E-commerce giant Alibaba Group said Friday it will spend $15.5 billion to support President Xi Jinping's campaign to spread China's prosperity more evenly, adding to pledges by tech companies that are under pressure to pay for the ruling Communist Party's political initiatives.

Alibaba said it will invest in 10 projects for job creation, "care for vulnerable groups" and technology innovation. Its 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) pledge includes 20 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) for a fund to "cut income inequality" in the company's home province of Zhejiang, south of Shanghai.

German automaker Daimler on Friday dismissed a "cease and desist" demand from two environmental groups to commit to ending the sale of combustion engine vehicles by 2030.

Lawyers for Greenpeace and the group Deutsche Umwelthilfe have threatened to sue Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen unless they sign a legal pledge not to put new gas-fueled vehicles onto the market from the end of this decade.

Sri Lanka imposed price controls on key foods Friday as the government stepped up the use of emergency powers to counter shortages.

Global stocks rose Thursday after soft U.S. jobs surveys fueled optimism the Federal Reserve might feel less pressure to wind down stimulus.

Markets in Shanghai, Tokyo and Frankfurt rose while London opened little changed.

U.S. officials are preparing a new antitrust lawsuit against Google over its power in the online advertising market,  Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Bloomberg cited an unnamed person familiar with the matter as saying the Justice Department could file the litigation by the end of the year.

Britain's financial watchdog has urged banks to be vigilant about the risk of being used for criminal operations such as terrorist financing or money laundering in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover.

Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi Arabia to stop laying off Yemeni employees, warning that this could force them to return to the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.

Yemen has been embroiled in conflict between the government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-allied Huthi rebels since 2014, creating what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Global stock markets mostly rose Wednesday as investors weighed the economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus's delta variant.

Markets in London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced.

The Italian government vowed to crack down on demonstrators threatening to block train tracks throughout the country on Wednesday as a rule requiring COVID-19 tests or vaccines takes effect for long-distance domestic public transport.

In a bid to rein in transmission of infections now that many have returned from summer holidays, domestic travelers in Italy must now show a so-called "Green Pass." This certifies that they have received at least one dose of the vaccine more than 15 days ago, have tested negative in the past 48 hours or have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months.

Israel's top diplomat in Dubai has said he is hopeful a deal to ship Emirati oil will clear environmental hurdles as trade booms after the groundbreaking opening of ties.

Ilan Sztulman Starosta, who heads Israel's first consulate in the UAE economic hub, told AFP that trade between the two countries would "easily" surpass $1 billion within a year if the Covid pandemic abates.