the public accounts committee report published today said that britain's treasured summer festivals couldvernment. a scheme those in the industry say they would support. for many organisations if they cannot plan an activity they are in an existential situation so insurance is critical and some kind of action from government in the same way it did for film and tv. lastjuly, a culture recovery fund was set up by the department for digital, culture, media and sport to help arts organisations recover from the pandemic. but mps on the committee said in a report that some organisations found it difficult to apply for funds and some who were successful were still waiting for money. the government says that more help is coming through its culture recovery fund and that they are working flat out to help live events restart. helena wilkinson, bbc news. five military veterans with life—changing injuries are taking on the challenge of paddling the length of britain by kayak — and if they succeed, it will be a world first. the team will paddle more than 800 miles over the next five weeks — all raisin

economy efficiency and effectiveness in the national audit office and public accountance committees inenditure. on economy, does the government regard the 22 billion budget and track and trace. good value for money. on efficiency, it is the response rate of 14% on 700 million kits an efficient use of resource? and on effectiveness, don't european calls for the quarantining of uk tourists suggest a total lack of confidence in our tracing systems here in the united kingdom? well, my lords, the noble lord is correct that the government allocated £22 billion in the last financial year and over 80% of that has been allocated to testing but he is right that we have sought opportunities to drive down costs where possible and free up resources and so we have taken a number of steps to reduce costs to relieve {2.2 billion of savings and technological advancements. the latest variant is pretty mild. the deaths have gone right down but we are spending billions of pounds on this while there are huge waiting lists building up in the nhs. is it not about time that this programme was wound down and t

sirjohn armitt told the public accounts committee that spending on big schemes by itself would not create jobs the government wanted to see. sirjohn is the head of the national infrastructure commission, which advises ministers on major investments like high speed rail. what would you think needs to be done, from your experience — you've dealt with so many projects in your lifetime — that will actually really have a chance of delivering those jobs and that long—term change? it's not the responsibility of the project to deliver the growth. the project is there to provide a resource which should enable others to have the confidence to invest. the decision about what to invest in is not going to be made by the project. the project is there to provide an opportunity, to provide confidence people that the right transport infrastructure is going to be in place and it's going to drive jobs in particular sectors. a lot of other factors were important, he said, such as skills, education or support from local government. before those things are reasonable, they will never be perfect. you will give

you spoke to the public accounts committee when it was gathering evidence for this report that has nowdoes it make some good suggestions as you try to figure a way through all of this? yes, hearing what jill is saying is really heartbreaking because this is an experience that a lot of festivals and venues and events are having across the whole sector. this report seems. has found that what the government has done is welcomed and we welcome things that the government has done, the billions of pounds it's put into supporting the sector while it is close. but the real priority is what can we do to get off the economic support and how can we support ourselves and how can we have events as soon as possible again in a safe way? we are finding one of the issues is a lack of insurance. it is affecting jill and thousands of organisers. the committee said that festivals face a survival threat unless ministers set up a cancellation insurance scheme. but it noted that the government had not yet modelled how that sort of scheme would work. do you think that is a big failing on the part of the gover

a new report by the public accounts committee also said freelancers and crew members had missed out oning no work. it comes as more than 60,000 people will be able to attend the euros 2020 semifinals and final at wembley. the womad festival is currently in the diary forjuly 22nd, just days afterjuly 19th, when it's thought all restrictions could be lifted. its director, chris smith, joins me now. hello, mr smith. good morning. so can ou hello, mr smith. good morning. so can you go — hello, mr smith. good morning. so can you go ahead? _ hello, mr smith. good morning. so can you go ahead? with _ hello, mr smith. good morning. so can you go ahead? with events - hello, mr smith. good morning. so can you go ahead? with events in l hello, mr smith. good morning. so l can you go ahead? with events in the last cou - le can you go ahead? with events in the last couole of— can you go ahead? with events in the last couple of days, _ can you go ahead? with events in the last couple of days, it _ can you go ahead? with events in the last couple of days, it is _ can you go ahead? with events in the

a report by the public accounts committee also says freelancers, most of whom have had no work during was magic, not how was it, what was it like? tt9 day itself was magic, notjust how was it, what was it like? tt9 day itself was magic, not just the day itself was magic, notjust the time on stage, and when i woke up in the morning i was walking around in the morning i was walking around in the work area and everyone had a smile on theirface, the work area and everyone had a smile on their face, everyone was working, and everyone was in a great mood because we were finally back in our work environment doing the thing we love doing and the show itself was magic, as well. the audience were incredible and everyone was intent on having a good time and enjoying all of the music so it was a magic day. on monday i came home and it was a bumper back down to earth because we had not yet unlocked and it was a pilot but that was a going concern. t’m unlocked and it was a pilot but that was a going concern. i'm interested in the stories _ was a going concern. i'm interested in the stories you _ wa

that s the warning from the cross party public accounts committee, which also concluded that freelancersoncrete so far.— concrete so far. what do you make of this? absolutely. _ concrete so far. what do you make of this? absolutely. the _ concrete so far. what do you make of this? absolutely. the conversation i this? absolutely. the conversation around insurance is not a new wand. we've been talking to the government for at least six months providing data and evidence. from the cancellations that we've seen just this week this is a really critical moment for british music festivals. it is potentially an existential threat for many. we estimate that over half of uk festivals, 5000 capacity and over have already cancelled or are about to. many more will do so as they approached cut off points. they've spent on average £150,000 up to this point from their festivals. it runs into the millions to stage a festival. and they can't continue planning and investing without in insurance intervention. that was quite a strong warning that you laid out there. you're saying that they will disappear com

a new report by the public accounts committee also said freelancers and crew members had missed out oning about this with social—media comedians woody and kleiny and the band the hoosiers shortly. but first let's listen to part of their football anthem route 66, which is raising money for charity. # here we go, and all aboard, we're signing # tra—la—la—la, la—la—la, la—la—la, la—la—la # route 66, singing # tra—la—la—la, la—la—la, la—la—la, la—la—la # we're in the lead # and we'll be bringing home sir bobby's pride and joy # at the ground, what a sound, you can hear the lions roar... i'm joined now by the comedy duo woody and kleiny, otherwise known as paul wood and paul klein, as well as two members of the hoosiers, al sharland and irwin sparkes. hello, everybody. well, congratulations on getting to number one in various different charts and, hurray, england are through to the knockout stages, yeah?— hurray, england are through to the - knockout stages, yeah?- woody knockout stages, yeah? superb! woody and klein , knockout stages, yeah? superb! woody and kleiny. have _ knockout stages,

response to this breaking, news she said recently it has become public the trump administration sought account metadata of house intelligence committee members and staff and their families. the news about the politicization of the trump administration justice department is harrowing. these actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president. i support intelligence committee chairman adam schiff 's call for an investigation into the situation and other acts of the weaponization of law enforcement by the former president. transparency is essential. congressman, what is the next move or house democrats? >> i think there's going to be a call for investigation. obviously, the biden administration, the justice department, they are going to initiate their own investigation. if they haven't already. i want to be surprised if we have hearings about this particular issue, whether it's in a classified setting or otherwise. but this is something that is unprecedented, and it deserves an incredible amount of attention because in this particular case, donald trump made out of the justice department wha

committee? >> his apple account? i'm not aware of that. we are aware of public corruption investigations in which the fbi and justice target members of congress for corruption. not something related -- not something like this. if you look at what they did and the number of people they subpoenaed, this is a fishing expe expedition. they got nowhere, like many other leaks we read about as part of the story. >> i read a statement from adam schiff. he is calling for an ig investigation into the investigation. what questions need to be answered? >> i think there are a number of questions that need to be answered. for starters, who was approving these subpoenas? basically, many of them came at the end of trump's administration. the ones involving schiff came earlier. i was subpoenaed by the justice department. they tried to seize my email. a lot of the actions took place at the end of the administration. why are they doing this years after the investigations were open? why not wait until the next administration to weigh in? the rollback has been fierce. you can imagin

committee. tease are mandates on all public companies. and it's based on the task force on related disclosure. you're complying with a partnership of carbon accounting financials which claims to help financial institutions they that says they disclose greenhouse gas emissions from their loans and investments through ghg accounting. this is precisely i think the challenge in making this a mandate. as i understand it this pcaf is built off the task force recommendations. and yet that task force chaired by former mayor mike bloomberg, and taf with several now biden administration officials states disclosures have to be reliable, verifiable, timely and objective and comfortable across portfolios and industries. and yet this issue of ghg emissions, trying to come up with scope one, scope two, scope three emissions they say in the bloomberg are very challenging and not doing right now. they offer not to use ghg and instead a carbon intensity maker. my concern about these mandated discloegzers we're not ready to do that in the financial industry that would provide value to investors. i believe you all echoed something to the effect of answering senator smi

accounts for a large segment of the population. so to explore these really important issues, the federal reserve bank of atlanta is launching a public-private sector collaboration as a special committee on payment inclusion to ensure that vulnerable populations can safely benefit from digital payments. a new initiative will explore the features and delivery process on expanding access to individuals who don't currently use traditional financial services. we're also undertaking research into the technology consideration surrounding a cbdc , that is true of the tech lab group of the federal reserve board and also of the federal reserve bank partnership with mit on project hamilton to build and test a hypothetical digital currency platform using design options. that research aims to explore the feasibility of the core processing of a cbdc and remaining agnostic about policy decisions. a white paper is scheduled to be released next quarter that will document the ability to meet goals of geographically dispersed transactions with core processing and create an open source license for the code. subsequent work will explore how resiliency, privacy, and anti-money laundering and core -- laund

accounts. two of them are sitting democratic lawmakers, public enemies of the president. staffers not involved with the intel committeegets swooped up in this kind of dragnet. have we ever seen anything like that before? >> i think the family member part of this is important as well. that makes it resonate more. there will be a temptation to try to normalize this. they pursue leaks. what donald trump did the way the justice department was politicalized and urged to go after a competing branch of government with the open ended secret investigations, goes well beyond anything we've seen any administration pursue including the nixon administration. this was a culture of corruption. and make no mistake, this is just the tip of the iceberg. the information we need to find out about how far twhent athey went at trump's behest. one person, a president is able to convince so many people to band on the ideals and integrity of the independence of the justice department. that's a larger deeper danger we need to get to the bottom of. we need to strengthen serious guardrails much its clear they are broken. if one corrupt president

accountability office. inspector bolton is no stranger to this committee and we are grateful for his long career of public service both in the u.s. secret service and now capitol police. doctor brenda goodman is the director of the home and security justice team after gao where she meets their work on justice and law enforcement issues, she directed 2017 review at the capitol police force as well as reviews on federal tactical teams, secret service, fda medical center among others. phd and masters degree in economics and university applicant and bachelor's degree in economics from the university of houston. as a reminder, each of you will be recognized for about five minutes and your statements will be made part of our record we are here in person and not virtually, we will remind you that there are machines on the table when you have one minute left, the light of yellow and went red, five minutes is up first general bolton, you are recognized for five minutes and welcome back. >> good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. discussing our fourth report reviewing containment emergency re

public tracking -- for the whole homeless response. as you mentioned, we are accountable to the public and to each other on our outcomes. there's a knew collaboration and the committee that we'll be doing together. >> supervisor haney: great. thank you. i want to undercore how important that is. at any given point, you can see how many people do we have in navigation and how many in permanent supportive housing. it is a huge amount of money we're spending. it is the right thing to do but we have to hold out comes and each other responsibility. you think the srns returning back to -- it lends itself to a lot of misinformation and i think that's dangerous. and again, i think and responsibility. that is your department's role with the actual street response. this is something often perplexing to our residents and even just superviors like .the homelessness on the street is not the department of homelessness itself. you can speak to the hot team and everything. it's sometimes hard to pull it all together and when -- for example we say this person is on the street, they need republic. it's a little confusing for me to have to explain it. it's not the department of homele

public tracking -- for the whole homeless response. as you mentioned, we are accountable to the public and to each other on our outcomes. there's a knew collaboration and the committee that we'll be doing together. >> supervisor haney: great. thank you. i want to undercore how important that is. at any given point, you can see how many people do we have in navigation and how many in permanent supportive housing. it is a huge amount of money we're spending. it is the right thing to do but we have to hold out comes and each other responsibility. you think the srns returning back to -- it lends itself to a lot of misinformation and i think that's dangerous. and again, i think and responsibility. that is your department's role with the actual street response. this is something often perplexing to our residents and even just superviors like .the homelessness on the street is not the department of homelessness itself. you can speak to the hot team and everything. it's sometimes hard to pull it all together and when -- for example we say this person is on the street, they need republic. it's a little confusing for me to have to explain it. it's not the department of homele

public companies accountable and providing greater transparency. this package includes a number of bills authored by several hardworking members of the financial services committee, specifically representative juan vargas, representative bill foster, and representatives nydia velazquez -- representative nydia velazquez, representative sean casten. the e.s.g. disclosure simplification act requires public companies to disclose certain e.s.g. information to shareholders as well as the impact of the e.s.g. policies on their strategies. mr. foster's bill, the shareholder political transparency act, requires public companies to submit quarterly reports to the s.e.c. on any and all political expenditures, including dark money. ms. velazquez's bill, the greater accountability and pay act, sheds light on pay disparities, hoping to close the gender and racial pay gap. mrs. axne's bill, the disclosure of tax havens and offshoring act, requires disclosures that company's use of tax havens and requires repatriation of taxes to the united states. mr. casten's bill, the climate risk disclosure act, requires disclosures that encourages companies to plan for the impact of climat