Author: WTX News

NHS ambulance workers announce fresh strike dates as pay row escalates The Guardian says Ambulance workers have announced a series of fresh strikes including one next month that was already predicted to be the biggest day of stoppages in NHS history. All the new dates announced by the Unite union in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will coincide with strikes already outlined by the GMB union, which also represents ambulance staff. They include 6 February, when up to 40,000 nurses from the Royal College of Nursing will also be on strike in what is set to be a day of…

Ambulance workers announce six more strikes as bitter pay row escalates The Independent says A series of fresh strikes by ambulance workers has been announced by Unite in an escalation of the bitter dispute over pay and staffing. The union said its members across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will stage six further strikes over the coming weeks, warning that additional dates could be announced soon. They will bolster the ranks of their paramedic colleagues with the GMB union, who announced on Wednesday that more than 10,000 of their members in England and Wales will also strike on overlapping dates.…

Who’s on strike today and how will it affect you? Daily update for January 20 The Metro says Schoolchildren in Scotland will be missing more lessons today as teachers go on strike. It marks the end of a week of learning disruption, with teachers set to join the picket line again on Monday in a dispute over pay. In the last month, nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, rail workers, taxi drivers, civil servants, barristers and bus drivers have all taken industrial action. The teacher strikes started on Monday, and will continue until February 6. The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) confirmed…

Jacinda Ardern has no regrets over quitting New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern has said she has “no regrets” about her shock decision to step down as PM. Her announcement was a surprise to both supporters and critics. She said she was feeling a “range of emotions” from sadness to a “sense of relief” just one day after revealing she had “no more in the tank.” Polls suggest her party has a difficult path to re-election in October. She has said she will not openly back any of the likely candidates to replace her. Speaking on Friday outside an airport in…

The union’s executive will consider the offer and decide its next steps ‘in due course’.

In a bizarre example of life imitating art a new book on AI has revealed how hiding under a cardboard box really is the future of warfare.

Deep pockets Down Under.

Chelsea’s sixth signing of the January transfer window is close.

Negan was notoriously sadistic.

Nintendo’s forgotten money-spinner (pic: Nintendo)

One of the best-selling video games of all time may finally be making a return, as Nintendo file a patent for new mobile tech.

If Nintendo really doesn’t have any plans to replace the Nintendo Switch until late next year, then it has a good chance of overtaking the PlayStation 2 and becoming the best-selling console of all time. Currently, the second best-selling console is the Nintendo DS, but despite its enormous success surprisingly few of its biggest franchises are still going.

Nintendo seems to have, thankfully, given up on New Super Mario Bros., while self-help titles like Brain Training and Big Brain Academy have failed to find success on newer formats. The most glaring omission though is Nintendogs, which sold almost 24 million copies back in the day.

Nintendogs was never really a game but a sort of pet simulator where you got to play with and groom a virtual dog. It did get a sequel – 2011’s Nintendogs + Cats on the 3DS – but by that time the market had moved on and smartphones had made these sort of non-games obsolete… or perhaps not.

Fans have discovered a peculiarly detailed patent that describes how a Nintendodgs game would work on a mobile phone, or rather how the AR functions would work as you move the virtual pooch around the screen to make a picture against a real world backdrop.

The word Nintendogs is never mentioned and it’s possible the example of a dog is merely a coincidence, since the patent is concerned only with the camera and AR functions and not the game itself.

Although it’s a dog that’s used in every single illustration, so it doesn’t seem like they just picked some random subject matter.

It does seem like a bit of a no-brainer for mobiles though, since the only problem with Nintendogs + Cats not selling as well is that by that point people weren’t willing to spend £40 on a virtual pet. (Although even then it still managed to shift more than 4 million copies.)

If it was a free app though, that charged a fortune for new dog toys to play with… that sounds like something that could do very well today.

How has this not happened already? (pic: Nintendo)

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MORE : Nintendo Switch 2 release date is late 2024 claims Japanese report

MORE : Nintendo rejected a ‘Wario-Peach’ character to avoid being an anime rip-off

MORE : Warning: This ultimate Nintendo console set-up will melt your brain

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‘He could be the natural fit long-term.’

Think it’s cold now? You won’t believe these record lows.

Figures show 1.5m give more than 50 hours a week, as care system struggles with rising demand Five million people – including children as young as five – provide unpaid care to people with long-term health conditions or problems related to old age, census data for England and Wales has revealed. With the social care system struggling with rising unmet care demand and about half a million people in England waiting for help, there has been an increase over the past decade in the proportion of people spending at least 20 hours a week on unpaid care, from 4.2% of…

City AM – Let them eat cake  London’s business newspaper City AM uses its front page to join in the criticism over the food regulators’ call to ban sweet treats in the office. The front page also features its competition for readers to win three cakes for their office. Read today’s front pages and catch up on the back pages.

This little-known trick will give you some advanced warning.

Metro – Mister Coffee Bean Summary of the front page Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been likened to “feckless comedy character” Mr Bean after making a video to explain inflation using coffee cups in the Treasury canteen, Metro reports. A photograph of the Princess of Wales during a visit to a London school sits atop the Metro’s front page – and proves popular with a number of other papers too. “Kate puts on a brave face” is how the Metro describes the royal, following the fallout from the publication of her brother-in-law Prince Harry’s memoir. Today’s top stories Like this article?…

The Guardian – Nurse and ambulance staff to stage strike Summary of the front page The NHS is facing a day of massive disruption to its services next month when nurses and ambulance staff in England and Wales stage an unprecedented joint strike over pay – that’s on the front of The Guardian. The paper says health service bosses are “hugely concerned” about the coordinated strikes, and believe they could be “the biggest the NHS has ever seen”. The front page also reports on the helicopter crash in Ukraine, which killed at least 14 people on Tuesday, including the Ukrainian…

‘It’s really up to God to help me…’

They ‘undoubtedly left them with psychological wounds which they may never truly recover from’.

The Independent – Back off Boris … or you’ll consign Tories to 10 years in the wilderness Summary of the front page The Independent says Boris Johnson’s comeback risks a 1997-style landslide election defeat for the Conservative Party if his loyalists insist on his return to No 10. That is the stark warning issued by former Brexit secretary minister David Davis as he approaches the anniversary of his dramatic demand for Mr Johnson to quit as prime minister, at the height of last year’s Partygate scandal. Writing for The Independent, Mr Davis warns that while the “continual drumbeat” calling for…

Campaigners say long delay is adding to pollution and government would be betraying manifesto promise if glass is not included The launch of a long awaited deposit return scheme for plastic bottles is expected to be announced by the government. Five years after Michael Gove first promised the scheme, it is understood ministers will on Friday give the go-ahead for a deposit return scheme (DRS) which will not include glass, according to a report in the Grocer magazine. Continue reading… ​Campaigners say long delay is adding to pollution and government would be betraying manifesto promise if glass is not includedThe…

Daily Mirror – Rich Tory tells skint nurses to budget better Summary of the front page A Tory MP has accused nurses using food banks of not budgeting properly, according to the Daily Mirror. The paper’s main focus is a report on “out of touch” remarks made by former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke about nurses. The Conservative MP’s comments, suggesting that nurses using food banks were not budgeting properly, were branded “disgusting” by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union. “Kate’s class” is the front page take on the royal’s school visit. Today’s top stories Like this article? Leave…

The Sun – Gary Linekar: Yes, yes, yes Summary of the front page Gary Lineker laughed off the Match Of The Day “porn noise scandal” and said he took great pleasure filling his half-time analysis with “sex-filled innuendo”, The Sun claims. The paper has an exclusive interview with “notorious prankster” Dan Jarvis, who has claimed responsibility. On Tuesday, sexual noises interrupted live BBC coverage of an FA Cup match between Wolves and Liverpool. Jarvis told the paper he snuck into Wolves’s Molineux stadium a day before kick-off and used double-sided tape to stick a mobile phone to a 7ft wall…

Daily Express – Charles £250m gift to nation Summary of the front page King Charles has given up a “huge windfall from an offshore wind farm deal” which he wants to be used for the “wider public good”, the Daily Express says. The paper calls it the King’s “£250m gift to the nation”. The monarch has reportedly asked the government to ensure the extra money is used for the “wider public good” and that it “benefits the country”, the paper says. His daughter-in-law Kate features on the front page too, with the paper describing her school visit as “child’s play”.…

Ouch.