British healthcare worker with Ebola to be evacuated from DRC to UK, document shows

Posted on by

Patient, who is ⁠in ​stable condition, is expected to arrive in Britain on Wednesday or Thursday

A British healthcare worker infected with Ebola ⁠is being medically evacuated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Britain for specialist treatment, according to an official document seen by ⁠Reuters.

The patient is ⁠in a ​stable condition and is expected to arrive in Britain on Wednesday or Thursday before being transferred to a specialist ambulance to ⁠a high-consequence infectious disease unit, the document showed.

Continue reading...

Burnham says US midterm results have created ‘opportunity’ for world to focus on cost of living and ending Iran war – UK politics live

Posted on by

‘I think people want to see the world coming together and focusing on the things that matter to people,’ PM says

Louise Haigh starts by saying she is standing in for Andy Burnham.

She says this weekend the whole country will fall silent to mark Remembrance Sunday.

Continue reading...

US stocks rise, dollar slides as investors digest Democrats’ midterm victories

Posted on by

Government bond yields fall while initial fears ease over impact of election results on world’s biggest economy

US stocks have surged as investors digest the Democrats’ victories in the midterm elections, lifted by hopes that Donald Trump’s turbulent policymaking would be restrained and shaking off initial fears about the impact on growth in the world’s largest economy.

The Dow Jones rose 2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500 gained more than 1% each, turning around overnight falls in US stock futures after the news that the Democratic party won control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Continue reading...

Cambridge asks Post Office inquiry barrister to lead review into death of Jason Arday

Posted on by

Jason Beer KC will examine university’s handling of claims against Arday and protection offered to academics in spotlight

The lead barrister for the Post Office Horizon inquiry has been appointed to head an independent review into the death of the Cambridge academic Jason Arday.

Jason Beer KC will examine the handling of allegations of research and other misconduct made against Arday before his resignation as well as the university’s recruitment and support for him as its youngest ever black professor at the age of 37.

Continue reading...

Palestine Action activists used similar tactics to the suffragettes, court told

Posted on by

Lawyers tell supreme court decision to proscribe organisation as terrorist group is attack on freedom of speech and protest

Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist group after using tactics similar to – or less extreme than – the suffragettes, the UK’s highest court has heard.

Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, is challenging last year’s decision to proscribe the direct action organisation, placing it alongside groups such as al-Qaida and Boko Haram.

Continue reading...

Spain’s deadly train crashes have damaged public confidence in the system

Posted on by

Pedro Sánchez and his socialist-led coalition government are racing to rebuild trust ahead of a snap election, but the task they face is immense

• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

A week ago today, for the second time in nine months, I got in my car and drove south from Madrid to cover a deadly train crash.

At 8.53am last Wednesday, a high-speed train operated by Spain’s state-owned rail company, Renfe, smashed into the back of a stationary train run by the private rail company Iryo, on the outskirts of the small town of Urda in Castilla-La Mancha. Sixty-nine people died in the accident, more than 100 were injured, and Spain’s already depleted confidence in its treasured rail network plummeted.

Continue reading...

CVS Health to split pharmacy chain from health insurance

Posted on by

CVS Pharmacy will be separate from CVS Health, housing major insurer Aetna and benefits manager Caremark

CVS Health, the largest US healthcare conglomerate valued at $117bn, has announced its plans split off its pharmacy chain from its health insurance and benefits businesses, ending an era in which healthcare companies grew into vast conglomerates.

In their announcement on Wednesday, CVS Health said they will split off its 9,000 pharmacies, in-store clinics and mail order prescription business into a business named CVS Pharmacy.

Continue reading...

ANC faces anger over poor services as South Africans vote in local elections

Posted on by

Party expected to get less than a third of the vote amid frustration over water outages and power cuts

The African National Congress is on course for a bruising result in South Africa’s local elections on Wednesday as voters go to the polls amid deep discontent over water outages, power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

The former liberation movement, which Nelson Mandela led to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid as South Africa’s first black president, is still likely to be the largest party. However, polls showed it getting less than a third of the vote, down from 45.6% at the last municipal elections in 2021 and 40.2% in 2024’s national elections.

Continue reading...

Iran unveils ‘We will kill Trump’ banner – but US president may now be tempted to resume bombing

Posted on by

Iran celebrates its claimed role in ‘regime change’ amid pressure on Trump to ‘finish the job’ with attack

Iran this week unveiled a huge billboard and banners over Enqelab Square in central Tehran. The billboard pledged in English: “We will kill Trump” – elevating the degree of personal animus with which Donald Trump is viewed in official Iranian circles.

The poster depicts the US president behind bars with his head bowed. And in a sense, given the US midterm election results on Tuesday, Iran has indeed killed Trump, or at least the second term of his presidency. Trump’s reverse is all the more piquant because it comes on the day Iran’s leadership celebrates the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event that ensnared Jimmy Carter, and a reminder of how Iran has ruined the prospects of more than one US president.

Continue reading...

Albanese government warned it’s ‘sleepwalking into another robodebt scenario’ over use of algorithms and AI

Posted on by

Centre for Public Integrity report says mandatory audit and public register of all automated decision-making needed

The federal government is “sleepwalking its way into another robodebt” scandal amid a lack of transparency and legislation around use of algorithms and artificial intelligence in decisions, the chief executive of independent thinktank the Centre for Public Integrity said.

Dr Catherine Williams launched the centre’s “Computer Says No” report on Thursday, which examines the use of automated decision-making (ADM) tools by the government and calls for urgent reform.

Continue reading...

French blood banks hacked in latest cyber-attack on Europe

Posted on by

Temperature and defrosting thresholds raised to ‘very high levels’ at three cold stores stocking vital blood products

France’s national blood service has said hackers accessed control systems and boosted temperatures at three cold stores stocking vital blood products, in an apparent escalation of recent cyber-attacks on fridges and freezers across Europe.

The French blood service (EFS) said temperature and defrosting thresholds had been raised to “very high levels” in the attack, adding that its alarm systems had allowed technicians to intervene before the products were compromised.

Continue reading...

Israel’s election commission rejects Netanyahu claims of voting fraud

Posted on by

Move comes after attorney general blocks Shin Bet call to interrogate politicians from Palestinian-led parties

Israel’s election commission on Wednesday confirmed the final results of last week’s vote that stripped Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition of its governing majority, rejecting claims of mass fraud promoted by the prime minister.

The main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, said Netanyahu had launched a “pogrom against democracy” in attempting to hold on to power by discrediting valid votes and weaponising security forces against parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Continue reading...

More than 900 academics urge UK to reverse decision to bar Andreas Malm

Posted on by

Blocking Swedish writer’s entry for event with Palestine Action co-founder is attack on free expression, letter says

More than 900 academics have voiced their opposition to the government’s decision to block the climate academic Andreas Malm from entering the UK, warning that the move represents “a grave violation of academic freedom and freedom of expression”.

Malm, the author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and a leading climate scholar, was prevented from entering the UK last week by the Home Office after being told that his presence in the UK “may not be considered to be conducive to the public good”.

Continue reading...