{"id":5576,"date":"2024-01-24T09:08:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T09:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=5576"},"modified":"2024-01-24T09:08:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T09:08:36","slug":"sizewell-c-secures-further-government-funding-as-trump-secures-new-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/sizewell-c-secures-further-government-funding-as-trump-secures-new-hampshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Sizewell C Secures Further Government Funding as Trump Secures New Hampshire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Government Ramps Up Support for Sizewell C<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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This week, the UK Government has pledged an additional \u00a31.3bn in funding to build the Sizewell C Nuclear Reactor. This follows earlier commitments to spend an extra \u00a3500m last year and \u00a3700m the year before. According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero \u201cThe largest funding package to date will allow early construction works to continue ahead of a final investment decision later this year\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s latest announcement comes as forecasts for the cost of the project \u2013 which is being developed by French energy giant EDF \u2013 have been put somewhere in the region of \u00a320bn. Funding for the project is evidently subject to headwinds and as the Financial Times notes, \u201cthe costs, lengthy timeframes, and potential risks of nuclear power mean the pool of potential investors is limited\u201d. With the Government so far committing \u00a32.5bn to the project, as of 2022, EDF have earmarked a smaller figure of \u00a3700m.<\/p>\n

With its ambitions to quadruple nuclear energy output by 2050, the government hopes that their latest pledge will attract further investment into the project \u2013 which it says could meet 7% of the UK\u2019s energy requirements or enough to power up to 6 million homes.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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OBR<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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Staying with government spending: The Office for Budget Responsibility chair, Richard Hughes, has called out the chancellor for not being honest with voters over the probable scale of public sector cuts beyond 2025.<\/p>\n

On longer term budgets he\u2019s said \u201cIt is just two numbers \u2013 one for total current spending and one for total capital spending. I think some people have referred to that as a work of fiction. I think that\u2019s probably generous, given that someone has bothered to write a work of fiction whereas the government hasn\u2019t even bothered to write down what its spending plans are, unpinning the plans for public services\u201d.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also said that the government is treading a very fine line with planned spending cuts, with government forecasts showing fiscal headroom in five years\u2019 time at just \u00a313bn, and we saw late last year that even a short term fiscal forecast can swing by ~\u00a35bn in just one month. Which means that if he\u2019s too generous with tax cuts and his forecasts are wrong, he\u2019ll fall foul of spending rules which means he\u2019d either have to raise cuts or cut spending to step back in line. The Times has the full story: click here to read.<\/a><\/p>\n

UK spending plans worse than fiction, budget watchdog suggests.<\/p>\n

Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, who said the government \u2018hasn\u2019t even bothered to write down\u2019 its intentions.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Trump Secures New Hampshire Primary<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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It was round two of the Republican primaries last night and with the contest down to a two-horse race, it was always going to be slightly more interesting.<\/p>\n

With almost all the votes in New Hampshire now counted, it looks like Trump has taken the win by 56% to 44% for Nikki Haley. Trump won with a similar number in Iowa two weeks ago, but that was with Ron DeSantis still in the race. When he bowed out of the running Mr DeSantis threw his cards in behind Trump, but it seems that this endorsement hasn\u2019t shifted to a full-on landslide for Trump, though he is very much in the driving seat.<\/p>\n

Still, Nikki Haley isn\u2019t one to be put off by a challenge by the sounds of it, as she\u2019s vowing to continue and the next contest in South Carolina, where Ms Haley was the governor and has a strong support base \u2013 but is still a state that probably leans more towards Trump\u2019s politics than hers. South Carolina is a month away and it\u2019s looking like a long shot. Even Joe Biden has now said that it\u2019s clear that Trump will be the Republican presidential candidate. Politico has a good breakdown: click here to read.<\/a><\/p>\n

South Carolina probably won’t save Nikki Haley.<\/p>\n

The long, ugly slog to next month’s contest may not change the race.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Turkey Approves Sweden\u2019s Nato Bid<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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The Turkish parliament have approved Sweden\u2019s membership of Nato, ending months of deadlock of the Nordic state trying to join the bloc. Following hours of debate, 287 of 346 Turkish MPs voted in favour of them joining the alliance with just 35 opposing the motion. Erdo\u011fan is thus expected to sign the bill into law, kickstarting Sweden\u2019s accession process. Nevertheless, given that Hungary is yet to approve Sweden\u2019s bid, a final hurdle remains.<\/p>\n

Since their application to join in May 2022, Erdo\u011fan has blocked Stockholm\u2019s attempts, making the accusation that Sweden\u2019s links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other Kurdish organisations undermine Turkey\u2019s security. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has long been hostile to Kurdish secessionists, and their ground offensive into the Kurdish region of north-eastern Syria in 2019 saw Stockholm place an arms embargo on Turkey.<\/p>\n

Following yesterday\u2019s announcement, Sweden\u2019s PM Ulf Kristersson said that \u201cToday we are one step closer to becoming a full member of Nato. Positive that the Grand General Assembly of T\u00fcrkiye has voted in favour of Sweden\u2019s Nato accession.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More funding pledged from the UK Government to build the Sizewell C nuclear reactor, chair of the OBR calls out dishonesty from the chancellor, Trump takes the win of New Hampshire vote, and Sweden’s Nato membership approved by Turkish parliament. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rp-language":[16],"class_list":["post-5576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morning-updates","rp-language-en_gb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5576"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5587,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions\/5587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"rp-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncourtfx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rp-language?post=5576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}