Italy places 18 cities under ‘red’ heat warning on Saturday
Italy's health ministry issued its highest-level 'red' heat warning for a total of 18 cities on Saturday, as the heatwave gripping the country intensified.
The heat warning was set to be in place for all of the following cities on Saturday, according to the ministry's latest heatwave bulletin: Ancona, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Campobasso, Florence, Frosinone, Latina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verona.
Italy’s red alert (bollino rosso) indicates heat levels that may pose a risk to the health and wellbeing of the general population, including healthy and active people.
Inland areas of central Italy, Sicily and Sardinia were expected to see daytime temperatures of up to 40C on Saturday, according to the latest forecasts from weather website Il Meteo.
Hot and muggy conditions were also expected in the north and south of the country, with temperatures forecast to hover in the high 30s during the day.
13 cities were already under a red heat alert on Friday as the heatwave took hold.
The current ondata di caldo was caused by an anticyclone set to affect most of Italy for "at least 10 days... with a probable slight drop in temperatures after Wednesday, July 2nd," meteorologists at Il Meteo said.
Police seize over €140m from businessmen allegedly tied to ‘Ndrangheta mafia
Italian police have seized assets worth over €140 million from five businessmen operating in the oil distribution industry on suspicion of tax fraud and links to the 'Ndrangheta mafia, Ansa reported on Thursday.
Guardia di Finanza police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said the five Italian businessmen allegedly "managed the entire distribution chain of oil products from the warehouse to the final roadside retailers,” using several ‘shell’ companies to “systematically evade taxes."
The five suspects were accused of laundering the proceeds of criminal activities run by 'Ndrangheta clans through their business, police added.
Seized assets included 79 properties and 85 vehicles in various parts of Italy, 28 petroleum product companies, a real estate company, and €1 million in cash.
The total estimated value of the seized assets exceeded €140 million, according to police.
The 'Ndrangheta – Italy’s wealthiest and most powerful mafia – is believed to have a near monopoly on cocaine trafficking in Europe.
The criminal group, which has a presence in some 40 countries around the world, is known for infiltrating political systems and local authorities both in Italy and abroad.
EU unveils plans to boost space industry
The EU has unveiled plans to harmonise the bloc's space rules to boost the industry's competitiveness and increase safety, according to AFP.
Commercial interest in space has boomed in recent years but Europe has long lagged behind the US and China, partly due to the patchwork of national laws affecting businesses in the Union, according to the European Commission.
"This fragmentation is bad for business, bad for competitiveness, bad for our future in space," EU Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said before presenting the bloc's plans in Brussels.
"Today we propose one single set of rules," he added, noting that the proposed EU Space Act marked the first attempt to regulate European space activities.
Brussels’ plans include EU-wide measures to track space objects and limit new debris, including requirements for the safe disposal of satellites at the end of their life.
The planned rules are intended to tackle ‘space junk’, as 50,000 new satellites are expected to launch over the next decade, adding to the 11,000 already in orbit.
Satellite debris “could trigger cascading crashes that render key orbits unusable and cut off access to vital satellite services," the commission said.
The EU Space Act would also require space operators to conduct risk assessments throughout a satellite's life cycle and enforce tight cyber-security rules to prevent attacks.
The bill must be approved by the European Parliament and EU member states before coming into force.
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