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28 October 2021 Putting Conservative orthodoxy aside, the Chancellor at the Exchequer extracts from his red briefcase a public expenditure that has not been seen in the United Kingdom since the 1970s and says: 'the Tories are the real party of public services '.

The time to rejoice with Le Figaro for the 'spectacular' numbers of the occupation in France, which has returned to pre-covid levels, which other European newspapers suggest a winter still struggling with the virus.

After the Biden-Bennett honeymoon, Israel resumes where Netanyahu left off: another 3 thousand houses for settlers in the West Bank, and never mind if the White House does not see in the initiative a great effort for peace with the Palestinians

Cheers, spenders.

Rishi Sunak yesterday announced public spending plans at levels not seen since the late 1970s, using improved economic data to boost spending in every sector of the government, a £ 150 billion spree that shifts the Tories into traditional territory. Labor. Sunak announced cuts in beer tariffs and tax cuts to help companies affected by the Covid pandemic, raised the minimum wage and canceled the increase in fuel excise duties to help people grappling with the cost of living. Sunak said it was time to prepare for a "post-Covid" future and to build an "economy fit for a new era of optimism" with higher wages and higher skills.

It's a Labor budget bill with a conservative twist and the kind of spending review that Gordon Brown would have appreciated, albeit with one important difference: there is no class struggle, no politics of envy, no wealth tax. and a lot of optimism rhetoric. The recipients of this reckless generosity are central England, Tory voters and working poor, but the money has been scattered in every possible direction. Sunak is Chancellor, but he is executing Boris Johnson's botched vision: an intriguing, hyperactive, managerial, paternalistic and almost provincial state that refuses to accept any limits to its ambition or spending power. In many respects, Sunak has actually surpassed the master himself. L'the scale of the tax increases is astounding. Sunak raised an additional £ 16.7 billion net annually, following the £ 31.5 billion taken in March. This will push the tax burden from 33.5% of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2% by 2026-27, the highest level since the early 1950s, the OBR calculates; total government revenue will reach 40% of GDP. Taxpayers are being hammered more heavily by Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke's disastrous 1993 balance sheets. It was a shameful and destructive period in Tory history that led directly to the 1997 defeat, not a project to emulate. The Tories' nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastrophetax burden from 33.5% of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2% by 2026-27, the highest level since the early 1950s, calculates the OBR; total government revenue will reach 40% of GDP. Taxpayers are being hammered more heavily by Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke's disastrous 1993 balance sheets. It was a shameful and destructive period in Tory history that led directly to the 1997 defeat, not a project to emulate. The Tories' nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastrophetax burden from 33.5% of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2% by 2026-27, the highest level since the early 1950s, calculates the OBR; total government revenue will reach 40% of GDP. Taxpayers are being hammered more heavily by Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke's disastrous 1993 balance sheets. It was a shameful and destructive period in Tory history that led directly to the 1997 defeat, not a project to emulate. The Tories' nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastropheIt was a shameful and destructive period in Tory history that led directly to the 1997 defeat, not a project to emulate. The Tories' nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastropheIt was a shameful and destructive period in Tory history that led directly to the 1997 defeat, not a project to emulate. The Tories' nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastrophe

cheers, Rishi on mission to cut taxes

The Chancellor at the Exchequer said yesterday he believes it is a moral mission to cut taxes and the role of the state in people's lives. Then he outlined a £ 150 billion budget law

Three pillars, "enhanced public services, infrastructure renewal and skills". 21 billion for the streets arrive, 46 billion for the railways, 24 for social housing, 5 billion for schools, 20,000 police officers to be hired, the increase in the minimum hourly wage and salaries in the public sector. And then more transfers to keep the Kingdom united: £ 4.6 billion a year more to Scotland, £ 2.5 billion to Wales and £ 1.6 billion to Northern Ireland.

Speciale, from excise duties on petrol to tax on draft beer, that's what changes for the British.

Sunak's post-covid plan: spend now, cut taxes further.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer criticized by the opposition for the absence of environmental measures in the budget law.  

Sunak supports Johnson on spending

Chancellor pumps money into public services with a 3% increase for all departments.

Revenue forecasts bring another 35 billion pounds, but the tax burden is at its highest level since 1950. The budget talk ends with a reassurance on the "moral mission" to reduce the size of the state.

Sunak presented himself dressed from head to toe as Gordon Brown, his Labor predecessor. Spend, spend. Small numbers became large numbers. Big numbers, world records. Years of under investment to correct. Spending on school pupils will return to the level of 2010, when the Tories took over the government. Making beer cheaper, and cider more expensive, is another Brexit dividend. Lowering the price of alcohol is the closest thing to childcare policy the Conservative Party could do. Sunak himself is a teetotaler, and he prepared for his speech with a Sprite. Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer was not in Parliament: he had tested positive for Covid a few minutes before the start of the session,perhaps the first time the test-and-trace program has done what the government hoped for.

Ministers postpone anti-covid measures for two weeks after

taking the time necessary to assess the evolution of infections, but a package has already been prepared that includes restrictions on indoor meetings, plus teleworking from home.

Yesterday another 263 covid deaths, the highest number since March 3

Spectacular improvement in employment in France,

the number of unemployment benefits in the last 3 months has dropped by another 200 thousand people.

The spectacular reabsorption of unemployment in France as

the number of workers seeking employment returns to pre-pandemic levels, they fell by 9.7% in one year.

Especially the younger ones benefit from it.

What if a new crisis arrives?

the Government tries to prepare a protocol to be followed in the event of a new health emergency: who intervenes, with what procedures, what measures. The majority forces seek a dialogue on this with the opposition parties.

SPD Greens and Liberals agree on anti-pandemic measures.

The incidence of infections continues to rise, exceeding 130; 28 thousand new infected in 24 hours. Pediatricians urge parents to vaccinate children between 5 and 11 as soon as possible. The Hospital Association warns: doctors will soon be forced to postpone non-urgent operations for other pathologies due to increasing covid hospitalizations. If infection and hospitalization rates remain these, 3,000 patients will be back in intensive care units within two weeks. 

Exclusive survey.

Catholics want acts after the report that exposed decades of sexual abuse.

Strong demand from believers for a transformation of the Church: 3 out of 4 say 'the response of the hierarchy to reports of violence has been insufficient.

On the one hand, the government, which needs the vote of the Arab lists, regularizes the condition of thousands of Palestinians and releases funds for the benefit of the Arab minority in Israel.

On the other hand, it authorizes the construction of thousands of housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. 

Israel defies US criticism and authorizes 3,130 settler homes.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ignored a request from the Biden administration to stop the construction of the settlements and created an uproar in his coalition, giving green light to plans for 3,130 Jewish homes in Area C of the West Bank. The approval followed the controversial decision by Defense Minister Benny Gantz to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist groups and Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin to call for tenders for 1,355 Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Gantz on Tuesday evening, while Gantz was traveling abroad, to warn him of clearing new colonies: a disappointing move and it is problematic that it was not coordinated with us.This makes things difficult for us and undermines agreements between countries, "said US President Joe Biden, after the Bennett-Biden honeymoon.

Arkadi Mazin, freelance who also writes about Yedot Aronot.

How to deal with people who deny Palestinians the right to a state.

If you deny "Israel's right to exist," you are accused of anti-Semitism. But denying Palestinians their right to a state is still somehow OK. Because? 

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said many times that Palestinians should not be allowed to have a state. Likud, the first Israeli party, agrees with him, and with the exception of hint of a speech at Bar Ilan University in 2009, Netanyahu has spearheaded this approach. Not only is this view still inexplicably forgiven by the West, but it is shared by broad strata of Israeli society and Knesset deputies and government ministers.

How do we solve this gigantic moral dead end?

Those, including Israeli leaders and officials, who deny Palestinians' right to a state must be treated with the same firmness as those who deny Israel's right to exist.

Discarded.

A goal from Falcao costs Koeman his seat at the helm of Barcelona.

Xavi for Koeman

The Senate commission that investigated the Brazilian government's handling of the pandemic approved a final report this week, accusing the president, Jair Bolsonaro, of "crimes against humanity". The document presents serious allegations against 78 people and two companies led by Bolsonaro, the far-right denier leader who downplayed the severity of the coronavirus and is accused of eight other crimes, all covered by the Brazilian penal code: infringement of health measures, medical quackery. , incitement to crime, epidemics with fatal outcome, falsification of documents, irregular use of public money, abuse and attacks on the dignity of the office.

The report, the result of six months of investigations, was approved with seven votes to four and will now be sent to the ordinary Justice, the Prosecutor's Office, the Supreme Court and even the International Criminal Court of La Haya, which will have to consider whether to accept the complaints and establish the corresponding processes. The list of defendants for the government's erratic handling of a pandemic that has already killed more than 606,000 Brazilians also includes four ministers and three children of President Bolsonaro: Senator Flavio, MP Eduardo and Rio de Janeiro councilor Carlos.It was also requested that Bolsonaro be suspended from all social networks for a massive dissemination of false information on the pandemic and that he be forced by the Justice to retract all statements in which he despised the gravity or questioned the vaccines. Brazil is the third most affected country in the world, along with the United States and India.

For the first time in many years in Russia there has been a surge in xenophobic attacks. The first six months of 2021 saw a sharp rise in xenophobic violence, despite a decline in the number of such crimes in Russia in past years. This was announced by the director of the Moscow Office for Human Rights (MBHR), member of the Human Rights Council Alexander Brod. Experts call the trend alarming and associate it with the lack of prevention of such phenomena, the timely and systemic response of the state to new challenges and the deterioration of the socio-economic situation in Russia.

In 2018 and 2019, the office saw a decline in the total number of attacks, vandalism and manifestations of intolerance on an ethnic and religious basis. In 2020, this positive trend seemed to have finally caught on. But today human rights activists say that in the period January-August 2021 the number of acts of "xenophobic" aggression has increased. While seven attacks were recorded in the first six months of 2020, in the same period this year there were already 17. There are also more acts of vandalism for ethnic and religious reasons, rising from 19 to 23.

The authors of the report they also draw attention to the increase in the number of mass fights, the reasons for which could be interethnic hostilities.

One of the main reasons for the increase in the level of xenophobic aggression, say the authors of the report, is the deterioration of the socio-economic situation of the country.

At the same time, the Interior Ministry says crimes against migrants fell by 1.1% - settling at 10,300.

However, Sergei Galiev, a researcher in the field of demography, migration and ethno-religious problems at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, cited other figures - according to these data, in 2021 the number of crimes committed by migrants increased by 6.5%. in Russia, but the number of crimes against migrants also increased by 18%.