Seven Bangladeshi-Italian candidates stand for Venice’s council as community faces far-right hostility – while voters demand an end to overtourism and neglect

Rhitu Miah, one of seven candidates from the Bangladeshi-Italian community standing in Venice’s local election, is used to brushing off racist or sexist comments. But she was taken aback by the virulence of the negative comments online when she announced she would run for the council – potentially making her one of the first people of Bangladeshi origin ever elected in the lagoon city’s administration.

“There were hateful messages – one person told me to get on a camel and go back to my own country,” says Miah, an Italian citizen who moved to Venice with her family at three years old, through her father’s job at the Fincantieri shipyard, a huge importer of labour from Bangladesh. “I tried to let it be and reply with a smile … but it was difficult not to cry. This is also a reason why I’m running [to combat these prejudices].”

Aktivisten der Hilfsflottille für Gaza beschweren sich über öffentliche Erniedrigungen und Misshandlungen in Israel. Italien und Frankreich bestellen die israelischen Botschafter ein. Und Deutschland?

Itamar Ben-Gvir führt Teilnehmer einer Hilfsflottille nach Gaza vor laufenden Kameras gefesselt und auf Knien vor. Seine Anhänger feiern ihn als Helden, doch Israels Ansehen schadet er.

In Modena in Norditalien ist ein Mann mit einem Auto in Passanten gefahren. Ob es ein Terrorattentat war, ist noch unklar. Die politischen Reaktionen sind trotzdem schon deutlich.

As continent faces tough headwinds, leaders are bearing brunt of delivering bad news to frustrated electorates

“People hate you,” the adviser informed his leader. A think-piece in a daily newspaper noted that “almost everyone agrees on one thing: they don’t like him”.

The recent disastrous set of local election results in the UK built on Keir Starmer’s longstanding reputational problem: only 11% of Britons believe he has been a good or great prime minister, and nearly 60% believe he has been poor or terrible, according to polling by YouGov.

Nach seiner Audienz beim Papst trifft der US-Außenminister die italienische Regierungschefin. Die Stimmung war schon mal besser.

Der Papst ist an den Sicherheitsvorgaben seiner Bank gescheitert, Giorgia Meloni geht mit einem Unterwäschefoto von sich selbst gegen Deepfakes vor und Barack Obama spricht über Spannungen in seiner Ehe.

Italian prime minister had received wave of criticism from people who believed deepfake pictures of her were real

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has criticised the circulation of AI-generated deepfake images of her, including one depicting her in lingerie, after they were widely shared online.

Meloni wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “In recent days, several fake images of me have been circulating, generated using artificial intelligence and passed off as real by some overzealous opponents.

US president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Vatican

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Donald Trump has issued another verbal attack against Pope Leo, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

US secretary of state will be in Italian capital on Thursday and Friday, the one-year anniversary of Pope Leo’s papacy

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is to travel to Rome this week for a visit reportedly aimed at thawing frosty relations with the Italian government and the Vatican.

Rubio is scheduled to be in the Italian capital on Thursday and Friday, which will also mark the one-year anniversary of the papacy of Pope Leo, the first US-born pontiff.

The Italian PM has walked a tightrope between Europe and the US. But the Iran war – and Trump’s attacks on her – have changed everything

The news last week that the Trump administration sounded out Fifa, world football’s governing body, about replacing Iran with Italy at this year’s World Cup jolted insiders and pundits on the beautiful game. It has also cast fresh light on the unusual and evolving relationship between Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni.

In recent weeks, the Italian prime minister’s standing as the darling of the US right has been imperilled by an unexpected rift with the Oval Office. Trump dramatically distanced himself from his Italian ally over her refusal to join US attacks on Iran in an interview. “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” the US president told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Riccardo Alcaro is head of research at IAI, Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome

Nach dem Brand in Crans-Montana erhielten Angehörige aus Italien hohe Krankenhausrechnungen. Ein Fehler, heißt es. Die Schweiz fordert das Geld nun vom italienischen Staat. Doch der weigert sich.

Teatro La Fenice says Beatrice Venezi let go for making ‘repeated offensive’ statements

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Teatro La Fenice, the prestigious Venice opera house, has fired its incoming music director after she insinuated its hiring practices were nepotistic, with jobs “practically passed down from father to son”.

After months of controversy over the appointment of Beatrice Venezi, La Fenice Foundation said on Sunday it had decided to “cancel all future collaborations” with the 36-year-old conductor and pianist.

Italien feiert die Befreiung vom Nazifaschismus. Dabei wird ein Paar verletzt und eine jüdische Gruppe vom Demozug ausgeschlossen. Italiens Ministerpräsidentin äußert sich aber nur zu einem Teil der Gewalt.

• US special envoy Zampolli hopes for Italy involvement

• Doubts remain over Iran’s participation at tournament

An envoy to Donald Trump has asked Fifa to replace Iran with Italy in the upcoming World Cup, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The plan is an effort to repair ties between Trump and Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, after the two fell out amid the American president’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed aside European concerns over Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. A tougher approach from Brussels is overdue

In recent months, European expressions of concern over the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have regularly hardened into outright condemnation. Last September, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed horror and outrage at aid restrictions that she said created a “man-made famine” in Gaza. Brussels has inveighed against settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank, which undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Responding to the bombing of Lebanon following the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “Israel’s right to self-defence does not justify this destruction.”

The angry words and exhortations have achieved nothing. Mr Netanyahu and his ministers have generally treated European critics with barely concealed contempt, presumably reassured by the fact that their chief allies in the White House tend to behave in exactly the same fashion. The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, and the academic benefits it confers through Israeli participation in the Horizon research programme are considerable. But internal disunity, and an overoptimistic faith in the power of persuasion, have led to a reluctance by the bloc to use those relationships as leverage.

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Netanyahu says ‘harsh disciplinary action’ will be taken after IDF confirms sledgehammer photo is authentic

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The Israeli military is conducting a criminal investigation after a soldier was photographed striking a Catholic statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in southern Lebanon.

Israel’s military officials said they had determined that an image circulating on social media showing the incident was authentic. The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross.

With Orbán gone and Meloni distancing herself, EU sanctions on trade and settlers are looking more likely

It was a bad week for Israel in Europe: the country lost its staunchest regional ally when Viktor Orbán was toppled from power in Hungary, and Italy suspended a key defence pact.

The shifts are likely to pave the way for long-delayed sanctions against violent settlers in the occupied West Bank, and add to broader pressure for the EU to reconsider its relationship with Israel over its wars in Gaza and the wider region.

Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to ask MPs to back controversial voluntary repatriation scheme

Italian lawyers will be paid bonuses if they successfully convince their immigrant clients to return home under a government plan that has been compared to a “wild west-style bounty”.

The incentive is in the latest security bill from Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government and goes to the lower house of parliament for final approval this week. It was passed by the upper house after fiery debate.