Matteo Salvini

The United States and Russia have quietly opposed efforts by the United Nations to promote a sweeping global cease-fire. Meanwhile, the coronavirus has upended long-standing norms about the role of government in Western societies. And the reasons policymakers and legislators rarely capitalize on accurate disaster predictions are often political. Here…

This is the 11th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come…

View photos(Bloomberg) -- More than half a trillion euros of emergency fiscal aid by the European Union apparently isn’t sufficient to shift the burden of fighting the coronavirus crisis from the European Central Bank.Just over a week since governments reached an uneasy agreement on a joint rescue package, strains in…

Euroscepticism never actually went away after Brexit, but European Union stalwarts have largely been holding the line, with gambits from anti-EU leaders like Italy's Matteo Salvini failing over the past year. But the COVID-19 pandemic could change that.Countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal have seen their debt burdens rise during…

The European Commission says it cannot comment on decisions by Italy and Malta declaring their ports unsafe for rescue ships."We are not in a position to make a comment of a legal nature on this particular case," a European Commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday (14 April). The…

French 2017 presidential election posters | Picture by Lorie Shaull / Flickr. Some rights reserved (CC BY-SA 2.0) For those of us who have been following the radical populist right over the past couple of decades, one of the central questions today is whether the radical populist right is likely…

Protest in Warsaw against the draft ban on sex education in the schools in Poland, on 16 October 2019 | Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto/PA Images Despite coronavirus lockdowns, Poland’s parliament is set to discuss a controversial abortion bill this week. Along with criminalising sex education, it would ban abortion in cases of…

View photos(Bloomberg) -- Italy’s companies and small businesses desperately need the 740 billion euros ($807 billion) the government pledged to keep the economy afloat through the pandemic recession. By the time the money arrives, it might be too late.Banks, which have to channel most of the aid to recipients, “have…

ROME, ITALY - MARCH 14: People watch tv as Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte delivers his speech on the new economic measures due to Coronavirus emergency on March 14, 2020 in Rome, Italy.Franco OrigliaItalian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Friday extended a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus until May…

(Bloomberg) -- Italy extended a national lockdown until May 3, rejecting calls by business leaders to allow a gradual restart of the economy.The decision reflects a pattern playing out in many parts of Europe as health officials and politicians warn against letting up too early on restrictions to stem the…