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What to know about Bolivia's election that elevated a centrist shaking up the political landscape

What to know about Bolivia's election that elevated a centrist shaking up the political landscape

Washington Post2 days ago
LA PAZ, Bolivia — One candidate is Rodrigo Paz , a conservative centrist senator and son of a neoliberal ex-president who is pitching himself as a moderate reformer.
The other is former right-wing president Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga, galvanizing voters through promises of harsh austerity and a scorched-earth approach to transforming Bolivia's state-directed economic model after 20 years of leftist dominance.
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Councils consider legal bids as ministers face Epping hotel ruling aftermath
Councils consider legal bids as ministers face Epping hotel ruling aftermath

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Councils consider legal bids as ministers face Epping hotel ruling aftermath

Councils across England are considering legal challenges as the Government scrambles to draw up contingency plan for housing asylum seekers set to be removed from a hotel in Epping, Essex. Ministers are now bracing for further legal challenges from councils after Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court on Tuesday. The ruling blocks asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in the Essex town, and current residents must be removed by September 12. On Wednesday, some Conservative and Reform UK-led authorities said they were looking at their options to take similar action. Conservative-run Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire has said it was taking legal advice 'as a matter of urgency', while Tory-run East Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire said officers are investigating and 'will take appropriate action'. Reform UK-led councils, West Northamptonshire Council and Staffordshire County Council, also said the authorities would look at the options available after the High Court ruling. Ian Cooper, leader of Staffordshire County Council, said: 'The control and protection of our country's borders is a national issue, but the impact of central government policy is felt in communities across Staffordshire.' It comes as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has indicated that councils run by his party will consider their own legal challenges. However, a number of these councils do not have responsibility for planning permission, which may limit their ability to launch legal challenges. Epping Forest District Council had asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel after it had been at the centre of protests in recent weeks. The demonstrations came after an asylum seeker, who was staying there, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He denies the charge and is due to stand trial later this month. The Home Office had warned the judge that an injunction could 'interfere' with the department's legal obligations, and lawyers representing the hotel's owner argued it would set a 'precedent'. Reacting to the ruling on Wednesday, security minister Dan Jarvis told Times Radio: 'We're looking at a range of different contingency options following from a legal ruling that took place yesterday, and we'll look closely at what we're able to do.' Asked whether other migrant hotels have the proper planning permission, Mr Jarvis said: 'Well, we'll see over the next few days and weeks. 'Other local authorities will be considering whether they wish to act in the same way that Epping (Forest) District Council have. 'I think the important point to make is that nobody really thinks that hotels are a sustainable location to accommodate asylum seekers. 'That's precisely why the Government has made a commitment that, by the end of this Parliament, we would have phased out the use of them.' On Wednesday shadow home secretary Chris Philp also pressed ministers not to re-house the asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel into other hotels or flats 'sorely needed by young people'. In a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Mr Philp wrote: 'Up and down the country people are furious about the number of illegal migrants being housed in hotels – which rose in the nine months following the election under Labour. 'People are also concerned that you are now moving people from hotels into apartments and other accommodation which is sorely needed by young people here who are struggling under this Labour Government.' The Conservative MP also called for an emergency Cabinet meeting to set up plans to deport migrants crossing the Channel on arrival. Meanwhile Mr Farage has called for peaceful protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers to put pressure on local authorities to take the same route as Epping Forest. Writing in The Telegraph, he said: 'Now the good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain. 'Wherever people are concerned about the threat posed by young undocumented males living in local hotels and who are free to walk their streets, they should follow the example of the town in Essex. 'Let's hold peaceful protests outside the migrant hotels, and put pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out; we now know that together we can win.' The latest Home Office data showed there were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March. This was down 15% from the end of December, when the total was 38,079, and 6% lower than the 34,530 at the same point a year earlier. New figures – published among the usual quarterly immigration data release – are expected on Thursday, showing numbers in hotels at the end of June. Figures for hotels published by the Home Office date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023 when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels.

America's Housing Crisis Is a Job for Congress
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America's Housing Crisis Is a Job for Congress

One of the many criticisms the president has levied against the Federal Reserve is that high rates are making it too expensive for Americans to buy a home. In fact, if affordability is the goal, he should be pressing Republicans in Congress to pass a new piece of bipartisan legislation that would do more to address the problem. Sky-high housing costs are a top concern for many Americans. In the wake of the pandemic, median home sale prices reached their highest level in at least 50 years compared with household income; rents outpaced earnings as well. Relatively high mortgage rates — the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to an average of 6.72% at the end of July, from 4.46% over the previous decade — have certainly contributed to the affordability crisis.

U.K. court grants injunction banning asylum seekers from London hotel
U.K. court grants injunction banning asylum seekers from London hotel

UPI

time3 hours ago

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U.K. court grants injunction banning asylum seekers from London hotel

A judge sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice granted a temporary injunction blocking a London-area hotel from being used to house young male asylum seekers, who had been placed there by the government, and giving the owner until September 12 to move them out. File photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Britain's High Court handed down a landmark ruling temporarily blocking a London-area hotel from being used to house asylum seekers after a campaign by local people opposed to the presence of 140 young, single men in their community. The interim injunction stopping the government from placing migrants in the Bell Hotel in Epping Forest, 15 miles northeast of central London, was granted to the local council Tuesday on grounds that the change in the use of the premises contravened planning law and concerns over disruption and the safety of the occupants due to the protests. Justice Eyre, denied a late legal challenge by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, giving Somani Hotels, which operates the Bell, until Sept. 12 to comply with the injunction. The hotel's 80 rooms are occupied by around 140 men. Arguments by Home Office counsel that the ruling would impact her legal duty to house and feed migrants while their asylum claims were processed were rejected by Eyre, who said Cooper's bid to intervene was unwarranted and a waste of court time. Protests near the hotel turned violent in July when they were hijacked by supporters of the far-right after asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a resident of the hotel, was charged in July with sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl. Riot police, with helicopter backup, clashed with protesters in residential neighborhoods and at least 34 people were arrested, police officers injured and vehicles damaged. Kebatu, who is on remand, denies the offenses he is charged with, which were alleged to have taken place just eight days after his arrival in the country, from Ethiopia via France, on a small boat. His trial is set to get underway in the coming days. Mohammed Sharwarq, a Syrian asylum seeker also living at the hotel, is facing seven unrelated charges and authorities have charged several other men over alleged involvement in unrest outside the Bell Hotel. Chris Whitbread, leader of Conservative-controlled Epping Forest District Council, who took the government to court over the risk of "irreparable harm" from area tensions stirred by the demonstrations, hailed the ruling. "This is great news for our residents. The last few weeks have placed an intolerable strain on our community but today we have some great news. This is not the end of the matter. Having obtained an interim provision, the next stage is for the council to return to the court and seek a permanent injunction," said Whitbread. With around 32,000 asylum seekers being accommodated in more than 200 other hotels across the country at taxpayer expense, according to the latest figures from the end of March, the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer was steeling itself for an onslaught of court cases brought by other local councils. Broxbourne Council, another Conservative-controlled authority in nearby Hertfordshire, was the first to announce plans to follow Epping's lead, saying it was taking legal advice about seeking to force the removal of asylum seekers from a hotel in the town of Cheshunt. Saying the Epping case had set a precedent, council leader Corina Gander told the BBC the government "had failed" and local councils were now fighting back. "Enough is enough now," she said. In court on Tuesday, government lawyers appealed to the bench not to grant the injunction to Epping council, in part, because they said it risked perpetuating more violence at other locations housing asylum seekers by people hoping for a similar outcome. But MP Nigel Farage, leader of Reform U.K., formerly the Brexit Party, called for just that, and vowed that all 12 Reform-controlled councils would "do everything in their power to emulate Epping's example. In an article in Wednesday's Telegraph newspaper, he called for peaceful protests by people "concerned about the threat posed by young undocumented males living in local hotels."

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