Category Archives: Viva!

Inheritance tax giveaway to feature in first Tory budget alongside welfare cuts

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Chancellor George Osborne set to unveil policy most likely to benefit higher earners on same day as setting out £12bn benefit reductions

George Osborne is planning to use his first Conservative budget to lift all but the very richest households out of inheritance tax on the same day he sets out billions of pounds in welfare cuts.

The move will allow a couple to pass a house worth up to £1m to their children or grandchildren. The chancellor will create a £175,000, tax-free allowance per person for their main property on top of their existing £325,000 allowance that can be applied to all assets.

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Americas MexicoBlog: Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim dumps Trump deal

Vallarta Daily: A television company controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has canceled a project with real estate developer and TV personality Donald Trump after his comments insulting Mexicans, Slim’s spokesman said on Monday.

This is the third company to cut ties with Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the November 2016 presidential election. NBC said earlier on Monday that it would no longer air the “Miss USA” and “Miss Universe” pageants due to his comments. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision [UVN.UL] also said on Thursday it would not air the “Miss USA” pageant.

via Americas MexicoBlog: Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim dumps Trump deal.

Burqa-wearing gang convicted for series of smash-and-grab raids in London | UK news | The Guardian

A violent “smash-and-grab” gang who wore burqas during a string of high-profile raids in London are facing prison after four members of the group were convicted.

The gang took part in raids dating back to 2007, including a heist at Selfridges department store in which £1.5m worth of watches were stolen.

via Burqa-wearing gang convicted for series of smash-and-grab raids in London | UK news | The Guardian.

The Gifts of Eternal Greece – The New York Times

We knew our purpose. We love Greece and the Greeks; and if ever there were a time to proclaim that love, it is now.

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We each have our reasons. “Greece,” someone remarked — perhaps it was Lawrence Durrell — “gives you the gift of friendship.” That is at the head of my list. I am never happier than in the midst of one of those freewheeling agglomerations of Greeks that form autonomously in kafenia like a flock of starlings over a marsh. If London’s social matrix is continental in scale, then Athens is just a village. How often have I sat in Kolonaki Square, an icy frappé in hand, only to be hailed by a passerby.

And Greece gives you the gift of health. A week spent in sight of the Aegean adds a year to my life, or so I firmly believe. Beauty, too, of course: not just the Parthenon golden at sunset or an island emerging from the blue, but an Athens bookshop named for the muse of lyric poetry where poets are still to be found. The pleasure of small anarchies: Smoking is banned in Greek restaurants, but you’d never know it, Karelias being to Greeks what Smith & Wessons are to Texans, not to be plucked from their fingers by any paternalistic state. Citizens of the surveilled North regard such attitudes as mildly insane, but then we have lost our taste for liberty.

via The Gifts of Eternal Greece – The New York Times.

The Real Lives at Risk in the Supreme Court’s Health Care Decision | National Women’s Law Center

To say that I’m ecstatic about the Supreme Court ruling is an understatement. Not only for myself—that I get to keep my health care and finish cancer treatment—but also for millions of others that get to keep their insurance. Who knows how many people, just today, will be diagnosed with a life threatening disease. Now that SCOTUS has once again ruled that the ACA is the law of the land, perhaps our legislators will work together to make health care better for everyone instead of waging a futile war against this law. This was not a victory for either political party, it is a victory for America. I am so happy and feel a huge weight has been lifted.

It’s because of the brave voices of people like LaDonna that we better understand the importance of this law – and why we’re so grateful we can keep it.

via The Real Lives at Risk in the Supreme Court’s Health Care Decision | National Women’s Law Center.