• Gaza aid port plans ‘sign of international weakness’: Amnesty

    Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty, said nobody was holding Israel to account over the delays to deliveries by land to the Gaza Strip. She said the international community must be prepared to hold Israel to account. "We're not holding the stick that will allow for those violations to stop,"...
  • Shamma bint Sultan calls for collaboration on climate change

    Executive Director of the UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA) Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan highlighted the rapid escalation of the climate crisis in recent years, and UAE’s efforts to mitigate the effects through its Net Zero strategy.
  • IEA says fossil fuel CO2 emissions rise marginally in 2022

    The International Energy Agency has said that global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion will grow just one percent this year despite concerns that the energy crisis could lead countries to slow their transition to renewables. The IEA predicted CO2 emissions would stand at 33.8 billion tonnes in 2022.
  • UN says Ukraine war pushes 4m children into poverty

    Paris, France— Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic fallout have thrown four million children into poverty across eastern Europe and Central Asia, the UN children's agency said Monday. "Children are bearing the heaviest burden of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine," UNICEF said. The conflict "and...
  • US President terms UK PM’s abandoned tax plan a “mistake”

    Reacting to British PM Liz Truss's abandoned tax cut reform, US President Joe Biden has termed it a "mistake" as the Conservative leaded went into crisis talks to hammer out a new budget plan. British tax cuts were the centerpiece of a radical economic reform announced by Truss and her...
  • Tunisian protestors demand president’s resignation

    Demanding his resignation, tens of thousand of demonstrators in Tunis denounced a power grab by President Kais Saied, chanting "Down, down," "Revolution against dictator Kais" and "The coup will fall." In July last year, Kais staged a dramatic power grab and later pushed through a constitution enshrining his one-man rule.
  • German coastal state goes to polls amid acute energy crisis

    Frankfurt, Germany— Germans in the coastal state of Lower Saxony vote in a closely-watched regional election Sunday, seen as a key test for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats amid an acute energy crisis. Polls open at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) and close at 18:00, with latest surveys putting Scholz's centre-left SPD...
  • UK in talks with Qatar and Norway to import energy

    Amid crippling energy shortages, the British government is negotiating with Qatar and Norway to secure new long-term gas contract, according to media reports. The reports said that Prime Minister Liz Truss is in favor of the deal, which would secure long-term energy sources and cut down the cost of the...
  • Saudi Arabia holds GCC meeting to boost economic ties

    Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting of the GCC Financial and Economic Cooperation Committee to broaden economic cooperation among the GCC countries.
  • EU decides to cut power use, levy energy firms

    The EU executive believes it can raise €140 billion from the levies on non-gas electricity producers and on energy majors that are raking in outsized profits from the global energy demand.
  • Iraq MPs to meet for first time since August violence

    Parliament said in a brief statement on Monday that votes on the resignation of the assembly's speaker, Mohammed al-Halbussi, and the appointment of a first deputy speaker would top the agenda.
  • Lebanon approves budget, a key condition for IMF bailout

    Prodded by the IMF to implement reforms, Lebanon's parliament has approved the 2022 budget setting expenditures at $1.2 billion. The crisis-stricken country and the IMF had reached a conditional agreement on a $3 billion loan in April to help the country tackle its economic crisis.
  • 61 dead in migrant shipwreck off Syria coast, says Lebanon

    At least 61 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, a Lebanese minister said, the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years.
  • Iraq looks to neighbors for energy to overcome crunch

    Looking to tide over the persistent problem of a lack of energy supply in the country, particularly in the summer due to high temperatures, the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity says it needs 35,000 megawatts of energy to achieve self-sufficiency.
  • Sweden to provide guarantees worth ‘billions’ to energy firms

    Faced with a winter without the energy supplies from Russia, Sweden has turned to Nordic and Baltic energy companies promising them liquidity guarantees worth billions of dollars. It is an attempt to prevent a crisis sparked by Europe’s energy crunch, leading Swedish PM to say that it was facing the...
  • Iraq president feels early elections can end crisis

    Less than a year after the last polls, Iraq President Barham Saleh has encouraged early elections to settle a political crisis that has escalated into deadly clashes, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more. It has been a key demand of Moqtada Sadr whose supporters clashed with security forces starting on...
  • What can Europe do to fight soaring power bills?

    European leaders want to break the link between soaring gas prices and electricity bills, a wholesale reform of the EU energy market made urgent by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This continent-wide shake up of 27 EU economies with different energy needs and sources will be a long and politically-fraught process.
  • Libya violence leaves 23 dead, fueling fears of new war

    The two rival administrations competing for control of Libya have exchanged blame for the flare-up in violence killing 23 people as fears mount that a political crisis could touch off a major new armed conflict. Small arms fire and explosions rocked several districts of the capital overnight and into Sunday.
  • Funding crunch cripples Lebanon film industry

    Before the Covid-19 pandemic and the country's worst-ever economic crisis, 20 to 30 films were produced in Lebanon. Today, it is difficult to make one without a foreign partner.
  • UN ship with grain for Africa sails from Ukraine: ministry

    The UN brokered agreement lifted a Russian blockade of Ukraine's ports and established safe corridors through the naval mines laid by Kyiv.
  • Libya’s presidential council announces plan to end crisis

    Libya's Tripoli-based Presidential Council on Tuesday announced a plan to extract the country from its latest political crisis and hold elections. "In response to the legitimate demands of the Libyan people and their desire for change, the Presidential Council... agreed on a ge neral framework for a working plan to...
  • Libya protests planned over power cuts, political deadlock

    Libyans angered by rising prices, chronic power cuts and political deadlock planned further demonstrations Monday after a night of angry protests across the capital. Masked youths set alight car tires and blocked roads including a major coastal highway between central Tripoli and its western suburbs, but security forces did not...
  • Hunger crisis could swell already record global displacement: UN

    Russia's war in Ukraine has pushed global displacement numbers above 100 million for the first time, and the UN warns the resulting hunger crisis could force many more to flee their homes.
  • WHO members agree to overhaul health body’s funding

    Shaken by the pandemic, the World Health Organization's member states agreed Tuesday to overhaul how they fund the UN health agency, giving it much more money to spend on its own priorities. The budget revamp is aimed at strengthening the organization and making it more agile when responding to global...
  • Lebanon winning independent candidates celebrate: ‘change has begun’

    When Firas Hamdan was injured at a protest near Lebanon's parliament two years ago, the then activist never imagined he would one day return as a lawmaker. Hamdan, one of 13 independent politicians who emerged from a mass anti-government protest movement in 2019, made it to parliament on a reformist...
  • Lebanon vote weakens Hezbollah bloc as reformists book gains

    Official results later Monday will show whether Hezbollah, a political and military movement seen as a state within a state, and its allies can keep an actionable majority in Lebanon's 128-seat parliament. Election turnout was just 41 percent -- eight points lower than in 2018.
  • Lebanon jobless rate almost triples since crippling economic crisis

    The official unemployment rate in crisis-hit Lebanon jumped almost three-fold to reach 29.6 percent at the start of the year, a joint survey by the UN and the government said Thursday. "Lebanon's unemployment rate increased from 11.4 percent in 2018-2019 to 29.6 percent in January 2022, indicating that almost one...
  • How will Lebanon vote impact the crisis-hit economy?

    Here’s a look at the challenges that await incoming lawmakers in a country where there is little consensus on a roadmap for financial recovery.
  • Tunisia proposes national dialogue, excluding opposition

    Tunisian President Kais Saied has announced the launch of "national dialogue" to help resolve a political crisis following his controversial power grab, but excluding critical opposition groups.
  • Six dead, 48 rescued after migrant ship capsizes off Lebanon

    At least six people died, including a little girl, and almost 50 others were rescued after a migrant boat capsized off Lebanon, state media said, in the latest tragedy at sea off the crisis-hit country. The boat capsized on Saturday night near the northern port city of Tripoli, the departure...
  • Sri Lanka imposes fuel rationing as economic crisis worsens

    Cash-strapped Sri Lanka imposed fuel rationing on Friday in another worsening of the economic crisis that has sparked widespread demonstrations calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation.
  • WTO: War in Ukraine could halve 2022 global trade growth

    Russia's invasion created a crisis of 'immense proportions' and a 'severe blow' to the global economy. Russia's war in Ukraine could almost halve world trade growth this year and drag down global GDP growth too, the World Trade Organization (WTO) projected Monday. The WTO said that the Russian invasion dealt...
  • Pope Francis to visit crisis-hit Lebanon in June

    Lebanon, home to one of the largest Christian communities in the Middle East, has been gripped by an unprecedented economic downturn since 2019.
  • Lebanon central bank not bankrupt, says governor

    Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh al-Shami claimed on Monday that the country and its central bank had gone bankrupt. The claims seemed to be in line with exclusive reporting from TRENDS in December that said around $7 billion was missing from BDL’s books.
  • People flee Lebanon to Iran in search of employment

    Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with war.
  • Russian oligarch Abramovich’s superyacht docks in Turkey

    Abramovich was among the individuals listed under new sanctions adopted by the European Union last week.
  • IMF expects to cut global growth forecast due to Ukraine war

    The IMF in January cut the global growth forecast for 2022 to 4.4 percent due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19, after worldwide GDP rose 5.9 percent last year.
  • UAE reaffirms commitment to OPEC+ pact, production adjustments

    The United Arab Emirates on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to OPEC+ alliance agreements, a day after an envoy said it would urge the cartel to boost oil output. "The UAE is committed to the OPEC+ agreement and its existing monthly production adjustment mechanism," Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei wrote on Twitter....
  • Brent crude nears $140 per barrel, headed towards all-time high

    Brent North Sea crude oil for May delivery reached $139.13 shortly after electronic trading opened around 2300 GMT on Sunday.
  • UAE wants political solution to Ukraine crisis: Anwar Gargash

    Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and adviser to President Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, made these comments after the UAE abstained to vote on Friday on a draft United Nations Security Council resolution deploring Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
  • US or Russia? Ukraine crisis poses dilemma for wealthy Gulf

    Choosing sides in Ukraine's crisis would have once been easy for Gulf states long protected by the US, but growing ties with Moscow are forcing them to strike a balance. As the world rushed to condemn the Russian invasion of its smaller neighbour, the wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries,...
  • Lebanon turns to public libraries for entertainment as crisis drains joy

    Weekly storytelling events are one of the last affordable pleasures in Lebanon, where a crashing local currency has rendered books something of a luxury.
  • Lebanon electricity supply may rise to 8-10 hours a day soon

    Gas from Egypt and Jordanian electricity is expected to help Lebanon restore electricity supply to 8-10 hours a day soon.
  • Lebanon’s ‘zombie banks’ downsize to weather crisis

    More than two years into a financial crisis that has seen the local currency lose 90 percent of its value, the reputation of Lebanese lenders has been shredded.
  • US reaffirms Russia could attack Ukraine ‘at any time’

    US Press Secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden was due to hold a rare Sunday National Security Council meeting over Russia-Ukraine tensions, having said on Friday he was ‘convinced’ that Moscow planned to invade its ex-Soviet neighbor within days.
  • Erdogan invites UAE business leaders to invest in Turkey

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on business leaders in the wealthy United Arab Emirates Tuesday to invest in his country, which is in the grips of an economic crisis.
  • IMF will only support a ‘comprehensive program’ for Lebanon

    Lebanese officials began talks with the IMF last month to pull the country out of the worst economic crisis in its history. Despite the economic collapse, Lebanon’s ruling class has blocked reforms that foreign donors say must happen before aid is dispensed.
  • Turkey inflation surges to near highest in 20 years

    Independent data collected by Turkish economists suggested that the annual rate of inflation rose to more than 110 percent in January.
  • Sri Lanka gets $500m Indian loan to pay for oil

    The island's economic woes have left thermal power generators unable to keep the lights on, as traders run desperately low on foreign currency to fund imports.
  • Lebanon power cuts turn cafes into coworking spaces

    For the patrons filling Beirut's cafes these days, the most important things are good lighting and stable wi-fi.
  • China’s property stress could shake global markets: IMF

    A funding crisis battering China's big property developers could start to shake the wider economy and global markets, the IMF warned on Friday, saying deeper reforms were needed to fully curb the threat. It warned there were "concerns of negative spillovers to the broader economy and global markets".