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Those who cannot afford breakfast, pop into their local bar to eat and drink - thanks to the bar owner, plus the kind soul who earlier purchased the sospeso, or "suspended coffee". The sospeso initiative is said to have started more than 200 years ago in Naples and is now spreading across Italy, where an eye-wateringly strong coffee and accompanying croissant are viewed as a basic human right of a morning. Italians, like many others in Europe, are feeling the pinch. Spiralling energy bills compound already existing economic difficulties - hangovers from Covid lockdown measures and the euro crisis. "Italians feel abandoned. Especially here in the south," Pino de Stasio told me. His family have owned Bar Settebello in downtown Naples for decades. ...

LONDON -- The United Kingdom and the world bade farewell to Queen Elizabeth II on Monday with a state funeral that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds in the streets of London and at Windsor Castle — to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age. In a country known for pomp and pageantry, the first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s was filled with spectacle: Before the service, a bell tolled 96 times — once a minute for each year of Elizabeth's life. Then, 142 Royal Navy sailors used ropes to draw the gun carriage carrying her flag-draped coffin to Westminster Abbey, where pallbearers carried it inside and about 2,000 people ranging from world leaders to health care workers gathered to mourn. The trappings of state and monarchy abounded: The ...

JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister on Monday vowed to begin production at a contested Mediterranean natural gas field “as soon as it is possible,” threatening to raise tensions with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group. Yair Lapid's announcement in a statement from his office came at a sensitive time in long-running efforts by a U.S. mediator to resolve a dispute over the countries' maritime border. U.S. officials have said they are making progress, but need more time to reach a solution. Lapid said it is “both possible and necessary” to reach an agreement with Lebanon, which he said would benefit both countries and “strengthen regional stability.” But he said that production from the Karish gas field is not connected to the negotiations and “will commence without delay, as soon as it i...

MEXICO CITY -- A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico's central Pacific coast on Monday, killing at least one person and setting off a seismic alarm in the rattled capital on the anniversary of two earlier devastating quakes. There were at least some early reports of damage to buildings from the quake, which hit at 1:05 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey, which had initially put the magnitude at 7.5. It said the quake was centered 37 kilometers (23 miles) southeast of Aquila near the boundary of Colima and Michoacan states and at a depth of 15.1 kilometers (9.4 miles). President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that the secretary of the navy told him one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima when a wall at a mall collapsed. In Coalcom...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Hurricane Fiona unleashed more rain on Puerto Rico on Monday, a day after the storm knocked out power and water to most of the island, and National Guard troops rescued hundreds of people who got stranded. The governor warned that it could take days to get the lights back on. The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the power grid in 2017. Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps. The storm stripped pavement from roads, tore off roofs and sent torrents pouring into homes. It also took out a bridge and flooded two airports. Authorities reported two deaths from the hurricane —Taos Sandals a Puerto Rican man ...

KYIV, Ukraine -- A Russian missile blasted a crater close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Monday, damaging nearby industrial equipment but not hitting its three reactors. Ukrainian authorities denounced the move as an act of “nuclear terrorism.” The missile struck within 300 meters (328 yards) of the reactors at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk in Mykolaiv province, leaving a hole 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) deep and 4 meters (13 feet) wide, according to Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom. The reactors were operating normally and no employees were injured, it said. But the proximity of the strike renewed fears that Russia's nearly 7-month-long war in Ukraine might produce a radiation disaster. This nuclear power station is Ukraine’s seco...