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Riad Salameh walks free after posting record bail

Lebanon's former central bank governor Riad Salameh walked free from a year in custody over embezzlement allegations Friday after posting more than $14 million in bail, a judicial official told AFP.

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Hungary's Orbán tells Trump that dropping Russian oil would be 'disaster'

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday that Hungary will continue to source fossil fuels from Russia despite demands from his ally U.S. President Donald Trump, and that he'd informed the president that dropping Russian energy would be a "disaster" for Hungary's economy.

Hungary remains one of the only countries in Europe to continue purchasing Russian oil and natural gas following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But Trump, an admirer of the long-serving Hungarian leader, earlier this month called on all NATO countries including Hungary to cease purchasing Russian oil, since he believes the Russia-Ukraine war would end if they did so.

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Turkish Airlines to expand fleet with 225 new Boeing aircraft after Erdoğan's US visit

Turkish Airlines, Turkey's national carrier, has announced plans to add 225 Boeing aircraft to its fleet.

In an a declaration to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Friday, the airline said it has decided to purchase 75 Boeing B787-9 and B787-10 aircraft and has completed negotiations with Boeing to acquire 150 737-8/10MAX models.

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Iraq says will resume oil exports from Kurdish region after halt of more than 2 years

Iraq will resume exporting oil from the country's northern, semiautonomous Kurdish region through Turkey's Ceyhan port after exports had been halted for more than two years, officials said Friday.

The resumption, which starts on Saturday, is a step toward boosting Iraq's oil revenues and stabilizing the relationship between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish region, even as disputes over revenue sharing and field management persist.

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Trump to put import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs, kitchen cabinets, furniture and trucks

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will put import taxes of 100% on pharmaceutical drugs, 50% on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, 30% on upholstered furniture and 25% on heavy trucks starting on Oct. 1.

The posts on his social media site showed that Trump's devotion to tariffs did not end with the trade frameworks and import taxes that were launched in August, a reflection of the president's confidence that taxes will help to reduce the government's budget deficit while increasing domestic manufacturing.

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Riad Salameh posts record bail

Lebanon's former central bank governor Riad Salameh posted more than $14 million in bail Friday after a year in detention over embezzlement allegations, paving the way for his release, a judicial official told AFP.

Salameh, 75, who headed the central bank for three decades, has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.

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US economy expanded at surprising 3.8% pace in significant upgrade of second quarter growth

The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% from April through June, the government reported in a dramatic upgrade of its previous estimate of second-quarter growth.

U.S. gross domestic product — the nation's output of goods and services — rebounded in the spring from a 0.6% first-quarter drop caused by fallout from President Donald Trump's trade wars, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The department had previously estimated second-quarter growth at 3.3%.

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Apple asks EU to scrap landmark digital competition law

Apple wants the European Union to repeal its digital competition rule book, saying the regulations are cumbersome and are delaying new features for Europeans such as live translation for AirPods.

The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive branch, said Thursday that's not going to happen.

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US lawmaker backs renegotiating global economic rules to reflect China's rise

The head of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting China said he backed renegotiating the rules governing the global economy to take into account China's rise and that of others such as India and Brazil.

Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, told the mayor of Shanghai on Thursday that the U.S.-led post-World War II order has worked well for many countries, including China, but that "we understand that things have changed."

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Trump to host Turkey’s Erdogan at the White House

President Donald Trump will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday as the Republican leader has indicated that the U.S. government's hold on sales of advanced fighter jets to Ankara may soon be lifted.

During Trump's first term, the United States kicked out Turkey, a NATO ally, from its flagship F-35 fighter jet program after it purchased an air defense system from Russia. U.S. officials worried that Turkey's use of Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missile system could be used to gather data on the capabilities of the F-35 and that the information could end up in Russian hands.

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