Italy’s search for a new Libyan savior

MILAN — Italy is pulling out all the stops to secure stability in Libya to protect its business interests and ward off another potential migration crisis on its southern shores.

Italy may soon have civil unions

 

Brides kiss near the Colosseum during the Gay Pride Parade (LGBT) on June 13, 2015 in Rome. AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

ROME — Civil unions could soon become a reality in Italy, where the Senate will begin debating a bill Thursday to give same-sex couples similar rights as people in heterosexual marriages, delivering on a long-standing promise by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.“When it comes to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights, Italy is far behind other EU member states. It is the only country in Western Europe that does not recognize same-sex relationships,” said Judith Sunderland, Europe and Central Asia associate director at Human Rights Watch.

Twenty years fighting the Mafia

Don Ciotti in Sicily in May 2013

Milan, Italy – Trezzano sul Naviglio is just a short drive southwest of Milan, an industrial town home to hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises.It is also a hub for mafia groups that have grown more influential from the mid-1970s and expanded into Italy’s rich north, a natural destination for money-laundering operations and shady business expansion.

 

This Naples restaurant is fighting the local Mafia

The cooks of Nuova Cucina Organizzata inside the restaurant in Casal di Principe, Caserta (photo by Mauro Pagnani)

Casal di Principe is infamous in Italy because it’s been ravaged by the Camorra, the local mafia in the Campania region. Nearly abandoned by authorities, it’s an area that several industries from Italy’s rich north have selected to become an illegal landfill of toxic waste.

How the crisis is killing the Italian moped culture

The Vespa, Italy’s symbolic mode of transport, has lost its appeal among the general population [Antonella Corigliano/Al Jazeera]

Rome, Italy – One of the most characteristic features of popular culture in Italy – the iconic Vespa moped – is at risk of disappearing from its roads.

How the ‘Ndrangheta became more powerful than Cosa Nostra

The arrest of Pasquale Condello, on of the ‘Ndrangheta’s bosses, in 2008 (photo via @www.badische-zeitung.de)

Milan, Italy – The ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate – based in Italy’s southern Calabria region – is not nearly as well-known as Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia. But the ‘Ndrangheta organisation is wealthier and more powerful – with interests spanning the globe from Calabria to Colombia, and as far away as Australia.

Rivista Studio in English

The cover of Rivista Studio’s english section (photo via @Rivista Studio)

A link to the magazine’s website: http://www.rivistastudio.com/

Italy’s immigration tensions explode

Casa Pound (one of Italy’s populist right wing parties) writings in Tor Sapienza, Rome (Foto by the author)

Milan, Italy – Italy has been wracked by tension over the past few months as the outskirts of its biggest cities – Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples – have witnessed boisterious and burgeoning street protests against immigration.

Young Italians finding prospects on the farm

Guido Pallini on his farm (photo courtesy of Guido Pallini)

Milan, Italy – Confronted by the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, and with little support from a debt-burdened government, an increasing number of Italy’s young people are returning to the land for agriculture production – a sector the generation before nearly abandoned.

Occupying Italy’s theatres

Il simbolo non ufficiale de Valle. Al primo piano nel teatro dopo la prima rampa di scale. (Foto via @InTheseTimes)

When a group of artists took over the Teatro Valle, Rome’s oldest theater, in June 2011, nobody thought they would last long. Yet the artists, actors and crew members who first barricaded themselves in Valle soon grew into a crowd of fierce Occupiers who under the national media spotlight became the country’s foremost anti-austerity crusaders.