* Nearly 42,000 people in the Gaza Strip are living with life-changing injuries as a result of the ongoing conflict, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in its latest update released on Thursday. One in four of these victims are children.
* Russia and Ukraine exchanged 185 prisoners of war (POWs) each under an agreement reached during recent talks in Istanbul, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
* On the first day of a federal government shutdown, Russell Vought, the White House budget director, said Wednesday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will start a mass firing of federal workers in the next "one to two" days.
* Moscow will have a "very firm response" if the European Union (EU) takes any actions targeting Russian assets, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
* European leaders convened in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Thursday for the seventh meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), with Ukraine's prospects for future ties with the European Union (EU) high on the agenda.
* The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement between Tehran and Moscow came into effect on Thursday, said Iran's Foreign Ministry.
* Lithuania has extended the closure of part of its airspace along the border with Belarus until Dec. 1, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported Thursday. The restricted zone was first introduced on Aug. 12 and was initially set to remain in place until October.
* The Romanian government approved on Thursday a draft law allowing young adults to participate in voluntary military training. The initiative, announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Ionut Mosteanu, targets individuals aged 18 to 35 and is part of a broader effort to modernize and rejuvenate the country's operational military reserve.
* Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday demanded the "immediate repatriation" of six Mexicans Israeli authorities took into custody after intercepting a flotilla that attempted to deliver aid to Gaza.
* The Israeli navy intercepted the last vessel of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, Israel's state-owned Kan TV News channel reported.
* Israel's interception of an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza has sparked condemnation across Europe, with governments urging Israel to ensure the safety of their citizens aboard the Gaza-bound vessels.
* Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Thursday condemned the Group of Seven (G7) for backing the reinstatement of UN sanctions on Tehran.
* Kazakhstan expects to ship 1.7 million tons of oil to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline system by the end of 2025, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reported Thursday, citing Askhat Khassenov, head of the national oil and gas company KazMunayGas.
* Global demand for the primary energy resource of oil is projected to grow 23 percent, rising from 308 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to 378 million barrels by 2050, according to a report by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Kazinform news agency reported Thursday.
* China's railways handled a record 23.13 million passenger trips on Wednesday, the first day of the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, the national railway operator said on Thursday.
* Cambodia attracted fixed-asset investment of 7.8 billion USD in the first nine months of 2025, a year-on-year rise of 47 percent, said a Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC)'s report released on Thursday.
* Myanmar exported over 1.2 million tons of rice and broken rice in the first six months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2025-2026, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation on Thursday.
* The Philippines' Department of Energy (DOE) released a comprehensive framework for integrating nuclear energy into the country's power generation mix on Thursday.
* Malaysia will undertake an expansion of the bamboo industry as it eyes a bigger market share of the growing global demand for the plant, a Malaysian official said on Thursday.
* Business conditions in Singapore's private sector recorded "the sharpest improvement" in a year in September, with the seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rising to 56.4 from 51.2 in August, according to a report released Friday by S&P Global.
* Uzbekistan's external debt reached 72.2 billion USD by the end of the first half of 2025, the country's Central Bank said Thursday. Of the total, public external debt was 36.8 billion dollars, and corporate external debt was 35.4 billion dollars, it said.
* Cyprus has officially launched a competitive electricity market, a move Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said would help gradually lower costs for consumers and accelerate the country's energy transition, the Cyprus Mail reported on Thursday.
* Mongolia has planted a total of 114.6 million trees across the country since the launch of its national tree-planting campaign in 2021, according to the forestry department of the Mongolian government on Friday.
* Widespread flooding for the sixth consecutive year in South Sudan, combined with aid cuts, is aggravating the country's hunger crisis, international charity Save the Children said on Thursday.
* The number of deaths in Tuesday's magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the central Philippines has been lowered to 68 from 72 as the number of injured people rose to 559, according to the latest data released by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Friday.
* China's southern provinces of Hainan and Guangdong activated a Level-IV emergency typhoon response on Friday as Typhoon Matmo -- the 21st named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season -- approaches.
* Mongolia's National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring on Thursday issued a warning of strong winds, dust storms, rain and wet snow.
* The temperature in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok reached 23.5 degrees Celsius on Thursday, breaking a record that had stood for more than a century, local meteorological authorities said.
* Romania's National Meteorological Administration (ANM) on Thursday issued a Red Code alert, the highest warning level, for heavy rainfall in Dolj and Olt counties, effective from Thursday evening until Friday night. Meteorologists warned that the affected areas could receive up to 100 to 110 liters of rain per square meter during the period.
* Health authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) on Thursday issued a measles alert for northern Sydney after being notified of a case who was infectious while visiting several locations.
