Top World News

Sep 7, 2024 - World

Former prime minister also under fire for hiring ex-aide Charlotte Owen as VP despite her lack of energy sector experience Boris Johnson failed to disclose that he met a uranium lobbyist while prime minister before entering into a new business with a controversial Iranian-Canadian uranium entrepreneur, the Observer can reveal.Johnson’s new company Better Earth Limited also employs Charlotte Owen, a junior aide with just a few years work experience whom he elevated to the House of Lords last year at the age of 29, sparking intense controversy. Continue reading...

Sep 7, 2024 - World

Britain’s pandemic response was among the worst and the NHS had been ‘seriously weakened’, says leading surgeon• Three reports lay bare scale of NHS malaise, but will Reeves fund a remedy?Britain was hit far harder by the Covid-19 pandemic than other developed countries because the NHS had been “seriously weakened” by disastrous government policies over the preceding decade, a wide-ranging report will conclude this week.An assessment of the NHS by the world-renowned surgeon Prof Ara Darzi, commissioned in July by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, will find that the health service reduced its “routine healthcare activity by a far greater percentage than other health systems” in many key areas during the Covid crisis. Continue reading...

Sep 7, 2024 - World

India and the UAE aim to deepen ties and enhance their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership as the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, arrives in India on an official visit on September 9-10.

Sep 7, 2024 - World

Rydon, lead contractor on the tower’s refurbishment, won deals from councils and the NHS despite pressure to ban it from bidsThe building firm found to have borne “considerable responsibility” for the Grenfell fire with its “casual attitude to fire safety” was handed contracts worth tens of millions of pounds by councils, colleges and NHS trusts after the tragedy.Property group Rydon was the lead contractor overseeing the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower between 2014 and 2016, including the installation of combustible cladding. The inquiry found that the firm should have been aware of “the risks of using combustible materials in the external walls of high-rise buildings”. Continue reading...

Sep 7, 2024 - World

Crossbench peer will table ‘fatal’ Lords motion, as Starmer faces damaging rebellion in Commons vote• Steve Webb: There’s no need to cut poorer pensioners’ income. Smarter winter fuel solutions are at handThe respected former pensions minister Ros Altmann has tabled a “fatal” parliamentary motion to kill off the government’s controversial plan to limit winter fuel payments, describing it as “one of the worst decisions I have ever seen”.The move by Baroness Altmann, a crossbench peer and leading expert on issues affecting elderly people, comes amid growing pressure on the prime minister, Keir Starmer, from across the ­political spectrum, to drop or modify the plan ahead of a series of key votes this week. Continue reading...