Vice President JD Vance, Pope Francis Have Easter Sunday Meeting At Vatican
'The meeting, which lasted a few minutes, allowed them to exchange Easter greetings'
Morning sickness, Italian-style
My wife and I were in Italy when we found out she was pregnant with our first. We were so happy.
Then the nausea came. And it was bad. Real bad. It turns out my wife experiences something called hyperemesis gravidarum during her first trimester.
I remember standing in the bedroom telling her in quite forceful language, 'You have to eat. There is no other option. You need to eat to survive.'
Basically it’s extraordinarily terrible morning sickness. We didn’t know it was a thing at the time. It was only years later and another kid later that we realized there was a name for it and that what she experiences isn’t just normal morning sickness.
The technical jargon doesn’t really matter, though. That there is some designated medical term to describe her grueling morning sickness isn’t really relevant to any of this. The point is that she gets it bad, real bad. And we had no idea what we were in for when we found out we were going to be parents.
Italian for 'bagel'?
It was February. We were staying at an Airbnb in a small town named Loiano about 40 kilometers from Bologna. We were there for three weeks. Every day I would walk to the little grocery store in search of anything my wife could stomach. She felt like she was going to vomit constantly. All day, all night. That’s how it is for her during the first trimester. All she wanted was a bagel, but there are no bagels in Loiano. The closest bagel was probably somewhere in Paris.
I walked to the pharmacy a couple of times to try to get her some medicine to alleviate the sickness. Pitifully fighting through the Italian language, I tried to communicate to the pharmacist what we needed. He gave me some stuff a couple of times, but it never seemed to work for my wife.
She didn’t want to eat at all. I remember standing in the bedroom telling her in quite forceful language, “You have to eat. There is no other option. You need to eat to survive.”
Bed rest
She didn’t leave the Airbnb for 10 days. My job was basically running around town trying to find food she could eat, medicine that might make her feel better, returning the rental car to Bologna, working, cleaning, and trying to figure out some way to make her anything other than miserable.
Everything was melting down. I remember one night her telling me that she didn’t know if she could handle a plane ride because she felt so terrible. We sat there trying to brainstorm any kind of solution. “How are we going to get back home?”
I think about that trip a lot. It was a turning point in our relationship. It was the last trip we took as people without kids and the first trip we took as people with kids. It was the first time we had to really work together in a different, more adult kind of way.
We had to solve these problems together in a way that we never had to before. It was the first time I really saw her in a bad state. Really worried. Really just not herself.
Welcome to the team
It was our first introduction into what your life is like as a parent. You are part of a team in a way you never were before. You’ve got to get the job done, and your feelings matter less than they used to.
We have different feelings about that time. My wife hates thinking about Loiano. When I dare utter the name, she winces in pain. All she remembers is being sick. I have different memories. It was hard, of course. I was busy doing everything I could on my end to try to help her while also getting my work done. Someone needs to pay the bills. But I wasn’t suffering like she was.
I have fond memories of walking in town to get more groceries in hopes of finding something she could stomach. The low winter sun. Long shadows. The brown grass and bare branches. The quiet streets in this small Italian town.
Standing on the balcony at 2:30 a.m. after I had finally finished my work, drinking bourbon, watching the lights of a car heading down the small country road far in the distance. The big, bright moon overhead.
Growth mindset
That was six years ago. I’ve grown a lot since then. I feel like a different person in a lot of ways, because I kind of am. I said that time was hard, but it wasn’t really. It only felt hard because I was pretty weak. I wasn’t used to solving real problems. Now, after having a couple of kids and managing a lot worse stuff, Loiano would be child’s play for us.
But we can’t go back and live life again with the knowledge we have today. To look back and see our past worries as simple or our old stress as quaint is a good thing. It’s a blessing to remember and realize that we were different then from what we are today. We’ve grown, learned, lived, and aged. What wonderful gifts those are.
Italian soccer player collapses on field after attempting to play with head injury
Fiorentina forward Moise Kean was taken to a hospital after he attempted to play despite taking a knee to the head.
During a match with Hellas Verona on Sunday, Kean was battling for the ball when he was pushed to the ground by an opposing player. While on the ground, Kean was struck in the head by the knee of oncoming Veronas player Pawel Dawidowicz; Kean immediately fell to his back, holding his face in his hands.
According to reports, the Vercelli, Italy, native was treated and then allowed to return to play.
However, video later captured Kean stumbling before eventually collapsing on the field as teammates and opposing players urgently called for medical staff to come onto the field.
Kean was soon put on a stretcher by a group of paramedics and carried off the field, then was immediately taken to a hospital. He was seen, according to Reuters, wearing a neck brace.
"Fiorentina announces that ... Moise Kean, during the match against Verona, suffered a head trauma. [He] is in hospital for tests," the team announced following a 1-0 loss.
'... tests all produced negative results.'
Fiorentina revealed early Monday that Kean had been discharged from hospital less than 24 hours after he was admitted. He was tested for unknown conditions and subsequently released.
"ACF Fiorentina can confirm that Moise Kean was discharged from hospital in Verona overnight and has returned to Florence," the team said, per the Guardian. "Medical and diagnostic tests all produced negative results," they added.
The incident occurred a little over two months after Fiorentina midfielder Edoardo Bove collapsed during a game after losing consciousness. He was soon subjected to emergency surgery to implant a removable defibrillator to prevent future cardiac arrest.
The implantable cardioverter defibrillator is reportedly not permitted in Serie A soccer, where Fiorentina plays, and would need to be removed for Bove to play in Italy.
Kean is second in Serie A in goal-scoring this season with 15 goals. He is just 24 years old while, Bove is just 22 years old.
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Migrating Mona Lisa and a $50 van Gogh: Two controversies that have the art world in hysterics
Two controversies have just flipped the art world on its head: The “Mona Lisa” is apparently leaving the Louvre in Paris, France, and a long-lost van Gogh painting has experts at odds.
Pat Gray and the “Unleashed” team unpack the reports.
The Louvre — once “the most famous, most exclusive art museum in the world” — has apparently become “a run-down dump,” says Pat. “Paint is peeling off the walls; the temperature control system isn’t working … which can ruin the art.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has announced that renovations are under way, with a special space being created for da Vinci’s masterpiece.
However, Francesca Caruso, the regional assessor for culture of Italy’s Lombardy region, has since suggested that the painting be returned to its original home in Italy.
“Leonardo represents Italian genius. Milan would be an ideal location to display the work,” she wrote, noting that the Winter Olympics, which Milan will host, is just a year away and is sure to elevate tourism.
On the other hand, a French king — Francis I — purchased the “Mona Lisa” in 1519. It has been hanging in France’s Louvre for over 200 years.
Regardless of who ends up with one of the art world's greatest treasures, it’s likely that this tug-of-war wouldn’t be happening if France were a thriving nation — that is, it did not open its borders and implement socialism.
“You open the door to socialist policies, you put your country in a position to pay for everything, you don't have a big enough tax base for this utopia, so … you have to import cheap labor from third-world countries, and here they come from North Africa and the Middle East, and what do you got? You got an entire continent that's been overrun,” says Keith Malinak.
The second controversy that’s shaking up the art world involves a long-lost van Gogh painting that was purchased for $50 in 2016 at a garage sale in Minnesota. It took expert analysts at the New York-based LMI group years and $30,000 to verify its authenticity, but their recently released 450-page report has declared that it is indeed a product of the Dutch Post-Impressionist master.
Titled “Elimar” after an inscription on the front of the canvas, the work is believed by the art data science firm to belong to Saint-Rémy, now called Clinique van Gogh — a collection of paintings van Gogh made during his year-long stint at Saint-Paul sanitarium, during which he was a self-admitted patient.
However, the Van Gogh Museum, the ultimate authority on van Gogh paintings, has denied the attribution to the Post-Impressionist painter, deeming the LMI group’s report insufficient.
The painting is “thought to be worth over $15 million” and will soon be up for auction, says Pat, calling the entire ordeal “bizarre.”
To hear more on these two art controversies, watch the clip above.
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18-year-old Formula 1 star finally gets civilian driver's license after 3 years as a pro racer
An 18-year-old Formula 1 driver is now legally allowed to drive on city streets despite being a professional race-car driver since he was 15.
Italy's Andrea Kimi Antonelli has made a historic rise through the ranks of international racing but seemingly never found time to legally drive himself around.
On Tuesday, however, F1 officially announced Antonelli was street legal by way of passing his driving test.
"Kimi Antonelli passed his road driving test this week," the promotion wrote on X. "He's already driven an F1 car at speeds of over 300 KM/H."
Antonelli was seen giving a thumbs up from his car with the caption, "Driving test: Passed!"
There was a lot of chatter over Antonelli getting his license from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile last year. The minimum age for the FIA Super License is 17, and it is always news when the age requirement needs to be enforced for a young driver.
The license is required for driving in Formula 1 competitions, and drivers must perform well in different championships for several years in order to be eligible.
The license also comes with a hefty price to renew each year.
According to Autosport, the license is believed to have a base fee of €10,400 (~$10,834) with an additional charge of €2,100 (~$2,180) for every point a driver scored in the last season.
Based on 2023 F1 world champion Max Verstappen's 575 points, that would be a licensing fee of €1,217,900 (~$1,268,000). However, the fee would be paid by his team.
The driver has said he doesn't think it's right to have such a high cost.
"It's not the case in other sports either, and there are more and more races," Verstappen argued.
Lewis Hamilton, who Antonelli is replacing, had a reported €501,800 (~$522,000) fee for 2024.
According to his official F1 bio, Antonelli made his racing debut at 15 years old and quickly took home a flurry of trophies. He was so successful at the F4 level that his bosses at Mercedes skipped him over F3 competitions directly to F2.
After some initial struggles, Antonelli had several breakthrough victories and then, shortly following his 18th birthday, Mercedes announced that he would be called up to the F1 team for 2025 to replace legendary driver Hamilton.
Hamilton had recently stated he would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025, opening up a spot for the young Italian.
In order to get his F1 license, Antonelli had to make sure he had a valid driving license, along with other prerequisites like passing a theory test on codes and regulations.
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Monstrous migrants flood Italy, rape children, stab cops
Italy is pondering a new tactic in its war on out-of-control crime: chemical castration for violent sex offenders.
Such bold measures may already be too late, however — as long as the country's civilizational castration continues apace.
Eyewitnesses described a scene of sheer barbarism, recounting how the savage threw the woman to the ground, pummeling her face and head with his fists.
Since taking power two years ago, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has focused on law-and-order policies, creating new offenses and increasing penalties.
She's also made plans to draft legislation that would use androgen-blocking medications to chemically neuter those convicted of sexual violence. The decision signals a response to the rising tide of sexual crimes, many of which have shaken the country to the core in recent years.
These crimes, however, may be symptoms of a deeper problem: Italy's slow dissolution under the pressure of continuous mass immigration.
Children raped
The latest horror (in a long line of horrors) involves the rape of a 10-year-old African girl by a 28-year-old Bangladeshi man at a migrant center in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.
This gruesome crime unfolded at the Hotel Il Cacciatore, a contested site that houses around 20 asylum seekers. According to a report in the Daily Mail, the young girl's mother first became suspicious after she noticed alarming behavioral changes in her daughter. Soon after, medical tests confirmed that the little girl hadn’t just been violated; she was also pregnant with her rapist's child.
The child underwent an abortion. Her life, one imagines, will never be the same. Her innocence, brutally stolen, is something she can never reclaim. The scars — emotional, psychological, and physical — will likely remain with her long after the headlines fade. It’s difficult to read a story like that and not feel a sense of absolute anger and dismay.
Sheer barbarism
This assault is not an isolated incident but part of Italy’s wider unraveling. The country, already struggling under demographic pressure and a surge in migrant arrivals, is now grappling with an increase in violent crimes, from stabbings to sexual assaults.
For many, Italy no longer feels safe, and the nation’s attempts to mend the social fabric with punishments such as chemical castration feel more like a desperate last stand than a viable solution. What was once a proud country is now facing an identity crisis, one defined by fear and instability.
Take the case of a homeless Nigerian migrant, for example, who viciously assaulted an Italian woman in broad daylight during an attempted rape. The attack was so violent that she later died from her injuries in a hospital bed.
Eyewitnesses described a scene of sheer barbarism, recounting how the savage threw the woman to the ground, pummeling her face and head with his fists, possibly wielding a stone or some other blunt object.
Stabbed in the back
More recently, two violent incidents involving migrants rocked Milan, Italy’s financial heart.
In one appalling episode, Christian Di Martino, a 35-year-old police officer, was attacked after confronting a man throwing stones at trains and assaulting a female passenger.
The attacker, a Moroccan national living illegally in Italy with prior convictions, stabbed the officer multiple times in the back. Di Martino was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. The North African was charged with attempted murder.
Just days later, another violent confrontation unfolded on the streets. An Egyptian man, recently released from police custody after questioning in connection with a robbery, went on a crazed rampage, vandalizing property and hurling rocks at police when they moved to arrest him.
After failing to subdue the man with a taser, the police were forced to shoot him. Wounded, the criminal was finally able to be taken into custody.
The pattern is undeniable. But even more alarming is the systematic erasure of Italian heritage — and with it, the disappearance of its people.
Arrivederci!
In a few generations, Italy will be barely recognizable. Last year saw a staggering 50% rise in migrant arrivals, primarily from Africa and the Middle East. The shift is more than just numbers — this wave is fundamentally altering the demographic makeup of Italy.
What adds to the disaster is the fact that Italy’s population is aging faster than any other in Europe, with fewer young Italians being born to sustain the nation.
By 2040, the situation could reach a breaking point, as dwindling tax revenue from a shrinking workforce makes it impossible to support an increasingly elderly population. Public finances are set to buckle under the weight of this imbalance; the economy, once one of Europe's most robust, could enter a death spiral.
In truth, Italy has already entered a death spiral, literally and figuratively. The Italy of Roman ruins, Renaissance art, and sun-soaked landscapes finds itself overshadowed by a nation at odds with itself.
The streets of Florence, Milan, Rome, and Venice are filling with new faces, new languages, new “norms,” new threats, and new nightmares.
In just a few decades, the Italy we know and love will have vanished, replaced by a nation full of uncivilized individuals with a penchant for uncivilized behavior.
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