Italy evacuates hundreds of schools due to bomb alert, with threats in Scotland and Ireland

MILAN (AP) — Italian authorities evacuated hundreds of schools Wednesday after an emailed bomb threat, the latest in a series of disruptions affecting European institutions following recent hoaxes aimed at airlines and broadcasters.

Schools in Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland received similar threats, but no evacuations were reported.

The Italian Education Ministry said the e-mail threat was received by over 6,300 schools, but it was not immediately known how many had been evacuated.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said there was no indication of any “concrete danger” to schools and that the threats appeared aimed at “generating alarm and concern.” She said investigations were underway and that she had called a meeting of ministers for later Wednesday.

The anonymous email also threatened Meloni, according to copies obtained by Italian media, including the LaPresse news agency. She did not address the personal threat in her statement, and her office had no immediate comment.

The email purported to come from the leader of an otherwise unknown group and contained particularly violent threats. It was signed with the same name used in last week’s threats against European broadcasters.

Authorities have not attributed the threats to any group or state, and no evidence has emerged linking the hoaxes to a government.

Police in Northern Ireland said they were conducting “urgent inquiries” after a threatening email was sent to hundreds of schools. Police in Scotland said they were treating similar messages as hoaxes and were not requiring schools to evacuate.

“Our assessment remains that they do not represent a credible threat,” Police Scotland said.

Police in Ireland also said they were aware of a “generic communication” sent to several educational institutions.

“These are very delicate considerations, because there is always the risk that there is someone else behind the madman,” Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told reporters. “Given that so many schools are involved, the real risk is almost non-existent.”

At Rome’s Mamiani high school, students poured into the streets, mistaking the alarm for the recess bell. They learned of the bomb threat only after they were outside.

“They are saying it was a bomb alert because an email arrived from Russian hackers in which they said they would have killed everyone. It was pretty violent,” said Anita Bartocci, an 18-year-old student.

Bomb threats targeted dozens of flights across Europe last week, following a string of hoaxes that forced flight diversions and left airlines scrambling to keep passengers safe and minimize disruption.

False bomb threats are relatively common, but so many in such a short period are unusual. No suspicious items were found and no one was injured. Still, the threats raised concerns because they followed other disruptions across Europe, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the emailed threats were aimed at “sowing terror, or creating concern.”

“It’s too easy. Any one of us can use the available means and instruments to send an email to a school, a daycare, an airline, saying that there’s a bomb,” Crosetto told reporters at an event Wednesday.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday that his personal data had been leaked to the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed pro-Russian hackers.

The company overseeing construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will connect Austria and Italy, also said over the weekend that it had been hacked last month.

Pan Pylas in London, Trisha Thomas and Giulia Arbarello in Rome contributed.

Police officer stands outside Bacone primary school after students were evacuated following a bomb threat in Milan, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Police officers stand outside Bacone primary school after students were evacuated following a bomb threat in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

EDITORS AND LIBRARIANS: KILL FROM YOUR SYSTEMS AND ARCHIVES PHOTO XPAG303 (ID: 26315427412094) SLUGGED ITALY SCHOOLS AND TRANSMITTED ON NOV. 11, 2026. THE SOURCE PIXELATED SOME FACES IN THE IMAGE. The IOMS institute has been evacuated on a precautionary basis after the Bomb alarm at schools in Milan, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)

EDITORS AND LIBRARIANS: KILL FROM YOUR SYSTEMS AND ARCHIVES PHOTO XPAG301 (ID: 26315420827475) SLUGGED ITALY SCHOOLS AND TRANSMITTED ON NOV. 11, 2026. THE SOURCE PIXELATED SOME FACES IN THE IMAGE. Students from the Matteotti Pellico institute are evacuated due to a bomb threat across all school sites in Turin, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)

The IOMS institute has been evacuated on a precautionary basis after the Bomb alarm at schools in Milan, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)

Students from the Matteotti Pellico institute are evacuated due to a bomb threat across all school sites in Turin, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)

A police officer stands in front of the Matteotti Pellico institute as students get evacuated due to a bomb threat across all school sites in Turin, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A rebound for stocks in the artificial intelligence industry is lifting the U.S. market on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 1.3% and was on track for a third gain in four days since its wipeout last week on worries about a potential slowdown for AI-related businesses. The Nasdaq composite rallied 1.9%, but stocks outside of AI weren’t doing as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a modest 57 points, or 0.1%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time.

Leading the way on Wall Street was one of the stocks at the center of the AI industry’s manic recent swings. CoreWeave, which rents out access to AI chips to customers over the cloud, leaped 25% after reporting a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

It also made announcements that could allay some of the worries dogging it and the wider industry. For one, concerns are high about how CoreWeave and other companies will handle higher interest rates in the bond market, which make borrowing money more expensive.

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said his company has roughly $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits expected in the next three months, along with other sources of cash to help pay its bills. That had some analysts saying it’s making progress toward being able to self-fund its business.

Worries have also been rising about a potential slowdown in the overall industry given longstanding worries about whether AI will produce enough profit and productivity to make the expensive investments worth it. Such concerns hit a higher level following sweeping victories for Democrats in last week’s U.S. midterm elections. The worry is that Democratic control of statehouses across the country could lead to restrictions on the construction of further AI data centers and the industry broadly.

But CoreWeave suggested strength is continuing, at least for now, and it raised its forecast for how much revenue it expects to make this year. The number was higher than analysts expected.

Of course, many challenges remain for CoreWeave and for the AI industry broadly. But CoreWeave’s report nevertheless helped stocks across the industry claw back some of their sharp recent losses.

Micron Technology, which sells memory for computers, rallied 13.4%. Broadcom added 6.6%. GE Vernova, which is helping to power AI data centers, rose 3.1%.

Even Nvidia climbed 3.8%.

The chip company that quickly became the face of the AI boom has been falling recently for reasons that have nothing to do with the rest of the industry. Its board is investigating its CEO, Jensen Huang, after he admitted to a relationship with a businesswoman who allegedly fed intelligence and advanced chips to China.

Outside of tech, Fossil Group soared 26.9% after the seller of watches, handbags and other products reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for revenue this year.

Trading elsewhere on Wall Street was mixed, though, and slightly more stocks within the S&P 500 fell than rose.

United Airlines lost 1.6% as stocks broadly felt pressure from a rise in oil prices, which recovered some of their losses from earlier in the week.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude added 2.9% to $94.10. It’s near the middle of its $72 to $120 range since the war with Iran sent oil prices much higher early this year.

Higher oil prices tend to push yields upward in the bond market, but the U.S. bond market is closed for the day in observance of Veterans Day.

Yields jumped in the bond market the day before following a worse-than-expected reading on inflation in the United States. The discouraging report raised expectations for coming hikes to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

Higher yields mean higher rates for mortgages, and companies in the real-estate industry continued to fall Wednesday. Homebuilders PulteGroup sank 2% and D.R. Horton fell 1.9%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.6% for one of the world’s biggest moves, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier after falling 1%.

Stocks rose 0.5% in Shanghai as China’s biggest online shopping festival, Singles Day, began Wednesday. Its sales data will offer a gauge of how strong spending is in the world’s second-largest economy.

AP Writers Elaine Lai and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

Options trader Frank Maiolo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A person walks below a huge screen, displaying the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is seen in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) are seen at Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Trader Robert Greason works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)