ROME — A forthcoming Italian referendum on judicial reform will test right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s political strength and could give the fragmented opposition the impetus to forge a broad alliance ahead of next year’s general election.

Italians will vote on March 22-23 on a proposal to separate the careers of judges and public prosecutors, splitting the self-ruling High Council of the Judiciary (CSM) into two bodies whose members would be chosen by lot rather than elected.

Though centred on the governance of the judiciary, the referendum has become a political showdown between the government-backed ‘Yes’ camp and the opposition, which supports ‘No’. There is no turnout quorum required to validate the vote.

Analysts say most people are likely to cast their ballots based on political preferences, paying little attention to the substance, after a bruising campaign marked by unfounded claims over the potential impact of the reform from both sides.

“Only a small minority of Italians knows much about the issue. Many will look instead to party and coalition leaders, who are all trying to mobilize their voters to win,” said Fabrizio Masia, the head of pollster EMG.

FRESH MOMENTUM TO THE LEFT
Polls published before a two-week pre-ballot blackout took effect showed the two camps neck-and-neck, with opponents of the reform gaining ground amid suggestions that many right-wing supporters may stay home out of apathy.

Ms. Meloni has ruled out resigning in the event of defeat, a move widely seen as an attempt to discourage opposition voters from turning out in large numbers in the hope of unseating her.

The coalition — which includes her Brothers of Italy party, the League and Forza Italia — remains more popular than the left, which is still struggling to forge a stable alliance around the Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement.

“A ‘no’ win could give fresh momentum to efforts to build a center-left bloc, also causing trouble within Meloni’s ranks,” said pollster Masia.

If the reform passes, however, Ms. Meloni would receive a major boost, as she nears the end of her term grappling with the fallout from the broadening US-Israeli war on Iran and a stagnant economy.

“A government victory would strengthen its longer-term political project, also in view of the 2027 election,” said Emanuele Massetti, political science professor at Trento University.

BERLUSCONI’S LEGACY
Justice has been a divisive issue in Italy since former centre-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced dozens of trials linked largely to his business empire and often accused judges of political bias.

Mr. Massetti said the referendum was the latest chapter in a long-running confrontation between the right and the judiciary, with the issue dividing voters along left-right lines since the era of Mr. Berlusconi, who died in 2023.

The campaign has also pitted Ms. Meloni against magistrates’ union ANM, which says the reform would weaken judicial independence and increase political interference.

The government rejects that criticism, saying the reform is needed to curb the politicised election of CSM members after scandals exposed backroom deals over senior prosecutor appointments.

“The reform aims to make the justice system more modern, fair, accountable and independent, free from political pressure and from the factionalism that has damaged its credibility and authority,” Ms. Meloni told daily Il Dubbio this week. — Reuters

BEIJING — China, home to the world’s biggest oil refining sector, said it was ready to work with Southeast Asia in addressing energy problems stemming from the war in Iran and called on the parties involved to immediately cease military operations.

China’s show of willingness to work with the region of more than 700 million people would be welcome relief to Southeast Asian oil importers after an order by Beijing earlier this month to ban Chinese exports of diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel.

The ban would worsen shortages and further hike prices for some of China’s strategic partner-nations in Southeast Asia, which have already been reeling from supply cuts brought on by the US-Israeli war against Iran.

“The situation in the Middle East has disrupted global energy security,” said Lin Jian, spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, told a regular news conference when asked if Southeast Asian nations had reached out to China for help.

“The countries involved should immediately cease military operations to prevent regional instability from having a greater impact on global economic development,” said Mr. Lin.

“China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries to jointly address energy security issues,” Mr. Lin added.

Any easing of Beijing’s ban could help soothe fuel jitters in countries from the Philippines to Cambodia.

Philippine Energy Secretary Sharon Garin met with the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines on Tuesday to discuss cooperation in energy, a departure from the two countries’ arguing over maritime rights in the South China Sea. — Reuters

BANGKOK — Thailand’s Anutin Charnvirakul will seek to be elected back to power on Thursday in a parliamentary vote on a prime minister that could usher in a rare period of stability for a country long plagued by political drama and turmoil.

In a stunning turnaround in fortunes for a party that had struggled to make its mark in Thai politics, Mr. Anutin’s Bhumjaithai sprang a surprise with a decisive victory in February’s election after capitalizing on a wave of nationalism arising out of military conflicts with Cambodia last year.

Much of Mr. Anutin’s success comes from his opportunism in seizing on the decline of the once dominant Pheu Thai party, first by abandoning its coalition government then maneuvering swiftly to form his own after a court sacked a second prime minister in the space of just over a year.

After the February election, Bhumjaithai has made a pact with the politically bruised Pheu Thai and teamed up with a motley crew of small parties for an alliance that would control 292 of the current 499 seats in parliament.

“The government coalition is ready to perform its duty in the legislature and executive smoothly to bring prosperity to the country,” Mr. Anutin told a press conference in parliament before the session started.

“We’ll quickly form a cabinet and give a policy statement to solve the problems of the country.”

RIVAL CHALLENGE
To be elected prime minister, Mr. Anutin, 59, needs the support of more than half of the house, or 251 votes. The vote is expected to take place later on Thursday.

Anutin was nominated for premier on Thursday morning and will go head-to-head in the vote against 38-year-old Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, leader of the People’s Party, the second-placed election finisher.

It is unclear what support Mr. Natthaphong has beyond the 120 seats his party holds, or if a deal has been made with other players. He said last week his intention was to use the vote to present his party’s vision to parliament.

Mr. Anutin, a staunch royalist, has been a mainstay in Thai politics, weathering two decades of upheaval by positioning Bhumjaithai strategically between warring elites entangled in an intractable power struggle, which guaranteed its place in a succession of coalition governments.

If Mr. Anutin prevails, he would for the first time have a clear mandate to lead in a country with a long-stuttering economy shackled by massive household debt, in urgent need of structural reform and facing headwinds from trade uncertainty and the fallout of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

PROSPECT OF STABILITY
Mr. Anutin’s survival instincts and ability to straddle political divides could prove his biggest asset, some analysts say, with Bhumjaithai having been spared the wrath of Thailand’s powerful military and judiciary, the engineers of the downfall of multiple governments and parties.

Napon Jatusripitak, a political scientist at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, said that with Bhumjaithai set to hold sway over the upper and lower houses and Thailand’s axes of institutional power appearing to be behind Mr. Anutin, the prospects for medium-term stability were good.

“People have strong reasons to believe that this government can last, particularly because it’s the first time in a long while that the referee and the players are on the same side,” Mr. Napon said.

“There’s control,” he said. “And we have a highly fragmented opposition.” — Reuters

HELSINKI — Heavy social media usage appears to contribute to a drop in wellbeing among young people, especially girls, in some English-speaking countries, the World Happiness Report published on Thursday found.

Already, a number of countries across the world are working on plans to curb children’s social media access after Australia in December became the world’s first country to ban social media for children under 16.

The latest research published in the annual World Happiness Report is based on data from US market research company Gallup and other studies, analyzed by a global team led by the University of Oxford in England.

REAL SOCIAL CONNECTIONS MATTER
The report did not establish a direct link.

However, researchers for this year’s version of the report, combined the Gallup data with that from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment and other studies, leading them to conclude heavy social media use appeared to reduce happiness.

“The message coming through loud and clear is that we should try to put the social back into social media,” Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, one of the editors of the World Happiness Report, told Reuters.

Mr. De Neve added that algorithmically-pushed, passively-consumed, and mostly influencer-type content had a more negative impact on users than a platform that connects people socially.

With the caveat that the impact of social media on wellbeing was complex, he said the combined data showed that 15-year-old girls, who used social media platforms for more than five hours a day, reported lower life satisfaction compared to girls of their age who use social media less.

Gallup’s world-wide poll data showed life evaluations, or how people assess their life satisfaction, among under 25-year-olds in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have dropped “dramatically”, by almost one point on a 0-10 scale, over the last decade.

By contrast, it found the self-reported life satisfaction of the young in the rest of the world increased on average over the same period.

Gallup’s managing editor Julie Ray said the difference in life satisfaction between the young in the English-speaking countries and the rest of the world was likely related to broader social conditions.

“Social support is one of the strongest predictors of wellbeing, and previous research shows that in some countries younger people report feeling less supported, which may help explain the pattern,” she told Reuters by email. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration is considering deploying thousands of US troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East, as the US military prepares for possible next steps in its campaign against Iran, said a US official and three people familiar with the matter.

The deployments could help provide Mr. Trump with additional options as he weighs expanding US operations, with the Iran war well into its third week.

Those options include securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that would be accomplished primarily through air and naval forces, the sources said. But securing the Strait could also mean deploying US troops to Iran’s shoreline, said four sources, including two US officials.

Reuters granted the sources anonymity to speak about military planning.

The Trump administration has also discussed options to send ground forces to Iran’s Kharg Island, the hub for 90% of Iran’s ​oil exports, the three people familiar with the matter and three US officials said. One of the officials said such an operation would be very risky. Iran has the ability to reach the island with missiles and drones.

The United States carried out strikes against military targets on the island on March 13 and Mr. Trump has threatened to also strike its critical oil infrastructure. However, given its vital role in Iran’s economy, controlling the island would likely be viewed as a better option than destroying it, military experts say.

Any use of US ground troops – even for a limited mission – could pose significant political risks for Mr. Trump, given low support among the American public for the Iran campaign and Mr. Trump’s own campaign promises to avoid entangling the US in new Middle East conflicts.

Trump administration officials have also discussed the possibility of deploying US forces to secure Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

The sources did not believe a deployment of ground forces anywhere in Iran was imminent but declined to discuss specifics of US operational planning. Experts say the task of securing Iran’s uranium stockpiles would be highly complex and risky, even for US special operations forces.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There has been no decision to send ground troops at this time, but President Trump wisely keeps all options at his disposal.

“The president is focused on achieving all of the defined objectives of Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capacity, annihilate their navy, ensure their terrorist proxies cannot destabilize the region, and guarantee that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”

The Pentagon declined to comment.

The discussions come as the US military continues to attack Iran’s navy, its missile and drone stockpiles and its defense industry.

The US has carried out more than 7,800 strikes since launching the war on February 28 and damaged or destroyed more than 120 Iranian vessels so far, according to a factsheet released on Wednesday by the US Central Command, which oversees the roughly 50,000 US troops in the Middle East.

US CASUALTIES
Mr. Trump has said his goals go beyond degrading Iran’s military capabilities and could include securing safe passage through the Strait and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Ground forces could help broaden his options to address those goals, but carry significant risk. Even without any direct conflict in Iran, 13 US troops have been killed so far in the war and about 200 have been wounded, although the vast majority of the injuries have been minor, the US military says.

For years, Mr. Trump has railed against his predecessors for getting involved in conflicts and has vowed to keep the United States out of foreign wars. But more recently he has refused to rule out the possibility of “boots on the ground” in Iran.

A senior White House official told Reuters that Mr. Trump has various options for acquiring Iran’s nuclear material but has not decided how to proceed. “Certainly there are ways in which it could be acquired,” the official said, adding: “He hasn’t made a decision yet.”

In written testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program had been obliterated by strikes in June and the entrances to those underground facilities had been “buried and shuttered with cement.”

The sources said the discussions on US reinforcements go beyond the arrival of an Amphibious Ready Group next week in the Middle East, with an attached Marine Expeditionary Unit that includes more than 2,000 Marines.

But one of the sources noted that the US military was losing a significant number of forces with the decision to send the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier to Greece for maintenance after a fire on board the vessel.

Mr. Trump has also oscillated on whether the US should secure the Strait of Hormuz.

After initially saying the US Navy could escort vessels, he called on other countries to help open the key water way. With little interest from allies, Mr. Trump on Wednesday mused about simply leaving.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?,'” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. — Reuters

BRUSSELS —European airline chiefs are meeting in Brussels on Thursday under the cloud of war in the Middle East and rising oil prices, looking to push back against the EU’s green agenda and what the industry says are cumbersome rules surrounding sustainable jet fuel.

Citing a lack of available supply and prohibitively high costs, Europe’s airlines are expected to call for regulators to roll back mandates for the use of synthetic sustainable jet fuel (eSAF) starting in 2030, Reuters reported this week.

The lobbying comes after Air France-KLM, Ryanair, Lufthansa, easyJet, and British Airways-owner IAG have for years lamented what they see as an unequal burden on Europe’s airlines, allowing Asian and Middle Eastern carriers a cost advantage.

The green jet fuel industry and environmental groups insist the shift is necessary to reduce the sector’s reliance on oil.

MIDDLE EAST WAR RIPPLES THROUGH SECTOR
While sustainability is in focus, the Iran war and oil prices above $100 a barrel will likely be front and center.

The Middle East conflict, now well into its third ​week, has thrown aviation into turmoil, with flights canceled or rerouted thousands of miles and most airspace over the Gulf still closed amid fears of missile and ​drone attacks.

Jet fuel prices have spiked, pushing up operating costs, with European prices doubling and Asian prices up almost 80% since US and Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February.

Air France-KLM and SAS have already said they will have to hike ticket prices due to the rising cost of jet fuel, while Finnair has warned of the risk of jet fuel supplies running out due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil transit route.

Christian Meisner, head of human resources at jet engine maker GE Aerospace, told Reuters the industry is forging ahead with investments in fuel-saving technology despite the uncertainty.

“As serious as things are in the world…. we do not see airlines stopping deliveries of new airplanes,” he said. “What (the crisis) might do is put a more acute focus on efficiency, meaning fuel burn,” he said in an interview.

WINNERS AND LOSERS?
US airlines such as Delta this week warned of higher ticket prices tied to fuel costs since many American carriers have not hedged their fuel costs. Spring travel demand, however, remains strong.

Europe’s leading airlines have largely hedged their jet fuel costs and will be shielded, at least for the next few months, from the price shock triggered by the war.

IATA projected in December that European airlines are set to be the most profitable around the world, surpassing North American airlines this year.

Analysts say European tourists are likely to travel closer to home to cut flight times and avoid flying long-haul over the Middle East. But the jury is out on whether the Gulf conflict will result in a post-war shift towards European carriers over the longer term, given the historic market power of Gulf hubs.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary has said the budget carrier is expecting more bookings to travel within Europe, while British Airways is adding more flights to destinations like the Caribbean that avoid flying over Middle Eastern airspace. — Reuters