* Voting in the Latvian parliamentary election began on Saturday morning, with 1,428 candidates vying for 100 seats in the 15th Saeima, Latvia's parliament. Polling stations across Latvia opened at 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), and voting will continue until 8 p.m. A total of 14 political parties and party coalitions participated in the election.
* Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of Israel's Balad party, announced Friday his withdrawal from the upcoming parliament election after the Supreme Court indicated the likelihood of upholding his disqualification.
* The United Nations on Friday released 160 million USD in emergency funding to support life-saving assistance in 12 countries and regions (including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba, Mali, Niger, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen) facing severe humanitarian needs, UN humanitarian officials said.
* Republic of Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Friday proposed dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to resolve lingering discrepancies over the military demarcation line (MDL) following the recent landmine explosion in the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
* Pakistan on Saturday summoned the charge d'affaires of the High Commission of India in Islamabad to lodge a strong protest over the killing of two Pakistani civilians, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
* The Dominican Republic will withdraw its embassy from Nicaragua, the Dominican Foreign Ministry said Friday. Foreign Minister Victor Bisono announced the decision at the 31st Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., the ministry said in a statement.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Europe has just agreed to release "a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil." The process will begin immediately, he said on Truth Social.
* The Group of Seven (G7), in coordination with the International Energy Agency, will release up to 100 million barrels of diesel and other oil reserves over the next four months, according to a joint G7 leaders' statement released by the Elysee Palace on Friday.
* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday welcomed a decision by the Group of Seven (G7) countries not to impose export bans on allies, and voiced support for an International Energy Agency (IEA)-coordinated release of fuel stocks.
* Ukraine received 2.9 billion euros (3.26 billion USD) from the European Union (EU) as part of the funding to support the country's economic stability and reform efforts, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said Friday.
* Mexico is seeking lower U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and vehicles as negotiations with Washington continue, Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday.
* The Pentagon is sending a third aircraft carrier strike group and additional Marine Corps ships to the Middle East, adding 9,000 to 10,000 more U.S. troops to the region, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
* Italy has decided to scale back its planned increase in defense spending for 2028 amid inflation and economic pressures, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Friday.
* Investigations into an incident aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 have found that the co-pilot attempted to commit a terrorist act, Attorney-General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said Saturday. Investigations are continuing to determine the full circumstances and motives behind the incident, as well as any possible links.
* Jordan's King Abdullah II and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday discussed efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region, according to a statement from Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court.
* Türkiye and Iraq plan to activate joint working groups to advance projects in the energy sector, including extending the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to Basra, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Friday.
* Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said at a press briefing on Friday that the Strategic Political and Defense Committee (SPDC) of the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement will hold an emergency meeting in Riyadh next week to discuss possible political engagement with Yemen's Houthi group.
* A senior Iranian shipping official has said the country will pursue in international courts the U.S. attack on and seizure of one of its container ships, which took place in April during the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington, the official news agency IRNA reported Saturday.
* The Iraqi government on Friday announced an agreement allowing Iranian airlines, except Mahan Air, to operate 40 flights daily to and from Najaf International Airport in central Iraq.
* A series of powerful explosions rocked Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Saturday, as the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported fresh "Saudi airstrikes" on the city amid a sharp escalation in the country's conflict.
* Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 56.1663 trillion rubles (about 670 billion USD) in the second quarter of 2026, up 1.3 percent year on year, according to a preliminary estimate released by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) on Friday.
* Japan's unemployment rate climbed to 2.5 percent in August from 2.4 percent in July, marking the first deterioration in five months, government data showed Friday.
* Pakistan's exports rose 17.6 percent year-on-year to 2.94 billion USD in September, according to provisional trade data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday. Exports also rose 16.1 percent month-on-month from 2.53 billion dollars in August, the data showed.
* Singapore's electric vehicle (EV) sales are forecast to rise 34.3 percent in 2026 to 34,940 units, lifting EVs' share of total vehicle sales to 54.6 percent, BMI Country Risk and Industry Research said on Thursday.
* The Netherlands' inflation rate rose to 3.4 percent year-on-year in September, up from 3.3 percent in August, according to a flash estimate released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on Friday.
* Eurozone annual inflation is expected to rise to 3.8 percent in September from 3.2 percent in August, reaching its highest level since September 2023, according to a flash estimate released Friday by Eurostat.
* A 24-hour strike by workers in the general careers of Portugal's public administration caused widespread disruptions across the country on Friday, with schools closed, health services severely affected and citizen service offices shut.
* Dozens of tractors and agricultural vehicles blocked National Road 260 in the southern Serpa municipality on Friday in protest against high diesel prices and insufficient government support, causing a traffic queue of about 2 km and halting freight trucks entering from Spain.
* September 2026 was the second-hottest September in France since records began in 1900, the national weather service Meteo-France said on Friday. France's average temperature for the month was 3.1 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 normal, surpassed only by September 2023, when the average temperature was 3.6 degrees Celsius above normal, Meteo-France said.
