Author: LoveWorld UK

Faster train journeys will be delivered up to 10 years sooner than planned, the government has insisted amid anger over an expected decision to axe key schemes. The Department for Transport (DfT) said its Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) will feature £96bn of investment in the Midlands and the North. The plan, which will be published on Thursday, is expected to confirm that the eastern leg of HS2 will be scrapped between the east Midlands and Leeds, savings tens of billions of pounds. There is also frustration that improvements to east-west connections across the North, known as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), are likely to…

The government of Ireland, one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, reimposed COVID-19-related restrictions, including a midnight curfew as officials explained that it’s meant to stop the spread of the virus. About 93 percent of the country’s adult population have received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to government data. And about 89.1 percent of people over the age of 12 are vaccinated. Despite that, Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin announced in a national address a midnight curfew on bars, restaurants, and nightclubs starting on Thursday. “The situation is getting worse and will get worse before it gets better,” Martin told reporters on the…

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Hundreds of people gathered in a courtyard outside the Florida Capitol Tuesday to urge lawmakers to pass bills preventing mask mandates in the state, banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates for children, and protecting Floridians from losing their jobs for not getting the shots. About 400 people waved signs and cheered for speakers who represented 25 allied organizations at the Rally for Medical Freedom. Buses and car caravans brought people angry about vaccine and mask mandates from across the Sunshine State. Gov. Ron Desantis (R) had called for lawmakers to be in Tallahassee this week for a special session, urging them to pass…

The government has refused to confirm or deny reports that it will finally cancel plans for the HS2 link to Leeds this week, and instead fund a hodgepodge of disparate projects which favour Conservative constituencies and leave mysterious gaps in the rail network. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is expected to announce the outcome of the long-delayed integrated rail plan on Thursday. The Sunday Times suggested he would commit to building HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester but not Leeds, which has earmarked a large part of the city centre to accommodate a new station. To soften the blow, Shapps is expected to announce…

A lawyer for 17 doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who object on religious grounds to New York’s tough vaccine mandate for health care workers filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court late on Nov. 12, claiming the state’s governor is waging “a veritable religious crusade to force medical professionals to be vaccinated.” The application is pending before a Supreme Court that has been reluctant to block mandates requiring people to accept vaccinations aimed at the CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, but has been willing to curtail pandemic-related restrictions when religious freedoms have been threatened. In New York, for example, a year ago,…

Oklahoma was granted a temporary restraining order that blocks Ascension Healthcare from terminating employees who were denied religious exemptions from the firm’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor had filed for a restraining order against the company’s requirement. On the night of Nov. 12, a Tulsa district judge granted the request, according to the O’Connor’s office. “This evening, the Tulsa District Court granted the State’s Application for Temporary Restraining Order in our case to keep Ascension Healthcare from carrying out its plan to fire employees who were unfairly denied religious exemptions from their nationwide COVID-19 vaccination mandate,” the Republican attorney general said…

Against the odds and defying the numbers, after a weekend of slings and arrows, Lewis Hamilton took arms against his sea of troubles with a remarkable win. He delivered a champion’s drive under circumstances that might have left a lesser man bowed. Instead by coming from 10th to beat his title rival Max Verstappen into second, Hamilton leaves Brazil head held high, having turned what might have been the weekend that ended his championship hopes into one that has reignited them. Hamilton’s fighting spirit is well documented. He needed every ounce of that character this weekend and draw on it he did to return…

A coalition of 10 states led by Missouri’s attorney general on Nov. 10 sued President Joe Biden over his administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers. A federal court has blocked, for now, the administration’s private employer vaccine mandate, although a stricter one focused on health care workers remains in place. The health care worker mandate, which covers more than 17 million nurses and others, doesn’t include a testing opt-out. The coalition says the mandate is unlawful under federal law in part because the federal government is trying to wrest away compulsory vaccination power that has “always been the province of—and still properly…

The government faces a legal challenge to Boris Johnson’s decision to back Priti Patel over bullying allegations, throwing a fresh spotlight on the prime minister’s approach to ethics in public life. Alex Allan, Johnson’s independent adviser on the ministerial code, resigned last year after the prime minister chose not to act on a critical report about Patel. After a Cabinet Office investigation, citing instances in which she had shouted and sworn at staff, Allan found Patel had displayed “behaviour that can be described as bullying” and that she had “not consistently met the high standards expected of her”. His report suggested…

A federal court on Nov. 11 ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop extracting and reviewing data from phones belonging to Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe. The order from Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York says that by Nov. 12, the DOJ “shall confirm via email that it has paused its extraction and review of the contents of Petitioner O’Keefe’s phones.” It comes after O’Keefe filed a motion Nov. 10 for appointment of a special master—a designation often used for people doing purely investigative work. Torres furthermore ordered the DOJ to provide the…