* Chinese authorities have issued a guideline on boosting the growth of the private economy, promising to improve its business environment, enhance policy support, and strengthen the legal guarantee for its development.
* The Monsoon Session of the Indian parliament began on Thursday in national capital Delhi, with 31 bills proposed to be taken up for discussion during the 23-day long session.
* Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their solidarity with sanction-hit Venezuela during the just-concluded third European Union-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Wednesday.
* Thailand's Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat suffered major setbacks in his bid to become the country's new prime minister on Wednesday as the parliament denied his renomination.
* Russia will regard all ships sailing in the waters of the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports as "potential carriers of military cargo," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
* Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning, scaling its walls and setting it on fire in protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.
* Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on Thursday said the storming of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad earlier on Thursday was "totally unacceptable".
* Poland's defence ministry is monitoring the situation on the border with Belarus and is prepared for various scenarios, it said on Thursday, after Belarus said mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group would take part in military exercises near the border.
* Finland "will withdraw consent for Russia to operate its Consulate General" in the southwestern city of Turku as of Oct. 1, 2023, the country's government said in Helsinki on Wednesday.
* Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Peru on Wednesday in marches organized by groups opposed to President Dina Boluarte, while police took anti-riot measures against some demonstrators, arresting at least six.
* Oman has presented to Iran its initiatives for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday.
* Stopping settlement expansion and ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is one integrated package for achieving peace and stability in the region, said a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah on Thursday.
* Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed 13 bilateral agreements worth 50.7 billion USD during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, the president's office said.
* Moroccan King Mohammed VI has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a state visit to boost bilateral ties, the Moroccan royal cabinet announced Wednesday.
* The Sudanese Armed Forces announced that 14 people were killed in a drone attack launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday.
* The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) have teamed up to strengthen Namibia's agriculture and fisheries sectors through data-driven initiatives, aiming to address existing data gaps in the agriculture sector.
* Three people, including the gunman, were dead and six others were injured in a "serious" gun incident in Auckland, a city in New Zealand's North Island, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Thursday.
* A policeman was killed and 10 others were injured in a twin suicide blast in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday, police said.
* The U.S. Federal Reserve is due to imminently launch a long-awaited service which will aim to modernize the country's payment system by eventually allowing everyday Americans to send and receive funds in seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
* The European Central Bank will raise interest rates by 25 basis points on July 27, according to all economists in a Reuters poll, a slight majority of whom were now also expecting another hike in September.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wednesday said the Bangladeshi economy is forecast to grow faster than initially expected in 2023, following better export performance.
* The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan totaled 10.71 million in the first half of 2023, equivalent to 64.4 percent of the 2019 level prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, government data showed Wednesday.
* Over 3 million foreign tourists have visited the Philippines in the first half of this year, according to the Philippines' Department of Tourism (DOT) data released Wednesday night.
* The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said on Thursday that it is taking steps in collaboration with Sri Lanka to address the threat to food security caused by two consecutive seasons of poor harvests in 2021 and 2022.
* Myanmar will plant 24.619 million tree saplings this year as part of its concerted efforts to combat deforestation, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.
* Extreme heat warnings were issued across Europe on Wednesday as the best part of the continent was gripped by the most intense heatwave since records began.
* The government of Portugal announced on Wednesday a new program worth 100 million euros (112 million USD) to improve energy efficiency of the residential buildings.
* The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Central Asian countries concluded a summit in Jeddah on Wednesday with plans for further cooperation.
* Many parts of India's ancient holy cities of Vrindavan and Mathura have been flooded by the swollen Yamuna river over the last few days, after heavy rainfall in northern India caused it to breach its banks.
* Dozens of people were injured during a severe thunderstorm in Serbia and one woman died in Bosnia late on Wednesday, hours after the storm ripped through neighboring Slovenia and Croatia.
* Wildfires across Greece were largely contained on Thursday after razing swathes of forest and dozens of homes for days, though a new heatwave loomed, threatening to stoke tinderbox conditions across the country.
