Town Hall News

By Julien Pretot PARIS (Reuters) -Novak Djokovic briefly struggled before bulldozing past Hungarian journeyman Marton Fucsovics 7-6(2) 6-0 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the French Open third round. The world number three, who sparked controversy by writing “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” on a camera lens earlier this week, survived a high-octane end to the first set to advance to a clash with Spanish 29th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. […]

By Sinéad Carew (Reuters) -Shares of large and mid-sized U.S. banks sharply underperformed the broader market on Wednesday with the S&P 500 Banks Index closing down 2.0% while the benchmark S&P 500 Index fell 0.6% with worries about commercial real estate loans in focus among bank investors. Investors worried about potential losses among banks from office real estate loans after comments from executives, including Wells Fargo & Co Chief Executive […]

By Rajesh Kumar Singh, David Shepardson and Diane Bartz (Reuters) -American Airlines Group will appeal a U.S. court decision requiring it to end an alliance with JetBlue Airways Corp, American CEO Robert Isom said on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston ruled on May 19 that the airlines’ “Northeast Alliance” broke antitrust law and ordered the companies to dissolve the arrangement within 30 days. “We’ve got a legal […]

By Vansh Agarwal (Reuters) -CrowdStrike Holdings Inc forecast annual revenue largely in line with the Street, pushing its shares down 11% after hours, and its CFO said he did not expect macroeconomic conditions to improve for the rest of the year. CrowdStrike’s shares are set to lose about $4 billion in market capitalization, if losses hold through open on Thursday. The stock has gained about 52% so far in 2023. […]

By Caroline Valetkevitch (Reuters) – Investors were awaiting a critical vote in the U.S. House of Representatives over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling late on Wednesday, which could further ease concerns of a destabilizing default that have hung over markets for most of 2023. Any stock market rally on passage of the deal would likely be short-lived, with the S&P 500 already near its highest levels since August 2022, said […]

Israel’s Economists Warn of Dire Consequences of Proposed Judicial Reforms   A compromise on the judicial reforms could prevent some of the predicted long-term economic consequences but the short-term ones are already here   By Debbie Mohnblatt/The Media Line   Israel’s leading economists have issued another warning about the short-term and long-term economic ramifications of enacting the proposed judicial reforms. Most insist that achieving consensus through President Isaac Herzog’s talks […]

Lebanon Has the Highest Smoking Rate in the Middle East On World No-Tobacco Day, we explore Lebanon’s deep-rooted tobacco crisis—high smoking rates, failed regulations, economic impact, and hurdles in law enforcement due to industry interests By Andrea López-Tomàs/The Media Line [Beirut] As the world marks another World No-Tobacco Day, it’s time to focus our attention on a country often overlooked in global health discourse yet enveloped in a heavy cloud […]

By Karolos Grohmann PARIS (Reuters) – French veteran Gael Monfils on Wednesday withdrew from the French Open citing a wrist injury, a day after his five-set victory over Sebastian Baez, sending Denmark’s Holger Rune straight into the third round. The 36-year-old, who was due to face Rune in Thursday’s night session on Philippe Chatrier court, said he had received medical advice not to play any more at the French Open. […]

By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) – The current Colombia head of coal miner Drummond Co Inc and his predecessor will be tried for allegedly funding right-wing paramilitaries, the country’s attorney general’s office said on Wednesday, as the U.S.-based company denied any wrongdoing by the executives. There is “abundant proof” current head Jose Miguel Linares, who took up his post in 2013 after serving as vice-president of legal, and Augusto […]