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US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Wednesday that it will build four additional new manufacturing sites in the United States in a committment designed to influence upcoming Trump administration decisions on trade and other issues.The drugmaker, which is in growth mode thanks partly to the success of anti-obesity drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, expects to add more than 3,000 jobs at the four sites as it committed to tens of billions of dollars in additional investment.Chief Executive David Ricks said in a statement the boosted capital spending underscores the company’s “optimism about the potential of our pipeline” and determination to “stay ahead of anticipated demand for safe, high-quality, FDA-approved medicines of the future.”The move, announced at a Washington news conference, comes as Trump proceeds with a deluge of tariff actions and proposed tax cut extensions designed to incentivize global companies to invest in the United States. Trump’s administration is also undertaking deep job cuts across the US regulatory universe that could affect such processes as the application for new drugs.The company’s press release described Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cut as “foundational to Lilly’s domestic manufacturing investments,” adding that “it is essential that these policies are extended this year.”In an interview with CNBC, Ricks said he would call on the Trump administration to address lengthy permitting times to build new facilities due to onerous requirements of the US Food and Drug Administration.Ricks also aims to influence the “contours” of Trump’s trade policy, saying “it makes no sense to punish companies that are pursuing this agenda with the administration and on behalf of the American people.”Wednesday’s announcement will raise Lilly’s domestic capital expansion commitment to $50 billion from $23 billion previously committed between 2020 and 2024 to construct or expand sites in the states of North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin.The company is “currently in negotiations with several states and welcomes additional interest by  March 12, 2025,” said a press release that included a link to express interest online.Shares of Lilly rose 1.7 percent shortly after midday.

Online retail behemoth Amazon on Wednesday announced a new version of its Alexa voice assistant that is powered by generative artificial intelligence, giving the device more human-like qualities.”I’m not just an assistant. I’m your new best friend in the digital world,” Alexa Plus told the audience at a New York launch event.The upgrade comes amid fierce competition in the AI assistant market. Microsoft now offers an audio version of Copilot, Google has launched its Gemini AI, and Apple continues working to enhance Siri with generative AI capabilities.Though the market leaders, Alexa and Siri have been struggling to deliver more intuitive interactions and the companies have long promised increased performance with the use of generative AI. The rollout comes as tech giants including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI are investing billions in AI development despite uncertain returns.The tech juggernauts are trying to expand the everyday use of AI, and Amazon can count on a base of over 600 million installed devices already equipped with its 10-year-old service.Panos Panay, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, said that Alexa Plus opens a new age for voice devices.”Until this moment… we have been limited by technology,” Panay, a former Microsoft executive, said at the event.For now Alexa is mostly used for relatively simple tasks, such as playing music, giving the weather forecast or turning on the lights in a room. Alexa Plus’s capabilities are closer to that of a virtual agent, capable of performing actions on command.This launch is “taking AI to the masses,” said analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight, adding that there was “a lot riding on this revamp.” “The biggest question is whether users are ready, given their early experiences and concerns around security and trust. These factors still remain huge barriers to wider adoption,” he added.Demonstrations at the event showed Alexa Plus performing tasks like booking concert tickets, sending text messages, planning trips, updating shared calendars, and even analyzing security camera footage to determine if someone had walked the dog.Benefiting from the new functionalities of generative AI, Alexa Plus can create, at a child’s request, a made up story with the characters of his or her choice, or produce a song in tribute to a pet.In one showcase, the assistant composed and performed a song about a cat using Suno, a music generation service currently facing lawsuits from major music labels.The new offering includes access through Alexa.com and a dedicated phone app, allowing users to upload documents for feedback similar to ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Alexa Plus will launch in the United States in April for $19.99 monthly, with free access for Amazon Prime subscribers.

The Washington Post will no longer run views opposed to “personal liberties and free markets” on its opinion pages, its owner Jeff Bezos announced on Wednesday, the latest intervention by the billionaire in the major US paper’s editorial operations.”We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” wrote Bezos on social media platform X.”We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”The move, a major break from the norm on opinion pages at the Post and at most credible news media organizations worldwide, comes as US media face increasing threats to their freedom and accusations of bias from President Donald Trump.In October, Bezos sparked controversy by blocking the Post’s planned endorsement of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election, triggering newsroom protests and subscriber cancellations.And in January, an award-winning political cartoonist for the newspaper announced her resignation after a cartoon depicting Bezos groveling before Trump was rejected. At the time, editorial page editor David Shipley defended the decision, saying it was made to avoid repeated coverage on the same topic.On Wednesday, Bezos announced Shipley would be leaving his post because he had not signed on to the new opinion pages policy.”I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,'” said Bezos.Other Post staffers also expressed their concern.”Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today — makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there,” said Jeff Stein, the paper’s chief economics correspondent, on X.Stein added that he had “not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately.”Amazon owner and world’s third-richest man Bezos, along with other US tech moguls, have appeared increasingly close to Trump since his election last year.Bezos was among a group of tech billionaires who were given prime positions at Trump’s inauguration, and he visited the Republican at his Mar-a-Lago estate during the transition period.In his post on Wednesday, Bezos said the Post did not have to provide opposing views because “the internet does that job.”

Sales of new US homes slumped more than expected in January, government data showed Wednesday, with cold weather and stubborn cost-of-living pressures weighing on buyers as Donald Trump returned to office.New home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000, 10.5 percent down from December’s revised level of 734,000.This was significantly lower than the 681,000 figure a Briefing.com consensus of analysts expected, as bad weather kept potential homebuyers home and mortgage rates remained elevated.Sales of new properties have been helped in recent years as existing homeowners have been reluctant to enter the market with interest rates high.This has pushed some buyers towards new properties — new home sales hit their highest in three years in 2024.But there are risks to sales and residential investment this year, noted Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, in a note.This is due to “high mortgage rates, potential for tariffs on imported building materials from Canada and Mexico along with potential labor supply issues stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration policies,” he noted.On the upside, inventories are not an issue, Sweet said, adding that builders could still boost sales via incentives.The Federal Reserve rapidly lifted the benchmark lending rate in 2022 to curb surging inflation but has since started to cautiously lower it.In January, the median sales cost for new houses was $446,300, a pick-up from December’s figure and the highest in more than two years.Demand for new homes appears to be flagging, analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a recent note.”Sales likely were also weighed down by the weather; last month was the coldest January since 1988,” Pantheon added.

After last year’s Oscars gala wowed viewers with a glitzy, star-studded “I’m Just Ken” karaoke, the producers of Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony knew exactly where to turn for this year’s showstopping musical moment.The pink hues of “Barbie” will be swapped for the pink (and green) colors of “Wicked,” the smash-hit movie version of the Broadway show that is up for 10 Oscars, including best picture.”Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will be on our stage — it’s going to be a moment,” Oscars executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor told AFP.”With ‘I’m Just Ken,’ I feel like every celebrity was singing along, so it’d be great to have that energy again this year,” added executive producer Katy Mullan.The producers have not revealed which hits will be featured, although safe bets for any “Wicked” medley would include Erivo belting out “Defying Gravity,” and Grande delivering the bubbly “Popular.”The songs from “Wicked” are so well-known and beloved by Hollywood attendees that “our biggest challenge” will be to stop the A-listers in the aisles drowning out the onstage talent, Mullan joked.”But, I mean, we encouraged it last year. We should probably encourage it again,” she said.This year’s musical lineup has drawn some controversy.As the “Wicked” songs were not written specifically for the film, they were not eligible for the best original song Oscar.In recent years, all the nominated songs have been performed on Oscars night.But this year, Kapoor said producers had “opened up the potential for different music performances.”Best song nominee Diane Warren has called the move “extremely disrespectful.”But Kapoor said nominated songwriters will instead be honored with a “really beautiful” video montage.”This is the 97th year already of the Oscars, so a little change is good,” he added.- Conan, firefighters -Following back-to-back stints by Jimmy Kimmel, fellow late-night comedian Conan O’Brien will take over hosting duties on Sunday.”Having Conan, it’s this whole new world of discovery… We are re-energized. We’re recharged. We’re refocused in a different way. Because Conan wants to do things a little differently,” said Kapoor.Though always carefully stage managed, recent Oscars galas have been hit with twists, like “La La Land” incorrectly being announced as best picture in 2017, or Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage in 2022.”Whatever happens in that room that evening, I think Conan is… going to be able to react to it,” said Kapoor. Firefighters have been VIP guests at Hollywood awards shows all season, and the Oscars will be no different. The night will salute all the first responders who tackled the devastating recent Los Angeles fires, while also honoring the resilience of the city itself.Kapoor promised a “really touching moment” that will celebrate “this city we love, and what happened to it earlier this year,” including to Los Angeles’s vast filmmaking community.As part of an overall theme of collaboration, the show will feature “moments of behind-the-scenes” from movies that will highlight everyone “from the people who build it with their hands, to the people who have the vision, like a director or a production designer,” said Mullan.- Chalamet -Like the award winners themselves, many elements of the show remain under wraps.But that has not stopped frenzied speculation.Other musical performers announced so far include Doja Cat, Queen Latifah, Raye and K-pop sensation Lisa from the band Blackpink.Will there be any further musical surprises? Perhaps best actor nominee Timothee Chalamet, who portrayed Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” will pick up a guitar alongside a certain folk music legend?”We really tried to make that happen! If you can get to Bob, we would love for that to happen!” said Kapoor, laughing.The Oscars begin on Sunday at 4:00 pm (0000 GMT Monday), and will be broadcast on ABC and Hulu.

US President Donald Trump holds his first cabinet meeting Wednesday, joined by billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who is in charge of radically downsizing the US government and wields more power than anyone else in Trump’s inner circle.Musk is not part of the cabinet and did not have to go through Senate confirmation.Yet as the force behind his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has been given a free hand to enact unprecedented — and brutally abrupt — cuts to government programs and staffing.His presence at the formal White House meeting alongside Trump’s actual department heads follows signs of growing tension within the government over his dominance.Trump downplayed this shortly before the meeting, posting on his social media platform: “ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON.””The Media will see that at the Cabinet Meeting this morning!!!” Trump wrote.The cabinet meeting will be a chance for Trump to tout the dramatic start to his second term, while flanked by aides openly chosen in many cases for their lavish declarations of loyalty.Many of these top figures were successfully confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate despite unusually extensive questions over their experience or behavior.Among the most contentious are Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has a history of backing Kremlin talking points, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has faced allegations of sexual assault.Trump’s Republican Party holds a narrow majority in the Senate, and the refusal of more than a couple Senators to vote against Trump’s picks shows his iron grip on the party, where dissenters have largely quit or been cowed.Former Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell was the sole Republican dissenter to Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary, an appointment that caused alarm among the medical community over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and vows to suspend research on infectious diseases.And in a situation with no real parallel in modern US history, all of these powerful officials are overshadowed by Musk, who helped bankroll Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.While classified as a mere “special government employee” and “senior adviser to the president,” the South African-born tycoon is seen more often at Trump’s side than Vice President JD Vance or even First Lady Melania Trump.As owner of the X social media platform and a key leader in the US space program, his influence percolates through almost every corner of current Washington politics.However, Musk has faced some pushback to his slash-and-burn methods that have already seen the gutting of the USAID humanitarian aid department, mass layoffs, and menacing emails sent to all federal employees asking them to justify their jobs.Government departments on Monday largely told staff to either ignore the latest email or downplayed the risks of not answering it. According to US media reports, senior officials across the government have expressed frustration and anger over what they see as interference in their agencies.

US President Donald Trump, furious over a disparaging new tell-all book about him, threatened Wednesday to sue authors and media outlets that use anonymous sources.Trump has made suing people an integral part of his brand as he made his way up from New York real estate mogul to the US presidency twice, and this time he is taking aim at the common practice of books and news stories using unnamed sources.Trump is also famously contemptuous of mainstream media in America, which he routinely labels the “fake news” media.His latest move comes after the publication of a new expose by journalist Michael Wolff that has Trump and his team livid.Among other assertions the book says that after surviving an assassination attempt last summer during the election campaign, Trump “seemed possibly on the verge of cracking,” unable to finish sentences and flying into rages that were stunning even for the famously thin-skinned former reality TV star.In a social media post Trump said that after what he called his wildly successful first month back in power, “Fake books and stories” with anonymous sources are coming out and “at some point I am going to sue some of these dishonest authors and book publishers” to determine if these sources exist, “which they largely do not.”Trump added: “They are made up, defamatory fiction, and a big price should be paid for this blatant dishonesty. I’ll do it as a service to our Country. Who knows, maybe we will create some NICE NEW LAW!!!The new book by Wolff — he had a bestseller that came out in 2018 called “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” — among other bombshell claims also quotes a Mar-a-Lago source as saying Trump’s wife Melania hates him.The Trump White House is skirmishing early and often with the news media as the president presses relentlessly his hard-right agenda targeting immigrants and gutting the federal government through the free-wheeling work of billionaire Elon Musk, an adviser with an outsize role in Trump’s so far very busy second term.On Tuesday the administration broke decades of tradition by announcing that the White House itself would pick which media get close access to the president in confined quarters like the Oval Office as part of what is known as a press pool.Until now an independent association of American media organizations covering the White House made this selection.

Freedom declined around the world last year with authoritarians solidifying their grip, but South Asia led a series of bright spots, Freedom House said Wednesday in its annual report.The Washington-based pro-democracy research group elevated two countries to the status of “free” — Senegal, where the opposition triumphed after the outgoing president’s attempt to delay elections was defeated, and Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom which consolidated a transition to democracy with competitive polls.Tiny Bhutan gained the distinction of being the only South Asian country classified as free. But others in the region made strong gains in the index without changing categories — Bangladesh, where iron-fisted leader Sheikh Hasina fled in the face of a revolt, and Sri Lanka, where Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected president on an anti-corruption platform after breaking the stranglehold of the two long-dominant parties.The largest score improvement in the index, which tracks both countries and territories, was in Indian-administered Kashmir, which held elections for the first time since the Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi revoked the Muslim-majority region’s special status in 2019.But Freedom House said India as a whole saw further deterioration as it pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to gain influence over judicial appointments. The group downgraded the world’s largest democracy from “free” to “partly free” in 2021.Yana Gorokhovskaia, the co-author of the report, said it was the 19th consecutive year that freedom fell on a global level, but that 2024 was especially volatile due to the high number of elections.”The big picture is that this was another year of the same trajectory of a global decline in freedom but because of all the elections, it was more dynamic than previous years,” she said.She said that both Bangladesh and Syria, where Islamist-led fighters toppled longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad in December, saw immediate improvements in civil liberties — but that it would be a longer road to see gains in political representation.Political rights largely “depend on institutions. And those are easy to destroy but very hard to build up,” she said.- Four countries become ‘not free’ -A rare bright spot in the Middle East was Jordan, which was upgraded from “not free” to “partly free.” Freedom House pointed to reforms that allowed more competitive elections in the kingdom.On the other hand, four countries were downgraded from “partly free” to “not free” — Kuwait, Niger, Tanzania and Thailand.Thailand — which has repeatedly shifted in the Freedom House categories — saw a court disband the party which won the most votes in elections and then dismiss the prime minister from the second-ranking party after an ethics complaint by senators backed by the powerful military.Kuwait’s emir disbanded parliament after elections, while in Tanzania, Freedom House pointed to a crackdown on protesters under President Samia Suluhu Hassan.Niger came under full grip of the military after a 2023 coup ousted elected president Mohamed Bazoum.Tunisia, El Salvador and Haiti also saw steep declines. The only country given a perfect 100 score on freedom was Finland, with New Zealand, Norway and Sweden all right behind at 99.Freedom House, founded in 1941 with bipartisan US support, receives US government funding but is independently administered. The non-profit group has planned layoffs after President Donald Trump froze money aimed at democracy promotion.

“How many seconds do we have?””Forty-five!” shouted back Hollywood’s biggest stars, from Timothee Chalamet and Ariana Grande to Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini.Just five days before the Oscars, this year’s nominees gathered in Los Angeles on Tuesday for an intimate dinner — and a few words of warning about the length of their acceptance speeches.Nobody really expects Oscar winners to stick to those exact limits, but it is the job of Academy President Janet Yang to at least try.”I feel like a schoolmarm,” joked Yang, as she politely requested this year’s crop of movie stars to keep their moments in the spotlight “heartfelt, humorous if you’d like, poignant, inspirational, but brief.”As if to exemplify the challenge, “A Complete Unknown” director James Mangold arrived several minutes late for the annual nominees “class photo,” which had finally been taken, forcing a hasty reshoot.”It’s the Mangold edition!” quipped one star, as “Wicked” actors Grande and Cynthia Erivo sat politely, side-by-side and front-and-center of the group, while “A Complete Unknown” star Chalamet chatted to “Anora” director Sean Baker in the back rows.In a typical year, the Academy holds a celebratory, champagne-soaked luncheon for nominees and invites press in early February.This year, it was scrapped in the wake of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.Instead, a smaller, scaled-back dinner was held at the last minute, with Yang emphasizing “an atmosphere of support for so many amongst us who are recovering from the fires that devastated large swaths of Los Angeles.”Still, the event allowed nominees the chance to catch up and swap stories at the end of the lengthy campaign trail.”Well, here we are!” said Mikey Madison, taking a brief break from chatting to Rossellini.”I’ve never gone before” to the Oscars, she told AFP. “I’m excited. We’ll see what happens”.Madison is a favorite to win best actress for her role as a sex worker in “Anora,” up against Demi Moore for gory body-horror “The Substance.”Moore was concerned that she had not brought her dog Pilaf, a minuscule Chihuahua who accompanied her to the Cannes film festival last May.”They were expecting her, I should have!” she told AFP.Fiennes, twice an Oscar nominee in the 1990s without winning, praised a “great crop of movies this year.”His twisty Vatican-set thriller “Conclave” now appears to be locked in a two-horse race for best picture, Hollywood’s ultimate accolade, with “Anora.”Insisting the dinner was “good fun,” British actor Fiennes admitted he had been flying back and forth across the Atlantic “quite a bit.”Indeed, other than excitement for Sunday’s gala, a repeated sentiment among the Oscar nominees was relief that soon the campaigning marathon would be over.”What am I working on next? I’m working on sleeping for a week,” said “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” director Merlin Crossingham.

US President Donald Trump is set on Wednesday to convene his first Cabinet meeting since returning to office last month, in an effort to further his agenda with most of his nominees now having been confirmed by Congress. Billionaire supporter and advisor Elon Musk, tasked with overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has sought to fire thousands of federal workers, will be among those in attendance at the meeting.Despite Musk’s lack of ministerial portfolio or formal decision-making authority, he is classified as a “special government employee” and “senior adviser to the president” by heading DOGE, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.Musk, Trump’s top donor during the 2024 presidential campaign, will not be the only controversial member of the Trump administration at the meeting.Among the most contentious are Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has espoused conspiracy theories, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has faced allegations of sexual assault.The US Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet picks so far, despite outcry from Democrats over their trackrecords and lack of experience.Trump’s Republican Party holds a narrow majority in the Senate, and the refusal of more than a couple Senators to vote against Trump’s picks shows his iron grip on the party, where dissenters have largely quit or been cowed.Former Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell was the sole Republican dissenter to Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary, an appointment that caused alarm among the medical community over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and vows suspend research on infectious diseases.A few Trump cabinet appointees still await confirmation by the Senate, including Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former congresswoman, and Linda McMahon, who helmed the Small Business Administration for part of Trump’s first term.Musk, meanwhile, has already been dealing with upheaval within DOGE. One-third of his staff resigned in protest on Tuesday, days after he engineered a mass email to the federal government’s two million workers, ordering them to justify their work or risk being fired.Government departments on Monday largely told staff to either ignore the DOGE-inspired email or downplayed the risks of not answering it.So far, thousands of mainly probationary workers — employees who are recently hired, promoted or otherwise changed roles — have been terminated since Trump’s inauguration.