Britain's government will have more than double its previous buffer for meeting its fiscal targets, due in large part to tax rises, according to estimates by the country's fiscal watchdog published on its website on Wednesday ahead of finance minister Rachel Reeves' budget statement.

A massive fire engulfed multiple high-rise towers of a residential complex in Hong Kong. Several people remain trapped inside the burning towers.

Reuters documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.

The U.S.-backed 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, which became public last week, drew from a Russian-authored paper submitted to the Trump administration in October.

Trump's tariff flip-flop on goods from China, a lifeline for U.S. retailers, have forced small firms to choose between paying steep levies or finding new suppliers at even higher cost.

Big retailers traditionally spend millions on attracting eyeballs for the holiday season. Now, they're looking to get noticed by something else - AI agents.

Retailers in the U.S. are gearing up for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which kicks off the holiday shopping season that typically account for a third of U.S. retailers' annual profits.

What matters in U.S. and global markets today

The officials arrived at the secret CIA archival facility one morning in April. Their mission: to seize still-classified CIA files on the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Threats by the Trump administration to recall Senator Mark Kelly to active Navy duty, and to prosecute him under military law for urging troops to disobey illegal orders, would face steep hurdles in a system designed to give troops strong rights to due process, according to seven military law experts.

Under the arrangement, Taiwanese companies including TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, would send new capital and workers to expand their U.S. operations and train U.S. workers.

Germany is the only member of the G7 group of advanced economies that has failed to grow for the past two years.

Israeli security forces launched what the military described as a counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank, which Palestinians said was targeting the city of Tubas.

Britain's anxious budget process reaches its climax on Wednesday when Finance Minister Rachel Reeves releases her long-awaited plans. Yet a rallying U.S. bond market is quietly offering the UK a cushion.

The torch for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics was lit on Wednesday in an indoor and scaled-down ceremony in ancient Olympia due to weather warnings, marking the final push for organisers for the event in February.