* Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau narrowly survived a no-confidence motion on Wednesday, with the opposition falling one vote short of the 27 needed to unseat him after criticising his government for signing a security pact with Australia.
* Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he intended to seek the support of the lower house to form a new government after an inconclusive election on July 23 where the conservative opposition People's Party won the most votes.
* South Sudan on Tuesday promised that it will meet the December 2024 elections timeline despite slow progress on the implementation of key peace mechanisms required to necessitate free, fair, and credible polls.
* The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) on Tuesday said it is ready to hold municipal elections in the Gaza Strip.
* A Chinese military delegation has joined a U.S.-hosted conference of defence chiefs in the Pacific Islands nation of Fiji, where Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has called for dialogue and said the Pacific should be a "zone of peace".
* Moscow will continue to boost military cooperation with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday.
* Ukraine will not cede its territories to Russia to obtain NATO membership, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said Tuesday.
* China called on Wednesday for more measures to protect its crops after warning that the recent floods in its grain-producing northeast region could worsen diseases and infestations.
* Cambodia's National Council on Minimum Wage (NCMW) on Wednesday started to negotiate the annual hike of monthly minimum wage for the garment, footwear and travel goods industry for 2024, according to an NCMW press statement.
* The upcoming BRICS summit should tackle inequality and the role of developed nations in combating climate change, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Tuesday in Cairo, where they called for Arab unity, solidarity and joint action to resolve crises in the Arab world.
* The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Tuesday called for an immediate cease-fire in the capital Tripoli, as the clashes between two rival armed factions have continued since Monday night.
* The Medical Emergency Department of the Libyan Ministry of Health on Tuesday said that 27 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in clashes that erupted in the capital Tripoli Monday night.
* Tunisia has foiled 18 illegal immigration attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and rescued 630 individuals from sinking boats, the Tunisian National Guard said on Tuesday.
* The number of visitors to Japan in July rose to its highest since the pandemic, official data showed on Wednesday, as a weak yen helped to give boost tourism and contribute to a growth surge in the world's third-largest economy.
* New Zealand's resident population provisionally grew by 2.1 percent, or 105,900 people, over the preceding 12 months, to reach 5.22 million on June 30, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Wednesday.
* Russia's Central Bank has decided to raise the key interest rate by 350 basis points to 12 percent, it said in a statement Tuesday.
* Thailand's industrial confidence hit a 10-month low in July as high costs of living and household debt weakened purchasing power, affecting demand for industrial goods, data showed on Wednesday.
* Worries about persistently high inflation in Britain grew on Wednesday as key measures of price growth monitored by the Bank of England failed to ease in July, despite a sharp drop in the headline inflation rate.
* The Dutch economy has entered a recession as it shrank 0.3% on a quarterly basis in the second quarter, a first estimate published by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday showed.
* Switzerland expects a financing deficit of 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.71 billion) for this year, the government said on Wednesday, lower than the 4.8 billion francs previously expected in the budget.
* Iran's released assets abroad will be used to enhance domestic production, President Ebrahim Raisi was quoted as saying on Wednesday by the semi-official ISNA news agency.
* Israel's year-on-year 12-month inflation decreased to 3.3 percent in July, the lowest rate since January last year, according to data released by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
* With economic hardships having severely affected living conditions in Afghanistan, continued humanitarian support coupled with investment in long-term solutions are urgently needed for the country, the United Nations (UN) officials and partners said on Tuesday.
* The Egyptian Ministry of Finance on Tuesday signed a 500-mln-USD five-year financing agreement with the Abu Dhabi Exports Office (ADEX) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to finance wheat imports, the ministry said in a statement.
* The TransOcean Barents drilling rig arrived in Lebanon’s Block 9 on Wednesday to begin exploration activities, Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamie, posted on X, following a landmark U.S.-brokered agreement last year that delineated the contentious maritime border between Lebanon and Israel to the south.
* The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 6.195 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Aug. 11.
* The Swiss government on Wednesday majorly narrowed its projected deficit for 2023 to 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.71 billion) after scrapping a 4-billion-franc rescue mechanism for the electricity industry from its spending estimates.
* The death toll from the Maui wildfires in the U.S. state of Hawaii reached 106 as of Tuesday, up from 99 the day before, according to a fatality update from the County of Maui.
* Spanish authorities on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of four villages on the Canary island of Tenerife after a wildfire broke out in the nature park surrounding the Mount Teide volcano.
