. Nearly 80 percent of the toys sold in the United States are sourced from China, according to The Toy Association, a national industry group that sponsors the show formerly known as the North American International Toy Fair. Many toy makers are now renegotiating prices with retailers and taking a hard look at their products to see if they can cut costs. Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of The Toy Association, said price increases of 15 percent to 20 percent are expected on games, dolls, cars, and other toys by the back-to-school shopping season. The price range that US consumers are willing to pay is anywhere from $4.99 to $19.99, leaving little wiggle room to raise prices, he said. 'It's untenable,' Ahearn said, noting that small businesses make up roughly 96 percent of the American toy industry. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ECONOMY
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits falls as labor market remains sturdy
Attendees at a health care career fair at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C.
Allison Joyce/Bloomberg
Applications for US jobless benefits fell last week as the labor market remains sturdy ahead of an expected purge of federal government employees. The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell by 21,000 to 221,000 for the week ending March 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's significantly fewer than the 236,000 new applications analysts expected. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, which have remained mostly in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 for years. The four-week average, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, inched up by 250 to 224,250. Some analysts expect layoffs ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency to show up in the report in the coming weeks or months. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEDIA
Nearing split with NBC News, MSNBC starts building a news operation
MSNBC television anchor Rachel Maddow, host of the Rachel Maddow Show.
Steven Senne/Associated Press
Throughout much of its 28-year history, MSNBC has leaned on NBC News to help provide the hard-news reporting that appears on its air, supplementing the work of its own anchors and opinion hosts. But that will all change when, most likely this year, MSNBC is spun off from the network as part of a new corporate entity that is being called SpinCo, along with several other cable channels owned by Comcast. Ahead of that split, MSNBC is in the process of building out an independent newsgathering and reporting operation that will include a bureau in Washington and a newsroom in New York, away from its longtime base at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. That news operation will be led by veteran executive Scott Matthews, who will serve as MSNBC's senior vice president of newsgathering, network president Rebecca Kutler announced to employees in a memo Thursday morning that was provided to The Washington Post. Matthews, who begins at MSNBC on March 17, will be hiring more than 100 journalists as part of the network's news operation. The network has already announced the addition of Politico journalist Eugene Daniels as a senior Washington correspondent and Post journalist Jackie Alemany as a Washington correspondent. Daniels and Alemany will also serve as co-hosts of a weekend morning show, along with Post opinion columnist Jonathan Capehart. In further preparations to gather its own news, MSNBC will be hiring a head of talent, a head of content strategy and a Washington bureau chief, in addition to domestic and international correspondents, producers and photographers. — WASHINGTON POST
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GROCERY
Kroger gives upbeat outlook while questions swirl around CEO
Kroger CEO William Rodney McMullen has resigned.
Mariam Zuhaib/Associated Press
Kroger Co. forecast higher-than-expected sales guidance, seeking to pacify concerns as questions linger about its chief executive's abrupt exit. The Cincinnati-based grocer said comparable sales excluding fuel will grow between 2 percent and 3 percent, the higher end of what Wall Street analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. But its adjusted earnings forecast for the fiscal year was lower than expectations, partly as lower pharmacy margins and other investments weigh on profit. Shares rose 3 percent at 11 a.m. in New York trading on Thursday. The grocer's stock is up around 24 percent over the last 12 months, ahead of the S&P 500 Index. Kroger, the nation's biggest grocer by sales, is seeking a new path forward after the company said Monday its long-tenured CEO, Rodney McMullen, resigned following the board's investigation into his personal conduct. With his departure, Kroger has a relatively new bench of senior executives, including interim CEO Ron Sargent and incoming chief financial officer David Kennerley, who joins the company next week. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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RETAIL
Macy's signals rocky year ahead as trade war begins
A Macy's department store is in Bay Shore, Long Island, N.Y.
Ted Shaffrey/Associated Press
Macy's, the largest department store in the United States, saw slightly improved sales during the holiday season, but it and other retailers have warned of a rocky year ahead as tariffs push up prices and sow uncertainty for shoppers. Macy's said Thursday that comparable sales across all of its stores, which include Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, rose 0.2 percent last quarter, its best result in nearly three years. Although a modest improvement, the result was welcomed as the retailer faces many challenges, including consumers squeezed by inflation, shrinking margins, and a bizarre accounting error. Macy's is in the midst of a turnaround plan that includes closing underperforming locations: It has closed more than 60 of 150 planned stores so far. Like other retailers, Macy's gave a cautious outlook for this year. It expects to bring in less revenue, in part because of the store closures, and for comparable sales to fall as much as 2 percent. The company's shares fell .68 percent in trading on Thursday.
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Los Angeles Times
13 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
West Virginia sends hundreds of National Guard members to D.C. at Trump team's request
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of West Virginia National Guard members will deploy across the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's assumption of control over policing in the District of Columbia in what it says is part of a nationwide crackdown on crime on homelessness. The move comes as federal agents and National Guard troops have begun to appear across the heavily Democratic city after Trump's executive order on Monday federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 D.C. National Guard troops. By adding outside troops to join the existing National Guard deployment and federal law enforcement officers temporarily assigned to Washington, President Trump is exercising even tighter control over the city. It's a power play that the president has justified as an emergency response to crime and homelessness, even though district officials have noted that violent crime is lower than it was during Trump's first term in office. A protest against Trump's intervention drew scores to Washington's Dupont Circle on Saturday afternoon before a march to the White House, about a mile and a half away. Demonstrators assembled behind a banner that said, 'No fascist takeover of D.C.,' and some in the crowd held signs that said, 'No military occupation.' Trump was at his Virginia golf club after Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, announced Saturday that he was sending a contingent of 300 to 400 National Guard members. 'West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation's capital,' Morrisey said. Morgan Taylor, one of the organizers of Saturday's protest, said demonstrators who turned out on a hot summer day were hoping to spark enough backlash to Trump's actions that the administration would be forced to pull back. 'It's hot, but I'm glad to be here. It's good to see all these people out here,' she said. 'I can't believe that this is happening in this country at this time.' Protesters said they are concerned about what they view as Trump's overreach, arguing that he had used crime as a pretext to impose his will on Washington. John Finnigan, 55, was taking an afternoon bike ride when he ran into the protest in downtown Washington. A real estate construction manager who has lived in the capital for 27 years, he said that Trump's moves were 'ridiculous' because 'crime is at a 30-year low here.' 'Hopefully some of the mayors and some of the residents will get out in front of it and try and make it harder for it to happen in other cities,' Finnigan said. Jamie Dickstein, a 24-year-old teacher, said she was 'very uncomfortable and worried' for the safety of her students given the 'unmarked officers of all types' now roaming Washington and detaining people. Dickstein said she turned out to protest with friends and relatives to 'prevent a continuous domino effect going forward with other cities.' The West Virginia National Guard activation suggests the administration sees the need for additional manpower, after Trump played down the need for Washington to hire more police officers. Maj. Gen. James Seward, West Virginia's adjutant general — a chief aide to the governor and commanding general of the National Guard — said in a statement that members of the Guard 'stand ready to support our partners in the National Capital Region' and that the Guard's 'unique capabilities and preparedness make it an invaluable partner in this important undertaking.' Federal agents have appeared in some of the city's most highly trafficked neighborhoods, garnering a mix of praise, resistance and alarm from local residents and leaders across the country. City leaders, who are obligated to cooperate with the president's order under the federal laws that direct the district's local governance, have sought to work with the administration, though they have bristled at the scope of the president's takeover. On Friday, the administration reversed course on an order that aimed to place the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as an 'emergency police commissioner' after the district's top lawyer sued to contest. After a court hearing, Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued a memo that directed D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law. District officials say they are evaluating how to best comply. In his order Monday, Trump declared an emergency, citing the 'city government's failure to maintain public order.' He said that impeded the 'federal government's ability to operate efficiently to address the nation's broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.' In a letter to city residents, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, wrote that 'our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.' She added that if Washingtonians stick together, 'we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy — even when we don't have full access to it.' Brown and Pesoli write for the Associated Press. AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
The Hill
13 minutes ago
- The Hill
Sunday shows preview: Trump-Putin summit ends with no deal; DC resists police takeover
President Trump concluded his Friday summit in Alaska with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by his side as the two announced no peace deal for Ukraine. The highly anticipated face-off on American soil lasted over three hours as White House aides and long-term diplomats from Moscow led bilateral discussions at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. National security aficionados said Trump signaled a stark turn in U.S. foreign policy as Putin was referenced as a 'friend' of the president. Trump's set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday at the White House following calls to show more solidarity with the Eastern European ally. Few details about the president's closed-door meeting with Putin were disclosed, however, Trump said conversations were 'extremely productive.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew from Washington to the Last Frontier for Russia-U.S. talks of ending the war in Ukraine. Rubio will likely address advancements made during the summit and future objectives for the Trump administration during a Sunday appearance on ABC's 'This Week' in addition to separate interviews on both Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' and MSNBC's 'Meet the Press.' The secretary of state said security guarantees were necessary to finalize ceasefire negotiations and may also share updates on potential conditions for the agreement to appease both Kyiv and Moscow during the segment. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will likely hit on similar topics during his appearance on CNN's 'State of the Union' and Fox News' 'Fox News Sunday' while sharing prominent developments for peace talks after meeting with Moscow's leaders multiple times this year. Former national security adviser Jake Sullivan is likely to share insight on a strong shift from the Biden administration's approach to the conflict in Ukraine and compare the current war landscape seen under Trump during his appearance on ABC's 'This Week' and Fox News' 'Fox News Sunday.' Fiona Hill, who served as senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council during Trump's first term, will appear on CBS's 'Face the Nation.' Her comments will likely show similarities and differences between the president's attempts to coax Putin into ending the war after the Kremlin launched an invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Hill could discuss if Putin's land grab attempts will succeed as ceasefire discussions excel and may also explain why Trump decided against secondary sanctions on Russia's trading partners amid a bipartisan push from lawmakers in Congress. As negotiations remain deadlocked overseas, the Trump administration has resumed its Washington takeover with full force. Hundreds of National Guardsmen descended on the nation's capital Monday followed by an additional deployment of soldiers from West Virginia on Saturday. The White House ordered officers with the Metropolitan Police Department to aid in local immigration enforcement efforts and crack down on crime, especially violent acts committed by youth. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has been a vocal critic of the president's immigration agenda and joined fellow Democratic lawmakers in condemning Trump's emergency order placing Washington under federal control. 'We haven't seen scenes like this in D.C. since the days after the current president incited an insurrection,' Van Hollen wrote in a Friday post on X, showcasing tanks outside of Union Station. 'What D.C. faces now is a president abusing his power and deploying troops under the guise of law and order. A dictator's playbook,' he added. The Maryland senator will likely expand upon his thoughts during an appearance on ABC's 'This Week.' These topics and more will be highlighted during this week's Sunday shows. Please see the full list of guests below: NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday:' Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.); Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.); Former US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchinson ABC's 'This Week:' Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); Former CIA chief of Central Eurasia Division Robert Dannenberg CBS 'Face the Nation:' Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska); Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.); Fiona Hill, former senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council; World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres CNN 'State of the Union:' U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff; Former Vice President Mike Pence (R) MSNBC's 'Meet the Press:' Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Fox News 'Fox News Sunday:' U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff; Former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.),
Boston Globe
13 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
West Virginia sends hundreds of National Guard members to Washington at Trump team's request
Advertisement A protest against Trump's intervention drew scores to Dupont Circle on Saturday afternoon before a march to the White House, about 1.5 miles away. Demonstrators assembled behind a banner that said 'No fascist takeover of D.C.,' and some in the crowd held signs that said 'No military occupation.' Trump was at his Virginia golf club after Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Gov. Patrick Morrisey, announced Saturday that he was sending a contingent of 300 to 400 members. 'West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation's capital,' Morrisey said. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey spoke at the state capitol in Charleston, in January. Chris Jackson/Associated Press Morgan Taylor, one of the organizers who coordinated Saturday's protest, said they were hoping to spark enough backlash to Trump's actions that the administration would be forced to pull back on its crime and immigration agenda. Advertisement 'It's hot, but I'm glad to be here. It's good to see all these people out here,' she said. 'I can't believe that this is happening in this country at this time.' Fueling the protests were concerns about Trump overreach and that he had used crime as a pretext to impose his will on Washington. John Finnigan, 55. was taking an afternoon bike ride when he ran into the protest in downtown Washington. The real estate construction manager who has lived in the capital for 27 years said that Trump's moves were 'ridiculous' because 'crime is at a 30-year-low here.' 'Hopefully some of the mayors and some of the residents will get out in front of it and try and make it harder for it to happen in other cities,' Finnigan said. Jamie Dickstein, a 24-year-old teacher, said she was 'very uncomfortable and worried' for the safety or her students given the 'unmarked officers of all types' now roaming Washington and detaining people. Dickstein said she turned out to the protest with friends and relatives to 'prevent a continuous domino effect going forward with other cities.' Activists carried signs during a protest against President Trump's federal takeover of policing of the District of Columbia, on Saturday. Alex Brandon/Associated Press The West Virginia activation suggests the administration sees the need for additional manpower, after the president personally played down the need for Washington to hire more police officers. Maj. Gen. James Seward, West Virginia's adjutant general, said in a statement that members of the state's National Guard 'stand ready to support our partners in the National Capital Region' and that the Guard's 'unique capabilities and preparedness make it an invaluable partner in this important undertaking.' Advertisement Federal agents have appeared in some of the city's most highly trafficked neighborhoods, garnering a mix of praise, pushback and alarm from local residents and leaders across the country. City leaders, who are obliged to cooperate with the president's order under the federal laws that direct the district's local governance, have sought to work with the administration, though they have bristled at the scope of the president's takeover. On Friday, the administration District officials say they are evaluating how to best comply. District of Columbia National Guard soldiers posed for photos with people outside Union Station, on Saturday. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press In his order on Monday, Trump declared an emergency due to the 'city government's failure to maintain public order.' He said that impeded the 'federal government's ability to operate efficiently to address the nation's broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.' In a letter to city residents, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, wrote that 'our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.' She added that if Washingtonians stick together, 'we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy — even when we don't have full access to it.' Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
