As Los Angeles teacher Diana Castillo picketed in the rain alongside her husband, brother and daughter, who all work for or attend district schools, she didn't bring up the paychecks her family would be missing.

Asian share markets faltered on Thursday as unease over China's economic outlook eroded early gains, though an anti-climactic end to the latest chapter in the Brexit saga did offer sterling a moment's peace.

U.S. President Donald Trump is due to unveil a revamped U.S. missile defense strategy on Thursday that looks at ways to boost America's security, including by possibly deploying a new layer of space-based sensors to detect and track enemy missiles.

In a victory for President Donald Trump, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected legislation to keep sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, including aluminum firm Rusal .

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sees the Trump White House as a rogues' gallery of flawed people sidetracking the work of the U.S. president, according to excerpts of his forthcoming memoir posted on the news site Axios on Wednesday.

The partial government shutdown is taking a toll on key safety inspection duties performed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture, food safety experts said on Wednesday.

The head of the Los Angeles teachers' union voiced optimism on Wednesday about jump-starting stalled labor talks, as a teachers strike disrupting classes for nearly 500,000 students in the second-largest U.S. public school system stretched into its third day.

Asian shares crept higher on Thursday as upbeat bank earnings bolstered Wall Street, while an anti-climactic end to the latest chapter in the Brexit saga gave sterling a moment's peace.

John Bogle, whose family's struggles during the Great Depression led him to pioneer low-cost investing and to found Vanguard Group, now the world's biggest mutual fund firm, died on Wednesday at the age of 89, Vanguard said.

An internal U.S. government watchdog on Wednesday found "serious shortcomings" in federal officials' handling of a lease by President Donald Trump's company of a historic government building in Washington now home to a Trump International Hotel.

U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to move ahead with tariffs on imported vehicles, a move that could prompt the European Union to agree a new trade deal, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will reopen about 980 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices for three days starting on Thursday to help process farm loans and tax documents during the partial federal government shutdown.

Wall Street's major indexes hit one-month highs on Wednesday as strong earnings from Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc boosted investor sentiment.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday the opposition Labour Party had yet to discuss a new approach to Brexit with her and urged politicians to put self-interest aside to work to break an impasse over leaving the European Union.

U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, set for Jan. 29, should be delayed if the government is still shut.

Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday were moving ahead with legislation to prevent the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, following a court decision this week blocking inclusion of such information.

Major world stock indexes rose on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 supported by sharply higher U.S. bank shares after strong earnings, while the pound was up after British Prime Minister Theresa May's government won a confidence vote in parliament.

There were "serious shortcomings" in the General Services Administration handling of President Donald Trump's lease of a government-owned building that houses his Trump International Hotel in Washington, according to a U.S. government watchdog report released on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Huawei Technologies[HWT.UL], the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, for allegedly stealing trade secrets from U.S. businesses and could soon issue an indictment, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

With the partial U.S. government shutdown now in its 26th day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to reschedule his State of the Union address - a move that could deny him the opportunity to use the pageantry of the speech to attack Democrats in their own chamber over the impasse.