G20 leaders endorse tax deal, pledge more vaccines for the poor

ROME: Leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies endorsed on Saturday a global minimum tax aimed at stopping big business from hiding profits in tax havens, and also agreed to get more COVID vaccines to poorer nations.

Attending their first in-person summit in two years, G20 leaders broadly backed calls to extend debt relief for impoverished countries and pledged to vaccinate 70% of the world's population against COVID-19 by mid-2022.

However, with a crucial U.N. climate conference due to start in just two days, the G20 appeared to be struggling to throw its weight behind the sort of strong new measures that scientists say are needed to avert calamitous global warming.