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Madeline Marchiano realizes that this winter’s runaway heating prices mean she can’t afford to raise her thermostat enough to warm her entire South Philadelphia rowhouse.So Marchiano, who also lacks the budget to replace drafty old windows, avoids the colder rooms.The heating bill is yet another cost pressure facing many Americans like Marchiano, who says prices are “outrageous” for groceries and other staples.”I try to survive,” said the 61-year-old, who lives on a fixed income. “Like everyone else, I worry about bills.”Even before winter started, consumer advocates sounded the alarm on higher heating costs in light of torrid electricity demand growth and costly revamps of pipes and other infrastructure that have led to utility rate hikes.US households are expected to spend $995 on heating this winter, an increase of 9.2 percent from last year, according to a December forecast from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA).Of course, the final tally will depend on the weather. So far, the 2025-26 season has been a bear in Philadelphia, with forecasts of an arctic blast and a potential blizzard expected to boost usage further.Through mid-January, the average temperature in Philadelphia was 36.2, the sixth coldest since the year 2000 and about six degrees colder than the winter of 2023-24, said Chad Merrill, a meteorologist at Accuweather.- Assistance programs -Pennsylvania bars utilities from shutting off low-income consumers during the winter months. But consumers who fall behind can face a shutoff once the moratorium ends at the end of March.”It catches up to you,” Luz Laboy, who assists low-income consumers through a maze of assistance programs, said of consumers who don’t pay winter bills. She works at Hunting Park Neighborhood Advisory Committee, an NGO in North Philadelphia.Qualifying consumers are eligible for federal assistance through the US Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which pays an annual stipend, as well as crisis funding that provides grants of up to $1,000.Other Pennsylvania programs allow consumers with large balances to establish a monthly payment plan or to apply to repair broken radiators.Jose Rosario, 75, a retiree who lives on his monthly Social Security check of $1,038 and pays $375 to rent his basement apartment, came to the NGO for help completing his LIHEAP application and managing a $4,000 gas balance.Also there was Linda Croskey, who has borrowed heaters from her sister after her nearly 70-year-old system broke down. Staffers at the NGO think a replacement is likely given the age of the equipment.Croskey, 61, made too much income in prior years for LIHEAP. But she spent much of last year taking care of her husband, who suffered a stroke, meaning she made less in her job as an insurance broker.”It is what it is, I am not mad about anything,” she said. “I just hope to have heat.”- Middle-class hit -Laboy said this winter’s number of applicants for LIHEAP is about the same as last year, but the process has been more fraught. “It is a lot more stressful this year,” said Laboy, noting the program was delayed by the US government shutdown.US President Donald Trump’s administration eliminated the Washington LIHEAP staff in the spring and had initially sought to zero out funding. But Congress ultimately maintained funding for the program.Seth Blumsack, a professor of energy and environmental economics at Pennsylvania State University, tied this winter’s increase in natural gas prices mainly to costs associated with replacing aging infrastructure. This is also a factor behind higher electricity rates, although a bigger driver is the growth of energy-guzzling data centers, he said.”Electricity demand in the US is increasing…in ways we have not seen in decades,” said Blumsack, who pointed to the retirements of older generation units as another factor.The issue resonates with Pennsylvania lawmakers like Representative Heather Boyd. Boyd’s most recent electric and gas bill was for $860, up from $660 the prior month, for a 1,400 square foot home in suburban Philadelphia, she said at a hearing Tuesday on energy affordability.”When I can’t pay that, my community can’t pay that,” she said.The cost-of-living struggle means “it’s not just the poorest families” strained by higher heating prices,” said NEADA executive director Mark Wolfe. “It’s affecting middle-class families, which is why it’s becoming a political issue.”

If there’s one material that defines modern life more than any other, it’s plastic: present from the moment we’re born in newborn stool, in product packaging, in the soil beneath our feet and the air we breathe.Hard as it is to imagine, it wasn’t always thus — and doesn’t have to remain this way, argues Judith Enck in her new book, “The Problem with Plastics.””Half of all plastic ever produced was since 2007,” the year the iPhone debuted, she told AFP in an interview.”We have a fighting chance to reduce plastics because it’s very much a contemporary issue.”Enck, a former senior environment official under Barack Obama, is clear-eyed about the challenges posed by the “rabidly anti-environmental” President Donald Trump.Last year, the administration helped derail a global plastics treaty and reversed a phase-out of single-use plastics in national parks.Nevertheless, she sees momentum building at the state and local level — hailing, for example, New Jersey’s “Skip the Stuff” law enacted this week, which requires restaurants to provide single-use cutlery only upon request, a measure shown to significantly reduce waste.- ‘Myth’ of plastic recycling – Enck’s book traces the history of plastic: from its earliest incarnation in 1909, when Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, through the “myth” of plastic recycling promoted by industry from the mid-20th century onward.Along the way, Enck argues that responsibility for the crisis has been systematically shifted onto consumers, even as plastic production continues to soar.”In the United States, only five to six percent of plastics actually get recycled,” she notes. Unlike metal, paper or glass, consumer plastics are made up of thousands of different types, or polymers, making large-scale recycling economically unviable.Early advertising campaigns helped popularize terms like “litterbug,” while today the focus has shifted to “chemical recycling,” promoted by industry as a way to break plastics down into their basic building blocks. Dig deeper, though, and this too is a “false solution,” Enck said: a report by the Beyond Plastics nonprofit she leads found just 11 such facilities handling about one percent of US plastic waste — three of which have since shut down.Around 33 billion pounds of plastic enter the ocean every year, “the equivalent of two large garbage trucks filled with plastic being dumped into the ocean every minute.” Microplastics, along with ultra-tiny nanoplastics, can kill or severely sicken marine life before entering the food web and ultimately ending up on our plates.Research into the health effects is ongoing, and some findings are contested. But a 2024 study found that people with microplastics in their heart arteries face an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and premature death.For those living in the shadow of the expanding petrochemical industry, the impacts of toxic emissions have long been felt. Nowhere is this more evident than Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” where cancer rates are seven times the national average.”Our zip code is dictating our health, and plastics therefore are a major environmental justice issue, because these are communities of color and low-income communities,” Enck said.- No to shaming – The recent surge in plastic production, she argues, is driven by a “glut” of gas generated since the mid-2000s by the hydraulic fracturing industry, which has sought new markets for its product even as it fuels climate change.It may be easy to lose hope, but Enck says it is not too late to make a difference — pointing to a twofold approach that combines personal action with collective pressure. Her book is replete with advice on how to organize, lobby local governments and advance model legislation.While Enck would prefer consumers shop at stores that sell toiletry refills, ditch plastic coffee pods and take other steps, she acknowledges that such choices are not yet realistic for many people.”I am not into plastic shaming,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of choice when we go to the supermarket, so you do the best you can. But what we really need is systemic change — and what I mean by that is new laws that require less plastic.”

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had reached a framework of a deal that satisfies him on Greenland, as he backed down both on threats to seize the island by force from Denmark and on imposing tariffs against European allies.Trump said the deal was long-term but offered few details and was conspicuously silent on whether the deal would mean US control over the Arctic island, which he has repeatedly demanded.Trump made the startling turnaround after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.”We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.Trump said he would therefore scrap tariffs of up to 25 percent that he had vowed days ago to slap starting February 1 on Denmark as well as close European allies that have sent troops to Greenland in solidarity, including Britain, France and Germany.He later told reporters from outlets including AFP that the deal “gets everything we wanted” and will be in force “forever”.Asked if the United States would gain sovereignty over the vast but sparsely populated island, Trump hesitated and then said, “It’s the ultimate long-term deal.” “I think it puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security, and minerals and everything else,” Trump said.”It’s a deal that people jumped at, really fantastic for the USA, gets everything we wanted.”NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said that allies would discuss the framework which addresses Trump’s claims that the island is not protected from Russia or China.”Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold — economically or militarily — in Greenland,” she said.- Relief in Europe -Trump’s threats had triggered one of the biggest transatlantic crises in decades, with warnings that he could single-handedly destroy NATO through aggression against a fellow member.His apparent climbdown eased jitters in Denmark, long a steadfast US ally where Trump’s bellicose language has triggered shock and feelings of betrayal.”Trump said that he will pause the trade war, he says, ‘I will not attack Greenland’. These are positive messages,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Danish public television DR.Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said that the United States and Europe were “now on the path to de-escalation”.Trump has repeatedly said that the United States, the key force in NATO, deserves Greenland as it would be forced to defend the island against Russia or China, although neither country holds any claim to the island.The issue dominated Trump’s first address to the World Economic Forum in six years, in which he slammed Denmark as “ungrateful” for refusing to give up the Arctic island.But he appeared to take the threat of military action off the table.”I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland,” Trump said.The shift in tone also brought relief to global markets, with Wall Street’s key indices climbing.- Facing down Trump -Before Trump’s apparent turnaround, Greenland’s government unveiled a new brochure offering advice to the population in the event of a “crisis” in the territory, saying it was an “insurance policy”.Trump repeatedly referenced Greenland in his speech, although he mistakenly called it Iceland several times.The US president also lambasted Europe on a number of fronts from security to tariffs and the economy, saying it was “not heading in the right direction”. Europe and Canada had earlier closed ranks against what they viewed as a threat to the US-led global order from Trump’s territorial ambitions.Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney won a standing ovation at Davos on Tuesday when he warned of a “rupture” to the US-led system. French President Emmanuel Macron for his part said Europe would not be bullied.But Trump renewed his attacks on the two leaders, mocking Macron in particular for wearing sunglasses at Davos, which the French president said was because of an eye condition.In remarks that veered from topic to topic, Trump also expressed hope of ending the Ukraine war soon, saying he expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky in Davos on Thursday.burs-dk-sct/md

US YouTuber IShowSpeed visited Nigeria’s cultural and economic capital Lagos as part of his African tour on Wednesday, where he celebrated his 21st birthday by hitting 50 million subscribers.The YouTube and Twitch star’s tour kicked off on December 29, travelling through some 15 countries across Africa and drawing crowds at every stop.Rolling Stone magazine named him the Most Influential Creator of 2025 while Forbes estimates his net worth at $20 million.IShowSpeed began his Lagos visit at the bustling Balogun Market in the Lagos Island district, where crowds heckled him and asked for money.”What are they saying? It’s like they’re speaking English, but a different kind of English,” the influencer, surrounded by bodyguards, remarked as he quickly left the market.At Freedom Park, located on the site of a former prison, he jumped at the spicy kick of his first bite of jollof rice before heading to the Nike Art Gallery — a must-see for every celebrity and high-ranking political figure who comes to Lagos.”IShowSpeed is showcasing the culture, relationships, cultural differences and food,” Stephen Oluwafisayomi, a 24-year-old YouTuber known as Stevosky, told AFP at Freedom Park.”He wants Americans to see Africa as a place they can also come to,” he added.At around 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) IShowSpeed, who was celebrating his birthday, stopped his security convoy at the side of the road to watch his YouTube channel hit 50 million subscribers and proceeded to shove his face into a cake for the occasion.”He may have shown some negative aspects of these countries, but that should be able to motivate people to help, contribute and try to improve them, whether by creating businesses, raising funds or by any other means at their disposal,” according to Karim Jari, an 18-year-old high school student at the Nike Art Gallery.The day before, IShowSpeed celebrated Senegal’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) victory in Dakar.Born in Cincinnati as Darren Jason Watkins Jr., the YouTube star began gaining traction 10 years ago, first by publishing video game content and later by posting about his travels around the world.His Africa tour has featured a race against a cheetah in South Africa, a football match with 100 children in Angola, a visit to Kenya’s Maasai and the AFCON final in Morocco.

A Republican-led US House panel voted Wednesday to launch contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton over their refusal to testify before its probe into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The Oversight Committee advanced resolutions accusing the Democratic ex-president and former secretary of state of defying subpoenas to appear in person to explain their links to the disgraced financier, who died in custody in 2019.The full House of Representatives, also majority Republican, will now decide — at a date yet to be announced — whether to formally cite the couple for contempt and refer them to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution.”No witness, not a former president or a private citizen, may willfully defy a congressional subpoena without consequence,” committee chairman James Comer said.”But that is what the Clintons did and that is why we are here today.”The vote underscored how the Epstein affair continues to cast a long shadow over Washington, entangling some of the most prominent names in US politics and highlighting the sharp partisan battles that have shaped the scandal.Lawmakers are examining how authorities handled earlier investigations into Epstein, whose 2019 death in custody as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges was ruled a suicide.Democrats say the probe is being weaponized to attack political opponents of President Donald Trump — himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify — rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of the files linked to Epstein, who moved in elite circles for years, cultivating ties with billionaires, politicians, academics and celebrities to whom he was suspected of trafficking girls and young women for sex.Democrats on the committee noted that the Justice Department was itself violating the law, having released only a fraction of the case files it was required to make public more than a month ago.  – ‘White House cover-up’ -“Donald Trump is leading a White House cover-up right now of the Epstein files, and we all know Epstein himself said Donald Trump was his best friend for over 10 years,” said Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat.”It is shameful, illegal and unconstitutional that the Department of Justice has released one percent of the files.”Neither Trump nor the Clintons have been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein’s activities.But Republicans say the Democratic couple’s past links to the business tycoon, including Bill Clinton’s use of his private jet in the early 2000s, justify in‑person questioning under oath.In letters refusing to appear in Washington, the Clintons argue that the subpoenas are invalid because they lack a clear legislative purpose.Instead, the couple submitted sworn written statements describing their knowledge of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a prison sentence for sex trafficking.Comer announced that Maxwell had been scheduled to give a deposition on February 9, although he said he expected her to assert her constitutional right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination.Bill Clinton acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited his private island. Hillary Clinton said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited his island. The full House vote could expose divisions among Democrats, some of whom privately acknowledge that their party has long argued no one should be beyond scrutiny in efforts to uncover the full scope of Epstein’s crimes. Others fear that advancing the contempt resolutions plays into a partisan strategy to shift attention away from Trump’s own past contacts with Epstein and from criticism that his administration has moved slowly to release all related records.

A winter storm bringing icy temperatures will slam a massive stretch of the United States this week, with more than 175 million people facing the prospect of heavy snowfall, power outages and travel disruption.Winter Storm Fern is forecast to engulf an area stretching from Texas and the Great Plains region to the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states. Forecasters warned it could be 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) long — well over half the length of the continental US. The storm’s peak is expected to come Thursday and Friday, with Texas already having declared an emergency. More than a foot of snow could be seen across the mid-Atlantic region, the forecasters warned, with Virginia and Maryland likely to bear the brunt as arctic air blows in.US weather channels were running apocalyptic predictions of “crippling ice,” and a 1,500-mile (2,414-kilometer) “snow zone” liable to see record-breaking snowfall, while warning that freezing rain could damage power infrastructure and trees.New York City, the US financial capital and the country’s most populous urban area, could see as much as 12 inches of snow, the Weather Channel warned.In New York, the current cold snap has caused temperatures to collapse. On the morning of January 20, the National Weather Service’s observatory in Central Park recorded a temperature of 16F (-9C) — or 2F (-17C) accounting for wind chill — the coldest temperature that the city has seen so far this winter.- ‘Sub-zero’ -“Frigid temperatures will expand across the eastern two-thirds of the country behind an Arctic cold front,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory. “Frigid sub-zero and single digit temperatures will expand from the Northern Plains Thursday into the Mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and Northeast by Sunday. “This Arctic blast will be accompanied by gusty winds, leading to dangerous wind chills. The coldest wind chills may fall below minus 50 Fahrenheit (minus 46C) across the Northern Plains. An extremely cold air mass, combined with a frontal zone to its south will produce a major winter storm from the Central-Southern Plains region to the East Coast starting Friday and lasting into the weekend, the advisory added.Some areas likely to be affected were bracing for the arrival of severe weather.In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and activated emergency resources including the state’s national guard and transport department assets to help ease the pressure on roads.A combination of snow, rain and sleet could make travel almost impossible, local media warned.The Monroe County Road Commission, which covers a large area outside Detroit, Michigan, warned “there is a shortage of salt.””This year we’ve used more than we have the last four Decembers combined,” David Leach, the commission’s managing director, told CBS News.In past years, rural areas in the northeast have been entirely cut off as snowplows struggled to clear roads.

The US Supreme Court appeared skeptical Wednesday of President Donald Trump’s effort to fire a Federal Reserve governor, in a case testing the central bank’s independence.Trump sought in August to dismiss Fed governor Lisa Cook, a key official on the bank’s interest rate-setting committee, accusing her of mortgage fraud. She denies the allegations.The conservative-dominated Supreme Court barred the Republican president in October from immediately removing Cook, allowing her to stay on the job until it could hear the case contesting her dismissal.During two hours of oral arguments Wednesday, a majority of the nine justices on the top court — both conservatives and liberals — expressed doubts that the president had shown sufficient cause to remove Cook or had provided her with appropriate due process.Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, said setting a “very low bar for cause” could allow presidents to dismiss Fed governors at will and “weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve.””All of the current president’s appointees would likely be removed for cause on January 20, 2029 if there’s a Democratic president,” Kavanaugh said, referring to the next inauguration day.Justice Samuel Alito, another conservative, took issue with the “hurried manner” in which the court was being asked to decide the case while the facts remain in dispute.Solicitor General John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, pushed back, saying the allegations against Cook merited her dismissal.”Deceit or gross negligence by a financial regulator in financial transactions is cause for removal,” Sauer said.”The American people should not have their interest rates determined by someone who was, at best, grossly negligent in obtaining favorable interest rates for herself.”Trump has accused Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board of governors, of making false statements on one or more mortgage agreements, allegedly claiming two primary residences, one in Michigan and another in Georgia.Paul Clement, Cook’s lawyer, said she had “at most” made an “inadvertent mistake” on her loan documents and noted that no previous US president has ever tried to remove a Fed governor.”It’s less important that the president have full faith in every single governor, and it’s more important that the markets and the public have faith in the independence of the Fed from the president and from Congress,” Clement said.- ‘Political pressure’ -In a sign of public support for Cook, Fed Chair Jerome Powell personally attended the hearing, which comes as the Trump administration intensifies its pressure on the central bank.Powell revealed this month that prosecutors had launched a criminal inquiry into him over an ongoing renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.Powell has dismissed the investigation as a politically motivated attempt to influence the central bank’s interest rate setting.Trump’s bid to fire Cook and the Powell probe are a dramatic escalation of his efforts to control the Fed, which he has repeatedly criticized for spurning his demands to slash interest rates more aggressively.By ousting Cook, the president could potentially add another voice to the Fed’s board to try and shift interest rates in his favored direction.The Supreme Court has overwhelmingly sided with Trump since he returned to office and it recently allowed him to fire members of other independent government agencies.But it created a carve-out for the “quasi-private” Fed in its ruling.Cook became a Fed governor in 2022 and was reappointed to the board in 2023.In a statement released after the hearing, she said the case “is about whether the Federal Reserve will set key interest rates guided by evidence and independent judgment or will succumb to political pressure.””For as long as I serve at the Federal Reserve, I will uphold the principle of political independence in service to the American people,” Cook said.

Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the powerful US Federal Reserve Board of Governors, has come under the spotlight as President Donald Trump steps up pressure on the central bank.Cook was one of former president Joe Biden’s choices to fill open seats on the Fed board — a seven-member body guiding US monetary policy — and she took office as a Fed governor in May 2022.The daughter of a Baptist chaplain and a professor of nursing, Cook bears physical scars from racism after she was attacked as a young child while involved in an effort to integrate racially segregated schools in the state of Georgia.Before joining the Fed, she dedicated much of her research to the effects of discrimination on the productive capacity of the world’s largest economy. Even though she kept a relatively low profile as a Fed governor, she came under scrutiny last summer as Trump sought her immediate removal over claims of mortgage fraud.The Fed makes decisions on interest rates independently from the White House, but Trump has repeatedly criticized the central bank for not lowering borrowing costs more quickly.Its independence could come under question — with consequences for the economy — as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on the bank, including by opening an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell.The outcome of Cook’s case will be crucial in determining how much discretion the president has when it comes to removing key Fed officials.She vowed Wednesday to uphold Fed independence for as long as she serves at the central bank.”This case is about whether the Federal Reserve will set key interest rates guided by evidence and independent judgment or will succumb to political pressure,” she said in a statement after the hearing.She previously rejected Trump’s attempt to oust her, saying he had no authority to do so.The Supreme Court has allowed her to remain in her role for now.- An academic economist -Prior to becoming a Fed governor, Cook was a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. She earned an economics degree from Oxford University and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.In 2023, she was reappointed to the Fed’s board and sworn in for a term ending in 2038.At the central bank, Cook has voted with Powell in policy decisions, like most of her colleagues. These included instances when the bank started cutting interest rates and when it decided to put a pause on rate reductions.She has been described as a “dove” at times, a term referring to someone who tends to support lower rates.But in a June speech, she warned of longer-term risks surrounding inflation and said that the Fed’s cautious approach to rate cuts was well positioned to respond to developments.Cook’s opponents have in the past questioned her qualifications, criticisms that her supporters say are fueled by her race.”I have been the target of anonymous and untrue attacks on my academic record,” Cook told lawmakers in 2022.Other board members, including Powell, are not trained economists. Cook speaks five languages, including Russian. She also specializes in international development economics, having worked on topics such as Rwanda’s recovery following the 1994 genocide.In addition, she has researched inequality in the labor market, a key area of Fed focus.Cook grew up in an area of the United States where public swimming pools were destroyed to avoid opening them up to Black people, and was one of the first Black children to attend a previously segregated school.She has studied lynchings and patents issued to Black entrepreneurs, arguing that discrimination has held back the entire society, not just the direct victims of injustice.

The US Supreme Court appeared likely on Wednesday to allow a Federal Reserve governor fired by President Donald Trump to remain in her post for now in a case with far-reaching consequences for the central bank’s independence.Trump sought in August to dismiss Fed governor Lisa Cook, a key official serving on the bank’s interest rate-setting committee, accusing her of mortgage fraud. She denies the allegations.The conservative-dominated Supreme Court barred the Republican president in October from immediately removing Cook, allowing her to stay on the job until it could hear the case contesting her dismissal.During two hours of oral arguments, a majority of the nine justices on the top court — both conservatives and liberals — seemed skeptical that the president had shown sufficient cause to remove Cook or had provided her with appropriate due process.Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed concern that setting a “very low bar for cause” could allow presidents to dismiss Fed governors at will and “weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve.””All of the current president’s appointees would likely be removed for cause on January 20, 2029 if there’s a Democratic president,” Kavanaugh said, referring to the next inauguration day.Justice Samuel Alito, another conservative, took issue with the “hurried manner” in which the court was being asked to decide the case while the facts remain in dispute.Solicitor General John Sauer pushed back, saying the allegations against Cook were serious and merited her dismissal.”Deceit or gross negligence by a financial regulator in financial transactions is cause for removal,” Sauer said.”The American people should not have their interest rates determined by someone who was, at best, grossly negligent in obtaining favorable interest rates for herself.”Trump has accused Cook of making false statements on one or more mortgage agreements, allegedly claiming two primary residences, one in Michigan and another in Georgia.Paul Clement, Cook’s lawyer, said she had “at most” made an “inadvertent mistake” on her mortgage documents and noted that no previous president has ever tried to remove a Fed governor.”It’s less important that the president have full faith in every single governor, and it’s more important that the markets and the public have faith in the independence of the Fed from the president and from Congress,” Clement said.- ‘Political pressure’ -In a sign of public support for Cook, Fed Chair Jerome Powell personally attended the hearing, which comes as the Trump administration intensifies its pressure on the central bank, including the opening of a criminal investigation into the Fed chief.Earlier this month, Powell revealed that US prosecutors had launched an inquiry into him over an ongoing renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.Powell has dismissed the investigation as a politically motivated attempt to influence the central bank’s interest rate setting.Trump’s bid to fire Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board of governors, and the probe into Powell are a dramatic escalation of the president’s efforts to control the Fed.Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed for spurning his demands to slash interest rates more aggressively.By ousting Cook, the Republican president could potentially add another voice to the Fed’s board to try and shift interest rates in his favored direction.The Supreme Court has overwhelmingly sided with Trump since he returned to office and it recently allowed him to fire members of other independent government boards. But it created a carve-out for the Fed in its ruling.Cook became a Fed governor in 2022 and was reappointed to the board in 2023.In a statement released after the hearing, she said the case “is about whether the Federal Reserve will set key interest rates guided by evidence and independent judgment or will succumb to political pressure.”

To muted applause and not a few stony faces, US President Donald Trump took the stage before hundreds of the world’s rich and powerful Wednesday for the most anticipated speech of this year’s Davos forum.But during the two-hour wait to get in, the excitement to hear the leader of the world’s most powerful nation in person was palpable — “It’s like a rock festival,” one attendee said.  Quickly the doors to the World Economic Forum’s packed congress hall closed, forcing hundreds to scramble for spots in overflow rooms to watch him on screens.Even the president of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevics, was stuck in line at one point before an aide guided him elsewhere.”It’s interesting that people were lining up to hear President Trump, like they were not lining to hear any other speaker — none has got such kind of interest,” Rinkevics told AFP afterwards.Many were apprehensive about the escalating tensions between Trump and Europe over his bid to seize Greenland, a crisis that has overshadowed the annual schmoozefest’s agenda.”I expect the worst. From what we know from Trump, he always needs to have all the attention and he needs to have a shocker message,” Julia Binder, of the Swiss-based IMD Business School, told AFP.And shock he did.- ‘Neo-imperial’ -In one overflow room, attendees mockingly laughed and gasped throughout his speech.Guffaws when Trump talked about wind farms killing birds. Nervous laughs when he said he was asking for “a piece of ice”, meaning Greenland. Stunned and turning to each other for confirmation when Trump abruptly started referring to Greenland as “Iceland”.Others said “oh no” when he alleged that “Canada lives because of the United States” after accusing its Prime Minister Mark Carney of being ungrateful in his own widely praised speech on Tuesday. Unbelieving laughs broke out when he made fun of French President Emmanuel Macron for wearing sunglasses — due to a burst blood vessel — during his own speech on Tuesday.And howls when he again insisted: “All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland.””I would say he’s gone from neocon to neo-imperial,” one attendee whispered.An hour into Trump’s rambling speech, people started to leave the overflow rooms. “He’s a nutcase,” one said on the way out. – ‘Piece of rock’ -Many said Trump was the ideal guest at a forum for hearing provocative voices.”Davos is a platform for and exchange of ideas, of views. So we are here to listen to all views, whether we like them or not,” said Daniel Marokane, chief executive of a South African power company.But others took umbrage at his trademark abrasiveness and attacks, including an insistence that the US deserves Greenland as payback for its massive NATO financing.”We’re in the business of democracy, we’re not in the business of merger and acquisitions,” Sweden’s Energy Minister Ebba Busch said afterwards. “We will not be blackmailed”.”Trump got elected because he knows how to read a room, but I’m not sure he read the room this time,” said an American medical technology executive, who like others requested anonymity to protect his company’s identity.”One guy I saw get up and leave, he was visibly shaking with anger.”For Polish President Karol Nawrocki, it was a “very important speech”, not least because Trump claimed he would not use force to acquire Greenland.”We’re looking for the diplomatic solution of this, and I’m sure that it will be solved,” he told AFP.Vocal Trump critic Gavin Newsom, governor of California, called Trump’s speech “jaw dropping” for an international audience, saying he had harmed US-European ties despite backing off his implicit threat of using force to seize Greenland. “The damage is extraordinary. And that’s what made this speech so pathetic. What was the point of all this?” he said.For Philippe Aghion, co-winner of the 2025 Nobel prize in economics, “His speech confirms my feeling that Europe needs to rise up, wake up”.”You have to negotiate from a position of strength, and it’s important for Europe to make itself respected,” he told AFP.