* The UN Security Council on Friday strongly condemned Wednesday's military coup in Niger that ousted President Mohammed Bazoum.
* The European Union has suspended its financial support and cooperation on security with Niger with immediate effect, the EU's senior diplomat said on Saturday, after soldiers there staged a military coup.
* U.S. President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a trilateral summit at Camp David in Maryland on Aug. 18, the White House said on Friday.
* The Group of 20 (G20) major nations failed on Friday to agree on concrete targets to cut dangerous emissions, releasing only a statement that dismissed current measures to address climate change as "insufficient".
* COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber on Friday called on the Group of 20 nations to take a leadership role in mitigating climate change, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) official news agency WAM reported.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Friday that solutions to ongoing global conflicts should be based on the purposes of the UN Charter and the principles of international law. Sisi made the remarks while addressing the second Russia-Africa summit in Russia's St. Petersburg, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.
* Russia and African countries have agreed to cooperate to seek compensation for the damage caused by colonialism and to pursue the return of cultural artifacts, according to the final declaration of a Russia-Africa summit, published on the Kremlin's website.
* U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday a deal may be on the way with Saudi Arabia after talks that his national security adviser had with Saudi officials in Jeddah aimed at reaching a normalization in relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
* The commander of Sudan's paramilitary at war with the Sudanese army has demanded a change of command from the latter as a precondition to an urgent solution to the Sudan crisis.
* The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province arrested 17 terrorists during intelligence-based operations, the police said on Friday.
* Islamic State on Friday claimed responsibility for an attack on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, that killed several people and wounded others, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
* The African Union (AU) Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and the European Union Capacity Building Mission in Somalia (EUCAP Somalia) have wrapped up a two-week specialized training on maritime security as part of ongoing efforts to protect the country's long coastline.
* A China-Europe freight train departed from the city of Yiwu in east China's Zhejiang Province on Saturday morning for Madrid, Spain, marking the 10,000th trip of China-Europe freight trains this year.
* U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, rose 3 percent in June over the past year, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.
* Russia's Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday, compared to 42.4 mcm on Friday.
* Canada's real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 0.2 percent in June following 0.3 percent increase in May, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
* The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it has reached a staff-level agreement with Argentina to unlock about $7.5 billion and complete the fifth and sixth reviews of the struggling country's $44 billion loan program.
* The Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) approved a $1 billion loan for Argentina on Friday, a spokesperson from the economy ministry said, ahead of a key payment deadline with the International Monetary Fund next week.
* NASA and commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman are targeting next Tuesday, Aug. 1, for the launch of the company's 19th resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
* The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe highlighted the urgent need on Friday to provide healthcare to communities and reverse the predicted 55 percent increase in liver cancer rates over the next two decades.
* Mozambique is taking action to protect its forests as the southern African country loses about 267,000 hectares of forests every year, a senior official said on Friday.
* Rain began to soak northern China on Saturday as Doksuri, one of the strongest storms to hit the country in years, rolled toward Beijing after pummelling the Philippines and Taiwan (China), and lashing China's coast.
* Japan's weather agency said a blistering heat wave continued to grip much of Japan on Saturday, with heatstroke alerts issued for 38 prefectures across the country.
* UN humanitarians on Friday warned of the risk for displaced people in Northwest Syria in temperatures from 30 to 46 degrees Celsius.
* Wildfires raging in Southern Italy began to spread North on Friday as the country remained in the grips of bouts of record-setting severe weather.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday disclosed that a cholera outbreak, which started in August 2022, has spread to 42 districts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNP Region) of Ethiopia and resulted in more than 4,000 cases.
* Myanmar saw a sharp decline in dengue fever cases and fatalities this year, with 6,685 cases and 30 deaths reported as of July 15, according to the Ministry of Health.
