Italy's biggest steelworks told to stop

THIS WEEK IN ITALY, 7 to 11 September.

EX ILVA. The Milan appeal court refused to suspend a July order shutting the hot area of the former Ilva plant in Taranto, in the south. That is where iron becomes steel, and where the pollution comes from. Where business and residents' health collide, the judges wrote, health prevails. The deadline is 28 October. The administrators have gone to the Court of Cassation, so this is not over.

THE ELECTORAL LAW. Since 2005 Italians vote for a party symbol; the party decides who takes the seat. On Thursday the Senate voted 97 to 67 for a partial return of preference voting: the first name on each list stays fixed, and a voter can add up to three below it. The opposition called it a climbdown; Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the left had voted the same measure down a month ago. The text returns to the lower house on 28 September.

WORK. Istat, the national statistics office, reported 63.1 percent of Italians aged 15 to 64 in work in the second quarter, the highest rate since the survey began. That is 24.36 million people, up 246,000 in a year. Permanent contracts and self employment grew, temporary contracts fell again. Unemployment rose to 5.6 percent and inactivity dropped to 33 percent.

SCHOOL. Invalsi, which runs the national school tests, estimates early school leaving at 7.3 percent for 2026, against 14.5 in 2018. The EU target for 2030 is 9 percent. Maths stays the weak point: 55 percent of final year students reach the basic level, against 62 percent in Italian.

ALSO: Emma Bonino died in Rome on Friday, at 78. Eighty eight prisoners under the hardest jail regime moved to Sardinia. The Marmolada glacier lost 23 metres. Italy's women took volleyball silver in Istanbul. A ceiling came down in Milan's bunker courtroom.