“Xi Jinping Thought” ideas on socialism have been spreading across the country since 2017. But now, Beijing is going one step further by making them part of the curriculum, from the elementary level all the way up to university.
Author: Alessio Perrone
Alessio Perrone is a freelance journalist based in Milan, Italy.
Reams have been written about the shift to remote working. And yet, for many people, the more pressing issue right now isn’t where, but how much they work. After the economic slowdown brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, companies all over the world are taking advantage of loosened lockdowns and progress on the vaccine front […]
Germany’s anti-immigrant far-right party has so far been unable to benefit from the decline of the Merkel’s CDU party and find new voters.
How have 16 years of Chancellor Angela Merkel changed Germany? The Chancellor accompanied the country’s rise to near economic superpower status — and then progress stalled. On technology and beyond, Germany needs real reforms under Merkel’s successor.
Italy’s new “Super Green Pass” is great, but where’s “Super Mario”? Such a sweeping measure, which requires workers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, risks encroaching on the fundamental right to work. It’s necessary right now, but also needs Prime Minister Mario Draghi to explain why.
More protests are bound to spread after President Biden announced that vaccinations will become mandatory for millions of U.S. workers in certain categories of employment, including those who work for the federal government and large corporations.
From Fidel Castro to JFK to Barack Obama, world leaders have long sported expensive watches. Does that create a distance with the people they lead?
European media is failing to state the obvious about electric scooter reality: Our cities have to adapt.
CERVERE — It hasn’t rained in two months. The corn has not grown. Six out of ten hectares of this plain field are completely parched. “It’s late now,” says Giovanni Bedino, running his dark fingers through the dry leaves of the corn. The farmer, now 59, has been working the land since he was 15. […]
The German leader’s aloofness on the collapse of Afghanistan has surprised many. For the past few months, her government has taken the issue too lightly and failed to debate it properly. This could prove a big mistake in her last weeks as German chancellor.
Salento, the very southeastern tip of Italy, is a flat and shrubby land of farmers, stunning beaches and simple rural villages built around Baroque churches. Thousands of Italians and foreigners flock to this part of the Puglia region on the heel of the Italian boot every summer, lured by its promise of a rustic, idyllic […]
Germany and the U.S. have agreed on a compromise to complete the gas pipeline — or rather, the Americans have submitted to Angela Merkel, who in turn had a farewell gift for Russia.
The number of infections is decreasing in many places, even as restrictions are eased. Vaccines matter, say scientists, but it’s not the only factor.
MILAN — There were a few moments of silence when I told my girlfriend what I’d done. I’d kept the information from her for a few days, fearing her reaction and forced to explain: I had chucked a few hundred dollars at shares of the so-called “meme stock” extraordinaire GameStop on the New York Stock […]
ROME — The 70-something barista who served me an iced tea last July was proud of his historic cafe next to one of the city’s best-known theaters. It was soon after the end of Italy’s first lockdown, and the theater was still closed due to the pandemic. At the end of our short conversation, the […]
After Ireland, another once Catholic stronghold in Europe is challenging a longstanding law that makes abortion a crime, for both women and doctors.
A young detainee’s suicide is drawing attention to the otherwise invisible plight of people locked up in decrepit, pre-deportation facilities known as CPRs.
Giorgia Meloni, rising star of Italy’s far-right, was a member of neofascist organizations in her youth. She insists that she’s changed her way, and that fascism is not an Italian peculiarity. Not all agree.
Telework, telework, telework … The concept may seem like old hat at this point. And yet, there are also new elements to the phenomenon that keep cropping up — new words, shifting workplace relationships, evolving office spaces — as society continues to morph around this shifting reality. Fascinating innovations around our new work-life balance are […]
As tempting as it may be to just turn away, we lose a piece of our humanity every time we do.
Bars and restaurants are finally able to receive customers, at least for outdoor service. It’s a welcome shift for a weary population that is still, nevertheless, wary about the lingering pandemic.
A unique project in the Italian capital brings together experienced carpenters to share their skills and knowledge with asylum seekers and the unemployed.
Even as other Muslim leaders were treading more carefully on the Palestinian question, Turkey’s leader knows no better way to express his global ambitions than a frontal assault on Israel.
We’ve gotten used to too many people dying, and too many dying alone.
Italy is once again murmuring about how Pope Francis was in therapy while serving as a priest in Argentina. It’s just another sign of Italians’ tendency to live in denial about hard questions around mental health.
Would an agreement with the Americans make the Bolsonaro government change course?
The colored tattoo of a fortified bridge towering high over troubled waters takes up almost all of my friend Ivan’s shoulder. In his early 30s, Ivan has a footballer’s build and flawless cockney accent. He’s been a British citizen almost all his life, but was born in Mostar, in present-day Bosnia, in the late 1980s […]
Using pure economic power to reorder the world of soccer was clearly a bad idea, though not necessarily a new idea. Some reflections from a conflicted fan of one particular Italian super squad.
As part of a medical study, the mid-sized Brazilian city of Serrana is now nearly 100% vaccinated, even as the rest of the country is crumbling under COVID’s toll.
With the sudden departure of Brazil’s top generals, Jair Bolsonaro’s government may be weakened. But it may also be setting up the ultimate showdown for the country’s democracy ahead of next year’s election.
ROME — A deep dive into Italian anti-vaxxer social media groups leaves me stunned. For them, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/Biontech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the others are very dangerous, lethal poisons. They keep track of all the alleged casualties of the vaccine roll-out — even if they are just a repetition of the same articles, drawn […]
Petrobras, the state-owned Brazilian oil and gas company, may post big numbers but it has a backward strategy.
The enduring pandemic has forced the world to develop new ways of working. What once were casual chats at water coolers are now endless WhatsApp group message chains, while cubicles and corner offices have been replaced by everyone’s home kitchen table… not to mention your children doing (or not doing!) their schoolwork beside you. The […]
Underpaid and overexposed to what in some cases can be truly disturbing content, moderators are the invisible, human grease that keep the social media machine running. It’s grueling but essential work that happens behind the scenes.
-Analysis- It was quite a statement about Brazil’s justice system: “I have been the victim of the biggest judicial lie in 500 years,” Luiz Inácio da Silva declared last week. But the hyperbole from the former president, better known as Lula, was also very much about politics — considered by many to be the opening […]
It was nearly nine years ago that Mario Draghi first burst onto the world stage. The Italian-born Draghi, who had recently taken over as the President of the European Central Bank, declared that he would do “whatever it takes’ to save the Euro from speculative attacks. “And believe me,” he added, “It will be enough.” […]
Shortly before being appointed Undersecretary for Education, Rossano Sasso dashed off for Rome, amid around-the-clock negotiations in the capital to form Italy’s new government. And Sasso made sure to share the moment with his Facebook followers. “He who stops is lost, a thousand years for every minute,” the 45-year-old politician from the southern Puglia region […]
Locals can’t tell whether it’s a second or third wave … or just a continuation of the first wave when Northern Italy was the West’s first epicenter of the coronavirus.
Diving, flopping and faking for the referee’s benefit have become an integral part of modern football. But Guatemalan player Wilfredo Ramos Pérez has taken the craft to the next level of the absurd. During a match in the Central American country’s third division, with one player already on the ground, the referee stopped the match […]
The streets are quiet, the joy is missing, and the guns are out. The eve of Carnival feels different this year in Brazil — and it’s not just the pandemic. Even as newspaper headlines report the country’s coronavirus death toll nearing 250,000, President Jair Bolsonaro has introduced another element of danger: new looser gun ownership […]