Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with a U.N.-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world's population.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it would grant a license for the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool, which would let generic drug companies produce the pill for use in 95 countries, making up about 53% of the world's population.

The Bank of England is one step closer to raising interest rates next month, analysts said Tuesday after official figures showed that the end of the British government's salary support program for workers during the coronavirus pandemic has not yet led to the feared increase in unemployment.

The Office for National Statistics found that the number of people on payroll surged by 160,000, to 29.3 million, in October, the first full month after the program ended.

China on Tuesday welcomed a virtual meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden as raising hopes for better relations, while the U.S. was more muted on the talks as the world's two biggest powers sought to ratchet down more than a year of tensions.

The leaders appeared to put aside the language of acrimony in their first formal meeting since Biden took office. Xi welcomed the U.S. leader as his "old friend," and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exchange was candid and constructive.

The U.S. remains "fully committed" to a proposed sale of advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, despite the Biden administration slowing down the deal, a senior American official overseeing arms exports said Tuesday.

Mira Resnick, a deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state in the Biden administration, also told The Associated Press at the Dubai Air Show that Gulf Arab partners are not looking to purchase weapons from Russia as a hedge over American concerns about human rights in the region.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz will visit Morocco later this month and sign an agreement with his counterpart on enhancing security cooperation, his office said Tuesday.

Morocco was one of four Arab countries that agreed to normalize ties with Israel last year under the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Market-stand owner Kadriye Dogru makes do with stale, sesame-covered bagels, known as simit, for lunch these days. The widowed mother of two says she goes without lunch so she can put food on the table for her family later in the day.

The money that the 59-year-old earns by selling sweatpants and other garments at Istanbul's Ortakcilar market no longer lasts, and she is struggling to buy food, let alone anything else.

A Palestinian man on Tuesday was shot and killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Saddam Hussein Beni Odeh, 26, was shot by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to Tammun, a town near the northern city of Nablus.

Libya's powerful commander, Khalifa Hifter, filed Tuesday as a candidate in the country's presidential elections next month, as the long-waited vote faces growing uncertainty.

Hifter submitted his candidacy papers Tuesday in the eastern city of Benghazi and announced the move in a video. He said he's seeking the country's highest post to "lead our people in a fateful stage."

Airbus raked in more orders at the Dubai Air Show on Tuesday, reaching one valued over $3.3 billion to sell 28 new aircraft to Kuwait's Jazeera Airways.

The European plane maker's agreement includes 20 single-aisle A320neos and eight A321neos, which competes directly with Boeing's 737 Max, along with an option to sell another five planes to the low-cost, fast-growing airline.

Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in Jordan on Tuesday as part of the first royal tour since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Charles and his wife were greeted on the tarmac by a Jordanian color guard. They were slated to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania at the royal palace in Amman, and later visit religious and historical sites during their three-day trip to the kingdom before heading to Egypt on Thursday.