Wholesale prices in the United States surged 6% in January from a year earlier, decelerating for a seventh straight month. But on a month-to-month basis, prices reaccelerated in January, indicating that inflation pressures continue to underlie the U.S. economy.

The latest year-over-year wholesale inflation figure was down from 6.5% in December and from a recent peak of 11.7% in March. From December to January, though, the government's producer price index jumped 0.7%, driven up in part by a 5% surge in energy prices. That compared with a 0.2% drop from November to December, and it was nearly twice the increase economists were expecting.

BLOM Bank, Creditbank and Saradar Bank have agreed to cooperate with Judge Ghada Aoun in her request to lift banking secrecy off several accounts to facilitate her probe into the suspected illegal transfer of funds abroad by bankers, businessmen and politicians, a media report said on Thursday.

North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un attended groundbreaking ceremonies for new housing and farming projects, which are part of his push for domestic achievements as the country's economic isolation deepens amid his defiant pursuit of nuclear arms.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim broke ground Wednesday for the construction of a huge greenhouse farm in the outskirts of the capital, Pyongyang, where senior North Korean official Jo Yong Won in a speech said that providing Pyongyang residents with "fresh vegetables in all seasons" was a "top priority."

The internet sites of several German airports were disrupted on Thursday after what may have been a hacker attack, German news agency dpa reported.

The disruptions did not appear to have an immediate impact on the country's air traffic, the agency said.

Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim on Thursday pressed charges against 22 money changers of whom 18 are in custody.

Wall Street was subdued before the open Thursday ahead of another closely-watched inflation reading that comes a day after markets rallied on a strong retail sales report.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and ticked down 0.2% and the S&P 500 fell 0.3% less than an hour before the government releases data on wholesale prices and jobless claims.

Protestors, on Thursday, blocked roads in Badaro, burned tires and tried to smash the windows of some banks in the area, as banks closed their doors to customers amid an unprecedented economic crisis.

The angry protestors set fire in front of Fransabank and Bank Audi by burning tires. The fire was later extinguished by firefighters of the Beirut Fire Brigade.

The Lebanese pound on Thursday hit a record low against the dollar on the black market, as the country's grinding political and economic crises show no signs of abating.

The pound has lost more than 95 percent of its value against the greenback since the start of the economic crisis in 2019.

Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad has stressed that gasoline will not be priced in USD.

Responding to a warning from station owners that they would go on strike unless gasoline is priced in USD, Fayyad told LBCI TV that “the Ministry is working on a platform in order to issue more than two price tables per day in order to catch up with the exchange rate fluctuations.”

Sparks are flying over French President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise the retirement age — not just in the streets, but in parliament too. The proposed pension reforms have unleashed the most turbulent debate in years in the National Assembly, with uncertainty looming over the final outcome.

Tensions at parliament are fed by the unpopularity of the reform aimed at raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 and requiring people to have worked for at least 43 years to be entitled to a full pension, amid other measures.