ROME: The spectrum of Italy’s political class has condemned a group of protesters who Friday vandalized the main office of Turin-based newspaper La Stampa.
The condemnations came from far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the head of the main center-left opposition party Elly Schlein, as well as from the non-political President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
This is a “very serious act which deserves the strongest condemnation,” Meloni said in a statement Friday, after phoning the editor-in-chief of the paper, Andrea Malaguti, and adding that “freedom of the press and information is a precious good.”
Mattarella on Saturday condemned a “violent attack,” while Schlein, quoted by La Stampa, called it a “serious and unacceptable act” and said that “every newsroom is a bastion of freedom and democracy.”
According to the daily’s website, around a hundred people participating in a demonstration in Turin against the government’s budget plans broke away from the main march and forced their way into the newspaper’s offices, which were empty that day due to a nationwide strike by Italian journalists.
“Shouting ‘Terrorist journalists, you’re number one on the list!’, they stormed the newsroom and tore up valuable books and documents that we use daily for our work,” the paper said.
Photos showed the walls of the newsroom covered in graffiti such as “Free Palestine” and “Newspapers complicit with Israel.”
An AFP reporter also saw that they hung a banner saying “Free Shahin,” referring to the imam of a Turin mosque who is facing deportation.
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Italian politicians back newspaper after vandal attack
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Italian politicians back newspaper after vandal attack
- Photos showed the walls of the newsroom covered in graffiti such as “Free Palestine” and “Newspapers complicit with Israel”
French first lady Brigitte Macron visits an old friend in China: A giant panda called Yuan Meng
CHENGDU: French first lady Brigitte Macron caught up with an old friend — a giant panda born in France — at the tail end Friday of a visit to China with President Emmanuel Macron.
At a panda reserve in southwest China that Yuan Meng now calls home, the first lady marveled at how big he has grown. She helped chose his name — which means “accomplishment of a dream” — when he was born in a French zoo in 2017.
“When they’re born, they’re like this,” she said, holding up two fingers a short distance apart. Meanwhile, the chunky male roamed in his enclosure, feasting on bamboo and ignoring bystanders who cried out his name, hoping to elicit a reaction.
“They have a very independent character,” she said. “They do only what they want.”
For decades, China has deployed what’s often called “panda diplomacy” to smooth and promote relations with other countries, gifting the animals to friendly nations and lending pandas to zoos overseas on commercial terms.
Emmanuel Macron’s state visit this week to China, his fourth as president, included meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other officials, discussing Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade ties and other issues.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association said during the visit that it signed a letter of intent to send two of the animals to the Beauval Zoo south of Paris in 2027 under what would be a new 10-year round of panda cooperation with France.
The French zoo sent two 17-year-old pandas — Huan Huan, a female, and her partner Yuan Zi — back to China last month after 13 years on loan in France.
Yuan Meng was their cub, conceived using artificial insemination.
Despite being made in France, he officially belonged to the Chinese government. Yuan Meng bid ‘’adieu’’ to France in 2023, sent off to a new life in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China where Brigitte Macron, considered to be his “godmother,” dropped in to see him.
Huan Huan and Yuan Zi also produced female twins in France in 2021.
Huanlili and Yuandudu are also expected to leave the Beauval Zoo for China in the future. The China Wildlife Conservation Association has previously said that it expects them to remain at the French zoo until January 2027.
At a panda reserve in southwest China that Yuan Meng now calls home, the first lady marveled at how big he has grown. She helped chose his name — which means “accomplishment of a dream” — when he was born in a French zoo in 2017.
“When they’re born, they’re like this,” she said, holding up two fingers a short distance apart. Meanwhile, the chunky male roamed in his enclosure, feasting on bamboo and ignoring bystanders who cried out his name, hoping to elicit a reaction.
“They have a very independent character,” she said. “They do only what they want.”
For decades, China has deployed what’s often called “panda diplomacy” to smooth and promote relations with other countries, gifting the animals to friendly nations and lending pandas to zoos overseas on commercial terms.
Emmanuel Macron’s state visit this week to China, his fourth as president, included meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other officials, discussing Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade ties and other issues.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association said during the visit that it signed a letter of intent to send two of the animals to the Beauval Zoo south of Paris in 2027 under what would be a new 10-year round of panda cooperation with France.
The French zoo sent two 17-year-old pandas — Huan Huan, a female, and her partner Yuan Zi — back to China last month after 13 years on loan in France.
Yuan Meng was their cub, conceived using artificial insemination.
Despite being made in France, he officially belonged to the Chinese government. Yuan Meng bid ‘’adieu’’ to France in 2023, sent off to a new life in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China where Brigitte Macron, considered to be his “godmother,” dropped in to see him.
Huan Huan and Yuan Zi also produced female twins in France in 2021.
Huanlili and Yuandudu are also expected to leave the Beauval Zoo for China in the future. The China Wildlife Conservation Association has previously said that it expects them to remain at the French zoo until January 2027.
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