Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Italy Overturns Post-Chernobyl Ban on Nuclear Energy, Clears Way to Build New Plants

Good news! Bravo Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni!

The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 (like the Three Mile Island incident of 1979) was very much abused in Western countries by the anti nuclear power lobby. The Chernobyl disaster was a rather harmless incident and it happened in the former communist Soviet Union!

"The measure cleared the upper house 81-51 with seven abstentions. It marks a major step in Premier Giorgia Meloni´s drive to bolster energy security and meet climate goals, even though the construction of possible new reactors is still years away."

Italy Overturns Post-Chernobyl Ban on Nuclear Energy "ROME (AP) – Italy´s Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation paving the way for a return to nuclear power nearly four decades after the Chernobyl disaster prompted the country to abandon atomic energy."

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Portland Antifa groups have direct operational connections to Hamas and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Good news! Finally, more is done by law enforcement to disrupt and prevent significant leftist terrorism in Western countries. For far too long lenient law enforcement against violent leftists was the norm, while one sided focus was on rightist groups of all kinds!

The reporting about these allegations are a bit sketchy! Probably, the US government relied on intelligence service information/operations (possibly from Italy too) that can not be disclosed at this time.

What is surprising is the connection between violent radicals in Oregon and many other militant/violent groups in Europe with an extremist group in Italy. The extent of this militant/violent network is stunning!

"... triggering a broad terrorism designation action against the network and exposing what administration officials say is the clearest evidence yet that domestic radical extremism is not merely ideological — it is organizationally tied to America’s foreign enemies."

"... The A/I Collective builds and provides the digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other radical left-wing networks in the United States and across the world.
Today, the United States is designating this extremist group as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
The Autistici/Inventati Collective is an Italy-based hacker cell that provides far-left extremists with encrypted communications, calls, and web-hosting services – all concealed from law enforcement.
The A/I Collective is a central node in the far-left's war on our civilization. ..."

"... "Far-left terrorism poses a profound threat to the United States and the broader West," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Today, the United States sanctioned Autistici/Inventati – a major far-left tech collective whose services are used by the most active and violent Antifa cells in the United States and across the world. ..." 

"... Autistici/Inventati (A/I Collective) is an Italy-based extremist group that builds and operates the digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other far-left militants across the world. 
A/I’s cadre of radical hackers and tech developers provide a full spectrum of services – including encrypted chats and email, web hosting, secure video conferencing and streaming, anonymity shields, and a suite of other technological tools – to Marxist, anarchist, and other left-wing extremist groups in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. These tools are specifically designed to support the operations of far-left terrorist networks, built to enable them to organize, recruit, communicate, disseminate propaganda, share target information and tactics, and carry out violent attacks – all while remaining anonymous, untraceable, and beyond the reach of the law.

The A/I Collective exclusively offers its tools and services to radical left-wing actors and manually vets all potential users for ideological affinity before granting them access to its infrastructure.
The group has become a key node in a transnational campaign by violent and criminal far-left networks to destabilize the United States and its partners across Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and beyond.
It currently claims to host roughly 16,000 mailboxes, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists, and 10,000 “blogs” on its custom-built platform, which militants frequently use to disseminate target information, tactical manuals and techniques, and communiqués about recent attacks. ...

disseminate maps of critical infrastructure, along with instructions for building improvised explosive and incendiary devices – all routed through a network of foreign servers intended to conceal criminal activity from law enforcement.

The anarchist cells responsible for sabotaging rail systems across France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands in 2026, relied on A/I Collective tools and services to claim responsibility for the attacks, publish official communiqués, and disseminate manuals for constructing improvised incendiary devices to target railways and other critical infrastructure.

The anarchist cell responsible for sabotaging the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) in March 2026, which temporarily halted crude oil flows to Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic, relied on A/I Collective tools and services to claim responsibility for the attack and publish official communiqués, as well as to disseminate a manifesto calling for additional attacks on critical infrastructure and referring adherents to another A/I Collective platform, which provides detailed sabotage manuals as well as maps of vulnerable critical infrastructure across North America.

The far-left extremist network responsible for multiple arson attacks and acts of sabotage against Germany’s rail and energy infrastructure between 2011 and 2026, including a January 2026 attack on Berlin’s power grid that cut power to 45,000 households and resulted in a fatality, relied on A/I Collective tools and services to claim responsibility for attacks, publish official communiques, and disseminate a manifesto calling for additional attacks on energy infrastructure worldwide.

A far-left extremist media group claiming to be a “tool” for global militants to share “essential information” to be “acted upon,” relies on A/I Collective tools and services to publish official communiqués and calls to action for U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations such as 
Armed Proletarian Justice, Informal Anarchist Federation and International Revolutionary Front (FAI/FRI), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hamas, Hizballah, National Liberation Army (ELN), New People’s Army (NPA), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense. This same group was recently cited in a federal criminal complaint against a domestic terrorist who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for targeting a federal building and police car with improvised explosive devices.

Oregon-based Rose City Antifa has relied on A/I Collective tools and services to organize and incite violent and criminal acts domestically, including an attack on Customs and Border Patrol helicopters that led to a federal indictment. Rose City Antifa also used A/I Collective tools and services to disseminate doxing lists and release illegally obtained personal information of Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with calls for targeted attacks on ICE agents in the streets and “in their homes.”

The anarchist cell responsible for waging a violent campaign to prevent the construction of a law enforcement training center in Atlanta, Georgia, relied on A/I Collective tools and services to claim responsibility for violent attacks on law enforcement officers, disseminate doxing lists and illegally obtained private information, threaten government officials and business owners, and circulate instructions for making improvised explosive and incendiary devices to be used against government buildings and local businesses. The cell remains active and still uses A/I Collective tools and services to incite violent and criminal acts against government officials, law enforcement, and critical infrastructure.

The violent far-left extremists, “Jane’s Revenge,” who waged a firebombing campaign against crisis pregnancy centers across the United States, relied on A/I Collective tools and services to publish official communiqués and claims of responsibility for violent and criminal acts and to incite copycat attacks. Four members of the group were later charged for violating federal law and engaging in a “conspiracy against rights” through threats of force and intimidation."

White House Weekly Briefing | August 24–30, 2026


Designation of Autistici/Inventati as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (official news release)

EXCLUSIVE: State Dept reveals Portland Antifa connection to Hamas, Iran’s IRGC in sweeping terror action "Marco Rubio says Autistici/Inventati [Italy] built encrypted digital tools used by Rose City Antifa, Hamas and other violent groups"

PORTLAND: Fake News Ignores Antifa Violence, Residents’ Pleas for Help "For years, an Antifa-led hellfire has turned Portland into a wasteland of firebombs, beatings, and brazen attacks on federal officers and property — yet the Fake News remains in shameful denial about the Radical Left’s reign of terror."

Wednesday, August 05, 2026

Kids Who Joined Social Media Earlier Had Lower Test Scores, Study Finds. Really!

Not so fast! As usual, this is a biased study as it does not ask what do young users of social media learn more compared to other students.

The study is limited to Northern Italy and focuses only on early childhood!

"Children who start using social media at a younger age may be putting their future academic performance at risk, according to a new study that tracked more than 5,000 students in Italy.

Researchers found that adolescents who opened their first personal social media account at ages 11 to 12 went on to score significantly lower in standardized tests than peers who waited until age 14 or 15. ..."

From the abstract:
"This study uses difference-in-differences models to evaluate the impact of early social media use on academic performance among children aged 7–16 years. A dataset comprising 5,227 students from northern Italy was constructed by merging data from a questionnaire on lifetime digital media habits with longitudinal standardized test scores in Italian, English and mathematics. Participants who created a personal social media account in 6th, 7th or 8th grade were separately matched with late adopters who initiated their first social media account in the 9th grade or later. The findings provide compelling evidence that early engagement with social media adversely affects learning outcomes. Additional findings on the effects of early social media use on other academic outcomes for which we do not have longitudinal data are in line with our main findings. We also find supporting evidence that a substantial part of this negative effect is mediated by students’ smartphone pervasiveness in key moments of the day."

Kids Who Joined Social Media Earlier Had Lower Test Scores, Study Finds - Newsweek (behind paywall)



Fig. 1: Exposure to technology during primary, lower- and upper-secondary school, box plot.


Fig. 2: Effect of early use of social media on competences in grades 8 (Italian, mathematics and English) and 10 (Italian and mathematics).




Studie: Social Media kostet Schüler ein halbes Jahr Lernleistung. Wirklich!

Was fuer ein Unsinn! Wieviele Jahre Lernleistung sind in den 1980ern durch Videospiele verloren gegangen?

Verbote sind dumm! Altersgrenzen sind hart zu definieren und schwer durchsetzbar. Die Verantwortung liegt bei den Eltern!

Die Studie ist auch auf frühkindlichen Gebrauch von sozialen Medien und auf Nord Italien beschränkt! Sie enthält nur zwei Grafiken.

Könnte ein halbes Jahr sogar grössten Teils ein Messfehler sein? Jede Wette!

Warum wird eigentlich nicht gefragt wieviel Kinder lernen durch soziale Medien?

"Eine der drängenden Fragen unserer Zeit lautet: Ab welchem Alter sollten Kinder und Jugendliche soziale Medien verwenden dürfen? Im Kleinen stellt sie sich irgendwann wohl jeder Familie. Im Großen ist sie eine zentrale Frage bei der aktuellen Debatte um Social-Media-Verbote, nicht zuletzt auch in Deutschland.

Eine neue Studie von Forschern um den Soziologen Marco Gui von der Universität Mailand-Bicocca könnte bei der Antwort helfen. Das Team hat untersucht, welchen Einfluss das Alter beim ersten Kontakt mit Tiktok, Snapchat und dergleichen auf die schulischen Leistungen hat. Die Antwort ist in „Nature Human Behaviour“ nachzulesen: Je früher Kinder Zugang zu sozialen Medien bekommen, desto schlechter fallen in den darauffolgenden Jahren ihre Schulnoten aus. ..."

From the abstract:
"This study uses difference-in-differences models to evaluate the impact of early social media use on academic performance among children aged 7–16 years. A dataset comprising 5,227 students from northern Italy was constructed by merging data from a questionnaire on lifetime digital media habits with longitudinal standardized test scores in Italian, English and mathematics. Participants who created a personal social media account in 6th, 7th or 8th grade were separately matched with late adopters who initiated their first social media account in the 9th grade or later. The findings provide compelling evidence that early engagement with social media adversely affects learning outcomes. Additional findings on the effects of early social media use on other academic outcomes for which we do not have longitudinal data are in line with our main findings. We also find supporting evidence that a substantial part of this negative effect is mediated by students’ smartphone pervasiveness in key moments of the day."

Studie: Social Media kostet Schüler ein halbes Jahr Lernleistung | FAZ (behind paywall) "Eine Studie enthüllt, welchen Einfluss das Alter beim ersten Kontakt mit sozialen Medien auf die Noten hat. Sie dürfte die Debatte um Altersgrenzen weiter befeuern."



Fig. 1: Exposure to technology during primary, lower- and upper-secondary school, box plot.


Fig. 2: Effect of early use of social media on competences in grades 8 (Italian, mathematics and English) and 10 (Italian and mathematics).





Italy's controversial Gulf military mission enters public spotlight

Good news! Bravo Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni!

While the other European powers remain cowards and refuse to aid the US!

"Italy has about 700 military personnel deployed to the Gulf region to help partner nations counter Iranian attacks, a fact that recently entered the public spotlight in the country, drawing criticism from opposition parties in parliament.

Last week, the Italian Ministry of Defense disclosed publicly on its website the presence of two Italian task forces deployed across various Gulf countries to contribute to the surveillance and defense of the area. ...

According to the ministry’s website, approximately 400 Italian Air Force personnel have been in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait since March, following targeted attacks on those countries from Tehran. ...

Under Task Force Air-Arabia, notable military capabilities have also been provided: four Eurofighters tasked with supporting the defense of the assigned airspace, E-550A CAEW aircraft for early warning of air threats, and a KC-130J transport aircraft for operational support in “key theaters of national interest in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.” 

Rome has also deployed Task Group Kuwait as part of the mission, which it said on its website “ensures air surveillance capabilities through an AN-TPS-77 air defense radar” as well as Task Group C-UAS, equipped with the Leonardo-made ACUS-E anti-drone system designed to counter small drones.

Alongside the Air Force contingent, a 260-strong Italian Army component, called Task Force Land-Arabia, has been deployed to the region ... This brings the overall Italian deployment to the Gulf region to roughly 700 personnel.  ..."

Italy's controversial Gulf military mission enters public spotlight - Breaking Defense "“This is certainly one of Italy’s most significant deployments to the Gulf in many years — its importance lies not only in the number of personnel, but, above all, in the quality and scarcity of capabilities sent,” one Italian analyst said."

Friday, July 31, 2026

Can a faint glow from cell metabolism flag cancer or neurodegenerative disease long before symptoms appear

Recommendable! This is about a survey and a research article. This could be a breakthrough!

"Every living thing emits a faint glow from cell metabolism, and researchers now hope the ultraweak light can flag cancer or neurodegenerative disease long before symptoms appear."

"In 2025, quantum physicist Daniel Oblak and his colleagues published images of mice that made headlines around the world. The researchers put four anaesthetized mice inside a dark chamber and pointed a sensitive camera at them. It picked up a stream of photons emitted from the animals’ skin: a light signal too faint to be seen by the human eye, but visible in the camera images as a ghostly, mouse-shaped glow. ...

The idea that cells might communicate through extremely low-intensity light was first suggested in the 1920s by Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch ...

Biophotons are produced during aerobic metabolism, in which cells use oxygen to break down nutrients and extract energy. This mostly occurs in mitochondria. During metabolic reactions, short-lived chemicals produced from oxygen, called reactive oxygen species (ROS), generate intermediates that decompose to produce molecules in an ‘excited’ electronic state. As these relax into more stable arrangements, they can release energy in the form of photons.
A high-energy ‘singlet’ state of oxygen can emit a photon of red light as it decays, for example, whereas excited carbonyl (C=O) groups glow in the blue-green range. ..."

From the abstract:
"Biophotons are non-thermal and non-bioluminescent ultraweak photon emissions, first hypothesised by Gurwitsch as a regulatory mechanism in cell division, and then experimentally observed in living organisms.
Today, two main hypotheses explain their origin:
stochastic decay of excited molecules and coherent electromagnetic fields produced in biochemical processes.
Recent interest focuses on the role of biophotons in cellular communication and disease monitoring.
This study presents the first campaign of biophoton emission measurements from cultured astrocytes and glioblastoma cells ... 
The statistical analyses of the collected data revealed a clear separation between cellular signals and dark noise, confirming the high sensitivity of the apparatus. The Diffusion Entropy Analysis (DEA) was applied to the data to uncover dynamic patterns, revealing anomalous diffusion and long-range memory effects that may be related to intercellular signaling and cellular communication.
These findings support the hypothesis that biophoton emissions encode rich information beyond intensity, reflecting metabolic and pathological states.
The differences revealed by applying the Diffusion Entropy Analysis to the biophotonic signals of Astrocytes and Glioblastoma are highlighted and discussed in the paper.
This work lays the groundwork for future studies on neuronal cultures and proposes biophoton dynamics as a promising tool for non-invasive diagnostics and the study of cellular communication."

Wednesday, July 29, 2026 - Join The Flyover

All living things emit a faint glow. Could this light be useful? "Ultra-weak ‘biophotons’ might be used to diagnose disease, or could even represent a new signalling mechanism in cells."



A sensitive camera picks up biophoton emissions from a mouse (alive, left; dead, right).



Figure 2. Comparison plots of biophotonic signals emitted by astrocyte (green) and glioblastoma (red) cell cultures concerning the background (dark counts in blue) performed with the LNF machine


Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Image of the day

Credits to Palki Sharma, who said she was reading this memoir!

Notice whose forewords are on the book cover! What is the message? 

Ciao bella!



Monday, July 27, 2026

Commerzbank und Unicredit: Der Niedergang oder die Misere der deutschen Großbanken

Neues aus der Bananenrepublik D!

Mailand schlägt Frankfurt am Main als europäisches bzw. globales Finanzzentrum!

Hinweis: Ich bin mit den Einzelheiten dieser Bankübernahme nicht vertraut.

Commerzbank und Unicredit: Der Niedergang der deutschen Großbanken | FAZ "Nach einer Übernahme der Commerzbank befänden sich vier der ehemals fünf deutschen Großbanken unter dem Dach der Mailänder Unicredit. Übrig bliebe die Deutsche Bank, die aber nur noch in der zweiten Liga spielt. Politikirrtümer und Managementfehler erklären die Misere."

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Defying Trump, Italy's Prime Minister Meloni 'maintaining' hard line against Iran war help. Really!

Is Italy's Prime Minister Meloni suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome? I hope not! Very disappointing!

The US will remember that the coward Europeans did not aide the US in the War against Iran to prevent nuclear arms development!

"Despite being singled out for sharp criticism by US President Donald Trump at the NATO Summit, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni doubled down on her government’s refusal to let Washington use bases for military operations in the war against Iran. ..."

Defying Trump, Italy's Meloni 'maintaining' hard line against Iran war help - Breaking Defense




Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Gaza’s Lost History on Display in a major international exhibition in Turin

This could be an interesting exhibition! However, from the article below I get the impression this is a pro Palestine (PLO/PNA) political statement, perhaps worse with antisemitic undertones!

"The project is a collaboration between Fondazione Merz, Turin’s Museo Egizio, and Geneva’s Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (MAH), with the support of the State of Palestine. It brings together around eighty archaeological artifacts dating from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, placing them in dialogue with works by seven contemporary Palestinian and international artists. Together, the institutions frame the exhibition as both a scholarly undertaking and a public reflection on memory, identity, and responsibility. ...

For years, the name Gaza has been associated almost exclusively with bombardment, siege, hunger, and ruin [???]. The Turin exhibition seeks to recover a much longer, nuanced history. ..."

"... The project brings together a selection of over eighty archaeological finds from the MAH – Musée d’art et d’histoire of Geneva on behalf of the State of Palestine and the Egyptian Museum of Turin – dating from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period – and works by contemporary Palestinian and international artists Samaa Emad, Mirna Bamieh, Khalil Rabah, Vivien Sansour, Wael Shawky, Dima Srouji and Akram Zaatari. ..."

Gaza’s Lost History on Display in Turin - by Giovanni Vigna "A major exhibition at Fondazione Merz explores Gaza's ancient Mediterranean identity through archaeology, art, and archival photography, recovering a cultural memory often eclipsed by war."

GAZA, the future has an ancient heart (original news release)


An iron age statuette of a woman with a tambourine, from between 800 and 601 BC, discovered in Gaza. (Source)


The exhibition in Turin includes ancient artefacts found in Gaza and new work from artists across the Levant.


Head with pointed cap, from approximately the 5th century BCE, discovered in Gaza.


Friday, May 01, 2026

President Trump says ‘probably’ when asked if he might pull US troops out of Italy, Spain and Germany

Good news! Bravo! Please go ahead President Trump!

Since about 1945, Europe has a free rider on US military power!

Let the European countries build their own NATO!

"... Trump has harshly criticized NATO allies ​for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed to global shipping following the start of a U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran on February 28. He has also said that he is considering withdrawing the United States from the alliance. ..."

Trump says ‘probably’ when asked if he might pull US troops out of Italy, Spain

Monday, April 27, 2026

Hacker who allegedly carried out cyberattacks for China is extradited to US from Italy

Good news! What was that fool doing in Italy?

There should be more indictments and arrests of cyber criminals like him!

"A man accused of carrying out cyberattacks on behalf of the Chinese government has been extradited to the United States, and faces over a decade in prison if convicted. 

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department accused Xu Zewei of working as a contractor for the Chinese Ministry of State Security to conduct a series of cyberattacks. Prosecutors alleged Xu and co-conspirator Zhang Yu targeted several U.S. universities in early 2020 to steal research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The two also allegedly hacked thousands of email servers running Microsoft Exchange beginning March 2021, as part of an “indiscriminate” campaign attributed to a Chinese-backed hacking group known as Hafnium, and later Silk Typhoon.

Xu was arrested in Italy last year at the request of U.S. authorities. His lawyer in Italy, Simona Candido, told TechCrunch that Xu was extradited to the United States on Saturday, and that he is now in detention in Houston, Texas. ..."

Hacker who allegedly carried out cyberattacks for China is extradited to US | TechCrunch

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Italy suspends automatic renewal of defense agreement with Israel, says Meloni. Really!

More disappointing news about Prime Minister Meloni!

Italy suspends automatic renewal of defense agreement with Israel, says Meloni | The Jerusalem Post "Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced the suspension of the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel, citing ongoing conflicts in the Middle East."

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Italy will not deploy naval vessels to patrol the Strait of Hormuz

Italian Prime Minister Meloni is very disappointing when it comes to Iran.

"... Italy signaled limits to its involvement in maritime security operations. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo ⁠Salvini said on Wednesday that Italy would not deploy naval vessels to patrol the area without authorization from the United Nations. ..."

Meloni: Iran's plan to charge vessels passing through Hormuz may disrupt trade | The Jerusalem Post "Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo ⁠Salvini said on Wednesday that Italy would not deploy naval vessels to patrol the area without authorization from the United Nations."

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

Italy turns away Middle East-bound US military aircraft from Sicily stopover

Bad news! What the heck is Italian Prime Minister Meloni doing?

"U.S. military aircraft heading from the United States to the Middle East have been refused permission to stop off at an air base in Italy, an Italian government source has told Defense News. ...

Italy has a longstanding deal with the U.S. to allow it to use Sigonella for regular military flights, while permission for use of the base by flights not covered by the agreement must be granted by the Italian parliament.

In a speech to parliament this month, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, “The bases used by the U.S. in Italy derive from agreements signed in 1954 and which have been updated since then by various governments. According to those agreements there are technical authorizations when it comes to logistics and non-kinetic operations that do not involve, put simply, bombing.” ..."

Italy turns away Middle East-bound US military aircraft from Sicily stopover

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Ducati’s $165,000 Superleggera V4 Centenario motorcycl has already sold out the 500 units

Amazing stuff! Would you buy a motorcycle for over $160,000?

"Ducati’s $165,000 Superleggera V4 Centenario motorcycle, which it calls the most extreme and expensive road-legal motorcycle it has ever built, has already sold out the 500 units it built for its 100th anniversary, as well as the $250,000 Tricolore variant."

Tuesday, March 31, 2026 - Join The Flyover