Saudi oil giant Aramco reported half-year profits Tuesday of $56.3 billion, down from the year before due to weakening volumes sold amid worries about the global economy.

Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said its overall revenue for the half-year was $220.7 billion, up from $218.6 billion the year before. Profits in 2023 were $61.9 billion, nearly $5 billion higher.

The hospitality workers' union UNITE HERE has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a rejoinder to Republican Donald Trump's effort to woo restaurant and hotel workers by promising to make their tips tax-free.

Gwen Mills, the union's president, said Trump was merely "making a play" for votes while Harris has credibility from having supported unions. She discussed the move with The Associated Press before the union's announcement of an endorsement.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered the seizure of 100 million shekels ($26 million) of tax funds intended for the Palestinian Authority, saying it would be used to pay for Israeli victims of terrorism.

Japan's benchmark stock index plunged 12.4% on Monday, compounding a global market rout set off by investor concerns that the the U.S. economy could be headed for recession.

A report Friday showing hiring by U.S. employers slowed last month by much more than expected has convulsed financial markets, vanquishing the euphoria that had taken the Nikkei 225 to all-times highs of over 42,000 in recent weeks.

It was billed as the "biggest ever economic development project" in north Michigan when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022 welcomed a Chinese lithium-ion battery company's plan to build a $2.36 billion factory and bring a couple thousand jobs to Big Rapids.

But now the project by Gotion High-Tech is in the crosshairs of some U.S. lawmakers and local residents.

World shares tumbled Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index slumping 5.8% as investors panicked over signs of weakness in the U.S. economy.

The declines followed a retreat on Wall Street after weak data raised worries the Federal Reserve may have missed its window to lower interest rates before they undercut economic growth. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said a cut could come in September after the U.S. central bank held steady at a meeting this week.

For more than a year, the U.S. stock market went in mostly one direction, up, and in mostly one manner, quietly. A bonanza around artificial-intelligence technology helped drive Big Tech stocks higher, while other areas of the market held up amid rising hopes for coming cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

Last month the S&P 500 suffered its worst one-day loss since 2022. A measure of fear among investors in U.S. stocks also hit 19.4, its highest level since a blip above 21 in April, the last time waves caused a ripple in the placid market's surface. It averaged 15.9 from the start of 2023 until July.

The Bank of England has cut interest rates for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

In a statement Thursday, the bank said that by a 5-4 margin, its nine-member policymaking panel backed a quarter-point reduction in its main interest rate to 5%, from the 16-year of 5.25%.

Global markets were mostly lower and Japan's stock index tumbled Thursday as the U.S. dollar sank against the yen after the head of the Federal Reserve suggested a cut to interest rates will come soon.

France's CAC 40 slid 1.3% in early trading to 7,433.71. Germany's DAX declined 1.3% to 18,275.40, while Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 8,347.45. The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% higher while that for the Dow industrials fell 0.1%.

Most indexes were sharply higher in early trading on Wall Street Wednesday amid a flurry of earnings ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy decision.

Oil prices jumped more than $2 a barrel after Hamas's top political leader died in an air strike in Tehran.