* Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday stressed solid work to implement reform measures and accomplish the annual economic and social development goals with impetus from further deepening reform comprehensively.
* Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris will hold dueling campaign events this weekend in Pennsylvania, the political battleground that may be the most critical state in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
* Ukrainian troops launched their first strike using Western-made missiles on civilian targets in Russia's Kursk region Friday, said Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
* Ukrainian troops have advanced from one to three km in some areas in western Russia's Kursk region since the beginning of Friday, Oleksandr Syrsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Friday.
* Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Friday that Ukraine's operation in western Russia's Kursk region is linked to possible peace talks between the two countries.
* The Russian management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said on Saturday a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive charge on a road outside the plant, endangering its staff who use the road, the TASS news agency reported.
* Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is finalising plans to visit the United States in late September for the U.N. General Assembly and a possible meeting with President Joe Biden, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday.
* Nordic ministers responsible for migration and immigration convened in Rosendal, western Norway on Thursday and Friday to address issues related to asylum and migration in the region.
* The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had summoned Italy's ambassador to Moscow to lodge a protest regarding the "illegal entry" of state broadcaster RAI's crew into the Kursk Region to cover Ukraine's attack.
* Indian medical professionals started a 24-hour shutdown of non-emergency services across the country on Saturday in protest against the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata.
* The Indonesian government plans to allocate a budget of 400.3 trillion rupiah (approximately 25.5 billion USD) for infrastructure development next year, including continuing the construction of infrastructure in the new capital city of Nusantara on Kalimantan Island.
* Iran is ready to transship Russian natural gas through its territory, Russia's TASS news agency cited the Iranian ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, as saying on Saturday.
* Filipinos staying in Lebanon have been advised to leave the Middle East country as early as possible as tension escalates due to the threat of an all-out war between Hezbollah group and Israel.
* United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for parties to the conflict in Gaza to provide concrete assurances guaranteeing humanitarian pauses in order for a polio vaccine campaign to be conducted.
* The Israeli army's fighting in the Gaza Strip has ended, Israel's state-owned Kan TV news reported late Friday night. Citing senior security officials, the TV said that Israel can return and re-enter Gaza "when there is new intelligence," but in general the Israeli military's activity in the Palestinian enclave is over.
* President of the Palestinian National Council Rawhi Fattouh on Friday warned of the Israeli army's actions to reduce humanitarian areas in the Gaza Strip.
* Hamas supports the UN's call today for a seven-day truce to vaccinate thousands of children against polio, the movement said on Friday.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden reviewed on Friday the outcomes of ceasefire negotiations held in Qatar's capital Doha over the past two days.
* At least 15 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike in the Gaza town of Zawayda, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Saturday, as Israel issued new evacuation orders, citing Hamas rocket fire nearby.
* An Israeli evacuation order issued on Friday for parts of Deir al Balah and Khan Younis further shrank the humanitarian area to just 11 percent of Gaza, UN humanitarians said.
* Around 10 people were killed, including two children, and five were wounded by an Israeli strike on a residential building in the city of Nabatieh city in south Lebanon, state news agency NNA said on Saturday.
* The number of people who are food insecure and in need of humanitarian assistance in Kenya stands at 1 million, Kenya's National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said Friday.
* Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland executed 10 fighters from Islamist militant group al Shabaab on Saturday, the region's police said in a statement.
* Ukraine has exported 64.4 million tons of goods via the Black Sea since establishing a temporary maritime corridor in August 2023, the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development said on Friday.
* Germany's coalition government reached a deal on Friday to narrow its 2025 budget deficit target from 17 billion euros ($19 billion) down to 12 billion euros, in a compromise aimed at salvaging the spending plan after the original proposals fell apart.
* Thailand's industrial confidence improved for the first time in four months in July, thanks to an expansion in domestic demand and government spending, data showed on Friday.
* Malaysia's foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 16.2 billion ringgit (3.65 billion USD) from the previous quarter to 954.2 billion ringgit at the end of the second quarter of 2024, official data showed Friday.
* U.S. private space company SpaceX launched the Transporter-11 mission to orbit on Friday. The mission was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:56 a.m. local time (1856 GMT).
* The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-28, launched on Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos announced Saturday.
* The World Health Organisation was due to host an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss ways to ensure fair global access to tests, treatments and vaccines for mpox, a leading official said, as the viral infection spreads in parts of Africa and beyond.
* The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Friday raised its risk level for mpox, a day after global health officials confirmed the first infection with a new strain of the virus outside Africa, in Sweden.
* Following the declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) this week, South Africa's National Department of Health urged travelers, especially those from mpox-endemic countries, to cooperate with health officials at all ports of entry.
* Indonesia is developing a new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine to strengthen the fight against TB, which has claimed an average of 150,000 lives annually.
* The health department in Pakistan's southern Sindh province has initiated a 10-day polio vaccination campaign since Thursday, targeting 85 different parts of its provincial capital Karachi.
* Experts in Croatia have raised the alarm over extremely high sea temperatures due to a lingering heat wave. This will have long-term effects on all marine life, they warned.
