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

Gallup: Church Membership in US Plummets Over Last 20 Years

The percentage of U.S. adults who belong to a church or other religious institution has plunged by 20 percentage points over the past two decades, hitting a low of 50% last year, according to a new Gallup poll. Among major demographic groups, the biggest drops were recorded among Democrats and Hispanics.

Gallup said church membership was 70% in 1999 — and close to or higher than that figure for most of the 20th century. Since 1999, the figure has fallen steadily, while the percentage of U.S. adults with no religious affiliation has jumped from 8% to 19%.

Among Americans identifying with a particular religion, there was a sharp drop in church membership among Catholics — dropping from 76% to 63% over the past two decades as the church was buffeted by clergy sex-abuse scandals. Membership among Protestants dropped from 73% to 67% percent over the same period.

Among Hispanic Americans, church membership dropped from 68% to 45% since 2000, a much bigger decline than for non-Hispanic white and black Americans.

There was a big discrepancy over that 20-year period in regard to political affiliation: Church membership among Democrats fell from 71% to 48%, compared to a more modest drop from 77% to 69% among Republicans.

David Campbell, a University of Notre Dame political science professor who studies religion's role in U.S. civic life, attributed the partisan divide to "the allergic reaction many Americans have to the mixture of religion and conservative politics."

"Increasingly, Americans associate religion with the Republican Party — and if they are not Republicans themselves, they turn away from religion," he said.

Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University, said that as recently as the 1970s, it was difficult to predict someone's political party by the regularity with which they went to church.

"Now it's one of the best predictors," he said. "The correlation between religiosity and being Republican has increased over the years."

The overall decline in church membership is driven by cultural and generational factors, said Nancy Ammerman, a professor of the sociology of religion at Boston University.

"Culturally, we are seeing significant erosion in the trust people have for institutions in general and churches in particular," she said. "We are also seeing a generational shift as the 'joiner' older generation dies off and a generation of non-joiners comes on the scene."

The new Gallup findings underscore that generational dynamic. Among Americans 65 and older, church membership in 2016-2018 averaged 64% percent, compared to 41% among those aged 18-29.

"The challenge is clear for churches, which depend on loyal and active members to keep them open and thriving," wrote Gallup poll analyst Jeffrey Jones. "How do they find ways to convince some of the unaffiliated religious adults in society to make a commitment to a particular house of worship of their chosen faith?"

"These trends are not just numbers, but play out in the reality that thousands of U.S. churches are closing each year," Jones added. "Religious Americans in the future will likely be faced with fewer options for places of worship, and likely less convenient ones, which could accelerate the decline in membership even more."

Professor Scott Thumma, who teaches sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary, suggested several likely factors behind the decline. Among them, he said religious young adults are delaying marriage, postponing having children, and, when they do, having fewer children.

He also suggested there was diminished social pressure to formally join organizations.

"I've encountered many persons in churches that have attended for several years but did not officially join or become a member," he said by email. "This is also evident in persons switching from one congregation to another without joining any."

The findings are based on Gallup surveys conducted over the last 20 years, with most surveys including at least 2,000 U.S. adults and having a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Some findings are based on aggregated interviews from 1998-2000 and 2016-2018, with each period including interviews with more than 7,000 adults.

Source: NewsMax America

0 0

Egypt votes for a final day on extending el-Sissi’s rule

Egyptians are voting for a third and final day on constitutional amendments that would allow President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to remain in office until 2030.

The referendum is virtually guaranteed to be approved, as the government pushes for high turnout to grant it legitimacy.

Authorities have waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent since el-Sissi led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013. The referendum is widely seen as another step toward restoring authoritarian rule eight years after a pro-democracy uprising.

Opposition parties have called on voters to reject the measure, but they have little influence in parliament, which is packed with el-Sissi supporters and overwhelmingly approved the changes.

Polls reopened at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday. The results are expected within a week.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

The Latest: Man arrested in North Dakota quadruple slayings

The Latest on bodies found at a business in Mandan, North Dakota (all times local):

9:25 p.m.

Police in North Dakota say they've arrested a 44-year-old man in the slayings of four people earlier this week at a business in Mandan, near the capital city of Bismarck.

Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler says surveillance video identified a vehicle of interest and helped lead them to the suspect, who lived in the small town of Washburn about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Mandan.

Ziegler also revealed for the first time that the victims had been stabbed or shot.

Ziegler says a motive for the killings isn't yet known. He says the suspect lived in a trailer park owned by the business, RJR Maintenance and Management.

Ziegler says the man is being held on four counts of felony murder.

___

6:55 p.m.

Police say they have detained a person of interest in the investigation into the killings of four people at a North Dakota business.

Mandan police said in a release Thursday evening that investigators are following up on a tip that led them to Washburn, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Mandan.

Police released no further information and say it's an ongoing investigation.

The bodies of an owner and three employees were found early Monday at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, just outside Bismarck. Police haven't said how they were killed or suggested a possible motive.

The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and McLean County Sheriff's Office are also investigating the case.

___

10 a.m.

Police have declined to release details of a 911 call that alerted authorities to the killings of four people at a North Dakota business.

The bodies of an owner and three employees were found early Monday at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, just outside Bismarck. Police haven't said how they were killed or suggested a possible motive. They said they haven't identified any suspects.

The Associated Press requested audio and a transcript of the 911 call, but police denied the request Thursday, citing a provision of the state's open records law that allows authorities to withhold such information during an active investigation.

Police did confirm that a Wednesday search in a field about half a mile from the business was related to the investigation. They also created a 24-hour public tip phone line.

___

6:40 a.m.

A combined memorial service will be held for a North Dakota business owner and three employees found slain earlier this week.

The service for Robert Fakler, William and Lois Cobb, and Adam Fuehrer will be held Tuesday morning at Bismarck Community Church.

Their bodies were discovered early Monday at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, a city just across the Missouri River from Bismarck. Police have classified the case as a "multiple homicide," but investigators haven't said how the four died or identified the suspect.

Fakler co-owned the business, while the Cobbs and Fuehrer were employees.

Eastgate Funeral and Cremation Service director Bob Eastgate tells the Bismarck Tribune the families decided to have a combined service because the four were good friends.

The memorial service is open to the public.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Ocasio-Cortez’s record as youngest member of Congress may be challenged by Florida Republican

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., may be the youngest member of Congress at the moment, but that could change if a Republican millennial from Florida is able to unseat a Democrat in the November 2020 election.

Armani Salado, 23, is looking to challenge two-term Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy in Florida's 7th Congressional District, an area that covers Seminole County and portions of Orange County in the central part of the state.

"It's pretty simple, I'm running because it's time to get representatives into Washington, not activists," Salado told "Fox & Friends" on Monday.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ FALSELY CLAIMS REPUBLICANS AMENDED CONSTITUTION TO KICK FDR OUT OF OFFICE

Armani Salado, 23, says that voters want representatives, not activists, in Washington.

Armani Salado, 23, says that voters want representatives, not activists, in Washington. (Fox News)

Salado, a history major at the University of Central Florida, will turn 25 five months before the 2020 general election, making him eligible to run for the House of Representatives.

"We have people in there coming in with their own personal agendas, their own personal vendettas against our president and against our nation," he told "Fox & Friends." "I feel like the people of America need someone there who is going to want to represent their will and not their personal agenda and not satisfy their ego that they have coming from their own district."

The 23-year-old said he came up with the idea to run for Congress back in Fall 2018, after watching then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh get "dragged through the dirt" by members of the media and those in Congress.

"As soon as I saw that I was like no, I need to get involved now," he said.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: WE REACTED TO 9/11, SO WHERE'S THE REACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

"We don't need activists, we need representatives and we need people willing to be bridges that will allow our best minds from our communities to go to Washington."

— Armani Salado, Florida congressional candidate

Salado, originally from Boston, said he feels a sense of patriotism and has a "connection" to the nation's founders. He also said he finds inspiration from what he studied in college. The 23-year-old drew a parallel to James Monroe, who dropped out of college to join the Continental Army, which Salado said he sees himself doing "the same thing."

"I’m not saying that we're in this war, but we kind of are in this battle to protect our American values and to protect the pillars that hold up our society and that's why I threw myself into this race so early on in my life," he said Monday.

The college student and former actor said that his only worried is that people will only attack him because of his age.

"I think the only thing that people will of course attack me on is my lack of experience in the political arena but I feel like that should maybe be something people hold onto," he said.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Salado pointed again to the nation's founding fathers, who were all young and "doing magnificent things in unconventional times," and that his background in history and political science will allow him to bring something else to Congress.

"I will be able to be a bridge to allow the people to work with me," he said. "We don't need activists, we need representatives and we need people willing to be bridges that will allow our best minds from our communities to go to Washington. I don’t want to be another know-it-all bureaucrat."

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Exxon, Microsoft strike cloud computing agreement for U.S. shale

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: An airplane comes in for a landing above an Exxon sign at a gas station in the Chicago suburb of Norridge
FILE PHOTO: An airplane comes in for a landing above an Exxon sign at a gas station in the Chicago suburb of Norridge, Illinois, U.S., October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo/File Photo

February 22, 2019

(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp and Microsoft Corp have agreed to use cloud technology in the U.S. oil producer’s shale operations, they said on Friday, helping to boost profitability in the nation’s largest shale field.

The companies will collect data from Exxon’s wells and other production assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, where the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company holds 1.6 million acres, and make it immediately accessible to Exxon workers.

The value of the agreement was not disclosed. But the partnership is the industry’s largest in cloud computing, Exxon said in a statement.

The technology would allow equipment leaks to be immediately detected to reduce repair times in remote locations, and apply artificial intelligence to analyze drilling and completions data, Exxon said.

Exxon has pledged to increase its Permian Basin production to 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2025. The company’s fourth-quarter Permian production was 300,000 barrels of oil and gas per day, up 93 percent from a year ago.

The Permian, which produces about 3.85 million bpd, is forecast to generate 5.4 million bpd by 2023, greater than any single member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries other than Saudi Arabia, according to consultancy IHS Markit.

In January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Exxon announced an agreement with International Business Machines Corp to explore the potential for quantum computing in energy and manufacturing.

(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller; Editing by Richard Chang)

Source: OANN

0 0

Italy’s Salvini forming alliance of far-right parties

Italy's hard-line vice premier is meeting with like-minded leaders of European right-wing party as he seeks to form a broad alliance ahead of the European elections next month.

Matteo Salvini of the the anti-migrant League says that the coalition that he is forming with Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Rally, "will be a great event for Europe for the next 30 years."

Salvini is meeting Monday in Milan with leaders of the Danish People's Party, The Finns Party and Alternative for Germany.

Peter Kofod Poulsen, the Danish People's Party's top candidate for the European Parliament elections, said in a statement that the parties are looking to form a new group of parties with common interests after the European-wide elections next month.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Powell gets the heat, but all Trump Fed appointees backed rate hikes

FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

April 4, 2019

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump may feel he is “stuck” with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he has blasted for engineering four interest rate hikes since Trump appointed him, but none of Trump’s other Fed appointees has stood in the way of the tightening campaign and at least one has said even higher rates may be necessary.

The voting records and public statements of Trump’s Fed appointees, who now form a solid majority of the Fed’s Washington-based board of governors, show not only consensus around the recent increases, but no support so far for the rate cuts Trump has demanded.

A possible upcoming nominee to the Fed, economic commentator Stephen Moore, has said he agrees with Trump that rates should be cut and had earlier called for Powell’s ouster. Trump has mulled whether he could fire Powell, but in a March 8 phone call, reported by the Wall Street Journal, acknowledged he was “stuck” with the Fed chair for Powell’s full four-year term that runs to February 2022.

If Moore does take a seat alongside Trump’s appointees at the Fed, at this point he would be the outlier.

“I am comfortable with the current stance of our policy,” Trump’s newest appointee, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, said in February in her only comments about monetary policy to date.

Bowman joined the Fed in November, when the administration was growing agitated about rising volatility in financial markets. She voted for the December rate increase that has become a particular target of Trump’s ire and point of blame for, in his view, holding back the economy.

The White House on Tuesday announced Bowman would be renominated for a full 14-year term to follow the end next January of the short, partial term she was appointed to fill.

Trump’s hand-picked vice chair, Richard Clarida, voted for the December increase and the one before it in September, which was approved shortly after he joined the Fed board.

Randal Quarles, who was the first appointment Trump made to the Fed as his presidency took shape in 2017, voted for five rates hikes from December of that year to December 2018, and his most recent comments show the wide and sometimes paradoxical gap between the president’s view of what the Fed should be doing, and those of the people he has chosen to oversee the central bank.

In what amounted to a bullish defense of where the economy is heading, Quarles last week said in fact that rates may need to move higher precisely because Trump’s tax cuts and policies may produce a “persistent” boost to productivity and growth.

“Further increases in the policy rate may be necessary at some point, a stance I believe is consistent with my optimistic view of the economy’s growth potential and momentum,” Quarles said in remarks at the Manhattan Institute last week.

For now the Fed intends to hold rates steady, a position it reached both as Trump publicly called for a halt to rate increases, but also – and what Fed officials say mattered to them – as economic and financial data globally indicated a broad slowdown from the faster-than-expected growth of 2018.

Trump blames the weaker data on what he called in a tweet on Thursday the Fed’s ‘destructive’ rate hikes. Others see a number of causes, including Trump’s trade policies, and feel growth is likely to continue though at a tepid pace.

“We had this synchronized acceleration of growth a couple of years ago. Now it is synchronized deceleration and a slowing momentum across the spectrum,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in Washington on Tuesday. “Nobody wins a trade war.”

RULE BY CONSENSUS

Unanimity among Fed board members is largely the norm. The Fed strives to be a consensus-driven organization, led, but not dictated to, by a chair whose job is to canvas and shape opinion among as many as 18 other policymakers split between the seven-member board based in Washington and 12 regional bank heads.

The regional bankers, five of whom each year have a formal vote on interest rates even as all 12 participate in Fed debates, are part of a now century-old system meant precisely to guard against too much power residing with the board and the chair in Washington.

There are currently two open board seats.

Even as Fed officials have begun to speak more frequently and openly in public, formal dissents against any given policy action have in general declined since the 1970s. The last one by a board member was in 2005 by then Governor Mark Olson against a rate increase.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean conformity inside the room when the Federal Open Market Committee meets every six weeks. Opposition to some of the extraordinary policies put in place to fight the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis, for example, led former Governor Kevin Warsh to resign even though he never dissented, maintaining a unified face for the Fed during a treacherous time.

Yet with the current group of appointees there is little sense of the sort of behind-the-scenes warfare that occurred, for example, when a group of governors tried to revolt against the recession-inducing steps pushed by 1980s-era Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to curb runaway inflation.

Transcripts of recent Fed meetings won’t be released for five years, but the summary minutes of sessions last fall show the central bank sifting through data, coming to grips with developing risks, and shifting their stance as a result.

By January, “all participants expressed the view that it would be appropriate for the Committee to maintain” the existing interest rate, the minutes stated.

“Several” said continued growth might warrant higher rates eventually.

There was no mention of support for a rate cut.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



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

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

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

Title

Artist