Briefly

RUSSIA

Putin, Trump discuss expanded G7 summit

US President Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Monday about his idea of holding an expanded G7 summit later this year with a possible invitation for Russia, the Kremlin and the White House said. Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to host next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India. A White House statement on the call said Trump and Putin discussed "progress toward convening the G7". The two leaders also discussed the OPEC+ deal on oil output cuts, and measures to fight the coronavirus, the Kremlin said. Putin thanked Trump for a delivery of US ventilators, the Kremlin said, and congratulated Trump on the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from US soil in nine years.

AFGHANISTAN

US negotiator upbeat on Taliban peace talks

The US negotiator on Afghanistan voiced optimism on Monday that the Taliban and the government would begin peace talks and said US President Donald Trump could pull out US troops ahead of schedule if all goes well. The Afghan government has been speeding up the release of prisoners, a key condition for the Taliban, after a cease-fire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. "There's been a lot of progress in the last few days," said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who negotiated a deal with the Taliban in which Washington plans to end its longest war.

DR CONGO

New Ebola outbreak declared in the north

Health officials had confirmed a second Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization said on Monday, adding yet another health crisis for a country already battling COVID-19 and the world's largest measles outbreak. The DR Congo also has yet to declare an official end to Ebola in its troubled east, where at least 2,243 people have died since an epidemic began there in August 2018. Now the health authorities have identified six cases including four fatalities in the north near Mbandaka, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

CENTRAL AMERICA

Deaths from Storm Amanda rise to 20

Torrential rains at the weekend caused by Tropical Storm Amanda have killed at least 20 people in Central America, authorities said on Monday, as remnants of the weather front moved north into Mexico and threatened to form a new cyclone. The bulk of the victims were in El Salvador, where Amanda led to the deaths of 15 people and the disappearance of seven, as well as destroying hundreds of homes and damaging roads, the National Commission for Civil Protection said. Carolina Recinos, a senior aide to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, said Amanda had dumped the equivalent of "almost 10 percent" of the annual rainfall on the country in a relatively short space of time.

GERMANY

Lufthansa board backs $10b bailout plan

The supervisory board of Lufthansa has given its blessing to a $10 billion government bailout plan thrashed out between the airline, the German government and the European Union. Lufthansa, which has been hard-hit by the downturn in travel during the coronavirus pandemic, will be required to relinquish some of its slots in Frankfurt and Munich to competitors. A German government stabilization fund will receive a 20-percent stake in the airline. Lufthansa's current shareholders and the European Commission need to provide the final approval for the plan.

Agencies - Xinhua