City Pub Group sees increase in revenues despite poor weather and train strikes

• Revenue increased to £31.7m for the first half, up from £26.7m 
• Like for like sales at London-listed pub operator were also up 14%

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 10:41 EDT, 21 September 2023

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Levels of harmful air pollutant nitrogen dioxide increase since introduction of Scotland’s first low-emissions zone

• The amount of nitrogen dioxide rose in Glasgow after older cars were banned 

By Krissy Storrar and Danya Bazaraa and Tom Eden

Updated: 08:17 EDT, 4 September 2023

Facebook has found itself in hot water after wading into the debate over whether off-shore wind farms are responsible for a surge in whale deaths across the east coast.

Environmentalist Michael Shellenberger has accused the internet giant of ‘censoring accurate information’ after it slapped a content warning on a post about the beaching of 300 whales since 2017.

Officials admit there has been an ‘unusual mortality event’ on the east coast in the last six years with strandings reported from New York to North Carolina, but have insisted the string of new wind farms are not responsible.

The controversy blew up days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was threatened with contempt of Congress amid claims the social media firm removed posts at the direction of the Biden White House.

‘Facebook is censoring accurate information about the relationship between industrial wind energy development and the increase in whale deaths off the East Coast,’ Shellenberger said.

‘Why is Facebook censoring accurate information and spreading disinformation?’

Construction is underway on two new wind farms off Rhode Island and Massachusetts after the White House pledged to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes.

Two are already operating off Rhode Island and Virginia Beach despite fury from conservationists and commercial fishing operators, and the $10billion Virginia development is expected to feature more than 175 wind turbines by 2026.

In January, the Clean Ocean Action environmental group asked President Joe Biden to step in and halt the wind farm projects, saying there was evidence it was related to the whale deaths.

‘We’ve gone too far, too fast,’ Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf said.

‘Over 2.2 million acres is being allocated to offshore wind and 10,000 miles of cables.

‘This alarming number of deaths is unprecedented in the last half century, the only unique factor from previous years, is the excessive scope, scale, and magnitude of offshore wind powerplant activity in the region.’

The latest dead whale washed ashore on Takanassee Beach in New Jersey on Saturday, and this year is on course to be the worst on record for fatal strandings on the east coast.

Shellenberger has called the issue the ‘biggest environmental scandal in the world’ and delivered a series of angry posts to his thousands of Facebook followers this week.

‘The government says it’s not because of the wind industry’s high decibel pile driving and boat traffic in previously pristine waters,’ he wrote.

‘They’re lying. And now we have the proof.’

That triggered Facebook watchdogs to slap a warning, claiming the post was ‘missing context and could mislead people’.

It also linked to an article by Facebook partner Factcheck.org insisting there is no reason to believe wind farms are to blame.

‘Several factors, experts and officials have said, could be increasing the risk of these hazards,’ the checkers wrote.

‘For one, climate change is warming oceans and changing the distribution of prey that marine species depend on.

‘As a result, whales are altering their migration routes and moving out of protected areas and closer to the shores, where they are more vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement with fishing gear.’

It pointed to autopsies carried out by the official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggesting that 40 per cent of dead humpbacks were killed by hitting boats or getting tangled in ropes.

But they admit: ‘The causes for the other 60 per cent have been inconclusive, in part, officials say, because the carcasses decompose quickly, making it difficult to determine a cause of death.’

Facebook automatically moves reduces the visibility of posts flagged by its fact-checking partners, including AFP, reducing the visibility of false or misleading content.

But earlier this month its parent company Meta changed its settings allowing users to partially disable the fact-checking that they see.

‘We’re giving people on Facebook even more power to control the algorithm that ranks posts in their feed,’ a Meta spokesman told AFP.

We’re doing this in response to users telling us that they want a greater ability to decide what they see on our apps.’

‘For the last 20 years, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that his social media company is the “digital equivalent of a town square,” committed to factual accuracy, and protecting the natural environment,’ Shellenberger said.

‘Facebook knows its “fact checks” are just their “opinion”.

‘Thus, labeling FactCheck.org, which in this case is simply repeating US government misinformation, as a “fact-checker” is disinformation.’

Sandra Bullock‘s partner Bryan Randall’s death has sparked a 500 per cent increase in donations to the ALS (known as MND in the UK) Association.

The photographer died on Saturday aged 57 after a secret three-year ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) battle. 

After the family asked for people to donate to the ALS Association instead of sending or buying flowers. 

Sandra’s sister Gesine wrote in an Instagram post: ‘In lieu of flowers, please donate to ALS Association and Massachusetts General Hospital (links in bio).’

The ALS Association told TMZ that now donations were up 500 per cent over the same time last year in a funding spike. 

They told the publication: ‘We’re grateful for the amazing outpouring of support in honor of Bryan.’

‘The money pouring in will help our urgent work to make ALS a livable disease through local care, national advocacy, and global ALS research.’

Sandra called her partner Bryan ‘very patient,’ ‘a saint’ and ‘evolved on a level that is not human’ in a 2021 interview amid his secret ALS battle that led to his tragic passing on Saturday.

The 59-year-old actress spoke about Randall, a photographer, in a 2021 edition of Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris.

‘He’s the example that I would want my children to have,’ the Oscar-winning star said of Randall, who died after battling the disease for three years privately.

In the exchange, Bullock also said that she didn’t feel the need to exchange vows with Randall amid their committed relationship.

‘I am someone who went through the divorce process,’ Bullock said. ‘I found the love of my life. We share two beautiful children – three children, his older daughter. It’s the best thing ever.

‘So, I don’t want to say do it like I do it, but I don’t need a paper to be a devoted partner or a devoted mother.’

Bullock, who was previously wed to Jesse James from 2005-2010, said she didn’t ‘need to be told to be ever-present in the hardest of times’ or ‘to weather a storm with a good man.’.

The Speed actress spoke about the relationship dynamics she shared with Randall, a one-time model, and the example he set for her two children – son Louis, 13, and daughter Laila, 10. Randall was also father to daughter Skylar Staten, 29, from a past relationship.

‘There’s two very different ways of looking at things,’ Bullock said. ‘And I don’t always agree with him. He doesn’t always agree with me.

‘But he is an example even when I don’t agree with him that I go, “If they can take away from that, and if that is where they feel drawn to, then he’s the exact right parent.”‘

The Bird Box actress attested to Randall’s faith in the chat, saying, ‘I have a partner who’s very Christian.’

The Blind Side star and Bryan initially crossed paths in 2015 when he was on hand to take pictures for her son’s birthday celebration.

They were last seen publicly in July of 2020 in Studio City, California while out with her two kids.

In the Red Table Talk outing, she said that Randall was a positive presence for her as a parent, though he was not involved in the adoption process.

‘I had Louis first,’ she said. ‘And then when I met Randall, and I was like, and we hadn’t been together that long.’

She continued: ‘I go, “You remember that NDA you signed when you photographed my son?” He was like, “Yeah.” He’s still scared. His whole life had been unraveled because of me.

‘And I said, “You know, that still holds.” And he was like, “Yeah, OK, OK, OK, why?” And I was like, “Cause I’m bringing a child home when I come back from Toronto.” And he was like, “Sorry, what?”‘

Bullock said that her partner was simultaneously ‘so happy, but … scared’ at the development.

Randall’s family issued a statement to People confirming his death, saying, ‘It is with great sadness that we share that on Aug. 5, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS.

‘Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.’

The statement continued: ‘We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours.

‘At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan.’

Before her relationship with Randall, Bullock was in a high-profile romance with Monster Garage host Jesse James.

They met after she brought her motorcycle-obsessed godson on a trip to West Coast Choppers’s Long Beach headquarters in 2003. 

The pair ultimately wed in 2005, in front of 270 of their closest friends and family at a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley.

In March 2010, days after she took home an Academy Award for her performance in The Blind Side, several women came forward about their affairs with Jesse.

A month later, Jesse checked himself into a rehab facility in Arizona for sex addiction after apologizing profusely to Bullock, although that wasn’t enough to save the marriage – they divorced the following June.

In 2017, he told DailyMail.com: ‘Yeah, I did cheat on my wife, yeah… I stood up and took accountability for it and apologised. And that’s [the] end of story.’

Bullock other exes include Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Bob Schneider, Matthew McConaughey, Don Padilla, Troy Aikman and Tate Donovan.

The Little Mermaid fuels 216% increase in searches for filming location Sardinia as fans look to dive into the world of Princess Ariel as part of a new ‘set-jetting’ trend

By Laura Sharman

Updated: 12:49 EDT, 2 June 2023