* Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni outlined plans to reform the county's electoral process to elect a government head and pledged further tax cuts for the middle-class in a lengthy press conference held at the Italian Parliament on Thursday.
* Ilza Amado Vaz has been appointed as the new prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe, following a presidential decree issued on Thursday. According to the official STP-Press news agency, Amado Vaz will become the third woman to hold this position in the nation's history.
* Lebanon's army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president in the second round of the presidential vote held on Thursday. Aoun, 60, obtained 99 votes in the second round of the electoral session, which was attended by 128 members of parliament. His victory marks the end of more than two years of presidential vacancy in Lebanon.
* The Republic of Korea will launch a state affairs consultative council, composed of the acting president, parliamentary speaker and chiefs of rival political parties, Yonhap news agency said Thursday.
* The 11th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue will be held on Jan. 11 in Beijing as agreed between the two sides, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun announced on Friday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin would welcome contact with Donald Trump if Trump's political will remains after his inauguration as U.S. president on Jan. 20, said the Kremlin on Thursday.
* U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to meet him and that such a meeting was being set up.
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday pushed back against a proposal by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that NATO member states should increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their economic output. Scholz made the remarks during an interview with Focus online.
* Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that his government would hit back if incoming U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his tariff threat.
* The Danish government has requested U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for a phone conversation following his controversial remarks on Greenland, but no official response has been received yet, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a press conference late Thursday.
* Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Thursday condemned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarks about potentially using military force to gain control of Greenland, warning of the threat to NATO unity and European stability.
* Armenia's Cabinet approved a bill on Thursday to launch the country's European Union (EU) accession process, Armenpress reported. Endorsing the bill, which was submitted to parliament by the Eurovote civic initiative after a petition, the Cabinet also proposed amendments to align it with legal standards, including rephrasing certain sections and clarifying timeframes.
* Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday that his government might consider halting humanitarian aid to Ukraine as part of measures in response to the ongoing Russian gas transit dispute.
* China administered its first dose of a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for men in its central Hunan Province on Thursday afternoon, according to the provincial center for disease control and prevention.
* UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg concluded a visit to Sanaa on Thursday, engaging in discussions with senior political and military officials on advancing peace initiatives and securing the unconditional release of detainees.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and a visiting delegation of the Palestinian Fatah movement discussed on Thursday the recent developments in Gaza and the efforts needed for an immediate ceasefire, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
* Turkey is working on expanding electricity exports to Syria, including the Aleppo city and other regions, said a cabinet minister.
* Israeli security sources said on Thursday that the commander of Hamas' battalion in Gaza City, his deputy and two elite Nukhba company commanders were killed in a series of airstrikes last week.
* A Qatari Air Force plane carrying 31 tons of food aid landed in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday as part of the country's ongoing air bridge initiative to support the Syrian people, the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed his country's support for the Chadian government's efforts to preserve its stability and security, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
* Kazakhstan's Senate has ratified amendments paving the way for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to gradually expand its operations to Sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq, the country's Kazinform News Agency reported on Thursday.
* Global economic growth is projected to remain at 2.8 percent in 2025, unchanged from last year, according to a UN report released on Thursday. The report forecasts the world economy will increase 2.9 percent in 2026.
* Japan's real wages fell 0.3 percent in November from a year before, marking the fourth consecutive month of decline, government data showed Thursday.
* Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Philippines rose 50.2 percent year-on-year in October 2024 to reach 1 billion USD, the central bank said Friday.
* Cambodia's international trade volume hit 54.74 billion USD in 2024, up 16.9 percent from 46.82 billion dollars in the year before, said an official report released on Friday.
* Myanmar exported over 2 million tons of rice and broken rice in the first nine months of the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) on Thursday.
* The number of unemployed in Malaysia decreased to 546,700 persons in November 2024 with the unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, official data showed Friday.
* Australia stands ready to help authorities in the United States contain wildfires, Sky News Australia Friday quoted Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister as saying. At least 10 people are known to have died in the wildfires raging around Los Angeles, the United States.
* Mount Merapi, located near the densely populated city of Yogyakarta, the capital of the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province in Indonesia, emitted hot lava on Friday.
* Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state government on Friday urged swimmers to avoid the water at over 30 Sydney beaches due to likely pollution following prolonged rainfall.
* New Zealand will have more rainy and windy days from January to March this year under potential La Nina impact, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said on Thursday.
