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  1. The latest step in a woman's legal fight over a Surrey oil drilling permit has concluded. Sarah Finch's lawyers told the Supreme Court that planning authorities should have considered the climate impacts of burning the oil, not just extracting it. Surrey County Council said it followed planning law. The case could spell the end of new UK fossil fuels projects when judges reach a decision in the coming months. The climate impacts at the heart of the case are 'downstream emissions' - the greenhouse gas emissions released when the oil will be burned. Ms Finch says these are estimated to be 10 million tonnes over 20 years. One airline passenger on a return trip from London to Boston, US emits around one tonne of carbon. Lawyers for Ms Finch told the court that greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil are an "inevitable" and "indirect" effect of extracting oil. Barristers acting for Surrey County Council said that only impacts from constructing the oil wells themselves should be assessed by authorities. "This is not a climate change case," Harriet Townsend KC told the court. FULL STOTRY
  2. Images removed. PLEASE DO NOT post images of alchohol ! 42. You will not advertise, display, promote, review or endorse, directly or indirectly, the name or trademark of any alcoholic beverage. Such actions are potentially in contravention of Section 32 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (2008).
  3. Watch as Elton John brings Glastonbury 2023 to a close on the Pyramid Stage - the final UK show of his farewell tour. Lil Nas X, Blondie and Phoenix were among the stars to have performed on the final day. VIDEO REPORT
  4. The UK government has revealed more about its Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) – described as “a new requirement for people who do not need a visa to come to the UK”. The government says: “By the end of 2024, ETAs will be a requirement worldwide for visitors who do not need a visa for short stays.” The ETA will be rolled out from November 2023. Citizens of Qatar will be the first to need one. Shortly afterwards it will be extended to other citizens of the Gulf region plus Jordan. The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, says: “ETAs will enhance our border security by increasing our knowledge about those seeking to come to the UK and preventing the arrival of those who pose a threat. It will also improve travel for legitimate visitors.” The government says: “By applying for an ETA in advance, visitors will benefit from smooth and efficient travel. The application process will be quick, light touch and entirely digital with most visitors applying via a mobile app and receiving a swift decision on their application.” FULL STORY
  5. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) underscored the severity of the criminal charges former President Trump faces in his federal indictment and said Sunday, if Trump is found guilty in the documents probe, “he seriously jeopardized our national security.” In an interview with MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Pelosi stressed the seriousness of the charges brought against Trump and the potential for global repercussions to members of the Intelligence Community. “What the former president is alleged to do – and he seems to have confessed to it, but, nonetheless, he’s innocent until proven guilty – is to say he did it and have some arrogance about it. And if that is the case, he seriously jeopardized our national security, if he did that,” Pelosi told Psaki in an interview that aired Sunday. “Secondly, he is dishonoring our court system in the manner in which he is treating it. So, our security and one of the pillars of our democracy. [Trump is] very casual about it all, sad to say.” FULL STORY
  6. A historic number of Americans prefer neither President Biden nor former President Trump be elected president in 2024, according to a new CNN/SSRS poll. The survey found that 33 percent favored Trump, and 32 percent were opting for Biden, but that 36 percent viewed neither positively. Specifially among registered voters, 31 percent preferred neither frontrunner candidate. The numbers show a deflection from the norm, whereas usually the majority of Americans prefer at least one frontrunner. In 2020, only 5 percent in CNN’s final poll of the election period said they disliked Biden and Trump. In 2012, the number was even smaller — 3 percent of voters expressed a distaste for Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, according to CNN. The new poll, conducted between June 13 to 17, reflects Biden’s declining approval rating. A poll from earlier this month found that the president’s disapproval rating had increased by 2 percentage points since April. Full Story
  7. Phyo Wai Hlaing, a 21-year-old wi-fi technician, had been missing for a week in July 2021 when his father received an anonymous phone call telling him to go to a bridge far from his neighbourhood in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. There the street food vendor was told that his son had been arrested. A few days later he read about it in the state-run newspaper. Phyo Wai Hlaing was among a group of 29 who were arrested and accused of storing explosives for use in terrorist attacks and for supporting People's Defence Force insurgents who are fighting Myanmar's military government. Also in that group was Si Thu Aung, a 19-year-old, first-year engineering student. Witnesses told his mother they saw him being taken away by police the day after Phyo Wai Hlaing went missing. Both young men had disappeared into Myanmar's gulag, a network of prisons and interrogation centres used for decades to detain and torture dissidents. At its heart is Insein prison, a name that has come to symbolise the repression imposed by successive military regimes. That is where Phyo Wai Hlaing and Si Thu Aung first went after being sentenced to seven years in prison. FULL STORY
  8. The sun set on one of the greatest careers in British music history, as Elton John played the last UK show of his farewell tour at Glastonbury. The 76-year-old legend treated his fans to a masterclass in song and stage craft, with a setlist that never stopped delivering classic pop moments. Bennie And The Jets, Tiny Dancer, Your Song, I'm Still Standing - for two hours, every song was a greatest hit. "I'm so happy to be here," he told the crowd. "I won't ever forget this." Glastonbury's final day - as it happened Elton burst onto the stage shortly after 21:00 BST with Pinball Wizard - as promised, a song he hadn't played in over a decade - following it up with a raucous romp through The Bitch Is Back. Pausing to catch his breath, he drank in the vast crowd, estimated to be over 120,000 people, and stretched out his arms in gratitude. "I never thought I'd play Glastonbury - and here I am," he said. FULL STORY
  9. Stockton Rush wanted to be known as an innovator. It didn't seem to matter how he did it. Bright, driven, born into wealth, his dream was to be the first person to reach Mars. When he realised that was unlikely to happen in his lifetime, he turned his attentions to the sea. "I wanted to be Captain Kirk and in our lifetime, the final frontier is the ocean," he told a journalist in 2017. The ocean promised adventure, adrenaline and mystery. He also believed it promised profits - if he could make a success of the submersible he helped design, which he directed his company OceanGate to build. He had a maverick spirit that seemed to draw people in, earning him the admiration of his employees, passengers and investors. "His passion was amazing and I bought into it," said Aaron Newman, who travelled on Mr Rush's Titan sub and eventually became an OceanGate investor. But Mr Rush's soaring ambition also drew scrutiny from industry experts who warned he was cutting corners, putting innovation ahead of safety and risking potentially catastrophic results. It wasn't something he was willing to accept. FULL STORY
  10. When Donald Trump goes on trial in his classified documents case, the court will have to find 12 Florida jurors who can leave their opinion of the former president at the door. That won't be easy. Jurors are supposed to assess the case on its merits, not their preconceived notion of the defendant. But with a figure as famous and polarising as Mr Trump, that could prove very difficult, lawyers from the state told the BBC. To secure a conviction, the jury's decision must be unanimous. It would only take one juror voting in Mr Trump's favour for the US government to lose its case. Both federal prosecutors and Mr Trump's defence team will use every tool - aggressive questioning, vetoes, legal manoeuvres, and potentially even psychologists - to help them weed out biased jurors. But even the most thorough tactics aren't fool-proof. "The added element is people with agendas," said Rob Mendell, a Florida trial attorney. "You've got to be on the lookout for the snakes in the grass." A politically polarised jury pool The Justice Department charges that Mr Trump and an aide illegally took classified documents from the White House, stored them in unsecure places at his personal residence, and obstructed the government's efforts to retrieve them. FULL STORY
  11. An attempted armed mutiny in Russia shows "real cracks" in President Vladimir Putin's authority, America's top diplomat Antony Blinken has said. He told US media that the rebellion by Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner fighters was a "direct challenge" to Mr Putin, forcing him into an amnesty agreement. The deal halted Wagner's march on Moscow on Saturday. The mercenaries had earlier seized two Russian cities. Mr Putin accused the group of treason, but all charges were later dropped. Under the deal, Wagner fighters must return to their field bases and Prigozhin move to Russia's western neighbour Belarus, whose leader Alexander Lukashenko was involved in the negotiations. The current whereabouts of Prigozhin, a former Putin loyalist, are unknown. He was last seen in public leaving Rostov-on-Don - one of the two southern cities where his fighters had taken control of military facilities. Prigozhin's press service said he would answer questions from the media "when he has normal communication means", Russia's RTVI news website reported on Sunday afternoon. It provided no further details .FULL STORY
  12. Doesn't detract from it being highest paid UK newspaper in circulation though. "The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news website published in London. Founded in 1896, it is currently the highest paid circulation newspaper in the UK"
  13. Guess you missed the BANNER across the footer of the Press article ????
  14. For one long June night and a day, Russia's notorious mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin staged an apparent insurrection, sending an armoured convoy towards Moscow and raising questions about Vladimir Putin's grip on power. The Russian president even accused his former ally of treason, embarking on an armed rebellion and "a stab in the back of our country". But by the end of Saturday, Prigozhin had called the whole thing off and ordered his men back to base. "In 24 hours we got to within 200km (124 miles) of Moscow. In this time we did not spill a single drop of our fighters' blood," he announced. Twenty-four hours of mayhem, and so much we don't know. Was the Wagner boss planning a coup? Prigozhin was adamant this was "a march for justice", not a coup. Whatever it was, it came to an end very fast. FULL STORY
  15. This year's Glastonbury festival is off to a rocking start as thousands of festival-goers party in the summer sun. Arctic Monkeys are headlining the iconic Pyramid stage on Friday night, mystery act the ChurnUps have been revealed as Foo Fighters to the delight of crowds and elsewhere Worthy Farm's visitors have been entertained by Texas, Gabriels, Flo and many more music acts from around the world. Full Story or Watch live coverage on BBC iPlayer. SATURDAYS highlights
  16. The boss of Russia's Wagner group has said on his Telegram channel that he has agreed to "stop" the advancement of his troops towards Moscow. In a surprise move, Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters were returning to field camps in Ukraine and did not want to "spill Russian blood". Hours earlier, he had called for a rebellion against the Russian army. In response, President Vladimir Putin had pledged to punish those who had "betrayed" Russia. Video story
  17. When Elvis Presley cracked a joke, funny or not, his gang of bodyguards and hangers-on would howl with laughter. A favourite one-liner — a gag he repeated throughout his life — was 'Fourteen will get you 20!' He meant that, if he was found having sex with a 14-year-old girl, he faced 20 years in prison. But that threat didn't stop him having a constant stream of sexual relationships with teenagers, from the early days of his fame in the 1950s right up to his death, aged 42. The impossibility of lasting love, as well as the guilt of having sex with under-age girls, drove him to despair — and, according to the man who knew him best, became so unbearable that he killed himself. Now a three-part Amazon documentary, Elvis's Women, exposes his predatory behaviour. This could be the #MeToo moment that destroys the Elvis legacy. FULL STORY
  18. Tanks and armed Wagner soldiers take over Rostov streets Extraordinary videos on social media show locals watching Wagner fighters taking tactical positions on the streets of Rostov. The soldiers are situated around the military headquarters.
  19. Two New York lawyers have been fined after submitting a legal brief with fake case citations generated by ChatGPT. Steven Schwartz, of law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, admitted using the chatbot to research the brief in a client's personal injury case against airline Avianca. He had used it to find legal precedents supporting the case, but lawyers representing the Colombian carrier told the court they could not find some examples cited - understandable, given they were almost entirely fictitious. Several of them were completely fake, while others misidentified judges or involved airlines that did not exist. District judge Peter Kevin Castel said Schwartz and colleague Peter LoDuca, who was named on Schwartz's brief, had acted in bad faith and made "acts of conscious avoidance and false and misleading statements to the court". Portions of the brief were "gibberish" and "nonsensical", and included fake quotes, the judge added. FULL STORY
  20. US intelligence agencies have found no direct evidence that Covid-19 broke out from a Chinese laboratory, a declassified report has said. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said both a natural and laboratory origin remain plausible scenarios. It noted most US intelligence agencies agree the virus was not genetically engineered or "laboratory-adapted". The origins of the pandemic have been a matter of bitter debate in the US. The lab-leak theory has been strongly rejected by China. The ODNI report was released on Friday night after Congress passed a bill in March giving US intelligence 90 days to declassify what it knew about the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). "The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, as both (natural and lab) hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting," said the 10-page report. FULL STORY
  21. A year ago, the US Supreme Court delivered a historic ruling that ended the nationwide right to abortion, impacting the lives of millions of women and transforming the political landscape. On 24 June, 2022, America's top court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling which had guaranteed women the right to an abortion up until the point of foetal viability, which is about 24 weeks. In its Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, the conservative majority on the court turned over the power to regulate abortion - or ban it outright - to individual states. The anti-abortion movement celebrated a landmark victory, while pro-choice activists warned of a looming public health crisis. Here are four ways the US has changed in the year since:....... FULL STORY
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