Syria has signed a deal with United Arab Emirates firms for the construction of a solar power plant near Damascus, state media said Thursday, in a sign of growing economic ties.

Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, the founder of the Zara clothing brand, has entered the renewable energy sector with the purchase of a stake in a wind farm run by energy giant Repsol.

The designated chief executive of NSO, the Israeli firm infamous for phone hacking, is resigning less than two weeks after being nominated, a source close to the company said Thursday.

The British economy slowed down during the third quarter of the year as widespread supply chain problems hobbled the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed Thursday.

The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 1.3% between July and September from the previous three-month period, with the health sector and housing market particularly buoyant. The increase was slightly below market expectations and lower than the second quarter's 5.5% boost.

China's Singles' Day, the world's largest online shopping festival which falls on Nov. 11 every year, is losing its shine, with less marketing hype and a crackdown on the technology industry.

Singles' Day has been viewed as the largest online marketing event of the year. It is heavily advertised for weeks ahead of time with brands and merchants offering deep discounts to attract consumers looking for bargains.

The Turkish lira slid to a record low against the U.S. dollar again Thursday after a surge in U.S. consumer prices inflamed concerns over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's push to cut interest rates.

The lira dropped to an all-time low of 9.97 against the dollar early Thursday before settling at around 9.93 against the U.S. currency. The Turkish currency has lost some 25% of its value since the start of the year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Thursday against letting tensions in the Asian-Pacific region cause a relapse into a Cold War mentality.

His remarks on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum came weeks after the U.S., Britain and Australia announced a new security alliance in the region which would see Australia build nuclear submarines. China has harshly criticized the deal.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed that their countries are ready to work together again, after a diplomatic drama surrounding a submarine deal that put the relationship at a historic low.

Harris met with Macron on Wednesday evening at the Elysee presidential palace, as part of a weeks-long effort by Washington to mend relations with France, America's oldest ally.

A top European Union court on Wednesday rejected Google's appeal of a 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) fine from regulators who found the tech giant abused its massive online reach by giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage in search results.

The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's top competition watchdog, punished Google in 2017 for unfairly directing visitors to its own shopping service, Google Shopping, to the detriment of competitors. The EU's General Court dismissed Google's appeal of that antitrust penalty and upheld the fine.

The Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has announced a US$ 18 million contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in support of its core resources for 2021 and 2022.

The total contribution of US$ 18 million will be disbursed in multiple tranches, with US$ 10 million in 2021 and US$ 8 million in 2022.