The billionaire slated to take over the controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers has built a career leading businesses investing in everything from sports franchises to artificial intelligence.

Mark Walter is CEO of the global investment and advisory company Guggenheim Partners, which is estimated to have more than $325 billion in assets. He's also co-founder and CEO of holding company TWG Global.

World shares are mostly higher and crude oil prices have rebounded as investors wait to see if the U.S. will join Israel's war against Iran.

Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.4% higher at 8,829.82 and the CAC-40 in Paris gained 0.6% to 7,595.06. Germany's DAX rose 0.9% at 23,256.98.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday he will impose new tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum imports on July 21 depending the progress of trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The prime minister of New Zealand stressed the mutual benefits of trade with China in a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday, while acknowledging their disagreements on geopolitical issues.

Christopher Luxon, on his first visit to China since becoming prime minister in late 2023, flew to Beijing after two days of meetings with officials and business leaders in Shanghai, China's commercial center.

Hackers with possible links to Israel have drained more than $90 million from Nobitex, Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to blockchain analytics firms.

The group that claimed responsibility for the hack leaked on Thursday what it said was the company's full source code. "ASSETS LEFT IN NOBITEX ARE NOW ENTIRELY OUT IN THE OPEN," the group wrote on its Telegram account.

Switzerland's central bank said Thursday it has reduced its target interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, adding that inflationary pressures have eased.

Global shares retreated Thursday as worries persisted about conflict in the Middle East.

On the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported that Iran's foreign minister planned to meet with his European counterparts in Geneva.

The Bank of England warned Thursday about the "highly unpredictable" geopolitical environment as it kept its main interest rate unchanged at the two-year low of 4.25%.

With concerns mounting over the conflict between Israel and Iran, and uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff agenda, rate-setters at the bank were widely expected to keep borrowing costs on hold as they await developments.

U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates, calling the central bank's leader "stupid" and insisting that there is "no inflation" despite worries over fresh tariffs.

"We have a stupid person, frankly, at the Fed, he probably won't cut today," Trump said, hours before the Fed was due to release its latest interest rate decision. "We have no inflation, we have only success, and I'd like to see interest rates get down."

Inflation in the U.K. dropped modestly in May as a drop in air fares and transport costs were largely offset by rising food prices, particularly chocolate, official figures showed Wednesday.

The Office of National Statistics said consumer prices rose by 3.4% in the year to May, down from 3.5% the previous month.