Frank Chen's e-commerce business has nothing to do with politics but he worries it might be sunk by the Communist Party's latest effort to control what the Chinese public sees online.

Chen's 25-employee company sells clothes and appliances to Americans and Europeans through platforms including Facebook, one of thousands of websites blocked by China's web filters. Chen reaches it using a virtual private network, but that window might be closing after Beijing launched a campaign in January to stamp out use of VPNs to evade its "Great Firewall."

Thousands marched Saturday to Parliament in central London to protest Britain's plan to withdraw from the European Union.

Organizers of the "People's March for Europe" said the goal was to "unite, rethink and reject" the Conservative government's plan to implement Brexit by 2019. Some protesters carried the EU flag while others carried an "Exit from Brexit" banner.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is proposing tough new immigration rules as part of a plan to keep Britain from leaving the European Union.

The longtime Brexit opponent said Sunday that controlling immigration from other EU countries would satisfy the British public's demands without having to take Britain out of the 28-nation bloc.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday his government will sell oil and other commodities in currencies other than the dollar, in a bid to weather US-imposed sanctions on the embattled country.

Swiss commodities trader Glencore said Friday it is selling a major part of a stake it only recently acquired in Russian oil giant Rosneft to Chinese conglomerate CEFC. 

EU finance ministers are set to discuss changing rules so that tech giants such as Google or Facebook are on the hook to pay more taxes in Europe, according to an EU document seen by AFP on Friday.

German imports outpaced exports in July, slightly narrowing the country's massive and oft-criticised trade surplus, provisional data showed Friday.

Exports from Europe's economic powerhouse were up 0.2 percent compared with June while imports rose by 2.2 percent, federal statistics office Destatis said, as both figures rebounded from last month's dips.

The US central bank can continue to raise interest rates gradually, despite persistent low inflation that could suggest a fundamental change in the economy, a top Federal Reserve official said Thursday.

The U.S. Senate passed a $15.25 billion relief package Thursday for victims of Hurricane Harvey, in an effort to fully fund federal emergency operations as another potentially catastrophic storm bears down on Florida.

The package passed 80 to 17 one day after President Donald Trump and congressional leaders announced a shock deal that includes the hurricane relief, as well as temporarily lifting of the US debt ceiling and funding of the federal government.

Brazil's central bank slashed its key interest rate on Wednesday by a percentage point to 8.25 percent, the eighth consecutive cut as the country slowly exits a painful recession.