World News in Brief: November 15

The 17th Group of 20 (G20) Summit kicked off in Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday, with issues pertaining to world economic recovery, world health systems and climate change taking the center stage.
The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday called for solidarity in advancing sustainable development as the world's population hits 8 billion.
The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday called for solidarity in advancing sustainable development as the world's population hits 8 billion.

* Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, had a candid and in-depth exchange of views in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday on issues of strategic importance in China-US relations and on major global and regional issues.

* India Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged a return to diplomacy to end the Russia-Ukraine war, reiterating the South Asian nation's call for peace in the ongoing conflict.

* International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned G20 leaders on Tuesday against allowing trade protectionism to "take root" and said fragmentation of the world economy into geopolitical blocs would significantly hurt growth.

* French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday discussed financial support to develozamping economies at the G20 summit in Bali, the French presidency said.

* India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed global and regional developments in a meeting with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday at the G20 summit in Indonesia, India's foreign ministry said.

* Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he discussed trade, consular and other issues in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit on Tuesday, the first meeting between leaders of the two countries since 2016.

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

* Indonesia President Joko Widodo at the G20 Summit on Tuesday said an intellectual property waiver "must be widened" for all health solutions, including diagnostics and therapeutics.

* Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden discussed bilateral relations, including trade and security issues, on the sidelines of a G20 summit, the Turkish presidency said on Tuesday.

* The European Union plans to update its emissions-cutting target under the Paris climate accord, the EU climate policy chief told the COP27 summit on Tuesday, with the upgrade expected before next year's United Nations summit.

* A coalition of countries will mobilise $20 billion of public and private finance to help Indonesia shut coal power plants and bring forward the sector's peak emissions date by seven years to 2030, the United States, Japan and partners announced on Tuesday.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had set out promises from the United States and European Union on the Black Sea grain deal that those involved in the trade would not be sanctioned.

* Britain and France on Monday signed an agreement aimed at fighting against illegal migration via the English Channel, which has long been a point of friction between the two countries.

* A deal can be done between Britain and the European Union on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland before the end of the year, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Tuesday.

* As the global population reaches 8 billion, India, formerly a powerful driver of the number of people on the planet, is experiencing a marked slowdown.

* The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) urgently needs between 50 million and 80 million USD to finish the year and maintain the operations of its schools, health centers and other basic services, the agency's Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said Monday.

* Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Monday called on officials from the Iraqi government to fulfill their commitments to upholding the good neighborliness principles and ensuring the security of the two countries' common borders.

* The White House on Tuesday said it had pushed out $185 billion in funding under a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, with that same amount or more to follow in 2023, but denied the funding would fuel inflation.

* Japan's economy unexpectedly shrank for the first time in four quarters in the July-September period, as the yen's tumble to decade lows further inflated soaring import and living costs, the government said Tuesday.

* The Republic of Korea's rice output fell this year due to bad weather conditions, statistical office data showed Tuesday. Rice production totaled 3,764,000 tons in 2022, down 3 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.

* The total foreign investments (FI) approved in the third quarter of 2022 to the Philippines reached over 228 million USD, 22.4 percent lower compared with the amount in the same period last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said here Tuesday.

* Britain's unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in the three months to September, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.

* Brazilian financial analysts raised their inflation forecast for the end of this year from 5.63 to 5.82 percent, the third straight weekly uptick, keeping it at 4.94 percent for 2023, the Central Bank of Brazil said Monday.

* Immigrant workers contributed 143.9 billion euros (about 148 billion USD) to Italy's economy, or 9 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) last year, a new report showed on Monday.

* The inflation rate in Finland climbed to 8.3 percent in October 2022 on a year-on-year basis, according to data published by Statistics Finland on Monday.

* The unemployment rate in Israel rose to 4.3 percent in October, the highest in the first 10 months of 2022, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. The previous record this year was 3.9 percent in September.

* Over 2 million tourists have visited the Philippines since February, raking in over 1.76 billion USD in revenue, Philippine Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said on Tuesday.

* Turkey plans to pursue targets in northern Syria after it completes a cross-border operation against outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in Iraq, a senior official said on Tuesday, after a deadly weekend bomb in Istanbul.

* Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Frederick Shava on Monday reaffirmed Zimbabwe's commitment to rejoining the Commonwealth, a grouping of mainly former British colonies which it left in 2003 over governance issues.

* Ivory Coast will gradually withdraw its contribution of military and police from a United Nations peacekeeping force in Mali, according to a letter by its ambassador to the U.N., after Bamako detained 46 of its soldiers in July.

* The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has abolished 17 political parties following their failure to comply with laws governing political parties in the country. The EC announced the decision in a statement on Monday, saying the certificates of the affected parties have been canceled since Nov. 1.

* Though heavy rain has eased across New South Wales (NSW) after a weekend of storms and flash flooding, the Australian weather authority warned that major flooding continues in the state, particularly around the central west.

VNA, Reuters, Xinhua