Commercial airlines, for example, are facing slower demand as airports struggle with understaffed security checkpoints, are losing revenue. Last week, Delta said it had lost $25 million in revenue on account of the shutdown.
The hit to the overall gross domestic product in the first quarter is also difficult to quantify. Economists have come up with a range of numbers, but they agree that the longer the shutdown goes on, the wider the damage to economic growth. -CNBC
Rafael Nadal pushed his 32-year-old body to the edge and the rules to breaking point, albeit unwittingly, to win his 11th French Open title on a warm, humid Sunday afternoon, an achievement that reduced him to tears of joy.
His lower left arm cramped on him about half an hour from the end at just the moment his opponent, Dominic Thiem, surrendered to the lassitude that paralysed his otherwise stout resistance and, in the still sunny autumn of his days, the Spaniard cruised further away from all his rivals on his favourite surface with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win that took him two hours and 42 minutes on his beloved Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Whether he is now fit and willing to play Queen's Club before Wimbledon remains doubtful. He has cancelled the warm-up twice now, after the rigours of the clay season. He sounded non-commital.
Hundreds of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists on board dozens of armored trucks with mounted machine guns have tried to breach Syrian army positions in a mass coordinated attack in the Idlib de-escalation zone, the Russian military said.The Russian Defence Ministry has since responded, stating that these provocations threaten the Russian air base:
Two groups of al-Nusra militants numbering up to 200 fighters each attacked Syrian Arab Army (SAA) positions in the Abu al-Duhur and Abu Sharja communities in Idlib, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said.
Jihadists sent a suicide bomber squad to breach SAA defenses in the Abu al-Duhur area, but an anti-tank missile eliminated the explosive-laden car just before the death-mobile could strike the front line of the government forces. Government forces scrambled to repel the charge, but despite their resistance, the terrorists briefly managed to penetrate 1.5 kilometers past the army's defense line before being pushed back by the reinforcements that arrived to counter their intrusion.
"The current situation around Idlib is of serious concern. The situation in this de-escalation zone is rapidly deteriorating. The territory has actually been taken under the full control of militants from the al-Nusra alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham", Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, adding that the provocations posed serious danger to civilians and Syrian troops in the area, as well as to the Russian Hmeymim air base.
Earlier in the day, Moscow addressed Ankara, informing the Turkish side about the situation in Idlib, where settlements and Syrian troops are being attacked by militants.
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