The British government came under fire Thursday for scrapping a long-planned high-speed rail line to the northern English city of Leeds as part of a package of revisions that reduces costs by tens of billions of pounds.

Critics argue that the scaling back of plans will leave many parts of northern England at an economic disadvantage, and runs against Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's stated ambition to "level-up" the country, by spreading prosperity away from London and other wealthy parts of southern England.

Turkey's Central Bank cut interest rates again Thursday, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against high borrowing rates and raising increasing concerns about the impact of soaring consumer prices on families and businesses.

The bank's monetary committee announced it was reducing the policy rate to 15% from 16%, even as inflation runs at close to 20%. It was the bank's third interest rate cut in as many months.

The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude, the first such sale under President Joe Biden and a harbinger of the challenges he faces to reach climate goals that depend on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.

The livestreamed sale invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across some 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) — about twice the area of Florida.

Europe is short of natural gas — dangerously short. A cold winter could mean a severe crunch, and utility bills are headed higher, burdening ordinary people and weighing on the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to help fill European gas storages as energy prices soar — but supply shortages and political tensions have continued to rattle energy markets, keeping prices high. That's pinched businesses and forced them to pass along costs to customers already facing higher bills at home.

The Consultative Group (CG) of the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF) has held its third meeting at the Grand Serail, co-chaired by Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Lebanese civil society, European Union (EU) and United Nations.

The 3RF Consultative Group members discussed progress achieved so far and next steps in four main sectors: the anti-corruption sector; the Build Beirut Businesses Back Better (B5) program; the social protection sector; and the housing sector.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea has attended the inauguration of American Corner Tripoli in partnership with Safadi Foundation.

"This American Space at the Safadi Foundation Center will empower youth, women, and professionals through capacity building, cultural, and educational programs," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

The Bank of England is one step closer to raising interest rates next month, analysts said Tuesday after official figures showed that the end of the British government's salary support program for workers during the coronavirus pandemic has not yet led to the feared increase in unemployment.

The Office for National Statistics found that the number of people on payroll surged by 160,000, to 29.3 million, in October, the first full month after the program ended.

The U.S. remains "fully committed" to a proposed sale of advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, despite the Biden administration slowing down the deal, a senior American official overseeing arms exports said Tuesday.

Mira Resnick, a deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state in the Biden administration, also told The Associated Press at the Dubai Air Show that Gulf Arab partners are not looking to purchase weapons from Russia as a hedge over American concerns about human rights in the region.

Market-stand owner Kadriye Dogru makes do with stale, sesame-covered bagels, known as simit, for lunch these days. The widowed mother of two says she goes without lunch so she can put food on the table for her family later in the day.

The money that the 59-year-old earns by selling sweatpants and other garments at Istanbul's Ortakcilar market no longer lasts, and she is struggling to buy food, let alone anything else.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh will make a shellshock monetary-judicial revelation in the next few days that will change the course of the legal disputes, LBCI television reported.

A judicial spokesman in Luxembourg meanwhile said that judicial authorities these have launched a “criminal lawsuit” related to Salameh and his companies and assets. A spokesman for Salameh for his part said that the governor has not been notified of any lawsuit against him in Luxembourg, declining to give further comments.