President Donald Trump hosted leaders of five Central Asian countries at the White House on Thursday as he intensifies his hunt for rare earth metals needed for high-tech devices, including smartphones, electric vehicles and fighter jets.

Trump and the officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan held bilateral meetings in the Oval Office before having a working dinner.

Shares were mostly lower in Europe following a retreat Friday in Asia after losses for influential technology stocks pulled Wall Street benchmarks lower.

U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices advanced.

The world's richest man was just handed a chance to become history's first trillionaire.

Elon Musk won a shareholder vote on Thursday that would give the Tesla CEO stock worth $1 trillion if he hits certain performance targets over the next decade. The vote followed weeks of debate over his management record at the electric car maker and whether anyone deserved such unprecedented pay, drawing heated commentary from small investors to giant pension funds and even the pope.

Japan announced Friday that its seafood exports have resumed for the first time since China imposed a ban over the discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant more than two years ago.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters that 6 metric tons (6.6 tons) of scallops harvested in Hokkaido were shipped to China on Wednesday, the first shipment to that country since Beijing banned all Japanese seafood in August 2023.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah members accused of involvement in financial transactions for Hezbollah, as Israel launched new strikes.

The sanctions were announced ahead of a visit to Lebanon by John Hurley, the Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions against extremist groups.

President Donald Trump has warned that the United States will be rendered "defenseless'' and possibly "reduced to almost Third World status'' if Supreme Court strikes down the tariffs he imposed this year on nearly every country on earth.

The justices sounded skeptical during oral arguments Wednesday of his sweeping claims of authority to impose tariffs as he sees fit.

France Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Thursday urged the European Union to take measures against Asian e-commerce giant Shein, following an uproar over sales of childlike sex dolls on its French website.

"The European Commission must take action. It can no longer wait," he told the France Info broadcaster. "The Commission has conducted certain investigations. It must now accompany them with sanctions."

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that officials from Washington and Beijing would be meeting to hash out a possible "energy deal" between the two countries.

"China... agreed that they will begin the process of purchasing American Energy," Trump said on Truth Social following talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

President Donald Trump described his face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday as a roaring success, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans.

World shares mostly retreated Thursday in choppy trading after President Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.