* Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday approved all of President Masoud Pezeshkian's cabinet picks, the official news agency IRNA reported. The voting was conducted in an open parliamentary session in the Iranian capital Tehran, following a five-day review of the nominees' qualifications, the report said.
* The Independent Electoral Commission of Botswana (IEC) on Wednesday announced that more than a million voters are eligible to cast their votes in the 2024 general elections expected to be held in October.
* Indonesia government urged people to avoid disinformation that could lead to violence, the president's spokesperson said on Thursday, amid protests over an attempt to change election rules.
* India is willing to offer its help to end the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia in consultation with friendly nations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Warsaw on Thursday, on the eve of a visit to Kyiv.
* The Chinese embassy in Ukraine on Thursday again warned its citizens not to travel to Ukraine, citing high safety risks including the threat of air raids.
* Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he and his army chief had visited the border region of Sumy near the border with Russia, two weeks after Kyiv's incursion into the Kursk region.
* A fire broke out at a military facility in Russia's Volgograd region early Thursday following a Ukrainian drone attack, local authorities said.
* Leaders from the Pacific Island countries started gathering in Tonga for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting, which will officially take place from Aug. 26 to Aug. 30.
* Cambodia and Indonesia have vowed to bolster bilateral relations and cooperation for mutual benefit, said a Cambodian foreign ministry's news release on Thursday.
* French President Emmanuel Macron will use a trip to Serbia at the end of this month to discuss strengthening economic ties between the countries and Serbia's role in the AI sector, Macron's office said on Thursday.
* The United States on Wednesday called on Japan to name its representatives for a joint task force that will determine the location and resources for a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief hub they have agreed to establish in Japan.
* Australia will begin producing long-range missiles from 2027 under a partnership with Norwegian defense company Kongsberg.
* Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will attend a meeting of European Union ministers in Brussels next week that Ankara hopes will pave the way for improved ties with the bloc, the ministry's spokesperson said on Thursday.
* Israel has not agreed to withdraw its troops from the so-called Philadelphi corridor along the border between Egypt and Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Wednesday, denying an Israeli television report.
* The U.S.-British naval coalition launched three airstrikes on the Salif area in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.
* Brazil will tighten up rules to enter the country without a visa starting next week, the government said on Wednesday, after migrants have been increasingly using the South American nation as a stop-over on the way to the United States and Canada.
* Sri Lanka's cabinet approved issuing free tourist visas to visitors from 35 countries including China, India and Russia, a top official said on Thursday, in an effort to boost tourism and help revive its crisis-hit economy.
* Afghanistan's Taliban-led foreign ministry said it has appointed its first accredited ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, the second country to accept an envoy at that level after China.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the international community to invest in clean air to save lives and combat climate change.
* The United Nations migration agency appealed for 18.5 million USD on Wednesday to provide critical healthcare services to the populations at high risk of being affected by mpox in East, Horn, and Southern Africa.
* More than 130,000 Afghan women are currently involved in women-owned businesses in Afghanistan, according to a local media report.
* NASA plans to conduct two reviews before deciding how it will safely return two astronauts stranded in space, according to the agency's update on Tuesday. NASA will conduct a Program Control Board Review and an Agency Flight Readiness Review before making its decision by the end of August.
* The U.S. Federal Reserve will likely cut interest rates at its September meeting if economic data continues to come in as expected, according to minutes of the Fed's July 30-31 meeting released Wednesday.
* The OPEC Secretariat said on Thursday it had received updated compensation plans from Iraq and Kazakhstan stating they aim to make up for their overproduction in the first seven months of this year by September 2025.
* Myanmar received nearly 700,000 foreign tourists in the first seven months of this year, Tin Zaw Myint, director of the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism told Xinhua on Thursday.
* Warnings were issued of a severe heatwave and atmospheric instability across Romania on Wednesday, with Bucharest facing temperatures up to 39 degrees Celsius over the next three days.
* Czech police on Wednesday evacuated 582 people from the vicinity of a chemical plant in the country's northwest region due to "a high risk of explosion" after the discovery of an unexploded bomb.
* Heavy rains and flooding from Sudan's rainy season, which began in June, have resulted in 114 fatalities, the Sudanese Health Ministry reported on Wednesday.
* Relentless monsoon rains and flooding have stranded nearly three million people in Bangladesh and killed two, submerging vast areas and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials from the country's disaster management ministry said on Thursday.
* The death toll from a river boat accident in western Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to at least 29 with at least 128 survivors identified and an unknown number still missing, local authorities said on Thursday.
* The death toll in an explosion at a pharmaceuticals manufacturing plant in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh rose to 17 on Thursday, Industries Secretary N. Yuvaraj, a senior official, told Reuters.
* From the beginning of the year until Aug. 19, a total of 4,300 wildfires were recorded in Croatia, an increase of 26 percent compared with last year, the Croatian Firefighting Association (HVZ) said in a statement on Wednesday.
* At least three migrants drowned and more were missing when their boat capsized early on Thursday while attempting to cross the Drina river from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, local media reported, citing a senior official.
