Europe

BELGRADE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he did not think the West's "provocative" policies towards Russia were correct, after the European Union and Group of Seven nations proposed a price cap on Russian gas.

President Vladimir Putin had earlier threatened to halt all supplies if the EU took such a step, raising the risk of rationing in some of the world's richest countries this winter.

Erdogan was speaking at a news conference with the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.

BRUSSELS/VLADIVOSTOK Russia, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The European Union proposed a price cap on Russian gas on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin threatened to cut off all energy supplies if it took such a step, raising the risk of rationing in some of the world's richest countries this winter.

The escalating standoff could drive up sky-high European gas prices further, adding to already eyewatering bills EU governments are paying to stop their energy providers collapsing and prevent cash-strapped customers freezing in the cold months ahead.

KYIV, Sept 7 (Reuters) - In rare public comments Ukraine's military chief warned on Wednesday of the threat of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, which would create the risk of a "limited" nuclear conflict with other powers.

The war in Ukraine that began with Russia's invasion on Feb. 24 was likely to rage on into next year, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said in an article co-authored by lawmaker Mykhailo Zabrodskyi and published by state news agency Ukrinform.

LONDON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Wednesday that she hopes to find a "negotiated solution" to the row between Britain and the European Union (EU) over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.

"My preference is for a negotiated solution, but it has to deliver all of the things we set out in the Northern Ireland protocol bill, what we cannot allow is this situation to drift," said Truss in her first Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons since taking over from Boris Johnson as the country's leader.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Liz Truss told Parliament on Wednesday that she would tackle Britain’s “very serious” energy crisis while still slashing taxes, ruling out imposing a windfall levy on oil companies to pay for her plans to offset the soaring cost of heating and electricity.

Truss rebuffed opposition calls for a new windfall tax, even as she refrained from explaining how she would fund a plan meant to help the public pay energy bills skyrocketing because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the economic aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit.

(AP) --- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet next week in Uzbekistan for talks that could signal warming relations between two powers that are increasingly facing off against the West.

The meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — a political, economic and security forum that China and Russia dominate — comes at delicate times for both leaders, and it would be their second face-to-face meeting this year.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia resumed shelling near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a local official said Wednesday, a day after the U.N. atomic watchdog agency pressed for the warring sides to carve out a safe zone there to prevent a catastrophe.

The city of Nikopol, on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Europe’s largest nuclear plant, was fired on with rockets and heavy artillery, regional Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said. The report could not independently verified.

Kyiv, Sep 7 (AP/PTI) The UN atomic watchdog agency has urged Russia and Ukraine to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia power plant amid mounting fears the fighting could trigger a catastrophe in a country still scarred by the Chernobyl disaster.

We are playing with fire, and something very, very catastrophic could take place, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the UN Security Council, days after leading an inspection visit to the plant.

06 Sep 2022; MEMO: Climate change could have a devastating effect on the lives of millions in the East Mediterranean and Middle East, where temperatures are rising nearly twice as fast as the global average, an international team of scientists warned, Reuters reports.

The region could see an overall warming of up to five degrees Celsius or more by the end of the century on a business-as-usual scenario, a report prepared by the Cyprus Institute said.

06 Sep 2022; MEMO: Russia and Iran are concentrating on creating mechanisms that will allow them to develop cooperation regardless of the diktats of the West, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today.

The leaders of the two countries defined concrete areas where the governments should make efforts to achieve the goals, Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.