United Kingdom

TL;DR, It passed in the commons but the unelected lords dragged their feet until the bill died.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/44723

The oil lobby is concerned with its bottom line and not much else - and Labour seems to be quite happy to facilitate that

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/44914

Mildly annoying for me, I forgot to save some work in rstudio so now my analysis is set back and has to be paused until May

The confidential health records of half a million British volunteers have been offered for sale on Chinese website Alibaba, the UK government has confirmed.

The data, belonging to participants in the UK Biobank project, was found for sale on three separate listings last week. The records have now been removed and it is not believed any sales were made.

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Ian Murray, the technology minister, told the Commons: “On Monday 20 April, the UK Biobank charity informed the government that it had identified their data had been advertised for sale by several sellers on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms in China.

“Biobank told us that three listings that appear to sell … Biobank participation data had been identified. At least one of these three datasets appeared to contain data from all 500,000 UK Biobank volunteers.”

The data found for sale was “de-identified”, meaning it does not include names, addresses or precise dates of birth.

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The UK Biobank holds the health data of 500,000 volunteers, including genome sequences, brain scans, blood samples and diagnostic records. Scientists at universities and private companies across the world apply for access and, until late 2024, were free to download data directly on to their own computer systems – something that experts have repeatedly warned posed a security risk.

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Web Archive link

The boss of McDonald's UK and Ireland has said she "doesn't want to talk about the past" when asked about allegations of abuse at the fast-food chain.

Lauren Schultz told the BBC what had happened in recent years was "unacceptable" but said "we have drawn a line under it".

A BBC investigation in 2023 heard from more than 100 McDonald's workers in the UK claiming they faced a toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism, and bullying. Last year, staff said they still faced sexual abuse and harassment.

Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool