MATTEO SALVINI

A flotilla of flimsy boats, crowded with migrants and launched from Tunisia, is overwhelming a tiny Italian island south of Sicily.

Italy is marking the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Genoa’s Morandi Bridge with a minute of silence and demands for justice for the 43 people who died.

The Italian finance ministry is defending a proposed 40% tax on some bank profits as being in line with “already existing rules in Europe on extra bank margins.”.

A train strike across Italy has stranded workers and tourists alike on a sweltering weekday at the peak of high tourism season.

Silvio Berlusconi cast a spell over Italy — and nearly led it to financial ruin.

Italian media are reporting that Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy’s longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption and bribery, has died at age 86.

Italy’s right-wing government is pressing ahead with plans to crack down on migrants after hundreds arrived in the last few days.

Italian media say former Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been transferred from an intensive care unit to a regular ward at a Milan hospital.

Italy’s infrastructure minister is seeking to rally international interest in Italy’s latest attempt to build a bridge linking Sicily to the Italian mainland.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has announced a crackdown on people smugglers, from a southern town near where a boat crowded with migrants broke apart, killing scores of people.

Heavy rainfall triggered landslides early Saturday on the southern Italian island of Ischia that collapsed buildings and left as many as 12 missing.

Lines have formed at one of Italy’s northern border crossings with France following Paris’ decision to reinforce border controls over a diplomatic standoff with Italy about migration policy and humanitarian rescue ships.

Italy’s new government has blocked humanitarian rescue ships from accessing its ports, resulting in a standoff with charities that patrol the deadly central Mediterranean Sea, used by people desperate to reach Europe for a new life.

The captain of a charity-operated migrant rescue ship has refused Italian orders to leave a Sicilian port after authorities refused to let 35 migrants disembark.

Two German-run migrant rescue ships carrying nearly 300 rescued people are waiting off the eastern coast of Sicily.

Italy’s new far-right led government has adopted a measure formalizing the closure of its ports to rescue ships run by humanitarian groups as four vessels with more than 1,000 migrants continue to press for a safe port.

Humanitarian groups caring for 1,000 rescued migrants aboard three ships in the central Mediterranean are sounding an alarm about deteriorating conditions on board.

New far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni has used her first visit to European Union headquarters to declare that Italy will be a force to reckon with in EU affairs.

Several thousand black-clad fascist sympathizers chanted and sang in praise of Benito Mussolini as they marched to the slain Italian dictator’s crypt Sunday, 100 years after Mussolini entered Rome and completed a bloodless coup that gave rise to two decades of fascist rule.

Italy’s new far-right-led government of Giorgia Meloni has won the first of two required confidence votes in Parliament by a comfortable margin.

Giorgia Meloni has become the first woman installed as Italy's premier.

As Giorgia Meloni becomes Italy’s first female premier, the world is watching closely to see if she will emerge as a firebrand leader of a far-right party with neo-fascist roots or the more moderate right-wing politician who succeded in capturing 26% of the vote.

Giorgia Meloni has formed Italy’s new ruling coalition, giving the country its first far-right-led government since the end of World War II.

Italy’s presumed next premier, Giorgia Meloni, and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi are seeking to put days of acrimony behind them over possible Cabinet picks.

The resounding victory by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in last month's Italian election isn't sitting well with Silvio Berlusconi.

Forming a new government in Italy involves time and decades-old rituals.

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni is vowing to put Italy's national interests first in tackling soaring energy costs.

Italy’s former premier Silvio Berlusconi is making his return to Italy’s parliament nearly a decade after being banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction.

Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort and vigilance after one of the bloc’s founding members swung far to the political right.

Near-final results show a party with neo-fascist roots, the Brothers of Italy, has swept Italy’s national elections.

A party with neo-fascist roots has won the most votes in Italy’s national election, setting the stage for talks to form the country’s first far right-led government since World War II, with Giorgia Meloni at the helm as Italy’s first female premier.

A Sunday parliamentary election will determine who next governs major industrial economy and key NATO member Italy.

Italian voters cast ballots on Sunday in an election that has been billed as crucial as Europe reels from the repercussions of war in Ukraine.

The main candidates in Italy's general election on Sunday to elect a new Parliament and determine who next governs the country include both familiar names and lesser-known ones.

With Italy's election looming, the main leader of the Italian center-left alliance says the gains of a Swedish populist party with neo-Nazi roots is one more indication that fear is driving the far-right's growth in Europe.

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s is gathering momentum in her push to become Italy’s first female premier.

Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has led her first election campaign rally in the Adriactic port city of Ancona.

The far-right candidate who aspires to be Italy’s first female premier has come under fire from opponents for posting a pixelized video that purports to show a woman being raped by an asylum-seeker.

Giorgia Meloni is riding a wave of popularity that next month could see her become Italy’s first female prime minister and its first far-right leader since World War II.

The leader of Italy's Democratic Party is warning of the threats to European democracy posed by Italy's right-wing nationalistic parties.

Italy's far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of next month's elections, is insisting she won't be a danger to democracy if she becomes the country's next premier.

Italy’s firebrand former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has put migration at the center of his electoral campaign during a visit to Lampedusa.

A judge in Italy has ordered the suspect in the death of a Nigerian street vendor to remain jailed as an investigation continues.

The European Union’s top court says maritime authorities cannot impound ships involved in search-and-rescue work just because they think the vessels might be overloaded due to the number of migrants aboard.

Italians are debating whether a Nigerian street vendor could have been saved from a fatal attack by an enraged Italian man that played out in public as bystanders watched.

Italy's president is urging Italians to reinvigorate their democracy as the country notes the 100th anniversary of an attack that paved Benito Mussolini's path to power.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi's decision to turn in his resignation after his “unity” coalition broke apart dramatically in Parliament was the latest step in a political crisis that could take months before a new government is solidly in place to lead the European Union's third-largest economy.

Italy is headed for an early election after its president accepted Premier Mario Draghi’s resignation and decided there was no possibility for cobbling together another government.

Italy’s political landscape has shifted after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio formalized his departure from the 5-Star Movement.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its fourth month, officials in Kyiv have expressed fears that the specter of “war fatigue” could erode the West’s resolve to help the country push back Moscow’s aggression.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi meets with U.S. President Biden this week in Washington as Europe faces another “whatever it takes” moment, with war raging on its eastern flank in Ukraine.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is gathering her party’s troops, not to mourn her loss in the presidential election but to plot out a victory in France's parliamentary election in June.

The mayor of a Polish town has called out the leader of Italy’s right-wing League party for his pro-Kremlin views, derisively calling Matteo Salvini a “friend" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been elected to a second seven-year term as the country’s head of state, ending days of political impasse as party leaders struggled to pick his successor.

Insistence by Italy's center-right bloc that their candidate becomes the nation's president has backfired.

Leaders across Italy's political spectrum have been struggling to nail down an agreement on who should be the country's next president.

Former premier Silvio Berlusconi has bowed out of Italy’s presidential election set for next week.

Italy is poised to elect a new president, a figure who is supposed to serve as the nation’s moral compass and foster unity by being above the political fray.

The Italian Coast Guard has rescued more than 550 migrants, many of them young men and boys from Egypt, from traffickers boats in storm-tossed waters off the southern “toe” of Italy's mainland.

Italy’s right-wing former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has gone on trial charged with kidnapping for refusing in 2019 to allow a Spanish migrant rescue ship to dock in Sicily, keeping the people onboard at sea for days.

Italy's center-left forces, led by Democrats, are triumphing or clinching runoff slots in Milan and other big city mayoral elections, according to partial vote counts after two days of balloting.

Millions of people are voting in Italy for new mayors including in the nation's main cities.

A German charity boat carrying 257 rescued migrants has docked in Sicily after Italian authorities granted permission.

The Vatican’s Secretary of State has attempted to tamp down controversy over a Vatican diplomatic communication to Italy.

A judge in Sicily has dismissed a case against right-wing leader Matteo Salvini for keeping rescued migrants on board a coast guard ship during the summer of 2019, saying no crime had been committed.

Several hundred more migrants have reached a tiny Italian island, swelling to past 2,100 the number of arrivals in 24 hours.

He's known throughout most of Europe as Mr. Brexit, but not so well known at home in France.

Italian rapper Fedez has received a wave of public support after going public with attempts by RAI state television to censor his planned remarks calling attention to homophobia during a Workers' Day concert.

A judge in Sicily has ordered former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial on kidnapping charges for having refused to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port.

An Italian prosecutor says there's no reason to put right-wing leader Matteo Salvini on trial for kidnapping migrants whom he wouldn't let disembark from a coast guard vessel.

Turkey is demanding an apology from Italy’s premier after he called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “dictator.”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has hosted talks with populist politicians from Italy and Poland as they sought to create a new right-wing political force on the European stage.

The Council of State ruled that the Culture Ministry was correct in cancelling the concession it had given to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, or Human Dignity Institute. The ruling overturned an earlier decision by a regional administrative tribunal that had sided with the institute. AdBannon had said he would bring in teachers and raise money for the academy, which had been dubbed a “gladiator school" for the alt-right. AdBannon said Tuesday the court decision was a politically motivated “joke" that was befitting of a developing country. Prosecutors in New York say the money instead went to pay a campaign official’s salary and personal expenses.

FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 file photo, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels. But thats hardly likely to be Contes last hurrah in politics. But that’s hardly likely to be Conte’s last hurrah in Italian politics. But a return to the ballot box could come sooner, given Italy's fluctuating political dynamics. ”What's important is to have a political trajectory, cultivate a political path to offer to the voters and to the country."

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had tasked the former European Central Bank president with trying to form a government up to managing the the health, economic and social crises of the coronavirus pandemic. AdDraghi’s most-quoted words so far have been those uttered in 2012 when the euro-zone risked collapsing in a crisis of confidence and he vowed the European Central Bank would do “whatever it takes” to rescue the euro. The current head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, tweeted her congratulations. Italy's health minister through the pandemic, Roberto Speranza, kept his post, the sole minister from a small left-wing party. ___This story has been corrected to show that employees applauded for Conte, not Draghi.

Leader of the Five-Stars Movement Vito Crimi, 2nd from right, addresses the media at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. Draghi, 73, the former president of the European Central Bank completed a first round of talks with political parties this week. Another round is expected early next week on potential Cabinet ministers and a synthesis from Draghi of his vision for the new government. AdItaly's president tapped Draghi this week to form a government after the resignation of ex-Premier Giuseppe Conte, who lost support of a small but key coalition party. Salvini’s move to support Draghi puts him at odds with the far-right Brothers of Italy party and its leader, Giorgia Meloni.

Outgoing Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte waves as he leaves after meeting journalists outside Chigi palace Premier's office in Rome, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. Draghi must rely on political support to pass measures aimed at helping Italy emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and revive its economy, already stagnant before being pummeled by lockdown measures. “I hope for a political government that is solid and has sufficient cohesion to be able to make political choices, because the urgencies of the country need political choices, they can’t be entrusted to technocrats,” Conte said. Conte also pitched to two other parties from his unraveled coalition, the center-left Democrats and the leftist Free and Equal Party. His call for a political alliance appeared to indicate Conte intended to stay in politics, even while out of office.

Italian Premier Conte was meeting Tuesday, Jan. 26. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)ROME – Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte resigned Tuesday after a key coalition ally pulled his party’s support over Conte’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, setting the stage for consultations this week to determine if he can form a third government. Conte’s coalition government was thrown into turmoil earlier this month when a junior party headed by ex-Premier Matteo Renzi yanked its support. But Conte would need Renzi's support to form a new governing coalition or the backing of independents and the center-right Forza Italia party. Conte's first government starting in 2018 was a 5-Star alliance with the right-wing League party led by Matteo Salvini that lasted 15 months.

Premier Giuseppe Conte delivers his speech at the lower chamber of Parliament, in Rome, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Conte lost his coalition majority with the defection of Cabinet ministers belonging to former Premier Matteo Renzi’s tiny but key Italia Viva (Italy Alive) party, that threatened to collapse his government. But a much tougher hurdle looms Tuesday in the Senate where Renzi’s party has 18 members, meaning Conte would seek support from outside his wobbly coalition to stay in power — even if Renzi's party again abstains in that vote. Even should Conte's government survive in terms of numbers in Parliament, Renzi's party pullout last week highlighted the coalition's fragility. Renzi acted after Conte unveiled a plan to manage the EU recovery funds himself, which was widely seen as accumulating too much power.

The Italian cabinet was in crisis on January 13, 2021 following the resignations of ministers Teresa Bellanova and Elena Bonetti, members of former premier Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva party. Renzi orchestrated the resignations of two ministers from his tiny but key Italia Viva party. “Italia Viva did not start the crisis. CONTE’S NEXT MOVEWith the resignation of the Italia Viva ministers, Conte is working to shore up support in parliament among independent lawmakers. And it is still possible that Italia Viva will restore its backing.

The number of Tunisians migrating clandestinely to Italy has risen to levels not seen since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Their arrivals have strained the ability of Italy’s southern regions to take them in amid the coronavirus pandemic, given Italy’s quarantine requirements for anyone arriving from outside the EU. She blamed the increase in Tunisian arrivals on the country’s socio-economic problems that have been exacerbated by COVID-19, and has offered Italian assistance to address them. Tunisian migrants fleeing their country’s worsening economic situation aren’t generally considered eligible for asylum. The year before that, Tunisians only accounted for 5% of arrivals, with Nigerians topping the list.