US vice-president has praised Orbán and criticised EU and UK energy policies in speech at private school in BudapestOh, you can see where this is going to go.In his second question, the moderator tries to bait JD Vance into criticising Ukraine, as the chair asks about what he says are “Ukrainian intelligence services attempting to influence” elections in the US or Hungary.“I’ve also been told that the vice-president of the United States coming and saying that Viktor Orbán is doing a good job and is a helpful statesman to the cause of peace, that’s foreign influence. But what’s not foreign influence is when the European Union threatens billions of dollars withheld from Hungary because you guys protect your borders; that’s apparently not foreign influence.“We would never do that because we respect the Hungarian people enough to respect their sovereignty. The fact that so many foreign actors, whether they’re transnational organisations like the bureaucrats in Brussels or whether it’s foreign governments, are literally threatening the Hungarian people vote this way or we’re going to exact our revenge on you – that should make you very angry.” Continue reading...
EU to ‘convey concerns’ to US about Vance’s Hungary intervention – Europe live
US vice-president has praised Orbán and criticised EU and UK energy policies in speech at private school in Budapest Oh, you can see where this is going to go. In his second question, the moderator tries to bait JD Vance into criticising Ukraine, as the chair asks about what he says are “Ukrainian intelligence services attempting to influence” elections in the US or Hungary. “I’ve also been told that the vice-president of the United States coming and saying that Viktor Orbán is doing a good job and is a helpful statesman to the cause of peace, that’s foreign influence. But what’s not foreign influence is when the European Union threatens billions of dollars withheld from Hungary because you guys protect your borders; that’s apparently not foreign influence. “We would never do that because we respect the Hungarian people enough to respect their sovereignty. The fact that so many foreign actors, whether they’re transnational organisations like the bureaucrats in Brussels or whether it’s foreign governments, are literally threatening the Hungarian people vote this way or we’re going to exact our revenge on you – that should make you very angry.” Continue reading...
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Hegseth claims Iran ‘begged’ for ceasefire after US and Tehran agree to two-week pause
Defense secretary spoke to reporters in first press briefing since Trump announced ceasefire deal after 40 days of war After 40 days and 40 nights of war, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on Wednesday pointed to divine providence while telling reporters that Iran’s weapons factories had been reduced to rubble, its military rendered ineffective for years and its supreme leader left wounded and disfigured, all for a temporary ceasefire. “Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it,” Hegseth said Wednesday morning at the Pentagon’s first press briefing since Donald Trump announced a two-week pause in hostilities Tuesday night. “Operation Epic Fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come.” Continue reading...
Starmer arrives in Saudi Arabia for talks with Gulf leaders on resolution to Iran war - UK politics live
PM will meet leaders in the region to discuss diplomatic efforts to support the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is proposing the extension of the four-day working week, as a response to AI taking over some of the work done by humans. But for the Conservative party the four-day working week, at least in the public sector, is viewed as a menace. Officially, that’s a value-for-money position, but it also overlaps with their opposition to civil servants working from home, which has some of the traits of a culture war obsession. Today the Conservatives have announced that, if they were in government, they would ban councils from letting staff work a four-day working week on full pay. Explaining why, the Tories say in a news release: The four-day working week, as introduced by Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire district council, has left residents with more council tax for less public service. Bin collectors and social housing officials receive 100 per cent of their pay for around 80 per cent of their originally contracted hours. The Labour government have failed to act. As communities secretary, Angela Rayner scrapped [Whitehall opposition to the South Cambridgeshire policy]. Labour are refusing to legislate against a four-day week, giving councils an effective green light to get away with charging more for less work. Consequentially, Labour-run Cambridge City Council has become the second council to sign up to the four-day week. Those areas which saw a statistically significant improvement include: the percentage of calls answered by the contact centre; the average number of days taken to update housing benefit and council tax support claims; the average number of weeks for householder planning applications to be decided; the percentage of planning applications (both large and small) decided within target or agreed timescales; the percentage of council house repairs complete within 24 hours; [and] the percentage of complaints responded to on time. If performance variations caused by Covid are discounted, every single service monitored either got better or stayed the same. Continue reading...
Middle East crisis live: Israel launches massive strikes on Lebanon as Hegseth claims Iran ‘begged’ for a ceasefire
Lebanese PM says Israel is killing unarmed civilians, as US defence secretary claims Iran will hand over enriched uranium or US will ‘take it out’ Israel hits Lebanon with massive strikes amid ceasefire uncertainty Hegseth claims Iran ‘begged’ for ceasefire A genocidal threat, and then the US president, Donald Trump, blinked – without any apparently meaningful concessions from Iran. As in so much concerning the second Trump administration, the two week ceasefire “deal” that will see the strait of Hormuz reopened – if it can be described as such – is maddeningly vague and short on detail, apparently kicking the can on key issues down the road. Iran’s nuclear issue, Trump said, would be solved “perfectly.” “It was a big day for world peace”, Trump posted on Truth Social. “Iran can start reconstruction” he added. “Big money” could be made. Yada. Yada. Yada. Continue reading...