Dani says his £26,000 salary is not high enough to sponsor his wife so she can join him in Britain
A police officer working in Manchester says he has been forced to quit his job after Rishi Sunak raised the salary threshold to sponsor his Italian wife to live in the UK in the post-Brexit immigration scheme.
Campaigners have warned that his tale of Brexit anguish is being repeated up and down the country in low-paid public sectors where many EU citizens work.
Continue reading...Tourists and residents swelter in heat as temperatures rise to 44C in Spain, with forest fires in Greece and Croatia
A fierce heatwave is continuing to roll across southern and central Europe, bringing temperatures of up to 44C (111.2F) to parts of Spain, sparking forest fires in Greece and Croatia, and prompting governments to urge people to take special care as the mercury rises.
In Spain, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, said temperatures on Friday could hit 40C across large parts of the country – and even 44C in areas of Andalucía – as the first heatwave of the summer hit. Aemet said the high temperatures, caused by a mass of “very hot, dry and dusty air” from North Africa, were expected to last until Saturday.
Continue reading...Six people dead, thousands evacuated and transport disrupted after at least 20 floods in major rivers
China has been experiencing heavy and widespread rainfall since the start of the rainy season, which runs from May to September. It has resulted in at least 20 floods in major rivers across the country, with 31 rivers surpassing their flood warning levels.
Dianjiang county, in Chongqing, received 269.2mm in one day last week, a single-day record there. It led to six deaths, more than 10,000 evacuations, and 40,000 people being affected, as well as severe disruptions to rail services and transport caused by flooding.
Continue reading...Research argues tremors occurred as Vesuvius erupted in AD79, causing buildings to collapse on to people
Victims who perished in Pompeii after the devastating AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have been killed by a simultaneous earthquake, research has suggested.
Scholars have debated for decades whether seismic activity occurred during the eruption of Vesuvius in southern Italy nearly 2,000 years ago, and not just before it, as reported by Pliny the Younger in his letters.
Continue reading...New business secretary set to tell international counterparts at G7 meeting ‘Britain is back on world stage’
Britain is taking its first steps towards forging closer trading links with the EU in meetings between the new business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and international counterparts in Italy.
In his first overseas visit since Labour’s election landslide, Reynolds will tell a G7 meeting of trade ministers in the Italian city of Reggio Calabria that the new UK government wants to foster a “closer, more mature relationship with our friends in the EU”.
Continue reading...Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, initially given life over killing of a police officer, to be detained at his grandmother’s home
An American tourist convicted and jailed for the murder of a police officer in Rome has been moved to house arrest, in a decision that has left the victim’s widow “totally shocked”, her lawyer said.
Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth and his friend Finnegan Lee Elder were given life sentences for the 2019 murder of Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, a Carabinieri police officer who was stabbed to death after a botched drug deal.
Continue reading...Analysis by Dutch researchers shows coordinated activity in France, Germany and Italy in run-up to ballot
Coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation “flooded” social media in France, Germany and Italy before the elections to the European parliament, Dutch researchers have found.
After an in-depth analysis of disinformation on the platform X in four EU countries, the researchers concluded that many of the accounts had been set up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but were cranked up in the weeks and days before the vote, with growth in their numbers of followers rocketing.
Continue reading...Local media reports say 17-year-old is suspected of stunt, which was posted on Instagram
A teenager has been reported to police after allegedly sneaking around Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore overnight and climbing up to its Cupola del Brunelleschi to take a selfie.
Wearing a black hoodie, jeans and trainers, a person filmed himself walking up an inside stairwell of the world heritage site before reaching the dome level, stepping on to a small platform outside and taking a picture of himself.
Continue reading...For UK consumers the cost of beans could increase by up to 25% over the coming year
The price of coffee is set to remain “very high” and is unlikely to drop until the middle of next year amid intense pressure on supply chains, the Italian coffee company Lavazza has said.
“We have never seen such a spike in price as the trend right now,” said Giuseppe Lavazza, who chairs the company. He admitted that he had been wrong to predict last year that prices would begin to fall this year. On Monday, prices reached $4,300 (£3,356) a tonne.
Continue reading...Mayor describes transport minister’s decision to honour former prime minister, who died last year, as ‘crazy’
A backlash is growing in Italy against a decision to rename Milan’s main airport after the controversial late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, with the city’s mayor describing the decision as “crazy”.
More than 35,000 people have signed a petition calling on Giorgia Meloni’s government to stop the plan after the transport minister, Matteo Salvini, said he would give the final go-ahead to a decision by Enac, the Italian civil aviation authority, to rename Malpensa airport “in memory of my friend Silvio”.
Continue reading...Museum has been plagued by numerous delays and has seen off almost 40 Italian governments
More than half a century and 39 Italian governments after it was first envisioned, a new museum will open later this year to house modern art from Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera gallery.
The Brera Modern, just a few doors from the main gallery, has been plagued by numerous delays, most recently the discovery of asbestos and problems with the conditioning system.
Continue reading...The journalist, and critics, accuse the Italian PM of leading the country towards authoritarianism
The first time Rula Jebreal came face to face with Giorgia Meloni was for a TV debate in November 2016.
It was the day after the US presidential election, six years before Meloni became prime minister, and the pair were invited on to Piazzapulita, a talkshow broadcast on the privately owned television channel, La7, to discuss the victory of Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Court of appeal reduces sentences of Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 23 over killing of Mario Cerciello Rega
An Italian court of appeal has upheld the murder convictions of two American men over the death of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation but reduced their sentences. The new trial was ordered after Italy’s highest court threw out their original convictions.
The court convicted Finnegan Lee Elder and sentenced him to 15 years and two months in prison and gave a sentence of 11 years to Gabriele Natale-Hjorth.
Continue reading...Artist calls impounding of MV Louise Michel ‘vile and unacceptable’ after rescue of 17 unaccompanied children
A rescue boat financed by Banksy has been seized by Italian authorities after being involved in an effort to rescue 37 people from the central Mediterranean sea, the British street artist and the vessel’s crew have said on social media.
The move comes just days after an inflatable boat carrying dummy refugees was launched into the crowd during a set by the British rock band Idles at the Glastonbury festival, a stunt masterminded by the anonymous graffiti artist and criticised by the UK home secretary, James Cleverly, as “vile”.
Continue reading...The much-anticipated sequel to the director’s 1988 hit Beetlejuice will get its world premiere at the festival in August
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s sequel to his 1988 hit Beetlejuice, has been selected as the opening film of the Venice film festival. The screening will be the world premiere of the film, which reunites original stars Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder with Burton.
Festival director Alberto Barbera said in a statement that it “marks the long-awaited return of one of the most iconic characters of Tim Burton’s cinema, but also the happy confirmation of the extraordinary visionary talent and the masterly realisation of one of the most fascinating auteurs of his time”.
Continue reading...Three people died when tree crushed car they were travelling in, while torrential rains triggered landslides
Ferocious storms and torrential rains that lashed France, Switzerland and Italy this weekend have left five people dead, local authorities said.
Three people in their 70s and 80s died in France’s north-eastern Aube region on Saturday when a tree crushed the car in which they were travelling during fierce winds, the local authority told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Macron’s allies trailing at 21% as leaders of political groups gear up for a televised debate this evening
Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP, has sent a letter with 20,000 signatures to the European Council president calling for the upcoming Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU to be suspended.
“Together with 20.000 citizens, we, the undersigned Members of the European Parliament, ask you to officially suspend the Hungarian Presidency of the Council, which is currently set to begin on July 1st, 2024,” he wrote.
It would be extremely harmful for the reputation of our Union, if the current Hungarian government would represent us Europeans in any capacity, just after the European elections. The EU has officially frozen funds under the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism due to the high levels of corruption in Hungary. Over the years, the Orbán government has also undermined their elections, the Rule of Law, and media freedom in Hungary.
On the European level, the Orbán government has compared the European Union with a dictatorship. They published posters across the country with bombs bearing the EU flag, when sanctions against Russia were passed. At the time when imperialist dictator Putin is bombing Ukraine, an EU candidate country, Orbán went out of his way to China just to be able to shake hands with him.
Continue reading...Meloni has not yet commented on revelation of Nazi salutes and antisemitic rants by members of National Youth
Italian opposition parties have rounded on the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, after an investigative outlet published video clips and messages showing members of her far-right party’s youth wing engaging in fascist chants, Nazi salutes and antisemitic rants.
Undercover reporters from the investigative website Fanpage infiltrated groups and chat forums used by members of National Youth, the youth wing of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.
Continue reading...Victims were made to pose as well off but once in Europe they were confined to workplaces and severely exploited
Italian police have busted a trafficking network that used luxury cars to smuggle Chinese migrants into Italy before confiscating their passports and treating them like enslaved people.
The smugglers had the migrants pose as “unsuspecting Asian citizens, well-dressed, with little luggage, travelling in powerful and expensive cars driven by Chinese citizens who had lived in Italy for years and spoke Italian”, police said in a statement.
Continue reading...Italian PM says deal that cut out her Eurosceptic block ignores EU’s rightward shift
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has condemned a deal to divide the EU’s top jobs between mainstream pro-European parties, saying it ignored the bloc’s rightward shift.
In an angry speech to the Italian parliament, Meloni said the top jobs deal reflected a view that “citizens are not mature enough to make certain decisions” and had been taken by those who believe “that oligarchy is basically the only acceptable form of democracy”.
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