* Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a social media post on Thursday that he would "request to return power to the people," a remark widely interpreted as a possible hint that he intends to dissolve parliament.
* Bangladesh's Election Commission has announced that the country's first-ever twin polls -- the 13th National Parliamentary Election and a referendum -- will be held on Feb. 12 next year.
* The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) convened an enlarged meeting of the 13th plenary meeting of its Eighth Central Committee from Tuesday to Thursday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.
* The APEC Informal Senior Officials' Meeting (ISOM) that took place in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, on Friday unanimously approved a Chinese proposal to set openness, innovation and cooperation as the three priorities for the APEC "China Year," and "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together" as its theme.
* Ukrainian lawmakers are prepared to develop a legislative framework for elections, the country's first deputy speaker Oleksandr Korniyenko said Thursday.
* Russia has transferred more than 11,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian servicemen to Ukraine, while receiving 201 bodies of Russian soldiers from the Ukrainian side, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday, discussing bilateral cooperation and Venezuela's situation, the Kremlin said in a statement.
* Russia's poverty rate has dropped by more than 20 percentage points over the past two decades, reaching a historic low, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to issue a national regulatory framework for AI, curbing the power of states.
* The U.S. Department of Treasury on Thursday announced new sanctions on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, a Maduro-affiliated businessman, and six companies shipping oil from Venezuela.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been concerned about the escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela, his deputy spokesperson said Thursday.
* Polish President Karol Nawrocki arrived in Riga on a working visit Thursday, with security and defense issues topping the agenda, Latvian public media reported.
* Greek Minister of Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis will take office on Friday as president of the Eurogroup, the assembly of finance ministers from the 20 European Union countries that use the euro, according to a press release by the Council of the European Union.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Kiev has received a draft document from the United States on security guarantees for Ukraine, the Ukrinform news agency reported. Ukraine will review the document, add its proposals and return it to the United States in several days, Zelensky told reporters.
* The Hungarian government on Thursday announced a new framework agreement with Azerbaijan for the potential purchase of 800 million cubic meters of natural gas over the next two years, marking another step in its ongoing diversification strategy.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for advocating a "law of the strongest" in international politics after a recent phone call between the two leaders on regional tensions.
* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the European Union (EU) on Thursday launched negotiations on a Strategic Partnership Agreement, both sides announced.
* A senior Hamas official said Thursday that Palestinian factions in Gaza have given initial approval for a potential international force in the territory, provided its mandate is limited to "monitoring the ceasefire and maintaining a presence along the borders to separate the two sides."
* The Hamas-run media office in Gaza described recent U.S. statements regarding the entry of aid into the enclave as "misleading and contrary to documented facts."
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Thursday called for "the full implementation" of the agreement to end the war in Gaza, stressing the urgent need to accelerate humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
* Indonesia aims to halt diesel fuel imports in 2026 as the government accelerates its biodiesel program and boosts domestic refinery capacity, marking a major step toward strengthening energy security and reducing reliance on foreign fuel supplies.
* Attacks on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) infrastructure have resulted in the loss of 480,000 tonnes of oil output for Kazakhstan, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reported Thursday, citing Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov. Akkenzhenov said the country still expects to meet its 2025 production target of 96.2 million tonnes of oil.
* Sri Lanka is currently stepping up the restoration of public venues damaged in the recent adverse weather by introducing national programs and delivering monetary support. The country's Ministry of Education on Friday launched a nationwide program aimed at rebuilding and repairing schools impacted by Cyclone Ditwah.
* China has achieved another year of bumper grain harvest in 2025, with total output hitting a record high of 714.88 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday said it has signed a 100-million-U.S.-dollar loan agreement with Five-Star Business Finance Limited (FBFL) to expand access to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) business loans for women borrowers from lower-income groups in India.
* The outlook of British economic growth will remain subdued in 2026 as the Budget released in late November is unlikely to kickstart the economy, a forecast from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has shown.
* Lithuania's parliament (Seimas) approved the 2026 state budget on Thursday, raising defense spending to a record 5.38 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
* Nepal's economy is projected to see a substantial downturn in the current fiscal year, reflecting weaker performance across key sectors, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in its latest report on Nepal's economy.
* Japan's weather agency issued a tsunami advisory for northern Japan's Pacific coast after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck off Aomori Prefecture on Friday.
* The Beijing Meteorological Observatory issued a blue alert for snowstorm at 6 p.m. on Thursday. It is forecast that snowfall will hit the mountainous areas to the west of Beijing in the early hours of Friday morning and extend to urban districts during the daytime.
