Author: LoveWorld UK

The chair of the public accounts committee has warned ministers not to delay handing over government documents related to how a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone was awarded PPE contracts worth more than £200m. Despite a Commons vote on 6 December forcing the government to release to the committee papers related to the company, PPE Medpro, a health minister has responded by suggesting the government may not do so until an investigation by the National Crime Agency has concluded. Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the public accounts committee, said any such delay would be unacceptable, and that it would be “entirely appropriate”…

A new spending bill in the US Congress proposes to ban the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok from most government devices amid spying and censorship concerns surrounding the app. The $1.7 trillion bill unveiled on Tuesday includes requirements to ban most uses of TikTok or other apps created by the platform’s owner ByteDance Ltd, the Associated Press reported. Although the app is popular among nearly two-thirds of teens in the US, there has been growing bipartisan concern in the US that Beijing may use some of its regulatory power over Chinese companies to control American user data. Earlier this month, Maryland banned its government agencies from using TikTok…

Journalist Lee Fang released the latest installment of the “Twitter Files” on Tuesday, showing how the social media platform “quietly aided” U.S. intelligence officials’ online campaigns. In a lengthy thread that was reposted by Twitter owner Elon Musk, Fang wrote that “despite promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the U.S. military’s influence operations.” “Twitter has claimed for years that they make concerted efforts to detect & thwart gov-backed platform manipulation. Here is Twitter testifying to Congress about its pledge to rapidly identify and shut down all state-backed covert information operations & deceptive…

Brentford striker Ivan Toney had been charged by the FA over a further 30 alleged breaches of betting rules, the governing body has announced. Toney was last month charged by the FA over 232 alleged breaches of betting rules between 2017 and 2021. The FA has now alleged an additional 30 breaches between 2017 and 2019. Toney has unitil 4 January to provide a response. The 26-year-old previously had until 24 November to respond to the initial 232 initial alleged breaches. Toney was a contender for England’s World Cup squad but missed out on the 26-man group that travelled to Qatar due to “footballing reasons”, according to…

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…