NHS Staff to fly out to help the Ebola epidemic
The first co-ordinated group of NHS staff are due to fly from London to Sierra Leone to help in the fight against the Ebola virus. Around 30 GPs, nurses, psychiatrists and emergency medicine consultants are being sent to the West African country’s capital, Freetown. There they will complete a week’s training before starting work in Ebola treatment centres across the country. The Ebola virus has killed more than 5,000 people in the current outbreak. This is the first wave of NHS volunteers to be deployed by the UK government. The healthcare professionals will be diagnosing and treating those who have contracted the virus.
UKIP win second seat in Rochester
The UK Independence Party have won a second seat in Rochester in the recent by-election, pushing the Conservatives into second with Labour and Liberal Democrats trailing behind. Mark Reckless, who defected from the Tories in September, won the seat with a majority of just under 3,000. UKIP leader Nigel Farage told BBC Breakfast the result sent a simple message: “If you vote UKIP you get UKIP.”. The fears of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties as to their fate in next May’s General Election have only increased following this second UKIP victory.
Obama defends immigration reform
After announcing he would use executive powers on the issue, Obama insists that his goal remains the same, despite the Republican condemnation on the subject. Obama accused the Republicans of blocking a bill in Congress, yet claimed it would not stop him on his reformation of US immigration laws. The current move means that more than four million illegal immigrants will be allowed to apply for work permits. Immigration is a contentious issue in the USA; with the fear of alienating Hispanic voters lingering at the back of the Republicans minds, they know they cannot contest these reforms too strongly. However, Obama promises to continue an uphill climb on this issue, with claims that he will ‘never give up’.
Let it snow!
While here in Britain we’re stuck with grey skies and inane drizzle, scenes are extremely different in America. Officials in New York claim that this historic amount of snowfall has been very damaging to their city, causing at least 13 deaths due to exposure, and now threatening buildings. Snowfall in the north-east of the US is subsiding, forecasters say, but there is now a threat of flooding from rain at the weekend as the snow melts. The city of Buffalo was estimated to have received as much snow in three days as it normally gets in a year and in parts of the city the snow was estimated to be as much as 8ft deep.