More than a third of UK adults would find it difficult or impossible to cope with a £20 increase in their monthly outgoings, as the cost of living crisis hits household finances.

Citizens Advice found that 37% of adults would struggle to find an extra £20, with 25% saying they would find it “somewhat difficult”, while 7% said it would be very “very difficult,” and 4% “impossible,” PA reported.

The charity said people were increasingly resorting to desperate measures to get by, for example by eating only cold meals.  

The charity’s chief executive, Dame Clare Moriarty, said: “Millions of households are at financial breaking point: running down savings, going without bare essentials and turning to food banks to get by. We’re already seeing record numbers of people coming to us for crisis support and this research shows people simply cannot cut back any further…”

The Citizens Advice survey, of 2,000 UK adults by Public First between 5 and 9 December, showed nearly a quarter (23%) had spent more money on essentials such as food, toiletries and energy, than they had coming in over the past three months. More than two-thirds of them (67%) said they could only keep this up for six months or less without additional support. A third of people said they had to dip into their savings in the last three months to get by, but more than half (56%) of this group said they had either run out of savings or expected to do so in the next three months.

This persistent financial stress is taking its toll on people, with 28% losing sleep at least once a week over their finances.

Around one in seven said they had been eating cold meals over the winter to reduce their energy costs.

It supported a record number of people in December, helping them access emergency grants and referring them to food banks.

StepChange, the UK’s largest debt advice charity, told the Guardian that more people were using candles or not putting the cooker on “because they’re scared of the bills”.

More than third of UK adults would struggle to find extra £20 | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian

 United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund released a report showing that more than 11,000 young people have been killed or injured in the conflict, where a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out attacks since 2015. The known number of maimed children in Yemen is equivalent to about four young people being hurt per day, according to UNICEF.

The true death toll of children is likely far higher, said UNICEF, as millions face hunger and disease.

“Thousands of children have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands more remain at risk of death from preventable disease or starvation,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

Roughly 2.2 million Yemeni young people face acute malnourishment, said UNICEF, and one-quarter of those children are under age five. With 10 million children lacking access to healthcare as health clinics have been forced to close, a majority of the country’s children are now at extreme risk for measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses, as well as cholera. 

UN Report: 11,000 Children Killed in Yemen (consortiumnews.com)

 For decades, the biggest inequalities in carbon emissions have been between rich and poor countries. 

Now, inequalities within countries explain more of the gap between clean and dirty lifestyles. 

The top 1% of global earners — somebody earning a yearly salary of about €124,000 ($132,000) — are responsible for one-fifth of the growth in carbon pollution in the last 30 years. They live in cities from Miami to Mumbai. 

“The top 1% use basically a similar amount to the bottom 50% of humanity — and so obviously that, just in terms of scale, is a ridiculous proportion of the carbon budget,” said Anisha Nazareth, a scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) studying emissions inequality.

 Oligarch Roman Abramovich’s 162-meter-long boat comes with two helipads and a swimming pool. A study published in 2021 estimated that Abramovich’s yacht emitted more carbon dioxide in 2018 than Tuvalu, a pacific island nation of 11,000 people.

In the EU, half the spending on air travel comes from the richest 20%. In the US and Canada, 19% of adults who take more than four flights a year account for 79% of the flights. 

Shrinking the carbon footprints of the super-rich? – DW – 01/02/2023

 To all those who agitate for more taxation of millionaires and billionaires, the only way to ensure fairness and true equality is to replace capitalism with socialism – production for need, not profit. Ask yourself, what would governments squander extra revenue on anyway? Because it’s odds -on it wouldn’t, in the long run (or short), help those who need help most.

“Tesla owner Elon Musk has lost some $200 billion in the past year, becoming the first person ever to lose that much money, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing calculations from its Billionaires Index.

According to the report, Musk had a net worth of $340 billion after Tesla’s market capitalization topped $1 trillion late last year. However, his fortune is now worth $137 billion.

Analysts say the losses were attributable to the poor performance of Tesla stock, which plummeted by 65% this year, intensifying its descent in the weeks following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

In order to help cover the cost of purchasing the social media platform, Musk has been selling Tesla shares, leading to accusations from investors that he is prioritizing Twitter over Tesla.

The billionaire, however, has repeatedly dismissed concerns about the car-manufacturing company, claiming on Twitter earlier this month that it “is executing better than ever.”

However, Tesla’s plummeting stock has already cost Musk his place as the world’s richest man. Earlier this month, the title passed to French tycoon Bernard Arnault, owner of the luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH.”

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Dave C.

 “North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for the country to develop a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and boost its nuclear arsenal amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, state-run media reported.

Pyongyang requires “overwhelming military power” to defend itself as Washington and “our undoubted enemy” Seoul try to “isolate and stifle” North Korea with US nuclear assets deployed in South Korean territory, Kim said on Sunday, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.

During a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), the country’s leader insisted that a new ICBM capable of a “quick nuclear counter-strike” must be developed by North Korea.

Kim stressed the importance of “mass-producing tactical nuclear weapons,” saying “an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal” would be the “main orientation” of North Korea’s defense strategy in 2023, KCNA reported.

Pyongyang is also planning to launch its first military satellite “at the earliest date possible,” and this is in the final stages of development, the agency added. 

On Saturday, Kim praised the country’s defense industry for delivering 30 new 600mm super-large multiple rocket launchers to the military. He described the nuclear-capable system as the country’s “core offensive weapon,” which can strike anywhere in South Korea with surprise and precision launches.

“We have declared our resolute will to respond with nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation,” he warned, as quoted by KCNA.

North Korea carried out a record number of missile tests in 2022, some of which involved ICBMs, according to calculations by Western media outlets. And it has already fired a short-range ballistic missile off its east coast in the early hours of the new year. Washington and Seoul have claimed that the North is gearing up for its nuclear test since 2017.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned on Sunday that North Korea would continue with its nuclear and missile provocations, insisting that Seoul’s military should respond to such moves with clear retaliation, according to his office.

On Monday, Pyongyang sent five drones into South Korean territory, with Seoul responding by flying three UAVs into North Korean airspace. South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup told parliament on Wednesday that President Yoon had ordered him to come up with a tit-for-tat response “even if that means risking escalation.”

Tensions have been on the rise between the two neighbours since Yoon came to power in May and declared a “peace through strength” policy, which is based on further boosting military ties with the US. In late December, Seoul announced an increase in joint drills with the Americans, with 20 such exercises planned for the first half of 2023 alone.”

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Dave C.

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 Two nuclear power plants in the UK are at the risk of being closed next year as a result of the windfall tax approved by the British authorities last year, The Sunday Telegraph reports on Sunday, citing French grid operator Electricite de France (EDF), which runs the stations.

EDF, which owns all five of the serving nuclear plants across the UK said that the new levy, which has come into effect on January 1, will make it harder for the operator to run the ageing stations of Heysham 1 and Hartlepool.

The UK authorities introduced the Energy Price Levy earlier this year and then expanded it in November in an effort to refill the nation’s budget drained by subsidizing natural gas bills that have skyrocketed since London joined the Ukraine-related sanctions.

The windfall tax on oil and gas generators was raised from 25% to 35%, imposing an overall tax rate of 75% on profits from UK operations. The measure places a 45% tax on any income from lower-carbon power sold for more than £75 ($91) per megawatt hour starting 2023.

“We accept there’s definitely a need for a levy of some kind – you’ve got to break the link between really high gas prices and the impact they have on power prices,” Rachael Glaving, commercial director of generation at EDF UK, told the newspaper.

“But of course that’s going to factor into the business case of life extension and we’ll have to take that [the windfall tax] into consideration. It’s not going to make it easier.”

She stressed that the levy will damage the business case for the facilities at a time when inflation is already pushing up other costs.

Heysham 1 and Hartlepool supply over two gigawatts of electricity to the grid, providing enough power for four million households annually, and nearly 4% of the power Britain uses during highest winter peaks.

Under the initial plan, the two power plants were to close in March 2024, but the owner considered extending the operating period for a “short term” amid a large-scale energy crisis that has hit Western Europe over the past years.

RT 1\1\23

Dave C.

Facing the New Year

Janus standing on the threshold, his rear

View taking in the past fifty two weeks,

When prices rose again to higher peaks

As wages fell. It begins to appear

Food banks are for many possessed by fear

Of impoverishment. Meanwhile, war still seeks

Pyrrhic victories for psychotic freaks

Posing as helmsmen, claiming they can steer

Their ships of state to port in some promised land,

That capital’s already colonised,

Drained and reduced to destitution.

The climate’s taken more than it can stand,

While socialism remains unrealised.

Janus looks for New Year resolution.

D. A.

An analysis, conducted by the healthcare research company 3 Axis Advisors, said that Big Pharma corporations including Pfizer, AstraZeneca PLC, and Sanofi SA are set to raise the list prices—which do not include any rebates—on over 350 drugs early in January.

 The pharmaceutical giants plan to raise U.S. prices for hundreds of drugs next month in anticipation of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which will allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of certain drugs starting in 2026.

Pharma Giants to Hike 350+ US Drug Prices in the New Year: Analysis (commondreams.org)