Author: LoveWorld UK

RETAIL SALES FALL AT SHARPEST RATE SINCE COVID – Food sales also declined in the run-up to Christmas Retail sales volumes fell by 3.2% in December in the sharpest drop since the UK was in a Covid lockdown. Official figures revealed a sharp fall in demand for goods, but food sales also declined in the run-up to Christmas. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it appeared people did their shopping earlier in November, taking advantage of Black Friday sales. It meant that retail sales tumbled at the fastest rate since January 2021. The ONS said the amount of non-food…

NIGERIA BEAT IVORY COAST 1-0 AT THE AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS – Nigeria are now second in Group A Nigeria took a huge step towards reaching the last 16 at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations with a 1-0 win over hosts Ivory Coast in Group A. The match’s key moment came in the 55th minute after Ousmane Diomande caught Victor Osimhen in the box. That allowed William Troost-Ekong to blast home from the penalty spot. Roared on by a passionate crowd, the Ivorians pushed hard for an equaliser but failed to create a clear chance against a solid Super…

THOUSANDS OF JOBS AT RISK – Largest steelworks in the UK  presses  ahead with plans to close blast furnaces in Port Talbot Steel giant Tata is to press ahead with plans to close blast furnaces at its plant in Port Talbot, south Wales, putting more than 3,000 jobs at risk, sources have said. Unions were meeting the company on Thursday after presenting alternative proposals aimed at saving jobs in Port Talbot. Sources said Tata rejected the plan and was pressing ahead with proposals for a greener form of steelmaking to cut emissions and stem financial losses. The steelworkers’ union Community…

RWANDA BILL PASSED BY THE COMMONS – Still a long way to go before flights carrying asylum seekers can take off. Rishi Sunak has seen off a Tory rebellion and managed to get his Rwanda bill passed by the Commons. But there’s still a long way to go before flights to the country carrying asylum seekers can take off. The bill, which aims to declare that Rwanda is a safe country to deport asylum seekers to, passed by 320 votes to 276 – a majority of 44 for the government. In total only 11 Tory MPs voted against the bill,…

GORDON BROWN CALLS FOR UNIVERSAL CREDIT RETHINK – Mr Brown is seeing a level of poverty he never thought he would see in his lifetime  Gordon Brown has called on the government to carry out a “root and branch” review of Universal Credit amid growing poverty in the UK. The former Labour prime minister told reporters he was seeing a level of poverty “I never thought I would see in my lifetime again”, and it was the government’s “duty” to tackle it for people across the country. He said: “I grew up in a mining town, which is a textile…

EVERTON BEAT CRYSTAL PALACE 1-0 TO ADVANCE IN THE FA CUP – Andre Gomes free-kick earns Everton FA Cup third-round win Everton midfielder Andre Gomes’ first Goodison Park goal in almost five years settled a dreary FA Cup third-round replay against Crystal Palace. With the temperature sub-zero, the match did little to animate the 37,796 hardy souls in attendance but Gomes’ strike – the Toffees’ first from a direct free-kick in 197 games in a run dating back to August 2019 – was the one real highlight. Gomes’ long stretch without a goal on home soil went back even further…

RAILWAY STATION TICKET MACHINES CHARGING MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH AS TRAINLINE –  Huge numbers are potentially paying significantly more to commute Railway station ticket machines charge passengers more than twice as much as a major online retailer for some journeys, analysis has found. Consumer group Which? said its investigation found the best value fares are either unavailable or hidden among a huge number of options on many machines. Travel magazine said millions of tickets are bought each year meaning “huge numbers of us are potentially paying significantly more than we need to when we commute to work or visit…

IRAN-PAKISTAN STRIKES, AT LEAST SEVEN KILLED IN RETALIATORY ATTACKS Both sides attack the same group of militants operating in the cross-border region At least seven people have been killed after Pakistan launched airstrikes on Iranian territory early this morning. The target of the attack is not known but the Pakistanis called the operation “Marg Bar Sarmachar”. In Iranian Farsi, “marg bar” means “death to” and in the local Baluch language, “sarmachar” means guerrilla and is used by the militants operating in the cross-border region between the two countries. Pakistan’s foreign ministry described the operation as “a series of highly coordinated…

NEW NHS CHILDREN’S GENDER CLINIC HIT BY DISAGREEMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS Resignations are apparently due to the lack of clear consensus A string of resignations from a team preparing for the launch of the new NHS children’s gender clinic has further complicated plans to open the services in April. Disagreements over the text of a training module for medical recruits to the new gender service have prompted NHS England to remove the training materials project from a team at Great Ormond Street Hospital and outsource it to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Great Ormond Street last year recruited a small…

NEW AMBER SNOW WARNING AFTER COLDEST NIGHT OF WINTER Stormy conditions are on the way this weekend Provisional recordings by the Met Office show there were almost record-low temperatures in parts of the UK.  The mercury fell to -14C in Dalwhinnie, in the Scottish Highlands, while a temperature of -13C was recorded at Glen Ogle, central Scotland. But predictions of the coldest January night in 14 years were not reached.  Forecasters had said it was possible some snow-covered parts of Scotland could reach -15C overnight. The last time temperatures had dipped that low was in January 2010, when -22.3C was…