U.S. consumer sentiment edged down to near a record low in October as rising prices because of the Middle East conflict soured households' views of the economy on the doorstep of midterm congressional elections centering on affordability issues, a survey showed on Friday. The University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers said its Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 48.0 this month from a final reading of 48.1 in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index at 46.3, which had also been the index's preliminary reading for October. October's reading marked the second-lowest on record after the all-time low of 44.8 set in May, not long after the Iran war began. "Purchasing power continues to dominate consumer views of the economy," said Joanne Hsu, the director of the Surveys of Consumers. "Sentiment is now 10 percent below a year ago and 15 percent less than February, just prior to the Iran conflict." The survey results dovetail with political polling data showing voters have a dim view of the economy and President Donald Trump's and the Republican Party's stewardship over

TOKYO — Asian Football Confederation head Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa endorsed Gianni Infantino's bid for reelection as FIFA president on Friday, just two months after describing his plan to sell a stake in FIFA tournaments as a "breach of trust". Infantino faced calls to resign over his failed attempt in July to bring private investors into a new commercial entity holding rights linked to competitions including the World Cup, with Sheikh Salman joining the presidents of UEFA and CONCACAF to pen an open letter criticizing the FIFA president's conduct. Infantino, who apologized over the handling of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project at a FIFA Council meeting in Zurich this month, is up for reelection in March next year and the support of the Asian bloc could prove crucial. Speaking at the AFC's extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, Sheikh Salman said he had ironed out his differences with Infantino. "I think that we reaffirm our full commitment, of course, to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as a FIFA president," he said in comments direc

US bans BYD from air base in Japan over security concern, news report says The US armed forces have banned Chinese carmaker BYD's EVs from an air base in Japan due to security concerns, South Korea's Yonhap news reported on Friday, after Washington put the company on a list of enterprises it believes are aiding China's military. The following are details of the measure. * The concern stems from the use of cameras and sensors mounted on the vehicles that the US believes could collect and leak sensitive security related information from the base, Yonhap said, citing US military officials stationed in Japan. * US military officials in Japan could not immediately be reached for confirmation. BYD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. * The Kadena Air Base in Okinawa will turn around BYD cars starting on Monday, Yonhap said. Vehicles used by base personnel, contractors, commercial entities and taxis will be affected without exception, Yonhap said. * In June, the US added BYD along with e-commerce company Alibaba, internet company Baidu and automaker NIO to a list of companies it

YILAN, Taiwan — Almost all of Taiwan shut down on Friday ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Champi, which is forecast to bring strong winds and torrential rain, and though the storm is weakening it could still make direct landfall on the island. At one point a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was still packing gusts of around 191 kph (119 mph) near its center, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA). The storm was about 320 kilometers (198 miles) east of Taiwan's southern tip, the CWA said. The storm's forecast track shows it will pass just off northeastern Taiwan, turn north toward the Chinese coast and eventually move into southern Japan. One person was killed and 94 were injured in Taiwan, where the government said almost 1,300 people had been evacuated from mountainous areas. CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng told Reuters that landfall could not be ruled out if it "stalls, loops, or wobbles from side to side" on approach to Taiwan. "The storm's wind radius is quite large, among the bigger ones in recent years," Liu said. "If th

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid more than 2 percent on Thursday as growth stocks weakened after earnings from mega-caps Tesla and Meta did little to address AI-related concerns, with a recovery in oil prices further adding to market unease. Meta slipped 5.2 percent after the social media giant unveiled a new class of non-voting shares to help fund its costly AI expansion. The decline came despite stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue and an upbeat fourth-quarter sales forecast. The market weakness marked a sharp reversal from Wednesday, when robust results from SpaceX and Super Micro sparked an AI-fueled rally. The optimism faded as investors shifted their focus from earnings strength to the enormous capital required to build AI infrastructure and their uncertain return timeline. The selloff put the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index on track to shed more than $616 billion in market value, while the Nasdaq-100 was set to erase nearly $1 trillion. The semiconductor index fell 5.6 percent to its lowest since July 29. "Semiconductors and the Nasdaq have been elevated to a huge degree by inve

Several government, school and hospital websites across Europe and beyond were taken offline on Wednesday as organizations rushed to protect themselves from two critical security flaws in PHP, a programming language that powers a large share of the internet. Cybersecurity agencies across the world warned that organizations unable to apply fixes in time should consider taking affected sites offline. PHP's developers said a set of new updates fixing two previously identified critical vulnerabilities was available. Here are some major websites and services taken offline or otherwise affected: Germany A spokesperson for the German digital ministry said on Wednesday the federal IT service provider ITZBund had taken several websites offline due to the discovery of PHP vulnerabilities. The temporary deactivation was purely preventive and no security incidents were known to have occurred, the spokesperson said. France The Interior Ministry said it had temporarily taken offline the websites of prefectures, which are local government administrative offices, while awaiting a security fix for the PHP

Several government, school and hospital websites across Europe and beyond were taken offline on Wednesday as organizations rushed to protect themselves from two critical security flaws in PHP, a programming language that powers a large share of the internet. Cybersecurity agencies across the world warned that organizations unable to apply fixes in time should consider taking affected sites offline. PHP's developers said a set of new updates fixing two previously identified critical vulnerabilities was available. Here are some major websites and services taken offline or otherwise affected: Germany A spokesperson for the German digital ministry said on Wednesday the federal IT service provider ITZBund had taken several websites offline due to the discovery of PHP vulnerabilities. The temporary deactivation was purely preventive and no security incidents were known to have occurred, the spokesperson said. France The Interior Ministry said it had temporarily taken offline the websites of prefectures, which are local government administrative offices, while awaiting a security fix for the PHP

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck China's southwestern region of Tibet at around 10:33 p.m. (1433 GMT) on Thursday, the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) said. Local authorities have found at least two people injured in a village near the epicentre, with some houses in villages closest to the epicentre showing cracks, the state broadcaster said. The quake is the strongest to hit China since January 2024. The epicentre was in a sparsely populated, high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The average elevation within 5 km of the epicentre is about 4,864 metres (15,960 feet), CENC data showed. Videos released by local officially run media showed people leaving their homes and seeking shelter outside or in their cars parked on the street. One resident reported being awakened by the strong quake and heard the house squeaking in the tremor. The quake was clearly felt in the local area, CENC said. The epicentre was around 400 km from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Local fire and rescue teams have mobilised and are heading to the affected region, state

South Korea's international aid agency has decided to bring back one of its two staff members from its office in Ukraine's capital on safety grounds, the Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday. Kyiv has come under increasingly heavy Russian drone and missile attacks in recent weeks, more than 4-1/2 years after Moscow's invasion of its neighbour. South Korea has also been caught up in a diplomatic dispute with Ukraine and withdrew its ambassador this month after accusing Kyiv of breaching a confidentiality agreement over the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers to the South. The decision by the Korea International Cooperation Agency to repatriate the aid agency staff member was made after a safety meeting, Yonhap said in its report. It cited an official from the agency who did not mention the dispute over the prisoners of war. The other staff member would stay in Kyiv, it added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN General Assembly in September that Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to the South. He said the men had been sent there after be

NEW YORK — Oil prices climbed about 2 percent to a five-month high on Thursday after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concerns of further disruption to energy supplies from the key exporting region. Brent futures rose $2.42, or 2.2 percent, to $111.24 a barrel at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.14, or 1.2 percent, to $98.29. That drove Brent into technically overbought territory for a third time in a week and set for its highest close since May 18. Saudi Aramco has told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf near Bahrain, Reuters reported, as fighting between the world's largest crude exporter and Yemen's Houthis intensifies. Clashes between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen's internationally recognised government have raged since the Iran-aligned group pushed towards Bab el-Mandeb, a shipping chokepoint at the Red Sea's mouth. "Reports of Middle East crude oil exports exceeding pre-conflict levels are more than countered by attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthi strikes on Sa

NEW YORK — Elon Musk's public endorsement this week of a potential $3.5 trillion merger between SpaceX and Tesla has rattled some insiders involved in the discussions, who worry his comments could invite shareholder scrutiny and delay the process by several weeks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks. The disclosure created a "mess" for the process, as it could lead to questions about how well Tesla shareholders' interests would be represented, the person said. The concerns reflect similarities some participants see with Tesla's 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, which sparked years of litigation over Musk's role in the deal. Musk, who serves as CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla and owns significant stakes in each company, this week told investors that the two companies were examining what would be the largest corporate transaction in history and revealed that both had formed special committees to evaluate it. The backlash to those remarks is reported here for the first time. The parties have hired advisers, but discussions are at an early stage, three sources familiar with

Meta Platforms has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to keep him living in California after the CEO warned he was considering leaving the state that houses the company's headquarters if voters pass a wealth tax proposal next month. Under the deal, Zuckerberg will get non-voting shares he can sell to potentially foot a multi-billion-dollar tax bill in the event the proposal is approved, in exchange for a commitment to remain a resident of California, or wherever Meta maintains its headquarters, for eight years, Meta said on Wednesday. Zuckerberg, the world's sixth richest person according to Forbes, told Meta he was considering moving his primary residence outside California because Proposition 40, a ballot measure dubbed the "California wealth tax," could expose him to a massive tax liability, potentially forcing him to sell voting shares to pay it. Proposition 40, which asks Californians whether to impose a one-time 5% tax on the state's billionaires, is far from certain to pass, political analysts say. The state is home to as many as 250 billionaires collectively worth upwards of $2

ST PETERSBURG, Russia — Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a retired US schoolteacher in custody since 2022, from prison on Wednesday and took him to St Petersburg to fly back to the United States, after talks that Washington said were a step toward ending the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin made the announcement at a meeting in St Petersburg with US envoy Steve Witkoff, who later said the talks will continue toward planned technical-level discussions involving the US, Russia and Ukraine. Witkoff called Putin a "humanitarian" in thanking him for the move, a remark that drew sharp rebuke from Republican and Democratic lawmakers given Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The prisoner release comes as President Donald Trump's recent gestures toward Moscow, including a deal to buy Russian diesel and a waiver of new sanctions, have already sparked bipartisan pushback in the US Congress and worry in European capitals. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin had freed Hubbard, 74, at Trump's request, and that he had also taken into account the American's poor heal

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led gains on Wednesday after quarterly results from SpaceX and Super Micro Computer improved appetite for AI-linked stocks, while Netflix slipped as its forecast failed to impress investors. Elon Musk's rocket and space technology firm rose 9.8 percent after he said on Tuesday that a merger of SpaceX and Tesla would be "a good idea". SpaceX also posted its first profit as a public company. Tesla shares were up 3.5 percent. Super Micro jumped 10.3 percent to the top of the S&P 500 after the AI server maker forecast quarterly revenue and profit margin above Wall Street estimates, signaling that AI demand remained resilient. Peers HPE and Dell rose 2.2 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. Investors drew comfort from the reports as concerns over the profitability of the AI buildout triggered a selloff in AI-linked stocks last week, with data center operator CoreWeave at the center of the storm. Its shares were marginally down, suggesting lingering caution in the sector. "The sentiment around tech has shifted ... There's a lot of stress in the credit markets right now t

Government websites across Europe went dark on Wednesday as operators raced to patch two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, one of the most widely used programming languages on the web. The developers of PHP said on Wednesday they would release patches for two critical vulnerabilities, and EU cybersecurity officials warned organisations unable to apply the fixes to take affected websites offline. Here is what you need to know: What is PHP? PHP is a programming language that runs websites. It works behind the scenes. When a user loads a page, the server running PHP assembles the content and sends the finished page to the browser. It is free, open source and maintained by volunteers. Site owners rarely interact with it directly. PHP runs nearly 70 percent of all websites whose programming language can be identified, according to web technology tracker W3Techs. It is the engine behind WordPress, the software that powers about 40 percent of all websites such as blogs, small business pages, government portals, online shops and news sites. What are the risks of the flaws? The two vulnerabilities ar

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Wednesday to prevent a repeat of last weekend's violence at protests planned in the coming days, and dismissed as "stupid" and "unacceptable" comments from some foreign leaders about the unrest. France's main student union, UNEF, has called for further rallies on Saturday, while the Yellow Vest group, which emerged as a potent anti-establishment movement in 2018, has filed plans for a march through central Paris the same day. Efforts to ease social tensions showed little sign of progress, as unions pledged to press ahead with a general strike on November 5 to denounce the high cost of living and cuts to public services after government talks ended inconclusively. France was hit by some of the worst urban tumult in years on October 17 on the fringe of nationwide protests, shocking the nation both because of its scale and the apparent inability of police to contain it. Macron said he would meet intelligence officials and senior ministers on Thursday to discuss the crisis. "Those who want to cause disorder in city centres next Saturday will be pre