Reuters World News Summary

Vietnam says every city, province now at risk of virus infection Vietnam, virus-free for months, was bracing for another wave of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday after state media reported new cases in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the Central Highlands linked to a recent outbreak in the central city of Danang.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Exclusive: Former Kremlin insider recounts Putin’s moves to retain power

When Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing for last month's nationwide vote on potentially extending his rule until 2036, he let the veil slip on part of the calculation behind the constitutional change. "If this doesn't happen, then in about two years – and I know this from personal experience – the normal rhythm of work of many parts of government will be replaced by a search for a possible successor," Putin said in an interview with state TV channel Rossiya. "We must be working, not looking for successors." States can restrict protests on public health grounds, U.N. says

Governments have the right to restrict protests on public health grounds, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said on Wednesday. The committee stepped in to formulate its legal interpretation having seen a gap in the international norms being tested even before the coronavirus pandemic. UK paper making 'commercial fodder' of dispute with royal Meghan, court hears

A lawyer for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, accused a British newspaper publisher in court on Wednesday of commercially exploiting its legal dispute with her by using court documents as the basis for "sensational" coverage. Meghan, wife of Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry, is suing publisher Associated Newspapers over articles the Mail on Sunday printed last year that included parts of a handwritten letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018. A space exploration fan, jazz artist Gregory Porter to sing for NASA launch

Jazz artist Gregory Porter, whose new single "Concorde" is an ode to space exploration, is set to perform on Thursday as part of a ceremony marking the launch of NASA's next generation rover that will search for signs of habitable conditions on Mars. The Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter is scheduled to sing the Ray Charles version of "America The Beautiful" during the U.S. space agency's broadcast of the countdown to the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Trump says he never confronted Putin about Russia bounty reports: Axios

President Donald Trump said he never questioned Russian leader Vladimir Putin about U.S. intelligence reports that Moscow paid the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, casting doubt on the reports in an interview. Trump, who has sought to cultivate warmer relations with Moscow, has said he was not briefed on the matter before it emerged in news media in late June. He has called the reports a hoax and casts doubt on them. Iran fires ballistic missiles from underground for first time

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards fired ballistic missiles from underground for the first time as part of an annual military drill, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the aerospace division of the Guards, said in a video posted online by YJC, a news agency linked to Iran’s state TV. The video showed clouds of dust before the missiles streaked into the sky. Vietnam says every city, province now at risk of virus infection

Vietnam, virus-free for months, was bracing for another wave of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday after state media reported new cases in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the Central Highlands linked to a recent outbreak in the central city of Danang. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the current wave of infections was different to a second wave Vietnam fought in March, and every province and city in the country was at risk, state broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) reported. EU set to drop Algeria from safe country travel list

The European Union is set to exclude Algeria from its safe list of countries from which the bloc allows non-essential travel after a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday. The list of countries will fall to 11, assuming the provisional decision is confirmed in writing by EU members, two EU diplomats familiar with the discussions said. The deadline for submissions was likely to be Thursday afternoon. U.S. Republicans worry China might use TikTok to meddle in election

A group of top Republican U.S. Senators on Tuesday ramped up pressure on TikTok, asking the Trump administration to assess the threat that the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app might meddle in U.S. elections. In a letter dated Tuesday, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton and other lawmakers cited alleged censorship by TikTok of sensitive content, including a video critical of China's treatment of its Uighur minority, as well as alleged attempts by Beijing to manipulate political discussions on social media apps. In Mumbai's slums, over half of population probably infected with coronavirus, survey says

More than half the people living in Mumbai's sprawling slums are probably infected with the novel coronavirus, which suggests the metropolis could be heading toward herd immunity, a government official and a health expert said on Wednesday, citing a recent survey. India has the world's third-highest caseload of the virus, behind the United States and Brazil, and health officials have been hoping to flatten the curve or reduce the incidence of infections in the big cities that are driving the growth.