* China will continue to facilitate cross-border travel, welcoming people from all countries to visit and experience its diverse charm and share in its development dividends, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday.
* Laos has unveiled the Green City Action Plan for 2023-2030 in its capital Vientiane, with the goal of transforming the city into a sustainable, climate-resilient, and eco-friendly urban environment by 2030.
* The Australian government claimed on Thursday that the country is on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, with new figures showing improved projections.
* Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday she had an "excellent" conversation with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump where they discussed migration issues.
* Canada's federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces agreed to work in a united and coordinated way against a threat by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to impose tariffs on Canadian imports, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday.
* The French government is ready to make concessions over its budget, which has faced widespread opposition from both far-left and far-right politicians, said French Finance Minister Antoine Armand.
* Russia returned seven children to Ukraine following mediation efforts by Qatar, the TASS state news agency reported on Thursday. Qatar has acted as a mediator several times between Russia and Ukraine to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children since the start of the war.
* President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that he would sign Ukraine's 2025 budget the following day, a document calling for the country's first wartime tax increases.
* The Czech coalition government failed to reach an agreement on the need to appoint a national coordinator for the euro adoption, Deputy Prime Minister Vit Rakusan said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.
* Uruguay's president-elect Yamandu Orsi reiterated his position on Venezuela during a press conference on Wednesday, saying his country must respect diplomatic relations in place and breaking precedent for recent leaders of the small South American nation.
* New Zealand and France have agreed to redouble efforts on bilateral relations and Pacific cooperation, according to the New Zealand government on Thursday.
* The governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, Norway, and Switzerland on Wednesday jointly condemned the escalating violence against civilians in Mozambique, a southern African nation currently embroiled in weeks of post-election protests.
* Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto signed a joint statement in Rabat on Wednesday to promote bilateral cooperation.
* The OPEC+ alliance of oil-producing countries has postponed its next meeting on output policy to Dec. 5 from Dec. 1 to avoid a conflict with another event, OPEC said on Thursday.
* A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the U.S. and France as people in both countries began returning to homes in the border area shattered by 14 months of fighting.
* The death toll of sectarian clashes in Kurram district of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has exceeded 100, the hospital administration told media on Thursday.
* Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has conducted aerial strikes on 12,500 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon since the beginning of the conflict last October, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement on Wednesday, following the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon at dawn.
* Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Lebanon this week, and called for negotiations to be launched on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
* Hamas said on Wednesday that it is ready to cooperate with any ceasefire efforts in the Gaza Strip, following a ceasefire deal struck between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
* Lebanon's Hezbollah on Wednesday vowed to continue its resistance and support Palestinians, including fighters, a day after a ceasefire deal between the group and Israel was announced.
* Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as forces stepped up bombardments on central areas and pushed tanks deeper in the north and south of the enclave.
* U.S. consumer spending increased slightly more than expected in October, suggesting the economy retained much of its solid growth momentum early in the fourth quarter, but progress on lowering inflation appears to have stalled in recent months.
* South Korea's central bank on Thursday revised down its economic growth outlook for both 2024 and 2025 after delivering its back-to-back interest rate cuts.
* Uzbekistan has attracted over 26 billion USD in foreign investments during the first 10 months of this year, the press service of the Uzbek President said on Wednesday.
* Malta's nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter (Q3) of 2024 grew by 8 percent year-on-year, according to provisional estimates published by the country's National Statistics Office (NSO) on Wednesday.
* More than 37,000 people have been affected by flooding caused by torrential rain in six Malaysian states this week, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday.
* Indonesian rescuers are searching for passengers trapped in a minibus buried in mud after flash floods and landslides hit several locations in North Sumatra province, killing at least 27, an official said on Thursday.
* More than 335,000 people were affected by adverse weather conditions in Sri Lanka starting from Nov. 22, according to the country's Disaster Management Center (DMC) on Thursday.
