Florence

The government of Italy has collapsed. But nobody is hitting the panic button. A new government could be formed in the next couple of days — and voters are unlikely to get a say. Again.

Italy’s unemployment rate is more than 10 percent, but among the young, it’s vastly worse. Perhaps 35 percent, or worse. So a growing number of young Italians, and a few others who are out-of-work, are turning to the country’s organic farms, where they can learn a skill, and keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs.

In Belgium, police are trying to make sense of an attack that saw a man shoot and kill five people, injure more than 100 and then take his own life during an attack on a busy bus stop near a Christmas market. They don’t believe it’s related to terrorism.

Italy constructs its artistic future with a new modern art museum, the Maxxi, which opens this weekend in Rome.

The Nobel prize-winning author talks about her new book, “A Mercy,” a prequel to “Beloved,” which many say is the single best work of fiction in the last 25 years.