China on Friday defended its tough "zero-COVID" policy after the U.S. ambassador said it was causing serious damage to the global economy and foreign business sentiment.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the Chinese economy is recovering from the effects of the pandemic and "facts prove" the policy mandating lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing is "suitable for China's national conditions and has stood the test of history."

Russia reduced natural gas to Europe again Friday, including cutting flows by half to Italy and Slovakia and completely to France, as countries have worked to ease their dependence on Russian supplies amid the war in Ukraine.

It marks the third day of significant reductions to the fuel that powers industry and generates electricity in Europe, which also have hit Germany and Austria. It has further spiked already-high energy prices that are driving record inflation in the European Union.

After all-night talks, members of the World Trade Organization early Friday reached a string of deals and commitments aimed to limit overfishing, broaden production of COVID-19 vaccines in the developing world, improve food security and reform a 27-year-old trade body that has been back on its heels in recent years.

WTO Director-General Nzogi Okonjo-Iweala, after a pair of sleepless nights in rugged negotiations, concluded the WTO's first ministerial conference in 4-1/2 years by trumpeting a new sense of cooperation at a time when the world faces crises like Russia's war in Ukraine and a once-in-a-century pandemic that has taken millions of lives.

Germany's vice chancellor is stepping up an appeal for the country's residents to save energy after Russia's Gazprom announced significant cuts in natural gas deliveries through a key pipeline.

State-owned Gazprom announced on Tuesday that it was cutting gas flows through the undersea Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany by 40%, then, a day later, announced a further cut that brings the overall reduction to about 60%.

A contest to lead Europe's financial rescue fund is drawing to a close with the spotlight on three candidates. But a question that has hung over the monthslong race looks certain to persist: Will the winner have enough to do despite fresh economic shocks?

Finance ministers from the 19 countries that share the euro currency could decide Thursday in Luxembourg on a successor to Germany's Klaus Regling as managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, created during the eurozone debt crisis a decade ago. They also could postpone the decision until July.

The head of the Russian Central Bank warned Thursday that the country's economy faces pressure from abroad that could persist indefinitely, dampening hopes that conditions could return to what they were before Russia sent troops into Ukraine.

"It seems to me that it's obvious to everyone that it won't be as it was before," Elvira Nabiullina said at a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an annual showpiece gathering aimed at investors.

At Greece's largest coal mine, controlled explosions and the roar of giant excavators scooping up blasted rock have once again become routine. Coal production has been ramped up at the site near the northern Greek city of Kozani as the war in Ukraine forced many European nations to rethink their energy supplies.

Coal, long treated as a legacy fuel in Europe, is now helping the continent safeguard its power supply and cope with the dramatic rise in natural gas prices caused by the war.

Conflicting reports have emerged on whether Lebanon and Israel will manage to quickly reach a sea border demarcation deal in the wake of U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein’s visit to Lebanon earlier this week.

Lebanon's caretaker energy minister has extended the licensing deadline for oil and gas companies to explore in the country's territorial waters until mid-December, to give more firms the chance to bid, state-run news agency reported.

The decision by the minister, Walid Fayyad, to extended the deadline of the second round of licensing until Dec. 15 followed a request by the Lebanese Petroleum Administration, the National News Agency said.

Russian energy giant Gazprom's decision to cut supplies of natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline was "political", Germany's economy minister said Wednesday.