Free Republic

When you are accused, criticized, or attacked, what is your first instinct? To defend yourself. To explain your intentions. To set the record straight. But Niccolò Machiavelli, the master strategist of power, would tell you this is a fatal error. Every word you spend on defense is a word that solidifies your position as the weak one, the one on trial. You are playing their game, on their terms, and you have already lost. In this brutally effective video, “NEVER Defend Yourself - Machiavelli’s Trick to Flip the Power Instantly,” we break down one of the most potent psychological tactics...

An American tourist was stabbed in the chest while traveling on a regional train from Melegnano to Milan, in the latest of over 260 violent incidents reported on Italy’s rail network so far this year. The 27-year-old victim was attacked on Tuesday morning near San Giuliano Milanese train station by a group of three or four young men described as of North African origin, who reportedly attempted to steal his gold necklace before fleeing the scene. The attackers, armed with a knife, stabbed the tourist in the neck and chest before escaping at the next station. Footage from the San...

Felix Baumgartner, the daredevil who made a record-breaking parachute jump from the stratosphere in 2012, died Thursday in a paragliding accident in Italy, a local mayor confirmed. Firefighters who responded to the scene said they found a paraglider that had crashed into the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio, on central Italy's eastern coast. "Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight," the town's Mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, said on Facebook. Baumgartner, 56, made global headlines in...

Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner has died in a paragliding crash in Italy. The Austrian sportsman, 56, reportedly lost control of his aircraft on Thursday at around 4pm in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Marche. Italian local media has reported the dare-devil crashed into the pool of the Le Mimose campsite after feeling unwell before taking off. A woman was also left injured in the incident after being struck by Baumgartner as he plummeted to the ground. She was taken to Murri Hospital, but her condition is not serious, according to initial reports. Baumgartner had taken off from Fermo, but while flying over the...

A tape apparently recorded by murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko a year before he was poisoned has revealed he was digging up links between Vladimir Putin and one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. A Telegraph investigation uncovered the audio recording, in which the dissident claims from beyond the grave that Russia’s president had a “good relationship” with Semion Mogilevich - a Ukrainian crime boss who was on the FBI's most wanted list and whom Mr Litvinenko believed was selling weapons to al-Qaeda. The apparent recording of Mr Litvinenko is published for the first time ahead of a public inquiry...

Before there was Iraq, there was Lebanon.  In 1982, following Operation Peace for Galilee, JINSA reported on the international terrorist haven that had arisen in Fatahland – the southern part of Lebanon controlled by Yasser Arafat.  Aside from the expected mélange of Middle Easterners, there were Japanese Red Army, German and Italian Red Brigades, Nicaraguan Sandinistas, Salvadorans, Colombians and Peruvians.  There were Iranian Shi’ites, East Germans and Bulgarians.  Before there was Iraq, there was Lebanon, again.  Religious Iran and secular, Ba’athist Syria made a deal to use Syrian-controlled Lebanon as a base for Hizballah to attack Israel.  Today, Israel...

<p>MONTEROSI, Italy (Reuters) -Producers of Pecorino Romano cheese, one of Italy's best known food exports, are lobbying to be spared new U.S. tariffs that could raise consumer prices and take a chunk out of their export market.</p><p>Gianni Maoddi, president of the Consorzio di Tutela del Pecorino Romano, said the cheese has for more than 140 years been popular in the United States, which accounts for around 40% of annual exports.</p>

Our study explored the evolutionary trajectory of grapevine cultivation in Italy through the analysis of archaeological grape pips spanning approximately 7,000 years...During the Early Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods, the absence of morphologically domestic grapes suggests a reliance on wild grape gathering, possibly with some experiment of proto-cultivation of wild grape.Despite previous research showing the presence of domestic grapes in Middle Bronze Age sites such as Pertosa Cave in southern Italy and Sa Osa in Sardinia, our study of grape pips from several other sites do not reveal robust evidence for domestic grapes in Middle Bronze Age sites in...

Golden State Warriors guard Buddy Hield was not entertained when he visited the Colosseum in Rome. Hield was at an NBA Summer League game to watch the young players on the Warriors’ roster take on the Utah Jazz on Sunday night. The Warriors won the game 103-93, but it was Hield’s comments on his trip to Italy that caught the attention of the internet. "I was a little disappointed when I went to the Colosseum because I watched ‘Gladiator’ and I thought Maximus was a real warrior," he explained on the ESPN broadcast. "So, I’m going into the Colosseum screaming,...

A 42-year-old Egyptian man has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old American tourist who was vacationing on the Amalfi Coast with her family. The attack happened on Tuesday evening when the victim's parents had gone out briefly. The perpetrator, legally residing in Italy and employed at the hotel where the family was staying, took advantage of the situation to attack and rape her. After the assault, the girl called her father to tell him what had happened. When he returned to the hotel, he spotted the man and attacked him. The victim's father was subsequently arrested...

The wife of Lufthansa airline’s billionaire CEO fatally ran down a babysitter while on vacation in Sardinia — then flew home to Germany while under investigation for vehicular homicide, according to reports. Vivian Alexandra Spohr, 51 — the wife of CEO Carsten Spohr — was behind the wheel of a BMW X5 on Tuesday afternoon when she struck Gaia Costa, 24, on a pedestrian crosswalk in the upscale Italian resort town of Porto Cervo, according to Corriere News. Spohr allegedly continued driving until onlookers waved her down... Spohr was formally identified as being under investigation for involuntary manslaughter — but...

In a long-overdue repudiation of international lawfare cloaked as human rights work, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has slammed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’s so-called “special rapporteur” for Palestinian territories, whose tenure has been the epitome of anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Israeli provocation theatre. Albanese, an Italian academic turned ideological inquisitor, was appointed in 2022 by the United Nations Human Rights Council—a body whose moral compass spins like it was borrowed from James Comey, Crossfire Hurricane edition. Among its current members: China, Cuba, Sudan, and South Africa—a rogue’s gallery of surveillance states, strongmen, and serial rights abusers, nations...

Albanese has long been critical of Israel's war in GazaThe United States has imposed sanctions on the United Nations official who investigates human rights abuses in occupied Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the Trump administration to punish those who criticize Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. Here's what you need to know. Who is Francesca Albanese?Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the UN to report on specific themes and crises. Outside experts, such as Albanese, do not represent the United Nations as a whole but they report...

The Associated Press reported this week that a Saudi cleric, Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, funneled money to an Egyptian, Rabei Osman Ahmed, who is said to be the mastermind of the Madrid train bombings last March. Al-Awdah's name has been repeatedly linked to al-Qaeda and bin Laden, yet since 9-11, he has tempered his rhetoric. The disparity between his public and his covert activity can be explained by a secret agreement between the Saudi regime and al-Adwah's Movement for Islamic Resurgence.Osman Ahmed's Milan apartment was reportedly wiretapped by Italian anti-terrorism police. In one taped conversation he is reported to say that...

Giorgia Meloni has condemned the “vile” killing of a sniffer dog that died after sausages filled with nails were thrown into its kennel overnight. Bruno, a seven-year-old bloodhound, was once honoured by the Italian prime minister for helping to locate nine missing people. But on Sunday, the dog was found lying in a pool of blood at an animal training centre near the city of Taranto in Italy’s southern Apulia region. The animal died an agonising, hours-long death from internal bleeding, Arcangelo Caressa, his trainer, said as he vowed to track down the culprits. In a Facebook post, Ms Meloni...

An Italian socialite has been charged with murder after she was allegedly caught on camera repeatedly running over a mugger for snatching her bags. Cinzia Dal Pino, 65, is accused of killing Nourdine Mezgoui, a 52-year-old Moroccan national, in the Italian seaside resort of Viareggio after he stole her bag, L’Unione Sarda reported. Video shows Mezgoui walking along the sidewalk when a vehicle suddenly appears to deliberately veer into him. The SUV then reverses and runs over Mezgoui three times as he lies on the sidewalk. The driver, who prosecutors say is Dal Pino, then gets out of the car...

A colossal marble head was uncovered beneath Rome's Via Alessandrina, according to a report by the Greek Reporter. The discovery was made during archaeological work near the heart of the ancient city that is aimed at removing a modern section of road separating the forums of Augustus, Trajan, and Nerva. The statue head was embedded in a layer of medieval brick and mortar, which suggests that it had been reused as building material centuries after the fall of Rome. Archaeologists believe that the sculpture dates to the reign of Trajan (a.d. 98–117) and may have once stood in his forum...

Italian archaeologists working in the city of Ugento uncovered sections of an extensive ancient defensive network intended to protect the city and its inhabitants from an advancing Roman army, The Kansas City Star reports. The wall was originally built in the fourth century b.c. but was significantly enhanced a century later, when its thickness grew to 20 feet wide. Near one of the corner bastions, the team encountered a destruction layer that contained 450 lead sling bullets and nine iron bolts fired from Roman scorpio machines, weapons that resembled large stationary crossbows. Researchers believe these are evidence of a Roman...

Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos' A-list guests like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were forced to take cover on Thursday as the couple's pre-wedding party was hit by a huge freak thunderstorm. The lavish event held at the Madonna dell Orto cloisters marked the start of the billionaire couple's lavish three-day wedding in Venice, Italy, which will come to a close on Saturday. However, Thursday night's star-studded soiree was brought to an early end due to the intense downpour. Guests dived for cover under the vaulted cloisters as lightening bolts flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled overhead at the...

Greek police say they have arrested a 65-year-old Lebanese man on the island of Mykonos over the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 in which a US Navy officer was killed. The suspect, named by Lebanon's foreign ministry as Mohammad Saleh, was stopped on Thursday during a routine security check when his description matched those on a German warrant for his arrest, Greek police told CNN. He was also wanted by German authorities for a kidnapping in 1987... Hijackers seized control of the Boeing 727 aircraft shortly after it took off from Athens, en route to Rome, on June...