In March, Trump signed an executive order to shut down the Department of Education “to the maximum extent” permitted by law. Now, the Supreme Court has cleared the way by a 6-3 vote split, lifting a Massachusetts judge’s block on sweeping job cuts. Allowing Trump to move forward with firing nearly 1,400 employees…
Trump declared: “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs.” Cue the usual liberal whingeing. One employee who so far has “survived” the culling said it was like “funeral”, lamenting:
“People were crying, breaking down at the human toll. These people are not bureaucratic bloat: they’re vital to helping improve educational outcomes for our nation’s children, and to ensuring states comply with the law. It’s death by a thousand cuts.”
A lesson from the President in getting things done…
Daughter of deposed Bangladesh dictator Sheikh Hasina and the World Health Organisation’s south-east Asia head Saima Wazed has been put “on leave” this week. Wazed was charged by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission with fraud, forgery and abuse of power in March. Among the allegations is that she allegedly illegally obtained a government residential plot. Wazed has not publicly responded to the allegations…
Last month the ACC requested the WHO help “facilitate” Wazed’s appearance before the Bangladeshi courts and “initiate…whatever is demanded…for an absconder in a serious criminal offence”. The agency has appointed Catharina Boehme, assistant director-general at WHO’s Geneva headquarters, as officer-in-charge of the South-East Asia Regional Office in New Delhi “during the period.” Might be a while…
Meanwhile, former assistant UN secretary-general Kul Chandra Gautam said “If [Wazed] were not the daughter of the PM, I don’t think she would be a serious candidate.” To which Wazed has said was an “offensive” claim. The saga continues…
It’s not been a good 24 hours for the “panicans” who opposed President Trump’s economic reforms. In US trading yesterday the S&P 500 index closed at all time highs…
Meanwhile over in glum little Europe JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon took policymakers to task at an event held by the Irish government in Dublin. He said: “Europe has gone from 90% of U.S. GDP to 65% over 10 or 15 years. That’s not good… the EU has a huge problem at the moment… You’re losing”. An argument Guido has been making, well, forever…
That’s the same Jamie Dimon who said Brexit “cannot possibly be positive” for the UK, and vocally criticised the UK’s exit from the EU. The lesson? Don’t be a panican…
Politicos state-side were stunned when self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. A tax-happy pro-Palestine activist, Guido thought to bring co-conspirators a flavour of Mamdani’s eyebrow-raising views…
Usually in deep blue New York City, the winner of the Democratic primary easily takes the general election, which will be held in November. This year’s contest is shaping up to be a five-way race among Mamdani, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and at least three independent candidates, including Cuomo and current Mayor Eric Adams. Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” and that “the Democrats have crossed the line”. It’s no wonder Wall Street is terrified at the idea of this man in charge. And the rest of America…
Donald Trump is answering questions from reporters at the NATO summit. After declaring that 5% GDP defence spending will be known as “The Hague Agreement”, he was asked whether the US would make Patriot missiles available to Ukraine. He said:
“We’re going to see if we can make some available, you know, they’re very hard to get we need them too. We were supplying them to Israel and they’re very effective.”
Trump went on to say that it is “possible” that “misguided” Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. Could change the game…
One day after Tulip Siddiq gave a piece to camera after handing Sky News the latest letter her lawyers sent to Bangladeshi authorities demanding the case against her be dropped, the Anti-Corruption Commission in Bangladesh has responded. Not mincing words…
Tulip, who along with her lawyers has always denied all wrongdoing, claimed she should be allowed to get on with her job as a London MP. The Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Mohammad Abdul Momen said:
“My simple question is: What kind of case is Tulip Siddiq’s case that would make Britain’s fragile politics even more fragile? We can look at this differently. A criminal who commits a crime in a country must face it in that country. It now seems she probably wants to settle the case through exchanging letters. This shouldn’t happen. The case is in court. Tulip Siddiq must appear in court and face the case.”
Siddiq declined to say yesterday that she would go to Bangladesh to clear her name in the courts. She did claim the case against her was politically motivated. To this Momen said:
“This is neither a politically motivated case nor a case to belittle anyone. Tulip Siddiq is an accused, like many other accused individuals. We have many bigger cases than this. Tulip is a Bangladeshi citizen to us. She has a national identity card. She has a TIN. We have filed a case against her in Bangladesh. I believe Tulip will follow Bangladesh’s laws and face the case.”
Bangladeshi authorities have indicated that if Siddiq is unwilling to travel to Bangladesh to face charges they will file a red notice with Interpol. Momen raised an interesting point:
“Tulip knew everything from the beginning, which is why she had to step down from her ministerial position. There are three cases against Tulip. The trial will continue in her absence. Is British politics so fragile that the British government and politics will completely collapse if a case is filed against one of their citizens? Is that even possible?”
The MP has always denied that is the case. It looks increasingly unlikely Bangladeshi authorities will let up on Siddiq after her letter campaign…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”