Author: Jeffery Carter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to step down if Ukraine were granted membership in NATO.”If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference on Sunday, hours before the third anniversary of the Russian invasion. “I can exchange this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately,” he added.But NATO membership for Ukraine, already unlikely in the short-term, looks even more out of reach since President Donald Trump took a hard turn against U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against its devastating…

Cosco container vessel at the Port of Oakland. (Photo: Port of Oakland) In a major retaliatory move against China, the United States is proposing expensive charges that could add millions of dollars in costs for ocean container lines and other carriers calling U.S. ports. The proposal by the office of  the United States Trade Representative (USTR), published Friday in the Federal Register, sets fees as high as $1.5 million per U.S. port call for ships built in China and $500,000 for a vessel operator with even a single Chinese-built ship in its fleet, or on order with a China shipyard.…

AI startup Anthropic is gearing up to release its next major AI model, according to a report Thursday from The Information. The report describes Anthropic’s upcoming model as a “hybrid” that can switch between “deep reasoning” and fast responses. The company will reportedly introduce a “sliding scale” alongside the model to allow developers to control costs, as the deep reasoning capabilities consume more computing. Anthropic’s model, which could arrive within weeks, outperforms OpenAI’s o3-mini-high “reasoning” model on some programming tasks, according to the report. The model is also said to excel at analyzing large codebases and other business-related benchmarks. Anthropic…

The German parliament convenes for its last regular session before the general election.Michael Kappeler | Picture Alliance | Getty ImagesGermans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in the 2025 federal election, which is all but guaranteed to result in a new chancellor taking over from Olaf Scholz to lead Europe’s largest economy.The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its affiliate the Christian Social Union (CSU) have been polling in first place in the lead-up to the election, putting their lead candidate Friedrich Merz in line for chancellorship.The far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) is expected to come second in line,…

There’s a lot riding on earnings in 2025. Last year saw double-digit earnings growth in the S & P 500 , and the market is counting on another year of double-digit gains to power stocks higher. Unfortunately, earnings estimates for the first quarter have been slipping fast. On Jan. 1, earnings for the first quarter were expected to be up 12.2%. Now, that is down to 8.5%. That’s a decline of 3.7 percentage points, making it the biggest downward quarterly revision since the fourth quarter of 2023. (Walmart on Thursday was the latest example of poor guidance, saying earnings for the…

Vithun Khamsong | Moment | Getty ImagesThousands of IRS employees are expected to lose their jobs as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, continues widespread cuts to federal spending. The move comes roughly three weeks since the opening of tax season and could impact millions of taxpayers who will file before the April 15 deadline, experts say.More from Personal Finance: Converting your home to a rental could trigger taxes when you sell, advisor saysTop-rated charities are in jeopardy amid White House, DOGE cuts to foreign aidA 20% S&P 500 ‘three-peat’ is unlikely in 2025, market strategist saysIRS funding has…

Pope Francis remained in critical condition but attended Mass in the hospital Sunday and has not experienced a recurrence of the “respiratory crisis” that had concerned physicians a day earlier, the Vatican said in a statement.The pope’s prognosis remained “guarded,” the Vatican said.Francis, who is being treated at Gemelli hospital for double pneumonia, also had blood tests that revealed mild kidney issues described as under control. The pope also has been receiving high-flow oxygen since experiencing an “asthma-like respiratory crisis of prolonged intensity” on Saturday.Blood tests also revealed thrombocytopenia, associated with anemia, which required the pope to receive blood transfusions. He…

Warren Buffett, legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), wants everyone to know that he remains a long-term bull on U.S. stocks.“Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities,” Buffett said this in his new annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. “That preference won’t change.”Buffett appears to be responding to the many news headlines emphasizing Berkshire’s growing cash position. Here are a few from the past few weeks:Berkshire’s cash pile grew to $334 billion in 2024, up from $167.6 billion the year prior.Buffett acknowledges that…

A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk’s x.AI offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion this week. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has dismissed the proposal, which would gum up OpenAI’s planned conversion from a nonprofit, something Musk is attempting to block in a lawsuit.  Altman’s lawyers argued in a Wednesday filing that Musk can’t have it both ways: attempt to buy OpenAI’s assets and also try to stop it from changing its nonprofit status. Musk’s team responded that it would withdraw the bid if OpenAI ceased its attempts to convert itself from a nonprofit. Meanwhile, as a part of these…

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025.Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe Trump administration sent emails on Saturday evening to U.S. federal government employees telling them to detail their work accomplishments from the previous week by Monday night or risk losing their jobs.The emails came shortly after Elon Musk, the billionaire head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, posted on the social media site X that not responding to the email request would be viewed as a resignation.”All federal employees will…