Europe

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. weather agency is predicting that the phenomenon known as La Nina is poised to last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” — the first this century — caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide.

The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday said La Nina conditions, which involve a large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures, have strengthened in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific with an increase in trade winds in recent weeks.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A team of U.N. inspectors made its way toward Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Wednesday on a perilous, long-sought mission to safeguard the site and prevent a catastrophe from the fighting raging around it.

Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other of shelling the area around the complex overnight. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear plant in Europe.

31 August 2022; MEMO: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Tuesday for Israel to meet its international obligations. Michelle Bachelet made her call following two years of Israel denying visas for UN staff.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: The Russian financial system requires "serious adjustment" in conditions of sanctions, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday.

"Our financial system requires serious adjustment in the environment of sanctions and restrictions, primarily to establish efficient mechanisms that will make possible to saturate our economy with sufficient liquidity, ensure stable operations of our business and entire industries, and keep jobs," Mishustin said.

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/: Ukraine’s military lost over 1,200 personnel in the past day upon its attempt to launch an offensive in the Nikolayev-Krivoi Rog and other areas on order by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

The enemy suffered heavy casualties as a result of the rout of the Ukrainian military’s offensive in the Nikolayev-Krivoi Rog and other areas, the spokesman said.

BELGRADE, August 29. /TASS/: Serbia isn’t is planning to change its policy course regarding sanctions on Russia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday, when asked whether Belgrade could reconsider its stance and introduce restrictions against the Russian Federation.

VILNIUS, Aug 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Lithuania on Monday said it had finished building a fence along its border with Belarus to fight illegal immigration which the West accuses Minsk of orchestrating.

Illegal immigration has soared in EU member Lithuania this year, with around 4,200 migrants mainly from the Middle East and Africa crossing the border from neighbouring Belarus.

The West has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of manipulating the migrant flows with its ally Russia as part of “hybrid” warfare, which Minsk denies.

VIENNA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with its rollout of an upgrade to its advanced uranium enrichment programme, a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog seen by Reuters on Monday showed, even as the West awaits Iran's response on salvaging its 2015 nuclear deal.

The first of three cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges recently installed at the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz is now enriching, the report said, the latest underground site at which the advanced machines have come onstream. 

LONDON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - It is possible to eliminate the monkeypox outbreak in Europe, World Health Organization officials said on Tuesday, highlighting evidence that case counts are slowing in a handful of countries.

There are encouraging signs of a sustained week-on-week decline in the onset of cases in many European countries, including France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Britain, as well as a slowdown in some parts of the United States, despite scarce vaccine supplies.

PARIS, Aug 30 (Reuters) - France accused Moscow on Tuesday of using energy supplies as "a weapon of war" after Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) cut deliveries to a major French customer and said it would shut its main gas pipeline to Germany for three days this week.

European governments are trying to coordinate a response to soaring energy costs for businesses and households and to fill storage facilities ahead of peak demand in the winter.