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We’ve been here before. Yvette Cooper is the third home secretary to promise to reform procedure for armed police officers after the shooting of Chris Kaba.

But then we have had three home secretaries in the past year: Tories Suella Braverman and James Cleverly and now Labour’s Ms Cooper.

It was when dozens of officers in London handed in their weapons after Metropolitan Police marksman Martyn Blake was charged, in September last year, that Ms Braverman launched a review.

Firearms officers “mustn’t fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties,” she declared. Her review would ensure they have the confidence to do their jobs, she said.

Yvette Cooper swerves budget questions – Politics latest

Then in March this year, Mr Cleverly announced that investigations into police officers suspected of committing offences in the line of duty would be “sped up”, to provide swifter clarity to both officers and victims.

“The government will amend the threshold for referring police officers for criminal prosecution, so that only cases that have a reasonable prospect of conviction should be referred,” the Home Office added.

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So what happened to speeding up the reforms? Were they stalled by the July general election? Apparently not. Ms Cooper said it was right to wait until the end of Mr Blake’s trial before announcing changes. Fair point.

What are the changes, then? In a rare cross-party consensus between the two front benches, the home secretary has accepted all Mr Cleverly’s proposals, for which he was gracious in expressing his gratitude.

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Retired firearms officer Tony Long, who shot dead Azelle Rodney in 2005, speaks to Sky News as a police officer is cleared of the murder of Chris Kaba.

But she’s gone much further. The one audible cheer from the surprisingly few MPs in the chamber – only around 25 or so on both sides – came when she proposed a “presumption of anonymity” for police on trial up to a conviction.

In his measured response, Mr Cleverly spoke of the fear of reprisals against Mr Blake and his family. A real concern. There are reports of criminals putting a £10,000 bounty on his head in revenge for the shooting of Mr Kaba.

The cross-party consensus didn’t extend to the back benches, however. From the Labour benches, there were concerns about confidence in police among black communities from left-wingers Diane Abbott, Bell Ribiero-Addy and Kim Johnson.

And from the Reform UK duo of Lee Anderson and Richard Tice there were demands for more government backing for the police. Mr Tice said confidence in the police disciplinary process and the Crown Prosecution Service was collapsing.

The home secretary said the anonymity proposal will be part of the government’s Crime and Policing Bill, a bill Sir Keir Starmer has claimed “will take back our streets”. But it’s an unwieldy piece of legislation.

It already includes measures on neighbourhood policing, improving the vetting of police officers and tackling anti-social behaviour, retail crime, knife crime and violence against women and girls.

It hasn’t yet been introduced in parliament, however. So despite all the talk by successive home secretaries about speeding up reforming trials of armed police officers, the wait goes on.

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Marshall Islands launches universal basic income program using digital wallet

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Marshall Islands launches universal basic income program using digital wallet

The Republic of the Marshall Islands announced that it would allow citizens to access funds through a government-issued digital asset as part of the nation’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) program.

In a Wednesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the government of the island nation said it had launched a digital wallet called Lomalo, which will utilize the US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDM1 to enable citizens to access the UBI program. According to the government, the first disbursement of funds will occur in late November, allowing citizens to access them through their wallet, by physical check, or via direct deposit.

“By introducing a secure digital option alongside our traditional methods, we are strengthening our financial systems and ensuring that no community is left behind,” said David Paul, finance minister for the Marshall Islands. 

Neighboring Pacific island nations have rolled out similar programs over the years, including Palau’s stablecoin on the XRP Ledger for government employees, and the central bank of the Solomon Islands’ Bokolo Cash for peer-to-peer transactions and retail payments in the nation’s capital, Honiara.

Related: From islands to highways: How blockchain interoperability is finally catching up

“Citizens will be able to transfer to other registered Lomalo users,” a spokesperson for the Marshall Islands’ finance minister told Cointelegraph. “Right now, only citizens registered for the UBI can set up a wallet.”

Warnings from the IMF on the Marshall Islands utilizing digital assets

The launch of the digital wallet as part of the islands’ UBI program followed warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2023, the group urged the government of the Marshall Islands to reconsider its central bank digital currency program, then known as SOV. 

“Progress on rolling back past digital initiatives is welcome,” said the IMF in a Sept. 10 notice. “Current plans to issue a ‘digital sovereign bond’ carry significant risks relative to perceived returns, which cannot be effectively mitigated given lack of pre-requisite capacity. Thus, in the mission’s view, the authorities should not proceed with the global launch as planned.”

The IMF said that the expansion of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which the Marshall Islands began recognizing as legal entities in 2022, and the launch of the UBI program using the “untested” USDM1 could have “adverse macro-fiscal and financial integrity implications.” The fund urged the government to scale back the UBI program to a “more targeted scheme to those who need it the most.”