Italy sends navy ship to assist Gaza aid flotilla after drone attack
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Wednesday he had ordered a navy ship in the Mediterranean to offer assistance to a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, after organisers said several of their boats had been targeted by drones off Greece’s coast.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said more than a dozen explosions were heard around the flotilla on Tuesday evening, with several vessels damaged by "unidentified objects".
Crosetto said in a statement on X that he had "authorised the immediate intervention of the Italian Navy's multi-purpose frigate Fasan, which was sailing north of Crete as part of Operation Safe Sea."
"The vessel is already en route to the area for possible rescue operations", he added.
The GSF, which currently includes 51 vessels, set sail from Barcelona, Spain, earlier this month to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to civilians amid a devastating famine.
Israel, which has blocked two previous attempts by activists to reach Gaza by sea, has said on multiple occasions it will not allow the flotilla to reach the Palestinian territory.
"Israel will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade," Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein told AFP on Wednesday.
As of Wednesday, the perpetrators of the drone attack were still “unidentified," Crosetto said.
'Little piggy': Italy's ex-gymnastics chief to face trial over alleged athlete abuse
Emanuela Maccarani, the former coach of Italy's rhythmic gymnastics team, will go on trial next year over allegations that she bullied some of her athletes, her lawyer told news agency AGI on Monday.
The 59-year-old former trainer, once a national team gymnast herself, was set to be tried on charges of abuse of minors at a court in the northern Italian city of Monza on February 10th.
Over the course of her nearly three-decade tenure at the Italian team's National Training Centre in Desio, near Monza, Maccarani led Italy to the top of a sport traditionally dominated by countries from the former Soviet bloc.
In recent years, however, several Italian athletes have come forward to allege abuse by their former coach.
These include two-time world champion Giulia Galtarossa, now 34, who said she once was berated for eating a pear and handed a diet sheet with the message "we have a little piggy in the squad".
After receiving a formal warning in September 2023, Maccarani was sacked from her role as the head of Italy’s gymnastics squad in March of this year.
The Italian gymnastics federation said at the time that the move was part of plans to "open a new cycle" ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
High fashion meets fine art in posthumous Giorgio Armani exhibition
An ambitious exhibition placing over 100 fashion creations from late Italian designer Giorgio Armani next to Renaissance masterpieces opened inside Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera on Wednesday, AFP reported.
The display, which is part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Giorgio Armani label, was one of the Italian designer’s final projects before his death on September 4th.
Billed as a “dialogue between Giorgio Armani, the [Brera] museum and the artistic heritage it safeguards," the exhibition sees red-carpet gowns and classic suits placed next to artworks by Renaissance master painters.
In one room, a Tuareg blue Armani skirt and top worn by actress Juliette Binoche stands in front of Giovanni Bellini's Madonna and Child.
In another, a greige suit worn by Richard Gere in the 1980 film American Gigolo stands next to Donato Bramante's Men at Arms fresco series.
The clothes on display were chosen to reflect the surrounding artworks, according to the exhibition's organisers.
Armani “searched for his visual alphabet...for works that could resonate with our environments," the Pinacoteca di Brera’s deputy director, Chiara Rostagno, told reporters.
Titled ‘Giorgio Armani, Milano per Amore’, the exhibition is set to run until January 24th, 2026.
With reporting from AFP.
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