The United States has imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran's military and the Houthi militant group in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger, all either based or registered in Liberia, India, Vietnam, Lebanon or Kuwait. They are accused of materially benefiting Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah.

China filed a World Trade Organization complaint against the U.S. on Tuesday over what it says are discriminatory requirements for electric vehicles subsidies.

Starting this year, U.S. car buyers are not eligible for tax credits of $3,750 to $7,500 if critical minerals or other battery components were made by Chinese, Russian, North Korean or Iranian companies. The credits are part of U.S. President Joe Biden's signature climate legislation, named the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

The United States and Cyprus said Tuesday they're formalizing their collaboration in fighting money laundering, sanctions evasion and other financial crimes with an agreement offering Cypriot law enforcement authorities U.S. expertise.

The FBI and Cypriot police will sign an agreement in the coming days that includes the U.S. Department of Justice offering help to "proactively detect, investigate and prosecute cases involving financial crimes" in Cyprus, according to a joint statement.

Shares of Donald Trump's social media company jumped 40% in the first day of trading on the Nasdaq, boosting the value of the former president's large stake in the company in the process.

Trump Media & Technology Group runs the social media platform Truth Social.

Visa and MasterCard announced a settlement with U.S. merchants related to swipe fees, a development that could potentially save consumers tens of billions of dollars.

Swipe fees are paid to Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies in exchange for enabling transactions. Merchants ultimately pass on those fees to consumers who use credit or debit cards.

Australia is set to provide 4.6 billion Australian dollars ($3 billion) to British industry to support the construction of nuclear-powered submarines and ensure its new fleet arrives on time, the two countries said Friday.

The announcement came a day after the two countries signed a defense and security pact to better meet challenges such as China's increased activity in the South China Sea and South Pacific.

Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found.

Looking at monthly price tags of food and other goods, temperatures and other climate factors in 121 nations since 1996, researchers calculate that "weather and climate shocks" will cause the cost of food to rise 1.5 to 1.8 percentage points annually within a decade or so, even higher in already hot places like the Middle East, according to a study in Thursday's journal Communications, Earth and the Environment.

The Egyptian government raised fuel prices on Friday in a move that is bound to exacerbate inflationary pressures on an already-struggling population.

The new prices were announced on the Cabinet's Facebook page and came into effect Friday morning. The price of diesel, the main fuel for transport of people and goods, rose from 8.5 Egyptian pounds ($0.18) to 10 pounds ($0.21) per liter.

The Kremlin on Friday warned the European Union against plans to impose tariffs on its grain exports and use profits from frozen Russian assets to arm Ukraine.

"Consumers in Europe would definitely suffer," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked about the proposed EU duty on grain. He added that the bloc faced "very serious consequences" over its plans to use frozen Russian assets.

Global benchmarks were mostly higher on Thursday after U.S. stocks rallied to records following indications from the Federal Reserve that it expects to deliver interest rate cuts later this year.

France's CAC 40 rose 0.5% in morning trading to 8,199.57, while Germany's DAX edged up 0.8% to 18,159.77. Britain's FTSE 100 surged nearly 1.2% to 7,829.19. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.4% at 40,081.00. S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% to 5,309.50.