On Wednesday, the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur has been transferred to Venezuela despite objections of right-wing governments in the region. In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of Uruguay, there are no legal impediments to prevent Venezuela from having the presidency, despite Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay opposing it. Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Uruguay's Foreign Minister announced he had notified other foreign ministers of the member states, as well as presented a report on the activities during their period ahead of the bloc.

On Monday, 1 of August the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of United States of America – general Joseph Dunford visited Turkey. He made a visit to Ankara and Turkish Parliament. He observed the Turkish House of Parliament, which was damaged during the coup attempt in 15 of July, and conducted talks with the Prime Minister of Turkey – Binali Yildirim. Joseph Dunford condemned the coup attempt in Turkey, but in the case of extradition query for Fethullah Gulen, he stated that query will be reviewed under the law of USA, and the decision will be independent and without the political pressure.

Donald Trump rejected criticism from the father of a soldier killed in Iraq who said the Republican presidential nominee had "sacrificed nothing and no one" and questioned whether the mother was allowed to speak during the couple's appearance at the Democratic convention. Khizr Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin and a Muslim, won widespread praise when he spoke Thursday at the Democratic National Convention, telling the story of his son, U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed by a bomb in Iraq in 2004.

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean leader in his 36th year of reign, is experiencing serious social tension in his country. The situation got worse in the last few weeks, and more and more leaders are calling for strikes against Mugabe’s rule. Evan Mawarire, a 39-year-old Baptist pastor took the leadership of the opposition and is currently calling for international help. Moreover, a turnaround happened on July 23, with the country's independence war veterans attacking directly the President Mugabe, calling him a traitor.

The pessimism of the market in oil futures is growing. During the week to 26 July, hedge funds and large speculators increased their bets on falling prices for 38.896 million barrels reported the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The bid against oil was a record in a history of available stock statistics. For last two weeks there have been 66.5 million "papers" thrown out to market which are not provided by the physical delivery of barrels - these contracts are sold "in short run" for the sake of speculative play on lowering prices. Such drastic short sales were not fixed by CFTC even once in the past 7 years - neither after the Brexit, nor during the Euro Zone debt crisis, or after the historic decision of OPEC to refuse to reduce oil production in November 2014. Within two weeks the volume of bets of hedge funds versus oil rose by half and up to 3.5 times for last two months.

On Saturday, July 31, Syrian rebels have launched a counteroffensive in Aleppo region aimed at breaking the siege of the city. The military operations are spearheaded by a Salafi group Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which recently has broken formal ties with al-Qa’idah and changed its name from Jabhat al-Nusra. The offensive is concentrated south and south-east of the city, and the rebel territorial advances remain precarious in the face of Russian air strikes.