WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is signaling potentially vulnerable spots in the financial system, citing U.S. businesses’ debt at the highest levels in more than two decades and risky debt growing.

The Fed’s report issued Wednesday was its first assessing the stability of the U.S. financial system. Ten years after the financial crisis, the new report points to excessive borrowing by households and businesses, banks’ elevated debt levels, and high prices for stocks and other assets exceeding their real value.

28 Nov 2018; DW: A government report says Britain risks severely damaging its economy if lawmakers fail to approve a proposed Brexit deal. Staying in the European Union would be a far better option, the UK's treasury chief argued.

The British government on Wednesday published a report that spelled out a devastating scenario for the economy if Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019 without a deal.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump tested the limits of his presidential authority and political muscle as he threatened to cut off all federal subsidies to General Motors because of its planned massive cutbacks in the U.S.

LONDON (AP) — Leaving the European Union without a divorce deal could plunge Britain into its deepest recession in nearly a century, with the economy shrinking 8 percent within months as unemployment and inflation soar, the Bank of England warned Wednesday.

The stark projection came the same day the government’s own economists said the country will be poorer after Brexit than if it had stayed in the EU, no matter what sort of trade deal it secures with the bloc.

28 Nov 2018; AFP: Two top officials from the administration of President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to persuade US lawmakers to maintain America's increasingly contentious backing of Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen, arguing that pulling back would worsen the brutal conflict.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new U.S. homes plummeted 8.9 percent in October, as the number of newly built, unsold homes sitting on the market climbed to its highest level since 2009.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 last month. New-home sales have declined in four of the past five months. Over the past year, sales of new homes have dropped 12 percent as higher mortgage rates have caused would-be buyers to back away.

Bengaluru, Nov 28 (PTI) IT czar and philanthropist Azim Premji was bestowed with the highest French civilian distinction Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) here Wednesday.

Premji, who is the chairman of Bengaluru-headquartered IT major Wipro, received the distinction from the Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler here, Wipro said.

RIYADH, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday to provide 50 million U.S. dollars to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

According to Saudi Press Agency, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah, supervisor general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), and Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner general of the UNRWA, co-signed in Riyadh a memorandum for the grant.

MOSCOW, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called on the United States to stop imposing unilateral sanctions and seek common ground with its partners.

"It seems to me that we need to achieve a positive result for ourselves, not trying to harm the partners, but trying to find joint areas of activity in order to work together more effectively," Putin said at the Russia Calling investment forum.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 150 U.S. business groups on Tuesday urged the White House to resolve the ongoing trade dispute with China during an expected meeting between the two countries' leaders at the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Argentina later this week.

In a letter addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump, the Americans for Free Trade, a lobbying coalition representing these business groups, said it urged Trump to capitalize on the upcoming meeting to reach an agreement with the Chinese side on the trade front.

BERLIN (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch proposed Wednesday that the bloc should cut its emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, a measure scientists say needs to be adopted worldwide in order to avoid catastrophic global warming.

The European Commission is the first major economy to set its sight on achieving climate neutrality in the next three decades. But the plan, which was announced days before a global climate summit , is far more ambitious than the national targets set so far by many of the EU’s 28 member states.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has launched a single-stage rocket to test a locally made engine as part of efforts to place a satellite into orbit.

The Science Ministry says it has confirmed its engine test was successful after the rocket landed off the southern coast on Wednesday.

It says South Korea aims to develop a domestically built space launch vehicle by 2021.

In 2013, South Korea succeeded in thrusting a satellite into orbit aboard a rocket blasted from its soil for the first time, but parts of that rocket were built with Russian help.