United Kingdom

Chris Packham has filed a high court legal challenge to the UK government over its decision to weaken key climate policies.

The broadcaster and environmental campaigner has applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to ditch the timetable for phasing out petrol and diesel powered cars and vans, gas boilers, off-grid fossil fuel domestic heating and minimum energy ratings for homes.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said it rejected Packham’s claims and would “robustly” defend the challenge. The measures and their schedule had been set out in the government’s carbon budget delivery plan, which was put before parliament in March this year.

“The result of a three-year inquiry by a group of the nation’s top academics, businesspeople and policymakers, the study warned that a generation of younger adults was being failed in particular – with 9 million having never worked in an economy with sustained average wage rises.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/8844309

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagos_Archipelago_sovereignty_dispute

There was a “missed opportunity” to tighten security in NHS mortuaries after Jimmy Savile’s crimes were unearthed, the chair of a major inquiry into serial necrophiliac David Fuller has told The Independent.

Fuller spent 15 years sexually abusing the corpses of more than 100 women and girls at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, after police found a trove of images at his home in 2020 during an investigation into a long-unsolved double murder he committed in 1987.

An independent inquiry concluded on Tuesday that “serious failings” in management and procedures – and a persistent “lack of curiosity” – at the hospitals Fuller worked at enabled the 68-year-old electrician to carry out his crimes for so long without ever being suspected.

The probe identified a host of missed chances to catch Fuller, who is alleged to have accessed the mortuary 444 times in a year, checked logbooks to scan for potential disease in the corpses he abused, and frequently locked himself in the post-mortem examination room to commit his crimes.

Inquiry chair Sir Jonathan Michael made 17 recommendations for tightening security at the mortuary, but he also lamented that similar steps had not been across the NHS back in 2015 after inquiries into Savile detailed suspicions about the notorious paedophile’s abuse of dead bodies at Leeds general infirmary.

...

A 2014 inquiry focused on Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust detailed “incredibly harrowing” but uncofirmed allegations that Savile – who had unrestricted access to the mortuary – committed sex acts on corpses there, and claimed to have jewellery made from glass eyes taken from the dead.

James Dyson has lost his libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mirror.

The inventor, 76, gave evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice for two days in a trial against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over an article published in January 2022.

In the Daily Mirror article, the journalist Brian Reade referred to the engineer as “the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore”.

Reade continued: “Kids, talk the talk but then screw your country and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it up.”

Dyson brought the high court claim against MGN, describing the allegations in the article as a “vicious and vitriolic” personal attack.

The only link I can find with a video link is Max Robespierre.

and Kirsty

isnt that a thought

RIP you beautiful bastards

Britain’s equality watchdog could lose its right to participate at the UN human rights council as a result of complaints about its independence and record on transgender rights.

The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganhri), which accredits bodies based on internationally recognised standards, has launched a special review of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The review could lead to the commission losing its A status, which gives it independent participation rights at the UN human rights council as well as the right to vote and hold governance positions in Ganrhi.

But not before shes been on every news outlet she can find to claim she was pickpocketed. Rather than say thank you to a stranger.

As if you need any more proof shes a fucking idiot, leaving your wallet on the tube is something many people can sympathise with. Everyone feels like an idiot sometimes, but some just have to blame the enemy inside their own head.

Why do the Conservatives keep inflicting their most stupid people on the population of the capital? No serious candidate in over ten years, and you could argue Boris wasnt a serious candidate too.

Potentially toxic “forever chemicals” have been detected in the drinking water sources at 17 of 18 England’s water companies, with 11,853 samples testing positive, something experts say they are “extremely alarmed” by.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – a group of 10,000 or so human-made chemicals widely used in industrial processes, firefighting foams and consumer products – were found in samples of raw and treated water tested by water companies last year, according to the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), the Guardian and Watershed Investigations has found.

A teaspoon’s worth of dark dust and granules scooped from an asteroid 200m miles from Earth has arrived at the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are preparing to unlock its secrets.

Researchers at the museum received 100mg of the pristine material, which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system, after Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission stopped at asteroid Bennu in 2020 and returned samples to Earth in September.

Over 13million people had an issue with the last parcel they received, according to new research, as a league table of the worst offending firms has also been revealed.

A third of shoppers experienced a problem with a parcel in the last month, either because of late delivery or parcels being left in insecure locations, according to Citizens Advice.

The consumer charity has also published its annual parcel delivery rankings, which shows major parcel firms have delivered a dire service for the third year running.

....

Evri and Yodel came bottom of the parcel table, with an overall score of just 2 stars out of a possible 5, followed closely by DPD with a meagre 2.25 stars.

Royal Mail and Amazon jointly came top, but with just 2.75 stars out of 5.

The top five firms have been measured on their performance on delivery problems - of which Yodel, DPD and Evri are the worst performers - as well as customer service, accessibility and trust.

Royal Mail and Amazon scored 2.6 out of 5 on delivery, followed by DPD with 2 out of 5 and Yodel and Evri both scoring 1.8 out of 5.

...

When it came to customer service, nearly half of consumers said they faced further issues when they tried to resolve a problem with their delivery - for example not getting a response to their complaint.

Amazon's customer service was miles ahead of competitors, scoring 3.6 out of 5, while Royal Mail scored 3. Yodel came bottom with 2.3 out of 5 and also scored the lowest on trust.

...

Four of the five major firms scored 2 stars or below when it came to meeting the needs of disabled customers or individuals who required adjustments to deliveries.

...

Royal Mail came out top with 2.8 out of 5 stars, while Amazon, DPD and Yodel scored 2 out of 5.

Evri scored just 1.6 out of 5 when it came to helping customers with accessibility needs.