A fire broke out at a Tesla dealership in Rome early on Monday, destroying 17 cars and damaging the building, firefighters told Business Insider.
Emergency services were called to the site in Torre Angela at about 4:30 a.m. local time, they said.
No injuries have been reported and investigators haven’t specified the cause of the fire, adding investigators were looking into multiple causes, including possible malice.
Possible malice?
Imagine that!
The Atlantic Alliance used to believe it had liberal democratic values in common and a shared interest in collective security and free trade. That, thanks to the US president, is no longer true. Europe must adjust to this altered reality, or die.
It may be that the US’s tilt to the Kremlin, accompanied by the twin-track diplomatic and trade wars now being waged on friends and allies, will before long drive Europe to stand on its own two feet and be the independent force in world affairs that the founding fathers of the project of European unity dreamed about. At long last, Europe begins to assert itself. To borrow a famous phrase from a happier era of US-European relations, Europe, like president Barack Obama, is saying: “Yes we can.”
The “coalition of the willing” (or “coalition of action”, as French president Emmanuel Macron prefers to call it) is a concrete example of this emerging European consciousness. The project is to provide a safe and secure future for Ukraine, irrespective of what Russia or the US might desire. Russia is rightly distrusted, while there is still hope that the Americans can contribute in some way to keeping the peace in Ukraine – and in Europe more widely.
Under Trump, 80 years of collective security have been dismantled in as many days | The Independent
“To me, it just — it just — I take him at his word in this sense,” he continued. “So, and I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. But it sort of doesn’t matter.”
‘It sort of doesn’t matter’: Trump envoy unconcerned with Putin taking over Europe
A confidential Pentagon document suggests the United States may not come to Europe’s aid in the event of a Russian attack. The leaked internal memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is said to prioritise deterring China’s ambitions over Taiwan and bolstering defense measures on U.S. soil.
According to The Washington Post, parts of the memo are strikingly similar to a publication by a conservative think tank involved with Project 2025, with sections mirroring it word for word.
The memo outlines Hegseth’s stance that America is unlikely to offer significant support to Europe against Russian aggression. It highlights an expectation for NATO allies to assume the primary role in defending their territory.
The United States, the guidance suggests, will provide nuclear deterrence against Russia but will only commit forces that are not essential for homeland security or missions related to China.
US ‘won’t bother defending Europe from Russia’, leaked Pentagon memo says
There’s nothing that can’t be cured by few stiff drinks:
Even before he disclosed secret battle plans for Yemen in a group chat, information that could have endangered American fighter pilots, it had been a rocky two months for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Mr. Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman and Fox News weekend host, started his job at the Pentagon determined to out-Trump President Trump, Defense Department officials and aides said.
The president is skeptical about the value of NATO and European alliances, so the Pentagon under Mr. Hegseth considered plans in which the United States would give up its command role overseeing NATO troops. After Mr. Trump issued executive orders targeting transgender people, Mr. Hegseth ordered a ban on transgender troops.
Mr. Trump has embraced Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla. The Pentagon planned a sensitive briefing to give Mr. Musk a firsthand look at how the military would fight a war with China, a potentially valuable step for any businessman with interests there.
Inside Pete Hegseth’s Rocky First Months at the Pentagon – The New York Times
MPs voiced fury today after an extraordinary security bungle revealed some of Donald Trump’s most senior team condemning Europe as ‘pathetic freeloaders’.
A bombshell exchange on the Signal messaging app – accidentally shared with a journalist – showed an elite group including JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security advisor Mike Waltz voicing ‘loathing’ for their long-term allies.
They also discuss how to get money out of European countries in return for US military strikes intended to stop Houthi rebels disrupting critical shipping routes in the Red Sea.
But UK politicians said glimpse behind the scenes showed America was ‘unreliable’ and accused them of plotting ‘extortion’. One normally US-friendly MP described the situation as a ‘nightmare’ and warned Europe must ‘take it seriously and not think it’s just casual chat’.
…
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said there’s “no doubt” that Russia and China were monitoring the U.S. officials’ devices used for a war plan text chat.
“I will guarantee you, 99.99 percent with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two phones,” Bacon told CNN’s Manu Raju. “So I just think it’s a security violation, and there’s no doubt that Russia and China saw this stuff within hours of the actual attacks on Yemen or the Houthis.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz reportedly invited The Atlantic’s top editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, into the Signal group, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared secret war plans.
Bacon, a former Air Force brigadier general and a member of the House Armed Services committee, said he always was concerned about Hegseth, an Army veteran who was a longtime Fox News host.
Bacon called the group chat, which also included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President Vance, among others, a “gross error.”
“They intentionally put highly classified information on an unclassified device,” he told CNN. “I would have lost my security clearance in the Air Force for this and for a lot less.”
Don Bacon says Russia, China likely saw war plans group chat
