Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 22 October 2022

1. Sunak ‘has backing of 100 MPs’

Rishi Sunak’s supporters said he’s got the backing of the 100 Conservative MPs needed to enter the leadership race. However, the former chancellor hasn’t yet confirmed he is standing. Penny Mourdant, the Leader of the Commons, is the only person to announce their candidacy so far. Meanwhile, allies of Boris Johnson have claimed he would “easily” make the threshold of 100 MPs. James Duddridge, a Johnson-supporting MP, ​​told PA Media: “I’ve been in contact with the boss via WhatsApp. He’s going to fly back. He said: ‘I’m flying back, Dudders, we are going to do this. I’m up for it.’”

2. US and Russia in ‘rare contact’

The US and Russian defence secretaries have spoken on the phone, in a “rare moment of high-level contact between the two countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, reported the BBC. The two countries confirmed that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu spoke on Friday. The Pentagon said that the US was “eager to keep lines of communication open” and the defence ministry in Moscow said that “current questions of international security were discussed, including the situation in Ukraine”.

3. Trump faces legal summons

The congressional panel investigating the Capitol riot has issued a legal summons ordering Donald Trump to testify to lawmakers. Addressing the former president directly, the document says: “You were at the center of the first and only effort by any US President to overturn an election. You knew this activity was illegal and unconstitutional.” In response, Trump’s lawyer accused the lawmakers of “flouting norms”. The subpoena sets up a “potentially prolonged legal battle with little historic precedent”, said the Washington Post.

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4. Credit agency lowers UK outlook

Moody’s has lowered the UK’s economic outlook to “negative”, blaming political instability and high inflation. The ratings agency changed the UK’s outlook - which is a marker of how likely it is to pay back debts - from “stable”. The move came after another major ratings agency, Fitch, cut the outlook for its credit rating on UK government debt earlier this month to “negative” from “stable”. However, Moody’s, along with Standard & Poor’s, maintained its assessments of the UK’s credit rating.

5. Far-right coalition in Italy

Giorgia Meloni has formed Italy’s first far right-led government since the end of world war two. Meloni, who will become the first woman to serve as the country’s prime minister, and her cabinet, will be sworn in today after her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, attracted most votes at Italy’s national election last month. She has appointed a former head of the European Parliament as foreign minister in her new government in an attempt to “soften her image”, said The Telegraph.

6. ‘Tide may be turning’ on Covid

More than two million people in the UK were estimated to have had Covid in early October, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. Based on swabs from randomly selected households, about one in 30 people in England – 3.1% of the population – had Covid in the week ending 10 October - an increase from one in 35 the week before. However, the latest data from NHS England showed that while 8,198 Covid patients were admitted to hospital in the seven days ending 10 October, this fell to 7,809 in the week ending 17 October. “The tide may well be turning”, said The Guardian.

7. China and Vatican renew deal

China and the Vatican have agreed to renew a contentious agreement to jointly appoint Chinese bishops, reported The Times. The deal been defended by the Pope but attacked by critics who claim Beijing is backsliding on its terms. Although the exact terms of the agreement have never been revealed, it suggests the joint approval of new bishops by the Vatican and China to unify the country’s 12m Catholics. Prior to the deal, Vatican-appointed bishops ran an underground church, unrecognised by the authorities in Beijing.

8. Sentenced Bannon slams ‘Biden regime’

Steve Bannon has lashed out against the “Biden regime” after being sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress. The former Trump strategist, 68, was convicted in July for refusing to provide either testimony or documents to a committee probing the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol. Judge Carl Nichols said that Bannon would be released while any appeal to the sentence is resolved. CNN said the sentence was a “warning shot to other reluctant witnesses” as the investigation into the Capitol riot reaches its final months.

9. Sheeran hacker jailed

A hacker who stole unreleased music from artists including Ed Sheeran and Kanye West, before selling them for more than £130,000, has been jailed. Adrian Kwiatkowski, 22, illegally accessed cloud-based accounts owned by top artists, and made electronic copies of unfinished songs, such as Give Me That and Butterfly by Sheeran, with the intention of selling them online. He was caught when representatives of Ocean, an American rapper, noticed that the Dropbox account of Ocean’s producer had been hacked and the content offered for sale by someone known online as “Spirdark”.

10. New shopping habits strip shelves

Supermarket shelves are being “picked bare” as the cost-of-living crisis alters shopping habits, said the Times. As bargain hunters switch to own-brand products and frozen foods, they often visit multiple stores to pick up the best deals, according to retail experts. This in turn leads to empty shelves, as supermarkets and suppliers struggle to adjust to altered levels of demand. “Shopping has become more fragmented,” said Will Broome, the chief executive of Ubamarket, which provides “scan, pay and go” app technology.