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Over 200 gang members have been sentenced to a total of more than 2,200 years after one of the biggest mafia trials in Italian history.

Some 338 defendants were accused of being members of the powerful crime group, ‘Ndrangheta, with the trial ongoing since January 2021.

Founded in the 18th century in Calabria, it has grown to become one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and richest criminal organisations.

‘Ndrangheta is the only mafia to be active in every continent – apart from Antarctica – is said to control 80% of Europe’s cocaine trade, and has an estimated annual turnover of £52bn.

The three-year trial involved mafiosi, entrepreneurs and politicians, and included charges of murder, corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.

Since retiring last month to consider their verdicts, the three judges had to live in a safe house under police protection.

Some 67 defendants were already found guilty after opting for a speedy trial, and 131 people have now been acquitted

Among those convicted were Domenico Tomaino, known as ‘The Wolf’, who got 17 years; ‘Fatty’ Francesco Barbieri, who got 24 years; and Vincenzo Barba, known as ‘The Musician’, who was sentenced to 28 years.

Ex-Forza Italia MP Giancarlo Pittelli, one of the most high-profile defendants, received 11 years for being a mafia go-between.

The bosses of two ‘Ndrangheta clans, Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, both got 30 years, Sky News understands.

Several dozen informants betrayed the organisation and its strict code of silence to provide evidence for the prosecution.

‘The Uncle’

The ‘maxi trial’ focused on one of the ‘Ndrangheta’s key families, the Mancusos, and their associates.

The man said to be the family’s ‘Godfather’ figure, Luigi Mancuso, known as ‘The Uncle’, is due to face a separate trial. His nephew has already given evidence against the organisation.

Special forces and elite units hit the ‘Ndrangheta in December 2019, with around 3,000 officers raiding 12 Italian regions and also making arrests in Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria.

Millions of euros worth of properties and cash were seized, while 300 suspects were detained.

The 2019 operation was named Rinascita-Scott, referring to the rebirth of the region – ‘rinascita’ in Italian – and to US special agent Scott W Sieben, who helped Italian police discover links between Colombia’s cartels and the ‘Ndrangheta.

The chief prosecutor who led the huge investigation was Nicola Gratteri, who organised the building of a bunker courtroom to hold the trial.

Read more:
Nicola Gratteri – the mafia’s most wanted man

Mr Gratteri, who is Italy’s most famous anti-mafia prosecutor, has been living under police protection for 34 years.

At the start of the hearing, he told Sky News he would not be intimidated by the many death threats and assassination plots against him.

In August, while Sky News was given rare access to Italy’s hidden mafia war, Mr Gratteri said that if he were to die tomorrow, “it wouldn’t be a problem for me”.

“To live a hundred years as a coward is meaningless,” he said. “Instead, I have lived as a man.”

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently said Italy now has the most effective tactics in fighting organised crime.

“We have an extremely changeable enemy and the fight against the mafia is a cornerstone of this government,” she said.

More than 500 employees of revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI have said they will leave if the ousted CEO Sam Altman is not reinstated and the board does not resign.

A letter from 505 of the approximately 700 OpenAI employees threatened to quit and jump ship to Microsoft, having received assurances that there are jobs for them at the tech giant.

Key members of management are signatories of the letter, including the former interim CEO Mira Murati, who was replaced this morning, and the chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.

Mr Altman was fired by the not-for-profit company’s board on Friday as they said he “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board”.

“Despite many requests for specific facts for your allegations, you have never provided any evidence,” the letter from employees to the board read.

On Monday morning, Mr Altman and company president Greg Brockman were hired by Microsoft to work on a new AI project.

OpenAI is the company behind the game-changing generative AI chatbot used by millions, ChatGPT.

The Pantanal wetlands in western Brazil – famed as a paradise of biodiversity – have enormous clouds of smoke billowing over them since the beginning of November as raging wildfires are reducing vast expanses to scorched earth.

Known for its lush landscapes and vibrant wildlife, including jaguars, caimans, macaws and monkeys, the Pantanal is home to the world’s biggest tropical wetlands and, in normal times, a thriving eco-tourism industry.

But in recent weeks, it has been ravaged by fires that are threatening its iconic wildlife as Brazil suffers through a Southern Hemisphere spring of droughts and record heat.

There were 2,387 fires in the Pantanal in the first 13 days of November, an increase of more than 1,000 percent from the entire month of November last year, according to satellite monitoring by Brazilian space research agency INPE.

“The situation is completely out of control. And between the heatwave and the wind, it’s only going to get worse,” says biologist Gustavo Figueiroa, 31, head of the environmental group SOS Pantanal.

“The Pantanal is a region that’s used to fires. Normally, it regenerates naturally. But this many fires isn’t normal.”

It has been hit hard by drought this year, with normally flooded areas reduced to shrivelled ponds.

At one such spot along the dirt highway across the region, the 150km (93-mile) Transpantaneira, a small group of caimans can be seen trying to swim in the shallow water.

Nearby, the corpse of another sits rotting on the bank.

Elsewhere, a dead porcupine lays on a carpet of ash in the charred remains of what was once a forest.

“It probably died of smoke inhalation,” says veterinarian Aracelli Hammann, who is volunteering with a wildlife rescue group.

They made the grim find in the Encontro das Aguas park, home to the world’s largest jaguar population.

Nearly one-third of the park has been hit by fires in the past month, according to environmental group ICV.

نشرت في: 20/11/2023 – 08:16

2 دقائق

هنأت الولايات المتحدة الأحد الرئيس الأرجنتيني المنتخب خافيير ميلي على فوزه في الانتخابات، مشيدة بـ”الإقبال الكبير والسير السلمي لعملية التصويت”.

   وقال وزير الخارجية الأمريكي أنتوني بلينكن في بيان إن هذه الانتخابات هي “شهادة للمؤسسات الانتخابية والديمقراطية في الأرجنتين”، مضيفا أن الولايات المتحدة “تتطلع إلى العمل مع الرئيس المنتخب ميلي وحكومته بشأن أولويات مشتركة”.

   من جهته هنأ الرئيس الأمريكي السابق الجمهوري دونالد ترامب الأحد، ميلي على انتخابه رئيسا للأرجنتين، معتبرا عبر شبكته الاجتماعية تروث سوشال أنه سيعمل على “تغيير” بلاده.

   وكتب ترامب متوجها إلى ميلي “أنا فخور جدا بك. ستغير بلدك وتجعل الأرجنتين عظيمة مرة أخرى”.

   وفاز المرشح الليبرالي ميلي في الانتخابات الرئاسية في الأرجنتين الأحد وحقق فيها مفاجأة كبيرة بحصوله على 55,95% من الأصوات وفق ما أظهرت نتائج جزئية رسمية.

ومن البرازيل، هنأ الرئيس السابق جايير بولسونارو (2019-2022) الأحد ميلي، قائلا إن “الأمل يشرق مجددا” في المنطقة. 

   وكتب بولسونارو على منصة إكس (تويتر سابقا) “تهانينا للشعب الأرجنتيني على فوز خافيير ميلي. الأمل يشرق مرة أخرى في أمريكا الجنوبية”.

   وأضاف الزعيم البرازيلي السابق اليميني المتطرف أنه يأمل بأن “تهب الرياح الجيدة على الولايات المتحدة والبرازيل” حتى “يعود الصدق والتقدم والحرية”.

فرانس24/ أ ف ب

Altman’s sudden departure from the company he co-founded sent shockwaves through the tech sector.

Sam Altman, the ousted CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, will not return to the company he co-founded despite executives’ efforts to bring him back, tech news site The Information has reported.

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI co-founder and board director, told staff on Sunday night that Altman would not be coming back after a weekend of negotiations with the board of directors, company leaders and investors, The Information reported on Sunday.

Emmett Shear, co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, will take over as interim CEO, The Information said.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Al Jazeera.

Altman, who became the public face of artificial intelligence with the releases of ChatGPT and GPT-4, was abruptly fired on Friday after the company’s board determined he was “not consistently candid in his communications”.

The announcement of Altman’s departure sent shockwaves through the tech sector and prompted the resignation of OpenAI President and Co-founder Greg Brockman.

Three senior researchers also submitted their resignations following the news, according to The Information.

Altman said in posts on X that his firing was a “weird experience” and “sorta like reading your own eulogy while you’re still alive”, and that “if I start going off, the OpenAI board should go after me for the full value of my shares”.

Unlike other tech founders such as Mark Zuckerberg, Altman did not have equity in OpenAI and could be fired at any time, the news site Semafor reported earlier this year.

On Sunday, Altman posted an image on X of himself wearing an OpenAI guest badge, saying it would be the “first and last time I ever wear one of these”.

Altman, who helped found OpenAI in 2015, has been among the most sought-after voices on the potential benefits and dangers of AI since last year’s release of ChatGPT, speaking at business summits and testifying before the US Congress.

In September, New York Magazine published a profile comparing Altman to J Robert Oppenheimer – known as the father of the atomic bomb – and Time Magazine included the tech entrepreneur on its list of the 100 most influential people in AI in 2023.