New Zealand's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than seven years on Wednesday, removing some of the support it put in place when the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Reserve Bank raised the benchmark rate to 0.5% from a record low 0.25%.

France and Spain have pressed for changes to rules governing the European Union's energy markets as prices for gas and electricity surge, ramping up already-high utility bills and tightening yet another notch the belts of people hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

European governments are scrambling to find ways to limit the costs to consumers as scant natural gas reserves expose the continent to price spikes and possible shortages if it's a cold winter. Natural gas prices are lower in the U.S., which produces its own, while Europe must rely on imports.

A midsize Chinese real estate developer failed to make a $205.7 million payment due to bondholders Tuesday, adding to the industry's financial strain as one of China's biggest developers tries to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt.

Fantasia Holdings Group announced it missed the payment in a statement issued through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It gave no explanation but said it had asked for trading of Fantasia shares to be suspended.

The Czech Republic signed a deal to buy a new air defense system for its military from the Israeli government, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The SPYDER system, which is made by the Israeli state-run company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., is capable of providing protection against aircraft, helicopters, bombers, cruise missiles and other weapons.

Global shares were mixed Tuesday after a broad slide on Wall Street led by technology companies.

Shares rose in Paris, London and Hong Kong but fell in Tokyo.

The press office of Prime Minister Najib Miqati has issued clarifications after the premier’s name was mentioned in the Pandora Papers -- a massive trove of leaked documents showing how the world's elite is using tax havens and offshore and shell companies to stash assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The documents show that Miqati, a businessman who formed a new government last month, owns a Panama-based offshore company that he used to buy property in Monaco in 2008 worth more than $10 million.

Jordan's King Abdullah II was meeting with the World Bank president, asking for more financial support for his country's battered economy, just around the time the news broke: A trove of leaked documents revealed the king had secretly bought more than a dozen luxury homes in the U.S. and Britain for over $100 million in the past decade.

Abdullah was one of scores of public figures identified as holders of hidden offshore accounts. But perhaps nowhere was there a more evident contradiction between the public man and the private one, for the king has carefully cultivated an image as a caring father of a struggling nation, and it turns out he has amassed an empire of luxury real estate.

With oil prices near three-year highs, OPEC and allied countries are deciding whether to stay with their plans to gradually restoring production that was cut back during the pandemic recession — or to pump more oil to a recovering global economy that's increasingly thirsty for it.

Analyst say OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, will likely stick with their existing road map at an online meeting Monday. That would mean agreeing to add 400,000 barrels per day to output next month.

Britain's Brexit minister threatened Monday to trigger a contentious break clause in the U.K.'s divorce deal with the European Union — a move that would send the U.K.'s already chilly relations with its huge neighbor into a deep freeze.

David Frost told a gathering of the U.K.'s governing Conservative Party that the Brexit agreement — which he negotiated and was signed by Britain and the EU — was undermining peace in Northern Ireland and causing "instability and disruption."

British military personnel have begun delivering fuel to gas stations after a shortage of truck drivers disrupted supplies for more than a week, leading to long lines at the pumps as anxious drivers scrambled to fill their tanks.

About 200 service personnel were deployed Monday to boost deliveries after undergoing training at commercial fuel depots last week, the government said.