In the days since Gooduria, a 16-metre houseboat, was swallowed up by Lake Maggiore, there has been growing speculation over what its passengers were doing in this corner of northern Italy.
Last Thursday, a police source working on the investigation confirmed that eight of the boat's 21 passengers either currently or formerly served with Italy's secret service, and 13 had ties with Israel's.
Two of the victims - Claudio Alonzi, 62, and Tiziana Barnobi, 53 - had worked for the Italian intelligence authority. Another was a 50-year-old retired agent with Israel's Mossad spy agency. The fourth was Anya Bozhkova, originally from Russia, who was crewing the boat along with her Italian husband, Claudio Carminati, the boat's skipper. Carminati is being investigated over the deaths.
Carminati and Bozhkova ran a company called Love Lake and provided a "boat and breakfast" service on Gooduria, which only had a capacity for 15 passengers. The group boarded the boat, which was registered in the Netherlands, at the Piccaluga shipyard in Lisanza on the morning of Sunday 28 May for what was reported to have been a birthday celebration.
Esta historia es de la edición June 09, 2023 de The Guardian Weekly.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición June 09, 2023 de The Guardian Weekly.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
If kids get protected from online harm, how about the rest of us?
The Australian government has proposed a ban on social media for all citizens under 16.
'It's not drought - it's looting'
Spain is increasingly either parched or flooded - and one group is profiting from these extremes: the thirsty multinational companies forcing angry citizens to pay for water in bottles.
Life in the grey Zone
Neonatal care has advanced so far that babies born as early as 21 weeks have survived. But is this type of care always the right thing to do?
Out of tune? Band Aid under fire for Africa tropes as it turns 40
Forty years ago this month, a group of pop stars gathered at a west London studio to record a single that would raise millions, inspire further starry projects, and ultimately change charity fundraising in the UK.
Deaths shine spotlight on risks of drinking on party trail
Vang Vieng is an unlikely party hub. Surrounded by striking limestone mountains and caves in central Laos, it morphed from a small farming town to a hedonistic tourist destination in the early 2000s.
Different strokes My strange and emotional week with an AI pet
Moflin can develop a personality and build a rapport with its owner - and doesn't need food or exercise. But is it comforting or alienating?
Strike zone Waking up to the rising threat of lightning
When the Barbados National Archives, home to one of the world's most significant collections of documents from the transatlantic slave trade, reported in June that it had been struck by lightning, it received sympathy and offers of support locally and internationally.
Cheap pints and sticky carpets: the old-school pub is back
In the Palm Tree pub, east London, barman Alf is taking only cash at the rattling 1960s till.
Brain gain Can a radical tax scheme convince the country's brightest to stay?
In the autumn of 2018, I moved to Lisbon for a month-long course at the Universidade .de Lisboa.
Fear and sympathy in small town divided over asylum camp
A year after anti-immigration riots, a site for asylum seekers faces hostility while some locals try to help new arrivals
