Chinese and U.S. officials have met in Beijing for talks on tough issues dividing the two largest economies, as trade and tariffs increasingly draw attention in the runup to the U.S. presidential election.

China's Ministry of Finance said Beijing raised objections to higher tariffs on Chinese exports, two-way investment restrictions and other limits on trade and technology during the talks by the countries' Economic Working Group. In a statement, it characterized the Monday-Tuesday talks as "constructive."

Missiles and drones are flying in the Red Sea, disrupting one of the world's key trade arteries and a chokepoint for energy shipments headed for Europe.

Attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels over Israel's war with Hamas are posing a new threat to the future of energy supplies to the 27-country European Union, which relies on imported natural gas to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

Nintendo reported healthy sales and profits on the back of the hit "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" game, prompting the Japanese video game maker to raise its full fiscal year forecasts.

Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. said Tuesday that demand for what it called the first completely new Super Mario game in the series remained strong. Sales of the new Zelda game and "Pikmin 4" also surged.

The European Union's executive arm shelved an anti-pesticide proposal Tuesday in yet another concession to farmers after weeks of protests that blocked many capitals and economic lifelines across the 27-nation bloc.

Although the proposal had languished in EU institutions for the past two years, the move by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the latest indication that the bloc is willing to sacrifice environmental priorities to keep the farming community on its side. Despite concessions, protests continued from the Netherlands to Spain and Bulgaria.

Turkey has seen its fifth central bank leader depart in as many years as Hafize Gaye Erkan, the first woman in the top role, stepped down after just eight months in the job.

She announced her resignation late Friday after recent claims of nepotism emerged in local media, allegations that Erkan, a former senior Goldman Sachs executive, strongly rejected.

Armed forces retirees protested Tuesday their low salaries and blocked the Karantina road with burning tires.

"Our demand is to live in dignity," a protester said.

Local buses, trams and subway trains were canceled in much of Germany on Friday as transport employees walked off the job in the country's third transport-related strike in two weeks.

The Ver.di service workers' union called for a "warning strike," a common tactic in German contract negotiations, on Monday. Its deputy chair, Christine Behle, said that "the time has now come to exert more pressure on employers" as talks on new pay contracts for about 90,000 people employed by over 130 local transport operators have failed to make progress.

Markets in China sank Friday despite a fresh flurry of measures to help prop up the ailing property sector, as the International Monetary Fund forecast that the Chinese economy will continue to slow in coming years.

The report by the IMF forecast that the economy would expand at a 4.6% annual pace this year, down from 5.2% in 2023. It put growth in 2028 at 3.4%. It noted that housing starts had fallen more than 60% from pre-pandemic levels after a crackdown on excessive borrowing that began in 2020.

French farmers were gradually lifting their roadblocks around Paris and elsewhere in the country on Friday, a day after the French government offered over 400 million euros ($436 million) in various measures meant to answer their grievances over low earnings, heavy regulation and unfair competition from abroad.

On major highways around the French capital, protesters took down tents, cleaned up the road and set fire to straw bales that they were using as barricades. Convoys of tractors were leaving the sites in a peaceful and orderly manner amid a large police deployment meant to ensure the security of operations.

Farmers parked their tractors across key road crossings on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands on Friday in their latest protest against excessive red tape and competition from cheap imports.

The roadblocks, mainly by Belgian farmers with support of some Dutch colleagues, choked highways that are vital transport routes for freight from the major European ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. They were set up after a day of chaos Thursday in Brussels, where angry farmers torched hay bales and threw eggs and firecrackers at police near a summit of European Union leaders.