* Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Thursday denounced Washington's increased sanctions against Cuban officials and entities, accusing the United States of deliberately seeking to strangle the island's economy and undermining the government's ability to provide basic services.
* Russian forces seized 11 settlements and conducted one massive and nine group strikes against Ukrainian military in the past week, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday. The 11 settlements are in three regions, namely Kharkiv, Donbas and Zaporizhzhia, according to the ministry.
* Belarus will close its embassy in Finland from Sept. 1, 2026, the National Legal Internet Portal of Belarus announced on Friday. The decision was made by the Council of Ministers on Thursday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef imports without impacting tariff quotas.
* U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the United States will impose "unprecedented" economic warfare and isolation on Iran, after months without a decisive military outcome or diplomatic progress.
* Guatemala has received 2,284 Mexican nationals deported from the United States so far this year, allowing them to enter the Central American country in international transit before they are transferred to Mexico, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said Thursday.
* The UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday and Thursday held respective interactive dialogues with two candidates for the next UN secretary-general.
* Two national staff members of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) who were detained by the Taliban have been released, a UN spokesman said Thursday.
* The Republic of Korea-U.S. joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield, originally scheduled to run from Aug. 17 to Aug. 27, ended early Friday morning, Yonhap News Agency reported.
* The Nepali government has approved the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to issue Nepali rupee-denominated bonds, a senior official of Nepal's Finance Ministry said on Friday.
* More than 5,000 Afghan families who recently returned home have received food assistance in northern provinces, local media outlet Tolo news reported on Friday. The aid was distributed to vulnerable families in Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz and Baghlan provinces, according to the report.
* Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday reaffirmed the country's unwavering commitment to combating terrorism and supporting victims and their families, as the country observed the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism.
* The Philippines recorded a poverty incidence rate of 9.7 percent in 2025, the lowest in history, according to the Department of Economy, Planning and Development on Friday.
* Several people were injured in a sword attack at a school in the central Swedish municipality of Fagersta on Friday, local authorities said.
* Türkiye has requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following an arrest warrant issued against him last month on a charge of "genocide," Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said Friday.
* The Russian Pacific Fleet conducted missile launch drills against simulated enemy ships in waters near the Southern Kuril Islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, with all targets successfully hit, the fleet reported Thursday.
* China and Switzerland have completed negotiations on upgrading their free trade agreement (FTA), China's Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.
* Portugal's government on Thursday approved a sectoral program designating more than 800 areas across approximately 170 municipalities on the Portuguese mainland as priority zones for the accelerated licensing and development of solar and wind energy projects.
* Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said Thursday that the group's military, security and administrative bodies had been integrated into Syria's state institutions, marking a new phase in relations between the Kurdish-led administration and Damascus.
* The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Friday that it had killed a Hamas commander in the Nuseirat area of the central Gaza Strip.
* Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday vowed to strengthen the Lebanese army and restore state authority across the country's south during a visit to the southern city of Tyre, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA).
*A magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook Peru's southern region of Ayacucho on Thursday afternoon, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage, authorities said.
* A landslide at an open-pit mine in Policarpa, in Colombia's southern department of Narino, killed 13 workers and injured seven, local authorities said Thursday.
