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CNBC: Top Trump Trade Official Clete Willems Leaving

Top Trump trade official Clete Willems is leaving the White House in a matter of weeks, CNBC reports, citing three unidentified sources.

Willems, who is deputy director of the National Economic Council, has been lead trade negotiator for the U.S. and has represented the council in trade talks with China in Beijing, subbing for NEC Director Larry Kudlow, who has been unable to travel for health reasons.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Gabbard: Assange Arrest Is Meant to ‘Send A Message to All Americans’ to ‘Toe The Line’ or ‘Pay The Price’

Democrat 2020 presidential candidate Rep Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday forcefully condemned the arrest of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange saying it was “meant to send a message” to Americans to “be quiet, behave [and] toe the line” or “you will pay the price.”

“The arrest of #JulianAssange is meant to send a message to all Americans and journalists: be quiet, behave, toe the line. Or you will pay the price,” Gabbard said on Twitter.

“The purpose of arresting #JulianAssange is to send a message to the people, especially journalists, to be quiet and don’t get out of line. If we, the people, allow the government to control us through fear, we are no longer free, we are no longer America,” Gabbard said in a follow-up tweet, sharing video of her appearance on CNN Thursday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Gabbard released a video saying, “Netenyahu and Saudi Arabia want to drag the United States into war against Iran and Trump is submitting to their wishes.”


David Knight breaks down the complicated issues that lie ahead for Julian Assange. David lets President Trump know exactly where American patriots stand on the matter.

“The cost in lives and money will be beyond our imagination.”

Tulsi Gabbard successfully qualified for the Democratic debates on Wednesday after getting over 65,000 individual donors for her campaign.

Source: InfoWars

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Nunes files $150M lawsuit against McClatchy, alleging conspiracy to derail Clinton, Russia probes

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes filed a $150 million lawsuit in Virginia state court against The McClatchy Company and others on Monday, alleging that one of the news agency's reporters conspired with a political operative to derail Nunes' oversight work into the Hillary Clinton campaign and Russian election interference.

The filing, obtained by Fox News, came a day after Nunes, R-Calif., revealed he would send eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department this week concerning purported surveillance abuses by federal authorities, false statements to Congress and other matters.

In March, Nunes filed a similar $250 million lawsuit alleging defamation against Twitter and one of its users, Democrat Liz Mair. In Monday's complaint, Nunes again named Mair as a defendant, charging this time that she conspired with McClatchy reporter MacKenzie Mays to spread a variety of untruthful and misleading smears -- including that Nunes "was involved with cocaine and underage prostitutes" -- online and in print.

Nunes' complaint acknowledged the sensitivity of filing a defamation and conspiracy lawsuit against journalists but went on to allege that the defendants had "abandoned the role of journalist, and chose to leverage their considerable power to spread falsehoods and to defame" Nunes for "political and financial gain."

McClatchy did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. In a March story, the McClatchy DC Bureau reported that Nunes' previous lawsuit against Twitter and some of its users had only "amplified" the visibility of his critics and the Internet trolls -- including one named "Devin Nunes' Cow."

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: NUNES ANNOUNCES EIGHT CRIMINAL REFERRALS FOR FISA ABUSE, LYING TO CONGRESS 

Nunes' new complaint specifically cited a May 23, 2018 article published by the McClatchy-owned Fresno Bee and written by Mays, entitled, "A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event." The article described a lawsuit's allegations of a 2015 party aboard the yacht involving "25 of the Napa Valley-based [Alpha Omega Winery]'s top investors, all men — [who] were openly using what appeared to be cocaine and 'drawing straws' for which sex worker to hire."

That same day, Mays tweeted the article, mentioning Nunes in the same sentence as "cocaine and underage sex workers."

But, Nunes asserted in the complaint Monday, the event on the yacht was not a "fundraiser" at all, but rather a cruise resulting from a charitable donation -- and one that McClatchy knew Nunes had nothing to do with.

"The McClatchy headline intentionally omitted the word 'charity' and labeled the event a 'fundraiser' in a clear effort to imply it was a political fundraising event that a politician like Congressman Nunes would naturally attend," the complaint stated.

Nunes said another line in the story was false: "[i]t's unclear … if he [Nunes] was … affiliated with the fundraiser." The congressman said the winery had told McClatchy explicitly that Nunes was not affiliated with the event. Nunes also countered that those aboard the yacht had no connection to the winery and were not investors.

Additionally, "online versions of the story are punctuated by a prominent picture of Nunes and multiple film clips of him," creating a strong and misleading implication, repeated by Twitter users and other journalists, that Nunes was directly involved in the event on the yacht, the complaint continued.

Defamation law prohibits not only provably false statements but also heavy implications of falsities that harm defendants' reputations. However, public figures like Nunes must meet a high bar to prove defamation and must demonstrate that the defendants recklessly or intentionally spread falsehoods, rather than merely negligently.

Additionally, Virginia, like many other states, includes robust protections for journalists in what is called an "anti-SLAPP statute." SLAPP stands for "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation."

In his complaint, Nunes alleged that regardless, defamation law should not shield what he called a knowing and deliberate effort to "destroy" his reputation. "Indeed, the entire purpose of every element of the Yacht/Cocaine/Prostitutes article – the headline, the photo, the film clips, and the text itself – is to link Nunes to an event that McClatchy actually knew before publication he had no involvement with," the complaint stated.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., being questioned by reporters on Capitol Hill in February 2017.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., being questioned by reporters on Capitol Hill in February 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

A series of unmentioned "stealth edits" were made to the article post-publication. The original article stated that the winery serviced "Russian clients while the congressman was at the helm of a federal investigation of Russian meddling into the presidential election."

Eventually the sentence was changed to make it clear that the wine sales to Russians came years before the Russia probe began: "Nunes' ties to [the winery] made national headlines last year because it was discovered the winery sold wine to Russian clients in 2013. The discovery came amid Nunes' ongoing involvement in a federal investigation of Russian meddling into the presidential election."

NUNES FILES BOMBSHELL LAWSUIT ACCUSING TWITTER OF SHADOW-BANNING CONSERVATIVES, COMPLICITY IN DEFAMATION

In other articles, McClatchy also referenced Mair, the political operative whose LinkedIn profile included the boast that she "anonymously smears" targets on the Internet. Mair also has said Nunes had "issues" and she was "going after him."

"The fact is, the [Federal Election Commission] is not going to look favorably on a dude who uses his tax-exempt political entity like a personal slush fund, flying himself to Boston to watch them while apparently engaging in no activity relevant to the purpose of the political organization,’ said Liz Mair," read one article published by McClatchy DC Bureau on July 19, 2018. "McClatchy failed to inform readers of Mair’s employment with Mair Strategies, an opposition research company that, in Mair’s own words, 'smears' targets for paying clients," the complaint stated. 

On July 11, 2018, Mays authored an article that referred to an "ethics complaint" filed against Nunes by the Swamp Accountability Project. That group is run by Mair, whom the article identified only as "a political commentator who formerly worked for the Republican National Committee."

"Mays concealed the fact that Mair is an opposition research operative who admittedly smears targets, such as Nunes, for pay from as-yet anonymous clients," the complaint said. "This was a crucial omission, since it would have revealed Mair’s motives and cast grave doubt on her credibility and veracity and on the credibility and veracity of her handlers."

Even as the editorial board of the Fresno Bee doubled down on the reporting, Nunes said, other outlets refused to publish similar stories -- in contrast to McClatchy's willful abandonment of journalistic standards, the complaint alleged.

Protesters held signs as Rep. Devin Nunes visited Fresno, Calif., in March 2017.

Protesters held signs as Rep. Devin Nunes visited Fresno, Calif., in March 2017. (AP Photo/Scott Smith, File)

One newspaper, the Visalia Times-Delta, wrote that it "did not pursue the story because editors decided the lawsuit’s ties to Nunes were tenuous. There were no allegations that Nunes was involved in any way with the charity event, aside from being an investor in the winery."

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The complaint also read: "The purpose of the concerted defamation campaign was to cause immense pain, intimidate, interfere with and divert Nunes’ attention from his investigation of corruption and alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential Election. The substance and timing of the publication of McClatchy’s online articles and the tweets, retweets, replies and likes by Mair and McClatchy reporters demonstrates that McClatchy and Mair were engaged in a joint effort, together and with others, to defame Nunes and interfere with his duties, employment and investigations of corruption as a United States Congressman."

It continued: "The attacks on Nunes were pre-planned, calculated, orchestrated and undertaken by multiple individuals acting in concert, over a continuous period of time throughout 2018. The full scope of the conspiracy, including the names of all participants and the level of involvement of any agents or instrumentalities of foreign governments, is unknown at this time and will be the subject of discovery in this action."

Source: Fox News Politics

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McConnell vows to be ‘grim reaper’ of socialist Dem proposals

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, known for years by the hardboiled moniker "Cocaine Mitch," told community leaders in his hometown Kentucky on Monday that he wants a new nickname to reflect what he plans to do to a slew of far-left progressive policy proposals: "grim reaper."

McConnell has long framed the upcoming 2020 elections as a referendum on what he has called the "full socialism on display" from prominent Democrat Party members, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and presidential contenders Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Kamala Harris.

On Monday, the longtime incumbent was positioning the Senate as a bulwark to defend capitalism, even in the event President Trump doesn't win re-election in 2020.

"You pass the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, you have fundamentally changed this country, fundamentally changed it into an unproductive place with significant unemployment and huge problems," McConnell told supporters in Owensboro, Kentucky. "I don't want you to think this is just a couple of nutcases running around on the fringe. This is pervasive policy view on the other side."

NYC MAYOR SAYS GREEN NEW DEAL WILL GET RID OF PESKY GLASS SKYSCRAPERS

McConnell added, according to multiple reports: "If I'm still the majority leader of the Senate after next year, none of those things are going to pass the Senate. They won't even be voted on. So think of me as the grim reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass. None of it."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., arrives to speak to members of the media following a Senate policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., arrives to speak to members of the media following a Senate policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

McConnell brought Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal resolution to a vote in the Senate in March, and it did not secure a single affirmative vote from Democrats, who charged that the the move was a stunt. McConnell later admitted in an interview with Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" that the vote was indeed "for show."

But it would be a grave mistake, McConnell warned Monday, to underestimate the threat posted by the "pervasive" rise of socialism.

"We are having a legitimate debate about the virtues of socialism, and I don't want you to think it's just a 28-year-old congresswoman from New York," McConnell said. "This is much broader than that. I've got five colleagues in the Senate, five colleagues running for president, who have signed on to the Green New Deal and Medicare For All."

"Think of me as the grim reaper."

— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

McConnell has also cautioned that Amy Klobuchar, a relative moderate 2020 Democratic contender who has called for a public option instead of universal Medicare, would similarly destroy the private insurance industry and cause major problems for the health care system.

McConnell, who first became a senator in 1985, is up for reelection in 2020, and he formally launched his campaign last week by emphasizing his work on tax cuts and federal judicial confirmations.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have reportedly sought to recruit a challenger, despite apparent long odds.

Earlier this year, Matt Jones, a Kentucky sports radio personality who has weighed a bid against McConnell, told reporters that he wanted to see a new face in office.

“Somebody in Kentucky has got to step up and do this," Jones said. "And it will be a huge challenge, this guy is almost impossible to beat, but it’s possible."

Last month, a campaign to enlist former figher pilot Amy McGrath to run against McConnell began fundraising.

“There is incredible grassroots energy for Amy McGrath to run against Mitch McConnell,” Ryan Aquilina, who runs the Ditch Mitch project, said at the time. “We had one of our best days ever in terms of fundraising, and that proves in no uncertain terms just how much appetite there is for Amy to run and to defeat Mitch McConnell."

Source: Fox News Politics

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UN calls for Yemen agreement to be implemented without delay

The U.N. Security Council is expressing "grave concern" that agreements reached four months ago by the warring parties in Yemen have not been carried out and is calling for their implementation "without delay."

In a statement Wednesday, the council reiterates its endorsement of the Dec. 13 cease-fire agreement between Yemen's government and Houthi Shiite rebels that calls for the "phased but rapid mutual withdrawals" of fighters from the main port in Hodeida, two other ports in the province and Hodeida city.

Council members welcomed the rival parties' agreement on the military plan for the initial redeployment of forces from Hodeida, and urged them to swiftly agree on plans for the second phase of withdrawals.

The council notes "with concern continued violence that risks undermining the cease-fire in Hodeida."

Source: Fox News World

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Tulsi Gabbard Tussles With Meghan McCain on Syria

A Democratic presidential candidate tussled with television co-host Meghan McCain on Wednesday over her feelings about Syria and whether its President Bashar al-Assad is a threat to the United States.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, was on "The View" and faced a tough line of questioning from McCain.

McCain, the daughter of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, said she sees Gabbard as an "Assad apologist" because she does not support calling the dictator an enemy of the U.S.

"When you say regime change is hurtful to the country, but gassing children isn't more hurtful, it's hard for me to understand where you come from a humanitarian standpoint if you were to become president," McCain said.

Gabbard responded, "You're putting words in my mouth that I've never said."

McCain quickly shot back, saying, "You did not say that Syrian President Assad is not the enemy of the United States? Say it now, clarify it."

Gabbard started to respond but McCain interjected again, asking her original question.

"An enemy of the United States is someone who threatens our safety and our security," Gabbard said. "There is no disputing the fact that Bashar al-Assad in Syria is a brutal dictator. There is no disputing the fact that he has used chemical weapons and other weapons against his people.

". . . My point is that the reality we are facing here is that since the United States started waging a covert regime change war in Syria, starting in 2011, the lives of the Syrian people have not been improved. Their well-being has not gotten to a better place. Their suffering has not decreased, it has increased.

"In addition to the fact that al-Qaida is stronger in Syria today than ever before."

Gabbard added she is against the U.S. getting involved in regime change wars and conflicts because they rarely have the best interests of those countries' residents in mind.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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2020 Dem Seth Moulton blasts Trump for ‘dereliction of duty,’ dings Pelosi on impeachment stance

Newly declared presidential candidate Rep. Seth Moulton is accusing Republican President Trump of “dereliction of duty” over what the Massachusetts Democrat calls his administration’s unwillingness to address the threat of Russian tampering with America's presidential elections.

And Moulton – one of the ringleaders in last year’s failed effort by a small group of congressional Democrats to prevent Nancy Pelosi from regaining the House speakership – argued that his party “frankly…made a mistake by waiting until now” to consider impeachment.

TRUMP VOWS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST DEMS ON RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

The long-shot for the Democratic presidential nomination made his comments during an appearance Wednesday morning at ‘Politics and Eggs,’ a must stop in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire.

The Marine veteran who served four tours of duty in the Iraq war is making defense and national security top issues in his White House bid. He told the audience that “I’m going to confront President Trump on these issues of safety and security of leadership around the globe where I think he’s weakest.”

And spotlighting his unsuccessful bid to keep Pelosi from regaining the speaker’s gavel, Moulton touted “my willingness to challenge the Washington establishment will make me a much stronger nominee against Donald Trump.”

Pointing to last week’s release of a Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, Moulton told reporters “the one unmistakable conclusion of this report is that Russian interfered in this election to undermine our democracy and that Vladimir Putin wanted Trump to get elected president.”

And he slammed the White House, saying “this administration has been completely unwilling to address this major national security threat to the United States” and accused Trump of “a complete dereliction of duty on the part of the commander in chief.”

“He's more concerned about his own personal reputational security than the security of the United States of America,” he charged.

Moulton joined his 2020 rivals in arguing that Trump obstructed justice and called for impeachment hearings. That’s at odds with Pelosi, who said on Tuesday that she was "not there yet" in supporting the initiation of impeachment proceedings.

Moulton said “we should be advancing articles of impeachment and debating them. We should be putting on paper the charges against the president and then having debate across the aisle with hearings, with witnesses, with subpoenas and documents, about whether or not the president deserves to be impeached under these charges. …That’s the job of Congress. That’s our constitutional responsibility as a check on the executive.”

PELOSI SAYS 'WE'RE NOT THERE YET' ON IMPEACHMENT

And Moulton took aim at House Democratic leaders, saying “I think we should have started this a while ago. Both sides of the aisle here failing to step up and do this.”

“I understand there’s a debate right now within my party and it’s a very divisive debate. People think this isn’t the right time or what not. They think it’s not good for our politics is basically the argument for not doing it right now. But we have a higher calling than our politics. It’s called the Constitution,” he spotlighted.

For his part, Trump on Wednesday blasted Democrats ramping up their investigations into him in the wake of the Mueller report. “I say it’s enough. Get back to infrastructure, get back to cutting taxes, lowering drug prices. Really, that’s what we should be doing,” Trump said.

Moulton also took aim at the single-payer "Medicare-for-all" health care proposal being pushed by many of his rivals for the nomination.

“I don’t think it’s right to take every American, many of whom are happy with the health care that they have, and force them on some government plan designed in 1963,” Mouton told reporters.

Moulton’s appearance at ‘Politics and Egg’s was his last stop in a two-day swing through New Hampshire.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, described Moulton as a mere “2020 wannabe.”

RNC spokesperson Mandi Merritt told Fox News that Moulton’s “desire to raise taxes, implement the socialist Green New Deal, and diminish New Hampshire’s voice by scrapping the Electoral College makes him just another out-of-touch Democrat who will ultimately fall short.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO - Otto Frederick Warmbier is taken to North Korea's top court in Pyongyang North Korea
FILE PHOTO – Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from North Korea to cover its care of the college student, who died shortly after he was returned to the United States after 17 months in a North Korean prison.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Susan Heavey)

Source: OANN

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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)

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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

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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)

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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

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