Marrried at First Sight UK had ‘unhealthy’ focus on sex, say show’s insiders

The changes are part of a sweeping shake-up by Victoria Easton Riley, BBC Scotland’s new head of audio and eventsThere is a “deep sense of unease” among staff at BBC Radio Scotland after a succession of respected arts presenters, more than half of them women, were dropped from schedules.The changes have prompted questions about diversity of coverage amid an apparent shift to a “more commercial sensibility” for the public broadcaster. Continue reading...

Growing fleet of datacentres last year used 22% of the country’s electricityEnergy demand by datacentres in Ireland has added hundreds of euros to household electricity bills in a pattern that could be replicated across Europe, according to a new report.The centres have “drained” €715m (£620m) from the Irish economy and increased household bills by a cumulative average of €360 between 2015 and 2023, said the report commissioned by Friends of the Earth Ireland and Beyond Fossil Fuels. Continue reading...

White House made lengthy post about gorilla shot dead at Cincinnati zoo after a toddler entered his enclosure in 2016The White House has posted on social media a tribute to mark Thursday’s 10th anniversary of the death of a figure it called “a true patriot”.The hero was not a human, however, it concerned the infamous case of the 400lb western lowland gorilla that had been named Harambe, which was shot dead at the Cincinnati zoo after a toddler entered his enclosure and mingled with the animal. Continue reading...

What’s Carol Vorderman moaning about? All I said was how fit she was online … must be going through the menopauseAnother sweltering sub-Saharan summer’s day in late spring. If this is global warming, I say: “Bring it on.” I go outside to the van, turn on the engine and leave it running. This is the kind of day you want to burn as many fossil fuels as possible. Back indoors, I turn on the radio where Tony Blair is talking. There’s a politician who talks sense.Bollocks to net zero. That’s what I say. It stands to reason. I mean, think back to the ice age. Let’s face it, there weren’t that many international flights a day while the Neanderthals were alive – five or six at most – and the world still got a whole lot hotter. So it’s all just woke nonsense. Make a note in my diary to ask if Tony is free to come up to Makerfield to do some door-knocking. Continue reading...

Government will consider the expert guidance, which concludes screening ‘likely to cause more harm than good’Most men in the UK will not be offered prostate cancer screening if the government accepts the final recommendation of an expert committee.The UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) said attempting to detect the disease using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test was “likely to cause more harm than good”. Continue reading...

Energy specialists say abandoning net zero and increasing oil and gas drilling would cause more instability for BritonsAbandoning net zero and drilling for more oil and gas in the North Sea would be a massive setback for the UK and would not help the economy, leading experts have said in response to claims by the former prime minister Tony Blair.“This is a bizarre intervention to make during the worst May heatwave on record and when the Iran crisis is providing yet more evidence of the enormous costs of oil and gas,” said Ed Matthew, the UK programme director at the E3G thinktank. “Clean energy is cheaper energy - it protects our bills from prices skyrocketing, its running costs are virtually zero, and it doesn’t cause climate change which threatens economic collapse ... The government should ignore Blair’s ideological nonsense and focus on what works.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Package of measures discussed with farmers, including pause on duty due to come into effect next year Ministers are in discussions about suspending a carbon tax on fertilisers, due to come into effect early next year, in an effort to curb food inflation.The move would be part of a package of measures, including the suspension of import tariffs on a range of foods including bread, biscuits and bananas. Continue reading...

European Commission finds shoppers on Chinese website very likely to find unsafe items and imposes €200m penaltyEU regulators have fined the Chinese shopping website Temu €200m (£173m) for failing to stop the sale of illegal and dangerous products.The European Commission imposed the penalty after a 19-month investigation that found consumers were very likely to encounter illegal or unsafe products including baby toys and electronics on the firm’s website. Continue reading...

Case involving seven-year-old boy is latest flashpoint in debate over race relations in Latin America‘Argentina needs to end its fantasy of being a European country’: Lucrecia Martel on the story of a killingA woman celebrating her 32nd birthday on a train journey in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais was horrified when a fellow passenger alerted her that an unknown man had been secretly filming her seven-year-old son.When confronted, the man – an Argentinian tourist – initially refused to show his phone. But after being pressed by other travellers, the man admitted he had sent the images to a WhatsApp contact. Continue reading...

Pathologist found Andrew Frederick’s death was a homicide but UK authorities refused specialist helpThe grieving family of a British man found dead in his home on the Caribbean island of Grenada have accused UK authorities of failing to support their fight for justice.The family of Andrew Frederick, 47, whose body was discovered on 4 January, are calling for an urgent review of the policies governing UK assistance to the loved ones of Brits killed abroad. Continue reading...

Prosecutors said Vickrum Digwa lied about the fatal attack on Henry Nowak after claiming self-defenceA man has been found guilty of murdering a university student with a 21cm-long knife that he said he was carrying for religious reasons.When police arrived at the scene in Southampton, Vickrum Digwa, 23, claimed his victim, 18-year-old Henry Nowak, had racially abused him and knocked his turban off, prompting police to handcuff the teenager before they discovered his fatal wounds. Continue reading...