Commuters in Milan and Florence brace for disruption amid public transport strikes
Commuters in Milan and Florence are expected to face delays and/or cancellations on Friday due to a 24-hour walkout involving staff at public transport operators ATM, GEST and Autolinee Toscane.
The strike in Milan was called by union AL Cobas in mid-January in protest against “the liberalisation, privatisation and outsourcing of services” managed by public transport operator ATM, according to a union statement.
The strike in Florence, which is set to involve staff at tram operator GEST and bus operator Autolinee Toscane, was called by OSP Cobas in protest against overly long shifts, inadequate breaks and insufficient layover times at terminals, according to local media.
For further details about how the walkouts are expected to affect travel on Friday, see our separate article.
Two suspects identified in AI phone scam targeting Italian businessmen
Italian officials on Thursday identified two suspects linked to a fraud in which scammers cloned the voice of Defence Minister Guido Crosetto to extort money from leading Italian businessmen, according to AFP.
The two foreign nationals were identified following the freezing of a Dutch bank account to which one victim of the scam transferred nearly €1 million, media reports said.
Crosetto raised the alarm earlier this month, saying a businessman had claimed to have been contacted by the minister and then by a "general" who asked him to make a large bank transfer.
It later emerged that Diego Della Valle, chief executive of leather goods company Tod's, Giorgio Armani and Patrizio Bertelli of Prada were all targeted.
The scammers said the money would aid the release of Italian journalists held in the Middle East.
Only Massimo Moratti, former boss of the Inter Milan football club, paid up, according to media reports. That payment has now been frozen.
"I'm very pleased that the money obtained by deceit from a businessman using my forged voice and my name has been located in a Dutch account and blocked," Crosetto wrote on X on Wednesday.
Italian government denies plans to discontinue Albanian migrant centres
The Italian government on Thursday denied plans to discontinue its contested migrant detention centres in Albania following news reports that the company managing them had started to fire workers citing "contradictory judicial pronouncements".
Asked by reporters whether Rome intended to empty the facilities inaugurated just under a year ago, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi gave a blunt "no".
The Italian-run centres in Shengjin and Gjader are part of a controversial Rome-Tirana deal to hold migrants rescued by Italian authorities in the non-EU country as they wait for their asylum requests to be processed.
The facilities became operational in October of last year, but Italian courts have blocked the detention of the three different groups of migrants so far, saying that the scheme violates a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The ECJ has scheduled a hearing on the matter for the end of February, according to Italian media.
Despite the setbacks, PM Giorgia Meloni’s government is reportedly continuing to explore ways to overcome the ongoing legal challenges.
Three nursing home patients dead in Florence after suspected food poisoning
Three patients from two different nursing homes in the Florence province have died this week following a suspected food poisoning incident, Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Thursday.
Two patients from the Villa Desiderio di Settignano nursing home died on Monday, while a third one, from an as-yet-unspecified facility, died on Thursday, according to the report.
Both facilities were reported as belonging to the Gruppo Sereni Orizzonti group, which operates nursing homes in ten Italian regions.
All three victims reportedly had the same meal on Monday.
Inspectors from Tuscany’s regional health authority are conducting investigations at the centre where the meal was prepared.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Florence has also opened an investigation into the incident.
Tuscany’s President Eugenio Giani and Regional Councillor for Social Policies Serena Spinelli addressed the incident in a joint statement on Thursday.
“We extend our condolences to the families who lost their loved ones,” they said.
“It is an event that deeply shocks us. I hope the investigations will quickly clarify what happened,” they added.
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