Headline

UK Nurses Prepared To Strike Until Christmas

Published

1 year ago

April 16, 2023

Nurses in Britain are prepared to strike until Christmas if they cannot reach a deal with the government on pay, the leader of the country’s main nursing union said on Sunday.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) would strike at the end of April and the beginning of May before holding a ballot on continuing the strike to the end of the year, union leader Pat Cullen said.

“If that ballot is successful it will mean further strike action right up until Christmas,” Cullen told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

Members of the union rejected a government pay offer on Friday and immediately announced an escalation in strike action.

Hopes had been high that nurses in England would accept the five percent pay offer brokered by the RCN and the government in March.

But after putting the offer to its members, the RCN said 54 percent turned it down.

RCN members will walk out for 48 hours from 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on April 30, with the action extended to staff in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer care units for the first time.

The refusal is a setback for the government, which had hoped for an end to the crippling health sector strike that has seen thousands of operations and appointments cancelled.

‘Hugely disappointing’ –
Hospital doctors below consultant level have this week been on a four-day strike demanding better pay and conditions.

Cullen said she had received a letter from Health Secretary Steve Barclay on Sunday morning after requesting talks with him about the pay offer last week.

RCN members walked out for the first time in the union’s 108-year history late last year, joining a wave of public and private sector workers calling for pay rises as inflation soared.

The government said the RCN rejection of the pay offer was “hugely disappointing” and said it was “fair and generous”.

As well as a five percent pay increase in the next financial year, the offer included a one-off bonus worth at least £1,250 ($1,510) per person.

Two other unions representing healthcare workers have yet to announce the results of their ballot on the offer.

Healthcare bosses say further strikes would have an impact on reducing already lengthy waiting lists for treatment, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to reduce.

Headline

Grammy Winner Found Dead In Her Apartment

Published

14 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Editor

Grammy-winning singer Mandisa, who rose to fame on season five of “American Idol,” has died.

She died on Thursday, April 18 at the age of 47, her representative said Friday.

“We can confirm that yesterday Mandisa was found in her home deceased,” her representative said in a statement. “At this time we do not know the cause of death or any further details.”

“We ask for your prayers for her family and close knit circle of friends during this incredibly difficult time,” the statement concluded.

A post on the artist’s Facebook page said early Friday: “Mandisa was a voice of encouragement and truth to people facing life’s challenges all around the world. She wrote this song for a dear friend who had passed in 2017.”

“Her own words say it best. I’m already home / You’ve got to lay it down / ‘cause Jesus holds me now— / And I am not alone.”

Born and raised in Citrus Heights, California, Mandisa studied music in college before auditioning for Idol in 2005.

Mandisa’s shot to stardom after placing ninth on “American Idol,” alongside favorites like Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry, Paris Bennett, Elliott Yamin and eventual winner Taylor Hicks.

After her Idol elimination, Mandisa went on to release her debut album, True Beauty, in 2007. The LP debuted at No. 1 on the Top Christian Albums charts, a historic feat that made Mandisa the first new female artist ever to debut on the top of the chart’s 27-year history.

True Beauty was the first six albums Mandisa would release throughout her career, including an acclaimed 2008 holiday record, It’s Christmas, and her most recent offering, 2017’s Out of the Dark.

She went on to win a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album in 2014 for her album “Overcomer.”

Headline

Man Sets Self On Fire Outside Trump Trial Venue

Published

16 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Editor

A man set himself on fire Friday outside the court where Donald Trump is standing trial in Manhattan, with officers rushing to extinguish the flames.

Burning clothes were strewn in the park, which was locked down by authorities, while ambulances lined up nearby on standby, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw, describing a strong smell of burning chemicals.

The scene unfolded moments after the full panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was selected for the trial of the former president in a hush money cover-up case.

“A male did light himself on fire outside of the Supreme Courthouse. We’re still gathering details from the field,” said a New York Police Department spokesman.

The fire department did not respond to a request for comment, but media reported the man had been taken away for medical treatment.

The incident happened in a park opposite the 100 Centre Street courthouse, which has been used by authorities to corral protesters, both pro-Trump and anti-Trump, as well as by some members of the media.

The park, which is close to several courthouses and other buildings, is a popular local lunch spot.

Trump’s criminal trial, the first of a former president, is being conducted amid tight security in a 15th-floor courtroom swarming with Secret Service officers as well as court police.

New York’s police department had promised a major deployment to ensure the trial passes off safely, with the force’s head of intelligence John Hart calling it a “major challenge.”

AFP

Headline

Police Storm Iranian Embassy In Paris After Man ‘In Suicide Vest’ Threatened To Blow Himself Up

Published

21 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Editor

A man has surrendered to police after he reportedly threatened to blow himself up at the Iranian consulate in Paris with a suicide vest.

According to Mail Online, the man gave himself after 2pm, walking out of the consulate with his hands in the air and giving himself over to police at the scene.

‘He had no explosives or weapons on him,’ said a security source. ‘He was placed under arrest immediately and taken away to a secure police station for questioning.’

Specialist BRI officers continued to swarm around the area, together with sniffer dogs, just in case explosives had been hidden in the area.

‘The security perimeter will be maintained for a while yet,’ said the source.

The individual was for a time holed up inside the building in the French capital’s 16th arrondissement in a room with the ambassador, one report said.

He was said to be wearing an explosive belt and equipped with an object that resembled a grenade, Europe 1 and other sources reported earlier.

The area was cordoned off and evacuated, with a police source saying that an ‘intervention was imminent’.

This suggested officers had been preparing to storm the building.

‘A witness saw a man enter carrying a grenade or an explosive belt,’ a source told France’s AFP news agency, adding that an elite police unit had been mobilised after the consulate requested an intervention.

‘The man presented him at the consulate, and then removed his coat, to show off an alleged explosives vest,’ another security source said at the scene.

‘He said he was carrying a grenade, and then placed a national flag on the floor. He said he wanted to avenge his brother.’

Police ordered the city’s Metro Line 6 to be interrupted as a safety measure.

Europe 1 reported that the embassy contacted the police requesting assistance, reporting that the man was inside the building. It said he was holed up in a room inside the consulate ‘in the presence of the ambassador’.

There were no reports of an explosion.

The incident came amid increasing tensions between Israel and Iran, with the Jewish state today launching strikes against the Islamic Republic.

This was in response to Iran launching over 300 missiles toward Israel on Saturday, 99 percent of which were intercepted by Israel and its allies.