A boy walks along the flooded area in Saptari District, Nepal August 14, 2017. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

U.S.

Undeterred by the violence over the planned removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, municipal leaders in cities across the United States said they would step up efforts to pull such monuments from public spaces.

The chief executives of Intel, Merck & Co and Under Armour resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council on Monday, following Trump's initially tepid response to weekend violence at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Breakingviews: U.S. CEOs can afford principled stand against Trump

Breakingviews TV: Bigotry backlash

Voters in Alabama head to the polls today to choose Republican and Democratic nominees for a U.S. Senate seat. The outcome in the Republican primary could offer hints about whether Trump remains popular nine months after he easily won Alabama in the presidential election.

Tech

Internet companies have increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs over hate speech and other volatile social issues. Twitter, Facebook, Google's YouTube and other platforms have ramped up efforts to combat the social media efforts of Islamic militant groups, largely in response to pressure from European governments. Now they are facing similar pressures in the United States over white supremacist and neo-Nazi content.

North Korea

North Korea's leader has delayed a decision on firing missiles towards Guam while he waits to see what the United States does next, the North's state media said, as South Korea's president said Seoul would seek to prevent war by all means. 

Asia would be the biggest beneficiary of any potential sanctions by the United States on Venezuela's oil sector, said traders and analysts, as exports from the South American OPEC member could be redirected to the region, filling a vacuum left by producer supply cuts. 

China's appetite for crude oil may taper: Russell

Russia

New U.S. sanctions on Moscow have forced Russian business chiefs to accept that Donald Trump's rise to power is not about to produce a "Trump Bump" in foreign investment.

Business

Home Depot’s quarterly profit and comparable sales beat Wall Street estimates as homeowners continued to invest in their homes that are appreciating in value.

With as many active players as the population of Germany, the Honour of Kings mobile game will likely help boost Tencent's quarterly revenue by about 50 percent, shrugging off play-time curbs imposed by the firm to address addiction woes.

Iran

Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) rejected U.S. criticism that it flew a drone unsafely near a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf and it defended its right to carry out air patrol missions in the area. On Monday the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said that an Iranian drone had come within 1,000 feet of a U.S. aircraft carrier while it was in international waters in the Gulf conducting flight operations.

Afghanistan

The United States should withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan and stop listening to "stooges" in Kabul, the Taliban warned in an open letter to President Trump. The Trump administration is working to finalize a regional strategy that could include nearly 4,000 additional U.S. troops, part of a NATO-led coalition, that have been requested by commanders in the country.

Zimbabwe 

Zimbabwe's first lady, Grace Mugabe, handed herself in to South African police after reports she had assaulted a woman in Johannesburg's up-market Sandton district over the weekend, eNCA television said.

Thailand

A Thai student activist was jailed for two and a half years for posting on Facebook a BBC article deemed offensive to Thailand's king, his lawyer said.

Commentary

North Korea's latest tests of its Hwasong-12 ballistic missile have put Kim Jong Un on the verge of being able to hit the U.S. mainland with nuclear force, writes columnist Peter Apps. "Kim’s hope seems to be that the more potent his nuclear capabilities, the more the rest of the world feels it has no choice but to allow him to stay in position," says Apps. "The opposite, however, may happen."