George R.R. Martin says he only has another 500 pages to write on Winds of Winter
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Stephen Colbert’s Tooning Out The News roasts Martin for the delay, calling him ‘truly pathetic’
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MARTIN Lewis has called on the government to do more to stop debt collectors “bombarding” vulnerable Brits.
The MoneySavingExpert says a change to debt collection rules is needed after research found one in eight has attempted suicide during the cost of living crisis after missing a payment.
The report was published today by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a charity chaired and founded by Martin.
It found that of 2,049 adults in the UK, one in six have experienced suicidal thoughts in the past nine months due to rising costs.
The study also found that people being contacted and “threatened” by creditors has added to the issue.
A separate in-depth survey by the charity shows the distressing impact that receiving calls, letters and messages from creditors and debt collectors can have.
Martin said: “The link between serious financial problems and suicidal thoughts is long established.
“So it’s no surprise that the cost of living crisis, with bills hugely increasing, on the back of the pandemic is causing some people growing distress.
“Yet the scale of this distress is particularly worrying, and it leaves a serious concern about the impact on the number of people who may consider taking their own lives.”
Vulnerable Brits told the charity that the messages can leave them feeling bombarded, bullied and unable to see a way out of their situation.
For some people, it is contributing to them becoming suicidal.
One man called Steven who took part in the survey described how he received seven contacts in seven hours from a single debt collection agency on one day last month.
This included two text messages, two emails, a letter and two phone calls.
Steven said he was left “feeling harassed and persecuted”.
He said: “The sheer number of contacts scares me, it’s almost as if they are threatening and bullying me into compliance.
“They have me at the point of not answering calls and removing my SIM so they can’t contact me.
“I am becoming more reclusive as a result.”
The Money and Mental Health’s research shows debt collectors can get away with this sort of “bombarding”, because there are no firm legal rules in the UK limiting how often they can contact people about overdue bills.
There’s some guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates financial services in the UK.
And, while it does state that creditors and debt collectors should not contact people “at unreasonable intervals”, it doesn’t say how often is too much.
Martin has called for better protections to be put in place that change how and how often debt collectors can contact you.
He said: “We know that being bombarded with letters, calls and threats of court action from debt collectors can lead people to feel hopeless, helpless and even contribute to people becoming suicidal.
“So the sooner there are specific protections put in place to limit how and how often debt collectors can contact people about missed payments the better – even the bastion of free markets, the USA, has tighter rules on that than we do.”
He said the government needs to ensure that it has a “serious package of measures” to tackle the current suicide risk.
If you’re struggling with debt, the best thing to do is seek help and not bury your head in the sand.
Local organisations may also be able to provide support in your area.
Citizens Advice is a national organisation with more than 20,000 volunteers who can help with everything from finding out what benefits you’re entitled to, to claiming compensation for a cancelled flight.
You can find your nearest branch using the tool on its website, or you can contact them by phone on 0800 133 8848.
National Debtline is a charity run offering free and confidential advice to people in England, Wales and Scotland.
You can contact it online or over the phone on 0808 808 4000, between 9am and 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9.30am to 1pm on Saturdays.
National Debtline also recommends contacting organisations such as Mind, Samaritans and Anxiety UK if debt worries are affecting your mental health.
For more information on how to get help and who to speak to see our full list of support available.
AARON Carter’s fiancée has hit out at ‘enablers’ who the late star allegedly bought street drugs from for thousands of dollars during his addiction battle.
Melanie Martin, who is the mother of the singer’s only child, has broken her silence in a wide-ranging interview with The U.S. Sun about their relationship and his tragic death.
The 35-year-old says she was desperate to get Aaron clean as they welcomed their son[/caption]
The former waitress broke down in tears during the emotional interview[/caption]
Influencer Melanie has been left devastated after losing the love of her life[/caption]
The 34-year-old was found dead in his bathtub at their shared home in Lancaster, California on November 5, just days after they split once again.
Speaking exclusively to The U.S. Sun, Melanie insists she tried in vain to get him to focus on being a partner and father after she suspected he was buying drugs more than a year ago.
His official cause of death is yet to be revealed as toxicology results are still pending, but police say they found prescription pills and cans of compressed air in his home.
Melanie, 35, claims the former child star had been clean for the majority of their three-year on/off relationship until “bad people from his past” started hanging out with him again.
She believes his inner circle grew after he revealed he was going to be a father for the first time, as people felt he would be back in the spotlight after his previous battle with drugs.
The influencer suspected during brief periods of their relationship that he was secretly being sold drugs, but says he only ever admitted to relapsing in his ‘huffing’ addiction just weeks before his death.
Aaron had previously been open about his struggles, claiming he had 100 seizures from huffing some years ago but told The U.S. Sun in September he never took street drugs.
Office or kitchen supplies can be ‘huffed’ or ‘sniffed’, while ‘dusting’ refers to a specific brand of dust cleaner which is inhaled.
An emotional Melanie told The U.S. Sun: “These enablers were people in his past too, so they would come back. I didn’t see them until two years [of me] being with him.
“I saw payments on [his] Zelle, which was connected to me, for $2/3,000. I knew what they were doing.
“We were fighting because he was like, ‘Oh, you’re trying to control what I’m doing’. He goes, ‘I owed him money.’ I’m like, no you didn’t.’”
Although Melanie insists she never saw him take drugs, from text messages she saw she believes he was buying “pain pills” and his pals would ask “Hey, do you want another care package?”
“There were points where I was yelling and screaming and scaring the people off,” she recalls.
“I had to basically like fight them off and tell them, ‘You’re not welcome in this house.’
“This didn’t happen until maybe I was seven months pregnant. Right in the beginning when we first found out [about the baby], everything was good, we were still great. We weren’t really having that many issues.
“It wasn’t until I was like seven, eight months that those people came around.
“That was the start of the worst part of his life, basically.
“That created a lot of friction between me and Aaron because I felt like he thought I was just nagging him and trying to boss him around, but I was only protecting him from these people. He was getting manipulated by them.
“I was right there and they hated me because I was the bad guy trying to make the party stop. Yeah, he’s a father, of course I’m going to try to make the party stop.
“I didn’t want to lose Aaron. Nobody wants to lose their love. Of course, they’re going to try whatever they can do to stop it.”
Melanie, who first connected with Aaron in 2019 through social media, got engaged to the star in June 2020 — and later welcomed their son last November.
The pair lost custody of Prince in March, and he has since been living with Melanie’s mother, but she insists she is close to resolving the legal issue.
Through tears, she said: “Now my son doesn’t have a father because of all these people getting involved and wanting to be his best friend and not looking out for him. Not looking out for his best interests.
“When I would get rid of one person, another person would come and try to do the same exact thing.
“I saw some messages where he said, ‘I want to be a father. I want to be good for my son. I have to clean up my act.’
“They were trying to sell him stuff off the streets and that’s completely illegal.
“I feel like the enablers wanted to get money and also wanted to be associated with his name.
“They knew that there was gonna be media, like ‘Aaron’s having his first baby, let’s be around him’.
“I don’t need recognition. I don’t care about that. I’m depressed over my fiance. I was with him for three years.
“This just wasn’t a little fling. And I wasn’t just his baby mama, I was his fiancee. We had our ups and downs, but that’s because of the struggles of his addiction and possibly his mental health.”
Melanie admits they had split up again a week before his death and she’d left their home to stay with family, but felt he would “cool off” and was planning to return to the house the day he was found dead.
Although she is unsure if his untimely death involved drugs and is waiting for the autopsy results, she said she would be willing to speak to the police about what she knows.
“I’m just trying to warn people that if you see this stuff, try to get the police involved or something, this could have been prevented if I just told the right people,” she admits.
“I think if I got the right help from somebody, somebody would’ve helped me get rid of these people and held them accountable for what they were doing.
“Friends should not be doing that to you. He had a legacy. He was Aaron Carter and they were doing that to him. You don’t think that something’s going to happen to him if you’re allowing that?”
She says she confronted him a number of times, including after being told he was huffing live on Instagram, but he only admitted to slipping once before his death.
Aaron, who gave his final interview to The U.S. Sun, claimed he was on prescription medication after his previous huffing addiction “f***ed up” his brain.
But he insisted he would never overdose on pills or buy illegal drugs, saying: “I go through everything above board. Nothing ever off the streets, ever. I would never do that.
“I lost my sister to an accidental drug overdose so I would never do that. I would never overtake my medications.”
He had signed up for an outpatient rehab program in a desperate attempt to stay clean and was also trying to quit smoking weed.
The I Want Candy singer maintained he was still on the road to recovery, alleging he was close to being five years sober.
His sister Leslie tragically died back in 2012 after taking too many prescription pills. She was just 25.
Aaron and Melanie were battling to get custody of their son when he died[/caption]
The chaotic scene outside the star’s house after he was found dead[/caption]
There were many tech entrepreneurs in the running for the title this year, with the founders of medtech start-up OneProjects recognised in the emerging category.
Read more: Texthelp’s Martin McKay named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2022
Kanye West has made headlines once again.
This time around, it involves an interview where he compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. before storming out.
Full story below…
Sitting down with Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos, West appeared on the ‘Timcast IRL’ podcast, which was hosted by Tim Pool.
The post Kanye West Compares Himself To Martin Luther King Jr. Before Storming Out of Interview appeared first on ..::That Grape Juice.net::.. – Thirsty?.
“Thousands of Tumblr users have been making posters, soundtracks, drawings and fan fiction for a 1973 Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro — but it never existed.”
Released in 1973, the little-seen Scorsese flick starred Robert De Niro as Goncharov, “a former discotheque owner who comes to Naples after the fall of the Soviet Union” with the goal of becoming a mob boss. Harvey Keitel plays the eye-patched Andrey (or Andrei) “The Banker” Daddano; Gene Hackman plays Valery Michailov; Al Pacino appears as Mario Ambrosini and Cybill Shepherd plays Goncharov’s wife, Katya. Apparently, it was really good and was added to the Criterion Collection.
And you’ve never heard of it because it doesn’t actually exist….
A few years ago, a Tumblr user posted a photo of some “knockoff boots” they had ordered online that had a very strange tag on the tongue: “The greatest mafia movie ever made. Martin Scorsese presents GONCHAROV. Domenico Proccacci production. A film by Matteo JWHJ0715. About the Naples Mafia.” This mostly went ignored until 2020, when another Tumblr user reblogged a comment made on the original post, reading: “this idiot hasn’t seen goncharov….”
The internet works in mysterious ways; earlier this month, Tumblr user beelzeebub made a fake poster for the film, tens of thousands of people were suddenly sharing it and lo: a new Scorsese film was born… [L]ike all of the best jokes, people have really committed to the bit. There’s the film’s poster, which has the tagline “greatest mafia movie (n)ever made”. A music teacher in Indiana composed a theme song for Goncharov, inspired by The Godfather. There is also a cash-in video game, with an accompanying soundtrack, and a fake VHS.
“Academics” wrote essays analysing the film, which were published in (fake) film journals. A representative for the movie reviewing platform Letterboxd even told the New York Times that they had had to remove multiple reviews for the film that had been submitted by users.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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