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☆ The Fed has paused before. Here’s what happened next
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Fed had a similar predicament in 2006After raising interest rates 17 consecutive times between June 2004 and June 2006, Fed officials became concerned that they could inadvertently damage the economy if they continued to hike rates. When the Fed met again in September, many officials expressed concerns that raising interest rates after a short, six-week pause would broadcast the wrong message. Lacker continued to be the sole Fed official who favored raising interest rates until his term expired at the end of the year. “It’s pretty easy to believe that the Fed will find that it didn’t raise rates enough and so choose to raise rates somewhat further before stopping and, later on, reducing rates,” he said. Fed officials then opted for a pause in the fall of 1994 and raised rates further in the winter.

Persons: Ben Bernanke, Bernanke, “, ” Michael Moskow, ”, Cathy Minehan, Jeffrey Lacker, Lacker, Jerome Powell, Liu Jie, Athanasios Orphanides, Austan Goolsbee, William English Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal, Traders, Fed, Committee, Washington , D.C, Bloomberg, Getty, Chicago Fed, Boston Fed, Richmond Fed, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, European Central Bank, Food Forum, Yale University Locations: New York, Washington ,, Xinhua, Chicago

☆ How the Hunt for a Lioness Near Berlin Turned Into a Wild Boar Chase
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Catie Edmondson | More About Catie Edmondson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A frenzied hunt for a loose lioness on the outskirts of Berlin that prompted the deployment of helicopters, drones and night-vision-goggle-clad police officers came to an unexpected end after the authorities announced that it was likely a case of mistaken identity. After experts were called in to analyze grainy cellphone footage that prompted a two-day search, they independently came to the same conclusion: “We think that this photo probably shows a wild boar,” Michael Grubert, the mayor of Kleinmachnow, just southwest of the German capital, said at a news conference on Friday afternoon. It was an anti-climactic end to a search that captivated Germany and upended a constellation of communities on the southern edge of the city, after officials sent more than 100 police officers — equipped with riot gear, thermal imaging cameras and at least one armored vehicle — thrashing through a trio of heavily wooded towns. The lioness-turned-pig saga began when two men captured a short, blurry video of what they believed was a lion chasing a wild boar and reported it to the police around midnight Thursday. The search began quickly and escalated rapidly.

Persons: ” Michael Grubert Locations: Berlin, Kleinmachnow, Germany

“After examining several hints, there was not a single indication concerning a lioness or a wild animal in the area,” Michael Grubert, the mayor of Kleinmachnow, an area on the city’s southwest outskirts, told reporters. Michael Grubert, mayor of Kleinmachnow, holds a picture of the suspected animal. A major search involving 100 police officers was conducted. Grubert had said Thursday that the animal spotted was believed to be a lioness. That is to say, we checked zoos, animal parks and other animal-keeping facilities and made inquiries.

Persons: ” Michael Grubert, Michael Grubert, Annegret Hilse, Christian Mang, Grubert, Kerstin Schroeder, “ Organizations: CNN, Local, “, Reuters Authorities, Getty Images Police, ” Locations: Germany, Berlin, Kleinmachnow

☆ ‘Barbenheimer’ is set to meme its way to an ‘unprecedented’ weekend of box office ticket sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The “Barbenheimer” craze, which has swelled in popularity over the last few weeks, is all but set to propel the box office to its best weekend in years. BoxOffice Pro, a publication that tracks box office performance, said this week it is projecting a $200+ million weekend at the cinema. The battle of the bombshells playing out in theaters is not the usual runaway box office success story. “But it’s not just about the first three days of the box office either. The irony in the films’ massive draw is that, typically, studios prefer to avoid releasing major box office features on the same weekend as another.

Persons: Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer, ” Michael O’Leary, it’s, Mattel, Christopher Nolan, ” Shawn Robbins, “ ‘ Oppenheimer, Barbie ’, don’t, “ Barbie ”, Tom Cruise, ” O’Leary, ” Robbins, “ It’s, ” Organizations: CNN, BoxOffice, National Association of Theatre Owners, Warner Bros Locations: Hollywood

☆ Leadership Troubles Roil Russian Military
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Gabriela Sá Pessoa | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

“We have put to rest any doubts and ambiguities about whether Ukraine will be in NATO,” he said. “It will!”The Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Department also posted a lengthy Twitter thread listing positive outcomes from the summit. In return, requests that were initially rebuffed — including Western battle tanks, missile systems, even training for F-16 fighter jets — have over time been met. The campaign is in its second month, and Mr. Zelensky has acknowledged that it is moving more slowly than some allies had hoped. But he warned that Ukraine may not hold a significant advantage in that type of strategy against the more numerous Russian forces.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, ” Mr, ”, “, ” Michael Kofman, Kofman, Biden, Matthew Mpoke Bigg Organizations: NATO, Strategic Communications Department, Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment, International, Tactical Missile Systems Locations: Ukraine, Russian, United States, Russia, Lithuania, France, Germany, Ukrainian, Donetsk, Bakhmut, Melitopol, Britain, Kyiv

☆ Can AI save commercial real estate in San Francisco?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

In an aerial view, cars drive by the San Francisco skyline as they cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on October 27, 2022 in San Francisco, California. Alexander Quinn, senior director of research at commercial real estate company JLL, said his firm sees bright spots in San Francisco’s commercial real estate market as AI companies drive office leasing demand. A shopper exits the Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping mall in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. The US Census Bureau reports an estimated 35% of employees in San Francisco and San Jose continue to work from home. “I think the crash is coming, and it hasn’t happened yet,” he added, referring to commercial real estate prices.

Persons: Naveen Rao, CBRE, Justin Sullivan, it’s, ” Rao, San, Alexander Quinn, JLL, ” Quinn, Rao, OpenAI, ”, “ There’s, MosaicML, Quinn, “, Francisco’s, David Paul Morris, Henrique Dubugras, ” Michael Tannenbaum, Tannenbaum, Hans Hansson Organizations: CNN, San, Westfield, San Francisco Centre, Westfield San Francisco, Bloomberg, Getty, London, US, “ Locations: San Francisco, Southern California, Francisco, Oakland, San Francisco , California, ”, “ San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, city’s, San Francisco’s Union, Coresight, Westfield San Francisco Centre, California, Francisco’s, San Jose, decamping, United States

☆ Opinion: Whatever happened to Mutually Assured Destruction?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( David A. Andelman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

On June 14, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko announced that his country had taken delivery of the first of a collection of tactical nuclear weapons from Russia. Belarus has both a nuclear arsenal and a president who for decades has quietly played the role of Putin’s lap dog. And indeed, in a press conference Thursday in Minsk, he did claim to being in lockstep with Putin — adding that the nuclear weapons were for defensive purposes only. In the same press conference, Lukashenko nodded to the fact that those nuclear weapons were under Russia’s control. “In the early ’60s American officials worried that the Soviet Union would launch a less-than-all-out attack, reasoning that the US would not respond in a way that might trigger Armageddon,” he said.

Persons: David A, David Andelman, Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, Ukraine’s Leonid Kuchma, Alexander Lukashenko, Putin, Lukashenko nodded, “, Joe Biden, Jens Stoltenberg, Kaja Kallas, Stoltenberg, nukes, Izumi Nakamitsu, Donald Trump, Biden, Vladimir Putin, Antony Blinken, crouch, ” Michael Mandelbaum, ”, Mandelbaum, – Vladimir Putin, hewing Organizations: CNN, French Legion of, The New York Times, CBS News, Soviet Union, Warsaw, David Andelman CNN, NATO, Belarus, Ukraine, Security Council, Nuclear Forces, Treaty, Twitter, Facebook, Johns Hopkins School, International, American Foreign, Power, MAD Locations: Russia, Europe, Soviet, Ukraine, Soviet Union, Crimea, Belarus, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Minsk, lockstep, Vilnius, Lithuania, Brussels, Moscow, Russian

CNN —A rabid bobcat attacked a children’s camp leader as he slept in a hammock at a state park, according to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The man was guiding an overnight youth camping expedition at Selden Neck State Park in Lyme at the time of the attack early Friday, the department said in an email Saturday. He and two other adults, who are seasonal staff members of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families’ Wilderness School, killed the animal after the attack, authorities said. The bobcat’s remains were taken to a state public health laboratory, where the animal tested positive for rabies, according to the statement. Bobcat attacks on humans are extremely rare, according to the department’s website.

Persons: “, ” Michael Williams, Williams, Organizations: CNN, Connecticut Department of Energy, Environmental, Connecticut Department of Children, Wilderness School Locations: Selden Neck, Lyme, Connecticut, ”

☆ National Geographic magazine has laid off the last of its staff writers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —National Geographic, the iconic yellow framed magazine that has chronicled the natural world for more than 100 years, laid off its last remaining staff writers this week, multiple departing staffers said. “Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect.”News of the layoffs was reported on Twitter Tuesday when departing magazine staff writers began to circulate the news. “Today is my last day at National Geographic,” Michael Greshko, a former science writer at the magazine, tweeted. But on Wednesday, more staff writers for the magazine took to Twitter to share the news of their departure. “My colleagues and I were unbelievably lucky to be the last-ever class of staff writers.”

Persons: ” Michael Greshko, ”, “, Craig Welch, ” “ It’s, Nina Strochlic Organizations: CNN, Geographic, Walt Disney Co, Twitter

☆ Eli Lilly experimental obesity drug helped patients lose up to 24% of their weight, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Eli Lilly ’s experimental drug helped patients lose up to 24% of their weight after almost a year, the highest reduction seen in the obesity treatment space to date, according to new mid-stage clinical trial results released Monday. The trial's researchers said average weight loss did not appear to plateau after 48 weeks, suggesting a longer study could show even more. Eli Lilly’s other obesity drug Mounjaro, which is approved for type 2 diabetes, has helped patients lose up to 21% of their weight in clinical trials. Novo Nordisk’ s Wegovy, cleared for weight loss, has shown up to 15% weight loss in trials. But Wegovy only mimics one hunger-regulating hormone called GLP-1, while Mounjaro mimics GLP-1 and another hormone called GIP.

Persons: Eli Lilly ’, Eli Lilly, Eli Lilly’s retatrutide, ” Michael Weintraub, Eli Lilly’s, Eli Lilly's retatrutide Organizations: NYU Langone Health, Novo Nordisk

☆ Bookforum Is Returning, Months After Its Closure Was Mourned in the Literary World
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Kate Dwyer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bookforum, a literary criticism magazine that closed in December to great uproar in the literary world, will be back in print in August with a new publishing partner: The Nation. Bookforum’s relaunch, announced on Thursday, marks a return to form, said Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation, who initiated talks in the spring. Bookforum will remain a quarterly print publication with the same branding and aesthetic, helmed by the staff at the time of its closure, he added. “The economics of a relaunch seemed feasible, especially if it was supported by the infrastructure of an existing publication.”The Bookforum team said they are confident that The Nation is the right partner. “Bhaskar himself has worked on a number of magazines, and The Nation has been around since 1865.”

Persons: Bhaskar Sunkara, “, ”, Sunkara, ” Michael Miller, “ Bhaskar Organizations: The, Jacobin

☆ The future of travel: 10 concepts that will change the way we experience the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Kate Springer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +22 min

Concepts that feel plucked from sci-fi novels and films are quickly making their way into mainstream travel, shaping every step of the journey. Seamus PayneLike air travel, eco-conscious hotels are paving the way for more sustainable travel in the future. HyperloopTTUS entrepreneur Elon Musk has been talking about hyperloop technology – an ultra-high-speed transport system in a low-pressure vacuum tube – for years. Meanwhile, Toronto-based TransPod hopes to bring hyperloop technology to Canada with its eponymous tube-based transportation system powered by renewable energy. By 2025, the company plans to build a 620-mile-per-hour TransPod link between Calgary and Edmonton, connecting the two cities in 45 minutes.

Persons: Elijah Nouvelage, Indira Gandhi, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Austin Farmer, we’ll, don’t, David ”, you’ll, Alexander the Great, ” Michael Breer, KAWS, collectables –, Breer, ” Breer, You’ve, ” Jetson, Peter Ternstrom, Apollo, Cruise, ”, what’s, Boom’s, –, Seamus Payne, room2, Marcel Breuer, Tesla, charades, Yusaku Maezawa, Elon Musk, hyperloop, Virgin Hyperloop, HyperloopTT, Hardt Hyperloop Organizations: CNN, Travel, Hartsfield, Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Bloomberg, Getty, Dubai International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Indira, Indira Gandhi International, European Union, Emirates, Dubai International, American Airlines, United, Delta, Bluetooth, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Specterras Productions, CNN Travel, VR, Aircraft, Federal Aviation Administration, Baidu, Hyundai, Las, CNN Travel ., Alphabet Inc, Beta, International Civil Aviation Organization, Alice, DHL, Air New, Concorde, Japan Airlines, Bauhaus, CEH Technologies, Origin, SpaceX, International Space, NASA, Galactic, Space Training Academy, Nastar Center, Boring Company, Virgin, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, China Morning Post, China Aerospace Science, Industry Corporation, European Hyperloop Center Locations: Singapore, Dubai, Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Delhi, London Heathrow, Paris, Dutch, Europe, Florence, Palmyra, Machu Picchu, New York, Ehang, China, Boston, Las Vegas, Motional, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, North America, Austin, Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Mexico, Air New Zealand, Denver, New York City, Frankfurt, LA, Sydney, London, New Haven , Connecticut, Hungarian, Norway, Red, Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Shanxi province, Netherlands, Toronto, Canada, Calgary, Edmonton

☆ Juliet Stevenson Returns to ‘The Doctor,’ and the New York Stage
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Roslyn Sulcas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the start of Robert Icke’s “The Doctor,” the actress Juliet Stevenson stands alone in a spotlight onstage. I’m a doctor.”As the play’s title character, a grammatically exacting neurosurgeon named Ruth Wolff, Stevenson will repeat those last two phrases many times as events unfold and Ruth’s clarity and intellectual certainties erode. Eventually they will transmute into something far more inchoate as her life unravels, and self-doubt begins to permeate her conviction that being a doctor is all that matters. In Icke’s version, the issues go beyond questions of medical ethics and religious affiliations to include identity politics and cancel culture. The play, and Stevenson, received rave reviews when “The Doctor” was first presented in 2019 at London’s Almeida Theater, where Icke was then the artistic director, and later after it transferred to the West End.

Persons: Robert Icke’s “, Juliet Stevenson, “, Ruth Wolff, Stevenson, unravels, Arthur Schnitzler’s, Bernhardi, ”, Icke, ” Michael Billington Organizations: Roman Catholic, London’s, Guardian Locations: New York, obduracy

☆ Debt ceiling deal won’t have much impact on the US economy, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The US economy is the world’s largest, so the relatively modest effects on growth could be good news for investors who feared the debt ceiling crisis could have posed a greater and more widespread drag. Here’s what’s in the proposed deal and how it would show up in the broader economy. What’s in the debt ceiling dealThe deal would suspend the federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt limit through January 2025. The debt deal and GDPEconomists at Goldman Sachs expect the deal to reduce federal spending by as much as 0.2% of gross domestic product per year over the two years of the deal, compared with their baseline estimate. “Getting this uncertainty out of the way for markets and decision makers has a real impact,” said Mike Skordeles, head of US economics at Truist Advisory Services.

Persons: Joe Biden, Mark Zandi, Biden, Goldman Sachs, ” Goldman Sachs, Ian Shepherdson, Gregory Daco, ”, Mike Skordeles, Zandi, ” Michael Reynolds Organizations: DC CNN, House Republicans, Moody’s, CNN, Internal Revenue Service, Congressional, Pantheon, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Truist Advisory Services, Investment, “ Locations: Washington, West Virginia

☆ Elon Musk: CEOs flock to China as risks to trade and investment rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

To drum up business, Chinese leaders have urged foreign companies to invest more in the country, promising them an open and level playing field. “The interests of the United States and China are intertwined like conjoined twins,” he was quoted as saying by the foreign ministry. Over time, “there will be less trade” between China and the United States, Dimon predicted. The move was seen as retaliation for restrictions the United States has imposed on Chinese chipmakers. The interests of the United States and China are intertwined like conjoined twins.

Persons: Elon, Laxman, Jamie Dimon, Qin Gang, Tesla, Elon Musk, Musk, ”, Warren Buffett, Dimon’s, Dimon, That’s, Bain, “ who’s, ” Michael Hart, Ben Cavender, Nick Marro, Tim Cook, Cook, Marro, ‘, ” —, Sophie Jeong, Martha Zhou Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Tesla, Starbucks, JPMorgan, Apple, Samsung, Aramco, Volkswagen, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Foreign, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Reuters, China’s Foreign, Shanghai’s Communist Party, Bloomberg, Group, American Chamber of Commerce, CNN, British, of Commerce, China Market Research Group, US, Micron, Economist Intelligence Unit, “ Companies, China Development Forum Locations: Hong Kong, China, Beijing, United States, Shanghai, Taiwan, Washington, New York, American, Xinjiang

☆ Size of Jurassic sea giant found, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The findings from the Late Jurassic period, though fragmentary, suggest the pliosaur was about twice the size of a killer whale — and move lead study author David Martill closer to redemption. However, he cautioned that an increase in length corresponds with an “exponential increase in volume … placing a biological limit on the upper size pliosaurs could reach.” Smith wasn’t involved in the study. Pliosaurs were “a group of large carnivorous marine reptiles characterized by massive heads, short necks and streamlined tear-shaped bodies,” according to Britannica. Benton wasn’t involved in the study. “Here is a marine reptile as large as a sperm whale, and there’s nothing like it around today.”

☆ Amazon is changing how it gets packages to you
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon (AMZN) has traditionally operated one national delivery network that distributed orders from warehouses spread across the country. If a local warehouse didn’t have the product a customer ordered in, say, Detroit, Amazon (AMZN) would ship it from another part of the country. So in pursuit of boost its profitability, the company has created eight regions in smaller geographic areas designed to ship products over shorter distances. I don’t need same day or next day delivery for most things,” he wrote. Amazon also recently started adding a “frequently returned” badge on certain products on its website for customers.

☆ Boeing Receives Order for Up to 300 Planes From Ryanair
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Niraj Chokshi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The NewsRyanair, the European low-cost airline, said on Tuesday that it had agreed to buy 150 737 Max 10 airplanes, its largest-ever Boeing order. At list prices, 150 planes would sell for more than $20 billion, though Boeing and other manufacturers typically agree to deep discounts for such large orders. The jets are expected to replace older, smaller and less-efficient Boeing planes and be delivered between 2027 and 2033. Ryanair expects to fly 225 million passengers in its 2026 fiscal year, up from 149 million passengers a year before the pandemic. In the fiscal year that ended in March 2022, the airline flew 97 million passengers.

☆ What to expect from the jobs report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Minneapolis CNN —If the latest employment trends continue and economists’ forecasts prove true, Friday’s jobs report could bring back that pre-pandemic feeling. Economists expect the US economy to have added 180,000 jobs in April, according to consensus estimates on Refinitiv. It could also hammer home the fact that the US labor market has indeed cooled down from its red-hot recovery over the past two years. What a rising unemployment rate meansEconomists are expecting the unemployment rate to tick up to 3.6% from 3.5%, according to Refinitiv. Mixed signalsPayroll processor ADP’s monthly look at private-sector employment activity, released two days before the BLS’ employment report, is sometimes looked at as a preview of what to expect from the federal data.

☆ Charles Hull, Who Brought Theater to Young Audiences, Dies at 92
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Daniel E. Slotnik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Charles Hull, who co-founded Theaterworks USA, a touring theater company that has brought professional performances to tens of millions of young people across the country, died on April 14 at his home in Manhattan. Hull, who had been an Off Broadway, summer stock and commercial actor, founded the company that became Theaterworks in 1961 with the director Jay Harnick. Hull was the company’s managing director and Mr. Harnick its artistic director. Hull and Mr. Harnick were staging as many as 20 made-to-move productions in nearly 500 cities a year without the fuss, or expense, of a Broadway effort. “The term we use is cafegymatorium,” Michael Harrington, Theaterworks’ current executive director, said in a phone interview.

☆ Sacklers Gave Millions to Institution That Advises on Opioid Policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Christina Jewett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the past decade, the White House and Congress have relied on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a renowned advisory group, to help shape the federal response to the opioid crisis, whether by convening expert panels or delivering policy recommendations and reports. The opioid crisis has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths, spawned lawsuits and forced other institutions to publicly distance themselves from Sackler money or to acknowledge potential conflicts of interest from ties to Purdue Pharma. The National Academies has largely avoided such scrutiny as it continues to advise the government on painkillers. “I didn’t know they were taking private money,” Michael Von Korff, a prominent pain care researcher, said. “It sounds like insanity to take money from principals of drug companies and then do reports related to opioids.

☆ HSBC: Top shareholder Ping An calls for breakup, expressing 'deep concern'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Europe’s biggest bank is facing growing calls to spin off its Asia business. Alongside chairman Mark Tucker, he defended HSBC (HBCYF)’s strategy and said splitting the bank would not be in shareholders’ interests. “Despite sharing multiple suggestions with HSBC, we have been extremely disappointed by HSBC management’s consistent closed-minded attitude to all solutions,” Huang wrote. HSBC Asia “will be the most valuable and unique bank in Asia with the strongest growth potential within the HSBC system, and also the only local bank with global competitiveness,” he added. HSBC will hold its annual shareholder meeting on May 5.

☆ ‘Oscar Wars’ Review: Hollywood’s Biggest Night
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Marc Weingarten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Cecil B. DeMille holds his Best Picture Oscar for “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952). Hollywood is a nest of vipers whose public figures tend to be narcissists who behave like entitled children. Would American society have it any other way? After all, if the dream factory functioned like any other business, there would be no Academy Awards ceremony, the most glamorous spectacle of celebrity self-love ever devised. There’s a good reason why the Oscar statuette is gold; there are no silver medals here, just winners and losers.

Berlin/London CNN —Lufthansa has canceled more than 1,300 flights scheduled for Friday after the Verdi labor union called for full-day strikes involving airport workers at seven German airports, including Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg. Lufthansa, one of Europe’s biggest airlines, was ceasing all flight operations at Frankfurt and Munich for Friday, it said in a statement on its website on Thursday. It expects regular flight operations to be “largely back to normal” on Saturday, February 18. Overall, more than 295,000 passengers were affected across Germany, according to the airport association ADV. The Verdi union is demanding a raise of 10.5% for its members.

☆ China's reopening could boost global growth — and worsen inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —China’s swift reopening after nearly three years of strict coronavirus controls could provide a much-needed boost to global economic growth, but may also stoke inflation just as it has shown signs of falling back. The revival of the world’s second largest economy — and its biggest consumer of commodities — threatens to push up global prices for fuel, industrial metals and food this year. The speed of the reopening, as well as indications that infections may have already peaked, has been surprising, analysts told CNN. Yet, if global food and energy prices start rising again, that could feed through into higher consumer prices. China’s reopening could bump up demand for agricultural goods, while the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history.

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