From appliance stores in the United States to food markets in Hungary and gas stations in Poland, rising consumer prices fueled by high energy costs and supply chain disruptions are putting a pinch on households and businesses worldwide.

Rising inflation is leading to price increases for food, gas and other products and pushing many people to choose between digging deeper into their pockets or tightening their belts. In developing economies, it's especially dire.

Germany's government refused to back calls Friday for a swift and sharp lockdown to curb the country's worsening coronavirus situation, which saw daily confirmed cases hit a new peak and is putting hospitals under severe strain.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said contacts between people need to be sharply reduced, warning that "the situation is dramatically serious, more serious than it's been at any point in the pandemic."

French fishing crews temporarily blocked French ports and ferry traffic across the English Channel on Friday to disrupt the flow of goods to the U.K., a symbolic riposte in a dispute over post-Brexit fishing licenses.

It's the latest tension point between the neighboring countries, who are also trading blame for not doing enough to prevent the deaths of at least 27 migrants whose boat sank Wednesday off Calais, in the choppy waters of the world's busiest shipping route.

Global stocks and oil prices tumbled Friday after South Africa found a fast-spreading coronavirus variant and the European Union proposed suspending air travel from southern Africa.

London's benchmark fell 3% and Tokyo lost 2.5%. Shanghai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong also declined sharply. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2%.

The Lebanese pound sank to a new low on the black market Friday, with no end in sight to the economic and political crisis plunging ever growing numbers into poverty.

According to websites monitoring the black market rate, the pound was trading at 25,000 to the dollar, or nearly 17 times less than its official peg value of 1,500.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen opened a virtual meeting of Asian and European leaders Thursday with a call for sustainable and shared global growth as the world seeks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirty European countries and 21 Asian countries, along with multinational organizations representing the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, are represented at the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting. The biennial event is being hosted by Cambodia after being postponed from last year due to the pandemic.

The holiday tree is towering over the main square in this central German city, the chestnuts and sugared almonds are roasted, and kids are clambering aboard the merry-go-round just like they did before the pandemic. But a surge in coronavirus infections has left an uneasy feeling hanging over Frankfurt's Christmas market.

To savor a mug of mulled wine — an uncomplicated rite of winter in pre-pandemic times — masked customers must pass through a one-way entrance to a fenced-off wine hut, stopping at the hand sanitizer station. Elsewhere, security officers check vaccination certificates before letting customers head for the steaming sausages and kebabs.

Israel's deputy foreign minister has canceled meetings with Belgian officials after a decision by Brussels earlier this week to begin labeling products made in Jewish West Bank settlements.

Idan Roll said on Twitter he was scrapping meetings with the Belgian Foreign Ministry and parliament during a visit this week to the European country.

German business confidence has dropped for the fifth consecutive month amid persistent supply-chain bottlenecks and a resurgence of coronavirus infections in Europe's biggest economy, a closely watched survey showed Wednesday.

The Ifo institute said its monthly confidence index dropped to 96.5 points in November from 97.7 last month. Companies' assessment of both their current situation and their outlook for the next six months worsened. It was the lowest figure since February.

The Lebanese pound sank to a new low on the black market Wednesday, with no end in sight to the economic and political crisis plunging ever growing numbers into poverty.

According to websites monitoring the black market rate, the pound was trading at 24,000 to the dollar, or 16 times less than its official peg value of 1,500.