07 September 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia will extend its voluntary oil production cut of one million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year, the kingdom’s energy ministry announced yesterday.

The ministry said in a statement that oil production from October to December will be approximately nine million (bpd).

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Wednesday announced it was sending depleted uranium anti-tank rounds to Ukraine, following Britain’s lead in sending the controversial munitions to help Kyiv push through Russian lines in its grueling counteroffensive.

The 120 mm rounds will be used to arm the 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks the U.S. plans to deliver to Ukraine in the fall.

Such armor-piercing rounds were developed by the U.S. during the Cold War to destroy Soviet tanks, including the same T-72 tanks that Ukraine now faces in its counteroffensive.

LONDON (AP) — Britain is rejoining the European Union’s $100 billion science-sharing program Horizon Europe, the two sides announced Thursday, more than two years after the country’s membership became a casualty of Brexit.

British scientists expressed relief at the decision, the latest sign of thawing relations between the EU and its former member nation.

Sept 6 (Reuters) - Moderna (MRNA.O) and rival Pfizer (PFE.N) on Wednesday said their updated COVID-19 vaccines generated strong responses in testing against the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus that has raised fears of a resurgence of infections.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — It took more than a day of flying, including two refueling stops, for Vice President Kamala Harris to reach this year’s summit of Southeast Asian countries. And once she arrived, she had less than eight minutes of public speaking time during two meetings.

But in Jakarta’s cavernous convention center, adorned with billowing flowers and tropical plants for the occasion, Harris saw an opportunity to shape the future of United States foreign policy.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The rain has passed, and the temple has burned. Now, as Burning Man slowly empties, it’s time to clean up.

Burning Man organizers have three weeks to clean up any remnants of the makeshift city plopped across over four square miles (10 square kilometers) of the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada, but a summer storm that left tens of thousands stranded in ankle-deep mud could alter that timeframe.

05 September 2023; MEMO: A group of Israeli men has been taken into custody in Cyprus following allegations of gang-rape made by a 20-year-old British woman who was on vacation in Ayia Napa.

The five Israeli men, aged 19 and 20, have been placed in detention for an additional eight days, as ordered by a district court magistrate in Famagusta following their arrest on Sunday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has refused to approve some of the conditions that lawyers for the defendants in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had sought in a possible plea bargain, ruling out a presidential guarantee that the five men would be spared solitary confinement and provided care for the trauma of their torture in CIA custody, a White House National Security Council official said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at this weekend's Group of 20 (G20) meeting in India with an offer for the "Global South": whatever happens to China's economy, the United States can help fund your development.

Armed with cash for the World Bank and promises of sustained U.S. engagement, Biden hopes to persuade fast-growing economies in Africa, Latin America and Asia that there is an alternative to China's Belt and Road project, which has funneled billions of dollars to developing countries but left many deeply in debt.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 07 (APP): Marking the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a clarion call for increased international cooperation to address the “global emergency” of worsening air pollution.

Airborne contaminants are one of the most significant environmental health risks, he said. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), 99 per cent of the world’s population breathes polluted air, with the exposure significantly worse in low and middle-income countries.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Department of State announced 1 billion U.S. dollars in new aid for Ukraine on Wednesday while Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Kiev to show support.

The State Department said in a fact sheet that the new package includes an additional drawdown of up to 175 million dollars worth of weapons and equipment from the Department of Defense's inventories.

(AP) --- Utah officials have pushed the Great Salt Lake to the brink of an ecological collapse because they allowed upstream water to be diverted for decades to farmers growing alfalfa, hay and other crops, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a coalition of environmental groups.

The conservationists want a court to step in and force the state to let more water reach the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River, which is an oasis for millions of migratory birds, an engine for Utah’s billion-dollar mineral industry and a tourist attraction.