The employees of state-run mobile network operators Alfa and touch began a strike on Friday morning, which resulted in the closure of all of the two companies’ stores and disrupted bill payment services and the distribution of recharge cards.

A technical malfunction also hit a key station in the Corniche el-Nahr area and was not repaired due to the strike.

Japan welcomes a new U.S. economic initiative for the Indo-Pacific that President Joe Biden is expected to roll out during a visit to Tokyo next week because it demonstrates American commitment to a regional economic order that is not just about market access, an official said Friday.

Biden is proposing the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership which the United States dropped out of in 2017 under former President Donald Trump. Japan played a key role in bringing together the other 11 members of that pact, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

WhatsApp parent Meta is moving forward with its push to attract businesses to its popular chat app, part its effort to find new ways to make money beyond targeted advertisements on its other platforms, Facebook and Instagram.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday unveiled a developer tool, WhatsApp Cloud API, which will enable businesses to message and chat with their customers more easily.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has designated Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah, a Lebanese businessman and Hizbullah “financial facilitator,” as well as five of his associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq.

“This action illuminates Hizbullah’s modus operandi of using the cover of seemingly legitimate businesses to generate revenue and leverage commercial investments across a multitude of sectors to secretly fund Hizbullah and its terrorist activities. It also demonstrates how Hizbullah goes to great lengths to establish companies with opaque ownership structure in order to conceal their involvement in these businesses, and also their involvement in criminal activities such as altering of medication labels for black market pharmaceutical sales,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Wireless carriers in Canada won't be allowed to install Huawei equipment in their high-speed 5G networks, the Canadian government has said, joining allies in banning the giant Chinese technology company.

Canada had been the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence-pooling alliance not to bar or restrict use of equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in its 5G networks. The U.S. and the other members — Britain, Australia and New Zealand — previously banned Huawei.

Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm on Thursday said Cabinet has a “last chance” to save the telecom sector from collapse in Friday’s session, warning that his resignation is on the table if no action is taken.

“If the decree of hiking telecom tariffs is not approved, do not hold me responsible. The elections are over and the issue no longer bears politicization. The failure to approve the tariff will affect citizens in a more negative manner and in the name of the Lebanese economy we are raising our voices,” Corm said at a press conference.

The head of the flour mills syndicate in Lebanon announced Thursday that the bread crisis in the country has been resolved, adding that bread will be available in the market as of tomorrow.

The Economy Ministry had earlier on Thursday hiked the price of flat Arabic bread, the main staple in Lebanon.

Britain on Thursday froze the assets of three Russian airlines, preventing them from selling landing slots at U.K. airports that are worth up to 50 million pounds ($62 million).

The latest sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine stop state-owned Aeroflot, Russia's biggest carrier, Rossiya Airlines and Ural Airlines from transferring the valuable landing rights, which are going unused because of an earlier ban on Russian aircraft flying to the United Kingdom.

Sri Lanka will lower the amount of foreign currency that individuals can hold to $10,000 from $15,000, and penalize anyone who holds foreign currency for more than three months by making it against the law, the island nation's central bank chief announced Thursday amid the worst economic crisis in recent memory.

Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told reporters that people are requested to deposit excess foreign currency in a bank or convert it into local currency within two weeks of his announcement. After that time, central bank officials together with police will carry out raids, he said, adding that anyone found violating the new rules will be fined.

The bears are rumbling toward Wall Street.

The stock market's skid this year has pulled the S&P 500 close to what's known as a bear market. Rising interest rates, high inflation, the war in Ukraine and a slowdown in China's economy have caused investors to reconsider the prices they're willing to pay for a wide range of stocks, from high-flying tech companies to traditional automakers.