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The new ball-shaped venue and world's largest LED, the Las Vegas Sphere, is now open to the public. Irish rock band U2 played the first show of its residency on 29 September. This is the first time the inside of the venue has been seen. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-66979484

Video footage showing an incident recorded in a Co-op in the West Midlands this year. Photograph: Co-op Almost 90 retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WH Smith, have written to the government demanding action on rising retail crime, in which violent criminals are “emptying stores”. The retailers, who also include the bosses of Aldi, Primark and Superdrug, call for the creation of a new UK-wide aggravated offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker – as already exists in Scotland – which would carry tougher sentences and require police to record all incidents of retail crime and allow the allocation of more resources. “The police consistently tell us that a lack of data about these offences means they have no visibility about the nature or scale of the issue,” the letter says. The 88 retail bosses have asked for a meeting with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to discuss the issue after a meeting with the minister for crime, Chris Philp, led to the promise to develop an action plan. The call comes after retailers, including the Co-op and John Lewis, highlighted what they said was a worsening issue. A survey of members of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all the major chains, found levels of shoplifting in 10 of the biggest cities had risen by an average of 27% this year. Meanwhile, the police’s own data for one major retailer shows that forces failed to respond to 73% of serious retail crimes that were reported, while 44% of retailers in the BRC’s annual crime survey rated the police response as “poor” or “very poor”. FULL STORY

The government has admitted it will cost businesses £330m each year in additional charges when new post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products imported from the European Union are implemented next year. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a minister of state in the Cabinet Office, confirmed the estimated annual cost adding that the UK needs tighter border controls to “protect our international reputation” in a letter to Labour MP Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe. “It will depend greatly on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the new controls regime,” said Baroness Neville-Rolfe, in the response to Creasy. “We estimate these new costs of the model at £330m [per annum] overall, across all EU imports. We have not had full biosecurity controls in place at our border since leaving the European Union.” Food and logistics firms have repeatedly warned that the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy risks further pushing up food prices, which have already surged due to rampant inflation. In August, the government delayed for the fifth time the introduction of post-Brexit checks on food, plant and animal produce arriving in Britain, meaning they will not begin until the end of January 2024. The government said the delay in implementation – from late October – followed talks with industry which said businesses needed more time to prepare. The move has also been interpreted as a response to concerns that the start of checks would further fuel food price inflation during the cost of living crisis, although the government said the impact of the new border strategy on headline inflation would amount to “less than 0.2% across three years”. FULL STORY

Case could cost former president a fortune and end his control of the empire that made him the world’s most famous businessman. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole,” Donald Trump wrote 36 years ago in his best-selling book, The Art of the Deal. “It’s an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion.” This week a New York judge called Trump’s “truthful hyperbole” fraud in a ruling that could cost the former president a fortune and end his control of the business empire that made him the world’s most famous businessman and president of the United States. Trump is mired in litigation but perhaps no case is more personal to him than the one set to begin on Monday at a Manhattan courthouse near the city’s financial district. The case, brought by New York attorney general Letitia James, comes after a three-year investigation into Trump’s complex and sprawling businesses. James contends Trump consistently overstated the value of his assets to broker deals and obtain financing. What had looked set to be a months-long affair will probably be much shorter after New York supreme court Justice Arthur Engoron agreed and found Trump guilty of fraud days before the case had even begun. The ruling struck at the foundations of Trump’s image, ending his ability to run his real estate company in New York state and, unless overturned, could force him to hand over control of his New York properties — including Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan from which he launched his presidential victory — to an independent third party, otherwise known as a receiver. One essential question remains: how much will he have to pay up? James is asking for a fine of at least $250m – the minimal amount, the office determined, that Trump’s company gained from fudging financial statements over the course of a decade to bolster the value of its assets. It is a huge sum, even for a man who claims to be as rich as Trump. FULL STORY

A hardline Republican says he will seek to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week, after he pushed through a last-minute spending bill with support from the opposition Democrats. Mr McCarthy submitted the bill - aimed at averting a government shutdown - in defiance of the right of his party. They had already vowed to topple him if he tried to overcome their opposition with Democratic support. Hardline Republicans in both houses of Congress voted against the motion. Republicans control the House of Representatives, with Democrats enjoying a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. On Sunday, Rep Matt Gaetz vowed to oust Mr McCarthy, telling the CNN that House Republicans needed "trustworthy" leadership. "I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week," said Mr Gaetz, long a vocal critic of the Californian congressman. "I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy." The Florida Congressman, who is among the party's most right-wing members and a keen ally of former President Donald Trump, has been threatening to force a vote on Mr McCarthy's future for weeks. Along with other hard-right Republicans in the so-called Freedom Caucus, Mr Gaetz refused to back successive budgets proposed by Mr McCarthy, insisting on heavy spending cuts and an end to new military aid to Ukraine. FULL STORY

President Joe Biden has vowed continued US support for Ukraine, after further military funding was excluded from a last-minute congressional budget deal. The temporary measure, pushed through to avert a government shutdown, did not include $6bn (£4.92bn) in military aid for Kyiv - a top White House priority. Hardline Republicans oppose further military aid, with many openly opposing Mr Biden's approach to the war. But on Sunday Mr Biden said Ukraine could "count on" US support. "We cannot, under any circumstances, allow US support to Ukraine to be interrupted," Mr Biden said. "I can reassure [Ukraine] we'll get there, that we're going to get it done," he said on restoring funding for the war. "I want to assure our American allies... that you can count on our support, we will not walk away." The US has already supplied some $46bn (£37bn) in military aid to Ukraine since Russian launched its full scale invasion in February 2022. President Biden has requested another $24bn (£19bn). And in recent months the US has sent state of the art equipment to Kyiv - including long-range missiles and Abrams tanks. It comes as Kyiv's forces continue to launch a slow moving counter-offensive in the south of the country. US Congress avoids government shutdown in last-minute deal Russian video 'shows Black Sea fleet commander alive' How Zelensky is grappling with Western war fatigue But Saturday's temporary budget agreement - which will fund the US federal government for 45 days - stripped out continued military funding for the time being. FULL STORY

Russia’s invasion has had a major impact on the bloc’s security and energy policies – and even its very raison d’être by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor “The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way.” The words of the Danish politician and EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager at a conference in May neatly reflect the mood among the Brussels elite, taken aback at their own ability to shed EU bureaucratic torpor, defend Ukraine, embrace enlargement and move closer to fulfilling Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition for the EU to become a “geopolitical force”. “Our response to the invasion was by the hour at first, now not to the same degree, but it is absolutely Europe’s top priority and we will stay supportive of Ukraine until the war is won and Ukraine has been rebuilt, and become a member of the European Union,” Vestager continued. “I think that is the crucial commitment that has been made, and that will be a better union when that is brought about – a more dynamic union and a more united union.” Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion, Josep Borrell, the EU foreign and security chief, argued the EU had grown up, “making more progress in a week toward the objective of being a global security player than it had in the previous decade”. The example of the brave Ukrainian resistance sprang the EU into a newfound sense of purpose. FULL STORY

Former president and frontrunner for GOP nomination also warns ‘this country will die’ if Joe Biden wins election Donald Trump called for shooting store robbers on Friday in a bleak speech to California Republicans –and warned “this country will die!” if Joe Biden remained president. During the address to GOP members, Trump also railed that wealthy Beverly Hills residents smell because of water denials, and repeated election fraud lies, according to the Associated Press. “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” Trump said, spurring applause. “Shot!” The rhetoric is in keeping with Trump’s tough-on-crime mantra but signified a ramped up emphasis on punishment. Trump has previously pitched shooting migrants to keep them from entering the US. The former defense secretary Mark Esper has said that Trump asked about shooting George Floyd protesters. He also floated imposing the death penalty on convicted drug dealers, cop-killers and human traffickers, AP said. Several other GOP presidential hopefuls also attended the event. It is unlikely that California voters will pick a Republican during the general election, but any GOP candidate that triumphs in this state’s primary sees an easier path to the nomination. California has 169 delegates up for grabs and a novel change in rules could give Trump, who is leading the GOP pack, a leg up. Under this new rule, Trump would take each of California’s delegates should he garner more than 50% of its primary vote, AP explained. FULL STORY

The Senate passed a bill Saturday to extend government funding for 45 days, sending the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk with just hours left to avoid a federal shutdown. The Senate approved the bill in a bipartisan vote of 88 to 9, easily surpassing the 60-vote threshold needed for passage. Nine senators, all Republicans, opposed it. “It’s been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief. There will be no shutdown,” the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said after the vote. “Our bipartisanship made this possible and showed the House that they had to act.” The Senate vote came hours after the proposal passed the House in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 335 to 91, with 209 Democrats joining 126 Republicans in supporting the legislation. Ninety House Republicans opposed the bill. The bill – unveiled by the House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, on Saturday morning – will extend funding through 17 November and allocate $16bn for disaster aid. The bill does not include additional funding for Ukraine, which has become a source of outrage among hard-right lawmakers. At the last minute, Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, threatened to block the bill’s advancement because of its lack of Ukraine funding. But leaders of both parties promised that Congress would soon take up a supplemental appropriations bill to provide additional financial assistance to Ukraine. “I’m confident the senator will pass further urgent assistance to Ukraine later this year,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader. “But let’s be clear: the alternative to our action today, an entirely avoidable government shutdown, would not just pause our progress on these important priorities. It would actually set them back.” McCarthy introduced the stopgap bill under suspension of the rules, meaning he needed the support of two-thirds of House members to advance the proposal. Although House Democrats also criticized the bill’s lack of Ukraine funding, they ultimately provided McCarthy with the support needed to get the legislation across the finish line. FULL STORY

Ruth Swailes, an early childhood specialist, alleges the Department for Education tried to cancel a conference she was speaking at because she had criticised its policies. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer The Department for Education (DfE) is keeping files monitoring the social media activity of some of the country’s leading educational experts, the Observer can reveal. At least nine experts have uncovered files held on them, some as long as 60 pages. One individual even discovered the department had compiled an Excel spreadsheet in which officials had detailed who she interacted with. Officials at the DfE also tried to cancel a conference because two of the scheduled speakers had previously criticised government policy. Ruth Swailes and Aaron Bradbury, co-authors of a bestselling book on early childhood, were told by the organisers of a government-sponsored event for childminders and nursery workers, which they were due to speak at in March, that the DfE planned to cancel the conference just days before it opened because they were deemed to be “unsuitable” headline speakers. The event was eventually allowed to go ahead after Swailes and Bradbury threatened the department with legal action, although a senior government official was present to “monitor” what they said. Speaking to the Observer, Bradbury, principal lecturer in early childhood studies at Nottingham Trent University, said: “I received a phone call from the organisers saying there were some concerns about us being speakers. The DfE had decided we were unsuitable because we had been critical of government policy.” He said: “To be told that we couldn’t have this debate felt like we were living in a dictatorship, not a democracy. “We were due to talk about nurturing and early child development. It wasn’t some covert stuff about infiltrating Russia.” Swailes, an independent consultant who advises schools and nurseries on early years education, was so shocked that she filed a subject access request, requiring the DfE to disclose any documents it held on her. FULL STORY'

ATLANTA — Scott Hall, one of the 18 defendants charged along with former President Donald Trump for allegedly interfering with the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, pleaded guilty Friday. Hall is the first defendant to enter a plea in the case. Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office, Hall pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges and will be sentenced to five years' probation, if he abides by the terms of the deal. He also agreed to testify in related court hearings and trials stemming from the sprawling 41-count indictment that was unsealed in August. “Do you understand that conditions of your probation in this sentence is that you testify truthfully at any further court proceedings to include trials of any co-defendants that is listed on the original indictment in which you were charged,” the DA's office asked Hall in a Friday afternoon hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. “Yes, ma’am,” he responded. Hall pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of an election. Hall, 59, is a bail bondsman who was hit with charges relating to a voting system breach in Georgia’s Coffee County in early 2021. He was also the first of the 19 defendants charged in the case to surrender last month. FULL STORY

Many astronomers are no longer asking whether there is life elsewhere in the Universe. The question on their minds is instead: when will we find it? Many are optimistic of detecting life signs on a faraway world within our lifetimes - possibly in the next few years. And one scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes as far as saying it would be "surprising" if there was no life on one of the planet's icy moons. Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently detected tantalising hints at life on a planet outside our Solar System - and it has many more worlds in its sights. Numerous missions that are either underway or about to begin mark a new space race for the biggest scientific discovery of all time. "We live in an infinite Universe, with infinite stars and planets. And it's been obvious to many of us that we can't be the only intelligent life out there," says Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland's Astronomer Royal. "We now have the technology and the capability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos." The 'Goldilocks zone' Telescopes can now analyse the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars for signs of chemicals that, on Earth at least, can be produced only by living organisms. The first flicker of such a discovery occurred earlier this month with the possible sign of a gas that is produced by simple marine organisms on Earth in the atmosphere of a planet named K2-18b, which is 120 light years away. FULL STORY

The US inched closer to a government shutdown after hardline Republicans rejected a last-minute funding deal in the House of Representatives. Congress faces a deadline of midnight on Saturday to pass a new budget before thousands of federal employees are placed on unpaid leave. The Senate has forged ahead with plans for a temporary funding agreement - which House Republicans have opposed. The two chambers of Congress are controlled by different parties. The Republican-led House of Representatives failed to pass its own short-term spending bill on Friday, with 232 votes against the measure and 198 in favour. More than a dozen of the most hardline Republican representatives voted against its passage. After the vote on Friday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the chamber might still pass a funding extension, but he declined to say what would happen next. "It's only a failure if you quit," he told reporters. The House adjourned on Friday evening without reaching a deal. Members will return on Saturday 10:00 local time (15:00 GMT), when more votes are expected. Their plan would have extended funding through the end of October but included deep spending cuts that would have made it a non-starter for Democrats, who run the Senate, as well as border provisions that many Democrats have opposed. President Joe Biden on Friday warned that a shutdown could take a heavy toll on the armed forces. "We can't be playing politics while our troops stand in the breach. It's an absolute dereliction of duty," Mr Biden said at a retirement ceremony for Mark Milley, a senior general. The conflicting House and Senate funding plans have increased the likelihood of a shutdown and have exposed deep rifts in the Republican party, with some lawmakers expressing exasperation at the hardline conservatives who have so far stood in the way of a funding deal. California Republican Mike Garcia, for example, told Reuters that he felt "frustrated" as the shutdown loomed. FULL STORY

The camera bulbs flashed and Dianne Feinstein took the podium, beaming confidently in front of hundreds of cheering supporters. "Tonight, history is being made," she declared. "In California, two women will be elected to the Senate of the United States." Ms Feinstein was one of them. The 1992 election that saw an unprecedented number of women - four- elected to Congress' upper chamber. The phenomenon, dubbed "the year of the woman", heralded a new era in Washington, and Ms Feinstein was part of it. Ms Feinstein spent the next three decades in the Senate until her death at age 90, which her office announced on Friday. By this point, Ms Feinstein has become a symbol not of progress but of Congress' aging leadership. She spent the last two years in office facing calls to resign over health and cognitive issues that kept her away from Washington for several months. Yet her career was full of historic moments, of which her Senate election was only one. She was a ferocious political operator who witnessed an assassination, led a major American city, fought for gun safety regulations, battled with the US intelligence apparatus, and served as the unofficial dean of California politics. FULL STORY

Reported flame post and responses removed.

MOVED to more appropriate forum.

Tensions over the resource-rich region are intensifying as China attempts to cut access for nations with competing claims, such as the Philippines Shaky camera footage, a member of the Philippine coast guard can be seen dipping below the waters of South China Sea, ready to carry out the instructions of the country’s president. “Just cut it off,” says a voice in the background and the coast guard, posing as a fisher in a snorkel, proceeds to hack away at a piece of rope. The video, taken on Monday near the fiercely contested Scarborough Shoal, shows the Philippines’ mission to remove what it described as a hazardous floating barrier installed by China’s coast guard. It had been erected to cut off access to Philippine boats, the Philippine coast guard alleged, accusing their counterparts of violating international law. China has defended its actions as “professional and restrained”. The episode was the latest in an intensifying dispute over the South China Sea – a row that, were it to escalate, could bring the US, a Philippine ally, into confrontation with its rival, China. Manila has, over the past year, repeatedly accused Beijing of dangerous and aggressive tactics in the South China Sea, including allegations that China directed a military-grade laser at a Philippine vessel and that it aimed water cannon at Philippine boats as they travelled within their country’s exclusive economic zone. “The risk [of] miscalculation is getting higher because of China’s escalation,” says Jay L Batongbacal, a lawyer and professor at the University of the Philippines. Beijing has rejected the notion that it is an aggressor and has said it supports dialogue with the Philippines. Last month, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, accused the US of provoking conflict between Beijing and Manila, saying it had “disrupted the peace and tranquillity of the South China Sea, to serve the United States’ own geopolitical strategy”. FULL STORY

Evacuation plans being drafted after activity on Campi Flegrei field, which experts warned earlier in 2023 was in a dangerous state Concern is mounting over the risk of an eruption on a sprawling volcanic area close to Naples after the area was struck by the strongest earthquake in 40 years. Seismic activity on Campi Flegrei, a constellation of ancient volcanic craters, has intensified over the past year and especially in recent months, with more than 80 events occurring in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the biggest being a 4.2 magnitude quake. “Considering that seismic activity has only increased in recent months, at the moment we don’t see an end,” Carlo Doglioni, the president of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), told TGCom24. Doglioni said the best-case scenario would be that the activity ends, as it did after a long period of unrest in the early 1980s, while the worst would be an eruption akin to the last one in 1538, which created a series of small hills and craters. “We are monitoring the situation but we don’t know how it will evolve,” he said. “In the event of an eruption, we don’t know when or where it could happen. However small, it would cause social unrest.” FULL STORY

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) reiterated his threat Thursday to hold up a Senate government funding bill because it includes more than $6 billion in funding for Ukraine. Paul wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that he would only allow a vote on the spending stopgap before the Sept. 30 deadline for funding government if Senate leaders pull out the money for Ukraine. “To avoid a government shutdown, I will consent to an expedited vote on a clean CR without Ukraine aid on it. If leadership insists on funding another country’s government at the expense of our own government, all blame rests with their intransigence,” he wrote. So far, neither Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) nor Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have signaled any willingness to pull the Ukraine money out of the bill. “I’m comfortable with the way we put together the Senate bill,” McConnell told reporters Wednesday. Anticipating Paul’s objections to speeding up the floor debate, leaders have told rank-and-file senators to expect to vote through Sunday to get the temporary funding measure through the Senate. It would fund the government until Nov. 17. FULL STORY

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said he thinks there is “overwhelming evidence” that President Biden is involved in his son Hunter Biden’s business schemes. Comer is the Chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which held its first hearing Thursday to weigh evidence into impeaching Biden. “There’s overwhelming evidence that Joe Biden was involved in all of these shady business schemes. That’s a problem. That’s a threat to our national security,” Comer said on Fox News Thursday. “We’re going to continue to move forward and follow the money.” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden after Republicans alleged the president and his son profited from foreign business deals. Comer said the evidence the committee does have includes bank wires that show “Biden took $20 million from foreign nationals in at least five different countries.” “They can’t say one thing they did to earn that $20 million,” Comer said. “We also have evidence that they started 20 shell companies. They used these shell companies to receive the wires from the foreign nationals.” Comer said on Thursday that he signed the subpoena for Biden’s personal bank accounts because, unlike Hunter Biden, the president “has flown under the radar because, quite frankly, he didn’t leave a laptop laying around.” Each of the witnesses testifying during the hearing said that there was not enough evidence yet to impeach Biden. FULL STORY

It states in the article "buy advance tickets online" and provides a link to here https://12go.asia/en Never used this service myself but the website looks good, choose the route and it shows you your options etc. THIS IS NOT direct with the Bus company obviously an agency of some kind so prices may be slightly inflated. INFO ONLY not a recommendation.

Sweden's prime minister has summoned the head of the armed forces to help curb a surge in gang killings. The two men and the country's police chief will meet on Friday to discuss what role the military could play. It comes after a bloody 12 hours that saw two men shot dead in Stockholm and a 25-year-old woman killed in a blast at home in a town north of the capital. "We will hunt the gangs down and we will defeat them," PM Ulf Kristersson promised in a rare televised address. Armed forces chief Micael Byden told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter he was prepared to assist police efforts. It is not clear exactly how the military might get involved but previous talks suggest soldiers may take over certain policing duties to allow officers to free up resources for crime-fighting. Some critics have described the proposed measures as superficial, arguing they treat the symptoms rather than root causes of the violence. So far this month, 12 people have been killed in gang violence - the highest number since December 2019, according to Dagens Nyheter. Swedish media have connected the recent surge to a conflict involving a gang known as the Foxtrot network, which has been rocked by infighting and split into two rival factions. Mr Kristersson said Sweden had not seen anything like it before and that "no other country in Europe" was experiencing this kind of situation. HARDtalk with Foreign Minister Tobias Billström: Controversy in Sweden Man dies in shooting at Sweden shopping centre He stressed that children and innocent bystanders were increasingly being caught up in violence across the country. The overnight explosion in Fullero, some 80km (50 miles) north of Stockholm, killed a woman thought to be a neighbour of a person with connections to organised crime. She went to sleep "on a completely ordinary evening but never got to wake up", the prime minister said. FULL STORY