The U.S. sought to build support for squeezing more money for Ukraine out of frozen Russian assets and for uniting against China's trade practices as finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich democracies opened a two-day meeting on Friday on the shores of northern Italy's scenic Lago Maggiore.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pushing at the meeting in Stresa for "more ambitious options" to unlock money from some $260 billion in Russian central bank reserves frozen in Europe and the U.S. after the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson hosted a reception on May 23 to celebrate the "strong ties" between the U.S. Embassy and the hundreds of Lebanese who have participated in U.S. Government-sponsored international exchange programs in the United States, the embassy said.

Johnson expressed her admiration for the "remarkable achievements" of U.S. exchange alumni, emphasizing the importance the United States places on the "bridges of friendship and understanding" that alumni continue to build between the United States and Lebanon.

Mastercard said Wednesday that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal.

In its latest software update rolling out this week, Mastercard is integrating artificial intelligence into its fraud-prediction technology that it expects will be able to see patterns in stolen cards faster and allow banks to replace them before they are used by criminals.

Longtime Apple executive Phil Schiller has acknowledged a court-ordered makeover of the U.S. payment system in its iPhone app store hasn't done much to increase competition — a shortcoming that could result in a federal judge demanding more changes.

Schiller, who has been overseeing the iPhone app store since its inception in 2008, made the admission during occasionally sheepish testimony about the new payment options that so far have been shunned by all but a few dozen apps since their introduction in January.

The European Commission has imposed a fine of 337.5 million euros ($366 million) on food company Mondelez, the owner of Oreo cookies and other snack brands, for obstructing sales of its products between EU member states, the bloc's executive arm said on Thursday.

Mondelez owns the Cadbury and Toblerone chocolate brands as well as Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies, Triscuit crackers and Perfect Snacks nutrition bars.

Poverty in Lebanon tripled over the course of a decade during which the small country slid into a protracted financial crisis, the World Bank said Thursday.

The percentage of people in Lebanon living below the poverty line rose from 12% in 2012 to 44% in 2022, the bank said in a report based on surveys conducted in five of the country's eight governorates.

Lebanon's reforms are insufficient to help lift the country out of its economic crisis, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

Head of the IMF mission visiting Lebanon Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, said in a statement that Lebanon's ongoing refugee crisis, clashes with Israel at its southern border and the spillover from the war in Gaza are exacerbating an already weak economic situation.

Markets on Wall Street were mixed early Wednesday but remain at or above record levels as more results from retailers take center stage amid a dearth of economic news.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average just barely edged into positive territory, rising less than 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.1%.

Cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. keep getting older, hitting a record average age of 12.6 years in 2024 as people hang on to their vehicles largely because new ones cost so much.

S&P Global Mobility, which tracks state vehicle registration data nationwide, said Wednesday that the average vehicle age grew about two months from last year's record.

Global nickel prices have soared since deadly violence erupted in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia last week.

The overseas territory, which has been under French rule for over 170 years, is a major global producer of the critical material that is needed to make electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, steel and other everyday items.