* United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for the reform of global financial institutions and urged action to address the debt crises affecting some countries.
* China is willing to strengthen its "strategic alignment" with Russia, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a visiting Russian official on Thursday, adding that Beijing and Moscow must maintain close cooperation in multilateral forums.
* Russia will respond to Ukraine's strike that used U.S.-made ATACMS missiles against Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
* China is open to engaging and communicating with the economic and trade team of the Trump administration, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.
* Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday held extensive phone talks on energy cooperation and Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement.
* Romania and Bulgaria will become full members of Europe's Schengen free-travel area from next month, swelling the number of nations to 29, the EU said on Thursday.
* The leaders of France and Poland will hold talks on Ukraine on Thursday, including the possibility of sending European troops there as a security guarantee in the event of a peace deal with Russia, as Europe gears up for the new Trump presidency.
* Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday said the interest and welfare of the citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger remained a priority for the leaders of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), assuring that diplomacy and wisdom will be the guiding principles in reintegrating the countries into the regional bloc.
* Somalia and Ethiopia said they would work together to resolve a dispute over Addis Ababa's plan to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which had drawn in regional powers and threatened to further destabilise the Horn of Africa.
* Russian gas exports through Ukraine to Europe were stable on Thursday, data showed, a day after Austria's OMV OMVV.VI said it had terminated its long-term gas supply contract with Kremlin-controlled Gazprom GAZP.MM.
* Poland has signed a contract with U.S. company General Atomics worth approximately 1.2 billion zlotys ($295 million) to buy MQ-9B Sky Guardian drones, its defence minister said on Thursday.
* The Estonian Parliament, Riigikogu, approved the 2025 state budget on Wednesday, setting revenues at 17.7 billion euros (18.5 billion USD) and expenditures at 18.2 billion euros (19.1 billion USD).
* Iran and Turkey have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to increase bilateral trade to 30 billion USD within five years, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.
* The UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
* The United Nations and humanitarian partners on Wednesday launched a 4.1-billion-USD flash appeal for 2025 to aid 3.3 million Palestinian people.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a congressional panel Wednesday the United States needs to "do everything possible to avoid" the scenario where Syria becomes a "terrorist enclave."
* Syria's Military Operations Administration announced Wednesday that it has lifted the curfew previously imposed on Damascus and its surrounding areas, calling on residents to resume their daily activities and return to their workplaces.
* Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud on Wednesday discussed the developments in Syria and its repercussions on the rest of the region over the phone, according to a statement from al-Sudani's office.
* Israelis and Palestinians are signalling new efforts to forge a ceasefire deal, their first in a year, to pause the fighting in Gaza and return to Israel some of the hostages still held in the Palestinian enclave.
* More than 44,835 Palestinians have been killed and 106,356 wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
* The extremist militant group Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed Afghanistan's acting minister for refugees and repatriation on Wednesday.
* Somalia said on Thursday it had pulled federal troops out of the southwestern Lower Juba region, after clashes with local forces from Jubbaland state which has broken off ties with the central government.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday approved a 500-million-USD loan to boost India's environmentally sustainable infrastructure.
* The ADB on Wednesday approved a 500-million-USD policy-based loan to help the Philippines pursue its public financial management (PFM) reform agenda and ensure quality public services for the Filipino people.
* Russia's economy is projected to grow by 3.9 percent in 2024, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday. Novak noted that the Russian economy has shown steady development despite external challenges in recent years.
* The world oil market will be comfortably supplied in 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, even after producer group OPEC+ extended oil supply cuts and a slightly higher than expected demand forecast.
* India's vegetable oil imports surged to a four-month high in November as refiners ramped up purchases of soyoil and sunflower oil, replenishing inventories after robust festival season demand, a leading trade body said on Thursday.
* The Swiss National Bank still has the ability to reduce interest rates lower than the current 0.5% level, Chairman Martin Schlegel said on Thursday.
* The Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) of Brazil's central bank decided on Wednesday to increase the benchmark Selic interest rate from 11.25 percent to 12.25 percent, the second-highest since November 2023, when it stood at 12.75 percent.
* Australia's unemployment rate fell in November, defying the expectations of economists, official data has revealed. According to monthly labor force figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the official unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in November, down from 4.1 percent in October and the lowest figure since March.
* Thailand's consumer confidence rose for a second straight month in November, thanks to the government's stimulus measures and improved tourism in flood-hit areas, a survey showed on Thursday.
* New Zealand's seafood exports are set to hit a record 2.2 billion NZ dollars in the year to June 2025, and increase to 2.4 billion NZ dollars the following year, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said on Thursday.
* A local government and other stakeholders in the Mount Qomolangma region of Nepal have decided to forbid commercial flights of helicopters in the region starting from Jan. 1 next year, a local government official said on Wednesday.
