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AfD launches manifesto as campaign season for German election begins

Polling for the far-right insurgent and its extreme policies is rising but other parties have closed ranks against it despite their weak popularity Germany’s far-right AfD party has signed off on its manifesto before next month’s critical election, proposing a series of deeply controversial policies on everything from migration to education as the campaign for a new government in Europe’s powerhouse formally kicked off. The party, founded in 2013, endorsed the far-right concept of “re-migration” into its programme, threatening the mass deportation of migrants if they came into power. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1njwUq2

McAtee hits hat-trick as Manchester City brutally expose Class of 92’s Salford

Manchester City reeled off a third win on the bounce and it was all the sweeter with their victims ­having such strong Manchester United connections. Salford City, owned by the Class of 92, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Phil and Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, were always primed to be easy fall-guys and with 65 places between them and England’s champions, Karl Robinson’s men were cuffed aside as if in an exhibition. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2amKUpM

Majority of Britons believe Musk having negative impact on UK politics

More voters think tech tycoon’s comments on grooming gangs are unhelpful than those who back him More than half of voters think Elon Musk is having a negative effect on British politics following his criticism of Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer . The South African-born billionaire has spent much of the past week using his social media platform X to attack Starmer and the Labour government for their opposition to another national inquiry into grooming gangs. He accused Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of being a “rape genocide apologist ” and falsely claimed Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes ”. Despite strong suggestions that Musk is preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK, he also recently tore into Nigel Farage, saying he was not up to the job of leading the party. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VZa2wIT

Trump’s conviction is the latest twist in the Maga story | Lloyd Green

The supreme court order may also be a harbinger of what awaits the US over the next four years: litigation that again divides the judiciary and the nation Donald Trump will take the office on 20 January 2025 as a convicted felon. On Thursday night, a sharply divided US supreme court declined to ride to his last-minute rescue . In a one-paragraph order, the majority refused to stay his state court-sentencing whose genesis lay with payments that Trump allegedly arranged to cover up his purported affair with the adult film actor Stormy Daniels. Last May, a Manhattan jury unanimously found the 45th president guilty of 34 counts of conspiracy and fraud. The supreme court order may also be a harbinger of what awaits the US over the next four years: litigation that again divides the judiciary and the nation. Five of the nine supreme court justices, including chief justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, refused to buy what the monarch of Mar-a-Lago was selling. Th...

Rachel Reeves must handle bond sell-off with care, but this is not a Truss-level event

Unlike 2022, bond markets have not been shocked, but the chancellor will know threat of a doom loop is not far away Borrowing costs at the highest level since 1998, the pound at a 14-month low and some major UK company shares dropping like a stone. For a government that had pledged a return to economic stability, it has been a tough start to 2025 for Rachel Reeves. As the chancellor prepared to fly to China to promote closer economic ties with Beijing, the blow-up in the bond market appeared to ease on Thursday after a rough couple of days. But Reeves is still battling a political fire and comparisons to Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-budget . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/n4IzZqa

Cuts, tax rises and doing nothing: Rachel Reeves’ options to tackle economic woe

Labour’s fiscal rules may limit the chancellor’s ability to act, but waiting it out may be the best option The UK government has come under pressure from a bond market sell-off and the tumbling pound, heaping pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to reassure investors about Britain’s economic and financial position. After a challenging first six months in power for the government, the chancellor’s options have been limited by Labour’s political promises. There are a range of measures, of varying severity, the Treasury and the Bank of England could still take, depending on how market conditions unfold. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/p7TMi64

Tories’ Pavlovian response to Elon Musk’s tweets leads to shameless PMQs

Kemi Badenoch wanted an inquiry because she wanted an inquiry. Why was that difficult to understand? Last weekend the Daily Mail ran a front-page story about the imminent demise of Keir Starmer. A few days on and it’s increasingly looking like Kemi Badenoch whose job may be on the line. Just take a look at the faces of her backbench MPs at prime minister’s questions. Faces taut. Wishing they were somewhere else. Not a smile in sight. What’s more, they know they have no one to blame but themselves. KemiKaze hasn’t changed. She hasn’t got the top job by false pretences. She’s always been primarily a culture warrior. A fundamentally unserious politician. Someone who bounces around in her own echo chamber until she collides with a piece of political opportunism. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NTHr3be