* Chinese President Xi Jinping called Bill Gates "an old friend" and said he hoped they could cooperate in a way that would benefit both China and the United States, in Xi's first meeting with a foreign entrepreneur in years.
* Mexican Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez has resigned from his post to compete for the ruling party's candidacy in next year's presidential elections, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday.
* Iran and Cuba have reaffirmed their common stance in the face of challenges and vowed to boost bilateral ties as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi concluded his official visit in Havana on Thursday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukraine would soon run out of its own military equipment, making it totally reliant on hardware supplied by the West.
* U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he urged Turkey to allow Sweden's entry into NATO during an introductory meeting on Friday with his new Turkish counterpart during a gathering of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
* Canada will bolster its force in Latvia as part of NATO efforts to build a combat capable brigade there with the deployment of 15 Leopard 2A4M tanks, their supporting personnel and equipment, the defence minister said on Friday.
* The Swedish government has decided on a 12th support package to Ukraine, worth 250 million crowns ($23.7 million), that includes Ukrainian pilots test flying the Nordic country's Gripen fighter jets, it said on Friday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday thanked the president of the United Arab Emirates for his efforts in freeing prisoners of war in Ukraine and hailed what he said were expanding economic ties between Moscow and Abu Dhabi.
* International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) on Thursday, Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy operator Energoatom said in a Telegram post.
* Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Thursday met with visiting Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss strengthening bilateral ties.
* Turkey on Thursday summoned Jean-Daniel Ruch, the Swiss ambassador to Ankara over a demonstration in Zurich, Switzerland against its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which protesters burned Erdogan's effigy.
* As the conflict in Sudan enters its third month, humanitarian situation across the country continues to deteriorate, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday.
* Azerbaijan and Pakistan will develop a new program of cooperation, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday.
* The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Friday it had resumed delivering services in the West Bank after a months-long strike that affected thousands.
* Turkish police have detained 96 illegal immigrants in Istanbul in a major operation, local media reported on Friday.
* South Korea was expected to be one of the world's oldest countries in 2070 due to the fastest population aging, statistical office estimate showed Friday. The proportion of South Korean people aged 75 or higher to the country's total population stood at 7.7 percent in 2023, according to Statistics Korea.
* China's cabinet met on Friday to discuss measures to spur growth in the economy, state media reported, pledging to roll out policy steps in a timely way amid signs that a post-COVID recovery is fading.
* President Vladimir Putin said Russia's economy may grow by up to 2% this year as it bounces back from last year's contraction in the face of sweeping Western sanctions.
* The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates by a quarter point to a 15-year high of 4.75% on June 22, its 13th straight rate rise as it fights unexpectedly sticky inflation that risks making it a global outlier.
* South Korea saw its economy remain in a state of a downturn for the fifth consecutive month due to a continued slump in the manufacturing industry, the government report showed on Friday.
* Malaysia's foreign direct investment (FDI) recorded 74.6 billion ringgit (16.15 billion USD), while its direct investment abroad (DIA) registered 58.6 billion ringgit (12.9 billion dollars) in 2022, official data showed on Friday.
* New Zealand's food and fiber sector is on track to set a new record high, with export earnings to hit 56.2 billion NZ dollars (34.81 billion USD) by June 30, 2.3 percent higher than projected, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Thursday.
* The Finnish Ministry of Finance on Thursday predicted the Finnish gross domestic product (GDP) would not grow this year. Economic growth is blocked by the increase in prices and interest rates, which has slowed household consumption and private investment.
* Kenya has presented its 3.68 trillion shilling (25.8 billion USD) budget for the 2023/24 financial year, which aims at the country's economic turnaround.
* A staff team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Ghana's economy had started showing signs of stability after the start of the IMF's three-year support program.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 jolted south of the Fiji Islands at 18:06:27 GMT on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 167.404 km, was initially determined to be at 22.9824 degrees south latitude and 177.2075 degrees west longitude.
* From U.S. south central state of Texas to southeastern Florida, about 35 million people are bracing for a widespread heat wave which is expected to last for days, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) forecast on Thursday.
