ROME – University College London (UCL), one of Britain’s leading universities, has taken steps to forge relationships with its counterparts in Rome ahead of an expected downturn in collaboration opportunities with EU-based establishments once Brexit takes effect, La Repubblica reports.
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME – The government’s decision on Wednesday to remove the heads of Italy’s security service bodies in favour of two former generals of the finance police has drawn a degree of controversy, Il Fatto Quotidiano reports.
Alessandro Pansa and Alberto Manenti have been ousted from their positions in the DIS and AISE, respectively, a move that was to be expected given the advent of a new government. However, the government’s appointment of their replacements has not been without debate.
22 Nov 2018
Francesca Halliwell
ROME - “It isn’t just women who can understand women. Men can understand women too, but they choose not to.” Tolaini-Sage’s statement was just one explanation given at Tuesday’s ‘Women In Gaming’ event for the industry’s lack of female diversity. British Ambassador Jill Morris opened the conference, revealing that less than 19 percent of employees in the British gaming industry are female. An insightful discussion ensued, which saw industry professionals and university professors alike question the under-representation of women in the world’s largest entertainment industry.
21 Nov 2018
Mitchell Belfer
ROME - ... The United Kingdom readied itself to redeploy out of the Arab Gulf, the USSR and US were still snuggled in detente, Iran had a Shah while the Rolling Stones’‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ sat atop the charts. Then, as now, the call for democracy echoed. On Czechoslovak streets — from Prague to Bratislava and everything in between — the 1968 call for elections, for democracy, for tolerance was met by Soviet tanks, arrests, violence. The Prague Spring was not aborted, it was stifled.
21 Nov 2018
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME – The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has released a report which assesses the success of initiatives set out for migrants and refugees in Italy, diplomatic sources say.
The report acknowledges Italy’s attempt to tackle segregation in schools between first- and second-generation immigrants and native Italians, though natives do continue to enjoy and advantage, especially in tertiary education.
20 Nov 2018
INSIDER NEWSDESK
CATANIA – A Doctors without Borders vessel was precautionarily seized on Tuesday morning on suspicion of having discharged hazardous waste in Italian ports, police sources report.
Investigations led by Catania’s public prosecutor’s office allegedly uncovered 44 cases of illegal waste disposal by ‘Aquarius’, which has been held in Marseilles, and another ship used by the NGO, totalling up to 24,000 kilograms of waste.
20 Nov 2018
INSIDER NEWSDESK
PARIS – The Paris city council approved a motion in support of suspended Riace mayor Domenico Lucano on Friday, government sources report.
Lucano was forced to leave his town in October after allegedly aiding illegal immigration, the Insider reported (http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/7290). Last week, however, Paris’ city council denounced the decision to remove Lucano from Riace, calling it “politically unacceptable.”
19 Nov 2018
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME – Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio continued their spat over waste disposal in the Campania region on Monday, government sources report.
Di Maio has described Interior Minister Salvini’s proposal to install new waste-disposal incinerators as extremely old-fashioned, likening it to “telephone boxes that required tokens.” He also maintained that the toxic waste crisis in the area was linked to industrial refuse, rather than domestic waste, so “incinerators don’t come into it one blooming bit.”
19 Nov 2018
JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME – Plans by International Fund for Agricultural Development President Gilbert Houngbo to allow the UN agency to buy and sell companies in developed countries rather than making loans to developing countries have alarmed diplomatic observers as the morale of staff in the African potentate’s Rome headquarters plummets still further, IFAD sources say.
19 Nov 2018