* Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman was elected president of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday. Rahman will take office when the 81st UNGA session convenes in September for a one-year term.
* Denmark's new four-party government said Tuesday that it will stand firm on sovereignty, territorial integrity and the right to self-determination, as it outlined its policy position on Greenland in a new political program.
* A total of 50 drones were shot down in Russia's Leningrad Region on Wednesday, ahead of an international economic forum in Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg, which is surrounded by the region, said regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko.
* Visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Tuesday that technical negotiations regarding the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine are progressing positively, and that he is ready to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky early next week.
* The Brazilian government on Tuesday rebutted a U.S. proposal to impose new tariffs on Brazilian products, expressing "indignation" over what it called unfair trade practices by the United States.
* The Canadian government has officially notified the United States and Mexico of its intention to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), according to Canadian media reports.
* The State Council, China's cabinet, has issued a plan to accelerate agricultural and rural modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period.
* Israel's defense exports reached a record 19.2 billion USD in 2025, a year-on-year increase of about 30 percent, according to an annual report issued by the Israeli Defense Ministry on Tuesday.
* German defense giant Rheinmetall announced on Tuesday that it has secured a 5.7-billion-euro (6.6 billion USD) contract to supply Romania with combat vehicles, air defense systems and naval vessels.
* Fiji and Israel have signed a bilateral agreement aimed at expanding cooperation in key sectors, including agriculture, water management, energy, digital transformation, healthcare and cybersecurity.
* U.S. forces carried out "self-defense" strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in response to "attempted attacks by Iran across the Middle East" on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said.
* U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that a peace deal between Washington and Tehran is within reach and that Iran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program. Rubio made the remarks during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Tuesday discussed the development of the U.S.-Iran negotiation process with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and U.S. president's special envoy Steve Witkoff.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's goal of seizing 70 percent of the Gaza Strip was not part of the U.S.-drafted 20-point plan to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas and rebuild the territory, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
* A new round of ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon is underway at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., as clashes between Israel and Hezbollah continue. The meeting lasted all day on Tuesday and is set to continue on Wednesday, said a CNN report, citing an Israeli official.
* Kuwait suspended flight operations at Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday after drones and missiles struck the airport's Terminal 1, causing significant damage to facilities and injuring several people, Kuwaiti authorities said.
* New, slower Israeli screening procedures at the only operational cargo crossing into Gaza have triggered significant congestion and delays for aid convoys, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
* Bahrain announced on Tuesday that its citizens would be banned from travelling to Iran and Iraq until further notice.
* Seventeen terrorists were killed in security forces operations in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, the military said on Tuesday.
* Global economic growth is projected to slow from 3.4 percent in 2025 to 2.8 percent in 2026, before recovering to 3.1 percent in 2027, according to the latest Economic Outlook released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday.
* Annual inflation in the eurozone is expected to reach 3.2 percent in May, up from 3.0 percent in April, the highest level in nearly three years, date released on Tuesday showed.
* Britain's economic growth is expected to remain subdued through 2026 and 2027 due to the fallout from the Middle East conflict, according to the latest economic forecast released Tuesday by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
* Australia's rate of economic growth fell to 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2026, according to official data released on Wednesday.
* New Zealand's services exports rose sharply in the March 2026 quarter, driven largely by increased visitor spending, official data showed on Wednesday. Services exports climbed 17 percent to 11.5 billion New Zealand dollars in the quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Stats NZ.
* Indonesia recorded 4.68 million foreign tourist arrivals during the January-April period of 2026, the highest level for the same period since 2020, according to data released by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Tuesday. The figure was up 8.24 percent year on year, reflecting the continued recovery of the country's tourism sector.
* Russian airlines carried 30.8 million passengers in the first four months of 2026, down 1.2 percent year on year, the Federal Air Transport Agency said on Tuesday.
* The European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have strengthened cooperation to support the response to ongoing Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO Europe) said Tuesday.
* The number of suspected Ebola cases still under investigation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has dropped sharply to 116, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.
* Ghana has initiated screening protocols for passengers from Ebola high-risk regions, Ghanaian Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said Tuesday.
* The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Tuesday that it does not implement any programs aimed at settling migrants in Libya and does not take over the role of state institutions in managing migration-related issues.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that the world has experienced its 11 hottest years on record, calling on countries to accelerate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and step up efforts to tackle global warming.
* Fueled by unusually warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, El Nino conditions are developing and are set to influence global temperature and rainfall patterns, increasing the risk of extreme weather over the coming months, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday.
* France experienced its hottest spring in 2026 since climate records began in 1900, with temperatures significantly above seasonal norms and rainfall well below average, according to a report released on Tuesday by the French national weather service Meteo-France.
* Typhoon Jangmi made landfall in the southern part of Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan on Wednesday morning, prompting the weather agency to temporarily issue a Level 5 special flood warning.
