Good morning.
The far-right party leader Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy’s elections and promised to govern for all citizens, after exit polls gave her coalition a clear majority, putting her on course to create the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.
With the full results due today, the Brothers of Italy leader is expected to become the country’s first female prime minister – and a model for nationalist parties across Europe as she heads one of the EU’s six original member states.
The poll, for the broadcaster Rai, gave her coalition 41-45% against 25.5-29.5% for the leftwing bloc. The populist Five Star Movement was on 13.5-17.5%.
Meloni’s party, which has neo-fascist origins, is also poised to scoop by far the biggest share of the votes within the coalition, which includes the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia, headed by Silvio Berlusconi.
What did Meloni say last night? She said Italian voters had given a clear mandate to the right to form the next government and called for unity to help confront the country’s many problems. “This is a night of pride for Brothers of Italy but it is a starting point, not a finish line,” she told supporters.
Pound hits all-time low against dollar after new UK’s mini-budget rocks markets
The pound has hit an all-time low against the dollar as the tax cuts and spending measures in Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget threaten to undermine confidence in the UK.
The pound plunged nearly 5% to $1.0327, its lowest since Britain went decimal in 1971, as belief in the UK’s economic management and assets evaporated. Even after stumbling back to $1.05, the currency was down 7% in two sessions, after the UK chancellor pledged over the weekend to pursue more tax cuts.
City economists suggested the slump in the pound could force the Bank of England into an emergency interest rate rise to support the currency.
Paul Dales, the chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the decline could prompt “tough talk” from the Bank, supported by a large and immediate increase in interest rates.
Will the pound and dollar reach parity? On Friday afternoon, Bloomberg’s options pricing model showed there was a 26% chance the pound and the dollar hitting parity within the next six months, up from 14% on Thursday.
QAnon follower who chased officer on January 6 convicted of felonies
A QAnon conspiracy theorist who led a pack of Donald Trump supporters that chased a solitary police officer around the US Capitol on the day of the January 6 attack has been found guilty of several felonies.
Douglas Jensen – the bearded 43-year-old Iowa man who appeared in several media photos of the attack while wearing a black T-shirt with a large “Q” – could face more than 50 years in prison after a federal jury in Washington DC convicted him on Friday, US justice department prosecutors said.
However, it is rare for convicts in US district court to receive the harshest available punishment, even if they chose to stand trial rather than plead guilty in advance. And the harshest sentence handed out so far to anyone found guilty of having a role in the deadly Capitol attack has been 10 years.
Prosecutors alleged Jensen formed part of the mob of Trump supporters who gathered at the Capitol on the day in early 2021 that Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the previous year’s presidential election.
A bipartisan Senate report linked seven deaths to the Capitol attack and said it had left more than 140 police officers injured. As of this week, more than 870 people had been charged with roles in the insurrection.
In other news …
Rihanna will perform the coveted Super Bowl half-time show slot in February, after declining an invitation for the 2019 Super Bowl out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. The announcement was made on Sunday by the NFL while the singer posted an image on Instagram of an arm holding an NFL football.
The US and its allies will act “decisively” if Russia uses a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said yesterday, reaffirming the White House’s response to concerns that Vladimir Putin’s threats are increasingly in danger of being realized.
Leading members of the US Congress are refusing to drop demands for a proper accounting of the death of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh four months ago, despite the state department seeming keen to avoid questions about what happened.
Trump denied knowing at the time the January 6 attack on the US Capitol started that a mob of his supporters – whom he privately called “fucking crazy” – were rioting, the author of a forthcoming book writes. The former president claimed he did not have the television on most of the day.
Don’t miss this: The forgotten history of what California stole from Black families
Stories of countless Black families who have been victims of racist policies, such as land confiscation and housing discrimination, are rarely told as part of California’s history. But after a reparations taskforce undertook the unprecedented effort to consider redress for Black residents, these stories are finally being heard as a more complicated picture of the past comes to light. It is one that, despite California’s founding in 1850 as a free state, has been marked by “atrocities in nearly every sector” of society over the past 172 years.
… or this: Why plant-based meat’s sizzle fizzled in the US
At the start of the year, McDonald’s launched a plant-based burger. For a while, it looked like a glimpse of the future. The US test-run of the McPlant burger, however, was quietly shelved last month (it is still available in some markets, including the UK) in one of a series of setbacks for a meatless-meat industry that only a year ago was claiming it could change the American menu for ever. Getting meat eaters in the US to adopt plant-based alternatives has proven a challenge. Beyond Meat has had a rough 12 months, with its stock diving by nearly 70%.
Climate check: Head of World Bank under pressure after White House condemns ‘climate denial’ comments
David Malpass, the president of the World Bank, faces an uncertain future this week, after the White House joined a chorus of influential figures in condemning his apparent climate denialism. Malpass remains in post for now but under severe pressure, despite issuing an apology and trying to explain his refusal last week to publicly acknowledge the human role in the climate crisis. The Biden administration stepped into the row on Friday evening and such strong words from the White House come as a significant blow to Malpass.
Last Thing: Cleaners at Amsterdam gallery ordered to let insects run wild in name of art
No vacuum cleaners and no feather dusters: that’s the order that has gone out to cleaning staff at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. As part of an exhibition exploring the changing perceptions of creepy-crawlies, the national museum of the Netherlands has been allowing its crevices and corners to go wild for the past three months after being challenged by an artist to treasure the accumulation of spiderwebs. Those braving the museum will explore how attitudes have changed and asked to reconsider their feelings about bugs of all shapes and sizes.
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