Chief-Exec.com

Nato is considering sending military trainers to Ukraine
Nato allies are inching closer to sending military trainers into Ukraine at the request of Ukrainian officials. The move could draw the US and Europe more directly into the war with Russia. So far, the US has been adamant that it will not put US troops on the ground in Ukraine, and it has urged Nato allies not to do so, either. But yesterday, General Charles Brown, a top US military official, said that a Nato deployment of trainers seemed inevitable, even if, for now, such a move would put the trainers at risk. “We’ll get there eventually, over time,” he told reporters. New York Times, May 17

French police kill man trying to burn Rouen synagogue
French police have killed a man after a synagogue was set on fire in the north-western city of Rouen. The man was reportedly armed with a knife and an iron bar and when he went towards the police, an officer shot him. Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the attack on the synagogue did not just affect the Jewish community, but the entire city was “battered and in shock”. Police were called at around 06:45 French time after smoke was seen rising from the synagogue, according to local reports. Firefighters at the scene eventually brought the fire under control inside the synagogue. There appeared to be no victims other than the armed man, the mayor said. Damage inside the synagogue has been described as significant. “I’m really upset, it's catastrophic,” said the head of Rouen's Jewish community, Natacha Ben Haïm. She said a petrol bomb had been thrown through a small window, setting the synagogue alight. The walls and furniture had been left blackened by the fire, she added. BBC news, May 17

A suspect is charged in Slovakia
An assassination attempt by a “lone wolf” who fired at least four bullets into Robert Fico, the leader of Slovakia, has put a spotlight on the Central European nation’s troubled politics. The suspect was promptly arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempted premeditated murder, but the authorities have not named him publicly. Slovakian news outlets, citing police sources, identified him as a 71-year-old retiree with a yen for poetry and protests who the authorities said had acted alone. Fico, the prime minister, is pushing to overhaul the judiciary to limit the scope of corruption investigations, to reshape the national broadcasting system to purge what the government calls liberal bias and to crack down on foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations. He opposes military aid to Ukraine, LGBTQ rights and the EU. New York Times, May 17

NHS crippled by surge in number of stranded patients
Hospitals are struggling to treat more people despite higher funding and extra staff because thousands more patients are stranded on wards with nowhere to go, an internal review has concluded. The most comprehensive internal study of NHS efficiency has caused health chiefs to accept they do have a problem, while promising to improve. However, NHS bosses also believe that about half of its productivity problem is beyond its control. The teetering social care system makes it much harder to free up beds, while an older, sicker population requires more care and a campaign of strikes delays hundreds of thousands of procedures, they say … A rise in delayed discharges from hospital has been identified as a key driver of lower efficiency, with staff losing focus on sending people home rapidly since the pandemic. The number stuck in hospital for more than three weeks has risen 15 per cent on pre-Covid levels. The Times, May 16

British asylum housing tycoon breaks into Sunday Times rich list
An Essex businessman who won government contracts paying his firm £3.5m a day for transporting and accommodating asylum seekers has been named among the 350 richest people in the UK. Graham King, the founder and majority owner of a business empire that includes Clearsprings Ready Homes, which won a 10-year Home Office contract for housing thousands of asylum seekers, was on Friday named alongside King Charles III, the prime minister and Sir Paul McCartney on the Sunday Times rich list of the wealthiest people. King, 56, is estimated to have amassed a £750m fortune from “holiday parks, inheritance and housing asylum seekers for the government”. Clearsprings Ready Homes made £62.5m in profits after tax for the year ending January 2023, more than double its profits of £28m the previous year. King, ranked 221st, is one of several new entries to the 2024 rich list alongside Formula One driver Sir Lewis Hamilton and Tony and Cherie Blair’s son Euan, whose apprenticeship firm Multiverse is said to be worth £1.4bn. The Guardian, May 17

Trump lawyers vie to discredit key witness Cohen at hush-money trial
Donald Trump’s lawyer took cracks at key witness Michael Cohen during wide-ranging cross-examination on Thursday, questioning his memory and poking at his credibility during the first criminal trial of a former US president. Trump is accused of falsifying business records as he reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, when her story of a sexual encounter with Trump could have doomed his campaign. The defense team has sought to instill doubt by casting Cohen as a disgruntled ex-employee who habitually lies and is out for blood at the trial, which is being heard just six months before election day when Trump hopes to retake the White House. France 24, May 17

Joe Biden blocks release of audio from classified documents probe
Joe Biden has blocked the release of audio recordings of his interviews with the special counsel who sparked a political firestorm in February by casting the US president as an “elderly man with a poor memory”. In a letter to House Republican lawmakers on Thursday, the White House said that the president was asserting executive privilege over the recordings, which were made as the special counsel investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents. House Republicans had subpoenaed the tapes and threatened to hold US attorney-general Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand them over. Biden’s lawyer argued that there was no “legitimate need” for the tapes to be released, but the move is likely to reignite controversy in Washington over the president’s age and Republican efforts to depict him as unfit for office. Edward Siskel, counsel to the president, said in the letter on Thursday that Garland had requested that Biden stop the recordings from being released. Financial Times, May 17

WHO accuses Nigel Farage of spreading misinformation about pandemic treaty
The World Health Organization has accused Nigel Farage of spreading misinformation after he launched a campaign to block an international treaty designed to improve global pandemic preparedness. WHO member states are negotiating a deal to shore up cooperation against new pathogens. If adopted, the legally binding treaty would commit countries to helping each other in the event of a pandemic, increase research and sharing of data, and promote fair access to vaccines. But populist figures, including Farage and a number of Tory MPs, are lobbying the UK government to block the deal, claiming that it will give the WHO power to enforce lockdowns on countries, dictate policy on mask wearing and control vaccine stocks. Farage is fronting the campaign group Action on World Health, which was registered on Companies House last week. The Guardian, May 16