Badenoch makes bleak local elections prediction – as Farage mocks ‘comical’ new slogan

Published

2 months ago

March 20, 2025

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“Almost every” council the Conservatives won in 2021 could be lost in this year’s local elections, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has conceded.

Speaking at the launch of her party’s campaign, Ms Badenoch said the votes four years ago followed the COVID vaccine rollout – helping her party to 14 council gains and holding another 49.

Politics live: Badenoch has a dig at Farage

On 1 May, across England, more than 1,600 council seats will be up for re-election, alongside six mayors.

The Tories face being squeezed by Reform on their right, as well as a blend of Liberal Democrats and independents.

Ms Badenoch warned party members: “It will be the first time since the general election, the greatest defeat in all parties’ history, that we fight these seats.”

Map the 2024 election results on to the upcoming council ones, and the Tory leader admitted “we lose almost every single one”.

‘People have lost trust in politics’

Labour are also likely to perform poorly, as local election results tend to reflect public opinion towards the national governing party.

Measures like inheritance tax on farms, benefit cuts, planning reform, reducing winter fuel payments and others could weigh heavily on Sir Keir Starmer’s chances.

It was put to Ms Badenoch that lots of these protest votes look set to go to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Asked about the differences between the Tories and Reform by Sky News deputy political editor Sam Coates, Ms Badenoch said: “Loads of other parties just tell people what they think they want to hear.

“We think through and make sure that we are providing a credible plan that can be delivered.

“A lot of people have lost trust in politics because politicians make promises and do deliver.”

‘This is not a protest vote’

But the Tory leader acknowledged the party faces “a challenge on the right”, which she said was partly down to its record in government in recent years.

“The protest votes are going to Reform,” she said.

“But at the end of the day, this is not a protest vote – these are local elections.”

The Tory leader instead urged people to vote for who will sort out bin collections, fix potholes and run local services well – which she said would be the Conservatives.

She unveiled the slogan for her party’s campaign as “lower taxes, better services”.

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Mr Farage described that as “comical”, saying the Tories’ track record was of “higher taxes and crumbling services”.

The Reform leader is eyeing big gains in May, and said: “After decades of mismanagement, Conservative councils across the country are buckling under the pressure.”

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Ms Badenoch’s speech was a “desperate attempt to shore up the crumbling Conservative vote as people in the home counties turn to the Liberal Democrats”.

She said her party is focusing on the cost of living, river sewage, and the NHS and social care.

Politics

US regulator moves to drop appeal against Kalshi

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2025

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US regulator moves to drop appeal against Kalshi

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is seeking permission from the court to drop an appeal against prediction market Kalshi. The move could allow the platform to offer political event contracts to users without contest.

In a May 5 filing in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, lawyers for the CFTC filed an unopposed motion for voluntary dismissal, suggesting an agreement with Kalshi. The motion, subject to approval by the court, could end the CFTC’s appeal against a federal court ruling that the financial regulator could not bar Kalshi from listing political event contracts, i.e., bets on elections.

Law, Betting, CFTC, Court — *Motion to dismiss appeal filed by the CFTC on May 5. Source:* *Courtlistener*

Kalshi stipulated in a joint filing that the company would “bear its own costs, court fees and attorney fees incurred” if the court granted the CFTC’s motion to dismiss. The platform said that “election markets are here to stay” in a May 6 X post following the filing.

The betting platform initially filed a lawsuit against the CFTC in 2023 in response to the regulator ordering Kalshi to stop offering political event contracts. The company won in the lower court, prompting the appeal by the CFTC in September 2024.

Motion to drop the appeal after the change in administration?

The case was handled mainly before the US election and the appointment of acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham under President Donald Trump. CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger, nominated by former President Joe Biden, reportedly echoed Kalshi’s sentiment in February, claiming that election prediction markets were “here to stay.”

Launched in 2021, Kalshi became popular among many crypto users in part due to bets related to the 2024 US election. Though the CFTC argued in its appeal that betting on the elections could result in “spectacular manipulation” of markets and harm to the public interest, the regulator under Pham and Trump appeared to have reversed its position with the motion to dismiss.

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Politics

Bitwise throws NEAR ETF in race for SEC approval with S-1 filing

Published

4 hours ago

May 6, 2025

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Bitwise throws NEAR ETF in race for SEC approval with S-1 filing

Digital asset manager Bitwise has filed to list a spot Near exchange-traded fund with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, adding to a growing list of altcoins currently vying to win regulatory approval.

The Bitwise Near (NEAR) ETF will track the price movements of the NEAR token, minus expenses, through a traditional brokerage, Bitwise’s May 6 registration statement shows.

Bitwise named Coinbase Custody as the proposed custodian of the Bitwise NEAR ETF. The management fee, ticker and stock exchange it seeks to list on weren’t named yet.

Bitwise must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund. The crypto native asset manager indicated it would make such a filing when it registered a trust linked to the NEAR ETF in Delaware on April 28.

NEAR joins a pile of spot crypto ETFs on the SEC’s desk

The SEC now has at least a dozen spot crypto ETFs to review in 2025, including applications for Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Hedera (HBAR), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Avalanche (AVAX), Aptos (APT) and Sui (SUI).

Bitwise already has applications out for a spot DOGE, SOL, and XRP ETFs, and also has an approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETF, which are listed on the NYSE Arca and have attracted a combined $2.35 billion in net inflows since launching last year.

NEAR — the token powering the layer-1 Near blockchain — is the 44th largest cryptocurrency by market cap at $2.73 billion, CoinGecko data shows.

The Near blockchain was once touted as an Ethereum killer and is considered by its proponents as a solution to the “blockchain trilemma” — the challenge of achieving all three critical aspects of blockchain performance: security, scalability and decentralization.

Through Nightshade sharding, Near can process up to 100,000 transactions per second and is secured by 265 active validators, Nearblocks.io data shows.

The Near ecosystem shifted from decentralized finance to AI infrastructure in 2024, unveiling plans to build the world’s largest open-source large language model.

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Politics

New Hampshire governor signs crypto reserve bill into law

Published

5 hours ago

May 6, 2025

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New Hampshire governor signs crypto reserve bill into law

New Hampshire became the first US state to allow its government to invest in crypto currencies including Bitcoin (BTC), after Governor Kelly Ayotte signed a bill passed by the legislature into law.

In a May 6 notice, Ayotte announced on social media that New Hampshire would be permitted to “invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals” through a bill passed in the state Senate and House of Representatives. House Bill 302, introduced in New Hampshire in January, will allow the state’s treasury to use funds to invest in cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of more than $500 billion, eliminating many tokens and memecoins.

“The Live Free or Die state is leading the way in forging the future of commerce and digital assets,” said New Hampshire Republicans in a May 6 X post.

Law, New Hampshire, United States, Bitcoin Reserve — *Signing New Hampshire’s crypto reserve bill into law on May 6. Source:* *Governor Kelly Ayotte*

With the signing of the bill into law, New Hampshire becomes the first of several US states considering passing legislation to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, including an initiative with the federal government. A similar bill in Arizona passed the state’s House in April but was vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs on May 2, and Florida’s government withdrew two crypto reserve bills from consideration on May 3.

New Hampshire’s crypto plans to precede the US government’s?

The efforts to create crypto reserves in different US states come as US President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers propose similar policies at the federal level. Trump signed an executive order in March to establish a “Digital Asset Stockpile” and a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis, who sponsored the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide (BITCOIN) Act, proposed that the US government could hold more than 1 million BTC through civil and criminal forfeiture seizures. The bill is currently being considered by members of the US Senate Banking Committee.

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