Europe

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/: The Russian public’s level of confidence in President Vladimir Putin fell by 0.6 percentage points to 79.5% in the past week, according to a poll published by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center on Friday.

"When asked if they trusted Putin, 79.5% of the poll’s participants said yes (a 0.6 percentage point drop from the week before). The share of people who approved of the way the president is handling his job was 75.8% (0.7 percentage points lower than last week)," the pollster said.

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The dollar headed for its biggest two-day drop in almost 14 years on Friday, as investors piled into riskier assets after a cooler reading of U.S. inflation helped temper expectations for the Federal Reserve to keep raising rates as quickly.

Data on Thursday showed consumer inflation rose 7.7% year-on-year in October, its slowest rate since January and below forecasts for 8%.

The dollar staged its biggest drop since late 2015 on Thursday as Treasury yields plunged, while other currencies - the yen and the pound in particular - jumped.

MOSCOW, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian forces' withdrawal from Kherson would not change the status of the region, which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia after moving to annex it from Ukraine.

Russia claimed Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions after holding what it called referendums in September – votes that were denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive. But on Wednesday, in a major retreat, it announced its forces would pull out of Kherson city in the face of a major Ukrainian counter-offensive.

LONDON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of working-age adults in the UK who are currently unemployed has increased by half a million since 2019, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows. This has mainly been caused by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Around 2.5 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness in the summer of 2022, compared to around two million people in the spring of 2019, said the ONS on Thursday.

GENEVA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Unilateral sanctions against Syria should be lifted as soon as possible, a UN expert said on Thursday.

The sanctions are contributing to the destruction and trauma suffered by the Syrian people, said Alena Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights.

Following a 12-day visit to Syria, Douhan said she was struck by the humanitarian impact of the measures imposed on Syria, a country attempting to rebuild in the wake of a decade-long war.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s economy shrank in the three months to September, official statistics said Friday, as forecasters warned of many months of contraction to come.

The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product fell by 0.2% between July and September, a smaller-than-expected contraction that nevertheless is seen to signal the start of a long recession.

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it finished pulling out its troops from the western bank of the river that divide’s Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, including the only provincial capital that Moscow had captured since invading the neighboring country.

In a statement carried by Russian state news agencies, the ministry said the withdrawal was completed at 5 a.m. on Friday, and not a single unit of military equipment was left behind. The retreat nonetheless marks another huge setback for Russia in its 8 1/2-month war in Ukraine.

10 Nov 2022; MEMO: A French newspaper has published a cartoon depicting Qatar's national football team as "terrorists", sparking outrage across the Gulf country.

The caricature comes days before Qatar is set to host FIFA World Cup 2022, becoming the first Arab and Middle Eastern country to organise the global tournament.

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: A power line was blown up in the Klimovo District in Russia’s Bryansk Region, which caused a power outage, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on his Telegram Channel Thursday, adding that emergency services are working at the scene.

"A 110-kWt power line was blown up in the Klimovo District causing a power outage. Emergency services are working at the scene," Bogomaz said.

He added that all power will be switched to a back-up line until the power line is fully repaired.

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: Sberbank is launching SberPay NFC contactless payment service on Android smartphones in November, Kirill Tsarev, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank, told reporters on the sidelines of the Finopolis forum.