International News Bulletin — August 10, 2026

Politics

• Iran sets conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz – Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said the waterway would stay closed until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, with its secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr listing the lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of American forces from the area, an end to sanctions, the unconditional release of frozen assets and full compensation for war damage. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there are no direct talks with Washington and that none will resume while it breaches the interim deal, even as Tehran and Muscat signalled on Monday that an agreement on new shipping lanes was close. Oil prices rose on the uncertainty.
• Russia’s top court bars the anti-war Yabloko party from September elections – The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a suit brought by the nationalist Rodina party accusing Yabloko of electoral-law breaches, foreign funding and support from people designated as foreign agents, removing from the ballot the only party calling for an end to the war in Ukraine. The State Duma vote is scheduled for 18 to 20 September. Party leader Nikolai Rybakov said excluding Yabloko “means refusing dialogue with people who ask questions that are uncomfortable for the authorities”, and said the decision would be appealed.
• Pacific ministers split over China’s missile test near Tuvalu – At the Pacific Islands Forum foreign ministers’ meeting in Suva on Monday, New Zealand’s Winston Peters said Kiribati and Nauru had blocked a joint regional statement on China’s 6 July ballistic missile test near Tuvalu’s exclusive economic zone, accusing them of following “outside partners’ wishes”. Fiji’s foreign minister Sakiasi Ditoka backed the New Zealand position, saying “We cannot prosper in an area where there are hostility and competition for power”. Australia’s Penny Wong urged Beijing to “take note of the very clear response” from the region; Forum leaders meet in Palau from 30 August.
• Myanmar rejects ASEAN’s call to free Aung San Suu Kyi – Myanmar’s foreign ministry, in a statement issued on 8 August and carried by regional outlets on Monday, dismissed the ASEAN chair’s demand for the unconditional release of the 81-year-old former leader as interference, and said the bloc’s new special envoy was no longer necessary. The Philippines, which chairs ASEAN this year, and the US State Department had made the call on 7 August, days after the International Committee of the Red Cross was allowed the first known independent humanitarian visit to Suu Kyi in five years. She is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in Naypyidaw.
• Lebanon files a fresh suit against former central bank governor Riad Salameh – A judicial official said on Monday that the case, opened after a complaint by Salameh’s successor at the Banque du Liban, accuses him and Samir Hanna, the former chief executive of Bank Audi, of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from the central bank and of illicit enrichment. Salameh, who ran the institution from 1993 to July 2023, was taken into custody late last month after missing a hearing and is being held under tight security. He denies wrongdoing and has said he is being made a scapegoat for the financial collapse that began in 2019.

Economy

• Wall Street slips as oil climbs on Hormuz speculation – US indexes closed marginally lower in Monday’s session, with the S&P 500 down 0.06% at 7,753.11, the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 0.11% at 53,975.98 and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.32% at 26,605.36, according to Yahoo Finance, one session after the S&P’s record close of 7,757.64 on Friday. Nvidia fell almost 3% and Intel weakened on its share-sale plan, while Brent crude was quoted at $84.18 a barrel by Trading Economics, up 0.75%, with some intraday quotes running into the mid-$80s. Investors are positioned for Wednesday’s US consumer price index.
• Tokyo leads an Asian rally on AI demand and Fed bets – The Nikkei 225 closed up about 2% at 66,970 on Monday, its highest in nearly four weeks, while the broader Topix added 0.63% to 4,101, led by chip and AI-linked names including Advantest and Tokyo Electron. The move followed weaker-than-expected US July payrolls, which showed a decline of 23,000 jobs against forecasts of an 82,000 gain and cooled expectations of a near-term Federal Reserve rate rise. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite also finished higher.
• Intel opens a $15bn share sale to fund AI and foundry expansion – The company said on Monday it had launched an underwritten public offering of common stock without yet setting a price or a share count, with underwriters holding a 30-day option on a further $2.25bn. Proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes including capital spending, after Intel raised capital-expenditure guidance to $20bn and reported its fastest revenue growth in nearly 15 years, with data-centre and AI revenue of $6.3bn, up 59%, against a $2.1bn operating loss at Intel Foundry. The shares fell on the announcement.
• Rolling strikes hit BHP’s Port Hedland iron ore hub – Unionised workers began 24-hour stoppages at the world’s largest iron ore export terminal in Western Australia over the weekend, the first significant industrial action there in about 25 years, with roughly 150 people involved by Sunday. The Electrical Trades Union said 16 shipments would be held up over the two days; the port shipped 571.6 million tonnes in the year to June 2026, about three-quarters of Pilbara exports. Negotiations on a four-year agreement are due to resume on 18 August.
• Gold holds near a two-month high as the dollar stays soft – Bullion traded around $4,340 an ounce on Monday, close to its strongest level since late July, after the weak US jobs report pushed traders to scale back bets on a Federal Reserve rate rise this year. The dollar index had slipped below the 100 mark at the end of last week, losing ground against nearly all major currencies, and the ten-year Treasury yield eased to about 4.65% on Friday. Brazil’s Ibovespa moved the other way, falling 1.73% to 172,513 in a fourth straight decline.

World News

• Magnitude 7.4 earthquake kills more than 100 in western Colombia – The quake struck on Monday near San José del Palmar in the Chocó department, roughly 400km west of Bogotá and at a depth of about 105km, and was felt across the country and into Ecuador. President Abelardo de la Espriella, in office since Friday, declared an emergency and gave a preliminary toll of at least 111 dead, a figure carried by CNN and PBS, with dozens of buildings collapsed and airport operations suspended in six cities including Pereira. The Colombian Geological Service called it the highest-magnitude earthquake registered in Colombia in the last decade.
• Ukrainian drone strike on Tatarstan kills at least 13 – Regional authorities said drones hit the refining city of Nizhnekamsk, about 800km east of Moscow, early on Monday, killing at least 13 people including a child, with wounded counts of 39 to 75 reported depending on the source. Ukraine’s general staff said it had struck Tatneft’s Taneco refinery, starting a fire, while Russia said it downed 456 drones over some 15 regions overnight. Local officials reported three killed and 37 wounded in strikes on Kharkiv and five killed and 25 wounded in Belgorod.
• Houthi missiles and drones hit Yemen’s Mokha port and a Saudi refinery – The Iran-aligned group struck the Red Sea port on Sunday, killing seven people according to Al Jazeera and 11 according to Yemeni government military sources cited by UPI, with about 20 wounded and damage to the pier, buildings and stored goods. Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said a fire at Aramco’s Jazan refinery, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude a day, had been extinguished without casualties. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the strikes answered Saudi drone incursions over Hajjah and Saada.
• Oil slick from a wrecked tanker off Oman keeps spreading – Xinhua reported on Monday that the discharge from the Caroline Bezengi, grounded on the Hallaniyat Islands off Dhofar since an explosion on 8 June, covered 390 square kilometres, while an assessment dated 7 August put the oil sheen at close to 800 square kilometres. The vessel, under UK and EU sanctions over suspected links to Russia, was carrying almost one million barrels and has settled deeper into the water, according to satellite imagery. Monsoon conditions are hampering containment near a protected marine area that shelters whales, dolphins, turtles and coral reefs.
• DR Congo gives itself 60 days to assess uranium in cobalt exports – Kinshasa said it would test cobalt hydroxide shipments bound for China and seek assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency, after researchers estimated that thousands of tonnes of uranium had left the country inside cobalt cargoes over two decades. The government and the Chinese firms involved dispute the finding; national and international laboratories are to be used and radiation detectors deployed at truck border crossings. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer.

Bulletin automatically generated on August 10, 2026.