Mōrena and welcome to your Monday recap of international business and political news from around the world.
First, China has suspended a ban on exports of items related to chemical elements and materials to the United States as trade relations thaw, CNBC reported.
Gallium, germanium and antimony are types of metals or metalloids used in the semiconductor sector. The ban was first announced in December last year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump had earlier agreed to cut tariffs and pause other trade measures for a year.
Meanwhile, Trump said the US will not attend the G20 summit in South Africa because of claims that white people were being persecuted in the country, the BBC reported.
Trump said it was a "total disgrace" that South Africa is hosting the meeting later this month.
South Africa's government said the claims of a white genocide were "widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence" and were dismissed by a South African court in February.
In the Middle East, Israel received the body of a soldier held in Gaza for more than a decade after he was killed in an ambush in 2014, Al Jazeera reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the remains were handed over to Israeli forces by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Formal identification of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin had not yet been confirmed.
To date, Hamas had so far released 20 living captives and 23 bodies, Al Jazeera said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Elsewhere, former central bank director and economist José Gabriel Espinoza was sworn in as finance minister in Bolivia. Bloomberg said he had supported foreign investment to improve the economy.
“We want investments to return, and Bolivia’s doors open to the world,” Espinoza said. “We want to be trusted partner, not an investment adversary.”
Super Typhoon Fung-wong reached the north-eastern coast of the Philippines, killing at least two people and forcing the evacuation of more than one million people, the ABC and AP reported.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a wide state of emergency. Tropical cyclones with sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour or higher were described in the Philippines as a super typhoon.
In China, consumer prices unexpectedly rose in October, boosted by holidays, food and transport demand, Bloomberg reported.
The consumer price index rose 0.2% from a year earlier, after a 0.3% decline in September, according to official data. China’s core CPI, which excluded volatile items such as food and energy, rose 1.2%.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay plans to strengthen trade relationships in China, the United Arab Emirates, India, Singapore and Australia over the coming days.
In India, McClay will lead a forestry and wood processing trade mission and speak at the trade Partnership Summit, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
“This will be my sixth visit and reaffirms our commitment to negotiating a high-quality trade agreement with India opening up access to their 1.4 billion consumers during this term of Parliament,” McClay said.
JP Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon.
Finally, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon has discussed workplace phone etiquette and his frustration with digital devices in meetings.
The 69-year-old said he doesn’t carry his phone around with him all the time and prioritised deep focus at work, he told CNN.
“When I’m walking around the building and going to meetings, I don’t have it on me. It’s in my office,” he said.
He earlier told Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit last month that using devices in meetings was disrespectful, CNBC reported. “If you have an iPad in front of me and it looks like you’re reading your email or getting notifications, I’ll tell you to close the damn thing.”
