Italy news and discussions

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caltrek
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Italy Gripped by Anarchist’s Hunger Strike Against Solitary Confinement
by Cain Burdeau
January 31, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — The fate of an imprisoned Italian anarchist vowing to die if necessary during a hunger strike to protest his country's harsh regime of solitary confinement has become the topic of heated debates and sparked a series of alleged anarchist attacks.

On Monday, Alfredo Cospito, 55, was moved from a maximum-security prison on the island of Sardinia to Milan's Opera prison due to his worsening health condition. He's refused food for the past 104 days and Italian authorities said he would receive better medical care in Milan.

His lawyer says he will not be force-fed in Milan and that his hunger strike will continue. He's been placed in a system of extreme solitary confinement designed to seal off mafia bosses from running their crime rings from inside prison walls.

By Tuesday, his case was the lead story in Italian newspapers and news shows. His protest is sparking political and public debates over whether Cospito should be seen as a political prisoner rather than a security threat who needs to be shut off from nearly all contact with the outside world.
Since going on hunger strike, Cospito has said he'd rather die than live the rest of his life locked away under Italy's harsh isolation system.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/italy-g ... finement/
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caltrek
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Where’s the Far-right Meloni? Defying Expectations, Italy’s Leader Keeps Lid on Radical Politics
by Cain Burdeau
February 10, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — After more than 100 days in office, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has proven to be anything but the “most dangerous woman in Europe,” as the popular German news magazine Stern described her on the eve of her election win last September.

Instead of dangerous, Meloni, the 46-year-old leader of the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party, has proven to be remarkably moderate, cautious and even a bit boring – a very nimble politician, in other words.

Meloni has served as the prime minister of Italy's right-wing coalition for slightly more than 100 days and she's done little to spook the European Union's leaders and financial markets.

Indeed, Italy's first female premier has been warmly welcomed in Brussels as she massages away her anti-EU and far-right rhetoric.

“She has proven to be very adaptable,” said Gianfranco Pasquino, an emeritus political science professor at the University of Bologna and a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna. “She has proven to be not ideological.”
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/wheres- ... politics/

caltrek’s comment: It is still more than a little bit disconcerting that Meloni seemed to gain power by appealing to the far right through her rhetoric. Of course, one possibility is that the “liberal” media was just plain paranoid. I think it is more a matter of being more pragmatic once in power. Something that can never be counted upon.

Meloni could also take a sudden turn to the right.
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The following is a government news release, and thus not subject to copy right related restrictions on length.

Italy Has Just Banned ChatGPT
March 31 , 2023

Entire English Language Version of News Release:
(GPDP) Artificial intelligence: stop to ChatGPT by the Italian SA

Personal data is collected unlawfully, no age verification system is in place for children

No way for ChatGPT to continue processing data in breach of privacy laws. The Italian SA imposed an immediate temporary limitation on the processing of Italian users’ data by OpenAI, the US-based company developing and managing the platform. An inquiry into the facts of the case was initiated as well.

A data breach affecting ChatGPT users’ conversations and information on payments by subscribers to the service had been reported on 20 March. ChatGPT is the best known among relational AI platforms that are capable to emulate and elaborate human conversations.

In its order, the Italian SA highlights that no information is provided to users and data subjects whose data are collected by Open AI; more importantly, there appears to be no legal basis underpinning the massive collection and processing of personal data in order to ‘train’ the algorithms on which the platform relies.

As confirmed by the tests carried out so far, the information made available by ChatGPT does not always match factual circumstances, so that inaccurate personal data are processed.

Finally, the Italian SA emphasizes in its order that the lack of whatever age verification mechanism exposes children to receiving responses that are absolutely inappropriate to their age and awareness, even though the service is allegedly addressed to users aged above 13 according to OpenAI’s terms of service.

OpenAI is not established in the EU, however it has designated a representative in the European Economic Area. It will have to notify the Italian SA within 20 days of the measures implemented to comply with the order, otherwise a fine of up to EUR 20 million or 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover may be imposed.
Source and to read Italian version: https://www.gpdp.it/web/guest/home/doc ... 7#english
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Re: Italy news and discussions

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The modern right is pro-idiocy so of course they're going to ban it. lol. This is why they need to be defeated where ever they're found and sent packing to the street. These people can't stand freedom, an informed public or rationality. They live and die on the hill of having dumbasses vote for their idiotic ideas and controlling information being fed to the idiotic.
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Fascism’s return to Italy? The meaning of the Fratelli d’Italia
8th April 2023

The victory of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) in the Italian general election held in September 2022, where it emerged as the biggest party, poses sharp questions.

The overall vote for the right-wing electoral coalition—composed of the Fratelli, Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s declining Forza Italia—was little changed, but much depends on the understanding of the nature of the Fratelli. The Fratelli’s share of the vote leapt from 4.4 percent in 2016 to 26 percent in 2022. It gained nearly 6 million votes and became the leading party on the right. If the Fratelli is seen as essentially another right-wing conservative force then this is of only limited significance. If, however, the Fratelli is seen, as I will argue, as a much more defined fascist force than the far-right Lega, let alone the conservative Forza Italia, then the sense of alarm and danger must be far greater.

What cannot be denied is that a party with its origins in post-war neo-fascism is now the senior party in a governing coalition for the first time in Italy or elsewhere in Western Europe. The Fratelli’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, sits as prime minister. This is a party that traces its historical roots back to the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano; MSI), which was established in 1946 by veterans of Benito Mussolini’s Nazi-collaborationist Italian Social Republic (Republicca Sociale Italiana), also known as the Salò Republic. Meloni herself entered politics by joining the MSI as a 15 year old. A former leading MSI cadre, Ignazio La Russa, is now the president of the Italian Senate.

Campaigning under its motto of “God, Fatherland and Family”, redolent of Italy’s fascist era, the Fratelli has, since 2017, chosen a party logo with the same well known tricolour flame image long used by the MSI. Indeed, to add to the troubling historical allusions, Meloni’s formal appointment as prime minister took place within a week of the centenary of Mussolini’s installation into the same position by King Victor Emmanuel III on 31 October 1922.

Yet, this also highlights the major differences between these two moments. Mussolini’s path to power, whatever its outward constitutional forms, was paved by a two-year wave of violent reaction directed against Italy’s workers’ movement. Fascist squads, known as the “blackshirts”, conducted, invariably with extensive state complicity, a campaign of terror, starting in the Po River valley and across Apulia in the winter of 1920-21, and then spreading through Italy’s major cities in 1921-22. The fascist “squadristi” waged a low intensity civil war against the left and workers’ organisations, leaving thousands dead and thousands more injured.
http://isj.org.uk/the-fratelli-ditalia/
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Powers wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 9:53 pm viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2273
Merge?
It's merged now. Guys, please use this thread to discuss matters related to Italy.
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raklian wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:39 pm It's merged now. Guys, please use this thread to discuss matters related to Italy.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2110
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Italy Risks Leaving Billions on the Table as Clock Ticks on Gigantic Recovery Plan
by Cain Burdeau
May 26, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — The clock is ticking and Italy is panicking.

A political storm is brewing over Italy's struggles to meet deadlines, targets and requirements set out by the European Union in order to receive billions of euros in pandemic recovery aid that, in theory, could reawaken Italy's moribund economy and launch the creaky nation into the future.
The scale of the problem — and the risk of failure — is huge and sparking political rows over how and how much of the money should be spent.

Projects are at risk or have already been lost, including plans to build many new preschools, expand the map of electric vehicle charging stations, a major enlargement of Cinecittà, Italy's famous national film studios, and much-needed repairs to old municipal water systems.

“They are having trouble spending the money,” said Martina Zaghi, a data journalist with Fondazione Openpolis, an Italian watchdog group. She tracks the recovery funds.

This week, Raffaele Fitto, the minister overseeing Italy's recovery money, ignited more furor by suggesting the country can't spend all the EU funds and needs to overhaul its plans. Fitto quickly retracted his statements to La Stampa newspaper as others inside his government and in the opposition cried foul. Still, he's busy tinkering with Italy's aspirations.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/italy-r ... ry-plan/
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Re: Italy news and discussions

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Ex-Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi dies at 86

- Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's flamboyant media mogul and politician who led the country four times, has died aged 86

- His flamboyant personality struck a chord with the Italian electorate, which continued to back him despite allegations of corruption and double-dealing

- He was prime minister four times - each time it seemed his political career was over, he managed to bounce back

- Nine years after he was banned from public office for tax fraud, he was back in parliament, elected to Italy's Senate before he turned 86 in September 2022

- It was often his private life - his fondness for surrounding himself with young women, and the ensuing scandals - that made global headlines

- Italy's defence minister, Guido Crosetto, says: "An era is over, an era is closing. I love him so very much"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-65192917


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