EUROPEAN UNION: Leaders of the EU agreed an extension of a raft of sanctions on Russia until July 31.

The sanctions, aimed at depriving Russia of funds to finance its war against Ukraine, were extended after Hungary lifted its objections to the move.

The sanctions target trade, finance, energy, technology, industry, transport, luxury goods and a ban on the import or transfer of seaborne crude oil and certain petroleum products from Russia to the EU. 

SERBIA: Serbia’s striking university students today launched a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the capital Belgrade, stepping up pressure on the populist authorities over a deadly canopy collapse in November that killed 15 people.

Serbian farmers on tractors and thousands of citizens joined the blockade that followed weeks of protests demanding accountability of the deadly accident in the northern city of Novi Sad.

MIGRATION: Three young African brothers drowned making the perilous central Mediterranean crossing with their parents, a German humanitarian group said today, after rescuing 17 people in a chaotic scene that saw survivors drifting away.

Two toddler brothers died when the smugglers’ boat sank, while survivors reported that a third child had drowned earlier in their journey from Libya aboard an unseaworthy boat.

SOUTH KOREA: The first report on last month’s Jeju Air crash in South Korea confirmed bird strikes in the plane’s engines, though officials haven’t determined the cause of the accident that killed all but two of the 181 people on board.

The preliminary accident report released today said feathers and bird blood stains were found in both engines.