* US’s California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a package of 13 bills aimed at protecting the state's November midterm elections from interference, including measures concerning mail voting and demands for voter data, according to his office.
* Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday that participation in the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York is Iran's "legal right."
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he is forming an "AI Force" and will announce an "AI Czar" in the near future. In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump said he would not stand by and let the "decimation or destruction" of AI happen.
* Google confirmed Friday that its Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model accessed the protected systems of three real companies during a cybersecurity test in May, mistakenly treating them as authorized targets.
* Pakistani security forces killed five militants and rescued 23 abducted civilians during an operation along a key highway in the country's southwest Balochistan province, the military said on Sunday.
* Two people were killed and five others, including two children, were wounded in a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow Oblast overnight, Moscow Oblast Governor Andrey Vorobyov said Sunday.
* Senior spokesman for Iran's armed forces Abolfazl Shekarchi on Saturday rejected a claim by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) that U.S. forces had supported the transport of over 1 billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz "in the last couple of months."
* A senior Iranian security official said Iran has not yet decided whether to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), adding that any decision on the issue will depend on Washington's behavior.
* Yemen's Houthi group said Saturday that it had launched large-scale attacks targeting the Saudi capital Riyadh and Yanbu, a major industrial and energy hub on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, marking a major escalation in the confrontation between the two sides.
* Yemeni government forces said on Saturday they killed 12 Houthi fighters while repelling an "infiltration attempt" in northeastern oil-rich Marib province.
* South Sudan is hosting 661,529 refugees and asylum-seekers in 31 locations nationwide, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In a statement released Friday, the UN refugee agency said the total includes 657,479 registered refugees and 4,050 asylum-seekers.
* China's one-year loan prime rate (LPR), a market-based benchmark lending rate, stood at 3 percent on Sunday, unchanged from the previous month.
* China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, topped 1 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) again in August, while the electricity load hit a record high last month, official data showed on Sunday.
* France's public debt will continue to rise, reaching 119.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026, up from 115.6 percent in 2025, according to data released Saturday by the French Ministry of Economy and Finance.
* A large and powerful typhoon is expected to approach the Pacific coastal areas of eastern Japan, including Tokyo, with strong intensity from Monday through Tuesday, prompting the country's weather agency to urge residents to remain on high alert for torrential rain and violent winds, local media reported Sunday.
