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VW says it will not pursue Traton IPO for now due to market conditions

Volkswagen logo is pictured during the Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: A Volkswagen logo is pictured during the Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting in Berlin, Germany, May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

March 13, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen said on Wednesday it would not pursue an initial public offering of its trucks unit Traton due to current market conditions but said the board of management still wanted to list the division if the environment improves.

“In the current market environment, Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft today decided not to continue with preparation of an IPO of Traton SE for the time being,” Volkswagen said in an adhoc statement.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Tassilo Hummel)

Source: OANN

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After Cyclone Idai, thousands still cut off, many more in need: aid agencies

FILE PHOTO: Survivors of cyclone Idai arrive at Coppa business centre to receive aid in Chipinge
FILE PHOTO: Survivors of cyclone Idai arrive at Coppa business centre to receive aid in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo/File Photo

April 15, 2019

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – One month after Cyclone Idai tore through southern Africa bringing devastating floods, aid agencies say the situation remains critical with some communities in worst-hit Mozambique only just being reached with aid.

The storm made landfall in Mozambique on March 14, flattening the port city of Beira before moving inland to batter Malawi and Zimbabwe.

It heaped rain on the region’s highlands that then flowed back into Mozambique, leaving an area the size of Luxembourg under water. More than 1,000 people died across the three countries, and the World Bank has estimated more than $2 billion will be needed for them to recover.

Over the weekend, aid agencies said thousands of people were still completely cut off and warned of the potential for a catastrophic hunger crisis to take hold, especially as aid appeals went largely underfunded.

Dorothy Sang, Oxfam’s humanitarian advocacy manager, said an aid drop was being planned for an isolated area where just last week 2,000 people were found for the first time since the storm. They had been surviving on coconuts, dates and small fish they could catch.

Oxfam estimates there are 4,000 people still cut off. Sang added that while often these weren’t the worst-hit by the disaster, they were already living in chronic poverty and now face huge challenges to survive.

“They risk becoming utterly forgotten,” she said.

On Sunday, Care International said the destruction of crops would compound existing food security problems across the region, and called on donors to find additional funds for the response.

Mozambique’s $337 million humanitarian response plan, largely made up of an appeal for $281 million after the cyclone hit, remained only 23 percent funded on Monday.

The United Nations has also requested $294 million for Zimbabwe, an appeal currently 11 percent funded. The government has separately asked for $613 million to help with the humanitarian crisis.

Meanwhile, U.N. children’s agency Unicef warned at least 1.6 million children need some kind of urgent assistance, from healthcare to education, across all three countries. Save the Children also said many are traumatized after witnessing the death and destruction wrought by the storm.

Machiel Pouw, Save the Children’s response team leader, said children and their families needed long-term help to recover.

“After a disaster of this scale, the world must not look away.”

(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Source: OANN

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Third New Zealand-Bangladesh test canceled after shooting at mosque

Video grab of ambulances driving along a street after reports that several shots had been fired at a mosque, in central Christchurch
Ambulances drive along a street after reports that several shots had been fired at a mosque, in central Christchurch, New Zealand March 15, 2019, in this still image taken from video. TVNZ/via REUTERS TV

March 15, 2019

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The third cricket test between New Zealand and Bangladesh has been canceled in the wake of a shooting at a mosque in Christchurch on Friday. The visiting team narrowly avoided the shooting after arriving at the mosque for prayers.

New Zealand Cricket said they had decided to cancel the test, which was scheduled to start at Hagley Oval on Saturday, after discussions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

(Writing by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Source: OANN

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How the media's distorted judgment kept hyping the Mueller probe

The mainstream media were so heavily invested in the Robert Mueller investigation, and its potential to prematurely end the Trump presidency, that their news judgment was badly distorted.

There is simply no other conclusion after two years of saturation coverage, sometimes overhyped and overwrought, of a probe that wound up producing no criminal charges on the core issue of collusion with Russia, or on obstruction of justice by the president, his top aides, and his family.

Sure, there are plenty of caveats: We haven't seen the report, which finds no criminal act by the president but "also does not exonerate him," and the final decision was made by Trump's attorney general. It's also true that for all the attacks on Mueller and his team by the president and his advocates, the former FBI director did his job quietly and without grandstanding in declining to bring charges.

But the denouement is one hell of a black eye for the press.

ROBERT MUELLER'S RUSSIA INVESTIGATION BY THE NUMBERS

I have made the argument for two years, on the air and in my book, that the media have overhyped the investigation. And when you take that stance, some journalists rush to dismiss you as a Trump partisan, though I've been committed to covering both sides when it comes to this White House.

The fact that Mueller is bringing no further indictments does not mean the probe, which led to 37 indictments, was a witch hunt. Nor does it mean that many of the investigative stories about the process are now invalidated as some kind of fake news. Public officials can engage in questionable conduct that doesn't rise to the level of indictable offenses.

That doesn't excuse the fact that major news organizations made numerous high-profile mistakes in pursuing the case, sometimes resulting in the suspension or departure of the journalists involved.

The relentless nature of the coverage, its overwhelmingly negative tone, and nonstop analysis and commentary that Trump was in deep trouble, too often reflected wishful thinking and outright bias.

The RNC, a partisan source to be sure, says The New York Times, Washington Post and the CNN and MSNBC websites have published 8,507 articles mentioning the Mueller investigation.

All this should prompt some soul-searching and reevaluation by a profession that mainly botched the 2016 election and at times seemed determined to prove that voters made the wrong choice. But for the most part, given the defensive and insular nature of journalism, that’s unlikely.

Here’s what some critics on the left and right are saying.

Glenn Greenwald, the uber-liberal reporter and commentator at the Intercept, says: "Check every MSNBC personality, CNN law 'expert,' liberal-centrist outlets and #Resistance scam artist and see if you see even an iota of self-reflection, humility or admission of massive error ...

"While standard liberal outlets obediently said whatever they were told by the CIA & FBI, many reporters at right-wing media outlets which are routinely mocked by super-smart liberals as primitive & propagandistic did relentlessly great digging & reporting."

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, another liberal writer, says Russiagate is this generation’s WMD, calling the Mueller findings "a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media ... Nothing Trump is accused of from now on by the press will be believed by huge chunks of the population."

Liberal law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has often defended Trump in the investigation, said on Fox that it was "a good day for the president" and a "very, very bad day for CNN." He said "they should be hanging their head in shame when you think about how many people went out on a limb and predicted there would be indictments for obstruction, there would be indictments for collusion, there would be indictments for this and for that."

On the other side, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at the Federalist, said in a heated "Media Buzz" debate with Philippe Reines that the media "rolled right into an absolutely deranged conspiracy territory that held the country hostage for two years ...  It is shocking how many people believed this crazy theory about Russia collusion, but many people lacked the courage to speak against it in the face of hysteria."

But New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told The Washington Post: "I'm comfortable with our coverage. It is never our job to determine illegality, but to expose the actions of people in power. And that's what we and others have done and will continue to do."

Many media outlets, while noting that Trump still faces other probes in New York and on the Hill, played it straight in reporting the findings.

The Times: "For President Trump, it may have been the best day of his tenure so far. The darkest, most ominous cloud hanging over his presidency was all but lifted on Sunday with the release of the special counsel's conclusions, which undercut the threat of impeachment and provided him with a powerful boost for the final 22 months of his term."

A couple of fierce Trump critics did not try to spin or soften the findings.

Joe Scarborough said on "Morning Joe" that "if the appointment of Robert Mueller was the worst day of his presidency, the release of Robert Mueller's report was the best day of his presidency." He said it was good news for the country to know that Trump did not collude with Vladimir Putin.

And MSNBC host Ari Melber said, "Just as so many people called on Congressional Republicans to stand up on principles, this tonight and the days ahead are certainly a time for Congressional Democrats to stand up too and acknowledge Bob Mueller did not find a chargeable election conspiracy."

As for the president, he could have responded with a long-national-nightmare-is-over tone, but that's not him. Instead, while claiming total exoneration, he lashed out at "an illegal takedown that failed," and added, "hopefully, somebody is going to be looking at the other side."

But it wasn't illegal, despite the disputed circumstances that prompted the probe, in that Trump's own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, appointed Mueller as special counsel. And for those who believe that William Barr, who previously served as attorney general for George H.W. Bush, is politically biased, it is Rosenstein, portrayed by the press as standing up to Trump, who joined in the decision not to prosecute on obstruction allegations. (Mueller would have made the call himself under the independent counsel law, but since both parties happily let it expire, he decided as part of DOJ to defer the decision to his bosses.)

On "Today," Savannah Guthrie asked if Trump owed Mueller an apology, since "the president has absolutely eviscerated Bob Mueller, a lifelong public servant, a former Marine, a registered Republican. He’s called him a national disgrace, discredited, a prosecutor gone rogue who oversaw a gang of thugs."

Sanders' response: "I think Democrats and the liberal media owe the president and they owe the American people an apology."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

And Kellyanne Conway said on Fox that Democratic congressman Adam Schiff should resign over statements he made throughout the investigation.

So rather than moving on from the Mueller investigation, Trump and his inner circle seem determined to run against it, and the press, as part of his reelection campaign. Whether that proves a successful tactic or not, the media's excesses over the last two years are providing him with a substantial target.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Pac-12 Player of Year Nowell to enter NBA draft

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round: University of Washington vs UNC
Mar 24, 2019; Columbus, OH, USA; Washington Huskies guard Jaylen Nowell (5) looks to move the ball in the second half against the North Carolina Tar Heels in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

April 1, 2019

Guard Jaylen Nowell, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year, is taking his game to the NBA, he announced Sunday on Twitter.

The Washington sophomore guard, named to the All-Pac-12 first team, said he will enter the 2019 NBA Draft, set for June 20.

Nowell averaged 16.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists, and he shot 50.2 percent from the field and 44.0 percent from the 3-point line.

“This season has been nothing less than amazing,” Nowell said in the statement, indicating that the decision came after input from his family, teammates and coaching staff.

“I want to thank everyone, especially the city of Seattle, for your support. I hope you all will continue to support me through my professional career. I will always be a Dawg for life,” Nowell said.

Projections have indicated that Nowell could be drafted as early as the middle of the first round.

Said Washington coach Mike Hopkins about Nowell, also in a statement, “When he chose to stay with us two years ago and come to the University of Washington, we have seen him grow every single day, both on and off the court.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Recharged bulls give stocks, commodities flying start to year

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 29, 2019

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – What goes down must come up! Three months after one of the worst years on record, investors have seen world stocks and key commodity markets roar back with their best first quarter since 2012.

It may seem a little incongruous when bond markets are screaming recession warnings, but it’s all good when the world’s two biggest economies are trying to mend their differences and major central banks are going all soft and cuddly again.

The numbers are quite astonishing. The value of MSCI’s world share index has surged $6 trillion. Wall Street is up 13 percent, Europe 12 percent and China has jumped 25 percent, which is almost everything it lost last year and has only been bettered by Colombia.

Oil has raced up 30 percent, which is its best performance in any quarter since 2009. That has also helped Russia’s rouble top the currency charts and copper and nickel have led metals markets to their best start to a year since 2012.

Chief investment officer of asset manager Prime Partners, Francois Savary, thinks the turnaround has been remarkable.

“It has been the return of Goldilocks,” he said referring to the prime conditions for risk assets where borrowing is cheap and inflation is low.

With the global economy clearly slowing he suspects stocks are likely to now pause but for fixed income that is all music to the ears.

German Bunds – Europe’s benchmark government IOUs – have had their best quarter in three years, making roughly 2 percent, with the yield on 10-year debt having dropped a week ago below zero percent for the first time since 2016.

Despite almost daily Brexit chaos, UK Gilts returns have jumped 5.5 percent, while U.S. Treasuries have made 3.2 percent as their yields have fallen 27 basis points. That followed a 37 basis point fall the previous quarter, whereas in the five quarters prior to that they had consistently risen.

Graphic: Global market asset performance 2019 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HMUijc

Currency markets have been on the turn too.

The dollar index will squeeze out its fourth quarterly rise in a row, but it is largely because the euro is set for its weakest Q1 since 2015 after a dive in euro zone growth scuppered the ECB’s rate hike aspirations.

The yen is down a touch too, but sterling and others are up and especially against the euro with the pound’s 4 percent gain set be its best quarter since the start of 2015, long before Brexit worries struck.

The Canadian, Aussie and Kiwi dollars have also done well but as usual the wilder swings have been in emerging markets.

Argentina’s peso and Turkey’s lira, 2018’s punchbags, have taken another beating and especially in recent weeks as worries about both countries’ political and economic trajectories have started to bite again.

Central Europe has suffered from the euro’s slide whereas at the other end of the spectrum, the rouble is up 7.3 percent and China’s yuan, Mexico’s and Colombia’s pesos, Egypt’s pound and the Thai baht are all up between 1.5 and 3.5 percent.

Graphic: Global FX in 2019 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2V7nnck

FANGTASTIC

Wall Street’s rally has put the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up for their strongest quarters since 2009 and 2012 respectively. The S&P also now only 4 percent off its record high with the so-called FANG tech stocks once again providing all the torque.

Facebook has surged 27 percent, Amazon 19 percent, Google 12 percent and streaming giant Netflix has soared more than 30 percent.

“The selloff in December was too sharp,” said chief investment officer of New York-based hedge fund ValueWorks, Charles Lemonides. “If the Fed stays accommodative the economy will do well.”

Silicon Valley startups have also enjoyed a frenzy. Ride-hailing service Lyft, which has been unable to say when it will stop losing money, was valued at more than $24 billion in its IPO on Thursday.

The Renaissance IPO ETF, which invests in recently listed companies including Spotify and software seller Okta, has also gained a whopping 31 percent since the start of the year.

Graphic: World stocks index surges $6 trillion in 2019 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HNzc4v

And if you think that’s good, China’s tech sector has flown up 46 percent with online behemoth Alibaba up more than 30 percent alone.

That’s all against the backdrop of Beijing swinging back into stimulus after the economy slowed to a 28-year low.

“It is a challenge for the Chinese equity market to be able to show as good a performance in the next 9 months,” said Khiem Do, head of Greater China investments, Global Markets, at Barings, in Hong Kong.

“A lot of good news have been reflected in the prices. But the Chinese government will still be biased towards reflating the economy.”

Graphic: Emerging market stocks in 2019 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2WAR71J

Graphic: Bonds this week: All about Britain and Italy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2V8yMII

Graphic: European stocks performance March 29 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HKt9gZ

(Additional reporting by Virginia Furness in London, Noah Sin in Hong Kong and Noel Randewich in New York; additional graphics by Ritvik Carvalho and Helen Reid)

Source: OANN

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Trump: March 1 Deadline for China Trade Talks Not 'Magical' Date

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that trade talks with China were going well and suggested he was open to pushing off the deadline to complete negotiations, saying March 1 was not a "magical" date.

Tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent by March 1 if the world's two largest economies do not settle their trade dispute, but Trump has suggested several times that he would be open to postponing the deadline.

"They are very complex talks. They're going very well," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I can't tell you exactly about timing, but the date is not a magical date. A lot of things can happen."

Trump said the real question would be whether the United States would raise the tariffs as planned.

"I know that China would like not for that to happen, so I think they're trying to move fast so that doesn’t happen."

On Tuesday, the United States and China launched a new round of talks in Washington, with follow-up sessions at a higher level scheduled for later in the week. The negotiations followed a week of talks in Beijing that ended last week without a deal but which officials said had yielded progress on some key issues.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the United States as part of a trade deal was seeking to secure a pledge from China that it will not devalue its yuan currency.

Officials from the two countries, which resumed talks on Tuesday in Washington, are discussing how to address currency policy in a "Memorandum of Understanding" that would form the basis of a U.S.-China trade deal, the news agency reported, citing unnamed people involved in and briefed on the discussions.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had told Reuters last October that currency issues must be part of U.S.-China trade negotiations and that Chinese officials told him that further depreciation of the yuan was not in their interests.

The Bloomberg report said the U.S. request for a pledge to keep the yuan's value stable was aimed at neutralizing any effort by Beijing to devalue its currency to counter American tariffs.

Spokesmen for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, which is leading the talks, and the U.S. Treasury, which leads currency policy, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Two days of negotiations between deputy-level officials began on Tuesday, led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish on the U.S. side. Higher-level talks involving Mnuchin and led by USTR Robert Lighthizer, are expected to begin on Thursday.

This week's talks were aimed at "achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China. The two sides will also discuss China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States," the White House said in a statement issued late on Monday.

Trump, who is eager for a deal and has praised his counterpart, Chinese President Xi Jinping, while also insisting on structural changes to China's practices related to intellectual property and forced technology transfers by companies doing business there, emphasized that progress was being made.

“I can only say that the talks with China on trade have gone very, very well," he said.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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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)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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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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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

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