HOUSTON (AP) — Elections in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, the state’s biggest city, are coming under the microscope this week as the Democratic stronghold faces unprecedented intervention from the state’s GOP-led Legislature.

Various problems in last November’s midterm elections will be center stage in a civil trial beginning Tuesday. Erin Lunceford, a GOP candidate who lost her bid to become a district court judge in Harris County is suing to throw out the election results and have the court order a do over.

BEIJING, Aug 1 (APP): The small and beautiful projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would boost income fast, increase employment and benefit local people.

As CPEC and other BRI projects between China and Pakistan have focused on major infrastructure, more small but beautiful projects would be set to boost income fast and increase employment and benefit local people, Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University told Global Times.

KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Police arrested 29 people on charge of involvement in criminal activities over the past 24 hours in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, police arrested the 29 individuals involved in criminal activities including theft, drug smuggling and carrying weapons illegally from nine out of the country's 34 provinces.

Similarly, police also arrested seven people on charge of involvement in selling illicit drugs in northern Baghlan province a couple of days ago, police said.

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. The topic of expanding BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) is "near the top of the agenda" and will be discussed at the upcoming BRICS summit, alt:ough nuances exist among the group’s member states regarding its expansion prospects, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tropical Storm Dora formed Tuesday off Mexico’s western Pacific coast but will not be a threat to land, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center

Forecasters say that while the storm is expected to strengthen, it is moving generally westward and heading away from land.

The center said Dora was located 275 miles (445 kilometers) southwest of the Pacific coast port of Manzanillo.

The storm had winds of 40 miles per hour (65 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph).

TEHRAN, Aug 1 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Mehrdad Bazrpash, announced yesterday that, Iran and Syria have eliminated bilateral trade tariffs.

Bazrpash made the announcement, at a meeting of heads of the Iran-Syria Joint Economic Commission, co-chaired by visiting Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Mohammad Samer al-Khalil, in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

Besides, Iran and Syria agreed to use their national currencies, the Iranian rial and the Syrian pound, in bilateral trade, if possible, according to the minister.

PETROZAVODSK, July 31. /TASS/: Ukraine’s attacks on the Crimean Bridge confirm that in aiding the Kiev regime, the US and its allies are in fact sponsors of terrorism, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI should stop using a U.S. spy database of foreigners’ emails and other communications for investigating crimes that aren’t related to national security, a group of White House intelligence advisers recommended in a report released Monday.

MIAMI (AP) — The property manager of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate made his first court appearance on Monday on charges in the classified documents case against the former president but did not enter a plea because he has not found a Florida-based attorney to represent him.

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) - A former associate of Hunter Biden appeared before a congressional panel on Monday for an interview that Republican lawmakers hope will shed light on unproven allegations against Democratic President Joe Biden and his family.

Devon Archer, who was subpoenaed by the House of Representatives Oversight Committee in June, appeared for an interview behind closed doors led by committee staff. Allies of former President Donald Trump are calling for an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia prosecutor is expected to seek a grand jury indictment in the coming weeks in her investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his Republican allies to overturn the then-president’s 2020 election loss.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began investigating more than two years ago, shortly after a recording was released of a January 2021 phone call Trump made to Georgia’s secretary of state.

31 July 2023; MEMO: Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir changed the law on Sunday to end the possibility of early release from overcrowded prisons for Palestinians held under so-called "administrative detention", local media reported.