* The Security Council on Friday held its second straw poll on the candidates for the next UN secretary-general. "The second round of straw polls has taken place," said Christina Markus Lassen, the UN ambassador of Denmark, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of August.
* Malaysia will seek a solution to the transboundary haze issue through ASEAN diplomatic channels, Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said on Friday. ASEAN remains the most appropriate platform for addressing issues involving countries in the region, Mohamad told a press briefing.
* The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) on Friday urged social media users to be extra vigilant over fraudulent schemes involving the advertising and provision of purported account and page protection services in exchange for a fee.
* At least 14 people were killed and 121 others injured in a Russian drone strike on a shopping center in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine on Friday, local authorities said. The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration said 29 of the injured, including 5 children, were in serious condition.
* Armenia and South Sudan have established diplomatic relations, Armenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday.
* Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi and his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi discussed efforts to restore freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz during a phone call on Friday, according to Oman's Foreign Ministry.
* UN humanitarians said on Friday their partners are raising concerns over deadly West Bank settler violence and the use of live ammunition by Israeli forces in law enforcement involving Palestinians.
* The Israeli Prime Minister's Office issued a strong response to Türkiye and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following Türkiye's request on Friday for an Interpol Red Notice against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
* Britain, Australia and Canada said on Friday it is "shameful" and "egregious" that Israel would not pursue criminal investigations into a 2024 strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza that led to the death of seven humanitarian workers.
* The cumulative death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, has risen to 8,915, with 30,543 others injured, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Friday. Since March 2, 2026, the attacks have killed 4,348 people and injured 12,307 others, according to the ministry.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Friday the U.S. anti-Iran economic operation is doomed to fail like its other coercive measures against the country.
* Indonesia welcomes more Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in the country, will continue to provide a sound business environment for Chinese companies, and opposes any ill-intentioned instigation and hype, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has said in Jakarta.
* China recorded an increase in newly established foreign-invested enterprises and robust growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) in high-tech industries in the first seven months of 2026, despite a decline in overall inflows, official data showed Friday.
* Tajikistan's foreign trade turnover reached 7.94 billion USD in the first seven months of 2026, up 42.3 percent year over year, the country's Agency on Statistics said Friday.
* Croatian authorities launched a search and rescue operation on Friday afternoon after an ultralight aircraft flying from the Czech Republic toward the Croatian coastal city of Zadar went missing, the country's Civil Protection Directorate said.
* The death toll from the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on Aug. 10 has risen to 321, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) said Friday. The quake has also left 4,595 people injured and 257 missing, while 364 people have been rescued, the agency said in an update posted on X.
* The tropical depression over the Beibu Gulf intensified into the 19th typhoon of this year on Friday afternoon, prompting China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) to issue a blue alert.
* Latvia issued its highest-level weather warning for parts of the country on Friday as a powerful cyclone was forecast to bring torrential rain and strong winds over the weekend, raising the risk of flooding, power outages and transport disruption.
* Leptospirosis cases at a major infectious disease hospital in the Philippine capital have reached 50, with two deaths, following widespread flooding from persistent heavy rains, local media reported on Saturday.
