The Commission is not aware of any reports of non-cooperative behaviour by staff of the EU Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa (EUTF for Africa).
EUTF staff are recruited based on job descriptions linked to Trust Funds whose strategy is public. EUTF staff are bound by the obligations and responsibilities enshrined in the Staff Regulations[1]. The right to freedom of expression must be exercised with due respect to the principles of loyalty and impartiality[2].
As reflected in the Council conclusions of 17 October 2024[3] and in the Political Guidelines of the President of the Commission for 2024-2029[4], migration management is at the centre of the EU’s political agenda.
The Council called for action at all levels to facilitate, increase and speed up returns from the EU, using all relevant policies, instruments and tools. To this end, the Commission is urgently working on a new legislative framework on return.
The EU is developing comprehensive partnerships with countries of origin and transit in which migration, including fostering cooperation on return and readmission, is embedded.
The EU ensures that its interests are fully reflected in the partnerships. The Commission also regularly assesses third countries’ cooperation on readmission and may propose to the Council to adopt restrictive visa measures under Article 25a of the Visa Code[5].
[5] Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas (Visa Code), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32009R0810
The EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA) is economically and geo-strategically important. It will strengthen strategic cooperation between like-minded partners that share similar values.
The EMPA offers export opportunities for several EU agri-food products that will benefit from reduced tariffs in Mercosur countries (e.g. wines, spirits, confectionary, dairy and olive oil), as well as the protection of EU Geographical Indications in a market of 280 million consumers. For EU sensitive agricultural sectors, trade preferences granted under the EMPA are limited through tariff quotas.
Bilateral safeguards can be triggered to protect a specific agricultural sector, including where market access has been limited by tariff quotas. This would protect farmers in case increased imports from Mercosur cause, or threaten to cause, serious injury to the relevant EU sectors.
The Commission will monitor agricultural market developments closely. For the unlikely event that — despite all precautions — the agricultural market situation in Europe were to be negatively impacted due to the agreement, the Commission announced to set-up a reserve worth at least EUR 1 billion to address possible disturbances in agricultural sectors.
After its translation and legal revision, the Commission will present a proposal for signature and conclusion of the EMPA. In that context, the Commission will present its proposal for the legal basis and architecture of the deal. Any proposed legal architecture will safeguard competences of the EU co-legislators and Member States and their national parliaments, in accordance with the Treaties.
1. The Detailed Rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001[1], annexed to the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, refer, in their Article 2, to the definition of ‘document’ given in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Besides, it indicates non-exhaustive lists of documents which the Commission either makes public proactively (Article 3 of the Detailed Rules[2]) or upon request under the conditions established in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (Article 4 of the Detailed Rules). Consequently, the Commission does not narrow any definition of documents made accessible to the public.
2. In applying the rules on access to documents, the Commission makes a careful individual assessment of each document in view of its possible disclosure to the public with a view of giving the fullest possible effect to the right of public access to documents. This assessment is conducted also by considering the extensive case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and established administrative practices.
3. The Commission stands for the highest standards of transparency across the board. However, the Commission must reconcile the right of access to documents with the private and public interests that require protection, as enshrined in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, including regarding internal decision-making processes.
[1] Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43-48, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2001/1049/oj).
[2] Commission Decision (EU) 2024/3080 of 4 December 2024 establishing the Rules of Procedure of the Commission and amending Decision C(2000) 3614 (OJ L, 2024/3080, 5.12.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2024/3080/oj).
The Commission does not have any official information of an agreement and cannot comment, as a matter of principle, on a purported agreement between a Member State and a commercial satellite network operator. It is at the discretion of Member States to determine how to manage their national secure communication and their degree of reliance on non-EU solutions.
The EU strives for leadership in strategic technology and to boost its technological sovereignty. It was the EU’s governmental actors who expressed their growing strategic demand for secure, sovereign and reliable space-based satellite communication services.
The Commission’s proposal for the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS2) Regulation[1], strongly supported by Member States and the European Parliament since its inception, encapsulates the EU’s reply to fully address these public user needs and requirements in the space domain.
The IRIS2 Regulation requires all the components of the programme to be accredited by the Security Accreditation Board established under Article 72(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2021/696[2].
The Commission will take stock of all the tools and technologies available in Europe, including the 5G security toolbox, in order to meet the requirements of the Security Accreditation Board.
[1] Regulation (EU) 2023/588 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2023 establishing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme for the period 2023-2027, OJ L 79, 17.3.2023, p.1-39.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina is set to host the preparatory meeting for the African Union-Africa Water Investment Programme (AU-AIP) Water Investment Summit 2025.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the International Water Association (IWA) Congress, currently underway in Cape Town.
The department said the preparatory meeting, to take place on Thursday, is a critical step towards the AU-AIP Water Investment Summit, scheduled to take place at Cape Town in August.
“The summit aims to mobilise at least USD 30 billion annually for climate-resilient water and sanitation initiatives across Africa, aligning with South Africa’s G20 Presidency priorities on economic growth, climate sustainability, and enhanced financing for development,” the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) said on Wednesday.
The preparatory meeting will bring together key stakeholders, including government representatives, international development agencies, private sector investors, and civil society organisations, to refine the objectives, thematic areas, and expected outcomes of the summit scheduled for August.
“The meeting will also serve as a platform to consolidate bilateral partnerships and secure commitments. Additionally, it will ensure that the summit aligns with South Africa’s G20 Presidency goals and effectively contributes to water security and investment mobilisation in Africa,” the department said.
Among the delegates expected to participate at the summit, include: • Jakaya Kikwete, former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, chair of the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), and co-chair of the Africa Water Investment Panel, which includes sitting and former Presidents and eminent leaders (President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa is also a member of the AIP Panel). • Arif Alkalali, General Supervisor of the General Directorate for Water Resources in the Ministry of Water, Environment, and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. • Anxious Jongwe Masuka, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, and Rural Resettlement, Zimbabwe. • Collins Nzovu, Minister of Water Development and Sanitation, Republic of Zambia. • Dr Cheikh Tidiane Dièye, Minister of Water and Sanitation, Republic of Senegal, and President of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). – SAnews.gov.za
Deputy President Paul Mashatile will deliver the keynote address at Friday’s 2025 Human Rights Day commemoration event.
The Deputy President will deliver the address on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Derrick Ferreira Stadium in Kariega, located within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
This as Human Rights commemorative events this year are held under the theme, “Deepening a Culture of Social Justice and Human Rights” .
“This is a call for a renewed and strengthened commitment from all levels of society, to accelerate practical solutions in driving inclusive growth and job creation, to reduce poverty and tackle the high cost of living, and to build a capable, ethical and developmental State,” the Presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
South Africa commemorates National Human Rights Day on 21 March to remember the Sharpeville massacre, where apartheid police killed 69 peaceful protesters against the regime in 1960.
The Presidency stated that this is an important day, which also honours 35 people who were killed on 21 March 1985, when apartheid police targeted community members after a funeral in Uitenhage and KwaLanga.
The government has chosen Kariega to host the national Human Rights Day commemoration as the State’s initiative to rotate national days, allowing communities across all provinces to pay tribute to those who lost their lives during the liberation struggle.
According to the Presidency, it also provides an opportunity to reflect on and evaluate the progress made towards building a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and united nation.
Deputy President Mashatile will be accompanied by the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi, Premier of the Eastern Cape Province Oscar Mabuyane, Members of the Eastern Cape Provincial Executive Council, Mayors, and senior government officials. – SAnews.gov.za
Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe says developing the country’s gas and oil potential could be a game changer for economic growth.
“The South African government wants accelerated oil exploration in the country’s waters, we believe developing the country’s oil and gas resources could boost the country’s economic growth rate to 5% and possibly 8%.
“Government took a decision to rationalise some of our State-owned Entities [SOEs] to form the South African National Petroleum Company [SANPC]. The SANPC is a strategic intervention by government to create a State-owned national company to actively pursue oil and gas projects,” the Minister said in his speaking notes at the 4th Annual Southern Africa Oil and Gas (SAOG) Conference in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Exploration has found that South Africa’s coastal and adjoining waters hold approximately nine billion barrels of oil and a further 11 billion barrels oil equivalent of natural gas, although there remains uncertainty about the extent.
Mantashe noted that considering increasing demand for natural gas, “government has moved with speed to finalise the Gas Master Plan to achieve a stable and growing economy”.
“The Gas Master Plan is designed to complement existing energy policies and contribute to an integrated energy planning approach for the country as outlined in the updated Integrated Resources Plan. It provides a framework for the role of natural gas in the energy mix and gives policy direction to industry.
“Its objective is to ensure that government is able to diversify supply options from local and international markets. Furthermore, to facilitate the development an efficient, competitive and responsive energy infrastructure network, such as gas storage facilities, liquefied natural gas import facilities, pipeline networks and regasification plants.
“Through this, the Plan would also enhance localisation, create jobs and enable inclusive economic growth,” Mantashe said.
He noted that the European bloc of nations is looking to Africa to “diversify its gas supplies”.
“While this presents an opportunity to earn foreign revenue, we should ensure that we do not export our gas at the expense of domestic and regional markets. It is imperative for SADC [Southern African Development Community] countries to be resolute in their efforts to unlock oil and gas exploration and development.
“This further presents SADC countries with an opportunity to determine conditions that will alleviate global oil and gas prices by developing their own resources.
“There must be a concerted effort among African nations to ensure that the oil and gas sector grows and thrives through investments in the upstream development for the economic prosperity of our nations,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
Defendant Continued to Demand Payments from Victim While Facing Charges for Illegal Collection of a Debt and Under Court Supervision
Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, John Ragano, also known as “Bazoo,” a member of the Bonanno organized crime family, was sentenced by United States District Judge Hector Gonzalez to 37 months in prison for extortionate collection of credit in connection with a $150,000 loan. The sentence imposed today will be served following the completion of Ragano’s 57-month sentence for the conspiracy to commit extortionate collection of credit of the same victim. Additionally, as part of the sentence, Ragano was ordered to pay the government $3,000 in forfeiture. Ragano was convicted of the charge in October 2024 following a four-day jury trial.
John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Leslie R. Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the sentence.
“Today’s sentence punishes Ragano’s blatant disregard for the law, even while under court supervision for crimes brazenly carried out within the federal courthouse,” stated United States Attorney Durham. “This prosecution represents my Office’s steadfast commitment to combatting the Mafia in our district.”
“Despite previous arrests and detention, John Ragano tormented his victim to make weekly exorbitant loan payments and enforced humiliating methods when faced with resistance,” stated Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Backschies. “His actions reflected his apathy to the criminal justice system as he repeatedly attempted to extort his victims in the midst of active legal proceedings. Today’s verdict emphasizes the FBI’s intolerance of the mob’s historical inclination to utilize coercive and threatening tactics to fulfill their greedy demands.
In early 2021, the defendant Ragano loaned the victim $150,000 in cash and required the victim to make interest payments of approximately $1,800 a week. These payments did not reduce the principal of the $150,000 loan. On September 14, 2021, Ragano was arrested in connection with the extortionate loan to the victim, as well as separate schemes to traffic marijuana and commit fraud. After Ragano was released on bond from the Metropolitan Detention Center in December 2021, he continued to try to collect the $150,000 loan from the victim while under pretrial supervision. He did so by approaching the victim in-person at status conferences held at the federal courthouse, and by directing another individual (Individual #1) to contact the victim. On November 28, 2022, Ragano pleaded guilty to conspiring to issue the extortionate loan to the victim. However, in 2023, despite his previous guilty plea, ongoing court supervision, and sentence to 57 months’ imprisonment in connection with his previous guilty plea as to the 2021 loan, Ragano continued to extort the victim to collect payments on the 2021 loan, which resulted in a subsequent indictment for extortionate collection of credit and harassment of a witness.
As proven during Ragano’s October 2024 trial, on March 25, 2023, the victim recorded a meeting with Individual #1, who explained that Ragano wanted the entire amount of the loan repaid and that “nobody’s looking for anybody to get hurt.” A week later, on March 31, 2023, Individual #1 told the victim that Ragano was “a little upset” that the loan was outstanding. On July 5, 2023, the victim went to a used auto parts yard where Ragano worked to discuss the loan. Unbeknownst to Ragano, the victim recorded the meeting. The victim told Ragano that he was going to stop repaying the loan. Ragano accused the victim of cooperating with the government and demanded that he remove all his clothes. Ragano stated: “Okay, well then take off your f–king s–t right now my man. Take off your f–king pants right now, lemme see, I want to see.” At Ragano’s insistence, the victim complied and took off all his clothing. At that point, two men at the business walked up behind Ragano, one of whom was holding metal tools. Ragano then demanded the victim pay the money the defendant believed he was owed, telling him, “You owe me my f—king money, let’s see how you’re gonna do when I get out.” Despite being forced to strip naked, the victim was still able to record the confrontation, including Ragano’s parting words, “I’ll see you when I get out tough guy…Don’t forget I know where you’re at now.”
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Devon Lash and Andrew D. Reich are in charge of the prosecution with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Kristina Kim. Assistant United States Attorney Tanisha Payne of the Office’s Asset Recovery Section is handling forfeiture matters.
The Defendant:
JOHN RAGANO (also known as “Bazoo”) Age: 62 Franklin Square, Long Island
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michael Joseph Dominic Roberts, Associate Dean & Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Communications Studies, Mount Royal University
Examples of this sector include financial technology and investment services, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, and clean technology sectors focused on renewable energy and sustainable resource management.
With tariffs, trade barriers and shifting political dynamics making North American markets increasingly unpredictable, many Canadian businesses are searching for ways to reduce their dependence on the U.S. and expand elsewhere.
Expanding into Asia
Asia has emerged as an attractive alternative for businesses due to its rapidly expanding middle class, growing investments in infrastructure and technology, and rising demand for specialized expertise.
This trend is particularly evident in the energy sector. The Asia-Pacific region — though currently accounting for only eight per cent of the global market — is expected to grow significantly as countries expand energy infrastructure and seek advanced technologies to improve resource extraction for environmental sustainability.
This presents promising growth opportunities for Canadian businesses in sectors like engineering consulting, technology, energy and environmental services, where they already have a competitive edge.
However, entering Asian markets presents unique challenges, requiring businesses to rethink their strategies.
Breaking into Asian markets
Expanding into Asian markets is no easy task for SMEs. These businesses face substantial barriers, including significant differences in regulatory environments, business practices and customer expectations.
For service-based businesses, the challenge is even greater. Unlike physical products, which can be easily displayed and tested, services are harder to quantify and prove to new clients. This makes it more difficult for SMEs to build credibility and demonstrate their value in unfamiliar markets.
Our recent study explored how Canadian SMEs in the service sector can successfully overcome these barriers when entering Asian markets like China, India and South Korea.
We brought together industry experts, government officials and senior executives from SMEs already operating successfully in Asia for a two-day workshop. We analyzed their firsthand experiences, challenges and recommendations to develop a clear and actionable framework called the 4P strategy (potential, proposition, presence and policy).
These four steps offer SMEs a structured approach to understanding local conditions, differentiating offerings, establishing trusted partnerships and gaining government support.
1. Potential: Understand the local market
SMEs must understand Asian market regulations, business culture and market structures. Unlike North America’s relatively stable environment, Asian markets often feature rapidly evolving regulations and unpredictable policy changes.
Businesses should balance these regulatory uncertainties against economic opportunities and be prepared to swiftly adapt when necessary. For example, policy changes in Asian markets, such as shifting foreign investment regulations or evolving environmental standards, can create uncertainty for SMEs operating abroad.
Companies must remain agile to navigate regulatory shifts while leveraging the relative economic stability of the region.
Patience and flexibility are also critical. In many Asian markets, business deals take longer to close due to hierarchical, relationship-driven decision-making. SMEs should anticipate these extended timelines and factor them into their planning.
Our study found that deals that might be finalized quickly in North America can take years to develop in Asia, requiring firms to exercise patience before realizing significant profits. Successful market entry depends on a long-term approach and the ability to adapt to extended gestation periods.
2. Proposition: Adapt services to fit local needs
SMEs need to localize their offerings beyond language translation, adapting their branding, marketing and customer-engagement strategies to fit local contexts.
A clearly defined and differentiated service offering is critical. Businesses must clearly define what sets them apart from local competitors and ensure their services address specific market needs.
Pricing strategies should also align with local market expectations. Many Asian markets, especially in business-to-business services, are highly price-sensitive. SMEs must balance competitive pricing with value.
In some cases, businesses may need to use performance-based pricing models — where clients pay based on results rather than a fixed fee — to remain competitive while protecting profit margins.
3. Presence: Build a local network and partnerships
A strong local presence is vital for success in Asia. SMEs should invest in trusted local partnerships or regional offices to build credibility, facilitate smoother operations and better understand local customer needs.
Relationships play a central role in doing business in Asia. Unlike in North America, where successful transactions often lead to partnerships, in Asia, relationships must be built first.
This relationship-first approach is deeply embedded in business culture, requiring firms to prioritize long-term engagement over immediate gains. Research has shown that trust-building is essential for long-term success in Asian markets, as strong relationships ultimately lead to transactions.
Canadian SMEs entering these markets should be prepared to shift their approach, recognizing that sustained commitment and relationship-building are key to unlocking business opportunities.
4. Policy: Take advantage of government support
Many Canadian SMEs underestimate the extent of available government support and miss out on resources that reduce risks and make it easier to establish a foothold abroad.
Our study found that SMEs expanding to Asia can access valuable support from government departments and trade commissioners at Canadian embassies. In energy services subsectors, government and non-governmental organizations can assist SMEs in forming partnerships with Asian firms.
Additionally, agencies like Export Development Canada offer training, financial support and market-entry resources that many SMEs overlook. Taking advantage of these programs can help businesses navigate regulatory challenges and accelerate their international expansion.
Government-backed programs also support research, development and technology adaptation to help businesses tailor their services to local markets. Our study found that making use of these resources reduces barriers, lowers entry risks and significantly enhances businesses’ likelihood of success in Asia.
Seizing the opportunity
Rather than merely serving as an alternative to the increasingly restrictive U.S. market, Asia presents significant growth opportunities for Canadian SMEs but demands strategic patience, adaptability and sustained commitment.
However, success in Asia won’t come overnight. Unlike the relatively familiar North American market, expanding into Asia requires a patience, adaptability and a willingness to learn a different business culture.
By adopting the 4P strategies, Canadian businesses can effectively navigate market-entry barriers and position themselves for success in an era of shifting global trade dynamics.
Etayankara Muralidharan receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Michael Joseph Dominic Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University
The Supreme Court is seen on March 17, 2025, one day before Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare rebuke of a president. Win McNamee/Getty Images
The subsequent legal back-and-forth, which is still going on, intensified so quickly and dramatically that many legal scholars say the U.S. is past the point of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump administration appears to be defying a federal court order, for which Boasberg may hold the government in contempt. Trump has also called for Bloasberg to be impeached. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts then issued a rare public statement that day rejecting Trump’s statement.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a written statement on March 18.
Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Conversation U.S., posed a few questions to Cassandra Burke Robertson, a scholar of civil proceedings and legal ethics, to break down some of the dynamics of this complex, evolving case.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 2025. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Is it rare for a Supreme Court justice to weigh in on politicians’ activities or statements?
It’s uncommon for a Supreme Court justice to publicly contradict a president. Roberts has typically shown great respect for the separation of powers between branches of government. He has also consistently recognized that presidents have broad authority to run the federal government.
However, this isn’t the first time Roberts has spoken up to protect judicial independence. During Trump’s first term in 2018, the president criticized rulings as coming from “Obama judges.” Roberts responded publicly, and said, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Why is Roberts’ statement of note, and what influence does he have in this situation?
Roberts takes this leadership role very seriously. He has been willing to speak up when he believes something threatens judicial operations and independence.
When Roberts makes a public statement, it carries weight because he speaks as the top judicial officer in the country. His words are a reminder about the importance of keeping courts free from political interference.
What is most important for people to understand about the Alien Enemies Act case that Judge Boasberg is currently considering?
First, Trump is using a rarely used wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act. This law allows for deportations during a time of war without the normal legal protections like court hearings. Some legal experts argue that Trump doesn’t have the authority to use this law since the U.S. isn’t officially at war with Venezuela or with the gang the administration has cited, Tren de Aragua. They worry that invoking the Alien Enemies Act inappropriately expands presidential power beyond constitutional limits and could be misused to target other immigrant groups.
Second, Boasberg ordered a stop to these deportations on March 15. But the Trump administration went ahead with the deportations anyway. It later claimed it did not violate the judge’s order because the planes were over international waters. Under our legal system, the executive branch must obey valid court orders. This case raises concerns about whether the president is respecting the authority of the courts.
Third, Trump has publicly called for Boasberg to be impeached, saying the judge overstepped his authority by ruling against the president’s actions. There’s no evidence that Boasberg acted corruptly or improperly – he simply made a legal ruling the president disagreed with.
The case touches on fundamental questions about the balance of power between presidents and courts, and what happens when an administration chooses not to follow a judge’s orders. This confrontation between branches represents one of the most direct challenges to judicial authority by a president in American history.
What would it take for a judge to be impeached, and what is the precedent for doing so, based on disagreements about a case?
Federal judges can only be impeached by Congress for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” That generally means serious wrongdoing, not just making unpopular decisions.
First, the House of Representatives votes to impeach, needing just a simple majority. Then, the Senate holds a trial where a two-thirds majority is needed to remove the judge.
The only two judicial impeachments during this century involved very serious misconduct – including a judge who lied about sexually abusing two female employees in 2009.
Only judges who have serious misconduct have been impeached and removed from office – not those involved in cases of political disagreements about judicial decisions.
What are the most important legal and ethical questions that this case raises?
This case raises important questions about the rule of law in the U.S. A key American belief is that no one, not even the president, is above the law. As Thomas Paine famously wrote in 1776, “In America, the law is king.”
This doesn’t mean every court decision is always right. That’s why the legal system has appellate courts, as Roberts pointed out – so decisions people disagree with can be challenged through an appeal in proper channels. My scholarly research on the right to appeal explores how this process serves as a crucial safeguard in the country’s legal system.
When a government chooses to ignore court orders instead of appealing them through the legal system, it creates a serious threat to this principle. The current situation raises concerns about whether the federal government will continue to respect the boundaries established by the Constitution in the country’s legal system.
Cassandra Burke Robertson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Due to uncertain financial times, and with the federal government committing to implement a similar program, the Province’s pilot secondary-suite incentive program will no longer be accepting applications after March 30, 2025.
Funds allocated from this program will go toward other existing and future BC Housing programs and services aimed at delivering more affordable homes for people, including BC Builds.
“As we face uncertain economic conditions and an unpredictable tariff situation with the United States, we’re making sure we deliver the best value for people,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs. “With the federal government committing to deliver a national secondary-suite program, we are ensuring that we are not duplicating programs so we can use those funds for other programs that give people more housing options.”
Announced in 2023, the three-year pilot program was designed to provide assistance in the form of a forgivable loan to eligible homeowners who build a secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit on their property.
In 2024, the federal government announced the intention to launch a similar program, the Canada secondary-suite loan program, enabling homeowners to access low-interest loans of up to $80,000 to add a secondary suite. Homeowners in B.C. who are interested in developing a secondary suite may have the opportunity to apply for loans through the federal program when it is launched. Applicants who have started the process with the provincial secondary-suite incentive program and who have received all necessary permits and cost estimates will be able to submit their application until March 30, 2025.
BC Housing will continue to work with approved applicants to process committed funds, register forgivable mortgages and carry out loan forgiveness over the coming years.
The Province is continuing to focus on creating affordable housing and initiatives that address the housing needs of British Columbians. Since 2017, the Province has nearly 92,000 homes delivered or underway, with actions underway to help deliver thousands more.
Learn More:
To learn more about the ending of the secondary suite program, visit: https://www.bchousing.org/housing-assistance/secondary-suite
Source: United States Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico)
Major Richard Star Act would provide combat-injured veterans with full earned disability compensation and retirement pay
Española, N.M. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) joined Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Rick Scott (R-FL) to introduce S. 1032, the Major Richard Star Act—bipartisan legislation to provide combat-injured veteran retirees their full benefits.
Currently, only veterans with disability ratings above 50 percent and more than 20 years of service are eligible to receive the full amount of their Department of Defense (DOD) retirement and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability payments—leaving behind more than 50,000 combat-injured military retirees. The Senators’ Major Richard Star Act will fix this unjust policy for retired combat veterans—providing them their full VA disability and DOD retirement payments.
“The men and women who risked their lives for our country and were injured in combat deserve the full benefits they have earned. Too many veterans have been left behind, and it’s far past time we correct this grave injustice,” said Senator Luján. “That’s why I am proud to stand with my colleagues working to fix the unjust veterans’ disability system.”
“This measure corrects one of the deepest injustices in our present veterans’ disability system,” said Senator Blumenthal. “It is unacceptable that tens of thousands of combat-injured veterans are denied the full military benefits they earned. Our bipartisan bill will right this longstanding injustice and finally provide these military retirees who have already sacrificed so much their full VA disability and Defense Department retirement payments.”
“The Major Richard Star Act corrects a severe injustice for combat-wounded veterans,” said Senator Crapo. “The support for this correction is clear. Though the namesake of our legislation is no longer with us, I continue to press for its passage on behalf of the more than 50,000 veterans, including hundreds in Idaho, who stand to benefit.”
“Our veterans put their lives on the line for this country and it’s time our government gives them the full benefits they’ve earned,” said Senator Warren. “The Major Richard Star Act will ensure the federal government keeps its promise to our veterans by allowing them to collect both disability and retirement benefits they earned, even if combat injuries forced them to retire early.”
“I am a proud veteran and the son of a World War II veteran, and I have immense respect for anyone who puts on the uniform to defend our nation,” said Senator Scott. “Our veterans are American heroes who have made countless sacrifices. The Major Richard Star Act ensures our veterans receive the full benefits they’ve earned through their service and sacrifice protecting our nation regardless of length of service. This legislation makes a critical change to treat our veterans fairly and support our nation’s heroes. I urge my colleagues to support its quick passage.”
This bipartisan legislation is named in honor of Major Richard A. Star, a decorated war veteran who was forced to medically retire due to his combat-related injuries. Major Star sadly lost his battle with cancer on February 13, 2021. The legislation has 43 bipartisan cosponsors.
The House companion version of this bill was introduced by Congressmen Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Raul Ruiz (D-CA), with 185 bipartisan cosponsors.
The Senators’ bipartisan effort to provide combat-injured veterans their due benefits is supported by the Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA), Air & Space Forces Association (AFA), American GI Forum, The American Legion,American Military Society,American Veterans (AMVETS), Armed Forces Retiree Association, Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA), Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS), Association of the United States Army (AUSA), Association of the United States Navy (AUSN), Blinded Veterans Association (BVA), Burn Pits 360, Chief Warrant Officers Association of the US Coast Guard (CWOA), Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service, Inc. (COA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, Fleet Reserve Association (FRA), Heroes Athletic Association, Gold Star Wives of America (GSW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America (JWV), K9s for Warriors, Marine Corps League (MCL), Marine Corps Reserve Association (MCRA), Military Chaplains Association of the United States of America (MCA), Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH), Mission Roll Call, National Defense Committee, National Military Family Association (NMFA), Naval Enlisted Reserve Association (NERA), Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA), Operation First Response, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA),Quality of Life Foundation, Reserve Organization of America (ROA), Stronghold Freedom Foundation, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA), The Independence Fund (TIF), United States Army Warrant Officers Association (USAWOA), USCG Chief Petty Officers Association (CPOA), VetsFirst/United Spinal Association, Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), Wounded Paw Project, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).
Source: United States Small Business Administration
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the availability of low interest federal disaster loans to North Dakota private nonprofit (PNP) organizations who sustained physical damages and economic losses from the wildfires and straight-line winds occurring Oct. 5–6, 2024.
The disaster declaration covers McKenzie and Williams counties.
Under this disaster declaration, PNPs providing services of a governmental nature are eligible to apply for physical disaster loans and may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.
Applicants may be eligible for a loan amount increase of up to 20% of their physical damages, as verified by the SBA, for mitigation purposes. Eligible mitigation improvements might include insulating pipes, walls and attics, weather stripping doors and windows, and installing storm windows to help protect property and occupants from future damage caused by any disaster.
The SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) to help meet working capital needs, such as ongoing operating expenses for PNPs. EIDL assistance is available regardless of whether the organization suffered any physical property damage.
Interest rates are as low 3.25% for PNPs, with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not begin to accrue, and payments are not due, until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA determines eligibility and sets loan amounts and terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.
The SBA encourages applicants to submit their loan applications promptly. Applications will be prioritized in the order they are received, and the SBA remains committed to processing them as efficiently as possible.
To apply online, visit sba.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.
The deadline to return economic injury applications is Sept. 24.
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About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
The most striking feature of the Australian economy in the 21st century has been the exceptionally long period of fairly steady, though not rapid, economic growth.
The deep recession of 1989–91, and the painfully slow recovery that followed, led most observers to assume another recession was inevitable sooner or later.
And nearly everywhere in the developed world, the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–08 did lead to recessions comparable in length and severity to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Through a combination of good luck and good management, Australia avoided recession, at least as measured by the commonly used criterion of two successive quarters of negative GDP growth.
Recessions cause unemployment to rise in the short run. Even after recessions end, the economy often remains on a permanently lower growth path.
Good management – and good luck
The crucial example of good management was the use of expansionary fiscal policy in response to both the financial crisis and the COVID pandemic. Governments supported households with cash payments as well as increasing their own spending.
The most important piece of good luck was the rise of China and its appetite for Australian mineral exports, most notably iron ore.
This demand removed the concerns about trade deficits that had driven policy in the 1990s, and has continued to provide an important source of export income. Mining is also an important source of government revenue, though this is often overstated.
Still more fortunately, the Chinese response to the Global Financial Crisis, like that in Australia, was one of massive fiscal stimulus. The result was that both domestic demand and export demand were sustained through the crisis.
The shift to an information economy
The other big change, shared with other developed countries, has been the replacement of the 20th century industrial economy with an economy dominated by information and information-intensive services.
The change in the industrial makeup of the economy can be seen in occupational data.
In the 20th century, professional and managerial workers were a rarefied elite. Now they are the largest single occupational group at nearly 40% of all workers. Clerical, sales and other service workers account for 33% and manual workers (trades, labourers, drivers and so on) for only 28%.
The results are evident in the labour market. First, the decline in the relative share of the male-dominated manual occupations has been reflected in a gradual convergence in the labour force participation rates of men (declining) and women (increasing).
Suddenly, work from home was possible
Much more striking than this gradual trend was the (literally) overnight shift to remote work that took place with the arrival of COVID lockdowns.
Despite the absence of any preparation, it turned out the great majority of information work could be done anywhere workers could find a desk and an internet connection.
Despite strenuous efforts by managers, remote or hybrid work has remained common among information workers.
CEOs regularly demand a return to full-time office work. But few if any have been prepared to pay the wage premium that would be required to retain their most valuable (and mobile) employees without the flexibility of hybrid or remote work.
The employment miracle
The confluence of all these trends has produced an outcome that seemed unimaginable in the year 2000: a sustained period of near-full employment. That is defined by a situation in which almost anyone who wants a job can get one.
The unemployment rate has dropped from 6.8% in 2000 to around 4%. While this is higher than in the post-war boom of the 1950s and 1960s, this is probably inevitable given the greater diversity of both the workforce and the range of jobs available.
Matching workers to jobs was relatively easy in an industrial economy where large factories employed thousands of workers. It’s much harder in an information economy where job categories include “Instagram influencer” and “search engine optimiser”.
As we progress through 2025, it is possible all this may change rapidly, for better or for worse.
The chaos injected into the global economy by the Trump Administration will radically reshape patterns of trade.
Meanwhile the rise of artificial intelligence holds out the promise of greatly increased productivity – but also the threat of massive job destruction. Economists, at least, will be busy for quite a while to come.
John Quiggin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The world had its eyes on Sydney in 2000. A million people lined the harbour to ring in the new millennium (though some said it was actually the final year of the old one) on January 1.
US television reporters called it “the biggest party in Australian history”. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, whose corporation seemed to represent the coming age, was among those watching on.
Sydney offered not only a world-leading party, but also a litmus test for the much-feared Y2K bug, which threatened to knock planes out of the sky and bring the global economy to a halt. Australia and New Zealand were said to be the “tripwire for the world’s computer systems”.
It was fine in the end, although plenty of work had in fact been undertaken behind the scenes to make Australia’s systems more millennium-proof than they might have been.
This was arguably the defining feature of Australia in the year 2000: a confident display for the world concealing a lot of angst and uncertainty. Australia was the “oldest continent on Earth”, the US broadcasters told their viewers, but it was “much more of an Asian nation”, and much closer to the rest of the world “thanks to technology”.
Those confident claims would probably have surprised many Australians. Theirs was an old country trying to keep up with a new, interconnected world, and also a relatively young one trying to reconcile itself with the ancient cultures that its settler forebears had dispossessed.
A curated Australia
In September, the world’s sporting and political elite, followed by a train of journalists, arrived in Sydney for the 2000 Olympic Games. It had been years in the making, and every level of government was involved. There were no fewer than 47,000 volunteers.
There was something for everyone in the well-curated opening ceremony. The event opened with the crack of a stockman’s whip and a fleet of flag-waving bushmen on horseback. There were highly sanitised displays of European arrival, pastoral settlement and a tribute to an armour-clad colonial Victorian bushranger that must have baffled those viewers watching from abroad who had not seen a Sidney Nolan painting before.
Ancient stories and new cultural sensibilities were on display too. There were stylised performances of the Dreaming, striking First Nations dances and the distinctive sounds of the didgeridoo. A section entitled “Arrivals” recognised the importance of migration in the nation’s story.
A young Aboriginal sprinter, Cathy Freeman, lit the cauldron in what became one of the iconic images of the year. The cauldron’s hydraulics unfortunately got stuck as it ascended, and the flame was mere seconds from snuffing out in what could have been a global embarrassment. But big ambitions incur big risks.
This global performance of Australian-ness was arrestingly simple: that of a nation confident in its own diversity and capable of catering to everyone’s tastes.
Even the musical selections seemed to reconcile the needs of the youth (with performances from a young Vanessa Amorosi and even younger Nikki Webster), and the more mature (represented by John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John).
Australia’s athletes had their best ever showing with 58 medals, including Freeman’s own gold.
Not quite comfortable, not quite relaxed
The Olympics masked as much as they revealed.
In 2000, many white Australians still weren’t sure if theirs was, or should be, a multicultural society.
The reactionary Pauline Hanson was out of parliament for the time being, but her One Nation Party had won 7.5% of the vote in New South Wales in the March 1999 state election, and nearly 23% of the vote in Queensland the year before.
Eight weeks before millennium day, Australians had roundly rejected two referendum proposals, one to become a republic, and for a Constitutional preamble that, among other things, recognised Indigenous Australians as “the nation’s first people”.
But whether Hanson liked it or not, her lifetime had coincided with great demographic and social change.
In 1976, roughly 1.8% of the population said they were born in Asia or the Middle East. In the 2001 census, 1.6% of the population were born in China or Vietnam alone, and many more were the descendants of migrants from these places.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population had more than doubled over the same period, while those identifying as Christian decreased from nearly 79% in 1976 to 56% in 2001.
This increasingly diverse Australia claimed to be on a journey to “reconciliation”. That process had been sorely tested during the nasty debates about land rights and the Stolen Generations.
Corroboree 2000, held on May 27 in Sydney, saw the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the nation’s political leaders present their visions for the next phase of national healing. The leaders symbolically left their handprints on a “reconciliation canvas”.
The following day, 250,000 Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a moving display of togetherness. John Howard, the prime minister, declined to participate.
But his treasurer, Peter Costello, made a point of showing up for a similar event in Melbourne that December, leading Victorian Liberals and another 200,000 or so Australians.
Their different approaches showed that the past was still a troubling present. Howard rebuffed suggestions of a treaty between Indigenous and settler Australians and maintained his refusal to apologise on behalf of the Commonwealth to the Stolen Generations, though all the states had done so by this time.
The idea of such an apology was not as popular then as it seemed later on. The prime minister was sensitive to the fact that his was “an unpopular view with a lot of people”, but an opinion poll in The Australian newspaper showed a majority of voters were opposed to a national apology.
Two survivors of the Stolen Generations, Peter Gunner and Lorna Cubillo, sued the Commonwealth for damages in 2000, giving their opponents the chance to challenge the legitimacy of their experiences. None of this looked like a nation that was as “comfortable and relaxed” as Howard had hoped it would be under his watch.
Border politics
Australian collective memory often gravitates toward 2001, the year of the Tampa affair and the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.
But Australia’s border was already highly politicised in 2000.
In January, a boat arrived from Indonesia carrying 54 Christians fleeing religious conflict. They spent ten weeks at Port Hedland Immigration Detention facility, from which 39 went back to Indonesia and only 15 moved on to Adelaide to build new lives.
Port Hedland and other detention centres made the news for all the wrong reasons. There were riots, hunger strikes and multiple breakouts. Authorities responded with upgraded security perimeters, character checks, and strip searches without warrants.
Frustrated refugees set fire to South Australia’s Woomera facility, which former prime minister Malcolm Fraser publicly condemned as a “hell-hole”.
In an end-of-year reflection for The Age newspaper, Gary Tippet said there had been a “touch of mean-spiritedness” about the handling of it all. Chris Wallace rightly suggests 2000 was a crucial moment in the “march towards an absolute offshore, extraterritorial approach” to refugees in Australia.
In the intervening quarter-century, Australian officials have made mean-spiritedness an art form at the border and on the seas.
First-rate democracy, third-rate economy
Compared to the many legal challenges that came out of the US presidential contest in November 2000, Australia’s elections looked pretty smooth and sensible. The US seemed to have a backward democracy grafted onto its world-leading, information-age economy.
Australia looked the opposite: a first-rate democracy with what looked increasingly like a “branch-office economy”.
Reformers had tried for 20 years to make Australia efficient and competitive, but as one editorial in The Australian Financial Review explained, the country still suffered from its “old economy image”.
Certainly, Australia still sold its minerals and farm products to the world in exchange for quality cars and cutting-edge computers.
With global capitalists still enthralled by the global tech boom (though it was soon to become the “tech wreck”), they had little need for the Aussie dollar.
The currency’s value declined through the year to just 50 US cents, and it would fall further in the following months. On its own, this mattered little, but a quarter of negative growth at the end of the year meant, as Paul Kelly later wrote, an “election-year recession” seemed a “real threat”.
In the meantime, the much-debated Goods and Services Tax took effect around midnight on June 30 (a few hours later for businesses trading through the night).
The 10% consumption tax was a big deal. Costello said in his memoir the “prices of three billion products were to change all at the same time”.
The measure was politically brave, but soon became unpopular, helping raise petrol prices and alienate small business owners.
The punters were pretty confident the Howard government was heading for defeat in 2001. They were wrong.
Between the old and new
The pace of social change accelerated from 2000.
In the 2021 census, 2.6% of the population said they were born in India, and a further 3.2% in China and Vietnam. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians had more than doubled over two decades, such that they made up 3.2% of the total population in 2021.
People increasingly related to their economy differently, too. Half of the workforce had been unionised in the 1980s, but coverage fell to roughly a quarter in 2000 and just 12.5% in 2022.
These and other changes make our politics look different from that of 25 years ago. Nailbiter elections are now more common than thumping majorities and attitudes toward the once-feared “minority government” have softened.
For all that, many of the challenges of 2000 are still with us.
Many Australians are less tolerant of overt racism than they once were, but the 2023 Voice referendum and our offshore detention regime remind us that race still matters in this country.
Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations in 2008, but Treaty and Truth-Telling are left unresolved.
And for all our talk about human capital and the digital economy, resources make up a much higher share of our total export mix today than in 2000.
A quarter-century on, Australia is still caught between the old and the new.
Dr Joshua Black is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.
South Africa and Japan continue to enjoy well-established diplomatic relations, which are particularly strong in the fields of trade and investment, science and technology and education, skills transfer and capacity building through development assistance.
This is according to Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who was speaking during an interview with the Foreign Correspondence Club of Japan as part of a working visit to the East Asian nation.
Full diplomatic relations with Japan were established in 1992, while in 2010, relations between the two countries were upgraded to a Strategic Cooperation Partnership.
This year marks 115 years of relations between the two nations.
Mashatile told the attendees that South Africa and Japan cooperate within the framework of the Partnership Forum held at a ministerial level, which covers the entire spectrum of sectoral cooperation.
The 13th Partnership Forum was held in 2022 in Tokyo and South Africa is expected to host the next session.
“Over the years, we have witnessed enhanced cooperation to foster closer relations through high-level engagements between our two countries. Japan is one of South Africa’s major economic partners with a sizeable investment in the South African economy, and the potential for increased investment exists,“ Mashatile said.
He stated that Japan is the fourth largest economy in the world and total bilateral trade between the two countries in 2024 was at R132 billion, with South Africa recording a trade surplus of R52 billion.
Development cooperation between South Africa and Japan involves technical assistance, research partnerships, financial loans, supplementary budget support through international organisations, and grassroots projects in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
In terms of multilateral cooperation, the Deputy President said Japan cooperates with Africa on the promotion of Africa’s developmental agenda, in line with Agenda 2063, through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) framework.
In addition, he said the two countries cooperate in the Group of 20 (G20) framework to strengthen efforts towards advancing international economic cooperation for the achievement of sustainable development.
The Deputy President reiterated the South African government’s key objectives, which include reducing poverty and the cost of living, driving economic growth and job creation, and building a capable and ethical State.
“We are committed to making sure that our country prospers, not only for us to attract investments, but also to ensure that South Africans, have an improved quality of life.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy President said South Africa continues to pursue strong bilateral relations with the United States, despite the recent withdrawal of South Africa’s ambassador to the United States of America (USA).
“Acknowledging the recent withdrawal of our Ambassador from the USA, as a country we maintain the position that South Africa should maintain strong bilateral relations with the USA. As a country, we are committed to improving mutually beneficial trade, political, and diplomatic relations with the USA,” the Deputy President said on Wednesday.
At the weekend, the Presidency stated that it remains committed to building a relationship with the USA, despite the “regrettable“ expulsion of the Ambassador.
Additionally, the Deputy President expressed gratitude to all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, senior government officials, the South African embassy, and all counterparts for contributing to the success of his brief visit.
In the past three days, the team has met with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Chief Cabinet Secretary, members of business, academia, research and numerous other stakeholders.
The Deputy President’s visit which began on Sunday, will conclude on Wednesday, 19 March. –SAnews.gov.za
Source: United States Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA)
WASHINGTON – After years of continued pressure from U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would maintain increased line speeds and reduce duplicative regulatory burdens on American pork and poultry processors.
Under the new rulemaking, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will extend waivers allowing pork and poultry facilities to operate under higher line speeds, ensuring they can meet demand without unnecessary bureaucracy.
“After years of working to cut the red tape and reduce regulatory burdens on our pork processors, I’m thrilled President Trump and Secretary Rollins have taken quick action on this issue,” said Senator Ernst. “By integrating proven results from research into policy, we can increase processing capacity, expand options when selling hogs, decrease transportation costs, increase certainty for producers, and more. Iowa is proud to lead the nation in pork production, and now our producers can go the ‘whole hog’ without the burden of excessive government oversight.”
Background:
Senator Ernst has long been at the forefront of discussions to protect Iowa’s pork producers and ensure they can remain competitive. In 2021, she spoke up in defense of producers after an unfair court decision to vacate a portion of the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) line speeds. Then in February 2023, Ernst took action again to secure an additional nine months for the NSIS trial. In November 2023, she once again renewed her call for an extension to maintain critical pork processing capacity.
Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) led 15 of their Democratic Senate colleagues in a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Acting Commissioner Melanie Krause, IRS Acting Chief Counsel Andrew De Mello, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem demanding answers on reports that DHS and the “Department of Government Efficiency” have illegally requested sensitive taxpayer information from the IRS. The Senators also expressed concern at the abrupt replacement of previous Acting Chief Counsel William Paul.
“We write about alarming reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked for unprecedented access to private taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” wrote the Senators. “Elon Musk and his associates at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have also reportedly sought to cross-reference taxpayer data with sensitive personal data held by other agencies that provide public benefits.”
According to a Washington Post report, DHS officials requested the IRS turn over home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of over 700,000 people in an apparent attempt to weaponize the tax system against those suspected of being undocumented immigrants. This unlawful move would target people paying taxes and contributing to American communities and is the latest attempt from the Trump Administration to target immigrant communities. It was also reported that DOGE sought access to sensitive personal tax records, the sharing of which would be illegal.
“In addition to violating tax privacy laws, the wholesale sharing of tax return information with DHS or DOGE, as described in the press, would also penalize individuals for complying with federal tax law and undermine the IRS’s core mission of tax collection by reducing voluntary tax compliance,” continued the Senators. “According to official government data, millions of taxpayers who do not have a social security number file their taxes with the IRS each year using an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), including many undocumented individuals. Such voluntary tax compliance depends on trust that the IRS will keep taxpayer data confidential.”
Additional signatories to the letter include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Read the full letter here.
Senator Cortez Masto has pushed multiple Departments under the Trump Administration for detailed, public information regarding the impacts of President Trump’s federal funding freeze, hiring freeze, and terminations on Nevada – including to the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, and General Services Administration.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in PLOS One looks at ADHD TikTok content and its association with ADHD perception.
(From our colleagues at SMC Germany) Prof Kathrin Karsay, Assistant Professor for Entertainment Research, Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria, said:
Evaluation of the study methodology
“Pre-registration is to be positively mentioned in the sense of Open Science, as it makes the planning and execution of the study transparent in advance. The selection of the videos, on the other hand, is not representative, as it was not drawn from the population of available Tiktok videos. The chosen method of selecting the 100 most popular videos at a specific point in time with a newly created account is therefore not ideal. Under the circumstances, it is a pragmatic, but nevertheless legitimate, approach. Overall, the number of videos analyzed remains relatively low, especially considering that Tiktok users often consume many videos. Another critical point is that no information is available on coder training (training of the evaluators; editor’s note) and that an evaluation of inter-coder reliability is missing for all selected variables. This does not meet the typical standard for communication science studies, but it is not uncommon in studies outside the field.”
Contextualization of the results
“It is particularly noteworthy that the majority of the videos (93.9 percent) only address symptoms, while only a small minority of the videos discuss treatment options. Especially when it comes to health topics, social media is a central source of information and a place for exchange. At the same time, the algorithms favor those posts that generate a lot of interaction because they are particularly entertaining or emotional. It is therefore not surprising that the symptoms are not presented correctly or are exaggerated – similar findings already exist for other conditions, such as Tourette’s syndrome, epicondylitis (tendonitis at the elbow; editor’s note) or prostate cancer. On Tiktok, people with ADHD are often portrayed as lively, lovable and almost entertaining – a ‘cute disorder’ that is staged in short, humorous clips. Much of the content shows everyday situations and relies on self-irony and entertaining narratives. This creates a positive, sometimes trivializing, romanticized image of the disorder. It is also particularly interesting that the experts classified around two-thirds of the ADHD-related statements as normal human experiences. In other words, everyday situations are shown with which many people can identify, which can encourage self-diagnosis.”
“This presentation can be explained, among other things, by the fact that content creators usually pursue monetary interests, as the study also shows. Half of all content creators advertise products on their profiles or ask for financial donations. This does not include sponsorships or marketing collaborations. Of course, influencers have an interest in their videos being seen by many and being considered personally relevant.”
When asked how the results on the correlation between self-diagnosed ADHD, the extent of ADHD video consumption and the perception of the prevalence of ADHD can be explained: “Frequently consuming ADHD-related content attracts increased attention and draws focus to corresponding symptoms. Priming (improved processing of a stimulus due to it or a similar one having been presented previously; editor’s note) activates cognitive schemata that can lead people to identify more readily with these symptoms. In the long term, repeated exposure reinforces the impression that ADHD is particularly widespread, even if the actual prevalence is lower. Since the videos often stage common experiences as pathological symptoms, those affected are more likely to identify with the clinical picture. This results in a so-called ‘confirmation bias’: people tend to interpret, seek out, and remember information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs or hypotheses. This also fits with the study’s finding that participants with self-diagnosis significantly overestimate the prevalence of ADHD in the general population – far more than those with a formal ADHD diagnosis and those without ADHD. They also tend to rate videos with the lowest psychological ratings as more recommendable.”
Practical implications
“Those who already suspect they have ADHD perceive more matching symptoms in the videos and interpret them as confirmation. This can reinforce the belief in one’s own diagnosis without professional clarification. Constant consumption of such content can lead to overidentification: everyday difficulties are then possibly interpreted too quickly as symptoms. I would therefore recommend taking a critical look at the source of the information and considering professional diagnosis.”
Dr Blandine French, Senior Research Fellow, School of Psychology and Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, said:
“Due to the recent nature of social media engagement on platforms such as TikTok, very few studies have been able to evaluate the impact it has. As mentioned by the authors, the huge rise of TikTok ADHD content has only been observed in the last 5 years and little has been published on this. In fact, ADHD fell within the 10 most -viewed health related hashtags on TikTok so we really need to understand more about its impact on those viewing this content.
“It is therefore great to see a study starting to address this. This study is very well conducted, with a thorough analysis and robust findings. The rational for the way the study was conducted is sound, well designed and well explained.
“One limitation of the study is that the majority of participants in the second study were females (669/843) which does not represent the ADHD general population (ratios of male to female vary from 1:4 male to 1:2) so we must be cautious in generalising the findings.
“It would also have been useful to see more detail on what they defined as misinformation. The experts rated according to DSM-V diagnosis (attention, hyperactivity, impulsivity) which is a robust and scientific way of approaching content. However, we know that many things are linked with ADHD but not part of diagnostic symptoms (emotion dysregulation, sleep, social difficulties etc). Therefore, content that would have been rated as misinformation can be relevant (and authors acknowledge this) but would not be scored as such as they are not technically linked with ADHD in terms of strict diagnosis criteria. This nuance would have been good to include and reflect a more holistic approach and understanding of ADHD that is not solely based on criteria but still has significant evidence-based studies behind.
“Overall, this paper has some important implications and offers a balanced view of the impact on social media. On one hand it supports how much young people rely on social media, the breadth of reach of this kind of content (over 500 million views) and that there are positives from viewing such videos (sense of community, greater understanding etc). But it also raises concern about viewers relying on this content as educational and support sources. The lack of nuance, evidence-base and reliability of these video is very high. Now this doesn’t mean that it is always bad, but it is to be taken with extreme caution.
“The findings also show that the group more prone to highly rate or engage with these videos is the group that is self-diagnosed which is interesting but potentially worrying. The diagnosed group seemed better able to tell the difference between quality of information, while self-diagnosed were not as able to do so.
“Therefore, if any person has seen this type of content on TikTok and thinks they may have ADHD, I would say that I am glad they might have found an answer to ongoing difficulties. But I would advise to do some further research from more reliable sources and evidence-based criteria. Social media can be a great source of support but shouldn’t be a place for diagnosis as it is not made for this. It should be used alongside other more reliable methods, sources, and information.”
Prof Philip Asherson,Emeritus Professor of Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, said:
“The methodology is fair as an initial investigation of the association of Tik Tok use and content related to ADHD; and is well conducted. The first study investigates the content of the top 100 Tik Tok watched videos related to #ADHD. This is a reasonable approach to understand how specific the content is to ADHD, rather than mental health more broadly. The second study is limited primarily by the sole participation of psychology students, which suggests that the findings cannot be generalised to a general (unselected) population. Further research is therefore needed. The sample sizes are reasonable for an initial investigation. It is to be commended that the study design was lodged within the Open Science Framework, increasing the robustness of the study findings. Agreement between psychologist ratings was good.
“The findings on symptoms in the video are not entirely ‘incorrect’; but fit with my expectations. First it is important to recognise that the TikTok videos reflect personal experience and not that of professional trained mental health specialists. Also, that not all the symptoms commonly experienced by adults with ADHD are specified as specific criteria in DSM-5. Given that, around 49% of the videos were a good reflection of specific (DSM-5) symptoms. However, non-specific symptoms are also commonly seen in people with ADHD and are an independent source of impairment. The prime example of this is emotional dysregulation which is cited as an example of 42% reflecting transdiagnostic symptoms. The paper does not list all of the other transdiagnostic symptoms but other common symptoms include sleep problems (delayed sleep onset), and low self-esteem related to the impairments of ADHD are common as part of ADHD. Without a more detailed evaluation it is not clear that these ‘non-ADHD’ symptoms may also reflect other common aspects of ADHD which are not among the 18 specific DSM symptoms of ADHD. Note that emotional dysregulation is not specific to ADHD, but it is cited in DSM-5 as a common symptom that supports the diagnosis; and is a common part of the lived experience of most adults with ADHD.
“So, the other symptoms may not all be ‘incorrect’ but just not specific to ADHD. However, it is possible that this could lead some people to think they might have ADHD unless they also consider the full diagnostic criteria for ADHD (which is not included as an aim in these studies).
“It is of interest that those with a formal diagnosis access Tik Tok most, followed by those with self-diagnosis. This suggests that the main driver of looking at Tik Tok videos of ADHD is to learn more about ADHD, rather than the videos leading to excess self-diagnosis.
“A more subtle but essential point is that many ADHD symptoms are a continuous trait/dimension in the general population. So there is no clear boundary between those with clinically significant levels of ADHD symptoms and impairments, and those with higher than average levels of ADHD symptoms. Many people who do not meet full ADHD criteria may nevertheless struggle with some ADHD symptoms at times and seek information on better to manage this aspect of their lives. The videos are therefore of more general relevance than only adults meeting full ADHD criteria. Many self-diagnosed people may fall in this category.
“It is also true that some people with other mental health problems may conclude they have ADHD, as the videos do not detail the full diagnostic criteria. This indicates the importance of an assessment that considers ADHD alongside other mental health disorders for those that seek help. Similarly, people with ADHD might consider they have an anxiety or mood disorder or personality disorder, when ADHD is the main problem. In general the non-expert Tik Tok videos are not generally specific to ADHD. However, they usually reflect common symptoms experienced by adults with ADHD.
“The relationship between ADHD self-diagnosis, video consumption and perception of prevalence only indicates an association but there is no information on the causal relationship. It seems likely that having ADHD or symptoms of ADHD leads to increased TikTok use as one form of information, since those without ADHD consume the less (as expected). While a causal role of watching TikTok on self-diagnosis could be implied or play a role in some cases, this publication provides no information on the causal direction – so should not be interpreted in that way without further research.
“Watching these videos may be helpful to people with ADHD to understand the experiences of ADHD they are having. However, it would be important to discuss this with other people with ADHD (ADHD user/support groups could be helpful here) and to seek professional advice.
“The conflict of interests and Tik Tok algorithms are a concern and might lead to over diagnosis in some cases – but overall the greater awareness of ADHD is a benefit.”
‘A double-edged hashtag: Evaluation of #ADHD-related TikTok content and its associations with perceptions of ADHD’ byVasileia Karasavvaet al.was published in PLOS One at 18:00 UK time on Wednesday 19th March.
Prof Kathrin Karsay: “There are no conflicts of interest.”
Dr Blandine French: Dr. BF reports personal fees and nonfinancial support from Takeda and Medice.
Prof Philip Asherson: In the last 4 years, Asherson received payments for consultancy and/or educational talks from Takeda, Jannsen, Flynn Pharma, Medice and AGB Pharma, and royalties from PATOSS and Cambridge University. He is Honorary President of the UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN).
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Canadian Parliament has been unanimous in its response: “Canada is not for sale.” But Canada’s head of state, King Charles, has remained largely silent on the matter — until recently.
Over the last several weeks, observers have started to pick up on subtle signs of support for Canadians from the King. But many people have no doubt been wondering why there’s not been a direct statement of support from King Charles.
The answer to that question isn’t as simple as many people might think.
King of Canada
Since 1689, Britain has been a constitutional monarchy. The sovereign is the head of state, but the prime minister leads the government. As such, the King can’t interfere with politics. He is supposed to remain neutral and be the embodiment of the nation.
This crucial separation between palace and Parliament was solidified in Canada and throughout the Commonwealth in 1931 with the Statute of Westminster. In 1954, the Royal Styles and Titles Act separated the British Crown from the other Commonwealth realms. Queen Elizabeth became the first sovereign to ever be called Queen of Canada.
As a constitutional monarch, King Charles is bound by parliamentary limitations on his authority. He cannot act without taking advice from the prime ministers in his various realms.
This means King Charles can’t make a political statement about the ongoing tensions between Canada and the U.S. without the green light from Ottawa. When asked about the situation in January, a palace official said simply that this is “not something we would comment on.”
“For Canadians disappointed that King Charles has not commented on President Trump’s threats to annex Canada: in his capacity as King of Canada, he can only act on the advice of his Canadian first minister, i.e. Justin Trudeau.”
Or, at this moment, Mark Carney.
Signs of support
The King met with Trudeau at Sandringham, the royal family’s private estate in Norfolk, England, on March 3. This meeting seems to have prompted a series of symbolic gestures demonstrating the monarchy’s solidarity with Canadians.
The next day, the King conducted an inspection of the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in his capacity as head of the Armed Forces. Canadian medals and honours adorned his naval dress uniform during the inspection.
A week later, the King planted a red maple tree at Buckingham Palace to honour Queen Elizabeth’s commitment to the preservation of forests and the bonds among Commonwealth nations.
On March 12, the King met with representatives from the Canadian Senate.
He presented a ceremonial sword to Gregory Peters, the Usher of the Black Rod (one of the Senate’s chief protocol officers). Raymonde Gagné, the speaker of the Senate, was also present for that meeting.
And on March 17, the King met with Carney as part of new prime minister’s whirlwind diplomatic tour of western Europe.
Some observers even pointed to the Princess of Wales’s red dress at the Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration on March 10 as yet another nod of recognition for Canada.
Soft power and the Royal Family
These sorts of gestures are examples of what is known as “soft power.” Unlike the hard power of military and economic force used by governments, soft power describes any number of ways that people or groups can influence others through culture, personal diplomacy and even fashion.
One of the best known forms of the monarchy wielding soft power is through the use of state visits. At the British prime minister’s request, world leaders are invited to London by the sovereign. The red carpet is rolled out for them, they’re wined and dined in lavish dinners at Buckingham Palace and they often make a speech to Parliament.
These state visits are a way for the Royal Family to use their soft power to positively influence diplomatic relations.
In February, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented Trump with an invitation from the King for a second state visit to the U.K.. So far, no date for the trip has been announced, but the King’s meetings with Trudeau and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly irritated Trump.
It remains to be seen how King Charles navigates his constitutional role as both king of the United Kingdom and of Canada. Will Trump’s state visit only be about British interests? Or will Charles use it as a chance to address the concerns of his Canadian subjects?
Justin Vovk received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Justin Vovk is an advisory board member for the Institute of the Study of the Crown in Canada.
Most of the United States’ major climate regulations are underpinned by one important document: It’s called the endangerment finding, and it concludes that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to human health and welfare.
The Trump administration is vowing to eliminate it.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin referred to the 2009 endangerment finding as the “holy grail of the climate religion” when he announced on March 12, 2025, that he would reconsider the finding and all U.S. climate regulations and actions that rely on it. That would include rules to control planet-warming emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane from power plants, vehicles and oil and gas operations.
But revoking the endangerment finding isn’t a simple task. And doing so could have unintended consequences for the very industries Trump is trying to help.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announces plans to reconsider more than 30 climate regulations.
As a law professor, I have tracked federal climate regulations and the lawsuits and court rulings that have followed them over the past 25 years. To understand the challenges, let’s look at the endangerment finding’s origins and Zeldin’s options.
Origin and limits of the endangerment finding
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that six greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and that the EPA has a duty under the same law to determine whether they pose a danger to public health or welfare.
The court also ruled that once the EPA made an endangerment finding, the agency would have a mandatory duty under the Clean Air Act to regulate all sources that contribute to the danger.
The Court emphasized that the endangerment finding was a scientific determination and rejected a laundry list of policy arguments made by the George W. Bush administration for why the government preferred to use nonregulatory approaches to reduce emissions. The court said the only question was whether sufficient scientific evidence exists to determine whether greenhouse gases are harmful.
The finding was challenged and upheld in 2012 by the U.S. District Circuit for the District of Columbia. In that case, Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, the court found that the “body of scientific evidence marshaled by the EPA in support of the endangerment finding is substantial.” The Supreme Court declined to review the decision. The endangerment finding was updated and confirmed by the EPA in 2015 and 2016.
Challenging the endangerment finding
The scientific basis for the endangerment finding is stronger today than it was in 2009.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest assessment report, involving hundreds of scientists and thousands of studies from around the world, concluded that the scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is “unequivocal” and that greenhouse gases from human activities are causing it.
According to the National Climate Assessment released in 2023, the effects of human-caused climate change are already “far-reaching and worsening across every region of the United States.”
Summer temperatures have climbed in much of the U.S. and the world as greenhouse gas emissions have risen. Fifth National Climate Assessment
During President Donald Trump’s first term, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt considered repealing the endangerment finding but ultimately decided against it. In fact, he relied on it in proposing the Affordable Clean Energy Rule to replace President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan for regulating emissions for coal-fired power plants.
What happens if the EPA revokes the endangerment finding?
For the Trump administration to now revoke that finding, Zeldin must first recruit new members of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board to replace those dismissed by the Trump administration. Congress created the board in 1978 to provide independent, unbiased scientific advice to the EPA administrator, and it has consistently supported the 2009 endangerment finding.
Zeldin must then initiate rulemaking in compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act, provide the opportunity for public comment and respond to comments that are likely to be voluminous. This process could take several months if done properly.
If Zeldin then decides to revoke the endangerment finding, lawsuits will immediately challenge the move.
Even if Zeldin is able to revoke the finding, that does not automatically repeal all the rules that rely on it. Each of those rules must go through separate rulemaking processes that will also take months.
Zeldin could simply refuse to enforce the rules on the books while he reconsiders the endangerment finding.
However, a blanket policy abdicating any enforcement responsibility could be challenged in lawsuits as arbitrary and capricious. Further, the regulated industries would be taking a chance if they delayed complying with regulations only to find the endangerment finding and climate laws still in place.
His first argument is that the 2009 endangerment finding did not consider costs. However, that argument was rejected by the D.C. Circuit Court in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA. Cost becomes relevant once the EPA considers new regulations – after the endangerment finding.
Moreover, in a unanimous 2001 decision, the Supreme Court in Whitman v. American Trucking Associations held that the EPA cannot consider cost in setting air quality standards.
A repeal could backfire
Repealing the endangerment finding could also backfire on the fossil fuel industry.
States and cities have filed dozens of lawsuits against the major oil companies. The industry’s strongest argument has been that these cases are preempted by federal law. In AEP v. Connecticut in 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act “displaced” federal common law, barring state claims for remedies related to damages from climate change.
However, if the endangerment finding is repealed, then there is arguably no basis for federal preemption, and these state lawsuits would have legal grounds. Prominent industry lawyers have warned the EPA about this and urged it to focus instead on changing individual regulations. The industry is concerned enough that it may try to get Congress to grant it immunity from climate lawsuits.
To the extent that Zeldin is counting on the conservative Supreme Court to back him up, he may be disappointed.
In 2024, the court overturned the Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations when laws were ambiguous. That means Zeldin’s reinterpretation of the statute is not entitled to deference. Nor can he count on the court overturning its Massachusetts v. EPA ruling to free him to disregard science for policy reasons.
Patrick Parenteau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sarah Stroup, Professor of Political Science; Director, Conflict Transformation Collaborative, Middlebury
The U.S. and U.K. used to be major funders of global immunization programs for children. AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File
The Trump administration’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on March 18, 2025. The court order to pause the agency’s shuttering came days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that 83% of its programs had been cut.
USAID was created in 1961 as the lead agency for U.S. international development. Until recently, it funded health and humanitarian aid programs in more than 130 countries. Despite the administration’s claim of cost-cutting, USAID was a relatively small and economical operation. Its US$40 billion budget accounted for just 0.7% of annual federal spending. Congress also required regular reporting and evaluations on USAID, helping to ensure substantial oversight of how it spent its taxpayer dollars.
Both the U.S. and British foreign aid programs have long prompted heated debates over the proper relationship between development, diplomacy and national security. The U.S. and Britain have long been among the top five providers of development assistance worldwide, and both USAID and DFID have played leading roles in the development community.
Countries give foreign aid for both altruistic and self-interested reasons. Treating global diseases and addressing civil conflicts is a way for wealthy Western governments to limit threats that could destabilize their countries, as well as the rest of the world. It also burnishes their reputation and encourages cooperation with other governments.
Scholars from across the political spectrum and around the world have questioned the general efficacy of foreign assistance, arguing that these programs are designed to serve the interests of donors, not the needs or recipients. Other development experts contend that foreign aid programs, while imperfect, have still made meaningful progress in improving health, education and freedoms.
Britain’s DFID was created in 1997 as an independent, Cabinet-level department deliberately independent of partisan politics. It quickly developed a reputation as a model donor, even among skeptics of international aid.
For example, a staffer at the international medical charity Doctors without Borders told me in a 2006 interview that he had scoffed at the idea of a politics-free aid agency.
Yet, he said, he had found DFID “relatively easier to work with” than other donors.
“I have never heard of someone being told, as a result of accepting DFID funds, what to do, either explicitly or behind closed doors,” he told me.
But its good reputation could not protect DFID. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson announced that DFID would merge with the Foreign Office, Britain’s equivalent of the State Department, to create a new government agency. By uniting aid and diplomacy, Johnson said, the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office would get “maximum value for the British taxpayer,” and he cited the economic impact of COVID to justify his decision.
Foreign aid dropped sharply after the merger, from 0.7% of Britain’s gross national income to 0.5% – a cut of about US$6 billion.
Development professionals decried Johnson’s merger, arguing it could not have happened at a worse time, with the pandemic heightening the need for global health funding. And coming shortly after Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, DFID’s demise further called into question Britain’s commitment to global cooperation.
Less money, less impact
Five years later, it’s not clear that dismantling DFID has made British foreign aid more efficient or effective, as Johnson pledged.
“We have seen evidence of where a more integrated approach has improved the organisation’s ability to respond to international crises and events, which has led to a better result,” reads one 2025 report by the U.K.’s National Audit Office.
Yet, the auditors add, the British government has spent at least £24.7 million – US$32 million – to merge its aid and diplomacy offices, and it failed to track these costs. Nor did the leaders of the merger set out a clear vision for its new purpose.
From the outset, DFID had invested substantially in building expertise in global development, particularly in conflict-ridden states. In 2001, for example, it spent almost 5% of its budget – an unusually high amount – on research and policy analysis to design and assess its programs.
Given the “development expertise that was lost with the merger,” the U.K. government can no longer conduct “the kind of rigorous, long-term focus necessary to make a real impact,” said the Center for Global Development in a recent report.
A 2022 study suggests that DFID’s dismantling was a fundamentally political move, “divorced from substantive analysis of policy or inter-institution relationships.”
Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the leftist Labour Party, initially promised to boost British foreign aid. But in early March 2025, he backtracked, announcing instead a further cut to foreign aid.
By 2027, the U.K. government will spend just 0.3% of its budget on overseas aid. That’s roughly $11 billion less than before the merger in 2019.
‘Clear and easy target’
USAID’s budget was much larger than DFID’s, and the administration apparently wants not to streamline U.S. foreign aid but halt it almost entirely. If this effort succeeds, it will have even more severe effects worldwide, at least in the immediate term.
Development professionals tend to see independent government agencies such as USAID and DFID as better able to prioritize the needs of the poor because their programming is run separately from partisan policies.
Yet standalone agencies are also more visible – and so more vulnerable to political targeting.
DFID was a clear and easy target when Johnson began his pandemic-era budget-slashing. USAID is now suffering a similar fate.
Sarah Stroup does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
British start-up wins £1 million AI prize for breakthrough slashing materials development from years to days
A British AI-driven innovation that dramatically speeds up the development of materials used in wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries has won the UK government’s £1 million Manchester Prize.
Manchester Prize winner announced.
Polaron awarded £1 million for revolutionary AI technology transforming materials innovation.
Breakthrough expected to fast-track new materials for energy, infrastructure, and electric vehicles.
Manchester Prize helping to unlock AI innovation to drive growth as part of government’s Plan for Change.
A British AI-driven innovation that dramatically speeds up the development of materials used in wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries has won the UK government’s £1 million Manchester Prize.
Advanced materials are essential to modern life, from metal alloys reinforcing bridges and skyscrapers to batteries powering electric vehicles. Yet, developing them has traditionally been slow, costly and unpredictable.
Polaron, a spin out from Imperial College London, speeds up the development of these materials from years to days – which could be game-changing for the government’s Plan for Change to get Britain building, deliver economic growth and accelerate net zero through British innovation.
It will receive £1 million in UK government funding to further develop its groundbreaking AI solution which uses microstructural images – the microscopic features of a material visible under a microscope – to rapidly analyse and predict how materials will perform. This new approach helps manufacturers create stronger, lighter and more efficient materials for clean energy, transport and infrastructure.
Secretary of State Peter Kyle said:
Polaron exemplifies the promise of AI and shows how, through our Plan for Change, we are putting AI innovation at the forefront.
AI could generate £400 billion to our economy over the next five years, supporting trailblazing companies like Polaron is essential to achieving that vision.
Technologies like these will help us meet our net zero targets while creating new jobs and opportunities for working people. Our commitment is clear – we are fully embracing AI to drive growth, improve public services and position the UK as a global leader in AI innovation. 1
The Manchester Prize rewards innovative AI solutions addressing major societal challenges, with the first round focused on energy, environment, and infrastructure. Nearly 300 teams from across the UK competed in its first year, with ten finalists each receiving £100,000 and support to further develop their innovations.
Polaron’s win comes on the back of the UK government’s new blueprint for AI, which will unleash the technology to help deliver a decade of national renewal. Harnessing innovative AI solutions like this is key to realising the government’s Plan for Change and demonstrates the transformative potential of AI, not only to drive breakthroughs in industry but also to transform public services and improve the lives of citizens across the country.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
Our Plan for Change will deliver economic growth, and for that to succeed we need to support companies such as Polaron across the UK in delivering the cutting-edge materials of the future, supported by our Industrial Strategy.
This government is determined to embrace each and every opportunity of new technologies like AI, which will not only help British companies develop products we can use at home but also open up access for them to export them overseas.
The government has already taken steps to accelerate how game changing technologies and innovations can be put into the hands of the British public – announcing the new Regulatory Innovation Office which will reduce burdens for businesses hoping to bring new products and services to market. This will involve supporting regulators to update regulation, speeding up approvals, and ensuring regulators can work seamlessly together – bulldozing barriers to innovation to help grow the economy.
The Manchester Prize was launched in December 2023 by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) and is delivered in partnership with Challenge Works. It supports UK AI innovations which will help to tackle some of society’s biggest shared challenges.
The second round of the Manchester Prize was launched in November 2024, focussed on ‘AI for Clean Energy Systems’. The 10 finalists selected to receive £100,000 will be confirmed in Spring, before a panel of judges selects the winner who will secure a £1 million grand prize to further support their innovation.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
News story
Revision to March 2024 Neighbourhood Policing Numbers
Neighbourhood policing statistics have been corrected today due to inaccuracies in the previous government’s police workforce data.
The government has today published corrected neighbourhood policing numbers due to inaccuracies in the previous government’s police workforce statistics.
The issues were uncovered as part of a data validation exercise commissioned by the Home Secretary and carried out by the NPCC to establish an accurate picture of the number of officers serving in neighbourhood roles. It follows long-standing concerns from both the Home Office and police forces about the accuracy of previously published workforce figures for neighbourhood policing.
Whilst this does not mean that the overall police numbers were incorrect, it demonstrates that the real number of neighbourhood police officers working in our communities has been artificially inflated in recent years. The government is clear that the public – who have seen and felt the reduction in neighbourhood officers and PCSOs on their streets in recent years – deserve far better than this.
It comes as the government is introducing the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, to ensure that everyone has a named contactable police officer.
As part of the data validation exercise, all police forces were asked to verify the previously published workforce data published under the “neighbourhood policing” category for March 2024. The work revealed substantial discrepancies between the previously published data and the updated figures being provided by forces which more accurately reflect the reality on the ground. Of the 43 forces in England and Wales, 29 advised that their published combined neighbourhood officer and PCSO numbers should be revised down, whilst four forces revised their figures upwards. This resulted in an overall downwards revision of 2,611 compared to the figures published last year.
Forces have cited several reasons for revisions to their March 2024 data which have now been thoroughly tested by the Home Office with individual forces. Some forces say they made human resources (HR) errors after restructuring their neighbourhood policing model or relied on outdated HR systems. Others incorrectly categorised student officers in neighbourhood policing as default, despite them still being in the classroom and not out on our streets, fully trained. Errors also occurred through the incorrect categorisation of officers who perform roles that span multiple functions as in some cases, officers were recorded as working in neighbourhood policing roles when in reality they covered multiple duties, such as incident response. This blurring of the lines between officer duties did not accurately reflect the real number of dedicated neighbourhood officers patrolling our streets.
It is vital for both the government and police forces that they have a clear and accurate understanding of the state of neighbourhood policing in our communities.
The Home Office has now issued new instructions and guidance directly to forces on the categorisation of neighbourhood policing to ensure that we are recording them correctly, particularly on the distinction between response officers and neighbourhood police officers, and how to categorise classroom-based student officers. This means that systems are now in place to prevent these errors from happening in the future and to ensure that the data can be relied on going forward. The department will now require robust neighbourhood policing data returns from individual forces on a monthly basis to track the neighbourhood policing workforce more closely. This will be aligned with a strong performance framework harnessing national data to monitor performance and direct improvements in order to raise standards across the service.
The government’s flagship Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will put police back on the beat with 13,000 additional police officers and PCSOs in neighbourhood roles in communities across the country. Each neighbourhood will have a named, contactable officer to tackle the issues facing their communities, and there will be guaranteed, intelligence-led patrols in town centres and high streets, with new powers to tackle the criminality and anti-social behaviour plaguing our streets.
Due to the quick work by forces to rectify the statistical errors, the numbers published today are provisional and will be confirmed in an official statistical release in the usual way.
The Home Secretary has today written to the Home Affairs Select Committee to set out this information in more detail.
Further information
Table 1: March 2024 published data and NPCC revised data (as at 18 March 2025)
March 2024 published data
March 2024 data submitted by NPCC
Difference
% Difference
Officers (FTE)
13,424
10,664
-2,760
-21%
PCSOs (FTE)
6,210
6,359
+149
+2%
TOTAL (FTE)
19,634
17,023
-2,611
-13%
Forces making large reductions (either in terms of numbers, FTE, or as a proportion of neighbourhood policing workforce):
West Midlands Police
A revision in previous statistics downwards of 649 officers from 1,045
Reason: Following being placed into ‘Engaged’ status by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in December 2023 (following serious concerns over its investigations and victim outcomes), the force had redeployed a number of neighbourhood resources into ‘Responding to calls for service’ and ‘Investigations’. However, system identifiers on HR systems had not been updated which generated the significant administrative inaccuracy. West Midlands have since been removed from ‘Engaged’ status by HMICFRS.
Gloucestershire Constabulary
A revision in previous statistics downwards by 66% and a slight decrease for PCSOs
Reason: Specialist functions, investigative resources, and patrol had previously been included in the neighbourhood policing category in error. The inaccuracy of the original data appears to be primarily related to the unique post identifiers in a recently implemented HR System, which Gloucestershire are looking to update.
Suffolk Constabulary
A revision in previous statistics downwards for a large number of officers and some PCSOs that will result in data fall by 52%
Reason: The force has identified a series of errors in the categorisation of roles, such as the inclusion of student officers in the neighbourhood policing category when they should have been included as category 1b (Incident (Response) Management). additionally, several of Suffolk’s specialist reassurance teams were included in neighbourhood policing when they should have been recorded as category 1c (Specialist Community Liaison) and several senior manager posts were included in neighbourhood policing rather than 1d (‘Local Policing Command Team’).
Thames Valley Police
A revision in previous statistics downwards by 33% for neighbourhood officers and 20% downwards for neighbourhood workforce overall
Reason: Identified discrepancies in how neighbourhood policing roles were recorded, following a recent internal review. The issues stemmed from technical limitations and differences between job titles and the detail of roles performed by officers.
Merseyside Police
A revision in previous statistics downwards by 209 neighbourhood officers, although offset by a 182 increase in PCSOs
Reason: Student officers were mistakenly included as neighbourhood policing officers. All PCSOs were incorrectly categorised under 1c “Specialist Community Liaison”. In addition, they had included local public order / neighbourhood tactical teams under 1a, when they should have been classified under 5f “Advanced Public Order.
Dorset Police
A revision in previous statistics downwards by 38% in overall neighbourhood policing numbers
Reason: The force revised the figures to ensure that only those officers and PCSOs dedicated to neighbourhood policing functions were included. They excluded those in functions that do not contribute to neighbourhood policing including specialist functions, investigative resources, and patrol, which had previously been included in the neighbourhood policing category in error.
WASHINGTON – The Department of the Army has announced the seven winners of the 2024 Army Community Partnership Awards.
“The installations honored this year highlight the excellent commitment to partnering with communities and strengthening those relationships that allow us to provide the best possible resources for Soldiers and their families,” said Lt. Gen. David Wilson, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-9.
The Army Community Partnership Awards Program seeks to highlight examples of exceptional cooperation and diligence that will encourage continued collaboration to achieve the full potential of community partnerships. The awardees represent partnerships that have improved quality of life for Soldiers and their families, enhanced readiness, driven modernization and contributed to reform initiatives throughout the Army.
“These partnerships exemplify the collaboration required to enhance our resilience, improve quality of life for our Soldiers and their families, and bolster our operational readiness to meet the needs of our Army today and tomorrow,” said Daniel M. Klippstein, senior official performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment.
The Army selected seven winners and their neighboring communities that formed innovative partnerships that improve quality of life for Soldiers and families, enhance readiness, modernize services, provide efficiencies, expand capabilities and strengthen community relations.
Fort Leonard Wood and the cities of Saint Robert and Waynesville: Fort Leonard Wood’s new airfield lease project supports the construction of a new non-Army funded terminal critical to the long-term viability of commercial jet service to and from the installation. The new 25-year lease, new terminal, and past investments in planning, improvements, and repairs reiterates long-term commitments from the cities, the FAA and the state of Missouri to maintain accessibility to Fort Leonard Wood. The new terminal will modernize and increase the efficiency of all terminal operational and security services, systems and processes as compared to existing legacy facilities.
U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, Pōhakuloa Training Area and the Hawaii County Fire & Emergency Services: The Mutual Aid Agreement between USAG-HI (PTA) and the Hawaii County Fire & Emergency Services seamlessly integrates resources and joint training exercises. This collaboration is a robust mutual support system enhancing the regional emergency response capabilities. Collaboration between PTA and Hawaii County Fire & Emergency Services maximizes shared resource utilization and operational efficiency.
Picatinny Arsenal and the Morris County Municipalities & Fire Districts: The MAA between Picatinny Arsenal and the Morris County Municipalities & Fire Districts provides 24-hour emergency dispatching service at no cost to the Army. The partnership enhances Picatinny’s emergency response capabilities and fills a gap in service availability. By partnering with Morris County, Picatinny Arsenal improved their firefighting capabilities through real-world responses and joint training exercises. The MAA enabled Picatinny to access 24/7 emergency response while also realizing significant cost savings.
Fort Carson and the Colorado Springs Utilities: The intergovernmental support agreement between Fort Carson and the Colorado Springs Utilities provides Fort Carson with superior operations and maintenance of electric and gas systems beyond pre-IGSA capabilities. Partnering with CSU enhances Fort Carson’s energy resilience by creating the capability to operate independently in the event of an off-post electrical grid failure. The IGSA created the on-post generation and microgrid capabilities necessary to operate during an off-post blackouts.
Fort Bliss and the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board: This IGSA between USAG-Fort Bliss and the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board provides engineering, technical, project design, consultant services, minor construction, repair, maintenance, geotechnical services, land surveying, soil borings, water quality testing, and water resource planning services associated with and incidental to stormwater management, water quality, water conservation, and those types of capital improvement projects.
U.S. Army Garrison Poland and the Republic of Poland: The Polish Provided Logistics Support provides in-kind logistical support to the U.S. Army. The PPLS provides infrastructure, logistical support and munitions storage to facilitate joint military exercises as part of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The availability of pre-positioned equipment and supplies improves the readiness of U.S. forces in the region, enabling a stronger alliance and faster response times.
U.S. Army War College and the Cumberland County Department of Public Safety: The MAA between U.S. Army War College and the Cumberland County Department of Public Safety expands operational and mission capabilities by sharing capacity, resources and capabilities. Cooperating with CCDPS has enhanced the War College’s emergency response capabilities. The partnership utilizes joint training and planning, shared emergency response resources, and shared expertise to enhance shared public safety and emergency response capabilities.
Awardees included partnerships signed in fiscal years 2021-2024 by garrisons, reserve centers and armories. Submissions were evaluated using the following criteria:
Improves Soldier/family quality of life
Improves or enhances readiness
Modernizes a service, system or process
Provides cost or other efficiencies
Expands capability
Improves community relations
The awards ceremony will be held in the Pentagon Hall of Heroes on April 10, 2025, from 10:00 to 11:00 AM.
For additional information, please contact the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-9, usarmy.pentagon.hqda-dcs-g-9.list.sig@mail.mil.
MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota state Senator Justin David Eichorn has been charged via federal criminal complaint with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.
According to the criminal complaint, on March 12, 2025, Bloomington Police detectives began an undercover operation to target commercial sex involving juveniles. Law enforcement placed online advertisements offering commercial sex. Unbeknownst to the prospective sex buyers, it was in fact undercover law enforcement officers who received and responded to the messages.
On March 11, 2025, undercover officers began receiving messages from Eichorn, age 40, inquiring, “I saw your post and [sic] chance you are still available tonight?” and then later, “What’s a guy gota do to get with the hottest girl online tonight.” Over the course of messaging over several days, the undercover officer repeatedly said that she was not 18 but was, in fact, 17 years old. Even so, Eichorn proceeded to ask the undercover officer about pricing for various sex acts she might perform, and then Eichorn arranged an in-person meet-up to pay for commercial sex. Eichorn also requested that the undercover officer—whom he believed to be a 17-year-old minor—send him “a naught[y] pic” including one “with lot less clothes.” Eichorn arrived at the agreed-upon location to find law enforcement waiting to apprehend him. In his car, among other things, law enforcement found cash and a condom.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has no tolerance for public officials who violate federal law—particularly those laws meant to protect children,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick. “I am grateful to the Bloomington Police Department, to the FBI, and to all law enforcement officers who use undercover operations to identify and arrest child sex predators to prevent them from abusing real children.”
“The actions alleged in this case are an appalling attempt to exploit an innocent and vulnerable minor,” said Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of FBI Minneapolis. “The FBI and our partners are committed to protecting children from predators who seek to harm them. Every child deserves to grow up in a safe environment, free from the threat of exploitation.”
“If you come to the Orange Jumpsuit District looking to have sex with someone’s child, expect to leave in handcuffs,” said Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges. “We will not tolerate predators in our community. I have long advocated for stronger penalties for these crimes, and this case is yet another example of why tougher laws are necessary. Our state legislature must take this issue seriously—protecting children should never be up for debate.”
Eichorn was charged by complaint today in U.S. District Court with one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.
A complaint is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
CHILDREN and young people with special educational needs and disabilities have been recognised for their achievements at a celebration event.
The awards ceremony – which was generously sponsored by local businesses – was held as part of a recent drop-in event called Local Offer Live. It saw children commended for their resilience, bravery and educational achievements.
Among those getting an award was 16-year-old Ruby Tebbutt, a pupil at Tudor Grange Samworth Academy. Ruby received a Positive Contribution to Society award in the 12-25 age group category, for her courage in sharing her personal story of autism with her school.
Jemma Cox from the academy, who nominated Ruby, said: “Ruby completed an exceptional speaking and listening exam in English, where she bravely shared her own experience of being autistic. She highlighted the importance of teachers recognising and respecting the unique challenges faced by autistic students.”
Jemma also nominated 16-year-old Samworth student Cohen Smith for a Shining Star award. As well as overcoming significant barriers to improve his own attendance and behaviour, Cohen has been supporting his friends, meeting one friend in reception every day and walking him to class to ensure he felt welcomed and supported. “This consistent act of kindness has not only helped the student to improve his attendance, it has also boosted his confidence and sense of belonging,” Jemma said.
Hayden Rosario, aged 17, from Nether Hall School, won the Art, Music & Media award in the 12-25 category. Nominator Michael Norton from the school said: “Hayden started to learn the glockenspiel last year and has developed his skills and confidence so much in a short space of time. He played ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight?’ by Elton John to a crowd of hundreds of people. Who knows where Hayden’s talent and hard work will take him, but all at Nether Hall School are so proud of him.”
Ten-year-old Samuel Davies from St John the Baptist Primary School won the 0-10 Sports Award. Samuel is an all-round sportsperson who was nominated for his wonderful listening skills, teamwork and great resilience, as well as for his achievements in cross-country running. As a child with ADHD and autism, these sporting opportunities provide Samuel with vital opportunities to communicate and connect socially with others.
Hayden Rosario (centre)
Ruby Tebbutt (left)
Samuel Davies (centre)
Assistant city mayor for children and young people, Cllr Elaine Pantling, said: “It was wonderful to see these awards handed out at Local Offer Live. These are young people who have worked so hard and given back so much to their school communities, and it’s great to see them recognised for that.
“Our specialist staff in our disabled children’s service, along with our dedicated education professionals, work in partnership with schools to support children with additional needs. We’re always really proud when the children do amazing things and achieve to their full potential.”
More information about city council and partners’ services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families, can be found at: https://families.leicester.gov.uk/send-local-offer/
ENDS
Top picture shows Cllr Elaine Pantling (centre) with award winner Cohen Smith and nominator Jemma Cox
Montréal, Quebec, March 19, 2025 — A further step has been taken towards a new modern aquatic sports complex that will be built in Montréal-Nord on the site of the former Garon arena, thanks to contributions of $88 million from the City of Montreal and $15 million from the federal government.
This announcement was made by Emmanuel Dubourg, Member of Parliament for Bourassa, Caroline Bourgeois, Mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, responsible for Sports and Recreation and for East Montreal on the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal and Christine Black, Borough mayor of Montréal-Nord.
Sports Component
This funding will allow for the construction of the sports section, which will include a double gymnasium, a gymnastics hall, a three-lane walking track, locker rooms, bleachers, and administrative offices for organizations. Adapted to the current and future needs of the community, this modern facility will offer enhanced and diversified recreational and sports programs for citizens of all age groups in the borough of Montréal-Nord. The centre aims to improve access to sports facilities for all, promote the adoption of healthy lifestyles, and strengthen the local social fabric.
The design of the new building follows a rigorous sustainable development approach. The goal is to achieve a LEED Gold v4 certification, ensuring optimal energy efficiency, responsible resource use, and a reduced environmental footprint. Furthermore, the project will integrate the new building standards provided in the BCZ-Design v4 standard, meeting the latest standards for ecological performance and climate resilience. This new sports centre embodies Montréal-Nord’s commitment to sustainability, inclusivity, and the well-being of its entire community, while actively contributing to improving the quality of life for its citizens.
Aquatic Component
Before the confirmation of financial contributions from other levels of government, the City of Montreal had already planned investments estimated at $88M in this project for the construction of the pool. With the desire to move forward quickly, the aquatic component of the sports complex has already been in planning for two years. Once the project’s financial structure is completed and the construction work is finished, the sports and aquatic facilities will be connected.
Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Ron Johnson
WASHINGTON – On Monday, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel requesting their offices take immediate action to remove all redactions from interview transcripts relating to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s (DOJ OIG) examination of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
In April 2023, the senators requested these unredacted transcripts from the DOJ OIG. However, the DOJ OIG informed the senators that the redactions in those transcripts were made by other government agencies, such as the FBI and DOJ, and the DOJ OIG lacked the authority to release the information.
The senators’ recent letter calls on DOJ and FBI to work with the DOJ OIG to produce these unredacted versions of the transcripts as soon as possible.
Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Ron Johnson
The Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act passed the Senate last week with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 84-16.
The HALT Fentanyl Act incorporates the permanent scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, which I first introduced in 2017 in the Stopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues Act (SOFA). It ensures law enforcement has the tools they need to stop fentanyl’s flow into our country.
SOFA served as the template for the Trump administration’s temporary scheduling rule in 2018, and it recognizes the admirable devotion of Wisconsinites Dr. Tim Westlake and Lauri Badura (pictured above). Ms. Badura, who founded Saving Others for Archie, made it her life’s mission to end the fentanyl crisis after tragically losing her son, Archie, to fentanyl poisoning.
WATCH: Video message from families (including Baduras) to pass the HALT Act
WATCH: 2017 video with Lauri telling Archie’s story
As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, I met with President Trump last week and we discussed my plan to get spending back to pre-pandemic levels – saving a minimum of $700 billion.
There is so much room for reducing the size of the federal government and balancing the budget is entirely doable. I look forward to working with the White House and getting spending under control.
Thank you to Kevin O’Leary for highlighting my chart on Fox Business. This is an eminently reasonable approach to returning to a pre-pandemic level of spending.
WATCH: Sen. Johnson on Fox Business discusses his White House meeting
WATCH: Sen. Johnson on the Jesse Kelly podcast reviews his plan to balance budget
LISTEN: I joined the MAHA Alliance podcast for a powerful discussion on the MAHA movement, RFK Jr., and government corruption.
I was highly disappointed to hear that the nomination of Dr. David Weldon to lead the CDC has been withdrawn. Although we will never know exactly why his nomination was pulled, I suspect it had something to do with the fact he has had the courage to be skeptical of the consensus “narrative” surrounding the childhood vaccine schedule. Skepticism is the vital attribute of true science, and it is beyond unfortunate that someone with his background and integrity will not be able to help fix what is broken at the CDC. (I discussed this on Off the Record podcast with Emily Jashinsky.)
My X post on the news that Steak n’ Shake will soon be using Wisconsin butter instead of a “buttery blend”.
I helped introduce a bipartisan, bicameral bill to expand federal funding for bike and pedestrian safety. The bill is named for American diplomat and Wisconsin native Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, who was killed in 2022 while riding her bicycle in Bethesda.
The Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Safety Transportation Act will expand federal funding opportunities for local governments to improve roadway safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
While honoring Sarah, this bill will protect Wisconsinites by investing in infrastructure to enhance road safety for pedestrians and cyclists. By using taxpayer dollars effectively, it will help prevent further deaths from preventable traffic accidents and ensure Americans feel safe when using our roads.
Thank you to everyone who participated in my 114th telephone town hall last week.
We are now streaming our town halls on X, so you can listen to it here.
Questions asked include:
11:45 Introduction 13:45 Protecting personal information from DOGE 16:27 Will there be cuts to Social Security and Medicare? 18:40 Justice System transparency 20:20 Wasteful spending examples 24:00 Is Social Security a legal Ponzi scheme? 29:00 ICE and deportations 31:31 Federal worker layoffs 35:04 How do we make the spending cuts permanent? 40:55 Inspector Generals and oversight 43:30 Support for Veterans and the VA 46:08 COVID-19 vaccine requirements for citizenship 48:04 Wisconsin manufacturing and tariffs 51:35 Controlling crime and fentanyl 54:35 Taxing pensions 56:45 Bipartisanship 1:00:25 Federal voter ID and proof of citizenship 1:02:36 Balancing the budget
To join future telephone town halls live, sign up here. There is also a link on that page to submit written questions during the live town halls.
