4: Italy has reformed its voting rules four times since 1993, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is now considering a fifth change. Meloni wants to end the first-past-the-post system, which remains in place for a third of seats. The goal: pre-emptively halting a left-wing alliance at the next election in 2027.
$7: As protests over Iran’s worsening economic crisis rage on, the government has come up with a plan it hopes will cool tempers: handing cash to citizens worth $7 a month. Demonstrations began after Iran’s currency lost more than half its value against the dollar and inflation topped past 42%. Seven dollars may not cut it for most Iranians, whose basic expenses start at $200 a month.
6: Local authorities in the Swiss Alps acknowledged that they hadn’t carried out any safety inspections for nearly six years at the bar where 40 people died on New Year’s Eve as a result of a fire. “We bitterly regret this,” said the local mayor. Swiss investigators believe sparklers used in the basement initiated the blaze.
10: The Pentagon is commissioning a review of female soldiers serving in ground-combat roles, affecting thousands of women in the Army and Marines. The memo calls for military leaders to provide “all available metrics describing that individual's readiness and ability to deploy,” 10 years after the US lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles.
