Good morning from the Today.it editorial team. Here’s Start, the news you need to know to start the day: it’s Monday 6 May 2024.
WHICH MORTGAGE IS BEST FOR YOU. The fixed rate will still be cheaper than the variable rate, and not by a little, even if the ECB cuts rates in June. Although the market is discounting an imminent cut in the cost of money, fixed installment solutions cost 125-150 basis points less. The Sun 24 Hours today he does the calculations and forecasts. The mortgage market is showing clear signs of revival, demand is increasing. “Today is an advantageous time to take out new mortgages or replace an existing mortgage: the Eurirs has returned to the minimum levels of the last 12 months and is unlikely to fall below 2.5% in the short term – the experts explain to the Confindustria newspaper – At the same time, the banking system needs to make loans and every day more competitive offers are offered to acquire new customers”.
THE GAZA PIER. While the negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a truce and the release of the hostages collapse, the “improvised pier” built by the United States off the coast of Gaza is about to be put into operation. The expensive project could help alleviate the humanitarian crisis. It will be guarded by around 1,000 armed US soldiers. The complex logistics chain will cost 300 million euros. The sea in Gaza is too shallow for aid ships departing from Cyprus to reach the coast directly. None of this would be necessary if Israel granted road access through the modern container port of Ashdod. Half an hour’s drive north of the Strip. In the past few hours, 16 people have died in two Israeli raids on homes in Rafah.
SUB MISSING. Hours of anguish for two expert divers missing in the sea of Sardinia. The searches for Stefano Bianchelli, 56 years old, and Mario Perniciano, 55 years old, will resume at dawn. No trace of the two, who disappeared in the stretch of sea of Villasimius between Isola dei Cavoli and Serpentara. The alarm went off in the early afternoon of Sunday. They had dived to reach the wreck of the San Marco, a steamship that sank after being bombed during the Second World War. The alarm was raised by the crew of the support boat who did not see the two return.
MATTEO FALCINELLI HOBBED. Perhaps it was his heart as a young athlete that saved him from death due to respiratory failure. The 25-year-old Italian student, Matteo Falcinelli, originally from Spoleto, was arrested in Miami, Florida, in a particularly violent manner last February. Hogtied for 13 minutes: now his story has become public, after the delivery of the images recorded by the police body cams. The Farnesina intervened, the Florida police opened an internal investigation. It needs to be established whether the four officers who arrested and then held the 25-year-old on the ground with his hands cuffed and his feet tied (hogtied) violated the rules. In his cell the boy had also attempted suicide.
DEAD ON THE ZIPLINE. Ghizlane Moutahir, a 41-year-old resident of Oliveto Lario (Lecco), died yesterday in Bema, in Valtellina, Lombardy, after falling from a zipline system, which is a cableway that allows you to slide on a rope from two very distant points linked with a harness. An adrenaline rush experienced by thousands of tourists every year, flying over the Bitto valley for a kilometer and a half up to 230 meters above the woods and reaching a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. There may have been a problem with the harness (which is double). There have been no fatal incidents in Italy on systems of this type in the past. Something went wrong in Bema yesterday.
I would also like to point out briefly:
LANDINGS IN LAMPEDUSAThe unfavorable weather window was the main cause of the weeks without arrivals in Lampedusa. It is no coincidence that in the last 48 hours several boats have arrived from Tunisia and Libya, with hundreds of people disembarking at the Favaloro pier.
UKRAINIAN ANGUISH. The European Chancelleries are following the developments of the Russian offensive in Donbass with deep concern. “The problem is simple. We have no weapons. We knew that April and May would be difficult”, explain the Ukrainian leaders. The town of Chasiv Yar may fall soon.
HOLY IT’S WORRY. The feeling is that no one in the government or in Fratelli d’Italia will spend much on her. Tourism Minister Santanchè at risk. Three days ago the prosecutors of the Milan prosecutor’s office signed the request for indictment for the alleged fraud against the INPS. The request for trial is expected this week for another line of investigation which also sees her under investigation for false accounting.
STOP PHOTOVOLTAIC. Among the 12 articles of the draft Agriculture decree today in the Council of Ministers, there is a stop to photovoltaic systems in agricultural areas. The mediation found by the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment should be this: panels installed on the ground that do not interfere with crops and those mounted on the roofs of stables and greenhouses are exempt from the ban.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT STRIKE. Today disruptions are coming to local transport in cities due to the 24-hour strike by rank-and-file unions. The protest is articulated at a territorial level, different methods from city to city, the guarantee bands will be safeguarded. In Rome regular buses and metro from the start of the service until 8.30am and from 5pm to 8pm. In Milan travel is guaranteed until 8.45am and from 3pm to 6pm.
SMARTPHONES AND CHILDREN. To combat addictions to screens, a commission of experts draws up a report at Macron’s request and asks the French government to ban access to screens for children under 3 years of age and the use of smartphones for under 11s. For social media accessible from smartphones, however, green light only from 15 years old.
DEAR COFFEE. The increases in raw materials affect coffee. The upward trend has now brought the average price of a cup at the bar to 1.20 euros, with the city already at 1.40 euros. Only Catanzaro remains under the euro per cup. The increases, according to the roasters, are only at the beginning and the 2 euros per cup are not a crazy prediction.
CHAMPIONS RACE. In the expected postponement of the 35th matchday, Roma and Juventus finished 1-1. Today Atalanta, away against Salernitana, could catch the Giallorossi in the Champions League zone.
AT THE CINEMA WITH 3.5 EUROS. From 9 June to 19 September you can enter the cinema to see Italian and European films for just 3.5 euros. This summer too, the “Cinema revolution” initiative promoted by the Ministry of Culture returns to many cinemas from north to south.
Have a nice day on Today.it.
