BUSINESS

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday easing regulations for the private space industry, including eliminating some environmental reviews, in a move likely to please his erstwhile advisor Elon Musk.

When Snoop Dogg sang the praises of Swansea City, it signalled the unlikely arrival of the latest celebrity owner in the once unfashionable Championship, English football's second tier.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Wednesday signed into law a controversial bill granting amnesty to military personnel, police and members of civilian self-defense units over a bloody 1980-2000 campaign against leftist Shining Path guerrillas.

Jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai's national security trial, which began in late 2023, will enter its final stages on Thursday as lawyers present closing arguments.

At least 26 migrants died Wednesday when two boats sank off the coast of Italy's Lampedusa island, with around 10 others still missing, the coastguard and UN officials said.

Attempts to finalise a landmark treaty combating plastic pollution descended into disarray on the penultimate day on Wednesday as dozens of countries rejected outright the latest draft text, leaving the talks in limbo.

Negotiators from 184 countries remained riven Wednesday on how to curb plastic pollution, less than 36 hours before they were slated to deliver a binding global treaty.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders were to hold urgent talks with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, hoping to convince him to respect Kyiv's interests in his looming summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Markets rose Wednesday on growing hopes of US interest rate cuts after soft inflation data, with Japan's Nikkei hitting a second record high in as many days.

Britain, France and Germany have told the United Nations they are ready to reimpose UN-mandated sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme if no diplomatic solution is found by the end of August, according to a joint letter obtained by AFP. The letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council says the three European powers are "committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon" unless Tehran meets the deadline.

Japan's Nikkei hit a second record high in as many days Wednesday, as hopes of US interest rate cuts following soft inflation data cheered equity investors across Asia.

Indian exporters are scrambling for options to mitigate the fallout of US President Donald Trump's threatened tariff salvo against the world's most populous nation.

AI chatbot Grok on Tuesday offered conflicting explanations for its brief suspension from X after accusing Israel and the United States of committing "genocide" in Gaza, as it lashed out at owner Elon Musk for "censoring me."

European leaders will hold online talks with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, hoping to convince him to respect Ukraine's interests when he discusses the war with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

It has taken Tineke Einthoven 80 years to be able to speak about what she lived through as a child in brutal Japanese internment camps during World War II without breaking down.

South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee was arrested late Tuesday over a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said.

Fingerprints, access keys and facial recognition are putting a new squeeze on passwords as the traditional computer security method -- but also running into public hesitancy.

The recent auction of a Martian meteorite -- for a record-grabbing $5.3 million at Sotheby's New York -- has sparked questions over its provenance and renewed debate over who gets to claim rocks fallen from the heavens.

Elon Musk has taken his feud against OpenAI to the App Store, accusing Apple of favoring ChatGPT in the digital shop and vowing legal action.

Perplexity AI offered Google on Tuesday $34.5 billion for its popular Chrome web browser, which the internet giant could potentially be forced to sell as part of antitrust proceedings.

Ukraine said Tuesday it was engaged in "difficult" battles with Russian forces after Moscow had made rapid advances in a narrow but important section of the front line in the country's east.

Stock markets rose on Tuesday as US inflation data showed a still-subdued impact from US President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Consumer inflation in the United States held steady in July, data showed Tuesday, but underlying price increases picked up as President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs ripple through the world's biggest economy.

The European Union is ready to do a deal to land a groundbreaking treaty on plastic pollution, but not at any cost, the EU's environment commissioner insisted Tuesday.

Embattled property giant China Evergrande Group said Tuesday it will delist from Hong Kong Stock Exchange as a heavier-than-expected debt burden weighed on its liquidation process.

Labourer Shuai Hang went a week without work earlier this year when sky-high US tariffs on Chinese goods overwhelmed the warehouse he works at and slowed the company's US-bound parcels to a trickle.

Family members of victims in the world's deadliest single-aircraft accident hiked Tuesday to the mountainous site in Japan where the plane went down, as the country marked 40 years since the tragedy that killed 520 people.

The day after the Taliban stormed into the Afghan capital in August 2021, Afghans desperate to evacuate clung to the fuselage of a departing American plane at Kabul airport -- only to fall to their deaths.

Six original Newsweek investors sue CEO Dev Pragad in New York, alleging fraud, breach of contract, and asset theft in a bid to seize the historic magazine for himself.