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Speaker 1: Joe McKenna is in Rome for US this morning. Joe,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning Ryan. Now what's the latest with

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Speaker 1: the pope Houses health.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's been a rocky ride, as we all know

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Speaker 2: for Pope Francis. He's been in hospital now for more

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Speaker 2: than a month. The Vatican says he's making slight improvements.

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Speaker 2: We're just waiting for an update, which should come through

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Speaker 2: in the next half an hour. But now there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of concern because, particularly because King Charles and Queen

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Speaker 2: Camilla have announced a state visit to Rome in April,

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Speaker 2: and they're saying they're ready to meet the Pope, but

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Speaker 2: the Vatican refuses to confirm a if that's happening, or

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Speaker 2: b whether the Pope will be out of hospital by then. Right.

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Speaker 1: Meanwhile, we've got the defense talks continuing. This is the

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Speaker 1: bid to increase defense spending. Maloney there has backed the plans,

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Speaker 1: but the coalition not quite sure about how much we

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Speaker 1: should spend.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, first of all, for the Italian Prime Minister Georgia Maloney,

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Speaker 2: it's a very difficult tight rope that she's walking. She

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Speaker 2: wants to be pro EU, she wants to be pro Ukraine,

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Speaker 2: but she also wants to protect her relationship with the

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Speaker 2: American President Donald Trump. She's been updating Parliament today ahead

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Speaker 2: of an EU summit where the leaders are going to

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Speaker 2: discuss Ukraine with support and plans to increase defense spending.

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Speaker 2: Italian defense spending now at one point five percent of

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Speaker 2: GDP that split the coalition. Her brother's of Italy party

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Speaker 2: backs the EU trying to raise that amount, while the

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Speaker 2: League party run by her deputy Prime Minister Matteo Slovini

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Speaker 2: opposes it. Now he says that money, any increase in

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Speaker 2: spending on or rearmaments, that money should be allocated to schools,

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Speaker 2: hospitals and pensions. And you can imagine that resonates quite

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Speaker 2: well with the Italian electorate.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, it's the same problem that a lot of those,

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Speaker 1: a lot of your fellow European countries will be grappling with.

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Speaker 1: It's a very big bill to have to cover this

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Speaker 1: defense one. Now, what is the deal with these one

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Speaker 1: euro homes, Joe? Are they still on offer? And beautiful

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Speaker 1: quaint Italian town they are.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, I've visited quite a few of these one Euro

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Speaker 2: towns in Sicily and there's another one in Sardinia. But

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Speaker 2: this is a different proposal now coming from the northern

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Speaker 2: province of Trento, which is up in the Dolomite Mountains,

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Speaker 2: right up on the Austrian border. They're offering one hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand euros to people who want to live in their

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Speaker 2: deserted towns. They've identified around thirty three towns that are

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Speaker 2: running out of people and they want to encourage even

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Speaker 2: foreigners to move to these villages that have lost their inhabitants.

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Speaker 2: Now to get the money, you've got to live there

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Speaker 2: fourteen years or rent the property at a moderate rate

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Speaker 2: to someone who will live there. But for people in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand who love their mountains, I love their skiing,

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Speaker 2: this is certainly something worth considering. I would think.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would have thought so too. I watched a

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Speaker 1: documentary on it just the other day, a YouTube one.

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Speaker 1: It's great, Joe. I mean, it's a lot of work though,

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Speaker 1: it's a lot of.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot of work if you take one of

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Speaker 2: those one euro houses and rip them apast, certainly, but

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Speaker 2: I've seen some great results with them all the same.

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Speaker 1: Joe mckinner and Italy, thanks so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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