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Italy's Deputy PM Salvini found not guilty in Open Arms migrants case

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Italy's Deputy PM Salvini found not guilty in Open Arms migrants case

The leader of Italy’s right-wing Lega Party and Giorgia Meloni’s ally, Matteo Salvini, had been accused of kidnapping and dereliction of duty over his refusal to let a migrant rescue boat dock in Italy in 2019.

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A court in Sicily found Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini not guilty of kidnap for detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship in 2019 incident when he was interior minister.

“I am happy. After three years, Lega has won, Italy has won. Defending the homeland is not a crime but a right. I will go forward with more determination than before,” Salvini said following the verdict.

In August 2019, an NGO ship called Open Arms was carrying 147 migrants from the Libyan coast when Salvini prevented it from docking on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The Open Arms remained at sea for almost three weeks, with the NGO reporting those on board endured dire circumstances leading to medical emergencies and deteriorated mental health. Some threw themselves overboard, and several minors were evacuated during the standoff.

Eventually, the prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio, ordered the vessel to be preventively seized after inspecting it. The remaining 89 people onboard were allowed to disembark.

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Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant, Euroskeptic Lega party, has argued that the then-government of Giuseppe Conte backed him fully in his mission to “close the ports” of Italy to rescue ships carrying migrants found at sea.

Arriving at the courthouse on Friday morning, he said it was a beautiful day “because I am proud to have defended my country. I would do what I did again.”

Last week, he told a rally that “defending the borders, the dignity, the laws, the honour of a country cannot ever be a crime.”

Open Arms’ Italian lawyer, Arturo Salerni, has argued Salvini failed in his duty as a public official to protect the human rights of those on board the ship. Prosecutors during the trial say that those stranded at sea should have had their human rights protected over “state sovereignty.”

“A person stranded at sea must be saved and it is irrelevant whether they are classified as a migrant, a crewmember or a passenger,” Prosecutor Geri Ferrara told the court in September.

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Meloni’s support

Salvini had said he would be unlikely to step down in the case of a guilty verdict over five years, which would have automatically barred him from office.

He has the support of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who earlier this year said in a post on X that “turning the duty to protect Italy’s borders from illegal immigration into a crime is a very serious precedent.”

She never indicated she would expect his resignation, but on Wednesday, she told the Italian Senate that Salvini has the “solidarity of the entire government”.

Meloni has moved to crack down on migration since taking power in 2022, striking deals with northern African countries in a bid to prevent migrants from departing and setting up a landmark scheme with Albanian leader Edi Rama to process asylum applications in so-called “return hubs” away from Italian soil.

The deal has gained traction across European member states, although it has since become a legal nightmare for Meloni after 24 asylum seekers who were sent to Albania were promptly sent back to Italy after a Roman court declared the scheme unlawful.

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The standoff between Open Arms and Salvini was one of over 20 during his tenure as interior minister from 2018 to 2019, where he took a hardline stance against migration. At the time, he repeatedly closed Italian ports to humanitarian rescue ships and accused NGOs that rescued migrants of effectively encouraging human traffickers.

In one incident, now-MEP Carola Rackete entered the port of Lampedusa against Salvini’s orders after declaring a state of emergency on her boat.

She was soon arrested on charges of illegal migration that were eventually dropped.

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Google puts AI agents at heart of its enterprise money-making push

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Google puts AI agents at heart of its enterprise money-making push
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is deepening a push into enterprise software, signaling to investors at Google’s annual ​cloud conference that AI agents — human-like digital assistants — are a lynchpin of its strategy to monetize artificial intelligence.
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Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report

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Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report

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Some landlords in England are apparently advertising “Muslim-only” apartments online, according to a local media report.

An investigation by The Telegraph found that alleged listings posted in London on Facebook, Gumtree and Telegram feature phrases such as “only for Muslims,” “for 2 Muslim boys or 2 Muslim girls,” and “Muslims preferred.”

Other ads appeal to Punjabi and Gujarati speakers, while some job vacancies on the platforms are advertised for men only.

Some listings specify “Hindu only,” in addition to posts that likely use religious subtext by stating: “The house should be alcohol and smoke-free.”

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IS MAMDANI’S SOCIALIST PUSH FOR RENT CONTROLS ABOUT TO WRECK THE NEW YORK CITY HOUSING MARKET?

On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” “one double room is available for Muslims,” and “suitable for Punjabi boy.” A Meta spokesman told Fox News Digital that Facebook then removed the company’s page “for violating the platform’s policies on discriminatory practices.”

Apartment buildings in Westminster, London, U.K. (John Keeble/Getty Images)

The ads run afoul of Britain’s Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, race and other protected characteristics.

“These adverts are disgusting and anti-British. It goes without saying that there would be a national outrage if the tables were turned,” Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, told The Telegraph. “All forms of racism are unacceptable, and no religious group should get a special exemption to discriminate in this way.”

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Houses and properties line Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London, U.K. Some landlords in the city are illegally advertising for “Muslim only” tenants across the city, an investigation by The Telegraph has found. (Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images)

One landlord told The Telegraph to “go away” when asked about an ad for a “Muslims only” room for $1,150, and whether it was available to renters of other faiths.

A spokesperson for Gumtree told the newspaper that the company has clear policies in place that prohibit unlawful discrimination.

On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“We take reports of inappropriate listings very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “The ads referenced appear to relate to private rooms within shared homes, where existing occupants may express preferences about who they live with. This is different from renting out an entire property, which is subject to stricter rules under the Equality Act.”

Telegram did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

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Is Europe too late to the metal recycling game?

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Is Europe too late to the metal recycling game?

Europe’s critical raw materials crisis has a partial answer sitting in the waste stream — but the continent has been too slow to see it.

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Dorota Włoch, CEO of Eneris Surowce, was direct: recycling is no longer optional.

Unlike plastics, metals can be recovered and reused indefinitely, making urban mining — the recovery of raw materials from existing products and waste — increasingly valuable, particularly for batteries.

“From recycling, we recover metallic aluminium and so-called black mass, which is a concentrate of metals, mainly cobalt-nickel. These are some of the most valuable battery metals. And batteries are crucial today, not only in the automotive sector, but also in storing energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar,” she said.

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‘Europe is 25 years late’

Włoch put the scale of the problem plainly. “Deposits are critical — any machine can be bought, but natural resources are not. They are non-transferable and non-renewable. If we use them, they simply disappear,” she said.

Europe’s belated recognition of that reality has cost it dearly.

“The regulation of critical raw materials came 25 years after other regions of the world had invested heavily in deposits. Europe was too passive. Today we are catching up, but the regulations are often so demanding that countries like Poland have difficulty implementing them.”

Who benefits most from extraction?

Poland holds significant reserves of raw materials critical to the modern economy, such as copper, coking coal, nickel, platinum group metals, helium, rhenium, lead and silver.

But the minerals needed most for the energy transition, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, exist only in limited quantities, forcing imports.

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Arkadiusz Kustra, dean of the faculty of civil engineering and resource management at AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, told a panel at the European Economic Congress that awareness of the full supply chain, and who profits from it, was now essential.

He pointed to Serbia as a case study.

“Serbia has lithium deposits and is already in talks with Mercedes or Stellantis,” he said. Belgrade is using that leverage to attract investment in battery factories and car plants, keeping more of the value chain at home.

The goal, Kustra argued, should be regional supply chains that retain added value locally.

“You can earn the least at the beginning and the most from the end customer,” he said.

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The bigger obstacle is Chinese dominance.

“Margins in critical raw materials largely go to the Chinese, who control more than 90% of processing and trading, even though they do not own most of the deposits,” he said.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo — among the world’s most resource-rich countries — Chinese entities control around 90% of deposits.

The panel also pointed to growing interest in new supply partnerships, with Poland eyeing assets in the Congo region and the Americas.

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