Kazakh Foreign Minister Yermek Kosherbayev met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Paul Kapur.

According to TASS, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said that during the meeting, the U.S. side reaffirmed its interest in further strengthening cooperation with Kazakhstan.

“Particular attention was paid to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s initiative to establish an International Water Organization as a specialised agency of the United Nations,” the statement said.

The meeting also addressed preparations for the G20 summit to be held in Miami in late 2026, which Tokayev plans to attend at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump.

In July, Tokayev met U.S. Senator Steve Daines in Astana and announced his intention to attend the summit. Earlier, in June, Tokayev discussed his participation in the summit with U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs Sergio Gor.

The press service provided no further details on the talks between Kosherbayev and Kapur.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that, according to a report by Oleh Ivashchenko, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, Russia is preparing for mobilisation following parliamentary elections scheduled for September. Zelenskyy made the remarks in a video posted on his Telegram channel.

Zelenskyy said Russia’s preparations for mobilisation were confirmed by internal Russian documents.

“They are preparing for this in the autumn, immediately after the formal parliamentary elections. Putin’s plan is not particularly complicated: he wants to show that Russians support the war; all the parties that have been allowed to participate are, in one way or another, opposed to peace,” Zelenskyy said.

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans an additional “rapid mobilisation” of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year, and a similar number next year.

“This is in addition to the mobilisation they are trying to carry out through contracts,” Zelenskyy said.

“Monthly losses among Russian forces on Ukrainian territory amount to at least 30,000 personnel, 60% of whom are killed. The overall number of occupation forces on our land has gradually decreased thanks to our proactive actions and, above all, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles,” the Ukrainian president stressed.

According to Zelenskyy, the Kremlin leader believes that additional mobilisation and the deployment of troops from North Korea will allow Russia to prolong the war and intensify offensive operations.

He stressed that Ukraine is preparing for active measures to make it as difficult as possible for Russia to implement such plans.

Türkiye’s parliament has approved a legal framework for the disarmament and reintegration of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Of the 562 lawmakers present, 468 voted in favor and 88 against, with six abstentions after nearly 10 hours of debate.

The draft legislation, submitted earlier this month, was endorsed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party alliance, NTV reported.

The government has said the legislation is designed to facilitate the disarmament process rather than grant a general amnesty.

The 12-article bill establishes the legal framework for the dissolution of the PKK. It will enter into force once signed by the Turkish president and published in the official Resmi Gazete.

The PKK’s dissolution process began in February 2025 at the initiative of its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence.

In May of the same year, the PKK held a congress at which it decided to dissolve the organization and end its nearly 50-year conflict with Türkiye.

More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, toppling buildings, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and trapping people beneath the rubble in the country’s strongest earthquake this century, Reuters reported citing local authorities.

The quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June.

“The ‌national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address around 1 p.m. local time, upon declaring a national state of emergency and giving a death toll of 111. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble.”

De La Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then traveled to Cali, western Colombia’s largest city.

Though he had been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, De La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there, while 700 had been injured. Some local media have cited a national total of 132 deaths, though the origin of the figure is unclear.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali’s mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets. 

Iran has hit back at Washington’s latest sanctions rhetoric, accusing the United States of becoming so reliant on economic pressure that sanctions have replaced diplomacy as its default foreign-policy tool.

In a sharply worded statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed U.S. claims that sanctions are “suffocating” the Iranian economy.

“The US Secretary of the Treasury has boasted of “suffocating” Iran through economic sanctions. Beyond its sheer pathos, the claim is a stark testament to America’s compulsive addiction to sanctions. Whenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it retreats into sanctions; and whenever those sanctions fail to produce results, it simply increases the dose. This is no longer ‘policy’—it is ‘habit’; and more dangerously still, it is an addiction that has displaced thought itself. Iran has demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains. The real risk is that American politicians, clinging to this bad habit, will instead strangle their own remaining chances of a less humiliating exit from a crisis of their own making,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on X.

On August 7, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview that the United States had succeeded in “suffocating” Iran. Bessent claimed that food inflation in Iran was running at “150–180%,” while the country was struggling to pay its military personnel.

A new bill on the management of the Strait of Hormuz will be submitted to the Iranian parliament in less than two weeks, Abolfazl Zohrevand, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Russia’s TASS news agency.

“I think that in less than two weeks, after receiving all expert opinions, this draft will be fully ready for presentation at a plenary session [of parliament],” he said.

The lawmaker noted that the bill is currently on the agenda of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission and is undergoing expert review.

According to Zohrevand, the new bill is being drafted with a long-term perspective to prevent aggression against Iran and consolidate Tehran’s position in the Persian Gulf region.

“The fact is that we are drafting this bill for good, that is, with a long-term perspective in mind. The point is that we are striving to prevent a repeat of events similar to those orchestrated by the US and Israel against us and the entire region, which created this instability. It is about consolidating our positions regarding sovereignty, property rights, and control over this strait,” TASS quoted the Iranian legislator as saying.

The lawmaker also stated that without the adoption of this law and a clear definition of its scope, the region may once again witness “ambitions and geopolitical games on the part of countries that do not have positive intentions toward the entire region, including Iran.”

On August 9, the Iranian state broadcaster reported that the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission had approved a new bill on the management of the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. Navy has swept the Strait of Hormuz clear of mines and now holds “100%” control of the waterway, with reparations emerging as the latest flashpoint between Washington and Tehran, CNBC reported. 

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the U.S. Navy now has full control of the waterway. “It’s open now,” he said, adding that the U.S. was “the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now.”

He described the U.S. posture as a “steel wall” and said sporadic Iranian mine-laying hasn’t changed that. “They will, on occasion, drop a mine, and we find the mine,” he said. The U.S. has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports since mid-April.

Iranian officials have insisted that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the U.S. agrees to its demands including lifting their naval blockade, while its discussions with Oman over a shipping arrangement would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened.

In an attempt at turning the tables on Iran, Trump in a Truth Social post said Tehran’s demand for war-damage reimbursements gave him “an interesting idea” — that Iran should instead compensate the U.S. for the people killed or wounded in roadside bombings and other attacks linked to Iran, as well as Iranian protestors that he said have been killed over the past 50 years by the country’s regime.

Trump’s reparations demand has introduced a new sticking point after Iran laid out its own conditions for reopening the strait on Saturday, a vital waterway that carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil before the war.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Saturday the strait won’t reopen until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws American forces from the region, pays war reparations and releases frozen Iranian assets. The council also called for an end to U.S. attacks on Iran’s regional allies.

Trump has signaled that he was prepared to let the mounting economic distress take its toll on Iran rather than launch further military strikes.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday pushed back on the economic front. The spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei responded to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claims that U.S. sanctions were “suffocating” Iran.

He said that Washington opts for sanctions whenever diplomacy fails and escalates them when they don’t work — a pattern he said has become less a “policy” than a “compulsive addiction.”

The Board of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia has adopted a decision introducing changes to the regulatory framework governing the issuance and use of electronic money, with the aim of fostering a more efficient and competitive market environment.

The Central Bank said in a press release that, under the amendments, the mandatory requirement to have a bank account or payment card in order to open an electronic money account (wallet) has been removed.

At the same time, electronic money accounts can now be funded and redeemed not only through non-cash methods but also in cash.

The Central Bank said that, under the new approach, customer identification will be carried out in accordance with the customer due diligence procedures established by applicable legislation, while ensuring full compliance with the requirements of the Law on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

According to the Central Bank, the new regulations significantly simplify the use of electronic money for customers, making it faster and more convenient, particularly for individuals who do not use bank accounts or payment cards.

“For payment and settlement organizations, the changes create a more competitive and level playing field. They will be able to expand the range of services they offer and reduce their operational dependence on banking infrastructure,” the Central Bank said.

The proposed changes are aimed at:

expanding access to electronic money; 

creating equal competitive conditions for financial organizations; 

promoting the development of innovative payment solutions.

The changes are expected to increase the adoption of electronic money, enhance competition in the market, and contribute to the creation of a more efficient and inclusive payment environment.

Armenia’s Acting Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan met with Khush Choksy, Senior Vice President for International Member Relations and Senior Vice President for the Middle East, Türkiye and Central Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Kostanyan and Choksy discussed prospects for “institutionalizing relations in trade and economic cooperation, as well as in the fields of agriculture, energy, and information technology,” the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

The sides emphasized the progress achieved in Armenia-U.S. bilateral relations in recent years and the importance of implementing high-level agreements.

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the White House Peace Summit, a meeting was held in Washington between Vahan Kostanyan, Acting Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Elnur Mammadov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Allison Hooker, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia said in a statement.

Vahan Kostanyan highly appreciated the personal contribution of the President of the United States of America Donald Trump both to the convening of last year’s Peace Summit and to advancing the institutionalization of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the past year. 

During the meeting, the participants exchanged views on the positive developments achieved to date, regional infrastructure projects and confidence-building measures.

The importance of addressing the existing humanitarian issues was also emphasized.