European Kindness Is Threatening Freedom of Speech
It used to be liberal progressives and radicals who denounced the state for infringing freedom of speech. Now it's the turn of the populist right to rage against 'woke' censorship. President Donald Trump's own respect for the democratic process is questionable, and administration officials, contemptuous of academic and artistic freedoms at home, make unlikely ambassadors for human rights abroad. But what if these populists have a point?
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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From Arena to Lumia: Is the UK asset finance industry turning the tide on fraud?
The collapse of Arena Television in late 2021 remains one of the most sobering episodes in recent UK asset finance history. Arena Television's absconded directors and lessors' missing millions What appeared to be a thriving broadcast business was, in reality, a meticulously orchestrated fraud. Dozens of lenders, more than 50, by some counts, were exposed to a web of falsified documents, phantom equipment, and duplicated finance agreements. The aftermath was devastating and made painfully clear that the industry lacked a way to see the full picture. In the wake of Arena, the industry faced a reckoning. How had so many institutions, with supposedly strong risk mitigation frameworks, failed to detect what was ultimately a shared vulnerability? The answer: a systemic lack of visibility. Traditional tools, credit reference agencies, internal fraud checks, Companies House data, couldn't provide a cross-lender view of live agreements. The result was a perfect storm for coordinated fraud. Had the asset finance industry's long-standing reluctance to share information been exploited by Arena's absconded directors? It certainly seemed that way. Fraud prevention after Arena Television: will anything change? Out of that crisis came Acquis Lumia, launched in 2022 by Acquis Data Services, a division of Acquis Insurance Management Ltd. Lumia offered the industry what it never had before: a collaborative platform where asset finance providers share key data points from active agreements, anonymised and aggregated into a central register. It's a simple but powerful concept, compare new applications against a wider market dataset to spot red flags in real time. Under the Acquis Lumia platform, each participating lender submits a monthly file containing seven key data fields for every active asset finance agreement. The data includes the agreement number, a unique identifier for each finance deal, and the lessor ID, which indicates the submitting lender. It also captures the start and expiry dates of the agreement, providing insight into the duration and overlap of borrowing arrangements. To identify the borrower, the company registration number is submitted, along with the lessee company name, which is anonymised before being stored in the central register. Finally, the net book value of the asset, its current value on the lender's books is recorded, giving a financial reference point for the agreement. And now, with Grenke announced as Lumia's 40th member, the platform's growth is difficult to ignore. It includes major banks like Lombard, BNP Paribas, and HSBC Equipment Finance, as well as independents like Liberty Leasing. The pace of adoption points to a sector that no longer sees collaboration as a compromise, but as a necessity. There are signs it may be working. According to GBG data, cited in the Cifas Fraudscape 2025 report, identity fraud in the asset finance sector has dropped more than 80% in the past year alone, from 7,837 cases in 2023 to just 1,560 in 2024. It's the sharpest decline of any sector. The report cites 'targeted anti-fraud measures' as a key factor. Could Lumia be among them? It's a compelling possibility. To be clear, Lumia isn't a silver bullet. The fraud landscape continues to evolve, with increasingly sophisticated threats targeting even the most robust lenders. Also, Acquis is not alone in seeking an industry-wide solution in the UK. But Lumia does represent a fundamental shift, from isolated risk management to shared intelligence. With Grenke now on board and the platform reaching its 40-member milestone, this moment feels like a turning point. Is it confirmation that the fraudsters are losing ground? More likely, it is that it is too soon to tell. But for the first time in years, the asset finance sector has a tool built not just to react to fraud, but to anticipate it. And that might just make all the difference. "From Arena to Lumia: Is the UK asset finance industry turning the tide on fraud?" was originally created and published by Leasing Life, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Forbes
9 minutes ago
- Forbes
EU To Introduce ‘Punitive' External Funding Clause To Reduce Migration
European Union flag in front of the European Commission. Amid a confusing roll-out of the latest long-term budget proposal, the European Commission has signaled it will move to a more 'punitive' approach in trying to get developing countries to take back more deportations of their citizens. The change, which will affect the way money is spent from the EU's $233bn external funding instrument, would see the bloc suspend or even cancel development assistance if countries don't co-operate with the EU's ambitions to reduce migration and increase deportations of failed asylum seekers. The Commission's proposal for the next budget period - which acts as a curtain-raiser for future negotiation and sets the likely tone for what will be the final budget - has already generated a lot of controversy and seen policy analysts scrambling to understand what's coming. The proposal reflects the dominant policy agenda of the Commission - namely defense, competitiveness and border security. To that end, various funding instruments have been grouped together to form mega-funds known as 'National and regional partnership plans.' These mega-funds will give a lot more discretion to member states to dole out money as they see fit, rather than being constrained by spending targets set by the EU. This, in practice, has some asylum and migration researchers and advocates concerned that member states will neglect funding for programs to better support people already seeking shelter in Europe, and spend it rather on building up their borders - something many member states have made it clear they want to do. While pointing out that a lot remains unclear when it comes to how the new budget will affect people on the move, 'what we know is that the proposal is to increase resources for funds that have sponsored violent border surveillance in the past,' says Chiara Catelli, Project Officer at the undocumented migrant charity PICUM. "The same goes for Frontex, an agency that's been accused of complicity in human rights violations at the borders multiple times.' Buried within the budget proposal is another clause that has set a lot of migration advocates on edge. Within the proposal text around the new external funding instrument - to be known as the Global Europe Instrument - it states that development funding for poor countries outside the EU could be suspended or even cut off, if those countries don't cooperate with the EU in accepting deportations of their citizens from the bloc. While the EU - and other major powers - have often used their economic might to convince poorer countries to follow their agenda, it is a new step to have enshrined in law such a 'punitive' approach, at least for the EU. It does, however, mirror broader policy developments in the EU and U.K., the latter of which is reportedly considering overall migration and visa policy as a lever to convince third countries to welcome back 'returns.' At the same time, the EU is believed to be exploring how it may use trade policy as a similar lever, an idea expressed by a Belgian politician in June.
Fox News
10 minutes ago
- Fox News
Few presidents have bowed out like Biden. Historians explain what it means
Weeks after former President Joe Biden went head-to-head against now-President Donald Trump, Biden announced exactly a year ago, July 21, 2024, that he would bow out of the race — an unprecedented decision that led to a series of 2024 election plot twists. Biden's announcement came amid increasing pressure from his own party to step aside following his debate performance against Trump June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, where Biden struggled to answer seemingly basic questions. Biden's last-minute decision to exit the race rendered costly consequences for his party and his legacy — at least in the near future, according to experts. "The way Biden handled his infirmity and his reluctant exit from the race will be devastating for his legacy," Tevi Troy, presidential historian and the former deputy secretary of Health and Human Services under George W. Bush, said in an email to Fox News Digital Thursday. "While Biden was once known as the person who slayed the dragon that Democrats see as Trump, he will now forevermore be known as the person who allowed the dragon to return." Even after his rough debate performance, Biden dug his heels in and refused to immediately hand over the baton to another candidate. Initially, Biden, along with his White House and his campaign, said that ending his run for reelection was off the table, and that he wanted to face Trump in November 2024. But after calls from Democrat leaders, including former Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Biden finally issued a statement claiming that he believed "it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term." As a result, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place in the race. "I think it's very difficult to separate the fact that he bowed out from the fact that he did so belatedly and only after his disastrous debate performance," Alex Keyssar, a history professor at Harvard Kennedy School of public policy, said in an email to Fox News Digital. "That is true now and will also be true for his legacy for quite a while. "He is seen as someone who made an enormous mistake — remaining as a candidate when he could have withdrawn six months earlier — and a mistake that may well have cost his party the presidential election," Keyssar said. Few presidents have chosen not to run for reelection, and even fewer have chosen to do so in the middle of a presidential campaign. The departure from the race marked the first time a presidential candidate had done so in nearly 60 years. Those who've called off their presidential bids in the middle of the campaign season include former presidents Harry S. Truman, who bowed out amid low polling, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who announced he wouldn't run again amid tensions stemming from the Vietnam War and fractures within his own party. Even so, they each withdrew from the race months ahead of Biden. "Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson both pulled out of reelection efforts in late March," Troy said. "Joe Biden did it in late July, throwing the Democratic Party into turmoil." "While incumbents generally have the advantage in running for reelection, the history of incumbent parties after the incumbent chooses to drop out late is not great: Truman's, Johnson's and Biden's party lost in each of the elections in question," Troy said. Since Biden pulled out of the race, multiple books have been written detailing Biden's final days in office, his deteriorating mental faculties, and challenges within the Democratic Party as a result of his decision to withdraw from the election. Additionally, multiple investigations are ongoing on Capitol Hill concerning Biden's mental decline. For example, the House Oversight Committee is examining the cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions taken during his presidency. Biden's presidential approval rating reached a high of 57% from January 2021 to April 2021 after he first took office, but dropped to a low of 36% in July 2024, according to Gallup. Even so, Keyssar predicted that time would soften public opinion toward Biden's presidency. "As an historian, looking further into the future, I can imagine that his legacy will become more positive, as historians and other analysts focus more on his achievements in office and his basic decency as a person," Keyssar said.
