A round of local elections could have gone very badly for Italy’s government, a makeshift coalition of the populist Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party. Matteo Salvini’s right-wing grouping had hoped to secure a string of victories, including in Tuscany — a left-wing stronghold. A good Salvini performance might even have toppled the coalition. However, the right only ...

After a decade of scandals and multiple bailouts, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is back in the spotlight. This time, the Italian government is shopping around the 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) lender ahead of a European Union deadline for Rome to exit the bank next year. Loaded with legal risks that dwarf its market value, any investor will ...

When the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in the mid-1990s, the US Senate voted 76-24 to establish it. But it is now facing more opposition than ever, and from both parties. “The World Trade Organization has been not good for the United States,” President Donald Trump said in a mid-September press conference. “It’s been good for everybody else, but ...