Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni calls her plan to change the structure of governance in the country the “mother of all reforms.” Her critics call it a naked bid to seize power for the prime minister’s office and government, and enact illiberal laws. Meloni’s proposal, now...
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni began a five-day visit to China this week, aimed at revitalizing ties between Rome and Beijing, months after Italy withdrew from China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Politico reported. The visit marks Meloni’s first visit to Beijing since taking office,...
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Italy’s upper house of parliament approved a proposed constitutional overhaul this week that would allow the prime minister to be directly elected, an ambitious reform measure that has prompted fears of authoritarianism and further chaos in Italian politics, Reuters reported. Dubbed “the mother of all reforms”...
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Italy’s right-wing government has been moving to silence intellectuals through defamation lawsuits, and the latest example is a philosopher being sued by Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s brother-in-law, according to the Guardian. The case centers on statements made in April 2023, when Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, who...
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Protests broke out in Venice this week against the local government’s new initiative to charge visitors entering the venerable Italian city – the first city in the world to do so – with demonstrators saying the fee risks turning the destination into “an amusement park,”...
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Italian lawmakers passed an amendment this week to allow anti-abortion activists to enter family planning clinics, a move that supporters hailed but the opposition and pro-choice advocates called a “heavy” blow to women’s rights, the Washington Post reported. The amendment is part of the right-wing government’s...
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been confronting twin crises. The first is low economic growth. The second involves the nearly 160,000 migrants arriving in the country’s Mediterranean waters last year, a 50 percent increase over 2022. Meanwhile, she has been confronting them far more...
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The Albanian parliament approved an agreement Thursday to host thousands of asylum seekers for Italy, a deal aimed at tackling the influx of refugees and migrants entering the European Union, but which has drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups, Al Jazeera reported. Lawmakers from the...
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Venice will impose an entrance fee on daytime visitors from next spring, a controversial first-of-its-kind effort to tackle overcrowding and make tourism more sustainable in the picturesque Italian city, Euronews reported. Non-Venetians will have to pay $5.50 to receive a QR code granting access to the...
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Italians expressed outrage at the death of a young woman allegedly murdered by her former partner, a killing that prompted calls to address the issue of gender and domestic violence in the European country, Euronews reported. On Saturday, authorities found the body of Giulia Cecchettin, a...
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An Italian court ordered the eviction of two men in their 40s, who were living with their mother for years and had refused to abandon the comforts of the family home, the Guardian reported. The case centered on a 75-year-old woman in the northern city of...
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an icon of the far-right in Europe, recently announced that she would separate from her longtime partner Andrea Giambruno, a television journalist. The split came two days after recordings of Giambruno’s “foul remarks and suggestive comments towards a female colleague” surfaced...
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The Italian region of Sardinia will import shepherds and farmers from Kyrgyzstan, a move aimed at addressing a declining population and preserving farming traditions on the Mediterranean island, Euronews reported Thursday. The local branch of the national farmers’ union, Coldiretti, recently announced it had struck a...
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Venice’s government will introduce a new entry fee for visitors next year in an effort to address the rising number of tourists and other challenges facing the picturesque Italian city, the New York Times reported. Starting next spring, day-trippers visiting during peak tourist season will be...
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Italian producers of the famous Parmigiano Reggiano cheese are putting microchips in their products, as a part of an effort to fight copycats and enforce their dairy product’s protected status, CBS News reported. Parmigiano Reggiano – also known as parmesan – is one of the world’s...
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The Italian government’s imposition of a one-off 40 percent windfall tax on its banking sector, to help first-time homebuyers and cut taxes for families and businesses, caused chaos in the European markets, CNN reported Wednesday. The announcement of the tax, which came earlier this week, caused...
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is planning to add Venice to its list of endangered World Heritage sites, saying that the Italian city is deeply threatened by climate change, mass tourism, and urban development, the Washington Post reported. The designation will put...
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Italy is mulling leaving China’s Belt and Road Initiative, almost four years after it controversially became the only Group of Seven country to join it, Bloomberg reported. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, a close ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said in an interview Sunday that Italy...
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An Italian judge ruled this week that groping is not a crime if it lasts less than 10 seconds, a verdict that prompted outrage in Italy over concerns that it will deter victims of sexual harassment from reporting it to the police, the New York...
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Italian and world leaders paid tribute to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after the business mogul-turned-politician passed away Monday, leaving behind a mixed legacy marked by scandals and sex-fueled parties that dogged him throughout his three terms in office, NPR reported. Local media said Berlusconi died...
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