Tag: crisis

Prayuth Chan-ocha became prime minister in a very Thai way: He led a military coup. Now after five years of running Thailand with absolute power, he's seeking to hold on to the top job through the ballot box. He wants to return as a prime minister under normal politics." He promised elections and then delayed them every year he was in power. He's worn increasingly well-tailored suits — for which his wife takes credit — and, as pressure for an election mounted, largely transformed himself into the Thai equivalent of your typical baby-kissing politician. They could not accept the rise of billionaire politician Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies after being elected prime minister in 2001 threatened to unravel the country's long-established power structure: Bangkok-oriented, devoted to the monarchy and safeguarded by the military. In October that year, he became the army commander-in-chief. After abandoning a sham effort to mediate between the Thaksin-backed government and its opponents who had been staging violent protests against it, Prayuth and the leaders of the other armed forces announced they were seizing power on May 22, 2014. Prayuth and his junta spelled out their major tasks, including brokering national reconciliation and enacting reforms across Thai society to save the nation from what it said was the inherent corruption of politicians. Early last year he made it clear, telling reporters: "I am no longer a soldier.

(Gray News) – Government and opposition forces are struggling for political power in Venezuela, a country hamstrung by economic chaos and widespread shortages. Who’s president? The Venezuelan economy turned south during his first term and his re-election bid last year turned controversial. When Maduro won the ballot, the nation’s opposition-controlled National Assembly refused to recognize the election results, calling the election unfair and the presidency vacant. That’s why Guaido declared himself acting president in January. But Guaido’s claim to power has been recognized by the United States and 50 other governments who say Maduro's re-election last year was illegitimate. Up to this point, Venezuelan security forces have remained largely loyal to Maduro through pay raises and key political appointments. There are shortages in power, food and medicine. Recent U.S.-backed efforts to deliver humanitarian aid across the border from Colombia ended in violence, the Associated Press reported. He also announced $56 million in new assistance to countries in the region helping to absorb an exodus of more than 3 million Venezuelans who have fled in recent years.

Liberals continue to fight against Trump's border wall, claim the border crisis is made up. #IngrahamAngle #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The…

Columnists We cannot escape the impact of decisions made by politicians on our daily lives. As the year unfolded, early optimism and admiration of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s New Dawn turned into knowing sighs and acceptance of the truth – there is no noteworthy change. As we head into a crucial election year, the dreadful reality is that the political parties who will be contending for our votes are found to be lacking and have exposed themselves as a bickering lot trying to outdo each other with their indignities. Crusader against corruption However, the EFF is experiencing far worse publicity. You might exclaim ‘Why bother to vote!’ since South Africa’s leaders are thoroughly accustomed to getting away with zero penalties for actions that have a damaging impact on society and the economy. Next year, go out to vote and remind politicians that power can be given and taken from them if it’s not used for the greater good – a united, growing South Africa. On the labour market South Africa’s economy has had another difficult year, with the recession and exposure to risk of being an emerging market in an unpredictable world economy. They are faced with high unemployment rates and low absorption and participation rates relative to adults. I hope their actions in 2019 prove the above statement wrong. * Stats SA’s Labour Market Dynamics in South Africa report, 2017

It's very possible that Democrats will now win two races that they lost just the other day. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The…

What was previously an allegation of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh by an unidentified person — without a lot of details or evidence — is now backed by a name, a specific allegation and therapist's notes. A senior Republican official involved in Kavanaugh's confirmation privately admitted to me that they felt queasy when they read The Washington Post story. Driving the news: There was one sign Sunday that these allegations could actually derail Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court — which was previously a sure thing. Jeff Flake told the WashPost's Sean Sullivan that the Senate Judiciary Committee should wait to hear more from Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford: "For me, we can’t vote until we hear more." Why it matters: Doug Jones' special election victory late last year gave Democrats an extra seat on Senate Judiciary — there are now 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats — meaning that Flake's defection could stall Kavanaugh's confirmation process. Since the story broke, I've spoken to four sources close to the Kavanaugh confirmation process. All were defiant and sought to raise doubts about the accuser's credibility and the holes in her story — though none were willing to do so on the record. They signaled potential lines of attack: the accuser's Democratic political background, lapses in her memory and the accounts of the 65 women who've known Kavanaugh since high school who've vouched for his character. But now Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is working to schedule follow-up calls with Kavanaugh and Ford, per WashPost's Seung Min Kim. I've also contacted spokespeople for the swing-vote Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to see if the allegations have changed their voting intentions.

The Vancouver housing market is completely broken and the “fixes” being proposed by some candidates won’t make a dent in the problem. According to a recent report, it would take the average young Vancouver family more than 20 years of setting aside 10 per cent of their gross income to save enough money for just the down payment on a Vancouver home. In its recent Housing Reset proposal the city set a target of 72,000 new affordable units to be constructed over the next 10 years and proposed to direct $2 billion in city resources to this end. So $2 billion gets you two million square feet of housing, or only about 2,000 units. Especially since the city’s efforts to get new rental units built produced well under a thousand units in 2017. Take a look at ads for Vancouver homes. So higher density does not produce lower cost. Whenever the city increases allowable density (absent a corresponding increase in development taxes), the only thing that happens is the price of land goes up. Land is now priced not “per acre,” but “per square foot buildable.” If you double the allowable number of built square feet on a parcel, all that does is double the price of the land. Outgoing mayor Robertson created no end of chaos when he tied his proposal to allow citywide apartment densities to the city staff proposal to allow duplexes across the city.

Trump’s US supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is certainly competent at dodging difficult questions. In his confirmation hearing in Congress this week, he was asked for his opinion on Roe v Wade, the supreme court case that legalized abortion nationwide. It has been reaffirmed many times”. And it means that Kavanaugh’s confirmation – any confirmation to the supreme court – must be put on hold. The president is under criminal investigation. Do we really think that same president should be picking a judge who may ultimately decide, for example, whether the president can pardon himself? The three men who wrote the Brookings paper “have either been before the Senate for confirmation, worked on supreme court or other confirmations, or both”. According to Senator Patrick Leahy, 99% of Kagan’s documents from her time in the White House were made available to the senate judiciary committee. If Kavanaugh and his Republican champions believe he is a qualified justice, then they should act like it and give the Senate proper time to vet him. Is Brett Kavanaugh the problem, or the US supreme court itself?

Dark money is cash whose source is not made public, and which is spent to change political outcomes. Tax-haven transparency won’t stop money laundering in Britain | Prem Sikka Read more The problem is exemplified, in my view, by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). Raab credits the IEA with supporting him “in waging the war of ideas”. Hancock, in his former role as cabinet office minister, notoriously ruled that charities receiving public funds should not be allowed to lobby the government. All that distinguishes organisations such as the IEA from public relations companies such as Burson-Marsteller is that we don’t know who it is working for. When this funding was exposed, the IEA claimed that its campaigns against tobacco regulation were unrelated to the money it had received. Curtis credits him with founding 150 such lobby groups around the world. Charity Commission rules state that “an organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political”. How much more political can you get? Surely no organisation should be registered as a charity unless any funds it receives above a certain threshold (say £1,000) are declared.

But is the crisis really over? The superficial explanation for the crisis is that the C.S.U., facing state elections in October, wanted to shore up its conservative base against the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known by its German initials A.f.D. But this crisis is about much more than that. According to the Dublin Convention, which regulates which country is responsible for examining an asylum seeker’s plea for protection, the first country a migrant enters is in charge. However, many migrants don’t stay in those countries but move on to the north of Europe. According to figures by the German Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees, only about a quarter of those applying for asylum in Germany in 2018 are already registered in another European country. In a sane and sound political system, threats to blow up governments and force new elections are reserved for the truly momentous disputes; small things are resolved through compromise. On the political level, however, the strategy worked. The result is not a true “European” fix, as the chancellor claims, but a jury-rigged workaround: more external border controls for Germany, and bilateral agreements between Germany and some countries of first entry to take back secondary migrants. So whatever deal is sealed this week, the political crisis over refugees is not over.