Governments

• Un tribunal federal de apelaciones ha anulado una medida cautelar de un tribunal inferior que ordenaba a la administración Trump restaurar el flujo de subvenciones federales a varios gobiernos locales, desbloqueando miles de millones de dólares en fondos que habían sido retenidos. • La decisión surge tras una disputa sobre cómo la administración interpreta las condiciones adjuntas a las subvenciones federales, con ciudades argumentando que la retención equivalía a una represalia política. • El fallo podría influir en cómo futuras administraciones pueden o no condicionar la ayuda al cumplimiento de políticas, y tiene implicaciones para el federalismo y la autonomía local.

NSW and Queensland governments ‘severely underdelivered’ on promised infrastructure to improve water flows, independent review findsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTwo state governments have drastically underdelivered more than $160m in infrastructure measures to improve river health in the northern Murray-Darling basin eight years since they were promised, a major independent review has found.This includes failure by the New South Wales government to secure any of the private land access needed to improve water flows over floodplains in the state’s Gwydir region where scientists had to scramble to rescue turtles in dried up wetlands last week. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia actively pursue regressive policies, watchdog findsGovernments in five EU member states are “consistently and intentionally” eroding the rule of law, Europe’s leading civil liberties group has warned, while democratic standards are deteriorating in six more, including historically strong democracies.Drawing on evidence from more than 40 NGOs in 22 countries, the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) described the governments of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia as “dismantlers” that were actively weakening the rule of law. Continue reading...