* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared "fascism has failed in Venezuela" in a meeting Monday with the national leadership of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies in the Great Patriotic Pole coalition.
* U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris,who has already won enough delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee in a virtual roll call vote earlier this month, was once again confirmed as the party's nominee Tuesday night during the Democratic National Convention.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese premier Li Qiang in Moscow on Wednesday, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. Li said earlier on Wednesday that Beijing was ready to work with Russia to strengthen all-round practical cooperation.
* The Indonesian government said on Wednesday that the country is ready to begin supplying electricity to neighboring Singapore.
* Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region means there will be no talks between Moscow and Kyiv until Ukraine is completely defeated on the battlefield, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said on Wednesday.
* Russia destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, including 11 over the Moscow region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
* Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has confirmed he is ready to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia at the end of August, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
* A Hungarian programme easing visa restrictions for Russians and Belarusians will involve the same security screening as other residence permits, the interior minister said in a letter published on Wednesday.
* Switzerland's government said on Wednesday it has decided to join further European Union measures in the bloc's 14th sanctions package against Russia.
* Hungary's energy supply is not in danger, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, adding that the state's gas supply is not threatened by the ongoing fighting in Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region, as other pipelines transport sufficient amounts of gas.
* The Indonesian government announced on Wednesday that it would grant investors in its new capital city of Nusantara building use rights (HGB) or land concession and business use rights (HGU) for up to 80 years, aiming to attract more business players to invest in the new capital on Borneo Island.
* The United Nations relief agency said 28.6 million USD has so far been allocated for life-saving humanitarian response in Somalia in 2024.
* The helicopter crash in which Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in May was caused by weather conditions and the aircraft's inability to handle the weight it was carrying, Iran's semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a security source informed of the final investigation results.
* Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 50 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health officials said on Wednesday, after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his latest visit to the region with a truce deal still elusive.
* More than 40,223 Palestinians have been killed and 92,981 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
* The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had bombed Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley overnight, and Hezbollah said it had carried out a drone attack on military posts in a kibbutz in northern Israel in retaliation.
* The United Nation's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) appealed on Wednesday for $18.5 million in assistance to provide health care services to people impacted by the mpox outbreak in East and Southern Africa, according to a statement.
* Japan set a new record high for monthly visitors in July, official data showed on Friday, as the weak yen fuelled a tourism boom. The number of foreign visitors for business and leisure was 3.29 million last month from the previous all-time high of 3.14 million in June, data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showed.
* India will spend nearly $300 million in two years to expand water bodies like lakes and build drains in seven cities including Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru to mitigate floods and conserve water, a government official told Reuters on Wednesday.
* Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday.
* The smallpox situation in Kyrgyzstan is stable, and precautionary measures are being implemented, according to the press service of the country's Health Ministry on Tuesday.
* Recent weeks have witnessed a substantial wave of COVID-19 infections across the United States, primarily driven by the emergence of new variants and exacerbated by the hot summer weather.
* Public borrowing in the United Kingdom (UK) surged to 3.1 billion British pounds (about 4.03 billion USD) in July, marking the highest level for the month since 2021, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Wednesday.
* Pakistan is making good progress with the International Monetary Fund and hopes to get board approval in September for a new $7 billion loan programme, Pakistan's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday.
* Sri Lanka generated 9 billion USD in export revenue during the first six months of this year, with 1,575 export-oriented companies operating across 15 investment zones, State Minister for Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugama announced on Wednesday.
* South Africa's annual consumer price inflation slowed to 4.6 percent in July from 5.1 percent in June, reaching the lowest level in three years since July 2021, official data showed Wednesday.
* This year's drought has caused 1.5-1.8 billion euros (1.67-2 billion USD) in losses to Romania's agriculture, severely affecting 2.5 million hectares of crops, said Ionel Arion, president of the Pro Agro National Federation on Wednesday.
* A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims overturned in central Iran, killing 28 passengers and injuring another 23 people, state media reported on Wednesday.
* At least seven people were killed and more than 30 injured in an explosion on Wednesday at a pharmaceuticals manufacturing plant in southern India's Andhra Pradesh state, a district government official said.
