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In a country like Italy, which has seen 63 governments since 1948, political stability is more than a campaign slogan. But it appears a real possibility that Grillo’s Five Star Party and their allies in Lega Nord may be on the cusp of once again overturning the establishment and making history.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is staking his political future on a referendum to be held next Sunday that would change the Italian constitution by weakening the upper house of parliament and strengthening the central government.

Foolishly, Renzi said he would resign if he lost the vote. This galvanized opposition parties to make the referendum a vote on Renzi’s tenure as prime minister.

Now it appears that the anti-establishment forces who successfully pushed through a British exit from the EU and elected Donald Trump president of the U.S. are ready to deal a crippling blow to Renzi’s center-left coalition by defeating the constitutional changes.

And waiting in the wings if Renzi follows through with his promise are two anti-establishment newcomers who are both committed to blowing up the EU.

Newsweek:

A defeat for Renzi will be read as a victory for Italy’s two major populist parties: the Lega Nord and the larger Five Star Movement, led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. The two parties are not allied, but both are nurtured by anti-establishment sentiment and favor “national solutions” to Italy’s problems – beginning with a return to the Italian lira.

If Renzi is defeated, Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement could join forces to support a new government and hold a new referendum – this time on the euro. If Italy – one of the world’s largest public debtors – decided to go it alone, the entire European project could be dealt a mortal blow. In the age of Donald Trump and Brexit, that outcome is far from unthinkable.

The issue at stake in the referendum is not inconsequential, but it should not decide the fate of Europe. Italians will vote on whether to strip the Senate (the parliament’s upper house) of two-thirds of its members and much of its legislative authority, making it merely a talking shop akin to the second chamber of Germany’s Bundesrat, and return some of the regions’ powers to the central government.

Changes like these have been discussed for 30 years. The lack of movement could benefit Renzi, if voters conclude that they should not waste such a rare opportunity to do something to reform their sclerotic system. President Sergio Mattarella is impartial, but he would prefer that the reforms go forward. His predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, is also strongly in favor of the reforms, which he sayswould be “great news for Italy.”

MILAN – In the last 68 years, Italy has held 17 general elections and a few referenda. But only three times has an Italian vote claimed center stage internationally: in 1948, when the choice was between the West and communism; in 1976, when voters faced a similar choice, between the Christian Democrats and Enrico Berlinguer’s “Eurocommunism”; and now, with the upcoming referendum on constitutional reforms.

The implications of the upcoming vote are enormous. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his political future on the vote, pledging to step down (though not immediately) if the reforms are rejected. Such an outcome that would irreparably weaken the center-left government coalition as well: Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) is already roiled by infighting over the reforms. In fact, the PD may not be able to avoid a split even if the vote goes the prime minister’s way.

A defeat for Renzi will be read as a victory for Italy’s two major populist parties: the Lega Nord and the larger Five Star Movement, led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. The two parties are not allied, but both are nurtured by anti-establishment sentiment and favor “national solutions” to Italy’s problems – beginning with a return to the Italian lira.

If Renzi is defeated, Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement could join forces to support a new government and hold a new referendum – this time on the euro. If Italy – one of the world’s largest public debtors – decided to go it alone, the entire European project could be dealt a mortal blow. In the age of Donald Trump and Brexit, that outcome is far from unthinkable.

The issue at stake in the referendum is not inconsequential, but it should not decide the fate of Europe. Italians will vote on whether to strip the Senate (the parliament’s upper house) of two-thirds of its members and much of its legislative authority, making it merely a talking shop akin to the second chamber of Germany’s Bundesrat, and return some of the regions’ powers to the central government.

PARIS—By choosing François Fillon as their candidate for the presidential election, the French center-right has opted for a mild-mannered conservative known for the alarm he has sounded about the country’s high public-debt levels.

The 62-year-old nominee for the center-right Républicains party emerges from the shadow of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who dominated the French right for over a decade with a brash and divisive leadership style.

Mr. Fillon served as Mr. Sarkozy’s prime minister, and the two men share a core policy stance that is socially conservative and favors rolling back the reach of the state. But Mr. Fillon’s calm demeanor marks a stark change in style for the French right.

An automobile and mountaineering enthusiast with a stately home in western France, Mr. Fillon at times clashed with Mr. Sarkozy, who once belittled his prime minister by describing him as an assistant. Mr. Fillon has struck back with a quietly prepared election platform that blew apart the center-right primary race in the final stretch and Mr. Sarkozy’s dreams of a presidential comeback.

“I love resisting a tenacious rival who is catching up with me or watching for an opening to jump into and overtake the person ahead of me,” Mr. Fillon said in a 2015 book describing his passion for politics and racing cars.

The son of a rural notary, Mr. Fillon boasts close ties with farming communities in the Sarthe, the region where he grew up and which he praises as “balanced, moderate and tolerant.” Unlike most French politicians who refrain from making public statements about their religious beliefs, Mr. Fillon hasn’t shied away from discussing his Catholic faith.

“I grew up in this tradition, and I kept this faith,” Mr. Fillon says in his book. CONTINUE AT SITE

It is never a sad day when a monster dies.

Fidel Castro, the mass murderer who sadistically tormented the Cuban people for nearly fifty years, died on Friday at the age of 90. Thousands of Cuban exiles understandably celebrated in the streets of Miami. Leftists around the world, meanwhile, dutifully mourned their fallen secular deity. Progressives always grieve when the vicious enforcers of class hatred die.

While leftists sob for one of the most evil tyrants of the modern era, those who cherish freedom and human rights are never sad to have one less monster walking the earth.

And so, on this significant occasion, it would do well to offer a reflection on the pain and blood that this particular monster left in his wake.

On July 13, 1994, 72 desperate Cuban citizens, including seniors and young children, floated on a wooden tugboat in a turbulent sea, trying to make their way to Florida and dreaming of the freedom that now lingered within their grasp. Their aspirations were met with a nightmarish jolt when Castro’s patrol boats suddenly rammed the back of their vessel. The frightened women held up their little children in the air to let Castro’s thugs know what the situation entailed. And the thugs returned their expected response: on the orders of the head beast in charge, they blasted the mothers with children in hand with their water cannon, mowing them — and all the other escapees on board — into the merciless waves.

Maria Garcia lost her son, Juanito, that tragic day. She also lost her husband, brother, sister, two uncles and three cousins. In all, 43 people drowned — 11 of them children. This evil murderous act became known as Castro’s Tugboat Massacre. Yisel Alvarez was 4 when she drowned. Carlos Anaya was 3. Helen Martinez was 6 months old.

Castro gave the orders for this evil massacre — and the deaths of Carlos, Yisel and Helen made him especially proud. That is why he personally decorated one of the water-cannon gunners himself.

Fidel had always derived special pleasure from sending helicopters to drop sandbags onto the rafts of would-be escapees from his prison-island, or to just gun them all down. The Tugboat Massacre, however, proved to be a special delight for him, because there were children involved. And the blood of innocent children, as Anna Geifman documents, is always a special delicacy for totalitarian death cults, whether they be of the communist or Islamist variety.

Mexico City — Fidel Castro was a remarkably lucky dictator. Unlike many — Romania’s Ceausescu and Libya’s Qaddafi come to mind — he wasn’t executed by his own people and instead died in bed at age 90. During the Cuban missile crisis, he wrung a secret promise from the U.S. that it would never invade Cuba. He then survived dozens of assassination attempts by the Kennedy administration until a Castro sympathizer named Lee Harvey Oswald put a stop to them and to the life of President Kennedy in 1963.

Castro ruled for another 45 years after that, until his retirement in 2008, persecuting dissidents, jailing gays, and murdering opponents. Even after he turned power over to his brother Raul, Fidel continued to be feted and admired by world leaders. Few dictators could have collected the kind of respectful foreign tributes that poured in from Western countries after his death last Friday.

Here in Mexico, which harbored the young revolutionary Castro and provided the launching pad for his return to Cuba in 1956, the response from government officials was pathetic. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called Castro a friend of Mexico who had promoted bilateral relationships based on “respect, dialogue, and solidarity.”

Miguel Angel Mancera, the head of government in Mexico City, also expressed solidarity with Fidel on his Twitter account: “Death of an icon of history, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, go with the people of Cuba in their mourning. Rest in peace #MM”

But none of the Mexican officials descended to the depths of Jill Stein, leader of America’s Green party. She took time off fundraising to launch recounts of this month’s presidential election to tweet her homage: “Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!”

EU Leader Jean-Claude Juncker added to the encomia, tweeting, “With the death of #FidelCastro, the world has lost a man who was a hero for many.”

AMBOULI, Djibouti—French aircraft struck and likely killed one of the most wanted senior al Qaeda operatives in southern Libya this month, marking a new level of cooperation between France and the U.S. on targeting militants, U.S. officials said.

This wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. thought that a strike killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an elusive insurgent leader known as the “one-eyed terrorist” because of an accident years ago that left him disfigured. Reports of his death following previous operations to target him over the years have proved false.
Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar is seen in an undated picture from the U.S. Justice Department. ENLARGE
Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar is seen in an undated picture from the U.S. Justice Department. Photo: US Department of Justice/REUTERS

But based on what they described as the caliber of the intelligence, U.S. officials expressed greater confidence that the latest strike, conducted by French aircraft in southern Libya based in part on intelligence feeds from the U.S. earlier this month, likely was successful. Efforts are under way to determine its outcome, officials said. Officials at the White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the strike. A spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense declined to comment.

Mr. Belmokhtar has raised tens of millions of dollars for al Qaeda affiliates through smuggling and by taking European hostages and selling illicit goods, and is considered directly responsible for the deaths of at least three Americans, according to U.S. officials.

The U.S. in 2013 launched a multiagency effort to find him that included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the military’s Joint Special Operations Command and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Belmokhtar, once the head of the al Qaeda chapter in North Africa and the Sahel region—known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM—has been on the U.S. wanted list for at least a decade. He was thought to have been killed at least twice before, including in an airstrike in June and a drone strike last year.

If the strike this month was successful, it would represent a culmination of efforts by the U.S., French and other allies to capture or kill Mr. Belmokhtar. It would also reflect the extent of new military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries, U.S. and French officials said. The U.S. contributed intelligence to add to what French officials already knew about Mr. Belmokhtar’s whereabouts in anticipation of this month’s strike, U.S. officials said.

The killing of Mr. Belmokhtar would be the first confirmation that France has conducted airstrikes in Libya. Paris has for months tried to keep a low profile on its operations in the country, fearing that public military intervention would be seen as taking sides in Libya’s internal conflicts.

Yet the presence of thousands of militants in the country who have sworn allegiance to Islamic State and al Qaeda has prompted France to launch covert operations there for at least the last year, Western officials say. The missions include supporting local forces on counterterrorism missions and directly hunting down extremists, officials say.

After denying the existence of Libyan operations for months, France in July was forced to acknowledge its presence on the ground when three French intelligence agents died in a helicopter crash near the eastern city of Benghazi.

The U.S. and France have long had an intelligence-sharing relationship for counterterrorism purposes, but it became more formalized following last year’s Paris attacks. An agreement, announced by President Barack Obama in November 2015, directs U.S. officials to share operational planning and intelligence with their French counterparts.

The agreement has been expanded quietly, with more information sharing and intelligence cooperation, officials said.

Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s homeland-security adviser, wouldn’t confirm details of the recent strike. But she said France is one of the “most effective allies” in bringing pressure against Islamic State, in Syria, Iraq and in Africa.

“The French have been indispensable partners, bringing resources, expertise and determination to the fight,” she said.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is set to meet in Washington Monday with his French counterpart, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, with the military and intelligence relationship continuing apace since the Paris attacks. American senior defense intelligence officials met last week as part of the so-called Lafayette Committee, formed after the agreement made with France last fall. The first of the semiannual meetings was in May.

The strike in southern Libya this month stands in contrast to French airstrike operations following the attacks in and around Paris a year ago, when French officials, under pressure by the French public to respond to the attacks, conducted strikes against Islamic State over Syria, but with little initial coordination with U.S. officials.

The intelligence the U.S. shares with France, though expanded, is still not considered akin to the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance between the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The two countries are still working through longstanding issues when it comes to trust and the ability of both intelligence apparatuses to share information. But U.S. officials want to deepen the relationship as much as possible, U.S. officials said. CONTINUE AT SITE