Australia's government lashed out at "loose" comments by the former defense minister Thursday, after he revealed sensitive plans to buy US nuclear-powered submarines over their British rivals. 

Peter Dutton, who left office as defense minister a few weeks ago after his conservative coalition lost elections, disclosed his previously secret plans to choose the US Virginia-class submarines.

China and Russia have defended their vetoes of a strongly backed U.S. resolution that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea, speaking at a first of its kind General Assembly meeting.

The debate was held under new rules requiring the General Assembly to examine any veto wielded in the Security Council by one of its five permanent members.

India's central bank on Wednesday raised its key interest rate to 4.9% from 4.4%, the second such hike in the last three weeks to contain inflation.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said the decision was aimed at curbing price increases and mitigating the impact of geopolitical tensions, like the war in Ukraine.

The British government appears to have no political will to resolve its festering trade dispute with the European Union and risks endangering the hard-won peace in Northern Ireland, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government said last month that it it would pass a law to scrap parts of a trade treaty with the EU signed less than two years ago. The EU has threatened to retaliate, raising the specter of a trade war between the two major economic partners.

Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned Wednesday that rises in fuel and basic food stuffs were exacerbating the crisis in Lebanon.

"The war in Ukraine must stop at any cost," he said in a virtual meeting hosted by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio over the global food crisis.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to hold talks Wednesday with Turkish officials on a plan that could allow Ukraine to export its grain through the Black Sea to global markets amid an escalating food crisis.

Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow, endangering food supplies to many developing countries. Many of those ports are now also heavily mined.

International port operator DP World said on Monday it sold a stake in its home base, the Jebel Ali Port, and other flagship assets to one of Canada's largest pension funds for $5 billion, expanding the Canadian group's reach into the crown jewel of the Dubai-based company's operation.

The transaction comes nearly two years after Dubai's DP World struck a deal with Canadian infrastructure investor Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, or CDPQ, to pour $4.5 billion of new capital into their joint venture already spanning four continents and 18 terminals.

Annual inflation in Turkey hit 73.5% in May, the highest rate since 1998, according to official data released Friday as a cost-of-living crisis in the country deepens.

The Turkish Statistical Institute said the rate represented an increase of almost 70% from the month before. Consumer prices were up nearly 3% from April, the institute reported.

U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia this month, reports said Thursday, a stark reversal for a leader who once called for the kingdom to be made a pariah.

The reported decision comes hours after Saudi Arabia addressed two of Biden's priorities by agreeing to a production hike in oil and helping extend a truce in war-battered Yemen.

The OPEC oil cartel and allied countries including major exporter Russia are weighing how much oil to produce as U.S. gasoline prices hit another record high.

Thursday's meeting comes amid speculation that the 23-member alliance, known as OPEC+, may consider breaking from its cautious series of increases and agree to pump more oil starting in July amid fears that high energy prices could slow the global economy. Higher oil and gas prices have contributed to the inflation that is plaguing the U.S. and Europe and sapping consumer purchasing power.