Parliament's final approval of the 2026 State Budget Act on Friday prompted criticism across the opposition, with parties attacking the government's fiscal policy, spending priorities and lack of reforms. The budget projects a consolidated fiscal deficit of 5.7% of GDP and sets the ceiling for new »»»

Washington, United States: LeBron James announced on Friday he will play for the Philadelphia 76ers next season, with the 41-year-old NBA superstar hoping to transform another franchise into a championship team. James, a four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, has won four titles in a 23-year career, m»»»

KAMPALA: On a cold morning in Uganda’s largest national park, rangers chat and sing to lift their spirits ahead of the start of a daunting wildlife project considered critical to conservation: moving the Nubian giraffe to a new home. Rangers at Murchison Falls National Park on Tuesday began to tran»»»

PARIS: A volunteer was injected on Friday with the first dose of a rapidly developed vaccine targeting the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola driving a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Oxford University said. More than 1,270 people have been killed out of nearly 3,000 infections in the »»»

Kathmandu: Nepal's steady rise in public debt over the past decade continued in fiscal year 2025-26, with total public debt increasing by more than 11 percent during the year, the government office responsible for managing public debt said on Friday. According to the Public Debt Management Office (»»»

Bulgaria's Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov and Youth and Sports Minister Encho Keryazov met on Friday with mayors from the southeastern Yambol Region to discuss the planned deployment of US Boeing KC-135 aerial refuelling aircraft and up to 250 US military personnel at Bezmer Air Base. The meetin»»»

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is exploring ​a path toward a resumption of stalled US-Iran talks over ending their nearly five-month-old war, three Pakistani sources said, following a push initiated by China. Exploratory discussions took place during a visit by Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Isla»»»

GENEVA: Spain has nominated Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz to head the United Nations labor agency, potentially making her the first woman to lead the organization, as it faces a financial crisis over US non-payments. The Spanish government said Diaz’s candidacy for the top job at the International L»»»

MOSCOW: Russia believes US President Donald Trump is sincere in his efforts to end the Ukraine war and will wait for Washington to put forward new proposals, even though the US is continuing to provide weapons to Kyiv, the Kremlin said on Friday. In the meantime, Russia will keep fighting to achiev»»»

BUDAPEST: Kimi Antonelli rubs his neck and admits he will be racing to save it from a parental throttling as much as to win a race when he lines up on the grid for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. The 19-year-old Italian, who leads the drivers’ world championship for Mercedes, laughed as he recalled »»»

BELGRADE - In a telephone call, Serbian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and Hungarian Interior Minister Gabor Posfai noted on Friday that their countries shared common security challenges on the Western Balkan migration route. In light of Posfai's recent successful visit to Belgrade, Da»»»

RIYADH: The Saudi Masam mine clearance project has destroyed nearly 6,000 items of unexploded ordnance collected from Yemen’s western coast as part of efforts to protect civilians from the dangers of war remnants, it announced on Thursday. Masam said that its teams safely disposed of 5,977 items in»»»

By UPI Staff From Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, media figures have long crossed from television and film into politics. This photo collection highlights figures from news and entertainment who later pursued public office. Former television comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelensky, known for starring »»»

Secretary's SpeechLebanon PalestineZionist EntityRegional and International International More Video Language Ar En Fr EsSubscribe for Weekly Updates Subscribe Hezbollah Denounces Criminal Israeli Massacre against Residents of Occupied Nablus Village 24-07-2026 19:11 PM Flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon »»»

Damascus, July 24 (SANA) Head of the Authority for Local Production and Export Development, Khaled al-Khader, met on Friday with Libor Chlad, head of the European Union mission team in Damascus, to discuss enhancing cooperation and supporting Syrian exports to expand access of national products to »»»

Middle East tensions are once again driving up global oil prices, with Brent crude climbing above $100 a barrel for the first time since May. While much of the focus has been on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the alternative shipping route through the Red Sea is becoming increasingly dangerous aft»»»

US President Donald Trump has threatened to seize frozen Iranian assets to cover “any and all damages” to ships and cargo damaged due to the conflict in the Middle East. Iran has hit back, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warning that the move sets an “incendiary precedent” that could have glob»»»

Dubai: Aster Hospital Mankhool has become the first hospital in the Gulf to use a new heart imaging system that gives doctors highly detailed, real-time views from inside the arteries during complex heart procedures. The hospital, ranked fourth in the UAE in Newsweek's World's Best Hospitals 2026 l»»»

BELGRADE - On Monday, July 20, Air Serbia carried 22,098 passengers, achieving the best single-day result in its history and surpassing its previous record of more than 21,600 passengers, set on August 1, 2025, the Serbian national airline has announced. "We are currently at the peak of the summer »»»

Dubai: The conflict between the United States and Iran continues to escalate, with fresh military action, new travel warnings and growing concerns over shipping and aviation across the Middle East. While the UAE remains safe and airports are operating normally, the latest developments have prompted»»»

New Delhi: Talks between the Indian government and leaders of the youth-led "Cockroach" movement failed to make headway Friday, as protesters gathered in the nation's capital to push for an overhaul of the education system. Senior ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh met with leaders of the social»»»

New Delhi: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been handed a direct entry into the men's knockouts of the Asian Games cricket after the draw was announced. Defending champions India along with its seeded neighbours will start from the quarter-finals of the 10-team men's competition start»»»

MADRID: World Cup-winning Spain ‌coach Luis de la Fuente was appalled by the conduct of Argentina’s players after their 1-0 loss in Sunday’s final, which led to a brawl between the two teams and triggered an investigation by FIFA. At the final whistle, Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes clashed w»»»

Foreign buyers completed 10 acquisitions of Ukrainian assets in the first half of 2026, double the five recorded a year earlier, with disclosed value rising to $415mn from $26mn, KPMG in Ukraine said in its M&A Radar report. The rebound in inbound dealmaking sits against foreign direct investme»»»

Comments Ukraine's new commander-in-chief, General Mykhailo Drapatyi, made in a 2023 interview about the population of Donbas have resurfaced this week and are being heavily amplified by Russian state media, days after President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed him to replace Oleksandr Syrskyi amid ma»»»

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta announced Friday that the cyclospora outbreak has officially spread to four new states. File Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA July 24 (UPI) -- The cyclosporiasis outbreak has expanded to four new states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and P»»»

1 of 3 | Take two of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is set to take place on Friday with fewer attendees and heightened security after April’s gala was cut short by a gunman. File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- Take two of the White House Correspondents' Dinner is »»»

Damascus, July 24 (SANA) Agriculture Minister Basel al-Suwaidan met on Friday with Qatari Ambassador to Damascus Khalifa Abdullah Al Mahmoud to discuss strengthening agricultural cooperation and developing bilateral relations to enhance trade exchange between the two countries. Al-Suwaidan stressed»»»

ABUJA: The Ebola outbreak in Congo has killed over 1,000 people, reaching the grim milestone nearly three times faster than the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic that is considered the worst on record. Data from Congo’s Ministry of Health shows that as of Tuesday, the current outbreak, declared on May 15, h»»»

LONDON: An “extremely significant” car bomb was intercepted earlier this week near the Northern Ireland border during an investigation of dissident republicans, Irish police said Friday. A woman driver in her 20s was arrested Wednesday near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, and remained in custody F»»»

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - A strike was carried out on a facility near Kiev where a demonstration of drones, including foreign ones used to strike civilian targets in Russia, was being held, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. "The Russian armed forces carried out a group strike with long-range p»»»

The European Commission announced preliminary findings that TikTok is in violation of the European Digital Services Act for not properly protecting minors. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- The European Commission announced Friday that it sent a warning to TikTok for»»»

Between July 20 and 24, the Bulgarian Air Force hosted the flight training exercise Thracian Viper 2026, involving air force units from Greece and Romania, the Bulgarian Defence Ministry reported on Friday. Under the exercise scenario, Bulgarian crews operating MiG-29, F-16 Block 70 and L-39 ZA air»»»

This is not merely an experiment, experts say, but an urgent necessity driven by the climate crisis. For the first time, Pakistan's Punjab province has deployed drones to monitor all rivers, barrages, and headworks to provide early flood warnings. This decision comes in the wake of tragedy: between»»»

Hezbollah on Friday mourned international revolutionary Kozo Okamoto, also known as “Ahmad Al-Yabani,” describing him as an international revolutionary and one of the participants in the Lod Airport operation. Okamoto died on Thursday in Beirut’s southern suburbs. In a statement, Hezbollah said Oka»»»

BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau opposition leader Domingos Simoes Pereira, who was being held in prison for alleged involvement in coup attempts, has been released for medical treatment in Portugal, judicial and security sources say. Pereira, leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cap»»»

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has demanded that Houthi forces immediately halt attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, warning that a renewed assault risks widening the escalation in the Middle East and drawing Yemen “deeper into regional conflict.” In a statement issue»»»

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Djuro Macut chaired on Friday a session of a council for coordination of activities and measures aimed at GDP growth. "Macut emphasised that the Government of Serbia continues to implement measures aimed at preserving macroeconomic stability, strengthening industrial productio»»»

In this edition of Europe Rendezvous, we travel to Italy, one of the European Union's founding members, to examine how the country's democratic institutions have come under increasing pressure. It may be the season of la dolce vita, but life ha»»»

RIYADH: Archeological coins unearthed in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla governorate are providing fresh insight into the region’s long history as a thriving commercial and cultural crossroads, underscoring its importance along ancient trade routes that connected civilizations across the Middle East. The disc»»»

BELGRADE/ZURICH - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says he has decided in favour of early elections for several reasons, including a need to have a legitimate government and people with legitimacy. In an interview for the Swiss Weltwoche weekly, Vucic said that, during last year's protests in the»»»

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia hosts 11 skink species, including the sandfish, spotted sand skink and golden skink — adapting across dunes, oases and plains with their streamlined bodies and smooth, shiny scales. Growing up to 14 centimeters long, these reptiles use clawed limbs and pointed snouts to navigat»»»

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s General Education Law has been approved by royal decree. The new law overhauls how the sector is governed, provides the enablers needed to meet its objectives, and aims to raise the quality of the educational environment and its outcomes, spanning educational stages, the Gene»»»

MOSCOW: Russian fashion designer Viktoria Terekhova shipped virtually her entire summer collection of children’s clothes last week to the giant warehouse of online retailer Wildberries at Elektrostal, east of Moscow. Within a couple of days, it was destroyed in a Ukrainian drone strike. Terekhova s»»»

SpaceX's next-generation Starship is pictured stacked on the pad at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, ahead of its 13th flight test, which is now scheduled for Friday evening. Photo by SpaceX/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- SpaceX pushed the 13th test flight of its Starship booster and spaceship »»»

After two days of debate and voting, Parliament adopted the 2026 State Budget Act at second reading on Friday, approving a budget framework with a projected deficit of 5.7%. The bill was passed by a vote of 125 to 84, with no abstentions, following more than five hours of voting and over 12 hours o»»»

Progressive Bulgaria should apologize to Bulgarian citizens for the 2026 State Budget Act, GERB-UDF MP and former finance minister Temenuzhka Petkova told reporters in Parliament on Friday. “A scandalous budget law with hugely inflated spending, a record deficit and EUR 10.1 billion in debt the gov»»»

TEL AVIV, (Sputnik) - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday that it is preparing for a large-scale counterterrorist operation in the West Bank, citing an increase in attacks on civilians in the area. "Following the terror attack earlier today (Friday) in the area of Tell, IDF soldiers are »»»

TEHRAN, (Sputnik) - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Friday that it had destroyed three ammunition and equipment hangars at US military base Camp Buehring (formerly Camp Udairi) in Kuwait in the 27th round of strikes. "During the 27th wave of Operation 'Victory 2,' fighters s»»»

London: Enzo Maresca said Friday it is a "privilege" to follow Pep Guardiola as manager of Manchester City. Former Chelsea and Leicester boss Maresca was named as Guardiola's successor after the Catalan stepped down at the end of last season, having won 20 trophies during a superbly successful 10-y»»»