Tens of thousands of dockworkers have gone on strike indefinitely at ports across much of the US, threatening significant trade and economic disruption ahead of the presidential election and the busy holiday shopping season.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) walked out on Tuesday at 14 major ports along the east and gulf coasts, halting container traffic from Maine to Texas.

The action marks the first such shutdown in almost 50 years.

President Joe Biden has the power to suspend the strike for 80 days for further negotiations, but the White House has said he is not planning to act.

More than a third of exports and imports could be affected by the strike, hitting US economic growth to the tune of at least $4.5bn each week of the strike, according to Grace Zemmer, an associate US economist at Oxford Economics, though others have estimated the economic hit could be higher.

What a weekend we had in Gothenburg for the annual Swedish Book Fair 2024.

Some people say that the book is dead and that people are stopping reading physical books

This weekend the the annual Swedish book fair was arranged at Gothia Towers (Svenska Mässan) in Gothenburg. It was a great success with a record breaking number of visitors and long queues on the street to get in.

A wonderful event and I met a lot of friends habing new books published and in the armet this autumn. There are also hundreds seminars and speeches from alls sectors, with international and national speaker – incöuding Joyce Carol Oates this time.

Great weekend that I spent here with my oldest daughter. We both love to read.

How can the WTO Secretariat anticipate and prepare for changes affecting the world, trade, and the WTO itself?

Explore the transformative vision of the WTO’s Secretariat Strategy 2030 and discover its key goals and ideas for achieving them: https://bit.ly/4ec7QR7