How Kurdistan is rebranding itself
CNN speaks to Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of Kurdistan Regional Government, to discuss how it is positioning itself as not just a gateway to Iraq but also a destination in its own right.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Major Southeastern cuts have been partially reversed - but more needs to be done
Back in December 2022, rail passengers were shocked to hear their train services were to be drastically cut by Southeastern and a new timetable imposed with no consultation. The impact on residents across the Bexleyheath & Crayford constituency has been significant, making it harder for those commuting for work, for children travelling to school, and patients travelling to hospital, while also making it difficult for hard-working residents to enjoy their free time and easily travel on evenings and weekends. These changes came into place before I was elected as the MP for Bexleyheath & Crayford, but as a local resident, I am acutely aware of the impact. I have continued to lobby and raise the issue on behalf of my residents in Parliament. One of the first Bills brought forward when the Labour Government was elected last summer was the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill. The Bill delivers on our manifesto promise to bring passenger services into public ownership as a first step towards wider rail reform. We have all seen how profit-driven companies can make decisions which benefit their balance sheet, without consideration of rail passengers. Our Plan for Change is focused on kick-starting the economy, and public transport is a key part of that. We don't want public transport to be a barrier to work or even for attending a hospital appointment, which is why I welcome the Government's commitment to reform our railways with the establishment of Great British Rail, unifying track and train under one leadership. I have been raising my concerns that we need to see Southeastern services reinstated, both with their Chief Executive and the Secretary of State. I was therefore delighted to receive confirmation when I raised a question in Parliament to the Minister, highlighting constituents' concerns about the lack of direct services from London Charing Cross to Barnehurst and Bexleyheath during the evenings and weekends, that the current service provision has been reviewed. I was delighted to hear that starting from December, four additional weekday evening services will be introduced on the route. This will make a huge difference to those travelling home in the evenings, and I am delighted that residents of Bexleyheath & Crayford have been listened to. I'm not stopping there, as more needs to be done to improve public transport for my residents. I'll continue to push for more direct services from Crayford to Abbey Wood, better integration between Southeastern and Thameslink services at Slade Green, and for more weekend services from London Charing Cross to Barnehurst and Bexleyheath. I've also made representations to the Deputy Mayor of London for Transport at TfL about a dedicated bus route that could benefit over 100 students in one of our local schools in Bexleyheath, as well as lobbying for the introduction of a new bus route to directly connect Crayford and Northumberland Heath. I am proud that the new Government is taking the issue of public transport seriously, and I'll continue to work with them to ensure improvements are made to benefit my constituents.
Bloomberg
2 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Hong Kong Bans Video Game in Further National Security Push
Hong Kong invoked national security laws to ban a video game for the first time, broadening the use of the set of legislation to fend off perceived threats and requiring internet service providers to comply. Police in the semiautonomous Chinese city warned residents on Tuesday not to download Reversed Front: Bonfire, a Taiwanese-made mobile game they accuse of advocating armed revolution and overthrowing the government in Beijing. Authorities have taken 'disabling action on electronic messages' related to the game, according to a government statement.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Trump says he plans to phase out FEMA after 2025 hurricane season
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency after this year's hurricane season, offering the clearest timeline yet for his administration's long-term plans to dismantle the disaster relief agency and shift responsibility for response and recovery onto states. 'We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,' Trump told reporters during a briefing in the Oval Office, later saying, 'A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can't handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor.' 'A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can't handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor,' the president said. Trump added that the federal government will start distributing less federal aid for disaster recovery and that the funding will come directly from the president's office. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects this year's hurricane season, which officially ends on November 30, to be particularly intense and potentially deadly. For months, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, have vowed to eliminate the agency, repeatedly criticizing it as ineffective and unnecessary. Noem reiterated those plans Tuesday in the Oval Office, saying FEMA 'fundamentally needs to go away as it exists.' 'We all know from the past that FEMA has failed thousand if not millions of people, and President Trump does not want to see that continue into the future,' Noem said. 'While we are running this hurricane season, making sure that we have pre-staged and worked with the regions that are traditionally hit in these areas, we're also building communication and mutual aid agreements among states to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet with the federal government coming in in catastrophic circumstances with funding,' she said. Noem is co-chairing a new FEMA Review Council, established under Trump, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The council is expected to submit recommendations in the coming months to drastically reduce the agency's footprint and reform its operations and mission. Plans to eliminate FEMA have baffled federal and state emergency managers, who doubt localized efforts could replace the agency's robust infrastructure for disaster response. Most states, they said, do not have the budget or personnel to handle catastrophic disasters on their own, even if the federal government provides a financial backstop in the most dire situations. 'This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the federal government in emergency management and disaster response and recovery, and it's an abdication of that role when a state is overwhelmed,' a longtime FEMA leader told CNN. 'It is clear from the president's remarks that their plan is to limp through hurricane season and then dismantle the agency.' The agency has entered hurricane season understaffed and underprepared, after months of turmoil, plummeting morale and workforce reductions. At least 10% of its total staff have left since January, including a large swath of its senior leadership, and the agency is projected to lose close to 30% of its workforce by the end of the year, shrinking FEMA from about 26,000 workers to roughly 18,000. In a last-minute push to bolster hurricane preparedness, Noem reopened several FEMA training facilities and lengthened contract extensions for thousands of staffers who deploy during disasters. The agency's influence is already shrinking in this administration. Last month, Noem appointed David Richardson – a former marine combat veteran and martial-arts instructor with no prior experience managing natural disasters – to lead FEMA. Richardson, who came from the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office at DHS, has since brought in more than a half-dozen homeland security officials to help him run the agency, relegating more seasoned staff to lesser roles. Until recently, Richardson had said his team was preparing an updated disaster plan for this hurricane season. But last week, CNN previously reported, Richardson told FEMA staff that the plan will not be released, saying the agency does not want to get ahead of Trump's FEMA Review Council and that the agency will attempt to operate as it did in 2024. Meanwhile, communication and coordination between the White House and FEMA also appear to be breaking down. In several recent cases, the president approved disaster declarations, but it took days for FEMA – which is tasked with actually delivering that financial aid – to find out, delaying funds to hard-hit communities. Trump's exact long-term plans for the federal government's role in disaster response remain unclear, but the administration is already discussing ways to make it far more difficult to qualify for federal aid. 'The FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment,' Trump said Tuesday. 'It's extremely expensive, and again, when you have a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind in a state, that's what you have governors for. They're supposed to fix those problems.'
