Gb news. But first its the news with addison. With ray addison. Thanks, emily. Good afternoon. 1 01. Our top stories this hour. Parents are being told classroom closures due to crumbling concrete are not a return to the dark days of school lockdowns. Writing in the school lockdowns. Writing in the sun on sunday, education secretary Gillian Keegan said the government had no choice but to order the full or partial closure of more than 100 schools and colleges as labour is planning to force a vote to compel the pm to publish a list of all of the schools at risk. Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson saying the government should have acted sooner to appreciate that lots of parents across the country will be concerned because sadly, many children are not going to be able to return to education or will be moved into portacabins or alternative accommodation because of the risk that this kind of crumbling concrete is going to pose. It all feels very last minute and what were calling on
Hello, im christian fraser. Youre watching the context on bbc news. Besieged by tourists, venice starts charging day trippers to visit. Is this the way forward for overwhelmed cities . In fact, we are going to start in europe. The french president , emmanuel macron, has painted a rather bleak picture of the European Union today. Despite the big strides he believes the eu made towards closer integration post covid and in response to the war in ukraine, it needs to be much more aggressive, he said, in defending its own interests. The wake up, he said, has been too slow and there is mortal danger, as he put it, if the union becomes a vassal of the United States and fails to stand up for itself on trade. Translation we must be lucid to the fact that our europe today is mortal. She can die. Echoing his past calls for europe to plot a third way between the us and china, the french president called for a scaling up stronger, more integrated European Defences, a more sustainable economic model
The chair recognizes five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you for the witnesses for being here today. Americans rely on Internet Connectivity for work, education, healthcare. Despite years of effort and billions of dollars, Many Americans are still without a reliable broadband connection. Closing this divide is a bipartisan priority and significant federal resources have been dedicated to this effort. Unfortunately, a problem that requires an efficient response is overwhelming and scattered federal funding response as Ronald Reagan said, the government is not the solution to the problem but is the problem. In may of 2022, the Government Accountability office found there were over 130 broadband programs across 15 federal Government Agencies. These programs, the broadband equity access created an Infrastructure Investment and jobs and missed 42. 45 billion. One of the Top Priorities is making sure these programs administered effectively so that money dedicated to closing the Digi
Sometimes fema claims can take 10 years to be completed. The rem fire many years ago now is still being reimbursed to this day. We have to face a budget problem in our current fiscal year. This is not additional funds. It is a transfer from salaries and training savings into the overtime budget line. So this 1. 2 million represents that need. It is going to be years before the check is in the mail . Thats correct. Likely. Unknown but likely. The action you need from us to approve this so you can go to the board of supervisors . Thats correct. You can ask for questions. I didnt know we did that. That is good to know. The board of supervisor board bs know this is place for fires. They will not be surprised. The purpose is so they are not surprised. They were aware of the mutual aid . We had to do this by a certain time so they are not surprised. We are not going to exceed the overtime budget as a result of this at this time. The chief has been reported on over time to date. The numbers l
I didnt know we did that. That is good to know. The board of supervisor board bs know this is place for fires. They will not be surprised. The purpose is so they are not surprised. They were aware of the mutual aid . We had to do this by a certain time so they are not surprised. We are not going to exceed the overtime budget as a result of this at this time. The chief has been reported on over time to date. The numbers look very good. As we approach the end of the year, this particular mechanism was intended to better safe than sorry, make sure we have the fund this is the budget to cover ourselves to the end of the fiscal year and this was an unexpected cost for sure. It sounds like what you might be asking is the process of mutual aid whether or not the board of supervisors are aware mutual aid is a thing. It is over time and were they aware of it. It i wasnt aware of it. Iit is good to know. Thanks. Happy to take other questions. Do we need Public Comment . Yes, we do. Moved do we h