While Italy’s right-wing govt whips up usual hysteria about a handful of boat people, data confirms: 1) a negative migration rate (10% of Italians live abroad, 9% of residents are foreigners); 2) that it’s a growing trend (+90% since 2006) #GeoBarents

Exciting panel underway feat. @NicolasSchmitEU, EU Commissioner for Jobs & Social Rights, @laganagan, Dir. Healthy Food Healthy Planet Initiative, and migrant workers from agriculture, meat processing, and domestic work sharing their daily struggles of abusive labour practices.

Hi @eurostarbe, I need a fare breakdown for both legs of my upcoming trip, but your receipt only includes the total (unlike e.g. every airline on the planet). Your customer service form/email is unresponsive & you don't have a number. What should I do?

And having worked on migration since 2005, it is so tiresome to see usual pattern: 🇮🇹 govt clamouring for help from/blaming “Europe”, media (& figures like Pope) falling into trap & rescued people being subjected to unnecessary misery while employers beg for more migrant workers

As someone who has tried multiple times to return to Italy & has had to leave again, I fully understand why so many Italians of my generation see no future in an ageing, inward-looking country with a stagnant economy and toxic labour culture

How does Big Meat devour public subsidies and get away with paying less than its fair share of tax? @MargotGibbs @LHreports food systems team dig into the answers. Fascinating 'how the world works' insights

While dead are being counted in Italy's latest extreme weather event & after worst drought ever, climate crisis only registers marginally in election campaign, with mix of climate deniers & BAU set to win & centre-left offering platitudes #alluvionemarche

A new @LHreports investigation shows how the speculation boom - which exacerbated the current food & fuel crisis - helped drive a multi-billion revenue boost to @GoldmanSachs @JPMorgan @MorganStanley @Citibank @BankofAmerica

Da non perdere, la #migrazione come non ve l'hanno mai spiegata. Grazie @laganagan e @euscreams Spoiler: l'Europa ne ha bisogno 🧑‍🌾🍅👨🏿‍🔬🚗👷‍♂️ Che bella sarebbe una campagna basata su dati, fatti e evidenza. https://t.co/goSdCL3X9M

Instead, the parties which for years have been consciously unearthing colonial tropes & calling for migrant boats to be sunk are poised to win national election in September #ElezioniPolitiche2022

Many drawing parallels with death of #GeorgeFloyd as Alika was suffocated by killer kneeling on his neck (unlike Floyd’s murderer, this one was unarmed, yet no-one stepped in). But there is no groundswell of indignation, no calls for reckoning with Italy’s racist past & present

Like Luca Traini, a Mein Kampf reader who roamed streets of Macerata (same region as #civitanovamarche, scene of this murder) shooting at black people to “avenge” an unrelated white woman killed by a black man, warped patriarchal notions of honour also underpin this racist crime

Alika’s murder is last in a series of Italian men (mostly with far-right backgrounds) going on killing sprees against black people since mid-2000s - coinciding with normalisation of hate speech & xenophobia by prominent political parties & acquiescence/complicity from the left

Police in Italy say death of black street vendor who was chased, beaten with his crutch & suffocated to death (whilst onlookers filmed scene without intervening) was not “racially motivated”. Victim had simply dared to address killer’s girlfriend, so he “lost it” #AlikaOgochukwu

Great piece by @HelenHet20 - Italy has indeed relied on unelected technocrats at key eurozone-related milestones for decades (in 1992, Ciampi - another fr central banker - oversaw entry into the euro). The panic about elections now as opposed to in 6 months' time boils down to👇

Ottimo pezzo di @rsta sul Venerdì di @repubblica sulle produzioni di frutti tropicali in Sicilia. Sarebbe interessante sapere se, dati gli enormi margini di guadagno rispetto alle coltivazioni tradizionali, le condizioni dei lavoratori sono migliori o no @flaicgil

My family and I were able to soak up the Chapel alone in 2020, when there were no tourists in Rome, and can confirm that it is an incredible experience - servizio (sic) or not to the city

Italian pundits having field day after Medvedev’s gloating message drawing parallels between BoJo & #Draghi resignations (& fr 5 Star Di Battista’s trip to Russia) - overlooking a) long-term Tory schmoozing with oligarchs & b) reasons for #Johnson fall https://t.co/n53h8OQYkH

Guess that means I can stay on Twitter, then

"What kind of house is this," he said "Where I have come to roam?" "It's not a house", says Judas Priest "It's not a house, it's a home" Leaving Brussels after the latest (5.5-year) stint - and more or less ready for a new chapter in Rome