Egypt continues to battle surging inflation amid a dramatic slide of its currency as many Egyptians struggle with price hikes, the country's statistics bureau said Tuesday.

The state-run Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics released figures showing that the annual inflation was at 21.9% last month, up from 19.2% in November. That's compared to 6.5% in December 2021, before inflation ballooned in 2022, following the outbreak of Russia's war on Ukraine that rattled the world economy.

The European Union has launched two new initiatives worth 25 million Euro to support vulnerable people in Lebanon and to fight food insecurity.

"These initiatives are a response to the negative impact of Russia's war against Ukraine on the European Union's neighbouring countries," the EU Delegation to Lebanon said in a statement.

The French government will announce proposals for raising the retirement age and overhauling the pension system on Tuesday, in a potentially explosive reform fraught with danger for President Emmanuel Macron.

Insisting that the French "need to work more", Macron has pushed for the pension system to be streamlined since his rise to power in 2017.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is to unveil on Tuesday a highly sensitive pension overhaul aimed at pushing up the retirement age that has already prompted vigorous criticism and calls for protests from leftist opponents and worker unions.

The minimum retirement age to be entitled to a full pension is expected to be gradually increased from 62 to 64 or 65, in line with a longstanding pledge by President Emmanuel Macron. Details are to be released by Borne at a news conference.

A depositor fired gunshots at the closed door of BLOM Bank in Sidon on Tuesday in an attempt to storm the bank.

Mohammad, a member of the Lebanese Army, clashed with the bank's security guards before firing from his pistol at the bank's door after the bank refused to sell him dollars at the Sayrafa rate, media reports said.

Wall Street appears ready to add to a rally last week ignited by data hinting at slowing U.S. wage gains, one of the goals of the Federal Reserve in its efforts to cool decades-high inflation.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.3% while the S&P 500 rose 0.5%.

U.K. government ministers met trade union leaders on Monday in a bid to end a wave of strikes that has hobbled the rail network and strained the overburdened health system.

There were some signs of progress but no breakthrough after a meeting between Health Secretary Steve Barclay and health care unions. Other ministers are meeting with railway unions that have staged months of strikes, and teaching unions considering classroom walkouts.

Cabinet will convene but caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is keen on calling for it when the political climate is calm, his circles said.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that Mikati does not want to further complicate the situation and that he will make all the needed calls and consultations in the coming days in order to hold a cabinet session that could only discuss the electricity file.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab announced Monday that the joint parliamentary committees are expected to approve the long-awaited capital control law in their next session.

“In principle, one session remains to approve the law and its amendments,” Bou Saab said after a session on Monday.

A list with the names of the Lebanese banking and financial officials who will be questioned in the coming days in Beirut by three European judicial delegations has been leaked to the media.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the list has been received by State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat.