* Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa on Thursday appointed Nataly Morillo as his new minister of government as part of a cabinet reshuffle, said the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on countries to urgently reach a fair and balanced agreement to tackle the severity of the climate crisis. He made the appeal at a press conference during the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) being held in Brazil's Amazon city of Belem. The conference runs on Nov. 10-21, with climate negotiations currently in the final stage.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday announced it has approved a 36-million-U.S.-dollar financing package to help align technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Laos and expand job opportunities for young people, particularly women.
* South African President Cyril Ramaphosa rejected handing over the Group of 20 (G20) presidency to a low-ranking U.S. diplomat, the president's office said Thursday, amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Pretoria and Washington.
* Russian forces have taken control of the strategic city of Kupyansk in the Kharkov region in eastern Ukraine, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said Thursday.
* Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that he has rejected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's request for member states to contribute funds to support Ukraine.
* Hungary's exemption from newly introduced U.S. sanctions targeting Russian energy purchases entered into force on Friday, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
* Slovenia will provide 1.2 million euros (1.3 million USD) in financial assistance to the Palestinian administration, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
* Croatia and New Zealand have signed an agreement to eliminate double taxation and avoid tax evasion, the Croatian Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Thursday.
* Slovenia will extend temporary border controls with Croatia and Hungary for another six months, until June 21, 2026, the government said on Thursday.
* Romania has taken another significant step toward joining the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with the promulgation of a new law aimed at strengthening integrity rules across public institutions, President Nicusor Dan said on Thursday.
* Lithuanian trucks have not entered the country for a second day after two border checkpoints with Belarus reopened, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) told the Baltic News Service on Friday.
* The White House issued an executive order to eliminate punitive tariffs on some agricultural products from Brazil on Thursday. The refund of the duties collected since April 13, when the executive order took effect, will be handled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved a major investment framework with Canada, paving the way for up to 50 billion USD in investment across key Canadian sectors, according to an official announcement released by the Emirates News Agency on Friday.
* Israel's security cabinet voted Thursday evening to create a ministerial committee that will supervise the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement's second phase, the country's public broadcaster Kan reported on Friday.
* Israel expects Washington to preserve its access to more advanced U.S. weaponry, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office said on Thursday, commenting on U.S. plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
* The leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on Thursday agreed to work toward reviving long-stalled reunification talks, the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) said.
* Iran on Friday slammed the United States and the three European countries -- France, Britain, and Germany -- for undermining Tehran's engagement with the UN nuclear watchdog after its Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday urging Tehran to disclose information about its uranium stockpile and grant access to its nuclear sites.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday said that the Cairo Agreement reached between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has terminated in response to an IAEA resolution adopted earlier in the day that demands Iran report the status of its uranium reserves.
* The Japanese government on Friday approved an economic stimulus package worth 21.3 trillion yen (about 135 billion USD) to support the country's economy amid persistent inflation and U.S. tariffs.
* U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.4 percent in September, up 0.1 percentage point compared to the previous month, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.
* Cambodia's total import of diesel fuel, gasoline, and combustion gas was valued at 2.02 billion USD in the first 10 months of 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 11.5 percent, said a Ministry of Commerce's report on Friday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday announced that it has approved 17 million USD in grant financing to help Tajikistan digitalize and modernize its livestock industry, aiming to increase farmers' incomes and improve people's access to nutritious food.
* Singapore on Friday revised its 2025 GDP growth forecast upward to around 4.0 percent, from the earlier projection of 1.5 to 2.5 percent, citing "better-than-expected" economic performance in the third quarter, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
* New Zealand's total meat exports reached a record 10 billion NZ dollars (5.6 billion USD) in the year ended October 2025, Stats NZ reported Friday.
* Poland has launched a special operation to protect critical railway and road infrastructure following recent sabotage on major rail lines, Polish media reported.
* Indonesia has officially ended its poliovirus type 2 outbreak after nearly three years, following an intensified vaccination campaign that delivered almost 60 million additional doses to children nationwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
* A Tejas light combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed Friday during an aerial demonstration at the Dubai Airshow, killing the pilot, according to the Ministry of Defense of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Emergency and firefighting teams responded immediately and are managing the situation on site.
* At least 10 people have died and 18 others remain missing after a landslide struck a residential area in Indonesia's Central Java province, authorities said on Friday. The casualties followed days of heavy rainfall that triggered the landslide in the village of Pandanarum in Pandanarum district, according to the disaster mitigation agency BNPB.
