GLOBAL DIARY

“The political decision makers who will meet at COP26 in Glasgow are urgently summoned to provide effective responses to the present ecological crisis” – POPE FRANCIS

AUSTRIA’S ALEXANDER SCHALLENBERG SWORN IN AS CHANCELLOR AFTER SEBASTIAN KURTZ QUITS

Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg was sworn in as chancellor after fellow conservative Sebastian Kurz stepped down as Austria’s leader in the face of corruption allegations, to keep the ruling coalition with the Greens alive. Schallenberg was sworn in at a ceremony in President Alexander van der Bellen’s office along with his successor as foreign minister, Michael Linhart, who like Schallenberg is a career diplomat and had been serving as ambassador to France.

MERKEL TO BRING LIKELY SUCCESSOR TO G20 TALKS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited her likely successor Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to join bilateral discussions with other world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit this weekend, a German government official said. The three German parties working to form a new coalition government aim to wrap up their talks by the end of November and hope to elect Social Democrat Scholz as the new chancellor in the week of Dec. 6, party officials said last week. The fact that Merkel and Scholz will take part in the summit together is a sign of continuity in Germany’s approach to the G20, the government official said.

IRAN AGREED TO RETURN TO NUCLEAR TALKS

Iran will resume talks with six world powers before the end of November, its top negotiator said, seeking to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program. “Had a very serious & constructive dialogue with Enrique Mora on the essential elements for successful negotiations. We agree to start negotiations before the end of November,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani wrote on Twitter following meetings with EU officials in Brussels.

“I have instructed Gazprom, a natural gas company, to pump more supplies into the EU” – VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT

TURKEY REVERSES THREAT TO EXPEL EUROPEAN AMBASSADORS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan backtracked on an earlier threat to expel 10 foreign ambassadors. “We believe that these ambassadors, who have fulfilled their commitment to Article 41 of the Vienna Convention, will now be more careful in their statements,” he said in televised remarks following a three-hour Cabinet meeting in Ankara. The 10 ambassadors had called for the release of businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala — jailed in 2017 despite having not having been convicted of a crime — in a joint statement last week. Erdogan had said that the statement was an “impudence” and ordered the ambassadors to be declared persona non grata.

Located some 1,200 miles (2,000 km) west of the African nation of Angola, and 2,500 miles east of Brazil, St Helena has a population of around 4,500 people, and is 47 sq miles (121 sq km) in size. To put that into context, it has about the same landmass as Jersey in the Channel Islands. St Helena’s claim to fame since March 2020, is that it remains one of only a handful of places on Planet Earth to have not reported a single case of coronavirus.

RUSSIA SUSPENDS ITS MISSION TO NATO

Russia’s foreign minister said that the country is suspending its mission to NATO. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the move is in response to last week’s expulsion by NATO of eight members of Russia’s mission to the military alliance. NATO said that they were secretly working as intelligence officers and halved the size of Moscow’s team able to work at its headquarters. Lavrov also announced that NATO’s military liaison and information offices in Moscow would be closed.

REMOTE BRITISH ISLAND THAT REMAINS UNTOUCHED BY COVID