Month: May 2023

A joint US-Saudi statement welcomed the start of “pre-negotiation talks” in Jeddah between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). On Friday reports spoke of continuing clashes in Khartoum.

The Sudanese army says the talks aim to address humanitarian issues.

There has been no official RSF comment.

The army confirmed it had sent envoys to Jeddah to engage in the talks, which the UN and aid agencies have been pressing for, faced with a dire humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

Nearly three weeks of heavy fighting have killed hundreds of people and displaced nearly 450,000 civilians. Of that total, the International Organization for Migration says, more than 115,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Sudan’s army commander Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – the de facto Sudanese president – is engaged in a bitter power struggle with RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.

The statement from the US and Saudi governments said they “urge both parties to take in consideration the interests of the Sudanese nation and its people and actively engage in the talks towards a ceasefire and end to the conflict, which will spare the Sudanese people’s suffering and ensure the availability of humanitarian aid to affected areas”.

The joint statement also expressed hope for “an expanded negotiation process that should include engagement with all Sudanese parties”.

A Unicef spokesman, James Elder, said the conflict’s first 11 days alone had killed an estimated 190 children and wounded 1,700 – and those figures were just from health facilities in Khartoum and Darfur.

“The reality is likely to be much worse,” he said.

The intensity of the fighting has prevented much-needed aid deliveries getting through.

So far Gen Burhan and Hemedti, who led an Arab militia in the brutal Darfur conflict, have shown little readiness to reach a peace settlement.

The Tories have lost 48 councils and more than 1,000 councillors, exceeding their worst predictions.

Many Conservatives were furious at the scale of the losses, with some blaming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Labour says it is now the largest party in local government, surpassing the Tories for the first time since 2002.

“The British public has sent a clear rejection of a prime minister who never had a mandate to begin with,” a Labour spokesperson said.

The elections of 230 councils in England were the first big test of Mr Sunak’s electoral popularity since he won the Tory leadership contest and became prime minister last October.

The Liberal Democrats had what their leader Sir Ed Davey said was their “best result in decades”, taking control of 12 councils, mostly in Tory heartlands.

The Green Party gained 241 seats – their best-ever result in local elections – and gained its first majority on an English council, in Mid-Suffolk, although they were overtaken as the biggest party by Labour in Brighton and Hove.

Mr Sunak admitted the results were “disappointing”, but said he did not detect “a massive groundswell of movement towards the Labour Party”.

Sir Keir claimed the “fantastic” results showed his party was well placed to oust the Tories from government in a general election, expected next year.

“Make no mistake, we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election,” he told cheering activists in Medway in Kent, one of the councils his party has wrested from the Tories.

Labour won control of councils in areas that will be crucial battlegrounds in the general election, including Medway, Swindon, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, and East Staffordshire.

The BBC’s projected national vote share put Labour on 35%, the Tories on 26% and the Lib Dems on 20%.

Labour’s projected nine-point lead represents its largest over the Conservatives on this measure since the party lost power in 2010.

Sir John Curtice, the polling expert, said this year’s results were “only a little short of calamitous for the Conservatives”.

But the BBC’s political editor, Chris Mason, said the results suggested it would be hard for either the Conservatives or Labour to be confident of winning a majority at the next general election.

He said there appears to be no appetite to move against Mr Sunak, after the Tories forced two prime ministers – Boris Johnson then Liz Truss – out of office last year.

Still, some Conservatives are reeling from the results, with ousted councillors and critics of Mr Sunak venting their anger at the prime minister.

As the big picture became clearer, there was disagreement among Tories over who was to blame for the loss of so many councillors.

The elections came amid a dire economic backdrop in the UK, with high inflation contributing to the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

A figure loyal to Mr Johnson and Ms Truss told the BBC that Mr Sunak had “no option but to own these results”.

In a seething statement, the person said: “He has been chancellor or prime minister for virtually all of the last three years and it was he and his supporters who forced Boris and then Liz out of office in order to install him in Downing Street.

“The old saying goes that ‘it is the economy, stupid’ that defines the choice voters have at the ballot box.”

In Swindon, where Labour took control of the borough council for the first time in 20 years, ousted Tory council leader David Renard blamed “the cost of living and the performance of the government in the last 12 months” for his party’s woes locally.

Mr Renard said although the prime minister had “started to stabilise things”, for voters in Swindon, “what had gone on before that was something that they didn’t like”.

The Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, said the poor Tory performance was a partly a result of “the turmoil and upheaval of the last 12 months”.

He said Labour had been “successful in making this a referendum on the government”, adding “people don’t feel like they can vote for us”.

Nigel Churchill, a former Tory councillor who lost his seat on Plymouth Council – another Labour target – said “I think we can safely say” the Conservatives will lose the next general election.

“The general public do not trust them at the moment,” he said.

But Education Minister Robert Halfon said this year’s local elections were always “going to be difficult” for his party.

He said internal party divisions “didn’t help”, but claimed the losses were down to external factors, such as the cost-of-living crisis and problems in the NHS.

“Every government during the mid-term, especially a government that has been in power for 13 years, always suffers losses in local elections,” he said.

Other Tory MPs told the BBC that apathy – Conservative voters staying at home – was also a big problem for the party.

The Conservatives attempted to manage expectations before Thursday’s elections, with party chairman Greg Hands suggesting they could lose 1,000 council seats.

In contrast, Labour sought to downplay its chances of success, predicting gains of about 400 seats.

Most of the seats were last up for election in 2019, at a time when the UK was gripped by political turmoil over Brexit.

The seats up for grabs were mostly on district councils, responsible for services including bin collections, parks, public housing and planning applications.

The rest of the elections were for a mixture of metropolitan and unitary councils – single local authorities that deal with all local services – and for four mayors.

The elections were the first in England to see voter ID checks at polling stations. Some voters told the BBC they were turned away from polling stations, prompting critics to call for the ID rules to be dropped.

The Federal Reserve increased its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points – its 10th hike in 14 months.

The Fed signalled that Wednesday’s rise may be its last one for now.

The moves have pushed its benchmark rate to between 5% and 5.25% – up from near zero in March 2022.

Higher rates have sharply raised borrowing costs across the world’s largest economy, spurring a slowdown in sectors such as housing and playing a role in the recent failures of three US banks.

“We’re no longer saying that we anticipate” additional interest rate increases, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference after the announcement, calling it a “significant change”.

However, he refused to rule out further action, saying: “We’ll be driven by incoming data.”

The bank started raising interest rates aggressively last year when prices in the US were soaring at the fastest pace in decades.

Central banks around the world, including in the UK and in Europe, have taken similar action.

Higher interest rates make it more expensive to buy a home, borrow to expand a business or take on other debt. By increasing those costs, officials expect demand to fall and prices to cool off.

Since the Fed started its campaign, price increases in the US have shown signs of moderating.

In March, inflation, the rate at which prices rise, stood at 5% – the lowest level in nearly two years – though still uncomfortably high for the Fed, which is targeting a 2% rate.

Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, said he thought the Fed would be “prudent” to pause now, noting that the risks to the economy as activity slows are growing.

“The fear of a recession is very much present in the economy today,” he said. “I don’t think the inflation battle is over, but we are in a situation where we’re seeing gradual disinflation and we’re also in an environment where interest rates are high and elevated and therefore should be constraining business activity, which should lead to further disinflation in coming months.”

At Ball Chain Manufacturing, a family-owned firm in New York, customers have become more cautious in recent months due to economic worries, says president Bill Taubner. His company has also cut back on replenishing its supplies in response to still-rising prices.

But he said his firm did not face imminent borrowing needs and he remained hopeful that any slowdown would be mild and relatively short-lived.Bill Taubner has felt the economy cool as customers of his manufacturing business have grown more cautious

“We realise there is some softness in the marketplace because of inflation and obviously the interest rate issues,” he said. “But long term, we’re very positive.”

The recent bank failures, and an anticipated pullback in lending as a result, are likely to weigh on the economy, Mr Powell said.

But he added that he remained hopeful that the US would avoid a recession, noting that hiring has remained strong and unemployment low.

“I continue to think that it’s possible…that this time is really different,” he said.

The Fed’s decision to raise rates on Wednesday was unanimous and widely expected by financial markets, which are looking for clues as to what the bank may do next.

In a written statement, the bank scrapped previous guidance it provided in March when it said “some additional policy firming may be appropriate” to bring inflation under control.

In the press conference, Mr Powell said the bank was “getting close or maybe even there” when it came to pausing its rate-hike campaign but was prepared to do more if warranted.

Whitney Watson, global co-head of fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said the Fed could still raise rates, depending on what happens in the coming months.

“Inflation is trending in the right direction, but progress has been bumpy,” she said. “A pause in rate actions is therefore appropriate, but further tightening is plausible should inflation prove sticky.”

For Turkey’s long-time leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it comes in the shape of a former civil servant, given to making heart emojis with his hands.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, backed by a six-party opposition alliance, says if he wins he will bring freedom and democracy to Turkey, whatever it takes.

“The youth want democracy,” he told the BBC. “They don’t want the police to come to their doors early in the morning just because they tweeted.”

He is the Islamist leader’s main rival in elections on 14 May and has a narrow lead in opinion polls. This tight race is expected to go to a second round two weeks later.

Currently Turks can go to jail for “insulting the president”. Many have.

“I am telling young people they can criticise me freely. I will make sure they have this right,” says the 74-year-old, who leads the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Some of Mr Kilicdaroglu’s supporters fear for his safety but he says it comes with the territory.

“Being in politics in Turkey means choosing a life with risks. I will walk my path whatever Erdogan and his allies do. They can’t put me off. They can’t scare me. I made a promise to this nation.”

President Erdogan, 69, has mocked his rival in the past saying he “couldn’t even herd a sheep”. But he’s harder to dismiss now.

Arriving for a rally in the port city of Izmir, an opposition stronghold, the opposition candidate is greeted by a sea of flag-waving supporters.

There are chants of “Kilicdaroglu is the hope of the people”. Many in the crowd are young. Five million Turks will vote for the first time in this election.

At 15, Oguz is too young to go to the polls but couldn’t stay away from the rally. “He is a good person, and he sees the future positively. If he becomes president our economy will rise up, and we will rise up.”

Mr Kilicdaroglu told me before the rally he would reorient Turkey, and prioritise relations with the West, not the Kremlin.

“We want to become a part of the civilized world,” he said. “We want free media and complete judicial independence. Erdogan does not think that way. He wants to be more authoritarian. The difference between us and Erdogan is the difference between black and white.”

But will Recep Tayyip Erdogan go quietly if he is defeated after 20 years in power, first as prime minister and now all-powerful president?

“We will retire him, and send him to his corner,” said Mr Kilicdaroglu. “He will step back quietly. No one should have any concerns about it.”

Others aren’t so sure. There are indications that the Turkish leader may be preparing to dispute the result if he loses. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has warned the vote will be “a coup attempt by the West”.

Mr Kilicdaroglu said the combined opposition would be vigilant, trusting neither the president, “nor his Supreme Election Council nor his judges”.

“By having more than one observer in all the polling stations, we want to ensure that votes are cast correctly, securely, and the counting is done properly. We have been taking precautions to achieve this, working hard for a year and a half.”

In many ways he is the anti-Erdogan. He has recorded campaign videos at his modest kitchen table, tea towels hanging neatly in the background.

Showing he knows his onions, his rival appeared in one video with one in hand, warning prices would keep soaring if Mr Erdogan remained in power. “Now, one kilogram of onion is 30 liras,” he said. “If he stays it will be 100 liras.”

The president’s economic policies are widely blamed for rampant inflation here. Whoever wins will inherit a broken economy and a divided nation – there’s no magic bullet for either.

On stage, flanked by other opposition leaders, Mr Kilicdaroglu makes his trademark heart emoji for the crowds. “Everything will be beautiful,” he says. “Believe it.” And they do.

But his rally on the waterfront in Izmir came only a day after the president attracted his own large gathering, which was segregated.

Many religious conservatives will stick with him. He speaks their language. And he has shored up his support with pre-election spending including wage increases.

As polling day draws near there is an undercurrent of tension.

Many conversations are peppered with election talk – and fears – and Turkey faces a stark choice of two competing visions.

A new poll of opinion polls suggests that Mr Kilicdaroglu will win the presidency but that the president’s alliance is ahead in the race for parliament.

With the election on a knife edge, no-one can be sure if the coming weeks will pass peacefully.

The SNP’s Westminster group risks losing £1.2m of public funding if it does not submit audited accounts by 31 May.

Group leader Stephen Flynn said he was now confident that the deadline would be met.

The party must also file its audited accounts with the Electoral Commission in July.

Humza Yousaf, the SNP’s leader and Scotland’s first minister, said Manchester-based AMS Accountants Group had agreed to complete the accounts for both the party and its Westminster group.

Mr Yousaf said: “There is hard work ahead but it is really encouraging to have them on board as we work towards challenging deadline”.

It emerged last month that the SNP’s previous auditors, Johnston Carmichael, had quit last September.

Mr Yousaf has said he only found out after winning the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon in March that the party no longer had an accounting firm in place.

A source told the BBC that Mr Yousaf, Mr Flynn and their teams had “put in some shift to fix the situation they inherited”.

The source added: “They have managed to turn things around in a matter of weeks and both the party and the Westminster group now have auditors in place.”

Mr Flynn previously told the BBC that the party was having problems finding new auditors and that he could not guarantee it would be able to meet the 31 May deadline.

He also said the SNP was likely to lose £1.2m of Short Money if it was not able to file its accounts by that date.

Short Money is given to opposition parties to help them carry out their parliamentary work, and is based on how many MPs they have.

However, Mr Flynn said on Wednesday that he was “confident we’ll meet the deadline, as in previous years”.

Mr Flynn was recently accused by his predecessor, Ian Blackford, of giving “false assurances” that a new auditor had been found – a claim that he dismissed.

Johnston Carmichael, which had worked with the party for more than a decade, said the decision to stop auditing the SNP’s accounts was taken after a review of its clients.

It comes amid an ongoing police investigation into the party’s finances that saw Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell – who was until recently the SNP’s chief executive – and former treasurer Colin Beattie being arrested last month.

Both men were released without charge pending further investigation.

Detectives also spent two days searching Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell’s home in Glasgow, and the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh as part of the inquiry.

And a luxury motorhome which can sell for more than £100,000 was seized from outside the home of Mr Murrell’s 92-year-old mother in Dunfermline, where it was said to have sat for more than two years.

There was a lingering note of caution from Humza Yousaf when he talked about the “challenging” deadlines facing his new auditors.

But the first minister will hope this is one less thing on his plate to worry about.

He would far rather be focusing on bread and butter issues of government, like the anti-poverty summit he convened this morning.

But there are still plenty of party matters cluttering his in-tray, and the opposition are only too keen to capitalise on them – as evidenced by the Holyrood debate this afternoon on “the transparency of Scotland’s governing party”.

Mr Yousaf’s only option is to work through the items which he least has some control over. He has appointed new auditors, and launched an internal review of how his party is run.

What may be of more concern are the issues which are out of his hands entirely – like the big unknown of the police investigation which continues to loom over the SNP.

Police Scotland launched its Operation Branchform investigation in July 2021 after receiving complaints about how more than £600,000 of donations from activists for a future independence referendum campaign were spent.

Questions were raised after accounts showed the SNP had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.

It also emerged that Mr Murrell had given the party a loan of more than £100,000 in June 2021 to help it out with a “cash flow” issue after the previous month’s Scottish Parliament election.

About half of the loan had been repaid within a few months, but Mr Yousaf has said the party still owes money to Mr Murrell – although he has not yet said how much.

The Scottish Conservatives are to push on Wednesday afternoon for the government to make a formal statement on the chaos that has engulfed the SNP since Ms Sturgeon stepped down as party leader and first minister.

Speaking ahead of a Holyrood debate on the issue, Tory leader Douglas Ross said the SNP’s time in government had been characterised by “unacceptable secrecy” on a range of issues.

And he claimed that the country’s “real priorities” were being ignored by Mr Yousaf and his government because they are “distracted by the meltdown in the party”.

A similar call was previously rejected by the first minister, who said: “I don’t think parliament is the place to do a statement on the party’s finances.”

This latest attempt by the Conservatives is also likely to fail, with the SNP and their Scottish Green partners in government holding a majority of seats in the parliament.