Reuters World News Summary

24 - White House U.S. President Joe Biden will host a first in-person summit of leaders of the "Quad" countries - Australia, India, Japan and the United States - next week, the White House said on Monday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

U.S. still prepared to engage with North Korea after missile test

The United States remains prepared to engage with North Korea, a White House spokeswoman said on Monday, despite Pyongyang's announcement that it had tested a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend. "Our position has not changed when it comes to North Korea, we remain prepared to engage," principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Self-belief and strategy: Japan's Taro Kono upends race for next premier

When Taro Kono, Japan's leading contender to be prime minister, was a senior in high school, he asked his father to send him overseas for university, but was flatly refused. Instead, the elder Kono, a leading politician in the ruling party, took his son to a U.S. embassy reception in a bid to prove his English was not good enough.

Israeli prime minister visits Egypt in first official trip for a decade

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday for talks on Israeli-Palestinian relations and bilateral ties in the first official trip by an Israeli head of government to Egypt for a decade. Bennett, the head of a far-right party who took office in June, was invited to visit by Sisi last month. Since May, Egypt has played a prominent role brokering and trying to reinforce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after 11 days of conflict there between Israel and Palestinian faction Hamas, which controls the enclave.

Winner of Norway's election is wealthy champion of 'common people'

Norway's presumptive next prime minister is a man born into wealth and privilege who became an unlikely leader of the Labour Party, traditionally seen as the political voice of the working class and which built the country's welfare state. Overcoming his 2017 election defeat and internal party turmoil, Jonas Gahr Stoere, 61, is expected to replace https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/norway-opposition-expected-win-election-fought-oil-inequality-2021-09-13 Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg, 60, as tallies showed a decisive swing in favour of the centre-left.

Canada's Trudeau sought an election he risks losing with only a week to go

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had hoped to secure a majority in parliament when he called a snap election, but a lackluster campaign and public anger over a vote during a pandemic are putting his chances of victory at risk. Trudeau, in power since 2015, decided to gamble on an early vote and capitalize on his government's handling of the pandemic, which included massive spending to support individuals and businesses and high vaccination rates.

Donors pledge $1.1 billion for 'collapsing' Afghanistan

Donors have pledged more than $1.1 billion to help Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiralled since the Islamist Taliban took power, and foreign aid has dried up, raising the spectre of a mass exodus. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking halfway through a U.N. conference seeking $606 million to meet Afghanistan's most pressing needs, said it was too early to say how much had been promised in response to the appeal.

Prince Andrew rejects sexual abuse accuser's 'potentially unlawful' lawsuit -lawyer

A U.S.-based lawyer for Britain's Prince Andrew on Monday forcefully rejected claims in a civil lawsuit by a woman who accused the prince of sexually assaulting her when she was 17, and challenged whether the case could even be brought. At a hearing in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the prince's lawyer Andrew Brettler also said the plaintiff Virginia Giuffre appeared to have in 2009 signed away her right to sue Queen Elizabeth's second son in resolving a separate lawsuit.

'S.Korea's Bernie Sanders' tops presidential polls with talk of universal basic income

A South Korean politician who once said he aspired to be a "successful Bernie Sanders" is leading the field to replace Moon Jae-in as president after rising to prominence with an aggressive pandemic response and a populist economic agenda. Lee Jae-myung, the governor of Gyeonggi province, has led in many recent national polls and dominated the early rounds of the ruling liberal Democratic Party primary, including the latest voting over the weekend.

Blinken says U.S. will assess Pakistan ties over Afghanistan's future

The United States will be looking at its relationship with Pakistan in the coming weeks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, to formulate what role Washington would want it play in the future of Afghanistan. In the first public hearing in Congress about Afghanistan since last month's collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, Blinken told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that Pakistan has a "multiplicity of interests some that are in conflict with ours."

Biden to host leaders of Australia, Japan, India Sept. 24 - White House

U.S. President Joe Biden will host a first in-person summit of leaders of the "Quad" countries - Australia, India, Japan and the United States - next week, the White House said on Monday. The summit of the four leaders will be held at the White House on Sept. 24, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. The prime ministers of Australia, India and Japan - Scott Morrison, Narendra Modi and Yoshihide Suga - are expected in the United States next week to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York.