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@ISIDEWITH submitted…5hrs5H
The US will be forced to fund a massive increase in its budget deficit with short-term debt, analysts have said, with consequences for money markets and the battle against inflation.The Congressional Budget Office, the independent fiscal watchdog, this week said aid packages for Ukraine and Israel would help push up the US deficit this fiscal year to $1.9tn — compared with its February prediction of $1.5tn.“We are spending money as a country like a drunken sailor on shore for the weekend,” said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chair of research at Barclays. The increase in the deficit has long alarmed fiscal hawks, who warn the US’s lack of discipline will inevitably push up borrowing costs and that neither President Joe Biden nor his Republican challenger Donald Trump have substantive plans to shore up the country’s finances. “It is likely that the share of Treasury bills as a share of total debt increases, which opens up the question of who is going to buy them,” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo. “This absolutely could strain funding markets.”
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…4hrs4H
As the 2024 UK general election approaches, candidates across constituencies like Islington North and Bristol North East are making their final pitches to voters, highlighting the intense competition and diverse political landscapes within the country. Labour leader Keir Starmer has firmly ruled out…
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The International Committee of the Red Cross says its offices in Gaza have been damaged by shelling, which killed 22 people who had sought shelter around its compound."Heavy-calibre projectiles landed within metres of the office and residences of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday afternoon," an ICRC statement said.It added that all parties had an obligation to take precautions to avoid harm to civilians and humanitarian facilities.An Israel Defense Forces spokesman told the BBC that initial inquiries suggested there was "no indication" that it had carried out a strike in the area, but added that the incident was "under review"."The strike damaged the structure of the ICRC office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues," the ICRC said."This incident caused a mass casualty influx at the nearby Red Cross Field Hospital, with the hospital receiving 22 killed and 45 injured, with reports of additional casualties."
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Ukraine’s Western backers have accused Kiev of not making enough progress on eliminating corruption, and have warned that it could cost the country military and economic support in the future, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.The outlet noted that while Ukrainian officials have admitted that corruption remains an issue in the country, they have insisted that they are battling it “as fiercely as their troops are fighting Russia,” suggesting that the West was not giving Kiev sufficient credit for its efforts.While new corruption cases against high-ranking government officials are being opened almost every month, the head of the dedicated unit within Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office, Alexander Klimenko, stressed that the fact that “the number of cases has doubled doesn’t mean that there is twice as much corruption.”“On the contrary: it means that we’re twice as effective as before,” Klimenko claimed, according to the Washington Post.However, US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have reportedly been dissatisfied with the results of Kiev’s war on corruption. A meeting between Vladimir Zelensky and Blinken in Kiev last month was “tense,” the Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. While the Ukrainian leader expressed his appreciation for US military aid, he was also reportedly frustrated with Blinken’s focus on corruption.“Winning on the battlefield will prevent Ukraine from becoming part of Russia,” Blinken said following the meeting. “Winning the war against corruption will keep Ukraine from becoming like Russia,” he added.But many in Zelensky’s team, as per the Washington Post, privately argue that although corruption remains a challenge for the country, efforts to fight it could distract them from the primary goal of defeating Russia. Some senior Ukrainian officials have also been complaining that Kiev’s Western backers were using the “stereotype of Ukraine as corrupt” as an excuse to delay additional aid.
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Taipei is studying the tactics being employed by the Ukrainian military against Russia in its preparations for a potential attack, the self-governing island’s new vice president, Hsiao Bi-khim, has said.Her comments come as Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has been voicing concerns that Beijing, which sees Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory, has allegedly outlined the island’s “annexation and the elimination of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the great rejuvenating cause of its people,” suggesting that the mainland would stop at nothing to take control of the island.Speaking at an event hosted by Chatham House, a British think-tank, in London on Tuesday, Bi-khim insisted that Taiwan must reform and decentralize its military command structure, adding that the government is actively “learning from Ukraine’s defense, where smaller combat forces have proven nimble and adaptable.”The vice president, who was elected last month, further claimed that “authoritarian regimes” were seeking to “influence and destabilize other nations through hybrid operations such as political warfare, cyber-intrusion, economic coercion and the threat of military force.”In light of this supposed threat, Bi-khim stated that the Taiwanese government has already taken a number of steps to boost its ability to react in the event of an attack. These include the doubling of the island’s defense budget, extending mandatory military service from four months to a year, the prioritization of new arms acquisitions, and other measures, some of which have been inspired by Ukraine, she said.
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