Tuesday, February 18

Day: November 4, 2018

NHS blows £2.2billion a year paying for its medical mistakes
Featured, United Kingdom

NHS blows £2.2billion a year paying for its medical mistakes

    More than £2.2 billion a year is being diverted from frontline NHS services to pay for clinical negligence claims, shocking new figures reveal. Despite repeated Government pledges to tackle the scandal, spending has doubled from £1.1 billion in 2013. The eye-watering figure enough to pay the salaries of 100,000 nurses means £1 in every £50 handed to the NHS is used to compensate harmed patients or settle lawyers’ legal fees.  In some cases, no win no fee law firms pocket more in legal fees than they secure in damages for their clients. Spending on NHS claims in England soared from £1.7 billion in 2016/17 to £2.2 billion in 2017/18. Damages accounted for £1.1 billion and £1.6 billion respectively. Payments to claimants’ lawyers shot up from £418 million in 2015/16...
Iran sanctions kick in, bringing biggest oil disruption in years
Arab world, Featured

Iran sanctions kick in, bringing biggest oil disruption in years

    Midnight on Sunday will mark a dividing line in the world of oil. Beyond that point, anyone unloading a tanker from Iran risks the full wrath of the U.S. government. The Middle East’s third-biggest oil producer has already seen many buyers flee, with sales tumbling 37 percent since President Donald Trump announced that he’d reimpose sanctions. Once those restrictions formally kick in on Nov. 5, the overall supply disruption could become the biggest since Libya erupted in civil war at the start of the decade. There are signs the impact will be mitigated, as some buyers look set to win partial exemptions while other producers particularly Saudi Arabia pump more to fill the gap. Still, there are doubts about their capacity to do so and the global nature of the oil mark...
U.S. militia groups head to border, stirred by Trump’s call to arms
America, Featured

U.S. militia groups head to border, stirred by Trump’s call to arms

    Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trump’s warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They’re packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. We’ll observe and report, and offer aid in any way we can, said Shannon McGauley, a bail bondsman in the Dallas suburbs who is president of the Texas Minutemen. McGauley said he was preparing to head for the Rio Grande in coming days. We’ve proved ourselves before, and we’ll prove ourselves again, he said. McGauley and others have been roused by the president’s call to restore order and defend the c...
How a Taliban Assassin Got Close Enough to Kill a General
Asia, Featured

How a Taliban Assassin Got Close Enough to Kill a General

    Minutes before killing one of the most important generals in Afghanistan, the infiltrator made a final call to the Taliban. Though only a teenager, the assassin managed to get hired as an elite guard, slipping into government service with a fake ID and no background check. It put him so close to the center of power in Afghanistan that he was just paces away from Gen. Austin S. Miller, the commander of United States and NATO forces, when he suddenly raised his Kalashnikov and started firing in bursts. The attack was a nightmare scenario for American and Afghan security planners: a Taliban operation months in the making that succeeded in breaching a high-level meeting, killing a powerful Afghan general and a provincial intelligence chief, wounding an Afghan governor ...