VENICE -- Pussy Riot and Femen protesters staged a dramatic protest Wednesday outside the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, witnesses said. Russian Ambassador to Italy AV Paramonov laughed at the demonstration in a video captured by an insider reporter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buyzxnm5Cek
INSIDER NEWSDESK
LVIV – Seventeen years after the start of the Italian Insider in 2009 our new sister digital newspaper the Lviv Insider www.lvivinsider.com has launched online aimed at creating a bridge between Ukraine and Italy and the Mediterranean.
Our home page articles include reports from beleaguered Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv as well as Lviv, or Leopoli as it is known to Italians.
6 May 2026
Peter srinivasan
Rome – Britain has appointed senior diplomat Stephen Benedict Hickey as its new ambassador to Italy and non-resident ambassador to San Marino, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced.
5 May 2026
INSIDER NEWSDESK
Introduction
4 May 2026
Peter srinivasan
Rome — Turmoil has engulfed the Venice Biennale days before the opening of its 61st International Art Exhibition, after the entire international jury resigned in protest and organisers announced sweeping changes to the awards system.
The crisis comes amid mounting controversy over decisions taken under Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and follows the arrival this week of inspectors sent by Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli to review the institution’s governance.
1 May 2026
Insider reporters
BRINDISI -- The United Nations, in its quest to sound profound while tightening the belt, has rolled out a masterpiece of bureaucratic theatre -- the UN80 Initiative’s proposal to merge the UN Development Programme UNDP with the UNOPS, the United Nations Office for Project Services, a scandal-tinged quango effectively designed to bypass UN rules.
30 Apr 2026
Mattia Bortali
ROME - Italian officials have dismissed the U.S.’ suggestion that Italy, which failed to qualify for the World Cup, should take Iran’s place in this year’s tournament, according to official sources.
U.S. special envoy Paolo Zampolli made the unprecedented suggestion last week, telling the Financial Times that the Azzuri’s four World Cup trophies meant their inclusion in the partly U.S.-hosted tournament was justified.
29 Apr 2026
Eva Jankauskaite
Rome-- The Eternal City could be seen as the greatest monument to human ego ever built and Hokusai is the greatest artist who believed that the ego was an illusion. Putting one inside the other is a philosophical confrontation.
29 Apr 2026
Peter srinivasan
Rome— International police checks have been launched into the controversial pardon granted to Nicole Minetti, a statuesque former Lombardy regional councillor, dental hygienist and madame providing sex workers for the late pime minister Silvio Berlusconi, amid questions over whether the clemency request was based on accurate information.
The move follows a request from the Quirinale for the Justice Ministry to urgently verify whether the circumstances that led the President of the Republic to sign the pardon were fully substantiated.
29 Apr 2026