* China has decided to provide Myanmar with 100 million yuan (approximately 13.9 million USD) in emergency humanitarian aid to support earthquake relief efforts, a spokesperson for the China International Development Cooperation Agency said on Saturday.
* Australia's two candidates for Prime Minister have spent the first day of the general election campaign in the battleground state of Queensland where they were both disrupted by protesters. Incumbent PM Anthony Albanese, leader of the governing Labor Party, and Peter Dutton, leader of the opposition Coalition, both made multiple stops in Queensland on Saturday at the start of a five-week campaign before the election on May 3.
* The 20th Central Asia-European Union ministerial meeting took place in Ashgabat, local media reported on Friday. The event was attended by the foreign ministers of Central Asian countries and a delegation from the European Union (EU), led by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.
* Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday spoke with US President Donald Trump about the relationship between the two countries.
* Iran and the three European powers, Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, held a new round of talks on Tehran's nuclear issue the previous day, Iranian authorities said on Friday.
* Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday reinstated the post of Grand Mufti and established a new Supreme Fatwa Council, according to a decree released by the Syrian presidency.
* The African Union (AU) has called on African countries to harness the continent's vast mineral resources through coordinated efforts to drive sustainable development, industrialisation, and economic transformation.
* The European Commission announced on Friday that it will invest 1.3 billion EUR (about 1.41 billion USD) in digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and data, and cybersecurity, by 2027.
* The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday launched the Mount Elgon Transboundary Biosphere Reserve to promote biodiversity conservation along the Kenya-Uganda border.
* Ethiopia has substituted 2.7 billion USD worth of imported products with locally produced commodities during the first eight months of the current fiscal year, which began on July 8, 2024, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency reported on Friday.
* The B-Travel Fair, the largest trade fair in Spain, kicked off on Friday, highlighting key trends reshaping the global tourism industry, including sustainability, digitalisation, and deseasonalisation.
* NASA unveiled the four-member crew for its upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday. The "Crew-11" mission will include NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov.
