Lebanon and Jordan are seeking a solution with Syria after the latter barred foreign trucks from entering its territory, officials from both countries told AFP on Tuesday.

Oil and gas exports have sustained Russia's finances throughout its war against Ukraine. But as the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches, those cash flows have suddenly dwindled to lows not seen in years.

It's the result of new punitive measures from the U.S. and the European Union, U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff pressure against India, and a tightening crackdown on the fleet of sanctions-dodging tankers carrying Russian oil.

Hanadi Abu Zant hasn't been able to pay rent on her apartment in the occupied West Bank for nearly a year after losing her permit to work inside Israel. When her landlord calls the police on her, she hides in a mosque.

"My biggest fear is being kicked out of my home. Where will we sleep, on the street?" she said, wiping tears from her cheeks.

Honda reported Tuesday a 42% drop in profit for the nine months through December, compared to a year earlier, as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs hurt the Japanese automaker's earnings.

Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co.'s profit over the three quarters totaled 465.4 billion yen ($3 billion), down from 805.2 billion yen.

Global shares were mostly higher Tuesday as Japan's benchmark set another record after a historic election win for the nation's first female prime minister.

France's CAC 40 edged up 0.2% in early trading to 8,342.16, while Germany's DAX lost nearly 0.2% to 24,977.44. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.5% to 10,339.55. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up less than 0.1%.

U.S. tariffs hit French wine and spirits shipments hard last year, playing a major role in the overall drop of eight percent in value of one of France's top exports, a trade body said Tuesday.

Exports to the United States slumped by 21 percent, the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS) said.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday proposed a new round of sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine war, including a ban on providing services for tankers carrying Russian crude oil.

The package, meant to be approved for the fourth anniversary of Moscow's invasion, on February 24, also targets Russian banks, cryptocurrency traders and metal exports.

China and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade deal on Friday as Africa's leading economy looks to other options following the high import tariffs imposed on it by the U.S. and its diplomatic fallout with the Trump administration.

South Africa's Ministry of Trade and Industry said the agreement would start negotiations over a deal that would give some South African goods, such as fruit, duty-free access to the Chinese market. The ministry said it expected the trade deal to be finalized by the end of March.

Wall Street was poised to open with gains early Friday as the technology sector clawed back a small portion of this week's losses and bitcoin's slide appeared to stabilize.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose 0.5% before markets opened. Nasdaq futures climbed 0.6%.

Looking back on the first year of his second term, President Donald Trump boasts that he has resurrected the American economy by imposing big import taxes on foreign products. He made his case in a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, chiding the paper and critics, including mainstream economists, who predicted that tariffs would backfire, raising prices and threatening growth. "Instead,'' he wrote, "they have created an American economic miracle."

But the proof he offers is often off-base or wrong altogether.