UK Politics 22nd January – 28th January

Unemployment has fallen to its lowest since

Unemployment has fallen by 3,000 in the last three months, which is showed unemployment has fallen to 4.3%. This is due to an increase of 102,000 workforce in the same three months, which lead to the total employment to 32.2 million in the UK. However, while there has been an increase in employment, the real wage remains at a low 2.4%, remaining 0.7% below the inflation of 3.1% in November the year before.

The budget cuts in Scottish government is leading to questioning of it affecting the climate change ambitions

While there is an overall increase in Scottish government spending, including a 20% increase in climate change spending to £558 million, the environment committee is questioning whether or not this shows the full picture. They claim that while this is the case, the spending on agriculture, the third biggest admitter of the greenhouse gases they wish to stop, by 30%. Furthermore, funding for the peatland restoration, the program introduced in order to lock in the remaining carbon, has a decrease of 40%. This is following a statement from the UK committee on climate change reported on Scotland’s climate ambitions stating “that there have not been significant emission reductions in most sectors outside electricity generation in recent years”

David’s opnion shift on Brexit: “turned out less badly then we first thought”

In 2016, David Cameron called the UK wide referendum which gave the option of opting out of the EU, which resulted in the leave side winning, and so David Cameron’s resignation.The former prime minister stated at the World Economic Forum that he believed the Leave vote was “a mistake not a disaster”. He followed this comment saying that “it’s still going to be difficult”. The negotiations are still being agreed upon for the date of the UKs departure, currently set on the 29th of March.

(David Cameron present at the World Economic Forum in 2018)

Countering “Fake News”

UK government is planning to establish a new unit in order to counter the “fake news”. As Theresa May’s spokesman has stated that they are going to introduce a “dedicated national security communications unit” that would be there to combat “disinformation by state actors and others”. This is due to the it being a growing issue, especially following Trumps USA campaign on “fake news”. Fake news is the complete false spread of information, to purposefully created to confuse or misinform the public body, leading to further confusion and miss voting.

8,000 homes for homeless

Jeremy Corbyn just pledged 8,000 to those that have living homeless “immediately” if Labour are to come into power. This is planned through a increase in council properties, as well as a increase in removal of properties that are being kept empty deliberately. “We would give local authorities the power to take over deliberately kept empty properties” Corbyn said, believing that we “have to have a social objective and a social priority in our society?”. Furthermore, Labour says that they would work with charities to identify rough sleepers to offer accommodation to them as “quickly as possible”. In 2017, there was a 15% increase in those that were sleeping homeless, following an increase through the last seven years. While the Labour leader makes these statements, Conservative Cabinet Office Minister, David Lidington, said that Conservatives have “pledged to halve rough sleeping by 2022”

 

US Politics 18th January – 24th January

The US government goes into shutdown

With the deadline for an agreement on the spending bill ending on Friday, the government has gone into partial shutdown with due to no budget agreement. This is due to major disagreements over the immigration spending, especially over the 800,000 undocumented young people brought into the U.S. as children under the DACA executive order. However since Friday, they have come to an agreement that lasts up until the 8th of February, since the Democrats managed to get Republicans to agree that they would look into integrating DACA into permanent law, despite the White House releasing a statement saying that “The President would not negotiate on immigration reform until Democrats stop playing games”. This was due to Republicans feeling that Democrats were prioritising illegal immigrants over lawful Americans, something which Republicans take a much stricter stance on.

Syria and Russia speak against America over the conflicts in Syria

Both countries have made a joint statement that they believe America made up the chemical weapons to stop the conflict ending. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, went to the Interfax news agency claiming that whenever peace efforts are advanced in Syria, the USA uses “rigged, unverified reports” of chemical weapons to stop the progression of these peace agreements. These claims are in response to the USA joining their NATO allies in a pressure campaign against the use of the chemical weapons in Syria, after the death of 20 citizens in Syria due to chlorine gas attacks in East Ghouta, according to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

(Sergei Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister)

New Sanctions on North Korea

White House administration has imposed new sanctions aimed at halting North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. The Department of Treasury placed sanctions on nine different institutions in relation to the efforts; two China-based trading firms that were using Pyongyang’s defence sector to export millions of dollars worth of metals, alongside five North Korean shipping companies. On top of the institutions, sixteen different individuals have also been target by the sanctions, including members of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, as well as ten China and Russia based representatives of the Korean Ryondong General Corporation. The sanctions on these institutions and individuals is due to them “financing the Kim regime and its weapons programs” the Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, revealed in a statement.

Trumps wall investments

Trumps administration announced that they are planning to replace the existing vehicle barriers with bollard walls to deter and prevent illegal crossings. The targeted area of the wall is the El Paso Sector, an area that has been an active route of human smuggling and drug trafficking, officials labelling it “an area of high illegal entry”. In 2016, the Border Patrol declared they arrested more than 25,000 suspected illegal immigrants, as well as 67,000 pounds of marijuana. For this process, Trumps administration has asked for $1.6 million to replace 74 miles this year, and then a further $1.6 million next year to work on similar products. On top of this, the Customs and Border Protection calls for another $18 billion investment over the next ten years to extend barriers across various segments of the border.

(El Paso, situated on top of the Mexican-US border)

Trumps team creates Campaign Ad on Murder causes backlash

The campaign ad, “Complicit”, focuses on the story of Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant that was charged for killing two police officers in California in 2014. In the advert, the voice over claims that “Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in ever murder committed by illegal immigrants”. Specifically, the ad went after Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, saying that he is “holding lawful citizens hostage over their demands for amnesty for illegal immigrants”.  Following the shutdown from the disagreement over DACA, this advert is extremely childish and isn’t going to help in moving forward and coming to an agreement before the 8th of February, and is another example of Trump using fear and hate to work towards his advantage, following a President campaign that had an estimated 33% of ‘negative ads’, attacking many individuals in the process.

US Politics 11th January – 17th January

Haiti and Africa are “S***hole Countries”

These are the reported words said by current president, Donald Trump, during a White House meeting on immigration. Furthering this, he also added that more people should be let in from places such as Norway, rather than Africa. Raj Shah, White House spokesperson, was forced to make a statement by various media outlets, and in his statement had no denial of those words that had been told to the public, instead stating that the Trump will reject “temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures”. However, this hasn’t stopped other officials speaking out about it. Missesoat Rep, Ilhan Omar opened up that he was “ashamed, disturbed and outraged that the leader of the United States can’t see beyond his own embarrassing privilege”, further adding that he himself is a “Proud immigrant, refugee, Minnesotan and a proud State Legislator”. His distain was reflected by many other legislators, including Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who stated that he wanted more details “regarding the president’s comments”.

House approves renewal of anti-terror surveillance law

The representatives voted 256-164 to renew the key surveillance law that the U.S. uses to stop foreign terrorists. However, the executive showed that it may not be as clear cut when Trump made a remark implying his dislike towards the act due to him believing it was used to look in on his 2016 presidential campaign, but  just over an hour later Trump went and tweeted his support of the act. The act itself allows for U.S. agencies to collect emails and texts of foreigners overseas without authorization. However while the President and House have given the legislation the thumbs up, the other half of the legislatives approval is needed before it can come back into reinforcement, which is set be voted on the 18th of January. FBI Director has already put his support behind the act, believeing that it is a valuable tool for the U.S. in fighting terrorism. The House Speaker Paul Ryan said himself in 2016 that the act gave the U.S. the “intelligence we needed to go after and kill ISIS’s finance minister”

Partisanship Democrats accuse Trump of further Russian connections

This week has seen the blows of the Democratic lawmakers with in Congress fall onto the shoulders of the Trump Administration, claiming that the investigations have been undermined, while the White House claims that the only people influencing the case are “director Comey and Democrats in Congress”, according to White House press Secretary Sarah Huckabee. This all follows due to the uproar that followed after Dianna Feinstein, a Democratic, released private conversations between congressional investigators and a political researcher that had hired a former British spy to investigate the ties between Russia and Trump, with the evidence being described as “alarming” by Glen Simpson, who was a member present of the private conversation. This lead to Trump calling the whole operation “a disgrace” as he claimed it was done in a “possibly illegal way, totally without authorization”, although minority Senate leader hit back, claiming that the goal of the Republicans was “to discredit the investigation so that, ultimately, they can discredit any findings that are detrimental to their party or their president”

The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace. Must have tough Primary!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 10 January 2018