A Stronger Maduro Unleashes Fear in Venezuela to Cement Power Before Local Polls
The president's ruling party is expected to dominate even the most local levels of government through nationwide elections for city councils and mayorships on Sunday. It already reached a supermajority in the Parliament in May, cutting back on the few seats held by other parties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
E&E News
an hour ago
- E&E News
Trump blames bureaucrats, NGOs for grant crackdown
President Donald Trump moved to tighten his grip on government spending this week with an executive order directing his political appointees to vet all federal grants. The move marks a noteworthy shift from past administrations, where civil servants have played major roles in dishing out the federal government's vast grant spending. That was done in part to avoid the appearance of political appointees playing favorites, according to former government officials. But after months of the Trump 2.0 team slashing spending across the federal government, the administration said concentrating grantmaking authority with political appointees will stop 'unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats from wasting taxpayer dollars.' Advertisement The Trump executive order issued Thursday directs each agency head to designate a senior appointee to create a new process to review funding announcements and to renew discretionary grants to ensure that they're 'consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.' The order aims to give political appointees more direct control over a sizable chunk of federal spending. In fiscal 2024, the federal government spent $1.1 trillion just on state and local government grants to fund programs including environmental protection and education. The Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency boasts on its website that it has terminated more than 15,000 government grants worth about $44 billion since January. The administration 'has already terminated many wasteful grants,' the White House said in a fact sheet. The executive order, it says, 'helps ensure that bureaucrats can't make the same mistakes in the future.' A 'significant departure' Trump assailed a series of grant recipients in his executive order as evidence that the process was broken, including programs that funded 'drag shows in Ecuador, trained doctoral candidates in critical race theory, and developed transgender-sexual-education programs.' Federal grants have also gone to 'non-governmental organizations that provided free services to illegal immigrants, worsening the border crisis and compromising our safety, and to organizations that actively worked against American interests abroad,' the executive order says. Agency bosses across the Trump administration have spent months touting cuts to federal grants and contracts inked by the Biden administration. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin declared earlier this year that the 'days of irresponsibly shoveling boat loads of cash to far-left, activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over.' Zeldin on Thursday announced that his agency would terminate $7 billion in grants to help states, nonprofits and territories bring solar power to low-income communities. The National Science Foundation has announced the cancellations of more than 1,000 federal grants since Trump took office. Trump earlier this year proposed slashing that agency's funding by 57 percent. The Trump administration's crackdown on grant approvals marks a 'significant departure' from how the process has worked previously, said Matthew Tejada, a former senior career EPA staffer who led the agency's environmental justice office. 'I can't name a grant program that did not have political appointee involvement, but there were varying levels of that involvement, depending on the size and scope and gravity of the program,' said Tejada, who's now a senior vice president at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Political appointees in the past have sought to avoid the appearance that they were meddling in the grantmaking process, Tejada said. He called Trump's approach an 'ineffective, unrealistic way of governing' that will ultimately slow down the grantmaking process. 'The bureaucracy exists to help facilitate government working effectively and efficiently, and this is going in the opposite direction,' Tejada said.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Brazil's Lula vetoes parts of environmental 'devastation bill'
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday vetoed some provisions of a bill that would have made it easier for companies to secure environmental permits, bowing to pressure from activist groups. Dubbed the "devastation bill" by its detractors, the text recently adopted by lawmakers would have loosened environmental licensing laws for projects considered "strategic" by the state. For some permits, all that would have been required is a simple declaration of the company's environmental commitment. Lula instead reinstated the current strict licensing rules for strategic projects, such as a controversial oil mega-project at the mouth of the Amazon river, but set a one-year deadline for them to be approved or rejected. His veto also ensures that several Indigenous territories and the Atlantic Forest, which stretches along the east coast, will continue to enjoy special protection, Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters. SOS Atlantic Forest, a non-governmental organization that had garnered over a million signatures calling for a veto of the law, hailed Lula's decision as "a victory" for environmental protection. Greenpeace also praised the leftist president's action on the issue. But the executive coordinator of APIB, Brazil's largest Indigenous rights group, told AFP he was disappointed that the president had not struck down the entire bill. Lula's veto must now be ratified by Congress, which is dominated by conservatives. Lula's environmental credentials are under close scrutiny in the run-up to the annual UN climate summit, which he will host in November in the Amazon city of Belem. While seeking to take a leadership role on climate change on the global stage, Lula has faced criticism at home for backing drilling in the Equatorial Margin, along the country's northern coast. He argues that the revenue from the oil field is necessary to finance Brazil's energy transition. Silva said Lula's objective was to ensure that "the economy does not compete with ecology, but rather they are part of the same equation." jss/rsr/cb/sst Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hundreds arrested in week-long crackdown on suspected illegal working
Hundreds of arrests have been made as part of what the Government called a 'week-long crackdown' on asylum seekers taking jobs for delivery firms. A total of 1,780 people were stopped and spoken to at locations across the UK over suspected illegal working activity between July 20 and 27. Some 280 were arrested as a result, in areas including Hillingdon in north-west London, Dumfries in Scotland, and Birmingham, the Home Office said. Some 89 of those have been detained pending removal from the country and 53 are now having their asylum support reviewed, which the Government said could result in their support being suspended or withdrawn. The Home Office described the operation as a 'nationwide intensification week' targeting illegal working hotspots, with a focus on the gig economy and people working as delivery riders. Immigration enforcement teams will receive £5 million from the £100 million in funding already announced for border security, aimed at increasing visits by officers in these areas over the coming months, it said. Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said: 'Illegal working undermines our border security and we're cracking down hard on it. 'That's why we have intensified our enforcement activity right across the UK to crack down on those who think they can evade immigration and employment laws in the UK. ' As well as the arrests, 51 businesses including car washes and restaurants were issued with penalty notices that could see them handed hefty fines if they are found to have hired people without the right to work in the UK. Eddy Montgomery, enforcement director at the Home Office, said officers were taking action 'around the clock' against 'those who think they can get away with working illegally'. Asylum seekers in the UK are normally barred from work while their claim is being processed, though permission can be applied for after a year of waiting. Officials had indicated there would be an increase in work to target areas of suspected activity, as ministers hope to tackle the 'pull factors' attracting migrants to the UK. It comes after the Government announced it would share information about asylum hotel locations with food delivery firms in a bid to disrupt such hotspots. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Conservatives wanted to strip asylum seekers of their status and deport them, if they work illegally, and claimed 'this story has only happened' because he 'exposed what Labour refused to see'. He described one hotel housing asylum seekers as a 'black-market, courier hub in plain sight', referring to food delivery riders he had seen allegedly operating out of the site without permission. 'Labour are now boasting about arrests, but we know they are too scared to actually deport anyone,' Mr Philp continued. 'People breaking the law are still being put up in hotels and handed benefits. 'It's a racket and Labour are letting it run.' Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat have said they will ramp up facial verification and fraud checks over the coming months to prevent people working as riders without permission.
