* Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won the most seats in the July 2 parliamentary elections, according to final results announced Saturday. The FLM secured 91 seats in the 407-member National People's Assembly, the lower house of parliament, announced Constitutional Court President Leila Aslaoui, following the review of appeals against provisional results.
* Russian air defense systems have shot down 774 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones and 13 guided aerial bombs over the past 24 hours, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Saturday.
* Ukrainian drone attacks overnight injured 26 people in Russia's Moscow Oblast, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said Saturday.
* The European Union (EU) on Friday voiced concern over Israel's recent decisions to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, warning that the moves would further undermine the viability of a two-state solution.
* German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Germany and France will further strengthen defense cooperation. The remarks came after two days of bilateral meetings held in Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
* Turkish authorities detained 67 irregular migrants and five suspected smugglers in an operation off the southwestern province of Mugla on Friday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
* Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) said Friday that it had destroyed a Tu-95 strategic bomber at Russia's Engels military airfield in the Saratov region. In a statement on Telegram, the SSU said the aircraft had been used by Russia in attacks against Ukraine and was struck by Ukrainian long-range drones during a special operation.
* Croatian authorities have expanded protection and surveillance zones following new African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks in two villages in the eastern part of the country, local media reported Friday.
* Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Saturday that Iran has ceased the fulfillment of its obligations under the peace memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United States as Washington has violated its commitments under the deal, state-run IRIB TV reported.
* The Iranian armed forces announced on Saturday that they had hit U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan in waves of retaliatory missile and drone attacks launched earlier in the day.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) pointed to the recent U.S. "destructive" attacks against Iranian civilian infrastructure, which resulted in civilian casualties, and warned countries in West Asia hosting U.S. military bases that they would face retaliation.
* Authorities of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), on Saturday accused Israel of using a settlement road network to reshape the geography of the West Bank, which it said aims to isolate Palestinian communities and turning them into fragmented enclaves.
* Iran's ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam on Saturday accused the United States of violating a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding (MOU), saying Washington resumed military action contrary to the agreement.
In a post on X, the envoy said a 14-point MOU was reached after months of Pakistan's mediation, with both sides agreeing to continue talks.
* Iraq and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build a crude oil export pipeline running to Syria's Mediterranean coast, the Iraqi government announced on Saturday.
* Turkish authorities detained 119 suspects in coordinated operations targeting the Islamic State (IS) group across 30 provinces on Saturday, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The statement said the operations targeted suspects accused of spreading extremist propaganda through social media and providing financial support to the group.
* U.S. housing starts surged in June, but not enough to fix the nation's housing affordability crisis. Starts jumped 19.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.427 million units, following a sharp drop in May that sent construction activity to a six-year low, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
* Malaysia's economy is estimated to have expanded 5.8 percent in the second quarter of 2026, accelerating from 5.4 percent in the previous quarter, driven by broad-based growth across most sectors, according to advance gross domestic product (GDP) estimates released on Friday.
* Foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments to Nepal during the fiscal year 2025-26, which ended on Thursday, reached 375.5 million USD, with the agriculture sector attracting the largest share, the Department of Industry said on Friday.
* The Indonesian government channeled 65 trillion rupiah (about 3.6 billion USD) in microfinancing to 14.9 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that previously lacked access to banking services between 2017 and June 2026, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said Thursday.
* Belarus' gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 1.5 percent in the first half of 2026, the National Statistical Committee said on Friday. Preliminary estimates indicate that Belarus' GDP in current prices reached 149.6 billion Belarusian rubles (about 51.7 billion USD).
* UN humanitarians continue to scale up support for communities devastated by last month's earthquakes in Venezuela, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
* The death toll from the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela has risen to 5,069, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said Friday. According to an official update released on Telegram by Rodriguez, the number of injured remained at 16,740, while 6,462 people had been rescued.
* China's National Development and Reform Commission on Saturday announced the allocation of 30 million yuan (about 4.4 million USD) from the central budget to support emergency recovery efforts following a landslide in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
* As many as 163 people have lost their lives and one person remains missing in 3,347 disaster-related incidents across Nepal over the past three months, a government agency said on Friday.
