Indian-origin Dr. Leo Varadkar to return as Ireland PM for second term

Indian-origin Dr. Leo Varadkar to return as Ireland PM for second term

• Leo Varadkar will become Ireland’s prime minister for a second time this weekend under a coalition deal struck after the 2020 election.
• The Fine Gael leader will take over the position from Fianna Fail’s Micheal Martin for the second half of a parliamentary term shared between two historic rivals with support from the Greens.
• Varadkar, who has served as deputy prime minister, returns to the helm as the country grapples with a cost-of-living crisis and high energy bills, exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Meanwhile, an influx of refugees has amplified concern about an increasingly acute housing crisis.

IMF approves deal with Egypt for USD 3 billion support package

• The International Monetary Fund has approved a deal that will provide a USD 3 billion support package to cash-strapped Egypt over a period of almost four years, with the agreement expected to draw in additional USD 14 billion in financing for the Middle East country.
• The announcement from the IMF’s executive board late on Friday comes after a preliminary agreement was reached in October between Egypt and the fund, hours after Egypt’s central bank introduced a series of reforms, including a hike in key interest rates by roughly 2 percentage points.
• The Egyptian economy has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, events that have played havoc with global markets and hiked oil and food prices worldwide.