Gives

Scheme cutting bills by up to 25% expanded to cover 10,000 firms, but they will not be paid until next yearRachel Reeves has announced an expansion of support for the most energy-intensive UK businesses, as they face soaring bills as a result of the Middle East conflict.The chancellor said the long-promised British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) would be expanded to cover 10,000 companies, up from the 7,000 originally announced. Continue reading...

President’s proposed budget slashes health department by 12% while throwing $1.5tn – a 42% increase – to the militaryAmericans are dying in droves. Deaths due to avoidable causes in the United States –which could be dealt with via prevention or proper healthcare – far outpace those in most of country’s peers in the industrialized world. Most notably, Americans die of treatable conditions at nearly twice the rate as Spaniards, French, Japanese and Australians.They would most likely live longer if they enjoyed better access to healthcare. Americans are the most likely to skip a doctor’s appointment due to its cost, the most likely to skip a medical test and to skimp on prescription drugs. This is unsurprising, given the extraordinary lack of public health insurance in the United States. Americans face the highest out-of-pocket expenses for medical services in their peer group. Continue reading...

Lee Zeldin opens conference for Heartland Institute, which once compared climate advocates to the UnabomberSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxLee Zeldin, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday morning, one which was hosted by a prominent climate-denying thinktank that previously compared those concerned about the climate crisis to the Unabomber on billboard posters in 2012.“No longer are we going to rely on bad, flawed assumptions instead of accurate, present-day facts, without apology or regret,” Zeldin said at the Heartland Institute’s conference on climate change in Washington DC, referring to well-established climate science. Continue reading...

Baby was delivered during Caribbean Airlines flight from Kingston to the US; nationality of child to be determinedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA routine passenger flight from Jamaica landed at New York’s John F Kennedy international airport with one more person than it took off with after a woman gave birth in midair, potentially setting up a tricky situation over the newborn’s citizenship.The “medical event” occurred on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Kingston on Saturday, according to a news release from the carrier. Continue reading...

PM says decision by union to reject offer including thousands of extra training posts and 7.1% pay rise without putting it to members for a vote is ‘reckless’Keir Starmer has threatened to withdraw an offer of thousands of extra NHS training posts if resident doctors do not call off a six-day strike after Easter.The prime minister has given the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, 48 hours to ditch its plans for industrial action or the government will pull the current offer from the table. Continue reading...

Amanda Smith was reunited with her mother, Michele Hundley Smith, on Thursday after decades-long searchSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA North Carolina woman whose mother was missing without a word for 24 years before authorities managed to locate her – alive and well – has reunited with her and says she forgives her.“I know everything is not black and white – there’s a whole gray area,” Amanda Smith said of her mother, 62-year-old Michele Hundley Smith, after they embraced in front of a courthouse on Thursday. “And so I mean, look – life’s too short for me to hold a grudge against her because she’s my mom.” Continue reading...

Critics have mocked Mike Johnson and Republicans for presenting the president with the newly concocted awardSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxAmid an aggressive war in Iran, heightening and devastating pressure on Cuba, immigration enforcement operations throughout the country and a partial government shutdown, the lead Republican in the House has given Donald Trump a newly concocted award.Democrats, lawmakers and commentators are criticizing and ridiculing the “America First” award given to Trump on Wednesday evening during the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser. Continue reading...