President Trump and a delegation of U.S. officials left Beijing on Friday after two days of high-level talks with the Chinese government, led by President Xi Jinping. Before boarding Air Force One, White House staffers and reporters had to surrender various items collected during the trip, including staff burner phones, credential badges, and lapel pins … Read more
Why do I love Jane Wickline? Why might you? I won’t say “should” because comedy is funny that way. (Ha ha.) Humor resonates with something individual, possibly innate and probably inexplicable inside each of us; our sense of it is something we can’t control. “Helpless laughter,” that’s a phrase. I know from online testimonials that … Read more
The Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini saga has been forever subtly immortalized in a Chargers schedule release video. It seemed inevitable that the Chargers’ social media team would poke fun at the NFL’s biggest offseason story, and they did just that Thursday in their 2026 schedule release video. In the Halo-themed video, the Chargers made … Read more
NEW YORK — When a heat wave hits, millions of air conditioners switch on at once, straining the electric grid and driving up the risk of outages — and residents’ power bills. To ease that strain, power companies may ask customers to do something many probably won’t: Set the air conditioner a few degrees higher. California already … Read more
From “Succession” to “Yellowstone,” families with business empires are a rich source of drama and conflict with huge financial stakes. Loading audio narration… Jennifer Harvey is the CEO of Crown Worldwide, a logistics company with more than 3,000 employees and operations in 45 countries. She’s also the daughter of Crown’s billionaire founder, Jim Thompson. Harvey … Read more
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve. President Trump had picked the former Fed governor to replace Jerome Powell, believing that Warsh can deliver the booming economy the president had promised voters. Warsh takes over a divided central bank wrestling with the economic fallout from the war started by … Read more
A new report by the California Department of Justice found that conditions at immigrant detention facilities in the state have worsened as surging arrests under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign led to overcrowding and insufficient medical care. For the 175-page report, which was released Friday, California Justice Department staff, along with correctional and healthcare … Read more
The largest electrical grid in the U.S., the PJM Interconnection, saw prices nearly double over the last year, according to a report published yesterday by Monitoring Analytics, an independent market monitor that serves as a sort of watchdog for the PJM grid. The culprit? Data centers. Wholesale prices for one megawatt-hour of electricity rose to … Read more
CANNES, France — Greeting from the Croisette, where the 79th Cannes Film Festival is underway — and where the Envelope has its inaugural Cannes issue. I’ve been hard at work since before the Oscars assigning and editing stories about the global film industry and this storied event’s role in it, albeit with an L.A. twist. And with … Read more
SACRAMENTO — As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympics, state lawmakers are raising concerns that potential clashes with President Trump could cause chaos. State Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), speaking at a legislative hearing this week on the 2028 Games, expressed concern about Trump’s animosity toward California and questioned whether that could affect the federal … Read more
In last week’s mayoral debate, candidate Spencer Pratt said “super meth” was driving homelessness in Los Angeles. After several years reporting and writing a book on this topic, I can say that Los Angeles, indeed the United States, doesn’t necessarily have a “super meth” problem. Meth is meth. Like aspirin is aspirin. What matters is … Read more
Jim Thompson became a billionaire by building Crown Worldwide from scratch into a global logistics giant. Loading audio narration… His daughter, Jennifer Harvey, was appointed CEO in 2023. Read our interview with her here. Thompson recently told Business Insider how he balanced the demands of building a business and raising his children, how he felt … Read more
Shoppers pulled back on spending in April as higher gas prices fueled by the Iran war meant less money left over for some nonessentials like clothing and furniture. But economists noted that consumer spending, propped up by generous income tax refunds, is still healthy. Still, they worry that spending will fall off as benefits from … Read more
WASHINGTON — In recent weeks, several social media influencers have popped up in online feeds touting the California gubernatorial campaign of billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer. Some complain about the price of gasoline. Others mention environmental concerns. One cites her newfound sobriety as evidence that people can change — a nod to Steyer’s self-proclaimed metamorphosis from hedge fund … Read more
On Friday, OpenAI launched a new set of personal finance tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S., letting them connect their accounts and ask questions ranging from spending analysis to future financial planning. OpenAI has partnered with the financial connection service Plaid to manage the account connections. Users can connect to over … Read more