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Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell Stands Firm Against Trump Pressure
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled in 2019 that he would rather go down with the ship than save his own skin and compromise the independence of the central bank. As President Donald Trump continues to put pressure on Powell, an earlier standoff between the two men could offer clues on how their current one might play out. In 2019, like today, Trump demanded the Fed hurry up and cut rates amid a trade war he had launched, raising questions about Powells future as Fed chief and whether he would step down. During a House Financial Services Committee hearing in...
Mandarin Language Learning Decline Amid Covid-19: A Global Trend
Published: 6:00am, 20 Jul 2025 When Colby Porter began Mandarin classes in sixth grade in Syracuse, New York, he was studying alongside 20 of his peers. By his final year of high school, only two other students remained, and the school had fewer than 25 Mandarin learners in total. Soon after he graduated in 2020, the programme was shut down entirely due to dwindling enrolments and budget cuts during the Covid-19 pandemic . The situation at Porters school is not unusual in the United States and other countries in the Global North. While data is scarce, the available figures suggest...
Hong Kong Braces for Typhoon Wipha: No 10 Hurricane Signal Under Assessment
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMPs journalism by subscribing . New users who download our updated app get a seven-day free trial. The Hong Kong Observatory says it is assessing the need for issuing the No 10 hurricane signal, minutes after raising the alert to a No 9 storm warning as Typhoon Wipha is edging its way towards the city. The No 9 signal was raised at 7.20am on Sunday, seven hours after the first No 8 warning of the year took effect. The forecaster says Wiphas hurricane...
