A key figure at the heart of the burgeoning impeachment probe is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who as personal attorney to President Trump pressed Ukraine on pursuing an investigation of one of his boss’ political rivals.

A whistleblower complaint released Thursday depicts Mr. Giuliani, 75 years old, as eager to thrust himself into U.S. foreign policy. In some instances, he acted on his own, and in others his actions were in conjunction with U.S. government officials.

European competition regulators are expected to open an in-depth probe into plans by Boeing Co. to take control of the commercial-jetliner arm of Brazil’s Embraer SA in a move that could upset plans to close that deal by the end of the year.

Embraer said in a regulatory filing that the companies had been told of the planned action by the European Commission, which is due to reveal its initial findings on Oct. 4.

The...

PARIS—The French government said it would reduce taxes on individuals and businesses by €10.2 billion as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to breathe new life into his drive to overhaul France’s economy and stave off a revival of the yellow-vest protests that nearly doomed his agenda.

In presenting its 2020 budget on Thursday, the government said it planned to lower taxes on households by €9.3 billion and provide companies with tax relief through a lower rate.

The number of confirmed or probable cases of vaping-related illness has risen to 805 across 46 states and one U.S. territory, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, as health authorities urge people to stop using electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices while it investigates a rash of illnesses and deaths linked to the products.

That number has jumped by 275 cases, or a 52% increase from 530 last week. Also on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital confirmed the first...

The post- Adam Neumann era at WeWork has begun.

In the days since Mr. Neumann stepped down as chief executive, the company’s new leaders have moved to pare its headcount and assets, including advancing plans Thursday to purge nearly 20 friends and family members of Mr. Neumann and his wife, Rebekah Neumann, according to people familiar with the matter.

The IPO market took another hit Thursday as Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. yanked its planned offering, and Peloton Interactive Inc. ’s shares skidded on their first day of trading.

Endeavor became the second big casualty of the IPO market’s recent chill after WeWork’s parent company pulled its offering earlier this month. It is the second time Endeavor has hit the brakes on its IPO this year.

Syrian government forces carried out a chlorine attack in May, the first confirmed violation of the international accord banning chemical weapons since President Trump authorized a U.S. military strike on Syria in 2018 over its alleged use of poison gas, a new U.S. intelligence assessment says.

The episode took place on May 19 near the village of Kabana as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces sought to subdue resistance in Latakia province, a senior U.S. official said.

Contract talks between General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers entered a critical stretch Thursday night, with bargainers focusing on big-picture issues such as wages, benefits and the use of temporary workers, according to people close to the talks.

Many smaller matters, including on workplace rules and safety protocols, had been largely resolved, these people said, as the UAW’s strike at GM extended through an 11th day.

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration will cap the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. at 18,000 people for the fiscal year beginning in October, a record low.

The large reduction is the administration’s latest effort to limit immigration to the U.S., both legal and illegal. Administration officials have long voiced opposition to the refugee program, which they say poses national security risks, though each potential refugee is thoroughly vetted before arriving. The move mirrors steps his administration has taken to limit...

WASHINGTON—The Senate confirmed Eugene Scalia as Labor secretary on Thursday, installing a well-known corporate attorney at a department that handles a range of workplace matters

Mr. Scalia, a 56-year-old partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, succeeds Alexander Acosta, who stepped down from the position in July.

The Senate confirmed...

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration imposed sanctions on a Moscow-based firm and five vessels the Treasury Department said shipped fuel to Syria used to support the Assad regime’s bombing campaigns against civilians.

The action announced by the U.S. Treasury Department against Transpetrochart on Thursday is designed not only to disrupt fuel deliveries to Syria, but to highlight Russia’s military support for a government accused by the U.S. and others of committing war atrocities, including by using chemical weapons against civilian populations.

Imperial Brands PLC became the first global tobacco maker to lay out the financial impact of the U.S. crackdown on vaping products, as the maker of Blu e-cigarettes warned sales and profit would be lower than expected this year.

The disclosure from Imperial, which also sells traditional Davidoff and Winston cigarettes, shows how President Trump’s move to ban most vaping products in the U.S. is already affecting the broader industry.

Shares in Imperial dropped more than 10%, and rival British American Tobacco PLC, which also sells e-cigarettes in the U.S., drifted lower too.

Since President Trump took office, one of the manufacturing sectors with the fastest growing employment has been mining and oil-and-gas machinery, up 25%. One of the worst-off has been cut-and-sew apparel contractors, down 22%.

Neither performance, good or bad, can be tied to Mr. Trump.

Boosting American manufacturing has been a central policy...

PARIS—Human rights groups representing victims of the Darfur genocide filed a criminal complaint Thursday against BNP Paribas SA alleging the French bank provided financial services to Sudan that propped up its regime.

Four years ago, Europe’s largest listed bank by assets agreed to pay nearly $9 billion and plead guilty to violating sanctions against Sudan, Iran and Cuba, in an unprecedented settlement with U.S. authorities. BNP Paribas acknowledged using regional banks overseas to process more than $20 billion in financial...

Federal accident investigators called for broad changes in decades-old engineering principles and design assumptions related to pilot emergency responses, the first formal U.S. safety recommendations stemming from two fatal Boeing Co. 737 MAX crashes.

As part of lessons learned from the crashes that took 346 lives and grounded the global MAX fleet, the National Transportation Safety Board suggested the plane maker and the Federal Aviation Administration used unrealistic tests to initially certify the jets to carry passengers. The board also urged the FAA and Boeing to pay more attention to interactions between humans and cockpit computers to ensure safety. The board wants Boeing and the FAA to reassess—and potentially jettison—what senior investigators portrayed as overly optimistic assumptions about the speed and effectiveness of cockpit-crew reactions to complex automation failures.

FRANKFURT—A global dash to lower interest rates is meeting resistance.

Major central banks have seen more internal dissent over adding stimulus or opted to leave monetary policy unchanged in recent weeks, a shift after a wave of easing earlier this year amid cooling global growth.

Central-bank “hawks,” who mostly oppose stimulus and support...

Dutch lender ABN Amro Group NV faces a criminal probe in the Netherlands over a lack of anti-money-laundering and terrorism financing controls, becoming the latest European bank to fuel concerns about the continent’s ability to control illicit money flows.

According to the prosecutors’ office, ABN Amro “allegedly has not carried out client due diligence sufficiently, was insufficiently monitoring bank accounts and did not report unusual transactions, or reported them too late.” It didn’t provide a time frame over which the...

U.S. stocks slipped Thursday, with traders caught between hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal and the latest political drama in Washington.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 dropped 0.2%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5%.

The dominance of big firms trading in the overnight market for cash loans is hampering Federal Reserve efforts to calm short-term funding markets.

Activity in the market for repurchase agreements, or repos, where banks and investors seek more than a trillion dollars in cash loans every day, has increasingly concentrated at large banks. When those banks hoard reserves, it can drive borrowing costs higher for smaller firms, according to a study by Fed economists published last year. The five largest banks hold more than 90% of the supply of total reserves and a more even distribution would help cushion against such shocks, the study found.

BEIRUT—In a moment of need, reeling from a devastating attack on key oil facilities, Saudi Arabia is finding few friends these days in Washington or across the U.S.

The kingdom’s unpopular war in Yemen, its lackluster response after a Saudi hit team killed prominent critic Jamal Khashoggi and renewed attention to allegations of a Saudi government role in the 2001 terrorist attacks have damped support Riyadh may have hoped to get after alleged Iranian airstrikes.

WASHINGTON—President Trump sought to use the powers of his office to coerce Ukraine to investigate a political rival, and White House officials sought to conceal evidence of the president’s actions, a newly released whistleblower complaint alleges.

The complaint was released Thursday morning amid widening scrutiny of a July phone call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a controversy that has become the biggest political danger to Mr. Trump’s presidency and has rallied House Democrats to seek impeachment...

McDonald’s Corp. is getting on the plant-based bandwagon.

The world’s biggest fast-food company by revenue said Thursday it is testing Beyond Meat Inc. patties at restaurants in Canada for 12 weeks. Dubbed the “P.L.T.” for plant, lettuce and tomato, the sandwich will be on sale at 28 restaurants in southwestern Ontario starting Monday.

Nissan Motor Co.’s search for a new chief executive is focusing on three candidates who the company hopes will bring international experience and a fresh outlook to the troubled car maker, according to people familiar with the board’s thinking.

The current top candidates include Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of Japanese beverage giant Suntory Holdings Ltd., said one of the people. Also under consideration are Jun Seki, the Nissan executive overseeing the company’s business recovery, and Ashwani Gupta, the chief operating...