Governments

• 联邦上诉法院推翻了下级法院的一项 injunction，该 injunction 曾命令 Trump administration 恢复向多个地方政府发放 federal grants，重新开启了先前被扣留的数十亿美元资金。 • 该裁决遵循了一场关于 administration 如何解读 federal grants 附加条件的争议，相关城市辩称扣留资金等同于政治报复。 • 该裁决可能会影响未来的 administrations 是否以及如何将援助与 policy compliance 挂钩，并对 federalism 和 local autonomy 产生影响。

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...