Provocative mermaid statue makes waves in southern Italian town
A provocative statue of a curvy mermaid is making waves in the southern Italian town of Monopoli.
The voluptuous artwork sits in a new square in the Puglia town called Piazza Rita Levi-Montalcini – named after a Nobel prize-winning Italian scientist.
It was created by students from the Luigi Rosso art school in Monopoli after a commission from the local municipality and is located near to a children’s playground. It is part of a €350,000 (£310,000) redevelopment of the area.
Adolfo Marciano, headteacher of the Luigi Rosso art school, said the statue was a “tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy”.
The statue is dedicated to ‘curvy women’. Pic: The Monopoli Times
“The students got together and came up with the idea of a mermaid,” Mr Marciano told The Guardian. “The council was shown the scale model and said it was good, and then decided the completed sculpture would be placed in the square.
“You see adverts on television with models who are very thin, but the mermaid is like a tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy, especially in our country. It would have been very bad if we had represented a woman who was extremely skinny.”
The statue has understandably roiled social media, with equal passions being raised for and against it. “But who could have inspired this,” asked one Twitter user. “Kim Kardashian?”
Tiziana Schiavarelli, an actress from the nearby city of Bari, wrote on Facebook that a friend from Monopoli had been “rightly perplexed” by the monument.
“At first glance, it doesn’t look like the image of the famous scientist. It actually looks like a mermaid with two silicone boobs and above all the hugest ass ever seen on a mermaid. At least the ones I know.”
Ms Schiavarelli concluded by saying she didn’t “mind the authors of the work, nor the municipal administration of Monopoli” it just “amuses me a lot. Who knows, maybe it will become a tourist attraction?”
That sentiment was echoed by a Monopoli local on Twitter, who revelled in the town’s unexpected fame: “Monopoli in all the newspapers for a big-ass mermaid, that’s us!”
The statue is yet to be formally unveiled.
A second fatal bombing on the streets of Moscow in the space of three days.
We do not know the full details of this latest explosion but the fact these incidents keep happening will be highly embarrassing for the Kremlin.
Pic: Reuters
Monday’s car bomb that killed Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was the latest in a long line of high-profile hits on Russian soil since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Live updates: Ukraine war latest
When a top military official was killed in similar circumstances this time last year, by a bomb hidden in a scooter, Vladimir Putin criticised Russia’s security services and told them they should learn from their mistakes.
It does not look like they have. Since then, there have been many more assassinations of senior officials – both in Moscow and further afield.
Pic: Investigative Committee of Moscow/AP
This latest killing of two police officers in the same area as Monday’s attack only makes things worse.
It doesn’t just look complacent. It’s starting to appear incompetent.
Although Ukraine has been behind some of the attacks, in this case, it has not commented.
But could this have been Kyiv’s way of trying to change the narrative in the peace talks? To show Donald Trump that Russia doesn’t ‘hold all the cards’?
Pic: Investigative Committee of Moscow/AP
The timing has certainly been helpful for Ukraine, coinciding with the latest negotiations. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that Kyiv has seemingly made progress in convincing Washington to agree to a less punishing peace proposal.
Article 5-style security guarantees are a big win for Ukraine, as is an allowance to retain the strength of its armed forces.
They are yet to convince the US on territory, but it’s still progress nonetheless.
Will Moscow agree to the other points? Don’t hold your breath.
Russia’s position “is well known”, the Kremlin said, when asked for its reaction to the latest proposals, suggesting it remains unmoved in its opposition to a security guarantee involving foreign troops.
But even so, it seems the spotlight is back on Moscow.
Families in Nigeria were reunited with more than a hundred schoolchildren and teachers abducted in November.
The tearful reunions happened just in time for Christmas.
“This Christmas, since we are celebrating Christmas with our children, we are so glad. And this Christmas will be different from the others,” said Yusuf Timothy, whose daughter, Rejoice, was among those freed.
The hostages were abducted in November. Pic: AP
Loved ones of the kidnapped children had an emotional reunion. Pic: AP
Mr Timothy said his family had to put their life on hold since the attack.
“Sometimes, even though I’m asleep with my wife, if we wake up, we will start thinking. We will start crying. When are we going to see our child?” he said.
The group of children and teachers were the last to be freed after the 21 November attack on St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri.
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“I am happy, I am happy,” said Rita Marcus, who was reunited with her son, tears flowing down her face.
“This happiness, it is too much.”
The attack on the Papiri school was one of Nigeria’s biggest mass kidnappings. Pic: AP
The children’s loved ones checked them for injuries and lifted them high in the air as they celebrated the hostages coming home.
Most of the children were between 10 and 17, according to the school.
Nigerian authorities initially said 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers had been kidnapped but later revised the number to 230.
They say all of the hostages have now been released.
Although school kidnappings in Nigeria have become a major security issue, the November attack was one of the country’s biggest mass kidnappings in recent years.
A trove of newly released Epstein files include emails that appear to involve Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, while another suggests Donald Trump travelled on the billionaire’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
The US Department of Justice released at least 11,000 more files on Tuesday.
It went on to claim that some of them “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” about President Trump.
Here are some of the latest news lines from this release of Epstein files. Being named in these papers does not suggest wrongdoing.
Who is ‘The Invisible Man’?
Among the documents released is an email sent to Ghislaine Maxwell that speaks about “the girls” being “completely shattered” at a Royal Family summer camp at Balmoral.
It is dated 16 August 2001 and sent by a person referred to only as “The Invisible Man”, but whom Sky News is reporting appears to be the former prince, Andrew.
We have come to that conclusion from reviewing the email address used, which is assigned to the Duke of York in Epstein’s contacts book and the chain of correspondence.
In the correspondence, “The Invisible Man” asks Maxwell: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied any allegations against him.
The Peru trip
Another email appears to show Maxwell arranging “two-legged sight seeing” for “The Invisible Man” during a trip to Peru.
She appears to forward to “The Invisible Man” part of a conversation between herself and another person.
The email says: “I just gave Andrew your telephone no. He is interested in seeing the Nazca lines. He can ride but it is not his favorite sport ie pass on the horses.”
“Some sight seeing some 2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families) and he will be very happy. I know I can rely on you to show him a wonderful time and will only introduce him to friends that you can trust,” Maxwell said.
The context of the email is unclear and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
Trump on Epstein’s jet?
The latest bunch of files also includes an email from an unidentified prosecutor dated 7 January, 2020, in which President Trump is mentioned.
The email accuses him of travelling on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
It adds that President Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present”.
The email’s sender and receiver have been redacted. However, at the bottom of the email it says assistant US attorney, Southern District of New York. The name has also been redacted.
President Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his relationship with Epstein, and being on any of Epstein’s flights does not indicate any wrongdoing.
Read more:
Trump defends ‘big boy’ Clinton after Epstein files release
Why Andrew photo in Epstein files is awkward for Royal Family
Limousine driver report about Trump
One of the documents in the release shows a report made to the FBI that was recorded on 27 October 2020.
It includes an unverified claim by a limousine driver that he overheard the US president discussing “abusing some girl” in 1995.
The driver also mentions Trump said “Jeffrey” while on the phone during a journey to Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas.
A significant part of the statement, along with the driver’s identity, has been redacted.
The US justice department has said that some of the documents in the latest Epstein files release “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election”.
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” it said.
Postcard mentions ‘our president’
Also among the documents is a postcard that claims to have been sent by Jeffrey Epstein, but has been refuted by the justice department.
In it, the sender tells the recipient: “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls.”
It’s not clear who “our president” refers to and the context of the postcard is also unclear.
The US justice department initially said it was “looking into the validity” of the postcard but later said on X that the “FBI has confirmed” the postcard is “FAKE”.
It cited reasons including a claim that the writing does not appear to match Epstein’s and another that the letter was postmarked three days after his death.
Row over unreleased documents
It is believed that many files relating to Epstein are yet to be made public.
There has been anger at the justice department’s slow release of the files, with politicians threatening to launch legal action against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The deadline for the release of all the documents has passed.
“The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected,” Republican congressman Thomas Massie said.
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