Author: Web Desk

Giorgia Meloni was on Friday named as Italy’s first woman prime minister and chose her cabinet team.

Meloni, head of the nationalist Brothers of Italy, swept to victory in an election last month in alliance with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s League.

Her government – Italy’s 68th since 1946 – will replace a national unity administration led by former European Central Bank head Mario Draghi, who attended a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday in one of his last acts as prime minister.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, on Friday backed the government’s proposal of a €200 billion ($195 billion) fund to tackle skyrocketing energy prices.

The rescue package aims to help ease the energy crisis for industries and households.

According to the government, the fund is set to last until 2024 and will finance energy price caps and subsidies.

Private households could benefit from a price cap of 80 percent of their usual consumption starting in March.

The price cap for big companies could come into effect as soon as January.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The US government on Friday reported that its fiscal 2022 budget deficit plunged by half from a year earlier to $1.375 trillion, due to fading COVID-19 relief spending and record revenues fueled by a hot economy, but student loan forgiveness costs limited the reduction.

The US Treasury said the $1.4 trillion reduction in the deficit was still the largest-ever single-year improvement in the US fiscal position as receipts hit a record $4.896 trillion, up $850bn, or 21 percent from fiscal 2021.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The end of the operational lifetime of the Risha Electric Power Plant caused a temporary halt of gas production in the Risha gas field, an official source in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Recourses said on Friday.

The power plant consumes about 18 million cubic feet of gas per day that constitutes about 56 percent of the production capacity of the Risha gas field, which produces about 32 million cubic feet per day.

According to the source, the issue of the extension of the two gas units in the Risha power plant has been carefully studied by the relevant partners in the sector, and it was found to be futile for economic reasons that related to the low efficiency of the power plant.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Ministry of Local Administration announced ‘a state of medium-level emergency,’ for the second day in a row, on Friday.

The ministry asked its main emergency rooms and municipalities in the Kingdom’s governorates to “immediately” deal with any emergency conditions that may accompany the unstable weather.

The ministry also urged its executive bodies to coordinate with the emergency rooms of the Interior Ministry, the Public Works Ministry, the Civil Defense Department, the Armed Forces and the Greater Amman Municipality to address any emergency cases that stemmed from the unstable conditions currently affecting the Kingdom.

Source: Jordan News Agency

At least two workers were killed and 20 others injured in an explosion at a coal mine in northwestern Turkey on Friday, the country’s health minister said.

Scores of workers were still stranded underground in separate sites 300 and 350 meters below sea level, as of Friday evening.

The accident occurred at 6 p.m. local time in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi, on Thursday, discussed with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran, Iraq, and Public Diplomacy Jennifer Gavito, means of enhancing the strategic partnership between Amman and Washington.

The two sides reviewed the latest developments in the Middle East region and the exerted efforts to address regional crises, in addition to the joint and permanent cooperation between the two friendly countries to achieve security and stability in the region.

Source: Jordan News Agency