In the Serbian capital, Belgrade, President Aleksandar Vucic met with the leader of Bosnia's Serb entity, Milorad Dodik. Vucic said that the agreement of all three constituent peoples of Bosnia -- Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks -- is the essence of the 1995 Dayton peace accords rather than imposed solutions. The August 4 meeting came after political representatives of Serbs in Bosnia started boycotting the work of state institutions following an amendment to the state's Criminal Code prohibiting the denial of genocide.

Recent weeks have seen a spate of police raids on independent media companies and the homes of journalists in Russia, as part of an intensifying crackdown. Kremlin-critical media face fines, arrests, and violence. Some journalists are relocating to other countries to avoid an increasingly hostile environment.

The number of reported coronavirus cases in Iran surpassed 4 million on August 4 amid a vicious wave of infections driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will not send observers to Russia’s upcoming elections for the first time in nearly three decades due to "major limitations" imposed by Russian authorities.