Sculpture based on the poem The Gleaner of Sapri was unveiled by former PM Giuseppe Conte on Saturday
A statue depicting a scantily dressed woman from a 19th-century poem has sparked a sexism row in Italy.
The bronze statue, which portrays the woman in a transparent dress, was unveiled on Saturday during a ceremony attended by the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte in Sapri, in the southern Campania region.
Continue reading...Actor helped deliver food to people onboard NGO vessel that was refused entry to Italian port by then minister
Richard Gere has agreed to testify against Italy’s far-right former interior minister Matteo Salvini, who is standing trial for refusing to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019.
Prosecutors in Sicily have accused Salvini of dereliction of duty and kidnapping for blocking the NGO vessel Open Arms from docking in August 2019 as part of his closed-ports policy. Onboard were 147 people rescued in the Mediterranean. During the standoff, as the ship was anchored off the island of Lampedusa, some people threw themselves overboard in desperation.
Continue reading...Former Catalan leader free to travel but must attend extradition hearing on 4 October
The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who was detained in Sardinia on Thursday under an international arrest warrant issued by a Spanish court over his alleged role in the failed bid for regional independence, was released from custody on the Italian island late on Friday afternoon.
Puigdemont, now an MEP living in Belgium, could face extradition to Spain over his alleged involvement in the unilateral independence referendum and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence in October 2017.
Continue reading...A family of wild boar were filmed walking on the Via Trionfale in the northern suburbs of Rome. In recent years wild boar have been wreaking havoc in Rome, even causing fatal car crashes. The animal is believed to be responsible for an average of 10,000 road accidents a year in the country.
Six year-old Eitan Biran, who is at centre of custody battle, reportedly taken to Israel by grandfather
Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation after a six-year-old boy who was the only person to survive a cable car crash in Italy in May was taken by his grandfather to Israel, against the wishes of other members of his family amid a bitter custody battle.
Eitan Biran, whose parents and two-year-old brother died in the Stresa-Mottarone aerial tramway crash on 23 May, has been at the centre of a custody battle between relatives in Italy and Israel.
Continue reading...Nine more people injured, four seriously, after whirlwind rips off roofs and leaves cars upturned
Two people have been killed and nine injured after a tornado tore through the Italian island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean, leaving a path of destruction. The whirlwind ripped off roofs and flipped over at least six cars, with residents describing the scene as “apocalyptic”.
Four of the nine injured are in serious condition, according to the authorities. A hospital helicopter from nearby Lampedusa island was initially unable to reach the island to provide assistance because of the bad weather.
Continue reading...Analysis: experts say blocking right to apply for asylum is an infringement of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Gaspare, a fisher from Sciacca in Sicily, had rescued dozens of migrants attempting to reach Italy by boat from Libya when the Italian authorities threatened to arrest him and his crew for aiding illegal immigration.
“I wonder if even one of our politicians has ever heard the desperate cries for help at high sea in the black of night,” he said in 2019. “I wonder what they would have done. No human being – sailor or not – would have turned away.”
Continue reading...After building his own version of Middle-earth, Nicolas Gentile has thrown a ‘ring’ into Mount Vesuvius
Nicolas Gentile, a 37-year-old Italian pastry chef, did not just want to pretend to be a hobbit – he wanted to live like one. First, he bought a piece of land in the countryside of Bucchianico, near the town of Chieti in Abruzzo, where he and his wife started building their personal Shire from JRR Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth.
Then, on 27 August, alongside a group of friends and Lord of the Rings fans dressed as an elf, a dwarf, a hobbit, a sorcerer and humans, he walked more than 120 miles (200km) from Chieti to Naples, crossing mountains and rivers, to throw the “One Ring”, a central plot element of The Lord of the Rings saga, into the volcano crater of Mount Vesuvius.
Continue reading...Tobacco shop owner in Naples allegedly snatched customer’s card and sped off on his motor scooter
Border police at Rome’s main airport have prevented a Naples tobacco shop owner suspected of running off with a customer’s winning game ticket from boarding a flight to the Canary Islands, Italian news reports said.
The man did not have the filched card worth €500,000 (£429,000) on him, but he did have a plane ticket for Fuerteventura, the LaPresse news agency said on Sunday.
Continue reading...Double Booker prize winner tells La Repubblica she may take Irish citizenship to feel European again
Hilary Mantel has said she feels “ashamed” by the UK government’s treatment of migrants and asylum seekers and is intending to become an Irish citizen to “become a European again”.
In a wide-ranging interview with La Repubblica, the twice Booker prize-winning novelist also gave her view on the monarchy, told how endometriosis has “devastated my life”, and how Boris Johnson “should not be in public life”. She also addresses the criticism of JK Rowling and her stance on transgender rights.
Continue reading...Mario Draghi’s announcement sparks row in country where protests and violence from anti-vaxxers are on the rise
Italy’s prime minister has announced his government could make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory, sparking a row in the country that has seen a recent rise in protests and violence from anti-vaxxers.
During a press conference on Thursday, Mario Draghi said all Italians of eligible age could soon be obliged to get a shot, as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives its conditional approval for four vaccines.
Continue reading...An innovative community project has brightened buildings, ‘brought people together’ and provided an emotional outlet after traumatic journeys
Jadhav*, 18, from Bangladesh, arrived in Italy 10 months ago, but is still haunted by memories of his journey with people smugglers across the Mediterranean Sea.
“There were 156 people packed into a small boat. There were women and children,” says Jadhav in broken Italian and Bengali translated on a smartphone app. “Waves were coming over the side. People were weeping. There was no hope of survival.”
Continue reading...Five Star Movement’s Virginia Raggi accuses Lazio regional government of failing to tackle problem
Rome’s mayor has opened a criminal lawsuit against the surrounding Lazio regional government over “the massive and uncontrolled presence of wild boar in Italy’s capital”.
In recent years, Rome’s citizens and farmers have protested about wild boar wreaking havoc on their land and causing fatal car crashes. The animal is believed to be responsible for an average of 10,000 road accidents a year in the country.
Continue reading...Kabul evacuees at Sicilian air base of Sigonella worry about those left living under Taliban rule
As another 250 Afghan refugees evacuated from Kabul left the Sigonella airbase in Sicily bound for Philadelphia, Haifa, 30, watches the plane lift off the runway and disappear into the clouds.
With dozens of other compatriots, she waits in line for her turn for an afternoon departure, when another plane will bring hundreds of other Afghans to the other side of the ocean, far away from the Taliban. There are 3,000 Afghans at the base, known as the Hub of the Med and serving as a transit station complete with temporary lodgings, religious and recreational areas, for evacuees moving on to other locations.
Continue reading...Experts say combustible materials were used in 20-storey building that went up in flames with no loss of life
The mayor of Milan has compared a fire that ripped through a 20-storey residential building on Sunday to the Grenfell Tower blaze in London that killed 72 people four years ago.
The fire, which started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region, spread to the rest of the building owing to what experts described as the “chimney effect”, which turned the building into a torch.
Continue reading...Firefighters have battled a high-rise blaze in Milan that spread rapidly through a 20-storey residential building and poured black smoke into the air. Residents were evacuated and the city's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said there were no reports of injuries or deaths. He added that firefighters were kicking down doors, apartment by apartment, to make sure there were no residents left behind. The 60-metre (200ft) tall building, part of a recent development project, was designed to look like the keel of a ship and included an aluminium sail on its roof, which burned and fell to the street in pieces
Continue reading...Guardian journalists Lorenzo Tondo and Clare Longrigg discuss the largest mafia trial in three decades. At the centre is Emanuele Mancuso, son of boss Luni Mancuso, who has been revealing the clan’s secrets after accepting police protection
The Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo tells Rachel Humphreys about the trial against the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia syndicate who are Italy’s most powerful organised crime group. The trial has 900 witnesses testifying against more than 350 people, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the syndicate.
All eyes will be on Emanuele Mancuso, who has been revealing the clan’s secrets after accepting police protection. His testimony will be used against his uncle Luigi Mancuso, said to be the region’s most powerful mafia figure.
Continue reading...Analysis: Tuesday’s meeting called by Boris Johnson may include postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of crisis
The emergency meeting of G7 nations on Tuesday – called by Boris Johnson as this year’s chair of the G7 – is in essence a gathering of the vanquished but faces a threefold agenda: how to ensure as many Afghans as possible can leave Kabul, and whether the US is prepared to stay beyond the original 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces; how a resettlement programme can be coordinated for the medium term; and finally, how to encourage the Taliban to form an inclusive government, including by threatening sanctions or withholding recognition.
But each country will bring its own concerns and an ugly postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of the crisis cannot be ruled out.
Continue reading...Inscriptions by the body of Marcus Venerius Secundio proudly list his achievements after being liberated
The inscription on the gravestone proudly attests to how far Marcus Venerius Secundio, a former slave of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, went in life. In order of importance, he lists his achievements after being liberated. The first was his role as custodian of the Temple of Venus, built soon after the creation of Pompeii as a Roman colony.
He also joined the ranks of the Augustales, a college of priests who were in charge of a form of emperor worship. But perhaps the most telling indication of his eventual status was that he financed entertainment events in Greek and Latin.
Continue reading...Former slave who rose through the social ranks was interred at necropolis of Porta Sarno before AD79
The partially mummified remains, including hair and bones, of a former slave who rose through the social ranks have been found in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
The remains of Marcus Venerius Secundio were found in a tomb at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, which was one of the main entrance gates into the city. The tomb is believed to date back to the decades before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
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