Tag: italy

Italian deputy PM wants to swap migrants for children

Italians should focus on having more children to replenish the country’s dwindling workforce so as to avoid bringing in more migrants in the future, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has suggested.

Over the past decade, Italy has had one of the lowest birthrates in Europe, and its demographic crisis continues to worsen. The country’s fertility rate hit a new record low last year, standing at 1.14, down from 1.18 the previous year, provisional figures from Italy’s national statistics agency ISTAT indicate. For a stable population, the figure should stand at around 2.1 children per woman.

“We have a problem of demographic decline, and we must understand if we want to have more children,” Tajani said on Thursday while speaking at the Festival del Lavoro (Work Festival) in Rome, an annual event that brings together institutions, businesses, and professionals to discuss the labor market.

Keep reading

Trump Again Threatens to Pull Troops From Italy: ‘They Weren’t There When We Needed Them’

Trump is not one to forgive and forget a betrayal or a slight – even if it is committed by a longtime ally.

For a long time, US President Donald J. Trump had an alliance with right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

She was the only European leader to attend his second inauguration last year.

But the traumatic developments during the ongoing war in Iran collapsed the bilateral relations, after Meloni denied the US permission to use Italian bases for airstrikes against Tehran’s regime, and also took Pope Leo’s side during the recent spat with the US president.

Secretary Marco Rubio went to Italy to meet the Pope and Meloni, but it hasn’t healed the wounds.

This last weekend, Trump again refused to rule out withdrawing American troops from Italy.

Keep reading

Italy’s Meloni Denounces Deepfake Lingerie Picture of Her That’s Gone Viral

Meloni said that the fake image ‘improved’ her.

As the first female Prime Minister of Italy, conservative Giorgia Meloni battles all sorts of prejudices: from her being a woman to her being a right-winger.

One of the weapons used against her by unscrupulous trolls and enemies is deepfakes.

Today, Meloni denounced the circulation of a deepfake photo of her in bed, wearing lingerie.

The Prime Minister complained that these AI images are being used to attack her.

Associated Press reported:

“Meloni shared the photo in question on Facebook. She included with it an apparent post from someone named Roberto who apparently had himself shared it on social media with the commentary that Meloni should be ‘ashamed’ of herself.

Meloni warned against sharing such images on social media without verifying them.

[…] It wasn’t immediately clear if Meloni would report the incident to law enforcement, as she was urged to do by people commenting on her post. She acknowledged though that the photo manipulation ‘actually made me look a lot better’.”

Keep reading

United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada Will Now Join US to Keep the Strait of Hormuz Open

The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada have now signaled they will join the United States in a coalition to secure and keep open the critical Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil chokepoint the bloodthirsty Iranian regime has turned into a terrorist kill zone.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, the radical Islamic mullahs in Tehran launched a desperate campaign of economic terrorism after U.S. and Israeli strikes hammered their nuclear sites and terror infrastructure.

Iran mined the strait, attacked unarmed commercial vessels, targeted oil facilities, and effectively closed the waterway that carries nearly 20-25% of the world’s oil supply.

President Trump refused to let America shoulder the entire burden alone. He blasted the freeloading “allies,” took to Truth Social, and demanded that nations dependent on Middle Eastern oil step up and send warships.

“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump said.

He even threatened to “finish off” Iran and let NATO and Asia handle the mess if they wouldn’t get in gear. As we reported, the initial responses from Europe were weak and uninspiring, classic globalist foot-dragging.

Now, with Iran’s attacks growing more brazen and the Strait’s security directly tied to global oil flows, those same allies are signaling that they are prepared to stand with the United States.

That does not yet mean all seven countries have announced warship deployments.

The joint statement so far supports that they have formally backed efforts to keep passage open and are ready to contribute, while some governments are still working through what their exact role will be.

Britain, for example, has been publicly discussing possible deployments, including ships and mine-countermeasure assets, but final national commitments appear to remain in motion.

Keep reading

Cloudflare Vs Italy: The Battle For Digital Freedom And Global Internet Sovereignty

Italian authorities are attempting to force the internet service provider Cloudflare to delete and block certain online services. Cloudflare is resisting and has turned to the U.S. government for support.

The fight for a free internet is intensifying.

The struggle over control of information, censorship, and economic dominance in the digital space is increasingly becoming a fundamental civilizational question. That the European Union now sees not only the EU Commission but also national governments and security apparatuses siding with information diktats, against the fundamental principle of free speech, sends a dangerous signal to the world. The EU has effectively withdrawn from the circle of freedom-oriented state actors.

Into this picture fits a recent report from Italy. A tweet by the founder and CEO of the internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, has caused a stir.

Prince reports that Cloudflare has been hit with a $17 million fine by a — as he calls it — clandestine cabal in Italy. The accusation: Cloudflare refused to participate in an Italian censorship mechanism at the behest of this group.

A Cabal of Regulators and Media Corporations

Specifically, this concerns a system controlled by the Italian media authority AGCOM (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni) called the “Piracy Shield.” This blocking system is officially aimed at combating illegal sports and media streaming services. The main targets are the economic interests of major players such as Italy’s Serie A football league, Sky Italia, DAZN, Mediaset, and other large European media and rights corporations.

Private actors, comparable to the so-called “Trusted Flaggers” now familiar in Germany, operate on behalf of the Italian media sector within this system. They report websites, IP addresses, or suspicious domains to the Piracy Shield. The authority then compels internet service providers and infrastructure operators like Cloudflare to implement the corresponding blocks within just 30 minutes. Every advertising minute counts; piracy is indeed a dangerously significant economic factor. The question is: How do states and affected companies enforce copyright? Do they operate under the rule of law and avoid collateral damage, such as backdoor state censorship?

According to Prince, all of this happens without a judicial order or prior review, bypassing due legal process entirely. The measures affect not only allegedly illegal content but also deeply intrude into the technical infrastructure of the internet.

Keep reading

Italy Arrests Nine Islamic Charity Chiefs Suspected of Raising Millions for Hamas

Italian police have arrested seven people suspected of funneling millions of euros to Hamas while posing as fundraisers for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, authorities announced.

Police also issued international arrest warrants for two additional suspects believed to be operating outside Italy.

According to local law enforcement, the investigation centers on three associations that publicly claimed to support Palestinian civilians but allegedly functioned as a front for financing Hamas.

The nine suspects are accused of transferring approximately seven million euros ($8 million) to “associations based in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, or Israel, owned, controlled, or linked to Hamas.”

Keep reading

HEAVENLY SPIES? Pope Leo XIV Urges Italian Secret Agents To Work Ethically, Not to Blackmail Politicians, Journalists or the Church

The Italian 007’s got a Papal warning.

Whether or not you agree with Pope Leo XIV in the multiple statements he has issued lately, one thing seems certain: he deals more and more in issues outside the scope of his mission as Pontifex.

Leo meddles in US immigration policies – with the usual leftist slant; he urges Donald J. Trump not to depose Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro by force – but only smother him with economic sanctions; and now he chastises the Italian secret service agents.

Yes, you read it right.

Maybe, like me, you wonder why Leo doesn’t take care of spiritual welfare of the Christendom, instead of going around ‘blessing the ice’ for Global Warming Cultists, and ‘thrashing ICE’ with the demented pro-immigration mob.

Leo met Friday (12) with officers from Italian intelligence services – and ‘warned them not to use confidential information for blackmailing or other nefarious purposes’.

Keep reading

Italy Extradites Ukrainian Ex-Secret Service Member to Germany – Serhii K. Is Accused of Coordinating the Nord Stream Gas Pipeline Sabotage

Unlike Poland, Italy does not whitewash the Nord Stream sabotage.

We have been reporting here on TGP about one of the largest sabotage attacks after WW2 – the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline.

We have followed all the narratives and theories floated publicly, from the laughable allegations that Russia blew up their own pipeline, up to the very credible article by Seymour Hersh pinning the blame on the CIA.

While the world largely moved on from the event, with energy prices in Europe surging, the German authorities have been working hard at it.

In august, we reported: Ukrainian Arrested in Italy for Nord Stream Pipeline Attack Is Ex-member of Secret Service SBU, Special Forces – Serhii K. Is Fighting Against Extradition to Germany.

In October, a Polish court denied handing over another Ukrainian suspect wanted by Germany in connection with the explosions, and ordered his immediate release from detention, to the delight of liberal PM Donald Tusk.

But Italy has finally extradited the main suspect to Germany.

Reuters reported:

“A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 arrived in Germany on Thursday after Italy’s top court approved his handover last week, German federal prosecutors said.”

Investigators spent years piecing together the mystery of who was behind this major sabotage act.

“The man, identified as Serhii K under German privacy laws that generally bar full identification of suspects, denies any role in the attacks. His lawyer Nicola Canestrini has said he is confident his client will be acquitted at a trial in Germany.”

Keep reading

Children removed from Australian-British couple living off-grid in Italian forest

The children of an Australian mother living off-grid in an Italian forest have been removed by local authorities, after the family came under scrutiny when they were hospitalised due to eating poisonous mushrooms.

A juvenile court in the Italian city of L’Aquila ruled last week to place the three children of Australian woman Catherine Birmingham and her British husband Nathan Trevallion into protective care.

The court cited poor sanitary conditions at the family’s home in the mountainous Abruzzo region and unauthorised homeschooling of their eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old twin boys, according to AFP.

Ms Birmingham, a life coach and former horse riding teacher from Melbourne, bought the farmhouse in 2021 with Mr Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol.

They were raising the children in the woodlands home without mains electricity, water or gas, relying instead on solar power, well water and homegrown food.

“The members of the Trevallion family have no social interactions, no steady income,” the court said in its written ruling.

Keep reading

Italy moves to follow European neighbors in banning religious garb like burqas that hide identity

Italy has long been one of Europe’s strongest defenders of religious freedom despite the influence of the Vatican.

But now, the country is poised to outlaw the use of traditional Islamic attire like burqas, a move the government says will strengthen its tradition of religious liberty by requiring all faiths to operate with “full transparency” and within the limits of Italian law.

The proposed law, which is set to be debated in Italy’s parliament before the end of this year, would ban “religiously motivated garments that obscure identity or impose non-transparent forms of [religious] affiliation,” according to a draft of the proposal published in the Italian media.

While the text does not mention Islam or any other faith by name, all indications are that it is primarily aimed at banning the use of headscarves, niqabs, jilbabs, burqas, and other attire that commonly obscure the identity of Muslim women.

The proposal is the latest in a series of steps from the Italian government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to regulate the public expression of religion. Officials insist the plan is part of an effort to modernize the Italian framework on religious practice that has not seen substantial change since the 1980s.

Supporters of the law say that a person’s visible identity – in schools, businesses, or in public – is essential for security and civic cohesion.

“This is not about limiting religious freedom, but about preventing it being used instrumentally in order to justify practices that are incompatible with the principles of our constitution and our society,” Galeazzo Bignami, a member of parliament from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, told reporters last month.

“No community in our country can claim exemptions from the laws of our Republic,” Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said via social media.

Other European countries including France, Belgium, and Austria have issued nationwide restrictions on traditional Islamic garb. And in Italy, local temporary bans on some kinds of Islamic face coverings have appeared on the municipal level, usually on grounds of public order or security. But the new proposal would be the first to be imposed nationally.

Muslim leaders responded with alarm, and some have vowed to appeal the measure if it is enacted.

“This law tells Muslim women they cannot appear in public as themselves,” said Yassine Lafram, head of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy. “It sends a message that we are a problem to be managed rather than citizens with the same rights as other citizens.”

It is unclear whether the proposal will stand up to legal challenges if it becomes a law. Article 19 of the Italian Constitution guarantees the right to “profess one’s faith in any form, individually or collectively.” Critics say that the focus on “transparency” is too vague to merit an exception to that standard.

Keep reading