Four years after Lebanon's historic meltdown began, the small nation is still facing "enormous economic challenges," with a collapsed banking sector, eroding public services, deteriorating infrastructure and worsening poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Friday.

In a statement issued at the end of a four-day visit by an IMF delegation to the crisis-hit country, the international agency welcomed recent policy decisions by Lebanon's central bank to stop lending to the state and end the work in an exchange platform known as Sayrafa.

European regulators slapped TikTok with a $368 million fine on Friday for failing to protect children's privacy, the first time that the popular short video-sharing app has been punished for breaching Europe's strict data privacy rules.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission, the lead privacy regulator for Big Tech companies whose European headquarters are largely in Dublin, said it was fining TikTok 345 million euros and reprimanding the platform for the violations dating to the second half of 2020.

The Central Bank of Russia raised its key lending rate by one percentage point to 13% on Friday, a month after imposing an even larger hike, as concerns about inflation persist and the ruble continues to struggle against the dollar.

The increase comes as annualized inflation rose in September to 5.5% and the bank said it expected it would reach 6%-7% by the end of the year.

The European Union faced a Friday deadline to decide whether to extend a ban on Ukrainian food from five nearby countries that have complained that an influx of agricultural products from the war-torn nation has hurt their farmers.

Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria still allow grain and other Ukrainian food to pass through on the way to parts of the world in need.

The United States said that it was sanctioning more than 150 businesses and people from Russia to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Georgia to try to crack down on evasion and deny the Kremlin access to technology, money and financial channels that fuel President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

The sanctions package is one of the biggest by the State and Treasury departments and is the latest to target people and companies in countries, notably in NATO member Turkey, that sell Western technology to Russia that could be used to bolster its war effort.

Shares opened mixed in Europe on Thursday after a day of gains in Asia following a highly anticipated report that showed a modest increase in inflation across the U.S. in August

The subdued increase in prices eased worries over the likelihood of another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, but overall market reaction was muted.

Caught between stubborn inflation and weakening growth, the European Central Bank faces a close call Thursday on whether to halt its record run of interest rate hikes amid alarming signs that the economy could slide into recession.

The decision comes as the ECB, U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks are nearing the end of their swift series of rate hikes aimed at squelching inflation — and hoping the damage to economic growth from higher borrowing costs is not too extensive.

A jaguar lies beside George Washington. The United States' first president holds a rifle with one hand as he rests the other on the dead Argentine predator.

The backdrop is a U.S. dollar and an Argentine 500-peso note joined like a book, a clear allusion to the rapid depreciation of the local currency, the peso. That has made it difficult for Argentines to make ends meet. The peso has depreciated around 60% compared to the U.S. dollar over the past year. It has occurred in parallel to one of the world's highest inflation rates. Together, the economic travails have have bolstered an anti-establishment candidate who admires former President Donald Trump.

China's Commerce Ministry has protested a decision by the European Union to investigate exports of Chinese electric vehicles, saying Thursday that it is a "protectionist" act aimed at distorting the supply chain.

The EU announced Wednesday it will probe government subsidies provided to Chinese automakers that the EU contends keep EV prices artificially low. China has become the biggest market for electric vehicles after investing billions in subsidies to gain an edge. Automakers like BYD and Geely have quickly gained market share after launching sales of EVs to Japan and Europe.

A sharp increase in gas prices likely pushed inflation higher in August compared with a year ago, yet a measure excluding energy and food costs is expected to fall for the fifth straight month, suggesting that the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes are still bringing down prices for many goods and services.

The consumer price index is projected to have increased 3.6% last month from a year earlier, according to economists' forecasts compiled by data provider FactSet. The increase would be up from 3.2% in July, though still far below the peak of 9.1% in June 2022.