Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the United Arab Emirates on Monday as part of a swing through the Arab Gulf states focused on energy and commerce.

He met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE, which will be hosting the COP28 U.N. climate summit later this year.

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations meeting in India on Monday are poised to address critical global economic challenges, including the threats posed by climate change and rising debt among low-income countries.

The finance minister of India, which is hosting the global grouping, said the G20 will focus on strengthening the global economy as growth remains uneven and below average.

Shares retreated in Asia and Europe on Monday after China reported weaker growth than forecast in the last quarter. Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel.

Germany's DAX edged less than 0.1% lower to 16,097.87 and the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.7% to 7,323.91. Britain's FTSE lost 0.1% to 7,424.61.

European leaders and Tunisia's president have announced progress in the building of hoped-for closer economic and trade relations and on measures to combat the often lethal smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

The leaders of Italy, the Netherlands and the European Commission made their second visit to Tunis in just over a month. They expressed hope that a memorandum newly signed with Tunisia during the trip would pave the way for a comprehensive partnership.

Iraq's prime minister has held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began.

The two leaders told reporters that they discussed fighting drugs, the return of Syrian refugees and the imperative of lifting Western sanctions imposed in Syria. They also talked about Israel's strikes on the war-torn country and water shortages in the Euphrates River that cuts through both countries because of projects in Turkey.

Russia has suspended a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

Russia halted a breakthrough wartime deal on Monday that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to get its own food and fertilizer to the world are met. While Russia has complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance have hampered its agricultural exports, it has shipped record amounts of wheat.

Central Bank Third Vice Governor Salim Chahine has confirmed that there will be no “mass resignation” of the bank’s four vice governors.

In remarks to Annahar newspaper published Monday, Chahine also said that the vice governors will not accept to “keep using depositors’ funds to cover the expenses of the state and the Sayrafa platform.”

A Lebanese depositor broke into Mawarid bank in Antelias on Monday to demand his trapped savings.

Edgard Awwad stormed the bank with his thirteen years old son and left after he received his entire savings, a sum of $15000.

Among meandering alleyways in the historic market of Lebanon's southern city of Sidon, cobblers and menders are doing brisk business, as an economic crisis revives demand for once-fading trades.