G20 divisions + Abe assassinated
Divisions on display at G20: G20 finance ministers failed to issue a joint communique following its two-day meeting in Indonesia yesterday amid disagreements about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports. Officials pledged to address rising global food insecurity and growing debt but were unable to agree on issues relating to the war, an outcome described by the Indonesian finance minister as the “best result” they could have hoped for. Western nations have slapped strict sanctions on Russia and tried to isolate it from the global economy, but other G20 nations including China, India, Brazil and South Africa have maintained ties and refused to denounce Moscow.
Abe assassinated: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed last week while giving a campaign speech, Reuters reported. Police arrested the suspected shooter and identified him as 41-year-old veteran Tetsuya Yamagami, who reportedly used a home-made gun. Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Abe made his name with his more assertive foreign policy and a set of economic ideas based on loose monetary policy and fiscal stimulus that came to be known as ‘Abenomics.’