English banker Jonathan Bloomer and American lawyer Chris Morvillo reportedly confirmed as among bodies recovered by Italian rescuers
Reuters, citing a source, reports that one of the two bodies found by divers is a “heavily built man.”
Italian rescue divers have found two bodies inside the sunken luxury yacht, Reuters reported citing a source.
Continue reading...UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and daughter among those thought to have been trapped when storm hit off Sicily
Six people are now presumed dead after the super yacht they were onboard sank in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.
Divers tried in vain on Tuesday to gain access to the inside of the sunken 56-metre Bayesian luxury vessel, where rescue crews believe those missing may have been trapped.
Continue reading...Record sea temperatures in the Mediterranean contributed to waterspout that hit Bayesian
Record temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea this summer contributed to the freak storm that sank a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, with similar extreme events expected to increase in frequency and intensity as the climate crisis tightens its grip, Italian scientists have said.
One person is confirmed to have died and rescuers are searching for six missing people, including the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, after the 56-metre Bayesian capsized in the early hours of Monday.
Continue reading...What we know about four Britons and two Americans still unaccounted for after boat sank during storm
Fears are growing for six people who are missing after a superyacht, the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily when it was hit by a tornadic waterspout during a storm on Monday morning.
On Monday the body of one man, the yacht’s chef, was recovered from the water. There were 15 survivors. A rescue mission is under way to search for six others who remain unaccounted for. The four Britons and two Americans have all been named. Here is what we know about them.
Continue reading...Thomas was one of ten crew members onboard Bayesian yacht, says Italian coastguard, as passengers including tech tycoon Mike Lynch remain missing
Lorenzo Tondo reporting from Porticello
Fabio Cefalù, 36, a fisher from Porticello, was one of the first to attempt providing assistance to the Bayesian.
We went to see what had happened. We only saw the floating debris of the boat. We immediately called the Coast Guard.
The sea was terrible. The wind very strong. The storm destroyed my solar panels. The vessel was hit head-on. I thought I would find someone in the sea. But nothing. The boat had disappeared from the radar.
Continue reading...UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and daughter also among six unaccounted for after superyacht was hit by tornado and sank
Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer is among those missing after a yacht carrying UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, an Italian official has said.
Salvatore Cocina, head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, said Bloomer and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, were among the six people missing. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, were also unaccounted for as of late Monday.
Continue reading...Witnesses tell of ‘absurd tragedy’ and a mother describes how she fought to save her child from drowning
The 12 holidaying passengers had come from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, occupying six luxurious suites of Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyacht boasting the tallest aluminium mast in the world. Among the 10 crew members were people from Sri Lanka.
The award-winning, British-flagged vessel, which was built in 2008 by the Italian shipbuilder Perini and managed by Camper & Nicholsons, left the calm blue waters of the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August, sailing for a few days around the Aeolian Islands and off the historic coastal village of Cefalù.
Continue reading...One man dead and six people missing including Lynch and his daughter after superyacht carrying 22 sank in storm
The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre sailboat, was carrying 22 people and was anchored just off shore near the port of Porticello when it was hit by a tornado in the early hours, the Italian coastguard said in a statement.
Continue reading...Pest control expert says warmer winters help creatures such as oriental hornets, snakes and rats thrive in the city
A Rome zoologist says the Italian capital has become “a proper jungle” amid a surge in the presence of snakes, oriental hornets, seagulls and rats owing to a combination of high temperatures and the city’s persistent problem with rubbish.
Andrea Lunerti, who is well known in Rome for capturing dangerous animals, said he had been inundated with calls this summer, especially about snake sightings.
Continue reading...Biden wrote to then US ambassador to Rome on behalf of the energy firm while his father was vice-president
Hunter Biden lobbied the US government for help in securing a lucrative energy contract in Italy while his father Joe Biden was vice-president, newly released documents show.
A tranche of previously undisclosed documents now made public under a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) request reveals that the president’s son wrote to the then US ambassador to Rome, John Phillips, in 2016 seeking assistance on behalf of the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, of which he was a board member.
Continue reading...Defacing of Rome artwork celebrating Olympic champion Paola Egonu widely condemned across political spectrum
A mural celebrating the Italian Olympic volleyball champion Paola Egonu has become the target of “vulgar racism” after the athlete’s skin in the image was spray-painted pink.
The mural by the street artist Laika was defaced within a day of being unveiled on a wall close to the headquarters of the Italian Olympic committee (Coni) in Rome.
Continue reading...Spanish police make arrest after being notified that export licence had expired and work was found to be a copy
Spanish police have arrested a man whose alleged plan to sell a fake Leonardo da Vinci painting in Italy for €1.3m was thwarted when the work caught the eye of French customs officers.
Although the man had an export licence for the work, which was purported to be a Leonardo portrait of the Italian aristocrat and military commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the licence had expired, prompting customs officers at the Modane border post to contact Spanish police.
Continue reading...Some residents of wealthy Italian village reportedly passing on photos to police who are hunting illegal units
It is baking hot in Portofino, but the atmosphere has turned decidedly chilly among residents of the exclusive Italian coastal village since a crackdown was imposed on air-conditioning units.
With a year-round population of just 379, Portofino has emerged as Italy’s wealthiest municipality and is well known for being a magnet for the rich and famous.
Continue reading...Tourists face fines of €25-500 if they fail to comply with measures, which also ban the use of loudspeakers
Venice will limit the size of tourist parties to 25 people from Thursday in the latest attempt to reduce the impact of crowds on the lagoon city.
Local authorities will also ban the use of loudspeakers by tourist guides in measures aimed at “protecting the peace of residents” and ensuring pedestrians can move around more freely.
Continue reading...Highway that consolidated Roman empire joins modernist Romanian sculptures as latest sites added to list
Italy’s Via Appia Antica, or Appian Way, the earliest and most important road built by the ancient Romans, has been named a Unesco world heritage site, making Italy the country with the world’s highest number of locations on the coveted list.
Known as the Regina Viarum, or Queen of Roads, it connected Rome with the port of Brindisi in the south and marked a revolution in the construction of roads.
Continue reading...About 1,000 holidaymakers forced to leave Baia di Campi, near Vieste on Gargano peninsula in southern Italy
About 1,000 tourists have been evacuated from a camping village in the southern Italian region of Puglia after a vast wildfire broke out in an area of forest close to the complex.
The fire started early on Wednesday morning around the bay of San Felice, a wooded-coastal area near the town of Vieste in Gargano, a peninsula in the northern part of Puglia.
Continue reading...EU officials ask Giorgia Meloni to guarantee independence and funding of public broadcaster amid growing worries
The European Commission has raised the alarm about the independence of Italy’s public service media and Rome’s failure to reform the country’s strict defamation law, which is widely seen as silencing government critics.
In a report issued on Wednesday EU officials identified “persisting challenges related to the effectiveness of [the] governance and funding” of Italy’s public service media, urging Giorgia Meloni’s government to guarantee both its independence and its funding.
Continue reading...Dani says his £26,000 salary is not high enough to sponsor his wife so she can join him in Britain
A police officer working in Manchester says he has been forced to quit his job after Rishi Sunak raised the salary threshold to sponsor his Italian wife to live in the UK in the post-Brexit immigration scheme.
Campaigners have warned that his tale of Brexit anguish is being repeated up and down the country in low-paid public sectors where many EU citizens work.
Continue reading...Tourists and residents swelter in heat as temperatures rise to 44C in Spain, with forest fires in Greece and Croatia
A fierce heatwave is continuing to roll across southern and central Europe, bringing temperatures of up to 44C (111.2F) to parts of Spain, sparking forest fires in Greece and Croatia, and prompting governments to urge people to take special care as the mercury rises.
In Spain, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, said temperatures on Friday could hit 40C across large parts of the country – and even 44C in areas of Andalucía – as the first heatwave of the summer hit. Aemet said the high temperatures, caused by a mass of “very hot, dry and dusty air” from North Africa, were expected to last until Saturday.
Continue reading...Six people dead, thousands evacuated and transport disrupted after at least 20 floods in major rivers
China has been experiencing heavy and widespread rainfall since the start of the rainy season, which runs from May to September. It has resulted in at least 20 floods in major rivers across the country, with 31 rivers surpassing their flood warning levels.
Dianjiang county, in Chongqing, received 269.2mm in one day last week, a single-day record there. It led to six deaths, more than 10,000 evacuations, and 40,000 people being affected, as well as severe disruptions to rail services and transport caused by flooding.
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