* The newly-elected President of the Republic of Albania, Bajram Begaj, took oath in Tirana on Sunday at a swearing-in ceremony in the parliament.
* The Kuwaiti emir on Sunday issued a decree appointing Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as the prime minister and tasking him with forming the new cabinet.
* The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat hailed the grain export deal that Russia and Ukraine separately signed in Istanbul on Friday with Türkiye and the United Nations.
* Sri Lanka on Monday reopened government-owned public and state-approved private schools, which were closed for nearly a month due to fuel shortages.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held talks on Sunday with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Cairo, where they discussed bilateral relations and regional and global issues of mutual concern.
* King Abdullah II of Jordan said all Arab states would seek good relations with Iran on the principles of good neighborliness, mutual respect for sovereignty, and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, al-Rai newspaper reported Sunday.
* Iran will keep the UN nuclear watchdog's cameras turned off until a 2015 nuclear deal is restored, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organisation said on Monday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
* Humanitarian partners will be forced to stop essential aid programs to Somalia due to a lack of funding, the United Nations relief agency warned on Sunday.
* New Zealand on Monday urged travellers returning from Indonesia to take extra precautions and in some cases to stay away from farms for at least a week to prevent a local foot and mouth outbreak that could devastate the crucial livestock industry.
* Shanghai ordered residents across nine of the city's districts and some smaller areas to do COVID-19 tests over July 26-28, as sporadic local cases kept emerging in the Chinese commercial hub.
* After days of reporting over 20,000 new cases a day, India's daily caseload on Monday slipped to 16,866, officials said.
* Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) does not recommend mass vaccination of the whole population against monkeypox as of now, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in a Facebook post on Monday.
* The number of Australians admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 hit a record of about 5,450 on Monday, official data showed, as the spread of highly contagious new Omicron sub-variants strains the healthcare system nationwide.
* 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 Nepali government on Sunday announced a number of measures to revive the tourism industry battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a plan to declare the years between 2023 and 2033 as Visit Nepal Decade.
* Danish biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic BAVA.CO said on Monday the European Commission had given permission for its Imvanex vaccine to be marketed as protection against monkeypox, as recommended last week by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
* French Minister for Energy Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher announced on Sunday future decrees to force air-conditioned stores to keep their doors closed and to ban illuminated advertisements during early morning hours.
* The persistent heatwave from the Southern Plains to the Northeast of the United States has resulted in multiple heat-related deaths as well as disrupted traveling and outdoor events.
* A volcano on Japan's major western island of Kyushu erupted on Sunday evening, sending black smoke billowing high into the air, but there were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries, and authorities said they did not expect a major eruption.
* Greek firefighters battled wildfires on the island of Lesbos for a second day on Sunday as well as new fires in the western Peloponnese and in northern Greece, evacuating nearby settlements as a heatwave set in.
* Afghanistan's capital city Kabul has been facing water shortage due to years of drought and recession of groundwater, a local television channel reported Monday.
* At least 30 passengers were killed and several others injured on Sunday evening when their bus fell off a bridge and plunged into a river along the highway in Tharaka Nithi, Kenya, local police said.
* Seventeen people died after a boat carrying dozens of Haitian migrants capsized off the coast of The Bahamas, authorities said on Sunday, as more Haitians attempt to reach the United States to flee gang violence and poverty at home.
