China has evacuated more than 20,000 people from its southern region as powerful Super Typhoon Noul rapidly approaches the coast, state media reported, citing AFP. China’s National Meteorological Center said the storm could make landfall in coastal areas from Hong Kong to Guangdong province between Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The weather office maintained its second-highest, orange alert under a four-tier warning system on Saturday.

The meteorological center warned of strong winds and heavy rainfall in parts of Guangdong and neighboring Fujian province. CCTV said that by Friday night, more than 20,000 people in Guangdong had been moved to safe shelters. All fishing vessels at sea were ordered to return to safe ports, and they have returned.

Transport and school activities have also been disrupted. Several train services in Guangdong were suspended on Saturday morning, while all rail services in the province are due to be suspended on Sunday, according to CCTV. Local media said schools in Chaozhou city, Guangdong, were instructed to temporarily halt educational and other activities. Extreme weather has already caused extensive damage in southern and central China this month.

A charge-framing hearing is scheduled for July 26 against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 33 others in the murder case of truck driver Md Hossain in Mohammadpur during the anti-discrimination student movement. The hearing is due to take place on Sunday afternoon at the court of Dhaka Special Judge No. 4, Rabiul Alam. The report describes Hasina as absconding in India.

According to case information, Hossain was shot dead in the Chad Uddyan area of Mohammadpur on July 19, 2024. He had left his truck in Gabtoli and was returning home when he was shot, dying at the scene. His mother, Rina Begum, filed a murder case at Mohammadpur police station on August 31, 2024.

Mohammadpur police sub-inspector Akramuzzaman, the investigating officer, submitted a chargesheet against 34 people on November 23, 2025. A previous charge-framing hearing was deferred on June 25 after the prosecution sought time because the accused were absent from court. Junaid Ahmed Palak, Sadeque Khan, Furqan Hossain and Shahjahan Khan have been shown arrested in the case and are currently in jail.

Iran has strongly condemned what it described as a Ukrainian attack in the Caspian Sea and summoned a senior Ukrainian diplomat, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The report, published on July 26, 2026, said Tehran viewed the incident as the first of its kind and expressed deep concern that similar attacks could happen again.

The ministry protested the attack as a violation of the United Nations Charter. In a separate statement, it went beyond condemnation and issued a direct warning over what it called Ukraine’s hostile attitude toward Iran. The report described the development as significant amid pressure on Iran’s maritime trade.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also discussed the matter by telephone with the European Union’s foreign policy chief. He called on the international community and the UN Security Council to respond to and condemn the attack. The report said Iran is already facing a US maritime blockade that has placed severe pressure on its seaborne commerce.

President Donald Trump on Friday directed the US military not to launch new attacks on Iran, pausing strikes that had continued for nearly two weeks, Axios reported Saturday, citing two sources familiar with the matter. After authorizing airstrikes for 13 days, Trump did not approve plans for fresh attacks on Friday.

It remains unclear whether the pause is temporary or signals a broader policy shift. The report said the decision indicates that Trump wants to leave more room for diplomatic discussions and believes the current scope of military action has reached its limit without entering a new major war. The US military is continuing preparations for a possible escalation, but Trump has not ordered such action.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the United States could continue or intensify the attacks and had the ability to destroy everything Iran has. However, he said the smartest current strategy was to reach an agreement with Iran. He said talks were under way, while later telling a White House Correspondents' Association dinner that Iran did not appear ready for a deal, though he was willing to listen.

Iranian army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia claimed that nearly all US military infrastructure in Erbil, Iraq, has been destroyed. In remarks carried by Iranian state television and reported by Anadolu Agency, he said recent attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps caused extensive damage to US facilities in Erbil. The report was published on July 26, 2026.

Akraminia also claimed Iran had inflicted severe damage on US military bases across different parts of the Middle East. He said many of those bases had lost their operational and management capacity as a result. The source did not provide independent confirmation of the reported damage or describe the specific facilities affected.

The spokesperson said Iran was deploying new attack drones that are more advanced and accurate than the Arash-2 drone. He added that Iran was prepared to continue military operations until Americans understood they could not impose their will on the Iranian nation through aggression. No response from the United States to the Iranian claims was available, according to the report.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has warned that Britain and any other country assisting US military operations against Iran would become a “legitimate target.” An IRGC spokesperson issued the warning in a recent statement to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, according to Al Jazeera. The source does not specify the date of the statement.

The spokesperson said countries including Britain and states on the Persian Gulf coast would certainly become IRGC targets if they cooperated in a US attack on Iran. Referring specifically to Britain, the spokesperson said US B-1 bombers had recently used British air bases to carry out attacks on Iran.

The spokesperson said any form of cooperation with the United States would make those countries precise and legitimate targets. The warning came two weeks after the British government enacted legislation designating the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Under the new security law, people who support or assist the IRGC in Britain may face prison sentences of up to 14 years.

Houthi political bureau spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam met a Saudi delegation in Oman, according to a report published on July 26, 2026. A source from Yemen's Ansarullah Houthi movement said the meeting aimed to strengthen regional security and stability. The talks were reported after reciprocal attacks involving Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

After Riyadh carried out airstrikes in Yemen's Hodeidah province, the Iran-backed Houthis attacked Saudi oil facilities at two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday. In an official statement, the Houthi group said Yemen's armed forces had conducted two specific military operations in response to what it called Saudi “blatant aggression.”

The statement said the first operation targeted sensitive Aramco facilities in Jizan with around a dozen ballistic missiles and drones. A second operation targeted sensitive Aramco facilities in Yanbu using multiple ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. Yemen Television reported that airstrikes later hit Houthi positions in the central province of Marib and the northern province of Al-Jawf.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has kept a drawing made by children in Gaza in his office so that he does not forget their suffering and hardship. In a report published on July 26, 2026, Sanchez said the artwork reminds him every day of the pain of Gaza’s people and the humanitarian crisis there.

Sanchez has long been a strong critic of Israeli aggression and killings in Gaza, according to the report. He has called for a permanent ceasefire, voiced concern about the suffering of civilians in Gaza, and supported humanitarian assistance and an end to the fighting.

The report also says Sanchez played a prominent role in Spain’s formal recognition of the State of Palestine in May 2024. Keeping the children’s drawing in his office reflects the prime minister’s stated concern about Gaza’s humanitarian conditions and his continued support for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid.

University of Rochester professor Adam Frank and NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt developed the “Silurian Hypothesis” to examine whether an advanced civilization could have existed on Earth before humans and left detectable traces. Their discussion began in 2017, and they published a paper in 2018. The researchers say the project was not intended to prove such a civilization existed, but to identify what subtle evidence scientists should seek if one had existed and disappeared millions of years ago.

The inquiry links Earth’s unusual climate episodes with present-day human-driven warming. About 55 million years ago, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, carbon emissions were associated with a global temperature increase of up to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, though the precise cause remains unknown. Texas Tech University climate researcher Katharine Hayhoe, who was not involved, called the idea a thought experiment that highlights humanity’s potential vulnerability.

The researchers argue that surface structures and fossils may be difficult to preserve because of tectonic shifts, volcanic eruptions and erosion. They therefore consider chemical changes in sedimentary layers as possible evidence. Plastic, synthetic agricultural hormones, toxic chemicals and heavy metals used in electronics could remain as future markers of human civilization. Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz said cities, metal smelting and plastic waste would leave a clear footprint, and rejected the prior existence of a similarly energy-intensive civilization.

At least 35 people were killed and 30 injured when two passenger buses collided Saturday on the road from Deir ez-Zor to Damascus, Syria’s Health Ministry said. State news agency SANA reported that one bus was carrying members of the internal security forces, while the other was a civilian passenger bus. The source did not provide a cause for the crash.

Helicopters from Syria’s Defence Ministry were used to rescue the injured and remove bodies from the scene, according to SANA. The injured and the dead were transferred from Palmyra airport to a military hospital in the city of Homs. The reported casualty figure means at least 65 people were killed or injured in the collision.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa offered condolences to the families of those killed. He also instructed relevant authorities to provide all forms of assistance for responding to the accident and treating the injured. The report did not state the identities of the victims or provide further details about the buses’ routes beyond the Deir ez-Zor-to-Damascus road.

A police anti-drug community meeting in Kutubpur Bazar, Shibchar upazila of Madaripur, has triggered local anger after a defendant in a student murder case was reportedly present and joined discussions. Shibchar police organized the beat-policing meeting on the afternoon of July 25. Local people alleged that Azahar Howlader, a member of the banned Kutubpur Union Awami League, sat beside police officers and participated in the discussion.

Local sources said Howlader had served a sentence in the student murder case and is also accused in a recent vehicle-burning case. They said Ward Awami League president Samad Madbar Samu and several other party activists also attended and took part in discussions with police. Shibchar police inspector (investigation) Rakibul Hasan attended as chief guest, while Sub-Inspector Riazul Rahman was the beat officer.

Opposition figures criticized the meeting, saying they had not been informed and questioning how people facing serious cases could sit publicly with law-enforcement officials. Riazul Rahman said the officers were newly assigned to the area and did not know everyone present. Officer-in-Charge Md Kamal Hossain called the alleged attendance regrettable and said police were examining the matter seriously and taking necessary action.

Iran has claimed that it destroyed 11 US warplanes and helicopters stationed at American military bases during a recent 15-day war with the United States. Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, made the assertion in an interview with the semi-official Tasnim News Agency on Saturday. He said the attacks were carried out between July 8 and July 22.

According to Mohebbi, the destroyed equipment included 17 intelligence, surveillance and operational drones, eight of them brand new. He also claimed the attacks destroyed an F-15 fighter jet kept in a heavily protected hangar, a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and a C-17 military transport aircraft.

The IRGC spokesperson further said eight aerial refuelling aircraft were destroyed. He stated that the aircraft were hit while on the ground at US military bases, but provided no information about the locations of the targeted bases. There was no immediate response from the United States to Iran's claims.

India’s emerging student-youth movement, the Cockroach Janata Party, announced a suspension of its protests after reaching an understanding with the government, according to an Amar Desh Online report published on July 26, 2026. The report said the central government made concessions before the movement was withdrawn, including Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, a promise of examination reforms, and an assurance that cases against protesters would be withdrawn.

The protests began over an alleged question-paper leak in the NEET admission examination and expanded into wider demands concerning education, employment and government accountability. The Financial Times described Pradhan’s resignation as the movement’s largest symbolic and political success. An Associated Press analysis said participants used satire, memes, social media and creative protest to criticize the Modi government directly.

The Economic Times reported that the government negotiated directly with CJP, leaving established opposition parties, including Congress, outside the movement’s main center. Analysts cited in the report said youth dissatisfaction over education, jobs and accountability had deepened. The report also noted that CJP is not a recognized major political party, but a new student-youth-centered movement and political platform.

Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman returned home on Saturday after completing a five-day official visit to Turkey, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate. During the visit, he held separate courtesy meetings with Turkish National Defence Minister Yasar Gular and senior Turkish military and naval officials, including the chief of the general staff, the land forces commander and the director of Istanbul Naval Shipyard.

ISPR said the army chief also met a representative of Turkey's Defence Industry Agency. He received a guard of honour during a visit to the headquarters of the Turkish Land Forces. Discussions covered the friendly relationship between Bangladesh and Turkey, bilateral defence cooperation, military training, defence technology, defence-industry collaboration, capacity building and other matters of mutual interest.

Both sides expressed interest in further expanding professional ties, exchanges of experience and defence cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries. As part of the trip, General Waker-Uz-Zaman visited activities of leading Turkish defence-industry and military-technology companies, including ASISGUARD and Turkish Aerospace Industries. ISPR said the visit would help strengthen existing friendship and contribute to cooperation in defence industry, military technology, training and capacity development.

Iran says it sold $18 billion worth of oil during its war with the United States and the subsequent ceasefire, according to a report citing Al Jazeera. Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said the revenue from those sales has made a significant contribution to the oil-income target set in the country’s current fiscal-year budget.

Paknejad said proceeds from oil sales have met more than 60 percent of the budget’s planned oil-revenue target for the current fiscal year. He attributed increased Iranian oil exports to a reduction in risks associated with the movement of oil tankers.

The minister also said Iran was able to sell part of its stockpiled crude oil and gas condensate, estimated at about 100 million barrels. The report did not specify the buyers, export destinations, the precise period of the conflict or ceasefire, or a breakdown between crude oil and gas-condensate sales.