Global central banks offer ‘full solidarity’ to US Fed’s Powell amid Trump threats
Global central banks have issued an extraordinary joint statement offering “full solidarity” to the US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, in the face of the latest threat to his independence from Donald Trump’s White House,“The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve,It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability,” the statement said,It was signed by ten central bank governors including the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, and the chair of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde,It was coordinated by the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements, which added its chair and general manager to the signatories.
Other signatories to the unprecedented statement include the central bank governors of Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Brazil, South Korea, Norway and Canada.They pay testament to Powell’s “integrity” and “unwavering commitment to the public interest”, calling him a “respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him”.Trump has repeatedly criticised Powell, whom he appointed in 2018, for failing to cut interest rates fast enough.But the clash between the two men took a dramatic turn earlier this week when Powell issued a strongly worded video statement, saying he was being prosecuted by the US Department of Justice.He called the move “unprecedented action [that] should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure” over monetary policy.
He said he had been singled out because the Fed’s policymaking board had set interest rates “based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president”,Trump has moved to distance himself from the investigation, however, claiming he was unaware of it,“I don’t know anything about it,” he told NBC News,Jeanine Pirro, the pro-Trump attorney general for the District of Columbia, who launched the investigation, claimed in a post on X on Monday night that the “legal process” was “not a threat” to Powell,“The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr Powell’s mouth, no one else’s.
None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach,” she added.Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that Pirro had not sought the approval of her superiors at the DoJ before launching the action against the Fed – but had no intention of abandoning it.Powell and his colleagues have cut interest rates three times since last summer, but Trump has urged them to move faster, and personally attacked Powell as a “numbskull”.The DoJ has said the case relates to “abuse of taxpayer dollars” – understood to be in relation to costly renovations at the Fed’s headquarters.Powell is due to step down as chair of the Fed board in May, and Trump is expected to announce his successor in the coming weeks.
The prospect of legal action has sparked concern among some Republican lawmakers,Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who sits on the Senate banking committee that oversees Fed appointments, said he would not confirm any nominee “until this legal matter is fully resolved”,The former Fed chairs Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen had already condemned the threat to Powell on Monday, saying the move could have “highly negative consequences”,“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly,” their statement said,
Peter Mandelson apologises for Epstein association in sudden U-turn
Peter Mandelson has issued an apology for his association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – after declining to do so in an interview broadcast on Sunday.The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC in which he suggested that as a gay man he knew nothing of the disgraced financier’s sex life.On Monday night, Lord Mandelson apologised “unequivocally” for associating with Epstein after his conviction.In a statement, he said: “At the weekend, I gave an interview to the BBC. In answering questions about my association with Jeffrey Epstein I did not want to be held responsible for his crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others
Conservative defections risk making Reform UK into Tory party 2.0
In the death throes of Boris Johnson’s government in the summer of 2022, Nadhim Zahawi was appointed chancellor by an increasingly desperate prime minister determined to cling on to power.The vacancy arose after Rishi Sunak, who had led the Treasury for more than two years, quit saying he no longer had confidence in Johnson to lead the country, setting off – with others – a string of high-profile desertions.Just over a day later, as ministerial resignations gathered pace to exceed 50, even Zahawi saw the writing on the wall, and called on the prime minister to go. But he stopped short of resigning himself.His decision, which meant he stayed on at the Treasury for a further two months and was privately branded an opportunist by colleagues, showed just how flexible he was willing to be when it came to his own career
Law making creation of nonconsensual, intimate images illegal to come into force this week – as it happened
Kendall says the decision by X last week to restrict the Grok AI deepfake tool to subscribers does not go anywhere near far enough.She goes on:Under the Online Safety Act, sharing intimate images without someone’s consent, or threatening to share them, including images of people in their underwear, is a criminal offence for individuals and for platforms.My predecessor [Peter Kyle] rightly made this a priority offence, so services have to take proactive action to stop this content from appearing in the first place.The Data Act, passed last year, made it a criminal offence to create or request the creation of nonconsensual and intimate images.And today I can announce to the house that this offence will be brought into force this week, and that I will make it a priority offence in the Online Safety Act
Step forward, Nadhim Zahawi: the latest, highest-profile rat to flee the Tory ship | John Crace
Here’s a thought: try to name a former Conservative MP that Nigel Farage wouldn’t accept as a member of Reform. OK, he might draw the line at Liz Truss on the grounds she is a danger to everyone. Especially herself. And Boris Johnson might be a problem. Not just as a clash of competing egos but because the immigration Boriswave might be a hard sell to Nige’s core supporters
Energy and health optimism help lift civil service morale under Labour
Civil service morale rose slightly after Labour took power in 2024, with the biggest jumps in satisfaction in the energy and health departments, an annual Whitehall monitor report will show.The survey from the Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank, due to be published this week, found that morale rose from 60.7 to 61.2% on the civil service employee engagement index.This is a composite measure that captures civil servants’ feelings about how things are done in their organisation, and their pride in where they work
Peter Mandelson declines to apologise for association with Jeffrey Epstein
Peter Mandelson has declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for staying friends with the convicted child sex offender, and suggested that as a gay man he knew nothing of the financier’s sex life.The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC on Sunday, saying he had paid a “calamitous” price for his association with the “evil monster”.Lord Mandelson’s association with Epstein had long been known when Keir Starmer appointed the peer as US ambassador. However, he was removed from his diplomatic post after No 10 said it had been unaware of emails from Mandelson to Epstein suggesting the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution was wrongful and should be challenged.Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 and served time in jail but Mandelson said he had believed his excuses and continued to support him out of “misplaced loyalty” and “a most terrible mistake on my part”
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