Almost 3 million European Union workers can't afford to heat their homes amid a rise in energy prices, according to a labor organization's study released Wednesday.

The European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 45 million members, said that 15% of the EU's working poor - the equivalent of 2,713,578 people - lacks enough money to turn on the heating.

Lebanon's new government raised the price of fuel on Wednesday by 16%, the second time in five days, part of a gradual lifting of subsidies in the crisis-struck country.

The new hike brings the price of fuel, in short supply, closer to black market rates and comes after warnings from Lebanon's central bank that it can no longer continue to subsidize fuel purchases that have drained its foreign reserves. The Ministry of Energy announced the new prices in a statement.

Iran's oil minister has appointed a special envoy for Iraqi affairs, a first for the Islamic republic which is seeking $5 billion in arrears from its neighbor for gas exports.

The ministry's Shana news agency said Oil Minister Javad Owji had tasked Abbas Beheshti with "endeavoring to speed up settling gas export claims".

Iraq's association of cement manufacturers on Tuesday slammed a government decision to reduce subsidies on fuel for the sector, warning the move risks factory closures and cement price increases.

The oil ministry earlier this month raised the price of fuel sold to cement manufactures from 150 dinars per liter (around 10 cents) to 250, following on from a previous hike earlier in the year.

A Chinese real estate developer that is struggling to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt reassured jittery global markets at least briefly Wednesday by announcing it will make an interest payment due this week.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, kept investors guessing about whether it might intervene.

Global investors are watching nervously as one of China's biggest real estate developers struggles to avoid defaulting on tens of billions of dollars of debt, fueling fears of possible wider shock waves for the financial system.

Chinese regulators have yet to say what they might do about Evergrande Group. Economists expect Beijing to intervene if Evergrande and lenders can't agree on how to handle its debts. But any official resolution is expected to involve losses for banks and bondholders.

France on Tuesday urged its European Union partners to consider whether to delay negotiations on the bloc's future trade agreement with Australia over what Paris says is a lack of trust sparked by a major defense deal between the U.S., Australia and Britain.

French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said he would raise the trade pact and the security implications of the deal, known as AUKUS, at a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels, and that France would ensure that it is discussed at EU summits and ministerial meetings next month.

The British government is racing to avert shortages of meat, poultry and packaged foods amid a crisis in the food processing industry triggered by soaring energy costs.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said Tuesday that he hopes to reach a deal with the U.K.'s primary supplier of food-grade carbon dioxide to restore supplies of the gas that is used to stun animals before slaughter, preserve fruits and vegetables before packaging and put the fizz into carbonated beverages. Kwarteng is in talks with CF Industries, which halted operations at its U.K. plants last week due to high natural gas prices.

Energy officials from Qatar and Turkey, long-standing foes of the United Arab Emirates, descended on Dubai along with hundreds of other executives on Tuesday, flocking to the world's largest gas expo and the industry's first in-person conference since the pandemic began.

In a scene that would have been unthinkable just a year ago, the Emirati oil minister held forth from a crowded conference room beside the Qatari minister of state for energy, the first such visit since the UAE and three other Arab states imposed an embargo on Qatar in 2017.

The Beizhong International Travel Agency in the eastern city of Tianjin has had only one customer since coronavirus outbreaks that began in July prompted Chinese leaders to renew city lockdowns and travel controls.

Most of China is virus-free, but the abrupt, severe response to outbreaks has left would-be tourists jittery about traveling to places they might be barred from leaving. That has hit consumer spending, hindering efforts to keep the economic recovery on track.