International news via Reuters:

Italy’s government tightened its citizenship laws on Friday, preventing people from delving deep back into their family history to try to claim a much sought-after Italian passport.

Under existing rules, anyone who can prove they had an Italian ancestor who was alive after March 17, 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was created, can seek citizenship.

However, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the system was being abused, with would-be Italians swamping consulates abroad for requests for passports, which provide visa-free entry to more countries than almost any other nationality.

As a result, in future only individuals with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy, a European Union member state, will automatically qualify for citizenship by descent.

“Being an Italian citizen is a serious thing. It’s not a game to get a passport that allows you to go shopping in Miami,” Tajani told a press conference.

The foreign ministry said there had been a surge in people abroad being granted citizenship, particularly in South America, where millions of Italians emigrated in the 19th and 20th centuries, often to escape grinding poverty back home.

Between 2014 and 2024, the number of Italians living abroad rose by 40%, from 4.6 million to 6.4 million, many registering thanks to their newfound nationality. In Argentina alone, citizenship recognitions jumped to 30,000 in 2024 from 20,000 in 2023, while Brazil saw a rise to 20,000 from 14,000.

Tajani said companies were making a fortune by helping people track down their long-forgotten ancestors and seek birth certificates needed for applications – clogging up municipal offices with their demands for documentation.

“We are striking down very hard against those who want to make money from the opportunity of becoming an Italian citizen,” Tajani said, adding that in future, nationality requests would be handled directly in Rome to free up overburdened consulates.

Italy has a population of around 59 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade. The foreign ministry has estimated that under the old rules, 60 to 80 million people worldwide were eligible for citizenship.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has previously suggested that Italy could overcome its demographic decline by seeking Christians of Italian ancestry from nations like Venezuela.

Critics of ancestry-based citizenship say it is grossly unfair, offering nationality to people who had no meaningful connection with Italy.

By contrast, the children of migrants born and raised in Italy who speak Italian fluently, have to wait until they are 18 before being able to apply for a passport.

Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Crispian Balmer; editing by Mark Heinrich

International news via Reuters:

A powerful earthquake centred in Myanmar rocked Southeast Asia on Friday, killing several people and causing extensive damage, with rescuers in Bangkok searching for 81 people in the rubble of a collapsed building.

At least three people were killed in the town of Taungoo in Myanmar when a mosque partially collapsed, witnesses said, while local media reported that at least two people died and 20 were injured after a hotel collapsed in Aung Ban.

In Thailand, the defence minister said rescuers were searching for 81 people trapped in the rubble of a skyscraper that was under construction and collapsed into a pile of rubble.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said there had been three deaths at the building site. He warned of possible aftershocks but urged people to be calm and said the situation was largely under control.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at lunchtime, was of 7.7 magnitude and at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The epicentre was about 17 km from the Myanmar city of Mandalay, which has a population of about 1.5 million.

The quake was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones.

“We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking,” a resident of Mandalay told Reuters. “I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings.”    

The quake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, Myanmar state media said.

Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, its arches leaning into the water.

The quake will further stretch Myanmar’s ruling military, which is fighting a civil war against an armed uprising. The junta declared a state of emergency in multiple regions but provided no specifics of damage or injuries.

“The state will make inquiries on the situation quickly and conduct rescue operations along with providing humanitarian aid,” it said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Red Cross said roads, bridges and buildings had been damaged in Myanmar, and there were concerns for the state of large dams.

Mandalay is Myanmar’s ancient royal capital and at the centre of the country’s Buddhist heartland.

Social media posts showed collapsed buildings and debris strewn across streets in the city. Reuters could not immediately verify the posts.

Local media outlet Myanmar Now posted images showing a clock tower had collapsed and part of the wall by Mandalay Palace was in ruins.A witness in the city, Htet Naing Oo, told Reuters that a tea shop had collapsed with several people trapped inside. “We couldn’t go in,” she said. “The situation is very bad.”

At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two eyewitnesses told Reuters.

“We were saying prayers when the shaking started… Three died on the spot,” said one of two people who spoke to Reuters.

Local media reported a hotel in Aung Ban, in Shan state, crumbled into rubble, with one outlet, the Democratic Voice of Burma, reporting two people had died and 20 were trapped.

The army-run MRTV reported that the quake toppled buildings, crushed cars and left massive fissures on roads across the capital, Naypyitaw.

Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher, Joe Freeman, said the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of displaced people, the existing need for relief aid and cuts by the Trump administration to U.S. aid that have affected humanitarian aid.

Freeman said restricted media access meant there might not be a clear picture of the extent of damage and loss for some time.

Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run the country, leaving the economy and basic services like healthcare in tatters.

An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has seized swathes of territory and driven the junta out of border areas, increasingly hemming it into the central lowlands.

The fighting has displaced more than three million people in Myanmar, with widespread food insecurity and over a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.

The country has also been hit by a number of natural disasters in recent years, including Typhoon Yagi last year and Cyclone Mocha in 2023, and the internationally isolated junta has struggled to respond adequately.

OFFICE TOWER SHAKES IN BANGKOK

In the Thai capital, people ran out onto the streets in panic, many of them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes, as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel, witnesses said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended all trading activities for the Friday afternoon session.

One office tower in downtown Bangkok swayed from side to side for at least two minutes, with doors and windows creaking loudly, witnesses said. 

“At first, I didn’t realise (it was an earthquake),” office worker on Varunyou Armarttayakul told Reuters.”But then I saw the table shaking, and the chair and computer started swaying, too. I only knew for sure when I heard the noise of the cracking walls and cracking glass. Part of the ceiling even collapsed — that’s when I had to run out.”China’s Xinhua news agency said strong tremors were felt in southwestern Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, but there were no reports of casualties.

Reporting by Bangkok Bureau, Shoon NaingWriting by Raju Gopalakrishnan and John MairEditing by Christian Schmollinger, Shri Navaratnam and Frances Kerry

International news via Reuters:

A group of embassies in Budapest, including European powers but not the United States, have expressed their concern in a joint statement over a law passed by Hungary’s ruling party that bans the Pride march by the LGBTQ+ community.

Hungary’s parliament passed a law proposed by ruling Fidesz party lawmakers last week to ban the Pride march on the grounds that it could be harmful to children. Critics say the law effectively restricts the freedom of assembly. The legislation has triggered protests.

The statement issued by 22 embassies including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, said: “We, the undersigned Embassies, are deeply concerned about the legislation…that results in restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression.”

The embassies cited the European Convention on Human Rights and said they were “committed to respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender indentity and sex characteristics.”

The United States was not listed among the signatories.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto dismissed the embassies’ statement when asked about it at a briefing.

“We are a sovereign state. We have never accepted, and will not accept in the future either, that anyone from outside should try to tell us how we should live here,” he said.

“The Hungarian parliament…will decide which laws it adopts and which it does not,” Szijjarto said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and who faces an unprecedented challenge from a new surging opposition party ahead of 2026 elections, has criticised the LGBTQ+ community and pledged to crack down on foreign funding of independent media and NGOs in Hungary in recent weeks as part of his campaign.

The law says police can use face recognition cameras to identify people who attend the event, and impose fines on participants.

Michael O’Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, an independent institution promoting human rights in Europe, has said he was “very concerned” about the new law.

Organisers said they planned to go ahead with this year’s Pride march – scheduled for June 28 – despite the ban.

Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Angus MacSwan