
United States share markets suffered on Wednesday their sharpest one-day falls in months, as fears about rising interest rates, inflation, trade tensions intensified. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the declines, sliding 4%, or 315.9 points, to 7,422. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 also fell by more than 3%, with losses accelerating towards the end of the day. Netflix fell 8%, while Amazon slid 6%.

The most powerful hurricane ever to hit the north-west state of Florida has flooded beach towns, submerging homes and snapping trees like twigs. Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a category three storm with 250km/h winds in the state's Panhandle region. Two people have been reported killed in Florida.

United States Justice Department said on Wednesday it had arrested and indicted a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security on charges of economic espionage and attempting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies.

William Nordhaus of Yale University and Paul M Romer from New York University’s Stern School of Business have been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics for including long-term thinking on climate issues and technological innovation in economic research.

Canada has not invited the United States or China to a high-level meeting on reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). The country will host a small group of like-minded trade ministers in Ottawa in late October to discuss the global trade body. Officials say countries like the US and China will be included at a later date in the reforms discussion process.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying an Argentine satellite has blasted off from California. The primary purpose of Sunday's mission is to place the SAOCOM 1A satellite into orbit, but SpaceX will also try for the first time to bring the Falcon's first stage back to a landing at the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site.

President Donald Trump's controversial nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, has been sworn in following weeks of rancorous debate. The Senate earlier backed his nomination by 50 votes to 48.

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will travel to Venezuela “to assess the current situation,” a spokeswoman said, amid tensions between Caracas and Washington.

Jobs created in the United States during September fell to its lowest level in a year though the unemployment rate dropped to a point not seen in nearly 50 years, according to the Labor Department figures released Friday.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dismissed remarks by Donald Trump in which the U.S. president said he had warned the king he would not last in power “for two weeks” without U.S. military backing and demanded he pay up.