* Romania's two largest parliamentary parties, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), submitted a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan's government on Tuesday, according to local media outlet Digi24.
* Moscow has largely expanded the blacklist of European Union (EU) officials banned from entering Russia in response to Brussels' 20th sanctions package against Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed his testimony in a criminal trial at a Tel Aviv court on Tuesday, after a two-month pause due to the Iran war.
* Iraqi President Nizar Amedi officially named Ali al-Zaidi as the prime minister-designate Monday night, tasking him with forming a new government within 30 days.
* U.S. President Donald Trump is not satisfied with Iran's latest peace proposal, which seeks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports, while leaving its nuclear program for later negotiations, U.S. media reported on Monday, citing several White House officials.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Monday blamed the slow progress of diplomacy between Iran and the United States on the latter's continuation of its "destructive habits."
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held separate phone calls late Monday with his counterparts from Oman, Jordan, Britain and Germany on recent regional developments, specially the path of U.S.-Iran negotiations, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in St. Petersburg on Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation and the situation in the Middle East.
* Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Arsenio Dominguez said on Monday that de-escalation is the key to safely evacuating around 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Persian Gulf and around the Strait of Hormuz.
* French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he will resume exchanges with Iran after concluding his visit to Andorra.
* Norway and Ukraine have signed an agreement to launch joint production of Ukrainian drones in Norway, the Norwegian government said on Monday.
* China will expand zero-tariff treatment to all African countries that have diplomatic relations with it starting May 1, 2026, Chinese authorities announced on Tuesday.
* The Kremlin said Tuesday that Ukraine had targeted oil storage facilities with reserves designated for export in a recent drone attack, warning that the strike would worsen shortages in global oil markets.
* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Tuesday it will withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the wider OPEC+ alliance, with effect from May 1, 2026, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
* Malaysia is eyeing some 30 billion USD in green investments over the next decade, Malaysian Deputy Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation Abdul Rahman Mohamad said on Tuesday.
* Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said on Tuesday that it will redistribute 260,000 tons of oil exports in May via alternative routes following the suspension of shipments to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline, the Kazinform news agency reported.
* Indonesia will grant a six-month zero-tariff relief on imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and certain plastic raw materials to help ease soaring prices amid global supply pressures, a senior minister said here Tuesday.
* New Zealand has secured an additional 90 million liters of diesel, equivalent to about nine days of national demand amid global fuel market uncertainty.
* Thailand's economy is projected to expand 1.6 percent in 2026, down from 2 percent seen earlier, supported by domestic and external demand despite pressures from global geopolitics and energy prices, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday.
* Afghanistan faces a severe and growing shortage of women in critical public services, with more than 25,000 female teachers and health workers projected to be lost by 2030 unless current restrictions on girls' education and women's employment are lifted, UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, warned on Monday.
* Global action against viral hepatitis has yielded tangible progress, yet the current progress is still falling short of the 2030 elimination targets, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest Global Hepatitis Report 2026 released Tuesday at the World Hepatitis Summit.
* The wildfires in northeastern Japan are now largely under control as firefighting continued into a seventh day, local media reported. Since breaking out last Wednesday in the town of Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture, the fires have so far prompted local authorities to advise 3,257 people from 1,558 households to seek shelter, Kyodo News reported.
