'A definitive backslide.' Inside fashion's worrying runway trend

04/06/23 8:53 PM

Now that the Fall-Winter 2023 catwalks have been disassembled, it's clear one trend was more pervasive than any collective penchant for ruffles, pleated skirts or tailored coats.

'Mind-boggling' drop hits as new data shows US massively shunned by travelers: expert

09/28/26 5:48 PM

Add the travel industry to the growing list of economic casualties of President Donald Trump's policies, joining farmers and manufacturers as sectors bleeding cash under his trade wars and border crackdowns.Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, laid out the damage in blunt terms to Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei: even America's "closest allies" are refusing to visit. Despite the U.S. hosting the World Cup this summer, overseas travel still fell — the country is on pace to lose 2 million overseas visitors compared with last year, a drop that leaves visitation 20 percent below its 2019 peak. "We're the only major country in the world losing visitation," Freeman told VandeHei. "It's mind-boggling."The falloff is concentrated among traditional allies. Canada is down 23 percent over two years, while Germany and France have each dropped double digits year to date. Freeman said the exodus is "largely out of protest and fear" rather than economics, as travelers shun a country whose tariffs and immigration enforcement have made headlines abroad. Meanwhile, China is "capturing the visitors America is losing by expanding visa-free entry," and Japan is riding the "cheap yen" and surging reputation to a long-term tourism boom.The hit to travel — an industry that supports millions of U.S. jobs — lands alongside mounting anger from farmers squeezed by Trump's tariff fights and cut off from major agricultural buyers, and manufacturers still waiting for the factory jobs Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs promised but never delivered.

'Oh my God': White House insiders reveal Trump's dangerous high-stakes habit

09/26/26 10:11 PM

President Donald Trump heads into high-stakes meetings with world leaders carrying a risky habit, White House insiders told his biographer.In a Saturday episode of "Inside Trump's Head," Michael Wolff said that Trump refuses to read his briefing books before summits and told co-host Joanna Coles about the pattern while breaking down Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit."I've had this described to me by White House people of what happens when he goes into these meetings," Wolff said. Summits normally demand "really hard work," with briefing books and input from every corner of government that has "issues that they want on the table," Wolff explained."It's a difficult moment for any president because, I mean, you're the guy and you got to know what you're talking about," Wolff said. "If you don't know what you're talking about, you're giving away the store."The stakes, he stressed, go well beyond pageantry."It's a matter of security," Wolff said. "The world turns on these kinds of meetings. Not with Trump."Trump "refuses to look at the briefing books" and "refuses to have extensive conversations about the issues at hand," according to Wolff."Doesn't care, I suppose. Doesn't know what he's talking about," Wolff said. "He is always saying, 'I'm really good with this.' And then he goes into these meetings, and all it is is flattery."That flattery flows in both directions, with foreign counterparts "very clearly" understanding "what they can get by this," Wolff said."I'm trying to circumvent using the word buffoon," he added, "but I think that's what they see him as. They're like, 'Oh my God.'"Coles asked who would traditionally prepare the president, suggesting Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Wolff said the job requires "weeks of preparation," so aides boil it down instead."They give him two points. You got to do this and this," Wolff said. "And even that usually doesn't register with him."Wolff said the reality is difficult to convey to voters, and even to White House staff, who fall back on the idea that "he's been elected twice" and "must know what he's doing.""The president of the United States does not know what he's talking about in these situations," Wolff said.He warned that the consequences will soon come into view."Years from now, or not even years from now, I think we will start to see the effects of this," Wolff said.