* Zambian voters turned out in large numbers on Thursday to cast their ballots in the general elections amid a largely peaceful atmosphere. Incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema, who bids for a second term, voted at Kabulonga Boys Secondary School in Lusaka, the country's capital, calling for voters to remain calm, exercise maximum patience and cooperate with election officials during the voting process.
* Russia and Ukraine have conducted a fresh round of exchanges of the bodies of soldiers. Ukraine said on Thursday that the bodies of 261 people were returned to the country.
* NATO is militarizing the Arctic and strengthening its offensive potential near Russia's northern borders, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for European Affairs, said Thursday. Maslennikov made the remarks during the 4th Arctic-Regions Forum in Russia's Arkhangelsk.
* Cuba on Thursday condemned the Dominican Republic's decision to expel 10 Cuban diplomats and their families, calling it an act of subservience to Washington and its anti-Cuban policy.
* The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) slammed the upcoming joint military drills between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK), set to start on Monday, as "a rehearsal for an aggressive war," the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday, citing a press statement released a day earlier by a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
* The U.S. military is sending a new aircraft carrier to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed for more than 250 days in support of the war against Iran, U.S. media reported, citing officials.
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that the United States is going to apply measures that have "never been seen" on Iran.
* Iran's main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said on Thursday that no commercial vessel or oil tanker has been, or will be, able to cross the Strait of Hormuz safely without the Iranian armed forces' permission and supervision.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday warned the United States against making a "big miscalculation" about the Strait of Hormuz based on "fake intelligence."
* Two vessels belonging to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening, local authorities and media said early Friday.
* UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher on Thursday called for more funding for Yemen as the humanitarian crisis in the country has not improved.
* Habib ur Rahman Mansoor, mayor of Faizabad, the capital of Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, was reportedly killed in a bomb attack on Thursday, local media Tolo News reported. Mansoor is the second local official to have been killed in an attack in the province over the past two weeks.
* Drone attacks continued across Sudan on Thursday for a second consecutive day, targeting the capital Khartoum and several other cities as fighting intensified on multiple fronts in the Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.
* Yemen's Houthi group said Thursday it had launched a fresh drone attack on an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia's southwestern city of Jazan, marking another strike on the kingdom's energy infrastructure amid escalating tensions between the two sides.
* Sri Lankan police have arrested 1,093 foreign nationals in 27 operations linked to cybercrime and financial fraud so far this year as authorities intensify efforts to dismantle organized online scam networks, police spokesperson F.U. Wootler said on Thursday.
* Indonesia has expanded the use of domestic asphalt from Buton in Southeast Sulawesi through new regulations aimed at reducing reliance on imported asphalt for toll road projects, the country's Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo said Thursday.
* Air India has ordered a mandatory dope test for all its pilots days after a captain, found responsible for mid-air turbulence, tested positive for marijuana, multiple local media reports said Thursday. According to local television news channel NDTV, the dope test is mandatory for both Air India and Air India Express pilots.
* Türkiye plans to launch its lunar spacecraft in the first months of 2027, with the mission powered by a domestically developed hybrid propulsion system, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir said Thursday.
* The Norwegian government said Thursday it would proceed with plans to restrict children's access to social media after receiving positive feedback from the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority (ESA).
* Myanmar exported 699,730 tonnes of rice and broken rice in the first four months of the current fiscal year 2026-27, which began in April, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation on Friday. The Southeast Asian country earned about 232 million USD from the exports during the period, the federation said.
* Finnish financial group OP Pohjola on Thursday raised its economic growth forecasts for Finland to 2 percent for both 2026 and 2027, citing stronger-than-expected economic activity and improving prospects for exports, investment and household consumption.
* Malaysia's economy expanded 6 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, accelerating from 5.4 percent in the first quarter, supported by resilient domestic demand and stronger exports, the country's central bank said on Friday.
* Norway's central bank on Thursday kept its policy rate unchanged at 4.25 percent, while saying that a further rate increase may still be necessary as inflation remains above target.
* Kazakhstan's annual inflation rate has declined for 10 consecutive months, reaching 10.2 percent in July, National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov said Thursday.
* At least 1,000 residents and tourists have been evacuated after a massive wildfire spread into the coastal town of Omis in southern Croatia, local media reported early Friday. More people are expected to evacuate across the affected areas, Omis Mayor Zvonko Mocic said.
* Temperatures provisionally reached 38.1 degrees Celsius at Kew Gardens, southwest London, on Thursday, making it the hottest day of the year so far in Britain and the fifth hottest day on record, Britain's Met Office said.
