Lebanon’s national electricity grid has been restored following a total blackout and power supply will increase at the end of the month, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad announced on Sunday.

Lebanon's two main power plants have been forced to shut down after running out of fuel, leaving the small country with no government-produced power.

Lebanon is grappling with a crippling energy crisis made worse by its dependency on fuel imports. Erratic power supplies have put hospitals and essential services in crisis mode. The Lebanese increasingly depend on private operators that also struggle to secure supplies amid an unprecedented crash of the national currency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday announced that Tehran will continue to send fuel shipments to Lebanon via Hizbullah, while noting that his country is also ready to provide Lebanon with medicine and other needs.

“We will help brotherly Lebanon overcome its crisis,” Abdollahian said at a press conference at the end of a two-day visit to Lebanon.

Chinese authorities have ordered dozens of coal mines to expand production amid a nationwide energy crunch, state media reported Friday.

Israel ceremonially opened its gleaming pavilion at the world's fair in Dubai on Thursday, over a year after normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and amid a pandemic that has disrupted much of the tourist and cultural exchanges promised by the U.S.-brokered accords.

The pavilion's arch — chock-full of flashy videos promoting Israel's windmills, high-tech advances and historic sights — came to life as night fell. Zany Hebrew music played and patriotic balloons floated — all within eyesight of the Palestinian pavilion nearby.

An energy crisis is looming over India as coal supplies grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia's third largest economy after it was wracked by the pandemic.

Supplies across the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock.

Jordan's foreign minister on Thursday pushed back against a report that the country's monarch, King Abdullah II, went out of his way to hide the purchase of more than a dozen luxury homes worth more than $106 million, saying there was "nothing secretive" about the transactions.

Ayman Safadi also told The Associated Press that none of the billions of dollars of international aid the kingdom has received over the years were used to fund the purchases, and that strict safeguards are in place to prevent any abuses.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed France's decision to return its ambassador to Australia and said Thursday the bilateral relationship was bigger than the canceled submarine contract.

Morrison dismissed suggestions that Australia needed to rebuild its relationship with France after canceling a 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) contract last month, an act French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described as a "stab in the back."

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday warned of a financial hit from the recent Hurricane Ida, but the energy giant said cash flows would profit from soaring gas and electricity prices.

British business leaders on Thursday criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnson for lacking a plan to deal with a labor shortage crisis, after he called for them to pay higher wages.