Auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Nissan and about a dozen individuals in Beirut over his imprisonment in Japan and what he says is misinformation spread against him, Lebanese officials said Tuesday.

According to the officials, Ghosn's lawsuit accuses Nissan and the individuals of defamation and of "fabricating charges" against him, which eventually put him behind bars in Japan.

Wages are rising in Japan more than they have in decades, at least for some workers. But so are prices, leaving many people feeling they must scrimp more than ever.

In May, the consumer price index was up 3.2% from a year earlier, well above the central bank's target of about 2%. That's great news for policymakers trying to get the world's third largest economy out of the doldrums by keeping credit super cheap to spur demand and push prices higher.

Chinese shoppers were treated to deep discounts, new products and payment plans as online merchants sought to revive their sluggish appetite for spending during China's first major online shopping festival after the end of zero-COVID policies.

For the first time, e-commerce retailer JD.com did not release the results of its 618 shopping festival, which ended Sunday, making it hard to know just how much was spent. A bigger shopping festival, Single's Day, held on Nov. 11 each year rakes in billions of dollars.

Global stock markets followed Wall Street lower Monday after the top U.S. diplomat met China's leader.

London and Paris opened lower. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong retreated. U.S. markets are closed Monday for a holiday. Oil prices fell.

Multinational companies including Amazon, Marriott and Hilton pledged Monday to hire more than 13,000 refugees, including Ukrainian women who have fled the war with Russia, over the next three years in Europe.

Just ahead of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, more than 40 corporations say they will hire, connect to work or train a total of 250,000 refugees, with 13,680 of them getting jobs directly in those companies.

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Friday praised the European Central Bank's decision to raise interest rates for the eighth time in a row and its pledge to keep going as long as needed to bring down high inflation.

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the IMF welcomed both the ECB's quarter-percentage point rate hike Thursday and President Christine Lagarde's vow that the ECB is "not thinking about pausing." The bank is trying to lower inflation from 6.1% to its goal of 2%.

Qatar and Iraq inked a series of economic and energy deals during a visit to Baghdad by the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The two countries signed a broad agreement to expand "cooperation in politics, economics, energy, and investment," Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement.

China's consumer and factory activity weakened in May and record-breaking unemployment among young people in cities rose as an economic rebound following the end of anti-virus controls slowed.

Surveys found 20.8% of potential workers in cities aged 16-24 were unemployed, up from April's previous record of 20.4%, the government reported Thursday.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates says he is in Beijing, joining a series of foreign business figures who have visited China as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive investor interest in the country.

Gates, who stepped down as Microsoft chairman in 2014, said on Twitter late Wednesday that he would meet partners who have worked with his charitable foundation. However, Gates is revered in China as an entrepreneur, giving Chinese leaders a chance to show their interest in foreign business by publicizing any meetings with him.

The U.S. Federal Reserve may have hit "pause" on interest rate hikes, but the European Central Bank still has its finger on "fast forward" as inflation plagues consumers with higher costs for everything from groceries to utility bills and summer vacations.

Analysts say an increase of a quarter-percentage point is a foregone conclusion when the ECB's governing council meets Thursday, a day after the Fed took at least a temporary breather after 10 straight hikes.