Reuters: Italy industry lobby backs PM Renzi on constitutional reform

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Thursday won the backing of the country's biggest employers' lobby for a constitutional reform on which the 41-year-old premier has staked his political future.

Renzi's allies in parliament passed a constitutional reform that effectively eliminates the Senate as a legislative body and removes some powers from Italy's regions in a bid to speed up lawmaking and make governments more stable.

By law there must be a referendum on the changes. Renzi has said if he loses the ballot, expected in October, he will stand down, potentially unleashing political chaos and market turbulence in the euro zone's third-largest economy.

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The Huffington Post: The LGBT Pride Rainbow Flag To Fly Above Houses Of Parliament For First Time

A parliamentary spokesperson said: “The Houses of Parliament will join the Pride in London celebrations by flying the LGBT rainbow flag from the top of Portcullis House for the entire Pride weekend.

“This is the very first time the rainbow flag has been flown from Parliament and we are delighted to mark the occasion in this way.”

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Mashable: GPS maps show the wild adventures your cat goes on night

More than one dozen cats were fitted with GPS trackers to show the distance they roam from their homes. The end result was a series of maps, which provide fascinating insight into the travelling habits of felines.

The project started in mid-March with 25 cats enrolled, but by the time the project ended in mid-May, only 14 cats remained. This was due to some GPS trackers disappearing or felines struggling to wear the harness with the tracker attached.

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Politico: Brussels struggles with its Poland problem

“I don’t really think that anybody has a strategy, or wants to get Poland out,” a European diplomat said. “Everybody is still expecting this government to come back to its senses.”

“Hoping” might be a more appropriate term, given the awkward diplomatic back-and-forth between Brussels and Warsaw in recent days. The dispute highlights the difficulty of maintaining EU solidarity without fueling rising populism and unease across the bloc over policies from Brussels ranging from migration to economic governance. [...]

Though sanctions in the form of cuts to Polish subsidies as part of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy or any structural funds are unlikely to take place, the Commission could carry out “a very deep scrutiny of the way the funds are asked and used,” a European diplomat said.

“It would be very easy for the Commission to act this way, it would not require any formal decision and at that point for Warsaw it would be very hard to continue being a successful recipient of these funds,” the diplomat said. “That’s the only fear of the [Polish government], an economic retaliation which, according to them, will take form in this way.”

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The Guardian: What happened to the 12 Syrian refugees rescued by the pope?

When Pope Francis saved a dozen refugees from a Lesbos detention centre and took them to Rome it was ‘like a miracle’, one of them said. A month on, what is their new life like? [...]

The three families have been in Rome for one month, and I speak to two of them. Contrary to some reports, none has spent a night inside the Vatican and live, instead, in a refuge run by Sant’Egidio, a few streets from the school. How are they settling? “Well, actually, it’s been OK,” says Suhila. They eat eastern food – aubergine for lunch – they have found the mosque, pray at home, take the kids to school each day, “and the weather is similar to the weather in our country”. Quds has made friends with the Italian daughter of one of the volunteers. “We have started to feel ourselves adjusting. The world is smiling at us.”

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AP: Swiss region: Muslim boys must shake female teachers' hands

A public school in the northeastern Therwil municipality had sought the regional school board's advice after accepting the boys' belief that they should only willingly touch the women whom they will eventually marry. The school had temporarily exempted the teens from shaking hands with teachers.

The boys' refusal set off a debate in Switzerland, which has a tradition of handshake greetings. Like elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland has at times struggled to strike the right cultural balance amid a recent influx of Muslims and other newcomers. [...]

The Central Islamic Council of Switzerland accused the authorities of "grossly overstepping their competency," saying such measures won't help integration but rather contribute to a feeling of alienation among Muslims. The council said it would take legal action against any effort to apply the sanctions, and ignore any fines.

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BBC: Fifth of UK couples close to break-up

Researchers looked at data from the Understanding Society survey of 20,980 people which asked people how often they argued, how frequently they considered divorce and regretted the relationship, and the extent of their unhappiness.

They said their findings suggested 2.87 million people, which equates to 18% of married or cohabiting couples, were living in "distressed" relationships, where the strains were deemed to be "clinically significant" by counsellors.

The number of "distressed" relationships reached a high in 2011 and 2012 but have not yet returned to pre-recession levels, the data showed. [...]

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The Guardian: Mikheil Saakashvili: 'Ukraine's government has no vision for reform'

For Saakashvili, the crunch time has now approached to determine whether Poroshenko is part of the problem, or part of the solution. Last month, he held a press conference in which he blasted the president for not fulfilling a single promise made since he took office after the 2014 revolution.

“For a long time, Poroshenko has been very flexible,” Saakashvili told the Guardian, speaking in his rapid, lightly accented English, learned while studying in the US. “If you were a reformer he spoke reform language. If you were someone old-fashioned, he said OK, we can find a way to deal with you. Now he’s brought in a government which has not got any vision of reforms at all.” [...]

Critics say Saakashvili’s recent foray into the national arena is born of his outsized ambition, and a desire one day to become prime minister of the country. Instead of focusing on improving Odessa, they say, he has taken to criticising the government, and taking an “anti-corruption roadshow” around the country. He is expected to set up a political party of his own, though the lack of early elections has stymied this for now. He insists, however, that his focus on national politics is a necessary extension of his work in Odessa.

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The Independent: Sweden phases out fossil fuels in attempt to run completely off renewable energy

In 2015, Sweden's prime minister announced his country will work towards becoming "one of the first fossil fuel-free welfare states of the world," in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

Between 2013 and 2014, 51.1 per cent of Sweden's energy needs were met by renewables, according to data from Eurostat and the Renewable Energy Directive. [...]

Latvia was the second most green country, with a RES of 37 per cent, followed by Finland, which had a RES of 36.8 per cent and Austria, with an RES of 32.9 per cent.

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