rachel reeves, the shadow chancellor, is there and they promise they will bring back the rate of interest tax to fund nhs staff. other news this afternoon. a moment of history in italy georgia meloni looks set to become its first far right leader since the second world war and its first female prime minister. a school shooting in russia has left at least 13 people dead, seven of them children. and nasa prepare to crash a space probe into an asteroid to find out how hard it would be to save the planet. welcome to bbc news, very good to have your company and it is going to be a busy afternoon. the pound fell overnight to its lowest level against the dollar for half a century. asian markets were reacting in part to the government s announcement last week of tax cuts and increased borrowing to pay for them. of course, that had come too late for their trading week on friday. at one stage, sterling plunged to around $1.03, before regaining ground. a weaker pound raises the cost
In our election blind date series. Today, cambridge historian mary beard and strip club owner Peter Stringfellow. You look slightly distinguished, quite hunky. You are quite a pretty lady. Get that on camera welcome to the programme, were live until 11am. Were also talking about Ariana Grandes one love Manchester Concert to raise money for people affected by the manchester bombing. Tickets go on sale at 10am this morning. Well have the details and wed love to hear from you if youre planning to go. Do get in touch on all the stories were talking about this morning use the hashtag victorialive. If you text, you will be charged at the Standard Network rate. Our top story today. Theresa mays political opponents have criticised her for not taking part in a seven way General Election debate. She was accused of lacking guts during the 90 minute event. Lets get more from our political guru norman smith. Is it possible to say who one . It was probably the Television Volume button as people try
Aircraft at airport in california. Good morning. It is wednesday, february 22. Welcome to bbc Newsroom Live. The government has won its legal battle to Stop Thousands of british citizens from bringing their foreign husbands or wives to live in the uk without a Minimum Income. For the last five years, the uk based spouse has had to prove they earn at least £18,600, for them to support their migrant spouse. That figure is £22,000 for couples with a child. But the Supreme Court also ruled that the rules, as they currently stand, are defective and need to be changed, because they do not take enough account of the welfare of children affected by them, and do not take all sources of earnings into consideration when calculating income. 0ur Correspondent Dominic Casciani is at the Supreme Court. It is not an entirely clear decision . No, it is very complicated. There is a belief that the couples have been degraded by this fear income rolling. The Supreme Court has in practice ruled in favour
and it s almost certain she will become prime minister after consultation with the president and what that means is that italy has not suddenly lurched to the right, because when you look at the electoral arithmetic, the country is pretty much split between right and left in equal measure but she has managed to form a right wing coalition as you heard in the report, with silvio berlusconi, and this country that has tried almost everything in its post war period and had almost 70 governments of every political colour and ideology, it is just trying something new. it feels like something is not working on the economy has stagnated for the last 20 years and there has been a massive brain drain and the recycling of grey haired, grey suited politicians that italians are frankly sick of and they want to try something new. she says she has jettisoned fascism and she described herself as a modern conservative politician, more akin to the republicans in the us but there are many in this country