Top officials from the EU and U.S. later will this month try to attune their strategies on regulating big tech and defend democratic values on the internet, a statement said on Thursday.

An avalanche of changes launched by China's ruling Communist Party has jolted everyone from tech billionaires to school kids. Behind them: President Xi Jinping's vision of making a more powerful, prosperous country by reviving revolutionary ideals, with more economic equality and tighter party control over society and entrepreneurs.

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for the party to return to its "original mission" as China's economic, social and cultural leader and carry out the " rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation."

The European Central Bank may be getting ready to trim some of its pandemic support but is likely to reassure markets it is not yet setting a firm date to wind down its massive bond purchases as the delta variant casts a shadow over the coming winter.

The bank's 25-member governing council meets Thursday at the bank's skyscraper headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, as data show businesses strongly ramping up activity and retail foot traffic exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The 19 countries that use the euro bounced back from a double-dip recession in the second quarter with economic growth of 2.2% from the previous quarter.

Shares fell in Asia on Thursday after further losses on Wall Street following a Federal Reserve report showing U.S. economic activity slowed this summer.

The report pointed to resurgent coronavirus cases and mounting supply chain problems and labor shortages — woes affecting many economies. Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney.

The supply chain troubles caused by Brexit and the pandemic have been so bad for Satyan Patel that the shelves at his convenience store in central London are seriously lacking water and soft drinks.

"Last week I ran out of Coca-Cola. I haven't had large bottles of Evian for three weeks," said Patel.

The Turkish lira took one of its biggest tumbles of the year on Wednesday over speculation that the central bank was about to cut rates in the face of soaring inflation.

Turkey's annual rate of inflation accelerated to 19.25 percent last month, above the central bank's policy rate of 19 percent.

Energy ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon on Wednesday agreed a plan to bring gas and electricity to crisis-hit Lebanon at a meeting in Amman.

Egypt's minister for oil and mines Tarek al-Molla said that his country would "be ready to transfer gas (to Lebanon) as soon as possible" via the transnational Arab Gas Pipeline.

Two splendid diamond bracelets that belonged to French queen Marie-Antoinette will go under the hammer in Geneva later this year, the auction house Christie's said Wednesday. 

The bracelets, coated with 112 diamonds in total, will be sold together and are estimated to fetch between $2-4 million when they go under the hammer on November 9.

Friends and family initially mocked one Jordanian family's new venture making soap from donkey milk. But now, a year on, the company is cleaning up as customers bray for more.

Atan Donkey Milk Soaps produces 100 percent natural soaps from its farm in Madaba, 35 kilometers (21 miles) southwest of Amman, where it keeps 12 donkeys, and a small manufacturing workshop in the Jordanian capital.

One of the main candidates to be Japan's next prime minister said Wednesday the country needs a new type of capitalism to address income and social gaps caused by the pandemic.

Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is the only announced candidate so far in the race to lead the governing Liberal Democratic Party and succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Whoever wins the Sept. 29 party vote is almost certain to be the next government leader.