WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve has for decades moved steadily from a remote, opaque government agency that shared little about what it did or why to a more transparent institution willing to explain how it makes decisions and what it thinks about the economy.

HAVANA (AP) – Observers on Friday called Cuba’s new free-market reforms the most sweeping economic overhaul of the island’s communist economy since the Cuban revolution, as the grandson of former President Raúl Castro said in an interview that Cuba must seek to move its economy forward.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

TORONTO (AP) – Austrian-Canadian billionaire and automotive business founder Frank Stronach was found guilty Friday of sexual assault and indecent assault of two woman decades ago.

NEW YORK (AP) – When Illumination founder and chief executive Chris Meledandri earlier this month received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he wondered how many visitors it will have.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Qantas Airways plans to launch the world’s longest direct flight next year, a service of up to 22 hours nonstop between London and Sydney.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday yet almost half the central bank’s policymakers said they could support a rate hike later this year, an unexpectedly aggressive outcome that would disappoint President Trump and suggests heightened concerns about persistent inflation.

TOKYO (AP) – Japan recorded a trade deficit in May, the first in four months, as imports of electrical machinery surged, helping to offset a jump in exports, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday.