All posts tagged: Government

Geert Wilders says he is there for ‘everyone’ amid uncertainty over Dutch government formation – Europe live | Netherlands

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Wilders argues he is there for ‘everyone’ amid uncertainty over government formation Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right leader whose Party for Freedom (PVV) won the most seats in last week’s election, is upping efforts to portray himself as an acceptable possible prime minister. The Party for Freedom is a “broad” people’s party, he wrote on social media this morning. “2.4 million people voted for us. High and low educated, native and immigrant, employed, retired, young and old. From the city, the countryside,” he wrote, adding: “The PVV is there for everyone”. But despite his strong election performance, Wilders’ views remain controversial – and it is unclear if the PVV can reach agreements with other parties to form a coalition. Geert Wildersmeets the press as Dutch parties’ lead candidates meet for the first time after elections. Photograph: Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters Updated at 08.17 GMT Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Tom van der Meer, a professor of political science at the University of Amsterdam, said today that when …

Ukraine detains Victor Zhora, former top government cyber official

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Last week, the Ukrainian government fired two of its top cybersecurity officials, who are accused of embezzlement. Now, one of them has been detained. Ukraine’s senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk announced the firings in a public post on Telegram last week. The two officials are Yurii Shchyhol, head of Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, or SSSCIP, and his deputy Victor Zhora, who had become a staple at international conferences as the public face of Ukraine’s cybersecurity defenders. On Monday, the High Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine announced in a press release that a judge had ordered the detention of Zhora as a preventative measure, and that he had been taken into custody, according to a machine translation. The press release said that the detention will last until January 22, 2024, and imposed a bail of 10,000,584 Ukrainian hryvnia, roughly $275,000. It’s unclear if Zhora posted bail. And Zhora did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zhora previously told TechCrunch, shortly after the charges were announced, that he would “defend my name and …

Senior doctors in England reach pay deal with government | Doctors

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Doctors’ leaders have struck a deal with ministers that could end the strikes by hospital consultants that have badly disrupted NHS care for months. Grassroots members of the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) in England still have to approve the government’s offer. But if medics accept it in referendums then both unions will call off the industrial action that has led to hundreds of thousands of operations and outpatient appointments being cancelled. Those votes will be held next month and the results will not be known until January, which means consultants will not strike during the start of the NHS’s usual winter crisis. Relieved NHS leaders welcomed the breakthrough as “a vital step” towards halting the walkouts by various staff groups that have been causing problems for NHS services for almost a year. The government said it represented “a fair and reasonable way forward” towards solving the dispute. Crucially, ministers have done a major U-turn in order to help reach agreement with the unions. They have dropped their …

The Case That Could Destroy the Government

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This Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that poses the most direct challenge yet to the legitimacy of the modern federal government. The right-wing legal movement’s target is the “administrative state”—the agencies and institutions that set standards for safety in the workplace, limit environmental hazards and damage, and impose rules on financial markets to ensure their stability and basic fairness, among many other important things. The case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, threatens all of that. Terrifyingly, this gambit might succeed. The case involves garden-variety securities fraud. George R. Jarkesy Jr., a right-wing activist and conservative-radio talk-show host, ran a pair of investment funds with $24 million in assets. But he misrepresented how the funds were run, paid himself and his partner exorbitant fees, and inflated the assets’ value. As punishment, the SEC fined him several hundred thousand dollars and prohibited him from working in some parts of the securities industry—very standard stuff. Jarkesy responded with what can be described only as chutzpah. He didn’t just contest the SEC’s ruling; he alleged …

Adviser warns UK government against tightening laws on glorifying terrorism | Protest

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No 10 should not implement plans to amend the law on glorifying terrorism after the pro-Palestine marches as it would do “no favours” to police, MI5 or the probation service, a government adviser has said. In a 15-page report submitted to the Home Office, Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said there was no need to respond to the marches with new terrorism legislation, adding that there was “good reason for caution” given both the risk of unintended consequences and the drain on limited state resources. Ministers have said they want to tighten the law on glorifying terrorism after the conduct of a minority of people on the pro-Palestine demonstrations in recent weeks, including the chanting of the controversial slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, prompted calls for change. Some view the words as antisemitic and as encouraging the destruction of Israel. In his advice to the home secretary, James Cleverly, Hall wrote that changes to terrorism legislation would not be the right course given the …

OBR warns UK government finances face major headwinds up until 2028 | Budget deficit

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The government’s finances face significant headwinds over the next five years, despite efforts by the chancellor to boost economic growth, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the Treasury’s independent forecaster. In an updated financial health check to accompany the autumn statement, the OBR said a more resilient economy this year handed the chancellor a £27bn budget windfall, but warned of difficult times ahead, with inflation only coming back to the Bank of England’s official 2% target in the first half of 2025, a year later than previously forecast. Lower economic growth and higher inflation than previously expected would limit the government’s room for manoeuvre over the next five years, it said. The OBR calculated Hunt had spent his entire £27bn windfall on the business tax cuts, inflation linked uplifts to benefits, and on a 2p cut in employee national insurance, which is due to take effect from 6 January. Illustrating the measures’ limited impacton the outlook for the economy, the OBR said that while a rise in gross domestic product (GDP) this year …

Grangemouth oil refinery to shut by 2025; UK government ‘minded to intervene’ over Telegraph sale – business live | Business

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Grangemouth oil refinery due to cease operations by 2025 BP’s Grangemouth oil refinery at dusk. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian Scotland’s sole oil refinery at Grangemouth is due to cease operations in 2025, its owners have announced, a move which could cost hundreds of jobs. Petroineos, which owns the plant, said it will become a fuel import terminal, a move that will cut the UK’s oil refining capacity. Grangemouth has a refining capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, and is responsible for 4% of Scotland’s GDP and approximately 8% of its manufacturing base, according to Petroineos. The company said in a statement: “The timescale for any operational change has not yet been determined but the work will take around 18 months to complete and the refinery is therefore expected to continue operating until spring 2025.” The Unite union has pledged to “leave no stone unturned” in its fight to save jobs at Grangemouth. Unite’s Scottish secretary Derek Thomson told STV News. “The news will come as a shock to the local community but Unite is going …

Von der Leyen ‘didn’t bat an eyebrow’ over Hungary government billboards attacking her, spokesperson says – Europe live | World news

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Commission president ‘unfazed’ by Hungarian billboard campaign The European Commission’s chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, appeared to downplay a new Hungarian government campaign that includes billboards depicting the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Open Society Foundations chair, Alex Soros, with the slogan: “Let’s not dance to their tune.” The campaign has renewed concerns that the government of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is using antisemitic narratives for political gain at home. At the commission’s daily press briefing today, Mamer faced several questions regarding the billboards and a related questionnaire the Hungarian government is mailing to each citizen with leading questions criticising Brussels. But the spokesperson said that the commission would not be drawn into a debate over the questions. “We have no interest in losing time with that sort of issue in the current international context,” he said. And when it comes to the billboards, he said: I showed the pictures to the president. She didn’t bat an eyebrow … completely unfazed, OK? Let’s be clear: we know this is not the first …

how government rhetoric and police failings could be linked to far-right violence

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On Armistice Day 2023, a pro-Palestine march was held in London for the fifth time since the beginning of the Israel-Palestine war. As well as demonstrators looking to join the protest, around 2,000 far-right activists and football hooligans descended on London too. Their goal, as members of the UK far right put it, was to “defend”“ the Cenotaph from the pro-Palestine marchers. Among their number were the former leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, along with members of both Turning Point UK (the British offshoot of the eponymous US organisation, that aims to promote right-wing politics in UK education) and the British Movement group. Groups of fans from Chelsea, West Ham and other football clubs joined too. These counter-protestors rallied at Victoria, Westminster and Embankment stations before the march set off. Violence broke out when the counter-protesters transgressed a cordon around the Cenotaph. They scuffled with police in Chinatown and were rebuffed at Westminster and Vauxhall bridges, where they tried to clash with pro-Palestinian protestors. Nine police officers were injured and 92 were …

Government rejects minister’s idea that rich pensioners should lose winter fuel payments – UK politics live | Politics

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Good morning. After one of the most intense weeks for political news since Rishi Sunak became PM (Suella Braverman being sacked, David Cameron returning, the rest of the reshuffle, and the supreme court’s Rwanda judgment), we’ve got another news-packed five days starting now, mostly focused on the autumn statement on Wednesday. The Guardian doesn’t normally agree with Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg on anything, but the former business secretary has summed up what’s at stake in this quote for the Daily Mail. We’ve had the net zero relaunch, the party conference relaunch, the King’s Speech relaunch and the reshuffle relaunch, none of which has made a difference to the polls. We now need the autumn statement relaunch which will actually connect with voters. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, hinted yesterday that the announcement could include personal tax cuts and there is a lot of speculation in the papers today, particularly the pro-Tory ones, about what this might involve. Most of the reporting is somewhat speculative, but this morning a junior Treasury minister, Gareth Davies, has been giving interviews …