New research released has shown that some of the UK's poorest families can no longer afford to heat water to wash themselves. Debt charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has released statistics showing that of over 1,000 clients asked, eight per cent had struggled to pay for hot water due to debt. Furthermore, 50 per cent hadn't enough money to heat their home, 24 per cent couldn't always afford to cook hot meals and 16 per cent couldn't run a washing machine. ‘Fuel poverty isn't just about keeping warm, vital as that is,’ Matt Barlow, chief executive of CAP, said of the survey results. ‘It's about the grinding poverty that calls people to make impossible choices like do I make a hot meal or bath the kids? Will I run out of electricity if I use the washing machine?’ CAP client Jo was forced to survive on food parcels and feed her five children cold food because she couldn't afford to pay the bills.

When fighters last month took the town of Gwoza murdering inhabitants and raising its jihadist flags, a video was released declaring the area was ‘now part of the Islamic Caliphate and Gwoza has nothing to do with Nigeria.’ Intelligence agencies believe that what were once symbolic links between IS and Boko Haram have developed into a practical relationship with the Islamic State offering advice on strategy and tactics. Emboldened by the success of IS and now equipped with armoured vehicles and artillery Boko Haram is beginning to operate more like a conventional army in Borno Adamawa and Yobe states. Since 2009 terrorists have attacked government buildings, bombed churches and killed; but recently entire towns have been captured and bases to control the territory are being established, a move that parallels IS. Christian leaders report tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims fleeing northern Nigeria where towns are being captured, including Michika earlier this week. See: - and - and also  

Even though the Middle East seems to be more conservative in terms of moral values, dress code etc, it is no strange thing to see Gypsy women standing next to the highway in Lebanon (even in daylight) ready to be picked up by men. Also Gypsy women are pressured to bring in the money as Gypsy men quite often don't work and are not ashamed to send  their daughters, or even wives off for prostitution, begging or to dance in nightclubs in other countries. This issue is not limited to Gypsies anymore. Also Syrian women are exposed to prostitution as they suddenly have no means of income. Child brides are becoming more common as parents are forced to 'sacrifice' the one daughter in order for the rest of the family to survive.

Australia’s G20 presidency runs from 1st December 2013 to 30th November 2014. Hosting the G20 gives Australia a valuable opportunity to influence the global economic agenda and strengthen engagement with the world’s major economies. During the presidency Australia is leading a series of preparatory meetings that will culminate in the November G20 Summit. Earlier this week in Melbourne a pivotal meeting of the world’s Labour and Employment Ministers put the world's 168 million child labourers firmly on the G20's radar. They heard that one in ten of the world's children aged over five are labouring to the detriment of their health, education and their future. The scale of this issue and the complexity of global supply chains, many of which rely on exploitative labour, means a co-ordinated global effort is needed to reduce demand for products made off the back of children living in poverty.