US President Joe Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on Friday on a trip designed to reset the U.S. relationship.
Biden will hold meetings with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, along with other government officials, a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
Biden will meet with a broader set of Arab leaders at a summit in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Saturday.
At the start of Biden's trip to the Middle East, officials said he would avoid close contacts, such as shaking hands, as a precaution against COVID-19. But the president ended up engaging in hand-shaking in Israel.
The United States is eager to see Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners pump more oil to help bring down the high cost of gasoline and ease the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.
The Utah trade school student jailed on suspicion of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk faces formal charges next week, according to the governor, from an act of violence widely seen as a foreboding inflection point in US politics.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for peace on Saturday in Manipur state, the scene of two years of deadly ethnic violence, as he unveiled a package of development projects there worth nearly $1 billion.
European Union countries have shelved plans to approve a new climate change target next week, after pushback from governments including France and Germany over plans to quickly land a deal, three EU diplomats said on Friday.
Nepal's President Ramchandra Paudel dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections on March 5, his office said late on Friday, following a week of deadly violence that culminated in the appointment of the country's first woman Prime Minister in the interim.