• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Publication title: Bay of Plenty Times

Abortion change Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led Government scored a victory yesterday with the Senate approving a law allowing anti-abortion groups access to women considering ending their pregnancies. The development revives tensions around the issue of abortion in Italy, 46 years after it was legalised in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. The Senate, where the Government has a majority, voted 95-68, giving final approval to legislation tied to European Union Covid-19 recovery funds that included an amendment sponsored by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party. The law, already passed by the lower Chamber of Deputies, allows regions to permit groups “with a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to have access to public support centres where women who are considering abortions go to receive counselling

Defence boost Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said yesterday that the country is putting its defence industry on a “war footing” by increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade, and pledged to send arms worth £500 million to Ukraine. Sunak described the increase as the “biggest strengthening of our national defence for a generation”. He added: “In a world that is the most dangerous it has...