PAKISTAN: Thousands of supporters of jailed former PM Imran Khan rallied today in the north-western city of Swabi, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where his Tehreek-e-Insaf party is in office.

Provincial Chief Minister Ali Amin Gundapur told demonstrators to ready themselves for a march on Islamabad to demand their leader’s release.

INDONESIA: Gunmen stormed a helicopter that landed in the Papua region and killed its New Zealander pilot Glen Malcolm Conning on Monday, authorities said today.

The passengers, two health workers and two children, were allowed to leave the site unharmed, apparently because they were locally born.

The attack was blamed on the West Papua Liberation Army, which fights for independence from Indonesia.

JAPAN: Last month 123 people died of heatstroke in Tokyo as the country faced its hottest July since records began in 1898.

It’s the highest heat-stroke death toll since 2018, the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office said, and reflects the growing impact of climate change even on rich countries.

RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin says he wants to fund promotion of “traditional Russian values” overseas.

A programme entitled Russia In the World has been established and assigned an unspecified sum.

The order published on the Kremlin website didn’t specify the values to be promoted. Mr Putin makes much of his close association with the Orthodox Church, and has condemned LGBT movements.