ITALY: In a major victory for same-sex couples, Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled today that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate.

The court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deprive children born to same-sex parents of recognition by both the biological mother and the woman who consented to the medically assisted pregnancy of her partner and assumed parental responsibilities.

NETHERLANDS: Protocols for responding to emergencies on busy North Sea shipping routes off the Dutch coast must be urgently improved, an independent Dutch safety watchdog said today in a report into a deadly blaze on a cargo ship that killed 23 people.

The warning by the Dutch Safety Board came in its report about emergency services’ response to a fierce fire that broke out on the night of July 25, 2023.

SERBIA: The European Union’s foreign policy chief said membership candidate Serbia faces a “strategic choice” of direction on Thursday, just weeks after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic defied EU warnings by attending Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.

“Serbia faces a strategic, geostrategic choice, where it wants to be,” Kaja Kallas said during her visit to Belgrade. “Serbia’s European future depends on the values it chooses to uphold.”

CHINA: Landslides struck a rural area in China’s south-western Guizhou province this morning, killing two people and leaving 19 others trapped in the debris, local media said.

The bodies were reportedly found in Changshi township, while 19 other people from eight households were buried in the nearby Qingyang village where rescue operations were ongoing.