Drone strikes caused fires at two facilities of Saudi Arabia’s vast state oil company early Saturday, the kingdom’s interior ministry said, marking the latest in a series of attacks on the country’s petroleum assets in recent months.

Authorities were investigating the strikes on Aramco’s facility at Abqaiq in the kingdom’s Eastern Province and another at the Hijra Khurais oil field, the interior ministry said in a tweet.

The...

Randall Stephenson, AT&T Inc.’s longtime boss, got an unexpected phone call Sunday evening from a hedge-fund manager at Elliott Management Corp., one of Wall Street’s biggest and most aggressive activist investors.

The call was brief and cordial, but behind it was a stinging rebuke of the telecom veteran’s mission to turn the phone company into a media giant and leave a top lieutenant to finish the job. Investor Jesse Cohn told Mr. Stephenson the hedge fund had concerns about AT&T’s strategy and execution, reflecting...

FRANKFURT—When European Central Bank President Mario Draghi presented his final jolt of stimulus for the eurozone to the central bank’s rate-setting committee Thursday, he faced a rebellion.

At least seven board members of the 25-member body, including his closest aide and the heads of the French, German, Dutch and Austrian central banks, opposed his plans to restart a multi-billion-euro bond-buying program.

But...

LONDON—For the hundreds of thousands who now regularly tune in to watch, Britain’s Parliament provides an often-entertaining spectacle. Underneath lies a tradition of government that is being tested to its limits, leading to questions about whether the country needs a written constitution like the U.S.

Faultlines have opened up in Britain’s system of government. The fissures have been exposed by the deep divisions created by Brexit and the fact that the Conservative governments that have been trying to secure the country’s...

Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

“Where’s my favorite dictator?” Mr. Trump called out in a voice loud enough to be heard by the small gathering of American and Egyptian officials. Several people who were in the room at the time said they heard the question.

The...

For years after the 2008 mortgage-market meltdown, Republicans and Democrats agreed on little about what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac except one thing: Get rid of them.

A Trump administration housing-finance roadmap released last week would do the opposite, allowing the government-controlled companies to remain at the center of the American home-ownership system for years to come. Washington reluctantly recognized the difficulty of replacing institutions that undergird the home-buying market.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa.—When Donald Trump broke the hold of Democrats in Pennsylvania and parts of the industrial Midwest in 2016, credit went to many blue-collar, manufacturing-oriented counties that backed him by lopsided margins, drawn in part by his promise of economic renewal.

More than two years into Mr. Trump’s presidency, employment growth and other measures of economic robustness in these politically important counties have lagged behind the national trend, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

WeWork’s parent agreed to make sweeping governance changes and chose Nasdaq for its exchange, as the shared-workspace provider scrambles to keep its controversial initial public offering on track.

The moves are part of a plan by We Co., as the company is officially known, to begin officially marketing the shares to investors next week ahead of a trading debut the week of Sept. 23, people familiar with the matter said.

We...

The three leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination confronted each other over issues including health care in a marathon debate that featured all 10 top contenders onstage for the first time.

Lasting nearly three hours, Thursday’s debate in Houston gave the highest-polling candidates—former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont—their first chance to face off. But the Democrats largely tried to keep the discussion positive, praising the Obama...

TOKYO—The Bank of Japan is growing more open to the idea of cutting short-term interest rates deeper into negative territory, responding to global risks that are forcing other central banks to cut rates, said people familiar with the bank’s thinking.

If the bank were to do so, however, it would look for ways to avoid sharp declines at the longer end of the yield curve, the people said. The goal is to keep an upward slope from low short-term rates to higher long-term rates, which makes it easier for life insurers and pension...

The U.S. Justice Department is pursuing multiple wide-ranging criminal investigations into sexual abuse in U.S. Olympic sports organizations and into potential financial and business misconduct throughout the U.S. Olympic system, people familiar with the investigations said.

The investigations show the continuing legal pressure faced by top sports and law-enforcement organizations—including the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and the Federal Bureau of Investigation—in the wake of the explosive sexual-abuse...

The British government is signaling it wants to step up the pace of talks to secure an agreement over its departure from the European Union, stirring hopes that a Brexit deal can be struck next month.

While officials on both sides warn a breakthrough is still far off, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday to discuss potential changes to a divorce deal aimed at smoothing Britain’s planned exit from the trade bloc at the end of October.

BOSTON—Actress Felicity Huffman is slated to be sentenced Friday afternoon for her role in the college-admissions cheating scheme, kicking off the penalty portion for the 15 parents who have pleaded guilty.

Ms. Huffman pleaded guilty in May to a fraud conspiracy charge, admitting to paying college counselor William “Rick” Singer $15,000 so he could arrange for a test proctor in his employ to fraudulently inflate her older daughter’s SAT score in 2017. Ms. Huffman almost repeated the scheme with her younger daughter, but ultimately...

TUNIS—When the people of Tunisia took to the streets in 2011, their protests set off the Arab Spring, fanning years of rebellion and war across the Middle East. Tunisia was the only country to emerge from that tumult as a democracy.

Today, as new democratic movements gather strength elsewhere in North Africa and Tunisia prepares for a presidential election on Sunday, the country’s role as a showcase for democracy in the volatile region is being tested.

HONG KONG—At the end of a recent pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong, two masked protesters turned their attention to what has become a new target for demonstrators: the city’s subway system.

Armed with a metal rod, they attacked a window at an aboveground entrance to Central Station—next to an office tower and among city parks—while a group of reporters looked on. Later, protesters hurled rocks at the glass. Down the street among luxury shops, demonstrators lighted a fire in front of another station entrance.

PG&E Corp. on Friday agreed on an $11 billion settlement to resolve the majority of claims by insurance carriers from the 2017 Northern California wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire.

It would be the company’s second resolution with major groups of wildfire claimants. In June, PG&E agreed to pay $1 billion to compensate more than a dozen California cities, counties and agencies for losses resulting from deadly wildfires sparked by its equipment.

TEL AVIV—Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a close election contest with his main rival, former Gen. Benny Gantz, with final polls ahead of Tuesday’s vote suggesting that neither has a clear path to governing.

The tight polls indicate that the winner might not be immediately clear Tuesday, given Israel’s complicated electoral system and polarized politics. The party with the most votes is likely to get the first chance at forming a 61-seat majority in Israel’s parliament, but Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party...

BEIJING—China said it wouldn’t impose additional tariffs on soybeans, pork and other agricultural goods from the U.S. in response to President Trump’s postponement of higher tariffs on some Chinese goods.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that China would buy “a certain amount” of agricultural products from the U.S., and that the government would exempt such purchases from punitive tariffs. The Commerce Ministry and China’s economic development agency decided on the measures, the report said.

• Treasury yields rise

• Some Asian markets closed for holiday

• European bank shares gain

U.S. stock futures ticked up after China said it wouldn’t impose new tariffs on U.S. soybeans, pork and other agricultural goods, a further sign of cooling tensions between the two largest economies.

The tech backlash has come for the gig economy.

The California bill passed this week that threatens to make drivers for ride-hailing companies into employees rather than independent contractors is the latest move by regulators and courts around the globe that could curtail companies like Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. and food-delivery businesses like DoorDash Inc.

LONDON—London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Friday rejected a $36.6 billion bid from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd., saying it had “fundamental concerns” about the price and strategic aim of the deal.

It said it remains committed to its plan to buy Refinitiv Holdings Ltd.

In a letter to the Hong Kong exchange issued publicly, LSE said...

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration said that oil drilling in part of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would have a negligible environmental impact, clearing the way for lease sales to oil companies this year.

The finding by the U.S. Department of Interior was backed by Alaskan officials and others who called it a critical step in decades of work to open the wildlife refuge to oil interests.

“Forty...

WeWork’s parent company has chosen to list its shares on Nasdaq and plans sweeping changes in its governance as the shared workspace provider speeds up preparations for its hotly anticipated initial public offering in the face of tepid interest from investors.

The moves are part of a plan by We Co., as the company is officially known, to begin officially marketing the shares to investors next week ahead of a trading debut the week of Sept. 23, people familiar with the matter said.

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court’s decision to allow, for now, enforcement of new asylum restrictions nationwide is the Trump administration’s widest-reaching policy victory yet on reducing migration from Central America, but its immediate impact at the southern border remained unclear Thursday.

Migrants who cross the border illegally or come to legal border crossings will still be allowed to ask for asylum, the Department of Homeland Security said, though the outcome of their requests may ultimately be predetermined if the rule...

Democrats have one of the most crowded primaries in modern history, with a record number of women running in the diverse field. Here is a closer look at who is running and who has dropped out of the race.