Betting on Barbie and Bike Lanes: Your Saturday US Briefing
07/08/2023 23:41
Something for the weekend.
Margot Robbie poses during a pink carpet event in South Korea to promote her new film Barbie.
Photographer: JUNG YEON-JE/AFPWeekend greetings from New York City.
Our city continues to reckon with the overload of motor vehicles—and increasingly, brick-and-mortar shops are embracing
car-free business zonesfor walkers and bikers, like the one installed recently in the city’s beating heart of Broadway. Your dutiful newsletter writer took a spin this week in the bike-and-pedestrian area just south of Times Square. Pleasant, lively, tons of foot traffic, though best to go slowly given that tourists wander into bike lanes like tipsy ducklings. Not everyone’s a fan of car-reduction plans: New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said this week he’s
lawyered upto stop congestion pricing in central Manhattan, which may cost drivers (including his commuter voters) $23 to enter.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Chinese leaders in Beijing for a second day, saying the two nations should communicate “directly” on specific economic concerns and that there’s “ample room” for trade and investment. Pushing for better ties amid deepened tensions, she told her Chinese counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng that “a wide swath of our economies can interact in ways that are uncontroversial to both governments.” She said earlier in the day that China and the US should join forces to tackle climate change.