* Tanzania's parliament on Thursday unanimously approved the appointment of Mwigulu Nchemba as the country's new prime minister, following his nomination by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
* The Brazilian presidency of the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) reported initial progress in climate negotiations on Wednesday, emphasizing a "constructive spirit" among participating delegations.
* Preliminary results announced by Iraq's electoral commission on Wednesday showed that the coalition led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani has emerged as the frontrunner in the country's parliamentary elections.
* Russian air defense systems have shot down 157 fixed-wing drones, a guided aerial bomb and a long-range Neptune missile, Russia's Defense Ministry said Thursday. Russia's Black Sea Fleet also destroyed four Ukrainian unmanned boats, the ministry added.
* Poland will not participate in the European Union's (EU) migrant relocation mechanism, Polish Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwinski said Wednesday on social media platform X.
* Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov said Wednesday that Belarus is in favor of restoring the normal functioning of its border with Lithuania.
* Venezuela's Bolivarian National Armed Forces on Wednesday continued large-scale military exercises dubbed "Independence Plan 200," marking the second day of the drills that include the activation of the country's national comprehensive defense command, local media reported.
* Amid continuing calls for greater aid access, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday that Israel has announced it is reopening the Zikim crossing into the north of the Gaza Strip.
* Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday called on France and other European countries to provide military support to the Lebanese army ahead of the planned withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday exchanged views on Tehran's cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
* Israeli settlers set fire to parts of a mosque northwest of Salfit in the West Bank on Thursday and wrote anti-Islam slogans on its walls, the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Commission Against the Wall and Settlements said in a brief statement.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi held a phone call on Thursday with Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani to discuss bilateral relations and regional developments.
* China will take further steps to tangibly facilitate the entry of more high-quality products and services from a wider range of countries into its market, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.
* Russia's information technology (IT) industry has nearly doubled over the past five years, contributing 2.4 percent of the country's GDP, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Wednesday.
* Trade in agricultural and food products between China and ASEAN reached 51.3 billion USD in the first ten months of this year, up 8.9 percent year on year, according to China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Thursday.
* India and Canada held talks on Thursday to discuss ways to boost trade, promote investment, and deepen bilateral cooperation, officials said. The two sides discussed the issues at the 7th India-Canada Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment in New Delhi.
* India and Nepal inked a deal to boost rail trade connectivity in New Delhi on Thursday, officials said. The deal was signed during a meeting between India's federal Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Nepali counterpart Anil Kumar Sinha.
* The Philippine government will ramp up public spending to align with its original national expenditure plan and offset the slower growth recorded in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025, the country's President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos said on Thursday.
* Myanmar exported more than 1.5 million tons of rice and broken rice in the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2025-2026, the state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television reported on Thursday.
* The Republic of Korea's rice output logged the second-lowest so far this year due to the record-low rice paddies, statistical office data showed Thursday. Rice production totaled 3,539,000 tons, down 1.3 percent from a year earlier.
* India's federal government on Wednesday approved spending of 5.1 billion USD on Export Promotion Mission (EPM) and expansion of Credit Guarantee Scheme for Exporters (CGSE).
* The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees, the agency announced in a statement Thursday. The agreement allocates more than 1.8 million USD to support returning refugees, the statement added.
* More than 500 police officers carried out nationwide raids early Thursday as the Maldives launched its most extensive anti-narcotics operation in recent years, state broadcaster PSM News reported.
* New Zealand's net migration gain fell sharply to 12,400 in the year ending September 2025, marking the lowest annual total for a September year since 2013, excluding COVID-affected years, Stats NZ reported Thursday.
* Australia's unemployment rate fell in October after hitting the highest level in almost four years in September, official figures published on Thursday showed. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in October compared to 4.5 percent in September, which was the highest figure for any month since November 2021.
* The U.S. Mint on Wednesday ended production of the one-cent coins, or the penny, which have circulated for more than two centuries.
* Türkiye has suspended flights of all C-130 military cargo aircraft following a crash earlier this week in Georgia that killed 20 Turkish soldiers, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.
* Mongolia's National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring on Thursday issued a warning of heavy snow and strong winds. Starting Thursday night, snowstorms will hit western and central provinces of the country, with an average wind speed estimated at 18-24 meters per second, said the weather monitoring agency.
