News in Brief
Senegal backs African Union seat at G20
AFP – Granting the African Union a permanent seat at the G20 group of wealthy nations would undo an “injustice”, Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Friday.
“Africa together is eighth in the world in terms of gross domestic product,” Sall told an economic forum.
South Africa is the continent’s sole permanent member of the club that brings together the European Union and 19 other advanced economies and represents more than 80 percent of the world’s GDP.
Turkey wants grain deal further extended
BLOOMBERG – Turkey wants the safe-transit deal for Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports extended for three months instead of two, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“I’m hopeful for an extension,” Erdogan said in Istanbul early Saturday in a joint appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The shipping deal is set to expire on July 17. Its termination — which Russia has repeatedly threatened — may lift global food prices given Ukraine’s importance as an exporter of grains.
Fire engulfs Mexican oil platform
REUTERS – Two workers died and another remained missing after a raging fire broke out early on Friday morning at an offshore platform run by Mexican state oil company Pemex just off the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico.
In posts on Twitter, Pemex said it had accounted for all other workers and said oil production had taken a major hit from the blaze.
The platform operates in the company’s Cantarell Field, once one of the world’s most productive.