Author: LoveWorld UK

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…

Tesco’s chairman has claimed food suppliers may be using inflation as an excuse to raise prices further than necessary as the cost of household staples soars. John Allan said in a BBC interview yesterday that it was “entirely possible” that food suppliers and manufacturers were needlessly putting up prices. When asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg if he thought companies were “taking the mick” out of consumers with recent price hikes, Mr Allan replied: “I think that’s entirely possible… they may well have.” He added: “I can’t be definitive because I haven’t seen their cost structures.” Mr Allan added that Tesco…

Jeremy Hunt has been urged to release new money to end the wave of strikes disrupting NHS services or risk the dispute dragging on for months. The public sector union Unison made the demand to the chancellor as the health service in England prepared to contend with the latest in a series of stoppages by ambulance staff on Monday. “The solution to the growing NHS crisis is staring the government in the face. It’s simple. All the chancellor needs to do is find the money to pay health workers fairly,” said Christina McAnea, Unison’s general secretary. Whitehall, NHS and health unions sources say Hunt…

Elon Musk said he felt like he “was dying” after his second COVID-19 booster shot. “I had major side effects from my second booster shot,” the new Twitter boss wrote in a social media post. “Felt like I was dying for several days. Hopefully, no permanent damage, but I don’t know.” Moderna and Pfizer didn’t respond to requests for comments at the time when the article was published. He took Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine and the first mRNA booster without side effects, Musk said. Musk posted a string of Twitter posts in response to a post by Rasmussen Reports which is criticizing the Centers for…

It was a game to evoke memories of when these two clubs had the rivalry that defined English football and the destination of the Premier League title; a shuddering collision which was surely the best watch of the season so far. Keane in the tunnel; Keown versus Van Nistelrooy; brawls; flying pizza. It all felt like a part of it again because, for the first time in a long while, the fixture had a relevance to the championship race. As it always was, it was incident filled from first to last; the tackles flying, the tempers flaring. And when it was over Arsenal had…

Ideas such as Sajid Javid’s suggestion that patients should be charged for visiting GPs or hospital emergency departments show the Conservatives are “testing the water for a different kind of NHS”, Gordon Brown has said. Writing in the Guardian, the former Labour prime minister says payment for services will end up with people missing early diagnoses and undermine the entire basis of the NHS. Javid, the Conservative former health secretary, told the Times on Friday that the NHS could not “survive much longer” without radical change, including regarding some fee payments. Javid, who will stand down as a Tory MP at the next election, cited…