GERMANY: IG Metall, Germany’s biggest industrial union said today it will seek a 7 per cent pay increase for millions of workers in negotiations starting later this year.

The union said they were demanding the rise for 3.9 million workers because companies including car-makers and machinery manufacturers are in a position to afford it because of well-filled order books.

RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin will arrive in North Korea tomorrow for a two-day visit, his first in 24 years, both countries announced.

President Putin is expected to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for talks focused on expanding military co-operation as they deepen their alignment in the face of separate confrontations with Washington.

CZECH REPUBLIC: An Indian national has been extradited from the Czech Republic to the United States to face charges of murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire, Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek said today.

Nikhil Gupta was extradited on Friday after Mr Blazek gave the green light for the move that was previously approved by Czech courts, the minister wrote on the X social media platform.

MEDITERRANEAN: The Italian coastguard was searching for possible missing people off Italy’s southern coast today, following the shipwreck of a sailboat with migrants on board, believed to be departing from Turkey. 

It was not immediately clear how many migrants were missing.

The search-and-rescue operation started following a may-day call by a French boat, sailing about 120 miles from the Italian coast, at the limit of the search-and-rescue areas under the jurisdiction of Greece and Italy, the coastguard said.