Matteo Salvini has scored another victory after parliament passed a security bill which threatens the captains of migrant rescue vessels with fines of up to €1 million if they enter Italy’s ports without permission.
The passing of the bill further bolsters the strong position of the deputy prime minister, who has made combating migration from North Africa one of his main priorities since coming to power last summer.
The security measure means that the skippers of NGO vessels who rescue asylum seekers in the Mediterranean and try to bring them to an Italian port will face fines of up to €1 million.
They will be arrested and their vessels impounded.
That is a dramatic increase on a €50,000 fine which was introduced in a previous security bill, passed in December.
The new law targets migrant rescue boats such as this one, seen in the port of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost islandCredit:
Elio Desiderio/EPA
The new bill, which also gives added powers to the police, won approval after passing a confidence vote in the Senate, the upper house of parliament, on Monday night.
There were 160 votes in favour, 57 against and 21 abstentions.
It had already been approved by the lower house.
A threatened rebellion by Left-leaning members of the Five Star Movement, Mr Salvini’s coalition partner, failed to materialise.
“More power to the forces of order, more border controls, more officers to arrest Mafiosi and members of the Camorra (the Naples-based mafia),” Mr Salvini, who is also interior minister and head of the hard-Right League party, wrote in a tweet.
Matteo Salvini has increased support for his League party from 17% to 38% according to the latest pollsCredit:
Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters
He thanked “you, the Italians” as well as “the Blessed Virgin Mary” – the latest of several references he has made to his Catholicism.
Opponents of Mr Salvini say the new law undermines human rights and persecutes people with a legitimate right to flee violence and poverty.
The security decrees have been criticised by the Council of Europe and the UN, as well as humanitarian NGOs who deploy rescue boats to the Mediterranean to save people escaping Libya.
In Italy, the opposition Democratic Party called the new law “monstrous”, saying that it “criminalises those who save human lives at sea”.
But Mr Salvini’s uncompromising stance towards migrants and refugees has paid handsome dividends in the polls, with the latest suggesting that the League now has the approval of 38% of Italians.
That is a sharp rise from the 17% that the party won in last year’s general election.
Meanwhile, a fishing boat carrying 48 migrants managed to reach the southern Italian island of Lampedusa after setting out from the coast of Libya.
Some migrants died during the journey, including a five-month-old baby, survivors told the Italian authorities.
The survivors included 27 women, three of whom are pregnant. A Protestant Church charity working on Lampedusa said the migrants are from Mali, Tunisia and Ivory Coast.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Yankees baseball legend Mariano Rivera, formerly of New Rochelle, was honored at the White House Monday with President Donald Trump awarding the Baseball Hall of Famer the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The president noted Rivera’s upbringing in Panama, being the son of a fishing-boat captain, becoming a naturalized citizen in 2015 and serving as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.
“Mariano Rivera has made extraordinary contributions to American sports, culture and society,” Trump said in his introduction. “He is the most dominant relief pitcher in the history of baseball. And more than that, he has lived the American dream and shines as an example of American greatness for all to see.”
In attendance, according to a White House transcript, were Rivera’s wife, Clara, his three sons, Jafet, Jaziel and Mariano, and his daughter-in-law Alyssa.
Trump also gave a shout-out to New Rochelle, speaking about Rivera building a learning and community center there.
“[F]rom being in New York, what you’ve done in New Rochelle has been incredible,” Trump said. “Incredible.”
Rivera said it was an honor and a privilege to receive the Medal of Freedom.
I’m not your typical Mets fan. In fact, until about May, I didn’t watch baseball at all.
I mean, growing up in Brooklyn, it was easy to cheer the New York Mets on from the bleachers of my mind. As a twentysomething young woman, when the Mets won the World Series in 1986, I got caught up in the fever, fist pumping with the rest of the roaring crowd who went wild in Bay Ridge, jumping on cars, throwing confetti, and celebrating the victory with a ticker tape parade that brought screaming 2.2 million fans chanting “Let’s Go Mets!” to the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan.
As a young professional, my company had box seats to the Mets and Yankees, so I saw my share of games, even a subway series.
And then, of course, I had a baby, a little boy, and I spent years on the T-ball and Little League circuit, packing snacks and orange slices, jumping up and down for my own little hero — and even once bribing the ice cream man to come back after practice so the kids wouldn’t go running toward his truck instead of home plate.
But still. Truth be told, baseball was never the biggest of deals. When I went to my first game in college — as young journalism students, we were studying sports writing and had to come up with an opening day story — I ended up outside eating a hot dog and interviewing the vendors on what was new and cute in jerseys that year.
I’d be hard-pressed to name even one player, much less watch a game, glued to the TV. I just didn’t get what the fuss was all about.
Until this year.
During a conversation one day, a longtime friend of mine mentioned his lifelong love of baseball, and started really explaining the game. Suddenly, hearing the passion behind every play, every run, the way baseball shaped lives and memories, I was intrigued. Suddenly, it was about more than confusing numbers and a game I really didn’t understand — it was about grit and determination, about dreams and the belief that on that ballfield, just maybe, anything can happen. And with a flash of quicksilver magic, sometimes does.
New York Mets rookie Pete Alonso. (Lisa Finn)
With the Mets still the one team that I’d ever called my own, even just a little, I started watching.
And then a rookie named Pete Alonso burst onto the screen and MLB canvas and started making America, a nation torn by acrimony and discord, believe in the healing magic and innocence a simple baseball game could bring to hurting hearts.
He caught my attention, that smiling young player who bounded around the bases with such seamless ease. Suddenly, I started rushing home at night not to watch HGTV or Lifetime movies, but to watch baseball. Baseball! Me!
Suddenly, I was slightly a fan. And then came the Home Run Derby, which fell on my birthday, and Pete Alonso suddenly went home $1 million richer, winning not only the derby but the hearts of fans young and old who found themselves rooting for the golden boy they knew, in their hearts, was destined to make history.
Pete Alonso wasn’t alone in making the season one to watch for Mets fans; I learned that quickly. The team this year was simply breathtaking. Just when everyone thought all hope was lost, they pulled off a summer-long winning streak that was nothing short of sheer magic. It was the season of dreams.
A season that little kids — and the little kids that live inside us all — would remember forever.
Fans clamor to get the attention of Pete Alonso. (Lisa Finn)
And when Pete Alonso struck hit that life-changing 53rd home run of the season at Citi Field Saturday night, breaking an MLB rookie record set in 2017 by Aaron Judge of the Yankees, he became the miracle every sports fan has hoped for since their very first game. As the crowd roared and jumped and confetti poured down, this fiftysomething once-soccer mom got so excited she dropped the iPhone she’d been using to record the moment.
So excited, I cried. Real tears.
If that weren’t enough, Dominic Smith, back on the field Sunday for the first time after a fracture in his foot left him unable to play for months, brought the Mets to victory in the 11th inning of their final game of the season against the Atlanta Braves.
I never thought I’d cry, get so emotional over a baseball team. But the Mets taught me something this summer. This summer wasn’t easy. I lost one of my oldest friends in August, on a blistering hot day when the sun was shining — a day when the Mets won 2-0. Watching the Mets refuse to give up even in the face of unrelenting odds gave me some measure of comfort, of hope. No matter what was happening, in the world or in my own life, the game continued, the players kept lining up and giving it their all, heading up to bat and showing up to give it their best shot.
Because no matter what life hands us, the true winners keep fighting, persevering, rallying together no matter what the odds.
The Mets became a beacon this summer. No, they didn’t make the playoffs, they lost that chance by an agonizingly slim margin. But for me, at least, that didn’t matter. I’d argue that the honor, the sportsmanship, the never-say-die enthusiasm, the sheer joy they showed for the game this season made them forever winners.
For all who are fans of the game, or any game for that matter, there’s a bond that’s formed as stats are bandied and allegiances are born. Life happens. We’re not all twentysomethings cheering on the Mets in the World Series anymore. Many of us have gotten older, seen illness, divorce, children grown and gone off into the world. We’ve endured heartache, crippling loss, worried about car payments and mortgages and making enough to put food on the table. We’ve had days when it seemed there was no more room in our hearts for something that would surprise us, make us feel that surge of expectation we knew as little kids — that feeling that it was all still ahead and anything was possible.
But when Pete Alonso hit that homer, that’s exactly the feeling that brought us joyfully to our feet, had us dancing wildly, with abandon, in the stadium.
It was, in a word, magic. And as the glitter of pixie dust settled on the field Sunday, fans near and far settled in for the long wait till next season.
Grant Parrish of Forest Lake has committed to wrestling for St. Cloud State following his upcoming senior season.
Parrish is a three-time state entrant. He was the Class AAA 170-pound fourth-place finisher this season as a junior. He qualified at 170 pounds as a sophomore and at 160 pounds as a freshman.
Parrish has extensive freestyle and Greco-Roman experience as well. In 2017, he was a USA Wrestling Cadet Greco-Roman national finalist at 182 pounds.
Parrish is projected to wrestle at 184 or 197 pounds for the Huskies.
The Guillotine Wrestler Files Grant Parrish, Forest Lake 2018 MN HS State Tournament 3A 11th 170 4th 46-8 2017 MN Christmas Tournament 3A 11th 182 7th 2017 USA Wrestling Nationals GR Cadet 182 2nd 2017 USA Wrestling Nationals FS Cadet 182 6th 2017 Northern Plains Regional FS Cadet 182 1st 2017 Northern Plains Regional GR Cadet 182 1st 2017 MN/USA Wrestling State FS Cadet 182 1st 2017 MN/USA Wrestling State GR Cadet 182 1st 2017 MN/USA Wrestling State FS Junior 182 2nd 2017 MN/USA Wrestling State GR Junior 182 2nd 2017 USA Wrestling Nationals Folk Cadet 182 7th 2017 MN HS State Tournament 3A 10th 170 DNP 27-7 2016 MN Christmas Tournament 3A 10th 170 3rd 2016 USA Wrestling Nationals GR Cadet 160 6th 2016 Northern Plains Regional FS Cadet 160 5th 2016 Northern Plains Regional GR Cadet 160 2nd 2016 MN/USA Wrestling State FS Cadet 170 5th 2016 MN/USA Wrestling State GR Cadet 170 3rd 2016 MN/USA Wrestling State GR Junior 170 4th 2016 MN HS State Tournament 3A 9th 160 DNP 28-16
Where are they going in 2019-20? Minnesota Recruits 2019-20
During The NBA Halftime Show of a recent game between The Dallas Mavericks & The Denver Nuggets, Basketball Legend Charles Barkley gave a shoutout to WWE Hall Of Famer “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. Barkley wished Flair well before his surgical procedure that is set to happen soon, which was then followed by The Flair patented “Whoos!”
According to PWInsider, Flair is indeed undergoing a procedure, however, the exact nature of the situation is unclear at the moment. No connection has been made to Flair’s health scare back in 2017. At the time, Flair was experiencing an intestinal blockage which resulted in a part of his bowel being removed. After undergoing surgery, he was hospitalized for over a month and had an external pacemaker inserted to help his heart beat normally.
“When I got out I only weighed 206 pounds, I lost 43 pounds,” Flair told Busted Open Radio in October 2017. “I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t even twist the top off a Gatorade bottle. I could stand on my legs, but I couldn’t walk, so I had to go to a rehab place for 20 days of physical rehab where they make you walk with a walker, and then a cane, and then you learn to walk by yourself. That took a while, and then I couldn’t drive a car. I ate anything in the world, but couldn’t gain any weight because all the food I was consuming was going towards repairing internal tissue that was ruined because when I went into the hospital my kidneys failed, I had respiratory heart failure and I had pneumonia all at the same time.”
More information will be provided on Flair’s surgery and recovery process once it is made available.
Two NCAA champions help train next wave of AV wrestlers
Apple Valley wrestling coach Josh Barlage knew it would be difficult to keep the attention of children, some of whom were younger than 10, through a day-long camp. So he called for help.
Highly qualified help, at that. On one of three mats at Saturday’s Camp of Champions at Apple Valley High School, an NCAA champion watched intently as two students grappled. On the next mat, another NCAA champion helped two more wrestlers sort out what to do in the referee’s position.
If anybody thought about goofing off – well, camp instructor Mark Hall wasn’t having it.
“We’ve been losing a little focus,” said the only six-time individual state high school champion in Minnesota history. “We’re going to take a water break and when we come back I’m going to need your full attention. Continue reading at www.hometownsource.com
According to a report from The Wrestling Observer, the WWE SummerSlam
pay-per-view event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is already sold out
after tickets went on sale earlier this week. The event has around
14,000 tickets sold.
WWE’s 2019 SummerSlam pay-per-view event will take place on Sunday, August 11th at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
Also, the WWE NXT TakeOver:
Toronto II event, which takes place the night before SummerSlam, will
also be held at the same arena. The same goes for the RAW and SmackDown!
Live TV tapings, as they will all be held from the Scotiabank Arena in
Toronto.
LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Ceilings only 4-1/2 feet off the ground discovered in Lower East Side apartment buildings have spurred a new city campaign to warn Lower East Siders of such illegal conversions this week, according to the Department of Buildings.
Buildings Commissioner Melanie E. La Rocca and Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro launched a campaign to hand out thousands of flyers in Lower East Side subway stations, warning residents of the tiny units after 4-1/2-foot ceilings were discovered at Henry and Rutgers streets, the department announced Monday.
“The Lower East Side has long been a historic hub for new immigrant communities coming to our City, and the tenants living there deserve safe and legal housing for themselves and their families,” La Rocca said in a statement.
She said the department is “committed to rooting out dangerous firetraps” and slapping landlords with enforcement actions.
In August, city inspectors discovered the mini-apartments, where condo owners had built half-floors to split the condos into multiple units.
The tiny units did not have proper exits, windows, ventilation and fire safety systems, though landlords did add one safety feature: bubble wrap taped to ceilings for when tenants hit their heads on them. The apartments were moved out of the units and the condo owners fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Illegal conversions pose life-threatening risks to both residents and our members who respond to fires in these buildings,” Fire Commissioner Nigro said. “Through this critical outreach, FDNY and the Department of Buildings are educating New Yorkers about the grave dangers these conversions create and how critical a working smoke alarm and safe, legal egress are to surviving a fire.”
Council members Margaret Chin and Carlina Rivera, who represent parts of the Lower East Side, applauded the new informational campaign.
Officials from the FDNY and DOB will be handing out flyers at the East Broadway and Delancey Street/Essex Street stations, New York Public Library’s Seward Park branch and Captain Jacob Joseph Playground.
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — An urban explorer from Essex County has stumbled onto an intriguing storyline involving a pair of abandoned wind tunnels in New Jersey.
Wheeler Antabanez, a correspondent with Weird NJ, recently delved into the history of an abandoned structure “somewhere in New Jersey,” which has an interesting connection to the world of professional skateboarding.
Read an excerpt from the Weird NJ article.
Antabanez — a Montclair resident who grew up in West Caldwell — told Patch that he couldn’t reveal the exact location of the tunnels because they’d “become an instant tourist attraction.” But it’s a place that many people might pass daily without knowing about.
“I actually drove past this place my whole life and always wondered what it was,” Antabanez said.
According to Antabanez, the facility was built in 1943 to test airplane propellers for World War II bombers, but is now abandoned and decayed. While exploring the muddy, waterlogged building, Antabanez realized that he’d seen it before in a recurring segment on VICE called “Can You Skate It?”
“I was remembering back to an episode where they followed pro skater Fred Gall on a mission to a full pipe in an undisclosed New Jersey location,” Antabanez wrote. “Fred ended up nailing a few tricks for the video, proving that with a little modification and sweeping, the wind tunnel is a viable skate spot. The resulting piece was gnarly as hell and I watched it several times trying to figure out where the full pipe might be located. Now, here I was stumbling upon the spot without even trying.”
Antabanez has also been involved in the exploration of other “weird” sites in Essex County, such as the recently demolished Overbrook Asylum in Cedar Grove.
See related article: NJ’s Infamous Overbrook Asylum: What Happened? (WATCH)See related article: Documentary Captures Saga Of Overbrook Asylum
Watch a video taken at the tunnels below, via Weird NJ.
The Guillotine Events of the Week is brought to you by Ponce Trained Wrestling. Plan your week.
Train with PTW at The PT3 Academy, and this fall at the MEA #GetBonofide (Oct. 18th-19th) Wrestling Camp!!
Learn more at PonceTrainedWrestling.com.
Events subject to change. Check local schedules to verify dates, times, and locations.
Oct 18 ThuBison Wrestling Club Coaches Clinic – Fargo, NDOct 20-28 Sat-SunUWW Senior World Championships – Budapest, Hungary – Club Event Oct 20 SatInterMat JJ Classic – Edina High School – Youth Open
View these and future events at theguillotine.com/events-calendar