Author: Alan Lorenz

British Government Blocks Scottish Transgender Law, Prime Minister Sturgeon Furious
17Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Scotland, UK

British Government Blocks Scottish Transgender Law, Prime Minister Sturgeon Furious

The British government will block a Scottish law that makes it easier to change sex before the law. She fears it will conflict with a law that applies to the whole United Kingdom. It is the first time the British government has vetoed a Scottish law. In Scotland, the reaction is furious. Last month, the Scottish Parliament passed the Gender Recognition Bill, making it easier for people to change their official gender. The bill received a great majority of 86 to 39 in the Scottish Parliament. Only the Conservatives voted against it. The law removes the need for a medical diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" (put: deep dissatisfaction with your biological sex). The minimum age will also be lowered from 18 to 16 years. According to the Scottish government, the current system is too...
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Strike Paralyses British Emergency Services
11Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, UK

Strike Paralyses British Emergency Services

A national strike paralysed emergency services in large parts of Britain on Wednesday. Some 25,000 emergency doctors, paramedics and emergency centre staff have been laid off in England and Wales. GPs and pharmacists will be working on Wednesday. The strikers demand higher wages and better working conditions. In addition, they want a surcharge that compensates for inflation. On an annual basis, it is currently around 10 percent. Earlier, the conservative government of Rishi Sunak offered emergency workers 4.75 percent more wages. However, it refuses to increase that offer because it lacks resources. Health Minister Steve Barclay admitted to the public broadcaster BBC that the underfunded health service NHS is under great pressure. He referred to long waiting times when transf...
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Western Australia Suffers From Heaviest Flooding in History: The Water is Everywhere
9Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Australia, News

Western Australia Suffers From Heaviest Flooding in History: The Water is Everywhere

The Australian state of Western Australia is experiencing the "heaviest flooding in its history". That said, the regional minister responsible for emergency services is Stephen Dawson. More than 200 people have already been evacuated. The flooding in Kimberley, a sparsely populated region of Western Australia the size of the US state of California, results from heavy rain from Ellie, a former cyclone. "The water is everywhere," said Dawson. Fitzroy Crossing, home to about 1,300 people, is among the hardest-hit towns. Food is delivered to affected residents by air. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who visited the region on Monday, has promised quick financial aid. "We know the bill will be huge, and my government is determined – in conjunction with the Western Australia...
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British PM Rishi Sunak Wants to Make Maths Compulsory for Students up to the Age of 18
4Jan By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, UK

British PM Rishi Sunak Wants to Make Maths Compulsory for Students up to the Age of 18

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants all pupils in England to receive mathematics up to the age of eighteen. The British broadcaster BBC writes in his first speech of the new year. According to Sunak, "We need to rethink our attitude towards numeracy." "In a world where data is ubiquitous, and statistics are the basis of many jobs, our children's jobs will require more analytical skills than ever before," said the prime minister. "To send our children into the world without these skills is to abandon our children." About half of the pupils between the ages of sixteen and eighteen still take mathematics in one form or another. In the United Kingdom, taking mathematics until the age of eighteen is currently not compulsory. It is unclear how Sunak intends to teach these skills t...
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Hundreds of Retired Turkish Admirals Acquitted
20Dec By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Turkey

Hundreds of Retired Turkish Admirals Acquitted

A group of 103 retired Turkish admirals were acquitted on Tuesday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused them of preparing a coup last year. The state media report this. According to the state news agency Anadolu, the court ruled that there was no evidence of a crime. The public prosecutor had asked for 12 years in prison for each of the former admirals. They remained free pending trial. They had to go to court because they had signed an open letter in April last year asking them to comply with the Montreux Convention. That treaty, from 1936, aims to demilitarize the Black Sea by establishing strict rules for the passage of warships over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. However, Erdogan wants to dig a new canal in Istanbul, west of the Bosphorus, to relieve them of one ...
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China Registers First Deaths Since the Lifting of Strict Corona Measures
19Dec By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Asia, China, News

China Registers First Deaths Since the Lifting of Strict Corona Measures

China reported the first corona deaths on Monday since lifting strict measures under Beijing's zero-covid policy. The number of coronavirus infections is currently exploding. Hospitals and crematoria are flooded. After almost three years of draconian measures to contain the covid epidemic, the Chinese authorities made a 180-degree turn in early December. Most of the measures went into the trash. An unprecedented wave of protest was the reason. However, due to the strict policy of recent years, few Chinese have built up immunity against the virus. Moreover, millions of elderly and vulnerable people are still unvaccinated. As a result, the number of corona cases is currently peaking. However, the authorities themselves admit that they cannot estimate the size of that wave. After al...
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German Police Arrest 25 Right-Wing Extremists Who Wanted to Storm Parliament and Commit a Coup
7Dec By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Europe, Germany, News

German Police Arrest 25 Right-Wing Extremists Who Wanted to Storm Parliament and Commit a Coup

Twenty-five right-wing extremists were arrested in Germany on Wednesday morning who allegedly wanted to commit an armed coup. This was announced by a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office. As part of a significant operation, some three thousand German police officers carried out raids on more than 130 locations on Wednesday morning: in eleven of the sixteen German states and also in Italy and Austria. The group reportedly wanted to storm the Reichstag and stage a coup. "The accused are part of a terrorist organization founded in November 2021, which set itself the goal of overthrowing the existing government in Germany and replacing it with its form of government, which they had already devised," said the Generalbundesanwalt. . For example,,, those responsible for new min...
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Apple Falls on Lower Wall Street on Unrest in China
28Nov By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, China, News, US

Apple Falls on Lower Wall Street on Unrest in China

The American technology group Apple was under pressure on the stock exchanges in New York on Monday. The company relies heavily on China to produce its devices, and investors are concerned about the social unrest arising in that country over the strict corona measures. In major Chinese cities, people took to the streets to protest President Xi Jinping's zero-covid policy. Apple lost 1.4 percent. According to the Bloomberg news agency, the unrest at Apple's largest iPhone production site in China may result in a production slump of 6 million devices. However, a lot depends on how quickly Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that operates the factory, can get people back on the assembly line after the violent protests against the corona measures. Electric car manufacturer Tesla, which ha...
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Car Hits Group of People in England: Two Dead, Two Injured
21Nov By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, UK

Car Hits Group of People in England: Two Dead, Two Injured

In the English municipality of Oldbury, near the city of Birmingham, a car drove into a bunch of people on Sunday evening. A nineteen-year-old man and a sixteen-year-old girl were killed, the police announced on Monday. A man and a woman, both aged between 20 and 30, were critically injured. Police have arrested a 54-year-old man. The police are calling on eyewitnesses not to share pictures and videos of the incident on social networking sites. It is requested that these images be made available to the researchers.
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The European Commission Wants to Intervene in the Event of High Gas Prices
17Nov By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Business, Europe, News

The European Commission Wants to Intervene in the Event of High Gas Prices

The European Commission is proposing to EU countries to introduce a “correction mechanism” for gas prices to temporarily apply a maximum price during periods of “exceptionally high prices” on the European gas market. The ceiling for the European wholesale price should be predefined concerning the cost of liquefied gas (LNG) on the world market and adjusted monthly. The correction mechanism is activated if the gas price on the leading Amsterdam gas market exceeds the maximum and is automatically deactivated as soon as possible, the committee writes in a plan submitted to the EU ambassadors. She argues that the temporary mechanism should prevent suppliers from selling their gas elsewhere, which would jeopardize supplies in the EU. EU leaders have asked the executive board of the...
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