Depositors gathered Monday on the presidential palace road, ahead of a ministerial session in Baabda that will discuss a long-awaited banking draft bill, which distributes losses from the 2019 economic crisis.

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.

India and New Zealand announced Monday they have reached a free trade deal, seeking to deepen economic ties and shore up growth at a time of mounting global trade uncertainties.

The move comes as New Delhi accelerates efforts to diversify export destinations as part of a broader strategy to offset the impact of steep U.S. import tariffs.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon has issued a statement expressing its "fundamental reservations and strong objection to the draft law presented to Cabinet concerning financial regulation and the handling of deposits, due to its provisions and procedures."

ABL said the draft law’s provisions “constitute an unjustified and unacceptable infringement on the rights of banks and depositors, and lack sound legal and financial standards and established precedents for addressing banking crises in other countries."

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has published a long-awaited banking draft bill, which distributes losses from the 2019 economic crisis between banks and the state.

The draft law is a key demand from the international community, which has conditioned economic aid to Lebanon on financial reforms.

A French court on Friday rejected the state's request to suspend Shein's site in France as "disproportionate" after the Asian e-commerce giant removed illicit products sold on its platform.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam will announce on Friday a long-awaited banking draft bill, which envisions sharing losses from the 2019 economic crisis between banks and the state, a Lebanese official said.

The legislation, which has come to be known as the fiscal gap law, is a key demand from the international community, which has conditioned economic aid to Lebanon on financial reforms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has approved a $35 billion natural gas export deal to Egypt, the biggest gas deal in Israeli history. The agreement could also help repair relations between the two countries strained during the two-year war in the Gaza Strip.

The gas will be delivered to Egypt over the next 15 years by U.S. energy giant Chevron, a key owner of the gas field off Israel's coast in the Mediterranean Sea. Half of the proceeds are expected to go to Israel's state coffers.

Farmers in tractors blocked roads, threw potatoes and eggs, and set off fireworks in Brussels on Wednesday outside a European Union leaders' summit, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannons as protesters rallied against a major free-trade deal with South American nations.

Farmers fear that the deal will undercut their livelihoods, and there are broader political concerns that it could also help drive support for the far right.

France's president warned Thursday that Paris would not support the EU's trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur without stronger safeguards for its farmers, as leaders gathered for summit talks in Brussels.

"I want to tell our farmers, who have been making France's position clear all along: we consider that we are not there yet, and the deal cannot be signed" as it currently stands, President Emmanuel Macron told reporters, vowing France would oppose any "attempt to force this through".

Belgium insisted on Thursday that its European Union partners must provide ironclad guarantees that it will be protected from Russian retaliation before it would back a massive loan for Ukraine.

At a high-stakes EU summit in Brussels, the 27-nation bloc's leaders are set to decide on whether to use tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan to meet Ukraine's military and financial needs over the next two years.