guardian news Italy looks set for fresh elections as it enters third month without government

[umbertino]

China's Xi arrives in Rome

Gov't set to sign Silk Road memorandum during visit

 

Redazione ANSA Beijing

21 March 201919:16 News

 

 

 

Xi and wife

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA/AP

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/21/chinas-xi-arrives-in-rome_fc0ec26d-bf23-45c4-8e01-f3bf4875d708.html

 

[umbertino]

Italy pulls out red carpet for Xi Jinping in trade charm offensive

 

Bocelli to sing for China’s president as Italy becomes first G7 nation to back ‘Silk Road’ plan

 

 

Angela Giuffrida in Rome

Fri 22 Mar 2019 15.31 GMT

 

 

 

Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who is in Rome on a two-day visit

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/22/italy-pulls-out-red-carpet-for-xi-jinping-in-trade-charm-offensive

[umbertino]

What can Italy teach the rest of the world about health?

 

Italy's healthcare system isn't perfect, but the people who live here are some of the healthiest in the world. Other countries can learn a lot from its example, writes Susan Levenstein, an American doctor in Rome

 

 

22 March 2019

17:25 CET+01:00

 

 

 

                                                                            US                UK                 Italy

Yearly health spending per capita                      €8,755          €3,381           €3,002
Life expectancy at birth                                       78.6 years    80.8 years     84.5 years
Overall health, global rank                                     35                 19                  2

 

As the old joke goes, European heaven is where the policemen are English, the cooks French, the bankers Swiss, the post office German, and the lovers Italian. European hell is where the policemen are German, the cooks English, the bankers French, the post office Italian, and the lovers Swiss.

 

My version as an American physician practicing in Italy: health heaven is where the funding, hospitals, and doctors’ education are American, the lifestyle and access to care Italian.

 

Health hell? Italian budgets, medical education, and intensive care units; American prices, insurance coverage, Big Mac diets, drunk driving, and street-corner opiates.

 

With the future of American healthcare under fierce debate, it’s time to contemplate what can be learned from the Italian experience.

 

The Italian healthcare landscape includes crumbling hospitals, doctors trained on books rather than patients, and per capita spending one-third that of the United States. And Americans like to say their medical care is the best in the world, while Italians consider their National Health Service to be hopelessly dysfunctional. (In 2000 the World Health Organization ranked the Italian system second-best on the planet. But that stellar rating was based solely on equality of access on the one hand and health outcomes such as life expectancy on the other, ignoring any on-the-ground realities in between: waiting times, emergency room efficiency, surgical statistics, etc.)

 

But here’s the rub: Italians are much healthier than Americans in terms of everything from overall health longevity, infant mortality, obesity, cancer, diabetes, suicide, drug overdoses, homicides, and disability rates. On many of those measures, they beat out the UK as well.

How on earth do they do it?

 

First of all, universal access to medical care. During the year before the Affordable Care Act kicked in, one in six non-elderly American adults had no medical insurance at all, and a giddying 44 percent of all Americans were uninsured or underinsured at some point. Many year-abroad college students coming to Italy used to get coverage for the first time in their lives – I remember performing a first Pap smear on a 35-year-old woman who had been sexually active since age 15.

 

Even in late 2016, the peak of Obamacare’s success, 10.9 percent of Americans had no insurance at all, and that rate has since risen to 13.7 percent under the Trump administration. In Italy, a National Health System funded by taxes and based on the British model succeeds in providing everybody with doctors’ visits, medications, testing, and hospital care at virtually no out-of-pocket cost.

 

Even if you venture outside the National Health Service to private doctors and hospitals, Italian healthcare is far less expensive. In the US the big players can charge whatever they want, so there are emergency rooms that demand the equivalent of €1,770 just to walk in the door and drug companies that charge €780 for two pills to rid your child of pinworms.

 

In Italy prices are kept down by hard bargaining – emergency room care is free for serious cases, those deworming pills cost one euro total, and even the classiest private hospital is unlikely to run more than €500 a night. Italians, who rarely toss in more than a co-pay of a few euros, have been shown to be 60 percent more likely than Americans to take their medications as ordered

 

Italians’ health also benefits from a more uniform distribution of income and wealth, which has repeatedly been shown to improve health outcomes. In the US, the world’s most unequal country, the average income of the top 10 percent is 19 times the average income in the bottom 10 percent; in Italy that ratio is only 11 to one, with the UK halfway in between.

 

And Italian labour laws ensure that new parents can take time off to bond with their children without losing their job, sick people don’t have to drag themselves back to work prematurely, and retirement doesn’t equal poverty.

 

The salubrious Italian lifestyle does the rest. Even educated, insured, well-off Americans are sicker than their peers in other rich nations. The local version of the Mediterranean diet may be the healthiest in the world – rich in fruits and vegetables, low in animal fats. And it’s low on snacks and desserts as well, so only 10 percent of Italians are obese, compared with 27 percent of Brits and a whopping 38 percent of Americans.

 

Their glass or two a day of wine is good for the heart, while they avoid alcoholism and hard drugs. They may love zipping around in their cars, but they’re still close enough to their peasant roots to consider walking the default way of getting from one place to another.

 

Close-knit families provide a buffer against both social isolation and penury. Okay, too many Italians still smoke (22 percent of adults, versus 15 percent in the US and 20 percent in the UK), but nobody’s perfect.

 

So how can we become as healthy as Italians?

 

First of all: learn to live all’italiana. Copy their renowned diet, slim down, drink alcohol regularly but in moderation, use your feet instead of your car, stop packing pistols, lose the opiates, the coke, and the crystal meth. 

 

Secondly: reduce income inequality. The most effective means for Americans to reduce mortality would arguably be to give stipends to the poor, shrink the gap between high and low incomes, raise pensions and minimum wages so they’re high enough to live on, and fix the tax structure to favour the 99 percent. And why not redistribute lifestyle too? Give working stiffs the same freedom to have kids (maternity leave), convalesce (sick leave), and relax (proper vacations) as the rich.

 

Thirdly: make sure everyone has access to affordable healthcare.

 

In practice there’s limited hope for Italian lessons one and two – the United States and the UK are not about to revolutionize their economic structure in the near future, and they have been taking only baby steps to improve their lifestyle.

 

But lesson number three, learned long ago by every developed country except the US, is feasible, and soon. America can, like Italy and the UK, provide universal access to treatment and medications, with minimal point-of-service payments and with prices kept down by government negotiation. Financial arrangements could be single-payer like Medicare or use private insurance companies as intermediaries as in Switzerland, without needing to copy the full Italian model of doctors on government salaries.

 

Americans will no longer stand for leaving vast numbers of the population uninsured, or denying medical coverage to people whose only sin is to be sick. A solid majority now tell pollsters it’s government’s job to ensure everyone is covered. The healthcare genie can’t be put back in the bottle, and the Italian experience can help us tame it.

 

Susan Levenstein is an American doctor who has been practicing in Italy for the past 40 years. A version of this essay will appear as a chapter in her forthcoming book, Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome (Paul Dry Books, 2019).

 

Find out more on her blog, Stethoscope on Rome, and follow her on Twitter @slevenstein.

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190322/what-can-italy-teach-the-rest-of-the-world-about-health

[coorslite21]

Looks like Italy has snubbed the EU and US by agreeing to a $2.5 billion trade deal with China......frankly good for them.....it's not like the status quo has been working for them.......perhaps tomorrow look for May to step down/be removed......(brexit)......the future for the EU is toast....!

 

 

CL

[umbertino]

3 hours ago, coorslite21 said:

Looks like Italy has snubbed the EU and US by agreeing to a $2.5 billion trade deal with China......frankly good for them.....it's not like the status quo has been working for them.......perhaps tomorrow look for May to step down/be removed......(brexit)......the future for the EU is toast....!

 

 

CL

 

 

Exactly CL...Here people have mixed feelings about that, to be sincere....We'll see.....

[umbertino]

Brussels warns of new row brewing over Italy finances

 

The EU warned Sunday of a new row brewing with Italy over its budget, barely a few months after both sides agreed on a hard-fought deal with Rome's disputed 2019 finances

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

24 March 2019

12:15 CET+01:00

 

 

"I'm really worried. In no other EU member state has the economy cooled so dramatically. Already in our winter forecast, we had expected Italy to post growth of only 0.2 percent (in 2019)," said European Commission Vice President Vladis Dombrovskis.

 

"It shows clearly that the direction taken by the government in Rome is damaging for the economy. The interest rates have risen, instability also," he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper, noting that investor confidence has failed to improve in the country.

 

The commission will take stock of the situation in June and discuss next steps.

 

Italy's public debt is a big problem and now sits at 2.3 trillion euros, or 131 percent of Italy's GDP -- way above the 60 percent EU ceiling.

 

After a bitter row, Italy's populist coalition government committed to not adding to its colossal debt load this year.

 

But Rome's projection for its 2019 budget was based on growth of 1.0 percent of GDP, which international organisations now view as too optimistic.

 

The International Monetary Fund sees growth reaching only 0.6 percent, while the European Commission's forecast is far more pessimistic, at just 0.2 percent.

 

"Rome's growth forecasts are too optimistic," warned Dombrovskis.

 

"It doesn't make things easier that the spending programme decided by the government for 2019 will be pushed back and hit the budget in the coming year.

 

"We see the situation as problematic and expect difficult discussions" with Rome, he added.

 

The Italian economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2018 because of a slowdown in exports, plunging the eurozone's third-largest economy into recession and increasing the government's budgetary problems.

 

Despite the difficulties, he believes it is still possible to find an accord with Rome.

 

"We have also had difficult discussions with the previous governments but at the end, they managed to find solutions to limit their debt.

 

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190324/brussels-warns-of-new-row-brewing-over-italy-finances

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call for EU veto as Germany eyes Italy's China deal warily

 

Italy's participation in China's giant "Silk Road" infrastructure project sparked an outcry in Germany on Sunday, including a call for the European Union to block such deals with a veto

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.de
@thelocalgermany

24 March 2019

17:35 CET+01:00

 

 

 

"The expansion of transport links between Europe and Asia is in itself a good thing -- as long as the autonomy and sovereignty of Europe is not endangered," the EU's budget

commissioner, Günther Oettinger, told the Funke newspaper group.

 

But the German commissioner said he viewed "with concern that in Italy and other European countries, infrastructure of strategic importance like power networks, rapid rail lines or harbours are no longer in European but in Chinese hands."

 

"Europe urgently needs a China strategy, that lives up to its name," he added.

 

Noting that EU member states were sometimes not adequately taking into account national and European interests, Oettinger suggested that "an European veto right, or a requirement of European consent -- exercised by the Commission -- could be worth considering."

 

Oettinger's call came after German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had sharp words for Rome over its deal with Beijing.

 

"In a world with giants like China, Russia or our partners in the United States, we can only survive if we are united as the EU," Maas told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

 

"And if some countries believe that they can do clever business with the Chinese, then they will be surprised when they wake up and find themselves dependant.

 

"China is not a liberal democracy," he stressed.

 

Europe has been struggling to find a coherent strategy to deal with China.

 

While the continent desperately needs to keep China on its side as a trade ally, it is also wary of the Chinese state's ambitions and growing global clout.

 

Italy on Saturday became the first G7 country to sign up for Beijing's new "Silk Road" project of road, rail and sea transport and trade links stretching from Asia to Europe.

 

The project has raised eyebrows in Washington and in some EU capitals where critics say it will give China too much sway.

 

China's President Xi Jinping has said it would be a two-way street of investment and trade.

Following his visit to Italy, Xi stopped in Monaco on the French Riviera Sunday before meeting later in the evening with France's Emmanuel Macron.

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190324/call-for-eu-veto-as-germany-eyes-italys-china-deal-warily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Italy bus hijacker says he 'heard voices' of drowned migrant children

 

The driver of a school bus who torched the vehicle to protest Mediterranean migrant deaths claimed on Friday he acted after hearing the voices of drowned children urging him on, media reports said

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

23 March 2019

09:57 CET+01:00

 

 

 

Insisting again that he did not want to hurt anyone, Ousseynou Sy, a 47-year-old of Senegalese origin, reportedly told investigators: "I heard the voices of the children in the sea who were telling me 'do something spectacular for us without hurting the children'."

 

Earlier Friday other reports quoted Sy as saying he planned to use his young passengers as human shields and escape to Africa.

 

"I wanted to get to the runway at (Milan's) Linate airport using the children as human shields and from there head to Africa by plane," Corriere della Sera daily quoted Sy as telling investigators.

 

Sy on Wednesday hijacked a bus while taking 12-13 year-olds from a gym to school in Crema, east of Milan.

 

Armed with two petrol canisters and a cigarette lighter, he threatened the youngsters, took their telephones and told the adults to tie them up with electric cable.

 

Their 40-minute ordeal ended when police managed to smash windows open and get those onboard out just as Sy set fire to the vehicle.

 

He now faces having his Italian citizenship, obtained through marriage in 2004, revoked.

According to the Corriere della Sera, Sy has told investigators he hates white people for having "invaded and colonised" Africa, forcing Africans to emigrate and "die in the Mediterranean".

 

Alberto Nobili, head of Milan's counter terrorism police, said Sy had posted a video on Youtube with the message: "Africa, rise up."

 

Media reports quoted him as saying he had no regrets as "it was something I had to do and would do again, 100 times. Why did I do it? To send a signal to Africa".

 

He reportedly told investigators that Italy's impounding Tuesday of migrant rescue ship "Mare Jonio" off the Italian island of Lampedusa with 48 people aboard had been a tipping point for him.

 

Quoting three students on the bus, Messagero daily reported Sy had first attempted a hijack on Monday, two days earlier.

 

"He tried to change the route but a teacher intervened and said 'what are you doing? Stick to the right route'."

 

That day, the trio said, Sy appeared very nervous, shouting insults at one child.

 

The government, in the shape of deputy prime minister, Luigi di Maio, and far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, say Rome could now revoke Sy's passport.

 

The debate has become increasingly heated in a country where Salvini's tough anti-immigration stance is popular with conservatives.

 

In February last year, Italy was similarly rocked when far-right militant Luca Traini fired on a dozen African migrants in the central town of Macerata, injuring six. The attack was an apparent response to the killing of a young Italian woman, allegedly by a Nigerian drug dealer.

 

The alleged perpetrator of last week's Christchurch massacre in New Zealand had scrawled Traini's name on one of his weapons.

 

Anti-mafia state prosecutor Cafiero de Raho warned La Stampa daily the time had come to "tone down" the rhetoric, citing the danger of people further feeding on existing extremism and racial hatred.

 

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190323/italy-bus-hijacker-says-he-heard-voices-of-drowned-migrant-children

[umbertino]

Battisti has admitted to four murders - prosecutors

First time ex-terrorist admits to crimes he was convicted of

 

Redazione ANSA Milan

25 March 201913:38 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/25/battisti-has-admitted-to-four-murders-prosecutors_31223761-e7a1-4e74-9fe2-b9c350c711fc.html

[umbertino]

More local election success for Italy's right wing in Basilicata

 

A candidate from Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, supported by the League as part of a right wing bloc, won local elections in Italy's Basilicata region

 

 

AFP/The Local

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

25 March 2019

10:21 CET+01:00

 

 

A right-wing alliance including Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party won local elections in the Basilicata region on Monday, ending 24 years of centre-left power in a poll seen as the last “test” of the League’s popularity before upcoming European elections.

 

Retired financial police general Vito Bardi, from former premier Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia party, took victory with most votes after Sunday's election in the southern region, which is located on the instep of Italy's "boot".

 

New regional president Bardi's list won 42 percent of votes, according to provisional results, while the centre-left list took 33 percent.

 

Forza Italia's candidate was backed by right-wing parties including the anti-immigrant League as part of a list.

 

"Basilicata is ready for change. I will call Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni to have a big party," Bardi told local media.

 

A triumphant Salvini tweeted that the League had tripled its vote in a year, after similar local electoral successes for the right-wing bloc in Abruzzo and Sardinia recently.

 

“And now we’ll change Europe,” he wrote.

GRAZIE!
La Lega in un anno triplica i voti, vittoria anche in #Basilicata!
7 a 0, saluti alla sinistra e ora si cambia l’Europa.#elezionibasilicata pic.twitter.com/6EC8tgnWXR

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) March 25, 2019

 

The League is in a national government coalition with the populist Five Star Movement, which won nearly 21 percent in Sunday's vote, half what it won in at elections at the national level last year.

 

Disappointed voters punished M5S after the party failed to fulfil campaign promises to take a hard line against the oil industry in the region, local media reported. Basilicata is home to the Val'd Agri field, which pumps 85,000 barrels per day in the largely agricultural area.

 

The League has been riding high in the polls since last year's national elections and is eyeing greater success at the European parliament elections in May.

 

Political analysts said the League “will be able to deploy its anti-EU rhetoric to full effect and lock-in its recent gains in support” at the European elections.

 

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190325/more-local-election-success-for-italys-right-wing-in-basilicata

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kiwigate: Police uncover massive Italian fruit fraud

 

'Inferior' Italian kiwi fruit were 'Frenchified' and sold for higher prices in a long-running scam uncovered by French police

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

25 March 2019

16:32 CET+01:00

 

 

French authorities said Monday that they had dismantled a long-running scam to label and sell Italian kiwis as pricier French fruit.

"Kiwis imported from Italy were 'Frenchified' during transport so that they could be sold at a higher price," Virginie Beaumeunier of the country's DGCCRF anti-fraud agency said at a press conference.

The fraud involved some 15,000 tonnes of kiwis over a three-year period, and the agency said seven companies were facing charges after making a combined six million euros in illicit profits.

French and Italian media quickly labelled the scam 'Kiwigate', with French growers saying Italian production costs are lower and Italian kiwis are treated with pesticides banned in France.

"Unlike the Italians, we don't use anti-spoiling fungicides after harvesting which conserve them for several months, so we have higher losses in cold-storage rooms, which increases our production costs," said Francois Lafitte, president of the French kiwi growers' association.

The estimated 1,100 growers in France, mainly in the southwest, produce around 55,000 tonnes a year, not enough to meet the country's annual consumption of 80,000 tonnes.

As a result imports pour in from neighbouring Italy, the world's biggest producer of the fruit, as well as from New Zealand or Chile in the off-season.

Italy itself suffers huge economic losses every year due to foreign produce, from cheese to sparkling wine, being falsely labelled and sold abroad as “Made in Italy.”

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190325/kiwigate-french-police-uncover-massive-italian-kiwi-fruit-fraud

[umbertino]

Cesare Battisti admits murdering four people in Italy in 1970s

 

Former guerrilla fighter had previously denied any responsibility for the deaths

 

 

Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo

Mon 25 Mar 2019 18.04 GMT

 

 

Battisti was extradited to Rome from Bolivia in January

Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/25/cesare-battisti-admits-to-murdering-four-people-in-italy-in-1970s

 

[umbertino]

Bus-boy hero deserves Italian citizenship, he's like my son - Salvini

'Laws can be overcome for acts of skill or bravery'

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

26 March 201914:47 News

 

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/26/citizenship-for-bus-boy-hero-like-my-son-salvini_3ec43316-d8b0-49c2-b444-4c482f4cb6fd.html

 

 

Good

 

 

[umbertino]

 

Here we go again.....

 

Migrants hijack merchant ship - Salvini

Was heading to Libya, now going north, 'they won't land here'

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

27 March 201917:41 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/27/migrants-hijack-merchant-ship-salvini_a6695b32-f59b-4485-aab5-b89f213e7f23.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gov't will last till end of its term,Di Maio tells NY investors

Industry minister explains Phase Two of govt action on growth

 

Redazione ANSA New York

27 March 201915:54 News

 

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/27/govt-will-last-full-mandatedi-maio-tells-ny-investors_3dfa2ef9-7276-464c-98e9-f81ba6ef3ef6.html

 

 

No way it will........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kidnapping charges in SeaWatch standoff - prosecutors

Rome sends Siracusa file 'agst person or persons unknown'

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

27 March 201917:05 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/27/kidnapping-charges-in-seawatch-standoff-prosecutors_5ea43d0c-bf51-4fec-8b6e-b3323e6e2392.html

 

[umbertino]

Immigrant children on hijacked school bus to get Italian citizenship

 

Foreign children on the school bus hijacked near Milan last week are to be awarded Italian nationality, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday after a week-long debate

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

27 March 2019

17:29 CET+01:00

 

 

 

The dramatic police rescue of 51 children on a bus hijacked by their Italian driver of Senegalese origin on March 20th has gripped Italy and rekindled debate about its citizenship laws.

 

"If there are children who are not Italian citizens, we have studied this question and we will complete the process so that they can become Italian," Salvini said after meeting five of the children and some of the police who saved them in Rome.

 

Salvini, the head of the anti-immigration League party, stressed that Italian nationality would be awarded "without any variation in the law, since the law exists and works, we do not change it".

 

Children of foreign parents who are born in Italy can only apply for citizenship when they reach 18.

 

It is not known how many of the children are concerned, but 14-year-old Ramy, born in Italy to Egyptian parents, and 13-year-old Moroccan Adam played key roles by calling police during the hijacking.

 

The driver doused the bus in petrol and said he would set it alight, taking what he thought was everyone's mobile phone and heading for Milan airport in what he said was a protest against Salvini's tough anti-migrant policies.

 

As some Italians and Ramy suggested changes to the citizenship law, Salvini had earlier told the boy: "Get elected and then you can make the law."

 

Salvini insisted that he himself had decided to give the children nationality, after his coalition partner from the Five Star Movement Luigi Di Maio said he had changed Salvini's mind.

 

Salvini said that Ramy was "like my son".

 

He also paid homage to a 13-year-old Italian boy who offered himself as a hostage while his friends were "in panic, crying and praying."

 

"He is a young Italian so I can't even give him double-Italian nationality," Salvini said. "As a father myself, I said to him, 'Are you crazy?' And he told me: 'It was the right thing to do'. At 13... Hats off." 

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190327/immigrant-children-on-hijacked-school-bus-to-get-italian-citizenship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Italy's Salvini calls for chemical castration for alleged rapists of American au pair

 

Italy's interior minister called for rape to be punishable by chemical castration after an American teenager said she was gang-raped by three men in Sicily

 

 

Jessica Phelan

jessica.phelan@thelocal.com

27 March 2019

16:29 CET+01:00

 

 

 

"No leniency for the molesting worms who raped a tourist," Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted on Wednesday. "Guaranteed jail time and chemical castration!"

Per i vermi violentatori di #Catania che hanno stuprato una turista nessuno sconto: certezza della pena e castrazione chimica!https://t.co/pVoFbpBz6V

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) March 27, 2019

 

The case concerns three Sicilian men who are accused of gang-raping an 19-year-old American woman in the city of Catania earlier this month. The suspects, reported to be aged between 19 and 20, were arrested last week having been identified from videos filmed throughout the evening on the group's phones.

 

According to the alleged victim, who had been working as an au pair for a local family for three months, she met the men in a bar on the evening of March 15th and, on the pretext of going to another bar together, they forced her into a car and drove to a remote area where they took turns to assault her.

 

Phone records published in the Italian press show that the woman repeatedly attempted to call the emergency number 112 and even 911, the US equivalent, during the almost two hours she says she was in the car, but the men allegedly cut off her calls. Fragments of the attack were reportedly recorded in WhatsApp voice messages that she sent to try to alert a friend, in which TGCOM24 reports that she can be heard to say "Help, help, I'm in a car" and "No, enough, I don't want to, I don't want to".

 

The men themselves filmed the attack on their phones, according to the woman, who says that one of them contacted her on social media the following day to ask if she wanted to go out again.

 

She reported the attack to the Italian police later that day and has since returned to the United States, reported Repubblica. 

 

Lawyers for the suspects complain that their clients, who have been named in the Italian press alongside pictures taken from their Facebook profiles, are being unfairly tried in the media. Maria Luisa Ferrari, a lawyer for one of the three suspects, told Repubblica that "a picture is emerging of 19-year-old boys who wanted to have fun and who lost control".

 

That defence is unlikely to win sympathy from those who say Italy regularly fails to deliver justice for violence against women.

 

Outcry over a series of recent rulings, including one court's decision to clear two men of rape because the woman was judged "too masculine" to be sexually attractive and another judge's leniency towards a man who murdered his wife on the grounds that she "humiliated" him by having an affair, last week prompted the government to propose tougher sentences for attacks on women and children.

 

Italian police were criticized for their handling of another high-profile rape case in 2017 involving two Americans in Florence, who reported being raped by on-duty carabinieri officers. Lawyers for the accused tried to paint the women as heavy-drinking and promiscuous, asking them questions such as "Were you wearing underwear that night?" and "Do you find men in uniform sexy?" 

 

One man was sentenced to four years and eight months for the attack, while the other is due to go on trial in May. 

 

In Catania, mayor Salvo Pogliese said the American victim had "the deepest solidarity of the local community, which strongly condemns an extremely serious act that has hurt not only her dignity but Catania's reputation".

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190327/italy-sicily-catania-gang-rape-american-au-pair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EU suspends migrant rescue patrols in Med after opposition from Italy

 

The EU said on Wednesday it will suspend ship patrols that have rescued tens of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean and brought them to Italy, amid deep resistance by populist-led Rome

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

27 March 2019

17:11 CET+01:00

 

 

 

The rescues were part of the EU's Operation Sophia, which diplomats have decided to extend by six months beyond its March 31st expiry date but without new ship deployments, the bloc announced. Instead, the operation will rely on air missions and close coordination with Libya, despite the political chaos that has scarred the country since 2011.

 

"Member states have decided to extend the mandate of Operation Sophia for six months with a temporary suspension of its naval assets while member states continue working on a solution related to disembarkation," said EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic.

 

However, Sophia "is a maritime operation and it is clear that without naval resources, it will not be able to carry out its mandate effectively," she added.

 

Since its launch in 2015, after a series of tragic shipwrecks, the mission has claimed the arrest of some 150 traffickers, and rescued 45,000 people.

 

But the election of a populist government in Rome last year changed the fate of the mission, with authorities taking a much harsher stance towards rescued migrants heading for Italian shores. Italy's anger effectively put an end to rescue operations through Sophia a year ago, even as the EU credited the mission with having stopped smugglers taking migrants on dangerous sea crossings.

 

Sources told AFP the decision split the EU's 28 member states, with several countries wondering whether Sophia -- now a naval mission without a navy -- should be halted.

 

'Damage control'

 

Efforts to reform Operation Sophia in the long term have beached on the broader question of how to reform the EU's so-called Dublin asylum rules, which stipulate that the country of first arrival must process asylum seekers.

 

Under the stewardship of nationalist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Rome has insisted it should not have to carry the burden of dealing with migrants rescued at sea. The stance has seen Salvini gain in popularity ahead of EU elections set for May.

 

"Rationality went out of the window a long time ago," an EU diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. "This is damage control in the hope that once election season is over we might actually come to our senses," the source added.

 

Over the years, Europe has added new functions to the mission, which also trains the Libyan coastguard and controls the enforcement of a UN arms embargo on Libya, and illegal oil trafficking.

 

EU cooperation with Libya has been credited with sharply reducing the number of migrants arriving from North Africa and the Middle East from a 2015 peak when Europe faced its worst migration crisis since World War II. Activists, however, decry rampant human rights abuses against migrants in Libya as they await passage to Europe, and urge the EU to not outsource the problem to Tripoli.

 

For the moment, two ships patrol the central Mediterranean as part of Operation Sophia: Spain's Rayo and Italy's Luigi Rizzo, which are supported by air assets from Spain, Italy, Poland and Luxembourg.

 

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190327/eu-suspends-operation-sophia-migrant-rescue-patrols-mediterranean-italy

 

 

 

[umbertino]

Senate gives final approval to legitimate-defence law

Legislation expands right to self-defence from intruders

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

28 March 201914:31 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/28/senate-gives-final-approval-to-legitimate-defence-law_b26fe29e-7172-46fd-966e-ae2613c1f050.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S&P cuts Italy's 2019 GDP forecast to 0.1%

Agency sees Italian economy growing 0.6% next year

 

Redazione ANSA Milan

28 March 201912:34 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/business/2019/03/28/sp-cuts-italy-2019-gdp-forecast-to-0.1_fece1219-e987-465b-bdbb-f78f6fef658b.html

 

[umbertino]

Italy named world's 'most desirable' holiday destination

 

When you think of dream holiday destinations, you might picture exotic trips to far-flung islands in the Maldives or the Caribbean.......

 

 

Clare Speak

clare.speak@thelocal.com
clarespeak

27 March 2019

13:17 CET+01:00

 

 

 

But the “most desired” holiday destination in the world is in fact Italy, a survey has found.

Italy was the most-searched holiday destination among people in 97 countries, including the US, Canada, Ireland, Russia, China, and most European countries, according to a study by travel website TravelSupermarket.

British holidaymakers however preferred Spain, it found, and Australians dream of the Maldives.

Italy beat Spain to the top spot, followed by Australia, Greece and France.

Meanwhile, the most popular holiday destination among Italians was neighbouring Spain

The survey used Google’s Keyword Planner, searching all languages, to establish the average monthly search volume in each country for the term 'Holidays in X' for over 870 destinations.

The most searched-for place in each country was then chosen as the top destination.

Italy gets 226,860 monthly hits, said Joey Tyson, Travel Editor at TravelSupermarket.

“As an iconic destination for art, architecture, gastronomy and history, it’s no surprise to see travellers from as far afield as Argentina, New Zealand and Canada looking to holiday in Italy.”

“Popular cities include Rome, Venice and Florence, while Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre are ideal for a seaside escape," he told The Local. “Interestingly, European countries dominate the most Googled holiday destinations globally with four out of the top five being located on the continent.”

While there's no doubt that many of us look at dream holidays online as a form of escapism, these online searches, recorded in late 2018, seem to correspond with the actual number of people visiting Italy.

Tourism in Italy is booming, as the latest figures show more than 420 million annual visitors and a 4.4 increase year on year – well above the European average.

Visitor numbers are only expected to grow, with 2019 set to be busier than ever for many of Italy's tourist hotspots, partly thank to a growing Chinese tourism market.

It's not good news for everyone, of course.

An anti-tourist movement is growing in some of the country's most popular beauty spots, including Venice and the towns of Cinque Terre, where local residents have protested against overcrowding in their cities and an impact on liveability.

Overtourism in iconic Italian destinations has led to the introduction of measures like Venice charging an entry fee from this year.

Italy tops charts like these for a very good reason, and of course, we think everyone should visit.

But it's a big country, and there are plenty of incredible places to explore outside of the overcrowded hotspots.

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190327/italy-names-worlds-most-desirable-dream-holiday-destination

 

 

[umbertino]

 

Steve Bannon on Italy ( May 2018)

 

 

 

 

[umbertino]

Christian right summit in Verona draws massive protest

 

20,000 rally in Italy against anti-***, anti-abortion and anti-feminist conference

 

 

Angela Giuffrida

Sat 30 Mar 2019 18.18 GMT

 

 

 

Protesters against the World Congress of Families, a US coalition promoting the values of the Christian right

Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/30/christian-right-summit-in-verona-draws-massive-protest

[umbertino]

OECD sees Italy's GDP falling, blasts pension reform and basic income

Gurría calls for a multi-year reform package

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

01 April 201914:59 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/04/01/oecd-sees-italys-gdp-falling-says-repeal-pension-reform_25d48bda-d4d0-47c6-a89a-f3bc99ac5e3a.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salvini dismisses Gov't-crisis talk as 'crap'

Administration set to keep moving forward says deputy premier

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

01 April 201910:40 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/04/01/salvini-dismisses-govt-crisis-talk-as-crap_63f054d1-3a42-4d1d-bbed-bc0bce51ee61.html

 

"Crap" he said.....This Gov't is crap...Probably the worst ever this Country has had since the 1940's.....He (Salvini) is crap.......This Gov't coalition ( Five Star Movement and League) will get into huge crisis not long after EU elections ( 26 May)....They are already arguing on everything   by the way...It won't be long.....

 

 

Edited April 1, 2019 by umbertino

[umbertino]

'Zero growth' for Italy this year: economy minister

 

Italy is headed for zero economic growth in 2019, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said, while brushing off possible changes to the government's budget

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

1 April 2019

09:18 CEST+02:00

 

 

 

"We face a widespread slowdown in growth across Europe, and in Italy we are headed for zero" growth, Tria told an economic forum in Florence on Sunday.

 

Italy's central bank and the International Monetary Fund have both estimated that the eurozone's third-largest economy would expand by a meagre 0.6 percent this year, while the European Commission was more pessimistic, pencilling growth of just 0.2 percent.

 

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the Italian economy contracted owing to a slowdown in exports, plunging it into a technical recession and worsening the government's budget problems.

 

But despite pressure from EU officials to maintain fiscal discipline, Tria said: "No one is asking us for a corrective manoeuvre, so I exclude that."

 

The EU warned last week of a new row brewing with Italy over its budget, barely a few months after both sides agreed on a hard-fought deal with Rome's disputed 2019 finances.

 

Italy's public debt now sits at 2.3 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), or 131 percent of Italy's GDP -- way above the 60 percent EU ceiling.

 

Germany, Europe's leading economy, is struggling at the moment owing to significantly weaker demand for its exports, and those problems have affected eurozone partners, with which it does much of its trade.

 

For 2018 as a whole, Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.9 percent.

 

Populist policies by Italy's coalition government have affected business investment, while consumer confidence has slumped as well.

 

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190401/zero-growth-for-italy-this-year-economy-minister

[umbertino]

Neo-fascist violence keeps Roma out of Rome neighbourhood

 

City council appears to capitulate after protesters set cars on fire and destroy food

 

Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo

Wed 3 Apr 2019 11.58 BST

 

 

The protest in Torre Maura, east Rome, was organised by the neo-fascist CasaPound party and the far-right Forza Nuova

Photograph: Claudio Peri/AP

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/03/neo-fascist-violence-keeps-roma-out-of-rome-neighbourhood

 

 

Note: most gypsies ( Roma & Sinti ethnicities) here are Italian citizens...So when minister Salvini talks about  "destroying" all   gypsy camps / settlements in this Country with a caterpillar ( he loves using that word "caterpillar"...He 'll say  " I'll just go there and raid down everything with my caterpillar"...That's the kind of person he is.....) he always forgets stating where those people will move to  after their poor housing are raided....Hmmmm

[umbertino]

 

Besides...Casa Pound and Forza Nuova are the worst of the worst as they try to embody the real fascist spirit (sigh...) thus infringing the Italian Constitution and the law which clearly prohibit the re-creation  of the Fascist party in any way / shape  / form in this Country, no matter the name any movement / party holds, when it's proven it's based on those sick "principles"...Which is the case for those .....

 

Physical violence and crushing all their opponents with brutal force is their 1st value  ( along with Mussolini & Hitler  political ideals) along with the hate, fear, contempt of whomever is not white, Italian, Christian  etc......

[umbertino]

Why do Italian football fans get away with racially abusing black players?

 

Juventus starlet Moise Kean has whipped up a storm by taking a stand when targeted by racist chanting during his team's Serie A match against Cagliari on Tuesday, but his actions raised barely a murmur in Italy, where racist abuse has become a recurring problem that football authorities remain reluctant to tackle

 

 

AFP

news@thelocal.it
@thelocalitaly

3 April 2019

18:11 CEST+02:00

 

 

 

Even Kean's Juventus teammate Leonardo Bonucci and coach Massimiliano Allegri partly blamed the 19-year-old, born in Italy to Ivorian parents, for provoking Cagliari fans with his celebrations after scoring the second goal in a 2-0 win.

 

Kean -- along with his French teammate Blaise Matuidi and Brazilian Alex Sandro -- had been targeted by monkey chants throughout the match, but they increased in intensity after the Italy international bagged his fourth Serie A strike of the season. The youngster celebrated with his hands outstretched on front of the Cagliari fans, drawing a barrage of racist abuse.

 

World Cup winner Matuidi protested furiously at the stadium where he too was targeted in January last year. Then the Sardinian club had apologised, but this time Kean was cast as the villain, with even fellow Italian international Bonucci saying that "the blame is 50-50".

 

"Moise shouldn't have done that and the Curva [where the hardcore Cagliari fans stand] should not have reacted that way."

 

Afterwards Kean posted on Instagram that it was "the best way to respond to racism".

 

Kean's agent Mino Raiola, who also manages Matuidi, said: "Nobody should justify racism in any way or form".

 

"A country like Italy should be leading on this. You cannot be racist and Italian. I am with my players until the end. If in the team or the club there are people who are not willing to fight racism they should be leaving."

 

Allegri called for the culprits to be identified and banned for life, but agreed Kean "shouldn't have celebrated in that manner". "We've got the technology, if the authorities want to they can identity them. The problem is, they don't really want to," Allegri said.

 

'Nobody wants to take responsibility'

Mauro Valeri, the head of Italy's observatory on racism in football, believes there seems to be a reluctance to tackle the problem.

 

"There were already incidents at Cagliari with [Ghanian Sulley] Muntari and Matuidi," sociologist and writer Valeri told AFP. "It concerns a small group of people, the [club] president might decide to crack down and punish, as is done in England, but he chooses to defend his fans," continued Valeri. "It's easier to do that, to say that Cagliari is not a racist city, which nobody says anyway."

 

Bonucci's reaction "totally underestimates the problem of racism," added Valeri.

 

Kean received support from players including fellow Italian international Mario Balotelli and England's Raheem Sterling, who said of Bonucci's comments: "All you can do now is laugh."

🙉 pic.twitter.com/xr3jf18Zfx

— Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) April 3, 2019

But there has been little support in Italy, with no comments from the federation or the Italian League, nor Cagliari or Juventus. Sports newspaper Corriere dello Sport estimated there were "a few isolated buu [monkey chants]", while the Gazzetta dello Sport counted "more whistles than buus".

 

"The difference with other countries is that in Italy, this issue is never faced as a real problem," said Valeri. "For many people it is not racism and nobody wants to take responsibility for tackling what is a cultural problem.

 

"Even the anti-racist movements have never been interested in this problem. In Italy, it is more serious to insult the mother – we still have the idea that you can go to the stadium and make monkey noises for an hour and a half, then you go home and you're not racist."

 

In December, Inter Milan was punished with two games behind closed doors following sustained racist abuse of Napoli's Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly.

 

But this severe sanction is more the exception than the norm. Most often, clubs get away with a fine or a suspended stand closure.

 

 

https://www.thelocal.it/20190403/moise-kean-racial-abuse-italy-football-juventus

 

 

The problem is that a huge part of the hard-core fans of practically every soccer club is usually made of  ( polls showed that and checked political belonging) extreme right-wing individuals ....They often get involved in violent episodes

 

Officially the soccer clubs  preach they are against racism & violence etc...The truth is that those hard-core fans are very important to clubs and  in the end clubs do not want to get rid of them so  in actuality very little is getting done to stop all this madness which can only get worse

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by umbertino

[umbertino]

 

And all of the above is much aided ( encouraged somehow?) also by the current political climate in Italy....Unfortunately...

 

You never hear minister of Interior Affairs Salvini utter one single word on any of those episodes.....Not good at all.....

 

He gets upset and speaks like a raging river only when there is  some story / problem  involving immigrants and / or gypsies in a negative way ......That's all he talks about...Sale pitch for voters

Edited April 4, 2019 by umbertino

[umbertino]

Salvini aims to forge far-right alliance ahead of European elections

 

Italian deputy PM holding gathering of far-right parties including Germany’s AfD next week as he seeks to create bloc of populists

 

 

Shaun Walker in Budapest, Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Jon Henley in Paris

Thu 4 Apr 2019 07.00 BST

 

 

 

Italy’s deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, is hosting a gathering of European far-right parties in Milan next week

Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/04/salvini-aims-to-forge-far-right-alliance-ahead-of-european-elections

 

 

He got ( and still is , most likely) mentored by Steve Bannon ( and others)

 

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by umbertino

[umbertino]

 

This 15 yr old boy is brave (given the situation & political climate in his Rome neighborhood Torre Maura) ....

 

Boy, 15, speaks for 'real Torre Maura' - Raggi

Said CasaPound stoking anti-minorities ire to get votes

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

04 April 201914:42 News

 

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/04/04/boy-15-speaks-for-real-torre-mauro-raggi_07074796-10c9-4725-bf57-1815f5b5dd3a.html

 

 

 

 

 

[umbertino]

Alessandra Mussolini condemns Jim Carrey

She can flip cartoon round replies actor turned cartoonist

 

Redazione ANSA Rome

05 April 201915:12 News

 

 

 

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2019/04/05/alessandra-mussolini-condemns-jim-carrey_2c3c5787-6600-4f11-b038-ec2c95b4a961.html

 

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mussolini_e_Petacci_a_Piazzale_Loreto,_1945.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Italian PM says businessman held hostage in Syria for three years has been freed

 

Published

1 hour ago

 

 

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/italian-pm-says-businessman-held-hostage-in-syria-for-three-years-has-been-freed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footage of Italian boy who stood up to fascists goes viral

 

Video shows boy known as Simone saying Roma people should not ‘be abandoned’

 

 

Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo

Fri 5 Apr 2019 14.47 BST

 

 

Vid

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/05/boy-15-simone-italy-video-hailed-as-hero-rome-roma

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by umbertino