* North Macedonia's parliament on late Sunday approved the new government led by Hristijan Mickoski, leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party.
* Russia will give adequate response if the United States closes Russia's visa center, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.
* China's state planner said on Monday that it was urging local governments to ease car purchase restrictions and steadily promote commercialisation of autonomous driving.
* Warships of Russia's Pacific Fleet have carried out artillery firing targeting aerial and maritime targets as part of bilateral tactical drills involving fleet force groupings in the Sea of Japan and Okhotsk, local media reported on Monday.
* EU countries on Monday agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia over its “special military operation” in Ukraine. The EU's 14th package of sanctions against Russia includes a ban on reloading Russian liquefied natural gas in the EU for further shipment to third countries.
* Bahrain and Iran have agreed to start talks aimed at resuming political relations between the two countries, Bahrain's state news agency reported on Sunday.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that intense fighting against Hamas is "very close" to an end.
* European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that the Middle East was close to seeing the conflict expanding into Lebanon just days after Lebanon's Hezbollah threatened EU member Cyprus.
* Greece's foreign minister said on Monday that threats by Lebanon's Hezbollah against Cyprus were unacceptable and the European Union would stand by member states against all such threats.
* At least 37,598 Palestinians have been killed and 86,032 others injured in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.
* Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it recorded 1,301 deaths among pilgrims during Hajj season, 83 percent of whom were unregistered individuals.
* United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Monday the master of a merchant vessel reported an explosion in close proximity to it, 246 nautical miles southeast of Yemen's Nishtun.
* Yemen's Houthi group on Sunday claimed responsibility for attacking two cargo ships in the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean.
* Singapore's core inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), came in 3.1 percent year-on-year in May, unchanged from April, official data showed Monday.
* New Zealand's total exports were valued at 7.2 billion NZ dollars (4.4 billion USD) in May, a record high for monthly exports, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Monday.
* Myanmar earned 1.19 billion USD from agricultural product export in almost three months of the current fiscal year 2024-25, according to the Ministry of Commerce on Sunday.
* The Swedish government on Monday raised its economic growth forecast for 2024, and lowered that for headline inflation. The government now sees GDP growth of 1.4% this year and 2.4% in 2025. Its previous forecasts, published in March and reiterated in the spring budget in April, were for 0.7% and 2.5% growth, respectively.
* The World Bank announced on Monday $700 million of budget support for Egypt, part of a 3-year, $6 billion programme that the bank pledged earlier this year amid a windfall of foreign financing for the indebted North African country.
* China's reusable carrier rocket successfully completed a 10-km vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) flight test at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Sunday.
* The death toll from Sunday's attacks in the southern Russian region of Dagestan has risen to 19 people, Russia's investigative committee said on Monday.
* Thousands of people have been displaced in India's north-eastern state of Assam and at least 37 people have died in heavy rain, floods and landslides in the last two months, officials said on Monday.
* Thousands of people in an eastern Chinese tourist city have been evacuated and dozens of scenic attractions closed as torrential rain continues to lash parts of this region.
* An intensive heat wave continued to grip much of the United States this weekend, triggering record-breaking temperatures and placing millions of people under heat alerts.
* At least seven people have been confirmed dead as a landslide struck a village in east Afghanistan's Paktia province, state-run media Bakhtar News Agency reported Monday.
* Canadian officials have evacuated 225 inmates from a maximum-security prison in Quebec due to intensifying forest fires in the area, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) said on Sunday.
