* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she believes the United States and China want to stabilize their economic ties with "candor" and "respect."
* Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced on Tuesday his retirement from politics, nine years after he took power in a military coup, and promised to stay in charge only temporarily.
* The Kremlin said on Tuesday Sweden's expected accession to NATO would have clear negative implications for Russia's security and that Moscow would respond with similar measures to those it took after Finland joined the Western military alliance.
* The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has eased the requirements for Ukraine's membership in the alliance by canceling a requirement to follow a Membership Action Plan (MAP), Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday.
* Turkey agreed to advance Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Monday, a day before the alliance's summit in the Lithuanian capital, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced.
* Palestine on Monday called on Israel to stop its actions of hostilities in the West Bank instead of claiming that it will save Palestinian Authority (PA) from so-called collapse.
* Dozens of people were killed or injured in clashes between tribesmen and government forces in the central province of Marib in Yemen, as reported by Houthi-run media on Monday.
* Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations.
* The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African bloc, on Monday called on warring parties in Sudan to sign an agreement on ceasefire.
* Latvia's spending on defence could reach 3% of GDP already next year, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said on Tuesday.
* The world risks big misses across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless actions to accelerate implementation are taken, said a UN report released on Monday.
* The European Commission on Monday approved a Data Privacy Framework aimed at ensuring safe data flows between the European Union and the United States.
* Cambodia attracted 113 fixed-asset investment projects worth 1.1 billion USD in the first half of 2023, creating some 122,000 new jobs, said a Council for the Development of Cambodia's report on Tuesday.
* The Bruneian government has taken steps to advance its national solar energy target to 200 megawatts by 2025 and at least 30 percent of the power generation mix by 2035, a minister said on Monday.
* Foreign investment applications to Thailand between January and June surged 70 percent in value from a year earlier, as global companies continued to favor the Southeast Asian country as their production base, a government investment agency said on Monday.
* Australia's major bank group Westpac on Tuesday published its monthly report on consumer confidence, finding that the index rose by 2.7 percent from 79.2 in June to 81.3 in July.
* Latin America and the Caribbean received a record 224.579 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2022, or 55.2 percent more than in 2021, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Monday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Energy Market Authority (EMA) of Singapore have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that paves the way for the development of renewable energy generation and transmission across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region while supporting the establishment of the ASEAN Power Grid, the Manila-based bank said Tuesday.
* The Council of the European Union (EU) adopted on Monday a new regulation that strengthens sustainability rules for batteries and waste batteries.
* Morocco registered 6.5 million tourist arrivals in the first six months of 2023, surpassing the pre-pandemic level in 2019 by 21 percent, the Ministry of Tourism said Monday.
* Indonesia's coast guard said on Tuesday it seized an Iranian-flagged supertanker suspected of involvement in the illegal transshipment of crude oil, and vowed to toughen maritime patrols.
* South Korea's population was projected to drop from the current 52 million to 38 million in 2070 as people refrained from getting married, statistical office data showed on Tuesday. The number of marriages was 192,000 in 2022, sharply down from 295,000 in 1970.
* Torrential rain over Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu triggered floods and landslides that left up to six people dead and rescuers searching for three missing, officials said on Tuesday.
* Rome and other cities across Italy were put on red alert on Monday as the country was bracing for an intense heatwave that meteorologists said was likely to break records.
