Author: LoveWorld UK

The seventh installment of the Elon Musk-endorsed “Twitter Files” shows there was an “organized effort” by federal law enforcement agents to target social media and news companies that reported on the explosive 2020 Hunter Biden laptop report. “In Twitter Files #7, we present evidence pointing to an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community (IC), aimed at senior executives at news and social media companies, to discredit leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published,” wrote author Michael Shellenberger, who released screenshots on Dec. 19 that appeared to be of message exchanges between top Twitter officials and the FBI in October…

Rishi Sunak’s government has issued civil legal proceedings against PPE Medpro in a row over the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid crisis. The company has been at the centre of a political storm, with peer Baroness Michelle Mone taking a leave of absence from the Lords following allegations linking her to PPE Medpro profits. The government’s lawsuit relates to the contract price of medical gowns – reported to be around £122m – plus estimated storage and disposal costs, The Independent understands. But the firm said the case over the supply of gowns would be “rigorously defended” and accused the Department of Health and Social…

Six of the UK’s largest banks will start lending on medium and high-rise flats with cladding from January, in a move that could help thousands of people stuck in properties they have not been able to sell or remortgage. Lenders including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest and Santander, said they would consider fresh mortgage applications from 9 January, after receiving long-awaited guidance from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) on how to value affected properties. The changes stand to benefit mortgage prisoners and prospective buyers of cladding-affected flats in buildings more than 11 metres high, though they will…

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike on Tuesday in an ongoing dispute with the government about pay and concerns about patient safety. Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will take part after it balloted its members in October. It has said that low pay is the cause of chronic understaffing that is putting patients at risk and leaves NHS staff overworked. It will be the second day of strikes in December, after an initial day of industrial action on 15 December, the RCN’s biggest in its history. It meant the cancellation of thousands of outpatient appointments and non-urgent…

Designs for bank notes featuring an image of King Charles III have been revealed by the Bank of England, with plans to enter circulation by mid-2024. Announcing the design for the first time in the run-up to the coronation in May, the UK central bank said the king’s portrait would appear on existing designs of all four of its polymer bank notes currently in circulation – £5, £10, £20 and £50. The king’s image will appear on the front of the bank notes, as well as in the see-through security window on the notes, which are made from polymer plastic. Notes featuring Queen…

Elon Musk says he will step down as the chief executive of Twitter, after more than 10 million people voted in favour of him handing over the reins of the site in a poll he posted to his page late on Sunday. But the billionaire, who bought the company and installed himself as its head just 50 days ago, has insisted there is no successor in the wings. “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive,” he said on the social network. “There is no successor.” Replying to another user who said they could do the job, Musk added “you must…

Households in Northern Ireland will begin to receive support with energy bills in the form of a single payment of £600 from as soon as January 2023, according to the UK Government. In a statement, the government said the move was to ensure “the full benefit of the scheme is felt as soon as possible”. Direct debit customers will receive the payment of £600 automatically into their bank account. Other customers will receive a voucher worth £600 which they can redeem, with the government adding that “further details of how they will work and what ID will be required set…

Bus fares in many places across England will be capped at £2 for the winter under a government-backed campaign to encourage people back on to public transport. Single fares on most major operators’ services will be limited from January until March under the scheme. The Department for Transport said its £60m subsidy would save almost a third of the ticket price for the average journey and cut emissions and congestion by taking an estimated 2m cars off the roads. Campaigners welcomed the move, although it falls short of radical moves across Europe to slash fares and reinvigorate public transport use after the pandemic. More…

It was a consecration, the spiritual overtones entirely appropriate. Lionel Messi not only emulated the deity of Argentinian football, Diego Maradona, by leading the nation to World Cup glory; he finally plugged the burning gap on his CV, winning the one title that has eluded him – at the fifth time of asking, surely the last time. In the process he gilded his claim to being recognised as the greatest player of them all. Argentina had to win this final three times, France refusing to accept it was Messi’s destiny to get his hands on the iconic gold trophy, that it was…

Independent journalist Matt Taibbi published a supplemental thread to Part 6 of the “Twitter Files” on Sunday, bringing to light documented exchanges between the FBI and Twitter’s executive discussing the topic of state actors on the social media platform. In July 2020, an FBI agent with the San Francisco office told the head of Twitter’s disbanded global trust and safety council Yoel Roth that the company could expect questioning from the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), an inter-agency group that deals with cyber threats. According to Taibbi, who has been given access to Twitter’s internal communications by the company’s new CEO Elon Musk for…