On New Year's Day, Bulgaria will achieve its decades-old goal of joining the euro currency union and deepening ties with the more prosperous countries of Western Europe.

Membership is expected to promote cross-border trade and investment, and the Bulgarian government pressed for years to get in. Yet polls show the changeover is taking place against a background of widespread skepticism among ordinary people.

Widening demonstrations sparked by Iran's ailing economy spread Thursday into the Islamic Republic's rural provinces, with at least seven people being killed in the first fatalities reported among security forces and protesters, authorities said.

The deaths may mark the start of a heavier-handed response by Iran's theocracy over the demonstrations, which have slowed in the capital, Tehran, but expanded elsewhere. The fatalities, two on Wednesday and five on Thursday, occurred in four cities, largely home to Iran's Lur ethnic group.

Shares opened mixed in Europe on Tuesday after slipping in Asia as some regional markets wrapped up trading for the year.

Crude oil prices edged higher and gold and silver resumed their ascent. U.S. futures were flat.

Lebanon plans to purchase natural gas from Egypt, seeking to reduce its reliance on fuel oil for its ageing power plants in a country hamstrung by regular electricity cuts.

The electricity sector has cost Lebanon more than $40 billion since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war, and successive governments have failed to reduce losses, repair crumbling infrastructure or even guarantee regular power bill collections.

Iran's president urged his government to listen to the "legitimate demands" of protesters, state media reported Tuesday, after several days of demonstrations by shopkeepers in Tehran over economic hardships.

Shopkeepers in the capital had shut their stores for the second day in a row on Monday, after Iran's embattled currency hit new lows on the unofficial market.

War and crisis-hit Lebanon will sign Monday a deal with Egypt for energy cooperation that will allow Lebanon to increase its electricity production.

Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi was in Beirut Monday and met with President Joseph Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Lebanon's government on Friday approved a draft law to distribute financial losses from the 2019 economic crisis that deprived many Lebanese of their deposits despite strong opposition from political and banking officials.

After Cabinet passed a long-awaited banking draft bill that would distribute losses from the 2019 economic crisis amid objections from nine ministers and modest protests, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam appeared a bit agitated as he answered journalists' questions.

The law stipulates that each of the state, the central bank, commercial banks and depositors will share the losses accrued as a result of the financial crisis.

Beijing imposed sanctions on Friday against 20 U.S. defense-related companies and 10 executives, a week after Washington announced large-scale arms sales to Taiwan.

The sanctions entail freezing the companies' assets in China and banning individuals and organizations from dealing with them, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

It's been a rollercoaster of a year for U.S. trade policy.

President Donald Trump launched a barrage of new tariffs in 2025, plunging the U.S. into trade wars with nearly every country in the world. Volley after volley of threats and steeper import taxes often arrived erratically — with Trump claiming that such levies needed to be immediately imposed to close trade imbalances and take back wealth that was "stolen" from the U.S.