International News Bulletin — August 3, 2026

Politics

• Trump calls Iran duplicitous after Tehran denies talks – US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iranian leaders were “unbelievably duplicitous”, accusing them of asking for negotiations and then denying that any were under way. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said no talks with Washington were taking place and none were scheduled, and that Tehran was dealing only with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump had called off a planned strike a day earlier, saying the outline of a deal had been agreed, in a war that is entering its sixth month.
• Iraqi Kurdish leader meets Syria’s president in Damascus – Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the People’s Palace in Damascus on Monday, the first such visit since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Syrian state agency SANA said the two discussed economic cooperation and regional security, while sources told AFP the agenda covered the January agreement to fold Syrian Kurdish institutions and the Syrian Democratic Forces into the state. No timetable for that integration was announced.
• Morocco blames misinformation for Ceuta surge as EU ministers meet – Morocco’s interior ministry said on Monday that last week’s mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta was driven by online misinformation, human trafficking networks and a misreading of a Spanish court ruling on summary returns. Rabat counted about 40,000 crossings and 11 deaths, while Spanish authorities have reported more than 60,000 arrivals and 72 deaths, and Ceuta’s regional leader said 88 bodies had reached the morgue. EU interior ministers hold an emergency videoconference on Tuesday after 22 member states requested one, and Italy has suspended Schengen free movement with Spain for a month.
• Venezuela opens US-backed talks with part of the opposition – Representatives of Venezuela’s government and of the opposition-led 2015 National Assembly launched a United States-backed dialogue over the weekend, with technical working groups due to meet in Caracas. The declared agenda covers the electoral authority, the voter registry and political participation rights, alongside relief for victims of recent earthquakes. The wing of the opposition aligned with Maria Corina Machado is boycotting the process.

Economy

• Japan and US confirm first joint yen intervention since 2011 – Japan’s finance ministry said on Monday that it had bought yen jointly with the US Treasury on Friday, the first coordinated currency operation between the two allies since 2011. The move followed the yen’s slide to its weakest level against the dollar since 1986, and both Tokyo and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said they would not hesitate to intervene again. The ministry framed the operation as a response to excessive volatility and disorderly moves rather than to any particular exchange rate.
• Oil settles at a three-week low on Iran diplomacy – Crude fell sharply on Monday after Trump called off a planned strike on Iran and said negotiations would resume, stripping out part of the war risk premium. Investing.com put the West Texas Intermediate settlement at $80.34 a barrel, down about 5 percent, while GV Wire reported a $79.49 settlement, down 6.1 percent; Brent was quoted between $83.52 and $83.77, down roughly 5 percent. Both benchmarks closed at their lowest in three weeks.
• Dow closes at record as Amazon tops $3 trillion – US equities rallied on the retreat in oil, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at a record 53,178.41, up 1.3 percent, the S&P 500 at 7,600.50, up 1.5 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite at 25,913.90, up 2.1 percent. Amazon crossed a $3 trillion market capitalisation, according to Bloomberg, while Apple gained more than 3 percent on reported strength in iPhone pre-orders. Palantir was due to report quarterly results after the close.
• Russian refining falls to 24-year low after Ukrainian strikes – Russian refineries processed an average of 3.91 million barrels of crude a day in early July, the lowest rate since March 2005, Bloomberg reported, after a month of intensified Ukrainian drone attacks. Eighteen refineries were targeted during July, above the previous monthly record of 17 set in May, and energy infrastructure including tankers and pipelines was hit at least 30 times. The bottleneck has left unrefined Russian crude accumulating at sea even as seaborne shipments run near post-invasion highs.

World News

• Tigray fighting subsides after refugees flee into Sudan – Fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front around Shererina, near the Sudanese border, eased by Sunday evening after three days, with a TPLF member telling Al Jazeera there was “a de-escalation”. Hundreds of Tigrayans, including wounded fighters, crossed into Sudan, and Sudan’s Commission for Refugees said shelling had landed on refugee camps inside its territory, killing and wounding Ethiopian refugees. No verified casualty figures have been released, and both sides blame the other for breaching the November 2022 peace accord.
• Israeli strikes kill at least 18 in Gaza – Gaza’s civil defence said Israeli strikes on Sunday killed at least 18 Palestinians, including children, with Al Jazeera putting the toll at 19; the figures are preliminary. The escalation followed the Trump-chaired Board of Peace announcing that Hamas had accepted a 15-point disarmament plan tying a weapons handover to an Israeli withdrawal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman said the published text did not reflect Israel’s positions, and Israel maintains it will withdraw only once decommissioning is complete.
• Greek crews battle Athens wildfire for a fourth day – More than 400 firefighters and 21 aircraft worked on Monday against a wildfire northwest of Athens that has burned about 10,000 hectares after spreading from Viotia into Attica. Two crew members died on Sunday when firefighting helicopters collided near the coastal community of Psatha, and more than 1,000 people have been evacuated, over 250 of them lifted off beaches by boat. Bloomberg reported the blaze was largely contained on Monday as winds eased.
• Record heat compounds quake recovery in southern Japan – The death toll from last Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture stood at 38 on Monday morning, including cases still under investigation, among them a woman in her seventies believed to have died of heatstroke. Temperatures in the prefecture passed 40 degrees Celsius for the first time on record on Monday, according to The Japan Times, while more than 9,200 people were sheltering in 210 evacuation centres as of Sunday. The Self-Defense Forces have been airlifting coolers to shelters that have no air conditioning.
• Delhi court acquits former Indian wrestling federation chief – A Delhi court acquitted Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the former head of the Wrestling Federation of India, and former assistant secretary Vinod Tomar in the sexual harassment case brought by six women wrestlers. The charges dated from complaints filed in April 2023 that triggered months of street protests by Olympic and world medallists, and the prosecution examined 32 witnesses before closing its evidence in May. A separate case under the child protection act had already been closed after the complainant retracted her statement.

Bulletin automatically generated on August 3, 2026.