* China is willing to work with Thailand to push the building of a community with a shared future to higher levels as China and Thailand celebrated the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meetings in Kuala Lumper on Thursday.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived on Friday night at Wonsan Kalma airport for a visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday.
* Indonesia is seeking to accelerate trade expansion with Latin American countries by pushing for the swift completion of the Indonesia-Mercosur Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IM CEPA).
* China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced Saturday that the country's largest natural uranium project has produced its first barrel of uranium, marking a new phase of sustainable and smart uranium mining in China.
* A barrage of drones and missiles launched by Russian forces overnight on Friday targeted cities in Ukraine's western regions, killing at least two people and injuring 20 others, local authorities reported.
* Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said Friday that U.S. defense assistance to Ukraine, which had been reportedly suspended, is now back.
* The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it will close the Polish Consulate General in Kaliningrad from Aug. 29.
* U.S. President Donald Trump announced Saturday morning that 30 percent tariffs will be imposed on the European Union and Mexico as of Aug. 1.
* Canada will continue the trade talks with the United States towards the revised deadline of Aug. 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday.
* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Saturday that Washington's decision to impose 30 percent tariffs on European Union (EU) exports risks severely disrupting transatlantic supply chains, and pledged that the EU would respond with countermeasures if necessary.
* U.S. proposal to slap 50 percent tariffs on imports from Brazil could trigger Brazil's Reciprocity Law, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday. Lula said that if the 50 percent tariff takes effect on Aug. 1 as announced, his government will enforce the law while keeping negotiations open.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday declared "a new page" in history for Türkiye, as the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) begins the disarmament process.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemns the resumption of attacks on civilian vessels in the Red Sea by the Houthis in Yemen, said his spokesman on Friday.
* The Norwegian government is providing 40 million Norwegian kroner (approximately 3.9 million USD) to support emergency humanitarian efforts by the World Food Programme (WFP) in South Sudan and Haiti, in response to growing food insecurity and humanitarian crises in both countries.
* Myanmar held national tree-planting ceremonies to green 13 drought-prone districts in the country's central dry zone, the state-run daily The Mirror reported on Saturday.
* India's federal civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday that a report released by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on the last month's B787-8 aircraft crash that killed 260 people was based on preliminary findings and stressed no conclusions will be drawn until the final report is out.
* Kazakhstan plans to introduce a temporary ban on the export of non-ferrous metals by all modes of transport until Dec. 31, 2025, the press service of the Kazakh prime minister said in a statement Friday. The ban applies to unprocessed copper, aluminum slabs and billets, and lead ingots.
* Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov signed a bill into law which imposes fines for disseminating false information in media and on the internet, the president's official website said Friday.
* Indonesia's population reached 286.6 million as of June 2025, marking an increase of approximately 1.7 million people compared to December 2024, according to the latest report by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
* Malaysia's population is projected to reach its peak of 42.38 million in 2059, before slowly declining starting 2060, official projections showed Friday.
* More than 5,000 Afghan refugee families, with the vast majority of them from Iran, returned to their homeland Afghanistan in a single day on Thursday, reported the state-run Bakhtar news agency on Friday.
* The Philippines has lifted the temporary ban on the importation of domestic and wild birds and their by-products from Japan, following confirmation that the country is now free from highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Philippines' Department of Agriculture (DA) said Friday.
* Lebanese President Joseph Aoun affirmed on Friday that normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel is currently not under consideration, emphasizing that Lebanon's current focus is on maintaining peace, not entering formal ties.
* A member of Lebanon's Hezbollah was killed Saturday in an Israeli drone strike on southeastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese sources.
* Nearly 800 people have been killed while trying to access humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday.
* Laos recorded an average inflation rate of 10.9 percent in the first half of 2025, marking a sharp decline from 25.3 percent during the same period in 2024, according to the latest report from the Lao Statistics Bureau.
* Cambodia collected 1.47 billion USD in customs revenue in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent, the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE) said on Saturday.
* The Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) plans to use solar energy in rice mills producing rice for export, U Ye Min Aung, president of the Myanmar Rice Federation told Xinhua on Friday.
* 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.
* Torrential monsoon rains and flash floods have claimed at least 98 lives and left 185 others injured across Pakistan since June 26, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Friday.
* Britain is bracing for its third heatwave of the year with exceptionally hot and dry weather conditions prevailing in large parts of the country.
* Wildfires in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH)'s Trebinje region have entered their sixth day, with flames still active in some mountainous areas and nearby villages, according to local authorities on Friday.
