Thrill Press

London, United Kingdom:  The British government's ethics advisor said on Wednesday he had cleared embattled finance minister Rishi Sunak of breaching ministerial codes after investigating his family's tax affairs. The chancellor of the exchequer earlier this month asked the adviser on ministerial standards, Christopher Geidt, to review whether he followed all the rules after revelations about his family's financial affairs stoked political controversy. "I advise that the requirements of the ministerial code have been adhered to by the Chancellor, and that he has been assiduous in meeting his obligations and in engaging with this investigation," Geidt wrote. Geidt also ruled that there was no conflict of interest in Sunak holding a US permanent resident Green Card, which he has since given up. In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sunak had requested that Geidt assess his declarations of interest since he first became a minister in 2018. A political storm er...

  York, UK:  Prince Andrew was on Wednesday stripped of his status as a freeman of the city of York because of his associations with convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. At an extraordinary meeting of York City Council in northern England, councillors voted unanimously to withdraw the honour that was conferred on him in 1987. There were two formal abstentions, from the lord mayor and the lord mayor elect. At the meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Darryl Smalley urged members to remove the freemanship for the first time in the city's history. Sexual abuse allegations levelled against Queen Elizabeth II's second son, which he settled out of court in the United States earlier this year, and his associations with Epstein and Maxwell were "incredibly serious and cannot be ignored", he told the meeting. "We believe it is inappropriate for Prince Andrew to retain his ambassadorial title," he said, adding that he should also have his offi...

  Colombo:  Sri Lanka's embattled Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has not asked him to resign and claimed that they were on the "same page" to resolve the worst economic crisis, amidst reports of a rift between the two brothers in running the debt-ridden island nation. Mahinda Rajapaksa's assertion came on a day when the Sri Lankan media reported that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has written to the leaders of political parties affiliated with the government that they could meet on Friday and discuss on an All-Party Government that can be formed after the Prime Minister and Cabinet resigned. In his letter, the President noted that he had taken into consideration the requests made by the country's top Buddhist leaders, religious leaders, as well as those from political parties and civil organisations. Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of an unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1...