U.S. funds Calvert, NYC Comptroller to back Mediobanca's bid for Banca Generali
MILAN, June 5 (Reuters) - Calvert and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander will vote in favour of Italian merchant bank Mediobanca's bid for private bank Banca Generali (BGN.MI), opens new tab on June 16, the two U.S. funds said on their respective websites on Thursday.
Mediobanca in April proposed buying
Due to the MPS bid and Italian corporate takeover rules, Mediobanca must first seek shareholders' approval to pursue the Banca Generali deal and has called a meeting for June 16 to vote on the plan.
Italian tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, a leading investor in Mediobanca, has expressed a negative view on the Banca Generali bid and is seeking a a delay of the shareholder vote saying key details are still unclear.
The two funds did not disclose their stakes in Mediobanca.
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Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
RAF base's only defence against Palestine Action was 6ft wooden fence
For almost 80 years, RAF Brize Norton has been one of the country's most important military airfields, serving as an embarkation point for members of the Royal family and senior politicians as they fly around the globe. So one could be forgiven for expecting security around the Oxfordshire airbase to be watertight. In reality, however, things are a little more porous, with sections of the eight-mile perimeter protected only by a six-foot wooden fence that would not look out of place surrounding a suburban garden. In the early hours of Friday morning, two members of the protest group Palestine Action – which will now be proscribed as a terrorist organisation – took advantage of the seemingly lax defences to enter the airfield and attack two military aircraft. Video footage posted by the group showed two people using electric scooters to cross the base's runway. One can be seen approaching an aircraft and spray-painting its engine, before driving away down the empty airstrip. They were then able to disappear into the night, leaving the RAF red-faced and the Ministry of Defence to announce an urgent review of security. Brize Norton serves as the hub for UK strategic air transport and refuelling, including flights to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. It is also where the aircraft used by dignitaries, including the monarch and prime minister, are based. As would be expected, large parts of the base, especially near the gates, are surrounded by high metal fences topped with menacing-looking razor wire. The perimeter in these areas also bristles with security cameras and hi-tech CCTV to monitor the comings of goings of all personnel. Armed guards patrol the gates in a show of strength aimed at deterring anyone who has no lawful business. But just a short stroll along a grass verge, the barbed wire comes to an abrupt end, to be replaced by a panel fence that looks like it could have been purchased from a DIY store. The section in question is plain to see for anyone travelling the four miles between the villages of Carterton and Bampton along station road. Stretching for around 170 metres, it skirts along the end of the runway and is protected from the road by just a small line of wooden and concrete bollards. One resident said: 'I've lived in this area for years and every time I drive past the fence I think: 'That would be easy to break into'.' It is not topped with barbed wire or any other anti-climbing defences, and would provide little resistance to a determined terrorist with a spring in their step. There is even a hole in the fence at one point for anyone who cannot quite manage the climb. Red warning signs attached to the fence declare: 'No unauthorised access. Protected site under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Trespass on this site is a Criminal Offence. This site is also regulated by military bylaws.' At one end of the section, kennels belonging to the RAF Police's dog section are located. But, while a number of RAF Police vehicles were parked close by, there were no visible personnel patrols on Friday afternoon during the three hours that reporters from The Telegraph were at the site. On the other side of the fence, and just a short distance from the road, Airbus Voyager aircraft, the air-to-air refuellers targeted by Palestine Action, can be seen on the tarmac. Security for the Brize Norton airfield is the responsibility of the RAF Police and Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), which secures Army, Navy and RAF bases. But former members have suggested the unit is poorly funded and does not have the resources to effectively secure such large sites. One RAF source told The Telegraph the level of security across all military was not up to standard, and that 'more dogs, more coppers and more money' was needed to properly secure the sensitive sites. 'We have barbed wire around the bases and cameras, but is its perimeter fence completely covered for the miles it takes up?' the source said. 'No, because Brize Norton is f---ing huge.' He added: 'If we could have another 50 coppers and 50 dogs the security at Brize Norton would improve. But is the security as tight at a fast jet base? Not really. 'To have watertight security at a base like Brize Norton, you'd have to invest countless people and god knows the amount of money. But maybe that's what we have to do now if this is the way things are going.' The source added: 'MPGS are responsible for recruiting the right people and getting them in the right places, but they haven't done that. ' It's a symptom of a lack of investment on security. We don't have tens of millions of pounds to put up CCTV across all the bases.' Another former military source added: 'The security at these non-nuclear bases can be very patchy. The perimeter fences are too long to be able to have them under surveillance 24 hours a day. 'But when Glastonbury's fence is harder to breach than RAF Brize Norton, you know you have an issue. 'While it may be challenging to secure an entire eight-mile perimeter, you would think they ought to be able to protect aircraft sitting on the runway. Someone's head is going to have to roll over this.'
The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Whitehall isn't working – here's how the PM can fix it
It never rains but it pours for Keir Starmer. He is fighting to stop the Iran crisis wrecking his one success as prime minister – a solid performance on foreign affairs in which he somehow maintains a productive relationship with Donald Trump. Insiders tell me Starmer's efforts are aimed at persuading Iran to enter meaningful talks on its nuclear programme and then convincing a highly sceptical US president that Iran is serious about negotiations. But if Trump goes ahead with his threat to bomb Iran, Starmer's special relationship with him could conceivably be stretched to breaking point. The prime minister can't escape his woes on domestic matters. His intense diplomacy was interrupted on Thursday by the unwelcome news that Vicky Foxcroft had resigned as a whip in protest at the government's cuts to disability benefits. She might not be the last to quit a government post before the crunch vote on £5bn of welfare cuts on 1 July, when Starmer faces the biggest Labour revolt of his premiership. Some parliamentary aides to ministers are on resignation watch. The government's robotic response to Foxcroft's departure, which failed to acknowledge her respected work as shadow disabilities minister before last year's election, angered some Labour MPs. Many will rebel with a heavy heart. They accept the need to reduce the ballooning welfare budget, but think the panicky cuts ahead of Rachel Reeves's spring statement symbolise how the government repeatedly reacts to events – in this case, living from hand to mouth to stick within the chancellor's fiscal rules – instead of having a long-term reform strategy. For some Whitehall-watchers, Starmer will not improve matters unless he reforms the centre of government. Critics think the relationship between No 10 and the Cabinet Office isn't working, leaving the other side of the triangle, the Treasury, to call the shots. The result: the winter fuel allowance catastrophe and now the welfare rebellion. Even some in Downing Street admit privately a shake-up is needed. Sam Freedman, a former special adviser and author of an excellent book, Failed State, suggests loosening the Treasury's grip by forming an Office of Budget Management, run jointly by the Treasury and Downing Street, which would oversee future spending reviews to ensure they reflect the PM's priorities. Freedman believes Starmer should consider a change Tony Blair introduced in his second term, which improved public service delivery. To prevent the whole operation being sucked into reacting to events, three units focused on different timescales: a policy unit on day-to-day oversight of Whitehall departments; a delivery unit on a small number of the PM's priorities (in Starmer's case, that would be his five missions); and a strategy unit on difficult long-term challenges. This ensured a more strategic state. One problem today is that the 'missions delivery unit' is based in the Cabinet Office rather than No 10. The Institute for Government (IFG) think tank has made a sensible proposal to abolish the Cabinet Office and set up an expanded 'Office of the Prime Minister', which would then take charge of the missions. Do such structures really matter? Yes. They are even more important when a PM makes a virtue out of his pragmatism and lack of ideology, as Starmer does. Like many predecessors, Starmer complains the Whitehall machine is slow to crank into life when he demands action. Often fair – but civil servants also have a point when they grumble that this government does not give them clear enough marching orders. For example, the government's own commitment to Starmer's missions – later relaunched as six milestones in his 'plan for change' – is now being questioned in Whitehall. Ministers promised the missions would be the 'guiding star' of the government-wide spending review unveiled by Reeves last week, and that cabinet ministers would collaborate on cross-departmental working and budgets. Only one problem: there was little money to go round. So the review again became a trial of strength between the Treasury and individual ministers trying to protect their departments. Starmer's 'mission-driven government' was caught in the crossfire and some Whitehall officials think the idea suffered serious damage. The IFG calculates that two of the missions – on economic growth and clean energy – did well out of the spending review, but the other three – on health, safer streets and opportunity – look difficult to achieve. Another reason why the missions matter is that this government doesn't have the option of pumping in extra cash to secure the improvements to public services voters want, as Blair and Gordon Brown enjoyed. Although Reeves won headlines for her big boost to building projects, her squeeze on day-to-day budgets is viewed in Whitehall as a 'standstill settlement'. So reform and efficiency savings will be needed to secure tangible improvements – not least in the NHS. The missions can play a part in prioritising these goals. With many public services still struggling in the voters' eyes, standing still will not win Labour a second term.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Putin's claim that Ukraine is ‘ours' is evidence of his disdain for peace efforts, says Kyiv
Vladimir Putin has said he believes the whole of Ukraine is 'ours' and warned that advancing Russian forces could take the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border. Ukraine's foreign minister denounced the Russian president's statements on Friday as evidence of Russian 'disdain' for US peace efforts and said Moscow was bent on seizing more territory and killing more Ukrainians. Putin, when asked about fresh Russian advances, told the country's flagship economic forum in St Petersburg that he considered Russians and Ukrainians to be one people and 'in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours'. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. The Ukrainian president said commanders had discussed Russian action in the Sumy region and 'we are holding them back and eliminating these killers'. Vladimir Putin claimed he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty but that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it also declared its neutrality. He said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground – where Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine – if there was to be a chance of peace. Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on X: 'Putin's cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for US peace efforts. While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia's top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians.' Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that Russia had shown 'openly and utterly cynically that they 'don't feel like' agreeing to a ceasefire. Russia wants to continue the war.' Russia and Ukraine exchanged more captured soldiers on Friday, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps agreed at peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month. 'A group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,' Russia's defence ministry said. 'In exchange, a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war was handed over.' An Agence France-Presse reporter saw freed Ukrainian prisoners of war being greeted by tearful relatives after stepping off a bus. Zelenskyy said most of the Ukrainians freed in the swap had been in Russian captivity 'for over two years'. Moscow posted a video of Russian soldiers in military fatigues chanting 'Russia, Russia' with Russian flags draped over them. Neither side said how many soldiers were freed in Friday's swap. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was working on the rapid development of interceptor drones to counter the swarms of Russian drones that have been descending on Ukrainian cities in increasing numbers in recent weeks. 'Several of our domestic enterprises – and, accordingly, different types of drones – are delivering results,' he said. 'Production volumes of interceptors are already increasing.' Russian forces have been deploying more than 400 drones on a single night. Vladimir Putin said Russia must not be allowed to fall into recession as some in his government warned of a hit to economic growth. 'Some specialists and experts are pointing to the risks of stagnation and even a recession,' he said at the St Petersburg forum on Friday. 'This must not be allowed to happen under any circumstances.' Russia posted its slowest quarterly expansion in two years for the first quarter of 2025 and analysts have warned that heavy public investment in the defence industry is no longer enough to keep the country's economy growing.
