The Italian Coast Guard was on Tuesday escorting two boats carrying 1,200 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of a major operation in a region that has seen migrant arrivals spike in the past year.
Emergency workers were racing to rescue a barge with 400 migrants onboard that had ran out of fuel, according to the volunteer-run service Alarm Phone. The Coast Guard told CNN later Monday that it is also escorting another vessel carrying 800 migrants.
Alarm Phone said in a tweet it had spoken to passengers at 10.56 a.m. local time (4.56 a.m. ET), describing the situation on board as “dramatic,” with the boat starting to leak. “They report several medical emergencies, water filling the vessel and no fuel left. We have informed the authorities,” Alarm phone said.
The coast guard is traveling next to the boat en route to Italy because an escort is “safer” than attempting to rescue those on board in poor weather, said Felix Weiss, a spokesman for Sea-Watch International, a German organization that runs search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean.
The migrants had been stranded along an immigration route between Italy and Malta that NGOs have warned is perilously dangerous.
The boat with 400 migrants departed from Tobruk, Libya, and had been at risk of capsizing with water in the hull, according to Alarm Phone. The service also said many on board required medical attention, including a child, a pregnant woman and a disabled person.
The Italian Coast Guard also said Monday that more than 1,700 migrants had arrived on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa in the last 48 hours. Lampedusa, the closest Italian island to Africa, is a major destination for migrants seeking to enter European Union countries.
Every year, tens of thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution and poverty risk the treacherous route in search of safety and better economic prospects. In many cases, their vessels are overcrowded and unfit for the journey, and the need to rescue migrants on board often leads to disputes between countries about who should take them in.
More than 28,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, according to the country’s Interior Ministry – a significant surge compared to recent years. The number of migrants arriving in Italy this year are the highest seen in the country since 2017, according to figures by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Most arrivals have journeyed from the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Pakistan.
Actor and television host Eva Longoria sits down with Lee Cowan to discuss her CNN travel show “Searching for Mexico.” Then, Seth Doane travels to Pompeii, Italy, to learn about archaeologists’ new discoveries. “Here Comes the Sun” is a closer look at some of the people, places and things we bring you every week on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
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The coastguard rescued 17 others, two of whom are in critical condition, says Sfax court judge Faouzi Masmousdi.
At least 20 people are missing after a boat attempting to cross the Mediterranean sank off Tunisia, according to an official, amid a sharp rise in the number of refugees trying to reach Europe by boat from the North African country.
The coastguard rescued 17 others, two of whom are in critical condition, after the boat sank off the coast of Sfax, Sfax court judge Faouzi Masmousdi said on Saturday.
Tunisia has replaced Libya as a main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better life in Europe.
Tunisia’s National Guard said on Friday that more than 14,000 refugees, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were intercepted or rescued in the first three months of the year while trying to cross into Europe, five times more than figures recorded in the same period last year.
“Coast guard patrols prevent 501 clandestine attempts to cross the maritime border and rescued 14,406 [refugees] including 13,138 from sub-Saharan African countries,” between January 1 and March 31, it said in a statement.
The vast majority of interceptions took place off the coast of Sfax and Mahdia provinces, whose shores lie just 150km (90 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday that Europe risked seeing a huge wave of refugees arriving on its shores from North Africa if financial stability in Tunisia were not safeguarded.
Meloni called on the International Money Fund and other countries to help Tunisia quickly to avoid its collapse.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar said last week that the country needed funding and equipment to better protect its borders. Tunisia had received equipment from Italy in the past years, but Ammar said it was outdated and not sufficient.
Congratulations! “organized labor” wins our Hemingway award for April 12, 2023.
NEWARK, NJ, USA, April 1, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — Exits and Entrances (AuthorHouse.com) wins Official Selection Award on Film Freeway (2023) in Rome, Italy.
Exits and Entrances (AuthorHouse.com) wins award on Film Freeway as best book in 2023 in Rome, Italy.
Having produced and seen opera since I was in high-school EVERY performance that goes well is a miracle. There have been disasters at The Met, NY City Opera between management and singers; directors and designers; stage-hands and stage managers and Off-Broadway. Don’t break a leg is often in play on or off-stage.
Exits and Entrances (AuthorHouse.com) chronicles 30 years of some of these. Break a leg but look 3 times in all directions., believe me
My Projects – AuthorHouse
Exits and Entrances: Producing Off-Broadway, Opera & Beyond: 1981-2006
Daniel P. Quinn
Genre :BIO026000ISBN
Format Price Status 97814259263046×9
Perfect Bound Softcover $19.99 Title Live
Congratulations! “organized labor” wins our Hemingway award for April 12, 2023.
This was our 4th Award since 2022 (as noted below). “Sweet Democracy Film Awards was created by the production team that made the latest film with Nobel Prize-winning writer Dario Fo…
Italians who use English and other foreign words in official communications could face fines of up to €100,000 ($108,705) under new legislation introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.
Fabio Rampelli, a member of the lower chamber of deputies, introduced the legislation, which is supported by the prime minister.
While the legislation encompasses all foreign languages, it is particularly geared at “Anglomania” or use of English words, which the draft states “demeans and mortifies” the Italian language, adding that it is even worse because the UK is no longer part of the EU.
The bill, which has yet to go up for parliamentary debate, requires anyone who holds an office in public administration to have “written and oral knowledge and mastery of the Italian language.” It also prohibits use of English in official documentation, including “acronyms and names” of job roles in companies operating in the country.
Foreign entities would have to have Italian language editions of all internal regulations and employment contracts, according to a draft of the legislation seen by CNN.
“It is not just a matter of fashion, as fashions pass, but Anglomania has repercussions for society as a whole,” the draft bill states.
The first article of the legislation guarantees that even in offices that deal with non Italian-speaking foreigners, Italian must be the primary language used.
Article 2 would make Italian “mandatory for the promotion and use of public goods and services in the national territory.” Not doing so could garner fines between €5,000 ($5,435) and €100,000 ($108,705).
Under the proposed law, the Culture Ministry would establish a committee whose remit would include “correct use of the Italian language and its pronunciation” in schools, media, commerce and advertising.
This would mean that saying “bru-shetta” instead of “bru-sketta” could be a punishable offense.
The move to safeguard the Italian language joins an existing bid by the government to protect the country’s cuisine.
It has introduced legislation to ban so-called synthetic or cell-based cuisine due to the lack of scientific studies on the effects of synthetic food, as well as “to safeguard our nation’s heritage and our agriculture based on the Mediterranean diet,” Meloni’s Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said in a press conference.
Last week, Italy’s ministers of Culture and Agriculture officially entered Italian cuisine into candidacy for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, which will be decided in December 2025.
Editor’s note: In collaboration with Danwatch, IRPI Media and The Wire, this investigation took place in Italy, India and Denmark – and was made possible with the support of the EU Journalism Fund.
The 12 armed men appeared just before sunrise, as darkness hung thick over the remote farm outside Borgo Sabotino, south of Rome.
It was March 17, 2017, a date Balbir Singh will never forget.
“I was really scared. The farm owners shouted for me to run away. But I did not,” said Singh, a decision he is happy to have made.
The 12 men were Italian police in plain clothes, and kindly asked him to come along.
“My clothes were filthy. My state was dreadful. I had deep wounds on my hands and feet, and my nails were bleeding. But it was a big day. In the minutes before we left, I saw that the police had arrested the farm owner and his wife.”
Singh, a former English teacher and longtime farm worker who hails from the Punjab region known as India’s breadbasket, said he suffered six years of exploitation in Italy, citing violence, death threats, theft, lack of pay, hunger and deprivation.
Like other Indian workers in Italy, Singh arrived and could not understand the Italian language, had little money and no knowledge of his rights.
For long periods, Singh had no food. He lived on the stale bread he found in the farming family’s rubbish bin or leftovers they had thrown out to feed pigs and chickens.
He lived in an old caravan without gas, electricity or heating.
No one heard his cry for help, until one day, the Italian sociologist and researcher Marco Omizzolo was notified by a fellow Indian worker – and asked local police to intervene.
Balbir Singh reflects on his treatment on an Italian kiwi farm [Stefania Prandi/Al Jazeera]
Singh is one of the few migrant workers who has taken his former employer to court.
He sought justice for the humiliations to which he was subjected and wanted raise awareness of the conditions of migrants.
In 2018, he became the first immigrant in Italy to be granted a residence permit “for reasons of justice”.
The trial is continuing.
Farming’green gold’ plantations
During the past 30 years, Indian workers – mostly from Punjab – have come to Agro Pontino, an area south of Rome, but few dare to speak out, especially to foreigners and journalists, about the abuse they have endured.
According to Omizzolo, of the 30,000 Indian residents in Italy, most are employed as labourers in the Italian fruit-and-vegetable sector.
Agro Pontino is one of the country’s most productive growing regions and its flagship products include kiwis, locally known as “green gold”.
Between July and December, many Indian labourers work in kiwi plantations.
Italy produces 320,000 tonnes of kiwis annually, mostly in Lazio, and exports to 50 countries, making it the main European producer and the third-largest in the world after China and New Zealand.
It is a market worth more than 400 million euros ($431m), led by Zespri, a multinational company.
Zespri is best known for the yellow-fleshed variety – one of their patents – the SunGold.
From the fields of small and medium-sized farms, the kiwis are taken to the cooperatives’ large warehouses, where they are packed and branded with the Zespri logo, before being marketed throughout Europe.
The rules for harvesting Zespri kiwis are strict; cotton gloves are mandatory and delicate, precise manoeuvres are required to preserve the fruit.
Workers described being forced to work in the fields seven days a week, 10-11 hours a day, and are paid no more than six euros ($6.50) an hour. Adequate toilets and taking breaks are out of reach for many, while several workers told Al Jazeera that they were not regularly given compulsory protective equipment such as gloves and masks.
In addition, the impermanence of the jobs make them seem perilous – without a regular work contract, it is not possible to renew a residence permit and live legally in Italy.
To get to Italy, workers pay up to 15,000 euros ($16,200) to Indian intermediaries and incur in debts in India.
Many take on loans from acquaintances and relatives, or sell land, cows, and family jewellery.
But staying at home is not an option – the monthly salary of those who do manual labour in Punjab is usually between 80 and 120 euros ($87 to $120). In Italy, an Indian labourer receives an average 863 euros ($934) per month.
Italy is the main European kiwi producer and the third-largest in the world after China and New Zealand [Stefania Prandi/Al Jazeera]
Gurjinder, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, worked for three years for a company that sells kiwis to Zespri.
With a low voice, hunched shoulders, and tearful eyes, he remembered when a supervisor who scolded him, shouting as soon as he stopped working for a few moments.
“She insulted me and threatened to beat me up.”
In the fields, the supervisor filmed him three times with her mobile phone as he stopped to drink and something got into his eyes.
The videos served as “proof” of his lack of efficiency and were handed over to the head of the company in an episode seen as a “warning” to other workers.
When asked why he did not leave the company immediately, Gurjinder held his head in his gnarled hands and burst into tears.
“I had no choice, I had to earn for my four children and my wife. They stayed in India, I haven’t seen them for 13 years.”
Zespri told Al Jazeera that while most employers in the kiwifruit industry “care for their people, a small minority may be failing to do so”.
The company added, “Any exploitation of workers is unacceptable and we are committed to holding those people involved to account, and to continuing to improve our compliance frameworks to help us do so. We take the allegations made extremely seriously and have commenced an investigation into this, including how we can best support affected workers.”
It works with more than 1,200 growers in Italy who are required to have the Global Gap GRASP (Global Risk Assessment On Social Practice) certificate, an independent and international certification system that outlines criteria for the safety, health, and welfare of workers, Zespri said.
Its suppliers who package the product are registered with Sedex, a third-party certification body that monitors workers’ conditions for Italian suppliers of SunGold Kiwifruit.
Zespri said it has contacted both third-party certification bodies and its suppliers “to make them aware of the alleged unfair practices” alleged in this investigation and “to try to obtain more information” about them.
At present, there are no formal complaints against the consortia that sell kiwis to Zespri, or against the multinational company itself.
Back in India for a visit to attend his son’s wedding, Singh said he now feels like a “free soul”.
“I am waiting for my compensation and the closure of the case. Then I want to take my wife to Italy, where I have decided to build a house. I can’t wait for good days to come,” he said.
“Life is a struggle and one must fight, but I would never want even the worst of my enemies to face the problems I faced. Even today, when I remember that time, I get goosebumps.”
Workers who farm Italy’s fruit plantations live in makeshift homes with little comfort [Stefania Prandi/Al Jazeera]
Western governments are ticked off with TikTok. The Chinese-owned app loved by teenagers around the world is facing allegations of facilitating espionage, failing to protect personal data, and even of corrupting young minds.
Governments in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and across Europe have moved to ban the use of TikTok on officials’ phones in recent months. If hawks get their way, the app could face further restrictions. The White House has demanded that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, sell the app or face an outright ban in the U.S.
But do the allegations stack up? Security officials have given few details about why they are moving against TikTok. That may be due to sensitivity around matters of national security, or it may simply indicate that there’s not much substance behind the bluster.
TikTok’s Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew will be questioned in the U.S. Congress on Thursday and can expect politicians from all sides of the spectrum to probe him on TikTok’s dangers. Here are some of the themes they may pick up on:
1. Chinese access to TikTok data
Perhaps the most pressing concern is around the Chinese government’s potential access to troves of data from TikTok’s millions of users.
Western security officials have warned that ByteDance could be subject to China’s national security legislation, particularly the 2017 National Security Law that requires Chinese companies to “support, assist and cooperate” with national intelligence efforts. This law is a blank check for Chinese spy agencies, they say.
TikTok’s user data could also be accessed by the company’s hundreds of Chinese engineers and operations staff, any one of whom could be working for the state, Western officials say. In December 2022, some ByteDance employees in China and the U.S. targeted journalists at Western media outlets using the app (and were later fired).
EU institutions banned their staff from having TikTok on their work phones last month. An internal email sent to staff of the European Data Protection Supervisor, seen by POLITICO, said the move aimed “to reduce the exposure of the Commission from cyberattacks because this application is collecting so much data on mobile devices that could be used to stage an attack on the Commission.”
And the Irish Data Protection Commission, TikTok’s lead privacy regulator in the EU, is set to decide in the next few months if the company unlawfully transferred European users’ data to China.
Skeptics of the security argument say that the Chinese government could simply buy troves of user data from little-regulated brokers. American social media companies like Twitter have had their own problems preserving users’ data from the prying eyes of foreign governments, they note.
TikTok says it has never given data to the Chinese government and would decline if asked to do so. Strictly speaking, ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which TikTok argues would shield it from legal obligations to assist Chinese agencies. ByteDance is owned 20 percent by its founders and Chinese investors, 60 percent by global investors, and 20 percent by employees.
There’s little hope to completely stop European data from going to China | Alex Plavevski/EPA
The company has unveiled two separate plans to safeguard data. In the U.S., Project Texas is a $1.5 billion plan to build a wall between the U.S. subsidiary and its Chinese owners. The €1.2 billion European version, named Project Clover, would move most of TikTok’s European data onto servers in Europe.
Nevertheless, TikTok’s chief European lobbyist Theo Bertram also said in March that it would be “practically extremely difficult” to completely stop European data from going to China.
2. A way in for Chinese spies
If Chinese agencies can’t access TikTok’s data legally, they can just go in through the back door, Western officials allege. China’s cyber-spies are among the best in the world, and their job will be made easier if datasets or digital infrastructure are housed in their home territory.
Dutch intelligence agencies have advised government officials to uninstall apps from countries waging an “offensive cyber program” against the Netherlands — including China, but also Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Critics of the cyber espionage argument refer to a 2021 study by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which found that the app did not exhibit the “overtly malicious behavior” that would be expected of spyware. Still, the director of the lab said researchers lacked information on what happens to TikTok data held in China.
TikTok’s Project Texas and Project Clover include steps to assuage fears of cyber espionage, as well as legal data access. The EU plan would give a European security provider (still to be determined) the power to audit cybersecurity policies and data controls, and to restrict access to some employees. Bertram said this provider could speak with European security agencies and regulators “without us [TikTok] being involved, to give confidence that there’s nothing to hide.”
Bertram also said the company was looking to hire more engineers outside China.
3. Privacy rights
Critics of TikTok have accused the app of mass data collection, particularly in the U.S., where there are no general federal privacy rights for citizens.
In jurisdictions that do have strict privacy laws, TikTok faces widespread allegations of failing to comply with them.
The company is being investigated in Ireland, the U.K. and Canada over its handling of underage users’ data. Watchdogs in the Netherlands, Italy and France have also investigated its privacy practices around personalized advertising and for failing to limit children’s access to its platform.
TikTok has denied accusations leveled in some of the reports and argued that U.S. tech companies are collecting the same large amount of data. Meta, Amazon and others have also been given large fines for violating Europeans’ privacy.
4. Psychological operations
Perhaps the most serious accusation, and certainly the most legally novel one, is that TikTok is part of an all-encompassing Chinese civilizational struggle against the West. Its role: to spread disinformation and stultifying content in young Western minds, sowing division and apathy.
Earlier this month, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency warned that Chinese control of TikTok’s algorithm could allow the government to carry out influence operations among Western populations. TikTok says it has around 300 million active users in Europe and the U.S. The app ranked as the most downloaded in 2022.
A woman watches a video of Egyptian influencer Haneen Hossam | Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images
Reports emerged in 2019 suggesting that TikTok was censoring pro-LGBTQ content and videos mentioning Tiananmen Square. ByteDance has also been accused of pushing inane time-wasting videos to Western children, in contrast to the wholesome educational content served on its Chinese app Douyin.
Besides accusations of deliberate “influence operations,” TikTok has also been criticized for failing to protect children from addiction to its app, dangerous viral challenges, and disinformation. The French regulator said last week that the app was still in the “very early stages” of content moderation. TikTok’s Italian headquarters was raided this week by the consumer protection regulator with the help of Italian law enforcement to investigate how the company protects children from viral challenges.
Researchers at Citizen Lab said that TikTok doesn’t enforce obvious censorship. Other critics of this argument have pointed out that Western-owned platforms have also been manipulated by foreign countries, such as Russia’s campaign on Facebook to influence the 2016 U.S. elections.
TikTok says it has adapted its content moderation since 2019 and regularly releases a transparency report about what it removes. The company has also touted a “transparency center” that opened in the U.S. in July 2020 and one in Ireland in 2022. It has also said it will comply with new EU content moderation rules, the Digital Services Act, which will request that platforms give access to regulators and researchers to their algorithms and data.
Additional reporting by Laura Kayali in Paris, Sue Allan in Ottawa, Brendan Bordelon in Washington, D.C., and Josh Sisco in San Francisco.
On the future of the internal combustion engine, Germany has gotten its own way, again.
The European Commission and Germany’s Transport Ministry announced a deal Saturday morning that commits the EU executive to figuring out a legal way to allow the sale of new engine-installed cars running exclusively on synthetic e-fuels even after a mandate comes into force requiring sales of only zero-emission vehicles from 2035.
“We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars,” the Commission’s Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said on Twitter. “We will work now on getting the CO2 standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible.”
The deal heads off a row over car legislation that was all-but-agreed until Germany, along with a small club of allies, slammed on the brakes just days before formal final approval on a law that is the centerpiece of the EU’s green agenda.
Timmermans said the Commission would “follow up swiftly” with “legal steps” to turn a non-binding annex to the law, introduced originally at the insistence of Europe’s car-making titan Germany, into a concrete workaround allowing new vehicles running on e-fuels, which do emit some CO2, to be sold post-2035.
As a first step, the Commission has agreed to carve out a new category of e-fuel-only vehicles inside the existing Euro 6 automotive rulebook and then integrate that classification into the contentious CO2 standards legislation that mandates the 2035 phase-out date for sales of new combustion-engine vehicles.
The terms of the final deal from Timmermans’ cabinet chief Diederik Samsom, seen by POLITICO, say the Commission will reopen the text of the engine-ban law if EU lawmakers manage to stop the introduction of a technical annex that would make space for e-fuels alongside the agreed CO2 standards. Reopening the proposed law’s text is a move that is fundamentally opposed by the European Parliament and green-minded countries.
The crux of the standoff was that Germany demanded binding legal language that would ensure the Commission would find a way to satisfy Berlin’s demands even if the European Parliament, or the courts, moved to block any tweaks or legal annexes to the 2035 zero-emissions legislation covering cars and vans.
In the statement, Samsom promised the Commission will publish its full e-fuels proposal as a so-called delegated act this fall. In practice, that means the original 2035 legislation will pass at first — offering the European Commission a critical win — but it sets up a future fight over the technical additions needed to satisfy Berlin.
“The law that 100 percent of cars sold after 2035 must be zero emissions will be voted unchanged by next Tuesday,” said Pascal Canfin, the French liberal lawmaker spearheading the file in the assembly. “Parliament will decide in due course on the Commission’s future proposals on e-fuels.”
Engine endgame
The deal means energy ministers can sign off on the original 2035 proposal during a meeting on Tuesday given that Berlin now has assurances that its demands will be met. In advance, EU ambassadors will review the bilateral deal between Brussels and Berlin on Monday, an EU diplomat said.
The agreement caps a decade of German pushback on EU automotive emissions rule-making.
In 2013, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened late to water down previous iterations of car emission standards legislation, securing tweaks critical to the country’s hulking automotive industry.
The deal means Germany has effectively dropped its last-minute opposition to the car engine ban law | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Since the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal, most carmakers have shifted their investments toward electric vehicles, but some industry interests, notably high-end carmakers such as Porsche and Germany’s web of combustion engine component makers, have sought to save traditional gas guzzlers from the clutches of a de facto EU sales ban.
Figuring out a final workaround on e-fuels in the 2035 legislation will still take some months, given that technical standards haven’t yet been clarified for setting out a “robust and evasion-proof” system for selling cars that can only be fuelled on synthetic alternatives to petrol and diesel, according to Samsom’s statement.
The timeline is already clear in Berlin’s perspective. “We want the process to be completed by autumn 2024,” said the German Transport Ministry, which is run by the country’s Free Democratic Party. The FDP, the most junior in Germany’s three-way governing coalition, had wanted fixed legal language to guarantee a loophole for e-fuels, which can theoretically be CO2-neutral but which wouldn’t normally comply with the emissions legislation since they do still emit tailpipe pollutants.
With the FDP’s popularity tumbling, the car policy row with Brussels has been a popular talking point in German media over recent weeks. One survey reports that 67 percent of respondents are against the engine ban legislation. Ahead of national elections in late 2025, the FDP is betting on driver-friendly policies such as e-fuels, new road construction initiatives and a block on the implementation of a national highway speed limit, to raise its profile.
Market watchers don’t anticipate e-fuels to offer much in the way of a mass-market alternative to electric vehicles, given that they are costly to produce and don’t exist in commercial volumes today. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research reports that even if all global e-fuel production was allocated to German consumers, the output would only meet a tenth of national demand in the aviation, maritime and chemical sectors by 2035.
“E-fuels are an expensive and massively inefficient diversion from the transformation to electric facing Europe’s carmakers,” said Julia Poliscanova from the green group Transport & Environment.
Auto politics
Despite not being on the formal agenda, the issue dominated discussions on the sidelines of this week’s summit of EU leaders in Brussels. A deal between Brussels and Berlin was only struck at 9 p.m. on Friday, hours after leaders left the EU capital, before being formally announced on social media early Saturday.
“The way is clear,” said German Transport Minister Volker Wissing in announcing the agreement. “We have secured opportunities for Europe by keeping important options open for climate-neutral and affordable mobility.”
The deal means Germany has effectively dropped its last-minute opposition to the car engine ban law, collapsing a blocking minority of Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic that had put a roadblock in front of final ratification by ministers of the deal reached last October between the three EU institutions.
It remains unclear whether Italy’s attempts to find a separate workaround for biofuels — promoted personally by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the summit — also succeeded. However, without Berlin’s support, Rome doesn’t have a way to block the legislation.
German Transport Minister Volker Wissing | Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Responses to the Commission working up a bespoke fix for its biggest member country on otherwise agreed legislation were generally negative, with many arguing the e-fuels issue is a diversion.
“The opening for e-fuels does not mean a significant change for the transformation to electric cars,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the Center for Automotive Research in Duisburg. He said the Commission’s dealmaking raised “new investment uncertainties” that undermined the bloc’s efforts to catch up with China, the world’s leading producer of electric vehicles.
Still, most are just happy that the combustion engine row is ended, for now.
“It is good that this impasse is over,” said German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, who backed the original 2035 deal without a reference to e-fuels. “Anything else would have severely damaged both confidence in European procedures and in Germany’s reliability inside European politics,” the minister said in a statement.
Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with billionaire Rocco Commisso about his journey from building cable TV empire Mediacom to owning an Italian soccer club ACF Fiorentina.
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A billionaire cable TV empire owner does not own a yacht, private jet and mansion on a beach, instead he shelled out $170 million to buy an Italian pro soccer team.
Rocco Commisso, 73, bought ACF Fiorentina in Florence three years ago. His wife told him that if he insisted on buying a team, it needed to be somewhere nice. The price tag was also a bargain for a European club.
The American owner is under relentless scrutiny by Fiorentina fans who demand that he pay whatever it costs to bring in stars and end their 50-year championship drought. Fiorentina, which is nicknamed “La Viola” — “the Purple” — has not won a league championship since 1969. Fans, known as the Tifosi, got sick of waiting and ran the previous owner out of town.
“But they can’t kick Rocco outta here, you know? They think they, they gonna criticize me and kick me out. They, no, that can’t happen,” Commiso told 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. “Rocco’s a little different.”
Rocco Commisso and Sharyn Alfonsi in the Bronx
60 Minutes
That difference started with hustle he learned on the streets of the Bronx. Commisso grew up in southern Italy, but his family moved to the United States to escape poverty. His father and brother crossed the Atlantic first, followed by 12-year-old Commisso, his mother and his two sisters.
Commisso, whose net worth is $8 billion, doesn’t think he’d have been able to achieve the same level of success if he’d stayed in Italy.
“No way. This is truly the land of opportunity. It gave this poor soul, OK, yeah, the opportunity to become something, somebody,” he said. “And that’s the beauty of America.”
His American dream started with a deal to play accordion. Then 13, Commisso’s English was terrible, but he played a mean accordion. He agreed to perform free of charge at a Bronx theater if the manager helped him get into a Catholic all-boys’ school, Mount Saint Michael Academy. The manager sent a recommendation letter and Commisso was admitted to the school.
“I got lucky or hustled, whichever way you wanna call it,” he said.
Commisso kept hustling. He worked at his family’s luncheonette before and after school each day to pay his high school tuition.
“So I used to get paid $1 an hour, and through that $1 an hour, I paid four years of Mount Saint Michael schooling,” he said.
Commisso wanted to be an engineer, but a dollar an hour wasn’t going to cover the college tuition, so Commisso hunted down a scholarship. He hadn’t played much soccer since he came to the U.S., but he had always loved the sport, so he turned to it when he needed a scholarship.
Commisso asked his gym teacher to call an NYU coach, who then put Commisso on a team and watched him play for six days.
“He says, ‘Yeah, I like the kid. So let’s … let me help him get into NYU,’ which he did. And they gave me 50% scholarship, but that was not enough,” Commisso said. “So I then told the gym teacher, ‘Go and call the coach at Columbia now.’ In the space of three to four weeks they give me admissions to Columbia and a full scholarship.”
Commisso became team captain and led Columbia University to its first NCAA tournament.
After graduating and earning an MBA, Commisso made his way to Wall Street. At night, he helped his brother run a disco, where Commisso chose to play Italian pop music.
“I was really into Italian music and, and came up with this idea that by specializing in something as opposed to being just like anybody else, you know, we could do well,” he said. “And nobody could touch us in terms of the competition because nobody had it.”
Commisso carried that same mentality to the cable TV industry where he became an executive just as the business exploded. In 1995, he decided to start his own company, named Mediacom.
“What I foresaw is the fact that sooner or later, we’re gonna get deregulated, and there’s a great opportunity to do well in the smaller markets of the U.S., the rural markets, largely because nobody wanted them,” he said.
Rocco Commisso at the Mediacom office
60 Minutes
Commisso risked his life savings to buy up small systems. Again, timing and luck were on his side. Today, Mediacom provides broadband in 22 states. He works alongside his wife, sister and son. Despite the size of the business, Commisso says owning a soccer team is more difficult.
“I get more criticism here than in 1,500 communities in the U.S.,” Commisso said.
There’s been aggravation and, at times, Commisso has lost it with the unforgiving press, but the billionaire from the Bronx has never questioned buying the team.
“I made the decision. I’m gonna stick with the decision,” he said.
Fiorentina fans, also known as Tifosi
60 Minutes
True to his way, Commisso’s playing the long game. He’s spending $100 million on Viola Park. Once completed, it will be one of the largest soccer facilities in Europe for developing young players.
Back in the U.S., he’s given millions to his alma maters and has contributed to scholarships for nearly 3,000 students across the U.S., including many first generation immigrants, like him.
Despite the costs, agita and ACF Fiorentina’s so-so season, Commisso still seems to love the business. He’s become one of the most famous Americans in Italy, but Commisso wants to be known as “Just Rocco.”
“I just wanna be known as the guy that, nothing, success, never changed him,” he said.
Tonight, we are going to tell you one of those “only in America” stories, but this one begins and ends on the other side of the Atlantic. Rocco Commisso was 12 years old when his family moved to the United States from southern Italy. With the hustle he learned on the streets of the Bronx and exceptional timing, Commisso built a cable TV empire and a net worth of $8 billion. So, what did he do with his made-in-the-USA fortune? Rocco Commisso returned to the land of his birth and bought a pro soccer team.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You’ve described yourself as a hustler. What does that mean?
Rocco Commisso: Well always in the good sense of a hustler-because it could have a terrible sense, right? A hustler is never– you know, always try to find a way to achieve a certain objective, hustle, hustle. Don’t give up. Don’t take no for an answer
Sharyn Alfonsi: I’ve heard that you have no tolerance for people you call spinners.
Rocco Commisso: Right.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What’s a spinner?
Rocco Commisso: Spinner is a bull***t artist. I know plenty of those guys. I have a pretty good idea who the hell I’m dealing with.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you learn that in the Bronx?
Rocco Commisso: No, my mother gave it to me when I was born.
Rocco Commisso doesn’t suffer fools, but like most Italian soccer fans, he does suffer.
Three years ago he bought the team in Florence – where gameday is filled with more agony and ecstasy than a Puccini opera.
We watched as the city’s die hard fans – called the Tifosi – endured a collective, 90-minute-long breakdown.
Commisso, who is 73, knows the Tifosi follow his reactions. So he tries to keep a poker face as he chews wads of nicotine gum.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How many of these do you go through a game?
Rocco Commisso: Fifteen. Twenty.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Fifteen, twenty. Depends on the game, right?
When Commisso bought Fiorentina it ticked two boxes: first, the $170 Million price was a bargain for a European club. Second, it met the demand by his wife that if he insisted on buying a team, it had to be someplace nice.
Rocco Commisso: When I landed in Florence outside the airport, there were a mass of people there. And the first words that I used, “Chiamata mi Rocco. Call me Rocco,” because over here, titles are very important. I said, “I don’t need titles. You don’t have to call me Mister. Just call me Rocco.” And today, they call me Rocco.
Fiorentina – which is knicknamed “La Viola” or “The Purple” – has not won a league championship since 1969. The Tifosi got sick of waiting and ran the previous owner out of town.
Rocco Commisso: The tifo, the fans, first, they’re everything. But they could be nasty if you don’t win
Sharyn Alfonsi: The highs are high and the lows are low it seems like–
Rocco Commisso: Right. but they can’t kick Rocco outta here, you know? They think they– they gonna criticize me and kick me out. They– no, that can’t happen. Rocco’s a little different.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How are you different?
Rocco Commisso: First of all, there’s not been anyone here that’s put in the money that I put in in a short period of time. And I go back to the Medicis, from 500 years ago. If I lose $500 million, $400 million, I’m not gonna go and wash the dishes again the way I did when I was a young man, so watch out what you do because you don’t know what is going to come next.
Rocco Commisso’s journey to the owners box in Florence began here, by the subway in the Bronx. His father, a carpenter, and his older brother came to the U.S. in the 50s to escape poverty. A few years later, they sent for Rocco, his mother and two sisters.
Rocco Commisso: When we came here in ’63, my brother bought the house. God bless him. And this was, like, a luxury to us. And we lived upstairs on the second floor.
Commisso’s English was terrible, but he played a mean accordion, so at age 13 he cut his first deal. Rocco agreed to perform for free at a Bronx theater if the manager helped get him into the Catholic all-boys high school Mount Saint Michael Academy. It is still a launching pad for young men from immigrant families.
Rocco Commisso: Even though I had not taken the test to get in, I asked the manager to please send a recommendation letter. He did, and they admitted me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So you never took the test, but did you have to play the accordion?
Rocco Commisso: They didn’t let me play the accordion. The band did not– did not have the accordion.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But just on your accordion skills alone you were given entrance?
Rocco Commisso: I got lucky or hustled. Whichever way you wanna call it.
He kept hustling. Everyday, before and after school, he worked at his family’s luncheonette near the subway station to pay his high school tuition.
Rocco Commisso and Sharyn Alfonsi walk through a school building
60 Minutes
Rocco Commisso: So I used to get paid $1 an hour, and through that $1 an hour I paid four years of Mount Saint Michael schooling. Now, it didn’t cost a lota money then, but it was still something.
Commisso wanted to be an engineer. But a dollar an hour wasn’t going to pay for college. So Commisso hunted down a scholarship.
For a sport he always loved: soccer. Nevermind that his high school didn’t have a team and he had not played much since coming to America.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And somehow you end up with a soccer scholarship to Columbia. How does that happen?
Rocco Commisso: Hustle. I needed money to go to school, so I asked the gym teacher to go and call the NYU coach. The NYU coach puts me on the American – Czechoslovakia team in the– German American League, sees me play six games, he says, “Yeah, I like the kid. So let me help him get into NYU,” which he did. And they gave me 50% scholarship, but that was not enough. So I then told the gym teacher, “Go and call the coach at Columbia now.” In the space of three to four weeks they give me admissions to Columbia and a full scholarship.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Had they seen you play?
Rocco Commisso: No. I asked that question after they admitted me, I said, “But let me ask this. You give me all this money and you don’t wanna see me play?” He says, “Rocco, if you’re good enough for NYU you’re good enough for Columbia.”
Commisso became team captain and led Columbia to its first NCAA Tournament. After graduation and an MBA, he made his way to Wall Street. At night though, he was helping his brother run a disco. Rival clubs played the Bee Gees, but not Commisso. He chose to play pop music from Italy.
Rocco Commisso: I was really into Italian music and came up with this idea that by specializing in something as opposed to being just like anybody else, you know, we could do well. And nobody could touch us in terms of the competition because nobody had it.
Commisso became an executive in the cable TV industry just as it exploded. Then, in 1995, he decided it was time to start a business he named Mediacom. Like the disco, he designed a plan to seize an opportunity others had missed.
Rocco Commisso: There was an eight-page paper that talked about what I foresee in terms of the cable business,
Sharyn Alfonsi: What did you foresee?
Rocco Commisso: And what I foresaw is the fact that sooner or later we’re gonna get deregulated, and there’s a great opportunity to do well in the smaller markets of the U.S., the rural markets, largely because nobody wanted them.
Rocco Commisso at the Mediacom office
60 Minutes
Rocco Commisso believed those small markets hid buried treasure, 600,000 miles of cable used to carry computer data through places such as the corn belt and deep south. He risked his life savings to buy up the small systems. Again, timing and luck were on his side. Today, Mediacom provides broadband in 22 states. And Rocco Commisso’s net worth is $8 billion.
It’s a private company. Catherine Commisso, Rocco’s wife of 47 years, works there. So does his sister, Italia, and his son, Joe. Outside Mediacom headquarters in upstate New York is a bocce court. Inside, espresso flows. Commisso told us he had a streak of 25 years of profits and has never laid off workers.
Sharyn Alfonsi: I have heard so many people say, “It’s not personal; it’s business.”
Rocco Commisso: That’s crap, ya know? I think the personal, frankly has a lot to do with why companies fail or succeed unfortunately or fortunately there’s no one like me in our business and I’m talking about the media, newspapers. But I hate to destroy people’s lives because I have to go in and make an extra million dollars.
Commisso made a point to us that he does not own a yacht, a mansion on the beach or a private jet. Of course, we had to point out he did buy an Italian soccer team.
Rocco Commisso: When I came here, I used three things fast, fast, fast– that the cost will be okay, you know, within my means, and control, control, control. I control or no money from Rocco. That’s the way it works.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What’s harder, running a company like Mediacom or running a soccer team?
Rocco Commisso: This is significantly more difficult. I get more criticism here than in 1500 communities in the U.S.
The American owner is under relentless scrutiny by Fiorentina fans who demand that he shells out whatever it costs to bring in stars and end their 50-year championship drought.
Fiorentina fans, also known as Tifosi
60 Minutes
Then there’s been times when he’s lost it with the unforgiving Italian press.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you ever thought, “What have I done? What did I get myself into”?
Rocco Commisso: No.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It’s a lot of aggravation.
Rocco Commisso: But that’s not me. No. I made the decision. I’m gonna stick with the decision.
True to Rocco’s way, he’s playing the long game, by spending $100 million on this. It is called Viola Park. The Commissos showed us around what will be one of the largest soccer facilities in Europe for developing young male and female players. But this is Italy…
Rocco Commisso: You see that opening there where you have the two V’s–
Sharyn Alfonsi: Yes.
Rocco Commisso: Right in the middle? We had to break the building apart because there’s a Roman wall there, rocks.
Sharyn Alfonsi: (LAUGH) Stop it. You hit a Roman wall?
Rocco Commisso: Yeah, So, we had to uncover it, cover it up. Gotta break the build– we could not build on top of the Roman wall.
Despite the agita and a so-so season, Rocco Commisso still seems to love this business. He’s become one of the most famous americans in Italy and adores his players. Some who look like Michaelangelo himself may have carved them out of marble.
Rocco Commisso with a team player
60 Minutes
Rocco Commisso: My job is to hug, and kiss em, throw my arms around them and hope that they do better the next time.
Sharyn Alfonsi: No tough talk?
Rocco Commisso: You know, they get the message indirectly, you know, that things gotta change here.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How do they get the message?
Rocco Commisso: You know, they get the message. Never mind.
And if you are wondering if Commisso still plays a mean accordion – here’s your answer.
Our visit to Florence ended with dinner and a serenade by the billionaire from the Bronx.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Do you think if you had stayed in Italy you’d have been able to achieve the success that you have today
Rocco Commisso: No. No way. This is truly the land of opportunity. It gave this poor soul, okay, yeah, the opportunity to become something, somebody..and that’s the beauty of America.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You still believe in the American Dream.
Rocco Commisso: Absolutely, yeah. This is the last hope in the world.
Rocco Commisso has given millions to his alma maters and has contributed to scholarships for nearly 3,000 students across the U.S., including many first-generation immigrants like him.
Rocco Commisso: I just wanna be known as the guy that nothing, success, never changed him.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Just Rocco.
Rocco Commisso: Just Rocco.
Produced by Guy Campanile. Associate Producer, Lucy Hatcher. Field Producer, Sabina Castelfranco. Broadcast Associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Michael Mongulla.
ROME (AP) — Tourists in Rome checking out the Pantheon, Italy’s most-visited cultural site, will soon be charged a 5-euro ($5.28) entrance fee under an agreement signed Thursday by Italian culture and church officials.
Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the move was a matter of “good sense.” The introduction of an entrance fee comes five years after a previous government shelved plans to start charging visitors 2 euros.
Proceeds will be split, with the culture ministry receiving 70% and the Rome diocese 30%, officials said.
The monumental domed structure, originally an ancient Roman temple, draws millions of visitors each year. It was transformed into a church in 609, called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs, and Mass is regularly celebrated there.
Under the new plan, visitors under 25 years of age will be charged 2 euros. Entrance will be free to Rome residents, minors, people attending Mass and personnel of the basilica, among others.
No date was given for the introduction of the fee, as officials work out technical details. Currently, entrance is free and reservations are required on weekends and public holidays.
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This story has been edited to delete incorrect numbers of visitors to the Pantheon and Coliseum.
Hundreds took to the streets of Milan on Saturday to protest against moves by Italy’s new right-wing government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.
The demonstration, called “Hands Off Our Sons and Daughters,” took place in the historical Piazza della Scala pedestrian square and was organized by LGBTQ+ groups across the country.
“You explain to my son that I am not his mother,” read one protest sign. Others held up ballpoint pens, used to sign birth registrations, in protest.
Also present at the protests was Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala, who had earlier tweeted his support of same-sex families.
Organizers estimated around 10,000 people took part while Milan city officials gave more modest estimates of hundreds.
In 2016 Italy became the last country in Europe to legalize same-sex unions but it still does not recognize “stepchildren adoption” or surrogacy, which rights groups say is because of opposition from the Catholic Church.
Its government led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, places a strong emphasis on traditional family values.
Same-sex parents who wish to register their children born by surrogacy abroad have often had to just put one parental name on official birth registrations or take their cases to family court.
Several cities, including the capital Rome and Milan, had instituted a Parent 1/Parent 2 policy on birth registrations rather than the traditional mother/father designations, but last week the Interior Ministry ordered the city of Milan to stop the practice.
The Italian Interior Ministry said it would order other cities’ birth registrars to also halt the practice.
Last week, the Italian senate voted against a measure introduced by the European Commission to make the recognition of same-sex parents mandatory.
The EU has reached a deal to send Ukraine 1 million rounds of ammunition within the next 12 months.
The plan — seen by POLITICO — will see the EU both donate ammunition from its own stockpiles and also jointly purchase new shells for Ukraine. It also leaves open the possibility that the EU could help countries collectively buy missiles for Ukraine. And it sets a goal to “jointly procure” these munitions “in the fastest way possible” before October.
Diplomats and ministers finalized the strategy during meetings in Brussels on Sunday and Monday. EU leaders are expected to give their final blessing at a summit in Brussels later this week.
The deal represents a landmark juncture for the EU, marking the first time the self-described peace project has plotted to jointly buy arms for a country at war. Officials have argued the EU must evolve to meet the extraordinary moment — no less than the fate of democracy on European soil is at stake, they insist.
“A historic decision,” tweeted Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, once the deal was clinched Monday.
The plan has come together rapidly in recent weeks amid fears that Kyiv is running out of shells to hold off Russia’s unyielding assault. Ukrainian officials have said they need at least 1 million 155-millimeter shells to restock and maintain their defenses — a figure that far outstrips Europe’s annual production capacity.
To make up for the shortfall, the EU has drafted a multi-stage blueprint.
First, it will dedicate €1 billion to countries able to either donate ammunition immediately from their own stockpiles or redirect existing orders. Then, it will set aside another €1 billion to jointly buy more ammunition (and possibly missiles) for Ukraine and replace Europe’s donated shells. Finally, it wants to explore ways to boost Europe’s ability to manufacture the arms it needs for years to come.
Borrell in his final remarks speaking to journalists said countries had agreed to the €2 billion total. But diplomats said the legal texts were still being finalized.
Funding for the endeavor is expected to come from the so-called European Peace Facility, formerly an obscure program that has become the EU’s main wartime vehicle to partially reimburse countries for their weapons donations to Ukraine.
Less firm is what the EU plans beyond the €2 billion meant to jointly buy ammunition and cover donations of existing munitions. EU countries did not put forward anything about how to fund the last phase of its plan: growing industrial capacity for years to come. The document circulating Monday merely invited the European Commission to explore the issue and “present concrete proposals.”
“We have an industrial problem,” one seniorofficial conceded late last week, referring to Europe’s struggles to bolster homegrown defense manufacturing.
The €2 billion, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu agreed Monday, is “a clear and solid step further but it won’t be enough.”
Still, the ammunition agreement is a victory for Estonia, which first floated the idea of quickly providing Ukraine with 1 million fresh rounds as part of its push to get EU countries to send more weapons to Kyiv.
It’s also poised to be a boon for France and its many defense firms, as well as numerous defense companies across the EU. France, which has the bloc’s strongest defense sector, has long led the charge to augment European defense spending within EU borders, and the plan approved Monday will essentially do just that, instructing all joint EU contracts to go to EU firms. The only exception is Norway, which is already closely integrated into the EU market.
Several diplomats said French officials were also the ones pushing to include missiles in the scheme, although others chalked it up to Ukraine’s need for the weapons.
Despite the agreement, officials still need to hammer out exactly how the program will operate in practice. Officials have been going back and forth over whether the joint contract negotiations should go through EU agencies, or whether countries should just band together on their own.
EU officials were keen to see the plan identify a role for the European Defense Agency (EDA), the EU body meant to help countries cooperate on national security issues. But some countries have been wary about empowering Brussels to essentially become Europe’s arms negotiator.
The final decision, in classic EU fashion, is an all-of-the-above approach.
Ultimately, only 18 countries signed an agreement to work with the EDA on “the collaborative procurement” of ammunition. On the list are EU heavyweights like Germany, France and the Netherlands (as well as Norway), but not Italy or Spain. The pact envisions two parallel efforts — “a two-year, fast-track procedure for 155mm artillery rounds and a seven-year project to acquire multiple ammunition types.”
But countries will also be able to form groups of three or more to jointly negotiate contracts on their own. Three diplomats said the Netherlands and Denmark, for instance, have expressed interest in joining Germany in its national efforts to procure more ammunition.
Officials acknowledged that considerable work lay ahead.
“Definitely there are many details to be solved,” said Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defense minister.
Gregorio Sorgi and Nicolas Camut contributed reporting.
Two weeks after a boat packed with migrants sank off the coast of southern Italy, there is still no peace for the living or the dead, and the missing – mostly children – continue to wash up on the beaches.
The latest – a girl aged five or six – was discovered on Saturday morning, bringing the toll from when the ill-fated boat broke apart on the rocks on February 26 off the village of Cutro to 74. Nearly half were minors.
The local coroner’s office provided names for many of the dead including Torpekai Amarkhel, a 42-year-old female journalist from Afghanistan, who was killed along with her husband and two of their three children.
Her other child, a seven-year-old daughter, is among the approximately 30 people still missing, presumed dead, from the tragedy.
Amarkhel had fled Afghanistan with her family following the clampdown on women, her sister Mida, who had emigrated to Rotterdam, told Unama News radio, a United Nations project Amarkhel was involved in.
Shahida Raza, who played football and hockey for Pakistan’s national team, was also among the dead. A friend said she was traveling in the hope of securing a better future for her disabled son.
Initially, those found were given alphanumeric code numbers, rather than names. When first responders found the corpse of 28-year-old Abiden Jafari from Afghanistan, they identified her only as KR16D45 – KR for the nearby city of Crotone, 16 because she was the 16th victim found, D for donna or woman, and 45, her estimated age.
But after taking her to the morgue, they discovered she was a women’s rights activist who had been threatened by the Taliban, likely causing her to risk her life at sea.
The body of a six-year-old boy, first identified as KR70M6, was named by his uncle as Hakef Taimoori.
The uncle had a family photo showing the young boy wearing the same shoes as he had on when he washed up on the beach. His parents and two-year-old brother also died in the disaster. A third brother remains among the missing.
The dead have also been caught in a struggle between the Italian state and family members.
The Interior Ministry ordered that all bodies be transferred from Calabria where the caskets have been on display in an auditorium, to the Islamic cemetery of Bologna for burial, in keeping with Italy’s protocol for irregular migrants who die attempting to enter Italy.
Family members who either survived the wreck or came from other parts of Europe to claim their loved ones’ remains protested with makeshift signs and a sit-in in front of the auditorium on Wednesday.
After a tense negotiation, the Prefecture of Crotone confirmed to CNN that 25 families, mostly Afghan and Syrian, agreed to have their loved ones buried in Bologna,.
All those who have not been identified will also be buried in Bologna along with the remains of a Turkish national who has been identified as one of the human traffickers.
The fate of the rest remains a point of negotiation, but the mayor of Crotone Vincenzo Voce said the Italian state would pay for any repatriations either to countries of origin or to be buried with family members in other parts of Italy.
The Italian Interior Ministry told CNN it could not comment on what would happen to the victims’ remains, but confirmed that past protocol is not to pay for repatriating anyone who died attempting to enter Italy as an irregular migrant but to make the country of origin pay costs. In the last decade, no repatriations have taken place, the ministry said.
Of the 82 survivors, three Turkish citizens and one Pakistan citizen have been arrested for human trafficking, and eight people are still hospitalized.
Most of the survivors were moved this week to a Crotone hotel after human rights advocates led by Italian leftist politician Franco Mari protested the conditions in which they were being kept, which included one shared bathroom for men and another for women near sleeping quarters that included only benches and mattresses on the floor to sleep.
Mari, who visited the reception center, tweeted that none of the survivors had sheets, towels or pillows. Twelve others were moved to a reception center for unaccompanied minors.
Against the backdrop of the saga about what to do with both the survivors and the victims, there is a growing firestorm about the rescue itself.
A surveillance plane for European border control Frontex had identified the ill-fated vessel the day before it sank and had alerted the Italian Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard said in a statement that the vessel was not identified as a migrant boat, and that, at any rate, it did not seem in distress.
Heat sensing surveillance images released by the Coast Guard show that only one person was visible on board the ship when they flew over it.
Survivors recounted to media and human rights groups that they were locked in the hull of the ship and allowed to come up for air at intervals during the four-day journey from Turkey.
The Crotone public prosecutor’s office confirmed to CNN that it had opened a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the failed rescue after more than 40 human rights associations and NGOs signed a petition to demand all records be made public to determine if anyone failed to provide assistance to the boat in accordance with maritime law.
On Thursday, the Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met on the disaster in Cutro and said they would focus on targeting trafficking rings and increasing jail time for human traffickers to 30 years.
Many of the government cars were pummeled with stuffed animals by protesters in Cutro who held signs that said “not in my name” to protest against blocking migrants and refugees from entering Europe through Italy.
The ministers also discussed “speeding up the mechanism for applying for asylum” rather than increasing the quota, which stands at accepting 82,700 migrants who qualify for asylum in 2023. So far this year, more than 17,600 people have reached Italy by sea.
In 2022, 105,131 people entered the country by sea. The process to apply for asylum often takes between three and five years, depending on the country of origin. People who are not from asylum-producing countries, but are economic migrants, are repatriated back to their countries of origin.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said the Afghanistan citizens who survived would be prioritized for asylum. It is yet unclear if those who do not qualify will be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Meloni’s right-leaning government has vowed to clamp down on human traffickers and NGO rescue vessels. But the boats keep coming – hundreds of migrants were rescued this weekend – and signs are that they arriving earlier than ever. This tragedy is unlikely to be the last.
ROME (AP) — Italian coast guard and navy vessels on Saturday ferried hundreds of rescued migrants toward shore, while elsewhere in the Mediterranean Sea thousands of migrants overflowed from a shelter on a tiny tourist island.
The influx of sea arrivals came in the face of a crackdown by Italy’s right-wing government on people smugglers announced only two days earlier.
The coast guard said in a statement that overcrowding on two vessels and adverse sea and weather conditions had complicated rescue operations that began on Friday in the Ionian Sea off Calabria.
A 94-meter (310-foot) -long coast guard vessel took 584 migrants aboard, while two smaller coast guard motorboats took on 379 and then transferred them to an Italian naval vessel, which was headed to Augusta, a port in eastern Sicily, as migrant shelters in Calabria quickly filled up.
A fishing boat with some 500 migrants enters the southern Italian port of Crotone, early Saturday, March 11, 2023. The Italian coast guard was responding to three smugglers boats carrying more than 1,300 migrants “in danger” off Italy’s southern coast, officials said Friday. Three small coast guard boats were rescuing a boat with 500 migrants about 700 miles off the Calabria region, which forms the toe of the Italian boot. (AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro)
Separately, a boat carrying 487 people, intercepted by Italian vessels some 60 nautical miles (112 kilometers) off Crotone in Calabria on Friday, was aided by two coast guard motorboats and a border police boat. The migrants disembarked in Crotone’s port before dawn on Saturday.
A beach in Cutro, a town south of Crotone, is where where survivors and bodies were found on Feb. 26 after a wooden boat, crowded with migrants who had set out from Turkey days earlier, broke apart on a sandbank.
The known death toll from the shipwreck climbed to 76 on Saturday after the bodies of two children and an adult were recovered, Italian news agency ANSA reported. Eighty passengers survived, but others were reported missing and are presumed dead.
Italian prosecutors are investigating whether authorities should have swiftly launched a rescue operation after a patrol plane operated by Frontex, the European Union’s border protection agency, spotted the wooden boat, hours before it broke apart dozens of meters (yards) from the beach.
Police check a fishing boat with some 500 migrants in the southern Italian port of Crotone, early Saturday, March 11, 2023. The Italian coast guard was responding to three smugglers boats carrying more than 1,300 migrants “in danger” off Italy’s southern coast, officials said Friday. Three small coast guard boats were rescuing a boat with 500 migrants about 700 miles off the Calabria region, which forms the toe of the Italian boot. (AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro)
Some 5,000 people, walking behind a bearer of a cross fashioned from the boat’s wreckage, joined a procession to the beach in Cutro, demanding increased efforts to save migrants at sea.
Meanwhile, on tiny Lampedusa island, an Italian fishing and tourist location south of Sicily, some 3,000 newly arrived migrants overflowed from a shelter meant to hold less than 350. Hundreds of migrants spent the night sleeping on mattresses on the fenced-off grounds of the shelter.
Plans to ease some of the overcrowding on Lampedusa by transferring hundreds of migrants aboard a ferry were complicated by high winds whipping the island, making it impossible for the ship to dock on Saturday morning. Italian media reported that some 140 migrants were then transferred from the island by air.
Authorities on Lampedusa said many of the migrants arriving on the island, which is closer to northern Africa than to the Italian mainland, had sailed from the port of Sfax, in Tunisia, a route increasingly used by smugglers.
The U.N. migration agency estimates some 300 people have died or are missing and presumed dead along the perilous central Mediterranean route this year.
The coastguard says it is wrapping up a large rescue operation that began after three boats were spotted drifting off Italy’s coasts.
More than 1,000 people have been brought to safety at two Italian ports after the overcrowded boats they were on encountered problems in the Mediterranean, the Italian coastguard has said, almost two weeks after at least 74 people died in a shipwreck.
The coastguard said on Saturday it was wrapping up a large rescue operation that began Friday after three boats were spotted drifting off Italy’s coasts. One was south of the Calabrian city of Crotone and two further south, off Roccella Ionica.
Coastguard videos showed a large fishing boat pitching violently back and forth in nighttime rough seas with dozens of people visible on the deck. Other images showed inflatable rescue boats approaching another fishing vessel packed with people.
Multiple operations
The coastguard said 487 people on board the first boat were safely brought to the port of Crotone at about 02:00 GMT on Saturday morning.
Another rescue operation in which 500 people were brought to safety on board a coastguard ship was wrapping up, it said. News agency ANSA had earlier reported that the ship had docked at the port of Reggio Calabria.
A third boat carrying 379 people was rescued by two coastguard patrol boats and the refugees transferred to a navy ship headed to the Sicilian port of Augusta, it said.
Shipwreck investigation
The body of a young girl was recovered on Saturday close to where the shipwreck occurred on February 26, bringing the death toll from that disaster to 74. Seventy-nine people survived the shipwreck, but approximately 30 are still missing, presumed dead.
In all, the United Nations has estimated 300 refugees have died in the central Mediterranean so far this year.
The right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has drawn sharp criticism for failing to intervene in a timely manner to save the February 26 shipwreck, which occurred just off the shore of Calabria.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Italian authorities should have done more to prevent the disaster. Meloni has rejected the suggestion and looked to pin the blame entirely on human traffickers.
On Thursday, Meloni held a cabinet meeting at Cutro, near the disaster site, and announced a new decree that included stiffer prison sentences for human traffickers, but no new measures to help save lives.
Her far-right Brothers of Italy party, which won elections last year, had promised to curb arrivals, but Italy has recently seen a sharp rise in the number of refugees attempting to reach its shores via the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.
The interior ministry says more than 17,500 people have arrived by sea so far this year – almost three times the number for the same period last year.
Wales’ Warren Gatland makes six changes to side for Saturday’s Six Nations Test vs Italy (2.15pm); Liam Williams, Rio Dyer, Rhys Webb, Wyn Jones, Dafydd Jenkins, Jac Morgan come in for Leigh Halfpenny, Louis Rees-Zammit, Tomos Williams, Gareth Thomas, Alun Wyn Jones, Christ Tshiunza
By Michael Cantillon
Last Updated: 09/03/23 12:28pm
Liam Williams has been recalled to start for Wales vs Italy in Rome as one of six changes
Warren Gatland has rung the changes for Wales in the Six Nations again, making six alterations to the side vs Italy as Alun Wyn Jones, Leigh Halfpenny and Louis Rees-Zammit are among those dropped.
The other changes see scrum-half Rhys Webb start over Tomos Williams – his first Test start for three years and first Six Nations start for six years – with loosehead Wyn Jones and flanker Jac Morgan also recalled.
Owen Williams starts again at fly-half over Dan Biggar – the latter missing out on the squad having lost his place in the starting side for the 20-10 Round 3 defeat to England in Cardiff – while Liam Williams and Rio Dyer are restored at full-back and left wing respectively in place of Halfpenny and Rees-Zammit.
Exeter’s 20-year-old lock Dafydd Jenkins starts over 37-year-old Jones in the second row, while back-row Christ Tshiunza and prop Gareth Thomas make way for prop Jones and Morgan.
Alun Wyn Jones is again dropped from the squad – the second time he has been this championship
With both sides still seeking their first victory of the championship, Saturday’s clash in Rome is effectively a Wooden Spoon decider, and comes a year after Italy secured victory over Wales in Cardiff.
Having made five changes after a 34-10 Round 1 defeat to Ireland, and then nine changes to the side which suffered a 35-7 Round 2 defeat to Scotland in Murrayfield for the visit of England to Cardiff, Gatland has again tinkered with the side in search of a change in fortunes.
Louis Rees-Zammit scored a try in defeat for Wales vs England last time out, but has been dropped to the bench
“We feel that having watched Italy and how they’ll tend to play from everywhere, including their own 22, getting guys on the ball is going to be pretty important,” Gatland said on Thursday.
“Rhys Webb gets an opportunity at nine having been training well. He’s been great in the squad, he brings that experience and a voice to that nine position.
“Liam Williams comes in at full-back. We did discuss whether we put Louis Rees-Zammit to full-back and how that would have looked. But he still hasn’t played a lot of rugby in terms of coming back from a relatively long injury with his ankle and we just felt with the way the game’s going to be and the pace of the game that him coming off the bench and the impact he can have could be pretty important.
“We’ve been disappointed with the results so far and for me, it’s hard to take as it’s the first time I’ve lost three games in the Six Nations with Wales. We’ve had a lot of things going on off the field as well but there are no excuses.
Dan Biggar misses out on the squad, with Owen Williams retained at fly-half
“The message to the players has been that we have to be smart in terms of the way we play but we’ve also got to be brave and make sure that when the opportunities are on we shift the ball. We have to keep scanning and looking at options and if there’s a chance to move the ball then be brave and do that.”
Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Josh Adams, 13 Mason Grady, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Owen Williams, 9 Rhys Webb; 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens (c), 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Adam Beard, 6 Jac Morgan, 7 Justin Tipuric, 8 Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Gareth Thomas, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Rhys Davies, 20 Tommy Reffell, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 George North, 23 Louis Rees-Zammit.
Allan starts at full-back for Italy in absence of Capuozzo
Harlequins fly-half Tommy Allan will start at full-back for Italy in Saturday’s Six Nations clash against Wales.
Allan, who filled the fly-half role against France and England, replaces Ange Capuozzo.
Capuozzo memorably created Italy’s winning try in Cardiff last season, but he is sidelined by a shoulder injury that has meant Italy head coach Kieran Crowley makes one enforced change.
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It is otherwise the same team that pushed Six Nations leaders and title favourites Ireland close last time out.
Italy are chasing a first Six Nations win in Rome since 2013, but they will fancy their chances against a Wales side reeling from successive losses to Ireland, Scotland and England.
Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Pierre Bruno, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney; 1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 3 Simone Ferrari, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Sebastian Negri, 7 Michele Lamaro, 8 Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Edoardo Iachizzi, 20 Giovanni Pettinelli, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Luca Morisi.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine puts a heavy strain on EU arms, there’s infighting in Brussels over how best to reload.
The latest skirmish is focused around a procurement fund intended to ramp up production of arms in Europe.
POLITICO has learned that key committees in the European Parliament — namely, the committees for industry, the internal market, and the subcommittee on security and defense — have clashed over the fund, formally known as European Defense Industry Reinforcement Through Common Procurement Act (EDIRPA). It holds €500 million for now, with the possibility to grow.
A French-led group in the Parliament is vying to keep the joint defense purchase pot within the borders of the European Union — which opponents are deriding as a power grab for France.
Currently, a compromise text seen by POLITICO leaves the door open to spending outside the EU. It says non-EU companies may be involved “provided that this does not contravene … the security and defense interests of the union and its member states.”
A faction across therelevant committees — consisting mainly of Polish, Estonian, Portuguese, German and Luxembourgish parliamentarians — has also amended the text to include “associated third countries.” They want to keep open the option to tap non-EU countries, like South Korea or the United States, to fill any gaps in weapon production.
In light of grinding ground battles on Ukrainian territory, concerns have been growing over the EU’s capacity to ramp up production of ammunition and weapons.
Yet French MEPs who dominate the Renew Europe group have been pushing back, seeking to make the fund a European-only affair.
Nathalie Loiseau, chair of the parliamentary defense subcommittee, denied that the push to limit funding to European countries would benefit only France. “France is not the only country producing weapons in Europe,” the Renew MEP told POLITICO, pointing also to Germany, Italy and Poland.
Loiseau said the entire remit of EDIRPA is intended to strengthen European industrial policy. “We need our industries to be able to produce [arms] more quickly, and we need to find a way to encourage this, so we need a solid EDIRPA.”
Ivars Ījabs, a Latvian MEP in the Renew Europe group who is leading work on the file in the internal market committee, described how he and his colleagues are “aware of the immediate challenges to European defense forces.”
As one of the MEPs most opposed to the French position, he explained: “My French colleagues are very much in support of the European Commission’s original proposal, with an emphasis on strengthening the defense industrial base in the medium term.”
Loiseau added that while she is open to non-European companies producing the weapons, “they must be produced in Europe,” arguing that spending EU money on weapons produced outside the bloc would be illegal under EU treaties, risking collapse of the entire procurement program.
Striking a balance
The increasingly acrimonious row in Parliament over the defense plan hits on a question raised since Europe began discussing beefing up its defense capabilities: Who will be able to get their hands on the extra billions of euros the EU intends to invest?
Thierry Breton, the internal market commissioner who announced the plan last year and has been championing it, is also French. Unveiling the initiative, he said, “These investments, funded by the European taxpayers … should benefit first and foremost European industry wherever that is possible.”
French industry accounts for more than 25 percent of European military capabilities. But many other countries, from Italy to Sweden, also have strong defense sectors (and many key companies based there often have strong corporate ties with countries outside the EU, such as the U.K. and the U.S.).
German center-right MEP Andreas Schwab said a balance needs to be struck to get the process moving.
“This instrument needs to find a middle ground, a middle way: sufficiently flexible for foreign components, but also a boost to EU industry — and especially, a boost to make ministries of defense start working together on bigger joint procurement projects,” he told POLITICO.
Thierry Breton announced the procurement plan last year, arguing it should benefit first and foremost European industry | Pool photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
All major players agree on one thing: The fund should be bigger.
While the Commission’s plan earmarked an initial €500 million, the draft European Parliament proposal by the internal market and defense committees increased that to €1.5 billion.
But even €1.5 billion is “peanuts” when it comes to military hardware, said Dragoş Tudorache, Renew’s lead on EDIRPA in the defense subcommittee.
Tudorache explained that Parliament could theoretically wrap it up within two to three weeks once there’s agreement among the three committees.
As to which of the two camps will win out: “Right now I would not call it either way,” the MEP said.
A vote of the full Parliament — possibly in June — may be the most likely outcome.
EDIRPA is separate to the European Peace Facility, an off-budget intergovernmental EU fund that is now being used to backfill member countries’ supplies once they’ve sent arms to Ukraine. This mechanism is at the center of current plans to provide ammunition quickly to Ukraine, as first reported by POLITICO.
In contrast, EDIRPA is a medium-term project, originally meant to be for 2022 to 2024, to carry forward the joint procurement of arms and ammunition.
Based on EDIRPA, the Commission is meant to present an even larger program for joint procurement, called the European defence investment programme, which was originally expected for last year but is now tapped to arrive later this year.
Diplomats point out that is unclear where the Commission could find the money for a more ambitious joint procurement program.
