Category: Politics

The Health Minister’s comments coincided with the Government’s announcement of a £279 million investment from pharmaceutical giant Lilly…reports Asian Lite News

In a bold move to address rising obesity rates and their impact on the National Health Service (NHS), United Kingdom’s Health Minister Wes Streeting has proposed that weight loss jabs be offered to unemployed individuals. This suggestion, outlined in his column for the Telegraph, aims to assist people in returning to work while alleviating financial pressures on the NHS.

Streeting highlighted the significant burden that “widening waistbands” are placing on the NHS, revealing that obesity-related issues cost the health service approximately £11 billion annually, surpassing the expenses incurred from smoking. In his piece, he noted, “Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

The Health Minister’s comments coincided with the Government’s announcement of a £279 million investment from pharmaceutical giant Lilly, made on the same day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosted an international investment summit. This funding is expected to facilitate real-world trials evaluating the impact of weight loss jabs on worklessness.

The upcoming trials, conducted by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly, aim to assess whether administering these medications can effectively reduce worklessness and influence NHS service utilisation. These studies will be centred in Greater Manchester, marking a significant step in understanding the intersection between health and employment.

The initiative aims to utilise innovative weight loss treatments, such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Mounjaro, which have shown promising results in clinical trials. Health Secretary Wes Streeting believes these medications could be “life-changing” for individuals struggling with obesity, enabling them to regain control of their health and rejoin the workforce.

The minister said that unhealthy eating impacts people’s lives, cutting their life expectancy. “Our widening waistbands are also placing a significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS 11bn pounds a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy. Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether,” Streeting wrote in an opinion piece for the Telegraph.

However, individuals will still need to remain responsible for taking “healthy living more seriously”, as the “NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles”, he said.

His proposal to use weight-loss medications comes the same day the UK government announced a 279 million pounds investment from Lilly — the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and the chief rival to Wegovy and Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk in the obesity drug market.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer also expressed support for weight-loss medications during a BBC interview, highlighting their potential benefits for both the economy and public health. He emphasised that these drugs can aid individuals in shedding excess weight, enabling them to return to work and alleviate pressure on the National Health Service (NHS).

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The tribunal, which first ruled in February that Miller had been unfairly discriminated against, has now published a 120-page judgment outlining its decision…reports Asian Lite News

An employment tribunal in the UK has ruled that an academic’s anti-Zionism should be protected under anti-discrimination laws as a “philosophical belief,” concluding that his views were “worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

The judgment came after Prof. David Miller’s dismissal from the University of Bristol in 2021, where he taught political sociology, for alleged antisemitic remarks in which he argued Zionism was inherently “racist, imperialist, and colonial,” leading to apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

The tribunal, which first ruled in February that Miller had been unfairly discriminated against, has now published a 120-page judgment outlining its decision, acknowledging the divisive nature and controversy of his comments but concluding that his beliefs were genuinely held and protected.

Judge Rohan Pirani said: “Although many would vehemently and cogently disagree with (Miller)’s analysis of politics and history, others have the same or similar beliefs. We find that he has established that (the criteria) have been met and that his belief amounted to a philosophical belief.”

The tribunal also recognized Miller’s expertise in the field and confirmed that his dismissal was due to the expression of these protected beliefs.

Miller gave a lecture in 2019 in which he identified Zionism as a pillar of Islamophobia, which prompted complaints from Jewish students and led the Community Security Trust, which campaigns against antisemitism, to call his remarks a “disgraceful slur.”

A university review found Miller had no case to answer because he did not express hatred toward Jews, but he was dismissed for gross misconduct two years later after sending an email to the university’s student newspaper.

In the email, he said, “Zionism is and always has been a racist, violent, imperialist ideology premised on ethnic cleansing” and claimed the university’s Jewish Society was tantamount to an “Israel lobby group.”

His statements were deemed offensive, leading to his eventual sacking.

However, the tribunal found that Miller’s comments were lawful and did not incite violence.

“What (Miller) said was accepted as lawful, was not antisemitic and did not incite violence and did not pose any threat to any person’s health or safety,” the tribunal decided.

Pirani found that Miller’s anti-Zionism did not equate to antisemitism or opposition to Jewish self-determination, but rather “opposition to Zionism’s realization of exclusive Jewish rights within a land that also includes a significant non-Jewish population.”

Although Miller won his case, the tribunal acknowledged that his public statements “contributed” to his dismissal, resulting in any compensation being reduced by 50 percent. The final amount will be determined in a future hearing.

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Abdullah, cradling her 9-month-old baby Bayena, said they had traveled for 60 km to reach safety…reports Asian Lite News

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was brought to tears during a visit to survivors of the ongoing Sudanese genocide on the border with Chad. The duchess told The Times that she had private audiences with female survivors of the violence, which included stories of rape in return for safety and food for their families.

“What they do to the children is … I can’t even use the words,” she told the newspaper. “These women have no option but to leave.” The duchess spoke to one refugee, Hadidah Abdullah, in the town of Adre on the Chadian border with the war-torn Darfur region.

Abdullah, cradling her 9-month-old baby Bayena, said they had traveled for 60 km to reach safety. Around 230,000 refugees are in Adre, with many comparing the situation to that of the previous genocide in Darfur over 20 years ago, which killed 300,000 people.

The region, which is being fought over by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, is also experiencing famine, with millions at risk of starvation.  One woman who arrived at the camp in Adre during the duchess’s visit with five children in tow said she had not seen her husband since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023.

Others talk of the RSF forcing young men and boys into service, and killing people who refuse to cooperate. The duchess has traveled to numerous conflict zones, including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of her work helping victims of sexual violence in war.

After meeting five women at a hospital in Adre, one of them told The Times that she and her family had been trapped in the city of Geneina where they witnessed RSF atrocities, including rape and looting.

She said: “If you tried to go out … some can kill you or threaten sexual violence. More than 10 people were killed at a time and they took whatever from the houses.”

She added that her teenage son was taken by the RSF alongside her brothers to fight, and that when she and her remaining relatives escaped, they saw bodies stacked “like a wall” in the streets.

The duchess told The Times that the experience of talking to the women about their ordeals had left her feeling “quite wobbly.” She said the international community’s attention is “focused very much on other conflicts around the world,” and she wants to “shine the light” on the crisis in Sudan which, The Times said, “aid organisations rank as the world’s gravest” humanitarian crisis.

“This is a human catastrophe that is vast and Chad is having to pick up the pieces when it can ill afford to do,” Sophie said. “The organisations are saying they are seeing budgets being pulled back and things like that because the money is being siphoned to go elsewhere. And, again, whose need is greater? Everybody’s need is great but this is pretty desperate. We’ve got to keep the attention on this.”

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