Ingria, one of the smallest villages in Italy, is home to 46 inhabitants. A further 26 people, registered to vote from abroad, make up the electorate.

De Santis, 42, has led the administration since 2009 and had expected competition in the mayoral race from an opposition councillor, 70-year-old Renato Poletto. The situation became more complicated when Stefano Venuti, a Milan resident who has a second home in Ingria, threw his hat into the ring. “We weren’t expecting that,” said De Santis.

And then the micro-race was fully upended by Poletto announcing that he had secured the support of De Santis’s mother, Milena Crosasso, and had put her forward for a councillor position in the ballot to elect a new council on 8-9 June, as part of a list comprising nine women and one man. In all, 30 people – about two-thirds of the village’s inhabitants – are now competing for positions.

“I did ask [my mother] to join me but after she saw that Poletto’s list was mostly women she decided to go with them,” said De Santis. “They are all volunteers who have worked really hard for the village.”

Crosasso said that the rivalry would not impact family harmony. “Both my son and I want the best for the community and this is an opportunity to give voice to women’s points of view without weakening family bonds,” she said.

Ingria is in Italy’s Soana Valley and experiences similar issues to other mountain villages, such as depopulation, scant services and challenges with snow during winter. Since 2022, when it was named as being among Italy’s “most beautiful” villages, it has also had to deal with an increase in tourism.

“There has been an incredible spike and we have to manage this,” said De Santis. “There are few residents, but a lot of second homes. Our main aim is to preserve Ingria’s beauty.”

Venuti told Corriere della Sera newspaper that he decided to run for mayor after being urged to do so by locals. “I’ve integrated very well,” he said.

Despite the competition, De Santis, whose grandfather was mayor of Ingria for 30 years, said he was “optimistic” that he could win.

Brazil's Ministry of International Relations said on Sunday (2) that the Brazilian family that was injured in a bombing last Saturday (1) in Lebanon was the victim of an attack by Israel.

Itamaraty formally accused Israel of the attack. “The episode occurred in the context of attacks by the Israeli armed forces in southern Lebanon and by Hezbollah in northern Israel,” it said in a statement. “The Brazilian Embassy in Beirut is in contact with the relatives and the medical team and is providing consular support.”

Until now, Israel's participation in the attack was only a hypothesis. Yesterday, an Israeli aircraft without a pilot was shot down over Lebanese territory by the extremist cell Hezbollah. Videos circulating on social media show a Hermes 900 drone crashing in the south of the country.

The Brazilian Embassy in Beirut says it has been monitoring the Israel-Palestine conflict “since the beginning”. “Brazil urges the parties involved (...) to prevent the spread of the conflict in Gaza and to avoid new innocent civilian victims,” the note continues. The Brazilian government expresses its indignation and condemns yesterday's bombing (...) which resulted in injuries to three Brazilian citizens. Itamaraty, in a statement Girl almost amputated

The home of Brazilians in the town of Saddike, in the south of Lebanon, was hit by a bombardment on Saturday (1st), at around 11am in Brazil. Fatima Boustani, 30, her 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son were injured. The girl was watching TV when the house was hit.

“She was rescued by neighbors in a state of shock,” says Hussein Ezzddein, cousin of the children's father, Ahmad Aidibi, who is staying at his home in Greater São Paulo. “The hospital planned to cut off her leg, but the family asked them to and another doctor performed a second operation on her leg. Now she's in the ICU under observation because she's lost a lot of blood.”

Fatima “is in a very serious condition”. With bleeding in her head and lungs, her condition is so serious that the Brazilian Consulate in Lebanon tried to transfer her to a hospital in the capital, Beirut, but doctors advised against it. “She's intubated. They didn't authorize an ambulance because of her condition,” says Ezzddein. The boy suffered abrasions and is under observation in the infirmary. The eldest son, 13, and the youngest, 7, were at their grandmother's house during the attack and were not hit.

Ezzddein asks the Brazilian government to repatriate the family and send a psychologist to help his father. Aidibi “won't accept it, he just screams and cries”, says his cousin. “He hasn't slept or eaten since yesterday. He just smokes and cries.” He keeps shouting: 'How come I'm walking and my daughter isn't? He's in a deep state of depression, he's in shock. Hussein Ezzddein, Aidibi's cousin

Though he is bitterly disappointed that the ANC barely polled 40 percent, sources close to Ramaphosa said he reasons that “much is at stake” and South Africa is in need of political maturity that can provide stable governance after voters tore up the odds by making his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party the third biggest in the country.

The only route to that stability, for Ramaphosa and his closest allies within the ANC, is through a working arrangement with the Democratic Alliance.

The party’s Gauteng leadership and younger members of the ANC national executive committee have thus far favoured the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as a coalition partner but this thinking has lost some of its currency with a far lower share of the vote than in 2019

Sadly I have to agree with all of the above, and have been predicting this outcome for months now. In fact, I've been predicting a ANC-DA coalition even before Zuma's MK party existed. Zuma's MK party is undoubtedly the worst and should not be allowed anywhere near national level power (want to scrap the constitution, introduce bourgeois dictatorial parliamentary rule, scrap LGBT rights, etc), and the EFF simply do not have the votes for a stable coalition and will require other parties to join to reach 50%. This means that the only way forward is an ANC - DA coalition nationally

There are two options. The first is a full-blown coalition in which the official opposition becomes the junior partner.

The second is a narrowly-structured pact where the DA agrees to cooperate on particular steps required for the government to function", notably the election of the president in the National Assembly and the passing of the national budget.

In return, the DA would secure key positions within parliament that would allow it to hold the executive to account. In any haggling of this nature, it is almost certain to demand greater devolution of powers to provinces...

"The agreement the president is going with is for the ANC to form a government and the DA takes the legislature, including the speaker of the National Assembly and chairing the parliamentary portfolio committees,” said one PEC member, who asked to remain anonymous.

But another PEC official reiterated that the ANC “would lose its base” — that is, the black working class in townships and rural areas — should the party adopt Ramaphosa’s strategy.

“Going into bed with the DA will ensure the ANC sleeps forever and does not rise. The EFF and MK will be the biggest beneficiaries,” the insider asserted...

For now, however, it appears – from what has informally been placed before the ANC – that the DA is leaning towards option two.

It entails concessions from the ANC on key pieces of legislation, including the National Health Insurance Act – signed by the president a fortnight before voting day.

This is all terrible, but it is the only way forward unfortunately. The ANC has messed it up for themselves by being corrupt and incompetent. Having no electricity for 8+ hours a day in the year leading up to the election, thanks to corruption and austerity, is not a winning strategy. The EFF's campaign of trying to appeal to Zuma supporters and Zulu nationalists and give them concessions, by having meetings with Zuma, publicly asking Zuma to join the EFF, and exempting land under the ownership of the Zulu King's trust from land reform, has backfired spectacularly. Zuma took all those new EFF supporters with him to the MK, and now the EFF has a worse result than 2019, and not enough of a share of the vote to form a coalition with the ANC. A multi party national coalition to barely reach 50% is a non starter. So an ANC - DA coalition is a consequence of all this.

O American State! This blood is also on your hands.

Hey heads of state of Europe! You also participated in this genocide of Israel.

Because you kept silent.

They hit hospitals, schools, mosques, aid convoys, journalists, doctors and aid workers; You were silent.

Not only humanity is dying in Gaza; In Gaza, not only innocent pups and babies die; There is not only genocide and massacre in Gaza.

While humanity is dying in Gaza, democracy is dying and human rights are dying in Europe; Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, women's rights, children's rights are dying.

No one should be sorry...

From now on, no European should come out and talk to us about democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and freedom of the press with arrogance, patronizing language and finger wagging.

Israel killed humanity in Gaza; Europe, on the other hand, killed its own values ​​and trampled all the values ​​that created it under its feet.

The United Nations could not even protect its own personnel or aid workers, let alone stop the genocide. In Gaza, not only humanity but also the United Nations died along with its spirit.

I also have a few words for the Islamic world...

What are you waiting for to make a joint decision? What more needs to happen to react?

Babies' necks are cut off, people are burned in tents. When will you react?

When will the Islamic world protect the rights, laws, lives and honor of its Palestinian brothers?

I swear, God will hold you and all of us accountable for this.

While a handful of terrorists are committing Muslim genocide in the very center and heart of the Islamic geography, God will hold accountable those who turn a blind eye, those who turn a deaf ear, those who remain silent and unresponsive.

The world is watching the barbarity of a patient, a maniac, a psychopath, a blood-feeding vampire called Netanyahu, and it is watching it on live broadcast...

More than three-quarters of the 193 member countries of the United Nations recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

The joint decision of 147 countries cannot be left to the discretion of the Security Council, which consists of 5 members.

The world is bigger than 5, 147 is bigger than five, the common conscience of humanity is bigger than 5."

Eighteen Mexico City Police officers were wounded by Molotov cocktails and objects thrown by anti-Israel activists in a riot outside the Israeli embassy on Tuesday, law enforcement said, in protests organized in response to ongoing IDF military operations in the Hamas stronghold of Rafah.

Sixteen officers were reportedly taken to the hospital for burns and other injuries, and two more were treated on the scene. Multiple fires were set in the area of the embassy, and five bus stations, several businesses, a police vehicle, and park benches were damaged.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that "there were no casualties but minor damage was caused in the vicinity of the embassy." Mexican Police said that protesters, some of them masked, clashed with the police who established a cordon.

Accusing police of brutality

BDS Mexico, which called for the protest on Monday as a response to the death of Gazans in Rafah in disputed circumstances, accused the police of brutality.

The anti-Israel activists claimed that the police used tear gas, operated fire extinguishers and threw stones at the protesters, who they said included children, seniors, and disabled people.

"We reiterate our solidarity with the Palestinian people and all the people who demonstrated in support of their cause," Comité de Solidaridad con Palestina GDL said on Instagram on Wednesday. "We will not stop speaking out against injustice and oppression, both here and anywhere in the world."