Author: LoveWorld UK

People are to be banned from using credit cards to place bets in an attempt to curb problem gambling, the Gambling Commission has said. The ban, which starts on 14 April 2020, comes after reviews of the industry by the commission and the government. A total of 24 million adults in Britain gamble, with 10.5 million of those doing so online. Separate commission research shows that 22% of online gamblers using credit cards are classed as problem gamblers. The ban will apply to all online and offline gambling products except lotteries that are run for good causes. These lotteries will…

Hong Kong courts are facing “unprecedented” challenges in processing the sheer number of protest-related arrests, the city’s leader Carrie Lam said at a news conference. Hong Kong’s Chief Justice announced the creation of a task force to deal with protest cases, which would introduce new measures such as possibly extending the courts’ sitting hours. Hong Kong has been rocked by months of large-scale protests and civil unrest. Demonstrators are angry at what they see to be Chinese meddling in Hong Kong’s promised freedoms when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. They also say they are responding…

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has given her blessing to grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s wish for a more independent future following crisis talks involving the most senior members of the royal family. “My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family,” the 93-year-old monarch said in a statement. “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.” She…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Northern Ireland to mark the restoration of the British province’s devolved executive after three years and to hold talks with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar. Parties representing Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists ended a three-year standoff that had threatened a key part of the region’s 1998 peace settlement by forming a new power-sharing administration. Johnson met First Minister Arlene Foster of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Irish nationalists Sinn Fein on arrival at the Stormont estate, seat of the Northern Ireland government. Varadkar and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney…

More parents now feel under pressure to check their work emails in the evening, according to a report. The 2020 Modern Families Index found that 44% of parents check their emails or do other work at night. Of those, three quarters said they did not have a choice, an increase since the study was carried out last year. And that is causing tension at home with more than half of respondents saying it led to arguments with their children or partner. The report said that the ability of working parents to “switch off” from their work was being undermined by…

Parity for women in most areas of public life appears to be decades away, according to new research. Men still dominate every sector of politics, public life and business, according to a new report by the Fawcett Society with the under-representation of women “consistent and persistent across sectors”. “Based on current rates of progress we’re looking at generations. We’re generations away from achieving gender equality particularly at the top of business and public life and that’s fundamentally unacceptable,” says Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society. “So we’re arguing we need to pace of change with real interventions that…

The main Irish nationalist and pro-British unionist parties in Northern Ireland who a day earlier agreed to a power-sharing government, sat on Saturday, after a three-year hiatus. On Friday Sinn Fein, the largest nationalist party, followed its rival, the Democratic Unionist Party, in backing a draft deal brokered by the Irish and British governments to end the devolved assembly’s suspension. The importance of the devolved administration has increased because a provision in Britain’s European Union withdrawal deal will give the assembly the right every four years to consider whether to maintain alignment with EU market rules.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth attended church on Sunday, ahead of a crisis meeting to discuss future arrangements for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan. The 93-year-old monarch arrived at St. Mary Magdalene’s Church in Norfolk, eastern England. Britain’s royal family has been thrown into turmoil by Prince Harry’s announcement on Wednesday that he and his wife, who are together officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, would step back from their roles as senior members of Britain’s royal family. Harry’s father Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and his elder brother Prince William, will also attend the meeting,…

Keir Starmer, the frontrunner in the race to lead Britain’s main opposition, launched his leadership campaign in Manchester, saying the future focus of Labour Party should be on ending fiscal austerity, investing in public services, and winning public arguments against Prime Minister Boris Johnson Starmer’s main opponent, Rebecca Long-Bailey, attended an event in Newcastle-Under-Lyme on Saturday, saying it was not the official launch to her leadership campaign but that she wanted to visit as many constituencies as possible to see how Labour failed them in last month’s general election. The overall winner in the contest, in which grassroots party members…

Christian doctor, Dr Richard Scott, has finally been vindicated after a concerted and targeted attack against him by a secularist campaign group was thrown out by the General Medical Council (GMC). Back in June, the National Secular Society (NSS) registered “concern” with the GMC that the GP was “continuing to pray and promote Christianity during consultations in an attempt to convert patients.” However, the GMC has ruled that there was no evidence and that Richard had done nothing wrong.