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Notre Dame cathedral donations swell past $700 million mark

Donations to help rebuild Notre Dame cathedral hit the $700 million mark midday Tuesday - with two of France's rival billionaires pledging the bulk of the cash.

Just 24 hours earlier, the world watched in horror as 500 firefighters battled the blaze in Paris for nearly five hours. The extensive fire caused the cathedral's delicate spire to collapse and burn through the roof of the 12th-century building.

NOTRE DAME GOLDEN ALTER CROSS SEEN GLOWING AS IMAGES EMERGE FROM INSIDE SHOWING FIRE-RAVAGED CATHEDRAL

Nations around the world expressed solidarity with France and offered their support for the recovery.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced an international fundraising campaign even as the fire still burned.

“Notre-Dame is our history, our literature, part of our psyche, the place of all our great events, our epidemics, our wars, our liberations, the epicenter of our lives,” he said.

Macron added: “Let’s be proud, because we built this cathedral more than 800 years ago, we’ve built it and, throughout the centuries, let it grow and improved it. So I solemnly say tonight: we will rebuild it together."

Since his comments, donations have flooded in to help rebuild the historic landmark.

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRALS MOST ICONIC MOMENTS IN FILM

Bernard Arnault, who heads LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton in France, said his family and the luxury-goods company it controls would donate $226 million to help with reconstruction costs. LVMH also offered up an army of "creative, architectural and financial specialists" to help with rebuilding.

French luxury magnate François-Henri Pinault said his family would dedicate about $113 million to the effort. Pinaut heads Kering, a group of luxury brands including Gucci and Alexander McQueen.

"Faced with such a tragedy, everyone wants to revive this jewel of our heritage as quickly as possible.” Pinault said.

L'Oreal said the company, the Bettencourt Meyers family and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, would donate $226 million, while Patrick Pouyanné, chairman of French oil giant Total, tweeted his company would donate $113 million dollars.

Other big-money donors included Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, head of French investment firm Fimalac, who offered $11.3 million and American philanthropist Henry Kravis who also pledged $11.3 million.

Financial consulting firm Capgemini said it would donate $1.1 million while JCDecaux offered $11.3 million.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted the company would donate to helping rebuild Notre Dame though he did not include a dollar amount.

"We are heartbroken for the French people and those around the world for whom Notre Dame is a symbol of hope," he said. "Relived that everyone is safe. Apple will be donating to the rebuilding efforts to help restore Notre Dame's precious heritage for future generations."

On a smaller scale, the blaze prompted several fundraising efforts in the U.S.  - some a little more successful than others.

The website Friends of Notre Dame - which was set up in 2016 to receive donations to help with renovation costs - crashed after a flood of contributions came in.

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At the website GoFundMe.com, more than 50 campaigns related to the fire launched Monday, John Coventry, a spokesman for Go Fund Me told Reuters.

“In the coming hours we’ll be working with the authorities to find the best way of making sure funds get to the place where they will do the most good,” Coventry said.

Source: Fox News World

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2020 Dem slams Trump's 'porn star presidency' but called Bill Clinton-Paula Jones case 'frivolous'

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has branded the Trump administration “the porn star presidency” but once questioned whether Bill Clinton should have been impeached for his scandals, calling a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton “frivolous” and “instigated by his opponents.”

Buttigieg, a millennial Indiana town mayor and the rising star of the Democratic presidential primary who already has drawn comparisons to former President Barack Obama, is expected to appear at the party’s debates after getting donations from 65,000 donors.

Earlier this month Buttigieg received media coverage after he blasted Vice President Mike Pence, saying Pence became a “cheerleader for the porn star presidency” and questioning whether Pence “stopped believing in scripture” and started to believe in Trump.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SLAMS PENCE FOR WORK WITH TRUMP, ASKS HOW HE ‘BECAME A CHEERLEADER FOR THE PORN STAR PRESIDENCY’

But during his days as a columnist for a Harvard University student paper, Buttgieg urged Americans to ignore presidential scandals involving “sexual excitement” and went great lengths to defend Clinton.

“And, in a formative moment for us all, the nation’s political life ground to a halt while President Clinton was impeached for having obfuscated about his sexual activities to a lawyer in a frivolous sexual harassment suit instigated by his opponents,” Buttgieg wrote in a 2004 Harvard Crimson column.

"... President Clinton was impeached for having obfuscated about his sexual activities to a lawyer in a frivolous sexual harassment suit instigated by his opponents."

— Pete Buttigieg

He refers to a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones, then a government employee in Arkansas, who claimed that Clinton, then-governor of Arkansas, propositioned her for sex.

Clinton ended up paying Jones $850,000 in an out-of-court settlement so she drops her sexual harassment charges against him.

In an email to Fox News, Buttgieg’s spokeswoman, Elisabeth Smith, didn’t address the content of the columns and said that “even in college, Pete understood the moral hypocrisy of the far right and politicians like Mike Pence. That's the point he made in 2004 and it's the point that he made regarding Mike Pence's support for Donald Trump.”

PETE BUTTIGIEG DEFENDS HIS EXPERIENCE, SAYS 2020 CALLS FOR CANDIDATE WITH 'COMPLETELY DIFFERENT' BACKGROUND

The 2020 candidate went on to write in 2004 that Republican scandals, unlike Democrats, are “devoid of sexual excitement” and instead “packed with violence” – giving the example of the Iran-Contra controversy.

Buttgieg, who after Harvard became a Rhodes scholar and later served a tour in Afghanistan in 2014, said that both the Left and Americans should pay less attention to sexual scandals.

“The Left needs to hope for — and, if possible, help — Americans to acknowledge that what happens in the war room (and, for that matter, the board room) is more important than what happens in the bedroom,” he wrote.

This wasn’t the only time Buttgieg questioned whether Democrats should have ostracized Clinton immediately after the impeachment. In a 2003 column, he compared Clinton’s behavior to former Rep. Dan Burton’s conspiracy theories surrounding the death of a White House staffer.

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“If Burton could be taken seriously after his watermelon episode, are we really sure the Democrats had no choice but to drop Bill Clinton like a political hot potato rather than use him in the 2000 campaign?” Buttgieg asked.

Source: Fox News Politics

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As Russia Probe Began, Trump Called on Spy Chiefs for Help

Two months before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in the spring of 2017, President Donald Trump picked up the phone and called the head of the largest U.S. intelligence agency. Trump told Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, that news stories alleging that Trump's 2016 White House campaign had ties to Russia were false and the president asked whether Rogers could do anything to counter them.

Rogers and his deputy Richard Ledgett, who was present for the call, were taken aback.

Afterward, Ledgett wrote a memo about the conversation and Trump's request. He and Rogers signed it and stashed it in a safe. Ledgett said it was the "most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service."

Trump's outreach to Rogers, who retired last year, and other top intelligence officials stands in sharp contrast to his public, combative stance toward his intelligence agencies. At the time of the call, Trump was just some 60 days into his presidency, but he already had managed to alienate large parts of the intelligence apparatus with comments denigrating the profession.

Since then, Trump only has dug in. He said at a news conference in Helsinki after his 2017 summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that he gave weight to Putin's denial that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, despite the firm conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that it had. "I don't see any reason why it would be" Russia, Trump said. And earlier this year, Trump called national security assessments "naive," tweeting "perhaps intelligence should go back to school."

Yet in moments of concern as Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election got underway, Trump turned to his spy chiefs for help.

The phone call to Rogers on March 26, 2017, came only weeks after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had angered Trump by stepping aside from the investigation. James Comey, the FBI director who would be fired that May, had just told Congress that the FBI was not only investigating Russian meddling in the election, but also possible links or coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

The call to Rogers and others like it were uncovered by Mueller as he investigated possible obstruction. In his 448-page report released Thursday, Mueller concluded that while Trump attempted to seize control of the Russia investigation and bring it to a halt, the president was ultimately thwarted by those around him.

The special counsel said the evidence did not establish that Trump asked or directed intelligence officials to "stop or interfere with the FBI's Russia investigation." The requests to those officials, Mueller said, "were not interpreted by the officials who received them as directives to improperly interfere with the investigation."

During the call to Rogers, the president "expressed frustration with the Russia investigation, saying that it made relations with the Russians difficult," according to the report.

Trump said news stories linking him with Russia were not true and he asked Rogers "if he could do anything to refute the stories." Even though Rogers signed the memo about the conversation and put it in a safe, he told investigators he did not think Trump was giving him an order.

Trump made a number of similar requests of other top intelligence officials.

On March 22, 2017, Trump asked then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats to stay behind after a meeting at the White House to ask if the men could "say publicly that no link existed between him and Russia," the report said.

In two other instances, the president began meetings to discuss sensitive intelligence matters by stating he hoped a media statement could be issued saying there was no collusion with Russia.

After Trump repeatedly brought up the Russia investigation with his national intelligence director, "Coats said he finally told the President that Coats's job was to provide intelligence and not get involved in investigations," the report said.

Pompeo recalled that Trump regularly urged officials to get the word out that he had not done anything wrong related to Russia. But Pompeo, now secretary of state, said he had no recollection of being asked to stay behind after the March 22 meeting, according to the report.

Coats told Mueller's investigators that Trump never asked him to speak with Comey about the FBI investigation. But other employees within Coats' office had different recollections of how Coats described the meeting immediately after it occurred.

According to the report, senior staffer Michael Dempsey "said that Coats described the president's comments as falling 'somewhere between musing about hating the investigation' and wanting Coats to 'do something to stop it.' Dempsey said Coats made it clear that he would not get involved with an ongoing FBI investigation."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Weak euro zone growth could raise stability risks: ECB’s de Guindos

Vice-President of the European Central Bank Luis de Guindos speaks during an event in Riga
FILE PHOTO: Vice-President of the European Central Bank Luis de Guindos speaks during an event marking Latvia's five years with the Euro in Riga, Latvia January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

March 27, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Weak euro zone growth is increasing the risk of financial instability as bank profits weaken and sovereign debt sustainability concerns rise, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday.

“In an environment where cyclical factors may exert further downward pressure on bank profitability, banks would need to step up their efforts to overcome structural challenges,” de Guindos told a conference in Frankfurt.

“Such measures may include cost reductions – including lower staffing costs and streamlining of branch networks, enhanced digitalization – implying initial, one-off large-scale investments, revenue diversification and the reduction of the stock of non-performing loans in the six countries where levels are still high,” de Guindos said.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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Credit Suisse loses bid to dismiss lawsuit in U.S. over writedowns

FILE PHOTO: Switzerland's national flag flies next to the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse in Luzern
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Switzerland's national flag flies next to the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at a branch office in Luzern, Switzerland October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has rejected Credit Suisse Group AG’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the Swiss bank of defrauding shareholders about its risk appetite and risk management before taking $1 billion of writedowns on souring debt.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan was made public on Wednesday.

Schofield said investors who lost money in Credit Suisse’s American depositary receipts could pursue claims that the bank, Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam and other defendants intended to mislead them, by touting its “comprehensive” risk controls and “binding” limits on its exposure to risky and illiquid debt.

Credit Suisse took two writedowns in early 2016 on $4.3 billion of collateralized loan obligations and distressed debt, contributing to its first full-year loss since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The bank’s share price fell 11 percent after news of the first writedown. Other defendants included Chief Financial Officer David Mathers, and Thiam’s predecessor Brady Dougan.

Credit Suisse had no immediate comment. A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lead plaintiffs are four pension and retirement plans in suburbs of New York City and Chicago, and in Birmingham, Alabama. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since becoming chief executive in 2015, Thiam has repositioned Credit Suisse as a bank for ultra-wealthy and entrepreneurial customers, while shrinking its investment bank.

Though Schofield dismissed some claims in the lawsuit, she cited Thiam’s own statements about the bank’s rising risk appetite in explaining why the case should proceed.

“Thiam himself stated that continually raising the internal risk limits led to larger exposures to illiquid CLO and distressed debt investments and resulted in the writedowns,” Schofield wrote. “Thiam stated to the Wall Street Journal, ‘A limit that keeps moving is not a limit.'”

Schofield said statements such as these could suggest that investors “were lulled into believing that the risk levels were contained and acceptable.”

The defendants had said there was no fraud or intent to defraud, and that prior courts had found no liability for similar actions by other banks and corporate officers.

The case is City of Birmingham Firemen’s and Policemen’s Supplemental Pension System v Credit Suisse Group AG et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-10014.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Source: OANN

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Vegetarian patty gets the Burger King Whopper test

Impossible Foods Chief Executive Pat Brown poses in front of a flame broiler cooking its plant-based patties at a facility in Redwood City
Impossible Foods Chief Executive Pat Brown poses in front of a flame broiler cooking its plant-based patties at a facility in Redwood City, California, U.S. March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jane Lanhee Lee

April 1, 2019

By Jane Lanhee Lee

(Reuters) – Vegetarian burgers may finally be getting the recognition they need to go main stream. On Monday Burger King and Silicon Valley startup Impossible Foods announced the roll-out of the Impossible Whopper in 59 stores in and around St. Louis, Missouri.

To mark the launch on April Fool’s day, the burger giant released a hidden-camera-style promo video showing the serving of plant-based Whoppers instead of meat to customers who marvel that they cannot tell the difference.

“We wanted to make sure we had something that lived up to the expectations of the Whopper,” said Burger King’s North America president, Christopher Finazzo. “We’ve done sort of a blind taste test with our franchisees, with people in the office, with my partners on the executive team, and virtually nobody can tell the difference.”

The Impossible Whopper comes at an extra cost – about a dollar more than the beef patty Whopper. But Finazzo said research shows consumers are willing to pay more for the plant-based burger.

Plant-based meat has been gaining popularity as more attention is focused on the environmental hazards of industrial ranching. Finazzo said his research shows customers mainly like it for the health benefits. The Impossible Burger patty has zero cholesterol.

Impossible Foods, based in Redwood City, California, launched its first faux meat patty over two years ago. A genetically modified yeast creates the key ingredient, called heme, which makes the patties appear to bleed and taste like real meat.

Burger King is not the first to serve up a no-meat burger. Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat in early January announced it was rolling out its plant-based burger at fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. Beyond Meat counts actor Leonardo Di Caprio and Microsoft founder Bill Gates as investors.

Finazzo said Burger King also researched Beyond Meat, but decided that Impossible Food’s offering was a better fit. “Around the taste, around the brand recognition, around the price, all those things were important factors in choosing Impossible,” he said

Impossible Foods, which also counts Gates as an investor, tailored a patty specifically for the Whopper, according to Chief Executive Pat Brown. 

“We’re now in well over 6,000 restaurants. If the Burger King launch is as successful as I expect it to be, and we go nationwide, that will add more than 7,000 restaurants that serve the Impossible Burger,” Brown said.

(Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

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Gory details emerge about missing woman's suspected demise

After months of mostly silence from authorities investigating the disappearance of a Colorado mother on Thanksgiving Day, grim details about her suspected demise emerged this week, including accusations that the woman's fiance beat her to death with a baseball bat while their baby was in the next room.

Testimony from investigators at a court hearing Tuesday also revealed that Patrick Frazee had repeatedly asked an Idaho woman with whom he was having an affair to kill Kelsey Berreth, the mother of Frazee's 1-year-old daughter.

When she refused, he did it himself, authorities said.

Berreth's body has yet to be found, but Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Gregg Slater said information he gleaned from Frazee's girlfriend, Krystal Jean Lee Kenney, indicates she watched as Frazee burned the woman's remains. Kenney is now cooperating with investigators after pleading guilty to evidence tampering.

Berreth, a 29-year-old flight instructor, was last seen on Nov. 22 near her home in a mountain town near Colorado Springs, south of Denver.

Investigators testified that Frazee began planning Berreth's death in September and enlisted Kenney. Court records released Wednesday show that Kenney's ex-husband told investigators his ex-wife and Frazee dated during college and had a sexual relationship in 2016 and possibly 2017. A detective said Kenney revealed they rekindled an affair in March 2018.

Kenney, a 32-year-old former nurse, told police that Frazee claimed Berreth was abusing the couple's daughter. Police said there is no evidence that the girl was abused by her mother or anyone else.

Frazee asked Kenney to kill Berreth three times, Slater testified Tuesday. He said Kenney reported that Frazee suggested poisoning Berreth's coffee in September. Kenney told police that Frazee later told her to hit Berreth in the head using a metal pipe and a baseball bat.

Kenney said he was angry each time she failed to act. She loved Frazee and wanted to make him happy but could not hurt Berreth, Slater said.

Kenney told at least two friends in October that Frazee had asked her to kill Berreth, according to the newly released court records. Both women were later interviewed by police investigating Berreth's disappearance but the records give no indication that they contacted law enforcement after Kenney's admission.

One woman, who works as a paralegal, told investigators she urged Kenney to contact police but "did not believe Krystal ever went," the records said.

Kenney received a call from Frazee on Nov. 22 demanding that she drive to Colorado, Slater said.

"You got a mess to clean up," Frazee said according to Kenney's account to police.

She said she arrived two days later and found a "horrific" scene with blood spattered on the walls and floors of Berreth's townhome, Slater said.

Kenney told police that Frazee had wrapped a sweater around Berreth's head so she could guess the smell of scented candles and then beat her with a bat and stashed her body on a ranch. According to court records, the couple's young daughter was present in the home but in another room at the time.

After she cleaned the house, Kenney said she went with Frazee to retrieve Berreth's body and watched as Frazee burned it on his property along with the wooden bat, Slater said.

She said Frazee later told her he planned to throw the remains in a dump or river.

Frazee was arrested last December, about a month after Berreth was last seen alive. Prosecutors announced additional charges this week, including tampering with a deceased body. He has not entered a plea to any of the allegations.

His attorneys focused most of their questions Tuesday on Kenney's account.

Police acknowledged that Kenney did not see Berreth's body or a baseball bat. They also said Kenney denied knowing Berreth or having a personal relationship with Frazee when investigators first contacted her in mid-December.

David Beller, a Denver attorney who focuses on criminal defense, said examining the motivations and credibility of a witness who is cooperating with prosecutors is an essential strategy for defense attorneys.

"The defense attorney is going to examine whether the witness is somehow minimizing her involvement or her motivations to make him look more culpable than he is," said Beller, who is not connected to Frazee's defense. "Juries are skeptical of a cooperating witness' testimony and a defense strategy is always to highlight that skepticism."

Frazee's attorneys also highlighted a lack of blood or other physical evidence detected in his truck and questioned the Berreth family's access to Kelsey's townhome following initial police searches. Blood in the bathroom identified as Berreth's was discovered Dec. 6, days after police turned the property over to her family.

According to court records, police found blood on a bottle of bleach and a mop during a mid-December search of Frazee's property. Tests are not complete yet.

The hearing did not reveal why prosecutors believe Frazee killed Berreth. Her parents argue in a wrongful death lawsuit that they believe Frazee wanted full custody of the couple's daughter. The child has remained with them while the criminal case proceeds.

Source: Fox News National

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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)

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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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