Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad announced Wednesday that the fuel oil that Lebanon will receive from Iran for its electricity plants “will be a grant” and accordingly is exempt from “any sanctions.”

“We will follow up on this issue and we have received reassurances that it will move forward,” Fayyad added, after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda.

Palestinian shops and businesses in east Jerusalem shut down on Wednesday to protest Israeli police raids in the area that have prompted fierce clashes between police and Palestinian protesters.

Israeli police have been operating in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem's eastern sector to hunt for a suspect in a deadly shooting attack at a checkpoint on Sunday that killed a soldier.

The pound sank against the dollar early Wednesday after the Bank of England confirmed it won't extend an emergency debt-buying plan introduced last month to stabilize financial markets.

Bank Governor Andrew Bailey said the program will end on Friday as scheduled.

The French government on Wednesday started the process of requisitioning workers at petrol depots of ExxonMobil's French branch Esso in an attempt to ensure that service stations around the country are supplied with badly needed fuel amid an ongoing strike.

France's Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne asked prefects at the National Assembly to launch the procedure "to requisition workers who are indispensable to the functioning" of the Esso petrol depots and is expected to make a similar decision soon regarding Total facilities if salary negotiations do not start quickly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow is ready to resume gas supplies to Europe via a link of the Germany-bound Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea, but that "the ball was in the EU's court."

Speaking at a Moscow energy forum, Putin again charged that the U.S. was likely behind the explosions that ripped through both links of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of the two links of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, causing a massive gas leak and taking them out of service.

A new liquefied natural gas project off Africa's western coast may only be 80% complete, but already the prospect of a new energy supplier has drawn visits from the leaders of Poland and Germany.

The initial field near Senegal and Mauritania's coastlines is expected to contain about 15 trillion cubic feet (425 billion cubic meters) of gas, five times more than what gas-dependent Germany used in all of 2019. But production isn't expected to start until the end of next year.

President Joe Biden has said there will be "consequences" for Saudi Arabia as the Riyadh-led OPEC+ alliance moves to cut oil production and Democratic lawmakers call for a freeze on cooperation with the Saudis.

Biden suggested he would soon take action, as aides announced that the administration is reevaluating its relationship with the kingdom in light of the oil production cut that White House officials say will help another OPEC+ member, Russia, pad its coffers as it continues its nearly eight-month war in Ukraine.

The United Nations' development program is calling on rich countries and financial institutions in them to do more to help alleviate a growing debt crisis faced by the world's poorest countries, including by writing off debts — not just rescheduling them.

A report from UNDP released Tuesday comes amid meetings by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Group of 20 countries in Washington that are expected to consider in part a growing debt crisis that is weighing on the developing world, as interest rates have climbed this year — raising the cost of borrowing.

The head of Britain's cyber-intelligence agency is accusing China of using its economic and technological clout to clamp down at home and exert control abroad, saying Beijing's aggressive stance is driven by fear and poses "a huge threat to us all."

Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, says Beijing's Communist authorities are seeking to "shape the global tech ecosystem," using technologies such as digital currencies and satellite systems to control China's population and increase its influence around the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday hailed a recent decision by OPEC, Russia and other oil producing nations to limit production as key to stabilizing the global energy market, as he met the leader of the United Arab Emirates for talks on fostering economic ties.

Speaking at the start of his talks in St. Petersburg with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and the president of the United Arab Emirates, Putin hailed the ties between the two countries as important for regional and global stability.