By Sabine Siebold BERLIN (Reuters) – Scrambles of NATO jets to intercept Russian aircraft approaching allied airspace over the Baltic Sea region went up 20% to 25% in the first quarter of 2024, a NATO source said on Thursday, with the increased Russian activity likely due to a hike in NATO drills. The source declined…
By Ann Saphir (Reuters) – Federal Reserve policymakers waiting to see renewed progress on inflation before reducing borrowing costs got some encouraging data on Wednesday with a government report showing inflation eased a bit in April. The 3.4% rise in the consumer price index from a year earlier, and the 0.3% increase from March,…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China has not responded to U.S. nuclear-weapons risk-reduction proposals and Washington has questions about Beijing’s call for no-first-use talks while China continues to build up its arsenal, the top U.S. arms control official said on Wednesday. Under Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the U.S. estimates China…
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway on Wednesday revealed a new, $6.72 billion stake in the insurer Chubb, ending months of speculation that it had made a big new investment. In a regulatory filing describing its U.S.-listed stock holdings as of March 31, Berkshire said it owned 25.92 million shares of Chubb….
LONDON (Reuters) – A “disorderly evolution” of the situation in Slovakia following an attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico could raise the political risk level for the country’s credit rating, Moody’s said on Wednesday. Fico was in a life-threatening condition having been shot in the central Slovak town of Handlova. Moody’s, which rates Slovakia…
By Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Everything changed for Paul Tran and his wife Lynda when the skincare brand they co-founded went viral on TikTok. The Atlanta couple created @loveandpebble, and when they shared their Beauty Pops ice face masks on TikTok in 2021, it took their small business to another level. “We sold…
(Reuters) – Comcast is set to launch a streaming bundle combining its Peacock service with Netflix and Apple TV+, as the media and broadband company looks to retain subscribers in the face of stiff competition. The new bundle, StreamSaver, will be available to all its broadband, TV and mobile subscribers and at a “vastly reduced…
By Sruthi Shankar and Medha Singh (Reuters) – GameStop and AMC Entertainment have again captured retail investors’ attention, reminiscent of “the meme stock frenzy” that gripped Wall Street three years ago, following social media posts from the leading figure behind that rally “Roaring Kitty”. Here is what you need to know about the recent surge…
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday support for U.S. central bank independence remains “very strong” in Congress, pushing back on concerns surfaced in recent news coverage that the hands-off status the Fed largely enjoys may be jeopardized by a second presidency of Donald Trump. “I’m less worried about that than…
(Reuters) – Meta Platforms is exploring making earphones powered by artificial intelligence with cameras, The Information reported on Monday citing employees familiar with the matter. A slew of companies, from startups to conglomerates including Meta, are looking to develop AI-based wearable devices to capture growing interest in the sector. The Facebook-parent expects the device, being…
