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The prime minister is kicking the green can down the road.

In the short term, a delay to expensive zero carbon measures may be popular with some voters and, he hopes, see the Tories into another term in office.

But the UK is already falling behind on the pace needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And that’s why green groups are horrified.

This isn’t just about net zero in 2050. There are tough milestones along the way, and some are soon.

By 2030 the UK has an international obligation to reduce emissions by 68% from 1990 levels.

That’s less than seven years away and Rishi Sunak says he remains committed to the target.

At the moment we are well off track.

More on Climate Crisis

According to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), emissions have fallen by 46% since 1990.

Much of that is down to the power sector, which has been exiting expensive fossil fuels as fast as it can. Wind and solar are now so much cheaper than gas.

Strip out electricity generation, though and UK emissions are falling by just 1.2% a year.

That needs to quadruple to stay on track with the carbon targets, the CCC said.

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Several policies have been changed.

So delaying the ban on new petrol and diesel cars, and relaxing the transition away from gas boilers, would seem to put the targets even further out of reach.

The prime minister is banking on technology and the market saving us.

Improving technology and efficiencies of scale are predicted to reduce the cost of an electric vehicle (EV) to the same as a petrol or diesel car sometime this decade.

If the range also increases as predicted, and the charging network is expanded in step with EV sales, then the barriers to driving electric start to crumble and emissions fall.

Ford, Fiat, Peugeot, Volvo and Vauxhall are among several car companies that have said they will stop selling vehicles with an internal combustion engine by 2030.

They’re sticking to their business plan even if the political target slides.

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech on the plans for net-zero commitments in the briefing room at 10 Downing Street, London. Picture date: Wednesday September 20, 2023.

Technology and the market could also help decarbonise home heating, despite the weaker net zero plan.

At the moment, heat pumps are expensive and work best in well-insulated homes with underfloor heating.

But new models can heat radiators to the same high temperatures as gas boilers. And if costs to purchase and run the pumps fall, then gas boilers start to look like dated technology.

Relying on the market to cut emissions is a huge gamble though.

It has reduced the cost of solar and wind technology by 85% since 2010, but there may be reasons – a shortage of lithium for car batteries, for example – that keep the price of EVs high.

If the market doesn’t deliver, then the government will have to play catch-up.

And technology alone won’t get us to net zero. There will need to be some change to our lifestyles, such as eating less meat – which might be good for our health as well as the planet – but that will need political leadership.

The rapidly changing climate is a sure sign that emissions need to come down fast.

We’ve had another year of extreme weather, with lives lost and a big clean-up bill.

And that’s with global temperatures up just 1.1C since the Industrial Revolution.

Currently, emissions targets put the world on course for a rise of 2.8C.

The more governments waver on net zero plans, the worse climate change and the higher the adaptation costs are likely to be.

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Man guilty of murder of Cher Maximen at Notting Hill Carnival

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Man guilty of murder of Cher Maximen at Notting Hill Carnival

A man has been found guilty of murdering a mother as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter.

Cher Maximen, 32, was at the event in west London on 25 August last year when she was stabbed in the groin after trying to intervene in a fight.

Shakeil Thibou, 20, was charged with her murder after she died in hospital on 31 August.

He was found guilty by a majority of 10 to two jurors and is due for sentencing on 16 May.

Cher Maximen
Image:
Cher Maximen

Read more:
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Moments before stabbing Ms Maximen, Thibou carried out an “equally horrifying attack” on a man who was backing away from him, the Old Bailey has heard.

He was also convicted of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to 20-year-old Adjei Isaac with intent, and having an offensive weapon.

At the opening of the trial in February, prosecutor Ed Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen and the group she was with had got caught up in the middle of a “horrifying outbreak of violence”.

At the time, Ms Maximen had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.

 Cher Maximen
Image:
Cher Maximen

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She suffered a 12cm deep knife wound, which caused severe internal bleeding in her groin.

‘Pure anger’ in accused face

As jurors were shown police bodycam footage of the incident during a previous hearing at the Old Bailey, Mr Brown KC told them: “You will see pure anger in the face of Shakeil Thibou. This was right in front of her [Ms Maximen’s] three-year-old daughter.”

The “truly shocking” incident happened in just eight seconds.

How did it happen?

The Old Bailey previously heard how a crowd of hundreds splintered on Golborne Road in west London as Thibou and his two brothers, who were on trial alongside him facing separate charges, had an altercation with at least two other males.

 Cher Maximen
Image:
Cher Maximen

Thibou produced a “huge” knife, described by one witness as a zombie knife, and lunged repeatedly at Mr Isaac in a “determined, thrusting movement”, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Isaac recoiled and during the altercation the pair bumped into Ms Maximen who had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.

The knife, the prosecutor said, missed Mr Isaac by “centimetres”.

Mr Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen struggled to regain her footing after being knocked to the ground.

He said: “Cher Maximen in those moments grabbed hold of Shakeil Thibou’s coat, pulled it and managed to get partially to her feet.

“She appeared to attempt to strike out with her hand at Shakeil who of course was still holding that knife in his hand. Cher Maximen took a step towards Shakeil Thibou and at the same time attempted to raise her right leg out towards him.

“It was at this moment, Shakeil Thibou raised the knife directly towards Cher Maximen and deliberately thrust it towards her, stabbing her in the groin.”

Sheldon Thibou was found guilty of violent disorder and guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Oliver Mort.

Shaeim Thibou was cleared of violent disorder but found guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Mort.

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Cher Maximen: Family’s ‘rage’ after mother fatally stubbed in front of daughter at Notting Hill Carnival

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Cher Maximen: Family's 'rage' after mother fatally stubbed in front of daughter at Notting Hill Carnival

The family of a mother who was fatally stabbed as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter has said “the feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage”.

Cher Maximen, 32, was stabbed at the west London carnival’s “Family Day” on 25 August last year.

Shakeil Thibou, 20, has now been found guilty of her murder, by a majority jury verdict of 10-2, after a trial at the Old Bailey.

“I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost my brother. Nothing has felt like this ever,” Ms Maximen’s cousin Lawrence Hoo told Sky News.

“It is the cruellest thing, it truly is.”

Lawrence Hoo
Image:
Lawrence Hoo

Ms Maximen died at a carnival she had been to so many times – she barely missed one.

On the day, Ms Maximen and her three-year-old daughter arrived at Europe’s biggest street party with a group of friends and their children. They’d been sitting and chatting when she was knocked over by some men who had started fighting.

News of her stabbing came almost immediately. Mr Hoo remembers receiving the call. “When I first heard that she’d been stabbed, I know it sounds silly, but I thought Cher will be alright. Cher’s strong, she’ll get through this.”

Ms Maximen was taken to hospital and underwent a number of emergency procedures before being put on life support.

Cher Maximen and a family member

Mr Hoo immediately headed to London to be at her bedside.

“I can remember being in the hospital being sat there with her, with other family members and that’s the last time I saw her. It still doesn’t feel real. There’s still disbelief,” he said.

“It’s the most senseless act to someone who had so much life and so much to give.”

Ms Maximen died from her injuries six days after the incident.

She was a vivacious young woman who grew up in Bristol and then London, finding her feet working with people in music and entertainment.

Ms Maximen was described as a “people person”, which for Mr Hoo manifested in her being “a bright light” in the lives of her loved ones.

He said: “It’s just this energy she had, she lit up the room. If you walked into a space, you’d know that Cher was there. Her energy itself would fill the room. She was a very bright light.”

Her life changed three years before her death when she became a mother in her late 20s.

Her daughter became her life’s work, she poured her love and energy into creating a person her family describe as her mini-me, “she’s Cher 2.0” Mr Hoo said.

Cher Maximen pictured as a child with her uncle Ty
Image:
Cher Maximen pictured as a child with her uncle Ty

Ms Maximen was stabbed just metres from her daughter on that day.

Mr Hoo said the idea of the toddler witnessing her mother on the ground punctuates the sadness the family feel with anger.

“The feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage,” he said. “She [Ms Maximen’s daughter] is aware that on that day, something happened to her mother.

“She saw her mother drop to the floor, and then she saw her mother bleed. That’s the daughter’s last living memory of her mother. And to live with that, knowing that that’s happened, that somebody did that. That’s why it’s so hard and that’s where the rage comes from.”

The family is now rallying around the little girl who is growing up without her mother.

Mr Hoo said the attack “will be a memory that will recur” for Ms Maximen’s daughter, adding “that is why it is so painful and hard to try to live with”.

“I think the trauma is going to be there, and trauma will raise its head when it chooses to come up. But we’ll be there for her,” he said.

The family held Ms Maximen’s funeral in October, and dozens came to remember a woman who loved to spread joy.

Mr Hoo said their focus is now Cher’s daughter: “It’s difficult to say how do we celebrate this life that was taken so prematurely. But I think it goes into her daughter, and it’s to give her daughter the best life and love, and tell her who her mother was.

“I just wish that we had so much more time.”

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Abuser who murdered husband and buried him in Canterbury garden jailed for 22 years

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Abuser who murdered husband and buried him in Canterbury garden jailed for 22 years

A domestic abuser who murdered her “frail” husband and buried him in the garden has been jailed for at least 22 years.

Maureen Rickards caused her husband “unimaginable pain and suffering”, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

She was found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court last month and today got a life sentence with a minimum of 22 years.

Jeremy Rickards, 65, was found wrapped in bin bags inside a hold-all at the couple’s property in St Martin’s Road, Canterbury, on 11 July last year.

He had five stab wounds to his chest – two of which pierced his heart.

There were also non-fatal injuries sustained about 10 days before his death, as well as other wounds thought to have been weeks old.

Grass cuttings were put over the body in an attempt to hide it, but the judge said police were alerted by an “overpowering odour” that “made them feel ill”.

Kent Police believe he was killed a month earlier and his corpse stored in an attic room cupboard before being moved.

Rickards, 50, told their daughter he had gone to Saudi Arabia for work, but police had no record of him leaving the UK.

The daughter became concerned by the style of messages she received and asked her mother if she’d taken over his phone.

She eventually reported him missing.

Jeremy Rickards: Pic: LinkedIn
Image:
Jeremy Rickards: Pic: LinkedIn

The last record of Mr Rickards being alive was when he topped up his phone on 8 June.

CCTV showed his wife of 27 years using his bank card a few weeks later, with the judge saying the cleaning products she bought were probably to clean up the killing.

Rickards was initially arrested for fraud – but officers searched the property and found the body.

The murder weapon has never been found.

Police said the victim was also seen with bruising on his face a few weeks before his death, telling a pub staff member he had been in a car accident.

But video found on his wife’s phone showed her shouting at him and the sounds of her beating him.

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Mr Rickards briefly moved out of home in early June and was seen with numerous injuries at the property he stayed in.

His wife did not attend sentencing, but judge Mr Justice Kerr directed his comments towards her, saying: “Your videos also clearly show you threatening Jeremy, abusing him, using violence on him, and expressing an intention to kill him.

“He was in frail health and largely defenceless against you.”

Detectives said Rickards has never expressed remorse for the killing and tried to blame others.

“This was a horrific murder of a man who we believe had been a supportive husband to his wife, despite her violence towards him,” said Detective Inspector Colin McKeen.

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