The Prime Minister of one of Libya's rival governments has said he expects his administration to be the last before nationwide elections take place in the country.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Wednesday, said his government supported elections and would pass control to whomever the future elected parliament chose to lead.
“We [the National Unity government] will be the last transitional stage in Libya,” he told the summit.
“We will go to the next stage, which is the constitutional basis for organising elections, and then they will begin. We are ready to hold elections in accordance with the constitution.
He called for “fair laws that are not tailored for any group”.
“We will be the first government to hand over to whomever the new parliament chooses and whoever it chooses as president of the country,” Mr Dbeibah added.
He did not specify when the elections will take place.
Libya has gone through turmoil since 2011, when dictator Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown by rebels aided by western air strikes.
The country was plunged into a civil war and has remained divided since.
The Government of National Unity, headed by Mr Dbeibah, is based in Tripoli in western Libya, while the Government of National Stability led by Osama Hammad governs the east of the country.
Mr Dbeibah's comments came on the same day that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Libya's neighbour, Egypt.
Turkey is one of the major supporters of the Government of National Unity, while Egypt has backed the rival government in the country's east.
Amid a thawing of relations between the two powers, Mr El Sisi said Egypt looked forward to co-operating with Turkey to bring stability to Libya through legislative and presidential elections.
Mr Dbeibah said that economic and social reforms by his government would help reform and rebuild the war-torn country.
Economic reforms would pump “oxygen back Libya’s body,” he said, pointing to his government's efforts to restore electricity.
“For nearly 10 years, the electricity in Libya was constantly cut off, but we made great efforts to solve this problem and now, it has not been cut off for a single minute for the last year and half,” Mr Al Dbeibah said.
The prime minister also cited his controversial push to end fuel subsidies in Libya and said authorities will instead offer direct cash support to the population.
Libya relies heavily on its oil industry for revenue.
Despite having Africa’s largest crude reserves, a third of Libya’s population lives below the poverty line and parts of the country suffer chronic shortages of petrol and gas due to inadequate investment in pipelines and refining capabilities.
Its major oilfields have been closed by protests in recent months, which have hit the country's oil production.
Libyans also vented their fury last year after floods destroyed much of the town of Derna and killed at least 4,600 people.
The Libyan Public Prosecution Authority said it found that “negligence” led to the collapse of the Bilad and Sidi Bou Mansour dams above the coastal city following heavy rains brought by a hurricane.
Many Libyans also blamed divisions within government for what they saw as an inadequate response to the disaster.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
Profile
Co-founders of the company: Vilhelm Hedberg and Ravi Bhusari
Launch year: In 2016 ekar launched and signed an agreement with Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. In January 2017 ekar launched in Dubai in a partnership with the RTA.
Number of employees: Over 50
Financing stage: Series B currently being finalised
Investors: Series A - Audacia Capital
Sector of operation: Transport
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
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SPECS
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
57%20Seconds
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match info
Chelsea 2
Willian (13'), Ross Barkley (64')
Liverpool 0
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the most popular virtual currency in the world. It was created in 2009 as a new way of paying for things that would not be subject to central banks that are capable of devaluing currency. A Bitcoin itself is essentially a line of computer code. It's signed digitally when it goes from one owner to another. There are sustainability concerns around the cryptocurrency, which stem from the process of "mining" that is central to its existence.
The "miners" use computers to make complex calculations that verify transactions in Bitcoin. This uses a tremendous amount of energy via computers and server farms all over the world, which has given rise to concerns about the amount of fossil fuel-dependent electricity used to power the computers.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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MEYDAN CARD
6.30pm Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm Conditions Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m
7.40pm Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 2,000m
8.15pm Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m
8.50pm The Entisar Listed Dh265,000 (D) 2,000m
9.25pm The Garhoud Sprint Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,200m
10pm Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,400m
The National selections
6.30pm Majestic Thunder
7.05pm Commanding
7.40pm Mark Of Approval
8.15pm Mulfit
8.50pm Gronkowski
9.25pm Walking Thunder
10pm Midnight Sands
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Arabian Gulf Cup FINAL
Al Nasr 2
(Negredo 1, Tozo 50)
Shabab Al Ahli 1
(Jaber 13)
Our legal advisor
Rasmi Ragy is a senior counsel at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Prosecutor in Egypt with more than 40 years experience across the GCC.
Education: Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1978.
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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