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Social Care budgets “at tipping point”

Report follows Walsall Labour group claims.






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Budget 2025: Nirmala Sitharaman to meet state FMs for pre-Budget, GST Council meet on Dec 21-22

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to meet with state counterparts on December 21-22 for pre-budget discussions and a GST Council meeting. Key agenda items include potential GST exemptions for certain insurance policies and rate reductions on various goods. The Council may also consider raising GST on luxury items like high-value shoes and watches.




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Cities Divert Police Budget Funds To Youth Summer Jobs

Copyright 2020 KUNC. To see more, visit KUNC . MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: As cities across the country consider diverting police department dollars into social programs, some are looking at summer jobs for low-income youth. Through these summer youth employment programs, young people can make some money, learn new skills and stay productive. From member station KUNC in northern Colorado, Leigh Paterson reports. LEIGH PATERSON, BYLINE: Last month, New York slashed police spending but did fund its massive summer youth employment program. Cincinnati shifted a million dollars out of its police budget to expand youth employment. Los Angeles did something similar to its $1.8 billion police budget. Here's LA city council member Curren Price. CURREN PRICE: Well, my motion shifted $150 million from the police department budget. PATERSON: Ten million of that will go to the city's summer youth employment program. He said this reallocation is a direct response to recent protests against police violence.




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Drop-Off In Lottery Sales Will Hurt States' School Budgets

Copyright 2020 Northern Public Radio. To see more, visit Northern Public Radio . NOEL KING, HOST: All right. Here's a story about unexpected consequences. People are buying fewer lottery tickets because of the pandemic, which is bad for convenience stores and gas stations. But it also means hundreds of millions fewer dollars for school funding. Peter Medlin of member station WNIJ in DeKalb, Ill., explains what's going on. PETER MEDLIN, BYLINE: Last year, the Illinois Lottery set records sales. Proceeds from Powerball tickets to scratch-offs contributed $731 million to public education. That translates to more than 10% of the state's funding for school districts. But the receipts don't look nearly as good this year. With more strict reopening guidelines, sales have plummeted. And revenue has nosedived nearly $90 million during the pandemic. Victor Matheson teaches economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, where he researches sports and the lottery. VICTOR MATHESON: So




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Karen Abudinen foro internet para la vida: conectividad y economía digital

Dirige y conduce Diana Calderón




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Entrevista Karen Abudinen

Entrevista MINTIC




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Denuncian burla a la democracia interna de la UNAL: ¿Ley del embudo?

Las consultas internas que fueron el argumento para imponer a Leopoldo Múnera como rector de la Universidad Nacional, no fueron tenidas en cuenta para la designación de al menos 5 decanos.




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Buddy Guy - Live at Legends

Super live cuts and studio extras which offer proof of Guy’s ageless appeal.




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Manufacturers shore up finances ahead of Budget

In a sign of improved confidence in the manufacturing sector, the latest data on personal guarantee backed business loans to smaller manufacturers shows a dramatic rise in applications for finance in Q3 2024.




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UK manufacturing poised for post-Budget rebound, says RSM UK

Commenting on the latest CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index which has decreased to 49.9 from 51.5, Mike Thornton, national head of manufacturing at RSM UK, said: “The manufacturing PMI dipped in October, falling below 50 for the first time in six months.




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Rockies’ Bud Black on returning for ninth season: “I want to be part of the solution”

Bud Black sees big improvement in pitching next season for the Rockies.





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Video: Antigua & Barbuda Defeat Bermuda

The Bermuda men’s national volleyball team fell to 1 and 2 after their third match in the 2024 ECVA senior men’s championships, following their 3 – 2 defeat to Antigua and Barbuda. Bermuda went ahead 1 – 0 after winning the first set 26-24, they would then lead 2 – 0 after winning the second […]




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Budgies Defeat The Ravens At Sports Center

In Bermuda Field Hockey action at the National Sports Center, the Budgies defeated the Ravens 2 – 0. The Budgies took a 1 – 0 lead in the 31st minute when Amber McHugh scored a field goal, Imani Smith doubled the lead in the 55th minute earning them the win. Related Stories Nearly 500 Compete […]




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Hockey: Budgies Defeat The Longtails

In Bermuda Hockey Federation action at the National Sports Center, the Budgies defeated the Longtails 4 – 2. The Budgies took the lead in the sixth minute when Jessica Charles scored from a penalty corner, but in the 21st minute Isaac Davis equalized for the Longtails with a field goal. The Budgies went ahead again […]




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Hockey: Budgies Win, Dark & Hurricanes Draw

The Budgies recorded victory in this weekend’s Bermuda field hockey double-header, while the Hurricanes and Dark & Stormies played to a draw. The Hurricanes came from 4 – 0 down to draw 4 – 4 with the Dark & Stormies. The Dark & Stormies got a hat trick from Gareth Tavares and a single strike […]




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Bermuda Field Hockey: Ravens & Budgies Draw

The Bermuda Field Hockey Women’s League season began with a 3-3 draw between the Ravens and Budgies at the National Sports Center. The match featured several members of the Bermuda Women’s National Team, who recently competed at the same venue. Budgies forward Georgia Harris opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a field goal. […]




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Field Hockey: Budgies Defeat Griffins

The Budgies came from three goals down to edge Griffins 4 – 3 at the National Sports Center in the lone Bermuda field hockey federation match. Griffins took the lead in the 6th minute with Owen Curley scoring a field goal, Curley doubled the lead with a second field goal in the 18th minute. Griffins […]




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Collie Buddz Nominated In Caribbean Awards

Collie Buddz has been nominated for Album of the Year [Reggae] at the 2024 Caribbean Music Awards, with his album “Take It Easy”. The organisation said “The complete list of nominees for the ‘Caribbean Music Awards’ 2024 is: Album of the Year [Reggae] Buju Banton – Born For Greatness Collie Buddz – Take It Easy […]




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Photos: Collie Buddz ‘Take It Easy’ Show

Collie Buddz – who was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year – performed at Snorkel Park just prior to the Cup Match holiday, serving as part of his international “Take it Easy” Tour. For extensive coverage of Cup Match spanning over a decade, visit our website BernewsCupMatch.com, the island’s most comprehensive resource on the Cup Match holiday. Over […]




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Collie Buddz Given Shirt By Khano Smith

Bermudian reggae star Collie Buddz was presented with a Rhode Island FC football shirt before his concert last night [August 30] by former national team footballer Khano Smith. The artist, whose real name is Colin Harper, is currently on tour and played in Wakefield, Rhode Island, where he met up with Smith, the head coach […]




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Collie Buddz Nominated For Reggae Grammy

Bermudian reggae artist Collie Buddz has earned a second consecutive Grammy nomination, with his album ‘Take It Easy’ named among the nominees for Best Reggae Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards. This marks his second consecutive nomination in the extremely prestigious International Awards, as he was also nominated last year for his Cali Roots Riddim […]




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Zrodila se hvězda! Trump v projevu děkoval Elonu Muskovi. Čím se mu budoucí prezident může odvděčit?

S Trumpem v Bílém domě má Musk příležitost posunout svůj vliv na novou úroveň a významně ovlivnit pravidla hry v technologickém světě. Těžit může například z možného vlivu na regulace v klíčových sektorech, kde působí. Muskova podpora Trumpovi byla sázkou na nejistotu, ale první reakce trhu naznačují, že se tento risk možná vyplácí.




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Как друзья из Красноярска создали ИИ-репетитора Buddy.ai для детей. Теперь это лидер рынка с технологиями круче Apple и Google

В России создается много стартапов, но далеко не все из них успешны на мировом рынке. Buddy.ai — это как раз то самое исключение из правил. Этот сервис для изучения английского языка, созданный двумя друзьями из Красноярска, сейчас является лидером в своей нише, а недавно он привлёк $11 млн. Разбираемся, что такого уникального в Buddy.ai и...




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Biblical and Budai Taiwanese: vernacular, literary; oral, written

[This is a guest post by Denis Mair]      Cai Xutie was a Taiwanese woman who ran a family farm with her husband in a village near Jiayi in central Taiwan. She was a rice farmer and had never attended a public school. After her husband died in middle age, she sold some of the land, […]




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U.S. Senate advances their FY 2025 budget proposal for NASA amid deep cuts

An analysis of the U.S. Senate's FY 2025 budget request for NASA.




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Where Congress Stands on NASA's 2025 budget

Weeks before the new fiscal year, Congress still hasn't finalized NASA's 2025 budget.




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You Seem To Have Picked Up Another Pickup There, Buddy

One is never enough.




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What do you do When Project Budgeting is a Constraint for Your Company?

Have you ever declined possible clients because of low budgeting, such as a few hundred dollars a month because they want top placement but not willing enough to pay for it. How about possible projects where the client believes top ranking placement is the only measuring factor for their online business? O’, here is another […]




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The Border is a Budget

How are borders made? State borders are the product of political conflict, nationalist discourse, unequal economic systems, and, as this essay shows, significant public financial investment. Public policy and political narratives naturalize state borders, often hiding how their origins are arbitrary and violent. State borders often mark space following war and conflict, but they also […]




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9 Steps to Get CTEM on Your 2025 Budgetary Radar

Budget season is upon us, and everyone in your organization is vying for their slice of the pie. Every year, every department has a pet project that they present as absolutely essential to profitability, business continuity, and quite possibly the future of humanity itself. And no doubt that some of these actually may be mission critical. But as cybersecurity professionals, we understand that




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2024 Budget Update

Throughout the year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and all standard accounting guidelines and financial compliance requirements met. Preparation for the audit of 2023 financial statements continues!

The team has also been diligently working on the 2024 budget update and are happy to present it here: (access the 2024 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2024 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

  • US$250,381.02 spent so far out of US$416,441.01 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • 55.1% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
  • This year's projected AO3 expenses also include US$120,000 to purchase new servers, as well as US$15,000 in additional server related equipment to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

  • US$6,899.70 spent so far out of US$9,344.33 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

  • US$3,488.74 spent so far out of US$5,444.70 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).
  • Additionally, the University of Amsterdam provided £1,000 (US$1,061) to Transformative Works and Cultures in 2023, which will be used to help fund the Fans of Color Research Prize.

Fanlore

  • US$13,986.47 spent so far out of US$24,160.27 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

  • US$304.50 spent so far out of US$2,892.15 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

  • US$107,433.57 spent so far out of US$152,399.47 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, outreach work by volunteers at various fan conventions, and the tools used to host the OTW's membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors, as well as an allocated share of OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

  • US$111,698.97 spent so far out of US$147,099.75 total this year, as of September 30, 2024.
  • The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2024 Revenue

  • The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
  • We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 33.8% of our income in 2024. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
  • Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. As the Archive and other projects of the OTW grow, we also spend more on tools and technology to support our volunteers, such as the tools used by various committees to communicate with and aid users and to track internal projects, further increasing expenses.
  • US$651,741.98 received so far (as of September 30, 2024) and US$762,433.91 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW's 2024 budget update in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.





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Diamonds On A Budget: Affordable Alternatives And Lab-Grown Options

In a world captivated by the glimmer of diamonds, these gems epitomize luxury, romance, and opulence. However, in recent times, traditional diamonds have not only become increasingly costly but also subject to scrutiny due to ethical concerns surrounding their mining. For lovebirds desiring the sparkle without the extravagant price tag, or for ethical buyers, the ... Read more

The post Diamonds On A Budget: Affordable Alternatives And Lab-Grown Options appeared first on Star Two.





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News24 | Budget constraints force Gauteng education department to delay teacher promotions until April

The Gauteng education department has postponed the appointment of new office-based staff as well as teachers who applied to be promoted as heads of department, deputy principals and principals until April because of budget constraints.




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India Budget 2018: Who are the Biggest Winners and Losers?

India Budget 2018: Who are the Biggest Winners and Losers? Expert comment sysadmin 2 February 2018

Any claims to boost farmers’ prospects will inevitably be seen as political, coming ahead of a series of key elections. But this budget recognises India’s most pressing concerns - and seeks to address them.

Hundreds of farmers sit in pits as a protest against government plans for land acquisition in October 2017. Photo By Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

In 2016 India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, pledged to double farmers’ incomes by 2022. While the pledge may have been aspirational, reliant on good weather as much as government policy, the 2018/19 budget demonstrates the depth of the government’s commitment to the agriculture sector.

There’s clearly a political edge to any moves to bolster agriculture: any solace to rural India will be described as political opportunism until most people in India are not engaged directly or indirectly in the agricultural sector.

And with a number of state elections coming up this year and a general election next – suggestions that it will be brought forward have increased in volume since the budget – a politically-astute budget is unsurprising. At the same time, there is a real sense of crisis in Indian agriculture which the budget is attempting to ameliorate.

Significant hike in infrastructure spending

The budget – which has Keynesian undertones – announces both direct and indirect support for rural India; it increases significantly the price at which the government purchases agricultural produce, and offers a range of further support through initiatives in areas such as irrigation. Furthermore, there is a significant hike in spending on infrastructure – roads, railways, ports and waterways – with a major allocation for rural infrastructure.

While government spending on infrastructure had been growing, the 2018/19 budget appears to accept that innovative funding models to fund rural projects are unlikely to work – instead, rural highways will have to be funded from overall taxation, as is generally the norm.

The other bold initiative focuses on healthcare. One hundred million poor families (so around half a billion Indians in total) will receive up to Rs500,000 for medical care under a health insurance programme. Given the correlation between ill health and poverty, this should have implications for the economy as well as healthcare itself. At the moment poverty effectively excludes many Indians from private healthcare.

Education too received a boost, with several proposals including teacher training. There have long been concerns over the quality of Indian education. In particular, even where schools exist physically, teachers themselves are absent.

As is often the case with India, the question will be in the implementation. While there are bound to be hiccups, the current Indian government does appear to realise the need for on-the-ground, visible change.

The recent state election in Gujarat demonstrated that while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is clearly favourite to win another term, it is not invulnerable. If the changes do not reach the “last mile”, then they will accrue neither the economic nor the political benefits.

The downsides? Increased taxes will raise inflation, potentially exacerbated by sustained government borrowing; a 20% rise in customs duty will affect imports of mobile phones (though benefit domestic producers and encourage other foreign firms to set up manufacturing plants in India) and some of the revenue projections appear optimistic.

On balance though, this is a budget that recognises the most pressing challenges which India faces, and attempts to provide solutions to them.

This article was originally published in The Independent.




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Independent Thinking: How can France survive its budget crisis?

Independent Thinking: How can France survive its budget crisis? Audio john.pollock

Sophie Pedder and Shahin Vallée join the podcast to discuss France’s contentious budget and political drama, and the potential impact on Europe and beyond.

On this episode

France is facing political turmoil. The survival of Michel Barnier’s new government rests on whether he can pass a controversial budget intended to rescue the country from its huge fiscal deficit. Bronwen Maddox is joined by Sophie Pedder, the Paris bureau chief of The Economist, Shahin Vallée, a former adviser to Emmanuel Macron and Armida van Rij, the head of our Europe Programme.

About Independent Thinking

Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists, and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.

More ways to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify.





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EU Budget Battle Could Undermine its International Ambitions

17 July 2020

Alice Billon-Galland

Research Associate, Europe Programme

Vassilis Ntousas

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Academy Fellow, Europe Programme
EU’s heated budget negotiations risk producing a compromise at the expense of its longer-term international agenda.

GettyImages-1227664182-edit.jpg

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) talks with French President Emmanuel Macron (C) and President of European Council Charles Michel (R) during an EU summit on 17 July 2020 in Brussels, Belgium. Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images.

With all EU economies still reeling from COVID-19, the ongoing heated deliberations on the bloc’s next budget, which will determine the amount of money matching its priorities for the next seven years, have taken on an urgency rarely felt in Brussels.

Relying in part on an unprecedentedly large volume of jointly issued debt, the European Commission’s plan for a €750 billion coronavirus recovery instrument is embedded within a revamped proposal for the EU’s long-term budget, of €1.1 trillion for the 2021-27 period. 

Now the ball is in the member states’ court. All seem to agree that getting the EU budget right is crucial to fostering an economic recovery and ensuring the Union is on the right track towards its long-term pre-COVID objectives, from increasing its strategic autonomy to reaching climate neutrality by 2050. However, stark differences persist as to what that means in practice.

Most of the core divisions predate the pandemic’s outbreak. In a special European Council meeting in February, leaders failed to find common ground on the Union’s first post-Brexit budget. Net contributor countries, such as Austria, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands — the so-called ‘Frugal Four’— refused to agree to higher overall spending and instead advocated for cuts in the Common Agricultural Policy or cohesion funds, meeting the resistance of states like France and Portugal.

These early divisions foreshadowed the risk of a budget compromise that would leave little space for new policy priorities. The COVID-induced economic crisis has made a traditionally fraught political process even more difficult, putting the squeeze on what were previously priority areas of funding.

The Frugal Four agree on the need for the coronavirus recovery plan but vehemently oppose the volume of grants or the issuance of too much common debt in the proposed instrument, reflecting the unpopularity of these proposals with their domestic audiences. Hungary has also threatened to derail progress on the EU’s rescue plan if rule of law criteria are weaved into mechanisms for the allocation of EU funding.

As European leaders reconvene at the 17-18 July Council meeting, EU Council President Michel proposed a revised 'negotiating box' in preparation for the discussions. The document, which tries to bridge these intra-bloc divisions, bolts the demands for short-term recovery onto the EU’s longer-term ambitions. For instance, it sets an increased target of 30 per cent of funding to go toward climate-related projects, which is necessary for the Union’s green transformation. It also retains the link between the rule of law and EU funding — despite Budapest’s opposition — which is critical for the bloc’s internal accountability and transparency, and external credibility. Furthermore, it proposes a set of new mechanisms through which the EU can sustainably raise its own revenue, including a plastics levy as well as more controversial carbon border tax and digital levy.

Yet in several other critical ways, Michel’s proposals fall short. This is particularly true for some of the more ‘geopolitical’ goals of the Union, as previously expressed by Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, or the repeated calls by the Union’s high representative that the EU should learn to use the language of power.

For all the rhetoric around the EU’s need to boost its ability to act more autonomously in the field of security and defence, reductions in important thematic programmes in this domain could result in a critical loss of momentum, if confirmed. For instance, in Michel’s proposals, flagship defence initiatives such as the European defence fund and the military mobility plan are facing cuts of about 39 per cent and 74 per cent respectively (to some €7 billion for the former and €1.5 billion for the latter) compared with the initial Commission proposal of 2018.

Moreover, the tragic developments at the Greece-Turkey border in the beginning of the year might have brought migration back to the forefront of the EU’s attention, but the overall funding for migration and border management is also significantly lower compared to initial proposals. This serves as another example of a discrepancy between the figures on the table today and those that the EU commission had previously regarded as necessary to address the challenges the bloc faces.

Similarly, under the Council president’s latest proposal, the combined funding allocated for the EU’s external action (under the ‘Neighbourhood and the World’ heading) is lower than the figures in the Commission’s May announcements – from €118.2 billion to €113.9 billion overall. This represents an increase compared to the previous EU budget, but it is not in line with the elevated ambitions recognized by the Commission in May, which have only been made more compelling by the pandemic.

Brokering a deal in EU budget negotiations has always been a brutal affair, requiring sacrifices and compromise under the pressure of a ticking clock. 2020 was never likely to be an exception to this rule; but the pandemic has complicated the politics and raised the stakes.

The risk is that the budget negotiations lead to a compromise which, while delivering a historic coronavirus package, does not adequately support some of the key elements of the Union’s long-term agenda, especially its international ambitions.




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American woman killed in Budapest allegedly by man she met on vacation

An American woman who was traveling in Hungary was killed in Budapest last week allegedly by a man she met on vacation.




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Why spending smarter beats bigger budgets | Karthik Muralidharan

Billions of dollars are poured into global development every year, but results are lacking, says economist Karthik Muralidharan. Diving into an example with public education, he outlines how smarter resource allocation and evidence-based interventions, like learning software that dynamically responds to students and teaches at the level that's right for them, can accelerate global development worldwide — not by spending more, but by spending smarter.




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$11B budget package passes Pennsylvania Legislature




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Several States Propose Budget Cuts, Education Mostly Unharmed

Lawmakers in Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Utah have all gave previews this to their 2018 fiscal year budget proposals.




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Budget Cuts Lead Wyoming to Scale Back Relationship With Accrediting Agency

AdvancED, the national accreditation company, has for the last two years operated Wyoming's entire accreditation process but the state will now do the work on its own.




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Gov. Lee hoping for teacher pay raises amid budget crunch




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Polis: Proposed budget will ease suffering, set up recovery




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School Accessibility Gets $150 Million Boost in N.Y.C. Budget

The money, which will be allocated over three years, is expected to make major and minor improvements to schools throughout the city.