* Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao has asserted that China is open to dialogues to properly resolve trade frictions with the European Union (EU), and will take all necessary measures to defend the legitimate interests of Chinese companies.
* The United States, Japan and South Korea agreed to hold new trilateral joint exercises this summer, a joint statement issued by U.S Department of Defense said on Sunday, after a meeting of the three allies' defense ministers.
* Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run for president in the country's June 28 election, organized after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Iran's state television reported on Sunday.
* Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday highlighted the urgency of a ceasefire and the need for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to prevent the armed conflict from spreading.
* The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies decided Sunday to extend their oil production cuts, according to media reports.
* White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday that if Hamas agrees to the deal to end the Gaza war, the U.S. expects Israel to also accept the plan.
* Qatar, the United States, and Egypt have jointly called on Hamas and Israel to finalize an agreement based on the principles of a U.S. proposal, according to a statement from the Qatari foreign ministry on Saturday.
* United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani discussed in Abu Dhabi proposals for a ceasefire deal in Gaza that were laid out on Friday by U.S. President Joe Biden, the UAE state news agency (WAM) reported on Sunday.
* Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. embassy in Jakarta on Saturday to protest Israeli operations on the Rafah refugee camp.
* Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 36,439 Palestinians and wounded 82,627 since Oct. 7, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Sunday.
* An official from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza said Sunday that people in the besieged Palestinian enclave need sufficient food aid to avoid famine.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday that he accepted the invitation to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington.
* The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned Sweden's acting charge d'affaires over his country's "baseless and biased" accusations against Tehran, the official news agency IRNA reported.
* Yemen's Houthi group said Saturday night it had launched fresh attacks on the U.S. aircraft carrier Eisenhower, another U.S. warship and four commercial cargo vessels in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea.
* An overnight shooting in Akron, Ohio, killed one and injured 26 other people early Sunday, local media reported.
* Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed on Saturday to extend the talks over the pandemic agreement for another year, allowing for more time needed to finalize the landmark treaty to combat future pandemics and enhance preparedness.
* NASA and Boeing scrubbed the launch of the first crewed mission of the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday.
* Cambodia's famed Angkor Archaeological Park attracted 472,258 international visitors in the first five months of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 37 percent, said a report from the state-owned Angkor Enterprise on Saturday.
* S&P Global Ratings on Friday downgraded long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Latvia to "A" from "A+", citing economic, fiscal and security risks, the Baltic country's Treasury said on its website.
* Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Center (DMC) issued a major flood alert in the outskirts of capital Colombo and several other areas of the island as heavy rains lashed across the country on Sunday.
* Heavy rains have caused catastrophic flooding in southern Germany, prompting the evacuation of over 600 people from their homes, local media reported.
