For more than a year, the U.S. stock market went in mostly one direction, up, and in mostly one manner, quietly. A bonanza around artificial-intelligence technology helped drive Big Tech stocks higher, while other areas of the market held up amid rising hopes for coming cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

Last month the S&P 500 suffered its worst one-day loss since 2022. A measure of fear among investors in U.S. stocks also hit 19.4, its highest level since a blip above 21 in April, the last time waves caused a ripple in the placid market's surface. It averaged 15.9 from the start of 2023 until July.

On a scorching July afternoon, a municipal water truck rolls up in a cloud of dust on Liborio Mangiapane's farm in southern Sicily. Some of the precious liquid gets transferred to a smaller cistern on a tractor that Mangiapane's son will use to fill troughs for 250 cattle and sheep, but by tomorrow, all 10,000 liters from the truck will be gone.

Crippling drought from a nearly rainless year, coupled with record-high temperatures, has burned out much of the region's hay and is pushing farmers to the limit. For Mangiapane, every day is a struggle to find water, with frantic phone calls, long trips to faraway wells and long waits for municipal tankers.

The Bank of England has cut interest rates for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

In a statement Thursday, the bank said that by a 5-4 margin, its nine-member policymaking panel backed a quarter-point reduction in its main interest rate to 5%, from the 16-year of 5.25%.

An overnight protest by climate activists at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany forced a three-hour halt to cargo flights, officials said Thursday.

The protest by the Last Generation group followed demonstrations last week at Cologne-Bonn Airport and then at Frankfurt Airport, Germany's busiest, which significantly disrupted passenger flights.

Global markets were mostly lower and Japan's stock index tumbled Thursday as the U.S. dollar sank against the yen after the head of the Federal Reserve suggested a cut to interest rates will come soon.

France's CAC 40 slid 1.3% in early trading to 7,433.71. Germany's DAX declined 1.3% to 18,275.40, while Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 8,347.45. The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% higher while that for the Dow industrials fell 0.1%.

With large parts of the world in turmoil and deep uncertainty over the future direction of America's global role, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought this week to project an aura of calm normalcy as he traveled through Asia on his first overseas mission since President Joe Biden jolted the 2024 presidential race with his withdrawal.

Whether he succeeded or not remains an open question.

South Korea on Thursday offered to send aid supplies to North Korea to help the country recover from heavy rains and floods that submerged thousands of homes and huge swaths of farmland.

It's unclear whether North Korea would accept South Korea's proposal for help. Animosity between the war-divided rivals is at its highest in years over the North's growing nuclear ambitions and the South's expansion of combined military exercises with the United States and Japan to counter the North's threats.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned British police chiefs for a crisis meeting on Thursday over violent unrest that followed a stabbing attack that left three young girls dead. A 17-year-old suspect appeared in court to face three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder.

The attack on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem. The deaths have also been used by far-right activists to stoke anger at immigrants and Muslims – though the suspect is not an immigrant, and his religion has not been disclosed.

Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday it has expelled a Russian diplomat after two Moldovan officials were detained on suspicion of treason and conspiracy against the European Union candidate country.

One of the Moldovan officials is suspected of treason for allegedly collecting and providing information to an embassy employee that could be used against Moldova's interests, the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases said, and the other is accused of plotting against the country for personal gain.

Ismail Haniyeh was the international face of Hamas, its top leader in exile who kept up the militant group's ties with allies around the region. At the head of its political hierarchy, he had little military role – but Israel marked him for death after the surprise Oct. 7 attacks.

The 62-year-old Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike Wednesday during a visit to one of Hamas' most crucial allies, Iran, after attending the inauguration of its new president. Iran and Hamas both accused Israel, which has not commented on the strike.