#EU: Euro Parliament Bans Lobbying By Qataris After Suspected Bribery Attempts

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Members of the European Parliament voted on Thursday to suspend access to the body's premises to Qatari representatives as the Gulf country is suspected of having offered "large sums of money" and "substantial gifts" to MEPs and assistants in a bid to influence European decision-making.

Lawmakers also decided to halt all pending legislation involving Qatar.

The investigation by Belgian police into undue influence by a Persian Gulf state widely believed to be Qatar has sent shockwaves through Brussels and thrown into question the parliament's transparency and lobbying rules.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#CANADA: Commissioner Says Trade Minister Violated Conflict Of Interest Rules

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Canada's federal conflict of interest and ethics commissioner says Trade Minister Mary Ng broke the rules when her office awarded a contract to one of her friends.

Commissioner Mario Dion released a report Tuesday after the federal Conservatives filed a complaint back in the spring, raising concerns over the fact that Ng’s office awarded media training contracts to the firm Pomp and Circumstance.

The firm was co-founded and run by Amanda Alvaro, a friend of Ng’s.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#PORTUGAL: President Suggests Changes To Conflict of Interest Laws

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President Marcelo has called time on the ‘incompatibility issues’ coming to light – at a steady pace – within the Portuguese Socialist government.

Following various controversies concerning cabinet ministers, further issues have been flagged within local government.

Marcelo says it is time to review the judicial laws on incompatibilities and impediments of politicians ‘if parliament considers such reflection relevant and necessary’ – which clearly he believes it is.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UKRAINE: Member Of Parliament Expelled From Ruling Party Over Bribery Scandal

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Oleksandr Trukhin, a lawmaker from the governing President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People faction, was kicked out of the party after a journalistic investigation exposed his attempts to bribe police officers at a car crash site.

The party announced the decision to expel Trukhin on Feb. 2, a day after the Ukrainska Pravda’s investigation was published. Now the party will also consider expelling Trukhin from the party's parliament faction, that including 242 members of parliament. However, even if he is expelled, Trukhin won't lose his seat in parliament.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#GREECE: Parliament To Investigate Wiretapping Of Opposition Leader

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Greek lawmakers have voted to launch a parliamentary investigation into the tapping by the country's secret service of an opposition party leader's phone.

The scandal has plunged Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' center-right government into a political storm. Mitsotakis has denied any prior knowledge of the surveillance, which he said was wrong, and pledged to overhaul the EYP secret service.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UK: MP Resigns After Viewing Porn Site While In Parliament

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Neil Parish has resigned as a Conservative Member of Parliament after admitting watching pornography in the House of Commons in what he described as a “moment of madness."

Fighting to hold back tears in his first TV interview since the scandal broke, Parish, a farmer, said that he had looked at adult material twice, the first time stumbling on a porn website while looking for tractors online, but returning deliberately on the second occasion.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UK: PM Johnson To Face House Of Commons Committee Investigation Into Lying To Parliament Over "Partygate"

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MPs have been allowed to table a motion for debate to decide whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament over assurances Covid rules were followed in Downing Street.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who has been involved in ongoing discussions with the opposition parties over what censure motion would be brought against the Prime Minister in the wake of the Partygate fine, has given the green light for the motion to take place.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#SCOTLAND: First Minister Knew Of Missing Funds Two Years Ago

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Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was at a meeting over two years ago where concerns were raised about £600,000 in “missing" Scottish National Party  donations that are now being investigated by police.

The First Minister, also the SNP's Leader, has been accused of failing to take action after a National Executive Committee gathering in June 2019, where a senior party member demanded to know what had happened to an independence referrendum campaign fund.

A fraud probe has been launched by Police Scotland’s financial crimes unit after seven ­complaints that more than £600,000 raised by activists was diverted by the SNP for other purposes.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UK: Health Secretary Quits After Breaking COVID Rules With Mistress

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock has resigned after admitting breaking coronavirus rules, the prime minister's office said Saturday.

In his letter of resignation, Hancock said: "The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis.

Closed caption television images of Hancock kissing his mistress, a subordinate working in the health ministry, were published by The Sun newspaper. The images were from May 6 - more than a week before the easing of social distancing rules around close contact indoors for people from separate households.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UK: Health Sec. Hancock Broke Social Distancing Rules, Having Affair With Aide

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Britain's health secretary has been accused of violating social distancing rules by having an affair with an aide in the health department.

  

Gina Coladangelo, a university friend of Hancock, was handed a £15,000-a-year role last year as a non-executive director at the Department of Health.

On May 6, when images of the two kissing are said to have been taken, England's law banned indoor social gatherings of people from different households - while guidance urged people to stay two meters apart and avoid "face to face contact."

The Labour Party is calling for his resignation, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he had apologized and considers the matter "closed." Hancock says he will not resign.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UK: Leaked Message Has PM Johnson Calling His Health Minister "F-ing Hopeless"

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In an embarrassing leak to the British media, Boris Johnson's former chief aide has shared a WhatsApp message in which the prime minister appears to call Health Secretary Matt Hancock's efforts during the height of last year's coronavirus pandemic "totally f***ing hopeless."

Dominic Cummings, who has been engaged in a weeks-long feud with Downing Street, published a lengthy blog post that he claimed showed details of how "Number10/Hancock have repeatedly lied about the failures last year."

In one WhatsApp exchange, which Cummings said was part of late-night messages on March 26, 2020, he and Johnson are shown to be discussing actions from "MH" in boosting the UK's COVID testing capacity.

The screenshot shows a reply from the prime minister stating: "Totally f***ing hopeless."

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#JAPAN: PM Apologizes After Party Members Caught In Bars After Covid Curfew

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Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide apologized Wednesday after lawmakers from his ruling party admitted to visiting Tokyo bars late at night during the capital’s coronavirus state of emergency, which discourages unnecessary outings and urges bars and restaurants to close by 8:00 p.m.

“I’m terribly sorry that this happened when we are asking people not to eat out after 8:00 p.m. and to avoid non-essential, non-urgent outings,” Suga said at a meeting in the Japanese parliament January 27.

[FULL STORY HERE] 

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world. 

 

#IRELAND: Head Of Gov't To Apologize For 70-Year Unwed Mother Child Abuse Scandal

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Ireland confronted one of the darkest chapters of its past this week with the publication of a report detailing how 9,000 children died in state-run homes for youngsters born out of wedlock.

The 3,000-page report was the result of an inquiry into "appalling" levels of mortality at Ireland's "mother and baby" homes between the 1920s and 1990s.

The Taoiseach/Prime Minister Mícheál Martin, is expected to make a formal apology to survivors of the homes today. Roughly 15% of the 57,000 children who passed through the homes over the decades died, a figure far higher than wider norms.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: Labour Party Leader Facing Calls To Resign Over Childcare Fraud Scandal

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Labour Party Leader Lodewijk Asscher is facing questions from within his own party over his suitability to lead the party into next year’s elections because of his role in the childcare benefits scandal. 

Asscher was minister of social affairs from 2012 to 2017, the period in which thousands of parents were wrongly treated as fraudsters and ordered to pay back thousands of euros in childcare benefit support. 

A parliamentary inquiry into the scandal published a damning report, saying an ‘unparalleled wrong’ had been done to the parents. 

The Labour Party Leader apologized, saying  he was ‘filled with shame’ at his failure to act.

[FULL STORY HERE] 

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#HUNGARY: Anti-Gay Euro Parliament Politician Resigns After Attending "All-Male" Sex Party

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Hungarian European Parliament member  József Szájer, 59, representing the ruling conservative Fidesz Party, unexpectedly resigned November 29, citing personal reasons.

"Those who are on the battlefield must be in a state of combat readiness," Szájer wrote in his resignation letter.

A Dutch-language newspaper based in Antwerp wrote that two days prior to his resignation, on Friday, November 27, Brussels police had raided an illegal party with over 20 attendees, in violation of current coronavirus restrictions, which include a curfew between 10 pm and 6 am. Several Hungarian and Belgian outlets rapidly picked up the story. Szájer was identified as being at the party and later admitted it. 

News reports say the outspoken anti-gay politician, who crafted the nation's anti-same-sex marriage law, had attended what they revealed was a "gay orgy" of at least "25 men." 

András Pulai, CEO of a Hungarian liberal think-tank, wondered why only Szájer's name was released. His Fidesz Party is staunchly anti-EU. Pulai sees a political motive for selectively releasing Szájer's involvement.

"If there were many important people there, why has only Fidesz's most important EU politician been named (so far)?" 

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#CANADA: Parliament Votes To Probe Govt's Coronavirus Response

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Opposition parties won their bid Monday to launch a probe of the Liberals’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic following a week of parliamentary turbulence over how to review their management of the crisis.

Members of Parliament from all four opposition parties voted to pass a motion that orders the Trudeau government to turn over to the House of Commons health committee all records on a raft of issues related to the coronavirus response.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#CANADA: PM Trudeau Says He Made "Mistake" Over Charity Contract

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he "made a mistake" by joining in talks for giving a lucrative government contract to a charity that paid his wife and other family members.

WE Charity was tapped by his government to oversee a C$900m ($664m, £533m) youth volunteer programme in June.

It later emerged that WE previously paid Trudeau's relatives over C$280,000 to speak at events.

Trudeau now faces his third ethics commission inquiry in office over the scandal

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#ZIMBABWE: Health Minister Arrested For Awarding Dodgy Contract

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Health minister Obadiah Moyo has been arrested, accused of awarding a US$42 million contract to Drax International for the supply of COVID-19 drugs and personal protective equipment fully aware the company was not a pharmaceutical but a consultancy firm.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#CANADA: MP Charged With Assault "Stepping Back" From Liberal Party Caucus, But Not Resigning

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Member of Parliament Marwan Tabbara said he is “stepping back from the Liberal caucus” but not resigning as an MP after revelations he was criminally charged with assault, break and enter and criminal harassment.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#UK: Cabinet Member Resigns After Making Threat Over Loan Repayment

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Conor Burns, a member of Boris Johnson's cabinet  has resigned as trade minister after being found to have used his position to try to intimidate a member of the public.

Burns, the minister for trade policy, was found by the standards committee to have made veiled threats while attempting to intervene in his father’s dispute over a loan.

A Downing Street spokesman said Burns had resigned following a report from the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.