WorldcrunchWith a particular focus on Italian affairs, L’Essenziale is the sister publication of Rome-based global news weekly Internazionale.
Stromboli, located in Sicily’s Aeolian Islands, is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, attracting tourists for its pristine black sand beaches. Yet due to its characteristics, including its uniquely consistent and predictable eruptions, it has also become an international reference point in the study of explosive dynamics.
An interview with Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, whose movie Me Captain is nominated for an Oscar, after he won the Silver Lion for directing at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. The tale centers around the life-and-death quest of migration, a topic that remains at the center of debate in Italy — and beyond.
Two decades after the U.S. Catholic Church finally began to confront priest abuse of minors, and many other countries followed suit, Italian bishops who live with the Vatican in their midst are reluctant to break the church’s vow of silence and answer to victims.
In one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, thousands of Italian minors lost a parent or caregiver to COVID. However, unlike other places, Italy has yet to set out a clear plan to support them, leaving them more vulnerable to mental health issues, and even abuse.
As the right-wing coalition tops Italian elections, far-right leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, is set to become Italy’s next prime minister. Both her autobiography and the just concluded campaign help fill in the holes in someone whose roots are in Italy’s post-fascist political parties.
As Italy prepares to vote, migration from Africa is once again a hot topic, even as the number of arrivals is dropping. A view from the tiny Italian island that has been at the center of the debate for more than a decade, where the specter of migrants is rolled out as prime election propaganda.
In the northern Italian region of Veneto, drought has forced half the municipalities to ration water resources. In contrast, the region’s Coca-Cola plant has upped production, using even more water that it gets for a cheap price.