TURKEY: A rubber dinghy carrying migrants sank off the northern Aegean coast today, killing at least 21 people.

Coastguard personnel rescued two people from the sea off the town of Eceabat in Canakkale province, while two others reached the shore by themselves and notified officials, Governor Ilhami Aktas said.

It was not clear how many people were on the boat when it sank and the coastguard was continuing to search the area, he said.

POLAND: Former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told a parliamentary committee today that he believes Poland needed advanced spyware, but that, despite his leadership position, he wasn’t interested in how or against whom it was used.

Mr Kaczynski testified about the purchase and allegedly illegal use of advanced spyware by a government headed by his Law and Justice party, which held office from 2015 to 2023.

UKRAINE WAR: The leaders of Germany, France and Poland met in Berlin today to discuss support for Kiev as it grapples with a shortage of military resources.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to the summit of the so-called Weimar Triangle, a format that they are trying to revitalise after relations became strained under Poland’s previous right-wing government.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The government has lifted a more than two-decade moratorium on the death penalty as authorities struggle to curb milita attacks.

According to a Justice Ministry statement published today, the ban, dating from 2003, allowed offenders accused of treason and espionage to evade proper punishment.