RTD 24

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Wizz Air takover WOW Air

In news today Wizz air have took over Wow Air and Wow holidays as the Wow business restructures to focus on other business operations. The deal sees the airline transfer and rebrand over a year to Play with it focusing on holiday and tourist destinations while Wizz Air takes over routes focused on the more business sectors. The move has come as no surprise to analysts due to the high debtload of the group. Wow Holidays will be rebranded to Play. The move is a consolidation in the industry with the combined group expected to transport over 76 million and have 250 aircraft. The airline hopes efficiency gains will boost profit margins with the airlines to share office space.

The deal was announced in a press conference with the new livery kept secret until now showed on a plane that rolled into the gate.The deal falls well under the threshold for restrictions on mergers so will not have to face competition restrictions .There are rumours the Wow Group is facing difficulties that could result in the collapse of the group within the year with the Rail subsidiary also potentially being sold to a new operator within the year.

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Wow Train to be replaced by new Lumo Franchise

The Wow Train franchise is to wind down by January and be replaced by a new Lumo franchise with an increase in service it has been announced. Presently Wow Train is operating 6 services per hour each direction between Arrynfort and Baltia via Porterdam. These services will remain under the new Lumo franchise but an additional 6 services each direction will be added to Castcon from Arrynfort via Cair Para, Snottingaham, Derventio , Brummagem , The Hague and Westfestung. The new Train company will be owned by UTC who run bus services and tram concessions.

The company said in a statement "We are proud to be taking over this vital franchise and increase service and quality on this route and give more options for the consumer. We will be focusing on affordability, good service and punctuality providing what people need for a comfortable and affordable journey. We will continue the legacy that Wow Train left. " The company is expected to focus on budget fares and basic at seat service with orders from an app. The Transport Ministry said "We have secured the franchises sustainability and protected competition on our train network. Wow Train was struggling and needed a replacement and we have found a suitable replacement."

Lumo Launch Event

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Roscoes to expand to 85 factories

Rocscoes announced today they are to have over 85 factories by 2025 to supply their supermarket business and make their own brand foods. The chain has announced it will manufacture and process all its own meat product range by 2025 and make its own cereals by 2025. The company is seeking to lower prices and increase margins by growing the production of its own brand products in house. The company has also announced own brand products are on target to make up over 90% of products in store. The company is attempting to become fully vertically integrated. Its dairy operations including cheese production are now operational with 70% of cheese being made in house. The move is expected to generate bumper profits for the company. The company is also investing in factories in places like Spain, Yosai and Hellas among others so it can make regional specialities in house.

Minimum wage to rise to 20.70 Dux Libra
The minimum wage is to increase to 20.70 Dux Libra or approximately €32.09 per hour in January according to the passed law on minimum wage increase. Them motion to increase the wage was voted for by 560 to 251 in the House of Commons , 160 to 110 in the House of Duchies and 265 to 198 in the Imperial Senate. The wage is an increase from an national minimum wage of 18.00 Dux Libra or €27 per hour. The increase is hoped to bring an increase in living standards and will also mean a rise in MP's wages which is linked to them minimum wage from this year rather than median income following changes in law by the Moderate-PSD coalition that was proposed by Unions. It is expected all Duchies will follow the 20.70 Dux Libra Minimum wage effectively making it a national default minimum.

The increase has been criticised by the UoD and businesses who call the wage increase a "job killer" and call for scaling back in future increases. The PSD , The Left and unions have called the wage increase "A vital step to more equality and vital protection for the lowest paid workers in our country." They also criticised the UoD for being on the side of "corporate profits over the worker".

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David Abbott dies aged 87

David Abbott founder of TUI-Abbott has died aged 87 in his sleep. The 87 year old who appeared healthy is reported to have had a heart attack in his sleep. He is head of the family that owns a majority of TUI-Abbott and CEO of the company. He is well regarded in the industry.

It is expected that a succession plan will be unveiled in the next few days with a reshuffle in management. There are also arrangements for his son Mirum Abbott to be made who is only 16. He is an adult legally and going to college however it is expected he will move in with relatives.

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James Mizrachi-Roscoe unveils more of his pro-trade plan
With the the European Trademark System Act now in vote with hopes for it to pass and simplify the process of registering a trademark in multiple countries James Mizrachi-Roscoe announced he intends to look at other systems in trade to simplify and make trade easier with less red tape for businesses. He announced he is in consultation with businesses of all sizes on centralising the Copyright system to centrally process copyrights and set the standards for them at a European level and also is looking at standardising the system of postcodes to make it easier to understand and process postcodes.

James Mizrachi-Roscoe said in a statement "Too often businesses have to produce for multiple standards and systems throughout Europe. Right now businesses if they want to export face 23 or more systems and standards on customs , quality and safety standards and legal systems for business. Just as an example you want to put copyright or trade mark protection in place you have to file over 23 times to cover the whole of the EU and you need to register even if you only do business in one country to prevent someone stealing your I.P in another country to export to your country of business. This is not so bad for big businesses like Roscoes,Siemens, TUI Abbott or Spadi who have the money and legal protection teams to deal with this issue but imagine you are a one man band or family business who doesn't have the time nor money to do so, essentially you are left vulnerable. This is problems the business community has raised with me and I intend to focus on solving this.The pro-EU politicians say the EU is good but time and time again vote against standardisation for business that would have the EU take on the important role its supposedly for. I will try to fix the system to have the EU simplify the market and paperwork so it works for all businesses big or small." The agenda has the support of UoD, PSD, Liberals and Moderates and even eurosceptic parties though Unus and AFD would prefer outside of EU mechanisms and treaties to deal with the issue. James Mizrachi-Roscoe has announced plans to create a focus and research institute on the issue called the "European Business and Trade Forum" to bring businesses big and small to the table and give them a way to contribute to research.

He emphasized "This is not about lowering standards or destroying consumer protections but simplifying all of these in order to make business easier and allow for easier international trade growing the European economy. This research and policy institute will be pro-business but also pro-consumer, the two are not necessarily opposed to each other"

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Air Passenger Duty Rates raised
Air Passenger Duty Rates have been raised for the new years budget announced by government in an attempt to further promote green transport. The rates at present are as follows:

Air passenger duty:	Economy	Premium Classes	Charter planes less than 15 passengers per flight
0-2001 Miles(£)	£85.00	£255.00	£2,000.00
2001+miles(£)	£100.00	£300.00	£2,000.00
0-2001 Miles(€)	€131.75	€395.25	€3,100.00
2001+miles(€)	€155.00	€465.00	€3,100.00

The rates for 2024 will be as follows with a change in how private jet APD is calculated:

Air passenger duty:	Up to 32 Inch Pitch	33-40 Inch Pitch	Business and 40 inch plus pitch	Charter less than 15 passengers
0-2001 Miles(£)	£100.00	£200.00	£395.00	£34,500.00
2001+miles(£)	£115.00	£230.00	£455.00	£50,000.00
0-2001 Miles(€)	€155.00	€310.00	€612.25	€53,475.00
2001+miles(€)	€178.25	€356.50	€705.25	€77,500.00

The increase on flights leaving from United Duchies in APD is hoped to discourage unnecessary flights further with the private jets now paying per flight for 15 passengers regardless of how many are on the plane rather than per passenger to discourage wasteful use.The changes are also designed to encourage the most efficient use of fuel by encouraging more economy class travel with the extra funds from higher classes going to paying for more public transport and further carbon mitigation projects. The changes are hoped to increase the sustainability of the Duchies travel methods.

Population to breach 126,000,000
Projections of population show an expected increase to over 126,000,000 by January or February of 2024. The increase is expected to boost the economy by bringing in new skilled workers and vital service workers to the economy. The increase is welcomed by the Moderates and PSD who believe it is essential for public services to gain new skilled workers at a high rate while Unus and UoD expressed concerns about the scale of immigration and population growth in the United Duchies calling for drastic cuts to growth.

Social Housing Targets reached
Social housing targets of over 3,000,000 to be built have been reached according the latest report on housing with 3,529,401 social housing projects delivered this year with most being family apartments , maisonettes or flats with 35% being houses that are mostly semidetached or terraced. The housing is already helping Duchians deal with the housing cost issues with Brummagem and Polderlands delivering the most. 2 Million have been delivered under the central funded DPHP construction programme with the rest being delivered by local authorities and housing associations. It is planned to further deliver another 3.5-4 million homes next year. Prefab houses made up over 55% of the current building programme.

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New TVX "superapp"

Today the public broadcasters RTD,CBN,EBS,RTW and IBS announced their new "superapp" to replace their streaming apps has launched to public. The app will feature all content for free streaming from RTD, CBN, EBS, RTW and IBS. The app will also feature all their radio stations. The app will have all the live channels and you will be able to filter by Duchy and broadcaster for content . The app is designed to centralise all public broadcasting in one place to provide a unified experience of TV media and also save on costs of running separate streaming apps. The RTD player , CBNGo , RTWi, EBSGo and IBS Player will be decomissioned by february being replaced by the new TVX superapp. The app will be available to Duchians and restricted outside of the Duchies where the broadcasters plan a TVXGo app in conjunction with other Duchian broadcasters if a public broadcaster owned service through the EUBC cannott be agreed or an alternative public service broadcaster streaming service cannot be agreed.

RTD is pushing for a content library and european wide streamer for public owned tv content providers run by a consortium under the EUBC or to join with other public broadcasters abroad independently of the EUBC to offer the programmes to all of the EU. The corporation said "We are seeking the best value for money for the taxpayer and to ensure everyone watching our content pays fairly for the content or to ensure we get a good selection of foreign content for our viewers of our channels.It is dissapointing the EUBC supervisors voted against our proposal which would have benefitted consumers Europe wide by providing a centralised place for public broadcast content while ensuring broadcasters are adequately compensated for our content. We are working on solutions and compromises within or outside of the EUBC. We very much hope there will be a solution by the end of the year."

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Roscoes court challenge overturns store expansion ban
A court case has overturned the ban on Roscoes developing new stores after Roscoes succesfully pled its case in court. The Competition and Consumer Protection Authority argued in court that Roscoes position is detrimental to the consumer and presents a threat to market competition if allowed to expand. Roscoes argued its market share was 16.01% while the threshold for uncompetitive markets is 35% and less than 4 competitors which is not the case in grocery or general retail sectors they operate in. The company argued there is plenty of competition in the market and that it is only growing because consumers choose Roscoes over other supermarkets.

The company said in statement "We are happy the courts came to a sensible decision in the consumers interest. Our expansion combined with our in-sourcing programme will enable greater efficiencies and lower costs for the consumer while maintaining our ethical standards." The Competition and Consumer Protection Authority said "We are dissapointed in this court decision. We maintain expansion of Roscoes will cause harm to the consumer and threaten competition. We will look at options including appeals to block Roscoes from any expansion in the interests of protection the consumer. We believe the court made the wrong decision and maintain confidence in our assessments."

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Renew Scheme opened for applications
The Renew retrofit scheme has opened for applications with the scheme to be given 25 billion Dux Libra(37,500,000,000 Euros) a year and increasing to operate from government. The scheme makes eligible for the retrofit of Solar and renewable energy, battery packs , electric charging systems for cars, better insulation and electric and underfloor heating or connection to district heating for old properties. The move is aimed to renovate the old home stock to modern 21st century standards and keep it in good use and affordable to occupants while saving carbon emissions from housing. The scheme will allow grants or super low interest loans from 15,000 to 30,000 Dux Libra (22,500 Euros to 45,000 Euros) per household or sing home landlords.

The scheme will work to help modernise the housing stock increasing efficiency. There is also a requirement for multiple property landlords to modernise housing stock or commercial units to net zero conditions and full insulation before they are allowed to rent out any units. It is hoped the scheme will significantly help towards the net zero goal by 2030 of the United Duchies.10 Billion Euros of the scheme has been provided by the EDA though 50 billion Euros had been requested it is expected that United Duchies will be putting another request in for additional funding for the scheme this year to boost the funding level for the scheme overall.The scheme is expected to help 1.25 million households and small businesses per year.The scheme will require use of at least 50% made in Duchies products to be eligible for the scheme.

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Harmonized quality standards, business regulations and copyright laws needed says James Mizrachi Roscoes
James Mizrachi-Roscoe has today said that Europe needs to harmonise its business laws on quality, copy right and trade. He said in a public meeting "Today Roscoes and many other businesses have to navigate over 20 different quality and safety standard laws, copyright systems and administration systems to trade throughout Europe with exports and imports hard because of this process. Roscoes size businesses find it inconvenient to meet 20 plus different standards but if its hard for bigger businesses and organisations like Roscoes and Siemens imagine how hard it is for a SME without the dedicated international trade teams large businesses have. Many businesses face significant barriers to growth or in procuring imported goods because of the multiple different standards. Exporters have to treat each country or trade bloc as an entirely different project making one off consignments hard to fulfill meanwhile getting imported parts or goods is harder as they have to be certified as safe in Duchies because there is no garuntee it meets standards domestic firms meet. The result is less international trade and specialisation than would otherwise be the case. That is why I am running on the business harmonisation platform so SME's and big business has equal footing in the market which is not the case at present."

His proposals include setting a common copyright system for the whole of the EU with opt outs available for nations and also doing the same for a common minimum product safety and quality scheme and mark. He has acknowledged some product standard minimums may need to be lowered to meet a new European standard but argues this is adressed by other quality marks that most Duchian products are aligning to anyway. He argued clothes, and daily products are more expensive throughout Europe as a result of inconsistent standards and costs of compliance with mutiiple systems and individual certification of safety and quality being required in each market.

The candidate has also called for much more powers for the EU and "more efficient administration" . He's argued for localising decision making to expert panels in each nation for each agency in areas of development, agriculture and environment among other areas. He said to us in his talk with us "At the moment the three commissioners decide everything , run everything and make every decision in the EU especially in agencies like the EDA. This is highly inefficient as every application has to go through Europolis and you are essentially screwed if an incompetent or less active commissioner gets elected as has happened many times recently. My proposals would see either national or regional panels and sub-panels handling applications with experts from all sectors with some appointed by EU and some by the national governments or institutions. These would decide grants and proposals under a certain amount and be given budgets in proportion to population to allocate. The measure would ensure that people assessing projects have local knowledge and expertise resulting in better more efficient decision making. These panels would have to write reports every 6 months and be audited every 12 months to protect against corruption. This would also apply to other grant making institutions." The commissioner candidates proposals have drew praise from the business community and third sector organisations who say navigating EU funding applications is often too complex , slow and bureaucratic with over 80% of organisations saying they instead pull from either ECON operated , other international agencies or domestic agencies for their funding as this tends to quicker and more efficient. James has branded this "an embarrassment for the EU" saying if the EU wants to survive it needs to be "indispensable and costly to leave just because it is the most efficient in development of Europe and important to everyday lives." He said " I believe in the vision of the EU and the idea but the problem is that in practise there is too much obstructionism and inefficiency. Every good idea to harmonise standards or make the EU more efficient and responsive gets voted down and frankly lazy and ineffective commissioners just go in get paid for doing literally nothing of note for the European people before the next "do nothing comissioner" gets in to repeat the cycle. My prediction is the EU will see nations leaving and forming alternatives if this situation continues. We are already seeing the rise of Unus in the north in United Duchies and this concerns me , I want to see us in the EU in 10 years time but unless the EU actually changes I fear a day when we will be leaving the EU and we likely won't be the only nation to do so in that situation." His candidacy has been backed by the Moderates, PSD , Liberals and UoD while Unus have called him an "EU lackey". Unus also have put in their platform they intend to hold a referendum on the EU promoting leaving the EU over their "control over the nation and wastage of Duchies money ". The party is in line with the AfD in this policy.

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Tarek Al-Wazir arrested and extradited to Duchies
Tarek Al-Wazir has been arrested and extradited to the United Duchies on terrorism charges. The controversial public figure has said many statements supporting extremism according to opponents but the arrest has come following new evidence of direct links to terrorism.

The police said in a statement "Tarek Al-Wazir has been arrested in the Duxburian Dominions after evidence was found of direct links to terror cells in the Duchies including the cells which hit the sporting venues in 2023. We believe we have a strong case and it is likely if found guilty he will recieve life in solitary according to Duchian laws on terrorism." The news was welcomed by all parties with hope being exressed the issue of terrorism related to the Svarnan war dying down.

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Duchies Football Association to send undercover enforcement to matches abroad to spot hooliganism and offensive behaviour
The Duchies Football Association has announced its plans to roll out the programme of sending undercover enforcement officers to matches to United Duchies matches abroad. The programme which has resulted in hundreds of bans of fans from matches with up to lifetime bans for hooliganism and offensive behaviour such as racist, sexist and homophobic chants or gestures will be rolled out to foreign matches with undercover enforcement officers set to be placed in various places around the stands. The DFA has said "We are still concerned by the potential for racist, sexist and homophobic people attending matches or people who act offensively or obscenely making the sport an uncomfortable environment for people. We intend to root this out and will be acting against so called fans who act this way abroad.They must respect other fans and people abroad or face fines or up to a lifetime ban if caught." If found guilty the person would be on a no ticket list with information on the threat they pose being shared with authorities in other countries so they can be denied tickets. The association also intends to share details those who have committed offenses in the Duchies with other countries authorities in order to help combat hate throughout the sporting world.The association is also paying whistleblowers for reporting incidents and sending in evidence of any violations of the spectator code of the DFA. The payments which ammount to 50 % of a fine if the person is sucessfully sanctioned is payed to the person on a successful enforcement operation.

The programme is also in place in Cricket matches as well as Rugby matches in the Duchies with suggestions they could try to roll out programmes like it abroad as well. The programme has been praised as well as criticised with those praising it seeing it as a vital measure to stop hooliganism and hatemongering in its tracks while those criticising the programme saying it runs counter to free speech and privacy of fans.

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Shock polls shows right wing surge
New polling figures show a surge in support for right wing parties in the Duchies with a slight boost for the Liberal Party and Moderate Party with the PSD and The Left suffering losses while UoD who have the centre right ground are continuing their polling collapse. The Moderate Party under John Peter Key look set to gain 30.72% if the election was held today holding steady on the 30.84% at last election while PSD are expected to drop to 16.43% from 20.71% at the last elections if elections were held today. The AfD are making the headlines however with projections of over 74 seats with Unus also likely for the first time to pick up over 100 seats and on course to take up the position as the second largest party in the country. Analysts have suggested the current right wing surge could easily become a trend into the future and have said factors such as immigration , security fears and the recent attacks may be playing a role in boosting Unus and AfD's popularity. The parties are also showing strength outside of Westseaxna , Doornevale , Aranvale and Albion. Dissatisfaction with the EU and a desire to leave among some is also said to be behind the rise.The rise in support for Unus risks making forming a government with existing parties impossible if the 21 majority in the upper house is reduced for the governing parties with this potentially forcing them to bring in Unus to the coalition or face the tough choice of bringing an unpopular UoD into the coalition government to stop Unus getting into the coalition.

Party	%	Seats Now	% of Seats now	Projected Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats Projection
The left	1.57%	29	3.57%	10	-19	1.54%
IUAC	0.14%	1	0.12%	1	0	0.15%
PSD:	16.43%	158	19.46%	107	-51	16.44%
Liberal Party:	14.46%	102	12.56%	94	-8	14.44%
Moderate Party:	30.71%	232	28.57%	200	-32	30.72%
Union of Democrats:	7.21%	111	13.67%	47	-64	7.22%
Unus	16.57%	90	11.08%	122	32	18.74%
AFD	12.91%	88	10.84%	70	-18	10.75%
Total:	100.00%	812	100.00%	651	-161	100.00%

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UoD Leader toppled
Terence Fitzcharles was today toppled as leader of the UoD in a surprise vote by UoD MP's. He was toppled amidst the lastest poll in the long term collapse in UoD political polling as they struggle to find an identity losing the centre right to the Moderate Party and the right wing of the party to Unus. The party now faces a struggle between the centre right and right wing wings of the party with the right wing supporters arguing the party needs a tougher stance on immigration and more national conservative stance to combat the bleed of voters on the right wing to Unus while the centre right argue that doing so would only increase the bleed of centre right support to the Moderate Party arguing instead there needs to be a return to the centre of politics and reduction in pro-tax cut and more austerity agenda.

The party has been reported to be in civil war with analysts describing the party as a party on death row. The party has been suggested to be close to imminent collapse or split with a potential power gap appearing in the centre right of politics if that occurs.

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Duchies government pass ban on destruction of heritage buildings
The law to ban the demolition of buildings built before 1950 has officially passed today. The Heritage Preservation Act essentially lists all buildings built before 1950 as protected buildings. The act requires that all alternative uses for housing, commercial use and community use must be exhausted before the building can be demolished with developers having to prove that any sensitive development or alternative use is impractical. The acts passing comes after years of campaigning from heritage preservation organisations in the United Duchies. The act is expected to protect entire neighbourhoods and also requires that should such a building burn down buildings built before 1950 must be rebuilt in the same location and with the same design lest the developer face jail and imprisonment. The act will also allow heritage organisations to object to redevelopment plans and propose alternative uses being able to buy the building from site owners if they can pay the market rate for the building and have funds to redevelop the site in a sensitive manner themselves.

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Roscoes denies sabotage of Czechslavonic economy
Roscoes today has responded to the arrest of its executive and some members of the main shareholding family. It said in a statement "We are concerned and sad to hear of the arrests and would like to talk with the Czech Slavonic government to resolve the issue. However we absolutely deny any sabotage or intent of sabotage of operations in Czech Slavia. Simply put as the assets in the country were no longer under company operation or ownership we had no obligation to continue supplies or maintenance contracts in the country or share any of the intelectual property of the company this is standard international procedure in such events as nationalisation.

We offered jobs to the former employees as we do any time we close a division or an operation in another country to ensure that workers have the option at least to remain with out company and security of a job by giving priority to those employees. We don't believe in laying off or people losing their job if we have jobs available elsewhere for those individuals as a matter of respect for their contributions to the company.We value employees and they are our greatest assets and deserve to be rewarded with job security where possible.This again is a standard part of our core values."

It is not known if the company is in negotiations but it is expected the company will enter negotiations with the Czech Slavian authorities.

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Local Government Reform
Today the government passed a law on local government reform reforming how local governments are ran. Currently there are three levels of government the National government , Duchy Government and the Local Authority with the local focusing on all local policy and public services and National And Duchy governments delivering Health and General Public services.

The reform will split local government in two with councils providing public services and bin collections and mainting most delivery of local services but making a new Combined Authority with an elected Regional Mayor to make decisions on planning , regional transport policy and , regional development , local road maintenance and Business Enterprise Support. The job of mayors will be to integrate rural areas into the the urban areas and develop regional transport policies and systems and also advocate for their region and market their region to business and other departments of government.

The new powers for levels of government are as follows:

Government Level	General Policy Area
National	Health, Education(Core curriculum) , Media and Arts and Culture ,Economy, Labour Laws, Welfare Foreign policy , Defense , Law and Order ,Treaties, National Transport Policy, Immigration Equality Laws
Duchy	Economy, Any additional Labour rights, Social Policy, Alcohol and Drug policy, Duchy Education curriculum , Intra-Duchy Transport, Law and order
Combined Authority	Planning, Transport ,Local Road Maintenance and Development, Regional Development Planning, Business Enterprise Support ,Regional Tourism Planning
Local Authority	Bins, Local Transport, Youth Services, Libraries , Arts and Culture , Social Care Delivery , Schools and Colleges, Local Public Services and Planning

Elections for Regional Mayors will be held in 6 months.The mayoral authorities shall exist in Supseaxe , Baltica and Westseaxna

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Duchies Football Association tightens anti-hooliganism regulations
The Duchies Football Association have today announced a key deal with Californian and United Kingdom authorities with aims for talks with other federations throughout Europe to tighten regulation on hooliganism. The deal with the UK and California includes data sharing on those committing acts of hooliganism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or racism at football games or outside of the stadiums in bars and allowing for each others investigators to to go to the games in each others countries to investigate their fans and monitor for incidents.

The DFA along with other sporting regulators in the Duchies also agreed a deal with the Duchies Identity Documents and Passport Office and law enforcement in the Duchies to share data and for any fans found to be engaging in the banned behaviour by the football association or caught committing public order crimes abroad to have have a travel ban on all international flights , trains and coachesmay be given travel bans from 10 years and up to lifetime travel bans depending on the offense. The tough stance is hoped to significantly reduce the hooliganism rate and make it so there are less incidents abroad embarressing Duchians who travel. A law is to be passed that would require travel companies operating in Duchies to check the list on any passenger before selling a ticket for a journey with steep fines if they allow those on the Duchies Travel Ban Database to travel.This will also apply to those who are reported by fans through the fan repotting scheme run by the sports associations. These penalties may be applied in addition to bans from any sporting events in the Duchies.

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Irmgardis City absorbed into Baltica
Today the government have announced after a vote in Irmgardis City legislature that Irmgardis city is to be absorbed into Baltica. The vote follows a campaign by locals to integrate transport policy and policy more with the surrounding Baltica and Baltia region. The council will still exist for local matters and local policy but will have education, transport and health as well as broadcasting policy controlled by the Baltica Duchy. The broadcast IBS is to be absorbed into EBS with channels and programming merged.The Irmgardis City area will be part of the elected mayoralty of the Baltia region which will run the regionwide policies such as global planning and transport through the Mayoralty which will be elected in upcoming elections.

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Shock election Called
Today as the media gathered there was rumours of a big announcement from the PM John Peter Key. The matter of the sudden press conference was unveiled at 19:06.

John Peter Key announced the new election for the parliament of the Duchies to last until 2029 with a reset of election dates for national elections. He said in his speech "Today Duchians I come to you today to announce I have took the journey to High Duke Nikolai III to ask for the disolvement of my government for new elections in 6 weeks for the Metropolitan Mayors , the House of Commons and the House of Duchies which he has in his good wisdom approved.

The reason I have come to this decision is there has been significant changes in our systems and circumstances. We have added the overseas constituency in House of Commons and House of Duchies , we have also had the reintegration of Irmgardis City into Baltica and the redrawing of boundaries. It is only fair and practical given these changes that we hold a new election so the whole of the United Duchies can decide on the future government of the remainder of this term. I will be campaigning as expected to maintain my government and my parties participation in it but I feel it only fair you decide as the public. I thank you the public for your trust and your support and we are proud of our record and I hope to serve you for 5 more years until 2029 on August 25, 2024 but if not I thank you for your support and are proud to have humbly served you in this role that has been the honour of my life. "

The news of the election has surprised many especially given the strength of Unus right now. The election will be fought with the following seat numbers for each Duchy and 100 list seats to help parties reach their national vote share plus any additional seats under the MMP system should smaller parties win local seats over their proportional seats by popular result:

Local Seats

Duchy	Seats	House of Duchies Seats
Cair Para	16	30
Supseaxe	229	30
Westseaxna	142	30
Baltica	138	30
Albion	15	30
Doornevale	20	30
Aranvale	18	30
Overseas Constituency	72	30
National List Seats	100	-
Total:	750	240

The following Mayoralties will be up for election to trial the system until 2029:

Mayoralty	Population
Goudadam	3,937,001
Brummagem	3,432,329
Cair Para	3,387,782
Porterdam	3,244,654
Hague	3,031,404
Hamborg	2,771,696
Flussgelort	2,635,323
Baltia-Irmgardis	2,818,254
Arthuria	1,659,954

The current seats in parliament are as follows:

House of Commons	Local Seats	List Seats	Total National MP's	Expat Ministers of Parliament	Total MP's	%:	Leader
ADA	1	0	1	0	1	0.12%	Ulles Kulnja-Vereles
The Left	16	12	28	1	29	3.57%	Leo McKulsky
IUAC	1	0	1	0	1	0.12%	Lara Baker
PSD:	107	28	135	23	158	19.46%	Summer Hughes
Liberal Party:	64	27	91	11	102	12.56%	Arron Scott
Moderate Party:	168	34	202	30	232	28.57%	John Peter Key
Union of Democrats:	82	24	106	5	111	13.67%	Mr Terence Fitzcharles
Unus	44	44	88	2	90	11.08%	Dominic Marshall
AFD	20	0	88	0	88	10.84%	Leonard Hudson
Total:	502	169	739	72	812	100.00%	-

House of Duchies

House of Duchies:	Seats	% of Seats:
ADA:	3	1.11%
The Left	8	2.96%
IUAC	9	3.33%
PSD:	46	17.04%
Liberal Party:	34	12.59%
Moderate Party:	76	28.15%
Union of Democrats:	39	14.44%
Unus	45	16.67%
AFD	10	3.70%
Total:	270	100.00%