China's state security agency says it is cracking down on alleged smuggling of rare earths minerals that it says threaten national security, just weeks after Beijing and Washington agreed to make it easier for American firms to obtain from China those materials, which are critical for manufacturing and computer chip production.

In a report published Friday in the state-run newspaper Global Times, the Ministry of State Security said foreign "espionage and intelligence agencies" were colluding to steal rare earths-related goods by repackaging and relabeling rare metals to hide their Chinese origin.

Wall Street is drifting on Friday toward the finish of its third winning week in the last four, as more big U.S. companies deliver stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected.

The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in early trading after setting its all-time high the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 25 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.4% after coming off its own record.

The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump's request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won't be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza, which the U.N. humanitarian chief blames on their work trying to protect Palestinian civilians in the war-torn territory.

Visas for the local leaders of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA; the human rights agency OHCHR; and the agency supporting Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, have not been renewed in recent months, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed.

Two days of heavy downpours in South Korea have killed at least four people and forced more than 1,300 others to evacuate, officials said Thursday.

One person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain on Wednesday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday that his coalition has a "stable foundation" and has achieved a lot in its first 10 weeks, but acknowledged that "occasional setbacks" are a risk in government as his administration struggles with its first major dispute.

Merz took office on May 6, leading a coalition of his conservative Union bloc with the center-left Social Democrats that has a relatively thin parliamentary majority. He vowed to strengthen Europe's biggest economy after years of stagnation, enable Germany to build Europe's strongest conventional army and keep the U.S. on board with aid to Ukraine.

North Carolina can seek federal funding to help its overloaded response efforts to Tropical Storm Chantal, which killed at least six people and left damage from flooding in its wake, as Gov. Josh Stein announced a state of emergency Thursday.

A one-two punch from Chantal followed by severe weather in the state's center has "overwhelmed the response and recovery efforts of local governments," according to Stein's executive order.

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to wear an ankle monitor, his press office said on Friday.

The development came as federal police conducted searches at his home and his party's headquarters in Brasília, according to people familiar with the court order.

Officials struggled Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly shopping mall fire in Iraq, amid ongoing investigations into what caused the blaze.

An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the final death toll was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing.

Top church leaders in Jerusalem headed into Gaza Friday in a rare solidarity visit to the territory one day after an Israeli shell slammed into its only Catholic church, killing three people.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III entered Gaza in the morning to express the "shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land," read a statement released by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.