* Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, who also leads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), reshuffled the party's executive lineup on Wednesday, local media reported. In her first reshuffle since taking the helm of the ruling party last October, Takaichi retained many senior figures in the LDP's leadership team, Kyodo News said.
* Estonian President Alar Karis on Tuesday appointed three new ministers at the proposal of Prime Minister Kristen Michal in a partial cabinet reshuffle, nearly six months before the country's next parliamentary election.
* China is willing to work with ASEAN to build a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when meeting with Secretary-General of ASEAN Kao Kim Hourn on Tuesday.
* Venezuela and Britain have agreed to upgrade their diplomatic relations, Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
* Russian forces conducted overnight group drone strikes on Ukraine's logistics infrastructure, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia is ready to seek compromises on Ukraine but has never changed its position on preventing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) presence on its borders.
* China's top diplomat Wang Yi held talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Seyyed Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday in Beijing.
* The Spanish government has decided to extend border checks at airports and seaports for travelers arriving from Italy until Oct. 8, local media reported Tuesday, citing sources at the Interior Ministry. The decision followed Italy's announcement earlier Tuesday of a second extension of its own checks on travelers arriving from Spain.
* Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Tuesday that he had summoned Russia's ambassador to Denmark after a Russian frigate fired two flares toward a Danish military helicopter.
* U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced a new policy to impose visa restrictions on South African officials alleged to be involved in "race-based discrimination."
* The inaugural Canada Investment Summit concluded on Tuesday in Toronto, Canada's largest city, securing nearly 500 billion Canadian dollars (about 359 billion USD) in new investment and financing commitments. The summit convened global investors from nearly 30 countries and regions who manage more than 100 trillion Canadian dollars in assets.
* Japan and Malaysia have signed their third bilateral swap arrangement (BSA), with a swap amount of up to 6 billion USD, as the two countries seek to deepen financial cooperation and strengthen regional financial stability, according to a joint statement on Tuesday.
* A command and staff exercise with the Western Operational Command began Tuesday in Belarus, the country's Defense Ministry said. The ministry further said that the exercise's primary objective is to train management bodies, units, and military formations of the operational command in jointly addressing tasks during the preparation and execution of strategic military operations.
* Myanmar has extended visa on arrival for tourists from China and India arriving by air for a third one-year trial period, according to the Ministry of Culture, Hotels and Tourism on Tuesday. The extension is valid for one year, from Aug. 30, 2026, to Aug. 29, 2027, the ministry said.
* The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that as of Aug. 1, 2026, the conflict with Iran has cost the Defense Department approximately 38 billion USD.
* The Trump administration is preparing a multibillion-dollar sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, which would be the largest single sale of the controversial munition in recent years, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
* A total of 617,244 Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland from neighboring Iran and Pakistan between March 21 and Sept. 9, 2026, a government official confirmed on Wednesday.
* Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the rapidly evolving regional situation and efforts to de-escalate tensions in a phone call on Tuesday, the Omani Foreign Ministry said.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday met with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Cairo to discuss ties and regional security.
* Israel's military and Shin Bet domestic security agency said on Tuesday that they had carried out a strike targeting "a senior" Hamas figure in the southern Gaza Strip.
* Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone launched by the Houthi group south of Mecca before it entered the prohibited airspace of the holy city, authorities said on Wednesday.
* Yemen's Houthi group said Wednesday that it had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over the northeastern province of Marib, as hostilities between the two sides entered a new phase of intensified air operations and cross-border attacks.
* Lebanon and Syria are advancing plans to reconnect Tripoli Port to the Syrian railway network, with Lebanon commissioning a consultancy to review and update the design of the Tripoli-Al-Aboudieh railway line, Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Fayez Rasamny said Tuesday.
* The World Trade Organization (WTO) warned Tuesday that failure to modernize the global trading system could leave global GDP as much as 10 percent lower than under a strengthened multilateral system, as trade policy faces its most serious and sustained disruption in decades.
* China's cross-border receipts and payments by non-bank entities, including enterprises and individuals, totaled 1.5 trillion USD in August, extending a relatively swift growth since the beginning of 2026, latest data showed.
* Japan posted a trade deficit of 1.1 trillion yen (around 7.1 billion USD) in August, marking the fourth consecutive month of red ink, government data showed Wednesday, as elevated crude oil prices continued to weigh on the country's trade balance.
* Kazakhstan will establish a national cryptocurrency analytics center to monitor digital asset transactions, the Kazinform news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK).
* Indonesia is seeking an additional 26 billion to 27 billion USD over the next five years to finance the transformation of its national health system and increase life expectancy, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Tuesday.
* Sri Lanka's total employment rate among people aged 15 and above in 2025 was 96.1 percent, a 0.5 percentage point increase from the previous year, the Department of Census and Statistics said in its latest report released on Tuesday.
* Fiji has declared HIV a national crisis and is preparing to introduce a formal needle and syringe program as part of a broader government response to a sharp rise in HIV infections.
* Indonesian authorities are considering raising a ferry that sank in the Java Sea as search operations continued Tuesday for 129 people still missing among the 243 people aboard.
* More than 48,000 hectares of land have been scorched by forest and land fires in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province since the beginning of the year, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said Tuesday.
