1 in 5 mums regularly go hungry in the UK
Of 2000 mothers surveyed by Netmums recently, 1 in 5 regularly go without meals to feed their children, 16% are being treated for stress-related illnesses and one third are borrowing money from friends and family to stay afloat. Most mothers stated that their situation is worse than a year ago with less money coming in.
Foodbanks meet mums in desperate situations every week. This week foodbank mum Donna was almost in tears as she told me that she couldn’t afford birthday presents to give to her twins who will be 13 on Sunday. She said that her sons had asked to have a friend come to stay to celebrate their birthday but she hasn’t said yes because she’s not sure they can afford the extra food. Donna used to work in a school for children with Aspergers and Autism but is currently off work due to depression – which has been exacerbated by the family’s financial worries. Her partner was recently made redundant and they are currently living on £38 per week due to mistakes with their benefits. This is the reality behind the statistics. Donna says she will be ‘eternally grateful’ for their foodbox. Without it she says she would have gone without food and had to try to scrape together enough money to give the children something, even just bread and butter. The family are keen to get back into work, that’s the hope that keeps them going.
China, Russia Launch First Joint Naval Exercises in Yellow Sea
China and Russia have launched their first joint naval drill in the Yellow Sea off China’s east coast amid heightened tensions between Beijing and its Asian neighbors over maritime disputes.
The six-day-long naval exercises kicked off on Sunday near Japanese waters and China’s Qingdao city off the coast of Shandong province with the presence of more than 4,000 Chinese servicemen in the maneuvers. A total of 16 vessels and two submarines from the Chinese navy together with 13 aircraft and five shipboard helicopters as well as four warships from the Russian navy’s Pacific fleet and three supply ships will take part in the drills.
Israeli Agency Raises Tax-Exempt US, UK Funds to Put Settlers in Occupied Golan Heights, Northern Palestine
The Jewish Agency, a quasi-official arm of the Israel government that encourages settlement in Palestine, and the Israeli government itself, are taking advantage of US and UK charity laws to raise tax-exempt donations specifically to place settlers in Syria’s occupied Golan Heights, all in violation of international law.
This is being done in the open – on the website of Nefesh b’Nefesh an Israeli-government supported program to encourage Jews from North America and the UK to settle in Palestine. Nefesh b’Nefesh receives direct funding from the Israeli government and manages the settlement process along with the Jewish Agency.
Spain is About to Enter a Full-Scale Collapse
Spain is about to enter a full-scale Crisis. A few facts about Spain: Total Spanish banking loans are equal to 170% of Spanish GDP. Troubled loans at Spanish Banks just hit an 18-year high. Spanish Banks are drawing a record €316.3 billion from the ECB (up from €169.2 billion in February).
Things have gotten so bad that Spanish citizens are pulling their money out of Spain en masse: €65 billion left the Spanish banking system in March 2011 alone.
Hundreds of Economists Agree Marijuana Legalization Could Save US Taxpayers $13.7 Billion Per Year
Marijuana prohibition currently costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year to enforce, and it accomplishes little or nothing beneficial in terms of economic benefits. On the contrary, legalizing marijuana would not only save taxpayers billions of dollars a year in unnecessary costs, but it would also jumpstart the economy to the tune of $100 billion a year or more, say some economists.
In an open letter written to the President, Congress, State Governors, and State Legislators, more than 550 economists, including several nobel laureates, draw attention to a report authored by Professor Jeffrey A. Miron that highlights the potential economic benefits of marijuana decriminalization. Entitled The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition, the report states that legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana would do wonders to reduce inflated budgets and generate new revenue streams.
Caught On Tape: Federal Agents Taser And Beat Man To Death
A group of a dozen federal agents beat a man to death as he was lying in a fetal position and repeatedly shocked by an electric taser.
PBS has uncovered a disturbing video of Federal agents beating a man lying on the ground in the fetal position.
Even though the death, at the hand of US border patrol and immigration officers was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, the story was merely a blip on the radar of the corporate media who stopped reporting on the story soon after it happened.
Dutch Government On Brink Of Collapse
The Dutch government is on the brink of collapse after politicians hit an impasse on implementing austerity measures required to secure a bailout.
As the economic and technical data points to financial Armageddon looming in Spain Dutch politicians are deadlocked over the decision to implement brutal austerity measures to secure an economic bailout or to tell the bankers to shove it and take the path of Iceland.
Dutch politicians have announced they can not come to an agreement on austerity limits required to secure the bailout to save the Dutch economy.
Connecticut Bill Would Allow Citizens to Sue Police Who Arrest Them for Filming in Public
The trend of individuals being arrested for legally filming police in public is an issue which gets me especially frustrated and a favorite topic of mine to bring up here at End the Lie.
Thankfully, individuals have been striking back recently through lawsuits and in some cases charges have been dropped. Furthermore, an Illinois judge declared their state wiretapping law unconstitutional in a case which surrounded recording police in public.
That being said, police are still engaging in deplorable activities like confiscating cell phones and destroying evidence and flipping out for no reason when being filmed.
‘Gaia’ scientist James Lovelock: I was ‘alarmist’ about climate change
James Lovelock, the maverick scientist who became a guru to the environmental movement with his “Gaia” theory of the Earth as a single organism, has admitted to being “alarmist” about climate change and says other environmental commentators, such as Al Gore, were too.
Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared.
He previously painted some of the direst visions of the effects of climate change. In 2006, in an article in the U.K.’s Independent newspaper, he wrote that “before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.”
However, the professor admitted in a telephone interview with msnbc.com that he now thinks he had been “extrapolating too far.”
The new book, due to be published next year, will be the third in a trilogy, following his earlier works, “Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity,” and “The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning: Enjoy It While You Can.”
The new book will discuss how humanity can change the way it acts in order to help regulate the Earth’s natural systems, performing a role similar to the harmonious one played by plants when they absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
It will also reflect his new opinion that global warming has not occurred as he had expected.
“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.
“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.
“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.
He pointed to Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers” as other examples of “alarmist” forecasts of the future.
Saudi Toddler Kills Father over PlayStation
A four-year-old boy shot and killed his father after he did not buy him aPlayStation, Arabic language media reported Monday.
“The boy pulled the trigger and a bullet hit his father in the head, killing him instantly,” the Sabq newspaper said in a report quoted by the Emirates247.com website.
Another paper, Sharq, said the boy is considered to be the “youngest killer” in Saudi Arabia. He is four years and seven months old.
The child had asked his father to buy him a PlayStation. The father returned home empty-handed and then put down his pistol while taking off his shirt. The little boy grabbed the gun, played with it and put his little finger in the trigger, accidentally shooting his father in the head.
The man died instantly.
Scientists call for global ban on bee-killing pesticides
With a myriad of concrete evidence now in plain view, there is simply no denying that pesticides are a direct cause of massive bee declines all around the world. And despite continued denial by corporate-whore governments in the U.S., the U.K., and elsewhere that have sided with the chemical manufacturers on the matter, scientists and agricultural experts from all corners of the globe are joining together as one to call for a worldwide ban on neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that has been definitively linked to causing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
Three recent field studies, two of which were published in the journal Science, confirm that even sub-lethal exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides among bees causes them to lose their way when out foraging. Many conventional food crops are pretreated or sprayed with neonicotinoid pesticides, which leads to the contamination of pollen and nectar that bees collect.
“The data, both ours and others, right now merits a global ban,” said Chensheng Li, author of theHarvard Universitystudy that confirmed neonicotinoid pesticides as a primary cause of CCD. “Our study clearly demonstrated that imidacloprid is responsible for causing CCD, and the survival of the control hives that we set up side-by-side to the pesticide-treated hives augments this conclusion.”
Li says removing neonicotinoids from global use for at least five years would leave plenty of time for researchers to study and observe how bee populations respond. If bee populations increase during this time, which is the expected outcome, then it would be abundantly clear that the scientific community is correct in its assessments of the situation.
US may use ‘military means’ to defend Afghanistan until 2024
The long-waited withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan may be not as “full” as had been expected. The US will help defend the country militarily for at least a decade after Afghans take control of their security, a National Security Adviser said.
The pledge is contained in the new strategic pact agreed between the two countries on Sunday, Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on Monday. A section of this pact implies that the US will not to use Afghanistan as a launch pad for attacks on other countries in the region, including for drone strikes.
However he stressed that the US will only come to Afghanistan’s aid with approval from Kabul.
Washington may use “diplomatic means, political means, economic means and even military means,” the official said, as cited by AP.
Also under the agreement, after 2014 the US will continue supporting Afghan security forces financially. The US will fork out up to $4 billion annually, if the funding is approved by the Congress.
However it remains unclear whether Afghanistan would approve such military assistance from the US. The two countries are facing a serious setback in their relations after a number of incidents involving the US troops deployed in Afghanistan.
Mysterious Balancing Rocks Resist Quakes’ Shakes
In the western San Bernardino Mountains, near the highway that links Los Angeles and Las Vegas, scientists recently discovered a geological mystery: colossal rocks perched in precarious poses right next door to the San Andreas Fault.
It’s not the rocks’ balancing act that is perplexing, said Lisa Grant Ludwig, a scientist who presented this puzzle to colleagues this week here at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America. It’s how the rocks have managed to stay that way with such an aggressive maker of powerful earthquakes just a few miles away.
Rocks with seemingly acrobatic balance are seen all over the world. Meteorological and geological forces wash away the material around them, leaving the giant rocks balanced like a top. There’s even a term for them: Precariously Balanced Rocks, or PBRs for short, said Ludwig, an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine.
U.S.-backed Internet restrictions could be destroyed in France
François Hollande, the French socialist candidate expected to best President Nicholas Sarkozy following the national runoff election held Sunday, told national media recently that he would replace the country’s harsh Internet restrictions with a wholly different scheme that strengthens the relationship between artists and their fans.
The French Internet law, strongly supported by Sarkozy, bans users from going online for one year after three individual violations of copyright law. U.S. industry played a key role in lobbying for the “Creation and Internet law,” whereas French socialists played a key role in opposing it.
The law created an Internet regulator called the “High Authority of Diffusion of the Art Works and Protection of the Rights on the Internet” (HADOPI), with the aim of detecting up to 150,000 incidents of copyright infringement per day and intercepting individual users with messages about the consequences of piracy, up to and including a year of disconnection for a third offense.
And that’s precisely what Hollande said he wants to end.
Speaking to French film website AlloCiné last month, Hollande said that HADOPI sows “injustice” by disconnecting people from the Internet. “Further, I don’t consider piracy to be a minor problem,” he reportedly said. “That’s why I’m proposing to replace HADOPI by voting on a law based on Act 2 of the Cultural Exception which will guarantee financing of French cinema and protection of authors’ rights. I want to break with destructive simplism that has not solved anything and which has uselessly contributed to separating artists from their audience. There is no simple solution, but a new model to be invented.”
While it’s not exactly clear what he’s proposing to replace HADOPI with, he’s also expected to pull France out of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which essentially exports U.S. copyright law to other nations. Hollande has also promised to bring opposition to ACTA up on the European stage, where other member nations have been facing strong backlashfrom their residents over the controversial proposals.
Chicagoans Warned to Evacuate Before Globalist Instigated Riot During NATO Summit
Residents of a Chicago condo received a letter from management last week informing them that they should move out of their homes during the upcoming NATO confab to be held in the Windy City next month. If the residents decide to remain, they will be subjected to a lockdown.
“In the event of a riot or the potential of one near the building,” the letter states, “all access doors will be locked including the garage door. For everyone’s safety we will be instructing anyone in the building to stay in his or her unit.”
Aaron Klein, writing for WorldNetDaily on Saturday, said radicals with ties to Obama plan to riot during the NATO summit.
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As Infowars.com has exhaustively documented, violence at globalist summits and confabs is invariably instigated by “anarchists” who report to the police. Supposed anarchist violence was used inOttawa, Pittsburgh, London,Strasbourg and elsewhere to disrupt and discredit anti-globalism and other political groups and provide a pretext for police violence against non-violent protesters.
Former Obama chief of staff and current Chicago mayor,Rahm Emanuel, has used the threat of agents provocateur instigated riots in Chicago next month to brazenly grab more power and further militarize the city’s police. On April 17, Infowars.com reported on military exercises in preparation for the NATO summit in Chicago.
Residents are now being prepared for pre-planned and orchestrated violence by Marxist political groups and their anarchist shock troops funded by bankers and globalist foundations and coordinated by the CIA. Chicagoans may get to experience what it is like to live under military siege and martial law if they do not take the advice of condo management companies and head out of the city on May 20.
Black Military Helicopters Conduct Covert Exercises Over Chicago
In a repeat of events in LA three months ago, black military helicopters buzzed skyscrapers and high rise buildings in downtown Chicago Monday night, in what has been described as an urban training exercise.
Witnesses reported at least three Blackhawk helicopters flying in close formation, then separately, around offices and residential buildings for several hours.
Several smaller A/MH-6 Little Bird helicopters were also seen circling close to the Chicago River. The choppers are often used by military special forces.
Witnesses described seeing three or four military personnel hanging out of each of the helicopters brandishing automatic weapons.
The following stunning videos show just how close the choppers came to the buildings, literally rattling windows as they flew past.
In Family Courts, ‘Experts’ are Paid to Get it Horribly Wrong
Millions have been shocked by Friday’s story of the London couple who were charged, on flawed medical evidence, with having shaken their four-month-old son to death. The charges against the parents were dropped at the Old Bailey last December, but it was only last week that they finally won his sister back from social workers still determined to hold on to her.
The reporting of this tragic case lifts a tiny corner of that veil of secrecy which has long hidden a crucial and disturbing flaw of our child protection system. This is the way that doctors are far too ready to report to social workers that children have probably been physically abused, and the readiness of family courts to endorse those suspicions on medical evidence which is not put properly to the test. All the indications are that hundreds of families are torn apart each year for similarly dubious reasons which never come to light.
Wal-Mart Silenced Mexico Bribe Inquiry – NY Times
U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc squelched its own internal investigation of allegations made by a former executive of its subsidiary in Mexico that the Mexican division had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to grab market dominance, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The paper said in September 2005 a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an e-mail from Sergio Cicero Zapata, a former executive at the company’s largest foreign unit, Wal-Mart de Mexico, describing how the subsidiary had paid bribes to obtain permits to build stores in the country.
Nick Clegg Says Decision on Lords Reform Should Not be ‘Subcontracted’ to the British People
The Deputy Prime Minister also admitted in a television interview that very few people care about the need to replace the Lords with an elected senate.
A report from MPs and peers on Monday is likely to recommend a referendum to win public backing for the plans. It will also raise concerns about the role of an elected second chamber, and whether it should have primacy over the views of the House of Commons.
The Joint Committee is expected to call for an 80 per cent elected chamber, where members serve non-renewable 15-year terms. They would get a salary of around £50,000, rather than the existing attendance allowances.
