Author: LoveWorld UK

A legal challenge to plans to expand London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to the whole of the capital will be heard in the high court on Tuesday as five Conservative-led councils seek to block the proposals. The Ulez is due to expand at the end of August from the boundary of the north and south circular roads to throughout Greater London, requiring drivers of the most polluting vehicles to pay a fee when using them in the area. Four outer London boroughs – Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon – and Surrey county council launched legal action in February this year arguing that…

UK bank bosses have been summoned to a meeting with the financial watchdog this week amid mounting concerns that they are profiting from rising interest rates by offering paltry savings rates to customers. Executives from the big high street names Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, HSBC and Barclays, as well as from smaller lenders, are due to attend a meeting at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Thursday to discuss concerns that savings rates are lagging far behind the soaring costs of mortgages and loans. The Bank of England has raised its base rate to 5% and further increases are expected. The move has pushed…

Australians have narrowly avoided a new round of interest rate hikes after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to keep the official cash rate unchanged in July. In its latest board meeting, the RBA announced that it would maintain the current official cash rate of 4.1 percent throughout July. The central bank said the brief reprieve would provide it some time to assess the impact of the recent interest rate increases and the economic outlook. “Interest rates have been increased by four percentage points since May last year. The higher interest rates are working to establish a more sustainable balance…

U.S. health officials will start formally tracking infections caused by the rare but potentially deadly germ that sickened babies and triggered a nationwide shortage of infant formula last year. A group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agreed on June 29 to add infections caused by cronobacter to the list of serious conditions reported to the agency. There are about 120 infections and diseases on the national watchlist. States will be asked, but not required, to notify the CDC about cronobacter infections, although they usually comply. Such infections are required to be reported now in only…

There is the traditional way of preparing for Wimbledon, and there is the Casper Ruud approach. One involves living the life, the other living the dream. And while the Norwegian’s contemporaries have been working hard to adapt to grass’s more frenetic rhythms, the world No 4 has spent more time on Instagram. But it turns out that three weeks of clay pigeon shooting, golfing, sunbathing on the back of a boat, and attending two concerts by The Weeknd – in Oslo and Stockholm – is not necessarily a barrier to success at tennis’s biggest tournament. Speaking after beating the world No 199, Laurent…

Seven in 10 people in the UK believe charges for NHS care will creep in over the next decade, ending the health service’s record of being free at the point of use, polling has found. One of the NHS’s key founding principles from 1948 is in peril, 71% of the public believe, according to the survey carried out for the Health Foundation ahead of the service’s 75th birthday this week. Despite almost three in four people saying the NHS in its current free form is “crucial”, 51% say they expect to pay for some services within the next decade, while 13% think most services…

Maya Forstater, who lost out on a job for saying people cannot change their biological sex, has been awarded £100,000 ($127,000) compensation by an employment tribunal. She was awarded the payout after it was found she experienced discrimination and victimization at work. Forstater, who worked as a tax expert at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), didn’t get a renewal of her contract in March 2019 after she posted tweets opposing government proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act to allow people to identify as the opposite sex without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. In a judgment handed down…

President Emmanuel Macron is set to meet the leaders of both houses of parliament on Monday as violent protests over the police shooting of teenager Nahel M appeared to ease after five nights of unrest that have seen thousands arrested and widespread destruction. Police made 49 arrests nationwide on Sunday, French media reported, citing the interior ministry, down significantly from 719 arrests the day before, and 1,300 on Friday. Macron will also meet on Tuesday with the mayors of 220 towns and cities affected by the protests, Macron’s office said, after a crisis meeting on Sunday night with government ministers. The ebbing violence…

The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in favor of a Christian website designer who said Colorado’s law requiring her to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings infringed on her constitutional rights. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion (pdf) in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (court file 21-476) which was decided June 30. The opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The three liberal justices dissented. President Joe Biden called the new decision “disappointing.” Left-wing activists have been targeting bakers for years for political purposes, asking Christian confectioners…

Israel has begun a major aerial and ground offensive in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, its biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory in years, as violence continues to surge in the conflict. At least five Palestinians were killed and 28 injured in the attack that began at about 1am on Monday, with the death toll likely to rise, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Gun battles with Palestinian fighters and explosions continued into Monday morning, in the raid the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said targeted a major command centre for the Jenin Brigades militant group in the…