* Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt has been sworn in as new prime minister of Samoa, beginning his five-year term in office. The first sitting of Samoa's newly elected 18th parliament and swearing-in ceremony took place at the Tuanaimato Multipurpose Gymnasium in Apia on Tuesday.
* An emergency Arab-Islamic summit held in Doha on Monday strongly condemned Israel's recent attack on Qatar and declared full solidarity with the Gulf state.
* The European Union (EU) will step up financial and operational support for Finland's eastern border security, including plans to establish a "drone wall" along the frontier, EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said during a visit to Finland on Monday.
* Sweden will raise its defense budget by 26.6 billion kronor (2.87 billion USD) in 2026, an 18-percent increase from 2025, the government said in a press release on Monday. The plan represents Sweden's most comprehensive build-up since the Cold War.
* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Monday that channels of communication between the United States and Venezuela have been severed by Washington amid "persistent aggression."
* U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed a memorandum ordering the National Guard to Memphis, a Democratic-led city in the state of Tennessee, to address what he called "rampant crime."
* U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to Israel on Monday, vowed Washington's "unwavering support" to Israel in its offensive in Gaza and called for Hamas' eradication.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel is sliding into international isolation amid its nearly two-year offensive in the Gaza Strip, and will need to become self-reliant.
* A total of 3,475 Afghan refugee families, totaling 23,336 individuals, returned to their homeland from neighboring Pakistan and Iran from Friday to Sunday, Afghanistan's High Commission for Addressing Returnees Problems announced on Monday.
* The 69th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opened Monday in Vienna, focusing on the peaceful use of nuclear energy and technology and the urgent need to protect the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
* The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday marked the entry into force of the milestone Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, the WTO's first multilateral agreement with environmental sustainability at its core.
* The European Union (EU) will step up financial and operational support for Finland's eastern border security, including plans to establish a "drone wall" along the frontier, EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said during a visit to Finland on Monday.
* China's grain production reached a new high during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), surpassing 700 million tonnes for the first time last year, Han Jun, minister of agriculture and rural affairs, said Tuesday.
* The Russian government on Monday unveiled a program to rebuild and develop three western border regions, pledging billions of rubles for housing, infrastructure and business support.
* Cambodia recorded a double-digit growth of exports to the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the first eight months of 2025, said an official report on Tuesday.
* India's total exports, including merchandise and services, were estimated at 69.16 billion USD in August, a 9.34 percent increase compared to the same month last year, official data showed on Monday.
* The Republic of Korea's export volume grew for the seventh straight month in August due to solid demand for electronic products, central bank data showed Tuesday. The export volume index rose 5.4 percent in August from a year earlier, continuing to gain since February, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
* Denmark will invest 157 million Danish kroner (24.75 million USD) to improve safety at four railway stations in southern Jutland by removing or redesigning dangerous platform crossings, the Ministry of Transport said Monday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday that it has approved a sovereign-guaranteed loan of 400 million USD to Kazakhstan's national road company KazAvtoZhol for the construction of a new road in southern Kazakhstan.
* Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia said on Monday that the government plans to build solar power plants with a combined capacity of around 80 to 100 gigawatts (GW) nationwide, and will open opportunities for foreign investors.
* Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer and exporter, saw its soluble coffee exports to the United States plunge nearly 60 percent in August year-on-year, following the 50 percent trade tariffs imposed by Washington, the country's local coffee industry group said on Monday.
* New Zealand has imposed an emergency ban on set net fishing around Otago Peninsula to protect the endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho.
* The Philippine weather bureau PAGASA on Monday raised a La Nina alert, citing a 70 percent chance of above-normal rainfall from October to December, likely to persist until February 2026.
* Closing the gender digital divide alone could benefit 343.5 million women and girls worldwide, lift 30 million women out of poverty by 2050, and generate an estimated 1.5 trillion USD boost to global GDP by 2030, according to a new report released by UN Women on Monday.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) has said Ebola vaccination is underway in Kasai Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as the country battles its 16th outbreak since 1976 amid warnings of a challenging fight to contain it.
* Israel's Health Ministry on Monday reported 481 new measles cases, bringing the total to 1,251 since the outbreak started in early April.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 jolted off the east coast of Kamchatka at 1634 GMT on Monday, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said. The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 52.77 degrees north latitude and 160.64 degrees east longitude.
