Thursday, October 15

ENGLISH

EU warns UK it has less than a month to make concessions
8Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

EU warns UK it has less than a month to make concessions

    A document obtained by the Guardian reveals the EU’s groundwork and confirms that it will be impossible for the UK to get a finished trade deal by March 2019. The British government has less than a month to make a concession on the Brexit bill in order to guarantee launching trade talks in December, the Guardian understands. Senior officials in Brussels say talks have stalled since Theresa May’s Florence speech and warn the EU will find it difficult to agree to trade talks at a December summit unless the prime minister offers more on the Brexit divorce settlement. There remains a lot to do on financial obligations, Italy’s Europe minister Sandro Gozi said on Tuesday, after meeting the Brexit secretary, David Davis, in Rome. May faces heat on Brexit and harassment - Provide...
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Surgical masks and robotic operations are a needless waste of NHS money
8Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Surgical masks and robotic operations are a needless waste of NHS money

    Useless surgical masks and robots could be scrapped to help save NHS £150 million a year, Imperial College has said, after identifying changes the health service can make to save more than £150 million each year. Researchers from the Department of Surgery and Cancer, found 71 commonly performed procedures or practices that are of high cost but low value to patients, which could be stopped. They include hernia repair operations for people with few symptoms, which currently cost the NHS £28 million a year, but do little to make people feel better. Likewise using CT scans to diagnose appendicitis was found to have little benefit above and beyond the traditional blood tests and hands-on pressure checks by doctors. Scrapping them could save the health service four million pound...
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Increase in London Living Wage to over £10 an hour supported by Tower Hamlets Council
8Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, London

Increase in London Living Wage to over £10 an hour supported by Tower Hamlets Council

Tower Hamlets Council today welcomed the increase in the London Living Wage from £9.75 to £10.20 per hour, an increase of 45p an hour. The rate reflects the higher living costs including rents and transport, facing families in London. The council will implement the increase and continue to increase pay levels for the lowest paid staff to ensure that they are paid the nearest scale point above the London Living Wage. A report by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows that there are 69 Living Wage employers in Tower Hamlets, ranking the borough 7th in the capital. Supporting Living Wage Week the Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs said: "I'm proud of the fact Tower Hamlets is an accredited London Living Wage Council, so we pay at least the London Living Wage to our staff. It's only fair that ...
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Tower Hamlets to deliver more youth services
8Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, London

Tower Hamlets to deliver more youth services

An extra £300k to provide improved and extended youth services in the borough was agreed at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday night. The additional funding will mean: • A £60,000 youth innovation fund. • A pilot for a targeted junior youth service for 11 yr olds • Additional funding for the A team arts specialist service Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, said: "Despite increasing financial pressures, we are making sure that we continue to invest in our young people in Tower Hamlets. "Our youth services provide a space for young people to do positive things together, outside of school and family. "We know and value the importance of youth work which is why we have agreed to put this additional money into the overall youth service current budget of nearly 4 million pounds." Members of the You...
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Universal Credit Prompts Horrific Surge In Foodbank Demand
7Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Universal Credit Prompts Horrific Surge In Foodbank Demand

    On a street lined with rows of multi-million pound Edwardian houses and Mercedes, Porsches and BMWs, lies the Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank in South West London. Housed within a church and open twice a week, the foodbank helps hundreds of people a year with emergency parcels. Despite its unlikely location, the wealthy London borough’s part in the roll out of Universal Credit has seen demand across the area’s three foodbanks soar by 94%, figures seen by HuffPost UK reveal. Sitting at a table looking at the list of tinned and fresh goods available with her daughter and grand-daughter is Maggie Millard. I’ve been here four times since the beginning of last month, the 57-year-old tells HuffPost. I was moved from [Employment Support Allowance] and onto Universal Credit. As so...
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Trump Wants $4 Billion To Detect, Defeat, and Defend Against North Korea
7Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
America, ENGLISH

Trump Wants $4 Billion To Detect, Defeat, and Defend Against North Korea

    US President Donald Trump. President Donald Trump asked Congress for another $4 billion to counter North Korean threats, as he is expected to arrive in South Korea on Tuesday. This request supports additional efforts to detect, defeat, and defend against any North Korean use of ballistic missiles against the United States, its deployed forces, allies, or partners, Trump wrote in a letter to Congress. Trump is currently on a two-week long tour in Asia, and has made North Korea and their nuclear and missile programs the focus of his trip. Before his arrival in South Korea, the state-run North Korean media told Trump to stop his foolish remarks or face merciless punishment.If the U.S. misjudges the DPRK's toughest will and dares to act recklessly, the latter will be compelled...
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May urged to sack Boris Johnson after new blunder risks increasing jail
7Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

May urged to sack Boris Johnson after new blunder risks increasing jail

    Theresa May is under intense pressure to sack Boris Johnson amid fears that his latest diplomatic blunder could add an extra five years to the jail term of a British-Iranian charity worker. Already reeling from the Westminster sex harassment scandal, the PM tried to declare full confidence in both Johnson and International Development Secretary Priti Patel, who was dragged into a separate row involving Israel. The Prime Minister defended both her Cabinet ministers for doing a good job despite calls for both of them to be fired. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on a family holiday in Iran last year when she was arrested for spying in Tehran, a claim vigorously denied by the British government and her family. But Johnson told MPs last week that the 38-year-old had been teaching...
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The Germans are making contingency plans for the collapse of Europe
7Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

The Germans are making contingency plans for the collapse of Europe

    The German defence ministry set out its worst-case scenario for the year 2040 in a secret document that was leaked to Der Spiegel last week: “EU enlargement has been largely abandoned, and more states have left the community … the increasingly disorderly, sometimes chaotic and conflict-prone, world has dramatically changed the security environment.” The 120-page-long paper, entitled Strategic Perspective 2040, is a federal government policy document – and the scenarios it imagines are grimly realistic: an east-west conflict in which some EU states join the Russian side or a “multipolar” Europe, where some states adopt the Russian economic and political model in defiance of the Lisbon treaty. That the document exists at all is a sign of the increased tension in the global s...
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Lebanon PM under house arrest in Saudi Arabia
7Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
Arab world, ENGLISH

Lebanon PM under house arrest in Saudi Arabia

    Saad al-Hariri, who quit as Lebanese Prime Minister in a weekend broadcast from Saudi Arabia, has been held under house arrest in the kingdom, a pro-Hezbollah daily said on Tuesday citing unnamed sources. Hariri’s office and Saudi-owned media said he flew to the UAE, a Saudi ally and fellow Gulf monarchy, on Tuesday. Aides to Hariri, Lebanon’s most influential Sunni politician and a close Saudi ally, have denied claims that he was detained. Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, which is aligned with the Shi’ite militant group and political movement Hezbollah, said Hariri ‘was placed under house arrest hours after arriving in Riyadh last Friday’ and had remained in detention since. On Monday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir dismissed as ‘nonsense’ allegations that the kingdom fo...
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Jeremy Corbyn suggests Queen should apologise after investing millions offshore
6Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Jeremy Corbyn suggests Queen should apologise after investing millions offshore

    Jeremy Corbyn has implied that the Queen should apologise if her private estate invested £10m of her fortune in an offshore tax haven to avoid paying tax in Britain. Asked whether the monarch should say sorry over her investments, the Labour leader said anyone putting money offshore to avoid tax should do so and also “recognise what it does to our society”. It comes after a major leak of 13.4 million documents dubbed the Paradise Papers – which reveal the financial affairs of the global elite. The Duchy of Lancaster, the private estate of the Queen, was found to have millions of pounds invested in offshore arrangements in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda between 2004 and 2005. There is no suggestion that those involved acted illegally. The papers also traced a small portion ...
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