* The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa announced that by 4:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, over 22 percent of votes had been captured in the country's 2024 national and provincial elections (NPE 2024).
* Former Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani was among candidates registering on Friday for an early election next month following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, state media reported.
* Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met on Friday during the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
* China and five Central Asian nations (including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) have officially established a China-Central Asia emergency management cooperation mechanism.
* Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister James Marape on Friday made his first visit to a remote village hit by a deadly landslide last week and thanked international aid donors for their support.
* Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was released from hospital and taken to his apartment in Bratislava on Thursday, Slovak media reported.
* A jury in New York on Thursday found former U.S. President Donald Trump guilty on all charges in the hush money case. Trump became the first former president in U.S. history convicted of a crime.
* The super-large multiple rocket units of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted a power demonstration firing under the order of its top leader, in response to the moves by South Korea of infringing upon the DPRK sovereignty, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.
* The Asia Pacific Rail 2024 was held in the Thai capital with the aim of sharing latest technologies and development trends in railway transportation across the Asia-Pacific region, discussing challenges and opportunities in achieving sustainable development goals, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting eco-friendly railway solutions.
* China will not attend a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland next month because it does not meet its expectations, which include both Russia and Ukraine taking part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, confirming an exclusive Reuters report.
* Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia was not bluffing when it spoke of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine and warned Moscow's conflict with the West could escalate into all-out war.
* NATO's plans to get more involved in the war in Ukraine are like a firefighter trying to put out a fire with a flamethrower, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he had arrived in Sweden with plans to sign three bilateral security agreements.
* The Ukrainian military on Thursday struck the ferry crossing over the Kerch Strait with long-range ATACMS missiles, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on Facebook.
* Ukraine's existing security agreements with foreign partners envisage providing more than 23 billion USD in aid to Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
* Foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states gathered in the Czech capital on Thursday for a two-day informal meeting to discuss support for Ukraine and preparations for the July NATO summit in Washington D.C, the United States.
* Poland is currently organising its 45th package of aid for Ukraine, the foreign minister said on Friday.
* The Council of the European Union (EU) on Thursday green-lighted the EU and Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community) to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty.
* China and Tunisia have established a strategic partnership, Chinese state media Xinhua reported on Friday. The two countries first formed diplomatic ties in 1964.
* Argentina naval forces and a U.S. fleet including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington carried out naval exercises on Thursday in waters off the South American nation, a show of closer ties under new President Javier Milei.
* Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, the same volume as on Thursday.
* Hamas announced on Thursday that it has informed mediators of its readiness to reach a "full agreement," including a comprehensive hostages-prisoners exchange deal, if Israel stops its war in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement from the Gaza-ruling Palestinian faction.
* Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Thursday that international aid is still on its way to Gaza despite damage caused by rough seas to the temporary pier there.
* The foreign ministers of Pakistan and Azerbaijan on Thursday agreed to broaden the scope of cooperation in all areas of mutual interest including trade, defense, climate action, and regional connectivity among others, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement in Islamabad.
* Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, on his first official visit to Mali on Thursday, said he raised the question of remaining in regional bloc ECOWAS with his Malian counterpart, who was "not totally inflexible" on the matter.
* The U.S. and British militaries said they launched strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Thursday as part of efforts to deter the militant group from further disrupting shipping in the Red Sea, with Houthi media reporting at least two persons killed.
* The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing are targeting Saturday, June 1, for the launch of the first crewed mission of the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), according to NASA.
* China's factory activity moderated in May from a high comparative basis, while services activity remained stable, official data showed Friday. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the country's manufacturing sector came in at 49.5 in May, down from 50.4 in April, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
* Euro zone inflation rose in May, data showed on Friday, in a sign the European Central Bank still faces a slow and uncertain journey to rein in prices.
* Industrial producer prices in Italy fell for the sixth consecutive month in April, the country's statistics entity reported Thursday, due largely to continued decreases in energy costs.
* South Korean banks' bad loan ratio rose in the first quarter due to more new delinquent loans than bad loan settlements, financial watchdog data showed Friday.
* The Saudi Arabian government on Thursday announced that it would sell a new stake in state oil giant Aramco that could raise as much as 13.1 billion USD.
* At least 15 people have died of suspected heatstroke in India's eastern states of Bihar and Odisha on Thursday, authorities said, with the region gripped in a debilitating heatwave expected to continue until Saturday.
* China strengthened its typhoon response on Thursday evening as a tropical depression in the East Sea/South China Sea will likely intensify, becoming this year's second typhoon and making landfall on the southern coast on Friday.
* A Jetstar Airways aircraft had steering issues while landing at Christchurch Airport on Friday morning, the airline said in a statement, with local media reporting it left the runway.
* Volcanic activity in the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland has declined following eruptions that occurred on Wednesday, local authorities confirmed on Thursday.
