* The Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), opened on Thursday, with Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the WPK, attending and delivering an opening address, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is considering a limited military strike to pressure Iran to make a deal.
* Russia-Japan relations have been reduced to zero, with no dialogue currently taking place between the two sides, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
* Iran plans to prepare a draft of a possible nuclear agreement with the United States within two to three days, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Friday in an interview with MSNBC.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Friday held separate phone calls with his Egyptian and Russian counterparts over the latest developments regarding indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.
* Jasper Jeffers, the commander of the newly-created International Stabilization Force (ISF) under a Gaza peace deal, said on Thursday that the ISF would ultimately comprise 20,000 soldiers working with 12,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip.
* U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday that Hamas will be "harshly met" if the group fails to disarm itself.
* Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal and visiting Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (CMC) Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone on Friday discussed preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara and the security situation in Europe.
* Türkiye and Saudi Arabia on Friday signed agreements to build solar power plants with a total investment of 2 billion USD in central and southern Türkiye.
* Hungary is set to release 250,000 tonnes of crude oil from the country's strategic reserves to ensure an uninterrupted fuel supply for domestic and regional consumers, the Energy Ministry said on Thursday evening.
* France's 2026 state budget was promulgated on Friday after being validated a day earlier by the Constitutional Council, ending more than four months of parliamentary debate and a prolonged political standoff.
* Myanmar has banned the import, sale and use of e-cigarettes, e-shisha and related accessories, according to the Ministry of Health on Friday.
* More than 4 million Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland, Afghanistan, in nearly one year, Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said.
* The United Nations World Food Programme has issued an urgent warning about a deepening hunger crisis in Afghanistan, saying that limited resources have left only one in four children suffering from severe malnutrition able to receive assistance, local media TOLO news reported on Friday.
* Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro announced on Thursday that the government has increased the value of its disaster relief plan to 3.5 billion euros (4.13 billion USD), up from the initial estimate of 2.5 billion euros, in response to the damage caused by recent severe storms.
* The Council of the European Union (EU) on Thursday formally added Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the EU terrorist list, following a political agreement reached by EU foreign ministers last month.
* Russian special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev denied on Thursday that Russia was offering the United States projects worth 12 trillion USD in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
* Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday issued an urgent appeal urging Polish citizens currently in Iran to leave the country immediately and advising those planning to travel there to cancel their trips.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the country is on high alert and preparing for all scenarios as tensions between the United States and Iran escalate.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Friday held separate phone calls with his Egyptian and Russian counterparts over the latest developments regarding indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.
* Sweden on Thursday announced one of its largest military support packages for Ukraine, worth nearly 12.9 billion Swedish kronor (about 1.4 billion USD), with the bulk of the funding aimed at air defense, long-range capability and ammunition, according to a government statement.
* Greece has launched the PHAROS AI Factory, a new national hub aimed at accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and supporting startups, universities and research centers, the Greek newspaper To Vima reported on Thursday.
* The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday that it had detained dozens of Israeli civilians who crossed into the Gaza Strip overnight without authorization.
* Security forces "fired heavily" to disperse anti-government protesters who attempted to storm the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden on Thursday night, a security official said.
* The Hamas-run Gaza media office said on Thursday that 1,148 Palestinians have crossed the Rafah border crossing in both directions since its reopening earlier this month.
* Yemen's internationally-recognized government, led by Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani, held its first meeting on Thursday in the southern port city of Aden, amid opposition demonstrations and heightened security measures.
* U.S. economic growth increased at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Department of Commerce reported on Friday. This was well below the 2.5 percent growth that analysts had predicted for the quarter.
* Cambodia's total imports of diesel fuel, gasoline and combustion gas reached 219.5 million USD in January 2026, up 1.6 percent year on year, a Ministry of Commerce report said on Friday.
* Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.5 percent in 2025 from a year earlier, according to data released Thursday by the country's central bank.
* The Philippine central bank on Thursday said it decided to reduce its target reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 percent and the interest rates on the overnight deposit and lending facilities to 3.75 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively.
* Rising international demand for authentic Asian flavors, natural food colorants and versatile food ingredients enabled the Philippines to generate 3.06 million USD in exports of ube and ube-based products in 2025, the country's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Friday.
