* China and Singapore will accelerate the full resumption of direct flights between the countries, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday after a meeting between the countries' ministers.
* The Indian government decided on Friday to release stocks of onions to check the commodity's rising prices in some parts of the South Asian country.
* The Netherlands' Labour and Green Left parties proposed EU climate chief Frans Timmermans as the only candidate to lead their joint ticket for a November parliamentary election, the Green Left party said on Friday.
* The European Union will send an observation mission (EOM) to Liberia ahead of the country's general election in October, the EU said on Friday.
* The United States is open to the idea of letting Ukrainian pilots come to the country for trainings on how to operate F-16 fighters, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) said Friday.
* Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso Thursday decreed three days of national mourning for presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was assassinated Wednesday at a political rally in the capital Quito.
* West Africa's regional bloc on Thursday ordered the activation of a standby force for possible use against the junta that took power in Niger in July, saying it wanted a peaceful restoration of democracy but all options including force were on the table.
* The Ukrainian Naval Forces said on Thursday it has designated temporary corridors for merchant vessels sailing from and to Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea.
* Emerging from a key summit in Nigeria Thursday, West African leaders left the door open for a robust dialogue while talking tough about a possible solution to the situation in the Republic of Niger, where the latest coup in the sub-region was recently recorded.
* Tunisia and Libya have agreed to create a continental trade corridor that will connect the two countries to sub-Saharan Africa, the Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported on Friday.
* In the wake of yet another devastating shipwreck in the Mediterranean, three UN agencies voiced their concerns on Thursday, advocating for enhanced, secure routes for migrants and asylum-seekers heading to the European Union.
* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday sent 13 tonnes of food supplies by plane to the Republic of Chad to support the Sudanese refugees and local communities, reported the official WAM news agency.
* The high-stakes oil transfer from a decaying tanker off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been safely concluded, the United Nations announced Friday, avoiding what the global body warned could have been a devastating environmental catastrophe.
* An attack on a military bus in Syria's east killed 23 government troops and wounded more than 10, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said Friday, blaming the Islamic State group that operates sleeper cells in lands it once ruled.
* The Biden administration on Friday announced up to 1.2 billion USD in the development of two large-scale facilities to remove carbon emissions, the first of this scale in the United States.
* The gross domestic product (GDP) of the United Kingdom (UK) grew by 0.2 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, official figures showed on Friday.
* Thailand's consumer confidence index (CCI) fell for the first time in 14 months in July, dragged down by concerns over political uncertainty, slow economic recovery, and further interest rate hikes, a survey showed on Friday.
* The top priority of the Turkish government in the near future is to reinforce macro-financial stability, said Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek on Friday.
* Russia successfully launched the Luna-25 lunar station early Friday, embarking on a historic mission to explore the south pole of the Moon.
* The World Bank is providing more than 359 million Kenyan shillings (about 2.5 million USD) to boost small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya.
* Japan's weather agency said Thursday that the mercury reached 40 degrees centigrade in a central Japan city as scorching heat continues to grip the Japanese archipelago.
* Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced new funding for research to help farmers prepare for droughts.
* The Moroccan Navy has rescued 67 illegal immigrants from an inflatable boat off the kingdom's southwestern coast, the official news agency MAP reported on Friday.
* Iran's rescue and firefighting vessels have rescued 22 crew members from a foreign ship that caught fire near the southern Iranian port city of Assaluyeh in Bushehr province, Iran's IRIB news agency reported Friday.
* Search teams on Maui on Friday will comb through the charred ruins of Lahaina looking for more victims of a wildfire that ripped through the Kingdom of Hawaii's onetime capital, with officials expecting the death toll of 55 to rise.
* Health officials in South Sudan's Unity State on Friday confirmed 21 more measles deaths among children between 5 years and 10 years of age, bringing the total death toll to 61 since July.
