BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament approved $200 million in emergency funding Monday to stave off a national power cut the energy minister warned would otherwise hit by the end of March.
Caretaker energy minister Raymond GHajjar said three weeks ago that the country would plunge into “total darkness” if no money was secured to buy fuel for power stations.
The state-run Electricity of Lebanon (EDL) faces dire cash shortages, as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
On Monday, “parliament approved... a $200 million advance” for EDL, the National News Agency reported.
The decision came a day after one of the country’s largest power plants, Zahrani in south Lebanon, stopped operating because it ran out of fuel.
EDL said the closure was caused because a fuel ship could not be immediately offloaded because of logistical problems.
Meanwhile, another cargo ship scheduled to arrive from Kuwait has been held up due to the stuck container ship blocking the Suez Canal, it added.
Power cuts have been common in Lebanon for decades, forcing Lebanese use private generators.
Now the country is facing an economic crunch and fast running out of hard currency to back imports.
The EDL power company had been running on a loan allocated under the 2020 budget, but the 2021 budget has not yet been passed, with the country also struggling in a political crisis.
Lebanon approves crisis funding to avert power blackout
https://arab.news/2f5dq
Lebanon approves crisis funding to avert power blackout
- Lebanon’s parliament approved $200 million in emergency funding
Egypt-born Dina Powell McCormick appointed Meta president and vice chairman
- The former Goldman Sachs partner and White House official previously served on Meta’s board of directors
- Powell McCormick, who was born in Cairo and moved to the US as a child, joins the management team and will help guide overall strategy and execution
LONDON: Meta has appointed Egypt-born Dina Powell McCormick as its new president and vice chairman.
The company said on Monday that the former Goldman Sachs partner and White House official, who previously served on Meta’s board of directors, is stepping up into a senior leadership role as the company accelerates its push into artificial intelligence and global infrastructure.
Powell McCormick, who was born in Cairo and moved to the US as a young girl, will join the management team and help guide its overall strategy and execution. She will work closely with Meta’s Compute and infrastructure teams, the company said, overseeing multi-billion-dollar investments in data centers, energy systems and global connectivity, while building new strategic capital partnerships.
“Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth as the company’s president and vice chairman,” Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Powell McCormick has more than 25 years of experience in finance, national security and economic development. She spent 16 years as a partner at Goldman Sachs in senior leadership roles, and served two US presidents, including stints as deputy national security adviser to Donald Trump, and a senior State Department official under George W. Bush.
Most recently, she was vice chair and president of global client services at merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners.
