Greece, Cyprus and Israel will press ahead with the development of a pipeline channeling natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ office said on Sunday. Mitsotakis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, are now expected to sign an agreement on the so-called EastMed pipeline in Athens on 2 January.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed off on US sanctions against companies building a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany that Congress fears will give the Kremlin dangerous leverage over European allies. The sanctions, which are opposed by the European Union, were included in a sprawling defense spending bill Trump signed at a ceremony on Joint Base Andrews, an air force installation outside Washington, DC.

Britain's finance minister on Friday named Andrew Bailey, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority regulator, as new governor of the Bank of England to guide it through Brexit.

The European Space Agency (ESA) launches today a first-of-its-kind exoplanet telescope, which will perform detailed studies of hundreds of known worlds beyond the Solar System. The mission heralds a shift from missions designed to discover such planets - some 4,000 of which have now been found - to those intended to learn about them in detail, say astronomers.

Trying to get a handle on the progress of artificial intelligence is a daunting task, even for those enmeshed in the AI community. But the latest edition of the AI Index report - an annual rundown of machine learning data points now in its third year - delineates significant dimensions related to the activity in, and technical progress of AI.

The United States and China cooled their trade war on Friday, announcing a “Phase one” agreement that reduces some U.S. tariffs in exchange for what US officials said would be a big jump in Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods. Beijing has agreed to import at least $200 billion in additional US goods and services over the next two years on top of the amount it purchased in 2017, the top US trade negotiator said here Friday.

The reform of European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone's bailout fund, does not intend to damage any Member State, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday, cited by ANSA. The reform has caused a big political furore in Italy, amid fears it could put the country under renewed pressure on the financial markets.

Saudi stock exchange Tadawul, already the largest Arab bourse, has been catapulted into the global top ten with the listing of energy giant Aramco on Wednesday. Minutes after trading began, Aramco's valuation soared to $1.88 trillion, dwarfing the combined $500 billion value of all the other companies in the Saudi market. The giant addition makes the Saudi bourse the ninth biggest in the world, according to Bloomberg News, edging out the Bombay Stock Exchange and advancing on the Canadian and German markets.

Sony made an unexpected PlayStation 5 announcement a couple of months ago. The company revealed the actual name of the console - it’s PS5, of course - as well as a few key features of the new controller, without mentioning its actual name. We expect it to be called DualShock 5 when the console launches next winter, not that it really matters.

The United States, Mexico and Canada signed a deal Tuesday to finalise their new trade agreement, paving the way to ratification after more than two years of arduous negotiations. However, the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the US Senate would likely delay Congressional ratification of the agreement until next year, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.