All posts tagged: barred

Council barred from using £200k grant to repair schools

Council barred from using £200k grant to repair schools

Published by skeptic

Barnet council wanted to move the cash from its dedicated schools grant reserves for ‘urgent and unbudgeted repairs’ Barnet council wanted to move the cash from its dedicated schools grant reserves for ‘urgent and unbudgeted repairs’ More from this theme Recent articles A London council launched a £200,000-a-year urgent repairs grant for its poorest schools – only to be ordered by government officials to withdraw the cash. Barnet council wanted to move the cash from its dedicated schools grant reserves for “urgent and unbudgeted repairs” to its worst-off authority-maintained schools. However, the Education and Skills Funding Agency stepped in to ban the move before it got off the ground – saying revenue costs could not be capitalised. School buildings expert Tim Warneford said the case highlighted “the obvious gap between any school’s capacity and resources to adequately maintain their estate”. Tim Warneford “There are insufficient [capital] funds across the entire sector. They are having to triage and prioritise emergency running repairs as best as they can, but demand outstrips their budgets at every level,” he …

Race row MP claims to be barred from UK election run by frontrunner Labour | Politics News

Race row MP claims to be barred from UK election run by frontrunner Labour | Politics News

Published by Sam

Diane Abbott says Labour will not allow her to run in July election despite party reinstatement. Diane Abbot has claimed she has been barred from standing as a candidate for the Labour Party in Britain’s upcoming general election. The country’s first Black female lawmaker told the BBC on Wednesday that the party will not allow her to stand in the July 4 election, despite lifting a suspension that was enacted last year due to her comments on racism. However Labour leader Keir Starmer has denied the claim. “That’s not true,” the prime ministerial hopeful told reporters while campaigning in western England. “No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott,” he said. Abbott, who was first elected to parliament for Labour in 1987, had informed Britain’s public broadcaster by text message that she would not be allowed to stand. “Although the whip has been restored, I am banned from standing as a Labour candidate,” she said. However, it was unclear whether there had been direct communication on the matter with Labour, as she later posted …

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Published by skeptic

Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, with admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said. The agency, calling BF Borgers a “sham audit mill,” said the company and its owner engaged in “deliberate and systemic failures to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board … standards in its audits and reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023,” according to a press release. The respondents also were charged with falsely telling clients that the auditor’s work would comply with PCAOB standards, fabricating audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and “falsely …

Boris Johnson barred from voting under his own voter ID rules – POLITICO

Boris Johnson barred from voting under his own voter ID rules – POLITICO

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Johnson introduced the Elections Act in 2022 while prime minister. Under the act, voters must bring photographic ID to cast their ballots. The rules were criticized by advocacy groups and the U.K.’s Electoral Commission, the country’s official election watchdog, which said they could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from voting in a future general election. Those people, moreover, are more likely to be poorer, from minority ethnic backgrounds, and disabled, the watchdog said. They are also less likely to vote for Johnson’s Conservative Party. The rules are likely to remain in place for the next U.K. general election, expected to be held later this year. The Electoral Commission says the law’s disenfranchising effect will very likely be greater in a general election. Johnson’s fellow Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was also part of the government that introduced the restriction, admitted in 2023 that the rules had been an attempt to “gerrymander” future elections for the Conservatives — but that they had backfired because older people, who are more likely to vote Conservative, were also less …

‘Outdated and offensive’: police in England and Wales barred from blaming restraint deaths on ‘excited delirium’ | Police

‘Outdated and offensive’: police in England and Wales barred from blaming restraint deaths on ‘excited delirium’ | Police

Published by skeptic

The police watchdog for England and Wales has removed a controversial medical term from its incident forms after claims it plays into racist stereotypes and detracts attention from police brutality. Until now, police forces referring a death or serious incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) have been given the option to tick “excited delirium” in a list of relevant factors. The term has historically been used to describe people who are agitated or acting bizarrely, usually because of mental illness, drug use or both. Symptoms are said to include insensitivity to pain, aggression, increased strength and elevated heart rate. But it is not a recognised medical condition, is rooted in pseudoscience and has been criticised for playing into racial tropes about superhuman strength, which campaigners say can lead to increased use of police force. In 2021, excited delirium was mentioned in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former US police officer found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. Police officers discussed whether Floyd might have excited delirium as they restrained him. …

Russian, Belarusian athletes barred from Paris Olympics opening ceremony – POLITICO

Russian, Belarusian athletes barred from Paris Olympics opening ceremony – POLITICO

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Russian and Belarusian athletes won’t be allowed to take part in the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday. The IOC ruled last year that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to participate in the Games as neutral athletes, without an accompanying national flag or anthem. On Tuesday, the committee outlined a set of rules for neutral athletes. During July’s opening ceremony, boats representing each national delegation will sail along the river Seine, marking the first time the ceremony will take place outside of a stadium. But neutral athletes “will not participate in the parade of delegations (teams) during the Opening Ceremony, since they are individual athletes,” the IOC said. Source link

Airbus apologises after Chinese visitors allegedly barred from military plane at Singapore Airshow

Airbus apologises after Chinese visitors allegedly barred from military plane at Singapore Airshow

Published by Sam

SINGAPORE: Airbus has apologised after some Chinese visitors claimed they were stopped from viewing a German military plane during the Singapore Airshow over the weekend, when the event was open to the public.  In posts that have since gone viral on Chinese social media, some visitors complained on Weibo that they were turned away from an Airbus A400M transport aircraft belonging to the German air force.  They also claimed that Russian visitors were also denied access.  According to Airbus, the A400M is its “most advanced, proven and certified airlifter available”. The aircraft has both tactical airlift – transportation of personnel and goods into theatres of operation – and strategic airlift – transportation of assets like outsized and heavy vehicles or equipment – capabilities.  The European Commission said last month it had put forward several proposals to bolster the European Union’s economic security, including understanding how “advanced technologies can be used to enhance military capacities of actors who may use these against the EU”. One Weibo user wrote on Saturday (Feb 24) that he was turned away after queuing up …

Navalny Team Says Mother Barred From Morgue

Navalny Team Says Mother Barred From Morgue

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Moscow —  The mother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being refused access to his body for a third day, his team said on Monday as his widow prepared to meet European foreign ministers. Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison last week has shocked the country’s exiled opposition which — along with the West — pointed the finger at the Kremlin. Navalny’s allies said investigators told his mother, Lyudmila, the investigation into his death in prison “has been extended.” Russia’s prison service said Navalny, 47, died on Friday after a walk in his remote prison above the Arctic Circle. His mother travelled to the isolated prison colony in the town of Kharp — around 2,000 kilometers away from Moscow — Saturday but was told his body was not there. She was then sent to a morgue in the regional hub of Salekhard, but officials there also denied her access to the body. “Alexei’s mother and his lawyers arrived at the morgue early in the morning. They were not allowed to go in,” Navalny’s …

Dentists barred English NHS patients over skipped checkups in pandemic | Dentists

Dentists barred English NHS patients over skipped checkups in pandemic | Dentists

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Patients across England who failed to visit their dentists since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic have been systematically barred by some clinics from getting NHS treatment. Dental practices across the country informed patients they could no longer get NHS treatment, citing non-attendance over a period of two years or more that included lockdown. The Observer has established that many of these patients were not given any written warning and now face potential future treatment costs of thousands of pounds. The decision to “de-list” some NHS patients comes as the government faces growing anger over the state of dental care in the country, with many patients resorting to “DIY dentistry” out of desperation. Ministers last week launched a recovery plan, with £20,000 bonuses for dentists in areas with the poorest access to NHS care. PM Rishi Sunak has repeatedly cited the £3bn annual budget in England for NHS dentistry, but it has fallen in real terms by more than £500m in a decade. It also includes dental charges paid by NHS patients worth almost £747m …