Author: LoveWorld UK

Unions have traditionally had a hard time penetrating Amazon but the mood among the company’s workforce shifted in August after it offered its workers what many considered to be a paltry pay rise.  The online giant lifted the hourly wage by 50p to £10.50 an hour. Upon hearing the news, workers staged an informal walkout. They were expecting more, as inflation rose at its fastest pace in 40 years. The GMB union seized the opportunity and helped arrange a strike, with workers voting in favour of formal action just before Christmas. The loss of up to 300 of its 1,400…

The US and Germany could unveil plans to send tanks to Ukraine as early as today. Russia’s ambassador to the US has accused America of trying to inflict “strategic defeat” on Moscow as a decision on the donation of M1 Abrams battle tanks is expected. The delivery of American tanks to Ukraine would be a “blatant provocation”, Russia’s ambassador to the US has said.  Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a social media post it was “obvious” Washington was trying to inflict a “strategic defeat on us”.  He added, “If the United States decides to supply tanks, then justifying such…

Microsoft is investigating an outage that has hit users of its products worldwide including Teams and Outlook. The US tech firm said it was investigating “issues impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services”, referring to a suite of products that includes its Teams messaging and videoconference service, Outlook email and word and excel programmes. Microsoft 365 products have millions of users worldwide and on Wednesday morning thousands of them reported outages on Downdetector, a site that registers problems with tech products. They included users in the UK, the US, Australia and Brazil highlighting problems not only with 365 programs but also the gaming…

Rishi Sunak is being urged to abandon the government’s controversial attempt to overhaul human rights legislation after a warning that the bill of rights appears to “tip the balance” in favour of the state and seriously damages people’s ability to enforce their rights. A cross-party committee of MPs and peers said the bill, which would replace the Human Rights Act, which enshrines the European convention on human rights in the UK, showed a “disregard” for the UK’s international legal obligations and would lead to more cases going to the European court of human rights in Strasbourg. Ministers have said the bill…

If at first you don’t succeed. Or even at the second attempt. It had looked like being one of those nights for the Newcastle forward, Joelinton, who saw a first-half goal ruled out for handball and then advanced his contender for miss of the season at the beginning of the second period. The quicksilver Miguel Almirón had crossed and, after a double deflection, the ball sat up for the onrushing Joelinton inside the six-yard box, the goal gaping. When he lifted high, he could have been forgiven for wanting to be a very long way away – say, back in…

Eurozone business activity made a surprise return to modest growth in January, adding to signs the downturn in the bloc may not be as deep as feared and that the currency union may escape recession, a survey showed. S&P Global’s flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, climbed to 50.2 this month from 49.3 in December. January was the first time the index has been above the 50 mark, which separates growth from contraction, since June and the reading was ahead of the median Reuters poll forecast of 49.8. “The rise in…

A Conservative health minister has a substantial financial stake in a private health screening and Covid testing firm, raising questions about the potential for a conflict of interest. Nick Markham, a businessman who was given a peerage under Liz Truss and appointed to the health department, owns about 30% of Cignpost Investments and has done so throughout his first four months in the job. The company was set up during the pandemic to provide Covid testing and health screening services to the private sector. Markham’s biography for the Department for Health website makes no mention of his private health sector interest, despite…

A former Conservative cabinet minister has called for Nadhim Zahawi to step down as party chair while an ethics investigation takes place into his tax affairs. The former immigration minister Caroline Nokes said the story had become a distraction for the Tories and the prime minister and that Zahawi should “step aside” for the greater good. The policing minister, Chris Philp, rejected those suggestions on Tuesday morning, saying it was reasonable there should be a presumption of innocence. On Monday, Rishi Sunak instructed his ethics adviser to investigate Zahawi’s tax affairs but faces growing pressure over whether he knew about the HMRC inquiry…

Touch, turn, shoot. This was Harry Kane making the art of goal-scoring look like the easiest thing in the world. Fulham did not know what had hit them. One minute they had the biggest threat on the pitch under control; the next Kane was swivelling into space and pulling back his right foot before wheeling away to celebrate the goal that finally drew him level with the late Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham’s record scorer. It was the 266th strike of the forward’s Spurs career and, as the ball nestled in the back of the Fulham net, it was tempting to wonder where…

The Supreme Court has invited the Biden administration to give input on laws in Florida and Texas that allow users to sue large social media companies over censorship. NetChoice, a coalition of trade associations representing Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other social media and e-commerce companies, brought the case to challenge the states’ laws. Both state laws are currently temporarily blocked. The Supreme Court, which is considering hearing the cases, first invited the U.S. Department of Justice to weigh in, effectively delaying the court’s decision on whether to review the three cases, which have the potential to establish the constitutionality of laws in Texas and Florida. The cases are…