
Car driving down Spanish Steps in Rome caught on video by hotel worker
A video taken by a hotel worker from a window shows the car slowly making its way down the steps early on Tuesday. The peculiar sight happened so early that the lampposts on the steps were still illuminated and crowds hadn't yet flocked to the popular 18th-century site in the Italian capital.
The man tested negative for alcohol and was cited on the spot for driving down the monument in Rome's historic center, municipal police said in a statement. Police said the man, a resident of Rome, was at a loss to explain how he had wound up driving down the famed steps.
The man, who emerged from the vehicle wearing a suit and tie, told the police that he thought he was going to work. They did not release his name and it was unclear if the car was his.
The small sporty car was later removed by firefighters using a crane.
A car that was driven by mistake down the Spanish Steps in Rome on June 17, 2025, is lifted from the landmark in a picture Italian firefighters posted to social media.
Vigili del Fuoco
On Thursday, police said the man's driver's license and other documents were in order, but they are now studying the case to determine whether his license should be removed. They did not indicate if he will be fined.
Experts from the Ministry of Culture are examining the historic steps to see if the vehicle caused any damage and will send a report to the police.
An image made available June 19, 2025, by the Italian firefighters shows a car that was driven by mistake by a man down the Spanish Steps in Rome early on June 17, 2025.
Vigili del Fuoco via AP
The Spanish Steps, one of Rome's most recognizable monuments, have never been intended for motor vehicles, although some thrill-seekers have tried their luck. A Saudi man was charged with aggravated damage to cultural heritage after a surveillance camera recorded him driving a rented Maserati down the 135 travertine steps in 2022.
The Spanish Steps take their name from the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See in the nearby square. A famed background for numerous films, they were built in the 1720s and have long been a popular spot to people-watch and hang out.
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Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
North Sea 'Very Unprotected' Against Russia—NATO Admiral
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The North Sea is "very unprotected" and vulnerable to possible Russian sabotage attempts on critical undersea infrastructure NATO nations heavily rely on, according to a senior Dutch military official. Moscow's presence in the North Sea has increased, "and so the threat as well," said Rear Admiral Paul Flos, one of the founding members of the multinational Seabed Security Experimentation Center (SeaSEC) set up in The Hague to protect underwater infrastructure. The North Sea is "very much" at risk from Russian activity, Flos told Newsweek, adding: "They're not there because they like our waters." Critical Undersea Infrastructure Crisscrossing beneath our oceans and seas are cables and pipelines vital to everyday life, including ensuring the lights stay on and that bank payments are processed. Roughly 1.3 million kilometers of cables—equivalent to about 800,000 miles—are used for $10 trillion in financial transactions each day, NATO chief Mark Rutte said at the start of 2025. Undersea cables carry more than 95 percent of all internet traffic, Rutte said. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty But these networks are exposed, and there are simply too many cables and pipelines to shield at any one time, said Laurence Roche, from NATO's Italy-based Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation. It is "really hard to protect" critical undersea infrastructure, Roche told Newsweek. NATO is certainly trying. In 2024, the alliance established a new United Kingdom-based center, specifically tasked with developing strategies to protect undersea networks, reporting to NATO's Maritime Command. The alliance then launched its "Baltic Sentry" initiative to track ships moving through the Baltic Sea after several cables and pipelines were damaged or severed in late 2023. The U.K. also launched the Proteus, a first-of-its-kind surveillance ship, to monitor underwater activities and control uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) nearly two years ago. North Sea and the Baltic The Baltic Sea is better known than the North Sea for highlighting the vulnerability of the alliance's critical undersea infrastructure. It is occasionally dubbed a "NATO lake," the water bracketed by alliance members and Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave home to a formidable military footprint and Moscow's Baltic Fleet. NATO countries have logged a spate of incidents involving critical undersea infrastructure in the past year and a half, largely blamed on suspected sabotage by Russia in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Accidental damage can, and often does, happen, but officials are increasingly speaking out about attacks blamed on Moscow. The most high-profile incidents include damage to a power cable and two communications lines in the Baltic Sea on December 25, 2024. Authorities quickly cast suspicion on the Eagle S, a Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" of vessels used to circumvent sanctions. Finnish authorities stated in mid-June that they had concluded a criminal investigation and suspected senior officers aboard the ship of "aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with telecommunications" in connection with the dragging of an anchor. Helsinki's prosecutor general is weighing up charges, the country's National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. Unnamed Western intelligence officials told the Associated Press in January that the recent damage to undersea infrastructure could be caused by anchors accidentally dragging on poorly staffed and decrepit ships. High-voltage cables that connect electricity systems between countries, when disrupted, can cost around $14 million each day, according to the Rand think tank. The total bill for oil and gas pipelines being knocked out for months can reach the tens of billions, the organization said in June. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the U.K.'s top military official, said in early 2022 that there had been a "phenomenal increase" in Russian underwater activity in the past two decades, with Moscow able to "potentially exploit the world's real information system, which is undersea cables that go all around the world." Former British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, still in post in 2023, stated that Russian submarines had taken "strange routes that they normally wouldn't do," including in the North Sea. The Baltic and North Seas have a relatively similar shallowness, but the North Sea is more sandy where the Baltic is rocky, said Flos. "So, often, cables are easier to destroy in the Baltic than in the North Sea," Flos said. "But the threat is the same," he said. Sabotage acts like dragging anchors can only be used at certain places in the world because of the shallowness of the water, like in the Baltic, said Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow for sea power at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank. To the west, several NATO countries look out onto the North Sea, including the U.K. and the Netherlands. British Defense Secretary John Healey said at the start of the year that the Yantar, a Russian vessel spotted in the North Sea, was a "spy ship" on a mission to gather intelligence and map the U.K.'s seabed network. The Yantar was spotted in November 2024 "loitering over U.K. critical undersea infrastructure," Healey said. The Russian embassy in London hit back at the remarks, stating in January that the claims were "completely groundless." "Russia has never posed such threats," the embassy added. The Yantar is one of the vessels operated by Russia's Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, a shadowy branch of the military that answers directly to the Russian defense minister and, ultimately, to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The GUGI has a collection of submarines and surface ships, such as the Belgorod submarine, that can simultaneously carry nuclear-armed torpedoes and control small submersibles capable of diving deep underwater. GUGI performs a variety of roles for the Kremlin, ranging from laying sensors on the seabed to surveillance, espionage, and larger strategic functions, Kaushal told Newsweek. In the North Sea, rather than relying on anchor dragging, GUGI could use ships like the Yantar to detect critical infrastructure before deploying UUVs or remotely operated vehicles, he said. Within GUGI's ranks, Kaushal said, the organization has hydronauts—specialized personnel who pass "punishing" entrance criteria to steer submersibles at extreme depths. These hydronauts are pulled from Russia's 29th Separate Submarine Division, based at the submarine hub of Gadzhiyevo in the northwestern Murmansk region and close to the Northern Fleet headquarters. Who's Responsible for Protecting Cables and Pipelines? "We see you," the U.K.'s Healey told lawmakers in January this year. "We know what you are doing." Flos is less sure. "What they're doing there, nobody knows," he said. "That's the challenge." Although allied militaries can detect where Russia is poking around in the North Sea, their goals are murky, but there is "very strong evidence that they also used unmanned underwater vessels," Flos said. Reports in British media earlier this year indicated the U.K. military had found Russian drones close to critical undersea infrastructure. Western militaries are well-acquainted with unarmed surveillance ships like the Yantar, making this type of vessel much easier to track than some of Russia's advanced submarines, Kaushal said. And there has been rapid improvement on what the alliance can observe of Russia's activity in the North Sea, even since the start of the year, Flos said. "We're not blind anymore," he said. Cooperation between allied countries has improved over the last year, particularly in cultivating a better understanding of how civilian ships and support vessels are utilized by the Kremlin, Kaushal said. But a big question remains: Whose job is it to bat away Russia's interest in the North Sea's critical undersea infrastructure? Cables and pipelines are, the vast majority of the time, owned by private companies. "Are the asset owners responsible? Are the nations responsible? Is the Coast Guard responsible?" Flos asked. It's "hugely complicated," he said, adding that the conversations were still happening. NATO has emphasized the need to establish rapid connections with private companies and industrial players to more effectively detect threats to pipelines and cables, as well as to maintain infrastructure. "We have to increase out cooperation with industries on all kinds of levels," Flos said. The Dutch Navy official said he had emphasized in recent days that there needed to be more trust between governments, militaries and industry. There does seem to be a growing consensus within NATO that protecting infrastructure used by its members is a "collective military responsibility," added Kaushal. But it's often opaque which powers exist to stop suspicious ships operating in international waters, he said.


Car and Driver
15 hours ago
- Car and Driver
Mercedes G-Wagen Mix-up on Nantucket Leads to Accidental Car Theft
If it's happened once, it's happened a thousand times: You send your friend's aunt and uncle to grab your vintage two-door long-wheelbase convertible Mercedes-Benz G-wagen from a grocery store parking lot, and they accidentally steal a different vintage two-door long-wheelbase convertible Mercedes-Benz G-wagen and set off a two-day Grand Theft Auto car-hunt. That's what happened a few days back on Nantucket, which is not known as a stolen-car hotspot, on account of it being an island. And whether or not you think your SUV might be able to briefly serve as a boat, the 30-mile passage back to the Massachusetts mainland is a long way to swim. So everyone was pretty sure that the missing 1991 Benz was still back on ACK, but the question was where. Alex Miccio | Car and Driver Not a bad way to get around Nantucket. Nor, evidently, an uncommon one. The answer arrived on Tuesday, when Alex Miccio—owner of a 1985 300GD—was texted a curious photo from a friend back on Nantucket. It was his car, parked where he'd left it on Sunday, in the Stop & Shop parking lot. Miccio and his wife, Sofia, had departed that day, entrusting the keys to a friend's aunt and uncle who were just arriving on the same ferry. Notably, they didn't hand over the keys in front of the car. Sofia, seeing the news about the stolen G-wagen on Nantucket, deduced that their key must have worked in the other old Benz, allowing their friends to drive the wrong car back to their house. That explained why the 300GD was still in the parking lot and why the accidental Benz-booster had told Miccio, "I didn't see the glow plug light that you told me about, but it started." Alex Miccio | Car and Driver This one's the diesel. Miccio says he promptly called his friend's uncle and said, "Do me a favor and read me the license plate of the G-wagen, will you?" It was, of course, the wrong one. So that man on Nantucket did get in and truck it back downtown, but not before making another phone call. "I said let the police know you're coming so they don't see you and pull you over thinking you're notorious car thieves," Miccio says. We've asked Benz what the chances are of two old Geländewagens sharing the same key, and we'll let you know what we hear, but regardless of the answer, it took a cascading series of unlikely circumstances to trigger the Great Nantucket G-wagen Caper of 2025. Alex Miccio | Car and Driver Among other things, Miccio's friends had only seen his 300GD once before, and a long time ago. That was important because his Benz is original, and the one they drove home is more like a resto-rod, with an updated front end and a gas engine. "They'd only seen my car once and assumed I'd done a restoration to it," Miccio says. Fortunately, the mix-up was resolved before they took the newer G to the gas station and tried to fill it with diesel. Which maybe wouldn't have worked, but then again, one key isn't supposed to start two cars, either. The teachable moment here, if you've got a car on Nantucket and you're planning to share: make sure you check the license plate first. If this can happen with G-wagens, just imagine if you have a Defender. Ezra Dyer Senior Editor Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
New pictures show wreckage of sunken superyacht after storm left British billionaire and daughter dead
New images have been released of the wreckage of a superyacht which sank off the coast of Italy in a storm - leaving its British billionaire owner and his daughter dead. Mike Lynch, 59, and daughter Hannah, 18, were among seven people who were killed when off Sicily on 19 August 2024. The billionaire's body was recovered on 22 August while Hannah - whose body was the last to be found in the search mission - was pulled from the water the next day. The recovery of the vessel has now concluded after the 56m (184ft) hull and 72m (236ft) mast, as well as deck furniture and other loose items, had been delivered to Italian authorities in Termini Imerese in Palermo, Sicily. One photograph shows boats towing the large white mast through the water as it was lifted near the surface by balloons. Other images feature crews working on the mast and hull on the quayside, with both appearing to be covered in a brown substance. Marcus Cave, a director of British firm TMC Marine, which carried out the salvage effort, said: "The delivery of the hull, mast and other potential materials from Bayesian brought this project to its conclusion. "We thank the salvage and other teams that were involved in this challenging project, together with the Italian authorities for their professional assistance throughout." and transported around 12 miles (19km) to Termini Imerese the next day by one of the most powerful floating sea cranes in Europe. On 23 June, it was lifted into heavy steel supports on the quayside, which had tarpaulin underneath to prevent pollution. The cradle was custom-designed to fit the shape of the hull and built in the Netherlands. Read more: The mast had been detached from the hull for the recovery and was on the seabed. It was salvaged using inflatable lifting balloons and delivered to port on 25 June, along with loose items that may have moved away from the vessel in past 10 months. The images have emerged a day after for the first time after the vessel resurfaced. In one picture, a lounge area can be seen, complete with sofas and other furniture, while another shows the hatch down to the lower deck. Remote-controlled submersible equipment was used to locate the debris in the vicinity of the Bayesian site. The vessel was originally expected to be raised last month but salvage efforts were delayed after a diver died during underwater work on 9 May, prompting greater use of remote-controlled equipment. The materials have been delivered to the Italian authorities and salvage personnel and equipment have subsequently left Sicily. About 70 specialist personnel had been mobilised to Porticello from across Europe to work on the recovery operation. Inquest proceedings in the UK are looking at the deaths of Mr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and his daughter, as well as Morgan Stanley International bank chairman who were all British nationals. Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued. Mr Lynch and his daughter are said to have lived in the vicinity of London and the Bloomers lived in Sevenoaks, Kent.