Italy’s deputy premier, Matteo Salvini, is sounding defiant as he awaits a verdict in Sicily for preventing some 100 migrants from disembarking a rescue boat in 2019 when he was interior minister.

A special Italian court has shut down a probe into whether the country’s former premier and former health minister caused unnecessary deaths by failing to extend a lockdown zone in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has been physically attacked during an official appearance in Tuscany by a man protesting against Italy’s lockdowns and other measures to contain the pandemic.

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

Italy's Premier Mario Draghi is meeting with Italy’s president to discuss the future of his government amid simmering tensions with a coalition member, the 5-Star Movement.

An Italian artist is defending his sculpture of a 19th century peasant woman against charges of sexism after its recent unveiling sparked calls for the work's removal.

Former Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has derided the founder of the 5-Star Movement for a video message defending his son against allegations of sexual assault.

The Navajo Nation has issued a stay-at-home order for the weekend after reporting 26 more confirmed COVID-19 cases.

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.

The formation of a broad-based government of national unity was widely expected after most political parties across the spectrum signaled their support for Draghi. Draghi also has the support of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia and former Premier Matteo Renzi's Italy Alive Party. The far-right Brothers of Italy party said it will remain in opposition, after Salvini and Berlusconi broke their right-wing alliance to back Draghi. Draghi, 73, replaces Giuseppe Conte, who resigned after a small party yanked support over the handling of the pandemic. For his 23-member Cabinet, Draghi also transformed the environment ministry into a more developmentally oriented post for ecological transition, tapping Roberto Cingolani, an expert in nanotechnology, to run it.

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.

Former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi speaks to the media after accepting a mandate to form Italy's new government from Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Rome's Quirinale Presidential Palace, Wednesday Feb. 3, 2021. During his tenure at the European Central Bank, Draghi became known as “Super Mario" for using new and sometimes unorthodox policy tools to solve the vexing debt crisis and other problems. “As such, it will not vote in favor of a technical government headed by Mario Draghi,” Crimi said in a statement. “If they (the 5-Stars and the League) are going to somehow support Draghi then the government I think can be born," he said in an interview. “Now everyone of good will must welcome President Mattarella's appeal to support the government of Mario Draghi," he said Wednesday.

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.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte attends the debate at the Senate prior to a confidence vote, in Rome, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. With a reduced majority, Conte will have to cobble together support from outside the current coalition to pass legislation, including aid to help Italy’s pandemic-battered economy. Conte’s government on Tuesday survived what amounted to a confidence vote with a 156-to-140 win, with 16 abstentions. “The numbers speak clearly,” said Giorgia Melloni, head of the small but rising Brothers of Italy party. In the lower Chamber of Deputies, where the 16-month-old government holds a more comfortable margin, Conte won a first confidence vote on Monday.

Premier Giuseppe Conte delivers his speech at the Senate, in Rome, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. With the vote barely counted, right-wing opposition members started demanding Conte and his oft-bickering, shrunken coalition quit. In the lower Chamber of Deputies, where the 16-month-old government holds a more comfortable margin, Conte won a first confidence vote on Monday. Even though he triggered Conte's political crisis, within hours of the Senate vote, Renzi indicated he would consider returning to the coalition if asked. If Conte's coalition does fold, and no solid one can be tapped to replace it, elections two years early could result.

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.

“Italy Alive didn't provoke the political crisis,” Renzi told reporters, putting the blame for the coalition government's unraveling on Conte's methods. Before Renzi's announcement, Conte had expressed the desire to sit down with his coalition partners to work out a solution. The largest party in Parliament that belongs to Conte's coalition is the populist 5-Star Movement. Before the current coalition government, Conte led a different, uneasy one forged out of Salvini's euroskeptic League and the rival 5-Stars. Renzi became Italian premier in 2014 after he maneuvered the governing Democratic Party to oust Enrico Letta.

People walk past a shop window adorned with Christmas decorations, in Rome Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. Italy’s death toll stands at 58,038, second in Europe to Britain, while 1.6 million Italians have been infected -- one out of every 35 residents. But anyone planning to celebrate New Year’s Eve at a hotel will have to count on room service: Parties are prohitibed. Just so no one can label the government a Christmas Grinch, Conte said that stores can stay open until 9 p.m. starting Friday. “It will be a Christmas different than all the others -- not less authentic,’’ Conte said.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte leaves after announcing new restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus, in Rome, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020. (Angelo Carconi/Pool Photo via AP)ROME – Four Italian regions are being put under “red-zone” lockdown, with severe limits imposed on the circumstances under which people can leave home, Premier Giuseppe Conte announced on Wednesday night. The lockdown is aimed at tamping down a surge in COVID-19 infections and preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed with cases. Barring very few exceptions, no one will be able to leave or enter the “red zone” regions. “United, we can do it.”Barber shops and hair salons can stay open, although other non-essential shops in the “red zone” must close.

(AP Photo/Andy Wong)BEIJING — China is suspending entry for most foreign passport holders who reside in Britain, reacting to a new surge of coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom. ___MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota hospitals are under pressure and ICU beds are nearing full capacity as coronavirus cases reach a new high and hospitalizations continue to surge. ___PHOENIX — Arizona’s total coronavirus cases surpassed 250,000 and state health officials reported more than 1,000 hospitalized patients for the first time since late August. Latvia, Estonia’s southern neighbor, says it had a record number of new coronavirus cases: 313 in the past 24 hours. Latvian health officials say the nation of nearly 2 million has recorded 6,752 confirmed cases and 85 deaths.

Restrictions have been slowly ramping up for weeks in many European countries, but virus cases have continued to rise. Health Minister Jens Spahn, who himself caught the virus, says he doesn't know where he was infected. This time, schools, nonessential shops and hairdressers are staying open. They can go out to exercise or to work, among other things, and nonessential shops will remain open. ___This story has been corrected to show that Austria plans to keep nonessential shops open.

With a total of 8.2 million coronavirus cases during the pandemic, India is the second worst-hit country behind the United States. Still, health officials say New Delhi remains in the grip of its third and worst wave of infections yet. But health officials elsewhere say the virus is also spreading because people are still going to family gathering such as weddings, baby showers and barbecues. Adams and his aide were in Hawaii helping with a spike in coronavirus cases. The most recently available data from Johns Hopkins University says that as of Sunday there had been 937,317 COVID-19 cases reported in Texas.

The state reported 103 infections that day, the largest single day increase in cases. France’s government has shut down all nonessential businesses and ordered people to stay indoors for the next month to slow accelerating virus infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The Geneva canton, or region, said the University Hospitals of Geneva on Sunday counted 474 people hospitalized with coronavirus infections, including 56 in intensive care. Iran has reported more than 620,000 confirmed virus cases in all. Montenegro recently has seen a surge in virus cases.

MILAN – The number of performers at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen to 21, even as the theater was forced to close due to new government restrictions aimed at curbing the virus’ resurgence. La Scala spokesman Paolo Besana confirmed Tuesday that 18 members of the world-class chorus and three woodwind players in the orchestra have the virus. The new peak in virus cases in Italy has been centered in Milan, Lombardy's capital, throwing into doubt La Scala’s celebrated Dec. 7 gala season opener. La Scala had launched a limited series of concerts and ballets in September with just 700 audience members instead of the usual 2,000, with operatic concerts and ballet galas instead of fully staged performances. Italy, the birthplace of opera, resumed classical music performances this summer after a severe 10-week lockdown, with strict distancing rules between orchestra members and limiting the number of singers on stage.

(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)NEW DELHI — Authorities in India are reporting 36,470 newly confirmed coronavirus infections — that’s the lowest one-day tally in more than three months in a continuing downward trend. The case number reported Tuesday is the lowest since India had 35,065 newly confirmed infections on July 17. The seven-day average for daily COVID-19 deaths has also been climbing from 12 to 22 over the past 10 days. ___ROME — Italy registered slightly more than 17,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday. Italy’s total of known coronavirus infections during the pandemic now stands at 542,789.

In Italy, officials huddled with regional authorities on Saturday to determine what new restrictions could be imposed as confirmed cases surpassed half a million. Elsewhere in Europe, police in Warsaw, Poland, used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters angry over new virus restrictions, and anti-lockdown demonstrators gathered in London's Trafalgar Square. The 14,714 cases reported on Saturday includes cases from both Friday and Thursday because of a three-hour data outage at the country’s disease control agency Thursday. Two of the others are also in Latin America: Argentina, which hit that mark on Monday, and Brazil, which has more than 5 million confirmed cases. The total U.S. caseload reported Friday was 83,757, topping the 77,362 cases reported on July 16.

It is not appropriate for us to do that now.”″Victoria reported seven new coronavirus cases on Sunday, with six linked to the latest outbreak, which involves 39 people across 11 households. Eight countries now have more than 1 million confirmed cases, and three are in Latin America. Argentina hit 1 million confirmed cases on Monday. ___OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma has registered more than 1,800 newly confirmed coronavirus cases. ___ATHENS, Greece — Greece officials introduced mandatory wearing of masks everywhere Saturday, with the country reaching records for new daily coronavirus cases.

(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Authorities in Sri Lanka have closed the country’s main fish market and widened the curfew in many parts of the island nation following a surge of coronavirus infections related to a new cluster centered on a garment factory. — Boston schools will switch to all-remote learning in response to rising coronavirus cases in the city. Kelly said Wednesday that two-thirds of the state’s confirmed cases now are outside the Wichita and Kansas City region. On Wednesday, the state reported its first patient to the field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis outside of Milwaukee. ___ROME — The Italian region of Lazio, which includes Rome, is imposing an overnight curfew to combat surging coronavirus infections.

J.B. Pritzker says President Donald Trump and his allies in Illinois are partly to blame for a surge in coronavirus cases in the state. The first-term Democrat says Trump’s local allies are encouraging people not to follow COVID-19 restrictions. The number of new daily COVID-19 cases recorded in El Paso soared Thursday to a record-breaking 838. ___COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The South Carolina State Fair is coming to Columbia, but like so much during the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be drive-thru. His death at 67 on March 11 death shocked the Italian medical establishment and underlined the risk that the coronavirus pandemic to family doctors.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday there were more than 700,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in Europe last week, a jump of 34% from the previous week. Those moves reflect a new approach to containing the virus among governments wary of hurting already fragile economies. Italy made masks mandatory outdoors last week, a requirement already in place in Spain, Turkey, India and a few other Asian countries. Some doctors are warning that Poland's chronically underfunded health care system may collapse if the current rate of new cases continues. Britain’s number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases has more than tripled in the last three weeks, with infection rates rising across all age groups and regions.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of those involved cases reported in Qingdao. ___DENVER — Colorado is experiencing another surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, prompting Gov. Michigan had 89 new cases per 1 million people per day, up from 81.6 cases last week, the health department said. After two days of no virus-related deaths, the latest numbers on Tuesday bring the statewide confirmed case total to more than 226,000 and the 5,767 confirmed deaths. With 80 new deaths confirmed in the past 24 hours, the death toll rose to 33,204.

The new mask mandate was contained in a government decree extending the state of emergency until Jan. 31. Italy thus is joining Spain, Turkey, North Macedonia, India and a handful of other Asian countries in imposing a nationwide, outdoor mask mandate. In many Asian countries, social pressure to wear masks outdoors has made binding government decrees unnecessary. The Vatican, which followed Italy’s strict lockdown in spring and summer, also imposed an outdoor mask mandate this week in the tiny city state in the center of Rome. But some experts say Italy needs to more than double that number as the virus has now spread across the country.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who had COVID-19, says the pandemic lockdown in his country made him feel humiliated and offended for depriving him of freedom. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)ROME Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who had COVID-19, said the pandemic lockdown made him feel humiliated and offended by depriving him of his freedom to come and go as he wanted. Bocelli spoke at a panel Monday in a Senate conference room, where he was introduced by right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini, who has railed against the governments stringent measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Bocelli told the conference at the Senate that he resented not being able to leave his home even though he committed no crime and revealed, without providing details, that he violated that lockdown restriction. At the height of lockdown, Italians could only leave home to go to essential jobs, walk dogs or buy food or medicine.

ROME Venice has conducted a trial run of an ambitious anti-flood system of 78 inflatable barriers in hopes of protecting the lagoon city from devastating high tides. The projects name, Moses, recalls the Biblical figure who, the Old Testament recounts, parted the waters of the Red Sea. Had Moses been operational last year, it could have been put to a dramatic test. Flood waters on Nov. 12 invaded St. Mark's Basilica and also poured into homes, hotels, stores and restaurants in the city which lives off tourism. The barriers are designed to protect Venice from tides as high as 3 meters (10 feet).

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is received by Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa, right, at the Sao Bento palace in Lisbon, Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Southern European countries are mounting a show of strength as negotiations over how much money they get from the EU, and in what form, comes to a crunch. The figures demonstrate the urgency of clinching a deal at an EU summit next week to discuss financial measures, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said. The EU Commission is proposing a 750 billion-euro ($849 billion) economic recovery fund made up mostly of grants. Southern European countries are pushing hard for a deal at the negotiations in Brussels next Friday and Saturday.

Lead prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota arrived with a team of aides Friday morning at the premiers office in Rome, Palazzo Chigi. In addition to Conte, she is expected to question the health and interior ministers. In previous days, Rota has interviewed the head of the Superior Institute of Health. After interviewing Lombardy regional officials last month, Rota said it appeared it was the national government's responsibility. But in those same days, the Bergamo branch of Italy's leading business lobby, Confindustria, promoted an English-language social media campaign meant to reassure Bergamo's international industrial partners.

Giudice called people's reaction to the coronavirus "ridiculous." "I can't believe that there's literally nobody out in these streets -- look at this, ghost town," Giudice says as he shows the completely empty street. In the caption of his video, Giudice said he will never be locked down again, referencing his time spent in prison. "More people die from Viagra (heart attacks and drug overdose) everyday than this Corona virus," Giudice wrote. The fear of the spread of the coronavirus has definitely deeply affected the entertainment world.