And it will be corporate America that plays the role of difference-maker in getting US politicians to implement the plan. The bill introduced last week in both houses of Congress is called the Equality Act. Forty senators, led by Jeff Merkley, Democrat for Oregon, Tammy Baldwin, Democrat for Wisconsin, and Cory Booker, Democrat for New Jersey, introduced “historic, comprehensive federal legislation to ban discrimination against LGBT Americans,” Merkley reported on his website. The legislation was filed simultaneously in the House by 158 lawmakers led by Representative David Cicilline, Democrat for Rhode Island.

While all the co-sponsors are Democrats, don’t be fooled. The collective power of America’s corporate behemoths – names like Apple, Nike, General Mills, Facebook, Google, Dow Chemicals, Levi Strauss and American Airlines – have a history of getting their way when bringing pressure to bear on Republican politicians. Just ask Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Pence.

Back in March when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the full weight of corporate America came down on his shoulders. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is openly homosexual, scolded him on morality. Threats to leave the state poured in from Indiana-based businesses Ely Lily, NASCAR, General Electric and Salesforce.

Perhaps the most aggressive stance came from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said his company was helping employees uncomfortable with Indiana’s new law transfer out of the state. “CEOs have a lot of power and control over investments in states,” Benioff told CNN. “And we want to invest in states where there is equality. One thing you’re seeing is there is a third political party in this country, which is the party of the CEOs.”

Not to be outdone, the NCAA threatened to pull its lucrative college basketball tournaments from the state. Sensing a mutiny over the issue, Pence caved. He inserted new language into the law, essentially gutting its protections for religious freedom and turning it into an LGBT rights law.

The Wall Street Journal said the nation just passed a security law that boosts its cyber defenses and presses for technological advances that give government the power to control Internet access. Specifically, the law includes a mandate for Chinese companies to use local technology vendors when possible and to help create an Internet “kill switch” in times of national emergency.

The newspaper said it’s all part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to take control of the Internet, and clamp down further on what social media users post. The news comes as the United States has fingered China in several recent and high-profile cybersecurity attacks, including one that reportedly breached the data of more than 21 million federal employees, as WND extensively reported.

The new video released by the activists at the CMP shows Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Medical Director Savita Ginde negotiating a fetal body-parts deal, agreeing multiple times to pricing per body part harvested and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences. The Colorado Planned Parenthood facility does an estimated 10,000 abortions per year and CMP reported it has a contract to supply aborted fetal tissue to Colorado State University.

The activist organization’s actors met with Ginde, posing as representatives from a company invested in human biologics. They ask about intact fetal specimens, and Ginde reveals that her abortionists sometimes are too late. “Sometimes, if we get, if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then we are intact,” she said.

CMP reported, “Since PPRM does not use digoxin or other feticide in its second trimester procedures, any intact deliveries before an abortion are potentially born-alive infants under federal law.” In the video, Ginde and other Planned Parenthood employees describe the “specimens” on the table before them. “It’s a baby,” Ginde tells the undercover agents, as another employee points out what used to be limbs. “And another boy!” jokes the medical assistant. And Ginde says, “We’d have to do a little bit of training with the providers or something to make sure that they don’t crush” various fetal parts.

The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a temporary injunction Tuesday stopping the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any video showing three officials from StemExpress, a company that transfers fetal tissue from abortions performed at Planned Parenthood and other clinics to medical researchers.

A company spokesman told the Associated Press that StemExpress is “grateful its rights have been vindicated in a court of law,” but the center said in a statement that the court threw out most of the company’s request. StemExpress is “attempting to use meritless litigation to cover-up this illegal baby parts trade, suppress free speech, and silence the citizen press reporting on issues of burning concern to the American public,” said the CMP statement.

Regaining control over UK borders to end mass migration from other EU nations was widely seen as the top priority for voters. And an overwhelming majority wanted a far bigger reduction in meddling from Brussels than David Cameron is seeking in his diplomatic push for a new EU deal for Britain, the figures showed. Eurosceptics seized on the findings as clear evidence that the campaign for a British exit is winnable when the forthcoming in-or-out referendum on the country's EU membership is held.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: "The ‘No to EU’ side can win this referendum as long as we make the right arguments on the issues people really care about such as border controls, which is exactly what we in Ukip intend to do." Immigration was seen as the most important issue in his diplomatic push, according to the poll. Thirty-two per cent of voters stated that "ending the free movement of people" across EU borders should be the top item on his agenda in his diplomatic push. A further 18 per cent wanted the restoration of sovereignty from Brussels to the Westminster parliament as the top priority. And 15 per cent wanted the cost of EU membership, currently around £11 billion a year, slashed so the cash could be spent within the UK.

Mr Farage pointed out that the top three priorities for EU reform were not even on Mr Cameron's shopping list. He said: "It is clear that Cameron's so-called renegotiation is a farce, given he has no intention of fighting for the changes the British people want. Open-door immigration, even to those currently undecided about whether to remain in the EU or not, is the number one concern. David Cameron has no intention of addressing this. It is vital therefore that EU open borders are part of this referendum debate."

The poll comes ahead of a new drive by Ukip to fire up the campaign for a British exit from the EU ahead of Mr Cameron's planned EU referendum.

Professor Iain Begg, of the London School of Economics, believes the threat of what would effectively be 'Brexpulsion' - rather than a British exit or 'Brexit' - from Europe is becoming an ever-more likely scenario. He believes Mr Cameron is treading on a dangerous tightrope as he tries to appease EU leaders while also refusing to help with the ongoing Mediterranean migrant crisis and the Greek debt disaster.

Professor Begg told Express.co.uk: "The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he was in principle backing Britain's stance but then believed he was slapped in the face by Cameron over the recent migration issue, when he heard Britain would not accept a quota of immigrants. From what I hear from Brussels insiders the Italian PM was spitting feathers and using some strong language after hearing about it."

Although Mr Cameron is keeping his cards close to his chest on his demands, top of his wish list is expected to be a curtailing of EU laws on freedom of movement and the ability for Britain to show a red card to any Brussels directive. However, the latter is unlikely to get much support from those in the EU while the former has already been given a thumbs down by some, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Despite more than £2 billion in UK fines for Libor and foreign exchange benchmark manipulation, as well as action from the EU and US, banks are still showing a worrying lack of urgency in reforming their internal controls and systems to make sure there is no repeat of the scandals, the financial watchdog said on Wednesday in a strongly worded report.

The City was shocked when banks were fined for forex manipulation, as it was revealed that the bad behaviour carried on even after the Libor scandal had broken. But even now, banks have failed to act to stop another repeat. “The progress to improve oversight and controls around benchmark activities across most firms and within individual firms appeared slow,” said the FCA.

“This lack of urgency is disappointing given the importance of benchmarks to the economy, the similarity and severity of a number of previous benchmark failures, the high level of public concern as a result of the misconduct made public, and the scale of enforcement fines levied on firms.”

More changes are on their way from regulators. The Bank of England is working with authorities around the world to draw up a global code of conduct for currency traders. On April 1, regulators added seven more benchmarks including gold, silver and oil indices to the list of those covered by tighter rules, which include the threat of prosecution and jail terms for traders who try to manipulate the markets.

The 29-year-old was arrested by police after being spotted carrying out his one-man protest on the store's CCTV cameras. He has since branded Britain's legal system a "joke" and suggested his sentence was disproportionately harsh compared to Islamist hate preachers, who often go unpunished.

A court heard how he went into a Sainsbury's supermarket in Salford, Manchester, armed with a sheet of the stickers which he had bought on the internet. Accompanied by his girlfriend and two young children, he then went up to the meat chiller and stuck nine stickers on packets of meat before leaving. Later staff at the store became aware of the stickers on various packets of chicken breasts, thighs and a whole chicken worth £16.50 which could no longer be sold due to concerns for contamination.

Upon searching the hashtag term on Twitter, staff found images of the stickers on trollies and point of sale displays.

The van driver, who told magistrates he is an "animal lover", said he was driven to carry out the protest after watching a documentary about halal slaughter on TV. He was handed a four-week curfew after admitting religiously aggravated criminal damage. Speaking in court, he revealed: "I'm a big animal lover, be it for racial or other purposes I believe it is wrong to treat animals in that way."

The Manchester United fan later tweeted: "Joke of a legal system. Stand there saying death to Britain though and it's all good…”

The judge accepted the argument of Attorney Avichai Hajbi of the Honenu legal aid organization who was representing the youths, and went on to censure the police for their handling of the case. One of the youths was arrested last Friday near one of the gates to the Temple Mount, with police claiming he attempted to blow a shofar (traditional ram's horn instrument). As for the second youth, he was suspected of trying to visit the Temple Mount on the Tisha B'Av fast day mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples at the site while wearing tefilin (phylacteries).

"The court ruled clearly that the law relating to tefilin on one's head and a shofar in hand is the same as the law of a hijab and darbouka," said the attorney Hajbi, noting how religious freedoms apply to Jews as well as Muslims. "The infuriating discrimination that the police conduct between Jews and Arabs on the Temple Mount must end, the sooner the better."

Honenu called the police "pursuit against Jews asking to ascend the Temple Mount is infuriating and severe, and we will consider suing the police for empty arrests in both cases." "We are shocked that the police invest efforts in arresting Jews whose only 'sin' is to blow a shofar or wear tefilin, instead of crushing Arab terrorism and incitement that runs rampant on the Temple Mount."

“Our answer is clear: we would like Europe to be preserved for the Europeans”, he added. The Hungarian Prime Minister emphasized that modern-day mass migration is a consequence of political processes. In his view, the real threat is not coming from war zones, but from the depths of Africa. The Hungarian Premier criticized harshly both the European and Hungarian left-wing elites, which, he said, do not perceive immigration as a source of danger but as an opportunity.

According to Viktor Orbán, the left believes that the escalation of migration may definitively debilitate, or even eliminate, national boundaries, and this would constitute the attainment of the long-term objective of the left in a historical perspective.

“While the Hungarian left incited against Hungarians beyond the borders in 2004, they would today readily embrace illegal migrants, and would await them with open arms. These people, these politicians quite simply do not like the Hungarian people”, Orbán concluded. He added: if the left had been given the chance to form a government in 2014, “within a year or two, we would not recognise our country; we would be like a refugee camp”.

The aerial benediction was carried out to bless and cleanse the town and the surrounding area. Locals say a series of incidents, including the desecration of graves, crosses placed upside down, thefts from churches and Madonnas thrown off cliffs, suggest the presence of devil worshippers.

“If Satan exists, he has taken control of Castellammare di Stabia. There was nothing left but to try the exorcist,” said a statement from the prayer group that called in the unnamed priest. It is not yet clear whether the exorcism, which took place on 9 July, has had the desired effect.

1. In the First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

2. 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment.)

3. 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

4. 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

5. 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

6. 60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes and water.

7. 60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

A recent Gallup Poll finds that 48 percent of Americans drink soda on a daily basis.

And experts claimed this year's El Nino is STILL strengthening and could soon break all historical records with the extreme weather patterns lasting until next Spring - meaning Britain could face one of the worst winter storm seasons in living memory. Meteorologist Leon Brown, of The Weather Channel UK, said the super-strength El Nino could even dislodge the jetstream, leading to more unstable weather in the UK this autumn.

He said: "A more mobile weather pattern through winter increases the risk of a wetter, stormier season in the UK. The biggest impact of El Nino is around the tropics as we have started to see with a greater number of tropical storms. However it is a very powerful phenomenon and has knock-on effects across the globe in America, Asia, Australia and Europe.

“There are signs that this year a significant El Nino is building. We think it could drive a strong jetstream which can lead to a more mobile weather pattern and very changeable and stormy weather as we head into winter." Earlier this year oceanologists and meteorologists confirmed a pattern of warming driven by a weakening of sea winds had started in the waters around Peru.

However in the past few weeks experts say it has escalated with the strongest event for at least 50 years or even on record now likely. El Nino is linked to major global climate events including weak monsoons in India, heavy rain and storms in North America and Europe including the UK, and floods in Australia. Confidence continues to grow that this El Niño will be one of the stronger El Niños over the past 50 years. El Niño typically reaches its peak during the December through February period.

Ash erupted also from Gamalama and Dukono mountains on the Moluccas islands chain, Sinabung volcano on Sumatra island and Mount Karangetang on Siau island, darkening the skies, Surono said. A total of more than 13,000 people have been evacuated due to the volcanic eruptions since last month, mostly from around the slopes of Sinabung in Tanah Karo District, added Surono, who uses a single name.

Last week, the ministry closed Sultan Babullah airport in North Maluku’s Ternate town after eruptions at Gamalama and Dukono sent volcanic ash up to 1,700 meters (5,570 feet) into the sky. Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood-prone plains, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin