Cristiano Ronaldo denies €14.7m tax evasion in Madrid court

Ronaldo has denied he evaded tax or hid details of his income from the authorities

In a rare attack of camera-shyness, Cristiano Ronaldo hid from the 200 journalists waiting outside the Madrid court where he is under investigation for tax evasion and then, having promised to make a statement, snuck back out without a word.

The Real Madrid and Portugal forward spent 90 minutes in court being questioned by judge Mónica Ferrer Gómez over allegations that from 2011 to 2014 he defrauded the Spanish treasury of €14.7m in taxes.

And the Spanish media reported that Ronaldo argued with the judge during the behind-closed-doors hearing, saying:

“If I wasn’t called Cristiano Ronaldo, I wouldn’t be sat here.”

Ronaldo denied any wrongdoing

“The Spanish treasury knows every detail about my income, because it’s been given to them; I never concealed anything and I never tried to evade taxes,” the player told the court, according to a statement 

“I always make my tax returns on a voluntary basis because I think we all have to declare and pay taxes based on our income.

“Those who know me know what I ask my advisers to do: have everything up date and paid promptly, because I do not want any problems.”

“This is the time to let justice run its course. I believe in justice and I hope that, in this case, once, again, there will be a fair decision,” Ronaldo said.

“In order to avoid any unnecessary pressure, or any contribution to a parallel trial, I’ve decided I won’t make any more statements on this subject until the decision is made.”

Independent

Some “fair facts” about CR7

Personal information
Full name	Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
Date of birth	5 February 1985 (age 32)[1]
Place of birth	Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current team	Real Madrid
Number	7
Youth career
1992–1995	Andorinha
1995–1997	Nacional
1997–2002	Sporting CP
Senior career*
Years	Team	Appearances	(Goals)
2002–2003	Sporting CP B	2	(0)
2002–2003	Sporting CP	25	(3)
2003–2009	Manchester United	196	(84)
2009–	Real Madrid	265	(285)
National team‡
2001	Portugal U15	9	(7)
2001–2002	Portugal U17	7	(5)
2003	Portugal U20	5	(1)
2002–2003	Portugal U21	10	(3)
2004	Portugal U23	3	(2)
2003–	Portugal	143	(75)

Abstract

The Tohoku region, Northeast Japan, was hit by a gigantic earthquake which occurred in the Pacific close to Tohoku, and subsequently by a giant tsunami. These hazards have caused huge damage on the eastern coast Japan. The earthquake’s magnitude was 9.0, the strongest ever recorded in Japan. The tsunami was also historical as its run-up height reached over 39 m. As of early May, 2011, over 24 thousand people were reported as dead or missing.

Moreover, serious accidents at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants No.1 were caused by the effects of the tsunami. Therefore, the damage faced by Japanese people can be seen as a giant composite disaster. Although Japan, and the northeast of Japan in particular, has over a long time period increased its preparedness against earthquakes and tsunamis, huge damage still occurred. This paper considers why this tragedy occurred, and what unrecognized factors contributed to the high vulnerability of the area. To assist in answering such questions, this paper presents a timely report of the features of the earthquake and tsunami, the damage they caused, and the early efforts for recovery and reconstruction.

Introduction

At 2:46PM Japan Standard Time (JST) on 11th March, 2011, a gigantic earthquake occurred in the Pacific, just off the coast of Tohoku, Japan. The combined earthquake and resulting giant tsunami caused huge damage in eastern Japan. The earthquake’s magnitude was 9.0, the maximum ever recorded in Japan. The tsunami was also historical in terms of its height and area affected. Its run-up height reached over 39 m. As of early May, 2011, over 24 thousand people were reported as dead or missing. The number of temporary refugees exceeded 350 thousand at one time. Moreover, serious accidents at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) No.1 of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) were caused by the tsunami. Figure 1 shows the locations of prefectures and places damaged heavily in the east Japan, which will be referred in this paper.

Japan has been long and repeatedly suffered from earthquakes and tsunamis. As 70% of its national land is occupied by mountainous areas, population, assets, industrial activities and infrastructure are concentrated in the narrow low-lying coastal areas. Japan has also made a long effort to prevent damage from natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Significantly, the Tohoku coast which was heavily damaged by the March 11 event had developed the most advanced anti-earthquake/tsunami system in the world. So why did this tragedy happen? What factors contributed to the high vulnerability of the area?

We are concerned that it is too early to present a report as so many refugees still remain in evacuation centers and we have only an incomplete picture of the disaster. However, Dr Robert Dixon, Editor of Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, invited us to prepare a paper as many people in the world wait for information from Japan. To respond to his request, we wrote this paper, as an interim report from university researchers in the affected area. As academic results are still limited, we used reports released by the government, research institutes and mass media as a basis of this paper.

The Japan Meteological Agency (JMA) named the earthquake as the “2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake”. On the other hand, the government refers to the complex disaster as the “Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami”. We follow the latter in this paper.

2 Characteristics and damaged of the earthquake

2.1 Characteristics of the earthquake motion

The epicenter of the Great East Japan Earthquake was at 38 N and 142.9E, as indicated in Fig. 2The depth was estimated to be 24 km. This earthquake is considered to be a plate-boundary thrust-faulting in subduction area with a reverse fault. The Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (2011), the Ministry of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology, reported that the fault area stretched 400 km and 200 km in the NS and EW directions, respectively. In this area, at least three large earthquakes occurred consecutively, with the maximum slide distance of the crust amounting to 24 m. Immediately after the earthquake the magnitude was reported as M8.8, but it was later corrected to M9.0. These parameters prove that the earthquake was unprecedented in Japan. The prefectures nearest to the epicenter (Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima) were the worst affected as well.

To classify the ground motion, JMA uses the Japan’s intensity of ground motion, with 0 to 7 classes. The highest class 7 of was recorded in Kurihara-city, Miyagi prefecture. Figure 3 shows that strong ground motion (ranking 6 to 7 and shown in dark colors) occurred in a wide coastal area of the east Japan.

By comparing the past strong earthquakes, we can identify the characteristics of the Great East Japan Earthquake as follows:

1. i)

   The earthquake was the biggest measured earthquake in Japan. Maximum recorded acceleration of the ground motion reached 3000 gal (30 m/s²) in Kurihara-city, Miyagi prefecture. In addition, shaking lasted for nearly 6 minutes, which reflected the consecutive breaks of the faults over a wide area. Based on such observations, the earthquake is considered to be a 1/1000 year event.
2. ii)

   Many large aftershocks followed the main event (Fig. 2). The number of those larger than M5 is over 420 as of 19th April. One of the largest, with M7.1, occurred on 7th April. Moreover, the JMA suggested that an earthquake which took place on 9th March might be a foreshock. These indicate that the phenomena were a series of large scale crustal motions which will last for a considerable period of time, with ongoing consequences.
3. iii)

   The dominant period of the main earthquake was 0.2 to 1.0 s. This range is shorter than that of the 1995 Great Kobe Earthquake. This is a possible reason why the damage of buildings was less intensive compared to the previous case in Kobe.
4. iv)

   Accidents of Fukushima NPP No.1 were induced. This makes the disaster much more serious to society, and the recovery pathways very complicated.

2.2 Damage from the earthquake

The earthquake resulted in huge damage. The Disaster Countermeasures Office (2011a), Office of Prime Minister, reported the following data on the damage as of 27th April.

1. i)

   Human casualties include 14,508 dead and 11,452 missing people. Since many areas are still left uninvestigated, the number is expected to increase.
2. ii)

   The number of completely collapsed and washed-out houses amounts to 76,000, and the number of those with half and partial damage is over 244,000. Following the earthquake, 345 fires occurred in 12 prefectures, including cases where the tsunami triggered the fire.
3. iii)

   Infrastructure damage was also very wide spread; reported damaged included 3,546 areas along roads, 71 bridges and 26 parts of the railway system. Such damage has strong effects on the recovery as well as on economic activities in general. On the other hand, thanks to the long efforts for disaster preparedness, the hundreds of trains in operation, including Tohoku Shin-Kansen, were able to make emergency stops safely, without any deaths or serious injuries.
4. iv)

   Lifeline infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, sewage systems, and gas lines, was also damaged. Though such services were soon restored in most of the damaged areas, the coastal areas most heavily damaged in the northeast Japan are still without these services at the time of writing.
5. v)

   The damage costs will be between 16 and 25 trillion yen.

According to the Geographical Survey Institute (2011), the main earthquake which occurred on the 11th March was associated with large movement of the crustal plate; i.e. about 4.0 to 5.0 m horizontal offshore movement and 0.4 to over 1.0 m subsidence. On land, large movements were also observed. The largest movement was at the Ojika Peninsula, Miyagi Prefecture, where 5.4 m (horizontal) and 1.20 m (vertical) movements of the ground were observed.

As a result of such motions, many impacts occurred on artificially reclaimed lands, soft alluvial plains, and fragile slopes. These are common land features in Japan. Land slides also created strong damage, because the sediment mass has large weight, and hence apply stronger impulse forces to buildings and other features. For example, in Sukagawa-city, Fukushima Prefecture, a 18.1 m high earth dam was broken, causing eight deaths and missing people (Fig. 4). Another landslide and debris flow occurred in Shirakawa-city and Nasukarasuyama-city killing 13 people, and with two people still missing.

Building damage is closely related to the frequency responses. The frequency of the ground motion is higher than that of 1995 Great Kobe Earthquake, as shown in Fig. 5. This results in smaller effects on the structure of buildings. Therefore, the destroyed houses and buildings in the coastal areas were mainly due to the tsunami. However, in Ibaraki Prefecture, at the southern end of the damaged region, there were completely or half collapsed houses in inland areas. They were not damaged by the tsunami, but by the earthquake and resulting foundation failure.

Breakdown of lifelines continued for several weeks in many places. Figure 6 shows the recovery of water supply in Fukushima Prefecture as of 28th March. Much longer time is needed in the areas with tsunami damage and soft foundations. Damage to roads, railways and lifelines first resulted in insufficient supplies of food and gasoline to the impacted areas. Secondary effects then resulted, including on the physical and psychological conditions of refugees. These also became big problems for rescue activities.

The largest consequence of the earthquake and tsunami is the accident at the Fukushima NPP No1. Many serious problems have resulted, including nuclear contamination of soils and sea water, and evacuation of a large number of residents in the surrounding areas, initially 20 km and then subsequently more distant from the NPP. This event revealed problems associated with risk management, and information disclosure as well. When the physical impacts of the earthquake and tsunami were combined with health, psychological, and social problems caused by the Fukushima NPP accident, the situation became very serious and complicated. The causes of the nuclear accident and the present situation at the NPP will be discussed later in this paper.

3 Characteristics of the tsunami and its damages

According to the tsunami-related information released by Japan Weather Association (2011), very soon after the major earthquake occurred at 2:46PM JST the first wave arrived at cities near to the failure fault, such as Miyako, Ofunato, and Kamaishi in Iwate Prefecture. The highest wave arrived at these locations between 3:15 and 3:20PM. This means that the highest waves reached the nearest coastlines 30 to 40 min after the earthquake occurred. The first waves arrived at more distant coasts, from Hokkaido in the north to Chiba Prefecture in the south, considerably later.

Very large wave heights occurred along southern Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and northern Fukushima Prefectures. Wave heights and run-up elevations of tsunami are not the same; wave height is the distance between the mean sea level and the crest of the tsunami wave in the sea, while run-up elevation refers to the maximum height of the land where the tsunami reaches. Many tidal stations recorded high water levels of around 8 m in these areas, before they were destroyed by the tsunami, and no data were recorded. One exception is Onagawa NPP of Tohoku Electric Power Co. It recorded temporal variations of sea surface elevation at the coast, as shown in Fig. 7. This is a precious record obtained at a central position in the severely damaged region. This record shows that a large wave of nearly 13 m high arrived just before 3:30PM, with lowest values occurring around 15:45. More data are expected to be published from sensors in the deep sea floor.

Ria coasts dominate in the damaged area in Iwate Prefecture. The coasts consist of many bays and rocky cliffs. People concentrate in narrow flat plains along the bays, to form cities such as Rikuzen-Takata and Miyako, and fishery and/or commercial ports such as Kamaishi and Ofunato. These names of these cities will be used when describing more local damage. The tsunami hit these bays with a wave height of over 10 m, the height being higher due to the amplification effect of the horn aperture of the bays. Table 1 indicates a summary of the strength of the tsunami and inundation, and the resulting human casualties for several cities in this area. For example, in Rikuzen-Takata-city, the wave height was over 15 m, with the highest run-up elevation being about 39 m. Furthermore, tsunami waves extended up along a river and flooded over river dikes in the middle and upper reaches. There are some areas which were hit by both tsunamis approaching from the coast and rivers, in a pincer attack. As these places are several kilometers inland from the coast, people did not expect that such flooding would occur. The overwhelming force of tsunami inundated 43% of the residential areas, and caused 2,422 deaths and missing people, accounting for 10.4% of the total city population.

The 100 km stretch south of the Ria coasts has sandy coasts, stretching from Miyagi Prefecture to northern part of Fukushima Prefecture. The coastal plain is called Sendai Plain, as Sendai-City, the largest city in Tohoku Region, is situated inland on this plain. A wave height of 7 m was observed at Souma, the southern tip of this coast. The elevation of the plain is less than 5 m, and high tsunami waves penetrated deep into it. The maximum penetration distance was about 6 km. Flooding on such a wide area, and the resulting damages, are unprecedented.

Ibaraki and Chiba Prefectures are south of Fukushima Prefecture. Tsunamis of 3.3 m to 7.2 m high (Ibaraki) and 1.3 m to 7.6 m high (Chiba) were observed. Consequently, the tsunami associated with the Great East Japan Earthquake attached a long coastline of over 800 km in the northeast Japan, representing a major external force that imposed devastating damages on the coastal areas.

4 Some aspects of the tsunami damage

4.1 Effects of coastal dykes and breakwaters

The Pacific coast of northeast Japan is called Sanriku Region. This region has suffered from large tsunamis in the past: it experienced enormous damage in 1886 (Meiji Snriku Tsunami), 1933 (Showa Sanriku Tsunami), 1960 (Chilean Earthquake Tsunami) and 1968 (Off Tokachi Tsunami). Based on these disasters, the national and local governments continued to increase the level of the tsunami countermeasures. As one of such measures, large breakwaters were constructed at the mouths of Ofunato, Kamaishi, Miyako, and Kuji bays, to protect the cities located in the inner bay areas against tsunamis.

Among the tsunami protection facilities, giant bay-mouth breakwaters were noteworthy. For example, Kamaishi Bay has a breakwater consisting of north and south parts of 990 m and 670 m length, respectively, and a total length of 2 km. Its maximum depth below water is 63 m, while the height above mean sea level is 8 m. Its design criterion was to protect the city and port of Kamaishi against the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami, which was caused by a M8.5 earthquake in 1896. About 6,700 people were killed and 1,600 houses were washed away by the tsunami. Therefore, constructing this breakwater has long been desired by the local people. This breakwater was completed in 2009, using 700 million m³ of concrete. This breakwater is registered in the Guinness Book of World Records as the deepest breakwater in the world. It played a role to protect the city against tsunamis, until March 11. Ofunato also has a big bay-mouth breakwater with a total length of 550 m and a depth of 40 m. Though water pollution in the bay became worse after the breakwater was constructed, residents considered the tsunami protection to be more important relative to any adverse consequences.

Taro district, in Miyako City, was surrounded by high coastal dykes called “Great Walls”. They were 10 m high and 10 km in total length (Fig. 8). Taro experienced a tragedy after being hit by a 10 m tsunami which killed over 900 people in 1933. They started to build the coastal dykes the following year. In 1958 a 10 m dyke system with a length of 1.4 km was completed. It worked very well in the occasion of the Chilean Tsunami in 1960, with no casualties. In 1979 the dyke system was partially upgraded to a great wall with a two-track structure. After that it continued to be effective.

The recent Great East Japan Tsunami flew over these structures, attacking cities and causing huge casualties. The bay-mouth breakwaters were destroyed in Kamaishi and Ofunato. The great coastal dykes in Taro could not prevent overflows and were destroyed as well. Some people claimed that the structures had no effect, and that disaster prevention education should be more effective. However, evidence from videos, photos and witnesses confirms that the coastal structures reduced the damage to some extent. Thus the role of coastal structures remains a controversial issue. However, it is true that the structures played a preventive role against past tsunamis which had heights lower than their design heights. Therefore, the role and effectiveness of structures when the tsunami is higher than the design criterion is a matter for further study.

4.2 Education for disaster prevention

People of cities in northeast Japan, such as Kesennuma and Kamaishi, are enthusiastic about tsunami disaster prevention. They have been very effective in this regard, by organizing workshops, education for tsunami disasters and evacuation practices over the past 20 years. In particular, after the construction of the breakwaters, they also strengthened soft measures such as distribution of tsunami hazard maps to all households. Each city/town government prepared a tsunami hazard map, which overlays the estimated inundation areas of tsunamis and river floods, as well as risk areas for slope failures, based on scientific estimates. Moreover, they also promoted soft measures in local workshops for disaster prevention, such as discussions and practices to find evacuation places and routes. Loud speakers and radio transmissions were installed in each city or town to announce emergency cautions.

These prevention activities had a great effect, even in face of the gigantic tsunami. Special note should be mentioned about the fact that nearly 3,000 children in elementary and middle-high schools managed to evacuate safely in Kamaishi. There is a legend of “Tsunami tendenko”. As “tendenko” means “scattered” in local language, the legend has been transferred for a long time to teach that, when you feel an earthquake, you should not wait for a unified action but run away individually and immediately. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, most elementary and middle-high schools evacuated students to higher places. Importantly, this action was taken before local authorities issued evacuation alerts. On the other hand, some people regretted that they relied too much on hard structures such as coastal dykes, based on the fact as they thought that these structures had successfully protected against tsunamis until then.

There was an instance where raised awareness was of no assistance. In Otsuchi, officers of the town government evacuated from the town hall after the earthquake. The tsunami attacked them shortly after they established a disaster countermeasure office outside of the town hall. Eleven officers, including the town mayor, were killed or missing, out of 14 staff in Otsuchi (Fig. 9). They thought that they were responsible to lead people’s evacuation rather than their own evacuation. They also tried to achieve allocated emergency roles such as shut-down of water gates and preparation of evacuation centers. Their roles conflicted with their own “evacuation first”.

4.3 Aged victims

According to a newspaper, the dead people over 60 and 70 years accounted for 65% and 45%, respectively, of the 2,854 victims in five prefectures. There are 35% and 21% in these age-groups in Iwate Prefecture,. Thus the victims’ rates are twice as large. This clearly indicates a disproportionately high death rate for aged people. In the case of the 1995 Great Kobe Earthquake, people over 70 years accounted for 40% of the deaths in Hyogo Prefecture. Higher mortality rates for aged people have been recognized as an important issue in the past, and was the same for the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. One reason is that people in hospitals and nursing-care facilities need a longer time for evacuation. Single people and aged people who need nursing-care are also less able to make a quick evacuation. Therefore, we need to develop evacuation measures that are effective for Japan’s aged society.

4.4 Recovery and reconstruction

There are different challenges recovering from tsunami damages compared to those from earthquakes. The first challenge is the interruption to transportation in the coastal areas. Ports , railways and roads could not be used due to heavy damage. Some places could be accessed only by helicopter. In fact, air transportation was the only way to bring water, food and other life necessities to islands for 2 weeks.

Some municipalities lost city/town halls, and could not provide help and services to people. The most tragic town is Otsuchi where many officers were killed by the tsunami. It could not establish even the disaster countermeasures office. Other municipalities sent their officers to help them from a week later. As the officers themselves were victims of disasters to a greater or lesser degree, it is very hard to establish a headquarter office to help refugees and affected people. Many NPOs and local people worked to help them.

Another problem is safety management of rescue activities for aftershocks and possible further tsunamis. Data transmission stopped from many tsunami monitoring stations off the Pacific coast operated by JMA. For example, tsunami measurement station at Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, ceased data transmission after sending increasing water surface to 7.3 m at 3:50PM on March 11. Nine of ten tidal stations could not send their data after the first or second tsunami wave, or immediately after the earthquake. By then the region had lost its tsunami monitoring capability for a certain period of time.

Ground subsidence has increased the risk of inundation in a wide area along the Pacific coast. As mentioned in Section 2.2, subsidence ranges from 0.4 to 1.2 m. Sea water piling up in the inundated area did not return to the sea naturally, and it was a large obstacle for investigation of missing people and for rescue activities. Although local authorities introduced many pumper trucks, drainage of sea water takes time because the inundated areas are very expansive. As a result of ground subsidence and collapse of seawalls after the earthquake, parts of the coastal areas were inundated by regular tidal motion during spring tide,. The Pacific coast of the northeast Japan faces a huge problem of how to reconstruct the protection system against high tide, waves, storm surges and tsunamis.

Disaster wreckage is another big problem. The earthquake and tsunami generated 25 million tons of wreckage in only the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. It is not possible to take the wreckage to outer areas. Stock piling a mixture of wreckages may cause contamination of soils, sandy beaches, and surface and ground waters. Therefore, disasters and their recovery are closely connected to environmental problems. Disaster management plans focus on the refugees etc., but seldom consider the treatment of the wreckage. There is a need to incorporate this issue in disaster management plans.

5 Tsunami and the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant No.1

The most serious consequence of the tsunami is the accident of Fukushima NPP No.1. Construction of the first nuclear reactor in Fukushima started in 1967, and six reactors were built over a period of about 10 years. Table 2 shows the year construction started and the generation capacity of each reactor. The generation capacity of the Fukushima No.1 was 4,696 MW in total, which amounts to 6% of the gross supply capacity of the TEPCO. Fukushima NPP No.2 is located 10 km south of Fukushima No.1. These two NPPs are all situated on the coast, with their own ports for transportation of nuclear fuels and cooling water uptake. The Fukushima coast, therefore, is Japan’s big electricity supply base. The giant tsunami hit it, inducing the severe accident and raising serious concerns in Japan and, furthermore, around the world.

Authors

• Nobuo Mimura
• Kazuya Yasuhara
• Seiki Kawagoe
• Hiromune Yokoki
• So Kazama

(True Activist) Fukushima Radiation Has Contaminated The Entire Pacific Ocean – And It’s Going To Get Worse:

What was the most dangerous nuclear disaster in world history? Most people would say the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, but they’d be wrong. In 2011, an earthquake, believed to be an aftershock of the 2010 earthquake in Chile, created a tsunami that caused a meltdown at the TEPCO nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan.

Three nuclear reactors melted down and what happened next was the largest release of radiation into the water in the history of the world. Over the next three months, radioactive chemicals, some in even greater quantities than Chernobyl, leaked into the Pacific Ocean.

However, the numbers may actually be much higher as Japanese official estimates have been proven by several scientists to be flawed in recent years.

Radioactive Debris from Fukushima approaching North America’s western coast       Credit – RT

If that weren’t bad enough, Fukushima continues to leak an astounding 300 tons of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean every day. It will continue do so indefinitely as the source of the leak cannot be sealed asit is inaccessible to both humans and robots due to extremely high temperatures.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Fukushima has contaminated the entire Pacific Ocean in just five years. This could easily be the worst environmental disaster in human history and it is almost never talked about by politicians, establishment scientists, or the news. It is interesting to note that TEPCO is a subsidiary of General Electric (also known as GE), one of the largest companies in the world, which has considerable controlover numerous news corporations and politicians alike. Could this possibly explain the lack of news coverage Fukushima has received in the last five years? There is also evidence that GE knew about the poor condition of the Fukushima reactors for decades and did nothing. This led 1,400 Japanese citizens to sue GE for their role in the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Even if we can’t see the radiation itself, some parts of North America’s western coast have been feeling the effects for years. Not long after Fukushima, fish in Canada began bleeding from their gills, mouths, and eyeballs. This “disease” has been ignored by the government and has decimated native fish populations, including the North Pacific herring. Elsewhere in Western Canada, independent scientists have measured a 300% increase in the level of radiation. According to them, the amount of radiation in the Pacific Ocean is increasing every year. Why is this being ignored by the mainstream media? It might have something to do with the fact that the US and Canadian governments have banned their citizens from talking about Fukushima so “people don’t panic.”

Further south in Oregon, USA, starfish began losing legs and then disintegrating entirely when Fukushima radiation arrived there in 2013. Now, they are dying in record amounts, putting the entire oceanic ecosystem in that area at risk. However, government officials say Fukushima is not to blame even though radiation in Oregon tunatripled after Fukushima. In 2014, radiation on California beaches increased by 500 percent. In response, government officials said that the radiation was coming from a mysterious “unknown” source and was nothing to worry about.

However, Fukushima is having a bigger impact than just the West coast of North America. Scientists are now saying that the Pacific Ocean is already radioactive and is currently at least 5-10 times more radioactive than when the US government dropped numerous nuclear bombs in the Pacific during and after World War II. If we don’t start talking about Fukushima soon, we could all be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

What are your thoughts on this news? Please share, like, and comment on this article!

Source : (True Activist)

North Korea’s missiles are capable of hitting targets across most of the United States, American intelligence officials claim, citing evidence from Pyongyang’s latest missile test.
North Korea test-launched a Hwasong-14 ballistic missile on Saturday, calling it a “stern warning” to the US that it would not be safe if it resorts to military action.
The consensus in Washington is that the Hwasong-14 in many ways resembled an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and proved the North’s ability to hit targets on American soil, Reuters reported Monday, citing two US intelligence officials.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said the missile’s 47-minute flight time was indicative of a greater range compared to another missile that was tested on July 4th, which flew 39 minutes.

This picture taken on July 4, 2017 and released by North Korea shows an intercontinental ballistic missile reportedly capable of reaching the US. (Photo by AFP)
The Hwasong-14 also made use of force stabilizing engines that gave it greater height, range and power by deflecting the effects of winds and other forces that could knock it off course while ascending.
The Pentagon says the missile’s trajectory, although not direct enough to reach the US, showed that it had the potential.
In a press briefing, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis refused to reveal the US military’s assessment but confirmed that the missile could fly at least 5,500 km (3,420 miles), the minimum range for what the Pentagon classifies as an ICBM.
“You could have the debate back and forth of whether the capability is proven or not, the fact of the matter is we take it seriously and we are prepared to defend against (it),” he noted.
Last month, the United Nations Security Council imposed a fresh array of sanctions on Pyongyang in response to a number of missile tests carried out this year.
‘Years away from North Korean nuke missile’
Russia and China have opposed calls for new sanctions and would only agree when the North obtains the required technology to develop ICBMs, according to diplomatic sources.
Unlike Washington, Beijing and Moscow argue that Pyongyang has yet to master the know-how.
US shifting blame over N Korea situation: Russia
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov played down concerns about North Korea’s ability to produce nuclear missiles, saying on Friday that the country is “years and years away from a moment they can weaponize.”
“What they are testing are quite primitive devices which require months for preparation, and which are essentially pieces of equipment with all sorts of wires and additional elements around, which simply cannot be put on top of any missile,” he added.

Read More:
US ‘done talking’ over North Korea: Haley
US, S Korea hold missile drill in response to North
‘Whole US mainland within N Korea ICBMs range’

So Much for ‘Drain The Swamp’: White House Won’t Say Who’s Visiting

If you thought the new Trump administration would prioritize transparency, don’t get your hopes up. On Friday, the White House said it would not reveal visitor logs to the public.
The move leaves open the question of what the administration has to hide, but officials said that it was “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns” that led to the decision.
The policy was first initiated by President Barack Obama, who released the names of the millions of people who enter the grounds of the White House. These records “provide indispensable information about who is seeking to influence the president,” Noah Bookbinder of legal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told The Hill.
Donald Trump’s White House has grown to look a lot like Wall Street despite the populist rhetoric the now-president deployed on the campaign trail. Gary Cohn, Dina Powell and Steve Mnuchin all have histories at Goldman Sachs. And even though Steve Bannon, chief strategist to Trump, frequently bashes the presence of such “globalist” bankers in the White House, Bannon himself used to work at the Mergers and Acquisitions desk at Goldman. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
It hypocrisy may not be reserved just for members of Trump’s staff:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2012
Government watchdogs say the public has a right to know who is walking into the West Wing. Instead, the man who vowed to “drain the swamp” is leading the effort to keep White House records for select eyes only.

Trump ‘Lacks Specialists on Russia’, Faces ‘Sabotage’ in Washington
The decision comes from the same man who stated in his inaugural address, “What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.”
Trump kicked off that speech by stating, “we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another — but we are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the American People.”
Is “the time for empty talk is over?” It doesn’t appear so.

• Think tank of army and civilian officials fear US and allies would be overrun
• Research suggests NATO has been caught napping by a resurgent Russia
• Russia could take the Baltic States in just 36-60 hours by launching two-pronged attack on Latvia then Estonia, according to series of war games
• NATO would have to rush to protect Riga and Tallinn, the capitals, but they do not have enough heavy armor in their ground forces to rival Putin’s fleet
• All 27 of Russia’s battalions have battle tanks; NATO’s 12 have none

Russia could overrun Eastern Europe in just three days because NATO has not been bolstering its fleet since Vladimir Putin took Crimea, according to US military predictions.

Testing every possible scenario in a series of war games, a US military think tank has concluded it would take a resurgent Russia between 36 and 60 hours to push its 27 heavily-armored battalions past NATO’s lightweight 12 to occupy the Baltic States.

Most likely, the study found, Russia would start by launching a two-pronged attack across the Latvian border, sending heavily-armed battalions in from the north and the south.

These battalions would push past the light-weight Latvian and NATO battalions before uniting to take the capital of Riga.

Once secured, the remaining part of Russia’s 27 maneuver battalions would cross the Narva reservoir into Estonia to take the ethnic Russian north-east before heading to Tallinn, the capital.

NATO’s only hope would be to concentrate its forces in Tallinn and Riga while stationing some delays along the main routes. But eventually, the West ‘would have to launched a belated nuclear attack’.

‘The outcome was, bluntly, a disaster for NATO,’ the report concludes.

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This is a map of how a US military think tank believes Russia could overrun NATO to take the Baltic States in just 36-60 hours. Even with a week’s notice, NATO’s 12-strong fleet would be no match against Putin’s 27

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The study by a think tank made up of US military officials warns that Russia has never appeared more likely to stage an attack on Eastern Europe and NATO forces since bolstering its fleet after taking Crimea

The report warns, NATO’s ground forces are no match for Russia’s. They do not have any battle tanks; all of Russia’s do. And NATO would have little room for maneuver, annexed in by Russian forces in Kalingrad Oblast.

In the scenario given by the study, NATO would have one week’s notice to defend Eastern Europe.

The study, carried out between 2014 and 2015, suggested even a combination of US and Baltic troops combined with US airstrikes would not be able to prevent Russia advancing.

Seven of NATO’s 12 battalions in Eastern Europe are domestic fleets of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They only have one heavy armored fleet, a single Stryker battalion, and no main battle tanks, the report explains.

Though NATO’s air power could put up a strong defense, it would be futile as its lightweight ground forces would be plowed down by Russia’s.

‘The games’ findings are unambiguous: As currently postured, NATO cannot successfully defend the territory of its most exposed members,’ the report said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3430259/Russia-overrun-Eastern-Europe-THREE-DAYS-NATO-caught-napping-Putin-hopelessly-outgunned-according-military-predictions.html#ixzz4oSOaoDeS
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a call-to-action to the people of Britain, saying that following the murder of their beloved Princess Diana 18 years ago, the country must prosecute the Royal family after conclusive proof has emerged that they were responsible for her assassination.

During a solemn Christmas luncheon at the Kremlin, Putin accused Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles of arranging the murder of Princess Diana via MI6 agents in Paris. He says that after speaking with Elton John on the telephone last month, he was privy to irrefutable evidence that the royal family had blood on their hands.

WATCH: Banned Princess Diana Documentary ‘Unlawful Killing’

During an informal and reflective speech, Putin told a select group of colleagues and esteemed state-approved journalists that Diana’s brutal assassination brought him unfathomably to tears at the time in 1997, and that he knew deep down that her death was due to foul-play.

Putin, who vows to destroy the Illuminati in 2016, said that the late great Princess Diana was a thorn in the side of the corrupt British establishment, and served as a constant threat to their existence due to the fact she knew way too much about what the illuminati had in store for humanity.

Holding back the tears, Putin stood up at the table with a glass of Vodka raised, and proclaimed:

“She was about to go on the world’s stage and tell a very shocking truth”, he told the crowd who had just finished their blini appetiser.

“And now, friends, I know this truth and I am prepared to let the world know too,” he warned, before slamming the drink back.

He continued, “That person sitting in Buckingham palace isn’t some innocent wrinkly old monkey. She’s evil incarnate. The whole rotten family needs to abolished”.

According to one of the journalists present, the crowd erupted into spontaneous applause at the man they have affectionally dubbed ‘The Illuminati Killer’ in Moscow.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Anti-government demonstrators barricaded streets on Monday and promised a fresh wave of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, after an election a day earlier giving the Venezuelan leader and his ruling Socialist Party sweeping powers.

At least 10 people were killed on Sunday in protests against the unpopular Maduro, who insists the country’s newly elected constituent assembly will bring peace after four months of protests that have killed more than 120 people.

Opposition parties sat out the election, saying it was rigged as part of a naked power grab by Maduro, leaving all 545 of the assembly’s seats for the socialists and their allies.

Protesters set up barricades along main avenues of Caracas as they denounced the advent of dictatorship.

Construction worker Leonardo Valbuena, 35, leaning on a rusting barrel next to a cable was stretched across a usually busy street, said he was protesting because the economic crisis had left him unable to find work.

“I’ve got four kids – four! How am I supposed to feed them?” said Valbuena, adding that the official figure of 8 million voters in Sunday’s election was inflated. The opposition put the figure at around 2.5 million.

“Now that they’ve got their assembly they’re going to come for us. But we’ll die fighting them.”

Countries across the Americas, as well as the European Union, denounced the creation of the assembly, which will have the power to rewrite the constitution.

The United States – the top market for the OPEC nation’s oil – called the vote a sham, and officials in Washington said they were preparing oil-sector sanctions.

Opposition leaders say the election was designed to tighten Maduro’s hold on power amid growing anger over an economic crisis marked by rising poverty levels, the world’s highest inflation rate and chronic food shortages.

Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who has been harshly critical of Maduro this year, said the creation of the constituent assembly was putting “absolute power” in the hands of the Socialist Party leadership.

“We are in the presence of dictatorial ambitions,” Ortega told a news conference.

“Nobody recognizes that (constituent) assembly, it’s the epitome of nothing,” said legislator Juan Requesens in an internet broadcast as he entered Congress for a meeting with opposition deputies.

Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello on Sunday hinted that the constituent assembly would meet in the same legislative palace. The socialists had controlled Congress until the opposition’s landslide victory in 2015.

“They kick us out the door we come back through the window,” he told a news conference.

Requesens, however, warned of a struggle if government forces wanted to seize the premises of the legislature.

“If they want to take over Congress with their armored vehicles, with their paramilitary groups, then what’s waiting for them here is a fight,” he said, referring to armed pro-government gangs who recently burst into Congress and beat legislators with lead pipes, leaving several of them bloodied and injured.

Latin American nations from Argentina to Mexico, which are historically wary of siding with Washington in hemispheric disputes, sharply condemned the vote, leaving Venezuela on track to become a pariah state.

The EU said the constituent assembly could not be part of the negotiated solution to the country’s crisis, noting it was elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances..

The opposition organized an unofficial referendum over Maduro’s plan earlier in July, when more than 7 million voters overwhelmingly rejected his constituent assembly and voted in favor of early presidential elections.

Government officials have for weeks suggested that she will be removed by the new assembly, which will have the power to dissolve state institutions such as the opposition-run Congress and dismiss state officials.

Maduro on Monday night called for a “restructuring” of the chief prosecutor’s office.

AN UNDERGROUND city is being prepared for habitation in case Russia invades Europe during a military exercise