HONG KONG, July 27 (Reuters) - Global investors are increasingly choosing to bypass China's markets in favour of other emerging countries that are either gaining from the geopolitical and growth risks stalking the world's second-biggest economy or are far removed from them.

Reuters analysis shows a massive jump in the assets of emerging market (EM) mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) that exclude China as U.S. and European investors turn more wary of being exposed to the Asian giant.

TOKYO, July 27. /TASS/: On July 26 in Pyongyang North Korean leader Kim Jong-un received a Russian military delegation led by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The meeting will serve to further deepen ties between Russia and North Korea. According to the KCNA, the Russian Defense Minister handed a personal message from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong-un. It is noted that the North Korean leader expressed gratitude for the message. Also, according to the agency, Shoigu and Kim Jong-un exchanged gifts.

25 July 2023; MEMO: The US military said a Russian fighter jet hit a US drone with a flare and "severely" damaged its propeller over Syria, the latest in a series of closer interactions by Russian military aircraft in the region, Reuters reports.

Over the past several months, US officials say, Russian jets have increased the pace of dangerous encounters with US military aircraft over Syria, where forces from both countries operate.

25 July 2023; MEMO: A judge in the UK has ruled that the home secretary acted unlawfully in not providing basic support to asylum seekers including young children and pregnant women.

Mr Justice Swift found that Suella Braverman broke the law by withholding £3 ($3.8) a week for healthy food for children up to three years old and pregnant women after lawyers representing five asylum seekers challenged the home secretary in the high court.

25 July 2023; MEMO: The UK government has underwritten financing for an $872 million new high-speed electric railway in Turkiye, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, HS2 plans are scaled back, and the Northern Powerhouse Rail project gets ditched, Westminster appears to have turned its attention to infrastructure projects in far-flung countries rather than investing in crucial connectivity in the north.

26 July 2023; MEMO: Far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir yesterday warned the Supreme Court against repealing the "reasonableness law," Hebrew media reported.

"If the Supreme Court repealed the law, it would be a coup attempt," he said, stressing that "the Supreme Court is not above everything." Adding that he hoped the Supreme Court "does not commit this mistake."

26 July 2023; MEMO: Over 1,000 Israeli physicians plan to leave Israel and work abroad after the passing of the reasonableness law, the Israeli Medical Association said yesterday.

"The vast majority of physicians know they will not be able to fulfill their oath to patients under a regime that does not accept the role of reason," AP reported Hagai Levine, chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health, saying.

26 July 2023; MEMO: Iran, on Tuesday, unveiled a new cruise missile named after a slain Iraqi military commander after the US announced the deployment of additional warships to the Persian Gulf, Anadolu Agency reports.

The indigenously-built "Abu Mahdi" missile was formally delivered to the Iranian Navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the presence of Defence Minister, Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani, and senior military officials.

LONDON (AP) — The chief executive of NatWest, one of Britain’s biggest banks, left her job on Wednesday after discussing personal details of a client — the populist politician Nigel Farage — with a journalist amid a furor over financial institutions’ power to refuse customers for their political views.

The bank said Alison Rose was leaving “by mutual consent.” The surprise early-morning statement came just hours after NatWest had expressed full confidence in the CEO, who was the first woman to head one of Britain’s four big banks.

25 July 2023; MEMO: The Iranian Ministry of Security said yesterday it had disbanded a major network allegedly sponsored by Israel's Mossad spy agency that planned to carry out several acts of sabotage in the country.

Iranian TV quoted the ministry as saying that all the cell members had been arrested with 43 bombs in their possession.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is expected to appear before a federal judge on Wednesday to plead guilty to two tax crimes and admit possessing a gun as a drug user in a deal with the Justice Department that’s likely to spare him time behind bars.

U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, will preside over the hearing and must sign off on the deal, in which prosecutors are recommending two years of probation. Hunter Biden is not expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A tall construction crane caught fire in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, and its arm hit a building as it crashed to the street below.

Photos and videos posted on social media show flames bursting from the car of a crane hundreds of feet above 10th Avenue at 41st Street. The crane’s arm scraped the top floors of a skyscraper across the street as it fell.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the crane fire and collapse, which happened shortly before 8 a.m.