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A record number of bills aimed at restricting the rights of LGBTQ people have become law in the past three years, but the majority of those that have faced legal challenges haven’t held up in court, according to an NBC News analysis, legal experts and the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed legal challenges against some of the laws. Just this year, state representatives introduced 491 bills aimed at restricting LGBTQ rights, with 77 of them becoming law, according to the ACLU. The majority of bills proposed and passed focused on limiting the ability of transgender youth to receive gender-transition care and play school sports. In the past year, lawmakers in at least 16 states also introduced bills to restrict drag performances. FULL STORY

The prospect of mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group moving to Belarus as part of the deal struck to end their mutiny has made Poland extra wary of its neighbour. A border once marked by a few pillars and wooden look-out posts has already been transformed by miles of tall metal fencing, thermal cameras and spotlights. They were installed after Belarus began encouraging thousands of migrants to cross into Poland two years ago in what Warsaw calls an act of hybrid warfare; Minsk and Moscow are close allies. Ahead of this week's Nato summit in Lithuania, the Polish government has been warning that Wagner forces could be used to spark more trouble, so it's deploying hundreds of extra officers at its eastern border as reinforcements. "The biggest threat is that our neighbour, Belarus, is completely unpredictable," Michal Bura of the local border guard explains, although all is calm as we talk - apart from swarms of vicious summer bugs in the wheat fields. "We have to be ready for any developments. Maybe Wagner will be a problem, but no one really knows why they're going there or what they're preparing for." FULL STORY

Inflammatory posts and responses removed.

Imagine the scenario of two kayakers basking in the serenity of a tranquil day on the water. Suddenly, without warning, their peaceful excursion takes an unimaginable turn. A colossal whale emerges from the depths, engulfing them within its enormous maw.

So he got his happy ending with 1000bt then ????????

Meanwhile , down in Pattaya..........

A transgender woman has been crowned Miss Netherlands for the first time in the beauty pageant's history and is now set to compete for the Miss Universe crown. Rikkie Valerie Kolle, 22, made history after she won the competition in the Dutch country on Sunday. Full Story

Six people including three children have been killed in a kindergarten stabbing in China's south-eastern Guangdong province. Police said they have arrested a 25-year-old man with the surname Wu in Lianjiang town. The other victims are a teacher and two parents, AFP reported, quoting a local city official. One person is also injured. The attack happened on Monday at 07:40 local time (23:40 Sunday GMT). The man was arrested at 08:00 and police have called this a case of "intentional assault". A storeowner who works near the kindergarten told the BBC the surrounding area has been sealed. The attack has sparked widespread conversation across Chinese social media platforms, with many users responding in shock. Violent crime is relatively rare in China, but the country has seen a spate of knife attacks in recent years, including several in schools. STORY

From the others idea of the coin so to speak.... "So take the YouTuber's allegations with a pinch of salt. They reportedly belong to a failed car-sharing service called Microcity, which had thousands of Kandi 11 models, as documented by the Chinese state-owned newspaper People's Daily."

Spanish rescuers are looking for a boat that vanished more than a week ago and was transporting at least 200 African migrants in the waters off the Canary Islands. According to the humanitarian organisation Walking Borders, the fishing vessel left from Kafountine, a coastal settlement in southern Senegal that is some 1,700 kilometres (1,057 miles) from Tenerife. According to the group, there are a lot of kids on board, reported Spain's Efe news agency. It is also reported that two other boats carrying dozens more persons are missing. On June 27, a boat bound for the Canary Islands left Kafountine with roughly 200 people on board. A plane had joined the search, according to the Spanish maritime rescue service, Efe. The other two vessels are largely unknown. According to Helena Maleno of Walking Borders, who was reported by the news agency Reuters, there are around 65 individuals on board one boat and up to 60 on the other, bringing the total number of persons missing across the three boats to almost 300. The news comes just after a crowded trawler capsized off the coast of Greece, causing one of Europe's deadliest Mediterranean migrant shipwrecks. The UN estimated that up to 500 people were still missing, although at least 78 drowning deaths have been confirmed. - © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-10

Two men are carrying torches and homemade arrows as they slip into the ocean at night on an Indonesian island. They are from an indigenous community of Bajau people - renowned freedivers who find it better to hunt in the dark when fish, lobsters and sea cucumbers are less active. But they fear time is running out for their traditional way of life. "Right now, the water is still clear," says Tawing, one of the fishermen. "But it won't stay that way… nickel waste enters our water during the rainy season and the current carries it here." Nickel is an integral part of global life, used in stainless steel, mobile phones and electric car batteries. As the world shifts to greener vehicles and needs more rechargeable batteries, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that demand for nickel will grow by at least 65% by 2030. FULL STORY

A shocking $50 billion (£39 billion) has been paid to G20 creditors by debt-ridden countries that are also extremely vulnerable to the climate problem since the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to a new study. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) performed the analysis to shed light on the financial burden placed on the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries as they struggle to pay back debts owed to the 20 richest countries in the world. The analysis, which is based on the most recent World Bank statistics, was released in advance of the G20 finance ministers and governors of central banks meeting in Gandhinagar, India. The analysis shows that the contributions paid by 58 LDCs and SIDS totaled $21 billion (£16 billion) in 2022, up from $14 billion (£11 billion) in 2021 and $13 billion (£10.3 billion) in 2020. The world's poorest nations, which also run the greatest risk from escalating climatic calamities, are caught in a never-ending cycle of financial hardship due to the mounting debt obligations. -- © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-10

The CEO of the Volkswagen Group's Chinese operations, Ralf Brandstätter, has warned of recent developments within the electric vehicle market, suggesting high capital investment and discounting “will ultimately harm the interests of consumers”. In an address at the 2023 China Automobile Forum hosted by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in Shanghai, Brandstätter said the electric vehicle market is “overheating”. “Currently, there are more than 120 car makers within the [electric vehicle] market, and about 150 new models will be launched in 2023. Intense market competition and high battery prices make them face severe economic pressure. Short-term sales success requires extremely high capital investment,” he said.

Amsterdam’s long-awaited plans to diminish its red-light district and establish a legal alternative "erotic center" continue to face pushback from sex workers, bartenders and entrepreneurs. City officials introduced new measures to crack down on related issues that make the famous red-light district less attractive, with noise limits and substance abuse at the forefront of new laws passed this spring. The chief alternative offered by Mayor Femke Halsema would see the establishment of an "erotic center" that would continue to allow legal prostitution in the city – just outside the red-light district. "An erotic center doesn’t mean that there won’t be prostitution in the red-light district," Halsema said, arguing the center would prove safer for sex workers even as they insist they prefer to remain. "It does mean that the red-light district has to lose its appeal as the most important attraction for tourists," Halsema was quoted in a report by The New York Times. FULL STORY

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Sunday accused Trump administration agencies of “colluding” with Big Tech to bury the Hunter Biden story in 2020 and criticized the former president for not firing those involved with the alleged collusion at the time. “I look back at the Hunter Biden censorship, which was a huge, huge deal to happen in the 2020 election, and yet those were Donald Trump’s own agencies that were colluding with Big Tech. I would never allow that to happen. I would fire those people immediately,” DeSantis told Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” Republicans have raised concerns about alleged “collusion” between the FBI and social media companies in order to silence conservative viewpoints — which they say is particularly evident in Twitter’s initial decision in 2020 to limit the spread of a story containing contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. Twitter executives have since said their initial decision may have been flawed, but they adamantly insisted Democrats had no involvement in their decision. FULL STORY

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) called estimates of tens of thousands of people attending former President Trump’s campaign rallies “absurd.” Fox News’s Shannon Bream asked Christie on “Fox News Sunday” to weigh in on local authorities in South Carolina estimating that one of Trump’s recent rallies there had been attended by around 50,000 people, which Christie labeled “absurd.” He said that Trump’s rallies are meant to serve Trump, not the American people. “50,000 is absurd,” Christie told Bream. “But I am not going to get in an argument about that. Here’s why he doesn’t care about the American people. He droned on for an hour and a half yesterday in Iowa.” “He lied about the farm deal with the Chinese,” Christie continued. “They haven’t even complied with a quarter of what they agreed to Donald Trump to do in terms of buying soybeans and other things from the farmers in Iowa. And he spent the rest of the time talking about his own indictment. This is not somebody who’s fighting for the American people and their future. This is all about his ego.” FULL STORY

President Joe Biden told CNN in an exclusive interview that Ukraine is not yet ready for NATO membership, saying that Russia’s war in Ukraine needs to end before the alliance can consider adding Kyiv to its ranks. Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that while discussion of Ukraine’s imminent membership in NATO was premature, the US and its allies in NATO would continue to provide President Volodymyr Zelensky and his forces the security and weaponry they need to try to end the war with Russia. Biden spoke to Zakaria ahead of his weeklong trip to Europe, which includes a NATO summit in Lithuania where Russia’s war in Ukraine and Zelensky’s push for NATO membership will be among the key issues looming over the gathering. “I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” Biden said. “For example, if you did that, then, you know – and I mean what I say – we’re determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory. It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case.” Biden said that he’s spoken to Zelensky at length about the issue, saying that he’s told the Ukrainian president the US would keep providing security and weaponry for Ukraine like it does for Israel while the process plays out. FULL STORY

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has just concluded a four-day trip to China, aimed at rebuilding bridges between the two countries. Was the trip to Beijing a success? Well, by one very basic metric, yes. The US and China are once again talking to each other, face to face, politely and respectfully, if not warmly. It's a stark contrast to trans-Pacific communication during the Donald Trump administration, which was done largely via the megaphone of social media. The tone and the content from both sides is more positive and more measured. Ms Yellen said her trip would help to build a "resilient and productive channel of communication with China's new economic team". That should not be discounted. FULL STORY

US President Joe Biden has landed in the UK ahead of a Nato summit in Lithuania later this week - which comes after several allies questioned his call to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. The UK and Canada are among those who voiced concern about supplying the bombs, which are widely banned because of the danger they pose to civilians. The US says they are needed because Ukraine's weapon stocks are dwindling. The presidential plane touched down at Stansted Airport on Sunday evening. On Monday, Mr Biden will meet his British counterpart Rishi Sunak to discuss various issues, including the war in Ukraine. Mr Sunak has not directly criticised his US counterpart following Friday's cluster bomb announcement - but on Saturday he said that the UK was one of 123 countries signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty which bans the production or use of the weapons. Other US allies have gone further, however. Nato partner nation New Zealand said on Sunday the munitions could cause "huge damage to innocent people". FULL STORY

BBC Culture film critics Nicholas Barber and Caryn James pick their highlights of the year so far, including Suzume, Polite Society and John Wick: Chapter 4. Full list and reviews

Elton John told his millions of fans on Saturday night that they would remain in his "head, heart and soul", concluding his marathon farewell tour in Stockholm with one of his biggest hits - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The 76-year-old singer has won five Grammy awards in a spectacular career spanning 50 years and nearly 4,600 performances worldwide. "It's been my lifeblood to play for you guys, and you've been absolutely magnificent," he told the audience at Sweden's Tele2 Arena. FULL REPORT