Friday will never be the same again.

For those with means in Dubai, the former first day of the weekend carried a gluttonous party tradition — an hourslong affair with infinite supply of seafood, pizza, dessert and Veuve Clicquot Champagne set to pulsing music known simply in this city-state as "Friday brunch."

There will be “no new taxes” in the 2022 state budget, “contrary to what is being rumored,” Finance Minister Youssef Khalil said after Monday’s Cabinet session.

Mexico's plan to favor its own state-owned electrical power plants and limit energy sales by private, foreign-built projects could affect U.S. investment in Mexico, officials said during bilateral talks this week.

According to statements issued Friday, the U.S. government has "real concerns with the potential negative impact" on U.S. firms and investments.

Crisis-hit Lebanon will sign a deal with Jordan next week to bring in electricity via Syria to help ease grueling power cuts, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad has told AFP.

French energy conglomerate TotalEnergies has asked the American and French governments to support targeted sanctions against Myanmar's oil and gas funds, the largest single source of income for the country's military leaders.

In a letter to Human Rights Watch released Thursday, the CEO of Total, Patrick Pouyanné, said the company was using all the tools at its disposal to stop funding the junta that took over Myanmar's government and its bank accounts in February 2021, including those that receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year from the Yadana gas field.

The shortage of parts caused by the coronavirus pandemic is further denting production at Toyota, Japan's top automaker.

Production at 11 plants in Japan will be halted Friday, Saturday and next Monday, Toyota Motor Corp. said.

Netflix delivered its latest quarter of disappointing subscriber growth during the final three months of last year, a trend that management foresees continuing into the new year as tougher competition is undercutting the video streaming leader.

The Los Gatos, California, company added 8.3 million worldwide subscribers during the October-December period, about 200,000 fewer than management had forecast. Besides releasing its fourth-quarter results Thursday, Netflix also projected an increase of 2.5 million subscribers during the first three months of this year, well below analysts' expectations for a gain of 4 million, according to FactSet Research.

Shares were lower in Europe and Asia on Friday after a late afternoon sell-off wiped out gains for stocks on Wall Street.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.9% to 7,518.29, while the DAX in Germany declined 1.4% to 15,695.88. In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 1.2% to 7,110.11. The future for the S&P 500 was 0.1% lower, while the future for the Dow industrials edged up 0.1%.

A Lebanese judicial delegation will meet French authorities in Paris next week to discuss investigations into Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, a judicial source said on Thursday.

Global stocks were mixed Thursday after China cut interest rates and President Joe Biden said "we're not there yet" on lowering punitive tariffs on Chinese goods.

London and Tokyo gained while Shanghai and Frankfurt declined.