500 soldiers on the streets of Milan. This is the response from Giorgia Meloni's far-right executive to this weekend's riots in the Italian city, where violent acts were particularly serious. Replicating what was happening in France, protests against the rising cost of living ended in clashes between police and demonstrators and the looting of some luxury shops and stores. Meloni herself confirmed this Tuesday, after a meeting of the council of ministers, the approval of the military reinforcement, which will extend "until the end of the year".

It is not just France. In Italy, Belgium, Germany, Albania, Greece, Portugal, and Spain, there are also protests underway. Most of the mobilizations have a common background: protesting against the rising cost of living. In the case of Italy, the protests have escalated this weekend in parallel to those in France. In the north of the country, the mobilizations have ended in riots, especially in Milan, where the police have arrested 271 people and the Prosecutor's Office has requested preventive detention for eleven protesters.

Roberto Saviano (Naples, 1979) wanted to write a love novel. But when he discovered the story of Rossella Casini, a young woman raped, murdered, and dismembered by the family of her boyfriend, Francesco Frisina, heir to a 'Ndrangheta clan, he began an investigation that brought to light one of the cruelest crimes perpetrated by the Calabrian mafia. My love does not die (Ara Llibres) is the result of five years of work. A book with which the author of Gomorrah (2006) tries to do justice to a forgotten victim of the mafia, while continuing to fight against his own demons. A battle of which he confesses to being increasingly tired. Saviano meets ARA at the Cervantes Institute in Rome. The Italian journalist seems especially dejected, convinced that he has sacrificed his life in vain. While abroad he is recognized as a brave writer, in Italy there are those who reproach him for having diminished or tarnished the country's image by denouncing the relationships between power and organized crime. Saviano has lived under police protection for 20 years after being threatened with death by the Casalesi clan, one of the most bloodthirsty in the Camorra. He was 26 years old, almost the same age as Rossella Casini when she was brutally murdered.

Pedro Sánchez "arrives prepared" in Brussels to face the migration rebukes from his partners, including those from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to diplomatic sources. This week's leaders' summit will be the first time the Spanish Prime Minister has met with the Italian Prime Minister since the Ceuta crisis this summer. At the time, the leader's response to the massive influx of immigrants opened the floodgates for a confrontation over migration. Italy suspended free movement with Spanish travelers –a measure replicated by the Spanish government– and initiated a spiral of confrontation that has served to vindicate its model of external border control.

With 227 votes in favor and 164 against, Italy's Chamber of Deputies gave the green light this Thursday to a new electoral law promoted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which changes the rules of the game just a few months before Italians go to the polls in 2027. The new electoral law seeks to ensure absolute majorities through the introduction of a package of additional seats for the most-voted party or coalition, thus allowing the future government to choose the next President of the Republic without having to reach an agreement with the rest of the political forces, as had been done until now.

Italy will limit the number of foreign students in classrooms, fine parents who refuse to learn Italian, and ban the use of burqas and niqabs in schools. “Common sense measures that do not divide, but rather foster true integration, avoid segregated classrooms, and provide all students with the same opportunities,” defended Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The Italian banking sector is experiencing a real earthquake that could completely change the current landscape. The latest plot twist was protagonized by Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world's oldest bank founded in 1472, which last week presented an offer of 34 billion euros to acquire the Italian entities Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) and Banca Generali. This move is the latest chapter in a war of hostile bids in which several entities are battling to eliminate competitors and strengthen their position within a national market where growth is increasingly difficult. Amidst these tug-of-wars, Italy also aspires to lead the chapter of cross-border mergers, creating the first pan-European banking giant. All this, under the watchful eye of Giorgia Meloni's government, with a key role in some of these operations.

Viviana Varese (Salerno, 1974) is a force of nature. A chef who has made her mark in a potentially hostile environment, that of haute cuisine, without compromising her values. She now runs the gastronomic offering of a luxury hotel in one of Italy's most exclusive corners, Passalacqua, on Lake Como. She also has a rebellious grill restaurant in Milan, Faak. She grants an interview to ARA at the Gastronomika congress, where she gave a lecture that left us stunned.

Italy's government will have been in power for 1,413 consecutive days on September 4, meaning the executive led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is the longest-serving since the founding of the Republic in 1946. A record that is no small feat in a country accustomed to political instability and which has seen over seventy governments in 80 years. But the emergence of National Future, a small "ultra" party led by a retired army general, threatens to spoil the Italian leader's anniversary.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the oldest bank in the world, has reappeared with all its strength in the struggle that the Italian banking sector is experiencing. After receiving the approval of its board of directors, the Tuscan entity presented this Friday an offer of 34 billion euros to buy the Italian banks BPM and Banca Generali.

The mayor of the picturesque Italian town of Como has decided to ban bicycles from passing through the city's historic center. A measure that would seem nothing out of the ordinary in current European municipal policy if it weren't for the fact that it comes just weeks after an electric bicycle ran over the mayor himself. The decision has sparked opposition from activists, merchants, and various political parties, who accuse the mayor of turning a personal incident into a restriction that affects the entire population.

Giorgia Meloni and Mette Frederiksen, two European prime ministers seemingly at political antipodes, are showcasing their common front against "uncontrolled immigration" in the European Union in a joint message released this Monday on social media, in which they call for a tougher stance and advocate for the creation of repatriation centers in third countries. The two leaders emphasize that they have led a strict migratory policy, both in their countries and across Europe, with the argument that "no one can deny that illegal immigration has a negative impact" on European societies: "Increased crime rates, increased pressure on public services, and erosion of public trust."

Tension remains high between Italy and Spain over the Ceuta migratory crisis. The Italian government has denounced Spain's decision to impose border controls at ports and airports on passengers arriving from Italy as "totally unacceptable" and "incomprehensible." This was stated this Sunday in an interview with the newspaper La Stampa by the Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani. The former President of the Eurochamber criticized Pedro Sánchez for making the decision "solely as retaliation, without reason, harming tourism".

The clash between Spain and Italy over the Ceuta crisis is escalating dangerously for the interests of the European Union. The Spanish government has announced that it will also impose border controls on travelers coming from Italian territory, after Giorgia Meloni's executive announced this Friday that it will maintain, at least until August 15, the controls with Spain imposed following the massive arrival of migrants in Ceuta last week. Madrid had requested the restoration of free movement, but given Rome's refusal, the socialist executive had already warned that it would take equivalent "measures". And so it has been.

No one would say it when looking at one of its frames, but The Last Round in Venice is an adventure film. There is a journey, a romantic quest, and even buried treasure. But the action does not take place in exotic locations, but on secondary roads and not particularly bucolic towns in the plains surrounding Venice, and its protagonists are not intrepid explorers, but a couple of drunks who answer to the names of Carlobianchi and Doriano, and who have spent many years dodging the last hangover with the simple – but effective – method of always adding a drink after the theoretical final round.

During the last few weeks, the figure of the confessor has taken on absolute prominence in the Spanish judicial ecosystem. But the so-called reward law – the State's practice of granting benefits and sentence reductions in exchange for internal information – was not designed in Madrid's offices to combat political corruption. Some of its roots take us back to prisons in the United States and the streets of Palermo (Sicily), where the state had to accept a prior defeat in order to move forward: the only way to destroy a closed criminal organization is to buy the betrayal of its own members.

The death of a man of Moroccan origin while handcuffed during a police detention has opened a political battle in Italy. The events took place this past weekend in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Bologna, where police officers were dispatched after being alerted by residents. Upon arrival, Abderrahim Fakir, 42 years old and visibly nervous, was handcuffed and immobilized by two officers on the same street, with his head on the asphalt, until he stopped breathing.

The Italian Parliament gave the green light this Thursday to the electoral law reform project proposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, in the last year of the legislature. The text will now go to the Senate to continue with the parliamentary proceedings before final approval, scheduled for after the summer.

While Catalonia is still working on extinguishing the Gavarres fire, which has already burned more than 2,300 hectares, numerous forest fires are ravaging southern Europe this Monday and have forced thousands of people to abandon their homes. As of this morning, the fires – located mainly in France, Portugal, Greece, and Spain – had already burned 19,000 hectares in total, which would be equivalent to almost twice the size of the city of Barcelona.Fires arrive after a June marked by a strong heatwave that crossed the continent, broke record highs in many places and caused thousands of deaths attributable to these extreme temperatures, especially in France. With an eye on a new heatwave predicted for this very week, Europe does not lower its guard and maintains caution against possible flare-ups of flames.

La Redenta, the protagonist of the novel Els dies de vidre (Amsterdam), by Nicoletta Verna (Forlì, 1976), is born on the same day that the socialist politician Giacomo Matteotti is assassinated by the fascist squads. “It is a crucial moment,” recalls the author, because that June of 1924 Mussolini assumed moral and historical responsibility for the crime before Parliament. “It was the beginning of the dictatorship. The birth of La Redenta becomes a tragic succession: if Matteotti was the political victim of fascism, she will be the civil victim,” says Verna.