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Rishi Sunak plots pre-election tax trap for Labour

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

LONDON — For many in the Labour Party, the electoral equation for the next 12 months is simple. Win the public’s trust on the economy — a perennial difficulty for Britain’s center-left party — and win the election.The polls have certainly been looking rosy for Labour in recent months. Surveys consistently suggest the public trusts Labour to manage the economy far more than the ruling Conservative Party, after the latter presided over years of declining living standards and recent 40-year-high inflation.However, the Conservatives may have one last weapon in the locker as they look to create clear lines of division between themselves and Keir Starmer’s party before an expected fall 2024 election.While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out his legislative proposals in the King’s Speech Tuesday, ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement in just over two weeks’ time, a far more consequential parliamentary event is likely to take place within the next six...

Portugal in political crisis after PM António Costa resigns

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

Portugal’s government plunged into chaos following Prime Minister António Costa’s unexpected resignation Tuesday, hours after police raided his official residence and confirmed his implication in a corruption probe. With the country’s leadership now in flux, it falls to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to exercise his constitutional right to appoint a new prime minister, or dissolve parliament, sparking an election.Costa has dominated Portugal’s political landscape since taking power in 2015, defeating external rivals and cannily eliminating potential usurpers within the ranks of his Socialist Party. But on Tuesday his command of the country came to an abrupt end after the police raided his official residence and several ministries as part of an investigation into corruption surrounding lithium exploration schemes and a green hydrogen mega-project. The skill with which the disgraced prime minister managed to get rid of those who could threaten his leadership ...

A broken Netanyahu is miscalculating over Gaza, former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been “destroyed emotionally” by his massive failure on national security and is now miscalculating by preparing to take overall control of Gaza’s security for an “indefinite period” after Hamas has been crushed, according to former leader Ehud Olmert. In an interview with POLITICO, Olmert argued Netanyahu was in a state of “nervous breakdown,” as he sought to avoid being thrown out of office for failing to safeguard national security in the murderous Hamas attacks of October 7. This meant Israel was now steering off course strategically, Olmert went on, insisting the priority should be to negotiate an endgame with the international community — involving a return to talks on the formation of a Palestinian state, rather than turning back the clock to full military oversight over Gaza. “[Netanyahu] has shrunk. He’s destroyed emotionally, that’s for sure. I mean, some...

We need a Gaza plan

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

Tobias Ellwood is a British MP. He is a former lieutenant colonel, Foreign Office Middle East minister and defense minister. He also served as chair of the Defense Select Committee in the House of Commons.In the aftermath of Hamas’ incursion deep into Israel, slaughtering over 1,400 Israelis and taking more than 240 hostages, one can only imagine the gargantuan pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send in the tanks. Never has Israel felt so vulnerable.But through a purely military lens, Israel’s mighty kinetic response looks like pure vengeance — an exhibition of unadulterated strength without consideration for the long term. Standing with Israel, as we rightly do in its darkest of hours, doesn’t mean standing by upon witnessing this unwise utility of force. And we should have the courage to say so.United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call for a humanitarian pause last week — despite knowing Israel would publicly disagree — hints at the back-channel ...

Ukraine kickstarts European enlargement, just as US backs away

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

It took a war to put the EU’s enlargement process back on the political agenda.For about a decade, enlargement was not an issue dominating the thoughts and agendas of European leaders. Instead, the bloc was focused on its own political problems and — in the slipstream of Brexit — avoiding other members leaving the bloc.On Wednesday, the European Commission is set to propose that EU countries open talks with Ukraine and several other aspiring members on joining the bloc, embedding the future of Kyiv within the EU. But while the EU is pulling Ukraine closer, the U.S. is loosening its ties. Washington is shifting its foreign policy focus to the Middle East. And even before the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. was divided on supplying more aid to Ukraine ahead of an election in 2024.With the door to NATO closed at least as long as the war drags on, the EU inevitably will have to carry more of the burden of the future of Ukraine, a war-devastated country of more than 40 million peopl...

Confirmed case of tuberculosis reported on campus of UMass Boston

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

Health officials are investigating a case of tuberculosis in the UMass Boston community, officials said Tuesday.  The Boston Public Health Commission in a statement said it is aware of an active case and said it is working with both UMass Boston and the state Department of Public Health to conduct contact tracing and inform contacts about possible exposure. “Given that tuberculosis requires prolonged close contact to spread from one individual to another, we do not believe this active case poses a health risk to the general public,” officials said. “Tuberculosis is a very treatable and curable disease, and we encourage members of the UMass Boston community to contact a health care provider or the student health services if they are concerned about possible exposure,” the public health commission continued in its statement. UMass Boston’s Director of University Health Services Robert Pomales addressed the situation in a separate letter to the campus community, wri...

Democratic Governor Andy Beshear wins re-election in Kentucky

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

(CNN) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will win reelection to a second term in Kentucky, CNN projects, defeating Republican Daniel Cameron in a deep-red state that Donald Trump carried by about 25 points in 2020.Beshear, one of the nation’s most popular governors and the only Democrat in statewide elected office in Kentucky, made abortion a major issue in his campaign. His reelection bid served as a critical test of how the fight over abortion rights since the overturning of Roe v. Wade will shape the political landscape ahead of the 2024 presidential election.While abortion is illegal in most cases in the Bluegrass State, Kentucky voters rejected a proposal last year to amend the state’s constitution to say that it does not “secure or protect a right” to abortion or the funding of abortion. Beshear attacked Cameron, the state attorney general, over his support for the state’s current law, which bans the procedure in all case...

Late goal lifts Bishop Feehan to dramatic 2-1 win over King Philip

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

ATTLEBORO — The big rematch of field hockey’s Div. 1 second round saw Bishop Feehan and King Philip play to a similarly hectic ending as they did last tournament, but Tuesday night brought a different result.Bella Colitti’s goal on a corner with 1:37 left to play put the eighth-seeded Shamrocks (13-5-2) ahead for a 2-1 win over the No. 9 Warriors, getting revenge for last year’s overtime loss to them in the same round.The highly-skilled game could’ve gone either way, especially since King Philip (15-5) responded quickly to seemingly force overtime for a second straight year. But its goal off a corner with three seconds left was waved off due to a foot violation ruling, which was the second goal of the game the Warriors scored that wouldn’t count due to a close call.Bishop Feehan did enough defensively otherwise to gut out the win, moving on to the Div. 1 quarterfinals for the first time. It gets No. 1 Walpole next.“I thought it was a fabulous game, both teams were fired up (and) rea...

Pepen, Weber declare victory for Boston City Council in win for Wu

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

Two progressive Wu-backed candidates in the closely-watched District 5 and 6 races were elected Tuesday night, with Enrique Pepén and Benjamin Weber declaring victory.Pepén, the mayor’s former head of the Boston Office of Neighborhood Services, defeated the more conservative Jose Ruiz, a retired 29-year officer with the Boston Police Department while Weber, a workers’ rights attorney, edged the more moderate William King, an information technology specialist.“I’m so grateful for the outpouring of support I have received from day one,” Pepén told a crowd of supporters in Roslindale Tuesday night. “I am ready to serve District 5.”In Jamaica Plain, Weber stated that he couldn’t “believe we did this,” while characterizing his victory and the support he received in District 6 as the “most special thing I’ve ever been a part of.”“We were able to send a message, and we’ll hopefully have a City Council...

House votes to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric in a stunning rebuke

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:19:53 GMT

By FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted late Tuesday to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — the only Palestinian American in Congress — an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.The 234-188 tally came after enough Democrats joined with Republicans to censure Tlaib, a punishment one step below expulsion from the House. The three-term congresswoman has long been a target of criticism for her views on the decades-long conflict in the Middle East.The debate on the censure resolution on Tuesday afternoon was emotional and intense. Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia pushed the censure measure in response to what he called Tlaib’s promotion of antisemitic rhetoric. He said she has “levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on October 7.”With other Democrats standing by her side, Tlaib defended her stance, saying she “will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words...