The International Monetary Fund said that more work is needed to reach an agreement on restructuring Lebanon's banking sector, one of the steps towards unlocking billions of dollars in financial assistance.

High airfares could become the new norm as airlines contend with soaring jet fuel prices and mounting operating costs, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines' chief said Friday.

Wong Hong, director-general of the association grouping 18 airlines in the region, said carriers were trying to contain ticket prices while protecting their finances and avoiding fare increases that could drive passengers away.

The Trump administration says it has returned more than $12 billion, or almost 99%, of the revenue obtained from the sales of Venezuelan oil since it ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro in January.

In a report released Thursday by the State Department, the accounting firm KPMG said the sales of Venezuelan crude, along with minor amounts of gold, minerals and fertilizer, produced $12.26 billion. Almost all of the money has been returned to Venezuela under the terms of a broad energy deal reached with the country's interim authorities, according to the report.

The UK government on Thursday slapped new sanctions on all of Russia's top 10 oil producers ramping up pressure on Moscow over the Ukraine war.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was unveiling "a sweep of stinging new sanctions to turn the screws on Russia's oil revenues and drive forward an end to the Kremlin's needless war" as European leaders met in Dublin for talks focused on the conflict.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday affair raises national security concerns.

The company named Colette Kress as interim CEO. She is the current executive vice president and chief financial officer.

A Russian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk arrived in Kabul Thursday for trade and investment talks with Afghanistan's Taliban government, Afghan officials said.

Russia officially recognized the Taliban government in July 2025. It remains the only country to have done so since the former insurgent group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Largely isolated from the international community and with a struggling economy, Kabul has been keen to increase foreign investment and open new trade avenues.

Spain's interim lower house of parliament on Thursday ratified housing measures designed to limit evictions and real estate speculation a day after a general strike and major street protests over the European nation's housing cost crunch.

The duration of the approved measures, however, will likely depend on the outcome of a national election set for later this month.

The Karin, a 400-foot-long (120-meter-long) cargo ship, sat moored this week on Ireland's boggy River Shannon estuary. Soon it set sail for Russia laden with a white powder that can be forged into weapons vital to Moscow's war on Ukraine.

Alumina, the key ingredient in aluminum, goes into everything from toothpaste and lipstick to missiles and drones. A Russian-owned plant in southern Ireland is Europe's biggest alumina refinery and regularly sends shiploads of the substance directly to St. Petersburg and other Russian ports.

For more than a century, the Tabbara family has been serving up falafel to Beirut's residents.

Their business, which predates Lebanon's founding, has survived two world wars and a series of local conflicts in the small Mediterranean nation.

Early signs suggest China 's biggest online shopping event is struggling to persuade anxious consumers to spend more, despite discounts.

The Singles' Day festival, a major discount campaign comparable to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S., centers on Nov. 11. But it begins weeks earlier and is seen as a barometer of the broader economy.