Erdoğan replaces elected mayors to maintain his grip on power

Thousands march to protest shutdown of Spain's largest nuclear plant

What happens when governments shut down nuclear power plants? In Spain it's usually protests. Welcome to Extremadura, one of the country's most rural regions, where 7,000 people took to the streets on Sunday to challenge the shutdown of the Almaraz nuclear plant, the largest in the country.

Almaraz's two pressurized water reactors (PWR) generate 7% of Spain's energy and are directly responsible for employing more than 3,000 people in Extremadura, a region where industry is minimal and job opportunities are scarce.

The government refers to Almaraz's decommissioning as the first in a series of efforts to end nuclear by 2035. They say energy providers are no longer willing to incur the plant's maintenance costs and explain that constructing a battery factory will keep jobs in the area. But locals are not buying into it.

What a new series about Mussolini teaches us about Italy's memory culture

Benito Mussolini's spectre still hangs over Italy and often dominates the public debate. Most recently, the TV series M – The Son of the Century, based on the novel by Antonio Scurati, brought the politicised topic back to the public sphere. The actor playing the dictator, Luca Marinelli, spoke at length about how painful it was to play Italy's dictator and father of fascism. 

Rightwing pundits criticised his comments as an exaggeration and called him "a crybaby who took advantage of Mussolini to gain more fame and money," a criticism the author Scurati also faced when his prize-winning book was first published in 2018. 

This debate shows how Italy has become even more susceptible to open nostalgia in recent years, helped by the rise to power of far-right parties like the governing Brothers of Italy (FdI). 

Several FdI politicians were caught making fascist salutes or showing fascist memorabilia at home, including Italy's Senate president. Public gatherings in commemoration of the regime still take place despite public outcry and criticism of the police's inactivity. Meanwhile, two out of three Italians between 16 and 25 agreed Mussolini's regime was "a dictatorship to condemn in part but which also brought benefits" in a 2021 IPSOS survey.

In Istanbul, nearly 40 people died from bootleg liquor within 80 hours

Yes, you read that right. Faced with escalating restrictions on alcohol, people in Türkiye are turning to bootleg (homemade) liquor. Over the weekend, 92 people have been hospitalised for bootleg alcohol poisoning, and at least 38 of them have died so far, with many others still in life-threatening conditions. 

While authorities have detained 15 suspects and charged four with "premeditated murder", the real cause lies within the system itself. For years, the Turkish government has increasingly restricted the production and consumption of alcohol, especially in more conservative and rural locations. 

Ostensibly justified on public health grounds, these measures are widely believed to have religious motivations. The demonisation of alcohol has been a key element of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğawinning 'divide and rule' strategy for 20 years. With it, he wants to divide society into two – the secular one and the teetotal Islamist one, where alcohol is shunned.

Why a Nubian temple is in Spain

It's 1968. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is at the height of his power, Spain is in desperate need of friends abroad, and the wounds of a traumatic civil war have not yet healed. Then, a plane from Egypt arrives. It carries hundreds of marked stones, a set of building instructions, and an unwritten, yet clear message: "thank you".

This is the story of the Debod Temple, a 2,200-year-old temple - which is considered Nubian because it was originally located in Lower Nubia, a region that straddles southern Egypt and northern Sudan - was donated by Egypt to Spain. It was a sign of gratitude for helping save 22 Ancient Egyptian monuments and buildings during the construction of the Aswan Dam in southern Egypt. Decades later, it has endured it all: droughts, abandonment, dismantling, displacement – but rain, experts now fear, could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.