DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Mussolini’s Rome bunker opens to the public
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The first, in 1940, was an adaptation of an old wine cellar in the grounds of Villa Torlonia. A multimedia exhibition in the air raid shelter focuses on the effects of bombing raids on civilians. Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni CulturaliAfter its last closure in 2021, it has now reopened for guided tours of the air raid shelter and the bunker. Guided, 50-minute tours take visitors underground and through the exhibition, before they experience a recreated air raid in Mussolini’s unfinished bunker. Tours last 50 minutes and go through the air raid shelter and the bunker.

Persons: we’ll, Stanley Tucci, Benito Mussolini, Villa Torlonia, Mussolini, Villa, Culturali, Sovrintendenza, Beni Organizations: CNN, intel, Casino, Nobile, Villa Torlonia, San Locations: Italy, Rome, Villa Torlonia, Casino Nobile, San Lorenzo

☆ JR punches a tunnel through Milan’s central railway station in latest optical illusion
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Leah Dolan | James Imam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper, an editorial partner of CNN Style. CNN —The French street artist JR has unveiled perhaps his most complex Italian trompe l’oeil illusion piece yet, turning a square outside Milan’s Stazione Centrale railway station into a temporary exhibition site of epic proportions. Entitled La Nascita (The Birth), the piece evokes a rugged Alpine terrain with layered black-and-white images. However, while the Florence and Rome projects consisted of flat images mounted onto the fronts of the buildings, in Milan JR has tried to create a sense of depth. “While the exhibition is temporary, even when it’s gone visitors will never see (the station) in the same way,” JR said.

Persons: JR, ” JR, Piazza Duca D’Aosta, Covid, ”, ” Gabriel Bouys, —, Benito Mussolini, King Vittorio Emmanuele III, Palazzo Strozzi, Rome’s Palazzo Farnese, it’s Organizations: The Art, CNN, Art, Getty, Stazione Centrale, Milan JR Locations: Milan’s Stazione Centrale, Piazza Duca, AFP, Italy, France, Milan, Florence, Rome

☆ Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, Son of Italy's Last King, Dies Aged 86
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Feb. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +3 min

ROME (Reuters) - Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, the only son of Italy's last king, who lived in exile in neighbouring Switzerland for most of his life, has died aged 86 at his home in Geneva, a note by the Royal House of Savoy said. Vittorio Emanuele was eventually acquitted of the killing in a French court in 1991 and given a suspended sentence for illegal possession of a rifle. Vittorio Emanuele disputed the authenticity of the video. His grandfather, King Victor Emanuel III, abdicated in favour of his son Umberto just before the 1946 referendum in a final, futile attempt to save the monarchy. Vittorio Emanuele is survived by his wife and his son, Emanuele Filiberto, who said in 2023 that he would renounce his claim to the Italian throne in favour of his daughter, Vittoria, when he felt she was ready for the challenge.

Persons: Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, Italy's, of Savoy, Umberto II, King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele, Pope John Paul, Benito Mussolini, Dirk Hamer, Hamer, Vittorio Emanuele's, OF, Marina Doria, Shah, King Victor Emanuel III, Umberto, Maria Jose, Emanuele Filiberto, Vittoria, Keith Weir, Toby Chopra Organizations: Royal, Fascist, Netflix, Italian Agusta Locations: ROME, Switzerland, Geneva, Italian, Naples, Rome, Corsican, Potenza, Swiss, Lake Geneva, Iran, Tehran, Italy

☆ Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, son of Italy's last king, dies aged 86
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, the only son of Italy's last king, who lived in exile in neighbouring Switzerland for most of his life, has died aged 86 at his home in Geneva, a note by the Royal House of Savoy said. Vittorio Emanuele was eventually acquitted of the killing in a French court in 1991 and given a suspended sentence for illegal possession of a rifle. Vittorio Emanuele disputed the authenticity of the video. His grandfather, King Victor Emanuel III, abdicated in favour of his son Umberto just before the 1946 referendum in a final, futile attempt to save the monarchy. Vittorio Emanuele is survived by his wife and his son, Emanuele Filiberto, who said in 2023 that he would renounce his claim to the Italian throne in favour of his daughter, Vittoria, when he felt she was ready for the challenge.

Persons: Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, Italy's, of Savoy, Umberto II, King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele, Pope John Paul, Benito Mussolini, Dirk Hamer, Hamer, Vittorio Emanuele's, Shah, Marina Doria, King Victor Emanuel III, Umberto, Maria Jose, Emanuele Filiberto, Vittoria Organizations: Royal, Fascist, Netflix, Italian Agusta Locations: Switzerland, Geneva, Italian, Naples, Rome, Corsican, Potenza, Swiss, Lake Geneva, Iran, Tehran, Italy

☆ An Italian Holocaust Survivor Asks if She Has ‘Lived in Vain’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For decades, Liliana Segre visited Italian classrooms to recount her expulsion from school under Benito Mussolini’s anti-Semitic racial laws, her doomed attempt to flee Nazi-controlled Italy, her deportation from Milan’s train station to the death camps of Auschwitz. Her plain-spoken testimony about gas chambers, tattooed arms, casual atrocities and the murders of her father, grandparents and thousands of other Italian Jews made her the conscience and living memory of a country that often prefers not to remember. Now she is wondering if it was all wasted breath. “Why did I suffer for 30 years to share intimate things of my family, of my pain, of my desperation? Why?” Ms. Segre, 93, with cotton-white hair, a steel-cage memory and an official status as a Senator for Life said last week in her handsome Milan apartment, where she sat next to a police escort.

Persons: Liliana Segre, Benito Mussolini’s, Ms, Segre, “ I’ve, Vladimir V, Putin, Hitler, ” Organizations: Life, Hamas Locations: Nazi, Italy, Milan’s, Auschwitz, Milan, Israel, Gaza, Europe, Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany

☆ Ambiguous Italian Court Ruling on Fascist Salute Delights Extreme Right
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Jan. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +4 min

By Crispian BalmerROME (Reuters) - Performing a stiff-armed fascist salute is not a crime in Italy unless it risks sparking violence or is aimed at reviving the fascist party, the Supreme Court has ruled in a verdict that delighted extreme-right groups. The Supreme Court was called to review the issue following a 2016 event in Milan where eight militants were arrested for making fascist salutes. However, the Supreme Court left open the door to future prosecutions given Italy's inconclusive legal framework. "The only sure thing is that you cannot create a fascist party. 'ETERNAL COMPROMISE'Italy's main piece of legislation against promoting fascist propaganda is the so-called Scelba Law of 1952 which prohibits any "movement or group of people ... pursuing anti-democratic ends associated with the fascist party".

Persons: Crispian Balmer ROME, Benito Mussolini, Thursday's, Francesco Filippi, Mussolini, Alessandro Sallusti, Crispian Balmer, Alison Williams Organizations: Court Locations: Italy, Rome, Milan

☆ Video of crowd’s fascist salute in heart of Rome rattles Italy – but not its prime minister
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The MSI party grew from the ashes of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party after it was dismantled at the end of World War II when the dictator was deposed and killed. Gotor and Rocca laid a wreath at a monument to the fallen activists, but left before the fascist salute was carried out, their offices told CNN. Nor are fascist memorabilia or gestures like the fascist salute illegal, something that critics say must change. A witness who lives on the street where the commemoration took place told CNN that it happens every year, including with the fascist salute. Berizzi said that “in this moment neo-fascist groups feel protected by Meloni’s silence, her ambiguity.

Persons: Rome, Giorgia Meloni, Franco Bigonzetti, Francesco Ciavatta, Stefano Recchioni, “, ”, Benito Mussolini’s, Meloni, Francesco Rocca, Miguel Gotor, Gotor, Rocca, Elly Schlein, ” Schlein, Noemi Di Segna, Antonio Tajani –, Silvio Berlusconi –, Meloni wasn’t, ” Maria Calderone, ” Paolo Berizzi, Berizzi, Ewan MacPhee, ” MacPhee Organizations: Rome CNN, Italian, Acca, Italian Social Movement, MSI, Fascist Party, Democratic Party, CNN, ”, Union of Italian, Forza Italia, Facebook, La Repubblica, Italy’s, Operations, Social Democrats Locations: Rome, Italy, Lazio, “, Italian, Germany, Europe, Ukraine, Strasbourg

☆ Vatican fleet is going all-electric with VW supplying the cars
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

The first two vehicles, both VW ID.3 compact electric cars, have already been delivered to the Vatican, VW said. In a separate announcement, the Holy See also pledged to build a charging network within Vatican City and in other areas it controls. The Vatican referred to VW as its first strategic partner in the process to make its fleet carbon neutral. The electrification of its fleet is among a number of projects Vatican City is undertaking to reduce its overall carbon emissions. Contained within the Italian city of Rome, it gained its independence in 1929 through a treaty signed with the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Persons: VW, Pope, Benito Mussolini Organizations: CNN, Vatican, VW, Volkswagen, Catholic Church Locations: Vatican City, Vatican, Italian, Rome

☆ Trump’s extreme rhetoric conjures the prospect of a presidency like no other
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —Donald Trump is promising a second presidency that would be an aberration in American history. And Trump’s ambitions should be taken seriously because one year from the election, President Joe Biden’s reelection hopes are far from secure. He dehumanizes his political enemies, has discredited the legal, political and electoral system, has demonized the press and has targeted vulnerable members of society, minorities and immigrants, as scapegoats. With questionable historic comparisons, Trump’s critics only fuel his bid to provoke the outrage that is essential to his political appeal. Nikki Haley have only criticized Trump obliquely, understanding there’s no market in the modern Republican Party for confronting Trump’s lawlessness.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Joe Biden’s, “, ” Trump, ”, “ Donald Trump parroted, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Ammar Moussa, he’s, he’ll, else’s, Biden, —, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, there’s, Bob Dole, Mitt Romney, institutionalists, Republican Party isn’t reining, Trump’s, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen, Tim Scott, Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita, …, Mark Milley, who’s, Jack Smith’s, –, Abraham Lincoln’s, George Washington’s, ” Smith Organizations: CNN, White, Veterans, Trump, New York Times, Republican, Democratic, Capitol, Republican Party, GOP, Florida Gov, South Carolina Gov, Justice Department, Conservative Political, Conference, Univision, Joint Chiefs, Staff, NBC News, MSNBC, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Locations: New Hampshire, Gaza, Ukraine, China, Russia, Europe, America, South Carolina

☆ Biden campaign says Trump echoed Hitler with use of word 'vermin'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Claremont, New Hampshire, U.S., November 11, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's 2024 re-election team on Monday said former President Donald Trump had embraced the language of Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler by using the word "vermin" to refer to his political enemies. "Donald Trump thinks he can win by dividing our country. Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, rejected the comparisons to Hitler and Italy's Mussolini. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates also said Trump's use of the word "vermin" echoed Hitler and Mussolini.

Persons: Donald Trump, Brian Snyder, Joe Biden's, Adolf Hitler, Trump, autocrats, Donald Trump parroted, Benito Mussolini –, Biden, Ammar Moussa, he’ll, Steven Cheung, Hitler, Italy's Mussolini, Cheung, Andrew Bates, Mussolini, Bates, Tim Naftali, Naftali, Nathan Layne, Howard Goller Organizations: REUTERS, Veterans, Trump, White, Republican, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, Thomson Locations: Claremont , New Hampshire, U.S, Nazi German, New Hampshire, Wilton , Connecticut

☆ Italy drafts plan for direct election of prime minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Angelo Amante | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Summary Italy suffers from chronic political instabilityCabinet seen discussing proposed reform on FridayBroad majority needed to avoid referendumROME, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and top ministers on Monday backed a constitutional reform proposal introducing the direct election of the prime minister, in an effort to end the country's chronic political instability. Meloni made constitutional reform a key policy plank of her right-wing coalition after winning power in September last year. Italy has had almost 70 governments since World War Two, more than twice the number in Britain and Germany. Matteo Renzi, who stepped down as premier after his failed reform in 2016, said his small centrist Italia Viva party would be ready to back the direct election of the prime minister. The prime minister need not necessarily be an elected politician.

Persons: Giorgia Meloni, Meloni, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, Benito Mussolini's, Matteo Renzi, Angelo Amante, Gavin Jones, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Italian, Monday, Star Movement, Democratic Party, Italia Viva, Thomson Locations: Italy, ROME, Britain, Germany

☆ Opinion: Oxi Day: The true story of how Greece helped defeat the Nazis
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Opinion Christopher Cosmos | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

To fully understand the quote, though, it’s necessary to start further back, in the hours before the invasion and fighting began. Adolf Hitler himself, as Chancellor of Germany and leader of the Axis Powers, had no intention of invading Greece. The German invasionEven though Greece had defied the odds and beaten the Italians when no one thought they could, they wouldn’t be able to defeat the combined Italian and German forces. Join us on Twitter and FacebookOxi Day celebrates the path of bravery, unity, and freedom over the path of fascism, tyranny, and lies. Most of all, Oxi Day is a day that celebrates sacrifice of the highest order by the Greek people during WWII, and all those who fought in Greece alongside them.

Persons: Christopher Cosmos, Winston Churchill, Christopher Cosmos Christopher Cosmos, Ioannis Metaxas, Emanuele Grazzi, Grazzi, Metaxas, “, c’est, oxi, Benito Mussolini’s, Adolf Hitler, he’d, Mussolini, Count Galeazzo Ciano, “ Hitler, Zeus, Alexandros Papagos, Mark Mazower, Hitler, Napoleon, Basileus Leonidas, –, it’s, Wilhelm Keitel, ”, hasn’t, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, that’s what’s Organizations: Facebook, CNN, British, Italian, German, Allies, America, Nuremberg, Russia, Twitter Locations: Grand Rapids , Michigan, Greece, Italian, French, Albania, North Africa, Britain, London, United Kingdom, Italy, America, Athens, Germany, Russia, Thermopylae, Crete, Soviet Union, It’s

It was seen on taking power as the country's most right-wing since wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, as Meloni's Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). At home she pleased her rightist grassroots through measures to defend the traditional family, protect Italy's cultural heritage and try to stem migrant arrivals. That makes it harder for Meloni to keep her tax-cutting promises and makes Italy's debt, equal to 140% of national output, vulnerable to market sell-offs. Last week Meloni weathered the first of several reviews on Italy's debt when S&P Global Ratings confirmed the country's BBB rating with a stable outlook. COMMANDING POSITIONAt home Meloni has so far avoided the domestic political chaos that dogged so many of her predecessors.

Persons: Giorgia Meloni, Juan Medina, Meloni's, Meloni, Benito Mussolini, Valentina Meliciani, Andrea Giambruno, Meliciani, Italy's, Ukraine Meloni, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, Giovanni Orsina, Angelo Amante, Giselda, Gavin Jones, Alex Richardson Organizations: Italy's, REUTERS, Western, Coalition, Italian Social Movement, EU, Ukraine, Democratic Party, Star Movement, League, Forza Italia, Analysts, Thomson Locations: Granada, Spain, ROME, EU, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Rome, Brussels, Africa

Political Cartoons View All 1211 ImagesThe first woman to be Italy's premier, Meloni "won out against Salvini and Berlusconi. Fears for Italy's democracy have proved to be “exaggerated,’’ said Franco, who noted that Italy's president serves as a guarantor of the republic's post-war constitution. Meloni contends the rulings support a long-held belief on the political right that Italy’s magistrates sympathize with the left. Since becoming premier, Meloni has topped surveys of eligible voters, hovering near 30% — compared to the 26% of votes her party garnered in the 2022 election. Currently, Italy's president asks someone likely able to command a parliamentary majority the task of forming a government.

Persons: Giorgia Meloni, —, Matteo Salvini, Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin, Meloni, Salvini, Berlusconi, Massimo Franco, ”, Tommaso Grossi, Ursula von der Leyen —, Joe Biden, ’ ’, Franco, it’s, ” Meloni, Von der Leyen, ″, Roberto Calderoli, Antonio Tajani, Tajani, Meloni’s, “, ″ Grossi, nostalgists, Benito Mussolini, Di Segni, Mussolini, Raf Casert Organizations: ROME, Union, European Commission, EU, Kyiv, Russia’s, Forza Italia, European Policy, White, Italian Rai, European Union, “, Union of Italian, Nazi, Associated Locations: Italy’s, Europe, Italy, Brussels, Rome, Hungary, Poland, Meloni, Ukraine, Lampedusa, Libyan, Tunisia, Italian, Israel, Nazi

☆ Meloni’s Italian job is a lesson for EU’s right
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

This is particularly true of Meloni’s surprise decision in August to tax what she called “unjust profits” by domestic banks. Ill-fated tax credits for building renovations introduced by a previous executive are expected to balloon to up to 150 billion euros, UniCredit analysts reckon. That’s 30 billion euros higher than what the current government predicted in April, or around 1.5% of GDP. That’s Meloni’s biggest Italian lesson for parties like Vox and AfD. CONTEXT NEWSThe Italian Treasury will present new economic targets on Sept. 28, which will be the framework for the country’s 2024 budget.

Persons: Spain’s, Benito Mussolini’s “, Rome ”, Ursula von der Leyen, Meloni, Vladimir Putin, –, Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini – Meloni, ”, Mario Draghi’s, it’s, Giancarlo Giorgetti, Liz Truss, Meloni’s, Vox, Giorgia Meloni, Francesco Guerrera, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, NATO, European Union, EU, Commission, Economy, Italian Treasury, Thomson Locations: Rome, Italy, Ukraine, Kyiv, China, Greece, Brussels, British, Italian

☆ Opinion: Rupert Murdoch helped wreck media — and politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Opinion David Zurawik | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Few media figures in the last 27 years have had a larger and more profound effect on American political and media life than Rupert Murdoch. Ailes, who helped Richard Nixon get elected president in 1968, specialized in the political use of media. Again, Murdoch is not the only reason for the lack of trust in the media and the flood of disinformation and misinformation. I have been writing about Murdoch and Fox since the 1980s, and have observed that Murdoch was more concerned about money than ideology. In a commercial sense, Murdoch is an incredibly successful media figure.

Persons: David Zurawik, Rupert Murdoch, David Zurawik Mich Rouse, Murdoch, Lachlan, Murdoch’s, Roger Ailes, Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mark Zuckerberg, James Organizations: Goucher College, Baltimore Sun, CNN, Fox and News Corporation, Murdoch’s Fox News, Democrats, Fox News, Murdoch, Capitol, Fox, Facebook, Media, Sport Committee Locations: Australia, America, Europe, Germany, Italy, American, Elon Musk’s

☆ Far-right Italian prime minister sues the lead singer of Placebo for calling her a 'fascist' and a 'racist'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Italy's far-right prime minister is suing the lead singer of Placebo for calling her a "fascist." At a concert last month, Brian Molko also described Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a "racist." Meloni was a youth activist in a group founded by a member of dictator Benito Mussolini's government. Now, according to press reports, Meloni herself is suing Molko for defamation, the latest in a string of lawsuits against critics. But as a youth activist, Meloni herself praised the country's former fascist dictator saying that, "everything he did, he did for Italy."

Persons: Brian Molko, Giorgia Meloni, Meloni, Benito Mussolini's, Benito Mussolini, Molko, David Broder, Elly Schlein Organizations: Service, BBC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Turin, Italy

☆ The ex-intel officer who testified the US has proof of aliens previously made the wild claim that the Vatican was part of a UFO cover-up
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An ex-intelligence officer told Congress this week that the US has evidence of "non-human" life. The whistleblower previously made a shocking claim that the Vatican was part of a 90-year cover-up. The Department of Defense has denied that a top-secret program with evidence of alien life exists. Then, shockingly, Grusch said Pope Pius XII "backchanneled that" and the Vatican "told the Americans what the Italians had and we ended up scooping it." He told NewsNation that he's coming forward now because the American people have a right to know that they are being lied to.

Persons: David Grusch, Grusch, that's, NewsNation, Benito Mussolini, Pope Pius XII, Ross Coulthart Organizations: Department of Defense, Service, Air Force, Department of, UAP, Force, Associated Press, NewsNation, Catholic Church, Vatican Locations: Wall, Silicon, Italy

☆ Once Wary, Biden to Host Italy’s Meloni at the White House
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Peter Baker | More About Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In forming a coalition government after last September’s elections, Ms. Meloni became the first far-right nationalist to lead Italy since Benito Mussolini. Like the former president, Ms. Meloni came to office with a long record of skepticism of Western alliances. But Ms. Meloni has shown that she is in charge when it comes to Ukraine. To Washington’s delight, Ms. Meloni has been drawing away from China. Valbona Zeneli, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, said Western leaders misjudged Ms. Meloni after her election.

Persons: Brothers, Meloni, Benito Mussolini, Biden’s, Donald J, Trump, “, Viktor Orban, Matteo Salvini, Silvio Berlusconi, ” Mr, Berlusconi, Vladimir V, Putin, Valbona Organizations: Conservative Political, Conference, Council’s Locations: Italy, Italian, United States, Germany, France, Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, China, Beijing

CNN —Mourners gathered in Milan on Wednesday for the state funeral of Silvio Berlusconi, the divisive and domineering former premier who remained omnipresent in Italian public life for decades until his death this week. Berlusconi’s coffin left Villa San Martino in Arcore, outside Milan, and was transported through the city center to Milan’s gothic Duomo cathedral for Wednesday’s service. Berlusconi, who had a lengthy, scandal-ridden career, died at a Milan hospital on Monday aged 86. But Lana opposed the award of a state funeral to Berlusconi, citing the many trials against him. Widely regarded as Italy’s most colorful public figure, Berlusconi was elected prime minister three times and served for a total of nine years, longer than anyone since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Persons: Silvio Berlusconi, Villa, Berlusconi, –, Sergio Mattarella, Giorgia Meloni, Viktor Orbán, Paolo Gentiloni, Monsignor Mario Delpini, ” “ Silvio Berlusconi, ”, “, Italy …, Jessica Lana, Lana, Guglielmo Mangiapane, Tomaso Montanari, Monatanari, Milan’s, Marina, Benito Mussolini, Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Organizations: CNN, Villa San, SkyTG24, Forza Italia, AC Milan football team, EU, Reuters, University for Foreigners of, Milan’s San Raffaele, Milan, Bloomberg Locations: Milan, Arcore, Italian, Rei, Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy, Milan’s, University for Foreigners of Siena

☆ Opinion: Before Trump or Viktor Orban, there was Italy’s Berlusconi
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Ruth Ben-Ghiat | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —“I’m the most persecuted man in all of history,” then-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi claimed in 2009, just after Italy’s constitutional court stripped him of immunity from prosecution, leaving him vulnerable as he faced yet another corruption trial. Berlusconi, the three-time Italian prime minister who died this week at 86, wrote the script for an authoritarian style of leadership within a democracy. The flamboyant billionaire owner of a business, media and sports empire, Berlusconi privatized Italian television in the 1980s. Italian television had been limited to three state-owned RAI national networks, but by the 1980s Berlusconi’s Mediaset conglomerate owned the three largest private channels. Berlusconi also raised fears in Italians about the loss of “tradition,” using the specter of Italian demographic decline to justify anti-immigrant policies that preceded those of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other far-right leaders.

Persons: Ruth Ben, “ Strongmen, Mussolini, CNN — “, ”, Silvio Berlusconi, Berlusconi, Benito Mussolini —, Vladimir Putin, Marcello Dell’Utri, Publitalia, Ferdinando Meazza, “ Mussolini, ” Berlusconi, Viktor Orban, Fininvest, Sergei Chirikov, Donald Trump, “ Organizations: CNN, New York University, Italian, Forza Italia, National Alliance, Italian Social, Northern League, AC Milan soccer, RAI, AC Milan, Milan, Milan's, Italian Communist Party, British, Kremlin, Getty, Twitter, Facebook Locations: Italian, Milan, Milan's San Siro, Italy, Western Europe, Hungarian, Moscow, AFP

☆ The Many Twists, Quotes and Scandals of Silvio Berlusconi
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Alan Yuhas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“I am the Jesus Christ of politics,” he said in 2006. “I am a patient victim, I bear everything, I sacrifice myself for everyone.”A sex scandal and public exhaustionBut Mr. Berlusconi’s bombastic personality, the accusations of corruption and his chaotic tenure grated on a public tired of debt and inequality. And he continued to outrage. Visiting earthquake survivors in the Abruzzo region in 2009, he said, “They should look at it as a weekend of camping.” The next year, the Vatican’s official newspaper condemned him for telling a “deplorable” joke about Jews and the Holocaust. That same year, he told people at a motorcycle show that it is “better to be fond of beautiful girls than gay.”

Persons: Benito Mussolini “, “ Mussolini, ”, “, “ I’ve, Christ Organizations: European Union, Finns Locations: Italy, Finnish, Finland, Parma, Abruzzo

☆ Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's former showman leader, dies at 86
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Valentina Di Donato Barbie Latza Nadeau Laura Smith-Spark Peter Wilkinson Antonia Mortensen Rob Picheta | Valentina Di Donato | Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

Umberto Cicconi/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Berlusconi swims at a Tunisian beach in 1984. Umberto Cicconi/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Berlusconi leaves a 1985 news conference in Paris. Franco Origlia/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Berlusconi announced in November 1993 that he would be entering the world of politics. Franco Origlia/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Berlusconi waves while attending a European Council meeting in Corfu, Greece, in June 1994. Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images Berlusconi hands the Berlusconi Trophy to AC Milan's Massimo Ambrosini in August 2011.

Persons: Rome, Rome CNN — Silvio Berlusconi, Christ, ”, Berlusconi, Milan’s, Benito Mussolini, “ Il Cavaliere ”, Milan, Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini, Silvio Berlusconi, Alessandra Benedetti, Eric Vandeville, Indro Montanelli, Umberto Cicconi, Italy's, Michel Clement, Francis Apesteguy, Veronica Lario, Franco Origlia, Langevin Jacques, Sygma, Cesare Previti, Pope John Paul II, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Veronica, William Stevens, Barbara, Eleonora, Oscar Scalfaro, Patrick Hertzog, Romano Prodi, Alberto Pizzoli, Giuseppe Cacace, Gregorio Borgia, Associated Press Berlusconi, Vittorio Zunino Celotto, Massimo Ambrosini, Claudio Villa, Dan Kitwood, preliminarily, Filippo Monteforte, Alessia Pierdomenico, Remo Casilli, Reuters Berlusconi, Giuseppe Lami, Angelo Carconi, Emanuele Cremaschi, Tiziana Fabi, Luigi Brugnaro, Renato Brunetta, Piero Cruciatti, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Britain’s Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, “ Berlusconi, ” Severgnini, ” Meloni, Claudia Greco, Prodi –, –, Berlusconi’s, Ignazio La Russa, “, Gianfranco Fini –, FILIPPO MONTEFORTE, Vladimir Putin, Volodymr Zelensky, Nobel, salesmanship ’, Jesus Christ, Severgnini, il, salesmanship, Francesca Pascale, Del, Pavarotti, ” Berlusconi, Marina, Carla Dall’Oglio, Luigi Organizations: Rome CNN, Milan’s San Raffaele, Forza Italia, Freedom, Italian, Getty, Canale, AC Milan, Berlusconi, Romano, Associated Press, Associated, Bloomberg, Reuters, Venice, Anadolu Agency, RAI, Media, Milano, Milan –, world’s, Forza Italia Party, Forza, soccer team, Northern League Party, European, Union coalition, Sporting, della, PM, “, ”, Del Monaco Locations: Milan, Paris, AFP, Naples, Italy, Rome, Corfu, Greece, Tatanto, Cannes, France, Italy's, Venice, Italy's Senate, Monza, Lombardy, ”, L’Aquila, Milan’s, Italian, Europe, Ukraine

☆ Roman Emperor Caligula's massive party ships were not burned by the Nazis during World War II, researchers say. A US artillery unit was to blame.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

For decades, many believed the Nazis were responsible for the destruction of Caligula's Nemi ships. While many believed the Nazis burned them during World War II, a new book finds that a US artillery unit was responsible for their destruction. At the time, it was widely believed that Hitler's Nazis were responsible for the burned ships. But a new book shines a light on their history — claiming it was a US artillery unit that burned the vessels. "Whoever is doing the fighting, war is always destructive"US soldiers with mortar shells scrawled with anti-Hitler chalk messages, 1943.

☆ Italian minister Francesco Lollobrigida 'ethnic replacement' claim sparks fury in Italy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Rome CNN —The brother-in-law and close political ally of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has warned that Italy’s low birth rate and an increase in irregular immigration could lead to “ethnic replacement,” sparking anger from the country’s opposition. Francesco Lollobrigida remarks comes in response to a recent report which found Italy has one of the world’s lowest birthrates with fewer than 400,000 births in 2022. Yes to helping births, no to ethnic replacement. Meloni’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and she has yet to make a public statement. Matteo Salvini, a junior partner in Meloni’s coalition of far-right and center-right parties, had previously tweeted about the threat of “ethnic replacement” in 2017, and Meloni had used the term in political speeches in 2016.

Search resuls for: "Benito Mussolini"

25 mentions found