Italy's voter referendum: The nuts and bolts behind the buzz

(1 of 5) A woman wears a mask of Italian Premier Matteo Renzi as she holds up a sign reading "Yes" during a rally on the upcoming Italian constitutional referendum in Florence, Italy, Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. (Maurizio Degl'Innocenti/ANSA via AP)

December 03, 2016ROME (AP)

NUTS AND BOLTS

Nearly 51 million Italians are eligible to cast ballots, ticking off "Yes" or "No" to whether they approve the proposed reforms hammered out by Parliament. Voting begins at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and ends at 11 p.m., (2200 GMT). Ballots already cast by Italians living abroad will be counted along with the Election Day tally.

WHAT WOULD THE REFORMS DO?

The biggest change would be to Italy's lumbering lawmaking process. The revised Constitution no longer would require both chambers of Parliament to vote on all legislation, including after each time a bill gets amended.

Instead, only the 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies would make most laws. The Senate would shrink from 315 to 100 members. Five would be appointed by Italy's president and the other 95 drawn from the ranks of Italy's mayors and regional representatives.

Confidence votes, which determine a ruling government's survival, also would be the exclusive province of the Chamber.

The other major reform transfers some authority from Italy's regions to the central government. Currently, jurisdictional disputes end up in Italy's slow-moving court system.

A recent example of the kind of tug-of-war the change is designed to address: Italy's Constitutional Court threw out a national law that would have made it easier to fire workers who punch time cards, then effectively don't go to work. The court said Renzi's government should have involved the regions in making the change.

YAYS AND NAYS

Renzi, his center-left allies, and banks and industrialists say the reforms would help modernize Italy. Opponents, including the populist 5-Star Movement, which is now the chief rival of Renzi's Democrats, contend the reforms would erode democracy by concentrating too much power in the premier's office.

Others urging voters to reject the amendments are former center-right Premier Silvio Berlusconi, hardliners with Communist roots who are now in Renzi's Democratic Party, and Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, which wants regions to have more, not fewer, powers.

WHAT THE POLLS SAY:

By law, the last opinion polls were published on Nov. 14. The "No" camp was leading, but many voters were undecided.

BREXIT DEJA VU?

Renzi has ruefully confessed to making a big "mistake" by saying early on he'd tender his resignation if the "No" votes prevail. His pledge effectively transformed a straightforward vote on the reforms into an opportunity to send him packing.

THE 'CASTE'

Renzi argues the reforms would drastically reduce the so-called cozy "caste" of perk-enjoying politicians in Parliament. At age 41 the youngest prime minister to serve Italy, he depicts himself as anti-caste. But 5-Star co-founder, comic Beppe Grillo contends Renzi is himself part of the party system and thus, a caste member, too.

The "caste" mantra taps into a wave of populist anger rippling through much of Europe.

WHITHER RENZI?

If he makes good on his earlier vow, Renzi would be expected to offer his resignation to Italy's head of state, President Sergio Mattarella. But Renzi has not always kept big promises. He barged his way into national power in early 2014 by ousting fellow Democrat Enrico Letta from the premiership, only days after promising he'd never take that office without elections.

WHO MIGHT REPLACE HIM?

Answer: Renzi. Since he heads the Democrats, Parliament's largest party, Mattarella could ask him to try to form a new government. A so-called "technocrat" government — made up of economists and other individuals from outside politics, might be even more unpalatable than Renzi Redux for many Italians.

The last "technocrat" premier was Mario Monti, a former EU commissioner, who prescribed harsh austerity measures to fix Italy's finances.

AND AFTER THAT?

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for the spring of 2018. While a political crisis might advance the date, many politicians in Italy are in no hurry.

As the election laws now stand, the party with the most votes gets a big bonus of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, a feature designed to encourage stability in a country long on short-living governments.

But after the populist Grillo's stunning wins in Rome and other mayoral races earlier this year, the 5-Stars are eager to take national power. So a post-referendum priority of Parliament would likely be tweaking the electoral law to minimize a potential 5-Star surge.

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at a href='http://www.twitter.com/fdemilio%3c'www.twitter.com/fdemilio/a

Website seeks to match migrants with employers in Germany

(1 of 1) Naji Negmah, a 24-year old asylum seeker from Damascus, stands in front of an asylum seeker home in Berlin where he works as a guard. A start-up company in Berlin is trying to play a role in helping integrate last year's flood of migrants into the German workforce with a tailor-made online job market for new arrivals.

December 03, 2016BERLIN (AP) 

More than 8,000 migrants have registered on the website — a fraction of the 890,000 asylum-seekers who arrived in Germany last year but good sign that some are serious about finding employment. The website helps migrants create resumes that match German standards, then connects the applicants to German companies. It's free for the migrants and relies on donations and volunteers.

MigrantHire co-founder Hussein Shaker has channeled his own experience trying to find work as a migrant into helping others. Back in the Syrian city of Aleppo, he studied information technology, but when he came to Germany he couldn't find any work in the IT sector. Instead he ended up working in a call center while learning German.

When he was approached with the idea of MigrantHire by Remi Mekki, a Norwegian entrepreneur living in Berlin, he immediately quit his job and threw himself into the project. On a normal workday he and others help migrants write resumes, answer questions about German employment law and help migrants apply for jobs that companies have posted on the website.

"It is not easy," he says about the thousands of migrants looking for jobs. "The migrants had to leave everything behind but I think that, in the end, I think it will all work out." For Syrian migrant Naji Negmah, it already has. After a year spent learning German, Negmah was put in contact by MigrantHire with a security company in Berlin. After an interview, the 24-year-old from Damascus who arrived in 2014 was given a 10-day training course, then started working as a security guard at an asylum-seekers home in Berlin.

Now he works fulltime on the same contract as all the other staff. Negmah is greeted by a group of children as he enters the four-story former office building that now houses around 200 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria but also Afghanistan and Iraq. He speaks Arabic to the children, and they think of him as one of their own.

"When I came here, I knew I wanted get a job that let me help other migrants," he said in fluent German. "This job lets me do that." At the security company, recent migrants make up about 25 percent of the guards.

Owner Seyed Ali Khatoun Abadi, who came to Germany as a refugee from Iran in 1986, says the recent arrivals are the perfect fit since they can speak to most of the asylum-seekers in their own language and they understand the stress and issues facing them.

But not everyone's had as much luck as Negmah. Even with Germany's national employment rate at only 4.1 percent, the government says 400,000 asylum-seekers are currently looking for work. According to a study published by the Federal Department for Migration and Refugees, only 13 percent of asylum-seekers find work in the first two years after arriving in Germany — but that figure increases to 22 percent in the third year and 31 percent in the fourth year.

Negmah is grateful to the website. "I like this work," he says. "I want to continue working as a security guard."

Online: www.migranthire.com

Syrian and allied troops advance in besieged Aleppo

December 03, 2016ALEPPO, Syria (AP)

After four years of holding nearly half of the divided city, rebel fighters have been increasingly squeezed into the center of the eastern enclave. Government and allied troops, including Lebanese, Iraqi and Iranian fighters, have concentrated their fight on the northeastern part of the enclave, swiftly taking new districts since their offensive began last week. Another front on the southern outskirts of the city has been slower, as rebel fighters push back government advances there.

The advances have caused massive displacement. The U.N. estimated that more than 31,000 have already fled their homes, either to government or Kurdish areas, or deeper into the besieged enclave. The fighting has also intensified the rebel shelling of government-held areas in Aleppo.

The state broadcaster al-Ikhbariya said "precise operations" by government and allied troops aim to rout out "terrorists," which is how the government refers to all armed opposition groups. The sound of war prevailed in the city early Saturday. Warplanes made several runs overhead, drawing what appeared to be rebel machine gun fire toward the aircraft.

The Russian Interfax news agency report quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying that a light ground attack aircraft, L-39 jet, was shot down near Aleppo, and its crew was killed. The opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said two pilots were killed when rebel fighters targeted the aircraft as it approached Aleppo airport to the east of the city.

Asked about reports of the downed plane, Syrian army spokesman Brig. Gen. Samir Suleiman said "we have no such information about such an incident and when such things happen the army announces them." He was speaking to reporters in Aleppo.

Suleiman said the Syrian army has regained control of 45-to-50 percent of east Aleppo, and accused insurgents of hiding among civilians. Syria's Defense Minister and other senior officers visited newly captured areas in Aleppo on Saturday, according to state-run media.

The Syrian Civil Defense in eastern Aleppo said six people were killed in bombings of the central al-Shaar neighborhood. Opposition news agency Thiqa also put the death toll at six. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at three, adding it was likely to rise. In government-held Aleppo, rebel shelling killed five people, according to the state news agency SANA.

To the south of the city, government cannons could be heard firing toward rebel-held areas. Residents in eastern Aleppo also reported intense shelling in al-Sukkari neighborhood on the southern edge of the enclave, where many of the newly displaced have sought refuge.

"The noose is tightening quickly," said Mohammed Abu Jaafar, a medical official in besieged eastern Aleppo. "Our resources are also running low and beginning to disappear." The bombings Saturday came hours after government troops made new advances on eastern parts of the enclave, including in Tariq al-Bab and al-Khaterji districts. State media reported that government and allied troops have moved in on new neighborhoods, pushing one kilometer (0.6 mile) deeper into the enclave from the far east.

The new advances tighten the government's grip on the enclave and reduce the territory the rebels hold by more than half, according to the Observatory. The new advances also secure the airport road east of Aleppo, leading to the city's international airport and a military airbase. The pan-Arab Mayadeen TV station said intense bombing in eastern Aleppo was designed to ensure rebels have been cleared from the airport road.

Moscow, a main backer of the Syrian government, says its warplanes haven't bombed Aleppo since Oct. 18. But the Russian military has helped fend off rebel attempts to break the siege of the city. "We and the Russians are allies and everything that is happening is coordinated between Russian and Syrian leadership," said Syrian army spokesman Suleiman.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is ready to hold quick talks with the U.S. "'to ensure the withdrawal of all rebels without exception from eastern Aleppo, ensure humanitarian supplies to the city residents and the restoration of normal life in eastern Aleppo."

Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet in Geneva early next week. After their meeting in Rome Friday, Lavrov said Kerry gave him Washington's proposals for settling the situation in Aleppo, which he described as conforming to Russia's longtime offers. Lavrov said Moscow is ready to immediately send its experts to Geneva for talks with the U.S. to coordinate.

El Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Aleppo, Syria and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

GR Weekend Reader: The War on “Fake News”

Add newsletter@globalresearch.ca to your address book to avoid spam filters                                                            View this e-mail in your browser Forward to a friend, spread the word! Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Global Research TV Visit our Website The War on "Fake News" GR Weekend Reader The Orwellian War on Skepticism. Battling "Fake News" By Robert Parry, December 02 2016 The idea of questioning the claims by the West's officialdom now brings calumny down upon the heads of those who dare do it. "Truth" is being redefined as whatever the U.S. government, NATO and other Western interests say is true. Disagreement with the West's "group thinks," no matter how fact-based the dissent is, becomes "fake news." Russia's "Fake News Psy-Op": Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited 'Fake News' Blacklist? By Adam Johnson, December 02 2016 PropOrNot says their criteria for "Russian propaganda" is "behavioral" and "motivation-agnostic," so even those who publish views that simply coincide with the Russian government's, regardless of intent or actual links to Russia, are per se Kremlin assets—an absurd metric that casts a net so wide as to render the concept meaningless. U.S. 'News' Media and Intel Agencies Blame Moscow for Trump's Election By Eric Zuesse, December 02 2016 Many of the U.S.-billionaire-owned and controlled 'news' media, both in the U.S. and associated aristocracies, have now officially formed a censorship-operation, called "First Draft News", to systematize their filtering-out of facts (such as I have here linked to regarding Ukraine and Crimea) that they don't want their respective publics to have access to. The Major Purveyor of 'Fake News' is the CIA-Corporate Complex By Wayne Madsen, December 01 2016 The media influencing operation targeting Russia appears to be an outgrowth of the US State Department's Counter-Information Team of the Bureau of International Information Programs. The team, established under the George W. Bush administration, was a resurrection of the Cold War-era US Information Agency's (USIA) Bureau of Information, which was designed to counter «Soviet» disinformation. The "Fake News" Furor and the Threat of Internet Censorship By Kevin Reed, December 01 2016 In the weeks since the November 8 election, US media reports on the spread of so-called "fake news" during the presidential campaign have increasingly repeated unsubstantiated pre-election claims that the Russian government hacked into Democratic Party email servers to undermine the campaign of Hillary Clinton. There is more than a whiff of McCarthyism in this crusade against "fake news" on social media and the Internet, with online publications critical of US wars of aggression and other criminal activities being branded as Russian propaganda outlets. The War on Truth. Western Governments Attempt to Discredit Truth-tellers who Challenge their Lies By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, November 27 2016 The "war on terror" has simultaneously been a war on truth. For fifteen years—from 9/11 to Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction" and "al Qaeda connections," "Iranian nukes," "Assad's use of chemical weapons," endless lies about Gadaffi, "Russian invasion of Ukraine"—the governments of the so-called Western democracies have found it essential to align themselves firmly with lies in order to pursue their agendas. Now these Western governments are attempting to discredit the truthtellers who challenge their lies. Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes a McCarthyite Blacklist from a New, Hidden, and Very Shady Group By Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald, November 27 2016 This Post report was one of the most widely circulated political news articles on social media over the last 48 hours, with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of U.S. journalists and pundits with large platforms hailing it as an earth-shattering exposé. It was the most-read piece on the entire Post website after it was published on Friday. Yet the article is rife with obviously reckless and unproven allegations, and fundamentally shaped by shoddy, slothful journalistic tactics. The Entire Mainstream Warmongering Media is Fake By Jay Dyer, November 26 2016 The earliest days of mass print media were erected on a famous fraud known as the "Great Moon Hoax" of 1835 – something researcher Chris Kendall has long called attention to – wherein the "educated," "elite" widely accepted the mainstream publications' claim bat people inhabited the lunar surface. In our day, a similar hoax still reigns, as mainstream media is literally as credible as Weekly World News' Bat Boy story. The Lie of the 21st Century: How Mainstream Media "Fake News" Led to the U.S. Invasion of Iraq By Timothy Alexander Guzman, November 26 2016 Some of the websites named in a fake news list by Melissa "Mish" Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication at Merrimack College in Massachusetts including 21st Century Wire, Activistpost.com, Globalresearch.ca, Lewrockwell.com, Naturalnews.com and Project Veritas (who released undercover videos of the DNC attempting to rig the elections) and others have exposed the lies by MSM propaganda. The MSM has lost its credibility and at the same time lost viewers at unprecedented levels. Who is Behind "Fake News"? Mainstream Media Use Fake Videos and Images By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 24 2016 The mainstream corporate media is desperate. They want to suppress independent and alternative online media, which they categorize as "fake news". Readers on social media are warned not to go onto certain sites. Our analysis confirms that the mainstream media are routinely involved in distorting the facts and turning realities upside down. Who's the Biggest Peddler of Fake News? By Washington's Blog, November 24 2016 In the last month, Obama, Merkel, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post and many other mainstream media have warned about the dangers of fake news. There certainly is a lot of fake news.  And some of it is by anti-establishment types trying to discredit American institutions with false reports. But – as we document below – the government and mainstream media are by far the biggest purveyors of fake news. Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. Copyright © Global Research News, Global Research, 2016 Share Tweet Forward Become a Member For more Global Research articles click here Copyright © 2016 Centre for Research on Globalization, All rights reserved. You are receiving this e-mail because you signed up for our newsletter Our mailing address is: Centre for Research on Globalization P.O. Box 55019 11 Notre-Dame Ouest Montreal, Qc H2Y 4A7 Canada Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list