* Mexico's electoral authority on Friday confirmed that ruling party Morena and its allies will hold a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house but fall just short of a supermajority in the Senate when the new legislative term begins in September.
* China's President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan in October, the state-run RIA news agency reported on Saturday, citing the Chinese envoy to Moscow. The BRICS summit is scheduled to take place on Oct. 22-24.
* Russia has declared a state of emergency in part of the Voronezh region bordering Ukraine after an overnight drone attack, local governor Alexander Gusev said in his Telegram channel.
* Russia and Ukraine exchanged 115 prisoners of war from each side on Saturday after the United Arab Emirates acted as an intermediary.
* Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks and signed four documents with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after arriving in Kiev Friday, according to an India-Ukraine joint statement.
* U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will visit China from August 27 to 29 and the two sides will hold a new round of China-U.S. strategic communication, Xinhua reported.
* The Armed Forces of Ukraine have attacked over 30 settlements in Russia's border region of Belgorod over the past 24 hours, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday.
* The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) lashed out Saturday at the nuclear strategy of the United States, vowing it will "resolutely cope with any type of nuclear threat posed by the U.S.," state media reported.
* Romania is set to bolster its fleet of F-16 fighter jets with 186 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) bought from the United States, according to local media reports. Romania will also receive four AIM-120 AMRAAM guidance sections and other essential equipment.
* Indonesia is tightening security on its resort island of Bali in preparation for the second Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF) slated for early next month, local police said.
* Officials from the Baltic states -- Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania -- have been negotiating the provision of critical medicines in crises, reported LETA, Latvia's national information agency.
* A meeting took place in Tashkent Friday between the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev who is on a state visit to Uzbekistan.
* A total of 1,450 security personnel have been recently commissioned to Afghan security forces after receiving military training, a spokesman for the 205th al-Badar Army Corps said on Thursday evening.
* Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiators discussed new compromise proposals in Cairo on Saturday, seeking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas as the U.N. reported worsening humanitarian conditions, with malnutrition soaring and polio discovered.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the Gaza ceasefire negotiations on Friday during a phone call, focusing on the mediation efforts led by their countries.
* Delaying a humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip increases the risk of polio spreading among children, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned on Friday.
* At least 40,334 Palestinians have been killed and 93,356 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
* The Yemeni army intercepted three Houthi drones carrying explosives targeting the Safer oil facility in Marib Governorate on Friday, according to a statement from the defense ministry.
* The U.S. military said on Friday that it would deliver 24 additional armored vehicles to Kenyan personnel deployed in Haiti who are heading a long-delayed security operation in the conflict-ravaged Caribbean nation.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that the country's response to the assassination of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh would be "precise, calculated and managed."
* A bomb blast in southwestern Pakistan killed two children and injured 16 people on Saturday, police officials said.
* A stabbing rampage in which a man killed three people and wounded eight others at a festival in the western German city of Solingen was "a possible act of terrorism", an official said on Saturday, as the search for the unknown assailant continued.
* Nigerian police authorities have secured the release of 20 students who were kidnapped on their way to a convention in the north-central state of Benue last week, they said on Saturday, in a post on X.
* Cambodia on Saturday told local authorities along border provinces to step up efforts in monitoring and preventing the imports of mpox and other viral diseases such as H5N1 bird flu and anthrax.
* Uganda has confirmed two more mpox virus infections, bringing the number of cases in the east African country to four, according to the health ministry.
* Cambodia attracted 3.74 million foreign visitors in the first seven months of 2024, up 23 percent from almost 3.04 million in the same period last year, said a Ministry of Tourism's report on Saturday.
* China's Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management have allocated 50 million yuan (about 7 million USD) to support flood relief efforts in northeast China's Liaoning Province.
* Mali declared a state of national disaster on Friday over floods that have killed 30 people and affected over 47,000 others since the start of the rainy season, the council of ministers said in a statement.
* Brazil's Sao Paulo state said that wildfire outbreaks were affecting or closing in on 30 of its cities on Friday evening, adding two people had died in an industrial plant trying to hold back the flames.
* Namibia is experiencing its worst drought in 100 years, with 84 percent of its food reserves already exhausted, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
* A new volcanic eruption occurred Thursday on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland, marking the sixth eruption in the area since December 2023.
