Despite a recent pickup in growth, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Congress Tuesday that the economy is "a long way" from the central bank's goals and policymakers have no plans to raise interest rates or taper its bond-buying stimulus anytime soon."The economy is a long way from our employment and inflation goals, and it is likely to take some time for substantial further progress to ... Read More

Beware the combination of Boris Johnson, significant bodies of water, and expensive engineering. He seems to find something so inflaming about a virgin stretch of river or sea that he has to transfix it with steel and concrete. As mayor of London, he backed a barely-used cable car over the Thames, the notorious failure of the garden bridge and “Boris Island”, which was an abandoned plan to ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Add Mother Nature to the pile of crises on President Joe Biden's plate. A month into the job and focused on the coronavirus, Biden is seeing his disaster management skills tested after winter storms plunged Texas, Oklahoma and neighboring states into an unusual deep freeze that left millions shivering in homes that lost heat and power, and in many homes, water. At least 69 ... Read More

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — The Christ Church Cathedral was arguably New Zealand's most iconic building before much of it crumbled in an earthquake 10 years ago. The years of debate that followed over whether the ruins should be rebuilt or demolished came to symbolize the paralysis that has sometimes afflicted the broader rebuild of Christchurch. As the city on Monday marks one decade ... Read More

An ambitious £288m concert hall that was supposed to be “ the Tate Modern of classical music ” has been scrapped by the City of London Corporation, which said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic made the plan impossible to complete. The Centre for Music was billed as being an acoustically perfect 2,000-seat concert hall for the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and would have had restaurants, ... Read More