* The number of registered voters across Pakistan has reached 134.43 million, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Wednesday. The male voters account for 72.12 million, while female voters stand at 62.30 million, the ECP figures showed.
* Romania's opposition party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), on Thursday filed a motion of censure against the government's first package of fiscal measures, condemning the executive's decision to bypass a parliamentary vote on the reforms.
* Belarus is focusing on the experience of its strategic ally, Russia, in the military sphere, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus Pavel Muraveiko said Thursday in an interview with Belarus Segodnya publishing house.
* Visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called on the international community to impose tougher sanctions on Russia and increase support for Ukraine's post-conflict reconstruction.
* Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to advance efforts toward normalizing relations between their countries, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said on Thursday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a 35 percent tariff on imports from Canada starting Aug. 1. Trump posted a letter addressed to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on his social media platform Truth Social, criticizing Canada for retaliating against previous U.S. tariffs.
* Sri Lanka will continue talks with U.S. officials to secure further reductions in tariffs, a senior official said on Thursday. Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said at a press conference that the United States has reduced tariffs on Sri Lankan exports from 44 percent to 30 percent.
* Hungary has summoned Ukraine's ambassador in Budapest after an ethnic Hungarian man reportedly died following an alleged beating by military recruiters in western Ukraine's Transcarpathian region, a senior Hungarian official said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
* Estonia may block the adoption of the European Union's (EU) 18th sanctions package against Russia if the price cap on Russian oil is not dropped to 45 USD per barrel, Minister of Foreign Margus Tsahkna has indicated on Wednesday.
* Cambodia on Thursday dispatched the 11th batch of 244 peacekeepers, including 13 women, to join a United Nations peacekeeping operation in war-torn Central African Republic (CAR).
* Bulgarian authorities have captured a refrigerator truck illegally transporting 16 migrants at the city of Ruse near the border with Romania, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
* The European Commission on Thursday released the final version of a voluntary code of practice for general-purpose artificial intelligence (GPAI), aimed at helping companies align with the European Union's AI Act.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel is prepared to negotiate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza during a proposed 60-day truce, but only if the territory is fully demilitarized.
* Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the country's continuation of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is contingent upon the UN nuclear watchdog correcting its "double-standard behaviors" towards Tehran's nuclear program.
* Iraq's Civil Defense Directorate said Thursday that it is preparing to send 20 firefighting teams to neighboring Syria to help put out wildfires raging across Syria's northwestern province of Latakia.
* UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg on Thursday expressed deep concern over recent escalating attacks by Houthi forces in the Red Sea, including incidents that led to the sinking of two commercial vessels and resulted in casualties.
* Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday called on the European Union (EU) to launch a comprehensive initiative to support the Lebanese army, warning that a deterioration in security would have repercussions across the region.
* Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday issued a series of decrees establishing the Development Fund, the Sovereign Fund, and the Supreme Council for Economic Development, as part of efforts to support the war-torn country's reconstruction, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
* Uganda on Thursday reopened several border crossing posts with the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including areas near positions held by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group.
* The number of Americans making new claims for unemployment benefits dropped in the week ending July 5, signaling that companies may be hanging on to employees, according to data released by the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday.
* Cambodia's foreign trade volume hit 30.57 billion USD in the first half of 2025, up 17 percent over the same period last year, an official report said on Thursday.
* Year-on-year inflation in the Czech Republic accelerated to 2.9 percent in June from 2.4 percent in May, the highest so far this year, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said on Thursday.
* Cote d'Ivoire plans to establish a 450 billion CFA francs (about 800 million USD) fund to support startups and technological innovation in the country, Ivorian Minister of Digital Transition and Digitalization Ibrahim Kalil Konate announced on Thursday.
* U.S. sanctions against Francesca Albanese - a UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory - are unacceptable, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.
* Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing has stressed the need to continue working on flood control and disaster reduction to fully ensure the safety of people and their property.
* Continuous heavy rainfall has triggered flash floods and landslides across several parts of Laos, leaving one people dead and several others missing, and causing significant damage to homes and agricultural land.
* At least 85 people were killed and 34 others reported missing, besides 129 injured in the monsoon rains during the past 20 days in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, officials said Thursday.
* Monsoon rains and flash floods have killed at least 90 people and injured 157 others across Pakistan since June 26, the country's disaster management agency said on Thursday.
* Canada's Manitoba on Thursday declared another province-wide state of emergency as wildfires continue to threaten communities. The provincial government said in a news release that the declaration was based on the recommendation from the province's wildfire and emergency management officials.
