(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers gave initial approval Thursday to a $9.7 billion state budget that includes more money for property tax credits and college scholarships while setting aside $115 million for a possible state prison to ease overcrowding.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming lawmakers ended a month-long legislative session without agreement on resolving a $300 million education funding shortfall.
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
PHOENIX (AP) — America is starting to claw its way out of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, but food insecurity persists, especially for children and older adults.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year’s coronavirus-triggered market turmoil exposed vulnerable areas in the U.S. economy that need to be addressed by the nation's top-level financial supervisory group, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. chief and the prime ministers of Canada and Jamaica urged far bolder action Monday to prevent a debt crisis, including extending the moratorium on debt repayments and providing urgent cash liquidity to developing countries to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and invest in economic recovery.
PARIS (AP) — France’s foreign minister has cranked up pressure on Lebanese leaders to form a government, urging them in personal phone calls for an immediate halt to what he called “deliberate obstruction” that’s driving the country toward collapse.
BEIRUT (AP) — At age 19, Fatima al-Omar is at her wits' end. In the last year alone, she lost her home to fighting in Syria’s last rebel-held enclave and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She became the sole breadwinner for her mother, three siblings and grandmother as they moved around between shelters.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When Sao Paulo city officials put out a call last month for 4,500 public school cleaning jobs, targeting Brazilian mothers affected by the raging pandemic, they were unprepared for the ensuing tsunami. More than 90,000 women applied in just two days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration has less than a week to decide on extending the nationwide eviction moratorium, a measure that housing advocates say has helped keep most cash-strapped tenants across the country in their homes during the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration has less than a week to decide on extending the nationwide eviction moratorium, a measure that housing advocates say has helped keep most cash-strapped tenants across the country in their homes during the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Steven Spielberg said Thursday that he will donate his $1 million Genesis Prize to 10 nonprofits that are working for racial and economic justice. The film director and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, will match those donations with $1 million of their own.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell compared the actions taken by the central bank early in the pandemic as the economy barreled toward a recession to British efforts in World War II to evacuate troops at Dunkirk.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Officials in county that includes Las Vegas have projected an 18% increase to its budget beginning in July, a sign they believe the economy will steadily recover after a downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant Aramco paid the Saudi government 30% less in taxes in 2020, the company said in a financial report Monday, as the region’s largest economy reels from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices.
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s weekly regional COVID-19 figures keep increasing and deaths rising as the country maintains more relaxed restrictions for now.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve says it will restore capital requirements for large banks that were relaxed as part of the Fed’s efforts to shore up the financial system during the early days of the pandemic.
BEIRUT (AP) — Shops closing, companies going bankrupt and pharmacies with shelves emptying — in Lebanon these days, fistfights erupt in supermarkets as shoppers scramble to get to subsidized powdered milk, rice and cooking oil.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s prime minister-designate said Thursday that a government that could restart talks with the International Monetary Fund would be the main way to halt the country’s rapid economic collapse, adding there was still opportunity to form such a Cabinet.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Joe Biden's war against the coronavirus, former President Donald Trump hardly exists.
DUBLIN (AP) — World Rugby made the in-house move of hiring Alan Gilpin as the governing body’s chief executive, tasking the English official with leading the sport out of financial turmoil brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s president called Wednesday on the prime minister-designate to form a government immediately or step aside as the country plunges deeper into economic crisis.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
BERLIN (AP) — The German economy — Europe's biggest — will grow by 3.1% this year, the government’s panel of independent economic advisers forecast on Wednesday, cutting its previous prediction somewhat.