Iran's armed forces chief of staff said the Defense Ministry's achievements in recent years have gone beyond equipment production and amount to a deterrent "defense industrial revolution".

US initial jobless claims for the week to Aug 15 and the August Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index will be released in 10 minutes.

China's Draft Medical Security Law will be submitted for a third reading at the National People's Congress Standing Committee meeting in Beijing from Aug 25-28, the NPC legal affairs committee said at an Aug 21 briefing. Proposed third-reading revisions would: explicitly reflect a health-first development strategy; tighten provisions on the medical security system; strengthen rules for medical security fund management; specify cross-region medical expense settlement requirements; add provisions for long-term care insurance; and refine legal liability rules.