Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigns

ROME — Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte stepped down Tuesday following disputes within the governing alliance over the post-pandemic economic recovery.  

Conte handed in his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella following a Cabinet meeting, bringing the 16-month-old government to an end.

His resignation plunges Italy into political uncertainty in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 people and with the highest annual death toll since World War II.