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CNN —Residents of the central United States experienced poor air quality and smoke over the weekend. The effects of the fires extend far beyond Canada, with poor air quality emerging in states as far away as Missouri and New York. Several states, including Nebraska, Washington, Montana and Wisconsin, announced air quality alerts early Friday. The service in Tacoma reported the smoke would be “pushed eastward in time for the weekend.”As of Sunday afternoon, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index reported “unhealthy” levels of air quality in parts of Montana and North and South Dakota. Poor air quality caused by the smoke would mostly affect those “that are particularly sensitive to particle pollution,” they said.

☆ Alberta wildfire fighters hope rain, cooling bring relief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Smoke rises from the Stoddart Creek wildfire near Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada May 13, 2023. Amid hot, dry conditions, forecasters were tracking a front likely to move into the province on Sunday that should bring much-needed relief, including humidity and even rain, Christie Tucker, information unit manager at Alberta Wildfire, said at a Saturday briefing. "That will help us more than a short burst that would bring lightning and could spark a new wildfire." Alberta is enduring energy production cuts, home evacuations and poor air quality after an intense start to the wildfire season. This year, Alberta Wildfire responded to 496 wildfires burning more than 842,000 hectares, compared with just 459 hectares in 2022.

☆ Disney’s Star Wars Hotel Was Too Much—Even for Star Wars Fans
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jacob Passy | Allison Pohle | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Disney’s Star Wars Hotel Was Too Much Even for Star Wars Fans
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jacob Passy | Allison Pohle | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Firmino scores late goal to keep Liverpool's slim Champions League hopes alive
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Lori Ewing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Juergen Klopp's side are fifth with 66 points with one game remaining, but three points adrift of fourth-place Manchester United who have a game in hand. The home side dominated a frenzied final few minutes as chants of "Si Senor" rang out in the stadium. Liverpool's hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League appear all but over. Liverpool were missing Darwin Nunez due to a toe injury, while Aston Villa were without injured Philippe Coutinho. Gakpo pulled up his shirt to show the referee the mark, but after a VAR review, Mings was shown a yellow card.

The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents over 13,000 pilots at Texas-based American, said on Friday it will move forward with completing contractual language before presenting the contract to its board for an approval. The sources said the contract lasts four years with pay rates comparable to those secured by pilots at Delta Air Lines (DAL.N). Delta's pilots in March ratified their contract which includes over $7 billion in cumulative increases in pay and benefits over four years. It underscores pilots' bargaining power as airlines rush to boost staff numbers ahead of what is shaping up to be a busy summer travel season. American, Delta, United Airlines (UAL.O) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) are estimated to hire about 8,000 pilots this year.

☆ Adidas to donate Yeezy proceeds to Anti-Defamation League and other NGOs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Rapper Kanye West talks on the phone before attending the Versace presentation in New York, U.S. December 2, 2018. Adidas cut ties with West, who goes by Ye, in October after he made a string of antisemitic comments in interviews and on social media. The German sportswear maker was left with Yeezy shoes worth 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion). The value of Yeezy shoes in the resale market has rocketed since then, with some models more than doubling in price. Adidas said there could be further releases of Yeezy stock but no decisions have been made on timing.

☆ American Airlines pilots to get 21% pay raise this year in tentative contract -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

CHICAGO, May 19 (Reuters) - Pilots at American Airlines (AAL.O) will get a 21% pay raise this year as part of a new four-year tentative contract, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American's pilots, on Thursday said it has agreed in principle on a new contract. Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh and Allison Lampert; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Adidas to start selling Yeezy shoes at the end of May
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Rapper Kanye West talks on the phone before attending the Versace presentation in New York, U.S. December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Allison JoyceFRANKFURT, May 19 (Reuters) - Adidas will start selling some of the shoes from its defunct Yeezy partnership with rapper Kanye West at the end of May, the company said on Friday, and plans to donate the proceeds to selected organisations combating racism and hate. The news fleshes out plans initially outlined last week and follows Adidas' move to cut ties with West over anti-Semitic comments made last year, leaving the German sporting goods maker with Yeezy brand shoes worth 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion). The initial sale of some of the shoes marks the first time the products have been available to customers since Adidas (ADSGn.DE) terminated the partnership in October 2022. Among others, planned recipients of the proceeds include the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, Adidas said.

☆ Disney’s fight with DeSantis masks a bigger problem: Its business is struggling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The company’s latest salvo in the back-and-forth with DeSantis came Thursday, when it pulled the plug on its Lake Nona office complex. For Team Disney, the move is just the latest in which the company is relentlessly dunking on a relatively inexperienced politician who picked a fight with the wrong conglomerate. If you’re on Team DeSantis, shutting down Lake Nona reflects the desperation of a company whose stock is tanking and whose core businesses face serious headwinds. But Disney’s financial problems have much more to do with its money-guzzling streaming business and its rapidly dwindling profit from traditional cable TV. Disney’s stock is down more than 5% this year, while the S&P 500 is up 2%.

☆ Premarket: Turkey's big economic gamble looks set to continue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Mark Thompson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

In an exclusive interview with CNN on Thursday, Erdogan promised to continue cutting interest rates to tackle soaring prices if he is re-elected on May 28, my colleague Olesya Dmitracova reports. “Please do follow me in the aftermath of the elections, and you will see that inflation will be going down along with interest rates,” Erdogan told CNN’s Becky Anderson. “I have a thesis that interest rates and inflation, they are directly correlated. As price hikes started to accelerate around the world in late 2021, Erdogan ordered Turkey’s central bank to slash interest rates. The weekly claims attributed to Massachusetts fell by 14,042 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, representing three-quarters of the decline of 18,605 claims.

☆ Bats carry killer viruses. Scientists suggest ways to cope.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

“I have to think on a landscape scale.”Research in Australia also is deepening scientists’ understanding of bats. Flying foxes travel long distances in search of food, dispensing seeds and pollinating trees along the way. As deforestation destroyed habitats and further disrupted the food supply, the bats have increasingly formed year-round roosts near people, they noticed. Native gums flowering around Gympie lured the flying foxes away from horse paddocks and more urban areas. In fact, the most dangerous areas for spillover aren’t rare, pristine habitats absent of humans, scientists say.

CHICAGO, May 19 (Reuters) - Pilots at American Airlines (AAL.O) have reached an agreement in principle on a new contract, their union said on Friday. The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents over 13,000 pilots at the Texas-based carrier, said it will move forward with completing contractual language of the contract before presenting it to its board for an approval. The deal comes over two months after Delta's pilots ratified their contract that includes over $7 billion in cumulative increases in pay and benefits over four years. It underscores the bargaining power pilots are enjoying as airlines rush to boost staff numbers ahead of what is shaping up to be a busy summer travel season. American, Delta, United Airlines (UAL.O) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) are estimated to hire about 8,000 pilots this year.

☆ American Airlines pilots to get 21% pay raise this year in tentative contract
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Sam Zell, billionaire real estate investor, dead at 81
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Equity Residential, the company he founded decades ago, did not provide a cause of death but described Zell as an “iconic figure in real estate and throughout the corporate world.”Among his wide-ranging portfolio of investments were distressed assets in real estate and in media, including an ultimately disastrous bet on the Tribune Company. Zell had a personal net worth of $5.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zell had a penchant for scooping up cheap real estate and selling it later at a profit, a strategy he outlined in a 1978 article titled “The Grave Dancer,” which became his nickname in the industry. But Zell’s impressive track record of successful bets was marred by a brief, unsuccessful foray into media in 2007 when he orchestrated the $8.2 billion leveraged buyout of Tribune Company. In 2018, during the rise of the #MeToo movement, Zell sparked outrage by making a lewd comment about hiring women.

CNN —Disney is scrapping plans to build a new campus that would have brought thousands of employees to Florida, citing “changing business conditions,” according to a memo provided by a Disney spokesperson. It’s also tense time for Disney as the media industry grapples with a difficult advertising environment and a massive writers strike. The campus in Lake Nona, Florida, in the greater Orlando area, was expected to add 2,000 jobs. Before the Florida government selected the board in February, Disney had reached agreements with the outgoing board that limited the power of DeSantis’ appointees. Last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that he believed DeSantis’ actions to punish Disney were “anti-business.”Disney’s stock rose slightly after its announcement.

☆ Big box U.S. retailers will have a hard time navigating difficult consumer environment, says analyst
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBig box U.S. retailers will have a hard time navigating difficult consumer environment, says analystPaul Allison, senior analyst at Finimize, says they'll have a "difficult time navigating all the different crosswinds that exist right now."

☆ WestJet pay debate sets scene for Air Canada's pilots
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Allison Lampert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MONTREAL, May 18 (Reuters) - A faceoff this week between WestJet Airlines and its pilots over pay could set the stage for aviators' demands in future bargaining with Air Canada (AC.TO). It would be the first major pilots' strike in Canada since 1998, according to a spokesperson for Canada's Labor Minister Seamus O'Regan, who is at the talks. ALPA president Jason Ambrosi recently told Reuters that a key priority is to narrow the pay gap between Air Canada pilots and their U.S. counterparts, echoing the union's demand for a "North American" contract at WestJet. Gradek added there is a group of Air Canada pilots "who have been chomping at the bit" to get a significant bump in wages. Air Canada pilots, who have received a 2% wage increase per year since 2014, have complained Delta’s latest hourly pay rates are up to 45% higher.

☆ Gun-loving Texas, where most households own a firearm, has become an epicenter of mass shootings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Emma Tucker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +23 min

CNN and the GVA define a mass shooting as a shooting that injures or kills four or more people, not including the shooter. They argue that more firearms and higher gun ownership increases public safety – a stance that continues to be at odds with gun violence experts and data. The area around the Robb Elementary School signs has become a memorial dedicated to the victims of the May 24 mass shooting. Mass shootings are just a piece of that, and the strategies that we’re laying out will impact mass shootings. They’ll also impact a lot of other types of gun violence and that’s absolutely critical to saving lives,” Horwitz said.

☆ WestJet union seeks to narrow pay gap between Canada and U.S. pilots as strike looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Allison Lampert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Pilots at Onex Corp-owned (ONEX.TO) WestJet gave notice on Monday that could allow for strike action as early as May 19, raising fears of travel disruptions during Canada's Victoria Day holiday weekend. Pay is still the outlier," said Bernard Lewall, a union representative with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). "We need to narrow that gap between the North American carriers and WestJet," he said on Tuesday in an interview. Lewall declined to give a specific wage target, but said the airline must pay more to retain pilots. "We hope this measure will help WestJet passengers who otherwise could not travel due to the pilots’ strike,” said Flair CEO Stephen Jones.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington on April 11. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)It’s still likely that the US could default on its obligations early next month – possibly as soon as June 1 – if Congress doesn’t act, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated Monday. President Joe Biden is expected to meet again on Tuesday with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other top congressional leaders. Still, the actual date could be a number of days or weeks later, depending on how much revenue the federal government collects and how much it has to pay out in coming weeks, Yellen said. Yellen once again urged Congress to act as soon as possible, noting that Treasury’s borrowing costs have increased substantially for securities maturing in early June.

☆ Failed bank execs see blame everywhere, except in the mirror
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —More than two months after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank triggered a financial earthquake, three former executives spoke publicly for the first time in testimony before a Senate committee Tuesday. Here are the key takeaways from the Senate hearing:Everyone else messed upThe executives conducted a masterclass in deflecting blame for their banks’ failures. In his testimony, Becker said he was “truly sorry” for the bank’s collapse, blaming a “series of unprecedented events.”Greg Becker, former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, left, testifies next to Scott Shay, former chairman and co-founder of Signature Bank, and Eric Howell, former president of Signature Bank, during a Senate hearing. “Rumors and misconceptions spread quickly online,” sparking the bank run, Becker told lawmakers. Spoiler alert: Becker didn’t commit to returning any money and Shay said he had no intention to do so.

☆ We may never know where the COVID pandemic originated
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LONDONIt’s the enduring mystery of the COVID-19 pandemic: Where did the virus come from? They also mostly agree that many of the earliest known infections and deaths clustered around a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. Others suspect the pathogen somehow leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, 27 km from the market, where researchers study bat viruses. One concentration of jump zones includes a region of mountains and lakes about 175 km southeast of the Wuhan market. In late 2002, the SARS-CoV-1 virus emerged in Guangdong province, in southern China, and became the SARS pandemic of 2003.

☆ Premarket stocks: Wall Street's 'fear gauge' is rising as US debt talks drag on
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Markets will get volatile, maybe the stock market will go down, the Treasury markets will have their own problems,” he said. But this fear of market volatility isn’t going away. A similar fight around the debt ceiling in 2011 spurred a serious bout of market volatility. Wall Street’s key measure of volatility, the VIX, reached two year highs and soared more than 35% in just one day. Wall Street typically uses the VIX, known as the market’s “fear gauge,” as a way to measure how investors feel about financial and economic uncertainties.

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