tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46271072306027727642024-02-22T08:32:51.850-05:00Disasterpastor45disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.comBlogger5075125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-27119761178396358122015-07-01T16:13:00.001-04:002015-07-01T16:13:23.480-04:00Bonanza S03E27 The Gamble<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/75W24_aeW_4" width="459"></iframe>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-9867078350719573312015-07-01T16:10:00.002-04:002015-07-01T16:10:24.285-04:00Puerto Rico’s Governor Says Island’s Debts Are ‘Not Payable’<h1 class="story-heading" id="story-heading" itemprop="headline">
Puerto Rico’s Governor Says Island’s Debts Are ‘Not Payable’</h1>
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<span class="byline" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/michael_corkery/index.html" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">By <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/michael_corkery/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by MICHAEL CORKERY"><span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="MICHAEL CORKERY" itemprop="name">MICHAEL CORKERY</span></a> and </span><span class="byline" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/mary_williams_walsh/index.html" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/mary_williams_walsh/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH"><span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="MARY WILLIAMS WALSH" itemprop="name">MARY WILLIAMS WALSH</span></a></span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-06-28">JUNE 28, 2015</time>
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<img alt="" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Gov. Alejandro García Padilla plans to discuss the island’s fiscal crisis on a televised broadcast on Monday night." data-mediaviewer-credit="Dennis Rivera for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/29/business/29DB-RICO/29DB-RICO-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/29/business/29DB-RICO/29DB-RICO-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/29/business/29DB-RICO/29DB-RICO-master675.jpg" /><div class="media-action-overlay">
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<span class="caption-text">Gov. Alejandro García Padilla plans to discuss the island’s fiscal crisis on a televised broadcast on Monday night.</span>
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<span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
Dennis Rivera for The New York Times </span>
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<br /><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="246" data-total-count="246" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody">
Puerto
Rico’s governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a “death
spiral,” has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72
billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching
financial repercussions.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="323" data-total-count="569" itemprop="articleBody">
The
governor, Alejandro García Padilla, and senior members of his staff
said in an interview last week that they would probably seek significant
concessions from as many as all of the island’s creditors, which could
include deferring some debt payments for as long as five years or
extending the timetable for repayment.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="163" data-total-count="732" itemprop="articleBody">
“The
debt is not payable,” Mr. García Padilla said. “There is no other
option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics,
this is math.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="161" data-total-count="893" itemprop="articleBody">
It is a startling admission from the governor of an island of 3.6 million people, which has piled on more <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/municipal_bonds/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about municipal bonds.">municipal bond</a> debt per capita than any American state.</div>
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<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/business/dealbook/puerto-ricos-governor-says-islands-debts-are-not-payable.html?_r=0#story-continues-2">Continue reading the main story</a>
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<h2 class="story-heading">
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<img alt="Puerto Rico is struggling with more than $70 billion in debt and a sluggish economy." src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/23/business/dealbook/dbpix-rico/dbpix-rico-thumbStandard.jpg" />
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<img alt="“People before the debt” proclaimed a Spanish-language sign at a protest last week in San Juan. Proposals to help Puerto Rico manage its debt, like a fuel tax, have angered some island residents." src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/14/business/rico/rico-thumbStandard.jpg" />
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<span class="story-heading-text">Treasury Officials Increase Efforts With Finances of Puerto Rico</span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-04-13">APRIL 13, 2015</time>
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<h2 class="story-heading">
<span class="story-heading-text">Judge Strikes Down Puerto Rico’s Debt Restructuring Law</span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-02-08">FEB. 8, 2015</time>
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<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="233" data-total-count="1126" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody">
A broad restructuring by Puerto Rico sets the stage for an unprecedented test of the United States <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/municipal_bonds/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about municipal bonds.">municipal bond</a> market, which cities and states rely on to pay for their most basic needs, like road construction and public hospitals.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="211" data-total-count="1337" itemprop="articleBody">
That market has already been shaken by municipal bankruptcies in <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/detroit-emerges-from-bankruptcy-pension-risk-still-intact/" title="Related New York Times article.">Detroit</a>; <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/judge-approves-bankruptcy-exit-for-stockton-calif/" title="Related New York Times article.">Stockton, Calif.</a>; and elsewhere, which undercut assumptions that local governments in the United States would always pay back their debt.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="230" data-total-count="1567" itemprop="articleBody">
Puerto
Rico’s bonds have a face value roughly eight times that of Detroit’s
bonds. Its call for debt relief on such a vast scale could raise
borrowing costs for other local governments as investors become more
wary of lending.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="201" data-total-count="1768" itemprop="articleBody">
Perhaps
more important, much of Puerto Rico’s debt is widely held by individual
investors on the United States mainland, in mutual funds or other
investment accounts, and they may not be aware of it.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="261" data-total-count="2029" itemprop="articleBody">
Puerto
Rico, as a commonwealth, does not have the option of bankruptcy. A
default on its debts would most likely leave the island, its creditors
and its residents in a legal and financial limbo that, like the debt
crisis in Greece, could take years to sort out.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="269" data-total-count="2298" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody">
Still,
Mr. García Padilla said that his government could not continue to
borrow money to address budget deficits while asking its residents,
already struggling with high rates of poverty and crime, to shoulder
most of the burden through tax increases and pension cuts.</div>
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<h2 class="module-heading">
Related in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html">Opinion</a>
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<article class="story theme-summary">
<a class="story-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/opinion/puerto-rico-on-the-brink.html">
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<img alt="A camp set up by demonstrators in front of the capitol building in San Juan, Puerto Rico." src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/30/opinion/30thu2web/30thu2web-thumbStandard.jpg" />
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<h2 class="story-heading">
<span class="story-heading-text">Editorial: Puerto Rico on the Brink</span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-04-29">APRIL 29, 2015</time>
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<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="102" data-total-count="2400" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody">
He said creditors must now “share the sacrifices” that he has imposed on the island’s residents.</div>
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“If
they don’t come to the table, it will be bad for them,” said Mr. García
Padilla, who plans to speak about the fiscal crisis in a televised
address to Puerto Rico residents on Monday evening. “What will happen is
that our economy will get into a worse situation and we’ll have less
money to pay them. They will be shooting themselves in the foot.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="254" data-total-count="3017" itemprop="articleBody">
With
some creditors, the restructuring process is already underway. Late
last week, Puerto Rico officials and creditors of the island’s electric
power authority were close to a deal that would avoid a default on a
$416 million payment due on Wednesday.</div>
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<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="159" data-total-count="3176" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody">
With
other payment deadlines looming, Mr. García Padilla and his staff said
they would begin looking for possible concessions on all forms of
government debt.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="301" data-total-count="3477" itemprop="articleBody">
The
central government must set aside about $93 million each month to pay
its general obligation bonds — a crucial action in Puerto Rico because
its constitution requires such bonds to be paid before any other
expense. No American state has restructured its general obligation debt
in living memory.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="265" data-total-count="3742" itemprop="articleBody">
The
government’s Public Finance Corporation, which has issued bonds to
finance budget deficits in the past, owes $94 million on July 15. The
Government Development Bank — the commonwealth’s fiscal agent — must
repay $140 million of bond principal by Aug. 1.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="183" data-total-count="3925" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody">
“My
administration is doing everything not to default,” Mr. García Padilla
said. “But we have to make the economy grow,” he added. “If not, we will
be in a death spiral.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="377" data-total-count="4302" itemprop="articleBody">
A
proposed debt exchange, where creditors would replace their current
debt with new bonds with terms more favorable to Puerto Rico, signals a
significant shift for Mr. García Padilla, a member of the Popular
Democratic Party, who was elected in 2012. His party is aligned with the
Democrats on the mainland and favors maintaining the island’s legal
status as a commonwealth.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="290" data-total-count="4592" itemprop="articleBody">
He
said that when he took office, he tried to balance the fiscal situation
through austerity measures and fresh borrowing. But he saw that the
island was caught in a vicious circle where it borrowed to balance the
budget, raised the debt and had an even bigger budget deficit the next
year.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="140" data-total-count="4732" itemprop="articleBody">
Residents
began leaving for the mainland in droves, and Puerto Rico’s credit was
downgraded to junk, making borrowing extremely expensive.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="145" data-total-count="4877" itemprop="articleBody">
Only
a few months ago, the administration was considering borrowing as much
as an additional $2.9 billion, which would be paid for by a fuel tax.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="524" data-total-count="5401" id="story-continues-7" itemprop="articleBody">
But
recently, Mr. García Padilla’s team has been laying the groundwork for
more drastic action. The governor commissioned a study of the financial
situation by former officials at the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank. Concluding that the debt load is unsustainable, the report
suggests a bond exchange, with the new bonds carrying “a longer/lower
debt service profile,” according to a confidential copy reviewed by The
New York Times. The García Padilla administration <a href="http://www.gdbpr.com/documents/PuertoRicoAWayForward.pdf" title="Puerto Rico report">made the report public</a> on Monday.</div>
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“There
is no U.S. precedent for anything of this scale or scope,” according to
the report, one of whose writers was Anne O. Krueger, a former chief
economist at the World Bank and currently a research professor at the
School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="339" data-total-count="6031" itemprop="articleBody">
The
“Krueger Report,” as it is being called, also seems aimed at the Obama
administration and Congress, both of which have taken a largely
hands-off approach to Puerto Rico’s fiscal problems. United States
Treasury officials, however, have been advising the island’s government
in recent months amid the worsening fiscal situation.</div>
<br /><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="275" data-total-count="6306" id="story-continues-9" itemprop="articleBody">
In
June, Puerto Rico hired Steven W. Rhodes, the retired federal judge who
oversaw Detroit’s bankruptcy case, as an adviser. The government is
also consulting with a group of bankers from Citigroup who advised
Detroit on a $1.5 billion debt exchange with certain creditors.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="308" data-total-count="6614" itemprop="articleBody">
In
Washington, the García Padilla administration has been pushing for a
bill that would allow the island’s public corporations, like its
electrical power authority and water agency, to declare bankruptcy. Of
Puerto Rico’s $72 billion in bonds, roughly $25 billion were issued by
the public corporations.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="148" data-total-count="6762" itemprop="articleBody">
Some
officials and advisers say Congress needs to go further and permit
Puerto Rico’s central government to file for bankruptcy — or risk chaos.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="157" data-total-count="6919" itemprop="articleBody">
“There
are way too many creditors and way too many kinds of debt,” Mr. Rhodes
said in an interview. “They need Chapter 9 for the whole commonwealth.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="188" data-total-count="7107" itemprop="articleBody">
Hedge
funds holding billions of dollars of the island’s bonds at steep
discounts are frustrated that the government has not seemed willing to
reach a deal to borrow more money from them.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="208" data-total-count="7315" itemprop="articleBody">
“We
want to be a part of the solution to the commonwealth’s fiscal
challenges,” a group of investment firms, including Centerbridge
Partners and Monarch Alternative Capital, wrote in a letter last week.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="149" data-total-count="7464" itemprop="articleBody">
An
aide to the governor said the hedge funds’ debt proposal was too
onerous. And the deal would only postpone Puerto Rico’s inevitable
reckoning.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="85" data-total-count="7549" itemprop="articleBody">
“It will kick the can,” Mr. García Padilla said. “I am not kicking the can.”</div>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-67767040941965929692015-07-01T16:05:00.001-04:002015-07-01T16:05:01.780-04:00Bonanza S09 E19 The Price of Salt<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZ6cLL9UCRg" width="459"></iframe>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-21234449719719576892015-07-01T16:04:00.001-04:002015-07-01T16:04:11.441-04:00Sassy Siri: "What's zero divided by zero?"<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uEVeiiHZP68" width="480"></iframe>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-63039091162133277202015-07-01T16:00:00.002-04:002015-07-01T16:00:53.674-04:00California cities show biggest water savings yet in drought <h1 class="story-heading">
California cities show biggest water savings yet in drought </h1>
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By <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/author/fenit-nirappil">FENIT NIRAPPIL</a></div>
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<span class="updated" title="2015-07-01T15:25:27-04:00">Jul. 1, 2015 3:25 PM EDT</span>
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SACRAMENTO,
Calif. (AP) — California's drought-stricken cities set a record for
water conservation, reducing usage 29 percent in May, according to data
released by a state agency Wednesday.<br />
Regulators hope the savings will last through summer as California
communities are under order to cut water use by 25 percent compared to
2013 levels. Gov. Jerry Brown announced his mandatory conservation order
in April.<br />
Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board
enforcing Brown's order, said the results show it's possible to meet
steep conservation targets.<br />
"It's gratifying that far more communities are stepping up and we
want to see this much more through the summer," Marcus said. "It ends up
putting off the need for much harsher rationing which has greater
impacts on people and the economy."<br />
The May water savings were the best showing since the state started
tracking conservation last year. It followed several months of tepid
conservation, 13.5 percent in April and 4 percent in March.<br />
The data is self-reported by California water departments and
includes residential and business consumption. All regions of the state
showed improvement.<br />
The southern coast, which includes Los Angeles and San Diego,
conserved 25 percent in May after months of tepid savings. Sacramento
and its surrounding suburbs were the state's top performer, cutting
water use nearly 40 percent.<br />
The conservation may have been skewed by rain in parts of the state,
which reduces the need to water lawns. Regulators have been encouraging
Californians to let their lawns go dry this summer as the easiest way to
save large amounts of water and maintain local supplies if the drought
continues.disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-4886559181992697802015-07-01T15:58:00.003-04:002015-07-01T15:58:40.488-04:00Bank closures taking their toll on businesses across Greece <h1 class="content__headline js-score" itemprop="headline">
Bank closures taking their toll on businesses across Greece
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Consumption apparently down 70%, tourism drying up and companies face
struggle to pay for wholesale food ahead of 5 July referendum<br />
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A butcher waits for customers at his store in the central meat market in Athens.
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<a class="tone-colour" data-link-name="auto tag link" href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/helenasmith" itemprop="url name" rel="author">Helena Smith</a></span> in Athens</div>
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Wednesday 1 July 2015 <span class="content__dateline-time">14.31 EDT</span>
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Last modified on Wednesday 1 July 2015 <span class="content__dateline-time">15.32 EDT</span>
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Giorgos Kourasis knows exactly how many people have walked through
the door of his tavern since Monday, because he has had nothing to do
but wait and count.<br />
“The number,” he says in full knowledge of the ironic punch he is
about to pull, “is zero. Absolutely no one has come and sat at a table
for the first time in the 80 years that we’ve had our family business. “<br />
Less than 72 hours have elapsed since banks were closed and capital controls imposed on <a class=" u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/greece">Greece</a>, but the effect has been devastating.<br />
An economy, already labouring under an unprecedented liquidity squeeze, has come to a juddering halt.<br />
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Greece debt crisis: Eurozone breaks off talks until the referendum - live updates</a></h1>
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</aside>Shops have closed, factories have stopped operating and firms
have told employees to take enforced leave until the country holds a
referendum on July 5 over the terms of further financial assistance from
international creditors. Many larger companies have refused to pay
staff altogether.<br />
“Consumption has dropped by 70%,” said Vassilis Korkidis, who heads
the National Confederation of Hellenic commerce. “No one trusts anyone
anymore, so no transactions are taking place between wholesale and
retail,” he said.<br />
The confederation, which represents some 280,000 small and
medium-sized businesses, has been badly hit by capital controls. More
than half of Greece’s food and raw materials are imported, but without a
functioning banking system there was no way to wire money abroad and
pay for supplies, said Korkidis.<br />
“Multinationals can, but local companies can’t,” he sighed.
“Shortages are manageable this week because traders have stock, but next
week that won’t be the case. We are experiencing things we never
thought we’d see.”<br />
The cap on cash withdrawals of €60 a day has attributed to the
precipitous drop in consumption. And amid fears of it only being a
matter of time before banks completely run out of notes and coins ,
there is mounting speculation that the limit may be reduced to a paltry
€20. <br />
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“People
are very worried about spending anything because they don’t know what
they will wake up to tomorrow,” said Kourasis, who will have to lay off
staff to make ends meet. “We’re a family business so we can afford to
stay open, but I’ve heard of dozens of stores deciding not to open
because they just can’t afford running costs.”<br />
The signs of mega economic gridlock were evident all over Athens on
Wednesday – and not only in the form of closed shops, empty restaurants
and queues outside cash dispensers. Ferry boats sailing from the city’s
port of Pireaus were bereft of passengers. Public transport was
noticeably thinner, the result of fuel reserves running low, while
supermarkets were showing signs of panic buying, with food staples at an
all-time low.<br />
The newspaper Ta Nea – apologising for appearing much thinner itself – declared “the country is diminishing.”<br />
“The newspaper that you hold in your hands is only 32 pages because
there are only enough reserves of paper left for a few days,” it wrote
in an editorial. “And there is no possibility to buy new amounts because
of the enforced closure of banks.”<br />
The new downturn came on top of official data showing Greek
manufacturing activity shrank for the 10th month in a row during June.
The last three months were the worst quarter for manufacturing for two
years.<br />
At what is almost the height of the tourist season, hotels are also
feeling the heat with a reported 40% drop in airline and tour operator
bookings.<br />
Athens’ failure to meet a debt repayment of €1.6bn to the IMF on
Tuesday has resulted in mass cancellations of bank transactions by US
travel companies. <br />
“American tour operators were ready to make wire transfers,” said
Ioannis Retzos, president of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers.
“But they couldn’t when US authorities warned them that money
transactions to Greek banks would be impounded.”<br />
If voters reject proposed reforms as the radical left prime minister <a class=" u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/alexis-tsipras">Alexis Tsipras</a>
has urged them to do, telling the nation on Wednesday that it will
strengthen Athens’ hand in negotiations with the EU and IMF, there are
fears that plans to open banks next Tuesday will be revoked.<br />
Reserves at the Bank of Greece, estimated at €1.6bn last Friday, are
being depleted fast. “Even if there was an agreement today, it would
take two to three weeks for banks to get back on their feet,” said
Korkidis. <br />
“And cash is running out very quickly. By Monday there is a very strong chance that ATMs won’t be dispensing any at all.”<br />
</div>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-18379681652759756482015-02-25T12:45:00.002-05:002015-02-25T12:45:47.895-05:00Adult content policy on Blogger<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
Adult content policy on Blogger</h1>
<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="content-container content-container--answer" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Starting March 23, 2015, you won't be able to publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity on Blogger.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Note:</strong> We’ll still allow nudity if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.</div>
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<h3 style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
Changes you’ll see to your existing blogs</h3>
<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="content-container content-container--answer" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
If your existing blog doesn’t have any sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video on it, you won’t notice any changes.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
If your existing blog does have sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video, your blog will be made private after March 23, 2015. No content will be deleted, but private content can only be seen by the owner or admins of the blog and the people who the owner has shared the blog with.</div>
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Settings you can update for existing blogs</h3>
<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="content-container content-container--answer" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
If your blog was created before March 23, 2015, and contains content that violates our new policy, you have a few options for changing your blog before the new policy starts:</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Remove sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video from your blog</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/42673" style="border: 0px; color: #7759ae; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">Mark your blog as private</a> </li>
</ul>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
If you’d rather take your blog down altogether, you can <a href="https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/97416" style="border: 0px; color: #7759ae; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">export your blog</a> as a .xml file or archive your blog's text and images using <a href="https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/blogger" style="border: 0px; color: #7759ae; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">Google Takeout</a> .</div>
</div>
</h1>
<h3 style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
Effect on new blogs</h3>
<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="content-container content-container--answer" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
For any blogs created after March 23, 2015, we may remove the blog or take other action if it includes content that is sexually explicit or shows graphic nudity as explained in our <a href="http://www.blogger.com/content.g" style="border: 0px; color: #7759ae; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">content policy</a> .</div>
</div>
</h1>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-62845896596683277692014-11-16T04:25:00.000-05:002014-11-16T04:25:24.887-05:00Report: Amanda Bynes Threatens Parents in New Audio Recording<h1 class="article-headline" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', proxima-nova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 33px; margin: 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Report: Amanda Bynes Threatens Parents in New Audio Recording</h1>
<div class="nw-byline-w clear" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', proxima-nova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 570px;">
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<a href="http://www.tvguide.com/authors/sadie-gennis" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-transition: color 0.25s ease; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: color 0.25s ease;"><img alt="Sadie Gennis" border="0" src="http://www.tvguide.com/images/headshots/sadie-gennis.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" /></a></div>
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Nov 15, 2014 05:49 PM ET<br />
by <a class="author-link" href="http://www.tvguide.com/authors/sadie-gennis" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-transition: color 0.25s ease; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: color 0.25s ease;">Sadie Gennis</a></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://static.tvgcdn.net/MediaBin/Content/141110/News/6_sat/thumbs/141115amanda-bynes1_210x305.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 210px;" width="210px" /><br />
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Amanda Bynes</div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', proxima-nova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38em; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/amanda-bynes/139292" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-transition: color 0.25s ease; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d22024; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: color 0.25s ease;" target="_blank">Amanda Bynes</a> threated to kill her parents in an audio recording obtained by <a href="http://www.people.com/article/amanda-bynes-audio-tape-threatens-kill-parents-bipolar" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-transition: color 0.25s ease; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d22024; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: color 0.25s ease;" target="_blank">TMZ</a>.</div>
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The website posted what it claims is a recording of the actress taped last week by one of Bynes' roommates. In the recording, Bynes says, "I haven't decided how I want to murder [my father] ... Nothing would give me greater pleasure than, like, slitting his throat. That is what I would love to do."</div>
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"So like I'm not gonna, like, ever do such a thing, but, like, I call my mom and, like, I threaten to kill her, and I threaten to slit her wrist, and I threaten to, like, burn down her house and, like, I said a bunch of sh-- like that," Bynes continues.</div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', proxima-nova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38em; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 1.4em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.tvguide.com/news/amanda-bynes-timeline-erratic-behavior-1067598.aspx" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-transition: color 0.25s ease; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d22024; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: color 0.25s ease;" target="_blank">A timeline of Amanda Bynes' erratic behavior</a></div>
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"I'm gonna continue telling you guys I'm gonna murder my family, like, 'cause that's the thing that, like, they're in control of my money, and that's why I don't have much money right now," the actress says. Bynes' complaints on the recording echo her recent tweets in which she complains about the latest conservatorship she's been placed under.</div>
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Bynes also went on a cruel rant against the roommate who shared the tape, allegedly with the intention that it might incite Bynes to get medical help. "I will make fun of you, but it will be subtle... like, I will shoot you in the face with an ugly insult. Like, congratulations -- that's what you guys get. ... You're the unhottest guy ever... You're so gay it hurts my feelings," Bynes told her roommate.</div>
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After the tapes were released, Bynes apologized for verbally attacking her roommate, but not her parents. "Oh my god I am so sorry I called my friend wayne ugly he's not ugly," Bynes <a href="https://twitter.com/amandabynes/status/533735186425344000" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-transition: color 0.25s ease; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d22024; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: color 0.25s ease;" target="_blank">tweeted</a>. "I apologize to everyone that I called ugly but everyone has been making me act so ugly by posting horrible shots of me that i cant help but."</div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: Proxima Nova, proxima-nova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px;">Video - <a href="http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_pf0och5i" target="_blank">Audio recording of Amanda </a></span></span></div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-32176268822673199052014-11-16T04:15:00.001-05:002014-11-16T04:16:10.638-05:00G20 summit: Much promised, less delivered<h1 class="story-header" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 2.461em; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 34px; margin: 3px -160px 13px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 623px;">
<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30073281?ocid=socialflow_twitter" target="_blank">G20 summit: Much promised, less delivered</a></h1>
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<img alt="Climate protesters in Brisbane" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79056000/jpg/_79056198_4bc19390-bd40-4cbf-bbe3-ad51c8d13547.jpg" height="351" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="624" /><span style="display: block; width: 624px;">Climate change finally made it onto the closing G20 agenda</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/lindayueh/" style="background: rgb(214, 0, 0); color: white; display: block; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: -13px; margin-top: -13px; padding: 13px 8px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; z-index: 1;">More from Linda</a></h2>
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The G20 summit of world leaders has concluded with a communique, a fancy way of describing a joint statement, that has both delivered more, but also somewhat less, than expected.</div>
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Where they've delivered more is by putting issues such as climate change in the message from world leaders. Those weren't on the formal agenda as the host, Australian PM Tony Abbott, had nixed climate change, for one.</div>
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But, after US President Obama mentioned the urgency of dealing with climate change at a speech in Brisbane before the summit, it's unsurprising that it was discussed after all.</div>
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Ebola is also in the final statement.</div>
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So, the G20 didn't just focus on the purely economic issues. I wrote before about <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30042334" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">how most of these issues are linked to the world economy</a> in any case.</div>
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But, where they have delivered less is with respect to concrete commitments on those issues.</div>
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For instance, the gist of the G20 statement on climate and Ebola is that they are concerned, and support effective action - without committing money or quantitative targets. Maybe that's too much to expect given that these originally weren't on the agenda.</div>
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Fighting tax evasion was on the agenda, and the G20 agreed to automatically share tax information, but I've already heard criticism from Transparency International and others that it doesn't go far enough because the information won't be in the public domain.</div>
<span class="cross-head" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Going for growth</span><br />
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Of course, economic growth was top of the agenda, and is, as expected, the main focus of the G20 statement.</div>
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World leaders reaffirmed their goal of lifting the GDP of G20 economies - which represent 85% of the world's economy - by an additional 2% within four years, by 2018. It's equivalent to adding $2 trillion to global output, and they say that will create millions of jobs.</div>
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How they can achieve that, of course, is the big question.</div>
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What is the point of the G20 summit? In 90 seconds</div>
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The statement says that they'll deliver jobs through increasing "investment, trade and competition".</div>
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Each country will have their own plans, but the mechanisms outlined include getting another 100 million women into the workforce, increasing trade, and setting up a Global Infrastructure Hub.</div>
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What is notable is a focus on youth unemployment, with details to come next year. They also emphasised a commitment to poverty eradication and reducing inequality, which are certainly important.</div>
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Who's paying is, of course, key.</div>
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My understanding is that private businesses are being targeted for investment funds in infrastructure, for instance. We'll see more detail soon enough when individual countries work through their country plans in the coming months.</div>
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Raising global growth by 2% has been an aim of the G20 all year, and in prior years in various forms, yet the eurozone economy is teetering and emerging markets such as China and Brazil have been slowing. So, another statement may ring a bit hollow.</div>
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On the other hand, it's unclear what co-ordinated action could be taken since it's not 2008/09 where governments and central banks were jointly acting to save the global financial system.</div>
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I'm told that countries will monitor each other's actions to ensure that there's no negative impact on others. That may be what's realistic, but also it is also unsatisfying to those who have been waiting for their governments to do more jointly to create jobs.</div>
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After all, how to address the so-called jobless recovery, where output has recovered but employment has not, is a key issue in a number of major economies. Perhaps when the G20's employment working group reports back in 2015, there will be more detail.</div>
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However, if it takes until November in 2015 at the G20 in Turkey to see specific policies to address the jobless recovery that has been with us for more than six years, taxpayers may begin to balk at paying for these big summits that promise much but tend to deliver somewhat less.</div>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-44081608963653060532014-11-16T04:04:00.004-05:002014-11-16T04:04:39.061-05:00Putin plans to leave G-20 early after criticism<div class="story-top" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 214, 219); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 4r'; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px auto; overflow: hidden; width: 940px;">
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Putin plans to leave G-20 early after criticism</h1>
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<a data-comments-label="Article" data-disqus-identifier="cnbcnewsstory_102188583" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102188583#" style="color: #2d648a; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"></a><div class="story_commentsCount" style="float: right; padding-bottom: 20px;">
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Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to leave the G-20 summit early, a member of his delegation said, after Western leaders blasted Moscow on Saturday for the crisis in Ukraine and threatened more sanctions.</div>
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The Russian official told Reuters that Putin planned to skip a working session on Sunday at the two-day summit in Brisbane and bring forward his departure because he needed to attend meetings in Moscow.</div>
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<img alt="Russian President Vladimir Putin" height="298" itemprop="image" src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2014/09/03/101967487-putin.530x298.jpg?v=1409753241" style="border: 0px;" title="Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mongolia, Ukraine, Mongolian counterpart Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Putin Ukraine" width="530" /><div class="attribution" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;">
Reuters</div>
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Russian President Vladimir Putin</div>
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Russia denied it was involved in a recent escalation of military activity in Ukraine, where fighting has claimed more than 4,000 lives, but faced strong rebukes from Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.</div>
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<span class="label-read-more" style="color: #c34c28; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r';">Read More</span><a class="inline_asset" data-nodeid="102182999" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102182999" style="color: #2d648a; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r'; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">Ukraine, Putin and the options that remain</a></div>
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"I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine," Harper told Putin at the summit, according to his spokesman Jason MacDonald.</div>
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Putin's response to the comment wasn't positive, MacDonald said in an email, without elaborating.</div>
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Obama said Russian aggression against Ukraine was a threat to the world, while the European Council demanded Moscow withdraw troops and weapons from the neighboring nation and put pressure on rebels there to accept a ceasefire.</div>
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Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, Obama placed security and climate change at the center stage of the leaders meeting, overshadowing talks on how to lift flagging global economic growth.</div>
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Obama said the United States was at the forefront of "opposing Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17".</div>
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union was considering further financial sanctions against Russian individuals because of the crisis in Ukraine.</div>
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"The present situation is not satisfying," Merkel told reporters at the summit. "At present the listing of further persons is on the agenda."</div>
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<span class="label-read-more" style="color: #c34c28; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r';">Read More</span><a class="inline_asset" data-nodeid="102149500" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102149500" style="color: #2d648a; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r'; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">Ukraine: The pain is far from over</a></div>
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Europe's foreign ministers will meet on Monday to assess the situation in Ukraine and whether further steps including additional sanctions were needed against Russia, said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.</div>
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Putin's isolation at the G-20 summit was also evident with his placing on the outer edge for the formal leaders photograph. While Obama and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping were met by Australia's governor general and attorney general when they arrived in Brisbane, Putin was met by the assistant defense minister.</div>
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Despite being under intense pressure, Putin was all smiles, shaking hands with host Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who had threatened to "shirt front", or physically confront, him over the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 over Ukraine, in which 28 Australians died.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r', Arial;">Only topic discussed</span></div>
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A Kremlin spokesman said the Ukraine crisis was the only topic discussed at a one-on-one meeting between Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron, but he added both expressed interest in "ending confrontation" and rebuilding relations. Putin also met French President Francois Hollande, and both agreed to protect their ties from the effects of sanctions, the spokesman said.</div>
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Outside the summit, Ukrainian Australians staged an anti-Putin protest, wearing headbands reading "Putin, Killer".</div>
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<span class="label-read-more" style="color: #c34c28; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r';">Read More</span><a class="inline_asset" data-nodeid="102177962" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102177962" style="color: #2d648a; font-family: 'Gotham Narrow SSm 5r'; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">Ukraine economy in 'free fall,' banking group says</a></div>
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Draped with the flags of the nations that lost citizens when the flight MH17 was shot down, the demonstrators lay on a large Ukrainian flag, in what they said was a protest at the "murderous acts" Russia's president was responsible for.</div>
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G-20 host Australia had hoped that the two-day summit would focus on global economic growth, not security or the environment.</div>
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Obama also said the United States would renew commitment to its strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific in comments seen as a veiled warning to China.</div>
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Obama insisted that Asia's security order must not be based on "coercion or intimidation ... where big nations bully the small, but on alliances for mutual security".</div>
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He did not explicitly point the finger at China, but there was little doubt that he was alluding to Beijing's maritime disputes and growing concern about its military build-up.</div>
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Despite Australia's reluctance to allow climate change on the summit agenda after it abolished a tax on carbon emissions, Obama spent a large part of his speech urging action on the environment. He pledged a $3 billion U.S. contribution to an international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change.</div>
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But Australia stuck to its economic script.</div>
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A plan to increase global economic growth by an additional 2 percentage points over the next five years was on track, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said.</div>
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"This ambition translates into about $2 trillion in additional global economic activity and millions of new jobs," he said.</div>
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</section>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-52602798976993629492014-11-16T03:49:00.001-05:002014-11-16T03:49:23.089-05:00The NHS starts to implode – right on target as predicted in 2004<header class="article-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'American Typewriter', 'Courier New', Courier, Monaco, mono; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;"><img alt="4bitNEWS" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="431" src="http://4bitnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-09-at-02.34.41.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="616" /><h1 class="entry-title single-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-size: 40px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 42px; margin: 0.2rem 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
The NHS starts to implode – right on target as predicted in 2004</h1>
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Posted by <span class="author" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://4bitnews.com/author/editor/" rel="author" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #bdc3c7; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Editor">Editor</a></span> on <time class="updated" datetime="2014-11-9" pubdate="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">November 9, 2014</time>. -- <a href="http://4bitnews.com/uk/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #bdc3c7; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">UK</a></div>
</header><section class="entry-content clearfix" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'American Typewriter', 'Courier New', Courier, Monaco, mono; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;"><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.6; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem 1.4rem; padding: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It’s not often The Daily Mail comes to the defence of the NHS. It spends many column inches damning the service and all of its doctors as the mouthpiece of a government whose Raison d’être is of a privatisation agenda. However, even The Daily mail has conceded with it’s headline “Full extent of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2824456/Full-extent-NHS-cash-crisis-revealed.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">NHS cash crisis revealed</a>” – The NHS is on a ‘knife edge’ which could lead to ‘unexpected disasters’, a senior boss has admitted”.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It continues – Paul Baumann, the health service’s finance chief, gave a stark warning after it emerged hospital waiting times are at their worst for six-and-a-half years. It came as a report revealed the number of hospitals needing emergency government bailouts has doubled in 12 months.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The National Audit Office said 31 trusts had handouts last year, costing more than half a billion pounds. MPs and health experts said the situation was ‘deeply alarming’. Figures released yesterday show 3.2million patients are waiting for operations, scans and treatment – the most since April 2008. This includes 37,712 waiting for surgery longer than the Government target of 18 weeks – nearly double the number in May 2010.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">So, there we have it. Proof that the NHS is finally imploding under this governments deliberate mismanagement that will require the magical powers of private vested interests to solve all of it’s woes. In just a few years time all NHS services will be up for bid and the people of Britain will wonder why they allowed such a dreadful act of societal betrayal to happen. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/letwin-nhs-will-not-exist-under-tories-6168295.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">But, they were warned weren’t they!</a> Tory MP Oliver Letwin predicted in 2004 that the NHS would no longer exists after 5 years of a Tory government. And, it’s smack on target; just one little election in it’s way.</li>
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</section>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-73753314095806317582014-11-16T03:47:00.001-05:002014-11-16T03:47:05.214-05:00Controversial TTIP could have disastrous results for the British economy<header class="article-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'American Typewriter', 'Courier New', Courier, Monaco, mono; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;"><img alt="4bitNEWS" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="452" src="http://4bitnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-11-at-03.47.51.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="600" /><h1 class="entry-title single-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-size: 40px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 42px; margin: 0.2rem 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Controversial TTIP could have disastrous results for the British economy</h1>
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Posted by <span class="author" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://4bitnews.com/author/editor/" rel="author" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #bdc3c7; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Editor">Editor</a></span> on <time class="updated" datetime="2014-11-11" pubdate="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">November 11, 2014</time>. -- <a href="http://4bitnews.com/uk/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #bdc3c7; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">UK</a></div>
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New research has found that the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP could have disastrous results for the British economy.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The free trade agreement between the EU and the US is touted by David Cameron as providing a much-needed boost to the UK economy. However a peer- reviewed research paper by Jeronim Capaldo of Tufts University, Massachusetts, predicts that over a ten-year period impacts would include:</div>
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• The average working person in Britain would be over £3,300 worse off as a result of lower wages.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />• Europe as a whole would lose nearly 600,000 jobs – more job losses than in the crisis years of 2010 and 2011.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />• Ordinary workers would lose out but profits and rents would increase. In total 7% of GDP would shift from labour to capital.</div>
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A representative from <a href="http://www.wdm.org.uk/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">World Development Movement</a>, a group campaigning against TTIP, said: “TTIP falls down even on its own terms, as it’s supposed to bolster growth in the EU, but in fact it will result in fewer jobs and lower wages. This is truly a deal for the 1%, and we have to stop it.”</div>
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Meanwhile the <a href="https://stop-ttip.org/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Stop TTIP Coalition</a>, made up of over 300 campaign groups, today filed a lawsuit against the European Commission over its decision in September to reject a European Citizens’ Initiative against TTIP signed by more than a million EU citizens. Despite the Commission’s rejection of the European Citizen’s Initiative, campaign groups and trade unions launched a<a href="http://action.wdm.org.uk/ea-campaign/action.retrievestaticpage.do?ea_static_page_id=3521" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">second self-organised petition</a> calling on the Commission to scrap the trade deal that has so far garnered almost 850,000 signatures in just over a month.</div>
</section>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-28274613860849968862014-11-16T03:44:00.001-05:002014-11-16T03:45:13.584-05:00Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a ‘big mistake’<h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: plumbmedium; font-size: 2.6em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1999em; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a ‘big mistake’</h1>
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<span class="time" style="color: #999999; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 5px 3px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;">Published time: November 16, 2014 04:15<br />Edited time: November 16, 2014 05:21</span><br />
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Mikhail Klimentiev)</div>
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<a href="http://rt.com/tags/australia/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Australia</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/conflict/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Conflict</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/g20/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">G20</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/oil/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Oil</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/politics/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/putin/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Putin</a>,<a href="http://rt.com/tags/russia/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Russia</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/sanctions/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Sanctions</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/ukraine/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Ukraine</a></div>
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Ukraine’s decision to sever economic ties with rebel-held areas and stop funding local public services is a big mistake which does not help the locals gain trust in Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists at the G20 summit.</div>
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<a href="http://rt.com/news/205919-ukraine-bockade-rebel-areas/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">READ MORE: Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks</a></div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I don’t understand why Kiev authorities are cutting off those territories with their own hands. Well one can understand – to save money. But it’s not the time or the case to save money on,”</em> he said.</div>
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Putin compared Kiev’s debacle with the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to Russia’s own armed conflict in the Chechen Republic that erupted several times since the early 1990s and officially ended in April 2009. But even at the worst moments, Moscow did not stop paying pensions and other social benefits to the Chechen people, he said.<br />
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“At moments that appeared to be stupid, because the people who were in control there not only embezzled that money but also could use them for obviously less-than-noble goals. But we did it due to our moral obligations to the common people. And in the end it turned out to be the right decision, as Chechens appreciated what Russia did to support the common people,”</em> Putin said.<br />
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The Russian leader said he hopes the decision of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will be amended according to the demands of real life.</div>
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Kiev decided to take a number of <a href="http://rt.com/news/205919-ukraine-bockade-rebel-areas/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">measures</a> in the rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, including suspending human rights protection for their residents, freezing public services, and banning banks from operating there. The stifling economic measures were ordered in a decree by President Petro Poroshenko on Friday.<br />
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The move was in retaliation for the <a href="http://rt.com/news/201711-donetsk-lugansk-republics-elections/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">elections</a> that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics held earlier in November in defiance of Kiev’s prohibition.</div>
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Sanctions, oil, G20 talks</h2>
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Putin was speaking in Australia’s Brisbane, where he took part in the G20 summit.</div>
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During the G20 meetings, there was a common understanding that economic sanctions against Russia harm both their targets and the countries imposing them, and a way out of the current situation is urgently needed, the Russian President told journalists following the second day of talks.</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I believe there is a common understanding that this statement does not only deserve a right to exist, but is the only true one,”</em> Putin said.<br />
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While many media outlets, both in Australia and in other countries, implied that Putin had an icy welcome at G20 summit, the actual atmosphere at the event was quite cordial, the Russian leader said.</div>
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Putin praised the attitude of Australians in Brisbane and the hospitality of the country’s Prime Minister Tony Abbot, who played host to the event.</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I took a look at the local press and other media after I arrived here. There was some whipping up of the tension. The actual reality and the virtual life as reported by the media – at least in this particular case – differed a lot,”</em> Putin stressed.</div>
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Putin said that while virtually every bilateral meeting he had at the summit focused on Ukraine, the general meetings did not even mention it. Instead, the agenda included infrastructure investment and introducing a new institution into the global energy industry, among other topics.<br />
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Speaking of Russia’s own standing in a world of lowering oil prices and after the Russian national currency experienced rapid devaluation, Putin assured that the nation has enough resilience to weather the storm. Due to the dollar’s rise, oil was traded higher than the Russian 2014 budget expected in the first half of the year, so the current low price won’t force a correction, he said.<br />
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We will see what happens next year. If this continues, we’ll correct our spending, but it won’t affect our social obligations,”</em> Putin said.</div>
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Putin’s early leave</h2>
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Vladimir Putin is leaving the G20 summit early. Following an avalance of media speculations over the motives for his early departure, he explained the move by saying he had a long trip back to Moscow before returning to work on Monday.<br />
<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />“Just to avoid speculations here, I am not going to the events tomorrow. I am leaving the finance minister in my place, who will report on Russia’s effort in fighting the Ebola outbreak,”</em> he said.<br />
<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />“The trip from here to Vladivostok is nine hours. And nine hours more from Vladivostok to Moscow. I’d like to get home before going to work on Monday. And have at least four or five hours of sleep. So I told that to Tony [Abbott] and he bore with me. There are no other considerations here.”</em><br />
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Earlier, some media implied that Putin would leave the summit early because other world leaders pressured him over Russia’s position on the Ukrainian crisis. Putin denied the reported hostility, saying that the reality of the summit was different from what the media described, and the atmosphere was constructive.</div>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-89217793764525367612014-11-16T03:41:00.002-05:002014-11-16T03:41:47.946-05:00With new congressional power, which windmill will Republicans tilt at first?<div class="field field-name-title field-type-ds field-label-hidden" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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With new congressional power, which windmill will Republicans tilt at first?</h1>
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<span class="updated" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20.8799991607666px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="ad-authors-node-wrapper" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><span class="author-term author vcard" style="border: 0px; color: #234466; display: inline-block; font-size: 1.1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><a class="fn name author" href="http://www.adn.com/author/shannyn-moore" style="border: 0px; color: #234466; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannyn Moore</a></span></span></span><br />
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November 15, 2014</div>
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<a class="colorbox init-colorbox-processed-processed cboxElement" href="http://www.adn.com/sites/default/files/styles/ad_slideshow_940/public/election%20vote%20counting%2005%20-%2020141111.jpg?itok=Lr3BYbCH" rel="" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Review Accu-Vote Board member Dee Bowns feeds early voting ballots into a tally machine at the state Region II Division of Elections office in Anchorage on Tuesday, November 11, 2014. | Loren Holmes / ADN"><img height="413" src="http://www.adn.com/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_620/public/election%20vote%20counting%2005%20-%2020141111.jpg?itok=xvb0tt6f" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 500px;" width="620" /></a></div>
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<span class="views-field views-field-field-main-image-caption banana" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="field-content main-image-caption" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">OPINION: Republicans now have control of both the House and the Senate, and it should be interesting to see what they have planned besides more gridlock. Pictured: Early voting ballots feeding into a tally machine at a state elections office in Anchorage. November 11, 2014</span></span><span class="views-field views-field-ifelse" style="border: 0px; color: #646464; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.85rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="field-content main-image-credit" style="background: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Loren Holmes / ADN</span></span></div>
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I really hate pumpkin-spice-every-single-possible-product-you-can-think-of season. I guess we're down to two holidays for the last few months of the year -- Happy Pumpkin Spice and Merry Christmas. I heard Christmas music before Halloween this year. Our elections have become the same way, now starting the next round before all the ballots are counted. Before I tear into a rant about that, could we all agree to just campaigning six months out from the election?</div>
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Considering how saturated the airwaves have been all over the country for over a year, it's over, folks. The lowest amount of voters showed up at the polls since 1942. The reason for low voter turnout then was something called a World War. Little resources were spared for elections then -- we had to beat the Germans, not each other.</div>
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RELATED: </div>
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<a href="http://www.adn.com/article/20141114/sullivan-requests-senate-committee-assignments-during-trip-dc" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sullivan requests Senate committee assignments during trip to D.C.</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.adn.com/article/20141115/jenkins-gruber-video-adds-urgency-fight-against-obamacare" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jenkins: Gruber video adds urgency to fight against Obamacare</a></div>
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Parties for volunteers and campaigners have been happening. Frankly, the winners and losers deserve recognition for their work; after all, democracy is really a verb. (I wonder what the Yes on 2 people had at their party...) Anyway, all that is wrapping up. If you've been to campaign offices, you have seen the countdown calendars on the walls. If you ask workers how they are doing, their general response is to ask how many days are left.</div>
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Well, the fewest people in 70 years have spoken, and time's up. Republicans across the country showed up and they now have the House and the Senate.</div>
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Just because you can win (or buy) a campaign race doesn't mean you know how to govern, so this could get interesting. I for one am cheering them on. See, it does me no good to see a political party fail if it is at the expense of my fellow citizens.</div>
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If the last 50 votes in the House to repeal Obamacare are any indicator, I assume the Senate will take that up shortly. Really? I know, I'm master of the obvious here, but they have the votes. What's their solution? I've been hearing about how terrible health care for poor people is since the Affordable Care Act was passed, but I haven't heard what the plan to replace it is. I'm dying to know. I thought the ACA was wimpy from the beginning. Will the Republicans replace it with a Public Option? Please? How about Medicare E? The E is for Everyone! I can't imagine they'd propose to take away something with no replacement. Inquiring minds want to know.</div>
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Will the Environmental Protection Agency finally be defunded? Oh, those overreaching federal agencies that stifle all those projects will finally be over? Think of all those corporations that can finally sing "Free at Last!" and be done with environmental standards.</div>
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Immigration was a big stick in national campaigns. What's the solution? Obama has been called the "deporter-in-chief" for a reason -- his administration has deported more undocumented workers than any of his predecessors. Not good enough? Will the Republicans round up the 12 million people living unpapered in America and send them back? Brace yourselves, Canada! Can we send them on a train? Can we send them in the rain? Can we send them on a boat? Can we build a needed moat? (My apologies, Dr. Seuss.)</div>
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The Keystone XL pipeline is a promise the Republicans will try to deliver. Well, what will that do to the price of oil? I mean, does Alaska really want a bunch of Canadian oil competing with ours on the open market? This could hit us where it hurts -- our state pocketbook. The price of oil is dropping fast enough, to a level which makes pulling Canadian oil uneconomical. Will Alaska's senators vote for a pipeline that will hurt Alaska's bottom line? They have to look out for ... oh, that's right, they have to dance with the one who brought them.</div>
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Well, I'm curious to see what solutions the controlling party will present to the American public; goodness knows they've been pointing at problems long enough.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannyn Moore</strong> is a radio broadcaster.</em></div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-81435743536390933442014-11-16T03:40:00.002-05:002014-11-16T03:40:46.261-05:004 bit news - Ukraine scraps all functioning infrastructure in pro-Russian Ukraine<header class="article-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'American Typewriter', 'Courier New', Courier, Monaco, mono; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;"><h1 class="entry-title single-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-size: 40px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 42px; margin: 0.2rem 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Ukraine scraps all functioning infrastructure in pro-Russian Ukraine</h1>
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Posted by <span class="author" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://4bitnews.com/author/editor/" rel="author" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #bdc3c7; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Editor">Editor</a></span> on <time class="updated" datetime="2014-11-16" pubdate="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">November 16, 2014</time>. -- <a href="http://4bitnews.com/world-at-war/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #bdc3c7; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">WORLD AT WAR</a></div>
</header><section class="entry-content clearfix" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'American Typewriter', 'Courier New', Courier, Monaco, mono; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;"><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.6; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem 1.4rem; padding: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kiev has suspended the protection of human rights (right to life, the prohibition of torture and slavery, and the right not to be subjected to unlawful punishment) and ordered the <a href="http://rt.com/news/205919-ukraine-bockade-rebel-areas/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">withdrawal of all its institutions</a>from areas controlled by local militia in the nation’s east. Rebels have branded the decree, which hits the population on winter’s eve, an ‘act of genocide.’</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The move was prepared by the Ukraine National Security and Defense Council last week and enacted by a presidential decree signed on Friday. It has yet to be ratified by the newly-elected parliament, but the decree explicitly says that this procedure must be expedited – so there is little doubt that the new governing coalition will adopt it next week.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">They will apply a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/15/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKCN0IZ0LX20141115" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ee1111; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">permanent suspension to all state-owned companies </a>and their employees and to prisoners serving terms in the affected rebel held areas of Ukraine. The Ukrainian central bank has been ordered to stop servicing all banks operating in the rebel-held areas. The accounts of individuals living there and companies located there have already been frozen. This will stifle the local economy, as businesses will have to conduct transactions in cash or use a bartering system.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Heating and power plants will be subjected to special measures. If individual power bills are not paid, power will be switched off but with no functioning banking system it is inevitable that energy supplies will be shut down as the onset of winter appears. One can only assume this to be a deliberate act to punish the people in those areas and that the EU and IMF are comfortable with such acts.</li>
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</section>disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-8569707816660072682014-11-16T03:39:00.003-05:002014-11-16T03:39:24.898-05:00Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks<h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: plumbmedium; font-size: 2.6em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1999em; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks</h1>
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<span class="time" style="color: #999999; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 5px 3px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;">Published time: November 16, 2014 00:22<br />Edited time: November 16, 2014 04:17</span><div class="i-clears i-mh" style="clear: both; height: 1px; margin: -1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;">
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<img alt="A rebel stands in front of a building that was destroyed in the recent shelling, in the town of Yasinovataya, eastern Ukraine, September 22, 2014 (Reuters / Marko Djurica)" src="http://cdn.rt.com/files/news/32/45/f0/00/ukraine-bockade-rebel-areas.si.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 680.6875px;" title="" /><div class="article_img_footer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); bottom: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 6.796875px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 673.875px;">
A rebel stands in front of a building that was destroyed in the recent shelling, in the town of Yasinovataya, eastern Ukraine, September 22, 2014 (Reuters / Marko Djurica)</div>
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Trends</div>
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<a href="http://rt.com/tags/conflict/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Conflict</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/human-rights/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Human rights</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/military/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Military</a>, <a href="http://rt.com/tags/politics/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Politics</a>,<a href="http://rt.com/tags/ukraine/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Ukraine</a></div>
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Kiev has suspended the protection of human rights and ordered the withdrawal of its institutions from areas controlled by local militia in the nation's east. Rebels have branded the decree, which hits the population on winter’s eve, an ‘act of genocide.'</div>
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<span style="background-color: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The move was prepared by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council last week and enacted by a presidential decree signed on Friday. It has yet to be ratified by the newly-elected parliament, but the decree explicitly says that this procedure must be expedited – so there is little doubt that the new governing coalition will adopt it next week.</span></div>
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<a href="http://rt.com/news/205931-g20-putin-press-conference/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">READ MORE: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a ‘big mistake’ - Putin</a></div>
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Arguably the most controversial part of the decree is the suspension of the European Convention on Human Rights in rebel-held areas. <a href="http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; color: #044faa; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.5s, text-decoration 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The convention</a>, which guarantees basic human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe, has a provision which allows some of its articles to be derogated by a signatory <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“in time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation.”</em></div>
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Kiev has been insisting that the military campaign it launched against the dissenting provinces is not a war, but an “anti-terrorist operation.” Apparently the operation threatens the life of Ukraine, which will now observe only those provisions of the convention, which cannot be derogated under any circumstances. In particular, they are the right to life, the prohibition of torture and slavery, and the right not to be subjected to unlawful punishment.</div>
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Cutting ties with breakaway regions</h2>
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In practical terms, the decree orders that many social and economic ties with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics be severed. Kiev will withdraw all its officials and evacuate its offices in rebel-held areas. The order covers all public services, including crucial ones, such as schools, hospitals, and emergency services.</div>
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<img alt="Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (Reuters / Mykola Lazarenko)" src="http://rt.com/files/news/32/45/f0/00/1.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><div class="article_img_footer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); bottom: 0px; font-size: 1em; left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 6.796875px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 673.875px;">
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (Reuters / Mykola Lazarenko)</div>
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The same measure is applied to all state-owned companies and their employees and to prisoners serving terms in the affected parts of Ukraine.</div>
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The Ukrainian central bank has been ordered to stop servicing all banks operating in the rebel-held areas. The accounts of individuals living there and companies located there have been frozen. This will stifle the local economy, as businesses will have to conduct transactions in cash or use a bartering system.</div>
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At the same time, the rules of taxation and budget transfers between Kiev and local governments in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions will be altered under the decree.</div>
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Reuters / Anatoly Stepanov</div>
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Local heating and power plants will be subjected to a “special procedure for accounting supplies of fuel” to ensure that their debt will not grow. This potentially could involve cutting supplies altogether to the plants that don’t pay.</div>
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Ukraine's decision to halt subsidies to rebel-held areas may be understandable. However, the problem of standing debts in Ukraine’s energy sector has a long history, as energy companies have been for years failing to collect payments from consumers, and as a result pay for fuel supply.</div>
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The debt burden has been a de facto social subsidy by the government – and a practice which the International Monetary Fund wants eradicated as a condition for further loans to Ukraine. For people in eastern Ukraine who may be left with no heat in the middle of winter, it's an issue of survival rather than economic effeciency.</div>
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Ceasefire imperiled</h2>
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President Petro Poroshenko’s decree also repeals a Ukrainian law which provided special status for the rebel-held areas. The law was adopted by Kiev to deliver on its promises under the ceasefire it negotiated with the rebels in Minsk in September.</div>
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Poroshenko threatened to repeal the law after the self-proclaimed republics held elections on November 2 in defiance of Kiev’s order not to do so.</div>
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The new measures, while apparently in line with rebels’ desire to be independent from Kiev, have been harshly criticized by them.</div>
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<img alt="A rebell stands guard during the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic leadership and local parliamentary elections at a polling station, November 2, 2014 (Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev)" src="http://rt.com/files/news/32/45/f0/00/2.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><div class="article_img_footer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); bottom: 0px; font-size: 1em; left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 6.796875px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 673.875px;">
A rebell stands guard during the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic leadership and local parliamentary elections at a polling station, November 2, 2014 (Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev)</div>
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“Poroshenko’s decree on the total socio-economic blockade of Donbass is de facto an act on genocide and devastation of our people,” Igor Plotnitskiy, leader of the Lugansk People’s Republic, said.</div>
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He added that his government would not change its course, and that people in Lugansk <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“will live better than Ukraine, which will find the rule of the oligarchs worse and more devastating than any blockade.”</em></div>
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A fellow official from the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said Poroshenko’s decree is <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“a flagrant violation of the Minsk protocol.”</em> He called on the OSCE, which brokered the ceasefire deal together with Russia, to come up with comments on the situation.</div>
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Kiev conceding to reality</h2>
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Poroshenko’s decree marks Kiev’s acknowledgment of the reality on the ground, prominent Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomaryev commented.</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Those territories are not controlled by the Ukrainian government, which cannot and does not want to perform its functions, as we see. De facto they are acknowledging a certain degree of sovereignty [of the self-proclaimed government over] those territories,”</em> he told RIA Novosti.</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“In my opinion, the most important thing now is that civilians don't get killed there. If these measures held the ceasefire, one could probably welcome them,”</em> he added.</div>
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<img alt="A meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation in Minsk, Belarus (RIA Novosti)" src="http://rt.com/files/news/32/45/f0/00/111.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><div class="article_img_footer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); bottom: 0px; font-size: 1em; left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 6.796875px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 673.875px;">
A meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation in Minsk, Belarus (RIA Novosti)</div>
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<span style="background-color: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But Mikhail Fedotov, who chairs the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights, doubts that.</span></div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I believe those measures are dangerous and would hurt the civilian population in the conflict zone,”</em> he said. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“They are showing a desire to distance from the conflict zone. It does not make progress towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict.”</em></div>
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The presidential decree is one in a package aimed at stabilizing the situation in Ukraine. Poroshenko's other orders are aimed at controlling the weapons that flooded the country amid the deterioration of the police force and toughening up punishments for war crimes, as well as reforming the military and energy sector.</div>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-44810033308609745462014-11-16T03:16:00.001-05:002014-11-16T03:16:17.426-05:00UK Welfare - 212,000 People ‘Beaten Up For Being On Benefits’, Shocking Survey Reveals<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/212000-people-beaten-benefits-shocking-survey-reveals/" target="_blank">212,000 People ‘Beaten Up For Being On Benefits’, Shocking Survey Reveals</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-09-09T00:27:35+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">September 09, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/benefits/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Benefits</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/news-in-brief/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">More News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/poll/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Poll</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/unemployment/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Unemployment</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">Up to 212,000 people have been ‘beaten up for being on benefits’ as a direct result of the despicable ‘scrounger’ rhetoric in the media and ‘poverty porn’ TV programmes, a shocking new survey reveals today.</span></div>
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A survey by YouGov reveals the devastating impact of newspaper benefits propaganda, and ‘poverty porn’ programmes like Channel 4’s Benefits Street, on some of Britain’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.</div>
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The YouGov survey shows that up to 212,000 people have been attacked for being on benefits, while 11% had even been shunned by their own families.</div>
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YouGov asked 2,352 benefit claimants: “Have you ever been verbally or physically abused because you are on benefits? 15% said they had experienced verbal abuse and 4% admitted they had been physically assaulted.</div>
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If the survey had asked every single benefit claimant in the UK it would suggest that nearly 212,000 have been physically assaulted.</div>
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6% of respondents said their children had been victims of bullies, while 16% said they had been turned down for a home for being in receipt of benefits.</div>
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Campaigners and charities are now calling on the media and the government to end their use of socially divisive language, which is turning British society against itself.</div>
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Philipp Newis from the Who Benefits? campaign told the Daily Mirror:</div>
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“We’ve heard a lot of negative talk from politicians about benefit claimants, even though these are people who might need support for all sorts of reasons.</div>
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“Around 4.3million families receiving benefits are in work, but earning too little to get by.</div>
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“Many others are ill, caring for a loved one or have lost their job. It could happen to any one of us.”</div>
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The survey was carried out by YouGov on behalf of a number of charities including Gingerbread, MIND and the Children’s Society.</div>
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Its findings will be sent to a report which is investigating whether benefit claimants are being treated like second-class citizens.</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-75204092887475101922014-11-16T03:10:00.000-05:002014-11-16T03:10:10.740-05:00UK Welfare - Labour ‘Locked Into The Tory Austerity Agenda’, Say SNP<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/labour-locked-tory-austerity-agenda-say-snp/" target="_blank">Labour ‘Locked Into The Tory Austerity Agenda’, Say SNP</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-09-23T16:32:27+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">September 23, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/benefits/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Benefits</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/children/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Children</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/labour/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Labour</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/news-in-brief/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">More News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/politics/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/poverty/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Poverty</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/snp/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">SNP</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/welfare-reform/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Welfare Reform</a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">The Scottish National Party (SNP) is calling on Westminster parties to clarify as to whether child benefit will be included in devolved powers on offer to Scotland.</span></div>
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The call comes after the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls revealed that a future <a href="http://welfarenewsservice.com/labour-freeze-child-benefit-2017-says-ed-balls/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Labour Would Freeze Child Benefit Until 2017, Says Ed Balls">Labour government would freeze child benefit rises at just 1% until 2017</a> – a real-terms cut.</div>
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Labour’s plan to cut child benefit is a clear indication that they are “locked into the Tory austerity agenda”, at a time when many families are already struggling and forced to turn to food banks, say the SNP.</div>
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SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell said:</div>
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“As Ed Balls has made clear in his speech [yesterday], Labour are locked into the Tory austerity agenda. This means more cuts that would hit Scotland hard.</div>
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“In the last few years, we have had cuts on top of cuts from the Tories. And it is clear that this will continue to be the case no matter what government we have in Westminster after next May’s General Election.</div>
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“Labour’s proposal to cut Child Benefit in real terms would hit families across Scotland in the pocket – at a time when many are already suffering at the hands of Tory cuts.</div>
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“Over the past year, the number of people using foodbanks has rocketed by 400 per cent. Westminster has proved time and time again that it cannot be trusted to look out for the vulnerable. For this reason, welfare needs to be devolved to Scotland.</div>
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“However, the reality is that Labour’s devolution commission proposals completely fail to outline what welfare powers they would devolve to Scotland – and make no mention of Child Benefit.</div>
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“The Labour Party need to remember that 45 per cent of people in Scotland voted Yes last week – and polling has shown that a further quarter of No voters cast their vote in the expectation that substantial further powers would be devolved to Scotland in the coming months.</div>
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“Ed Balls’ statement that he would not increase borrowing to fund capital investment also raises questions about the effectiveness of the borrowing powers that are already supposed to be coming to the Scottish Parliament.</div>
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“The Westminster parties must now honour their commitment on further powers to the people of Scotland – and the first thing they must do is outline exactly what powers they are proposing for the Scottish Parliament.</div>
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“It is only with this much needed clarity we can move forward and work to get the best possible deal for Scotland in the circumstances.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-6089054050331771282014-11-16T03:06:00.003-05:002014-11-16T03:06:25.383-05:00UK Welfare - New Benefit Rules Will Push Thousands ‘Into A Financial Black-Hole’<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/new-benefit-rules-will-push-thousands-financial-black-hole/" target="_blank">New Benefit Rules Will Push Thousands ‘Into A Financial Black-Hole’</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-09-27T14:35:35+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">September 27, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/benefits/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Benefits</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/government/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Government</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/news-in-brief/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">More News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/politics/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/press-releases/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Press Releases</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/snp/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">SNP</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/unemployment/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Unemployment</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/welfare-reform/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Welfare Reform</a></div>
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<img alt="New Benefit Rules Will Push Thousands ‘Into A Financial Black-Hole’" class="post_layout_5_img" src="http://www.welfareweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/newspapers5.jpg?4cb69d" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><div class="entry-content-data " style="float: left; margin-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 164px;">
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/new-benefit-rules-will-push-thousands-financial-black-hole/" data-summary="New rules which force unemployed people to wait seven days to claim benefits will push thousands into the arms of payday lenders, warn SNP." data-title="New Benefit Rules Will Push Thousands 'Into A Financial Black-Hole'" style="clear: both;">
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">Scottish National Party (SNP) Media Release:</span></div>
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A <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-accused-of-forcing-unemployed-into-financial-black-hole-under-new-benefits-rules-9758811.html" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">report in today’s Independent</a> that new benefit rules to be introduced next week could push around 280,000 people ‘into a financial black-hole’ is the latest demonstration of how poorly planned Westminster’s welfare changes have been.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
The report makes clear that an impact assessment by the Social Security Advisory Committee of moves to force recipients of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to wait a week after losing their job before being allowed to claim will see around 280,000 new recipients bear the brunt of these cuts.</div>
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When the policy comes into effect next week, it has been calculated that new JSA claimants will lose around £40 each while ESA claimants will lose around £50 each, leading to warnings from Frank Field – the Coalition Government’s anti-poverty adviser – that the move will push people into the arms of payday lenders.</div>
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Last year, a PQ lodged by the SNP revealed that there had been <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-07-18b.166224.h#g166224.q0" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">no assessment</a> of what impact the policy would have on what impact the move would have on poverty levels in Scotland before it was announced by the Westminster Government.</div>
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Commenting, SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
“This impact assessment is a real concern and demonstrates the scale of the hardship that is likely to be caused when these changes are introduced next week.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
“The sums involved may not sound vast, but they are absolutely critical when someone has just lost their job and may have no other source of income.</div>
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“As the Westminster Government’s own anti-poverty adviser Frank Field has rightly warned, for many people the only option open to them thanks to this will be to turn to payday lenders with potentially disastrous consequences.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
“From start to finish the entire package of Westminster’s welfare cuts have been poorly planned and have failed utterly to prioritise the need to support vulnerable people.</div>
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“The decision to effectively outsource support for jobseekers to companies like Wonga is the clearest demonstration possible that Westminster simply cannot be trusted to handle these matters.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-55316591620928603612014-11-16T02:55:00.002-05:002014-11-16T02:55:22.535-05:00UK Welfare - Councils Turning Homeless People Away, Says Charity<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/councils-turning-homeless-people-away/" target="_blank">Councils Turning Homeless People Away, Says Charity</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-10-17T16:47:17+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">October 17, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/homelessness/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Homelessness</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/housing/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Housing</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/local-government/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Local Government</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/news-in-brief/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">More News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/poverty/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Poverty</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/press-releases/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Press Releases</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a></div>
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<a data-disqus-identifier="null" href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/councils-turning-homeless-people-away/#disqus_thread" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">(1) Comment</a></div>
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<img alt="Councils Turning Homeless People Away, Says Charity" class="post_layout_5_img" src="http://www.welfareweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/homeless-woman.jpg?4cb69d" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><div class="entry-content-data " style="float: left; margin-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 164px;">
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/councils-turning-homeless-people-away/" data-summary="An undercover investigation by homelessness charity Crisis has revealed how homeless people are being turned away by councils with no choice but to sleep on the streets." data-title="Councils Turning Homeless People Away, Says Charity" style="clear: both;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;">An undercover investigation by homelessness charity Crisis has revealed how homeless people seeking help from their councils are being turned away with no choice but to sleep on the streets.</span></div>
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Crisis engaged ‘mystery shoppers’ with personal experience of homelessness to test the services of 16 local councils across England.</div>
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The report shows that many homeless people get little or no help from their council because they are not considered a ‘priority’ – meaning the council has no legal duty to house them. In many cases even those with learning difficulties or victims of domestic violence are being turned away without help.</div>
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In 50 out of 87 council visits (57%) shoppers received little or no help. Across the country, this is likely to mean thousands of homeless people turned away with nothing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
In response to the findings, Crisis is launching a public petition and campaign – <a href="http://community.crisis.org.uk/no-one-turned-away/no-one-turned-away-homepage" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">No One Turned Away</a> – calling for action from the three main political parties so that all homeless people can get the help they need.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “Life on the streets is devastating and no one should have to go through it. Yet even in the 21st century, homeless people who ask their council for help are being turned away to sleep on the streets – cold, desperate and forgotten. This is nothing short of a scandal. On top of the human cost, it is incredibly expensive for society, which has to pick up the pieces.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
“Everyone deserves a second chance, yet too often the door is slammed in people’s faces, leaving them with nowhere else to turn. That’s why Crisis is calling on party leaders to review the support given to single homeless people under the law. In this day and age, no one should be abandoned to the streets.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
The report provides an often grim picture of council homelessness services. While some councils offered a good quality of service, problems were widespread, with London performing particularly poorly compared to other regions. Although housing pressures are greater in the capital, there were instances of better performance, suggesting that culture, training and resources play a major role.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “It’s shocking to think that anyone who loses their home after a job loss or fleeing domestic violence would have the door shut on them when they ask for help. But tragically we know from our own frontline staff that this is fast becoming a sad reality not only for single people but many homeless families across the country too.</div>
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“As councils continue to feel the squeeze on their finances, and the number of affordable homes dwindles, many are being forced to make even tougher decisions on who they can and can’t help.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
“Right now councils need more realistic budgets to make sure that every homeless person or family who needs help can get it. And in the long-run if we want to end homelessness for good politicians have to commit to building the genuinely affordable homes that we desperately need.”</div>
</div>
disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-69312996636835745562014-11-16T02:50:00.003-05:002014-11-16T02:50:52.698-05:00UK Welfare - Work Programme Providers ‘Parking’ Sick And Disabled On Benefits<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/work-programme-providers-parking-sick-disabled-benefits/" target="_blank">Work Programme Providers ‘Parking’ Sick And Disabled On Benefits</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-11-06T17:04:55+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">November 06, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/benefits/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Benefits</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/dwp/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">DWP</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/featured_news/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Featured News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/government/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Government</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/politics/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/unemployment/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Unemployment</a></div>
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<a data-disqus-identifier="null" href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/work-programme-providers-parking-sick-disabled-benefits/#disqus_thread" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">(1) Comment</a></div>
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/work-programme-providers-parking-sick-disabled-benefits/" data-summary="The Work and Pensions Select Committee criticised Work Programme providers for spending less than half of what they promised on 'harder-to-help' benefit claimants." data-title="Work Programme Providers 'Parking' Sick And Disabled On Benefits" style="clear: both;">
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">Companies running the government’s flagship back-to-work programme are “parking” sick and disabled jobseekers on benefits, because they are “just to hard” to help.</span></div>
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The Work and Pensions Select Committee criticised Work Programme providers for spending less than half of what they promised on ‘harder-to-help’ benefit claimants.</div>
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The committee also described the government’s inability to incentivise providers to support sick and disabled people into work as a “scandal”, adding the government must do more to tackle poorly performing contractors.</div>
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for the Work Programme, which aims to help people who have been out of work for long periods to find and keep jobs.</div>
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Prime contractors are paid by the DWP to provide support to people to get them into long term employment using a payment by results approach. The amount the Department pays a prime contractor depends on its success in getting people into sustained work.</div>
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The DWP has 40 contracts with 18 prime contractors, the committee says. Either two or three prime contractors operate in 18 different geographic areas across England, Scotland, and Wales. Prime contractors may subcontract some or all of the support they provide.</div>
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The Department will stop referring people to the Work Programme in March 2016, although payments will continue continue to be made until March 2020.</div>
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Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said:</div>
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“The Department has not succeeded in incentivising Work Programme providers to support harder-to-help claimants into work. Almost 90% of Employment and Support Allowance claimants on the Work Programme have not moved into jobs.</div>
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“Evidence shows that differential payments have not stopped contractors from focusing on easier-to-help individuals and parking harder-to-help claimants, often those with a range of disabilities including mental health challenges.</div>
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“Data from Work Programme providers shows that they are, on average, spending less than half what they originally promised on these harder to help groups.</div>
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“It is a scandal that some of those in greatest need of support are not getting the help they need to get them back to work and are instead being parked by providers because their case is deemed just too hard.”</div>
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“The Department must do more to encourage providers to work with harder-to-help groups by tackling poorly performing prime contractors and sharing information on what works.</div>
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“It should also collect and publish information from each provider on how much they are spending on different payment groups.”</div>
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Margaret Hodge MP also said the committee had concerns about Work Programme providers referring sick and disabled benefit claimants for sanctioning:</div>
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“We are also concerned about how the Department’s sanctions regime is operating. Sanctions can cause significant financial hardship to individuals, and it is not clear whether the sanctions regime actually works in encouraging people on the Work Programme to engage with the support offered by providers.</div>
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“Feedback from some constituents suggests that the number of sanctions has been increasing and that some providers have been recommending sanctions more than others. The Department confirmed that Seetec has referred more claimants for sanction than other providers.</div>
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“The Department should monitor whether providers are making the right sanction referrals to the Department and that they are not causing unfair hardship. It should publish the number of sanctions by provider.</div>
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“The Department has designed the contracts with providers in a way which exposes the taxpayer financially.</div>
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She added: “After a slow start, performance of the Work Programme is improving, but there is still a long way to go before it is working effectively for all.”</div>
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Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said:</div>
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“The Government’s decision to put all unemployed people through the same ‘one size fits all’ programme has clearly failed. This report is further evidence that the Government’s Work Programme is failing to give disabled people the chance to work and get on in life. Just one in 20 disabled people on the Work Programme actually get a job.</div>
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“We need to get the benefit bill down, so a Labour government will bring in a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee and reform the Work Programme to bring in a dedicated Work Support programme to give disabled people and job seekers the chance to get off benefits and into work.”</div>
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TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady added:</div>
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“Once again the Public Accounts Committee has exposed private contractors for broken promises and poor performance.</div>
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“The Work Programme is yet another expensive failure for Iain Duncan Smith and the Department for Work and Pensions. Private companies are milking the tax payer without delivering the results they promised for people who are desperate to get a decent job.</div>
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“Disabled people have been most let down and are being unfairly sanctioned in record numbers instead of getting the help they need to get a job.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-77213746564968182712014-11-16T02:49:00.002-05:002014-11-16T02:49:40.494-05:00UK Welfare - 300,000 More People In ‘Absolute Poverty’ Than Previously Thought<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/300000-people-absolute-poverty-previously-thought/" target="_blank">300,000 More People In ‘Absolute Poverty’ Than Previously Thought</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-11-05T01:48:21+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">November 05, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/featured_news/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Featured News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/politics/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/poverty/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Poverty</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/press-releases/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Press Releases</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a></div>
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/300000-people-absolute-poverty-previously-thought/" data-summary="300,000 more people could be living in "absolute poverty" in the UK than previously thought, according to a shocking new IFS report." data-title="300,000 More People In 'Absolute Poverty' Than Previously Thought" style="clear: both;">
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">300,000 more people could be living in “absolute poverty” in the UK than previously thought, according to a shocking new report.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7428" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies</a> (IFS) found that poorer households have experienced larger increases in living costs than richer households, mainly due to rises in food and energy prices.</div>
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IFS say that taking into account “differential inflation” since 2010-11, the number of people recorded as being in absolute poverty would be 300,000 higher in 2013-14 than official figures suggest.</div>
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Between 2002-03 and 2013-14 the poorest 20% of households saw prices increase on the typical goods they purchase by 50%, compared to richest 20% who saw prices rise by 43%.</div>
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According to the IFS, poorer households devote more of their income on things like food and energy, whereas the richest 20% of British society spend more on areas such as motoring and mortgages.</div>
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On average, the prices of goods purchased by low-income households have risen more quickly than those more commonly purchased by more affluent households. This is particularly apparent in the ‘wake’ of the 2008 recession, say IFS.</div>
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Source: IFS Poverty Study</div>
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The government uses two different methods of measuring poverty in the UK. The first is ‘absolute poverty’, which is a measure of the number of people thought of as being below a poverty line, before housing costs, calculated using the Retail Price Index (RPI). Through this measure we can confidently say that 18.8% of individuals were living in absolute poverty in 2012-13, before housing costs.</div>
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Another method used by the government is ‘relative poverty, which calculates the number of households earning less that 60% of the national median average. Using this method we can calculate that 15.4% of the UK population were living in ‘relative poverty’ (before housing costs) in 2012-13.</div>
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The IFS study also accounts for different inflation pressures felt by households depending on how they spend their income – a measurement not included in official poverty statistics. This new measurement found that absolute poverty is 0.5% higher in 2013/14 than standard poverty measures- the equivalent of 300,000 more households.</div>
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However, the IFS say this trend has not been consistent over earlier years, adding that “this new definition had been at times higher and at times lower”.</div>
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Peter Levell, a Research Economist at IFS said: “In recent years, lower-income households have tended to see bigger increases in their cost of living than have better off households.</div>
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“Official poverty measures do not take this into account and hence have arguably understated recent increases in absolute poverty by a small but not insignificant margin.”</div>
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Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said:</div>
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“This report is further evidence of the huge pressures which families are facing as a result of David Cameron’s cost-of-living crisis.</div>
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“The Government’s failure to tackle soaring energy, childcare bills and low wages has led to millions struggling to get by. Earlier in the year the IFS said child poverty is set to rise 900,000 by 2020.</div>
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“A Labour Government will do more to help families who are struggling to make ends meet so that every child gets the best start in life. We will freeze energy prices, raise the minimum wage, extend free childcare provision, scrap the Bedroom Tax and introduce a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee to get people off benefits and into work.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-62209349239591891642014-11-16T02:48:00.001-05:002014-11-16T02:48:17.093-05:00UK Welfare - Universal Credit Timetable Slips Again<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/universal-credit-timetable-slips/" target="_blank">Universal Credit Timetable Slips Again</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-10-24T00:38:44+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">October 24, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/benefits/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Benefits</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/dwp/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">DWP</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/featured_news/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Featured News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/government/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Government</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/politics/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/welfare-reform/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Welfare Reform</a></div>
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/universal-credit-timetable-slips/" data-summary="DWP insists it remains on course to secure savings even though less than 15,000 claimants are currently on new benefits system" data-title="Universal Credit Timetable Slips Again" style="clear: both;">
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<img alt="Powered by Guardian.co.uk" class="alignright" height="45" src="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/03/01/poweredbyguardian.png" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="140" /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/22/universal-credit-timetable-slips-again" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">This article titled “Universal credit timetable slips again” was written by Patrick Wintour, for The Guardian on Wednesday 22nd October 2014 20.14 UTC</a></div>
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The increasingly vague timetable to put more than seven million benefit claimants on the government’s flagship universal credit has again slipped back, the Department of Work and Pensions confirmed on Wednesday.</div>
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But the DWP insisted it remained on course to secure substantial savings, and said early findings showed that universal credit, which integrates six current benefits, is increasing claimant job search and breaking down barriers to work.</div>
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The DWP claims that universal credit will boost the economy by £7bn a year and help 300,000 households find work. It said an analysis of 1,000 of the first universal credit claimants found that claimants spend 29 hours a week looking for work rather than 16 hours under the jobseeker’s allowance scheme.</div>
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The survey found that such claimants are working more and 65% believe that the new scheme provides a “better financial incentive” to work and is “easier to understand”.</div>
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But the scale of the IT setbacks was underscored when it was revealed that only 14,170 claimants – mainly single people or childless couples – are currently on the universal credit system.</div>
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In January 2015 this extends to couples with children in some areas before all new claims for single claimants, starting nationwide later that year. It is estimated 100,000 people will be on universal credit by May 2015 and 500,000 by May 2016.</div>
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THe DWP says that, by 2017, all new claimants, whether with children or not, will be put on to universal credit, but no date has been set for existing benefit claimants to be transferred. This means that from 2016 to well into 2018, it is likely Britain will have a two-tier welfare system with some people on universal credit and millions not. The DWP estimates there are 7.7m eligible claimants at present.</div>
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Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “You have to have flexibility so we land this carefully – simply gathering everybody up and dumping them in at an arbitrary point does not work. Targets and arbitrary figures are one of the problems of programme rollouts that don’t allow you to achieve the change. I believe the more people understand universal credit, the more they’ll want it.”</div>
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He hoped everyone would be on the benefit by 2018, though he admitted some difficult groups might not be.</div>
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Duncan Smith has repeatedly broken his promises on universal credit, promising that a million people would be claiming it by April 2014.</div>
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Shadow welfare minister Chris Bryant said: “Today Iain Duncan Smith promised 100,000 people will be on universal credit by May 2015. But that’s only around 1% of the total number of people who are expected to claim the new benefit.</div>
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“£130m has already been wasted by ministers on universal credit and today’s announcement, confirming further delays to the government’s flagship welfare reform, is extremely worrying.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-49577553233501617932014-11-16T02:46:00.002-05:002014-11-16T02:47:11.411-05:00UK Welfare - Welfare Sanctions Make Vulnerable Reliant On Food Banks, Says YMCA<br />
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<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/welfare-sanctions-make-vulnerable-reliant-food-banks-says-ymca/" target="_blank">Welfare Sanctions Make Vulnerable Reliant On Food Banks, Says YMCA</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-11-13T19:33:24+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">November 13, 2014</time></div>
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/welfare-sanctions-make-vulnerable-reliant-food-banks-says-ymca/" data-summary="Report by charity criticises ‘head in the sand’ policy on benefit sanctions as being behind significant increase in food poverty" data-title="Welfare Sanctions Make Vulnerable Reliant On Food Banks, Says YMCA" style="clear: both;">
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<img alt="Powered by Guardian.co.uk" class="alignright" src="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/03/01/poweredbyguardian.png" height="45" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="140" /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/13/welfare-sanctions-make-vulnerable-young-reliant-food-banks-ymca" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">This article titled “Welfare sanctions make vulnerable reliant on food banks, says YMCA” was written by Patrick Butler, social policy editor, for The Guardian on Thursday 13th November 2014 12.57 UTC</a></div>
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The YMCA, the UK’s oldest youth charity, has warned the government that its changes to welfare policy are driving vulnerable young people to become reliant on food bank handouts rather than preparing them for jobs.</div>
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About 5,000 young people were referred by YMCAs to food banks last year, it said in a report, with benefit sanctions cited as the main reason for what it called a “significant increase” in the number of clients falling into food poverty.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.ymca.org.uk/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" title="">YMCA</a> accused ministers of having their “heads in the sand” over welfare changes and they must urgently fix flaws in the benefits system that leave an increasing number of young people penniless.</div>
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The charity, which has 114 branches in England, works with care leavers and youngsters who have left home to escape abuse or family breakdown. The majority of those referred to food banks were people living in special supported accommodation.</div>
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Denise Hatton, YMCA England chief executive, told the Guardian: “For me, the benefit system is there to support the most vulnerable people. We are in touch with young people and we know the system which is there to protect them is failing them, and the government must want to do something about that.”</div>
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She said the government could no longer ignore the way jobcentres were treating vulnerable young people. “The welfare system was set up to protect and provide a safety net for those individuals in their time of need and so that no one would be left without money to be able to afford food. However, our evidence shows it is failing in this role.</div>
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“It is unacceptable in this day and age that anyone should have to rely on the kindness of strangers in order to eat.”</div>
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The YMCA’s criticisms of a rigid “tick box” approach to benefits that imposes strict punishments for infringements but fails to meet the needs of individuals with complex needs echoes the findings of the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/22/independent-report-failings-benefit-sanctions" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" title="">government-commissioned Oakley review</a> of sanctions, published in July, which said the system placed disproportionate burdens on the most vulnerable.</div>
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Ministers have persistently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/lord-freud-food-banks" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" title="">rejected claims</a> that the rise in referrals to food banks has been driven by sanctions and delays in benefit payments, but Hatton said the link was incontrovertible. “I have been in this kind of work for 30 years, working with young people on the ground, and I have never known it like this.”</div>
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The charity said a lack of flexibility in jobcentre culture and practice meant the benefits system was unable to respond to the challenges faced by youngsters who had chaotic lifestyles or learning difficulties.</div>
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Jobcentre staff focused on pushing claimants into intensive work-search activity such applying for jobs and completing CVs, even when young people were emotionally unprepared for work. When they failed to meet these tough conditions they were punished by having their benefits stopped, with the effect that they were left further from the job market.</div>
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The YMCA cites the case of Joshua, 21, from Nelson, Lancashire, who was sanctioned after attending one of its residential courses designed to prepare him for volunteering. Although he told the jobcentre about the course and provided evidence it would help him find a job, he was sanctioned for having missed an appointment and had his jobseeker’s allowance stopped for three months.</div>
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Joshua said: “I went three months living on food parcels from the local mosques and the church, which was really degrading because you lose all your dignity. The assistance I got was purely from the YMCA and Stepping Stones [a housing charity], other than that I think I would have starved.”</div>
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The YMCA said: “We are fortunate to live in a country where people and communities give so charitably. However, relying upon this goodwill and other organisations to pick up the pieces should not be seen by the government as a substitute to fixing a welfare system that is driving many young people into hardship rather than employment.”</div>
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Although jobcentres are able in theory to offer hardship payments to vulnerable and penniless claimants who have been sanctioned, the YMCA says one in four of its clients said they were not told of this potential source of support, while even fewer knew they could apply to their local councils’ welfare assistance scheme for crisis help.</div>
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Even where they did know this help was available, however, many youngsters were deemed ineligible, with nearly a third of YMCAs referring clients to food banks because they had been turned down for hardship payments or crisis loans.</div>
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Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that the proportion of young people having their payments stopped for alleged infringements has doubled since tighter conditions were applied to unemployment benefit claims in October 2012.</div>
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The YMCA says in its report: “While there is recognition among YMCAs and young people that conditionality is an important element of any benefit system, the way it is being administered and the focus on punishing perceived ‘bad behaviour’ over rewarding those doing the right thing is having a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of young people.”</div>
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A DWP spokesman said: “There is no robust evidence that our reforms are linked to increased use of food banks and these claims are based on anecdotal evidence. “The reality is benefit processing times are improving and we continue to spend £94bn a year on working age benefits to ensure there is a strong safety net in place.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627107230602772764.post-43694222751674130282014-11-16T02:45:00.003-05:002014-11-16T02:45:32.505-05:00UK Welfare - Sickness Benefit Cuts ‘Considered’ By Ministers<header style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #ce261a; font-size: 28px; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/sickness-benefit-cuts-considered-ministers/" target="_blank">Sickness Benefit Cuts ‘Considered’ By Ministers</a></h1>
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Posted by <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/author/welfare-weekly-editor/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Steven Preece</a></div>
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Date: <time class="entry-date updated" datetime="2014-10-30T02:09:08+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">October 30, 2014</time></div>
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in: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/all/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">All</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/benefits/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Benefits</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/disability/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Disability</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/dwp/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">DWP</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/government/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Government</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/news-in-brief/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">More News</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/politics/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/society/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Society</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/unemployment/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Unemployment</a>, <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/category/welfare-reform/" rel="category tag" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Welfare Reform</a></div>
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<a data-disqus-identifier="null" href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/sickness-benefit-cuts-considered-ministers/#disqus_thread" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #999999; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">(2) Comments</a></div>
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<img alt="Sickness Benefit Cuts ‘Considered’ By Ministers" class="post_layout_5_img" src="http://www.welfareweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/disabled-man-holding-no-cuts-sign.jpg?4cb69d" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><div class="entry-content-data " style="float: left; margin-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 164px;">
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<div class="shareaholic-canvas" data-app-id="11947507" data-app="share_buttons" data-link="http://www.welfareweekly.com/sickness-benefit-cuts-considered-ministers/" data-summary="Ministers are considering making drastic cuts to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), internal documents reveal." data-title="Sickness Benefit Cuts 'Considered' By Ministers" style="clear: both;">
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">Ministers are considering making drastic cuts to the sickness benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), internal documents reveal.</span></div>
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Internal documents seen by the BBC reveal how ministers have ‘considered’ making draconian cuts to ESA payments for those claimants in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG).</div>
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It is believed that the move would reflect how sick and disabled people in the WRAG are required to take steps toward future employment, even though they are currently thought of as ‘unfit for work’.</div>
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Sick and disabled people in the WRAG of ESA currently receive £28,75 a week more than JSA claimants, but papers seen by the BBC suggest that ministers have at least considered cutting this to just 50p more. The higher amount recognises additional costs incurred by sick and disabled people on a daily basis.</div>
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the proposals were not government policy. However, this doesn’t mean that such a policy would not be implemented in the future, or find its way into the Tories general election manifesto.</div>
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The documents also reveal how the the government has been forced to bring in an extra 100 fitness-for-work assessors to clear a backlog of more than 60,000 ESA claims. The extra assessors will be hired through the employment support and training agency Pertemps.</div>
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DWP is expected to announce the successor to Atos in the next few months, who pulled out of a contract to assess unemployed people for ESA in the wake of criticism about the accuracy of its assessments. Speculation is mounting that the U.S firm Maximus will be picked as the <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/news-brief-dwp-award-500-million-fit-work-contract-u-s-firm-maximus/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="DWP To Award £500 Million ‘Fit For Work’ Contract To U.S Firm Maximus">preferred bidder for a contract</a> worth £500 million over three and a half years.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700 !important;">(UPDATE: <a href="http://www.welfareweekly.com/official-maximus-awarded-fit-work-contract/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; color: #dd3333; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="It’s Official: Maximus Awarded Work Capability Assessment Contract">Maximus awarded WCA contract</a>)</span></div>
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ESA is claimed by around two million people and provides crucial financial support for those who, through no fault of their own, are too sick or disabled to be able to work.</div>
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Dame Anne Begg, chair of the commons work and pensions committee, said she would support reforms to ESA but not any reduction in the value of the benefit. She added:</div>
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“That’s not reform, that is just saving money. I hope that is not something the government is going to come forward with.”</div>
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Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), said:</div>
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“The proportion of people in absolute poverty in families living with disability has gone up each year since 2009 and now stands at a shocking 22%. ”</div>
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Any cut in support would make it very much harder for families already reeling from austerity blows and would surely fail any credible family test.”</div>
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disasterpastor45http://www.blogger.com/profile/05531895838048547892noreply@blogger.com0