Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am


Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Spotify launches music streaming service in India

A trader is reflected in a computer screen displaying the Spotify brand before the company begins selling as a direct listing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York
A trader is reflected in a computer screen displaying the Spotify brand before the company begins selling as a direct listing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

February 27, 2019

(Reuters) – Spotify launched its music streaming service in India on Wednesday, stepping into a market crowded by local players including JioSaavn, Gaana, Amazon Music and Airtel’s Wynk.

The Swedish company said it will offer local and international music to India’s 1.3 billion potential listeners and that users can also upgrade to Spotify Premium for 119 rupees per month.

In January, Spotify had announced a partnership with India’s largest music label T-Series, giving it access to a catalog of over 160,000 songs.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

Source: OANN

0 0

Minnesota lawmaker's push for tougher female genital mutilation law faces opposition

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Republican state legislator Mary Franson has spent two years pushing for a new state law that would allow tougher prosecution of parents who facilitate or allow the genital mutilation of their daughters.

But Franson and supporters of those who want to punish more than just the practitioners of the horribly painful and widely condemned practice are finding opposition, both active and passive, to what its supporters believe should be a legislative no-brainer.

“The bill makes FGM (female genital mutilation) a felony, and it empowers social services to come in and take those children out of the home and remove the parental right from those parents,” Franson told Fox News in an interview. “This is completely on par with child endangerment such as criminal sexual conduct or assault with a dangerous weapon – anything that causes substantial bodily harm.”

An estimated 8,000 girls endure FGM around the world every day, a practice the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies as a serious human rights violation. The practice brings with it serious physical and emotional health consequences, including sexual dysfunction, incontinence, increased risk of HIV transmission, the risk of infection, and uncontrolled bleeding.

But Franson’s efforts have been far from smooth sailing. When her bill first hit the floor in 2017, it faced tough questioning from several lawmakers – among them then-state legislator and current U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who suggested Franson was using the bill as a bid for press attention.

"What I don't want us to do is to create laws because we want to get in the media,” Omar stated at the time. "What I would like to have been done is to have (the parents) charged with laws that already exist.”

Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, voices her opposition to the bill to unionize day care providers during a debate as the Minnesota legislative session came to a close Monday, May 20, 2013, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, voices her opposition to the bill to unionize day care providers during a debate as the Minnesota legislative session came to a close Monday, May 20, 2013, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Despite Omar's concerns, she and another 127 House members voted for the bill to pass on. Four other representatives did not. The bill fell flat in the Minnesota Senate.

Franson said Omar should have done more. “Ilhan hasn’t mentioned it at all. She never spoke about it on the House floor. She was in the back room watching it on the TV until it became time to vote, and she had to come out and vote.”

Omar’s support would have been particularly important because she represented the large Somali community where girls are at higher risk of being forced into FGM. And Franson argues it was in fact pressure from that community that kept her bill from moving forward.

Somali-American nonprofit groups have raised concerns that further criminalizing FGM would push the issue deeper underground, effectively worsening the problem. They have argued instead that putting more funding towards outreach and education would be more effective.

Another FGM-related bill was introduced by a male senator, Warren Limmer, last year. That effort, too, was rejected by groups who viewed it as bigoted. So Franson is trying again.

“I re-introduced it this year, we have some Republican authors on there,” Franson said. “Nobody is willing to carry it in the Senate because they are weak.”

Under current Minnesota law, the practice of FGM is already illegal but focuses more on those who actually perform the FGM. So not only would Franson’s bill mandate it a felony for parents to subject their daughters to FGM, but it also calls for the loss of custody and prison terms between five and 20 years.

GENITAL MUTILATION ALSO OCCURS IN THE US, ACTIVISTS CALL ON STATES TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL

Franson said she was motivated to continue pursuing the issue after a Michigan judge ruled in November that a 1996 U.S. federal law banning FGM was “unconstitutional” – thus dropping key charges against practitioners accused of performing FGM on nine young girls. That spurred an outraged Franson not to abandon the fight.

“This ruling underscores the dire need to pass my bill to protect girls from female genital mutilation and send a message to parents that there are consequences for this practice,” she said. “I will never stop fighting for the safety of little girls and will keep working to put an end to this barbaric practice and punish parents who subject their daughters to these horrors.”

Franson’s updated bill would punish Minnesota parents that force their girls to undergo the practice, which involves partially cutting or completely extracting female genitalia under the guise of “a girl’s purity and eligibility for marriage.”

One prominent group against the measure is Isuroon, a non-profit organization that seeks to help Somali women build self-sufficiency. The group has called efforts to further criminalize FGM a "witch hunt" against their community, which could potentially harm already scared Somali refugees.

Farun Weli, founder and executive director of Isuroon, Minneapolis, told Fox News there is no data that proves female genital “circumcision” – a term some argue is medically inaccurate but preferred by those who oppose efforts to toughen laws against it – is happening in Minnesota. Weli also claimed Franson was a “domestic terrorist,” who terrified families with the notion their children could be taken away, or unlawfully “checked” without parental permission.

"It's such an outlandish statement that it lacks any credibility," Franson said of Weli’s “domestic terrorist” remark. "I suppose we have different definitions of that term."

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., listens to President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., listens to President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Franson also expressed concern that Rep. Rena Moran, a Democrat, was recently named chair of the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, which could pose a further challenge to the bill. Moran was one of the four Democratic legislators who opposed the initial legislation in 2017.

Those four "no" votes came from worries over separating children from their parents of potential deportation, which could lead to further complications and frighten victims from coming forward, according to public records. Somali-American organizations had been advocating the representatives give more funding for outreach and education, and some of the opposing lawmakers agreed.

Moran and Omar did not respond to a request for comment.

“Those opposing focus on the issue that the child is going to be removed from the home, parental rights are going to be terminated,” Franson continued. "And my response to that is if you don’t practice FGM and don’t harm your daughter, it is never going to happen to you, and you are not going to lose your child."

Rep. Franson with activists advocating for further laws against Female Genital Mutilation in Minnesota

Rep. Franson with activists advocating for further laws against Female Genital Mutilation in Minnesota (Mary Franson)

Franson intends to speak on the issue next month on behalf of the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), during a panel addressing FGM at the United Nations in New York. And while she says she continues to face powerful outside resistance, several FGM survivors and other community activists from within the Somali-American and wider immigrant community – including men who want to stop this from happening to their daughters and sisters – are standing firmly by her side.

An overwhelming 98 percent of women aged 15 to 49 are believed to have undergone FGM in Somalia, according to a 2006 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Somalia is considered the highest-risk country for the procedure, even though the government there – which also refers to it as “circumcision” – constitutionally banned the measure in 2012.

And Somalia announced its first-ever FGM prosecution last year after a 10-year-old girl bled to death after being taken to a traditional cutter.

FGM is considered not to be a religious practice, but rather a cultural one. And while Minnesota is home to the largest Somali immigrant population in the country, it’s a melting pot of migrants and an array of ethnicities from all across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

There have been no known cases of FGM reported in Minnesota. But Franson and other activists believe that’s because it’s a largely “hush-hush” practice, occurring behind closed doors.

FBI agents leave the office of Dr. Fakhruddin Attar at the Burhani Clinic in Livonia, Mich. Friday, April 21, 2017, after completing a search for documents. The investigation is connected to the case of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, of Northville, charged with performing genital mutilation on two young girls from Minnesota. (Clarence Tabb Jr. /Detroit News via AP)

FBI agents leave the office of Dr. Fakhruddin Attar at the Burhani Clinic in Livonia, Mich. Friday, April 21, 2017, after completing a search for documents. The investigation is connected to the case of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, of Northville, charged with performing genital mutilation on two young girls from Minnesota. (Clarence Tabb Jr. /Detroit News via AP) (The Associated Press)

She pointed to one case in 2017 in which two girls belonging to a small Indian Muslim sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra, according to court documents, who were taken to Michigan to have FGM performed, which Franson said motivated her to examine the issue more carefully.

“If this wasn’t happening,” Franson asked, “then why is our own health department dedicating resources to this?”

The Minnesota Department of Health offers an FGM “cutting prevention and outreach program” that offers funding for the MDH Refugee and International Health Program and the International Institute of Minnesota (IIMN) to form and co-lead a working group dedicated to prevention and community engagement on the matter.

The custom is not only carried out by trained medical practitioners in some communities; but also community elders in non-safe settings - with sharp scissors as a tool of choice.

LAW BANNING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL; MICHIGAN DOCTORS CLEARED OF CHARGES

While at least 30 countries have laws prohibiting FGM to different degrees, world leaders and human rights defenders have long lamented that penalties are lax, and often not enforced. Within the U.S., legislation is often state-by-state. Some 23 states don’t have laws on the books prohibiting FGM.

A teenager from Uganda's Sebei tribe sits inside a mud hut after undergoing female genital mutilation in Bukwa district

A teenager from Uganda's Sebei tribe sits inside a mud hut after undergoing female genital mutilation in Bukwa district (Copyright Reuters 2016)

As Franson and others have noted, exact figures concerning the depth of the problem are hard to come by, given that the practice is largely shrouded in secrecy. Yet U.S. officials have cast a spotlight on the matter in recent years, pointing out that the number of girls at risk of being forced into FGM has doubled between 2007 and 2017.

Activists in the U.S. have also long underscored the importance of educating refugees and immigrants on arrival – especially from countries in the Middle East and Africa where it is widely practiced – of its strict illegality in the U.S., something which the State Department itself has not historically done.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

”A lot of time, girls are coming here because they are fleeing oppression,” Franson said. “And they need to be free from the oppression that FGM brings here in America. I am not going to admit defeat. I am still hopeful we can change this.”

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Kentucky freshman Herro announces intention to enter NBA draft

FILE PHOTO: NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Midwest Regional-Auburn vs Kentucky
FILE PHOTO: Mar 31, 2019; Kansas City, MO, United States; Kentucky Wildcats guard Tyler Herro (14) drives against Auburn Tigers guard Jared Harper (1) during the first half in the championship game of the midwest regional of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Sprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

April 12, 2019

Kentucky freshman guard Tyler Herro on Wednesday announced his intention to declare for the NBA draft via a social media post but left his options open for a return to the school.

Herro said he will work with an agent, within new eligibility rules, in order to get feedback from teams on where he might land in the draft. If his draft stock is not as high as he had hoped, he said he will return to the Kentucky program.

“If the evaluations tell me I need to elevate my game further, I would be thrilled to return to Kentucky and help this team compete for a championship,” Herro said in a statement. “Whatever happens over the next couple of months, I want to thank (Kentucky fans) for (their) support this season and throughout this process.”

Herro averaged 14.0 points this past season, second on the Wildcats. He led the team with 60 made 3-pointers, while shooting 93.5 percent from the free throw line, a Kentucky single-season record. He led the Wildcats with 32.6 minutes per game.

The 6-foot-5, 195-pounder was a five-star recruit out of Whitnall High School in the Milwaukee area, where he was first team all-state in Wisconsin and averaged 32.9 points per game.

Kentucky coach John Calipari offered his support to Herro via a Twitter post Friday.

“What I’m most proud of is how Tyler became not only an efficient offensive player but an efficient defensive player,” Calipari wrote. “He’s wired and driven like only a few others I’ve coached. I’ve had an absolute ball coaching him. Whatever he decides to do in the end, I will support.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

0 0

Nolte: Smollett’s Going to Prison & his Career & Life is Ruined

Spread the love

According to police sources and all kinds of media reports, Jussie Smollett (who is black and gay) did lie about being assaulted by two racist, homophobic Donald Trump supporters in the middle of the night on January 29.

The story was preposterous to begin with. In order to believe it, one was forced to buy into the idea MAGA hat-wearing bigots were running around downtown Chicago in subzero weather carrying bleach and wielding a noose in the hopes of running into an openly gay black man like Smollett.

“This is MAGA country!” the face-masked yahoos reportedly yelled as they poured bleach on Smollett’s black skin and tied a noose around his neck. Bruised, humiliated, and still carrying his cell phone and Subway sandwich, Smollett somehow survived.

Nevertheless, due to their own prejudices and bigotry, a number of terrible people in politics, media, and Hollywood chose to believe Smollett’s story; and they ran with it, and now they look ridiculous (including a handful of Democrat presidential candidates) and are being forced to clean up their own appalling role in advancing Smollett’s hate crime.

On top of all this, it appears as though Smollett might have mailed that infamous hate letter (filled with powder that turned out to be harmless) to himself, or he at least had some role in arranging it.

What we do know is that Smollett’s co-conspirators have rolled on him. The two brothers (both black) he hired to stage the attack are singing like Sinatra, and that includes the news of the phony hate mail.

And so there will be a reckoning, experts say, a legal and reputational one that could result in Smollett being tossed in the clink for a few years, followed by his banishment into a career wilderness from which he will never return.

“It’s a very high-profile case,” a former prosecutor told Variety. “Prosecutors tend to be tougher because everybody’s watching. … I think they may come down hard, in terms of not reducing it to a misdemeanor.”

Defense attorney Steve Greenberg believes Smollett could also face obstruction of justice charges, but it’s unlikely he will go to prison.

“They’re not going to ruin a guy’s life over this. People make false reports all the time to the police. They get in a DUI, they call police and say, ‘My car was stolen.’ Ninety percent of the time, even if they’re charged with a felony, those people end up pleading to a misdemeanor,” he said.

On the career front, things could be even more unforgiving; we are talking a Lance Armstrong-style expulsion from the rarified world of celebrity.

“If he made this up, he broke the trust of a lot of his fans,” a PR expert told Variety. “Say you lied and you’re sorry for that lie. Apologize to the people who have supported you, promise to make it up, and find a cause that’s near and dear to your heart and devote yourself to it.”

Another PR exec told Variety that if Smollett lied his only hope is to fess up immediately and throw himself at the mercy of the legal system and the court of public opinion.

“He needs to get ahead of this as much as he can,” he said. “He needs to go see the police. He needs to apologize. He needs to make the announcement about what happened instead of letting the facts leak out. If he lied, there’s no excuse, but there may be some explanation.”

On top of everything else, if Smollett is convicted of anything involving the filing of a false police report, he may also have to reimburse the taxpayers the cost of the investigation, which could be a sizable amount of money considering the manpower the police dedicated to the high-profile case.

CBS reports that a grand jury is already deliberating, which could very well mean Smollett is indicted.

As of now, though, Smollett is sticking to his story, which seems to be that the two brothers are lying about being hired by Smollett, which can only mean that, for whatever reason, they disguised themselves as Trump supporters and waited outside his condo all night in subzero weather looking for the opportunity to beat on him.

Smollett has hired two high-powered defense attorneys, but already his career is showing signs of hoax-related stress. His role in Empire has been slashed, including an episode that was supposed to revolve around his character that would have included a showy musical number.

The Lance Armstrong comparison is probably as close as you can come to the Smollett Hoax, but it is still lacking. Armstrong was a liar, a cheat, and a ruthless bully, but the damage he did, which should not be dismissed, was confined to his orbit. Smollett is something altogether different.

Had Smollett pulled off his hoax, had his ginned up hate crime been caught on video as he likely planned, it could have been the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” media-hoax all over again. That hoax resulted in the burning down of the predominantly black, working class city of Ferguson and countless acts of violence and murder against innocent police officers. Smollett’s hoax could have caused riots, violence against innocent Trump supporters, who knows what else.

Because I have needed more than my share forgiveness and second chances, I always lean in that direction for others. We all need a path to redemption. Time and circumstance might change my mind, but as of now I believe Smollett needs to be made an example of. Yes, he deserves all the due process our system allows, but if found guilty, he should be given no leniency and his show business career should be over forever.

Smollett’s path to redemption should happen in an Appalachia soup kitchen or a Heartland drug rehabilitation center. He is a bigot who sought publicity and moral authority by defaming and smearing a whole group of people. If he wants redemption, that path is through them, not an apology tour on Late-Night TV.

0 0

U.S. team heading in positive direction from dark place, says Biles

Simone Biles smiles during warm-ups at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Boston
FILE PHOTO: Simone Biles smiles during warm-ups at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., August 19, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

March 21, 2019

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) – Simone Biles believes U.S gymnastics is moving in a positive direction after the “dark place” it found itself in a year ago following a sex-abuse scandal.

The Texas-based 22-year-old, winner of a record-equaling four gold medals at the Rio Olympics, was one of more than 100 gymnasts who say they were abused by former Gymnastics USA doctor Larry Nassar who was jailed last year.

Gymnastics USA was criticized for failing to safeguard the welfare of its athletes and the subject of dozens of lawsuits by victims of Nassar.

Speaking ahead of the Superstars of Gymnastics event taking place in London on Saturday, Biles, who said next year’s Olympics in Tokyo will “definitely” be her last, said she was encouraged by their response.

“We are all very hopeful that they (Gymnastics USA) are making the right decisions so that we can kind of get out of that dark place,” Biles told Reuters close to the O2 Arena which will host Saturday’s event.

Biles received widespread admiration when going public about being abused by Nassar and was, along with other victims, awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage award.

“The response has been good and encouraging, knowing that its kind of relateable in a way,” she said. “But you know, you have to pick and choose your battles wisely.

“I think my actions have given other athletes a way to know that they are not alone and (abuse) does happen, so they don’t have to be in the dark about everything.”

Biles, heralded as the greatest gymnast of all time, will perform exhibition routines at the Superstars of Gymnastics event, with her role chiefly as part of the judging-panel that will use an “out of 10” scoring system.

It will be a light-hearted distraction before the serious business of the countdown to Tokyo.

She admits to tough times since returning to action from a two-year break although her four golds at the world championships in Doha showed she was back to her dazzling best.

“The muscle memory is there, but it was a little bit difficult to keep up at times,” she said.

“There were times I wanted to give up. In the end I knew what the goals were and it paid off.

Biles will be 23 in Tokyo, relatively old for female gymnastics, but feels the age demographic is changing.

“Even after the Olympics we had the oldest American team with an average age of 19, but we were also the most successful,” she said. “So I feel the age is changing just a little bit, so hopefully the peaking age is not 16 any more!”

“I hope I make the team,” she said. “This time it will be smaller with just four in 2020 so that’s more difficult.”

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

0 0

Pope invites foreign press association to Vatican next month

Pope Francis, who travels with journalists aboard the papal plane, is expanding his reach when he meets with members of Italy's 400-strong foreign press association at the Vatican on May 18.

The Argentine-born Francis, the first pope from Latin America, occasionally gives interviews to foreign correspondents. But this will be the first time he will meet separately with such a large group of international journalists. The Vatican announced the move Wednesday.

Francis generally faces questions on issues ranging from the worldwide clerical sex-abuse scandal to efforts to restore diplomatic relations with communist China.

Pope John Paul II was the first pontiff in modern history to take questions from journalists, and in 1988 visited the offices of the Associazione della Stampa Estera, as the foreign press club is called in Italian.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Indonesia nickel boom on track to overshadow palm oil: investment chief

Chief of Indonesia's BKPM Thomas Lembong talks during an interview with Reuters in Jakarta
Chief of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Thomas Lembong gestures as he talks during an interview with Reuters at his office in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

March 27, 2019

By Ed Davies and Gayatri Suroyo

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s nickel-related industries such as the production of stainless steel and battery materials are set to surpass the value of its second-biggest export earner, palm oil, in the next 10 to 15 years, its investment board chief said on Wednesday.

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy suffered a drop in foreign direct investment last year, but one area that attracted more overseas money was nickel processing, including a $4 billion Chinese-led project to produce battery-grade nickel chemicals to power electric vehicles (EVs).

Indonesia is also set to overtake Japan and India to become the world’s second-biggest producer of stainless steel behind China, when it reaches an industry ministry target of producing 4 million tonnes a year from its main production site at Morowali, on the island of Sulawesi.

“Our palm oil industry is worth about $18 to $20 billion in exports. I could see nickel and its derivatives, stainless steel, carbon steel, lithium-ion battery cells, surpassing that in the next 10 to 15 years,” Thomas Lembong, chief of the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board, said in an interview.

Indonesia’s large nickel laterite ore reserves – prized for nickel pig iron used in stainless steel production – are also a vital ingredient for lithium-ion batteries used to power EVs.

Developers led by Chinese companies – including stainless steel-maker Tsingshan Holding Group, battery firm GEM Co Ltd and units of lithium battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) – started building a lithium battery project in Morowali in January.

“Tsingshan is in the lead, but there are at least two other Chinese conglomerates who are catching up to them,” said Lembong, who predicted three to four major manufacturers would eventually emerge in the battery sector.

The industrial park in Morowali and another $10 billion park being built on the island of Halmahera are part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, but Lembong noted that Tsingshan was also bringing in Japanese investors to take a 40 percent stake.

“To me that’s a great example of where Belt and Road is going. More open, more inclusive, professionalised,” he said.

Indonesia has a history of simmering resentment towards China and a minority ethnic Chinese community so investment from its giant neighbor can be sensitive.

Reports have circulated on social media suggesting the Chinese-led project had brought in a huge influx of Chinese workers, although authorities say only around 3,000 workers are foreign out of nearly 30,000 in Morowali.

“I predict the public will realize the benefits of these investments fast enough to swing public support around to become very supportive of Chinese investment in years to come,” Lembong said.

Indonesia, the second-largest car production hub in Southeast Asia after Thailand, has also been looking to position itself as a global hub for producing and exporting EVs to Asia and beyond.

Indonesia has announced plans to introduce a fiscal scheme that will offer tax cuts to EV battery producers and automakers, as well as preferential tariff agreements with other countries that have a high EV demand.

Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Feb. 13 that Indonesia aimed for 20 percent of vehicle production to be EVs by 2025, representing about 400,000 vehicles.

The deputy minister for industry, Harjanto, also said last December that Hyundai Motor Co, the world’s fifth-largest automaker, plans to start producing EVs in Indonesia as part of an $880 million auto investment.

Lembong declined to name potential EV investors, saying that “it’s quite a leap” from producing batteries to building EVs, at least until domestic usage grows.

“If you don’t have a large user base of EV, then why bother producing here. But electric cars are not going to take off for as long as diesel and gasoline are subsidized,” he said.

(Reporting by Ed Davies and Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Tom Hogue)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist