Mahmud Aguil has a comfortable house in Libya's capital Tripoli, but chronic power outages in the war-battered country and roasting summer heat now force him to sleep in his air-conditioned van.

"This is my bedroom," the 48-year-old said pointing to the cramped vehicle, its back seats removed to make space for him and his two young children. "In the morning I wake up with a terrible backache. 

Libya's Tripoli-based government has named a new head of the state oil company to replace veteran technocrat Mustafa Sanalla, who refused to give up his post.

Unlike many other Libyan state bodies, the National Oil Corporation, led by Sanalla since 2014, has largely managed to remain neutral in the face of political wrangling.

Egypt on Wednesday increased the price of its widely used diesel and other fuels in a move expected to further drive up prices of other goods and services. The country, like others, faces steep inflationary pressures in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine.

In a statement, the country's petroleum ministry said it would increase prices immediately. The price for a liter of diesel has been hiked from 6.75 Egyptian pounds (.36 USD) a liter to 7.25 Egyptian pounds (.38 USD), an increase of 7.4%. Other types of gasoline saw hikes of the same amount, with higher octane gasoline being hiked by 1 Egyptian pound, or 5 U.S. cents per liter.

Head of the Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan said Wednesday that the Finance Subcommittee has reviewed a reformed bank secrecy law and will send it to the Finance and Budget committee for approval.

The Finance and Budget Committee will discuss the law tomorrow, Thursday, along with the World Bank wheat loan.

With thousands of sanctions already imposed on Russia to flatten its economy, the U.S. and its allies are working on new measures to starve the Russian war machine while also stopping the price of oil and gasoline from soaring to levels that could crush the global economy.

The Kremlin's main pillar of financial revenue — oil — has kept the Russian economy afloat despite export bans, sanctions and the freezing of central bank assets. European allies of the U.S. plan to follow the Biden administration and take steps to stop their use of Russian oil by the end of this year, a move that some economists say could cause the supply of oil worldwide to drop and push prices as high as $200 a barrel.

Huawei announced Wednesday it is working to help Lebanon lift its economy through technology.

"Lebanon stands at the precipice of change – it needs to move forward and prioritize the implementation of a resilient ICT strategy in order to secure its bright future," the CEO of Huawei in Lebanon, Aiden Li, said in a statement.

The euro on Tuesday fell to parity with the dollar for the first time in nearly 20 years. Here are the concrete consequences of the decline in the value of the single European currency. 

France's central bank said Tuesday it will push ahead with the second phase of its experiment with a digital euro with the aim of rolling out the cryptocurrency next year.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday acknowledged holding discussions with Uber executives when he was economy minister from 2014-2016, saying he was "proud" of it and would do the same again.

The euro struck parity with the dollar Tuesday for the first time in nearly 20 years as a cut in Russian gas supplies to Europe heightened fears of a recession in the eurozone.