* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged the parties to do their utmost to ensure the continuation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products from Black Sea ports.
* Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a celebration of International Yoga Day at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday and called on people "to join hands together to realize the goal of one earth, one family, one future."
* Japan's parliament concluded its 150-day regular session on Wednesday during which 58 bills were enacted into legislation, including controversial laws related to rising defense spending and immigration.
* The Fijian cabinet has agreed to consider the re-opening of the three embassies in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the United States, and the establishment of a new embassy in Israel, under the upcoming 2023-2024 national budget.
* Ukraine called on Wednesday for Western countries to pledge over $6 billion more to help it rebuild over the next 12 months, saying the conflict with Russia meant Kyiv was facing the largest reconstruction project in Europe since World War Two.
* European Union governments agreed on Wednesday on another package of sanctions against Russia over its “special military operation” in Ukraine, aimed mainly at stopping third countries and companies from circumventing the existing EU measures.
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will press world leaders to take concrete actions at a summit this week on easing the debt burdens of low-income nations, a senior Treasury Department official said on Wednesday.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met new Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday for talks that were set to focus on next month's NATO summit, where Sweden is hoping to join the Western defence alliance.
* Italy will face a hard task in hitting a NATO defence spending target if the European Union refuses to grant some budget flexibility, the defence minister told parliament on Wednesday.
* Finnish central bank Governor Olli Rehn plans to take a leave of absence to run in a presidential election due next year, he said on Wednesday, leaving his deputy to run the bank.
* Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday filed his nomination papers to contest as the ruling party's presidential candidate in elections set for Aug. 23.
* Michael Wood has resigned as a minister of the New Zealand government over multiple conflicts of interest, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Wednesday.
* Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has vowed to hold peaceful and democratic general elections scheduled for Saturday in the West African country.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced on Wednesday that the construction of 1,000 new settler homes will be "immediately advanced" in the West Bank, where two Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis on Tuesday.
* The Norwegian government has condemned the decision by the Israeli government to simplify the process of approving construction of new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
* The Indian government on Wednesday reviewed its preparedness vis-a-vis the ongoing heatwave and heat-related illnesses, officials said.
* The death toll from a riot at a women's prison in Honduras rose to 46, the spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. The violent incident took place on Tuesday and most of the victims were burned to death, while others were shot.
* As many as 39 people on a dinghy en route to Spain's Canary Islands have drowned, the migration-focused NGO Walking Borders said on Wednesday.
* The Russian economy continues to pick up, although challenges remain, head of the country's central bank Elvira Nabiullina said on Tuesday.
* Cambodia exported 107,938 tons of dry rubber in the first five months of 2023, up 2.5 percent from the 105,248 tons recorded in the same period last year, said a report from the General Directorate of Rubber on Wednesday.
* Egypt's cabinet has approved a draft law to eliminate special tax exemptions for state-owned entities in all investment and economic practices, a cabinet statement said on Wednesday.
* Germany's gross domestic output (GDP) is expected to shrink by 0.4 percent in 2023, according to the latest forecast published by the ifo Institute on Wednesday.
* The United Kingdom's (UK) Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 8.7 percent in the 12 months up to May, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday. However, the CPI did not budge between April and May.
* The Czech National Bank (CNB) left interest rates flat at more than two-decade highs on Wednesday, with one less policymaker raising a hand for a further hike to reinforce a market view that policy tightening was over even as the bank kept the option open.
* The Bank of Spain on Monday raised its forecast for Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, predicting that it will grow by 2.3 percent, 0.7 percentage point higher than its previous forecast in March.
* The CEO of Iran's National Post Company said postal cooperation with Saudi Arabia will resume following this year's Hajj pilgrimage, which will end on July 1.
