* Thailand's parliament will convene on Friday for a special meeting to choose a new prime minister, the legislature announced on its website, following the court's dismissal of Srettha Thavisin as premier.
* China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday the United States, Britain and Australia should not advance their nuclear submarine cooperation until the international community has reached a consensus on safeguards and other issues.
* Ukraine's attacks on Russia's border will receive a "worthy response," with the Russian military's primary task being to remove the Ukrainian forces from Russian territories, President Vladimir Putin said Monday.
* Kyiv has put the issue of peace talks with Russia "on a long pause" by attacking Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy Rodion Miroshnik said on Wednesday, according to Russian state agency TASS.
* Ukraine has carried out its "largest" drone attack on Russian military airfields since the beginning of the conflict, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported, citing its source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).
* The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Moldova's charge d'affaires on Tuesday over concerns that Moldova could host West-supplied F-16 aircraft to be transferred to Ukraine.
* British authorities have now arrested more than 1,000 people following days of rioting involving violence, arson and looting as well as racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants, a national policing body said on Tuesday.
* Lithuania will increase its defense spending by 130 million euros (142 million USD) this year for weapons systems procurement, the Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday.
* Primary schools across Bangladesh have reopened after around one month of closure amid tension over students' demonstration that subsequently toppled Sheikh Hasina's government on Aug. 5.
* Senior Turkish and Iraqi officials will hold high-level talks in Ankara on Thursday to develop cooperation on security issues, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Wednesday.
* A NATO air base in the German town of Geilenkirchen was sealed off due to a suspected case of sabotage on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the German military's Territorial Command in Berlin said, after a similar incident at a barracks in Cologne.
* Israel has published plans for one of its proposed new settlements in the occupied West Bank, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday, upping the ante a day before planned new Gaza peace talks seen as vital to preventing a regional war.
* China supports all efforts that contribute to permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday.
* It is imperative to implement all United Nations resolutions to secure lasting and stable peace in the Middle East region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
* The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to nearly 40,000, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.
* The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Tuesday that it had killed about 100 militants and uncovered weapons and hideouts in the Shabura area of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
* Hezbollah attacked the Mount Neria base, a battalion leadership headquarters of Israel's Golani Brigade forces, with volleys of Katyusha rockets late Tuesday night, according to Lebanese TV channel al-Manar.
* A rebel group controlling Sudan's Nuba Mountains and parts of Blue Nile state said on Wednesday that the local population was experiencing a hunger catastrophe.
* Malaysia's total population in the second quarter was estimated at 34.1 million as compared to 33.4 million a year ago, with a growth of 1.9 percent, official data showed Tuesday.
* The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Tuesday proclaiming 2025-2034 as the decade of action for cryospheric sciences.
* Afghan caretaker government's Acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund on Tuesday called for efforts to maintain peace and security in Afghanistan and to rebuild the war-torn central Asian country, a statement by Prime Minister's Office released here said.
* All 147 travelers who were stranded in Spain and Portugal due to issues with their tour operator have successfully returned to Latvia, the Latvian Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC) announced on Tuesday.
* The Russian government has extended its ban on gasoline exports until Dec. 31, the Cabinet of Ministers said in a Telegram statement Wednesday.
* The Pacific subregion economy is forecast to grow 3.3 percent this year and 4 percent in 2025, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released on Wednesday.
* India's factory activity growth, determined by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew 4.2 percent in June, the government data showed Monday.
* China's trade with Africa reported steady growth in the first seven months of the year, official data showed. Trade between China and Africa rose 5.5 percent year on year to 1.19 trillion yuan (about 166.6 billion USD) during the January-July period, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
* The Dutch economy rebounded with a 1-percent growth in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, marking an end to nearly two years of contraction and stagnation, according to data released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on Wednesday.
* Mexican central bank deputy governor Jonathan Heath warned in an interview published on Wednesday that a recent rise in headline inflation could hit other prices, while cautioning that he viewed the monetary authority's recent rate cut as premature.
* British consumer price inflation increased for the first time this year in July, official figures showed on Wednesday, but the rise was smaller than expected as services prices - closely watched by the Bank of England - rose less rapidly.
* Governor State Bank of Pakistan Jameel Ahmad on Wednesday stressed the need for adopting new and innovative strategies to resolve perennial economic issues in Pakistan.
* Ukraine's 2024 corn harvest may fall to 20 to 21 million metric tons from around 30 million tons in 2023 if drought continues, the producers group the Ukrainian Agrarian Council told Reuters on Wednesday.
* Brazil expects to harvest 298 million tons of cereals, legumes and oilseeds this year, a 5.5 percent year-on-year drop from last year's record harvest, the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics reported Tuesday.
* The number of foreign tourists visiting Portugal rose 7.5% between January and June, making it the best first half ever and paving the way for another record year, official data showed on Wednesday.
* A total of 1.6 million visitor arrivals were recorded in Singapore in July, up 12.9 percent year-on-year, according to the latest statistics released by the Singapore Tourism Board.
* An estimated 14.8 million tourists were expected to stay overnight in Italian accommodation facilities during the peak holiday period from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18, a survey showed Wednesday.
* With the number of mpox cases surging, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Tuesday declared the ongoing mpox outbreak in Africa as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS).
* Schools in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady region, also known as delta region, which was affected by severe floods, have reopened, the state-run daily The Mirror reported on Wednesday.
* Torrential rains and severe flooding have impacted more than 700,000 people in West and Central Africa, just two months into the rainy season, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.
* Severe tropical storm Ampil is expected to intensify into a typhoon as it nears eastern Japan on Friday, forcing cancellations of public transit services during the country's holiday travel rush.
* Firefighters battled on Wednesday to extinguish the remnants of a wildfire near Athens that killed a woman, torched buildings, devoured woodland and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.
