ROME – Staffers from the embattled World Food Programme shed few tears on WFP facebook pages and other social media over the news that Executive Director Cindy McCain has resigned from the helm of the Programme, “apart from the usual sycophants,” a senior WFP executive noted Friday.
“So little reaction on provate FB pages to Cindy going, apart from the usual sycophants from certain parts of the world south and east of us,” the executive told the Insider, speaking on condition he not be named.
ROME – WFP chief of staff Meghan ‘chopper pilot’ Latcovich is expected to depart the hunger-fighting programme imminently following the resignation of WFP Executive director Cindy McCain though staffers joke that the former Navy pilot won’t have high re-location costs as she reputedly has been working remotely from her kitchen in Washington DC for the past year.
ISTANBUL-Finding myself on a private yacht on the Bosphorus during a sunny Sunday afternoon, surrounded by friendly Turkish businessmen and a visiting professor from Denmark referred to as “the Oracle of Davos,” I had to ask myself, how did I end up here?
The truth is my Turkish friend Erdem is extremely assertive and nice. We met at a bare-knuckle boxing event I was covering six months ago. He was hosting Rasheda Ali, Muhamid Ali’s daughter, in the city, and we exchanged numbers. He promised a tour of the city the next time I was in town, and he was good to his word.
ROME -- Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Thursday said she will step down, raising the prospect that US Ambassador to the UN agencies, Lynda Blanchard, a millionairess donor to US President Trump and MAGA movement icon, might be the next head of the hunger-fighting body, diplomatic sources said.
VATICAN CITY--Pope Leo XIV will be embarking on a 10 day trip to Africa as well as Monaco and Spain, the Holy See Press Office said on Wednesday.
His schedule of foreign pastoral visits this year starts with Monaco at the end of March, followed by his 10 day Africa stay which will include Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. Lastly he will visit Spain in June with stops in Madrid, the Canary Islands and in Barcelona to inaugurate the tallest tower in the Sagrada Familia.
ROME –Calls for better security have intensified after attempted rape of a 21 year old British woman student on Monday evening i
FLORENCE — A group of Florentine aristocrats is leading a revolt against the incursions of foreign property speculators threatening the architectural harmony of the city of Dante and Michelangelo. Representatives of 16 noble families gathered in the Palazzo Corsini recently to appeal for a change of course to the mayor, joining local plebeians in a rebellion against the conversion of ancient buildings into luxury residences and hotels.
ROME--Maurizio Martina, former Italian Minister of Agriculture, is Italy’s pick to lead the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He was put forward by Deputy Prime Minister Antonia Tajani and Agricultural Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, the announcement was made in Brussels on Monday.
Rome -- The Lombard capital is entering what can only be described as three months to remember. Following the excitement of the Winter Olympics, which animated the city from 6 February until last weekend, attention now turns to the Paralympic Games from 6 to 15 March. Yet sport is only part of the story. Fashion has stepped into the spotlight once again, adding fresh momentum to a city already thriving on international attention.
