UNITED NATIONS — At least 573,000 children under the age of five are at risk of suffering from malnutrition in Malawi, a United Nations spokesperson said on Friday, citing warnings from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Malawi is still grappling with the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in March, with over 650,000 people currently internally displaced, including many children, Stephanie Tremblay, an associate spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters. (UN-Malawi-Children)

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JEDDAH — After being ostracized for 12 years, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a comeback to the Arab League (AL) Summit held in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Friday amid a growing Arab reconciliation trend at a time when the U.S. influence wanes in the Middle East.

Receiving a warm welcome from Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who greeted him with hugs and kisses, Assad hailed the summit as a “historic opportunity” to address crises across the region. (Syria-Attendance-Arab Summit)

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HIROSHIMA, Japan — Amid waves of protests, the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ annual summit got underway on Friday in Japan’s western city of Hiroshima.

Hundreds of protesters from all over the country, even abroad, gathered in Hiroshima’s Funairi Daiichi Park, not far from the summit’s venue, to decry the finger-pointing bloc that advertises its own version of world order. (Japan-G7 Summit-Protest)

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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations has released 22 million U.S. dollars to aid people fleeing the hostilities in Sudan into four neighboring countries, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, the relief chief, authorized the funds to help support about 250,000 people the UN Refugee Agency reported seeking safety in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt and South Sudan. (UN-Sudan-Humanitarian Aid)