This week, a toddler died of measles in Germany, the first victim of an epidemic that has infected 570 people since October. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, since the beginning of 2015 there have been 1,330 registered cases of measles—one of the most contagious known diseases—in Asia (540), Europe (468), North America (227), and Africa (95).
Film is dead. Long live film.
It’s been a year since Matteo Renzi, the former mayor of Florence, became Italy’s youngest prime minister. The ambitious politician, then just 39, started promised a reform measure every month.He had a 100-day plan, and a 1,000-day plan.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, the quintessential American style icon, was not one to delegate in matters of taste and design. From 1961 to 1963, during her husband’s tragically short-lived presidency, she put her design eye to use on the first house the Kennedy’s had built from the ground up.
If you were to look at the newest population data, it would appear that Italians are quickly becoming an endangered species. According to the Italian institute of statistics Istat (link in Italian) the birth rath is at the lowest level since 1861, the year of Italy’s unity.
There’s some good news for American travelers in 2015: Thanks mainly to the strong dollar, the price of a hotel room outside the US has decreased by about 7% over the past year, according to a report by travel booking and review site TripAdvisor. In 2014, the average nightly price for a hotel room outside the US was $123, while it’ll be $115 in 2015 (rates for the rest of the year are calculated on the US dollar exchange rate as of Feb. 5).
Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg is having the best time in Delhi.
If there ever was a good day for the king of chocolate to die, that would be on Valentine’s Day.
Do not be fooled by the song and dance; the Eurovision Song Contest really is about international politics.
The Greeks are at it again. As Greece’s new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is holding emergency talks with the Eurozone’s finance ministers in Brussels, Greeks are gathering in Sytagma Square and all over the country to show their support.
If you are a journalist or would like to be one, have an internet connection, a social media account and can read English, the chances are high you’ve at least read a tweet about an opinion piece that journalist Felix Salmon published on Fusion. The piece, titled “To all the young journalists asking for advice…,” was a mass answer to the many letters Salmon gets from “budding journalists” seeking advice from a more established professional.
I was born in Italy. But I grew up in Europe.
On Jan. 13, the last day of the Italian presidency of the European Union, Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi talked about the Italian economy in encouraging terms. Renzi said Italians’ finances are better than they think. Italy has the world’s highest personal savings rate, which has continued to grow during the crisis. Renzi, in other words, deemed Italians’ economic fears as exaggerated, saying, ”Italian families are paradoxically getting richer.”
Many outlets yesterday reported Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier’s brave declaration:
Philippe Val, former editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo has spoken to radio channel France Inter right after the attack in Paris.
This morning, in Paris, gunmen attacked the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing at least 12 people (10 journalists and 2 policemen) and injuring others. The shooting appears to be the work of Islamist terrorists—Charlie Hebdo has been subject of attacks in the past for its irreverent depictions of the Prophet Muhammed and other Muslim icons.
A new study of Italy’s competitive advantages by three trade groups, including Italy’s chamber of commerce, contains this chart (pdf, p.24) comparing various countries’ ability to supposedly out-export Germany:
“Two thirds of cancers are due to bad luck,” or some variation of this, is the cancer-related headline of the moment.
Italy has had a couple of tough years.
Making a new year’s resolution to join a gym is like going grocery shopping on an empty stomach: you end up spending more than you should.
Horrific is an understatement to describe the day in Peshawar, Pakistan, where Taliban terrorists took over a military school, killing at least 141 people, most of whom were school children (the latest death toll is of 132 children, 9 teaching staff and 7 terrorist).
Happy First Universal Health Coverage day everyone.
On Friday, Dec. 5, a woman said she was raped by her Uber cab driver in Delhi. After a quick investigation on what Uber was, Delhi government officials proceeded to tackle the problem in the most effective way: by banning Uber.
Lately, there has been a lot of of interest over a new drug to cure Hepatitis C—a disease that’s surpassed AIDS in number of death since 2007.
