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Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Thursday, September 1, and this is your FT News Briefing.

This show is all about Europe and the war in Ukraine.

First, we'll talk about Russia's decision to cut off gas flows to Europe.

Then, the EU's decision to cut off tourist flows to the block.

Plus, our defense and security correspondent, John Paul Rathbone,

will tell us about Ukraine's new counter-offensive.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

Russia says it's just doing maintenance, but the three-day shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline

to Europe is seen as another move by Moscow to squeeze Europe as winter creeps closer.

Moscow has been restricting gas supplies over the past three months,

and in that time, gas prices have more than doubled.

But the FT's David Chepard says this latest move wasn't a surprise.

It was announced that this was coming last week, though we did see gas prices spike after that

point. There's multiple reasons why gas prices are spiking.

It'd be dangerous to try and attribute that solely to the announcement of the shutdown.

So, it wasn't a complete surprise, but we have seen additional steps that have come from Russia

in recent days that have kept people on edge.

There's been a contract dispute with Francis Ongee who have seen supplies from Russia cuts

at this point, disputes over whether they're paying the correct amount for their gas and so on.

...