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These pictures show the moment an elderly tea-lady was forcibly moved from her month-long post set up at a controversial fracking site by police. Great grandma Jackie Brookes, 79, set up shop at the Kirby Misperton site in Yorkshire where she provided provisions of tea and home-made cake to both protesters and police. According to North Yorkshire Police, she and other people were moved this morning because of fears that a nearby ten-foot high tower made of wooden pallets might...

There has been a ten-fold increase in global childhood obesity over the past four decades and now 20 per cent of American children are obese. Leading scientists called for a sugar tax, cheaper fruit and veg and a curb on processed food as it was revealed girls in the USA had the 15th highest obesity rate in the world, and boys had the 12th highest obesity in the world. Although figures have levelled off there is a ticking fat time...

A tubby, tusked mammal that survived the biggest extinction in Earth's history may hold the key to saving the planet, according to new research. Lystrosaurus lived through the 'Great Dying' at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago which wiped out 70 per cent of land living vertebrates. This drastic loss of biodiversity led to global 'disaster faunas' dominated by a small number of species, say scientists. One of those still standing was Lystrosaurus, an early relative...

Petrol and diesel vehicles are to be banned from a city centre in what is believed to be the world's first Zero Emissions Zone. The new zone in Oxford City Centre will see all petrol and diesel taxis, cars and buses excluded from six central streets from 2020. The area will then be expanded in 2025 and 2030 to encompass the entire city centre, and finally in 2035 HGVs will be banned from the same zone - making it what...

Jeremy Corbyn will be rubbing his hands after a new report by the International Monetary Fund backed Labour's tax strategy and discredited the Conservatives' approach. Higher income tax rates for rich would reduce inequality without impacting economic growth. The research revealed higher income tax rates for the rich would help reduce inequality without having an adverse impact on growth. The highly influential half-yearly fiscal monitor ridicules the Tories' rationale for the reductions in tax for the highest earners in recent decades. In...

A water firm has been ordered to pay almost £500,000 after supplying water infected with a parasite - leaving thousands of homeowners with unsafe tap water, a court heard. United Utilities used water from an underground rural reservoir which may have contained contamination from farm animal faeces after a heavy downpour. The reservoir had structural defects which allowed in microscopic parasite cryptosporidium and "inherent hazards" from the surrounding environment. Preston Crown Court, Lancs., heard the company's Franklaw treatment works had...

A new mapping project will combine Ordinance Survey routes with air quality data - to help cyclists avoid pollution hotspots. EarthSense are using Google Earth, along with fixed air pollution sensors, to produce the interactive maps, which will produce forecasts up to three days in advance. The air quality models highlight smoggier areas, often along busy roads, and allow users to identify cleaner air routes, such as through parks or along canal paths. A pollution map of Leicester where bike...

Britain now has a higher tax burden than Spain after the share of GDP taken in tax rocketed. The Tories have long claimed to be the party of low taxes but that claim is unlikely to stand up for much longer. With a month to go until the budget a graph leaked by Guido Fawkes shows the tax burden is now higher than it was under Gordon Brown in 2009. If the Office for Budget Responsibility figures are correct it also shows tax...

Donald Trump has threatened to revoke NBC's license after they published a story claiming the President wanted to increase the country's nuclear arsenal by TEN TIMES. The exclusive feature was unveiled today by the major broadcaster after three of the nation’s highest ranking national security leaders blew the whistle on his plans. Trump’s comments, the officials said, came in response to a briefing slide he was shown that charted the steady reduction of US nuclear weapons since the late 1960s, NBC...