* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday said he hoped parties in parliament could reach a consensus on passing legislation before snap elections next year. Speaking in Budapest, he also called for a calm discussion on setting a date for a confidence vote and new elections after the collapse of his coalition this week.
* Countries worldwide must increase interventions to address the climate crisis, including targeted adaptation financing, capacity building, and technology transfer, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said in a new report launched Thursday in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
* The 2024 Forum on Dialogue between the Civilizations of China and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was held on Wednesday in Lima, Peru, gathering over 150 representatives, including government officials, scholars, and business leaders from China and more than 10 Latin American countries.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Beijing on Friday, saying the two countries should make joint efforts to build a world of harmonious coexistence. Mattarella is in China for a state visit at the invitation of Xi.
* It is too early to discuss prospects for improving Russia-U.S. relations, local media reported Friday, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin remains willing and open to dialogue with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump but arranging a time would come later.
* European leaders have agreed on the need for Europe to assume greater responsibility for its own security rather than relying solely on the United States, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday following the fifth European Political Community (EPC) summit.
* The EU must focus on setting its own house in order, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday, citing tariffs, competitiveness and defence as the most pressing issues the bloc faces as it comes to terms with Donald Trump's election win.
* War in Ukraine could end easily if the U.S. administration under Donald Trump takes a solution-based approach, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Friday.
* China and the European Union (EU) have made progress in negotiations on a proposed price commitment plan concerning Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said Friday.
* Greece and Turkey still disagree on the extent of issues needing to be tackled over the designation of their maritime boundaries but talks will continue, the Greek and Turkish foreign ministers said after meeting on Friday.
* The Czech centre-right government won lower house backing on Friday for pension reforms that will gradually raise the retirement age to 67 in the coming decades.
* Mozambique's largest hospital said on Friday that at least three people were killed and 66 injured during clashes between police and protesters the previous day over a disputed election.
* An Italian navy ship carrying a small group of migrants docked in an Albanian port on Friday in an attempt by Rome to salvage a plan to process asylum seekers abroad after a first attempt hit legal hurdles.
* The Commission of Liaison and Repatriation of Afghan Personalities has facilitated the return of 1,008 former government members to their home country since April 2022, Ahmadullah Wasiq, the spokesperson for the commission, said Friday.
* The Indonesian government is working with South Korean authorities to locate two Indonesian crew members who went missing after their ship sank in waters off Jeju, South Korea, on Friday morning.
* European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on Thursday condemned Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon's Bekaa, Baalbek, Nasriya, and areas near the Beirut airport, expressing dismay over the attacks.
* Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 43,508 Palestinians and wounded 102,684 since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Friday.
* Yemen's Houthi group said Friday that it has shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over northern Yemen's Al-Jawf province.
* The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported on Friday that about 70 percent of the casualties in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 have been women and children.
* China's cabinet on Friday approved measures to boost growth in the country's foreign trade, state media reported, after October exports grew at the fastest pace in over two years and the country unveiled fiscal stimulus to revive growth.
* The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday slashed interest rates by 25 basis points amid cooling inflation and a weakening labor market, marking the second rate cut in this easing cycle.
* The Bank of England (BoE) on Thursday reduced interest rates for the second time this year, setting the rate at 4.75 percent, a 0.25 percentage-point decrease from the previous 5 percent. This adjustment brings rates to their lowest level in over a year, last seen below 5 percent in June 2023.
* Japan stepped into the foreign exchange market on July 11 and 12 this year, spending a total of 5.53 trillion yen (about 36 billion USD) to prop up the yen after it had weakened to around a 38-year low against the USD, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
* About 112,000 new passenger vehicles were imported to Russia in October, a monthly record for the last 12 years, Russia's analytical agency Autostat said on Thursday. The previous record was set in August 2012, with around 120,000 new imported cars.
* Malaysia recorded 3.2 percent of the unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2024 compared to 3.3 percent in the second quarter, official data showed Friday.
* Turkey’s central bank announced Friday an upward revision to its year-end inflation forecasts, previously 38 percent for 2024 and 14 percent for 2025.
* The Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) on Thursday projected Austria's gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by an average 1.25 percent annually from 2025 to 2029, about 0.2 percentage points lower than the medium-term forecast for the eurozone.
* Uganda's Ministry of Health on Thursday launched the second round of polio vaccination targeting 2.7 million children under five years old in the eastern part of the country after the virus outbreak was reported in May.
* The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Horn of Africa reached 20.4 million in October, up from 19.9 million in August, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday.
* The Shiveluch volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula erupted three times in the past 24 hours, prompting scientists to warn of heightened volcanic danger, local media reported on Friday.
* Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted several times on Friday, belching volcanic ash that rose up to 10 km (32,800 ft) into the sky, officials said, following a big eruption on Sunday night that killed nine people.
