All posts tagged: Italy

Italian referendum on easing citizenship rules thwarted by low turnout | Politics News

Published by Sam

[ad_1] PM Meloni said she would not vote, and opposition accuses government of dampening interest in immigrant, worker issues. An Italian referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour protections has failed after hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni encouraged voters to boycott the vote. As polls closed on Monday, it emerged that many citizens had heeded Meloni’s call as only 30 percent of the electorate cast their ballots over two days of voting, far short of the 50 percent plus one needed to make the result legally binding. The outcome was a clear defeat for the centre-left opposition, which had proposed to halve the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship from 10 to five years and to reverse labour market liberalisations introduced a decade ago. The prime minister said she was “absolutely against” the citizenship proposals, announcing she would turn up at the polls but not cast a vote. A stated goal of Meloni’s government is to cut irregular immigration, but it has increased the number of immigrant work visas. The general secretary …

Italy resisting calls from Pirelli to tighten curbs on Chinese shareholder, sources say

Published by Sam

[ad_1] ROME :The Italian government is resisting calls from Pirelli’s executive vice-chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera to tighten curbs imposed on the tyremaker’s Chinese investor, sources said. Chinese state group Sinochem is Pirelli’s largest investor with a 37 per cent stake, while Tronchetti Provera’s Camfin vehicle holds a 27.3 per cent shareholding. Tronchetti Provera has been the company’s top boss for more than three decades. Pirelli itself and Camfin are at odds with Sinochem, claiming that its substantial holding poses a risk to Pirelli’s ambitions to expand its business in the United States. Washington is cracking down on Chinese technology in the automotive industry, by banning key software and hardware from Chinese-controlled companies in connected vehicles on U.S. roads. Tronchetti Provera is lobbying the government to take further action to limit the Chinese influence at Pirelli, two sources familiar with the matter said, by strengthening the restrictions that Rome imposed on Sinochem in 2023 through the golden power rules aimed at protecting strategic assets. However, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration has so far rebuffed these calls, …

Pompeii breakthrough as new study reveals family’s tragic final moment | World | News

Published by Sam

[ad_1] Pompeii, the city which was buried under several feet of volcanic ash and pumic in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, continues to unveil new secrets. Now, a new study into recent excavations at the archaeological site has uncovered the final moments of some of its residents.  A family tried to blockade themselves in a room, the research revealed. In an attempt to escape the volcanic ash, the victims had tried to take refuge in a bedroom and blocked the door with a bed. The scene was discovered at the House of Elle and Frisso, named after the mythological painting found in one of the rooms. Archaeologists have been able to reproduce a cast of the bed after they identified the shape of the wooden frame in the solidified ash. “Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives,” the Director of the Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel said, The Independent reported.  “In this small, wonderfully decorated house we found traces of the inhabitants …

Royal news live: King and Queen release new photo to mark 20th wedding anniversary as they begin Italy trip

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[ad_1] Meghan Markle offers free gifts to As Ever customers after products sold out However, some customers learned that after they’d purchased items — including raspberry jams, flower sprinkles, and wildflower honey — those products had already sold out. Read the full story here: Rebecca Whittaker8 April 2025 08:30 King and Queen release official photographs The King and Queen have released three official photographs to mark their 20th wedding anniversary. The couple were photographed at the Villa Wolkonsky, the official residence of the UK’s ambassador to Italy and San Marino, Edward Llewellyn. Read the full story here: Rebeca Whittaker8 April 2025 08:18 King and Queen arrive in Rome for visit celebrating UK’s close ties to Italy The King and Queen’s visit to Italy will leave a “priceless” legacy strengthening the “closeness” between the UK and the EU nation, Britain’s ambassador to Italy has said. Charles and Camilla arrived on the outskirts of Rome in a plane escorted over the Italian capital by F-35 Italian air force jets that left a deafening sound in their wake …

How Italy Became the Most Divided Country in Europe: Understanding the Great Divide Between North & South

Published by José

[ad_1] Pra­da, Alfa Romeo, Pel­le­gri­no, Fer­rari, Illy, Lam­borgh­i­ni, Guc­ci: these are a few Ital­ian cor­po­ra­tions we all know, though we don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly know that they’re all from the north of Italy. The same is true, in fact, of most Ital­ian brands that now enjoy glob­al recog­ni­tion, and accord­ing to the analy­sis pre­sent­ed in the Real­LifeLore video above, that’s not a coin­ci­dence. More than 160 years after the uni­fi­ca­tion of Italy, the south remains an eco­nom­ic and social under-per­former com­pared to the north, reflect­ed in mea­sures like the Human Devel­op­ment Index, GDP per capi­ta, and even vot­er turnout. At this point, the dis­par­i­ty between the two halves of the coun­try looks stark­er than that between the for­mer East and West Ger­many. The rea­sons begin with geog­ra­phy: besides its obvi­ous prox­im­i­ty to the rest of Europe, north­ern Italy is home to the high­ly nav­i­ga­ble Po Riv­er and its sur­round­ing val­ley, the fresh­wa­ter (and hydro­elec­tric pow­er) sources of the Alps, and the deep-water ports at Tri­este and Genoa. What’s more, it does­n’t much over­lap with the fault zone …

Why There Isn’t a Bridge from Italy to Sicily – And Why the 2,000-Year-Old Dream of Building the Bridge May Soon Be Realized

Published by José

[ad_1] We’ve all heard of the great Amer­i­can road trip. If you’ve ever dreamt of tak­ing a great Ital­ian road trip, you’ve sure­ly come across this inevitable hitch in the plan: you can’t dri­ve to Sici­ly. You can, of course, put your car on a fer­ry; you can even take a train that gets put on a fer­ry, the last of its kind in Europe. But a stretch of road span­ning the volatile Strait of Messi­na, which sep­a­rates Sici­ly from the main­land, has been a dream deferred since antiq­ui­ty, when Pliny the Elder wrote of Roman notions of build­ing a float­ing bridge — which, with its poten­tial to dis­rupt the water­way’s con­sid­er­able north-south trade, was even­tu­al­ly scrapped. It seems that Ital­ians have been jok­ing about the impos­si­bil­i­ty of a bridge to Sici­ly ever since. These two videos from Get to the Point and The B1M explain the his­to­ry of this con­tin­u­al­ly frus­trat­ed infra­struc­tur­al project, and the polit­i­cal maneu­vers that have recent­ly begun to make it seem very near­ly semi-pos­si­ble. Though the sea mon­sters Scyl­la and …

Fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ eroding as they’re weaponized by conservative forces – POLITICO

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[ad_1] In countries like Italy, Belgium or Romania, right-wing conservative groups have been accusing the LGBTQ+ community of “undermining family values and destabilising society” and used discriminatory speeches during election periods. This is then also used justify the introduction of legislation restricting fundamental freedoms and so-called “anti-LGBT propaganda” laws, the report stated. In Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, local authorities have reported “a significant increase in crimes motivated by perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression,” ILGA-Europe noted. “There is a tendency to instrumentalize the so-called protection of young people as a hope to spread fear and division,” said Italian member of the European Parliament Alessandro Zan of the center-left Socialists and Democrats during an event in Parliament. “The discriminatory measures proposed in Hungary and Slovakia and the successful resolution in Italy against the so-called gender ideology all but spread hate and discrimination across Europe … These measures harm children, families and workers,” he added. Chaber, the executive director of ILGA-Europe, also said that attacks against LGBTQ+ people are becoming “the testing …

Want to Smoke Outdoors in Milan? Better Be Far From Other People.

Published by Sam

[ad_1] Movies like Fellini’s 1960 film “La Dolce Vita” created an image of Italy as a smokers’ paradise. Cigarettes were the ubiquitous props of glamorous socialites, jaded reporters and just about anyone seated at a cafe. Those days are long gone. A series of laws gradually banned smoking at shared indoor spaces like movie theaters and restaurants. Now, the city of Milan’s center-left government has taken the crackdown one step further, becoming the first major Italian city to ban smoking outside unless the smoker is pretty far from other people. No more huddling around the doors of office buildings. And no more grabbing an after-dinner smoke at the outdoor tables at restaurants. Under the new rules, which went into effect Jan. 1, smoking is banned everywhere except for “isolated areas where it’s possible to respect a distance of at least 33 feet from other people.” “People will smoke a little less, which is good for their health and everybody’s health, and those who don’t smoke will be less exposed to secondhand smoke,” Milan’s deputy mayor, …

Italy Offers to Take Mona Lisa as Louvre’s Condition is Criticised

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines THIEVES WITH A SHORT FUSE. Early on Saturday morning, thieves blew open the door of the Drents Museum in the Netherlands and stole priceless gold artifacts, including an ancient, crown-like helmet on loan from a Bucharest museum for a traveling exhibit, reports NL Times. “This is a dark day for the Drents Museum in Assen and the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest,” said the director of the Drents Museum, Harry Tupan. The prized golden helmet of Cotofenesti from the fifth century BC dates to the ancient Dacians, who lived in modern-day Romania, and is a cherished part of the country’s cultural heritage. The helmet became better-known when it appeared on the cover of posters promoting the traveling exhibit titled “Dacia – Empire of Gold and Silver,” which was targeted at 3:45am on Saturday by robbers. Security cameras show they blew up the museum’s door, and along with the helmet, took other priceless gold bracelets from the same period. No injuries …

Cinecitta Studios to Approve Restated Financial Records

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[ad_1] Rome’s iconic Cinecittà Studios is drowning in red ink. The Hollywood Reporter Roma has learned that the studios’ losses in the first half of 2024 amounted to 13.5 million euros ($14 million), while Cinecittà’s share capital stands at just 22.7 million euros ($23.8 million). Sources close to the studios report that the shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for Thursday, will formally acknowledge the errors made by the previous management and may pursue legal action against former CEO Nicola Maccanico, who signed off on the 2023 accounts. The dramatic financial turmoil engulfing Cinecittà has escalated in recent days, setting the stage for a potentially explosive resolution in the next chapter of this ongoing financial thriller on Thursday. On Monday, it was revealed that Cinecittà president Chiara Sbarigia and other board members were informed on Aug. 1 of alleged irregularities in the studios’ financial statements. An independent audit uncovered a potential shortfall of approximately 6.7 million euros ($7 million). Sbarigia confirmed to THR Roma that a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit had indicated the need to restate the company’s financial results, requiring adjustments …