The costs of gas, food and other necessities jumped in May, raising inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs.

Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from 12 months earlier, faster than April's year-over-year surge of 8.3%, the Labor Department said Friday.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro arrived Friday in the Iranian capital of Tehran on a two-day state visit, the country's state-run media reported.

A high-ranking political and economic delegation from Venezuela, which like Iran is under heavy U.S. sanctions, is accompanying Maduro on the visit, following an invitation from Iran's hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.

A major free zone operator in Dubai owned by the sheikhdom's ruler said Thursday it would make an initial public offering on the local stock market, the latest state asset to list in an effort to boost the city-state's bourse.

The TECOM Group, whose 10 holdings include Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City, plans to offer 625 million shares on the Dubai Financial Market. TECOM said it planned to offer investors dividends of $218 million a year for the next three years.

The European Central Bank is expected Thursday to end a key economic stimulus program and map out its plan to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade as it seeks to join the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in tackling high inflation. But it's a delicate balance to not further slow economic growth.

Markets will parse remarks from President Christine Lagarde for clues about how far the bank will go in making credit more expensive in the 19 countries using the euro currency. That is because the meeting likely also will lay out a sharp downgrade to the bank's forecasts for economic growth as Russia's war in Ukraine sends shock waves through the global economy.

Thailand made it legal to cultivate and possess marijuana as of Thursday, like a dream come true for an aging generation of pot smokers who recall the kick delivered by the legendary Thai Stick variety.

The public health minister's plan to distribute 1 million marijuana seedlings, beginning Friday, has added to the impression that Thailand is turning into a weed wonderland.

Australia's government lashed out at "loose" comments by the former defense minister Thursday, after he revealed sensitive plans to buy US nuclear-powered submarines over their British rivals. 

Peter Dutton, who left office as defense minister a few weeks ago after his conservative coalition lost elections, disclosed his previously secret plans to choose the US Virginia-class submarines.

China and Russia have defended their vetoes of a strongly backed U.S. resolution that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea, speaking at a first of its kind General Assembly meeting.

The debate was held under new rules requiring the General Assembly to examine any veto wielded in the Security Council by one of its five permanent members.

India's central bank on Wednesday raised its key interest rate to 4.9% from 4.4%, the second such hike in the last three weeks to contain inflation.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said the decision was aimed at curbing price increases and mitigating the impact of geopolitical tensions, like the war in Ukraine.

The British government appears to have no political will to resolve its festering trade dispute with the European Union and risks endangering the hard-won peace in Northern Ireland, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government said last month that it it would pass a law to scrap parts of a trade treaty with the EU signed less than two years ago. The EU has threatened to retaliate, raising the specter of a trade war between the two major economic partners.

Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned Wednesday that rises in fuel and basic food stuffs were exacerbating the crisis in Lebanon.

"The war in Ukraine must stop at any cost," he said in a virtual meeting hosted by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio over the global food crisis.