G20 summit in South Africa: Who’s attending and what’s on the agenda?

The Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit, the first of its kind to be held in an African nation since the United States boycotted claims that the host nation mistreats white people, is taking place this weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital.

About 42 countries and institutions will be represented at the meeting that starts on Saturday, but the US, under President Donald Trump – who has condemned South Africa’s position as host – will be conspicuously absent.

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The rotating presidency will be held by Washington, a founding member of the organization, and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged to hand it over to an empty chair at any time.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa said the US had reached out at the last minute to agree on some kind of participation, but did not disclose details. However, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responded by accusing Ramaphosa of “running his mouth” and claiming that Trump’s or his team had not considered the South African leader’s remarks as “not appreciated by the president]” or “the president’s position had not changed.”

She did, however, indicate that the US would send an official for the handover ceremony, as it takes over the G20’s presidency from South Africa. Although it has not been confirmed, the official tasked with this task might be the acting US ambassador to South Africa, Marc D. Dillard.

Despite the drama over the US attendance, Johannesburg has been buzzing with activity all week in preparation for the summit, as workers clean up and decorate the bustling city. When Ramaphosa donned dungarees and picked up cleaning supplies, he also caught surprise.

Bright flowers and colourful G20 billboards adorn the streets through which dignitaries will pass on their way from the OR Tambo international airport into the city.

The army is on standby, while at least 3,500 additional police officers have been stationed to increase security for the high-level guests.

Some South Africans, though, have voiced criticism of the expensive event, pointing to the economic challenges the country faces. Around the airport and the summit’s location are planned several protests, including those involving women’s rights activists and organizations involved in climate change.

Here’s what we know about the summit:

Prior to the meeting scheduled for November 22 through November 23, 2025, in Johannesburg, South Africa, banners featuring European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Angola’s President Joao Lourenco are displayed inside the secured area of the G20 summit venue.

What is the G20, and when is the summit?

The G20 was established in 1999 as a covert economic organization of the world’s largest economic powers.

But it was the 2008 economic crisis that propelled the G20 into prominence: In a world where major Global South economies like China and India were playing increasingly vital roles, the G7 grouping of seven wealthy nations was no longer equipped to stop the financial bloodbath that spanned continents.

G20 leaders have met for summits at least once a year since then.

The grouping originally comprised 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and the US), plus the European Union as the 20th entity. The African Union has a membership since 2023. Combined, they represent 85 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and two-thirds of the world’s population, according to the G20.

Representatives from the G20 nations discuss pressing issues at regular meetings throughout the year. But in November, the leaders meet for the annual summit.

The leaders’ summit typically ends with a non-binding leaders’ declaration, marking the culmination of the host nation’s yearlong leadership. In Brazil last November, leaders issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to achieving the United Nations ‘ Sustainable Development Goals by a 2030 deadline.

South Africa has been in office since November 2024, and it will turn that office over to the US on November 30th, 2025. This weekend’s meeting will take place over two days from Saturday, November 22, at Johannesburg’s 150, 000 square-metre Nasrec Expo Centre, the country’s largest convention centre.

Who will be there?

Forty-two countries and organisations have confirmed their attendance, according to South African officials speaking to reporters on Monday.

Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola described this attendance rate as a “success” for South Africa, noting that at least six heads of state are not present at the summit but, aside from the US, the others are sending high-level representatives.

Some of the most notable names expected at the summit include: China’s Premier Li Qiang, French President Emmanuel Macron, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Additionally, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, President of the African Union Commission Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, and President of the European Council Antonio Costa will be present.

Why is the US boycotting the summit this year?

The most notable of all the allegations that Trump’s absence from the meeting will overshadow the summit’s goals and undermine South Africa’s position will be made will be in the absence of Trump.

Last week, the US president denounced South Africa’s leadership of the G20 and said he would not attend, citing alleged discrimination against South Africa’s minority white population and inaccurately alleging a “genocide” of white farmers.

Following the passage of a new law in South Africa, which addresses disparities in land ownership, three-quarters of which is owned by the country’s white minority, Trump has made a number of unsupported claims of “genocide” since returning to the White House in January.

In February, the Trump administration cut foreign aid to South Africa, a move which could be a major threat to the nation’s HIV response, according to experts.

President Ramaphosa disputed claims of a “white genocide” during a heated exchange with Trump at the White House in May, saying that all ethnic groups are at risk in South Africa.

In July, Trump said that while he might not attend the G20 summit, he would send Vice President JD Vance instead. Trump, however, attacked South Africa’s claims in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on November 8 and said no US official would be present.

“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”, he wrote, while recounting his claims again. As long as these human rights abuses continue, no US government official will be present. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida”! he continued.

South African officials have attempted to downplay the US’s absence. After Trump made his announcement, Ramaphosa, who spoke to journalists in Cape Town, said the move was unlikely to have an impact.

“It is unfortunate that the United States has decided not to attend the G20″, he said. According to my political experience, boycotts never actually work. They have a very contradictory effect”.

Ramaphosa made a similar statement to the media, saying that the US boycott was “their loss.” The South African leader, this week, however, said he would hand over the presidency to an empty seat meant for the US representative in a symbolic gesture, and stressed the need to repair ties with Washington.

U.S. President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa looks towards a monitor (not pictured) that shows videos allegedly pertaining to the genocide of white people in South Africa, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
On May 21, 2025, US President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa examine a monitor (not pictured) that allegedly records videos of the genocide of white people in South Africa.

Who else will not attend?

  • Trump ally Javier Milei won’t attend the meeting, but Pablo Quirino will, too. Milei did not state why he withdrew.
  • President Xi Jinping was informed by China’s Foreign Ministry on November 14 that Li Qiang would be the one representing him at the meeting. The ministry did not state why, but South Africa and China have a thriving trade relationship. The 2023 BRICS summit, another informal grouping of developing nations, was held there as President Xi.
  • The Kremlin announced in October that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would not attend the meeting and would instead send his deputy head of the presidential administration, Maxim Oreshkin. Puntin is the subject of an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine, and South Africa is required by law to detain him if he enters the nation.
  • Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu cancelled his trip after 25 girls were kidnapped this week from their school amid a security crisis in the country.
  • Due to scheduled national events, the Mexican government announced this week that Claudia Sheinbaum would not be present. Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente usually represents her abroad.

What’s on the schedule?

South Africa, as host, will emphasise issues which affect Global South countries and is hoping to persuade leaders to collectively pledge their commitment to addressing topics from economic inequalities to improving development financing for vulnerable countries.

South Africa will also lobby nations to pledge to increase global spending on climate-related disaster resilience and response efforts, increase global funding for climate-related projects, and provide better debt restructuring and relief for poorer nations through bilateral lending and international financial institutions, and give local communities and source countries priority in a global resource war for access to crucial minerals, some of which are concentrated in African countries.

South Africa has not hosted an international event on this scale since the 2010 FIFA World Cup. According to Gilad Isaacs, executive director of the South African think tank, the Institute for Economic Justice, this is an important time for the country and for Africa, despite the criticism from the US, where Pretoria has raised “real issues” affecting African countries at this time.

“The US boycott will not derail the work”, Isaacs said. The presidency’s credibility will be determined by whether the agenda put forth in the interests of the Global South is implemented and used in other forums, not by the presence of any one country.

g20
Banners featuring world leaders are displayed inside the secured area of the G20 summit venue ahead of the meeting scheduled for November 22–23, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on November 21, 2025]Yves Herman/Reuters]

What protests are on the horizon?

Several protests are planned around the event, and started on Friday. Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, the deputy national commissioner for policing, informed reporters on Tuesday that protests are expected in Johannesburg and other significant cities in South Africa.

“We will allow that right]to protest] to be exercised”, she said. However, within the law’s proper guidelines and restrictions.

Femicide protests

The Women for Change advocacy group planned one of the biggest demonstrations to protest femicide and the rise in violence against women in South Africa. The group demanded a national shutdown on Friday, the eve of the summit. Three women are killed by intimate partners every day, according to government figures.

In order to raise awareness, the organization had spearheaded a significant social media campaign in the days leading up to the event. On Friday, it asked South African women to boycott work and school and to wear all black to signify mourning. In honor of the women who had been murdered, women were also urged to lie down for 15 minutes at 12 p.m. (GMT).

“Because, until South Africa stops burying a woman every 2.5 hours, the G20 cannot speak of growth and progress”, Women for Change said in a campaign statement.

President Ramaphosa made an emotional statement at a G20 event on Thursday evening, calling gender-based violence and femicide both a national and global crisis. Women’s rights groups, however, say they are pushing for femicide to be declared a national disaster.

Protests against climate change

On Thursday, a coalition of climate change and wealth inequality activists called The Citizen began an alternative summit in Johannesburg, decrying the G20 gathering as “for the rich”.

White minority protests

Separately, Solidarity, a trade union representing members of South Africa’s Afrikaner white minority, is also set to protest against the alleged marginalisation of white South Africans. The organization has placed controversial billboards in Johannesburg that read, “Welcome to the most RACE-REGULATED country in the world.”

Unemployment protests

Major MAGA figure Marjorie Taylor Greene resigns after Trump clash

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leading figure in the far-right and a long-time ally of Donald Trump, announced today that she will step down from Congress.

Under the Trump administration, Greene wrote in a protracted resignation statement on social media late on Friday, saying that loyalty should be a two-way street, while Congress “has mostly been sidelined.”

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The Georgian congresswoman, 51, claimed in her video statement that she had “always represented the common American man and woman as a member of the House of Representatives, which is why I’ve always been despised in Washington, DC, and never fit in.”

She stated, “My last day is January 5, 2026, and I’ll be resigning from office.”

Greene reaffirmed that she did not want her supporters and family to go through “the President we all fought for’s hurtful and hateful primary.”

President Trump responded to the news by saying, “I think it’s great news for the country.”

Trump reportedly said in an interview, “It’s great,” according to ABC News.

Greene, a former leader of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, had a very public disagreement with the president after he announced earlier this month that he would withdraw all support for the congresswoman he referred to as “Wacky Marjorie.”

Greene has cited as a reason why she disagrees with Trump her outspoken support for the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s government records.

Trump had criticized the Epstein controversy as a “Democrat hoax” and has struggled with unrest in his MAGA base as a result of his U-turn on his pre-election promise to release the case’s government files.

Trump signed a bill this week to release the Epstein files, but it came under increasing pressure from Democrats and members of his own party. Its motion passed in the House and Senate with unanimous support.

Greene mentioned the Epstein controversy in her resignation statement.

The president of the United States, for whom I fought, should not condemn me for standing up for American women who were raped at the age of 14 and used by wealthy, powerful men, Greene said.

Greene also became the first Republican lawmaker to refer to Israel’s attack on Gaza as a genocide this year.

Trump’s continued criticism of Greene as a “lightweight” and even a “traitor” to the Republican Party comes after his earlier withdrawal earlier this month from his Truth Social platform.

Following that, Greene claimed that a string of threats were threatening her.

In light of Trump’s warm White House meeting with New York’s leftist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani earlier on Friday, Greene’s decision to step down from Congress before the 2026 midterms is the clearest sign yet of a growing split in the MAGA community.

On November 21, 2025, US President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani meet in the White House’s Oval Office in Washington, DC.

US Supreme Court blocks order on likely racial bias in new Texas voter map

A lower court’s decision that the Texas 2026 congressional redistricting plan likely exhibits racial discrimination has been temporarily blocked by the US Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s Friday ruling will remain in effect for at least the next few days as the court considers whether to allow the new map, which favors Republicans, to be used in the US midterm elections in the future.

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The lower court’s “injunction against Texas’s map” was temporarily halted by the ruling, which was welcomed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“Radical left-wing activists are abusing the US Supreme Court to derail the Republican agenda and smuggle Democrats’ House.” In a previous social media post, Paxton stated, “I am fighting to stop this blatant attempt to upend our political system.

In order to maintain a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections, Texas redrew its congressional map in August, sparking a bipartisan bipartisan bifight nationwide.

Republicans were given five additional House seats by the new redistricting map in Texas, but a panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 on Tuesday, citing the likelihood that the civil rights organizations that had filed the map’s challenge on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters would prevail.

According to the court, the redrawn map was likely to be discriminatory in terms of the US Constitution.

The Texas Tribune, a non-profit news outlet, reported that the state is now temporarily voting on its 2025 congressional map because the Supreme Court hasn’t yet decided which map to use, and that the “legality of the map” will be decided in court in the coming weeks and months.

Texas was the first state to comply with Donald Trump’s redistricting demands. Following Texas, Missouri and North Carolina released new redistricting maps that would each add an additional Republican seat.

California’s voters approved a ballot initiative to increase Democrats’ five seats there in response to those moves.

In California, Missouri, and North Carolina, redrawn voter maps are currently up for challenge in court.

In the second half of his most recent administration, Trump’s legislative agenda would be hampered by the fact that Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress, and that they would lose control of either the House or Senate in the November 2026 midterm elections.

The Supreme Court has been the subject of numerous legal battles for decades over the practice known as gerrymandering, which involves drawing electoral district boundaries to deceive a particular group of voters and limiting their influence on others.

The court’s most significant ruling on the issue was made in 2019, and it stated that federal courts could not rule on gerrymandering for partisan reasons to improve one’s own party’s electoral chances and weaken a political opponent.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,367

On Saturday, November 22, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

  • On the eastern bank of the Oskil River, in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine, Russian forces are entangling about 5, 000 Ukrainian troops, according to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin. The Ukrainian military did not respond right away.
  • The Donetsk region’s Yampil, Stavky, Novoselivka, and Maslyakivka villages, as well as the nearby Dnipropetrovsk village, were taken by Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
  • Overnight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, 33 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and detonated over five Russian regions, as well as Crimea and the Black Sea.
  • According to Russia’s aviation watchdog, at least eight Russian airports were ordered to halt operations as a result of the nighttime attack.
  • Ukraine claimed that its forces were blocking Russian troops’ advances and were maintaining defensive lines in the northern portion of Pokrovsk, the city’s tense eastern city.
  • For months, Moscow’s forces have been fighting for control of Pokrovsk, a hub for Ukrainian military logistics, to open the “gateway” to the country’s industrial Donbass region.

plan of peace

  • According to President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has until this coming Thursday to approve a Russia-backed peace plan.
  • After meeting with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, on Friday, Trump said, “We have a way of getting peace, or we think we have a way of getting to peace. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, will have to approve it.
  • Zelenskyy said he would work with Washington on the peace plan quickly and constructively, but he also said he would not disregard the interests of his country.
  • Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to stay united during what he described as one of the most difficult times in their nation’s history in a video statement, adding that he anticipated more political pressure the following week.
  • Zelenskyy added that Ukraine would work with Washington and Europe on an advisory level in order to create a peace plan after an hour-long phone call with US Vice President JD Vance.
  • Zelenskyy claimed to have spoken with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte about the “available diplomatic options” for ending his nation’s conflict with Russia, including the “plan proposed by the American side.”
  • According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow has not yet received a peace plan from the US.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin stated to senior Russian officials at a Security Council meeting that a Russian military might use the US proposal as the framework for a peace solution. However, if Kyiv rejected the proposal, Russian forces would advance even further.
  • Following a phone call between Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that any peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine must guarantee the country’s future security.
  • The leaders “underlined their support for President Trump’s drive for peace,” according to Starmer’s office, and they “recognized that any solution must fully involve Ukraine, guard its sovereignty, and safeguard its future security.”
  • According to Kaja Kallas, the EU’s director of foreign policy, Ukraine and the EU both want peace, but they won’t tolerate Russian aggression.
  • “This is a very dangerous time for everyone,” Kallas said. “We all want this war to end, but it matters how it ends.” In the end, Ukraine must decide the terms of any agreement because Russia has no legal right to any concessions from the nation it invaded.

Sanctions

  • According to the Department of the Treasury, the US has issued a general license allowing certain transactions to be done with the Hungary-based Paks II civil nuclear power plant project.
  • Transactions involving Gazprombank, VTB Bank, and the Russian Central Bank are permitted under the license, which also includes those relating to the nuclear power plant project.
  • Teboil, a subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil, is the first major Russian oil company to announce its intention to shut down as a result of the sanctions the US put on Lukoil last month, according to news agency STT.
  • Due to US sanctions, Lithuanian state-owned railroad LTG announced that it will stop Lukoil’s oil shipments to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave.
  • Kaliningrad, which is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea, can get direct shipments from its own country via the coast, but most of its supplies come from Russia via rail transit through Lithuania, which is a member of NATO.

Corruption

    By the end of this year, Ukraine’s government plans to appoint a new supervisory board at Energoatom, the state nuclear company at the center of a corruption scandal, according to Economy Minister Oleksii Sobolev.

  • A scandal involving senior energy figures and a former Zelenskyy business associate has rocked Ukraine.

Economy

  • According to import data from transit operators, Ukraine will significantly increase gas imports through the southern Trans-Balkan route, which connects it to Greece.
  • Kyiv has recently lost at least half of its own gas production as a result of Russian drone and missile attacks on its energy infrastructure, forcing it to import an additional four billion cubic meters of gas over the winter heating season.

Regional security

  • According to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, “state terrorism” is the term used to describe sabotage activities carried out by Russia that aim to destabilize and weaken Poland.
  • An explosion that occurred last weekend caused damage to railroad tracks on the Warsaw-Lublin route, which runs from the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border, according to Tusk as an “unprecedented act of sabotage”.
  • After admitting to taking up to 40, 000 British pounds ($52, 344) in bribes to deliver pro-Russian speeches and statements, Nathan Gill, a former member of the British Parliament and former leader of the populist Reform UK in Wales, was sentenced to a more than 10 year jail term.

BBC board member Shumeet Banerji resigns

The BBC board’s director general quit, and Shumeet Banerji has since criticised governance issues at the organization. This is the most recent blow to the broadcaster.

Banerji resigned on Friday, according to the BBC, who announced his departure just weeks before the end of his four-year term.

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Banerji resigned from the organization after declaring his dissatisfaction with the organization’s governance.

He added that, according to BBC News, he had not been informed about important news that occurred with the abrupt departures of director general Tim Davie and executive director Deborah Turness.

Both resigned on November 9 after receiving growing criticism for the broadcaster’s handling of political coverage, including the editing of a Donald Trump speech delivered shortly before his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

On November 13, the BBC apologized for how Panorama’s investigative program edited the video. However, it argued that Trump’s lawsuit for defamation had “no legal basis.”

The conflict centers on the Panorama documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast in October 2024, just before Trump won re-election.

Nearly an hour apart, the movie combines two lines from Trump’s January 6 speech to give the impression that he urged supporters to “fight like hell” as they approached the Capitol.

Trump’s supporters claim the speech’s context was removed and the sequence was misleading.

They contend that Trump also urged supporters to “cheer on our brave senators, Congressmen, and women” and “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” in front of the crowd. They claim that the edited version promoted more direct violence.

Trump and Mamdani hope for positive relationship after ‘productive’ meeting

Despite their longstanding feud, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and president-elect Donald Trump have spoken in the White House about their hopes for a fruitful and cordial relationship.

Trump praised Mamdani, the Muslim politician who he once hailed as a “jihadist” and threatened to depose him of his US citizenship, in a press release on Friday after their discussion.

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“We just had a fantastic, extremely productive meeting,” the statement read. We all share the desire to do very well in this city of ours, according to Trump, who was born and raised in New York, adding that Mamdani had won an “incredible race” and defeated his rivals “easily”.

Mamdani responded, stating that he had a good time with the president and that the meeting was productive and focused on New York City, a place where they shared admiration and love.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who supported the existence of a community made up of people from all over the world and who vehemently defended Palestinian rights, disagrees politically with Trump, whose nativist policies have portrayed immigrants as a dangerous internal threat and have previously advocated for a Muslim ban on entering the US.

Mamdani said he hoped to work together despite their differences when asked about areas in which he disagreed with Trump, such as immigration enforcement.

He referred to a video he shared in November 2024 where he discussed issues like affordability and US involvement in foreign conflicts with Trump supporters following the 2024 presidential election. Ammadani said he now hopes to find a solution to the US “forever wars” and lower living costs.

“I believe that both President Trump and I have strong positions and opinions. And what I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting focused on the shared goal of serving New Yorkers rather than on the many points where there are disagreements.

One in four people in poverty, according to he said, “that could change the lives of 8.5 million people who are currently in a cost-of-living crisis.”

Despite his previous controversies, Trump has recently spoken out in favor of Mamdani’s emphasis on cost-of-living issues in response to polls that are raising questions about the state of the US economy.