United Kingdom

cross-posted from: https://derp.foo/post/274284

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

cross-posted from: https://derp.foo/post/274883

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

NHS England says that software that pulls together masses of records will allow doctors to spot patterns in illness, use resources better and improve hospitals falling behind on backlog recovery. They insist this is not a database and the company operating the software will not be able to see medical records.

However, others in the health service are scarred by the collapse a decade ago of the care.data scheme to create a database of GP records, which was abandoned after a revolt by family doctors.

There is nervousness among senior doctors that the NHS has not explained the rationale for the scheme and the potential role of Palantir.

The home secretary riled some in her party by suggesting that being gay or a woman and fearful of discrimination should not be enough to qualify as a refugee in the UK. Her speech was seen as a warning that the UK could commit to leaving the European convention on human rights (ECHR), if the scheme to remove migrants who arrive in small boats is blocked by the supreme court.

The Vulcan 20-20 will help scientists working on nuclear fusion, understanding plasma, new renewable energy sources and studying electromagnetic fields.

Energy network operator to run a trial to reduce gas demand if shortages loom

It was hoped video would increase transparency in policing, but BBC has uncovered 150 reports of failings.

Wildlife in Britain, already one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, is continuing its long-term decline, according to the most comprehensive assessment ever carried out of UK biodiversity.

The State of Nature report, compiled by 60 conservation bodies in the public and charitable sectors and based on years of monitoring by thousands of volunteers, found that 16 per cent of the 10,000 species of plants and animals surveyed in Britain were threatened with extinction. This figure is much higher for birds (43 per cent) and reptiles and amphibians (31 per cent).

The study estimated that the abundance of the species studied — the number of individuals living in the wild — had declined on average by 19 per cent since 1970. But flora and fauna had already been highly depleted by human activity over previous centuries, so “the UK now has less than half of its biodiversity remaining”, the report said.

“The UK’s wildlife is better studied than in any other country in the world and what the data tell us should make us sit up and listen,” said Beccy Speight, chief executive of the RSPB, which co-ordinated the report. “What is clear is that progress to protect our species and habitats has not been sufficient, and yet we know we urgently need to restore nature to tackle the climate crisis and build resilience.”

The authors describe many actions that would help to revive biodiversity and achieve the government target of halting biodiversity loss by 2030. An estimated 70 per cent of Britain’s land area is agricultural, so the biggest single contribution will be “to implement nature-friendly farming at a much wider scale,” the report said. Farmland birds, which have declined by 58 per cent in 50 years, are in particular need of help.

Something else that “would make a huge difference”, said Richard Gregory of the RSPB, is “to make sure that the 11 per cent of the UK legally protected for conservation is really protected”.

“We have swaths of land, such as national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, that are not really being protected because the management is not up to scratch,” he said.

To extract oil and gas from a facility like this, a series of wells are drilled into the seabed and then the products extracted to a ship moored to the seabed. This offloads the oil onto big ships called tankers, while the gas is sent down a pipeline.

The drilling and anchoring of the ship, as well as chemicals released, have the potential to disturb the seabed and damage habitats - and potentially kill animals living there such as soft corals and sea spiders.

There is also a lot of noise produced underwater when oil is extracted. This is important because many species in the marine environment use sound to communicate.

What Rosebank produces will be sold at world market prices, so the project will not cut energy prices for UK consumers, the Norwegian state oil company Equinor - which is the majority owner of Rosebank - confirmed.