All posts tagged: barred

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

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

Published by skeptic

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 …

Anti-war Putin rival barred from Russian presidential race – POLITICO

Anti-war Putin rival barred from Russian presidential race – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

He anticipates a Kremlin-led campaign to discredit Nadezhdin.   Tatiana Kolobakina, a 24-year-old Moscow journalist and political activist, supported Nadezhdin to legally express her anti-war sentiments, despite expecting his rejection from the race. “It was important to show that there are many of us who are against. The entire state aims to make us feel like a small minority. Well, these queues show that this is not the case,” she told POLITICO.   A Nadezhdin campaign volunteer, 25-year-old Alexei Popov from Yakutsk some 5,000 kilometers from Moscow, also anticipated the CEC’s refusal. “This doesn’t mean that it was all in vain.” The upcoming “‘election’ is still an excellent way to draw people’s attention to political processes and problems in Russia,” he said.   A former Kremlin political consultant told POLITICO that an anti-war candidate on the ballot threatened Putin’s campaign. “Once registered, he would get access to state TV,” said the consultant, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about recent employees. Such a level of access to the public was dangerous in and of itself, the consultant explained. Source …

Trump rants that anyone who contributes to Nikki Haley will be barred from MAGA camp

Trump rants that anyone who contributes to Nikki Haley will be barred from MAGA camp

Published by skeptic

On Tuesday, Nikki Haley fired back at Donald Trump after he spent a good portion of his New Hampshire primary victory speech griping about her campaign persistence. With Trump winning 54 percent of the vote and Haley coming in short with 43 percent, she reminded him that the race is not over, saying, “New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation.” The following day, in the written equivalent of pulling up the ladder from the treehouse, Trump is taking this back and forth one step further by threatening to banish anyone who lends support to Haley from the MAGA camp. Which is a sure sign that she’s getting closer to him than he seems to have anticipated. “Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country,” he writes in a post to Truth Social. “Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots. Her anger should be aimed at her Third Rate Political Consultants and, more importantly, Crooked Joe Biden and those that …

Trump warns Haley donors will be ‘permanently barred from the MAGA camp’

Trump warns Haley donors will be ‘permanently barred from the MAGA camp’

Published by skeptic

Former President Trump on Wednesday railed against GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley and warned that anyone who contributes to her campaign would be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp.” “When I ran for Office and won, I noticed that the losing Candidate’s ‘Donors’ would immediately come to me, and want to ‘help out.’ This is standard in Politics, but no longer with me,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!” Trump continued, using the nickname “Birdbrain,” to refer to Haley. Trump’s direct threat against Haley’s supporters signals a sharpening in his rhetoric, as the former president seeks to compel support from all corners of the GOP. Trump beat Haley in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday by 11 points — a significant edge over his former United Nations ambassador, but closer than his dominant lead in many …

TurboTax maker Intuit barred from offering ‘deceptive’ free services by the FTC

TurboTax maker Intuit barred from offering ‘deceptive’ free services by the FTC

Published by skeptic

Turbo Tax is displayed on a device on February 22, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TurboTax hide caption toggle caption Kimberly White/Getty Images for TurboTax Turbo Tax is displayed on a device on February 22, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TurboTax The Federal Trade Commission says the company behind the popular tax filing software TurboTax engaged in “deceptive advertising” when it ran ads for free tax services that many customers were ineligible for. Intuit was ordered Monday to stop advertising any free products and services unless they’re free for all consumers, or unless the company discloses on the ad the percentage of people who would be eligible for the unpaid offerings. Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the vast majority of Intuit’s customers couldn’t take advantage of what the company claimed it was providing at no charge. “Instead, they were upgraded into costly deluxe and premium products,” Levine said in a statement. “As the Commission has long understood, ‘free’ is a powerful …

‘Send the aeroplane to come and get us, Mummy’: The children barred from joining their mothers in Britain | Immigration and asylum

‘Send the aeroplane to come and get us, Mummy’: The children barred from joining their mothers in Britain | Immigration and asylum

Published by skeptic

Every day since arriving in Britain, Yvonne, a nurse in the NHS, has FaceTimed her two daughters back home in Zimbabwe. Often the calls end in tears. Other days, the younger girl, aged four, asks difficult questions like, “When can you send the aeroplane to come and get us, Mummy?” “It’s heartbreaking,” Yvonne says. “I don’t know what to do.” Yvonne is one of dozens of migrant women who have been refused permission for their children to join them in Britain. Despite current rules permitting healthcare workers to bring family members, single mothers, many of them recruited to work in the NHS and care sector, are routinely having their applications denied. The applications are being refused under a decades-old Home Office rule that a child may only be given a visa if both parents are living in the UK, unless the parent living here has sole responsibility. Many of the approximately 150 women who have come forward so far have supplied extensive evidence showing they are the children’s primary caregivers. But the applications have still …

Florida public colleges barred from using state and federal funds for DEI programs under new rule

Florida public colleges barred from using state and federal funds for DEI programs under new rule

Published by skeptic

Florida’s Board of Education announced a new rule on Wednesday that bars public colleges from using state and federal funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, activities and policies.  The rule, which applies to the 28 schools within the Florida College System, “will ensure that taxpayer funds can no longer be used to promote DEI on Florida’s 28 state college campuses,” the board wrote in a statement. Those schools include Seminole State College of Florida, Valencia College, Florida State College at Jacksonville and others that currently serve sizable populations of Black and Latino students.  Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said in a statement that higher education must reject being “corrupted by destructive ideologies. These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society.” Civil rights advocate and attorney Ben Crump immediately denounced the move. “We continue to go down a misguided path of censorship in Florida!” he wrote on X. The board also announced that colleges will replace the course “Principles …

Pakistan’s PTI Barred From Using Cricket Bat Electoral Symbol     

Pakistan’s PTI Barred From Using Cricket Bat Electoral Symbol     

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Islamabad —  Pakistan’s Supreme Court has upheld an electoral commission decision barring the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan from using its iconic cricket bat electoral symbol to identify party candidates contesting the Feb. 8 national election. The decision has been criticized by his party as an effort to keep it off next month’s ballot. The caretaker government of Anwaar-ul Haq Kakar has distanced itself from the election commission’s decisions, repeatedly stating that it does not want to comment on the working of a constitutionally autonomous institution. The top court announced the verdict in a live telecast Saturday. It endorsed a controversial Election Commission decision prohibiting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, from retaining the bat symbol, citing alleged irregularities in recent internal party elections. The party had appealed the commission’s decision to the Supreme Court. Election symbols are essential campaign tools to identify candidates on ballot papers in the nation of about 241 million people, where most constituencies are in rural areas with low adult literacy rates. FILE – Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran …

US says Texas barred border agents from entering park to try to save 3 migrants who drowned

US says Texas barred border agents from entering park to try to save 3 migrants who drowned

Published by skeptic

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Homeland Security Department said Saturday that Texas denied federal agents access to a stretch of border when they were trying to rescue three migrants who drowned. The federal government’s account came hours after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said the Texas Military Department and Texas National Guard “did not grant access to Border Patrol agents to save the migrants” Friday night. Mexican authorities recovered the bodies of a woman and two children Saturday across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. “This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility,” said Cuellar, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee for homeland security, in a statement. The drownings come amid escalating tensions between Texas and the U.S. government over immigration enforcement. On Friday, the Justice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court that Texas had taken control of an area in Eagle Pass known as Shelby Park and were not letting Border Patrol agents enter. The Texas Military Department said in a statement Saturday night that one of its units had …