RIYADH, 29 November 2022, (TON): The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has lauded the Kingdom for its its climate change commitments such as the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, environment protection and energy transition programs.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, the FAO’s Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa Abdulhakim Elwaer said that this was the view of FAO’s Director-General QU Dongyu.
Elwaer said "the FAO’s director general, who had recently visited the Kingdom, had signed an agreement with the International Date Council headquartered in Riyadh to boost the industry in preparation for the International Year of the Date Palm 2027."

AL-MUKALLA, 29 November 2022, (TON): Rashad Al-Alimi, the chairperson of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman in his continuing efforts to build international support for punishing the Iran-backed Houthis for their escalating attacks on government-controlled areas and the country’s oil infrastructure.
Yemen’s official Saba News Agency reported that Al-Alimi, who was accompanied by two council members, will meet King Abdullah II and other Jordanian officials to discuss the war in Yemen and lobby for international support to counter Houthi threats to international maritime traffic off the coast of the country.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government has stepped up its diplomatic pressure to gain international support for labeling the Houthi militia as a terrorist group and persuade the world to publicly denounce them for targeting oil terminals in southern Yemen over the past two months.

KYIV, 29 November 2022, (TON): The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine remains under Russian control, authorities installed by Moscow in the nearby city of Enerhodar said, after a Ukrainian official suggested Russian forces were preparing to leave.
Russia-installed administration wrote on the Telegram messaging app “the media are actively spreading fake news that Russia is allegedly planning to withdraw from Enerhodar and leave the. This information is not true."
The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy company said on Sunday there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to vacate the vast Zaporizhzhia plant which they seized in March, soon after invading Ukraine.

OTTAWA, 29 November 2022, (TON): Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has paid a visit to the indigenous community where 11 people were killed in a stabbing spree earlier this year.
Mr Trudeau visited James Smith Cree Nation in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan three months after the September attacks.
He paid his respects at the burial site of victims and met local leaders.
Mr Trudeau also announced C$62.5m (£38.7m) in funding for the First Nations community.

ANKARA, 29 November 2022, (TON): Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said "Turkiye and Egypt could reappoint ambassadors and restore full diplomatic ties between the two countries within months."
His announcement came just days after Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed plans to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad when conditions are right in a bid to rebuild relations.
Ankara has recently attempted to mend bridges with several nations in the region, and the warming of bonds with Egypt follows years of tensions since the 2013 ouster of former Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a military coup.

MOSCOW, 29 November 2022, (TON): The United States and Russia are discussing the release of basketball star Brittney Griner and ex-marine Paul Whelan through special channels, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a top US diplomat.
Elizabeth Rood, charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Russia, was quoted as saying that the United States had submitted a serious proposal for consideration but it had not received a serious response back from Russia.
Russia and the United States have been discussing a deal that could see Griner, who is facing nine years in jail in Russia on drug charges, return to the United States in exchange for convicted Russian weapons trafficker Viktor Bout.

DHAKA, 29 November 2022, (TON): The Embassy of Netherlands in Dhaka and the International Organization for Migration have signed an agreement based on which the Netherlands will provide $7.5 million to IOM for the implementation of the “Restoring the Environment and Strengthening Resilience of Rohingya Refugees and Host Communities in Cox's Bazar” project.
The project aims to provide multi-sectoral support assistance for the Rohingya refugees and the host communities in Cox's Bazar.
On Monday, an exchange of notes was signed by Charge d'Affaires Thijs Woudstra, deputy ambassador of the Netherlands to Bangladesh, and Fathima Nusrath Ghazzali, officer in charge of IOM Bangladesh at the IOM Office in Dhaka.
Cox's Bazar district, currently hosting nearly one million Rohingya refugees since 2017, is prone to natural disasters and climate change impacts.

LONDON, 29 November 2022, (TON): A row is brewing in the UK after Amnesty International condemned a group of Conservative MPs who called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to return Albanian asylum-seekers to their home country including those claiming to be victims of human trafficking.
The UK has witnessed a marked increase in the number of Albanians coming to the country in the past 12 months, with many who cross the English Channel in small boats claiming they have been trafficked, and are victims of modern slavery.
The group of more than 50 politicians said moves to expedite the process of deporting Albanians was necessary to dissuade migrants from making the journey from what, they said, was a safe country, and reduce significant backlogs in the UK’s asylum process.
In a letter to Sunak, the MPs said “if they have really been taken against their will, then they could not reasonably object to being returned to their own homes."

RIYADH, 29 November 2022, (TON): Saudi Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Asheikh received Bahrain’s Ambassador to the Kingdom Shaikh Ali Abdulrahman bin Ali Al-Khalifa in Riyadh.
During the meeting, the two discussed several topics of common interest, including relations between the Saudi and Bahraini Shoura councils.
Both parties cited the depth of the relations between the two countries, rooted in cultural and religious ties, and stressed their mutual eagerness to further develop these bonds.
Al-Asheikh commended the bilateral cooperation between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia across various fields.

DHAKA, 29 November 2022, (TON): Indian President Droupadi Murmu on Monday stressed on further strengthen India-Bangladesh cooperation in the coming days, saying that Bangladesh occupies a special place in India's 'neighbourhood first' policy.
She said "the India-Bangladesh relations are bounded by language, culture and history and the unique ties is forged in shared sacrifices."
Welcoming the envoy, the Indian President mentioned that Bangladesh is the largest trade partner of India in South Asia and also the visa operations of India in Dhaka.