Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso withdraw from West Africa economic bloc ECOWAS, citing coup sanctions, officials say

Over the past two years, as Ishan Bhabha and his colleagues at the law firm Jenner & Block prepared briefs for the affirmative action case the Supreme Court ruled on last year, Mr. Bhabha had a realization: If higher education institutions like Harvard were the first target of litigation about diversity, equity and inclusion, America’s…

More Americans filed jobless benefits last week but layoffs remain at historically low levels despite elevated interest rates and a flurry of job cuts in the media and technology sectors. Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 214,000 for the week ending Jan. 20, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported…

The retailer Macy’s rejected a $5.8 billion takeover bid late Sunday that valued the struggling department store chain at roughly 20 percent above its closing share price on Friday, but suggested it was “open to opportunities.” The bidders, Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital, are seeking to acquire Macy’s stock they do not already own at…

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge cooled further last month even as the economy kept growing briskly, a trend sure to be welcomed at the White House as President Joe Biden seeks re-election in a race that could pivot on his economic stewardship. Friday’s government report showed that prices rose just 0.2% from…

U.S. stocks closed higher following signals that the economy is growing more powerfully than economists expected

PARIS — France’s interior ministry on Sunday ordered a large deployment of security forces around Paris as angry farmers threatened to head toward the capital, hours after climate activists hurled soup at the glass protecting the “Mona Lisa” painting at the Louvre Museum. French farmers are putting pressure on the government to respond to their…