Queen Camilla Wore Her Late Mother's Necklace For a State Banquet in Rome
The Queen wore a striking green lace gown by Fiona Clare, with a turquoise and diamond necklace that belonged to her late mother, Rosalind Shand. The event was black tie, not white tie, so she did not wear a tiara. The King looked smart in black tie with his UK Order of Merit neck order and OMRI (Italian Order of Merit) star with a selection of British Orders, Realm and Jubilee medals.
The couple arrived at the Presidential residence at 8pm and were received by President Mattarella's Aide-de-Camp, General Marco Nasi, before posing for photographs. The banquet is being held in the Palace's Salone delle Feste. The King and President were scheduled to deliver toasts. Guests were due to dine on a four-course meal including vegetables, pasta with aubergine caponata, sea bass in salt crust, and ice cream cake with raspberries.
Earlier in the day, the King received more than one standing ovation for his speech to Italy's parliamentarians. He spoke in both Italian and English, telling them, 'I am here today with one purpose: to reaffirm the deep friendship between the United Kingdom and Italy, and to pledge to do all in my power to strengthen that friendship even further in the time that is granted to me as King.'
Referencing ancient ties, the King joked, 'It was the Romans who gave Britons the idea of putting a King's head on coins – so I am especially grateful to them.' He also spoke about defense ties, climate change and mentioned his late mother Queen Elizabeth.
At one point, the audience gave the King a standing ovation and someone else started speaking, thinking his speech was finished. He had to make it clear it wasn't, then joked as he resumed "I'm nearly finished."
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American Military News
16 minutes ago
- American Military News
Report: Russian Sabotage Operations In Europe Have Quadrupled Since 2023
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17 minutes ago
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Perhaps out of respect for the privacy of the real people or their families, we barely spend any time with Meredith or Patrick—another innocent victim, whose experience as a Black, Congolese immigrant feels under-acknowledged in a story so concerned with Amanda's gendered shaming. But Raffa, a sweet, inexperienced romantic hoping for another shot at love with a woman he adores, comes through clearly. I left the series feeling as if I knew him much better than I knew Amanda, even though she gets far more screen time than any other character and Van Patten narrates most of the episodes. (These voiceovers can get pretty purple: 'Telling my tale is a sticky, tricky thing—especially when I was a stranger to my story's true beginning.') This is not for lack of discussion about her personality. She is described, variously, as quirky, impassive, naive, vulgar, blithely optimistic. 'Everyone says I'm like Amélie'—the eponymous gamine from the movie she and Raffaele watched the night of Meredith's murder—'because I'm a weirdo,' Amanda says at one point. Edda calls her 'sunny despite everything.' One of Meredith's friends testifies that the defendant struck her as 'cold,' 'unfeeling,' and 'quite open about her sex life.' It's fine that none of these contradictory characterizations bear much resemblance to the Amanda we observe. This is, after all, the story of a woman who was misread by a significant chunk of Earth's population. But The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox should have a compelling counternarrative to offer about Amanda Knox. To the extent that she's defined, it's in terms of what she self-evidently is not—not a killer, not a sex freak, not a callous American femme fatale. With ample evidence of Knox's innocence available for over a decade, Steinberg and her writers had the chance to do something more than mount yet another defense. They could've made us understand Amanda's thinking in the most awkward and insensitive-seeming moments of her trial by media. Instead, the show tends to replay these gaffes without adding much new perspective. Amanda's alleged weirdness is mentioned more than it's explored; how much could we have learned about her if Steinberg hadn't rushed through a scene set at her time-traveler-themed wedding? A flashback episode that gave us more time with Amanda before Meredith's death might also have helped. Some of the best crime docudramas, like Hulu's own The Dropout and The Girl From Plainville, thrive on nuanced portraiture of real women whose mass-media villain edits contain far more truth than 'Foxy Knoxy.' Without powerful insight into a person who is also Twisted's executive producer—and who has drawn more perceptive conclusions from her ordeal in two memoirs, multiple podcasts, and the Netflix doc—it's hard to justify the reopening of 18-year-old wounds.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel's war conduct is condemned during Italian funeral for Palestinian woman evacuated from Gaza
Italy Palestinian Funeral PONTASSERCHIO, Italy (AP) — Funeral services were held Wednesday for a young Palestinian woman who died in Italy shortly after being evacuated from Gaza last week, exposing Italians to the desperate plight of Palestinians in the besieged territory. The funeral of Marah Abu Zuhri, attended by several hundred people, was interrupted repeatedly by chants of 'Free Palestine' and featured speeches by local Italian authorities denouncing Israel's policy in Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. As Palestinian flags fluttered, mourners stood in prayer before Zuhri's coffin, which was draped in a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh scarf in a park in the town of Pontasserchio, near Pisa. Zuhri, 19, had been evacuated to Italy with what Israel had called leukemia, but Italian doctors said they found no initial evidence of that and instead found 'profound wasting" and an undiagnosed or misdiagnosed condition. The United Nations and partners have said 22 months of war have devastated Gaza's health system, and food security experts have said the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out.' Israel is moving ahead with a new military offensive on some of the territory's most populated areas, Mayor Matteo Cecchelli said he wanted to honor Zuhri's life with a public service in the town's Park of Peace, to 'make noise' about what he called a political and humanitarian 'catastrophe' in Gaza. 'The reality is that every day in the Gaza Strip, people are dying in the deafening silence of world governments," he said to applause. "We cannot remain silent today in this field of peace. There are those who have decided to make noise and have decided to be here to express their dissent towards this genocide.' Israel asserts that it abides by international law and is fighting an existential war in Gaza after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage. Israel has rejected genocide allegations related to its war in Gaza and called them antisemitic. Zuhri arrived in Italy overnight on Aug. 13-14 as one of 31 sick or injured Palestinians evacuated on an Italian humanitarian airlift that has brought nearly 1,000 ill Palestinians and their families to the country since the war began. Israel said she had leukemia and had been offered an evacuation earlier but claimed that Hamas had exploited her case, without offering evidence. The U.N. World Health Organization, which coordinates patients' evacuations, didn't respond to a request for comment. Gaza's Health Ministry has asserted that evacuations are often delayed or canceled by Israeli authorities. It says over 18,000 patients and wounded require treatment outside Gaza. Zuhri was admitted to the hematology ward of Pisa University's Santa Chiara Hospital, a known oncological hospital in Tuscany, but died there on Aug. 15. The hospital said she arrived with a 'very complex/compromised clinical picture and in a state of profound wasting.' She suffered a sudden respiratory crisis and subsequent cardiac arrest, which killed her, it said. The head of the hematology department at the Pisa hospital, Dr. Sara Galimberti, said Zuhri arrived with a diagnosis of suspected acute leukemia, but tests the hospital conducted came back negative, with no signs of the 'bad cells' that would indicate leukemia. Galimberti told reporters that Zuhri likely had been misdiagnosed, and that her condition was nevertheless seriously compromised and had been for a while. "The patient was in a complete condition of wasting, and completely bedridden despite being 19 years old,' she said. The hospital conducted a nutritional consultation and began a hypercaloric therapy and transfusional support, but Zuhri died before a full diagnosis was possible, Galimberti said. The doctor said the woman's mother, Nabeela Abu Zuhri, declined an autopsy on religious and personal grounds. The mother, who accompanied her daughter on the flight, spoke briefly at the funeral, thanking Italy for trying to save her daughter and asking for prayers for Palestinians. She said she was 'leaving a part of my heart, a part of me, with you' before returning to Gaza. The imam of Pisa, Mohammad Khalil, who translated for her, tried to calm the crowd and focus on Zuhri, but he also spoke of food shortages and hunger in Gaza. He presided over the service and burial in a newly designated area of the cemetery for Muslims. 'It will remain a memorial in our territory for future generations as a symbol of the genocide of the Palestinian people,' the mayor, Cecchelli, said. The United Nations has said starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest levels since the war began. The U.N. says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found with acute malnutrition in July — including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organization says the numbers are likely an undercount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that no one in Gaza is starving, with 'no policy of starvation in Gaza.' AP reporting has found that malnourished children were arriving daily at a Gaza hospital, with some dying from hunger, including ones with no preexisting conditions. ___ Winfield reported from Rome.
