Reuters World News Summary

It will be only the second in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January 2021. Australia ports operator could be online within days after cyber incident The Australian government said on Monday a cyber incident that forced one of its largest ports operators to suspend operations could be resolved within days and that the company was making "good progress" to bring activities back online.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Zelenskiy tells Ukrainians to prepare for Russian winter onslaught

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians on Sunday to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approached and said troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern theatre of the war. A military spokesman said Russian attacks on the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka had eased in the past day, but were likely to intensify in the coming days.

New Zealand Prime Minister-elect unlikely to attend APEC as coalition talks continue

New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon said on Monday that it was unlikely he would attend the APEC meeting in San Francisco later this week as coalition negotiations are ongoing. The conservative National Party won the largest share of votes at last month’s general election but needs the support of both right-wing ACT New Zealand and the populist New Zealand First Parties to form a majority government.

Tens of thousands protest across Spain at proposed Catalan amnesty

Tens of thousands of people protested across Spain on Sunday against acting prime minister Pedro Sanchez's plans to grant amnesty to Catalan separatists in exchange for support for another term in office. The government secured a deal with Catalan separatist party Junts on Thursday which includes passing a contentious law granting amnesty to those convicted over Catalonia's attempt to secede from Spain in 2017.

US carries out air strikes in Syria against Iran-linked facilities

The United States carried out two air strikes in Syria against Iran and its aligned groups on Sunday, the Pentagon said, in the latest response to a series of attacks against American forces in Syria and in Iraq. In a statement, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes targeted a training facility near the city of Albu Kamal and a safe house near the city of Mayadeen. He said President Joe Biden ordered the strikes.

Biden will push China to resume military ties with US, official says

U.S. President Joe Biden wants to re-establish military-to-military ties with China, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, days before the president and the Chinese leader are set to meet. Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in person for the first time in a year on Wednesday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. It will be only the second in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January 2021.

Australia ports operator could be online within days after cyber incident

The Australian government said on Monday a cyber incident that forced one of its largest ports operators to suspend operations could be resolved within days and that the company was making "good progress" to bring activities back online. "The company's advice ... was that this would be a case of days, not weeks. I've been in contact with the company again this morning and they're making good progress," the government's Cyber Security Coordinator Darren Goldie told ABC Radio.

Trapped Brazilians, whose fate hurt Israel-Brazil ties, leave Gaza

Nearly three dozen Brazilians who had been trapped inside Gaza for weeks, and whose predicament had driven a diplomatic wedge between Brasilia and Israel, crossed the border into Egypt on Sunday, the foreign ministry said. "The group of 32 Brazilians and families are already in Egyptian territory, where they were received by a team from the Brazilian embassy in Cairo, which is responsible for the final step of the repatriation operation," the foreign ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Largest Gaza hospital 'not functioning' amid Israeli assault

The largest hospital in Gaza has ceased to function and fatalities among patients are rising, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday, as a blistering Israeli assault continues in the Hamas-controlled strip. Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave, including the al-Shifa complex, are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, with three newborns dead at Shifa and more at risk from power outages amid intense fighting nearby, according to medical staff.

In UN talks for a global plastic treaty, delegates to face off over production limits

As the world's nations enter another round of talks this week on creating a first-ever treaty to contain plastic pollution, officials are bracing for tough negotiations over whether to limit the amount of plastic being produced or just to focus on the management of waste. Working with a document called a "zero draft" that lists possible policies and actions to consider, national delegates to the weeklong meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, will be debating which of those options to include in what eventually would become a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024, officials involved in the negotiations said.

North Korea lashes out at U.N. Command over meeting in Seoul

North Korea on Monday called for the United Nations Command to be dissolved calling it an "illegal war organization" over a meeting which is scheduled to take place between the member states in South Korea later this week, state media KCNA reported. The U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) is a multinational military force and oversees affairs in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.