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☆ Militants Fire Rockets Into Israel From Gaza, Responding to Airstrikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Isabel Kershner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Militants in Gaza fired almost 300 rockets toward Israel on Wednesday afternoon, reaching as far north as the sky above the suburbs of Tel Aviv, as Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes against what it described as rocket-launching squads and sites operated by the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Palestinian coastal enclave. The flare-up in fighting came after an attack on Islamic Jihad by Israel on Tuesday that killed three of its top commanders, along with 10 civilians, four of them children, according to Palestinian officials. The killings left both Israelis and Palestinians bracing for an escalation in cross-border attacks at a time when violence in the region has been surging. After Israel’s initial assault before dawn on Tuesday, at least eight more Palestinians were killed in subsequent Israeli strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The Israeli military said that its strikes on Wednesday were defensive ones aimed at thwarting attacks by Islamic Jihad, which Israel, the United States and many other Western countries classify as a terrorist organization.

The U.S. debt crisis is a headache for Japan, which is this year's G7 chair and the world's biggest holder of U.S. debt. Five more countries were invited to the outreach including Brazil, India and Indonesia - but not China - although emerging nations' debt problems will feature high on the agenda. On the other hand, Tokyo is courting China to join a creditor nations' meeting it initiated to resolve Sri Lanka's debt. "The agenda of talks show how G7 is becoming increasingly politicized in nature, with an emphasis on countering China." The International Monetary Fund last month trimmed its 2023 global growth outlook and warned a severe flare-up of financial system turmoil could slash output to near recessionary levels.

Our experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here's how). My partner was willing to carry most of our financial load — and I couldn't help but find it unfair. However, being able to prioritize my health has been a huge benefit to my wellbeing. Some people assume that people with chronic pain and fatigue can just "work through it" or distract themselves with work. When it comes down to it, I realize that I need to take care of my physical health first.

OTTAWA, May 9 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday Canada will not be intimidated by retaliation from China after Beijing expelled a Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat response to Ottawa's decision to eject a Chinese diplomat on Monday. Canada expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei over allegations related to foreign interference, and hours later, China asked a Canadian diplomat in Shanghai to leave by May 13 in response to what it called Ottawa's "unreasonable actions". "We understand there is retaliation, but we will not be intimidated, we will continue to do everything necessary to keep Canadians protected from foreign interference," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. China "took a very measured response," Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said in an interview broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "So putting sanctions on Canada at this stage would have sent a very bad message to foreign companies."

☆ How El Chapo’s sons built a fentanyl empire poisoning America
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

Headed by Iván, El Chapo’s oldest son, the siblings have emerged as key figures in the Sinaloa Cartel, U.S. and Mexican anti-narcotics officials said. But he was killed in 2008 in Culiacán in a hail of bullets amid infighting between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The agency in April placed Iván on the list of its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, joining Jesús Alfredo and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa Cartel legend and El Chapo’s alleged former business partner. They also kidnapped eight soldiers and surrounded military housing where wives and children of Mexican soldiers lived, Mexican officials said. Despite that blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, fentanyl keeps flowing north.

OTTAWA, May 9 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said Canada will not be intimidated by China following tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions by Ottawa and Beijing. "We understand there is retaliation, but we will not be intimidated, we will continue to do everything necessary to keep Canadians protected from foreign interference," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. China "took a very measured response," Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said in an interview aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Beijing is conducting a "charm offensive (to) convince foreign enterprises to come back to China to invest," Saint-Jacques added. "So putting sanctions on Canada at this stage would have sent a very bad message to foreign companies."

☆ What Is Islamic Jihad and Why Is Israel Targeting It?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group based in Gaza, was the target of Israeli airstrikes early Tuesday, and was at the center of a flare-up in violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip last summer. What is Islamic Jihad? The second-largest Palestinian armed resistance group in Gaza, Islamic Jihad has often been eclipsed by the larger Hamas movement, which has controlled and governed Gaza since 2007. Islamic Jihad was founded in the 1980s in the Gaza Strip to fight the Israeli occupation and maintains a presence in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Iran supports both groups with funding and weapons, and Israel and the United States list both as terrorist organizations.

☆ Video shows police yelling at a driverless Waymo taxi to stop before it runs over a fire hose
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Footage obtained by San Francisco news site Mission Local shows police trying to stop a Waymo driverless taxi. The driverless taxis ferrying passengers throughout San Francisco are a technological marvel — and sometimes a nuisance. Waymo operates autonomous taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, and customers can hail rides through an app. As impressive as they are, the driverless taxis on roads today still have trouble reacting to unusual situations like blocked streets or commands from first responders. A recent viral Tik Tok video shows a police officer repeatedly gesturing for a Waymo taxi to pull over.

☆ Isolated protest in eastern Cuba sparks dueling versions on social media
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

But state-run radio journalist Mabel Pozo said on social media that the protest began when "various citizens, some in a state of drunkenness, yelled statements against the Cuban social process and regarding their dissatisfactions." Reuters could not independently verify the reports or video on social media or the official media version of events. Dissidents have accused the Cuban government of blocking internet traffic countrywide when protests flare in a bid to contain anti-government sentiment. Global web watchdog Netblocks showed a sharp drop in web traffic in Cuba on Saturday shortly after the protest was first reported. The state-run media version of events appeared to blame the lack of internet access on a spike in web traffic.

☆ Take Five: Sell in May?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The services component of the price data can gauge demand, but consumer and producer price data broadly paint a picture of deflation. April inflation data is out Thursday. At 10.1%, UK inflation is the highest in Western Europe. Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics4/ SELL IN MAYConventional wisdom has it that May is the ideal point to take profit on equities and lay low until later in the year. "Sell in May and go away" is based on the premise that the best six-month period of the year for stock market returns is November to April, while the leanest is May to October.

☆ Factbox: Old disputes overshadow visit by Japan's Kishida to South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

May 5 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday in the latest effort to improve bilateral ties. - Relations between the two North Asian U.S. allies have been strained over disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. - Relations deteriorated in 2019 when Japan restricted exports of high-tech materials for making chips and display panels to South Korea. - In late March, Japan's trade ministry lifted export curbs to South Korea on the high-tech materials, while South Korea withdrew its complaint filed at the World Trade Organization on Japan's export controls. Under Yoon, South Korea has resumed trilateral military drills and agreed to more intelligence sharing on issues like tracking ballistic missile launches from North Korea.

☆ NASA footage reveals 4 types of solar eruptions and 'holes' that could affect Earth as the sun grows more active
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The sun is slamming Earth with solar flares and high-speed eruptions of plasma. Solar flares can have the power of 1 billion hydrogen bombsA solar flare erupts — the bright flash on the bottom right of the sun — on March 28, 2023. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the upper right – on March 3, 2023. CMEs are common culprits of solar storms on Earth, since they can send a powerful flood of solar particles washing over the planet. Coronal holes open a highway for solar windA video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the massive hole in the sun's atmosphere.

☆ US Treasury's top international official heads to Europe, Asia for talks on economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department's top international official is heading to Europe and Asia this week for talks on current macroeconomic trends and events, and a G7 finance officials meeting, Treasury said in a statement on Thursday. Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Jay Shambaugh will attend meetings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris on Friday, before traveling on to Singapore and Japan, Treasury said. The meeting takes place a month after the International Monetary Fund trimmed its 2023 global growth outlook slightly and warned that a severe flare-up of financial system turmoil could slash output to near recessionary levels. Shambaugh will join U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at the G7 meeting in Niigata, Treasury said. Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ With a gulp and burp, a bloated star swallows a Jupiter-sized planet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

As the star grew, its surface reached the orbit of the doomed planet, with mayhem ensuing. Red giant stars can swell to a hundred times their original diameter, engulfing any planets in their way. This planet, perhaps a few times bigger than Jupiter, orbited its star in less than a day at a distance closer than Mercury, our innermost planet, orbits the sun. Even before it is engulfed whole, our data provides evidence that the planet tries to rip out the star's surface layers with its own gravity. But the star happens to be a thousand times more massive so the planet can't do much and eventually makes the plunge," De said.

☆ Loews CEO James Tisch uses a famous Warren Buffett quote to explain the banking fiasco - and warns more lenders may get into trouble.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Loews CEO James Tisch used a colorful Warren Buffett quote to describe the recent banking chaos. Tisch warned of more turmoil ahead, and urged the Fed to pause its rate hikes for three months. "As Warren Buffett says, 'When the tide goes out, you see who was swimming without a bathing suit,'" Tisch said. If authorities hadn't intervened, they risked a "full-fledged banking catastrophe" and a "massive, uncontrolled bank scare" with huge repercussions, he continued. However, Tisch warned of more trouble ahead.

☆ Why Prices, Inflation Are Still Soaring: Corporate Price Gouging
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

While many of the problems that helped trigger the upward spiral have abated, prices are still high and getting higher. The idea that companies are taking advantage of disruptions to push price increases on consumers has many names — greedflation, excuseflation, price gouging, corporate profiteering — but the gist is the same. Supply-chain issues and other disruptions made sense as drivers of higher prices, Chris Becker, a senior economist and the associate director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, told me. "Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge." Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge.

☆ IMF's Georgieva says more vulnerabilities in banking sector may be exposed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) -International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday she expects more weaknesses to be exposed in the banking sector, only hours after First Republic Bank was rescued by JPMorgan Chase . Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, speaks at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mike BlakeSpeaking at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, Georgieva immediately addressed the biggest topic of the day - the banking crisis that has been unnerving investors for weeks. “Recent events continue to remind us of the challenges posed by the interaction between tighter monetary and financial conditions and the buildup in vulnerabilities in the global financial system,” a spokesperson said. The IMF last month trimmed its 2023 global growth outlook slightly as higher interest rates cooled activity but warned that a severe flare-up of financial system turmoil could slash output to near-recessionary levels.

☆ Biden to reassure Philippines' Marcos as China tensions flare
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden listens during the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2023. Marcos, who became president last year, has sought warm relations with both the United States and China, who are vying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region. "Some of the steps that China have taken have concerned (Marcos), probably even surprised him," said one senior Biden administration official. Experts say the United States considers the Philippines a potential location for rockets, missiles and artillery systems to counter a Chinese amphibious assault. "We're standing shoulder to shoulder in the South China Sea, where our alignment has never been stronger," said one U.S. official.

☆ France pension protests explained: France is still mad -- but can the protests last?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Joseph Ataman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

In 1995, weeks-long mass protests forced the government of the day to abandon plans to reform public sector pensions. For many in France, the pensions system, as with social support more generally, is viewed as the bedrock of the state’s responsibilities and relationship with its citizens. Nathan Laine/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesIn contrast, during the Yellow Vest protests, started in opposition to hikes in fuel prices, violence gradually soured public support. That these pensions protests continue to hold such popular goodwill is an ominous sign for Macron’s future plans. The size and violence of pensions protests spiked when Macron forced the legislation past the country’s lower legislative house without a vote.

☆ Netanyahu tells CNN Israel will remain a ‘robust democracy’ despite judiciary plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Richard Allen Greene | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Jerusalem CNN —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN Sunday his country would remain a “robust democracy” despite controversial plans to overhaul the country’s judicial system. With the Israeli parliament starting its summer session on Sunday the proposals could be back in play. “Israel has been thrown off balance,” Netanyahu argued, as he often does when defending the judicial overhaul program. “The onus is on all of us” – Israel, the United States and our Arab neighbors – “to stop Iran from becoming a military nuclear power,” he said. Netanyahu also rejected Zakaria’s suggestion that the flare-up of violence between Israel and the Palestinians could torpedo Israel’s warming relations with its Arab neighbors.

☆ Forget the pension protests. France’s economy has momentum
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

France’s economy grew 0.2% in the first quarter of this year, its national statistics agency said Friday, after stagnating in the previous quarter. Yet the long-running protests are unlikely to leave a lasting dent in France’s economy, according to Charlotte de Montpellier, a senior economist at Dutch bank ING. But its $2.8 trillion economy has held up comparatively well. Office buildings illuminated in the La Defense business district of Paris, France, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. ‘Momentum’ building for banksBritain’s exit from the European Union has also been a boon for France’s financial sector.

The case for investing in India — a nation of 1.4 billion — is clear, and only bolstered by recent geopolitical shifts. As Western leaders look to boost economic cooperation with countries that share similar values, India, the world’s largest democracy, stands to gain. Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty ImagesIndia’s so-called “demographic dividend,” the potential economic growth arising from a large working-age population, represents a major opportunity. A recent Air India order for more than 200 Boeing planes could support more than 1 million American jobs. One consistent with our democratic values, and another not.”‘Economic miracle?’Beyond geopolitics, India’s economic and demographic fundamentals are driving business interest.

Most Western embassies in Sudan were evacuated a week into the fighting, leaving many Sudanese visa applicants without their travel documents and in legal limbo. Several Sudanese citizens told CNN they cannot flee the conflict-ridden country because their passports are held at evacuated Western embassies. These are passports of Sudanese passport holders who have applied for a short-stay Schengen visa or an MVV (provisional residence permit). But unfortunately the ICRC cannot issue emergency travel documents for people to leave their own country,” they told CNN in a statement. Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters“I am now an obstacle for my family since they cannot travel and leave me,” she told CNN.

☆ Analysis: Debt ceiling worries bubble up in US stock options market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - Worries over a debt ceiling showdown are creeping into U.S. options markets, as investors grow increasingly concerned that lawmakers will be unable to hammer out a deal in coming weeks, potentially sparking stock volatility as a key deadline nears. In the options market, however, worries are bubbling as some analysts warn the so-called X-date, after which the government is no longer able to pay all its bills, could come in the first half of June. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday warned that failure by Congress to raise the government's debt ceiling - and the resulting default - would trigger an "economic catastrophe" that would send interest rates higher for years to come. AWKWARD TIMINGLegislative standoffs over debt limits this last decade have largely been resolved before they could ripple out into markets. "You are going to have all these fundamental pressures -- and then our friends in Washington aren't going to be able to agree on what to do with the debt ceiling," he said.

☆ Debt ceiling worries bubble up in US stock options market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

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