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Despite being denigrated as a fascist and far-right, Giorgia Meloni is reliably the most popular EU leader in the polls. So why is this? In this video, we break down this polling and explain why she's in such a politically interesting position in Italy.00:00 Introduction00:45 The Polling02:34 Italian Politics & Technocrats04:14 Why is Meloni so Popular?How Meloni Became the Most Popular EU Leader | 10:56TLDR News EU | 689K subscribers | 103,511 views | July 31, 2023

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama takes on the bitter healthcare reform debate on Wednesday with a high-stakes speech to the U.S. Congress on his top domestic policy priority. Aides have promised Obama's nationally televised address will provide specifics about his vision for overhauling the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system -- although they said he will not offer his own legislation. "The president will outline his plan moving forward," both on healthcare and how to get a bill passed by Congress, said spokesman Robert Gibbs. "I don't think you'll walk away confused about where he is." Obama told ABC News...

Looking to rescue his signature domestic policy initiative with a prime-time address to Congress on Wednesday, President Obama for the first time is poised to "draw some lines in the sand" over the size and shape of legislation to remake the nation's health-care system, top advisers said Sunday. Until now, Obama has resisted taking firm positions on specific elements of a broad health-care bill, instead expressing openness to many ideas. But the approach has left lawmakers divided over contentious elements, such as how to rein in costs. And with a growing chorus in favor of a slower, less ambitious approach,...

Handshake picture deals election blow to Iranian reformist · Khatami says photo is fake but drops presidential bid · Fundamentalists outraged at breach of convention Robert Tait Tehran Friday August 3, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Iran's reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, has suffered a blow to his political standing by being pictured apparently shaking hands with women in breach of Islamic convention. The image, taken during a visit to the Italian city of Udine in May, triggered outrage among fundamentalists after being posted on conservative websites and YouTube. It showed Mr Khatami being greeted by a small group of women,...

Iran reformist regains influence Mr Rafsanjani has got a new lease of political life Iran's moderate former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has won election to Iran's powerful clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, results show. With more than half the votes counted, Mr Rafsanjani, who was defeated in the 2005 presidential election, had a clear lead at the top of the list. The election - and simultaneous local polls - was seen as a test of support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Early results suggest liberals and moderates have regained some influence. Official results have not yet been announced in either...

'POPE WHO NEVER WAS' SHOWS HOW CLOSE  MAJOR CHANGE CAN COME TO THE PAPACYIt may be just smoke. Or it may be Benedict's first big test. The issue is condoms -- whether the Church can allow them in unusual cases, in order to save lives -- and it was all kick-started by a prominent  Cardinal who many had on their short lists of papal candidates.It showed how close the Church can come to leadership by a pontiff with views at strong variance with current policy.When Time Magazine speculated on a successor to John Paul II, this former archbishop of Milan,...

Reformist Writer Dr. Kamel Al-Najjar: "If the Muslims are Serious About Presenting the Radiant Face of Islam… They Must… Acknowledge Their Dark Past" In January 2006, the Austrian-Iraqi Association for Development held its first conference on extremism and terrorism around the world, in Vienna. The conference was attended by Arab, Muslim and European researchers, intellectuals and diplomats. In the closing statement, the participants made the following recommendations: to present the humane and rational side of Islam which calls for co-existence and acceptance of the other; to condemn all forms of violence and terrorism; to promote dialogue and cooperation among all...

Iranian authorities have raided the house of the country's best-known dissident, Akbar Ganji, supporters and relatives of the jailed writer say. His daughter telephoned a family friend during the raid who described her as being "very terrified". Mr Ganji has been on a hunger strike for 59 days and both his lawyer and his wife have urged him to end the protest. He was jailed in 2001 over articles linking Iranian leaders with a series of political killings in the 1990s. The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says it is not clear why the authorities raided the house when Mr...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's reformist government alleged that "certain organs" were buying votes in poorer aread of the Islamic republic ahead of this week's presidential run-off election. The government spokesman also said outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami was "very worried" ahead of Friday's high-stakes clash between between hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad and moderate conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. "The government has receieved reports on the distribution of funds by certain organs in the poorer areas of certain provinces with a specific aim in mind," Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said Wednesday. "Khatami is worried about the future of the country and believes that we need...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Whether cowed by crackdowns, pacified by an increase in social freedoms or simply resigned, Iran's students are no longer the force that once spearheaded a revolution or agitated for liberal reform. With just over a week to go before a presidential election in which the Islamic state's clerical leaders have said it is a national and religious duty to vote, student leader Abdollah Momeni is calling -- quietly -- for a boycott. It appears the last resort of a group whose hopes for reform through the ballot box have all but vanished, at least for now. "Voting...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has alarmed many reformist Arabs with comments suggesting a new U.S. approach that promotes rapid political change without regard for internal stability. Rice said in an interview with the Washington Post last week the Middle East status quo was not stable and she doubted it would be stable soon. Washington would speak out for "freedom" without offering a model or knowing what the outcome would be. "This a very dangerous scheme. Anarchy will be out of control," said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University and an advocate of...

Until modern times, there existed no form of legitimacy in the Middle East outside of Islam. Rulers ruled in the name of God; assassins struck them down in the name of God. The assassinations of the early caliphs and the struggle between the Sunni rulers and the Assassins in the Middle Ages took precisely this form: each side claimed to act in accord with divine will, revealed in divine texts. Religion played a crucial role in the rationale of assassination, but it also played a crucial role in the rationale of government, law, and warfare—indeed, of everything. This invocation of...

Iranian Reformist Leader Reza Khatami: 'Reform is a Revolutionary Process;' 'The Conservatives Are the Enemies of Social Freedoms' In an interview with the Egyptian government paper Al-Ahram Weekly, Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the leader of Iran's largest political party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, addressed the problems facing reformists in Iran. Khatami, who is currently serving as first deputy speaker in the sixth Majlis (Iran's parliament), was banned, along with his party, from contesting the recent parliamentary elections. Khatami, 45, is the brother of Iranian President Muhammad Khatami and is married to a granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and was...

Iran conservatives 'in the lead' Supporters of clerical rule had urged people to vote Early results from Iran's general elections suggest that conservative supporters of clerical rule are heading for a sweeping victory. This had been widely predicted after more than 2,000 reformist candidates were disqualified from standing. Much attention has been focused on the size of the turnout. First indications are that it was lower than in elections four years ago that saw a reformist majority elected to Iran's parliament, the Majlis. Turnout in the capital Tehran was 28% of eligible voters, one election official was quoted as saying...

Feb 18, 2004 AP Interview: Reformer Criticizes Islamic Control, but Says Demonstrations Too Risky By Brian Murphy/ Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The leader of Iran's ruling clerics must be made more accountable to reform demands and should shed some powers to break a "vicious circle" of control, the most prominent dissident lawmaker and brother of the country's president said Wednesday. But Mohammad Reza Khatami - who was deputy parliament speaker and among more than 2,400 candidates blackballed from Friday's elections - warned against public demonstrations to demand change, saying Iranians have no appetite for another revolution. In...

Hundreds of reformist candidates in Iran have been barred from standing in parliamentary elections next month. The BBC reports that many reform MPs have walked out of parliament in protest at the ruling by the conservative body which decides who is allowed to contest the seats. No official announcement has been made about the exact number of disqualifications, as would be candidates are being informed individually. But local press reports said that just over half of the 1,700 people who presented themselves in the Teheran constituency have been turned down by supervisory committees of the council of guardians, the highly...

TEHRAN 28 July (IPS) The lamed Iranian President Mohammad Khatami received another blow Monday after it was confirmed that his Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mostafa Mo’in has submitted his resignation. "When the minister of science is witnessing that for various illogical reasons obstacles are being thrown on the way of nation's scientific progress, he would be left with no alternative than resignation", explained Mrs. Mahdokht Boroujerdi, the Director General Ministry’s Public Relations Department. This is the second time that the 52 years-old Mo’in resigns and though it is not clear yet if Mr. Khatami would accept it or...

TEHRAN, Sept 15 (AFP) - Iran's judiciary on Sunday ordered the closure of two reformist newspapers, accusing them of "publishing lies and being hostile to the Islamic regime", IRNA reported. The daily Golestan-e-Iran (Garden of Iran), which opened just over a week ago, was accused of "publishing lies, hostile propaganda and rumours", the official news agency reported. The paper was also labelled as having being run by "unqualified" people. Golestan-e-Iran said in its first edition that it intended "to encourage and deepen the reform" movement launched with the election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997. It billed itself as the...

Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld a seven-month jail term for reformist Iranian parliament member Mohammad Dadfar, publisher of the recently banned newspaper Ayene-Jonub, IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. Dadfar, a deputy from the southern city of Bushehr, has been sentenced to seven months in prison for "spreading lies" and spreading "anti-regime propaganda" as well as "insulting" the country's Supreme National Security Council. Iran's conservative press court banned his newspaper Ayene-Jonoub (Mirror of the South) at the beginning of August after it converted from being a provincial weekly to a national daily. Speaking to IRNA, Dadfar recently compared repressive judiciary measures...

TEHRAN, Sept 2 (AFP) - Iran's reformist government has thrown down the gauntlet to its conservative opponents with a direct assault on their powers to vet candidates for parliament and other public bodies, parliamentary sources said Monday. A government bill lodged with parliamentary business managers this week would sharply reduce the powers of a conservative-controlled constitutional watchdog body to pronounce on the fitness of candidates for election, the sources said. The bill, which has yet to be formally put on the parliamentary agenda, would limit the Guardians Council to a "supervisory role" in elections and give significant oversight powers to...