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A U.S. District Court judge is temporarily preventing White House officials from meeting with tech companies about social media censorship, arguing that such actions in the past were likely First Amendment violations. The Tuesday injunction by Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty was in response to recent lawsuits from Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general. The suits allege that the White House coerced or "significantly encourage[d]" tech companies to suppress free speech during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doughty is barring several federal officials and agencies – including some of Biden's Cabinet members and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre – from contacting social media companies in efforts to suppress speech. Google, Meta and Twitter were all named in the lawsuits. FULL STORY

President Biden called on Republican lawmakers to “come to the table on meaningful, commonsense reforms” following several “tragic and senseless shootings” leading up to Independence Day. The president’s Tuesday statement comes after a slew of recent shootings, including one in Fort Worth, Texas, Monday night that left three people dead and eight wounded, a Philadelphia shooting the same night that killed five people and injured two children, and a Baltimore block party shooting Sunday that left two people dead and 28 injured. “Today, Jill and I grieve for those who have lost their lives and, as our nation celebrates Independence Day, we pray for the day when our communities will be free from gun violence,” Biden wrote in the statement. Biden called attention to the first anniversary of last year’s Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, Ill., where seven people were killed and dozens were injured at a parade. FULL STORY

A trade war between China and the United States over the future of semiconductors is escalating. Beijing hit back Monday by playing a trump card: It imposed export controls on two strategic raw materials, gallium and germanium, that are critical to the global chipmaking industry. “We see this as China’s second, and much bigger, counter measure to the tech war, and likely a response to the potential US tightening of [its] AI chip ban,” said Jefferies analysts. Sanctioning one of America’s biggest memory chipmakers, Micron Technology (MU), in May was the first, they said. Here’s what you need to know about gallium and germanium, how they could play into the chip war and whether more countermeasures could be coming. FULL STORY

The new record beats the previous figure - set back in August 2016 - and has been put down to a combination of climate change and an emerging El Nino weather pattern. The average global temperature reached 17.01C (62.62F) on Monday, according to the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction. The figure surpasses the previous record of 16.92C (62.46F) - set back in August 2016. It comes as the southern US and China have been hit by heatwaves, while temperatures in North Africa have neared 50C (122F). Experts have blamed a combination of climate change and an emerging El Nino weather pattern. "This is not a milestone we should be celebrating," said climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Britain's Imperial College London. FULL STORY

A UN watchdog has said that Japan's plan to release waste water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea complies with international standards. The International Atomic Energy Agency says the release will have a "negligible" impact on the environment. The Fukushima facility is running out of storage space for the water, which was used to cool nuclear reactors. Japan's plan has been opposed by China and South Korea. Tokyo has not announced a schedule for the release and the plan still needs approval from a regulator. In 2011, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake flooded three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It is regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. FULL STORY More than 150,000 people were evacuated from an exclusion zone around the plant, which remains in place. Decommissioning of the plant has also started, but the process could take decades.

A white substance that sparked an emergency evacuation at the White House on Sunday night tested positive for cocaine. The substance was found in a work area at the secure building during a routine inspection, the US Secret Service said. The preliminary positive test was first reported by the Washington Post, citing fire and law enforcement sources. President Joe Biden and his family were away at the Camp David residence when the substance was found. The White House complex was closed as a precaution around 20:45 local time (01:45 BST) on Sunday after Secret Service officers found the white powder "inside a work area" of the West Wing, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told the BBC in a statement. FULL STORY

At least 43 people, including 12 children, have been injured after a missile struck the carpark of a residential building in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, local officials say. What is believed to be a Russian Iskander missile landed in the town of Pervomaisky at about 13:30 local time. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said there were only residential buildings in the area. A one-year-old and a 10-month-old were reportedly among the injured. Mr Kostin said targeting the residential buildings amounted to another war crime from Russia. Oleg Sinegubov, the Kharkiv regional governor posted several pictures of the damaged building to Telegram. They showed smashed windows, dark smoke clouds and an overturned car. "At least half of the neighbourhood is in an uninhabitable state," Anton Orekhov, the chairman of Pervomaiskyi was quoted as saying by local media. FULL STORY

China says the UK is sheltering fugitives after Hong Kong put bounties on the heads of eight pro-democracy activists who fled the territory. The statement from its London embassy came after the UK said it would not tolerate attempts by China to silence individuals in the UK or overseas. The eight left the former British territory after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020. Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee said they would be "pursued for life". He urged them to give themselves up, adding that otherwise they would spend their days in fear. "British politicians have openly offered protection for fugitives," a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said late on Monday, condemning what it alleged was "crude interference in Hong Kong's rule of law and China's internal affairs". On Monday a bounty of HK$1m (£100,581; $127,637) was offered for the activists' arrest. FULL STORY

What are you mostly like to play during a road trip ? In a recent article these were the tops songs Top driving songs 1972: Alice Cooper - School’s Out 1973: The Jackson 5 - Dancing Machine 1974: Queen - Killer Queen 1975: Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces 1976: Chicago - If You Leave Me Now 1977: Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy 1978: Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick 1979: The Specials - A Message To You Rudy 1980: Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall 1981: Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime 1982: Imagination - Just an Illusion 1983: Herbie Hancock - Rockit 1984: Wham! Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go 1985: Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule The World 1986: Bruce Hornsby - The Way It Is 1987: Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full - Seven Minutes Of Madness - The Coldcut Remix 1988: Inner City - Big Fun 1989: Soul II Soul - Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) 1990: Oleta Adams - Get Here 1991: Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy 1992: Arrested Development - People Everyday 1993: Jamiroquai - Blow Your Mind 1994: Youssou N’Dour Feat Nen eh Cherry - 7 Seconds 1995: Oasis - Wonderwall 1996: Faithless - Insomnia 1997: Ultra Naté - Free 1998: Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine 1999: Moloko - Sing It back 2000: Coldplay - Trouble 2001: David Gray - Sail Away 2002: Justin Timberlake - Like I Love You 2003: Beyonce – Crazy In Love 2004: Keane - Somewhere Only We Know 2005: Jennifer Lopez - Get Right 2006: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy 2007: Timbaland Feat Keri Hilson & D.O.E - The Way I Are 2008: Madonna Feat Justin Timberlake & Timbaland - 4 Minutes 2009: Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow 2010: Lady A – Need You Now 2011: Bruno Mars - Grenade 2012: Emeli Sandé - Next To Me 2013: Daft Punk – Get Lucky 2014: James Bay - Hold Back The River 2015: Hozier - Take Me To Church 2016: Drake Feat Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance 2017: Sam Smith - Too Good At Goodbyes 2018: Rag’n’Bone Man - Human 2019: Calvin Harris and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man - Giant 2020: The Weeknd - Blinding Lights 2021: Silk Sonic Feat Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak - Leave The Door Open 2022: Dave - Starlight What Music are you listening to as you pass away the miles ? "One-quarter of people surveyed had built their own motoring playlist, and almost half said they experienced a lift in mood when they listened to music in the car (48 per cent), with four in 10 saying they felt more relaxed at the wheel."

The Isuzu D-Max Arctic Trucks AT35 is the sort of car that you’ve very probably got no need for but you just want for the hell of it. It’s just so much fun and has the potential to convert indoor types like your correspondent into a backwoods person. Based on the fairly cheap, useful and innocuous Isuzu D-Max range of pick-ups, it’s rendered massively more imposing, and a bit more able through a collaboration with Artic Trucks of Iceland, specialists in hardcore off-roading – icebergs, volcanos, that sort of thing. So naturally, I took it to… Birmingham. Specifically, off-roading on a small but demanding course at the National Agricultural and Exhibition Centre nearby. I learnt a few things. First, that making progress in any 4x4 requires patience and a steely nerve, and it reminded me how enjoyable it is; just a recreation, a hobby like golf or windsurfing, though sadly not that easily accessible. Second, I learnt that the Isuzu has a rather traditional way of getting around hills and mud, which is the optional differential lock, still engaged by the driver rather than by onboard electronics. FULL ARTICLE

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will not consider the war to be over until Crimea is back in Ukrainian hands. And the Russian security service claims parts of an "explosive device" used in an assassination attempt on the Moscow-backed head of Crimea have been found. Video Report

Facebook owner Meta is launching its new app to rival Twitter and says it will go live on Thursday. The app, which is called Threads and is available for pre-order on the Apple App Store, will be linked to Instagram. Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a "text based conversation app". The move is the latest in a rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk. Last month, the pair agreed to a physical fight, though it is unclear how serious the two men were about actually holding a bout. "Thank goodness they're so sanely run", Mr Musk responded to a tweet about Threads, in an apparent fresh swipe at Mr Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, Twitter has said that the popular user dashboard, TweetDeck will go behind a paywall in 30 days time. The move is the latest push by Mr Musk as he tries to get users to sign up to Twitter's subscription service, Twitter Blue. On Saturday, the multi-billionaire restricted the number of tweets users could see, citing extreme "data scraping". It appears from Meta's Threads app that it will be a free service - and there will be no restrictions on how many posts a user can see. "Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what'll be trending tomorrow" the description on the App Store says. STORY

80 UK bank branches are set to close in July 2023, with leading banks such as Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds and HSBC all shutting branches. The closures will serve as another blow to British high streets, which have seen a number of retail stores shut so far this year. So, is your local bank closing? Which banks are worst affected? How many more are scheduled to shut in 2023? Read on below for a full list of bank closures in July 2023. STORY

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign is facing pushback after his team shared a video attacking former President Trump over his past comments in support of the LGBTQ community. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (D), the first openly gay man to be confirmed as Cabinet secretary, responded to the video on CNN Sunday by asking who DeSantis was trying to “make better off” with the video. Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete who came out as transgender in 2015, said the video marked “a new low” for the campaign. Even 2024 Republican presidential contenders Chris Christie and Will Hurd said the video was divisive. The video shared Friday — the last day of LGBTQ Pride month — includes resurfaced clips of the former president saying he would “do everything in my power” to protect LGBTQ citizens and expressing support for transgender individuals to use the restroom of their choice. FULL STORY

Small businesses and manufacturers are warning that federal environmental regulations targeting certain chemicals will have a widespread negative impact on the economy. The regulations — proposed in April by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — would ban most uses of methylene chloride (MCL), a chemical that has various uses in adhesives, paint and coating products, pharmaceuticals, metal cleaning, chemical processing and aerosols. The EPA explained the chemical poses serious risks to health, though it carved out exemptions for military and processing uses. "The science on methylene chloride is clear, exposure can lead to severe health impacts and even death, a reality for far too many families who have lost loved ones due to acute poisoning," said EPA Administrator Michael Regan after proposing the rule. FULL STORY

Vladimir Putin’s response to the armed Wagner rebellion was “weak” and the Russian President is losing control of his own people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an exclusive interview. Putin faced the greatest threat to his authority in two decades last month when the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched a short-lived uprising, claiming control of military facilities in two Russian cities and marching toward Moscow before he agreed to stand down. “We see Putin’s reaction. It’s weak,” Zelensky told CNN’s Erin Burnett in Odesa, in an interview taped on Sunday. “Firstly, we see he doesn’t control everything. Wagner’s moving deep into Russia and taking certain regions shows how easy it is to do. Putin doesn’t control the situation in the regions.” “All that vertical of power he used to have is just crumbling down.” STORY

Electric car company Tesla has delivered a record number of cars in the second quarter - as its strategy to lower prices paid off and US consumers took advantage of tax credits. The carmaker beat market expectations and delivered 466,140 cars in the three months to the end of June, up 83.5% on a year ago and an increase of 10.4% on the first three months of the year. It produced an even greater number of vehicles - 479,700 - exceeding its own ambitious targets of turning out an extra 50% of cars a year. Analysts had expected the company headed by entrepreneur and Twitter owner Elon Musk, to deliver just 445,000 vehicles. FULL STORY

Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family. Now, a 27-year-old teacher in the central city of Bhopal has started a petition asking the police to deploy officers at marriage venues and conduct raids to put an end to this "social evil". Gunjan Tiwari (not her real name) tells the BBC her petition is rooted in her own experiences of being rejected by dozens of men over dowry. The most recent incident took place in February when her father had invited a young man and his family to their home in the hope of finding a match for her. After her parents had exchanged pleasantries with the guests, Gunjan walked into the living room, carrying a tray with cups of steaming hot tea and snacks for the guests. She describes the moment as "unnerving". "Everyone is staring at you, they are all sizing you up," she told me on the phone from her home. A lot of meticulous planning had gone into when and how Gunjan will appear before the guests. Her mother had chosen a green outfit for her because she thought her daughter looked especially fetching in it. She also advised Gunjan not to laugh as it would draw attention to her uneven teeth. FULL STORY

Harvard's practice of granting preference to undergraduate applicants with family ties to the elite college is facing a legal challenge. Advocacy groups have petitioned the government to stop the Ivy League university's legacy admissions. The policy has long been seen as a perk for the white and wealthy. The federal complaint comes days after the Supreme Court ruled Harvard and other US colleges could no longer weigh race as a key factor in admissions. In a landmark decision on Thursday, the nation's highest court voted 6-3 to repeal affirmative action, a decades-old measure. Affirmative action has long been defended as a policy useful for increasing diversity on university campuses, but Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the process used by Harvard and others "picks winners and losers based on the color of their skin". FULL STORY

LOVELL SUMMER SCHOOL???? ???? 3 - 14 July 2023 for children aged 18 months - 6 years. This will be a great opportunity for your child to come and experience through our play-based style of learning which will be coming in 4 programs for you to select what is best for your child. Register Line : @lovellschool

An American lawyer who has spent the past two-and-a-half years in Cambodian prison for the alleged rape of several children is now facing five federal counts in the US - after being deported back to the states earlier this month. Currently being kept under house arrest in Tampa, 42-year-old Rugh James Cline is facing 170 years in prison for his alleged crimes, which include alleged payments to rape four minors in the Southeast Asian nation back in 2019. According to the lawman's indictment, he arrived in Cambodia in May of that year with a photo or video showing two Cambodian children engaged in sex acts - before and after raping two minors under the age of 15 on multiple different occasions. The trip was the second in a matter of months for the Florida lawyer, with the first made in February - during which time prosecutors believe he either recorded the aforementioned media, which featured one child as young as '12 years old.' FULL STORY

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, the president falsely claimed that Russia is at war with Iraq. Russia is at war with Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden told the press pool, “losing the war at home. And he has become a bit of a pariah around the world.” On Tuesday, during an unrelated fundraising event in Chevy Chase, Md., Biden had made the exact same slip-up, mistaking Ukraine for Iraq. “If anybody told you … that we’d be able to bring all of Europe together in the onslaught on Iraq and get NATO to be completely united,” the president said, “I think they would have told you it’s not likely.” Although many journalists did a fine job this week highlighting the president’s apparent confusion regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one can’t help but feel as if the news industry as a whole is avoiding the obvious follow-up question. Namely, “Is Biden okay?” FULL STORY

The decision of the Supreme Court to end the use of race in college admissions was not unexpected. Yet, President Joe Biden expressed outrage and actually claimed that the Court gutted the constitutional guarantee that "all men and women are created equal." In declaring that this Court was not "normal," Biden further insisted that these admissions decisions and the Dobbs abortion decision reversed the gains that "we fought a war over in 1860" to secure. In an interview on MSNBC’s "Deadline: White House," President Biden accused the court of ignoring what "the Constitution says: We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator." That is actually a reference to the Declaration of Independence, but it was the substance of the point that was so baffling. LIBERALS LAMENT STRING OF SUPREME COURT VERDICTS: ‘THIS TRULY SUCKS’ In barring the use of race in admissions, the court believed that it was protecting that very "self-evident" guarantee. It erased what the court viewed as a glaring anomaly in its cases in the treatment of racial discrimination in education as opposed to employment. FULL STORY

Outdated?thread Posted a few days ago and the video shot in May !

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