American companies in China are reporting record-low new investment plans for this year and declining confidence in their profitability, with uncertainty in U.S.-China relations and President Donald Trump's tariffs their top concerns, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The companies are also challenged by China's slowing economy, where weak domestic demand and overcapacity in local industries are eroding profitability for the Americans.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are set to sign a treaty on Thursday pledging to tighten defense ties and step up law-enforcement cooperation against gangs that smuggle migrants across the English Channel.

The center-right German leader is in London on his first official visit to Britain since taking office in May. Starmer visited Berlin in August 2024, announcing plans for the U.K.-Germany "friendship and cooperation" treaty with Merz's predecessor, Olaf Scholz.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has toured a panda breeding facility in the final stages of an extended state visit that has cast China as a fellow champion of a global fair trade system under threat from the United States.

The panda diplomacy stop Thursday in the central Chinese city of Chengdu highlighted Australia's special status as the only Southern Hemisphere country to host a pair of the rare Chinese native animals.

Pope Leo XIV said on Thursday he was "deeply saddened" by an Israel strike which hit a church in Gaza, killing two people, and called for "an immediate ceasefire".

"His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Church in Gaza" and "renews his calls for an immediate ceasefire", read a Telegram sent by the Vatican's Secretary of State in the pope's name.

President Donald Trump hosted a pair of Arab Gulf leaders at the White House on Wednesday as violence between Israel and Syria renewed doubts about his pledge to impose peace on the Middle East.

Trump held a meeting in the Oval Office with Bahrain's crown prince and dined privately with Qatar's prime minister.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar drew home advantage in the fourth round of Asia qualifying for the 2026 World Cup on Thursday.

In October, Qatar will host Group A that also contains the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a major political blow on Wednesday as a key governing partner announced it was quitting his coalition government, leaving him with a minority in parliament as the country faces a litany of challenges.

Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party that has long served as kingmaker in Israeli politics, announced that it would bolt the government over disagreements surrounding a proposed law that would enshrine broad military draft exemptions for its constituents — the second ultra-Orthodox governing party to do so this week.

Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system.

It's an unprecedented snapshot of "time zero," scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel.

Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies — advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused.

The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone who dies when their heart stops. Called DCD, or donation after circulatory death, it involves a controversial recovery technique or the use of expensive machines.

The weather system moving across the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday was showing a greater chance of becoming a tropical depression as it moves toward the northern Gulf Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The system has a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression as it moves west over the Gulf toward southeastern Louisiana on Thursday, the federal agency said. The severity of its impact will depend on how far it travels offshore, where conditions are ripe for a tropical depression, before reaching Louisiana. The tropical weather will affect Alabama and Mississippi as well.