Good morning from the Today.it editorial team. Here’s Start, the news you need to know to start the day: it’s Tuesday 20 February 2024.
NAVALNY AND “CHEMICAL ANALYSIS”. Suspicions of a new poisoning of Navalny are very strong. Russian authorities have announced that her body will not be returned to her family for another 14 days because the body must undergo “chemical tests”. The widow of Putin’s opponent, Yulia Navalnaya, openly accuses the Russian president’s clique: “They meanly lie and hide his body waiting for the traces of yet another Novichok to vanish.” The same people who perhaps poisoned him will carry out the analyzes and then tell the whole world what Alexei Navalny died of: the usual short circuit of dictatorships.
CHINESE IN MIRAFIORI. The indiscretion is circulating forcefully: the Chinese of Leapmotor, 21 percent owned by FCA since October 2023, will build at least 150,000 low-cost electric city cars a year in Turin Mirafiori from 2026. Saving the future of the plant that is the symbol of that which was Fiat. Transforming the Chinese from potential competitors into allies, in short. Building in Europe, allied with a European manufacturer, would allow Beijing brands to take incentives given by EU governments to those who do not relocate production. For the Turin unions it would be more than fine: “The flag doesn’t count, what matters is that it is produced”.
SMOG ALARM. Pollution alarm in Lombardy: anti-smog measures are in place today in 8 provinces. The cloud suffocates, the finest dust is skyrocketing. Why? “Blame” the weeks of anticyclone. The Po basin becomes a basin with the only outlet on the Adriatic. At night what is placed on the ground is unable to disperse into the atmosphere. During the day, dense fog causes the layer to remain. The Po Valley becomes a chemical reaction chamber, everything remains there. Very little wind, very high population density, lots of cars, heating, intensive animal farming: it’s a lethal mix. Saves the disturbance arriving from Thursday and Friday. But the shape of the territory will never change. There are those who ask for unpopular choices, with shock restrictions on cars.
MELONI IS AT RISK. A “confidential” poll, one of those clandestine ones without foundation, is enough to ignite the last days of the electoral campaign in Sardinia. The Pd-M5s candidate Todde hopes for a coup that seemed impossible: “The resistance against the fascists in government starts from here”. Frontal attack on the right-wing candidate, the Melonian Truzzu, suspected of nostalgia. On the island, a large part of the Sardinian M5s electorate is made up of former voters of the Pd, Rifondazione, Pds and other old acronyms. The alliance of the wide field is “strangely” compact: if it goes badly on the island, it will probably go worse in the other regions where voting is held in 2024. Meloni here has imposed a loyalist in place of the Northern League member Solinas: a possible defeat would be the spring debacle in his year and a half at Palazzo Chigi, as well as fuel for Salvini in the eternal internal challenge to the right.
THE MYSTERY OF THE KILLED PILOT. Maksim Kuzminov is dead: the man shot dead in a car park in Alicante is the Russian pilot who on 9 August 2023 was the protagonist of a “movie-worthy” desertion on an Mi-8 combat helicopter: he had landed in Kharkiv region after a low flight of hundreds of kilometers to hand himself over to the Ukrainians, carrying with him a precious load of secrets. Ukrainian intelligence had provided him with another identity. Another Kremlin revenge? For now only hypotheses.
I also point out, in brief:
GAZA AND MARCH 10. Netanyahu continues to appear adamant. Without Hamas releasing all Israeli hostages by the start of Ramadan (March 10), the war cabinet minister is threatening to expand military operations in Rafah.
NAUSING STENCH. A nauseating stench envelops the South African city of Cape Town, over 4 million inhabitants. The fault of a ship moored in the port carrying 19,000 cows: “Never heard of anything like it”, say the witnesses. The conditions in which the animals live on their way to Brazil are terrible: they have already spent 2 and a half weeks on board, surrounded by feces and ammonia.
ACCIDENTS IN THE FOG. Yesterday was a day of chaos and inconvenience on the A1 Milan-Naples due to banks of fog which drastically limited visibility in the early hours of the morning: a succession of accidents, with at least one huge pile-up between Piacenza and Parma, involving around 25 car and injured 25 people, some in serious condition.
FLORENCE COLLAPSE. In the part of the construction site affected by the collapse in the Esselunga construction site in Florence there were 8 workers, working for 3 different companies. According to the chief prosecutor, “several critical issues” were found. Where was the mistake, who was wrong? The workers, the designers, the prefabricated company? Only when the fifth body is recovered will months of surveys and measurements begin.
PETROL INCREASE. Further increases for petrol and diesel: Houthi attacks on merchant ships force operators to take longer alternative routes with consequent increases in costs and freight rates. The shutdown of some American refineries and the wave of frost in the United States which led to increases in international diesel prices would also have an impact.
TEACHERS COMPETITIONS. Official, competitions are starting again in school. From 11 March the written tests of the two selections will be held (one for childhood and primary school, the other for middle and high school) which will offer a total of 44,654 places, and will see around 373 thousand candidates at the starting line.
EX ILVA. Acciaierie d’Italia is going into extraordinary administration and there will be a harsh clash with Arcelor Mittal, according to which there is “a serious violation of the investment agreement”. The government is thinking of a unique social safety net for related companies. Between the factory and the related industries, 20 thousand jobs are at stake.
TRUTH FOR KINGS. The four defendants, the Egyptian intelligence agents, accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing Giulio Regeni, will not be in court. But today the trial finally begins to reconstruct the murder of the Friulian researcher, which occurred 8 years ago in Cairo. Egypt’s lack of cooperation was total.
GOODBYE TO IRA. Ira von Furstenberg, actress and star of the jet-set in the 70s, died at the age of 83. She was the granddaughter of Gianni Agnelli. A sexy icon, Furstenberg was sought out by many directors and starred in dozens of films.
NEAPOLITAN CALZONA. Tonight Inter hosts Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16. Tomorrow it will be Napoli’s turn, who sacked Mazzarri yesterday: today the first training session of the new coach Calzona, Sarri’s former deputy.
Have a nice day, on Today.it.
2024-02-20 03:37:27
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