As the world's nations prepare to gather for another climate summit next month in Glasgow, the OPEC oil cartel is reminding that, in their view, crude will continue to be the leading source of energy for decades, especially as the world's less-wealthy countries seek higher growth and standards of living.

OPEC says that more electric vehicles on the road and the push for alternative and renewable energy will indeed usher in an era of declining demand for oil in rich countries.

Japanese automaker Toyota is revving up acquisitions in mobility technology, adding Renovo Motors Inc., a Silicon Valley software developer, to its Woven Planet team, which is working on automated driving.

The addition, announced Tuesday, follows the purchase earlier this year of CARMERA Inc., a U.S. venture that specializes in sophisticated road mapping updates made cheaper and faster by using crowdsourced information obtained from millions of net-connected Toyota vehicles.

There is a “huge difference” between the previous phase and the current phase regarding Lebanon’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, ministerial sources informed on the talks said.

“The government is heading to the negotiations with the IMF with a spirit that there can be success in reaching an agreement with the Fund within a few weeks,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.

France and Greece on Tuesday announced a major, multibillion-euro defense deal, including Athens' decision to buy three French warships.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a defense and security strategic partnership in a joint news conference in Paris.

A computer-graphic-soaked advertisement featuring Australian actor and Hollywood heartthrob Chris Hemsworth beckons the world to Dubai's upcoming Expo 2020, promising a "world of pure imagination" as children without facemasks race across a futuristic carnival scene.

Reality, however, crashes into the frame in all capital-letters caption at the bottom of the screen, saying: "THIS COMMERCIAL WAS FILMED IN 2019."

Qatar Airways announced on Monday that it suffered a more than $4 billion loss in revenues over the last fiscal year, as lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for long-haul travel.

The major loss, which the state-owned airline largely attributed to the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body jets, highlights the dramatic toll of the pandemic on the industry.

Head of Parliament's Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan said Monday that the central bank has requested a grace period until the end of the year to study the issue of raising the value of withdrawals.

The Finance and Budget Committee had met with representatives of BDL and the depositors, in the presence of the minister of finance and the association of banks to discuss raising the exchange rate for bank withdrawals, currently set at LBP 3,900/USD.

European stock markets rose Monday after Germany's tight election result, but the prospect of coalition talks weighed on the euro.

Lines of cars formed at some British gas stations for a fourth day on Monday, as the government mulled sending in the army to help ease supply disruption triggered by a shortage of truck drivers.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, said training had been taking place "in the background" for military personnel to drive tankers, though the government has not announced whether troops will be deployed.

Google is heading to a top European Union court Monday to appeal a record EU antitrust penalty imposed for stifling competition through the dominance of its Android operating system.

The company is fighting a 2018 decision from the EU's executive Commission, the bloc's top antitrust enforcer, that resulted in the 4.34 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine — still the biggest ever fine Brussels has imposed for anticompetitive behavior.