A reeling GOP took to the airwaves today to react to Mitch Daniels’ decision not to run for president, reports Politico, and to speculate on who might take his place. Paul Ryan’s reaction was typically “disappointed. I think his candidacy would have been a great addition to this race.” Would-have-been…
Continue reading …Russell Brand probably won’t be extolling the virtues of Japanese hospitality anytime soon: The 35-year-old British comedian arrived in Tokyo to watch wife Katy Perry perform, only to get tossed from the country, reports Fox News. “So…my husband just got deported from Japan,” tweeted the singer. “I am so….
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Education secretary argues in a Guardian interview that the changes will enable good schools to expand Ministers want to scrap restrictions on the expansion of the most popular state schools, allowing them to take on more pupils in a move that will increase the financial pressures on struggling schools. More parents will get their first choice of school under government plans to “remove bureaucracy” around the expansion of good schools, the education secretary, Michael Gove, revealed in an interview with the Guardian. Weaker schools will feel the squeeze because the level of school funding is determined by the number of pupils. The changes, which will apply to all state schools, will be outlined when ministers publish a revised school admissions code this summer. Ministers believe local authorities are in some cases deliberately preventing good schools from raising their “planned admissions numbers” because it becomes harder to sustain a weaker school if pupils defect. Some popular schools, including a Muslim girls’ school in Blackburn and a Catholic secondary school in Hull, are proposing to set up “overflow” free schools to absorb demand for places, but the government also wants to make it easier for successful schools to take on more children without creating an offshoot. Gove said: “We hope the new admissions code allows the possibility of increasing planned admissions numbers so good schools can expand, and there will be underperforming schools that have fewer and fewer numbers. That will compel their leadership and the local authority to ask: what’s wrong? “I think it’s wrong to have a situation where the local authority says: ‘This is a good school, it’s full up, parents have to go to the less good school down the road’.Because as a result of the local authority’s failure to deal with educational underperformance, children continue to go to a poor school.” Gove also compared the extension of the academies programme – schools that are independent of local authorities and get their funding directly from government – to council house sales in the 1980s. The government plans to lobby university vice-chancellors, businesses and private schools to become involved in sponsoring academies in an attempt to reach areas of the country where few have converted. A total of 658 schools are now academies. A further 686 are in the pipeline. But there are 18 local authorities where no academies have been established, including Blackpool, Leicestershire, Warrington and Wigan. Gove said: “There’s an analogy which, as a Conservative politician, I reach for … which is with council house sales … initially the people who bought council houses, people who were perhaps seen by their neighbours as a bit pushy and assertive – ‘Why do they think they’re so special?’. And then, after in a community a few people had done it, and the neighbours noticed they had a greater degree of freedom and flexibility, other people thought, that makes sense, I’ll take advantage of it too. So the position moved from being a few pioneers, to being a minority but respectable position to becoming mainstream, to becoming the majority position.” He said the plan was to identify areas “which stick out like sore thumbs” before picking sponsors to help establish academies. Gove also said he wanted to strengthen the role of the schools adjudicator, the government watchdog that rules in disputes over admissions. The current chief adjudicator, Ian Craig, announced in March he was stepping down early. Last year he warned that government plans to simplify the admissions code could weaken it. When Craig announced his decision to quit, the department said it would allow his successor time to “get up to speed” ahead of the new admissions process. Gove said: “One of the things we hope to do in the admissions code – still Is are being dotted and Ts crossed — one of the other things we want to do is ensure that in the system there will be more fairness, the schools adjudicator will have more teeth, so that anyone concerned about admissions arrangements can report them to the schools adjudicator. “Before it had to be a relevant individual, a parent at the school or connected [in some way], now if you are a parent anywhere and you see admissions arrangements which you think are unfair you can refer it to the schools adjudicator. Our aim is to allow good schools to expand, but also to have a strong adjudicator who is in a position to investigate and clamp down.” School admissions Schools Education policy Michael Gove Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Saturday Night Live closed out its season last night with some heavyweight help from Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga, playing host and musical guest respectively. The highlight, notes Gawker, was a “soon-to-be infamous” Digital Short starring Timberlake, Gaga, and Andy Samberg. JT and Samberg reprise their “Dick in the Box”…
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Millions turn out to elect municipal councils and regional governments, despite calls from demonstrators to abstain As tens of thousands of demonstrators continued to defy Spanish authorities by filling city squares to protest against establishment politics, millions more went to the polls to elect municipal councils and regional governments. By early Sunday afternoon, voting turnout was up 2% on four years ago, suggesting that calls to stay away from the polls made by one section of the mushrooming protest movement had not had any wider impact. By 2pm turnout had reached 36% of voters. Overall turnout at the elections four years ago was 64%. “I have dressed up because I consider voting very important,” said José Luis, a Madrid voter in his 50s who had put on his best suit for the event. Only when polls close at 8pm on Sunday however, will the number of blank or spoilt ballot papers be counted to give any idea of just how deep disenchantment with Spain’s political system runs. Opinion polls showed the socialist party of the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was facing a resounding defeat at the hands of Mariano Rajoy’s conservative People’s party. In the Puerta del Sol, the central Madrid square where the spontaneous protests began a week ago, crowds gathered to join or simply watch those taking part in the open assemblies at which the movement is trying to come up with a coherent set of demands. Speaker after speaker insisted they did not want to leave the square yet. “We must not go until we have firm plans and proposals,” said the representative of one of the sub-committees and working groups that have sprung up as part of a sophisticated, if cumbersome, exercise in open democracy. Early on Saturday afternoon, the Puerta del Sol protesters agreed they would camp out for at least another week. “The consensus is to stay until Sunday 29 May,” organisers said in a statement. “Nobody from amongst the thousands of participants in the assembly opposed the idea.” The protesters also agreed to start spreading their influence to neighbourhoods across Spain’s capital city. A working group of computer experts and hackers told the assembly they were building online links to bring together the multiple protests. These have taken over dozens of city squares around the country and have been spread by both social networks and Twitter with the #spanishrevolution hashtag . Organisers said the separate protests had decided to unite and work together to produce demands, which were likely to call for electoral reform and stricter measures to tackle corruption. An open video conference involving demonstrators in various cities was also due to be held. Intense political debate did not prevent a festive air ruling in the tent city that has taken over the Puerta del Sol. Sunday strollers picked their way past exhausted-looking youths lying on mattresses, many of whom have now been camped out for days. Signs pasted up in the square called on those who wanted to party to go somewhere else. “This is not a zoo,” read a message to onlookers. Spain Europe Protest Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Angry at lack of support by the Democratic Party in the face of Republican attacks, unions have sharply cut back their financial support, reports the Washington Post . Union political action committee spending for House Democrats dropped nearly in half for the first quarter of 2011, compared to the same period…
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British ambassador among those penned into United Arab Emirates embassy by mob loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh Western and Arab diplomats, including the British ambassador to Yemen, were trapped inside an embassy in Sana’a for several hours on Sunday by a mob loyal to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who refused to sign a deal arranging for him to leave office in return for legal immunity. The US and some Arab envoys were reported to have been ferried by Yemeni army helicopters from the United Arab Emirates embassy to the presidential palace where members of Saleh’s ruling party, but not Saleh, signed the deal. The president, who earlier rejected the deal as a “coup”, had declared he would only sign in the presence of opposition leaders. According to Foreign Office sources, the British ambassador, Jonathan Wilks, remained in the UAE embassy “to wait until it was safer to leave”. Saleh has backed out of signing a political settlement, brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), on two previous occasions. Even if he does sign and hand power to his vice-president, it is not clear whether the agreement will satisfy opposition activists who demand Saleh’s immediate departure and the complete dismantling of his regime. Opposition leaders signed the deal on Saturday, but pro-democracy protesters massed in central Sana’a to reject it. They held Yemeni flags and banners that read: “Now, now Ali, down with the president!” and “Go out Ali!” Meanwhile pro-Saleh demonstrators erected a tent in Sana’a, blocking a main street, and flew banners appealing to the president: “Don’t go, don’t sign.” The group of diplomatic observers, which also included envoys from the EU, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, had gathered at the UAE embassy compound intending to drive to the palace for the signing. Instead they found themselves unable to leave when a pro-Saleh crowd gathered outside, apparently determined to stop them reaching their destination. CNN reported that several dozen protesters were armed with machine guns, and many more had pistols. The Foreign Office said the route from the UAE compound to the palace had been “blocked by tribesmen and efforts are being made to clear the road”. Earlier in the day, armed men attacked a convoy of the GCC’s secretary general, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, in a bid to stop him reaching the UAE embassy. Pounding the car, they shouted against Gulf intervention in Yemeni affairs. The motorcade of the Chinese ambassador was also attacked before a police detail was sent to disperse the crowd. Under the GCC agreement, the opposition and elements of the Saleh regime would form a national unity government within a week, parliament would pass a law guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution for acts while in office, and, 30 days after signing, Saleh would hand over to a deputy after 33 years in power. In his speech on the Arab world on Thursday, President Obama said Saleh needed to “follow through on his commitment to transfer power”. There are concerns that if the deal is not signed soon, clashes could break out between military units that have defected from Saleh since the protests first erupted and those that have stayed loyal. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …British ambassador among those penned into United Arab Emirates embassy by mob loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh Western and Arab diplomats, including the British ambassador to Yemen, were trapped inside an embassy in Sana’a for several hours on Sunday by a mob loyal to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who refused to sign a deal arranging for him to leave office in return for legal immunity. The US and some Arab envoys were reported to have been ferried by Yemeni army helicopters from the United Arab Emirates embassy to the presidential palace where members of Saleh’s ruling party, but not Saleh, signed the deal. The president, who earlier rejected the deal as a “coup”, had declared he would only sign in the presence of opposition leaders. According to Foreign Office sources, the British ambassador, Jonathan Wilks, remained in the UAE embassy “to wait until it was safer to leave”. Saleh has backed out of signing a political settlement, brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), on two previous occasions. Even if he does sign and hand power to his vice-president, it is not clear whether the agreement will satisfy opposition activists who demand Saleh’s immediate departure and the complete dismantling of his regime. Opposition leaders signed the deal on Saturday, but pro-democracy protesters massed in central Sana’a to reject it. They held Yemeni flags and banners that read: “Now, now Ali, down with the president!” and “Go out Ali!” Meanwhile pro-Saleh demonstrators erected a tent in Sana’a, blocking a main street, and flew banners appealing to the president: “Don’t go, don’t sign.” The group of diplomatic observers, which also included envoys from the EU, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, had gathered at the UAE embassy compound intending to drive to the palace for the signing. Instead they found themselves unable to leave when a pro-Saleh crowd gathered outside, apparently determined to stop them reaching their destination. CNN reported that several dozen protesters were armed with machine guns, and many more had pistols. The Foreign Office said the route from the UAE compound to the palace had been “blocked by tribesmen and efforts are being made to clear the road”. Earlier in the day, armed men attacked a convoy of the GCC’s secretary general, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, in a bid to stop him reaching the UAE embassy. Pounding the car, they shouted against Gulf intervention in Yemeni affairs. The motorcade of the Chinese ambassador was also attacked before a police detail was sent to disperse the crowd. Under the GCC agreement, the opposition and elements of the Saleh regime would form a national unity government within a week, parliament would pass a law guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution for acts while in office, and, 30 days after signing, Saleh would hand over to a deputy after 33 years in power. In his speech on the Arab world on Thursday, President Obama said Saleh needed to “follow through on his commitment to transfer power”. There are concerns that if the deal is not signed soon, clashes could break out between military units that have defected from Saleh since the protests first erupted and those that have stayed loyal. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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Dennis Rice launches proceedings alleging that his voicemail messages were intercepted while working at the Mail on Sunday A leading tabloid journalist has joined those suing the News of the World for allegedly hacking into voicemails, reviving claims that the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper has been spying on its rivals to steal their stories. According to the high court registry, Fleet Street veteran Dennis Rice has issued proceedings against the NoW and its private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Rice, who is now freelance, was the investigations editor at the Mail on Sunday (MoS) when Mulcaire was at the peak of his activity between 2005 and 2006. A source familiar with Mulcaire’s activities claims that, acting on orders from an NoW editorial executive, he intercepted voicemail messages from Rice and half a dozen other journalists at the MoS. They say that among other targets, the paper was keen to steal stories that Rice was filing from Germany, where England were playing in the World Cup in the summer of 2006, generating tabloid interest in the players’ wives and girlfriends. The same source said that by hacking into voicemails, Mulcaire obtained a password which would have allowed him to access the MoS internal computer system, potentially disclosing all of its email traffic and every story awaiting publication. Some journalists who have worked for the NoW claim they were also attempting to penetrate the security of the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People. If proved, the claim could break the alliance of silence which has seen most Fleet Street papers refuse to investigate the scandal. Rice’s legal action is only the latest in a number of indications that the claim may be correct. The original police inquiry in 2006 found evidence that Mulcaire had succeeded in intercepting the voicemail of the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks. The current police inquiry is believed to have discovered that Mulcaire also targeted the Sun’s former editor and columnist Kelvin MacKenzie. Both would have been rich sources of intelligence about the Sun’s activities. When he was tried in January 2007, Mulcaire admitted intercepting messages from the phone of the celebrity PR agent Max Clifford, who was boycotting the NoW and selling stories to its rivals. Clifford’s former personal assistant Nicola Phillips is suing Mulcaire and the NoW for allegedly intercepting her messages. As one apparent example, notes kept by Mulcaire suggest his hacking of Phillips’s voicemail allowed the theft in February 2006 of a story about an alleged affair between the actor Ralph Fiennes and a Romanian singer, Cornelia Crisan, which Phillips had sold for £35,000 in a joint deal with the Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday, but which nevertheless turned up in the NoW. Rice himself was at the centre of a controversy 12 years ago, when he was deputy news editor of the Sunday Mirror. According to allegations made in the high court in August 1999, Rice had been contacted by Neville Thurlbeck of the NoW, who had asked to meet him in a south London pub. Rice had been suspicious and gone to the meeting with a concealed tape recorder. He allegedly captured on tape Thurlbeck offering him a weekly payment of £5,000 for the Sunday Mirror’s news list, plus a bonus of £3,000 for any story from the list which made a front-page NoW splash. Rice rejected the offer and took the recording to his editor. The Sunday Mirror went to court seeking an injunction to order the NoW to stop trying to bribe its staff. The NoW denied Thurlbeck had attempted to bribe Rice and claimed the Sunday Mirror had approached one of its journalists in search of information. The case was settled out of court with the Sunday Mirror’s then editor, Colin Myler, publicly denouncing the NoW and accusing it of lying. Myler now edits the NoW. That case followed two earlier embarrassing disclosures after Piers Morgan stopped editing the NoW in 1995 and moved to the Daily Mirror. Soon afterwards, its sister papers, the Sunday Mirror and the People, both discovered their news lists were being secretly sold to the NoW by a senior Sunday Mirror reporter and a secretary on the People. Both papers said they had been aware that some of their supposedly exclusive stories had found their way into the NoW. Rice’s wife and sister are also named in the high court registry as claimants, suggesting their phones may also have been hacked. Rice’s solicitor, Mark Lewis, of Taylor Hampton, said: “I can confirm that Dennis Rice has issued proceedings in relation to allegations that his voicemails were intercepted.” We are currently awaiting a response from the News of the World. Phone hacking News of the World Sunday Mirror Mail on Sunday News International Newspapers National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Crime Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dennis Rice launches proceedings alleging that his voicemail messages were intercepted while working at the Mail on Sunday A leading tabloid journalist has joined those suing the News of the World for allegedly hacking into voicemails, reviving claims that the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper has been spying on its rivals to steal their stories. According to the high court registry, Fleet Street veteran Dennis Rice has issued proceedings against the NoW and its private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Rice, who is now freelance, was the investigations editor at the Mail on Sunday (MoS) when Mulcaire was at the peak of his activity between 2005 and 2006. A source familiar with Mulcaire’s activities claims that, acting on orders from an NoW editorial executive, he intercepted voicemail messages from Rice and half a dozen other journalists at the MoS. They say that among other targets, the paper was keen to steal stories that Rice was filing from Germany, where England were playing in the World Cup in the summer of 2006, generating tabloid interest in the players’ wives and girlfriends. The same source said that by hacking into voicemails, Mulcaire obtained a password which would have allowed him to access the MoS internal computer system, potentially disclosing all of its email traffic and every story awaiting publication. Some journalists who have worked for the NoW claim they were also attempting to penetrate the security of the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People. If proved, the claim could break the alliance of silence which has seen most Fleet Street papers refuse to investigate the scandal. Rice’s legal action is only the latest in a number of indications that the claim may be correct. The original police inquiry in 2006 found evidence that Mulcaire had succeeded in intercepting the voicemail of the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks. The current police inquiry is believed to have discovered that Mulcaire also targeted the Sun’s former editor and columnist Kelvin MacKenzie. Both would have been rich sources of intelligence about the Sun’s activities. When he was tried in January 2007, Mulcaire admitted intercepting messages from the phone of the celebrity PR agent Max Clifford, who was boycotting the NoW and selling stories to its rivals. Clifford’s former personal assistant Nicola Phillips is suing Mulcaire and the NoW for allegedly intercepting her messages. As one apparent example, notes kept by Mulcaire suggest his hacking of Phillips’s voicemail allowed the theft in February 2006 of a story about an alleged affair between the actor Ralph Fiennes and a Romanian singer, Cornelia Crisan, which Phillips had sold for £35,000 in a joint deal with the Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday, but which nevertheless turned up in the NoW. Rice himself was at the centre of a controversy 12 years ago, when he was deputy news editor of the Sunday Mirror. According to allegations made in the high court in August 1999, Rice had been contacted by Neville Thurlbeck of the NoW, who had asked to meet him in a south London pub. Rice had been suspicious and gone to the meeting with a concealed tape recorder. He allegedly captured on tape Thurlbeck offering him a weekly payment of £5,000 for the Sunday Mirror’s news list, plus a bonus of £3,000 for any story from the list which made a front-page NoW splash. Rice rejected the offer and took the recording to his editor. The Sunday Mirror went to court seeking an injunction to order the NoW to stop trying to bribe its staff. The NoW denied Thurlbeck had attempted to bribe Rice and claimed the Sunday Mirror had approached one of its journalists in search of information. The case was settled out of court with the Sunday Mirror’s then editor, Colin Myler, publicly denouncing the NoW and accusing it of lying. Myler now edits the NoW. That case followed two earlier embarrassing disclosures after Piers Morgan stopped editing the NoW in 1995 and moved to the Daily Mirror. Soon afterwards, its sister papers, the Sunday Mirror and the People, both discovered their news lists were being secretly sold to the NoW by a senior Sunday Mirror reporter and a secretary on the People. Both papers said they had been aware that some of their supposedly exclusive stories had found their way into the NoW. Rice’s wife and sister are also named in the high court registry as claimants, suggesting their phones may also have been hacked. Rice’s solicitor, Mark Lewis, of Taylor Hampton, said: “I can confirm that Dennis Rice has issued proceedings in relation to allegations that his voicemails were intercepted.” We are currently awaiting a response from the News of the World. Phone hacking News of the World Sunday Mirror Mail on Sunday News International Newspapers National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Crime Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
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