As an undocumented migrant in France, Mamoudou Gassama knew it was best to keep his head down, to not draw attention to himself.

But when he spotted a young child dangling from the balcony of a fourth-floor Paris flat he felt he had to act.

In that split second, Gassama, 22, did not think of himself or the threat of discovery and deportation back to Mali.

Instead, in an extraordinary feat of strength and bravery that has earned him the nickname "Le Spider-Man", he pulled himself up from balcony to balcony, before lifting the crying four-year-old to safety.

Italy's messy post-election drama on Sunday night took another stunning turn.

The country's president rejected a proposed populist 5Star-League alliance that included a Euroskeptic as economy minister and looked poised to appoint a "technocratic" government as early as Monday.

The collapse of the proposed coalition leaves Italy on an uncertain path in the days ahead, veering between the possibility of early elections or a technocratic government of longer duration. It also threatens a constitutional crisis, as the leaders of the 5Stars Movement and the League condemned the president and one even called for his impeachment.

Oh, and the most important: And it's sure to further rattle already nervous international financial markets.

Poland wants a permanent U.S. military presence -- and is willing to pony up as much as $2 billion to get it, according to a defense ministry proposal obtained by Polish news portal Onet.

The Polish offer reflects a long-standing desire in Warsaw to build closer security relations with the U.S. and put American boots on the ground. The push dates back to Poland's entry into NATO in 1999, but has taken on added urgency in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region four years ago and aggressive posture toward the alliance.

Coming just over a month before NATO leaders gather in Brussels for a summit, the Polish initiative is bound to anger Russia, and will be looked at with skepticism by European allies that want to improve relations with Moscow, such as Italy and at times Germany.

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My entry into this war zone happened by accident a year ago, when I suggested on these pages that we take another look at Nelson's legacy. I wasn't actually waiting in a bulldozer, ready to storm Trafalgar Square, as some people seemed to believe, but simply calling for an appraisal of the hitherto obscured facts.

Those facts remain of minor consequence to the vocal and influential parts of British society that regard the act of raising them as heretical. The instinct is to shoot the messenger. Our great white male media grandees - it is a remarkably consistent demographic - meet simple statements of fact about the historical record with hysterical, table-thumping personal attacks. It's the kind of lashing out that happens when you try to wean someone off an addiction. In this case, Britain is addicted to glory.

The raids were carried out with the support of several law enforcement agencies, and Eurojust -- the European agency that deals with judicial cross-border cooperation.

Police gave few other details about Tuesday's multi-nation operation, but earlier in the year, investigators said they had reason to believe that many of the militants behind the violent protests came from Italy and Spain.
[...]
A special task force has been combing through terabytes of police footage, CCTV recordings and private videos with the help of facial recognition software and geolocation data to track down the perpetrators.

archived
a libertarian group called the Black Blocs
so-called antifa modus operandi
"the affirmative consent and the special controls around sensitive types of technology like facial recognition that are required in GDPR "

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

The European Union is weighing a much stronger warning on the risk of Brexit talks collapsing without a deal if the U.K. fails to lay out its position in more detail next month, said a person familiar with the matter.

The bloc has made clear Britain needs to show a more detailed view of how it intends to keep the Irish border open by the time EU leaders gather at the end of June -- as yet, Prime Minister Theresa May hasn't produced the firm, written proposals the EU regards as necessary to move negotiations forward.

I would be shocked if May's government had a position to lay out.


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

[interleave added for clarification]

The UK's hopes of retaining an influential role for its data protection agency in shaping European Union regulations post-Brexit -- including helping to set any new Europe-wide rules around artificial intelligence -- look well and truly dashed.

<snip>

But the [adequacy decision] mechanism does not allow for the third country to be involved, in any shape or form, in discussions around forming and shaping the EU's rules themselves. So, in the UK's case, the country would be going from having a seat at the rule-making table to being shut out of the process entirely -- at time when the EU is really setting the global agenda on digital regulations.

L'indice di fiducia del presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella, chiamato a gestire questa complicata fase di trattative, è molto alto, e raggiunge il 66 per cento.

Il 49 per cento degli italiani ha fiducia anche in Gentiloni. Di Luigi Di Maio si fida il 39 per cento dell'elettorato, mente di Salvini il 35.

Molto più staccato Renzi, il cui indice di fiducia registra un magro 22 per cento. È disposto a dare credito a Silvio Berlusconi, infine, appena il 16 per cento degli italiani.

Nel 2016 la Lombardia è al primo posto sia per numero assoluto di nuovi cittadini (54mila), sia per aumento percentuale (+18,5 per cento rispetto al 2015), con dati quasi quadruplicati dal 2012 al 2016: da 14mila infatti si è passati appunto a 54mila unità. Dietro la Lombardia si colloca il Veneto, con 29mila acquisizioni di cittadinanza nel 2016 (+13,6 per cento rispetto al 2015), ovvero tre volte e mezzo rispetto a quelle registrate nel 2012, anno in cui erano poco più di 8mila.

Both sets of comments prompted European Parliament President Antonio Tajani to levy several penalties against the MEP: cutting his daily [?] subsistence allowance [?] to the tune of about $18,000
[...]
After pointing to Parliament's own acknowledgement that the MEP's remarks did not cause disorder or disruption, the General Court rejected the argument that the harm Korwin-Mikke caused to Parliament's reputation and institutional standing amounted to a disruption.

Sánchez is in, pro temp,"for a few months before calling a general election" any day now. Because Trump? Russians? Italy? Racism?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

The London Evening Standard is facing accusations it sold "favorable news coverage" to six major companies, including Uber and Google, in a £3 million deal.

Open Democracy, a political U.K.-based website, accused the paper of offering positive news coverage to the likes of Uber and Google in exchange for corporate partnerships worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, as part of an upcoming campaign called London 2020.

According to the report published Wednesday, the Evening Standard told corporate partners they would not just get the usual, clearly labeled "advertorial" content, but also news and comment pieces "that will appear to readers as routine, independently written editorial."

Jean-Claude Juncker has said Italians need to work harder, be less corrupt and stop looking to the EU to rescue the country's poor regions, in comments unlikely to ease the fraught political battle over Italy's future relationship with Brussels.

Days after the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, defended Italy's place in the eurozone against the country's populist leaders, the president of the European commission said he was in "deep love" with "bella Italia", but could not accept that all the country's problems should be blamed on the EU or the commission.

"Italians have to take care of the poor regions of Italy. That means more work; less corruption; seriousness," Juncker said. "We will help them as we always did. But don't play this game of loading with responsibility the EU. A country is a country, a nation is a nation. Countries first, Europe second."

Article 41.2 of the constitution says the Irish state "recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. The state shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home."

A constitutional conference in 2013 recommended change, and when the prime minister, Leo Varadkar, took office last year he promised it would be one of the issues put to citizens in a referendum.

The vote could be as early as October, potentially alongside the presidential election. Options include removing the clause entirely, or replacing it with a gender-neutral reference to the work of carers.

The State acknowledges that man, in virtue of his rational being, has the natural right, antecedent to positive law, to the private ownership of external goods.

The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.

Due turisti tedeschi, un uomo di 40 anni e una donna di 35, sono stati denunciati a piede libero dalla Polizia di Stato a Capri con l'accusa di furto in concorso ai danni di un operaio napoletano.

Il fatto è accaduto su un aliscafo di linea da Napoli a Capri. La vittima, che si stava recando sull'isola azzurra per motivi di lavoro, all'arrivo a Capri si è accorta di non avere più il portafogli con all'interno circa 50 euro.