Author: LoveWorld UK

Water firms in England and Wales will have to cut the average bill by £50 over the next five years, under plans published by the industry regulator. Water regulator Ofwat is also forcing firms to invest millions of pounds, aimed at improving their performance. The regulator also wants water firms to cut water lost to leaks by 16%. Ofwat chief executive Rachel Fletcher said its plan was “firing the starting gun on the transformation of the water industry”. “Now water companies need to crack on, turn this into a reality and transform their performance for everyone,” she added. There has…

Protests over a new Indian citizenship law based on religion spread to student campuses as critics said the Hindu nationalist government was pushing a partisan agenda in conflict with the country’s founding as a secular republic. Students pelted stones at police who locked up the gates of a college in the northern city of Lucknow to prevent them from taking to the streets. About two dozen students at another college in the city sneaked out to protest. Anger with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was fueled by allegations of police brutality at Jamia Millia Islamia university on Sunday, when officers…

A backburning operation intended to contain a massive wildfire in eastern Australia sparked out of control, damaging dozens of buildings and cutting off major roads, authorities said, warning an impending heatwave may overwrite temperature records. The accident took place about 155 miles northwest of Sydney, where firefighters were trying to stop a blaze of some 934,000 acres, reaching communities by carrying out pre-emptive controlled burning.  Wildfires have killed at least four people, destroyed more than 680 homes and burned nearly 3 million acres of bushland across eastern Australia since the start of November. The Bureau of Meteorology meanwhile warned of…

U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, met South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul after having a meeting with his South Korean counterpart to discuss on North Korea. Biegun, urged Pyongyang on Monday to return offers of talks, dismissing leader Kim Jong Un’s year-end deadline while highlighting Washington’s willingness to discuss “all issues of interest.” Biegun arrived in Seoul on Sunday amid speculation he might try to salvage negotiations by reaching out to North Korea, which has vowed to take an unspecified “new path” if Washington fails to soften its stance before the end of the year. Tension…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address his new intake of Conservative MPs later as they arrive in Westminster to take their seats in Parliament. Many of the 109 new MPs won in areas traditionally held by Labour in Thursday’s election, which saw the Conservatives gain an 80-seat majority. Their first job will be to vote on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill that the PM intends to bring back before Christmas. Mr Johnson is also expected to carry out a mini cabinet reshuffle and he needs to fill posts made vacant by those who stood down ahead of the general election, including…

The UK is going to the polls for the country’s third general election in less than five years. The contest, the first to be held in December in nearly 100 years, follows those in 2015 and the snap election in 2017. Polling stations in 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland opened at 07 am. After the polls close at 10 pm, counting will begin straight away. Most results are due to be announced in the early hours of Friday morning. Elections in the UK traditionally take place every four or five years. But, in October, MPs voted…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks on course to win Thursday’s election though the race has tightened markedly and he can no longer be sure of a majority, according to opinion polls published on the eve of the vote. The Dec. 12 election has been described by all parties as Britain’s most important in memory, with Johnson calling for a big majority so he can swiftly pull Britain out of the European Union next month. The main opposition Labour Party promises a new referendum on Brexit as well as a renationalisation of utilities and railroads in its most left-wing platform…

Just days before Britain votes in an election he called to try to break the deadlock over Brexit, Johnson will repeat his desire to “finally get Brexit done” on a tour of traditionally Labour-supporting areas he hopes to win over. He will also hope to get his campaign back on track after he was criticised on Monday for his response to being shown a photo of a sick child lying on a hospital floor and after being heckled by a voter over his election tactics. Johnson has put his oft-repeated pledge for a quick Brexit at the heart of his…

Whoever leaked UK-U.S. trade papers online ahead of Britain’s general election took extensive precautions to cover their tracks, which experts who suspect Russia was behind the effort say points to a professional and well-planned operation. The heightened security measures, including a web of disposable email addresses and virtual phone numbers, are not typical of ordinary internet users and draw further parallels with a previous Russian information operation, said outside researchers and government officials. British intelligence officials are now investigating whether the documents, which detail negotiations between Britain and the United States over a future trade deal, were part of a…

Britain is looking at whether or not to decriminalise the penalty for non-payment of the 154.50-pound ($198) annual BBC “licence fee” tax on all television-watching households, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said on Tuesday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday questioned why the BBC should continue to be supported by the annual fee, one of the biggest hints to date that the funding of Britain’s main news provider could be upended. “What we are talking about as a first step is the decriminalisation of failing to pay the TV licence,” Buckland told BBC radio. He said people during election campaigning…