Our daily journey around the world

🇮🇹 The most-wanted Mafia boss in Italy was arrested yesterday after 30 years on the run. Matteo Messina Denaro, an alleged boss of the Sicilian Mafia (aka Cosa Nostra), was in a private Sicilian hospital receiving treatment for cancer, when 100+ members of Italy’s armed forces stormed the building and took him to an undisclosed location. Despite evading arrest since 1993, the 60-year-old Messina Denaro was tried and sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 2002 for more than a dozen murders, including two Italian anti-Mafia prosecutors. He received another life sentence in 2012 for his role in the torture and murder of the 12-year-old son of a former mafia informant, and is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 50 people.

🇬🇧 The UK government vetoed a Scottish bill aimed at making it easier for people to legally change their gender. Under Scotland’s new draft law, people aged 16+ could apply to have the gender with which they identify legally recognized – and be issued a new name/birth certificate – without being diagnosed with gender dysphoria. This recognition would come with a legally binding declaration that they are already living in their “acquired gender,” and intend to do so permanently. UK officials said the new law would conflict with gender-equality protections across Great Britain due to the creation of “two separate gender recognition schemes.” It marks the first time the UK government has ever vetoed a Scottish law, per Bloomberg.

🇲🇽 Mexico’s former top security official will stand trial in the US today on charges of accepting cartel bribes. Genaro García Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019, and charged with accepting multi-million dollar bribes from the Sinaloa cartel for over a decade in exchange for allowing it to operate with impunity – all while he was supposedly leading Mexico’s anti-drug efforts. Luna faces up to life in prison if convicted, in a trial that could also implicate other officials on both sides of the US-Mexico border.