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West Ham boss David Moyes explains why he paid £22m to sign Jarrod Bowen on deadline day



West Ham signed Jarrod Bowen from Hull City for £22million on transfer deadline day.




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Leeds United team news: Predicted 4-1-4-1 line up vs Hull City - Casilla ban decision



Leeds United take on Hull City on Saturday and Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa faces an important decision after Kiko Casilla was issued an eight-match ban.




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Hull City vs Leeds United live stream, TV channel: How to watch Championship match



Hull City host Leeds United in the Championship today and Express Sport is on hand with all the live stream and TV information.




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Hull 0-4 Leeds: Tyler Roberts brace seals dominant win as promotion push continues



Leeds continues their Premier League promotion push with a dominant 4-0 win against Hull on Saturday.




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Health and poverty; a vicious cycle

The relationship between health and poverty is reasonably well known; one can exacerbate and contribute to the other in a vicious cycle.

This update, as well as including a few health stats updates, provides further information on noncommunicable diseases (which cause some two-thirds of all deaths each year) and more details on the relationship with poverty.

Read full article: Global Health Overview




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War on Terror: 10 years on

A quick look back over the decade since the 9-11 attacks finds that the neo-conservatives have achieved the opposite of what they set out to do: rather than winning a war on terror and expanding their power even further, they have over-stretched their own nation, militarily and economically. The Bush Administration preferred to concentrate on Iraq rather than Bin Laden and the trillions of dollars spent on this (directly and indirectly) has contributed to the recent economic problems the country now faces. All terribly costly given there were opportunities to get Bin Laden a lot earlier.

Media coverage and public attitudes have also shifted in the past decade, now almost reflecting partisan lines. Rights groups around the world have long voiced concerns that the war on terror is also an excuse for governments to wage a war on freedoms. Bin Laden may be dead but are the terrorists winning?

Read full article: War on Terror




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Today, around 21,000 Children Died Around The World

Around 21,000 children die every day around the world.

That is equivalent to:

  • 1 child dying every 4 seconds
  • 14 children dying every minute
  • A 2011 Libya conflict-scale death toll every day
  • A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring every 10 days
  • A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every 11 days
  • An Iraq-scale death toll every 19–46 days
  • Just under 7.6 million children dying every year
  • Some 92 million children dying between 2000 and 2010

The silent killers are poverty, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes.

Despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.

This update includes updated numbers, charts and graphs. It shows that there is steady progress each year in reducing the number of children that die each year, but clearly the number is still high.

Read full article: Today, almost 21,000 children died around the world



  • Causes of Poverty

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Inequality in the US; the top 0.1% gaining even more than top 1%

In the US the protest movement is symbolically against the top 1%. Income data from the US Congressional Budget Office, however, shows that it isn’t just the top 1% benefiting far more than the rest of American society, but the top 0.1% in particular.

High levels of inequality is generally believed to affect social cohesion. Some findings suggest that once nations are industrialized, more equal societies almost always do better in terms of health, well-being and social cohesion and that large income inequalities within societies destroys the social fabric and quality of life for everyone.

This update to the poverty page adds a section on inequality in the US, as well as adding some additional information about research showing globally some 147 multinational companies having core global influence and power.

Read full article: Poverty Around the World




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Iran nuclear report: Regurgitating old stories as new information to justify sanctions?

A recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program was portrayed by most Western mainstream media and politicians as new proof Iran is close to building nuclear weapons. The US Senate passed sanctions on Iran targeting its central bank in response.

However, the report does not say what the mainstream media and politicians claim. It has been much more guarded and much of it is about the state of Iran’s program up to 2003. After that period, the report is much more uncertain. Furthermore, many experts contend that the speculations (not definitive proof) that are in the report are misguided, too, leaning on unreliable sources, for example.

This update to the page on Iran has more information about this. Although the page is long, look for the new section about half way down under the heading of Regurgitating old stories as new information to justify sanctions?

Read full article: Iran




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Media in the US: lax campaign financing bad for democracy but good for media companies

US campaign financing rules have been relaxed even further in recent years, making a worrying problem about the state of American democracy worse (because those with money have even more ability to try and buy votes or influence policy).

Media coverage of this issue, though it may pop up from time to time, seems quite limited. Perhaps because it is estimated that television stations this year could make as much as eight billion dollars from political campaigns.

The state of US mainstream media has unfortunately been lamentable for many years, and after the issues around hurricane Katrina, it was thought that the media would be rejuvenated. Unfortunately it does not seem that way.

This page has been updated with further information about campaign financing issues and how limits in the US have been lifted making the problem worse. Also added were notes on US press freedom, and an info graphic on media ownership concentration.

Read full article: Media in the United States




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Syrian unrest

Following the trend throughout the Middle East, the so-called Arab Spring appears to have spread to Syria. The government crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in Homs and other provincial cities began over a year ago and is thought to have claimed thousands of lives. Attempts at brokering ceasefires have predictably failed.

This page provides coverage of recent events via Inter Press Service’s news feed.

Read full article: Syria Unrest




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Global arms sales sharply increased in 2011 compared to 2010

The latest data covering global arms sales shows that sale of arms in 2011 increased to around $85 billion, 84% of which went to developing countries. This was almost double the arms sales compared to 2010 which was the lowest since 2004.

One major factor for the increase was the US sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. Most other major arms sellers otherwise saw a decrease in sales and the trend in recent years had been declining sales.

The global financial crisis has affected many countries, and many developing countries started to see a decrease in purchases in the last few years. However, just 10 developing countries account for some 85% of all sales to developing countries in the period 2004 to 2011, which the data covers. Saudi Arabia tops that list followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. (As well as concerns about some of the regimes in the top buyers, some of this spending is also said to be due to modernizing efforts.)

Updated graphs and charts on arms sales data are provided here.

The arms trade is big business. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy, account for approximately 85% of all arms sold between 2004 and 2011.

Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Corruption often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.

Read full article: The Arms Trade Is Big Business




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The world is awash with money; trillions hidden offshore

It seems the world is awash with money, even though most governments are facing economic pressures. Trillions are being hidden away by a very few global super elite in offshore bank accounts, avoiding billions in taxes such that constrained governments turn to austerity and other measures, inflicting more hardship on people who are typically already victims of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, it turns out that many of the banks we have all bailed out help with these offshore practices in various ways.

Tax avoidance by the super rich results in lost revenues in the order of hundreds of billions a year, which would (in theory at least) benefit most of society. But if you can afford an army of ingenious lawyers and accountants, it seems you can play by a different set of rules.

Recent high profile cases of companies and individuals avoiding taxes in recent years has resulted in governments claiming they will address this issue thoroughly. But that is as far as it seems to go.

This update includes additional figures and examples of recent tax avoidance issues that have come to light.

Read full article: Tax Avoidance and Tax Havens; Undermining Democracy




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19% of reptiles under threat of extinction and 100 million sharks being killed each year

19% of the world’s reptiles are estimated to be threatened with extinction according to a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Zoological Society of London. Reptiles include snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles and tortoises. But some species are at more risk than others. For example, freshwater turtles alone are at a 50% risk of extinction. Reasons vary, but include the usual suspects such as climate change and loss of habitat.

A recent study also estimated that some 100 million sharks are being killed each year — an unsustainable rate, given how long some species take to mature and reproduce. Much of the demand is driven by Chinese rising affluence and demand for shark fin soup in the mistaken belief it has various health benefits.

This small update to the biodiversity loss page has further details.

Read full article: Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions




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Austerity and Structural Adjustment for Europe

For a while now many European governments have resorted to austerity measures to deal with the recession and financial crises affecting them. This may have either been by choice, or pressured from the outside.

However, as has been warned countless times, excessive austerity rarely works. Furthermore, focusing on debts and deficits appears to miss the point that the economic problems were caused by a collapse in markets and banking sector in particular, resulting in less revenues for governments; not necessarily an excessive overspend by governments.

Some of the policies being forced through even when evidence appears to show they do not work lead many to think that austerity and structural adjustment policies are being ideologically pushed for — just as they were on most of the developing countries for almost 2 decades with devastating results.

Indeed, in the US, investigations have found billionaires pouring hundreds of millions of dollars on campaigns to fix the debt making it appear as a grassroots movement. Fixing the debt of course happens to leave the elite less affected, so it works to their advantage to push for something like that.

Without more focus on appropriate economic growth, there is a real risk in going backwards, and even undermining democracy.

The global financial crisis page on this web site has been updated with new sections and videos on this issue.

Read full article: Global Financial Crisis




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World military spending in 2012 was just over $1.7 trillion. This was the first fall, albeit a small one, since 1998, despite economic conditions

In recent years, global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.7 trillion, despite the global economic conditions. It is still approximately 1% increase since 2008 when the financial crisis began, for example.

Not all nations have felt the impacts of the global financial crisis in the same way. Some have grown economically, including many Asian countries, which has allowed some of them to increase their military spending. There are geopolitical interests at stake for various powers, so economic troubles or not, military spending is seen as important to maintain, or at least to minimize possible reductions.

The highest military spender is the US accounting for 39% of the world’s spending, more than the next top 10 countries combined, and more than all its potential enemies, combined. But this represents a slight decline over previous years as other nations, especially China and Russia, increase their spending. At the same time, the US has reduced military spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Western Europe’s austerity programs affect their military spending budgets.

This update includes new and updated figures, graphs and charts exploring this further.

Read full article: World Military Spending




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Surveillance State: NSA Spying and more

At the start of June 2013, a large number of documents detailing surveillance by intelligence agencies such as the US’s NSA and UK’s GCHQ started to be revealed, based on information supplied by NSA whistle blower, Edward Snowden.

These leaks revealed a massive surveillance program that included interception of email and other Internet communications and phone call tapping. Some of it appears illegal, while other revelations show the US spying on friendly nations during various international summits.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a lot of furor. While some countries are no doubt using this to win some diplomatic points, there has been an increase in tension with the US and other regions around the world.

Much of the US surveillance programs came from the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the US in 2001. Concerns about a crackdown on civil rights in the wake of the so-called war on terror have been expressed for a long time, and these revelations seem to be confirming some of those fears.

Given the widespread collection of information, apparently from central servers of major Internet companies and from other core servers that form part of the Internet backbone, activities of millions (if not billions) of citizens have been caught up in a dragnet style surveillance problem called PRISM, even when the communication has nothing to do with terrorism.

What impacts would such secretive mass surveillance have on democracy?

Read full article: Surveillance State: NSA Spying and more




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Foreign aid: rebounds in 2013 to highest levels ever despite budget pressures, but still way below promised amounts

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently published new preliminary figures for aid in 2013.

It showed official development assistance (ODA) aid from wealthy governments had increased to just under $135 billion in 2013 (at constant 2012 prices). This is roughly 0.3% of GNI (Gross National Income) of the donor nations.

Yet, over 40 years ago nations promised to reach 0.7% of their GNI by the mid-1970s. While each year the amount of aid falls quite short of that 0.7% target (less than half of that target), the quality and effectiveness of that aid is often questionable, sometimes benefiting the donor more than the recipient due to the types of conditions attached to this aid.

This update includes a number of new and updated charts and graphs.

Read full article: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance





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Steven Gerrard slams ‘wrong mentality’ and ‘wrong attitude’ as Rangers slip up at Hearts



Steven Gerrard is very frustrated with Rangers’ poor performance against Hearts.




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Steven Gerrard makes Alfredo Morelos January transfer guarantee after Hearts win



Steven Gerrard spoke about Alfredo Morelos after the Colombian scored two in Rangers' Scottish League Cup semi-final against Hearts.




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Celtic held talks with David Moyes as stance on Hearts and Hibs jobs explained



David Moyes came close to joining Celtic on two occasions and has opens up on his quest to return to management.




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Celtic team news: Predicted line-up vs Hearts - Neil Lennon to make Ryan Christie decision



Celtic host Hearts as top takes on bottom in the Scottish Premiership, with Neil Lennon hoping to maintain his seven-point lead over title rivals Rangers. Express Sport is on hand to provide all of the Hoops' team news, as well the predicted line-up, as two stars return from injury.




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Celtic vs Hearts live stream, TV channel: Can I watch Scottish Premiership match today?



Celtic host Hearts in the Scottish Premiership today and Express Sport is on hand with all the live stream and TV information.




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Man City team news: Predicted 4-3-3 line up vs Sheffield Wed - Aguero knock, Bravo choice



Manchester City face Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup fifth round at Hillsborough on Wednesday night, and Pep Guardiola has a number of injury concerns for his starting XI. This is the Citizens' predicted line up, as Sergio Aguero could feature, while Claudio Bravo starts in goal.




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Man City fans rage at Pep Guardiola's line up vs Sheffield Wed as two stars are snubbed



Manchester City fans are fuming with manager Pep Guardiola over his team selection for the FA Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday, as both Phil Foden and Eric Garcia are left out of his starting line up for the clash at Hillsborough.




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Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Man City: Sergio Aguero sets up Newcastle FA Cup quarter-final tie



Sergio Aguero kept Manchester City on course to retain the FA Cup with the only goal in a disappointing fifth-round tie at Sheffield Wednesday. City will travel to Newcastle in the quarter finals.




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Man City player ratings vs Sheffield Wed - Mahrez impresses as Aguero fires City to win



Manchester City beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 in the FA Cup clash at Hillsborough, as Pep Guardiola's side progress to the quarter-finals, just in time for the FA Cup draw. Express Sport is on hand to bring you all of the Citizens' player ratings after a tough evening against the Championship club.




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An open letter to those working in the meat industry in Wales

In these unprecedented times, we have published the following open letter thanking those working in the meat industry in Wales for their co-operation.




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Fortnite live event time UK: Good news for Party Royale Concert fans missing out



THE next Fortnite live event is kicking off now and there's good news for UK gamers missing out on the Party Royale Concert.




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Bohemian Rhapsody 2: Freddie Mercury SEQUEL update from Queen's Brian May 'We've talked'



BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY 2, a possible Freddie Mercury sequel, has had an update from Brian May.




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Elvis Presley: Graceland chef reveals how to cook The King’s Sunday Meatloaf – WATCH



ELVIS PRESLEY's Sunday Meatloaf can be made at home and now Graceland chef's has shown fans how from the mansion's kitchen in a new video.




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Pirates of the Caribbean 6: Fans DEMAND Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow – 'Absurd without him'



PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 6 may go ahead without Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow and fans are having none of it.




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Queen and Adam Lambert tour CONCERNS: ‘We have to rethink absolutely everything’ Brian May



QUEEN and Adam Lambert's tour has already been postponed until next year but Brian May has concerns for performing in a post-pandemic world.




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John Lennon once revealed his least favourite Beatles song – ‘I knocked off Elvis Presley’



JOHN LENNON revealed his least favourite Beatles song was one he "knocked off" from Elvis Presley.




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Next James Bond odds: Tom Hardy OVERTAKES Richard Madden in race to replace Daniel Craig



NEXT JAMES BOND odds favourite Tom Hardy has overtaken Richard Madden in the race to replace Daniel Craig after No Time To Die.




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Brian May in hospital: Why was Brian May taken to hospital?



BRIAN MAY is known for shredding it on his guitar for millions of Queen fans - but what has caused him to head to hospital?




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Masters hero Danny Willett relives 'bonkers' 2016 triumph at Augusta



The Masters is all about the roars that sweep around Augusta National on the back nine on a Sunday but sometimes it is a different noise that carries through golf's most evocative landscape. The collective gasps of thousands of patrons; the soundtrack to calamity.




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Ryder Cup plea made by Bernhard Langer to PGA Tour after The Open cancellation - EXCLUSIVE



The Ryder Cup remains scheduled to take place in September despite other major golf tournaments being postponed.




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Rory McIlroy reveals 'strong view' on Ryder Cup behind closed doors



Rory McIlroy would rather get abuse from American fans and delay the Ryder Cup by a year than play behind closed doors.




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Justin Rose gives NHS Charities Together Cup boost as golf star eyes rescheduled Ryder Cup



EXCLUSIVE: Justin Rose opens up on applauding the NHS from afar, supporting online fundraising efforts with fellow celebrities and why the Ryder Cup should not take place behind closed doors.




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PGA Tour: Will player eligibility be affected by the coronavirus crisis?



The PGA Tour has been disrupted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic - but will player eligibility be affected?




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Rory McIlroy leads all-star line up as golf looks to raise funds for COVID-19 relief



Rory McIlroy is teaming up with Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff to help raise funds for COVID-19 relief in a skins match.




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Maldives holidays: Why you’ll never be bored at paradise resort Kandima Maldives



MALDIVES holidays are on the bucket list of so many Britons thanks to the picture postcard-worthy scenery and year-round sun. Kandima Maldives is one of many hotels in the Indian Ocean nation, so what makes it stand out? This writer headed to the resort to find out.




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Egypt travel: Flying back into Sharm’s charms



SHARM EL-SHEIKH is back open for business. That's the message coming loud and clear from the Egyptian holiday hotspot, a long-time favourite for Brits in search of a sun-soaked getaway. UK flights resumed to Sharm last month following a five-year hiatus after the tragic events of 2015.




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Greece holidays: Take the plunge in amazing Athens



From classic culture to stylish food, enjoy being pampered in Greece.




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Australia travel: I’m a Daydream Island believer



HOWEVER idyllic the destination, some things are always the same. You're going to get sunburnt - even if you lather on the factor 50. At one point you will long for a British cup of tea. And that scavenging local wildlife - such as the obligatory one-eyed cat - are always a reliable constant.




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Morocco travel: Tune in to windy city’s wavelength



STARING out at the pounding Atlantic waves, I never thought I'd get in, let alone close to surfing, standing up on a board. The breakers pulsed toward me as I patted my feet in the shallows while trying to stay upright in the unrelenting wind.




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Universal Credit UK: How much you get depends on circumstances - how to work out amount



UNIVERSAL CREDIT claims have soared in recent weeks, as Britons have begun to feel the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis. How much is Universal Credit? The amount depends on whether certain circumstances apply.




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State pension age? Some could boost monthly income - DWP announces new way to apply



STATE PENSION age must be reached in order to get the state pension. It also marks the point at which some may be able to claim the means-tested benefit Pension Credit.