President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that “the difficult circumstances that Lebanon went through have become behind us.”

“We’re looking forward to the coming days with a lot of optimism,” Aoun added, during a meeting in Baabda with the head of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Badr Mohammed Al-Saad.

Just as Japan's top trade negotiator traveled to Washington for another round of tariff talks last week, a bipartisan delegation bearing the name of "Japan-China Friendship" wrapped up a visit to Beijing.

A week earlier, the head of the junior party in Japan's ruling coalition was in Beijing delivering a letter from Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Details of the letter are unknown, but the two sides discussed U.S. tariffs in addition to bilateral issues.

In response to Lebanon’s ongoing financial challenges, the American University of

Beirut (AUB) will host a conference titled Restoring Financial Trust in Lebanon:

It felt much longer, but the U.S. stock market needed just a few weeks to roar all the way back to where it was on President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day." That's when he shocked Wall Street by announcing much steeper tariffs than expected on nearly all U.S. trading partners.

European and Asian markets rose on Friday, tracking Wall Street gains, as China said it was considering a US offer to negotiate steep tariffs.

U.S. markets had forged higher Thursday following strong results from tech giants Microsoft and Meta that helped offset lingering economic worries.

The United States and Ukraine on Wednesday signed a minerals deal after a two-month delay, in what President Donald Trump's administration called a new form of U.S. commitment to Kyiv after the end of military aid.

Ukraine said it secured key interests after protracted negotiations, including full sovereignty over its own rare earths, which are vital for new technologies and largely untapped.

President Donald Trump signed executive orders Tuesday to relax some of his 25% tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, a significant reversal as the import taxes threatened to hurt domestic manufacturers.

Automakers and independent analyses have indicated that the tariffs could raise prices, reduce sales and make U.S. production less competitive worldwide. Trump portrayed the changes as a bridge toward automakers moving more production into the United States.

Amazon says it's not planning to display added tariff costs next to product prices on its site — despite a report that sparked speculation the e-commerce giant would soon show the new import charges, and the White House's fiery comments denouncing the purported change.

The Trump administration's reaction appeared to be based on a misinterpretation of internal plans being considered by Amazon, rather than a final decision made by the company.

The eurozone economy expanded more than expected in the first quarter, official data showed on Wednesday, despite the uncertainty created by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

The EU's official data agency said the 20-country single currency area recorded growth of 0.4 percent over the January-March period from the previous quarter, higher than the 0.2 percent forecast by analysts for Bloomberg.

The Germany economy grew faster than expected at the start of the year in a boost to the eurozone's traditional powerhouse which has faced a long slowdown, official data showed Wednesday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in Europe's biggest economy expanded 0.2 percent in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter, according to provisional figures from federal statistics agency Destatis. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast an expansion of 0.1 percent.