Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has signed production-sharing deals with several international energy firms after the country’s first licensing round in nearly 20 years, Chair Massoud Suleman said Monday.

The agreements were ​signed with ⁠Spain’s Repsol and Türkiye’s state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), Italy’s Eni and QatarEnergy, and a consortium comprising Hungary’s MOL Group, TPAO and Repsol, Suleman said in a statement posted on social media.

The deals follow Libya’s ⁠2025 bid ⁠round, under which the NOC awarded exploration acreage to foreign companies as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member seeks to attract investment and raise oil production capacity to 2 million barrels per day ⁠from around 1.4 million bpd currently.

Suleman said the agreements reflected growing confidence in Libya’s ​oil and gas sector and would ​support exploration, development and production growth.

One of Africa’s biggest oil producers, Libya awarded exploration ⁠blocks ‌in ‌February to companies including Chevron, ⁠Eni, QatarEnergy, TPAO, and ‌Repsol in its first licensing round ​since 2007.

Foreign investors have been wary of putting money into Libya, which plunged into chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

It remains divided between the U.N.-recognized government in the west and its eastern rival, backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Disputes between them over oil revenues have often led to oilfield shutdowns and output disruptions.

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The European Union has legal grounds to suspend its trade agreement with Israel over serious violations of international law, according to a leaked internal document that could increase pressure on the bloc to take action against Tel Aviv.

The “strictly confidential” document, prepared by the European Commission’s legal service in 2017, concluded that a “total or partial suspension” of the EU-Israel Association Agreement would be consistent with customary international law.

The disclosure comes as EU member states debate taking a tougher stance toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government amid ongoing war crimes and other violations of international law in Gaza, the West Bank, and southern Lebanon.

Spain and Ireland have led calls to suspend the association agreement, which grants Israel preferential trade access to the EU market and is viewed as a potential source of leverage over Israeli policy.

Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe, has so far opposed suspending the agreement. Berlin has questioned the legal basis for such a move and argued that maintaining diplomatic engagement offers a better chance of influencing Israeli policy than punitive measures.

The 2017 legal opinion stated that the EU was entitled to suspend cooperation with Israel over breaches of international law in the West Bank.

It suggested the bloc could exclude Israel from programs such as Horizon Europe research grants and the Erasmus student exchange scheme.

According to the report, the memo also noted that U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted in 2016, explicitly called on U.N. member states to take measures to prevent acts of destruction in the West Bank.

A total or partial suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement “would comply with customary international law,” the memo said.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday inaugurated the newly modernized Ankara Airport, saying 2026 was shaping up to be a “year of summits” for Türkiye.

The former Etimesgut Air Base, which underwent a comprehensive modernization program, has been reopened as Ankara Airport and will serve both domestic and international operations.

The airport is expected to reduce pressure on the capital’s key hub, Esenboğa Airport, during major international events and high-level visits and ease congestion on its road network.

Focus is particularly on the role Ankara Airport is expected to play during the upcoming NATO Leaders’ Summit scheduled for July 7-8.

“2026 continues to be a year of summits for Türkiye, a country striving to reach the top in every field,” Erdoğan said at the inauguration ceremony.

He noted that Türkiye had already hosted the Zero Waste Forum in Istanbul earlier this month, bringing together more than 5,000 participants from 183 countries, while preparations were underway for several major international gatherings later this year.

According to Erdoğan, Türkiye will host the 77th International Astronautical Congress in October, followed by the 13th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States.

In November, the country is set to host the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), expected to attract more than 100,000 participants from 197 countries.

Erdoğan said Ankara’s growing diplomatic profile reflected Türkiye’s increasing influence in global affairs.

“As Türkiye’s weight in global politics increases, the flow of foreign delegations visiting Ankara also rises,” he said. “Located at the heart of 67 countries and 1.5 billion people within a four-hour flight radius, Türkiye, with Ankara, Istanbul and Antalya, has become a center where international diplomacy now beats.”

The president said Ankara Airport would help ease congestion at the capital’s main hub, Esenboğa Airport, which has seen annual passenger traffic increase from around 3 million two decades ago to approximately 15 million today.

“With the new airport facilities entering service, there will be relief in both air and road traffic around Esenboğa,” Erdoğan said.

Previously used primarily for military purposes, Ankara Airport has been transformed into an international aviation facility capable of accommodating wide-body aircraft and hosting world leaders.

The modernization project was completed in eight months and included upgrades to the runway, apron, access roads and technological infrastructure to meet international aviation standards.

The existing runway was extended from 2,450 meters to 3,000 meters and widened from 42 meters to 60 meters, enabling the safe operation of wide-body aircraft.

Two turnaround areas totaling 15,000 square meters and a new 160,000-square-meter apron increased parking capacity to around 44 aircraft simultaneously.

Taxiways were fully renovated, while new parallel and connecting taxiways were built. A runway end safety area (RESA) was added to enhance operational safety.

Lighting systems, approach lights and navigation equipment were modernized in line with international standards, and the airport’s mechanical, electrical and drainage infrastructure was completely renewed.

The project also included the construction of a 4,800-square-meter state guesthouse and an open parking facility with capacity for more than 300 vehicles. All operational units were integrated through a single digital network.

In addition, authorities built a new 12.5-kilometer access road linking the airport directly to the “Crescent Star” complex, which will gather the Defense Ministry and the country’s military forces at what is said to be one of the most advanced military command centers in the world.

The route includes bridges and underpasses along a 3-kilometer section, featuring a 140-meter single-pylon cable-stayed bridge with an extradosed design, as well as a 40-meter overpass on Ankara Boulevard to ensure uninterrupted traffic flow.

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Türkiye and Saudi Arabia aim to build a railway to link the two countries with Jordan and ​Syria in the next three or four years, a senior official said on Sunday, ⁠adding other Gulf countries would also ⁠join the project.

The railway would help alleviate in future the problems that ​have arisen from the disruption of the ​Strait of ⁠Hormuz caused by the war in Iran, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu told Al Jazeera.

The project is described in a memorandum of understanding signed between Ankara and Riyadh last week on logistics cooperation and the railway sector.

In the initial phase, a rail link would allow for the transport of goods, oil, natural gas and people between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Jordan, Syria and Europe, Uraloğlu said.

He added that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and possibly Yemen would be included later ⁠too.

“A ⁠train leaving from Saudi Arabia, from Riyadh already reaches several regions of Saudi Arabia. So this is a project for it to reach Türkiye via Jordan and Syria,” Uraloğlu was cited as saying.

“We are talking about a route that will carry every type of freight via this route to Europe,” he noted.

Uraloğlu’s remarks came as talks have been intensifying about the historic Hejaz Railway, which had linked Istanbul to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, as well as Damascus and parts of Yemen.

It was originally constructed between 1900 and 1908 under Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II and stretched approximately 1,750 kilometers.

Designed to facilitate pilgrimage to Mecca, the railway also served strategic military and administrative purposes, bolstering Ottoman control over distant provinces.

Though largely dismantled or damaged during World War I and subsequent conflicts, portions of the railway remain intact and have long been the subject of restoration efforts.

Uraloğlu said the route from Saudi Arabia to Jordan’s border ⁠had been finished and on the Turkish side, the link was completed from Islahiye to Kilis and Gaziantep in southeastern Türkiye, near the border with Syria.

That ​leaves a gap of some 400 kilometers (248.55 miles) between Syria and Jordan, ​he said.

In addition to commercial trade, Uraloğlu said the railway could also be used by people on the ⁠annual ‌Muslim hajj pilgrimage.

Türkiye, ‌which neighbors Syria, has built close ties ⁠with the government in Damascus after the ‌fall of longtime dictator Bashar Assad at the end of 2024 and has ​said it will help the country ⁠rebuild.

Uraloğlu told Al Jazeera a financial plan ⁠would be drawn up for the rail project.

The investment ⁠would include some $100 million ​to rebuild the route between Türkiye and Syria’s Aleppo, creating a direct link to Damascus.

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Christine Lagarde said Monday that she intends to continue as European Central Bank (ECB) president to make sure inflation stays in check, months after a report claimed she would leave the post.

“I have a sense of duty and I believe that when there’s a bit of a storm, the captain remains on deck. So the captain of the European Central Bank is on deck,” Lagarde told France Culture radio.

She also welcomed news of a tentative deal between the U.S. and Iran, saying it could help reopen the key Strait of Hormuz, although fellow policymaker Joachim ⁠Nagel cautioned it would bring no ⁠immediate relief to high eurozone inflation.

U.S. and Iranian officials said overnight they had reached an agreement to end their war and reopen the strait, ​a gateway for energy shipment, in a preliminary pact that sent ​oil ⁠prices falling and curbed bets on ECB rate hikes.

The Financial Times said in February, citing an anonymous source, that Lagarde would leave before October 2027.

That would give French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz time to line up a successor ahead of France’s presidential vote in April 2027, in case of a victory by the euro-sceptic far-right National Rally.

Lagarde had declined to comment directly on the report.

“What I could have considered last February was in a particular situation” where inflation was near the bank’s benchmark rate of 2% and “the digital euro was on track” to getting legislative approval, Lagarde said Monday.

“So I could say to myself with a degree of confidence that the mission was accomplished, that I was 70 years old and in the end, I could perhaps retire a bit earlier than planned,” she said.

The ECB raised interest rates for the first time in nearly three years last week to try to curb inflation before the surge in energy costs that has followed unprecedented supply disruption linked to the Iran war spreads further across the eurozone economy.

Financial investors, who had largely been betting on two more ECB rate hikes over the next year, pared back ⁠their expectations ⁠on Monday. They now see just one additional increase, with only a marginal chance of a further move.

“My duty is to accomplish the mission, price stability, and for the moment that is what guides my action,” Lagarde said, adding that she wanted to “hand over the keys to an ECB that will have guaranteed” that stability.

Caution about inflation impact

Speaking later in Frankfurt, ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel noted financial markets’ reaction to the U.S.-Iran agreement showed investors were anticipating a lasting solution to the conflict.

But he remained more cautious about the impact on eurozone inflation, saying there would be no immediate relief even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened soon because it would take months to restore oil ⁠supply to its pre-war level.

“No relief is in sight for the foreseeable future,” Nagel, who heads Germany’s Bundesbank, said. “On the contrary: even if the Strait of Hormuz were to become navigable again soon, it will ​take months for the oil supply to return to normal.”

He argued inflation in the ​eurozone would remain elevated even in the ECB’s “mild” scenario, in which energy prices fall faster.

In fact, another increase in inflation should be expected when government measures to ⁠limit ‌energy price ‌rises expire, Nagel said. These measures, which include a fuel price ⁠discount at the pump in Germany, have dampened the ‌inflation rate in the eurozone by 0.4 percentage points in May, he added.

The German central banker ​reaffirmed his view that all options – meaning ⁠both holding interest rates steady or increasing them – remain for ⁠the central bank’s next policy meeting on July 22-23.

Lagarde too struck a cautious note in ⁠her radio interview, saying “the ​whole question of uranium enrichment remains to be debated, agreed and concluded in the form of an agreement.”

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Over the past few years, new Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Kevin Warsh has repeatedly addressed the U.S. central bank’s balance sheet, called for more restraint in communicating about interest rates and maintained that it should not venture into matters like climate change.

A Fed press conference on Wednesday, though, will mark his first substantive comments from the chair’s perch about what’s happening with inflation, unemployment and the economic outlook as he makes ⁠a rhetorical turn from the abstract words of a policy analyst to the concrete, potentially market-moving words ⁠of the world’s most important central banker.

Inflation, in particular, seems stuck more than a percentage point above the Fed’s 2% target, and Warsh’s characterization about whether and when it is likely to fall will be a key first step in the evolution of monetary policy under his leadership.

It’s one that investors will take as a cue about the likelihood of higher rates that ​many now see coming this year.

What might have been otherwise temporary price shocks, triggered by the Trump administration’s import tariff hikes and elevated oil prices ​due to ⁠the U.S.-backed war with Iran, now threaten a more persistent inflation problem. Meanwhile, the U.S. labor market is close to full employment, hiring has rebounded, and Warsh’s colleagues in the Fed’s regional districts hinted in a recent report at building wage pressures.

The press conference immediately following the end of the Fed’s June 16-17 policy meeting will provide Warsh an opportunity to address those economic cross-currents as he builds a narrative about the risks he sees facing the central bank and how he plans to frame its response.

Warsh, who succeeded former Fed chief Jerome Powell about a month ago, “has been much more vocal in terms of the balance sheet, he’s been much more vocal on communication strategy. When it comes to what’s your theory of change for inflation, what’s your view in terms of the current posture of monetary policy, those things are a big black box that we’re going to start to open up,” Ed Al-Hussainy, portfolio manager for fixed income and macro at Columbia Threadneedle, told reporters last week.

There will be much to unpack: Warsh’s assessment of the impact of tariffs on goods prices; whether the recent oil price shock will persist and spread; whether, as recent data suggest, the improvement in inflation that had been coming from slowing rent prices has run its course.

Those are the sorts of issues Powell, who remains on the Fed’s Board of Governors, would address directly in his press conferences. Warsh has said he doesn’t want to provide too much information about the central bank’s likely next interest rate moves. But where he ⁠draws the ⁠line between “forward guidance” and offering his outlook for the economy or inflation will be an important aspect of his opening press conference.

“I think Warsh is going to punt on the question” of where inflation is heading and what the Fed might need to do about it, said Christopher Hodge, chief U.S. economist at Natixis CIB Americas, who still expects the central bank to cut interest rates rather than raise them, though the timing remains uncertain. Despite a “neutral-to-hawkish tone,” Hodge said, “I don’t think he will preclude cuts, but the onus will be on the data to prove that the energy shock is past us.”

Avoiding ‘bad look’

The Fed is widely expected on Wednesday to hold its benchmark interest rate steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range, where it’s been since December. In addition to a policy statement, it will also issue updated quarterly economic projections from its policymakers. Warsh’s press conference will begin shortly after.

The new Fed chief dislikes some of the central bank’s current communications tools, including the projections and accompanying “dot-plot” chart of rate expectations, but would need broad consensus among his 18 fellow policymakers before eliminating or changing it.

Warsh is not obligated to submit projections of his own, and doing so might reveal him to be more aligned with the central bank’s mainstream monetary policy ⁠thinking than former Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who was a defender of the sharp rate cuts called for by President Donald Trump during his brief stay on the Fed’s board. Miran’s low-hanging dot will now disappear.

More significant is whether the Fed drops policy statement language indicating its next rate move is likely to be a cut in favor of more neutral wording opening the door to a possible hike. Three policymakers dissented in favor of such a shift at the April 28-29 meeting. Others, including influential ​Fed Governor Christopher Waller, have since said they now support the move after a recent jump in hiring eased their concerns about the labor market’s health. The change would also align with Warsh’s preference to offer less forward ​guidance.

Warsh faces a possible communications challenge if, for example, the Fed’s policy statement adopts a more neutral tone while the dot-plot chart shows many of its policymakers expect rate hikes by the end of the year.

The median policymaker projection is expected to show the Fed on hold through 2026, moving away from the quarter-percentage-point rate cut policymakers had anticipated in their previous two outlooks as a continuation of ⁠an easing cycle that began ‌in 2024 when inflation seemed ‌on track to fall to the 2% target.

Yet if, as expected, the median outlook on inflation is also marked higher without an anticipated rate ⁠hike, it will raise questions about whether the Warsh-led Fed is at risk of making the same mistake as under Powell in ‌regarding the forces driving prices higher as temporary and likely to fade without higher borrowing costs. Indeed, the policy rules that Warsh called “aspirational” tools while at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution now almost universally suggest rates should rise.

Warsh, in the run-up to his nomination for the top Fed ​job by Trump, sketched out ideas about why inflation, and therefore rates, could ⁠fall, from the impact of his plans to lower the Fed’s $6.71 trillion balance sheet to productivity improvements from the artificial intelligence boom. He has also suggested inflation ⁠may be mismeasured and be running lower than reported.

How much he leans on those ideas to caution about rate hikes will offer a first glimpse of his approach as the Fed’s leader, and whether it ⁠seems to differ all that much despite his ​sharp criticism of its recent decision-making process.

“It’s a bad look for the Fed to say inflation is much too high, but we are going to ignore it because if you exclude these five things it will go away,” said William English, former head of the Fed’s monetary affairs division and now a professor at the Yale School of Management. “He does not want to get too far in front of that.”

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