The south-west of England will have the highest proportion of low-income workers affected by a £20-a-week cut later this year in universal credit payments, according to the TUC that says there is a widespread culture of low pay from Cornwall to Gloucestershire.  Four in 10 universal credit claimants in the south-west have a low-paid job that qualifies them for benefits, a larger percentage than any other region.

The rate of claimants who had a job in May was 42.1% in the south-west compared with 41.2% in the east Midlands, the next worst affected, and 36.7% in the West Midlands.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said 2.3 million working families, as well as those who rely solely on benefits, would see their incomes drop by more than £1,000 a year if the government presses ahead with a planned £20-a-week cut in universal credit from October. 

The prime minister’s west London Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat has 9,546 UC claimants of whom 3,665 are in work, 38.4% of the total. In the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Yorkshire constituency of Richmond nearly half, 48%, of people receiving universal credit are in work. The TUC said: “It shows that even in wealthier parts of the UK the cut to universal credit will impact heavily on low-paid workers.”

6 million families claim UC and its predecessor, working families tax credit – twice the figure before the pandemic. More than 500,000 people were forced to file a claim during just nine days in March 2020 as the virus began to spread and the government announced the first lockdown. In the same month, ministers agreed a £20 rise in universal credit and tax credits as a one-year measure to help new claimants adjust to the extra costs of the pandemic. Estimates suggest it helped 700,000 people stay above the poverty line during the pandemic.

 Millions of people will still be in precarious jobs in October and unable to cope financially after a cut in benefits of more than £1,000 a year. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said more than 500,000 people, including 200,000 children, will be plunged into poverty when the government pushes through what it called “the largest single cut to the basic rate of social security since the second world war”.

About 6 in 10 of all single-parent families will experience their income falling by the equivalent of £1,040 per year after the befit cut, it said, imposing “the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the foundation of the modern welfare state”.

Workers in south-west England hardest hit by Universal Credit cut | Universal credit | The Guardian

 Although pharmaceutical companies have raked in tens of billions of dollars in revenue from distributing vaccines, which were developed with public funding, they are hardly closer to enabling low-income countries to protect their populations. 

Last month, Oxfam reported that at the current rate, it would take 57 years for every person in the Global South to be fully vaccinated against the disease.

 Some political commentators claim that we in The Socialist Party only say statist countries like Cuba, the former Soviet Union’s etc have “state capitalism” and “not real socialism” when these regimes are clearly failing. 

In reality, The Socialist Party has always opposed state-run capitalist economies where there is still wage slavery, commodity production, buying and selling, and production only taking place when it is viable to do so.

Globally, one in four cities do not have money available to protect them from the impacts of the climate crisis. In a survey of over 800 cities, it was found that 43% of them, home to 400 million people, did not even have a plan in place to adapt to the looming crisis. 

The harsh reality is, that even if cities can afford to pay for flood prevention and storm damage, they will be completely at the mercy of diminished food supplies which will be obliterated by the monsters about to be unleashed on our unsuspecting global population.

With the planet only warming by just over a degree, natural-disaster loss events have more than tripled in the past forty years. Since 2004, the number of events has already doubled. Extreme storms around the world are anticipated to happen more frequently, and be more destructive, as the planet warms.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), or the Gulf Stream is the ocean current that begins in the warm Gulf of Mexico, carries warm water up the northeast coast of the United States, and across the Atlantic to Northern Europe. The Gulf Stream is often credited with stopping countries like the U.K. and Ireland from freezing over in winter. What has concerned scientists is that the current has been slowing down, and it is possible that it may ‘switch off’ completely. The slowing down is being caused by the increasing amount of freshwater melt coming off the Greenland ice sheets as a result of global warming.

Europe may avoid completely freezing over, the Gulf Stream, along with the North American Polar Jet Stream, are expected to drive extreme weather events. In research published in the journal Nature, scientists predict ‘climate chaos’. They expect the weather to be strongly impacted and temperatures on both sides of the Atlantic to vary more wildly from year to year. 

The jet stream is like the weather distribution manager for North America. It decides where to send high and low pressure, and how strong to make them. When the jet stream is managing the weather effectively, weather rushes along a torrent from west to east, bringing rain every three to five days. Unfortunately, as the Arctic warms, and the temperature difference between the equator and the North Pole narrows, the jet stream acts unpredictably. The flow is strongest when the temperature variance is highest, but as the Arctic is warming faster than the equator, the flow has slowed down.

The June 2019 fires in Alberta, Canada, were caused by a high-pressure ridge hanging out and causing drought and fire. Then further out east, low-pressure ridges cause rain and flooding which festers (33). Likewise, the jet stream was meandering slowly in an Omega pattern (Ω) in July 2021 and this helped cause the record heat and resulting wildfires in Canada and the western US. Whatever weather pattern emerges, be it a drought, heavy rainfall or heatwave; that pattern basically persists for longer and amplifies the associated risks.

It’s not only floods and wildfires that are being blamed on the lingering jet stream. The abnormally high number of tornados that hit America in May 2019, was also thought to be the work of the slower, wavering jet stream. It’s particularly difficult for scientists to pin the blame on climate change for this increase in tornados due to their rareness and the difficulty in observing their changes, but scientists believe a warming climate will help to produce the storms that manufacture tornados. 

Extreme storms around the world are anticipated to happen more frequently, and be more destructive, as the planet warms. From typhoons in the Pacific to cyclones in the Indian Ocean, and hurricanes in the Atlantic, the storms we have seen in the past few years will become the new norm until they too are overtaken by larger, more destructive storms.  

In Asia, there is evidence that typhoons are not only increasing in frequency, but they are getting stronger. They are beginning to threaten the region’s megacities.  Climate experts are warning cities from Tokyo to Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Jakarta to prepare for future super-strength typhoons. Even smaller storms are thought to pose a risk to these metropolises as infrastructure losses are expected to rise from $3 trillion in 2005 to $35 trillion in 2070. In the coming decades as the tides surge, the winds rush, and the rains lash at both cityscapes and rural areas straddling the coast, the poorest will be hit hardest, and even at just half a degree of increased warming, 1.5 billion will be at high or extreme risk.

Africa will suffer devastating floods and storms leading to considerable disruption to farming. The population on the African continent is the fastest growing with annual rates of 2.5%, more than double that of any other landmass. As more and more people are added to the population, intense storms and flooding will damage vital food crops. Western and Central Africa will be the worst hit with Niger, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo among the most vulnerable to flooding. Scientists predict that the severe rainfall witnessed today will become seven or eight times more frequent by 2100.

Opinion | Are We Prepared for Pandora’s Box of Climate Catastrophes? | Simon Whalley (commondreams.org)

Johnson & Johnson’second-quarter profit soared 73 percent, thanks to strong sales growth across all of its businesses, particularly as the healthcare industry continued recovering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The world’s biggest maker of healthcare products on Wednesday reported net income of $6.28bn, or $2.35 per share, in the quarter, up from $3.63bn, or $1.36 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue totalled $23.31bn, up 27.1 percent from $18.34bn in 2020’s second quarter.

J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine brought in just $164m in the quarter and a total of $264m so far this year. The vaccine has been plagued by concerns about some very rare side effects and the shutdown of the Maryland factory of J&J’s US contract manufacturer, Emergent BioSolutions, due to contamination problems that have led to tens of millions of vaccine doses having to be trashed. It is unclear when – or if – the United States Food and Drug Administration will allow the factory to resume production. J&J has the only authorized vaccine that only requires one shot, so it had been expected to play a huge role in vaccinating people in rural areas and developing countries. Instead, the company has fallen far short of its supply commitments to the US, other governments and a World Health Organization-backed program to get affordable vaccines to poor and middle-income countries.

J&J’s profits soar 73 percent amid healthcare sector demand spike | Business and Economy News | Al Jazeera

 Diana Six, an entomologist at the University of Montana, studies beetles near Glacier national park in Montana. Her observations and conclusion are a stark reminder of what we are losing.

” I don’t think people realize that climate change is not just a loss of ice. It’s all the stuff that’s dependent on it. The ice is really just the canary in the coalmine. To have 97, 98 degrees in Glacier national park for days on end is insane. This is not just some fluke…We are at the point that there’s nothing untouched…We’re coming at things all wrong, trying to save a species by putting it in a zoo or replanting trees. But if you aren’t going to the root cause of the problem it’s still going to happen. That’s not to say that if we didn’t just get our act together and make some major changes, we couldn’t save some of this. We just can’t do it one species at a time.”

 England’s chief medical officer says, Chris Whitty,  says a new national strategy is needed to tackle poor health and lower life expectancy in seaside towns. These places suffer from high rates of serious illnesses and have been “overlooked by governments” and had their “ill-health hidden”, said Prof Whitty.  They need their own dedicated health improvement policy because the challenges facing towns such as Blackpool, Skegness and Hastings have more in common with each other than their inland neighbouring towns. There are deep-rooted social problems interwoven with poor health in coastal areas, the report highlights – such as low-paid seasonal jobs, underachievement in education, poor transport and overcrowded “houses of multiple occupation,” which might be converted from former guest houses. Recruitment problems for health staff is a “common issue” in coastal areas, says the report. Heart disease, stroke, mental health problems, diabetes and higher rates of smoking are all more prevalent in seaside populations, the report warns, associated in turn with higher levels of coastal deprivation.

Blackpool: Most deprived local authority in England, lowest life expectancy for both males and females; highest rates of hospital admissions for alcohol‑related harm and drug‑related deathsTorbay: High rates of heart disease, respiratory problems and diabetes; high density of low-quality private rented accommodation and reliance on caravan parksHull: A high economic impact and loss of jobs from Covid on an already “fragile” local economy, forecast to have a long-term detrimental impact on health.Seaside poor health overlooked, warns Whitty – BBC News

 In June 2020, roughly one in five people in the U.S. had medical debt in collections—meaning their debt had been sold to a third-party tasked with retrieving the money, often by harassing low-income people who are unable to pay.  The latest study necessarily understates the level of U.S. medical debt because it only analyzes debt in collections—not all unpaid bills owed to healthcare providers such as hospitals, which often hit uninsured patients with exorbitant prices. “The increasing number of lawsuits that hospitals file against patients to collect debt, which can lead to legal fees or wage garnishments, are not included in the [$140 billion] figure,” Times reporters Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz noted Tuesday. “Nor are the medical bills that patients pay with credit cards or have on long-term payment plans.”

“This is not a sign of a broken system,” tweeted Charles Idelson, a spokesperson for National Nurses United. “It’s a profiteering healthcare system working just the way the corporate price gougers want it to—and the collateral damage of those whose lives are harmed by unpayable, outrageously inflated debt is irrelevant to them.”

The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that people in the United States now owe collection agencies a staggering $140 billion due to unpaid medical bills—making healthcare the nation’s largest source of debt in collections.  medical debt was highest among people who live in the South, particularly in “lower-income communities in states that did not expand Medicaid.” A dozen states, all controlled by Republicans, have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, depriving millions of poor and vulnerable people of life-saving health coverage.

A new national survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund found that more than a third of insured U.S. adults and half of uninsured adults had difficulties affording medical bills or paying off medical debt in the past year.

“They suffered ruined credit ratings. They were unable to afford basic life necessities like food, heat, or their rent,” Dr. Sara Collins, the Commonwealth Fund’s vice president for healthcare coverage, access, and tracking, told USA Today.

‘Profiteering Healthcare System’ Blamed as US Medical Debt Surges to $140 Billion | Common Dreams News

 First, it was   Richard Branson plus friends, then it was Jeff Bezos with his cronies taking expensive joy rides into space to experience a few minutes of a high. 

“We’ve now reached stratospheric inequality,” Oxfam’s Deepak Xavier said in a statement Monday. “Billionaires burning into space, away from a world of pandemic, climate change, and starvation.”

Xavier pointed to a recent Oxfam report showing that 11 people on Earth are dying of hunger every minute, just one example of the needless hardship that billions are experiencing while billionaires take a rocketship trip.

“The ultra-rich are being propped up by unfair tax systems and pitiful labor protections,” said Xavier. “Bezos pays next to no U.S. income tax but can spend $7.5 billion on his own aerospace adventure. Bezos’ fortune has almost doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic. He could afford to pay for everyone on Earth to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and still be richer than he was when the pandemic began.”

“Class warfare is Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson becoming $250 billion richer during the pandemic, paying a lower tax rate than a nurse, and racing to outer space while the planet burns and millions go without healthcare, housing, and food,” tweeted Warren Gunnels, staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders 

Soon it will be Elon Musk and his Space X.

 Virgin Group hopes will be the start of a series of commercial space flights—for those who can cover the high cost of a ticket.

“About two million people can afford to go to space, according to equity analysts at Vertical Research Partners, with that high-net-wealth population growing at around 6% each year,” the Wall Street Journal reported last week. “It estimates that Virgin needs to transport around 1,700, or about 0.08% of those individuals, to space each year for its model to work.” 

Virgin Galactic says it has collected around $80 million in sales and deposits by selling tickets at roughly $250,000.

Bezos with Blue Origin is reportedly planning to charge upwards of $300,000 per seat for future 11-minute flights, which will feature several minutes of weightlessness just past the edge of space.

‘Human Folly, Not Human Achievement’: Oxfam Slams Bezos Space Trip as Billions Suffer on Earth | Common Dreams News

 Wisconsin is called “America’s Dairyland”. The state has the most dairy farms in the country. 

It lost 826 dairy farms in 2019, or 10% of its dairy herds – the most dramatic loss in the state’s history, a  part of a downward trend which saw the state lose 44% of its dairy farms over the last decade. 

Last year, for the first time in state history, the number of dairy farms dipped below 7,000.

At the same time, milk production in the state has increased every year since 2004, and sets a new annual record each year since 2009.

 In the last decade alone, Wisconsin has increased milk production by 25%. The number of operations declines, just as the number of cows per operation goes up – 3% of Wisconsin farms now produce roughly 40% of the state’s milk. Milk produced on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), or farms with more than about 700 cows but often housing thousands, is increasingly making up the state’s overall milk production. The number of large farms like this in Wisconsin has increased by 55% in less than a decade.

Despite having five farms with 500 or more cows, Green county still has many of Wisconsin’s small dairy farms, about 200, with between 50 and 100 cows, milked by the family. The county went from being a highly competitive marketplace for generations to an area like so many others in the state where too much milk is being produced. When the price of milk is down, farmers milk more cows to compensate; if the milk price is up, they milk more to capitalize. The excess of milk matches up with a plummet in consumption as milk alternatives and water are chosen over milk. And the glut is worldwide, driving down prices for farmers to the point they are barely breaking even or are losing money to produce it. On top of that, a Green county co-op of 25 local farms that accept 3.5m pounds (1.6m kg) of milk to create 400,000 pounds (182,000 kg) of cheese a month unexpectedly shut down last fall after 110 years due to pandemic-specific industry volatility. A shutdown like this is very rare, and left farmers scrambling for new processors to offload their milk.

Milk prices were at a record high in 2014, then from 2015 on, went down. When prices are good, small dairy farmers, able to finally turn a profit, make longstanding crucial repairs on the smaller scale, and do some significant expansions on the large level. In early 2015 in Green county farmers were so confident in expanding that if you wanted to put up a building, you were lucky if you could find an available contractor. But the good times never last.

Last year, tankers were loading up milk and driving it straight to the farm’s manure pit, opening the valve, and letting it go – milk dumping like this is quite extreme. Yet even in a year that started with unprecedented dumping, cows being culled, and milk sold at very distressed prices, then continuing with a milk price of $13 per 100 pounds (£9.32 per 45 kg) of milk in the spring and summer – which is less than the cost of production for most farmers – 2020 ended with a high demand for cheese. This was thanks in part to the government’s pandemic food assistance programs. By the end of the year the state’s dairy farms again increased total production to 30.7bn pounds (13.9bn kg) of milk. And on it goes.

Small farms vanish every day in America’s dairyland: ‘There ain’t no future in dairy’ | Food | The Guardian