Millions of Brits struggle to buy enough food for their children, research finds


As child poverty in the UK remains high, Barnardo's has found 8% of parents have used food banks in the past year

Greg Barradale
11 Sep 2024

One in four children in the UK live in poverty.

 Image: Unsplash

The cost of living is far from over, Barnardo’s has warned, with a quarter of parents still struggling to provide enough food for their children.

This equates to 3.4 million children whose parents have struggled to afford food in the past year, an increase of 5% from October 2022, new research by the charity found.

With energy prices expected to rise by 10%, the charity said difficulties would continue. Its polling also found two in 25 parents – or 8% – used a food bank in the past 12 months.

“We know families have to make gut-wrenching choices every day, prioritising feeding their children and heating their homes over buying other essential items,” said Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s.

“Many families can’t wait any longer for support and next month’s budget is an opportunity for the government to take bold steps, like ending the unfair two-child limit on benefits.”

Perry’s comments came as the boss of Aldi UK said customers were “trading up” to premium products as inflation tailed off.

As the Labour government says “hard choices” are needed on the economy, battles rage over the support on offer to those living in poverty.

It extended the household support fund this month, with the temporary extension welcomed but branded a “last-minute, poorly designed sticking plaster”.

Under pressure to end the two-child benefits limit, the government has established a Child Poverty Unit as part of what Keir Starmer called an “ambitious child poverty strategy”.

Calling the two-child limit a “sibling penalty”, Perry said ending it could lift 490,000 children out of poverty.

“We know from our frontline work that this policy penalises children who happen to have more than one brother or sister and means some families can’t put food on the table or the heating on when it is cold,” said Perry.

“The chancellor should take the opportunity in next month’s budget to commit to a long-term scheme for local crisis support and lift the two-child limit on benefits.”

Research by the Trussell Trust found existing benefits are failing those in poverty, with 1.6 million people claiming universal credit also using food banks.

Over two-thirds of households claiming the benefit had gone without essentials such as food in the previous six months.

One in four children in the UK live in poverty, with the impact of this poverty making children shorter, fatter, and sicker.

Opinion

Cost of living crisis is over? Try telling that to millions of Brits struggling to feed their kids

Millions in the UK still face cost of living woes

Lynn Perry
11 Sep 2024



Image: Unsplash
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News this week that wagyu steak and premium cheese are making their way into more shopping baskets might signal to some that the cost of living crisis is on its way out.

But although lower inflation means some shoppers can afford to treat themselves more, the fact remains the crisis continues to have a devastating impact for millions of children and families across the UK.

New research published by Barnardo’s today (11 September) shows a quarter of parents in Great Britain with children aged 18 and under say they’ve struggled to provide sufficient food for their children over the past 12 months. Why the natural human failure of imagination stops us from relieving children’s suffering
I’m a single mum living in poverty. Worrying about how it affects my children keeps me up at night

This is up 5% since October 2022 and starkly illustrates that the cost of living crisis is far from over.

At Barnardo’s, we know families have to make gut-wrenching choices every day, prioritising feeding their children and heating their homes over buying other essential items.

This is set to become even worse with energy prices about to rise by as much as 10%.

Our new report Empty plates and cold homes: What it’s like to grow up in poverty in 2024  estimates that there could be around 3.4 million children – three times the population of Birmingham – whose parents have struggled to provide sufficient food for them over the past 12 months.

Two in 25 parents (8%) surveyed by Barnardo’s and YouGov said they’ve had to use a food bank in the last year.

All over the country there are people like Sonia from Carlisle who, come the end of the month, has to rely on food banks to feed her two boys and prioritises food and heating over other essentials like Wi-Fi for her sons’ schoolwork.

The government’s new child poverty taskforce, announced in the summer, is a glimmer of hope for Sonia and the thousands of families Barnardo’s supports. It’s a tangible opportunity to find lasting solutions to these issues, and we hope to work closely with ministers to tackle the underlying causes of poverty.

But many families can’t wait any longer for support and next month’s budget is an opportunity for the government to take bold steps, like ending the unfair two-child limit on benefits.

We know from our frontline work that this policy penalises children who happen to have more than one brother or sister and means some families can’t put food on the table or the heating on when it is cold.

Ending this ‘sibling penalty’ could immediately lift 490,000 children out of poverty, granting struggling families another £3,455 per third or subsequent child in 2024/25.

Currently, more than one in four children in the UK lives in poverty – that’s nine in every classroom – because too many families are struggling to make ends meet. ​

It can mean going to school hungry and returning to a cold home.

It affects children’s physical and mental health well into adulthood and can affect them for the rest of their lives.

The average height of a five-year-old in the UK has slipped 30 places in the world rankings due to poor diet and living standards. The cost of living crisis is exacerbating the impact of poverty on children’s health, leading to more children needing hospital treatment for issues including malnutrition and poor oral health.

Even before the cost of living crisis, there were already strong links between poverty and child health, with children living in poverty more likely to require hospital admission, 72% more likely to be diagnosed with a long-term illness, or have other conditions like poor mental health.

Families facing the struggle to heat their homes, put food on the table and provide essentials for their children over winter at least have a safety net in the form of the household support fund, which was due to end later this month.

The announcement last week by the secretary of state for work and pensions of another extension was a welcome one. But what’s desperately needed is a long-term settlement and strategy for local crisis support after the new extension ends in April 2025.

Every year Barnardo’s supports thousands of struggling children and families across the UK to access the basics like food, fuel, beds, suitable accommodation and longer-term financial advice.

We help them keep the power on and the fridge stocked so they can be safer, happier, healthier and more hopeful.

But charities like Barnardo’s can only do so much – the government needs to take urgent action to end child poverty.

The chancellor should take the opportunity in next month’s budget to commit to a long-term scheme for local crisis support and lift the two-child limit on benefits.

Families in crisis need and deserve urgent action and sustainable solutions.

Lynn Perry is chief executive of Barnardo’s.

UK farming's 'net zero' climate target in doubt

Malcolm Prior

BBC
Rural affairs correspondent•@NewsMPrior

The NFU had set a "national aspiration" for farming to produce net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040

Ambitious plans to make farming ‘net zero’ by 2040 - 10 years ahead of the UK’s legally-binding national target – may not be achieved, the National Farmers' Union (NFU) has told the BBC.

Reaching net zero means no longer adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The NFU said a lack of investment in climate-friendly farming measures by the previous government had made doing that by 2040 “tricky” but insisted that the deadline would not be dropped.

Meanwhile, the Soil Association warned that UK agriculture would not be able to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions “without radical changes".

The government said it was “committed to reducing emissions in the farming sector”.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw believes farming remains a key part of efforts to decarbonise the UK economy


The UK has a legally-binding target under the Climate Change Act to be net zero by 2050.

In 2019, the NFU set its own target for agriculture in England and Wales to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Farming is currently responsible for around 12% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, predominantly nitrous oxide from fertilisers and manure and methane from ruminant livestock, as well as carbon dioxide - to a much lesser extent - from energy and fuel.

The drive to net zero in farming has focused on helping farmers to develop more efficient and sustainable production methods, changing how land is managed in order to capture more carbon in the soil and boosting on-farm renewable energy schemes.

When it was launched, the 2040 target was described as “a national aspiration, not an expectation that every farm can reach net zero”.

But, while work to reduce emissions is largely left to individual farms, the industry has pilot projects under way to monitor and record that work and help form a national picture of progress made towards net zero.


The NFU has called for the UK’s total agriculture budget to be increased from £3.5bn to £5.6bn


The government says it is helping farmers reduce greenhouse gases through the post-Brexit farm payments system, known as environmental land management schemes (ELMs).

But the NFU said that its target would now be “tough to hit” because the previous government had not put enough investment into “climate-friendly measures” under ELMs.

Tom Bradshaw, NFU president, told the BBC he still believed farming was “very much part of the solution to decarbonising the UK economy” but that more investment was needed.

“Net zero is never going to be an ambition farmers can deliver alone,” he said.

To mark Back British Farming Day on Wednesday, Mr Bradshaw called for the UK’s total agriculture budget to be increased from £3.5bn to £5.6bn.

He said that was what was needed for farmers to produce more food while “delivering for nature, energy security and climate-friendly farming”.


'Real urgency'


The call for greater funding comes amid fears the government is looking to cut £100m from its farming budget.

Both Defra and the Treasury declined to comment on any proposed cuts but the government has acknowledged there was a £358m underspend in the agricultural budget over the past three years.

Richard Benwell, CEO of environmental coalition Wildlife and Countryside Link, said any cut in the nature-friendly farming budget would “seriously endanger the transition to net zero in farming”.

Brendan Costelloe, the Soil Association’s policy director, said cuts would be a mistake “that would cost the environment, wildlife and the taxpayer more over the long-term”.

“British farming will not be able to reach net zero by 2040 without radical changes to how we produce and eat food”, he added.


The government's independent advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), have already warned that progress in reducing emissions in agriculture has been slow and needs “substantial acceleration”.

The latest government figures show total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions have decreased, with nitrous oxide emissions down by 23% and methane down by 15% between 1990 and 2022.

Meanwhile, carbon dioxide from farming accounted for only 2% of total UK emissions in 2022.

Tom Lancaster, land analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said there was a “real urgency” for government to help the sector cut emissions further and to support farmers in becoming more resilient to climate extremes.

A spokeswoman for Defra said the government was still “committed to reducing emissions in the farming sector and restoring confidence amongst farmers which is at a record low".

"That is why we will restore stability and confidence by optimising our schemes and grants, to ensure we protect our food security, assist nature’s recovery and drive down emissions.

“But we will go further to support our farmers by protecting them from being undercut in trade deals, making the supply chain work more fairly and preventing shock rises in bills by switching on GB Energy,” she added.

 UK

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces £8 billion Amazon Web Services investment, to support around 14,000 jobs per year

HM TreasurySeptember 11, 2024

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has today [11 September] confirmed an £8 billion investment from Amazon Web Services which is estimated to support thousands of jobs across the UK.

• Chancellor Rachel Reeves secures a planned £8 billion investment from Amazon Web Services which is estimated to support around 14,000 jobs per year across the UK.
• The Chancellor will welcome the announcement as part of the Government’s mission to boost growth, unlock investment and make every part of Britian better off.
• Reeves will say the Government’s mission to ‘fix the foundations of our economy has only just begun.’

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has today [11 September] confirmed an £8 billion investment from Amazon Web Services which is estimated to support thousands of jobs across the UK.

The Chancellor secured the planned five-year investment last week at a meeting with Amazon Web Services. The investment is estimated to support around 14,000 jobs per year at local businesses, including those across the company’s data centre supply chain such as construction, facility maintenance, engineering and telecommunications, as well as well as other jobs within the broader local economy. AWS estimates that these investments in the UK will contribute £14 billion to the UK’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2024 to 2028.

Rachel Reeves will welcome the announcement as part of the government’s long-term mission to boost growth, unlock investment and make every part of Britain better off.

Making the announcement from a University Technical College in Silverstone

Speaking from a University Technical College in Silverstone today, which works with Amazon Web Services to introduce students to the skills required to enter the digital infrastructure industry, the Chancellor will warn that ‘change cannot happen overnight’ and ‘two quarters of positive economic growth will not make up for fourteen years of stagnation under the previous government.’

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves said:  

“I am under no illusion to the scale of the challenge facing our economy and I will be honest with the British people that change will not happen overnight. Two quarters of positive economic growth does not make up for fourteen years of stagnation under the previous government.

“However, this £8 billion investment marks the start of the economic revival and shows Britain is a place to do business. I am determined to go further so we can deliver on our mandate to create jobs, unlock investment and make every part of Britain better off. The hard work to fix the foundations of our economy has only just begun.”

Amazon Web Services Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), Tanuja Randery said:

“The next few years could be among the most pivotal for the UK’s digital and economic future, as organisations of all sizes across the country increasingly embrace technologies like cloud computing and AI to help them accelerate innovation, increase productivity, and compete on the global stage.

“AWS is proud to announce our plans to invest £8 billion in digital and AI infrastructure over the next five years to help meet the growing needs of our customers and partners, and support the transformation of the UK’s digital economy.”

Today’s investment announcement comes ahead of this year’s UK International Investment Summit on 14 October, where the UK will bring together the world’s most important companies and investors, demonstrating how the UK’s offer is the best in the world, with political and economic stability, a strategic government partnering with businesses, a proper trade strategy, and policies designed to enable growth.

Amazon Web Services  ‘to invest £8bn in UK

 over  next five years’

Martyn Landi, PA Technology Correspondent
Tue, 10 Sept 2024, 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is to invest £8 billion over the next five years building, operating and maintaining data centres in the UK, the company has announced.

The technology giant said the growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence was key to the increasing investment, which the firm said could contribute around £14 billion to the UK’s GDP and help support around 14,000 jobs each year.

The development and maintenance of new AI tools requires increasingly large amounts of computing power and server space, meaning firms such as AWS are well placed to benefit from the rising demand for cloud computing capacity.

Many of the world’s largest companies use AWS data centres, and in the UK includes Deliveroo, easyJet, EDF, Just Eat, Monzo, NatWest, Sainsbury’s and others, as well as government agencies, educational institutions and public sector firms.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “I am under no illusion to the scale of the challenge facing our economy, and I will be honest with the British people that change will not happen overnight.

“Two quarters of positive economic growth does not make up for 14 years of stagnation under the previous government.

“However, this £8 billion investment marks the start of the economic revival and shows Britain is a place to do business.

“I am determined to go further so we can deliver on our mandate to create jobs, unlock investment and make every part of Britain better off. The hard work to fix the foundations of our economy has only just begun.”

AWS said the investment was part of the company’s long-term commitment to support growth and productivity across the country.

Tanuja Randery, vice president and managing director for AWS in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “The next few years could be among the most pivotal for the UK’s digital and economic future, as organisations of all sizes across the country increasingly embrace technologies like cloud computing and AI to help them accelerate innovation, increase productivity, and compete on the global stage.

“We’re proud to announce our plans to invest £8 billion in digital and AI infrastructure over the next five years to help meet the growing needs of our customers and partners, and support the transformation of the UK’s digital economy.”

 

Urgent Request For Support – Media Lens In Financial Crisis

10th September 2024 Alerts

Media Lens is a UK-based media watchdog. It is our response to the increasingly centralised, corporate, state-subservient nature of the mislabelled ‘mainstream’ media system (‘MSM’). We argue that the ‘MSM’, in fact, acts as a de facto propaganda system for the state, corporations (notably, the ‘defence industry’), the security services and other establishment interests. The costs incurred as a result of this propaganda – in terms of human and animal suffering, climate catastrophe and environmental degradation – are incalculable.

When Media Lens started in July 2001, we were a miniscule operation with zero funding, no office, doing what we could in our spare time. Media Lens consisted of just two writers and editors: David Cromwell and David Edwards, assisted by a tech-savvy webmaster: initially Phil Chandler, then Olly Maw and, more recently, Keyvan Minoukadeh.

Our objective has been to raise public awareness of the deep, systemic bias in the major news media; very much including those outlets we are supposed to regard as the most fair, balanced and authoritative: notably BBC News, the Guardian, the Observer and the Independent. We have been happy to also dismantle the propaganda profusions of the right-wing press.

We have tried as far as possible to root our work in rationality, hard fact, and reliable sources, while maintaining a deeply-held commitment to the principles of non-violence and compassion. In 2007, we were honoured to receive the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award.

In the days before Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), we relied solely on our mailing list to reach readers. Initially, media alerts were just sent to a handful of friends and a few contacts with an interest in the media and human rights. The mailing list grew steadily, and we unexpectedly started receiving donations from the public. On a couple of occasions, we successfully applied for small grants provided by progressive funding organisations.

By 2003, public donations were sufficient to enable David Edwards to work full-time on Media Lens. David Cromwell joined him in 2010.

We have published hundreds of media alerts, dozens of more philosophical and spiritual ‘cogitations’, and three jointly written books via Pluto Press: ‘Guardians of Power’ (2006), ‘Newspeak’ (2009) and ‘Propaganda Blitz’ (2018). We have also written two solo books during our time with Media Lens: ‘Why Are We The Good Guys?’ (Cromwell, Zero Books, 2012) and the forthcoming, ‘A Short Book About Ego… And The Remedy Of Meditation’ (Edwards, Mantra Books, 2025). After over 23 years, Media Lens remains solely the work of the same two writers.

In 2016, on our 15^th anniversary, Noam Chomsky endorsed our work:

‘For 15 years, Media Lens has provided incisive critical analysis of media coverage of major events of current history while also offering a valuable corrective to distortion, misrepresentation, and crucial omissions.  A major contribution for those seeking a realistic understanding of what is happening in the world.’

John Pilger, who sadly died last December and whose invaluable website has just been relaunched, was a great friend and supporter of Media Lens from the very beginning. He praised our work thus:

‘At a time when journalism has become anti-journalism — the facade behind which powerful vested interests control much of our lives — Media Lens is a beacon, a whistleblower, unflagging in subverting lies, spin and hypocrisy, inspirational in its truth-telling.’

He added:

‘Not since Orwell and Chomsky has perceived reality been so skillfully revealed in the cause of truth.’

We are tremendously grateful to everyone who has supported us and anyone who continues to do so. Unfortunately, despite such valued contributions, Media Lens is now in the direst financial crisis of our existence. Funds are due to run out before the end of the year and the future looks highly uncertain.

A significant factor behind our predicament is the rise of social media. While we always had grave misgivings about using profit-maximising, global corporate platforms like Facebook and X, they did initially seem like a powerful way to reach a wider audience. Almost everybody else thought so, too, which is why almost all left-green progressives use them to send and receive information and views that challenge the ‘mainstream consensus’.

But it is no surprise that the social media ‘revolution’ has turned out to be a poisoned chalice. The reactionary corporate imposition of algorithms, shadow banning, downranking, untagging, debanking and other dissent-crushing mechanisms mean that most people who chose to follow us simply never see our posts, media alerts and cogitations. The situation has become so farcical, with posts reaching such a tiny handful of people, that it hardly seems worth our posting at all.

The public’s attention has been largely captured by corporate social media. While it might look for all the world that lively debate is taking place, progressives like us have been increasingly pushed out of the conversation. It is naturally difficult for readers to muster enthusiasm for supporting voices that are being drowned out by corporate-approved messages and who hardly appear to exist. 

Many people donate, or have donated, to us via regular PayPal subscriptions. However, currently a whole slew of these subscriptions has been ‘suspended’. This normally happens when your registered credit or debit card expires. You may not even be aware that you are no longer financially supporting us.

Please check if your PayPal subscription is still active. If not, and you wish to continue supporting us, please activate a new subscription with a new card. It is not possible to ‘reactivate’ an old subscription. Please visit our donate page to support us by credit/debit card or PayPal.

You can also support us via a standing order from a UK bank. Please contact us directly at editor@medialens.org for our bank details (which the bank has advised us we should not share online for security reasons).

We have never been comfortable issuing appeals for donations. This is especially true now, when there is an ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians, and a vital need to support the victims of that genocide. There are, of course, many deserving causes in the UK and abroad that also need support.

We are simply asking, if you are in a sufficiently comfortable financial position, to consider supporting our work into the future. Thank you.

DC & DE

ASSASSINATED BY ZIONIST SNIPER

‘No one should be shot for a protest’: US’ Blinken warns Israel after ‘unprovoked and unjustified’ killing of American activist

WAGGING HIS FINGER FIERCELY


Palestinian security forces carry the body of slain Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, covered with a chequerred keffiyeh and the Palestinian flag, during a memorial service starting from the Rafidia hospital in Nablus. — AFP pic
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Wednesday, 11 Sep 2024 

LONDON, Sept 11 — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Israel to make “fundamental changes” in its operations in the occupied West Bank after the military acknowledged its fire likely killed a US citizen activist there.

US President Joe Biden later said he thought the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was an “accident”, but Blinken called it “unprovoked and unjustified”.

After an initially measured response to Eygi’s death on Friday, pending a fact-finding exercise, Blinken said the United States would raise it at senior levels with its key ally.

The investigation, and eyewitness accounts, make clear “that her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified”, Blinken told reporters on a visit to London.

“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest,” he said.


“In our judgement, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.

“We have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable. It has to change.”


Biden told reporters hours later however that the killing appeared to have been an accident.

“Apparently it was an accident — it ricocheted off the ground, and she got hit by accident,” Biden said, without elaborating.

Ceasefire push

Eygi, who was 26 and also held Turkish citizenship, was killed as she attended the site of weekly demonstrations against Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law but supported by right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The Israeli military said it had found that it was “highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF (Israeli army) fire”.

It added that the fire “was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot”.



Palestinians and international activists lift portraits of slain Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi as they arrive for her final farewell at the Rafidia hospital morgue in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 8, 2024. — AFP pic

It said Eygi was killed “during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tyres and hurled rocks towards security forces at the Beita Junction”.

But Eygi’s family rejected the military’s version of events and called its preliminary inquiry “wholly inadequate”.

“She was taking shelter in an olive grove when she was shot in the head and killed by a bullet from an Israeli soldier,” they said in a statement.

“This cannot be misconstrued as anything other except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian.”

‘Peaceful’ demonstration

Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organisation.

On Saturday it dismissed claims that ISM activists threw rocks at Israeli forces as “false” and said the demonstration was peaceful.

The United Nations’ rights office had earlier said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot in the head”.

The mayor of Beita, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa and her family also reported that Israeli soldiers killed her.

Turkey said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers”, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a fierce critic of Israel despite his country’s ties with the country — condemning Israel as “barbaric”.

The United States is the crucial supporter of Israel, providing billions of dollars in weapons and diplomatic support.

It has maintained its support despite concern over the deaths of several US citizens.

Blinken also has been at the forefront of efforts to seek a ceasefire in the 11-month war.

He acknowledged that “very hard” differences remained, but said that all sides would benefit from a deal that would “turn down the temperature” in Gaza.

“It’s clearly in Israel’s interest,” he said.

Speaking next to Blinken, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy voiced outrage at a different Israeli strike on Tuesday in a designated safe zone that officials in Hamas-run Gaza said killed 40 people.

Israel said it targeted a Hamas command centre.

“We’re meeting at a critical moment — a critical moment for securing a ceasefire in Gaza, with the shocking deaths in Khan Yunis this morning only reinforcing how desperately needed that ceasefire is,” Lammy said. — AFP

Archaeologists uncover new evidence of Merlin legend in Scotland

3rd September

By Ross Hunter@_Ross_Hunter

Multimedia Journalist


Archaeologists have unearthed new evidence about the legend of Merlin in Scotland 

(Image: GUARD Archaeology)

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have shed new light on the legend of Merlin and the magician's Scottish connections.

The village of Drumelzier in the Borders has long been associated with Merlin.

According to Vita Merlini Sylvestris (the Life of Merlin of the Forest) — a medieval manuscript held by the British Library — Merlin was reportedly imprisoned there and buried on the banks of the Tweed in the 7th century.

In 2022, a team of volunteers drawn from across Scotland and led by GUARD Archaeology set out to investigate the archaeological roots of this local legend.

Now, the results of the work have been published with experts revealing that there may indeed be some truth to the reports of Merlin's death in Scotland.

More insight has been gained into Merlin's life in Scotland (Image: GUARD Archaeology)

A geophysics survey revealed that there is an archaeological feature resembling a grave near to the reputed location of Merlin’s Grave at Drumelzier.

An excavation of Tinnis Fort, which overlooks Merlin’s Grave, also found that this prominent hillfort was occupied around the late 6th and early 7th centuries AD, precisely when the story was set.

Archaeologists said the fort has the hallmarks of a lordly stronghold of the time.

READ MORE: Scottish city named among world's most 'underrated' to live

"The Drumelzier legend contains pre-Christian customs, ancient Cumbric names and was associated with local sites where archaeology now shows could credibly have given rise to the story," said GUARD Archaeology CEO Ronan Toolis, who led the project.

"Given how many hillforts there are in this neck of the woods, almost all of which are much earlier Iron Age settlements, it seems to be a remarkable coincidence that the one hillfort associated with this local legend, dates to exactly the same time as the story is set, especially when hillforts of the post-Roman period are quite rare.

"The new archaeological evidence does not prove that the local story was true but instead demonstrates that the legend likely originated in Drumelzier itself, rather than being brought here by a wandering medieval storyteller who roped in various random sites in the vicinity.

"Perhaps it originated as a folk memory, to be embellished over the centuries before it spread far and wide and changed out of almost all recognition.

"Unlike the classic depiction of Merlin as the wise and respected adviser to King Arthur, the Drumelzier legend paints a much darker picture.

"That of a rather pitiful fellow prone to uttering nonsensical riddles and bewildering prophecies, and kept prisoner by an obscure petty tyrant of a forgotten kingdom, before dying a gruesome death, the victim of royal intrigue."

READ MORE: First Buchanan clan chief in centuries marks Hollywood film premiere

An excavation of the Thirlestane Barrows across the other side of the Tweed also discovered that sometime between the late 3rd and late 6th centuries AD a square barrow was raised over the graves of two individuals of exceptional elite status.

While a scatter of Late Mesolithic/early Neolithic flint blade fragments was recovered from the summit of Tinnis, giving a faint trace of the first groups of humans ever to climb the prominent hill.


Toolis added: "Whether it was stories that clung to these Bronze Age round barrows at Thirlestane, these monuments evidently had some meaning in the landscape for the square barrow to be sited so close after an intervening two millennia.

"We should not forget that the people of ancient Tweeddale were aware of the history beneath their feet and the people that came before and it was through local folklore that stories about their past were passed on."

RACIST TROPE

CNN fact-checks JD Vance’s claims about immigrants eating pets

CNN

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance has promoted false claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and eating family pets. CNN’s Tom Foreman checks the facts, and CNN's Abby Phillip discusses with her panel. #CNN #news 

Trudeau faces internal discontent as key meeting with party MPs begins

ByAnirudh Bhattacharyya
Sep 10, 2024 

On Monday, Liberal Party MP Alexandra Mendes told reporters that the feedback she has received from her constituents is that the PM “needs to go”

Toronto: As a key meeting with party MPs kicks off on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is contending with signs of dissatisfaction within his caucus.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, speaks onstage during the premiere of ‘Nutcrackers’ during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall, on September 05, in Toronto, Ontario. (AFP)

On Monday, Liberal Party MP Alexandra Mendes told reporters that the feedback she has received from her constituents is that the PM “needs to go.”
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While she praised Trudeau’s track record as PM, she told the French-language network Radio-Canada, “I didn’t hear it from two, three people. I heard it from dozens and dozens of people. He’s no longer the right leader.”

Earlier, New Brunswick MP Wayne Long has called from him to resign from the post before the next Federal election, which is scheduled for October 2025.

The possibility of earlier elections has also grown more distinct with the New Democratic Party (NDP) withdrawing from the ‘supply-and-confidence agreement’ with the ruling party that it had entered into in March 2022. With 154 seats in the 338-member House of Commons, the Liberals are back to minority status.

Among the highlights of the caucus retreat in the resort town of Nanaimo in British Columbia will be the formal announcement that former Governor of the Bank of England, and earlier the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, will enter the Government as a special advisor on economic issues.

In a release issued on Monday, Trudeau said, “Mark’s unique ideas and perspectives will play a vital role in shaping the next steps in our plan to continue to grow our economy and strengthen the middle class, and to urgently seize new opportunities for Canadian jobs and prosperity in a fast-changing world.”

In the recent past, Indo-Canadian MPs George Chahal from Alberta and Chandra Arya from Ontario have expressed concern over the direction of the party while continuing to proffer support to Trudeau.

Those concerns expressed by MPs are driven by worries about their own survival in the next election since the Liberals have trailed their rival Conservatives by between 15 and 20 points in opinion polls taken over the past year, placing the latter in majority territory.

Palestinian football team eye World Cup and homecoming

Matt Pearson

DW

The Palestinian men's football team are closer to World Cup qualification than they have ever been. But with all that is happening in their homeland, the chance to play back where they belong also means plenty.

Rami Hamadeh has done what many of the world's best goalkeepers have failed to do — keeping Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min off the scoresheet. But a few days before helping his Palestinian team secure a crucial and historic, 0-0 draw in South Korea last Thursday, Hamadeh had been training on his own in Jerusalem while looking for a new club against the bloody backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war.

"It is difficult," he told DW "The war is the worst thing in the world. Everyone, everywhere wants to live in peace. I don't want to see my people die like this, children, women, men. It's not easy to see what we see every day.

"But we take our power, our positivity from those people that support us. We really play for these people who are under the war now, and I hope it will stop soon."
World Cup dream in sight

The Palestinians have a genuine chance to qualify for the World Cup in 2026, having made it to the third round of group stages in Asia, a result of the expansion of the tournament doubling Asia's quota. The Palestinians can qualify by finishing in the top two of a group that also includes Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman. Even the third and fourth-placed teams get another shot at qualifying and Hamadeh's saves in their toughest fixture was a strong start.

"Even if we only have a 0.001% chance, we will fight to be in the World Cup, because we are people who love to live the dream," the goalkeeper continued.

Though the Palestinians officially have five home matches in the group, they are currently playing those in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That's despite an 11th-hour decision from football's world governing body, FIFA ,and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), that they could play these qualifiers at home, for the first time in five years.

"I think in the future, it will be possible," said Hamadeh, with his team's next home match slated to be against Kuwait on October 15.

"The president of our federation, said next match is, Inshallah, to be in Palestine, our home. That make us even stronger, to play at home will be a great feeling for us. We take power from our fans and it will be full. But, most importantly, it's home and if you play at home, that's different."

Door open to homecoming

The logistical challenges of a homecoming would be huge, and potentially insurmountable, according to journalist Bassil Mikdadi, who runs the Football Palestine website. But the moral questions loom larger still. One of the most historic football stadiums in Gaza, the Yarmouk Stadium, was used as an internment camp by the Israeli Defense Force, as shown in harrowing images released last December. And the Palestinian Olympic Committee now estimate 400 sportspeople have been killed in the war.

While FIFA took some action on the issue of home matches, Gianni Infantino's organization have repeatedly kicked the can down the road, most recently on August 31, regarding the Palestine Football Association's (PFA) call for it to impose a ban Israel. Mikdadi finds this unacceptable.

"Israel had an illegal occupation of at the very least the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for coming up on 60 years now, and it hasn't cost them their FIFA membership. And given the well-documented atrocities that have been committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza, against footballers and against football institutions… It makes you think that letting the Palestinians play at home is a consolation prize."

In fact, in addition to Israel's internationally acknowledged borders, the country has been occupying the West Bank and the Golan Heights since 1967, with it also having settlements in both regions. Under international law, this is illegal. While Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, its forces have been operating in the enclave since the October 7 terrorist attacks by Islamist group Hamas.

Israel denies that it is illegally occupying any Palestinian territories. After the International Court of Justice issued an advisory ruling last July stating that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories was illegal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the ruling as a "decision of lies."

The comparison between Russia's war on Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war is also considered to be flawed by many observers. While Ukraine didn't initially attack Russia, the latest Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the events of October 7, when Hamas militants led incursions into Israel, killing around 1,200 people, and taking some 250 hostages, mostly civilians.

FIFA decision due in October

The PFA had submitted a proposal to suspend Israel in May but, after initially promising action in July, and again in August, FIFA now say a decision will be made in October. Such delays meant Israel were able to compete in the football section of the Olympics while they are currently competing in the UEFA Nations League.

"FIFA has received the independent legal assessment of the Palestine Football Association's proposals against Israel," FIFA said. "This assessment will be sent to the FIFA Council to review in order that the subject can be discussed at its next meeting which will take place in October."

Israel has denied the PFA's accusations. Israel Football Association President Moshe Zuares called it a "cynical, political and hostile attempt by the Palestinian Association to harm Israeli football."

Messages from home

Given the circumstances, for this side to have come as far as they have in qualification is remarkable, said Mikdadi.

"I think it speaks to the character of the team, the mindset of the team, and also the quality and the individual professionalism of the players involved."

Hamadeh is a good example of this. While many of the Palestinian squad play abroad, particularly in Libya, a handful remain in their homeland. The goalkeeper is one of them. He has been without a club for a year and trains in a local gym with a goalkeeping coach, but is still able to perform at the highest level. He sees the qualifiers, and the chance of going to the World Cup in North America, as an opportunity to put himself in the shop window. But, more than that, he sees his team's performance as a rare ray of hope.

"I want to tell you how many messages came to me from Gaza, from Palestine," he said. "We make the people happy. We play for these people. What's happened in Palestine is something gross. It's not easy to live there. Now it's not easy to watch what happens there. So when those people who are inside the war watch us, it's really give us motivation to play. We play to make these people happy."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

Matt Pearson Sports reporter and editor@thisismpearson

SpaceX launches daring mission with all-civilian crew for first private spacewalk

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Centre on Tuesday in Cape Canaveral, Florida. AFP

SpaceX launched its daring Polaris Dawn mission on Tuesday, a multiday orbital expedition carrying a four-member civilian crew for the first spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.

The crew, led by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Iscaacman, is also aiming to fly deeper into space than any other manned mission in more than half a century, reaching a peak altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometres).

"Liftoff of Polaris Dawn!" SpaceX said on X, alongside a photo of the take-off.

The highlight of the mission will be the first spacewalk composed entirely of non-professionals, who are wearing sleek, newly developed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits outfitted with heads-up displays, helmet cameras and an advanced joint mobility system.

Applause broke out across the mission control centre as the Dragon capsule separated successfully from the main engine and the first glimpses of Earth came into view.

"The Polaris Dawn crew is now in Zero-G!" SpaceX wrote on X minutes later, as the crew experienced their first taste of zero-gravity.

On the first day of their mission, the craft will travel so high that it will briefly enter the Van Allen radiation belt, a region teeming with high-energy charged particles that can pose health risks to humans over extended periods.

The mission was delayed several times, initially due to a technical issue with the launch tower and then because of weather constraints.

The Crew Dragon capsule will not dock with the International Space Station, which is why the weather had to be favourable during both the launch and splashdown phase, around six days after liftoff.

Two years' preparation

Isaacman has declined to reveal his total investment in the project, though reports suggest he paid around $200 million for the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission in September 2021, the first all-civilian orbital mission.

Rounding out the team are mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, also a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.

The quartet underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours on simulators apart from skydiving, centrifuge training, scuba diving, and summiting an Ecuadoran volcano.

Polaris Dawn is set to be the first of three missions under the Polaris programme, a collaboration between Isaacman, the founder of tech company Shift4 Payments, and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Also on their to-do list are testing laser-based satellite communication between the spacecraft and Starlink, SpaceX's more than 6,000-strong constellation of internet satellites, in a bid to boost space communication speeds, and conducting 36 scientific experiments.

Among these are tests with contact lenses embedded with microelectronics to continuously monitor changes in eye pressure and shape.

Agence France-Presse

SpaceX launches billionaire to carry out first private spacewalk

10 September 2024

Private Spaceflight. Picture: PA

Unlike his previous chartered flight, this time tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost with SpaceX.

A daredevil billionaire rocketed back into space on Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture further than anyone since Nasa’s Apollo Moon missions.

Unlike his previous chartered flight, this time tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost with SpaceX, including the development and testing of new spacesuits to see how they perform in the harsh vacuum.

Mr Isaacman launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida before dawn on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot.

If all goes to plan, it will be the first time private citizens have carried out a spacewalk, although they will not venture away from the capsule.

Jared Isaacman refused to reveal how much he invested in the flight (John Raoux/AP)

Considered one of the riskiest parts of spaceflight, spacewalks have been the sole realm of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union opened the hatch in 1965, closely followed by the US. Today, they are routinely done at the International Space Station.

The spacewalk is scheduled for late on Wednesday or Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.

But first the passengers are aiming way beyond the International Space Station – an altitude of 870 miles (1,400km), which would exceed the Earth-lapping record set during Nasa’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon have ventured further.

The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height – filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris – before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half.

Even at a lower 435 miles (700km), the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle astronauts flew.

All four will wear SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurised for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment.

Mr Isaacman and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly leaving the hatch. The will test their white and black-trimmed custom suits by twisting their bodies.

Both will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule or attached support structure that resembles the top of a swimming pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 12ft (3.6m) tethers and no jetpack showboating. Only Nasa’s suits at the space station are equipped with jetpacks, and they are for emergency use only.

Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut flights, this one will end with a splashdown off the Florida coast.

At a pre-flight news conference, Mr Isaacman – chief executive and founder of credit card processing company Shift4 – refused to say how much he invested in the flight.

“Not a chance,” the 41-year-old said.

SpaceX teamed up with Mr Isaacman to pay for spacesuit development and associated costs, said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for Nasa.

“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” he added.

It is the first of three trips that Mr Isaacman bought from Elon Musk two-and-a-half years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021.

Mr Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Spacesuit development took longer than anticipated, delaying this first so-called Polaris Dawn flight until now.

Training was extensive, with Mr Poteet saying it rivalled anything he experienced during his Air Force flying career.

As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Ms Gillis and Ms Menon helped Mr Isaacman and his previous team – as well as Nasa’s professional crews – to prepare for their flights.

I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the Moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our Solar System

Tech billionaire Jared Isaacman

Mr Isaacman said before lift-off: “I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the Moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our Solar System.”

Poor weather caused a two-week delay to the launch.

The crew needed favourable forecasts not only for lift-off, but for splashdown days later.

With limited supplies and no ability to reach the space station, they had no choice but to wait for conditions to improve.

By Press Association