* China and Russia continue to work for close strategic coordination at international and multilateral levels, advance the process for a multipolar world and democratization in international relations, and uphold the basic norms of international relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday.
* South Africa is ready to host the much-anticipated 15th BRICS summit, said Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor on Monday.
* Russia expects the BRICS countries to inform Moscow of the outcome of the recent Saudi-led peace talks on Ukraine, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement Monday.
* Security advisors and representatives from 43 countries on Sunday concluded a two-day meeting in Jeddah, a coastal city in western Saudi Arabia, where they discussed solutions to the Ukraine crisis that has dragged on for more than a year.
* The European Union should not blame China, but lift export restrictions if it wants to address trade imbalances, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
* Over 3,000 U.S. sailors and marines have entered the Red Sea in the Middle East aboard two U.S. warships, the U.S. Navy said Monday, weeks after the Department of Defense (DoD) deployed additional military assets to the Strait of Hormuz in response to what Washington claimed were threats posed by Iran.
* Japan's defence ministry plans to request an annual budget of over 7 trillion yen ($48.92 billion), a record high, in fiscal 2024, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.
* Poland's defence ministry has agreed to send additional troops to the border with Belarus following a request from the border guard service, state-run news agency PAP reported on Tuesday.
* Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Monday called on the U.S. Congress to abolish "hostile" laws and regulations targeting the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and to recognize the Palestinian state.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday voiced concern over the failure to restore constitutional order in Niger.
* Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, Niger's former economy minister, has been named as the new "prime minister" by the coup junta, Niger's news agency ANP reported on Monday.
* For the first time since fighting began in Sudan, a humanitarian aid convoy has reached East Darfur, UN humanitarians said on Monday.
* Jordan and Egypt signed 12 agreements on Monday to strengthen their cooperation in various fields, the state-run Petra news agency reported.
* Violent clashes erupted on Monday between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Omdurman city, north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
* Tensions escalated in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Monday, as thousands of protesters took to the streets to speak out against the country's devastating gang violence, which resulted last week in the death of a police officer.
* The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and the Frontline States Taskforce, a regional security initiative by countries bordering Somalia, said they would enhance collaboration in the fight against the al-Shabab terrorist group.
* The Moroccan navy rescued 189 Senegalese migrants heading for Spain's Canary Island in the Atlantic, official news agency MAP reported on Monday.
* Australian police arrested 19 men for allegedly sharing child-abuse material online and saved 13 children from further harm after receiving intelligence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), authorities said on Tuesday.
* Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing called for concerted efforts to help floods-hit regions return to normalcy at an early date during his inspection in north China's Hebei Province on Monday.
* Thousands of people have been evacuated as continuous heavy rains have caused floods in several townships in western Myanmar's Rakhine State, according to the Myanmar Fire Services Department.
* Some 15,000 tonnes of grains were damaged when a blast ripped through grain silos near the port of Derince in northwest Turkey on Monday, the presidency's communications directorate said.
* Drones are being deployed in parts of Spain to protect the country's beaches from the impact of climate change.
* Severe thunderstorms with heavy rain, gusty winds and large hail that swept across western and central parts of Latvia on Monday caused devastation to property and destroyed crops, local authorities said.
* Some 600 people have been evacuated as a precaution in Italy's Sardinia as huge fires, made worse by strong winds, have been blazing in the northern and southern parts of the island, local media reported Monday.
* Hundreds of firefighters scrambled on Tuesday to put out a blaze raging in southern Portugal that has scorched thousands of hectares of land and forced the evacuation of around 1,400 people.
