Giorgia Meloni’s administration has announced the deployment of 500 military troops to Milan after a weekend of intense protests and riots resulted in broken windows at luxury shops. 

But while mainstream coverage has focused on exclusive brands hiding inventory from angry demonstrators, progressive organizations emphasize that the rage witnessed on the streets of several northern Italian cities is a result of the government’s own policies.

“A Louis Vuitton bag can cost €5,600, while the monthly maximum for the wage guarantee fund in 2026 is €1,340,” wrote the grassroots union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB). In a statement on Tuesday, the union cited devastating national statistics, including data showing that over 14% of working-class families live in absolute poverty.

Broken windows can be repaired, USB noted. “Five years of lost wages, an impoverished family, and a denied future cannot be recovered so easily.”

Students oppose austerity at school and beyond

Significant mobilizations preceded the weekend’s protests. On Friday, October 16, roughly 400,000 students flooded the streets for “No Meloni Day”. They criticized the government’s so-called securitization measures which in practice has meant stifling the right to protest, as well as the unabated turn toward war and armament.

Protesters warned that by prioritizing these points over public services and working conditions, Meloni and her ministers knowingly undermine the future of a whole generation. 

Read more: Curfews imposed in French cities as rebellion against austerity grows nationwide

Echoing developments in France, where teachers’ unions have supported students’ demands over recent weeks of historic struggle for a stronger public education system, educators in Italy began circulating appeals to do the same.

“The established order is the worst of all possible worlds – or comes very close to it – and our schools are a mirror of this: they are falling apart, alienating, militarized,” the appeal reads. “Places where the need to stretch one’s legs is labeled ‘indiscipline,’ and where the ‘foreigner’ is blamed for the decline in knowledge, rather than two decades of underfunding and neglect.”

Real solutions, not repression, needed to address social crisis

Trade unions, teachers, and students all denounced the repression authorities unleashed in response to the protests – both after mobilizations in cities and during school occupations. 

“This government – incapable of offering solutions to the social crisis raging across the country – is once again attempting to manage the streets and social discontent solely through the lens of ‘public order,’ while intensifying repression and shrinking the space available for political activity,” emphasized youth organization Cambiare Rotta.

Teachers specifically called upon others in the system not to endorse crackdowns on students while invoking democratic values. “Democracy today resists in the French and Spanish squares, in the occupied Italian schools, in the resistance to the genocide of the Palestinian people, in the words and deeds of those who oppose the piecemeal world war,” they wrote.

“It is not to be found in threats, in tear gas, in police officers inside schools, or in students maimed by the weapons of our law enforcement. It is not to be found in the unjust rules that too many persist in defending.”

Read more: Mediterranean dockworkers launch historic international strike

The increased protest activity has given hope that the spark that inspired massive mobilizations throughout 2025 might resurface. It comes less than two weeks before a new general strike – and an international dockworkers’ strike in which Italian port workers are set to play a notable role – on October 30.

GOP lawmakers threaten to pull support for president’s agenda after Russia diesel deal and sanctions pause

• US politics live – latest updates

A handful of Republicans have spoken out against Donald Trump’s softening stance on Russia, threatening to pull financial support for his agenda over his “embarrassing” handling of the Ukraine war.

Don Bacon, an outgoing congressman in Nebraska, condemned Trump’s actions – which include a stunning agreement to buy Russian diesel and the pausing of sanctions on Moscow – as “absolutely disgraceful” and accused the US president of cozying up to a “war criminal” in Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Vladimir Putin è entusiasta e avrebbe invitato i due grandi alleati internazionali, il presidente cinese Xi Jinping e il presidente americano Donald Trump a una riunione trilaterale per discutere le sorti della guerra in Ucraina, ma non solo. Il luogo dell’importante appuntamento potrebbe essere la Cina, sfruttando l’impegno del Forum di Cooperazione Economica Asia-Pacifico a Shenzhen il 18 e 19 novembre.

Una specie di riedizione dello storico summit di Yalta tra Stalin, Churchill e Roosevelt nel 1954. Tra gli argomenti di discussione il più urgente sarebbe la guerra in Ucraina. Infatti, secondo il quotidiano americano The Wall Street Journal, Xi, Putin e Trump potrebbero “disegnare” in quell’occasione una nuova mappa divisa tra zone di influenza.

A proporre l’incontro sarebbe stato Putin, per via telefonica, lo scorso 9 ottobre. Dmitry Peskov, portavoce del governo russo, ha confermato l’idea di questa possibile riunione. Anche se Xi e Trump ancora non hanno risposto all’invito.

Tutto indica però che almeno Trump ci sarà. In un post ha spiegato la sua strategia (semplice) sulla Russia: “Sto negoziando la pace nella guerra tra Russia e Ucraina e non voglio fare nulla che, imprudentemente, possa allontanare la Russia dal tavolo di negoziati. Si stanno facendo grandi progressi!”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 20 October that he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about ballistic missile interceptors, early warning of Russian launches, and “the situation with Starlink/Starshield, which needs to be restored,” he wrote on X. He thanked Rubio for “his readiness to help and his clear position” and said they would speak again soon. A day earlier, he had told US senators how each of those supplies had stalled.

This comes as the US presses Kyiv to stop its strikes on Russian oil refineries, which Trump has blamed for high fuel prices at home, and Zelenskyy counts the Starlink slowdown among the steps he says look like an effort to push Ukraine to capitulate. Ukraine’s interceptor drones depend on the service to hunt Russia’s jet-powered Shaheds, and Kyiv says they now lose the link at speeds too low to catch them. The call appears not to have settled whether that cap is gone. If it stays, Ukrainian cities could face Russia’s drone waves this winter with one fewer means to stop them, as Russia keeps striking the grid.

On 17 October, Rubio told reporters that nobody in the US ordered Starlink slowed, that the slowdown “wasn’t deliberate,” and that “my understanding is it’s been restored.” He drew a line between the two services. Ukraine’s drones, he said, ran on commercial Starlink, while Starshield, the military version, is not available to Ukraine. Kyiv has asked for it to carry out strikes deep inside Russia, and that request is under discussion, he said.

The next day, Zelenskyy told Bloomberg that Starlink in Ukraine cuts out above 161 km/h, and Kyiv says its Starshield terminals are capped as well. His post after the call still says the service needs to be restored.

Reuters’ sources point to the White House. Washington denies it

The order to slow Starshield came from inside the White House, Reuters reported, citing two US officials and a Western official. They described it as the Starshield service for the Ukrainian military, the version Rubio says Ukraine does not have. A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Kyiv had been told it was a White House decision. A senior US official told the agency the president never made such a request, and the White House did not answer whether other officials had. Rubio called a report that the White House ordered Starlink slowed “categorically false.”

Missile warnings and Patriots are also in dispute

Overnight on 18–19 October, Ukraine got no partner warning before the first of two Russian ballistic waves, Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on the national telethon. That came hours after Zelenskyy said US warnings had resumed. On 19 October, Rubio pushed back against suggestions of a pause in US intelligence sharing, AFP reported.

Zelenskyy also told Bloomberg the US sends only 12 Patriot interceptors a month and has authorized only part of those “we have paid for” under PURL. Ukrainian officials told the Kyiv Independent that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not signed the contracts. A US government official called those claims “not true.”

Nigeria has scored a significant conservation victory with the closure of a major illegal gold mine near Gashaka-Gumti National Park, the country’s largest national park, according to National Park Service Ibrahim Musa Goni. An estimated 4,000 miners have been driven from the Kila mining area following an operation involving the National Park Service, the Nigerian military, state governments and conservation partner African Nature Investors (ANI). But Goni, conservator-general of Nigeria’s National Park Service, is under no illusion that the problem has been settled. The gold remains underground, and the miners could return. “There is a tendency the miners might come back,” he told Mongabay. For Goni, who has led the service since 2017, the Kila operation is one of the achievements of which he is most proud. He believes the approach could work in other Nigerian parks struggling with illegal mining and insecurity. Yet protecting these landscapes has come at a heavy price. Rangers have been injured and even killed confronting illegal miners and armed groups. Elsewhere, insecurity has forced the suspension of tourism in parts of Kainji Lake and Chad Basin national parks. Goni insists that 13 of the 17 national parks in Nigeria remain operational and active, even where access has become dangerous. Watch: Return to Gashaka-Gumti Read: Nigeria drove thousands of gold miners from a national park. But can it keep them out? There are other difficult questions. For example, what happens to the thousands of miners who have lost their livelihoods? Can the government keep them…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Ukraine got no early warning from its partners of the first wave of Russian ballistic missiles on the night of 18–19 October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told US senators on 19 October. He also said Starlink and Starshield terminals still stop working above certain speeds on parts of the front, and that Washington has explained neither problem. In the same video call, according to a transcript obtained by Axios, he said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not signing off on deliveries of Patriot interceptors and AIM-9X missiles for NASAMS that NATO countries have already paid for.

This comes as the US presses Kyiv to stop its strikes on Russian oil refineries, which Trump has blamed for high fuel prices at home. Washington supplies both the early launch warnings and the Patriot interceptors Ukraine needs against Russian ballistic missiles, and Zelenskyy says both are now failing at once, as Russia keeps firing ballistic missiles at Ukraine’s grid ahead of winter. If neither the warnings nor the interceptors come through, Ukrainian cities would face winter strikes with less notice and fewer means to stop them.

On the morning of 20 October, Zelenskyy wrote that he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about interceptors against ballistic missiles, early warning of Russian ballistic attacks, and restoring Starlink and Starshield. He thanked Rubio for his readiness to help and his clear position, and said they had agreed to speak again soon. He did not say whether anything had been resolved.

Patriots paid for, not signed

“We have almost no Patriot interceptors left from the US partners,” Zelenskyy told the senators.

Hegseth “has the contracts for Patriot missiles on his desk,” a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent, adding that allies had already paid for them. Another senior official called the batch “significant.” One of the main channels for Ukraine’s Patriot supply is NATO’s PURL mechanism, under which allies fund purchases of US weapons for Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian military official told the outlet.

On 19 October, Zelenskyy wrote that some types of vital supplies were being delayed at the US Department of War, as the Trump administration also calls the Pentagon. He added that some political agreements had not been carried out at the working level.

A NATO official told the Kyiv Independent that PURL deliveries, including air defense, were continuing. Another said some shipments could face delays, but that political reasons were unlikely to explain them. A US government official called Ukraine’s claims “not true.” The Pentagon did not respond to the outlet.

No warning for Kyiv hours after Zelenskyy said US alerts were back

On 18 October, Zelenskyy said on NBC that US warnings of ballistic launches had resumed after three days without them. That night, Russia launched two ballistic waves at Ukraine, and information from partners did not arrive before the first, Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said. Zelenskyy told the senators Ukraine had not received US warnings on three occasions in the past week. “We have received no clear explanation from Washington,” he said.

“All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to slow down support for us,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy offered a 30-day pause on refinery strikes for Patriots

Zelenskyy told the senators he had offered US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner a 30-day halt on strikes against Russian refineries. In return, the US would supply Patriot interceptors to cover that period. He said the envoys had shown no openness to the idea.

On 20 October, Norway announced talks in Oslo that day between Zelenskyy, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, with Witkoff attending in person and Kushner by video.

Senators back Kyiv. Trump says intelligence still flows

Senator Thom Tillis said he and his colleagues remain committed to standing with Ukraine and its European allies, while Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote that bipartisan support was “clear and unequivocal” and would be expressed “in upcoming action.”

US President Donald Trump told reporters on 19 October that Washington is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine and that he did not know who ordered the throttling of Starlink, Axios reported.

“Zelensky doesn’t know what he is talking about,” Trump said.

The internet told them Europe was a social paradise. Turns out the trains are awful, the health care isn’t free, and people can be really mean.

Há algo bastante curioso na forma como muitas empresas abordam o marketing: investem tempo, dinheiro e um esforço considerável para atrair novos clientes, mas, no momento em que alguém finalmente faz uma compra, a relação parece chegar a um fim abrupto.   O cliente comprou. A venda está concluída. Missão cumprida! Passemos ao próximo. Bora […]

O conteúdo O marketing não acaba quando o cliente compra! aparece primeiro em Barlavento.

Scivoli acquatici, piscine, un enorme yacht. Grazie a un’indagine con immagini satellitari è stato individuato il centro vacanze di lusso del leader della Corea del Nord, Kim Jong-un. L’imbarcazione è il suo luogo del cuore ed è stato avvistato da luglio a metà ottobre di quest’anno nella costa nordcoreana Wonsan, conosciuta come la penisola di Kalma. Sarebbe di circa 80 metri. Si crede che questa enorme nave sia di Kim e della sua famiglia perché i suoi movimenti coincidono con le date in cui il leader è stato assente da apparizioni pubbliche. Con queste navi si sposterebbero anche nelle isole Tae e Sin che offrono spazi marittimi ritirati con totale privacy.

Kim e la sua famiglia si recano molto spesso in un’enorme villa della località balneare Wonsan, secondo un reportage dell’emittente britannico Bbc. Nelle sue vicinanze sono state identificate diverse imbarcazioni di grandi dimensioni, che d’inverno sono in porto e d’estate sono usate per la ricreazione. Non ci sono conferme di quanto sia il valore di queste navi, ma può arrivare a 100 milioni di dollari. Uno yacht di Kim, più piccolo, di 29 metri, si calcola possa valere 7 milioni di dollari.

Gli esperti indicano Wonsan come il posto del cuore di Kim, giacché è stato in questa località che il dittatore coreano è cresciuto da piccolo, insieme alla madre. Secondo la testimonianza di un disertore che è stato custode negli anni ’90 nell’unità 974 del leader Kim Jong Il, Wonsan era il rifugio dell’élite nordcoreana e il luogo dove trascorrevano l’estate praticando sport acquatici.

Alcuni media statali nordcoreani dicono che a Wonsan ci sono alberghi di lusso, ristoranti, negozi e parchi acquatici che accolgono più di 20.000 visitatori. Altri media russi hanno diffuso immagini di turisti russi che visitano il complesso Wonsan Kalma inaugurato a luglio del 2025.

L’ex giocatore dell’NBA e amico di Kim Jong-un, Dennis Rodman, ha raccontato al quotidiano The Sun l’ultima visita in Corea del Nord nel 2013, dicendo di essere stato una settimana a Wonsan con il dittatore praticando sci acquatico ed equitazione.

Questa scoperta evidenza il paradosso che rappresenta la dualità in cui vivono i nordcoreani, sommersi dalla carestia di una crisi umanitaria senza precedenti e con una leadership che non risparmia spese quando si tratta di confort e intrattenimento.

“Si crede che Kim e la sua famiglia usino queste navi. Ex funzionari nordcoreani, disertori ed esperti affermano che sarebbe difficile per qualsiasi persona lontano dal vertice del regime possedere o utilizzare liberamente navi di questa dimensione”, sostiene la Bbc. “La ricchezza di chi occupa posti di potere nella ermetica dittatura nordcoreana è difficile da determinare quanto le cifre economiche del Paese”, prosegue l’emittente.

Per le Nazioni Unite, la Corea del Nord è uno dei Paesi più poveri al mondo, ma ha una grande spesa militare, specialmente dedicata al programma nucleare. Circa il 40% della popolazione, però vive in stato di denutrizione, e subisce “violazioni gravi, generali e sistematiche dei diritti umani”, da quanto si legge nel report 2025 dell’Onu.

Little-known photographer John Baer captured everyday life before putting down his camera in 1954. His son discovered the images decades later after his death, and John Baer: The Extraordinary Ordinary / A Memoir in Photographs, 1945–1954 marks their first public release

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Photograph by John Baer

© Photograph: Photograph by John Baer

© Photograph: Photograph by John Baer