Twelve countries including Britain, Canada and France Tuesday said they would slap sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, after increasing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the occupied territory.

"Today, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures," the nations' foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

In the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterfront once busy with boats, trucks and workers has fallen quiet. It's a front line of the economic pain that the United States now hopes to intensify after six months of war.

The Associated Press visited the city shaken by new U.S. airstrikes targeting coastal areas in the past week, and found anger along with growing anxiety about simply getting by as a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continues.

Japan has protested against Chinese controls that will limit its exports of a key chemical used to make computer chips, saying Tuesday that Tokyo is studying the potential impact on Japanese companies.

China imposed the curb on imports of dichlorosilane from Japan, saying its exports of the material, also known as DCS, have violated anti-dumping regulations and harmed China's domestic industry.

World shares and U.S. futures skidded Tuesday as flaring conflict in the Middle East pushed oil prices higher.

A wave of Houthi attacks on oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia's southern region has escalated renewed fighting between an important U.S. ally and Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.

Britain is set to ban goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in response to an expansion program that is imperiling efforts to establish a Palestinian state, the U.K. government said Tuesday.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is due to give details in the House of Commons later, after saying last week that he would "reset" U.K. relations with Israel.

China's exports jumped 25% in August from a year earlier on strong demand for autos and high-tech goods as its record trade surplus widened further, its customs agency said Tuesday.

The data was broadly in line with what economists had expected and comes just ahead of a planned meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. That's set for late September, though Beijing has not yet confirmed the exact date for the visit.

Volkswagen's sweeping restructuring announced Thursday underlines the force of the China shock hitting Germany's economy as the world's biggest car market, short years ago a major profit center, rapidly becomes a major competitive challenge.

The stiff headwinds from China facing Germany's largest carmaker helped break a logjam on the board of directors and convince employee, union and local government officials that Volkswagen needed rapid change. That will include the loss of 50,000 jobs and probably four German auto plants where manufacturing costs can no longer compete.

Confronted by an intransigent Iranian government that has refused to back down in the face of a massive military campaign, President Donald Trump appears to have settled on a dual-prong approach that combines economic pressure with the potential of a devastating escalation in force.

Having launched "Operation Economic Outcast" just last week to try to isolate Iran from its remaining global trade partners, the Trump administration also resumed strikes in recent days, prompting Iranian retaliation that has renewed concerns of an all-out regional war.

Diesel hit a new record price in the U.S. on Friday, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time ever as the six-month war with Iran disrupts the world's flow of fuel.

Because diesel is used for many freight and delivery networks, higher diesel prices mean higher transportation costs for a long list of everyday goods.

Beijing urged France on Thursday to abandon its recently implemented law on ultra-fast fashion, lambasting the new measure targeting Chinese firms including Shein and Temu as "clearly discriminatory".

"China urges France to immediately halt the implementation of the anti-ultra-fast fashion law," commerce ministry spokeswoman Huang Ling said at a news conference.