SOUTH KOREA

Seoul breaks 118-year heat record

South Korea's capital broke a century-old weather record with the 26th so-called tropical night in a row, when the temperature stayed above 25 C, according to official data released on Friday. Much of the world is enduring a summer of extreme heat, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning last month of an "extreme heat epidemic". Overnight temperatures in Seoul have sizzled above 25 C for 26 days in a row, officials said, marking the longest streak since modern weather observation began in 1907.

RUSSIA

Kremlin cites West's role in Ukraine attack

An influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the West and the US-led NATO alliance had been directly involved in planning Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region. "Washington's efforts have created all the prerequisites for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and lose part of its territories," Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev said.

PAKISTAN

Health ministry confirms mpox case

Pakistan's health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, as provincial health authorities reported they had detected three cases. The World Health Organization has declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern.