* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reshuffle his cabinet of senior ministers on Wednesday as he seeks to refocus the government on raising living standards after the COVID-19 pandemic, a source in his Downing Street office said.
* President Rumen Radev has called Bulgaria's third parliamentary election this year for Nov. 14 after inconclusive polls in April and July failed to produce a government, the president's media office said on Wednesday.
* US President Joe Biden is expected to meet with executives from Walt Disney, Microsoft and Walgreens Boots Alliance to advance his vaccination requirements for the private sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. His administration also said most federal employees must be fully vaccinated no later than Nov. 22.
* The European Union on Wednesday pledged to increase financial support to help poorer countries fight climate change and adapt to its impacts, and called on the United States also to step up.
* Russia's Sputnik V vaccine has demonstrated 97.2% efficacy against COVID-19 during the vaccination campaign in Belarus, Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said.
* The Drugs Controller General of India has given permission to the Christian Medical College Vellore to start a trial on the mixing of vaccines, Mint reported on Tuesday.
* Sputnik's single-dose vaccine, Sputnik Light, has also received a green signal from India's drug regulatory authority to conduct phase III, India Today reported.
* The European Commission will re-launch a review of the Union's budget rules in weeks, with a view to agree on a reform by 2023, the head of the Commission said.
* The pace of vaccination must be quickened to avert "a pandemic of the unvaccinated", the European Union's chief executive Ursula von der Leyen said. The European Union will also donate a further 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries and close gaps in its own vaccination coverage, she added.
* After running through the worst of the pandemic, French care homes are facing staff who would rather quit than comply with a government mandate that they get vaccinated.
* In Australia, a curfew imposed in the 12 Sydney suburbs will end on Wednesday night, authorities said, while Victoria state reported a second consecutive daily fall in new cases as its first-dose vaccination rate neared the 70% level where some curbs will be eased.
* American army officers who refuse to be vaccinated could be suspended from their duties and possibly discharged, the US Army said on Tuesday.
* Mexico will send vaccines to Nicaragua in September, the country's foreign minister said on Tuesday, in a rare sign of international engagement with the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
* Saudi Arabia's healthcare administration has signed memoranda of understanding with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
* Passenger flights between Iran and Afghanistan resumed on Wednesday, Iran's state-run al-Alam TV channel reported.
