* Italy will hold a snap national election on Sept. 25 after Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned following the collapse of his national unity government, sending tremors through financial markets.
* The French government took a step forward on a key re-election promise to boost household purchasing power amid soaring inflation as the National Assembly passed a bill on Friday lifting pensions and temporarily freezing rent hikes.
* Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will sign a deal on Friday to resume Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's office said.
* The European Union on Thursday imposed more sanctions on Russia over its conflict with Ukraine, including a ban on gold imports and the tightening of export controls on high-technology goods.
* Russia's foreign ministry said the latest round of European Union sanctions were illegitimate and would have "devastating consequences" for security and parts of the global economy.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered its 2022 economic growth outlook for South Asia as the region grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic fueled by the Ukraine conflict, according to an update to Asian Development Outlook (ADO) released on Thursday.
* The Republic of Korea and the United States will resume long-suspended live field training during their joint military drills, Seoul's defence ministry said on Friday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone on Thursday and underlined the importance of further cooperation within the OPEC+ group of oil producers, the Kremlin said.
* The number of Americans enrolling for unemployment benefits rose for a third straight week last week to the highest in eight months and a closely watched gauge of factory activity slumped this month, the newest indications the US economy is slowing under the weight of rising interest rates and high inflation.
* Malaysia's inflation, as measured by consumer price index, increased by 3.4 percent in June from a year ago, due to higher food prices, official data showed Friday.
* Australia will double the fees for foreign investors looking to buy assets in the country, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Friday, as he grapples with protracted budget deficits and seeks to boost government revenue.
* Germany's government unveiled new energy-saving measures, fearing that persistently low Russian gas supplies could lead to winter shortages.
* South Africa's central bank delivered its biggest interest rate hike in two decades on Thursday to try to curb inflation, which surged to a 13-year high in June despite four previous hikes.
* At least 18 people died on Thursday during a major police raid in a dense warren of Rio de Janeiro slums, state military police said, in the latest bloody confrontation in Brazil's second-largest city.
* Australia's birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in more than 10 years, government data has revealed. According to a report published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Friday, the rate of women giving birth in Australia has gradually fallen, from 66 per 1,000 in 2007 to 56 per 1,000 in 2020.
* Promoting sustainable development and building a better future need working with the young people, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday.
* The World Bank has agreed to provide the U.N.'s World Food Programme with 100 million USD for an “emergency safety net project” to address food insecurity in Sudan, it said in a statement on Thursday.
* China will suffer the return of more heatwaves over the next 10 days from east to west, with some coastal cities already on their highest alert level and inland regions warning of dam failure risks because of melting glaciers.
* At least 90 people were killed and many displaced in separate rain-related incidents during the recent monsoon season in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province since June 1, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Thursday.
* China will pay close attention to variants of coronavirus in the long term, focusing on their transmission capability, pathogenicity and ability to evade immunity, a Chinese disease control official said.
* New coronavirus cases in Japan's capital hit a record on Thursday, surging past 30,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, spurring officials to call for more vigilance.
* New Zealanders are dying from COVID-19 at record rates as the country battles a new wave of the Omicron strain that is particularly affecting the older population.
* The Australian government has launched a campaign to encourage the uptake of antiviral treatments for coronavirus amid surging COVID-19 cases in winter.
* Japan on Thursday reported 186,246 new daily COVID-19 cases, as infections hit a record high nationwide for a second straight day, with infections in the capital jumping to the highest ever daily tally.
* Thailand has detected its first case of monkeypox on the southern island of Phuket, according to the country's disease control authority.
* Portugal started the vaccination for those who had contact with the confirmed cases of the Monkeypox virus on Thursday, said the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health (DGS).
