Francesca Halliwell

2019 was an important year for Caravaggio. His painting Judith and Holofernes was estimated to sell in Toulouse for $110 million, the highest auction price ever reached by an artwork in Europe, while 17th October marked 50 years since his Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence was stolen from an Oratory in Palermo. These events may have made waves in the world of the arts, but for many people they were of virtually no significance. This is perhaps owing to the artist’s anonymity beyond the confines of Europe’s ‘bel paese’. To many, Caravaggio is merely another Italian painter, motivated by a predilection for depicting flowers and fruit. In the eyes of critics, however, his importance cannot be overstated. Many have labelled him history’s first “modern” painter, a pioneer of realism whose techniques transformed the course of 17th century art.

The Westminster exodus is well underway, as more than 60 MPs have now announced that they will not stand in the coming election. Though departures on this scale are not unprecedented, the same can’t be said for the demographic pattern. According to The Spectator, 21 of the outgoing MPs have spent less than a decade in the Commons, while The Times reports that almost one in six female Tory MPs elected in 2017 have either already quit or will stand down at the 12th December election.

Paris - beautiful, cool, endlessly exciting but also eye-wateringly expensive. For anyone who has ever found themselves blinking in disbelief at bar prices, Paris student Francesca Halliwell has put together a list of the best budget bars in the city. “It is a good thing to go to Paris for a few days if you have had a lot of trouble, and that is my advice to everyone.” Everyone but students or those attempting to live on a budget, Scottish writer Muriel Spark neglected to add. Paris is expensive. Average rent for a studio apartment is over €1,000 a month, and a monthly travel pass will set you back €75. Even supermarket shopping drains your wallet; a litre of milk at my local Franprix costs almost €2. So for people on a budget - students in particular - things can be tough. The decision of where to go for drinks, therefore, is an important one when merely breathing seems to cost you €5 in some of the city's more snooty bars.

ROME - Virginia Raggi was “ready to restore Rome to the splendour it deserves” in May 2016 upon her municipal election victory. Yet Rome's streets continue to overflow with rotting waste and rampant rodents. Indeed, the Eternal City perhaps better resembles a modern ruin than an ancient one. Raggi’s administrative proposals have been slammed by Romans and mainstream media alike. She has been at the centre of critical scrutiny, labelled a “hot potato” by one publication, “a great disappointment” by another. Yet is it not time we cut her some slack?

ROME - Gaby Ford has opened The English Theatre of Rome’s Winter Season with a triumph. Stripped to its bare bones, her staging of Flannery O’Connor’s masterpiece ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’, is brilliant in its simplicity. The choral reading conveys with transfixing clarity the work’s exploration of racial tensions and generational conflicts, themes just as relevant today as they were in 1965. The reading opens with five uninterrupted minutes of archival images and videos showing black people’s plight over the past 60 years for equality. This artfully conceived opening sequence, produced by rising newcomer Ella McGlynn, immediately sets off a tone of melancholy which, although perceptible throughout the production, is occasionally lightened by moments of comic wit.

ROME - Italy is under severe pressure from the European Union for its 2019 fiscal policies. In late September, the coalition revealed plans to set Italy’s budget deficit at 2.4 percent of GDP. This figure exceeds the 1.6 percent level for which the technocratic finance minister, Giovanni Tria had lobbied. It also generated tension within the EU since Italy’s debt stands at as much as 132 percent of GDP. EU Commissioners threatened to reject Rome’s budget proposal before receiving it. Jean-Claude Juncker said “we have to prevent Italy from being able to get a special treatment which, if everybody were to receive, would mean the end of the Euro.”

ROME - The impact of various strategies of asymmetric warfare used in Middle Eastern conflicts was the central theme of three talks, hosted by the Euro-Gulf Information Centre (EGIC) by Professor Petrelli, Antonio Occhiuto and Matteo Bressan on Wednesday. Though the subject of asymmetric warfare isn’t rigorously studied by academic institutions, it is central to the majority of today’s conflicts. Professor Petrelli spoke first, defining asymmetric warfare as a war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategies differ significantly. Asymmetric strategies are defined by The American Department of Defence as “attempts to circumvent or undermine an opponent’s strengths whilst exploiting his weaknesses using methods that differ slightly from the opponent’s usual mode of operations." They allow groups of armed forces like Hezbollah and Houthi to keep more powerful states in check.