‘Mother’ of Change

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‘Mother’ of Change

ITALY

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni calls her plan to change the structure of governance in the country the “mother of all reforms.” Her critics call it a naked bid to seize power for the prime minister’s office and government, and enact illiberal laws.

Meloni’s proposal, now winding through legislative meetings, would change the Italian constitution so that voters would directly elect the prime minister to a five-year term – and at the same time give their political party an automatic majority in parliament, wrote Le Monde.

This arrangement would replace the current traditional approach to parties running in parliamentary elections and then using their majority to appoint their leader as the prime minister. It would arguably also give the prime minister more authority than the Italian president, the head of state who is chosen through a special electoral college.

Italy has had almost 70 governments since World War II, reported Reuters. Meloni says her proposal would stabilize future governments and inject democracy into a process where politicking and power-sharing don’t seem to be working.

Her critics said the new system would create more, not less, political fragmentation in Italy, however, countered Jacobin, a left-wing magazine. Voters could vote for a prime minister but choose lawmakers from a different party, for example, creating a variety of imaginable problems.

The most trenchant critiques of Meloni’s proposal raised the specter of fascism.

Writing in an opinion piece in Politico, Michael Meyer-Resende and Nino Tsereteli of Democracy Reporting International, a Berlin-based non-governmental organization, argued that the proposed law echoed Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s Acerbo Law of 1923. The Acerbo Law granted two-thirds of parliament to whichever party won the largest share of the vote, paving the way for Mussolini to take power.

Meloni has long dismissed accusations of fascist sympathies even though she has links to that dangerous movement. As a teenager, Meloni belonged to the neofascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), a group founded by Mussolini’s former chief of staff. MSI members were “openly apologetic” for Mussolini, wrote Foreign Policy. Her party, the Brothers of Italy, has roots in the group, added the Associated Press.

Meloni is not necessarily replicating Mussolini’s foreign policies, however.

Whereas Mussolini sought to wage war in Africa, for example, Meloni is taking an opposite tack, wrote World Politics Review. She recently held a summit with African leaders and pledged $60 billion in economic development and business deals on the continent, from energy projects in Kenya to agriculture and infrastructure in Mozambique.

Earlier this year, the Economist wrote that “Meloni has proved her doubters wrong.” But – the British magazine also cautioned about “troubles ahead.”

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Internal Pressure

UNITED KINGDOM

A man stabbed an 11-year-old girl and her mother Monday in one of London’s busiest squares, in a knife attack that comes days after a similar incident sparked riots across the United Kingdom, Sky News reported.

Police said a 32-year-old man attacked the girl and her 34-year-old mother in Leicester Square before he was stopped by a nearby shop security guard.

Authorities detained the attacker, adding that the assault was not terror-related and there was no known connection between the perpetrator and the victims.

The young girl required hospital treatment for her injuries, but they are not life-threatening. Her mother sustained minor injuries.

The incident occurred in a highly frequented area of central London, attracting around 2.5 million visitors weekly.

It follows days of riots ignited by a deadly stabbing attack in northwestern England in late July. The alleged attacker, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, killed three girls aged between six and nine years old and injured 10 others, including two adults, at a dance class in the town of Southport.

Rudakubana was revealed to have been born in the UK by Rwandan parents, but misinformation from social media platforms and far-right pundits and groups alleged the attacker was an Islamist migrant, prompting their followers to launch demonstrations across various cities, as well as carry out attacks on mosques, hotels housing asylum seekers and non-white individuals.

The demonstrations escalated into violent confrontations and resulted in more than 900 arrests, with 450 people charged for offenses related to the riots, according to bnnBloomberg.

Commentators said the detentions have proved a challenge for the UK’s judiciary, as courts are grappling with a record-high backlog and years of underfunding that have seen the departure of many legal professionals and the closure of many courts and law firms.

Despite these challenges, the newly-elected Labour government believes the courts and prisons can handle the influx of cases, with current prison capacity at 98.3 percent as of Aug. 2.

Fake Friends

NIGER

Niger’s military junta severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine this month, the latest West African country to do so, underscoring major diplomatic shifts in the coup-plagued region where military governments are switching allegiances toward Russia, the BBC reported.

Junta officials said the decision was made in “solidarity” with neighboring Mali, which broke off relations with Ukraine earlier this month over allegations that Kyiv was involved in a July attack that killed dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries supplied by Russia’s Wagner Group.

Malian officials accused Ukraine of aiding the separatist rebels after Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman, said in an interview that the insurgents “received the necessary information” for their attacks near Mali’s border with Algeria last month.

Yusov did not explicitly confirm Kyiv’s involvement, but Ukrainian officials later rejected the allegations and emphasized their commitment to international law and sovereignty, according to Radio Free Europe.

Still, Russia blamed Kyiv for opening a “second front” in Africa.

The row underscores a tug-of-war between Russia, Ukraine and Western nations in the Sahel region, which has been plagued by military coups and years-long insurgencies, often involving Islamist militants.

Military regimes in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have increasingly aligned with Moscow and distanced themselves from Western powers, such as France and the United States.

Wagner mercenaries have been active in Mali since 2021, assisting the military regime with its security issues. Meanwhile, the US has withdrawn from its military bases in Niger following last year’s military takeover.

Amid the ongoing conflict at home, Ukraine has been actively seeking to build alliances in Africa to counterbalance Russia’s influence. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has made a number of visits to African nations, including Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius.

The recent diplomatic overtures mirror the rivalry between China and Taiwan: In previous years, Beijing has enticed some of Taipei’s traditional allies to switch sides using various economic and security agreements and aid, according to Al Jazeera.

Earlier this year, the Pacific island of Nauru became the latest country to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei, reducing the number of countries that are still upholding relations with Taiwan to 12.

The Mrs. Degree

CHINA

China this month began its first university degree program in all things related to marriage, including planning and matchmaking services, an initiative aimed at boosting the country’s falling birth rates and alleviating labor and other issues due to an aging population, CNBC reported.

Starting next month, students can enroll in a four-year program in marriage services and management at the Beijing-based Vocational University of Civil Affairs. The program will teach students how to engage with “the entire cycle of marriage and family,” according to Yu Xiaohui, the dean of the university’s School of Wedding Culture and Media Arts.

The course will include a variety of matrimony-related subjects, such as sociology, designing wedding venues, the economics of the marriage industry, and family policies. Students will also have the opportunity to intern for agencies specializing in weddings and marriage counseling.

The new institution – established under China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs – comes as the country grapples with demographic changes.

China is experiencing a rapidly aging population due to increased life expectancy and a falling fertility rate.

Despite government efforts over the past decade to relax the one-child policy, the birth rate has continued to decline. In 2023, the total population decreased by more than two million, bringing it to 1.41 billion.

New marriages increased more than 12 percent last year – ending a nine-year downward streak. Even so, more than 50 percent of Chinese people between the ages of 25 and 29 remain unmarried.

The topic of declining birth rates has also prompted questions about reproductive rights in the populous nation.

Last week, a Beijing court ruled against an unmarried Chinese woman, who had attempted to freeze her eggs six years ago, the Associated Press noted.

Teresa Xu, 36, approached a hospital in 2018 to ask about freezing her eggs. But the doctor denied the procedure after discovering her unmarried status and advised her to prioritize motherhood.

She took the matter to court which ruled against her in a 2022 decision and the appeal of the last verdict. According to the court, the hospital did not violate Xu’s rights when it denied her access to egg-freezing services.

In China, hospital regulations require that a woman be married so that they can freeze her eggs.

Still, the court’s verdict hinted at future policy changes: “As our country’s policy on births is adjusted, relevant medical and health laws, regulations, diagnosis and treatment standards and medical ethics standards may also change accordingly.”

DISCOVERIES

I Grieve

Cats get a reputation for being very detached creatures, though as recent studies have suggested that they can express a range – albeit subtle – of emotions.

Now, a new paper found evidence that felines grieve when they lose another pet in the house, even a dog.

Researchers from Oakland University in Michigan surveyed more than 400 cat owners who had lost another pet in the household. They asked participants about some of the changes their feline friends experienced following the loss.

Similar to humans and dogs, the cats would display behaviors associated with grief, such as eating and playing less, wanting solitude and even “appearing to look for their lost companions,” the researchers wrote.

The findings also showed that cats that lived with their dearly departed friends for a longer period or shared a strong bond exhibited more pronounced grief-like behavior.

“It does make me think maybe it’s more likely than I thought before that cats do have those feelings,” co-author Jennifer Vonk told NPR.

The findings further dispel assertions that cats appear emotionally unavailable, showing that they could form strong bonds similar to dogs.

However, Vonk and her colleague, Brittanny Greene, cautioned that the study relied on subjective reports from cat owners. This raises the probability of owners projecting their own sadness onto their surviving pets when reporting symptoms.

Even so, the study is only the second exploring grief in felines and the authors hope that future research will reevaluate the animal’s emotional range.

At the same time, the paper adds to a growing body of evidence that animals exhibit grief-like behaviors, including highly social species such as dolphins and elephants.

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