Author: LoveWorld UK

Quarantine hotels for inbound travellers to the UK during Covid have cost the taxpayer more than £400m, a National Audit Office (NAO) investigation has found, including almost £100m in unpaid room bills and fraud. While the government expected the hotels’ costs would be covered by the occupants, it has emerged that the taxpayer has been left responsible for more than half of the £757m bill. The rooms were for those travelling to the UK from high-risk “red list” countries during the pandemic. The Department of Health and Social Care, which issued a £385m contract to Corporate Travel Management to run…

The education secretary has rejected calls for a ban on smacking children in England, as he argued that the state should not be “nannying” parents and revealed that his wife had occasionally given their child a “light smack on the arm”. Nadhim Zahawi said his “very strong view” was that parents should be trusted to discipline their children correctly and added it was “much better to sit down and communicate with your child” and “discuss what positive behaviour looks like”. The children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, earlier called for the so-called “smacking ban” introduced two years ago…

Manchester United have confirmed that Erik ten Hag will be their new manager on contract to June 2025, with the option to extend for a further year. The Dutchman will leave his role as Ajax head coach and begin his Old Trafford tenure after the end of this season. Ten Hag has spent more than four years in charge of Ajax, winning the Dutch league and cup double in 2018-19 and 2020-21. His team lost the 2022 cup final to PSV last Sunday but are on course to secure another league title. An agreement has been reached to pay Ten Hag’s…

Ownership contest for Twitter has devolved into a chess game after the company’s board last week adopted a poison pill to thwart an unwelcome takeover attempt by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Many people around the world, including the company’s stockholders, are now eagerly awaiting the billionaire’s next move. Musk on Tuesday posted a mysterious message on Twitter that had a blank space for a word followed by the phrase “is the Night.” The message was thought to be a veiled reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “Tender Is the Night.” Tesla and SpaceX CEO had earlier posted a tweet that read “Love Me Tender,” which was…

Theresa May has questioned the “legality, practicality and efficacy” of ministers’ plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda amid demands from MPs that the government should disclose the cost of the scheme. The former prime minister, who devised the “hostile environment” policy, warned on Tuesday that the plan to fly those who arrive by unauthorised means to the African country could lead to an increase in the trafficking of women and children. May made the claim as Priti Patel, the home secretary, came under repeated demands in the Commons to explain how much the scheme, announced last week while parliament was in…

Social distancing rules in the NHS have been scrapped, according to new guidance issued by the health service. Patients in England will no longer need to be distanced from one another in GP and hospital waiting rooms. NHS organisations have been told to return to “pre-pandemic physical distancing in all areas”, but people will still be encouraged to wear face coverings. The new guidance covers “all areas” including emergency departments and other hospital settings, ambulances, patient transport services and GP surgeries. However, it states patients and staff should continue to “practice good hand and respiratory hygiene including the continued use of…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not rely on any documents for its claims that the COVID-19 vaccines do not alter or integrate into people’s genetic material, according to an advocacy group for vaccine and pharmaceutical safety and the right to informed consent. The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the CDC on April 28, 2021, for “all documents relied upon” by the federal agency to make the following claims on its websites regarding the COVID-19 vaccines: 1. “The genetic material delivered by the viral vector does not integrate into…

The Biden administration’s mask mandate will not be enforced while federal agencies review a federal judge’s ruling that the mandate was unlawful, an official said Monday as major U.S. airlines and other transportation entities moved to drop the policy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued the mandate in 2021, said the order is no longer in effect due to the ruling. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said separately that, effective immediately, the agency would stop enforcing its directive that required masks at airports and on planes. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump appointee, ruled earlier Monday that the CDC…

With the second-half restart delayed, bizarrely, while the referee, Martin Atkinson, had his microphone refitted, Manchester United’s players tried to stay on their toes by passing a ball about. The Kop responded with olés. It was a typically caustic judgment but one that felt entirely appropriate. To borrow another line from the Liverpool support, their arch rivals hardly touched the ball during what was another chastening defeat. After the 5-0 Old Trafford shellacking back in October, this was another occasion that showed Liverpool to be on an altogether different plane. United were a shambles, especially in the first half, their defeat inevitable from…

Elon Musk said Saturday that the Twitter Inc. board of directors is not representing the interest of its shareholders. “Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders,” he replied to a post showing a chart of the ownership percentages of Twitter board members. The chart shows most members of the board own less than 0.005 percent of the company’s shares. Based on Twitter’s latest filing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the 14 executive officers and directors own 2.7 percent of the company’s share. Of the 2.7 percent, Jack Dorsey, the CEO…