Leonardo, the Italian state-controlled defense company, is aiming to deepen ties with Ukraine’s fast-growing military-technology sector, Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Mariani said

Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio unexpectedly resigned from his roles at EssilorLuxottica, becoming the second heir of the eyewear maker’s founder, the late Leonardo Del Vecchio, to leave the company this year

Leonardo DiCaprio: The Dream That Never Left At just 22 years old, Leonardo DiCaprio became one of the most recognizable people on the planet. After Titanic, Hollywood saw him as the perfect leading man and expected him to spend the rest of his career embracing that image. But while millions were focused on the movie star, DiCaprio's attention was often somewhere else entirely. Long before fame arrived, he had been captivated by nature. As a child, he spent hours watching documentaries about wildlife and the oceans. His original dream wasn't to become an actor at all—it was to become a marine biologist. Life had other plans. Acting opportunities came early, and by the late 1990s he had become a global sensation. Titanic turned him into an international icon almost overnight. Every magazine wanted him on its cover. Every studio wanted him in its next blockbuster. Yet the passion he had for the natural world never faded. In 1998, while still in his twenties, DiCaprio launched the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. Its mission was ambitious: protect wildlife, preserve ecosystems, safeguard oceans, and address climate change. Many people assumed it was simply another celebrity project that would fade away after the headlines disappeared. They were wrong. The foundation began funding conservation initiatives and environmental education programs around the world. DiCaprio also used film as a tool for awareness, helping produce environmental projects such as Water Planet and Global Warming to bring ecological issues to wider audiences. Then, in 2007, he took an even bigger step. DiCaprio co-wrote, produced, and narrated The 11th Hour, a documentary exploring humanity's impact on the environment. Scientists, activists, and experts discussed climate change, biodiversity loss, and the urgent need for action. By that point, it was clear his commitment wasn't temporary. The years that followed only expanded his involvement. In 2013, his foundation supported efforts to combat Thailand's ivory trade. The campaign attracted more than a million supporters and increased international attention on elephant poaching and illegal trafficking. Soon after, his focus turned heavily toward ocean conservation. At the 2014 Our Ocean Conference, DiCaprio announced a major financial commitment to protecting marine ecosystems. Around the same time, he helped produce Virunga, the acclaimed documentary about those risking their lives to protect endangered mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. The film received worldwide recognition and earned an Academy Award nomination. That same year, DiCaprio's environmental work reached a new level of influence. The United Nations appointed him a Messenger of Peace with a special emphasis on climate change. Speaking before world leaders at the UN Climate Summit, he urged governments to treat the climate crisis as an immediate global priority. The image of the young Titanic heartthrob had evolved into something much larger. He was using the reach of celebrity to amplify environmental causes. Not every chapter was without controversy. In 2016, DiCaprio's foundation became linked publicly to questions surrounding Malaysia's massive 1MDB corruption scandal. Authorities alleged that funds connected to the scheme had passed through various networks that touched both entertainment and philanthropic organizations. DiCaprio maintained that he was unaware certain donations may have originated from misappropriated funds. His representatives stated that he cooperated fully with investigators and supported returning any assets or donations found to be improperly sourced. The association created challenges for a reputation he had spent years building. Yet he continued his environmental work. That same year, he finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Revenant after decades of acclaimed performances and multiple nominations. With millions watching around the world, he could have focused entirely on his career achievement. Instead, he used his acceptance speech to speak about climate change, urging people to recognize it as a real and urgent issue. The speech lasted only a few minutes. His commitment had already lasted nearly twenty years. In 2019, DiCaprio partnered with Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth to establish Earth Alliance, an organization dedicated to supporting conservation efforts, climate resilience, Indigenous communities, and emergency environmental responses. His impact continued to grow. In 2021, he helped support major ecosystem restoration efforts through Re:wild, including initiatives aimed at protecting the Galápagos Islands and conserving endangered species around the world. By then, environmental projects associated with DiCaprio had directed tens of millions of dollars toward conservation efforts across multiple continents. Forests. Oceans. Wildlife habitats. Marine protected areas. Endangered species. Climate initiatives. Indigenous-led conservation. The very subjects that fascinated him as a young boy had remained at the center of his life, even as he became one of Hollywood's biggest stars. There is something remarkable about that consistency. Leonardo DiCaprio never became the marine biologist he once imagined being. Instead, fame gave him a different path toward the same mission. The actor who first captured the world's attention aboard the Titanic spent decades using his influence, resources, and platform to advocate for the protection of the natural world. Not because of a single documentary. Not because of a single speech. And not because of a single headline. But because he returned to the cause again and again, long after many expected the interest to fade. Perhaps that is the most compelling part of his story. Fame provided the spotlight. What defined him was how he chose to use it. And beneath the awards, the premieres, the cameras, and the extraordinary career, the child who once dreamed of studying the ocean never really disappeared.

.@LeonardoGoi writes on French iconoclast Jean Epstein, "an aquatic filmmaker, an artist who saw water as embodying the kind of cinema he aspired to create: fluid, tempestuous, unpredictable."

EssilorLuxotticaheir Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio challenged a motion by family holding company Delfin Sarl that would delay the billionaire’s ability to transfer his stake in the eyewear fortune to a personal holding company.