Such moves by energy firms labelled ‘morally repugnant’ as households struggle with soaring billsMPs have called for a ban on forced installations of prepayment meters amid fears that elderly and vulnerable people are being effectively cut off from heating and power supplies.Prepayment meters (PPM) are under the spotlight as thousands of warrants allowing forced installations are being issued while households struggle with a rise in the cost of energy. Continue reading...
Exclusive: MP said she received allegations from staff of elderly patients being left in corridors for hoursThe Birmingham MP Preet Gill has called on the UK health secretary to launch a major public inquiry into allegations that a bullying and a toxic culture is risking patient safety at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB).The MP for Edgbaston, where UHB is based, said she had received complaints from staff alleging elderly patients had been left on beds in corridors outside wards due to mismanagement, and medics were discouraged from speaking out about problems.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. For more information visit www.samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
Two men identified as leading players in May 2021 disturbance are jailed for six years and three monthsRioters turned a housing estate in Swansea into a “war zone” for the sake of “mass entertainment”, leaving families terrorised, police officers injured and a community scarred, a judge has said.Sentencing 18 men who organised or took part in the disturbance in May 2021, the judge, Paul Thomas KC, said the plan had been to “light up” the Mayhill estate, with ringleaders “cynically hijacking” a vigil for a teenager who died suddenly to create a “large-scale ruckus”. Continue reading...
Country’s president wins second five-year term as party leader after campaign dogged by scandalThe South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been re-elected as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) for a second five-year term in a party leadership contest.Votes casts by delegates at the party conference gave Ramaphosa a clear victory over his rival, Zweli Mkhize, a former party treasurer and health minister. Continue reading...
Government announces help for 900,000 households in Great Britain and £600 Northern Ireland paymentPeople living in care homes and on caravan parks can receive £400 to help with their fuel bills as part of a government drive to support all UK households with energy costs this winter.The government said on Monday that 900,000 households in England, Scotland and Wales without a direct relationship to an energy supplier would be able to apply online for the £400. Continue reading...
Counter-terrorism officer killed after militants seize compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinceTaliban detainees overpowered their guards at a counter-terrorism centre in north-western Pakistan overnight, snatching police weapons, taking hostages and seizing control of the facility.The incident quickly evolved into a standoff. Pakistani officials later confirmed that one counter-terrorism officer had been killed during the militants’ takeover at the detention centre in Bannu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and part of a former tribal region. Continue reading...
Adviser urges governments to act ‘before this form of racism poisons the minds of many more young people’Schools should be required to teach about contemporary antisemitism, not only the Holocaust, as part of a drive to combat an “alarming” rise in hatred towards Jewish people among British pupils, a government adviser has said.The former Labour MP Lord Mann, who now sits as a non-affiliated peer, urged ministers across the UK to take action after an investigation found the number of antisemitic incidents in English schools had almost trebled over the past five years. Continue reading...
Footfall likely to increase less than in previous years as shoppers struggle with cost of living crisis, say analystsThe UK retail industry is braced for a muted end to the Christmas shopping period as poor weather and strikes weigh further on consumers whose spending is already under pressure from the increased cost of living.Analysts at the data company Springboard said they expected the number of shoppers at retail destinations across the UK to rise by 4.5% in high streets, 5% in retail parks and 10% in shopping centres in December compared with November. However, those footfall increases would be smaller than previous years. Continue reading...
Thirty-one crew thought to be missing as army recruits three ships and two helicopters to rescue effortA flagship Royal Thai Navy warship sank amid strong waves and high winds on Sunday, with dozens of sailors still missing on Monday.More than 100 sailors were rescued on Sunday evening from HTMS Sukhothai – one of just seven navy corvettes – after high winds made the boat tilt sharply toward the water, navy spokesperson Pokkrong Monthatphalin said in a statement. Continue reading...
by James Parrish and Alice Fowle (Metdesk) on (#66ZVG)
Arctic airmass heading south, reaching Texas and even Florida with some areas facing temperatures of up to 45 degrees below normalWhile the UK is getting less cold this week in the run-up to Christmas, temperatures in the lower 48 states of the US will be taking a major plunge. Over the course of the weekend, an Arctic airmass that was sitting over northern Canada, characterised by extremely low temperatures and strong high pressure, slid to the south across Alberta and Saskatchewan into eastern states of the Pacific north-west. Temperatures across these regions averaged about -23C at around midday on Sunday.Through the week, this airmass will slowly spread southward across central states, with temperatures ranging from 10-30 degrees below average. Later in the week, the airmass will extend to the south, reaching Texas and even Florida, with some areas possibly reaching up to 45 degrees below normal. This cold airmass is likely going to interact with an area of low pressure across the eastern half of the country towards the end of the week, threatening significant snowfall to states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Continue reading...
Police in Canada shoot dead suspect after receiving reports of an active male shooter in Vaughan on Sunday nightFive people have been shot and killed in a residential unit in a Toronto suburb before the gunman was killed by police, authorities have said.Police were called to a residential building in Vaughan, Ontario, at about 7.20pm on Sunday to reports of an active male shooter who had shot several victims at a condo in Vaughan, Ontario. Continue reading...
Chief epidemiologist says China is in the first of an expected three waves of Covid cases, despite official figures showing low numbersChinese authorities have warned of successive waves of Covid infections over the coming months, as cases continue to surge after the lifting of restrictions earlier this month.Across major cities people appear to be staying inside, either with the virus or in fear of contracting it, but authorities have pushed on with the reopening. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov and Nechirvan Mando in Erbil on (#66ZRB)
Daily shows of dissent against repressive 43-year clerical rule continue, with exiled demonstrators asking for help from the westIn late October, Paiman, an Iranian protester from the restive city of Mahabad lay in a hospital ward, guarded by regime officials who had gunned him down during anti-government demonstrations.Buckshot from a shotgun blast riddled his legs and torso, and blows to his head with wooden clubs had left him dazed and in agony. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#66ZKS)
Survey identifies slew of problems, with half of lawyers experiencing cases being adjourned because of disrepairBroken heating, sewage, mould, asbestos and leaking toilets and roofs are among the problems encountered by solicitors in courts in England and Wales, a survey by the Law Society has found.Approximately two-thirds of respondents said they had experienced delays in cases being heard in the last year owing to the physical state of the courts, with their professional body warning that it is contributing to the large backlog. Continue reading...
‘Sudden explosion of billionaire wealth’ at the expense of the rest of society is ‘grossly unjust’, says Equality TrustThe number of UK billionaires has increased by a fifth since the onset of the Covid pandemic, according to a report calling for a progressive wealth tax to tackle rising inequality amid the cost of living crisis.The Equality Trust charity said interventions by governments and central banks during the pandemic allowed for an “explosion of billionaire wealth” in Britain at the expense of the rest of society, after fuelling a boom in property values and on the stock market. Continue reading...
PSNI believe same two gunmen were responsible for deaths of Mark Hall in December 2021 and Sean Fox in October 2022The “horrifically violent” murders of two men who were killed almost a year apart in west Belfast have been formally linked by police. Both Sean Fox and Mark Hall were shot at close range in broad daylight, and detectives believe the murders were carried out by the same two gunmen.Hall, 31, was shot dead at his family home in Rodney Drive, Belfast, on Saturday 18 December 2021. Two men approached the house and one fired shots through the front window. Continue reading...
Patrons of French capital’s bars go through gamut of emotions as Argentina eventually win out on penaltiesIt was a rollercoaster. By the end they were standing on the tables outside, roars of “allez les Bleus” and “liberté, égalité, Mbappé” rising hoarsely into the freezing early evening air, hugging each other fiercely, cheering on their heroes.It was standing room only in Le Napoléon and Le Mondial cafes, facing each other across the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis in Paris’s 10th arrondissement – both rammed to the rafters inside with flag-waving, face-painted, red-white-and-blue bewigged fans. Continue reading...
Outcry after presenter writes he is ‘dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets’A Jeremy Clarkson column in the Sun about the Duchess of Sussex has provoked outcry online, with social media users labelling it “vile”, “horrific” and “abusive”.In an article for the paper published on Friday, Clarkson wrote that he loathed Meghan “on a cellular level”. He said he was “dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”. Continue reading...
Lorna Tucker says not enough is being done to help Britain’s homeless people, and what is being done is not workingThe film-maker Lorna Tucker was once a teenage runaway, sleeping rough in London for 18 months. Twenty-five years later, she has relived the harrowing experience for a documentary, returning to her former haunts and speaking to homeless people at a time when record numbers are living on Britain’s streets.She was reunited with some of those she left behind, including “Darren”, who has been on the streets since his alcoholic mother was unable to care for him. “Darren sleeps where I used to sleep under Waterloo Bridge,” she said. “He still has the same eyes he had as a 15-year-old boy. He’s still got this beauty, but obviously he’s been very affected by it.” Continue reading...
Law courts will deliver their verdict on Monday on whether plans to export asylum seekers are lawfulIt has been more than three months since two of the UK’s most senior judges sifted through thousands of pages of evidence and heard opposing arguments from some of the country’s lawyers about whether or not the government’s controversial plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda are lawful. On Monday at 10.30am, at the Royal Courts of Justice, they will deliver their judgment.The government’s plan to export asylum seekers from one of the world’s richest countries to one of the world’s poorer nations, 4,000 miles away, is so radical that no other country has attempted anything like it. Continue reading...
Search takes place after man and woman arrested on suspicion of causing or allowing death of a childPolice have found a child’s body during searches of a garden in Birmingham.West Midlands police said last week they were searching the garden of a home in Clarence Road, Handsworth, after receiving information about the death of a child in the area. Continue reading...
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin suggests army personnel should be allowed to get on with their day-to-day jobsThe UK armed forces are not “spare capacity” for striking workers, the chief of the defence staff has said as he cautioned against relying on the military as the “ultimate backstop” during industrial action.Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of Britain’s armed forces, said it would be “slightly perilous” to expect them to be used routinely in the event of strikes by public sector workers. Continue reading...
Blast in Salang Tunnel, a key route linking north and south of country, killed at least 19 people, says officialAt least 19 people were killed and 32 injured when a fuel tanker exploded in a tunnel north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, a local official has said.The Salang Tunnel, about 80 miles (130km) north of Kabul, was originally built in the 1960s to assist the Soviet invasion. It is a key route linking the country’s north and south. Continue reading...
A year after he helped his terminally ill wife die, David Hunter is still in jailIn the hills above Paphos, at the end of a cul-de-sac in the village of Tala, Chris Jones is giving a guided tour of what has become his life’s work: transforming a two-storey villa into a palliative care facility.As the late afternoon sun shimmers over the sea beyond, Jones, a retired headmaster, points out the areas that will soon become the hospice’s lift and nurses’ station, oxygen and buzzer systems. Continue reading...
As the climate warms, and with up to 23 hours of summer sun to ripen innovative varieties, commercial wineries are boomingAcross most of the northern hemisphere, the grape harvest finished months ago. But in a small vineyard not far from Stockholm, in temperatures of -8C and 15cm of snow, it’s only just begun.“It’s perfect,” said Göran Amnegård, whose Blaxsta winery claims to be one of the world’s most northerly vineyards, as they started the harvest last week. Continue reading...
Clinicians say there is concern that the country’s healthcare system is inadequate to protect most vulnerableCanada is delaying plans which would allow people with mental illness to access medically assisted death amid concern from some clinicians that the healthcare system is not prepared to handle the complicated cases.Starting March 2023, Canada is expected to become one of the few countries in the world to allow physician-assisted death for chronic mental disorders. Continue reading...
The popular sausages in bacon now appear in pizzas, gravy, milkshakes and even dog treats as retailers vie for our Christmas food spendIt may be a stuffed turkey, a side of salmon or a nut roast at the centre of your Christmas Day table. But this year retailers are throwing everything at those little sausages wrapped in bacon that usually sit on the side, in the hope of clawing back some much-needed revenue.The food industry has gone berserk over pigs in blankets, offering dozens of new varieties as well as spin-offs such as gravy, pizzas, milkshakes and even dog treats. Continue reading...
The master craftsman was once lauded in Ditchling, Sussex. Now, as the grotesque truth of his life is acknowledged, all that has changedEric Gill was one the most celebrated British artists of the 20th century – and for decades his work held pride of place in the small museum based in the village where he once lived.But after his death, details emerged of his grotesque sexual conduct – including sustained abuse of two of his daughters and his younger sister – and there has been increasing clamour since for his work not to be shown. Continue reading...
Leading charity accuses Scottish government of failing on pledge to support women trapped in domestic violence by rising costsA leading charity in Scotland has accused Nicola Sturgeon’s government of making women and children suffering domestic abuse “a footnote” in its response to the cost of living crisis.Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA), a domestic abuse charity, warned that “the needs of women and children experiencing domestic abuse have slipped down the priority list”, as the organisation launched a campaign to highlight the cost of leaving an abusive relationship. Continue reading...
Turner prize-winner Tony Cragg defends decision to lend to Istanbul museum after criticism from leading Turkish artistOne of Britain’s leading sculptors, Sir Tony Cragg, has defended his decision to loan a work to Istanbul’s top art museum following criticism from a prominent Turkish artist of the country’s restrictions on freedom of expression.After four years in construction, the new five-storey, 15,000 sq metre Istanbul Modern will open this year, with Cragg’s white sculpture, entitled Runner, in a prime spot at its entrance. Continue reading...
by Shanti Das, Simon Bowers and Malia Politzer on (#66Z12)
Overseas branches of UK-registered firm also let clients pick their baby’s sex, investigation findsWomen recruited by an international surrogacy agency to carry babies for wealthy clients are being asked to undergo “unethical” medical procedures that increase their risk of serious complications, an investigation suggests.New Life Global claims to have brokered more than 7,000 cross-border deals between clients mostly based in the UK, western Europe and North America and surrogates in countries including Mexico, Colombia, India, Ukraine and Georgia. Continue reading...
In the capital, where Maradona is worshipped as a god, World Cup victory would take on a spiritual dimensionIn June, Tomás Kuklis visited family in his native Argentina from his home in New York. When conversation turned to the upcoming World Cup, it brought back the happiest memories of his childhood. He was rocked by a wave of nostalgia for friends and food, but especially for his lifelong passion: football.So, he took a bold decision: he would sell all his things and move back to Buenos Aires to watch the tournament. It was a choice some might consider radical. But in this South American country where football is arguably a spiritual experience, it felt like keeping the faith. Continue reading...
Instagram generation views ‘tweakments’ as a status symbol says King of Botox, but safety concerns won’t go awayA leading cosmetic doctor known as the “king of Botox” claims young people have “lost the plot” by overdoing treatments in an attempt to recreate filtered social media aesthetics in real life. He also criticised colleagues, some of whom he said have had so much work done he no longer recognises them, for fuelling the trend.While Botox and fillers were once most popular among older patients seeking discreet anti-ageing solutions, Dr Michael Prager said that a “visibly enhanced” look had become a fashion trend among under-30s who wanted the work to show. Continue reading...
Conservative supporters disillusioned with the lack of a Brexit dividend are unclear what Labour stands for, and the radical right is rising• Read more: Brexit failures are hauting ToriesThree years ago, Boris Johnson assembled a unique big tent coalition, delivering the Conservatives a once in a generation majority. That coalition is no more. Current polling points to a 17-point Conservative to Labour swing, far larger than Tony Blair achieved in 1997, with roughly half of 2019 Tory voters now backing someone else. Rejection of the Conservatives spans the length and breadth of the country, from the red wall to the blue wall, among Remain voters and among Brexiters.The Brexit coalition has collapsed because the forces holding it together – frustration over Brexit and fear of a Corbyn-led government – have dissipated and nothing has replaced them. Johnson fulfilled his Brexit pledges early, passing his “oven-ready” deal in the first months of the government, and following it with a trade agreement within a year. Those early successes have left a growing void. “Getting Brexit done” was supposed to change things for the better. Even the most ardent Brexiters now find the reality disappointing. Half of Leave voters say the government has handled the issue badly, while a record one in five Brexiters now think the decision to depart was a mistake. Continue reading...
by Mark Townsend and Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv on (#66Z05)
Military commander warns Moscow may again try to seize Kyiv after invading from Belarus in the northRussia may attempt to re-enact a version of its original invasion plans, Ukrainian military officials believe, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned this weekend Vladimir Putin still has enough missiles to order more heavy strikes.The Ukrainian president was speaking in the aftermath of the latest wave of missiles to target his country’s critical energy infrastructure after Russia launched 98 rockets at 20 cities and towns on Friday. Continue reading...
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