German unions are calling on thousands of workers across the country's transport system to stage a one-day strike on Monday that is expected to bring widespread disruption to planes, trains and local transit.

The ver.di service workers' union and the EVG union, which represents many railway workers, announced the 24-hour walkout in a joint appearance Thursday that come as employees in many sectors have been seeking hefty raises to reflect persistently high inflation.

Crisis-hit Lebanon is "at a very dangerous moment", a visiting delegation of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday, criticizing slow progress on reforms needed to unlock billions in loans.

Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement in April 2022 on a $3-billion-dollar loan needed to save its economy, which has been in free fall since 2019.

Only 10% of U.S. adults say they have high confidence in the nation's banks and other financial institutions, a new poll finds. That's down from the 22% who said they had high confidence in 2020.

Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank this month, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds that a majority say the government is not doing enough to regulate the industry.

Lebanon's economic meltdown, described by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent global history, has plunged most of the population into poverty according to the United Nations.

In the past two days, Lebanese rallied and blocked roads to protest deteriorating living conditions.

Fury at top Credit Suisse managers. Lament over damage to Switzerland's image as a stable, reliable banking center. Relief that authorities stepped in to help protect deposits, but worry about keeping cash invested in a bank that failed to manage its own money adequately.

On Swiss streets, emotions were running the gamut among Credit Suisse customers after the government this weekend orchestrated a takeover of the country's second-largest bank by rival UBS — a bid to prevent further upheaval in the global financial system that began with the collapse of two U.S. banks.

When two tech-linked U.S. banks failed this month, among the investors who lost millions were public-sector pension funds responsible for ensuring the retirements of teachers, firefighters and other government workers.

The pension funds, like others, have reaped the benefits of bull markets and, like many investors, have suffered when investments soured.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said future interest rate decisions are open after upheaval in the global banking system left the economic outlook "blurrier" than just a few weeks ago.

Whether to keep hiking rates would depend on incoming data, above all whether the bank could see signs that painfully high inflation is headed convincingly down, she said during a conference Wednesday at Frankfurt's Goethe University.

Wall Street quietly drifted between small gains and losses early Wednesday ahead of a closely-watched decision by the Federal Reserve on whether to raise interest rates in the midst of a global banking crisis.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials inched less than 0.1% higher, while futures for the S&P 500 were essentially flat.

Lebanon’s struggling banks resumed work Wednesday on the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, after a day of protests and sharp currency swings.

The Association of Banks announced Tuesday night that all lenders in the country will suspend the strike and resume work Wednesday.

The Lebanese pound recovered by around LBP 30,000 on the black market on Tuesday, after Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh announced a new Sayrafa platform scheme.