Europe

PM Petteri Orpo's government gained parliamentary support for its proposals to curb political strikes, and solidarity with MPs who voted for bills to limit strike rights

UNHCR expressed concern about a proposed amendment to Iceland's international protection laws, highlighting, among other things, problems with the imposition of limits on asylum seekers and delays in family reunification

In the first three months of the year, the housing agency Threshold received almost 12.000 calls related to housing issues, with tenancy security continuing to be the main concern

A new nutritional watchdog website has been launched to address the lack of transparency in data on the side effects of dietary supplements, a growing market; the website seeks to counter the frequent cases of misleading advertising

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, 70, will become the first female president of North Macedonia; she was the candidate of the nationalist opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, which also won the parliamentary elections

Albania's football federation, FSHF, has joined forces with Serbia to bid to host the Euro 2027 under-21 football championships; FSHF described it as an 'ambitious project' that will 'put Albania at the centre of footballing attention across the continent

Switzerland will not be participating in the European Copernicus programme to monitor climate change from 2021 to 2027 although Parliament had voted in favor; the reason given by the government is the strained state of federal finances

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a conference focusing on the transformative potential of art, which opened with the Pope's call for a network of 'cities of refuge' and the inauguration of the 'Changes' photo exhibition

The country has updated its vaccination calendar, granting general practitioners permission to administer the pertussis vaccine to infants two weeks earlier than before, starting six weeks after birth

The number of unemployed people in Montenegro decreased by 12,9% year-on-year to 36.421 at the end of March; unemployment rate at the end of 2023 was 13,1%, according to data from the country's statistical office

Programme 'Education with the Military' has been launched: soldiers visit schools to teach pupils emergency preparedness; some 3.000 schools have signed up to participate in the program

'The descendants of Napoleon and Hitler want to defeat Russia again with the help of the Anglo-Saxons,' allegedly said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on the eve of Victory Day over Nazi Germany