Governments

• Pengadilan banding federal telah membatalkan injungsi pengadilan tingkat rendah yang sebelumnya memerintahkan pemerintahan Trump untuk memulihkan aliran hibah federal ke beberapa pemerintah daerah, membuka kembali miliaran dolar pendanaan yang sempat ditahan. • Keputusan ini menyusul perselisihan mengenai bagaimana pemerintahan menafsirkan syarat-syarat yang melekat pada hibah federal, dengan kota-kota berargumen bahwa penahanan tersebut merupakan bentuk retaliasi politik. • Putusan ini dapat memengaruhi bagaimana pemerintahan di masa depan dalam mensyaratkan bantuan pada kepatuhan kebijakan, serta memiliki implikasi bagi federalisme dan otonomi daerah.

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...