* Bangladesh has formally requested to join BRICS, an acronym of five major emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
* China is willing to work with the United States to increase passenger flights between them in a "flexible and pragmatic manner", the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
* Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Monday urged the United States to take serious measures to protect the two-state solution and recognize the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
* Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced Monday the reopening of their respective embassies and consulates with immediate effect. The detente was broadly welcomed by regional leaders and analysts.
* The international community should focus on prevention as the most effective approach to ending the global menace of terrorism, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.
* India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Tesla TSLA.O Chief Executive Elon Musk in the United States, Reuters' partner ANI reported on Tuesday.
* Norway has announced to provide 250 million Norwegian kroner (23 million USD) this year to support nuclear safety and security efforts in Ukraine, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt.
* Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and Deputy Chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council Malik Agar discussed on Monday the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the international and regional initiatives to resolve the ongoing armed conflict in the country.
* Technical committees from Israel and Cyprus are scheduled to open talks in July on an energy interconnector between the two eastern Mediterranean countries, the first such project in the region, Cyprus's Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry George Papanastasiou said in Nicosia on Monday.
* The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has already initiated the withdrawal of its mission in the country, said MONUSCO chief Bintou Keita late Monday.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi met with visiting EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday, discussing bilateral relations and regional hotspot issues.
* South Korea's overseas direct investment recorded a double-digit fall in the first quarter, government data showed on Tuesday.
* Brazil's financial market has upgraded forecast for the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year from 1.84 percent to 2.14 percent, the Central Bank of Brazil said on Monday. This marks the sixth week in a row that analysts have improved projections for Brazil's 2023 economic growth.
* British grocery inflation eased slightly for the third month in a row in June, industry data showed on Tuesday, providing a modicum of comfort for consumers worn down by a cost of living crisis into its second year.
* Pakistani President Arif Alvi said that his country continued to host one of the largest refugee populations in the world, showing Pakistan's unwavering resolve and commitment to the welfare and voluntary repatriation of refugees.
* The Portuguese economy presented an external surplus of 693 million euros (757 million USD) from January to April, according to data released by the Bank of Portugal on Monday.
* Glaciers in Asia’s Hindu Kush Himalaya could lose up to 75% of their volume by century’s end due to global warming, causing both dangerous flooding and water shortages for the 240 million people who live in the mountainous region, according to a new report.
* More than 35 million people in multiple southern states of the United States, including Texas, Louisiana and Florida, are experiencing a widespread heat wave that is expected to last for days, according to the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS).
* Large parts of Mongolia are now experiencing an intense heatwave that is expected to last until the end of this week, the country's weather monitoring agency said Tuesday.
* Tropical Storm Bret over the central Atlantic could become a hurricane in the next couple of days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory on Monday.
* Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano erupted on Monday, throwing ash as high as 1.5 km, according to the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation on Monday.
