The White House announced it has donated and shipped 110 million doses (NPR) of COVID-19 vaccines abroad and plans to donate hundreds of millions more in an effort to establish the United States as “the world’s arsenal of vaccines.” Meanwhile, health experts warn that global vaccine production needs to increase dramatically.
 
U.S. vaccine donations outstrip those from the European Union, which has donated (Politico) 7.9 million doses, and from China, which has donated 24.2 million doses, according to an EU document dated August 2. Still, the World Health Organization estimates that eleven billion doses are needed to control the pandemic, a prediction that prompted a group of health and international relations research centers to publish an open letter (CSIS) calling for the Joe Biden administration to back a more robust global vaccine strategy. At a news conference yesterday, Biden said the United States will help countries such as India manufacture more doses.

The United States and Indonesia are launching a strategic dialogue (Reuters) to deepen their partnership, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. The dialogue was agreed upon in 2015 but will now formally begin, focusing on issues including the pandemic, climate change, and the protection of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
 
Malaysia: Amid a sweeping political crisis, the country’s king agreed that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will face a confidence vote (Straits Times) when Parliament reconvenes in September.

India is set to deploy four warships (ANI) for two months to Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, and the Western Pacific and will join exercises with the United States, Australia, and Japan, fellow members of the so-called Quad.
 
CFR’s Sheila A. Smith lays out what to know about the Quad.
 
Afghanistan: At least eight people were killed (TOLOnews) and more than twenty others were injured in a car-bomb attack near the Kabul home of Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, the interior ministry said.

British maritime officials said a vessel off the United Arab Emirates’ coast that they and U.S. officials were investigating for suspected hijacking (FT) is now safe, and that the suspected hijackers have left. 
 
Iraq: The United States has begun returning more than seventeen thousand artifacts (National) that were looted from Iraq over several decades, mainly after the Gulf War.
 
The Why It Matters podcast examines the history of conflict-driven looting.

Sudan’s cabinet voted to ratify the founding treaty (AFP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a step toward officially joining the body, where former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir is accused of war crimes and genocide.
 
This Backgrounder looks at the role of the ICC.
 
Mauritius: India appears to be constructing a naval base on the Mauritian islands of Agalega, Al Jazeera reports. India and Mauritius have previously denied that the facility will be used for military purposes.

A spokesperson for Turkey’s foreign ministry called newly announced U.S. rules (Hurriyet) for Afghans applying for refugee status an “irresponsible decision taken without prior consultation.” The rules require Afghans who worked with U.S. troops, nongovernmental organizations, and media to apply from outside Afghanistan, which Ankara said will cause a major refugee crisis that Turkey cannot bear.
 
United Kingdom: For the first time, Chinese applicants to British universities outnumber those (Bloomberg) from the European Union, a consequence of Brexit.

The final scheduled hearings in Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case begin today (CBC) in Vancouver. Meng’s 2018 arrest and Washington’s attempt to extradite her have roiled relations between Canada and China, where two Canadian men were detained in 2018 and tried behind closed doors in apparent retaliation.
  
Guatemala: The attorney general’s office announced that a prosecutor accused of targeting the country’s political opposition will replace (Al Jazeera) former top anticorruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, whose recent firing sparked nationwide protests.