* Voting has begun in regional and municipal elections across Russia, with about 55 million citizens eligible to cast ballots, Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) said Friday. From Friday to Sunday, more than 5,000 elections are being held nationwide. Voters will elect governors, regional legislative assemblies and municipal councils.
* Bulgaria's opposition on Friday filed a fifth no-confidence motion against the nine-month-old coalition government led by Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov, accusing it of failures in internal security and justice.
* The annual summit of the Pacific Islands Forum wrapped up Friday in Honiara, the Solomon Islands, leaving behind a strong message of unity and shared goals.
* As agreed by China and the United States, Chinese and U.S. teams will hold talks on TikTok and other issues in Spain, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.
* Belarus and Russia began their large-scale joint military exercises Zapad-2025 on Friday, said Belarusian Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Muraveiko.
* Poland has closed all border crossings with Belarus starting from Friday, due to the ongoing large-scale joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise "Zapad-2025."
* The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Alexus Grynkewich visited Latvia on Friday to discuss strengthening Baltic air defense amid heightened regional tensions, local media reported.
* The Danish government on Friday announced the largest arms purchase in the country's history, approving a 58-billion Danish kroner (9.1 billion USD) acquisition of ground-based air defense systems.
* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met on Thursday with John Cole, representative of U.S. President Donald Trump, to discuss sanctions, prisoner issues and broader efforts to improve bilateral relations, the Belarusian leader's press office has said.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday rejected U.S. pressure over the conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro, saying Brazil "is not a banana republic" that bows to foreign interference.
* U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in New York on Friday, days after an Israeli air strike targeted Hamas leaders in Doha, local media reported.
* Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un gave field guidance at the Armored Defensive Weapons Institute and the Electronic Weapons Institute under the Academy of Defence Sciences on Thursday and Friday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday.
* Austria is willing to work with China to jointly safeguard multilateralism and promote world peace and development, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said during the meeting on Friday with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
* Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) hit the port of Primorsk, Russia's largest oil terminal on the Baltic Sea, the Ukrinform news agency reported Friday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he would deploy the National Guard to combat crime in Memphis -- a Democratic-led city in the state of Tennessee -- claiming he was backed by the city's mayor and the state's governor.
* Palestine on Friday welcomed a vote by the UN General Assembly to "adopt and approve" the New York Declaration, describing it as the key outcome of the UN conference on a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question and the implementation of the two-state solution.
* The Israeli army on Friday pressed ahead with a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm for the second consecutive day, imposing tight restrictions on residents and carrying out arrests and searches, local sources said.
* The seemingly relentless strikes in the northern Gaza Strip prompt thousands of Palestinians to flee south, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
* President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the recent Israeli attack on Qatari territory during a phone call on Thursday.
* A senior New Zealand trade delegation will travel to Saudi Arabia next week to deepen trade and investment ties with one of its fastest-growing export destinations in the Middle East.
* Indonesia has successfully launched a new satellite, Nusantara 5 (N5), which is expected to improve equal access to the internet across the country, a minister said Friday.
* Authorities in the U.S. state of Utah said Friday that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was in custody in connection with the shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University (UVU).
* Rating agency Fitch on Friday evening downgraded France's long-term sovereign credit rating from AA- to A+, with a stable outlook.
* The Bank of Russia on Friday cut the key interest rate for the third time since June, by 1 percentage point, to 17 percent.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected 1 percent economic growth for Romania in 2025 and 1.4 percent in 2026, revising down its April forecasts of 1.6 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.
* At least 107 people were killed and 146 others went missing after a boat capsized Thursday in the northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), local media reported Friday.
* The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday appealed for funding and increased international support to tackle floods that have displaced more than 100,000 people in South Sudan.
* At least 97 people have been killed and more than 4.4 million others affected by recent floods in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has said.
* Flooding displaced over 480 people in Malaysia on Saturday, with the hardest-hit area being the northern Borneo state of Sabah, according to authorities.
* A 7.3-magnitude earthquake jolted the waters off the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, at 10:37 a.m. Saturday (Beijing Time), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The epicenter was monitored at 53.05 degrees north latitude and 160.45 degrees east longitude. The earthquake struck at a depth of 20 km, the center said.
