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Lifestyles of the Rich and Socialist: From Chavez to Castro, leaders who lived the high life

Socialist leaders come to power promising to equalize society.

But, in the words of George Orwell's "Animal Farm," their followers soon learn "some are more equal than others."

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND SOCIALIST: BERNIE SANDERS HAS 3 HOUSES, MAKES MILLIONS

American democratic socialists have faced scrutiny for their own indulgences under the capitalist system -- for instance, Sen. Bernie Sanders has three homes and a proclivity for private jet travel.

But American socialists' luxuries pale in comparison to those of history's most infamous socialist and communist leaders around the world.

Venezuela

Hugo Chavez brought socialism to Venezuela and once said that it is "bad" to be rich. Yet his family lived in opulence even as the rest of the country has in recent years descended into starvation and violence.

Chavez, despite not being wealthy when he was democratically elected as the president of Venezuela in 1998, was worth between $1 and $2 billion at his death, according to global risk analysis firm Criminal Justice International Associates.

Chavez's daughter, Rosinés Chávez, once posted an Instagram photo of herself with celebrity Justin, and another of her posing with U.S. cash – even as ordinary Venezuelans saw their life savings wiped out by million-percent inflation caused by the government printing too much money.

Ordinary Venezuelans are angry.

“Claims of social justice and equality are ridiculous ... The elites led by Chavez have stayed wealthy through corruption and theft of money,” a Venezuelan college student named Roxana told Fox News in texts translated from Spanish.

“In Venezuela, there is a very particular word to refer to family and friends who benefit from government money. They are ‘enchufado’ [‘well-connected’].”

But on her end, Roxana says she finds it hard to get decent food and she constantly fears being attacked – Venezuela now has a murder rate two times higher than Detroit’s.

'Socialism in Venezuela loves poor people so much, it multiplies them.'

— Venezuelan adage

Surveys also show the average Venezuelan has lost 24 pounds due to lack of food.

GILLIBRAND SAYS 'THERE'S NOTHING SOCIALIST' ABOUT THE GREEN NEW DEAL

Roxana mentioned a common joke in her country about the rise in extreme poverty: "Socialism in Venezuela loves poor people so much, it multiplies them.”

Cuba

The Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, throughout his reign, claimed to live in a humble fisherman’s hut.

“The fisherman’s hut was really a luxury vacation home,” Castro’s former bodyguard, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, writes in “The Double Life of Fidel Castro.”

According to the bodyguard, the Cuban dictator obtained more than 20 fancy properties throughout the island.

Castro also frequently relaxed on a 90-foot yacht decorated with exotic wood imported from Angola. He also had nearly endless beachfront property to himself.

Castro eventually made it to number seven on Forbes’ list of richest world leaders, which estimated his wealth at $900 million. Castro denied being so wealthy.

With all his wealth and power, Castro also had at least five mistresses, according to his bodyguard.

Soviet Union

The top leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had access to a network of palaces, cars, and delicacies. However, Soviet leaders lived up to their ideals in one way: they never officially owned any of it. Upon death, the things they used went to the next leader.

Joseph Stalin loved American-made Packard cars, and had several.

Soviet leaders and bureaucrats also had their own elite, exclusive system of grocery stores, hospitals and schools -- even while ordinary Russian citizens sometimes waited for hours to buy food.

"There was not a lot of food to choose from, but in Moscow it was still edible,” Vladimir Yankov, a Soviet scientist who was born during Stalin’s reign and who later immigrated to the United States, told Fox News.

He said he never entered a special store for the political elite – but that twice in his life, he got a gift of top-quality Indian tea from well-connected friends with access to the stores.

“A party leader of a town with 100,000 [people] was paid a salary five times the national average,” Yankov recounted, “and had an apartment size five times the national average, plus a car with a driver.”

In 1985, 15 percent of Soviet households had a car. In the U.S., by contrast, households had an average of nearly two cars.

But Soviet elites’ wealth was always less ostentatious and flashy than that of American billionaires and celebrities, making things more equal in that way.

Yankov said that, to him, social democracies like Sweden struck a good balance – they reject traditional aspects of socialism such as government ownership, but also provide generous welfare.

“The problem in the Soviet Union was the leaders’ stupidity, not their consumption habits – at least for me,” Yankov said.

China

China’s constitution states that it “is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class” – yet, its leaders live far better than workers.

China suffered more deaths than any other country due to starvation caused by the government takeover of farms. Sixty-five million people were killed, per The Black Book of Communism.

“The leaders never intended for themselves to be the ones who were tightening their belts,” Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told Fox News.

“Mao [Zedong] is a great example. He had a rotating harem of underage girls,” Smith said. That is per Mao’s former personal physician, who later moved to America.

“Mao was sitting in his luxurious pool, talking to Western journalists, while millions of Chinese died of starvation,” Smith added.

Romania

Nicolae Ceaușescu, dictator of the Socialist Republic of Romania from 1965 to 1989, claimed his government would aid in "the moulding of the new man and the promotion of socialist ethics and equity."

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But Ceaușescu himself owned 15 palaces, including one complete with gold bathroom fixtures, silk carpets, and a garden with peacocks. He owned multiple yachts, and the Guinness Book of Historical Blunders records him as having provided his pet dog, Corbu, with its own motorcade.

Maxim Lott is Executive Producer of Stossel TV and creator of ElectionBettingOdds.com. He can be reached on Twitter.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Lebanese textiles factory shuts its doors in dire economy

Men check fabric inside the Mzannar family's textile shop, in Baabda
Men check fabric inside the Mzannar family's textile shop, in Baabda, Lebanon February 12, 2019. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

April 10, 2019

By Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Mzannar family’s 300-year-old textile business survived Lebanon’s civil war by making uniforms for militiamen. But its business savvy was no match for years of economic malaise that followed and it has now shut its factory.

The head of Lebanon’s chamber of commerce chief said last year nearly 2,200 businesses had closed, warning that more would collapse. And while there is dispute over those numbers, Lebanese mostly agree the economy is in dire shape.

For Naji Mzannar, who started working at the fabric factory in the 70s before running it, an array of challenges drove the decline of his business and its inability to compete with cheaper goods from abroad.

“It was a build-up. Everything became losses, losses,” he said. “How long are you supposed to keep suffering?”

Built in 1946 and spread over three storeys, the factory made textiles for clothing and household use such as curtains or towels. Mzannar fought to keep it afloat until production came to a halt in 2018.

In interviews with Reuters, business owners such as Mzannar, employees, and experts blamed the slowdown on problems including regional turmoil, lousy infrastructure, government waste or corruption, and high interest rates.

Whether the new government tries to improve conditions, as it vows urgently to do, the effects of years of political sclerosis and stalled reforms are already inescapable: more companies going out of business and workers losing jobs.

The government publishes few reliable economic statistics, and gives no regular unemployment numbers, but last year Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said it stood at about 30 percent.

With pillars such as tourism and real estate in the doldrums, economic growth has averaged 1-2 percent since the conflict erupted in neighboring Syria in 2011, after averaging 8-9 percent growth in the years before that.

“There is a deterioration. There is a rise in companies closing down and in unemployment. For sure, they come together,” said former economy minister Raed Khoury.

“There are small and medium companies suffering a lot.”

Daily state power and water cuts leave industrialists relying on private supplies that push up costs. Taxes have gone up, but neither infrastructure nor public services have improved.

For some firms, Syria’s war blocked access to neighboring markets and added security measures congesting the roads.

With a risky political climate and a currency pegged to the dollar, Lebanon has high interest rates that keep deposits flowing into its banks. But these rates also discourage borrowing – which producers such as Mzannar need to invest in new machinery.

The policies that have kept the Lebanese pound stable through turmoil at the same time failed to protect or boost local production, Mzannar and others said.

The number of his employees went from a peak of 75 to 40 in about 2010, and eventually only 10 people were left.

They still work for him, but at a shop near the factory selling bales of cloth it had produced, as well as imported textiles from Europe.

While his shop fares much better than the factory, he, like many others, fears people have less to spend. “We felt this the most in 2018.” Sales halved last year and traders he had worked with for many years went bankrupt.

The remaining, old machines, stopped spinning a few months ago. Mzannar remembers playing in the factory when he was a young boy, but his own three children have all gone to work abroad.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis, additional reporting by Alaa Kanaan and Yara Abi Nader; Writing by Angus McDowall and Ellen Francis; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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Greek carnival showcases variety of ancient traditions

Greek carnivals at this time of year can be modest but they showcase ancient rites and traditions as well as providing reminders to some bloody moments in the country's modern history.

"Clean Monday" in the Greek Orthodox calendar, marks the beginning of Lent. It is also, in many places, the culmination of the carnival season; in others, it ends on Sunday.

It can be confusing.

Wherever they lie in the calendar, carnivals in large Greek cities are a pale, garish imitation of the world's most prominent fiestas, even in the western city of Patras, Greece's third-largest, which holds the largest festivities in the country. Still, in smaller places, a large variety of customs, many dating from ancient times, are still celebrated.

There are common threads. Masks for example. And satirical songs, which can often be explicit.

In northern Greece, two of the most celebrated carnival customs are found in the mountain town of Sochos, just northeast of Thessaloniki, and in Naoussa, southwest of Greece's number 2 city.

Both carnivals involve troupes of dancers and music played by just two instruments: zournas, a woodwind instrument of Asian provenance that is common throughout the Balkans, North Africa, Middle East and central Asia, and daouli, a bass drum. They also involve very elaborate costumes, often passed on from one generation to another.

In Sochos, the celebration culminates on clean Monday. People wearing goat or lamb hides with bells around their waists and masks that include a meter (over 3 ft.) - tall, ribbon-covered formation topped with a foxtail, hold a procession through the town to the sound of traditional music before dancing.

The costumes can be worn by anyone — men and women, grown-ups and children. But men wear the heaviest of the bells, five of them strapped around the waist, weighing 18-20 kilograms (40-45 pounds).

In fact, the costumes and bells included can be worn in Sochos on the day after Epiphany — January 6. It wouldn't be particularly weird.

In Naoussa, whose carnival is called Genitsaroi and Boules (soldiers and brides) culminates on the Sunday before Clean Monday. The twist is that the brides in question are always young men, a custom that reflects ancient coming-of-age rites.

The Genitsaroi (Janissaries) were Greek boys forcibly taken from their families by the occupying Turks and raised and trained to be elite troops at the service of the Ottoman Empire. From the mid-17th century, this abduction of boys stopped and Janissaries became a hereditary corps. They came to a bloody end though when the Sultan eliminated the corps by slaughtering them in 1826.

Like the Sochos Carnival, the Naoussa fiesta has elaborate costumes and masks, the masking in this case reflecting the comings and goings to the nearby mountains, where irregular troops fighting the Ottoman rulers were based.

The masked "soldiers" and "brides" converge in the town's main square. The soldiers' coin-covered chests rattle as they shake to greet other groups. Eventually the masks are removed. The coins and masks are passed from generation to generation.The parade ends with a solemn dance commemorating the razing of the city by the Turks in 1822, during Greece's war of independence.

Greece became independent in 1830, but the north, what is now the province of Macedonia, did not join Greece until 1912.

These carnivals may not match Rio de Janeiro's but customs sure do matter.

Source: Fox News World

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EU sees economic splits as half of member states face differing gaps

A man reads a newspaper at a coffee shop in central Athens
A man reads a newspaper at a coffee shop in central Athens, Greece, November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas

February 27, 2019

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Half of European Union countries are experiencing economic imbalances that differ widely, the EU Commission said on Wednesday, as the bloc discusses how to improve convergence among its 27 members after Britain leaves.

In a regular check-up of EU governments’ economic policies and achievements, the Commission renewed its warning that gaps that are harmful to the whole bloc not being addressed in several states, while a growing number of them face shortfalls.

As economic growth slows, “challenges vary significantly across countries and call for appropriate and determined policy action,” the Commission said in its report.

Thirteen states were rebuked for their economic imbalances, two more than in last year’s assessment.

Of them, Italy, Greece and Cyprus were found to have “excessive” shortfalls which would require swift corrective action. The Commission was mostly worried by the high ratio of bad loans in their banking sectors and their large public and private debt.

Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden also have imbalances although less acute than the three Mediterranean states, the commission said. Croatia’s imbalances are no longer considered excessive.

None of these countries have sufficiently narrowed the gaps the Commission had highlighted in a report last year, in a sign that EU’s fiscal recommendations have so far been largely ignored in national capitals.

Problems also differ among countries, with France affected by low productivity, Italy hit by high unemployment and debt and Germany lagging on investments.

CASH FOR REFORMS?

The EU monitoring was launched after the 2008-09 global financial crisis to address national economic imbalances that could weaken the EU economy.

However, major shortfalls have not been tackled by EU states. For example, Italy’s large public sector debt has not dropped and Germany has maintained an excessive trade surplus.

Structural reforms have also stalled in recent years in many countries of the bloc. “To unlock the full growth potential of our economies, we need structural reforms,” the Commission’s vice-president in charge of financial stability Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement.

In a bid to address these shortfalls and lower economic divergences among EU states, the Commission last year proposed to set up a 25-billion-euro ($28.4 billion) EU fund to help countries that embark on structural reforms, such as of their pensions systems or labor markets.

Germany and France, the two largest countries of the bloc, supported the cash-for-reform plan in a blueprint agreed last week, but a fund will only be set up if there is backing from all EU states. Not all countries support the plan.

If agreed, the fund could begin financing reforms from 2021 when the new long-term EU budget will start.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)

Source: OANN

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Trump defends WH aide Stephen Miller after Omar’s ‘white nationalist’ comment

President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to agree with his former campaign adviser that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., targeted "Jews" after she called White House aide Stephen Miller a white nationalist.

Trump quoted Jeff Ballabon in a tweet that said it was "unacceptable" for Omar to target "Jews"-- including Miller. Ballabon was on Fox Business Network's "Varney & Co."

Omar responded to Trump a few hours later, saying: “In the words of my 6 year-old daughter, “Knock it off. You’re the president.”

Omar on Monday leveled her criticism of Miller, who is Jewish, over his push for tough immigration and border security policies. In recent days, he has reportedly been influential in the political appointments of Department of Homeland Security officials. He reportedly pushed Trump to remove top department officials following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Sunday.

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“Stephen Miller is a white nationalist," Omar tweeted. “The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.”

Republicans have condemned Omar for her remarks on Miller. Trump called for her to resign in February after she criticized Israel, leading to accusations of anti-Semitism and drawing rebuke from both parties. She later apologized for implying that a pro-Israel lobby group compensated lawmakers for their support of the Jewish state.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Former convict reportedly sought after mother, teen found brutally killed inside NYC apartment

New York City police are on the hunt Monday for an ex-con after his girlfriend and her son – who was supposed to be turning 15 today -- were found stabbed, strangled and bludgeoned to death inside their apartment, reports say.

The bodies of Marisol Ortiz, 51, and Alanche Del Orbe were discovered by her horrified 22-year-old daughter Sunday afternoon after the mother failed to show up to work at the business she owned, according to the New York Post.

“I just heard the daughter screaming,” Iris Rosa, a neighbor in the Bronx borough apartment building, told the newspaper. “It was just ‘Ahhhhh!’ And then nothing.”

MOM, SON, 14, MAY HAVE BEEN BLUDGEONED TO DEATH WITH GYM WEIGHTS IN NEW YORK CITY APARTMENT

Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene and showed signs of head trauma, police say.

No arrests have been made, but Ortiz’s boyfriend, whom New York Post sources say served prison time for assault, reportedly is being sought for questioning. His name – and the motive of the killing – is unclear.

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post they believe Ortiz and Del Orbe -- who were found in separate rooms inside the apartment -- had been bashed with a gym weight. The mother also was stabbed in the head while the teen was strangled, they added.

A bloody knife and two exercise weights were reported to be found in the apartment.

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One of the teen’s cousins told the New York Post that today was what would have been Del Orbe’s 15th birthday.

“It’s incredibly sad,” Haydee Leonardo said.

Source: Fox News National

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Indian PM: “Time for Talks is Over”

At least nine Indian troops and Kashmir militants died during a shootout on Monday, as tensions escalated following a suicide bombing attack that killed more than 40 Indian paramilitaries last week.

The fighting went on for several hours in the Pulwama district, south of India-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinaga, where Indian soldiers were searching for militants tied to the Pakistan-based Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which claimed last week’s attack.

Four soldiers, a policeman, three militants and a civilian were killed in the latest clash, officials said. An army major was among the dead, along with three militants from the JeM group.

Security force sources told Reuters news agency that the suspected organizer of the suicide bombing in the disputed region of Kashmir was also killed, echoing reports from local broadcaster NDTV.

Dan Lyman joins Alex Jones to give a small taste of the massive, Islamic invasion happening across Europe.

‘The Time for Talks is Over’

India has blamed the suicide attack on Pakistan, which it says harbors the JeM group, and threatened a “jaw-breaking response.”

Pakistan has warned India against linking it to the attack without an investigation, saying that it was part of New Delhi’s “known rhetoric and tactics” to divert global attention from human rights violations in Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday rejected the possibility of talks with Pakistan following the deadly bombing.

“The Pulwama terror attack shows that the time for talks is over,” Modi said in a reference to a possible dialogue with Islamabad to ease tensions. “Now the entire world needs to unite to take concrete steps to deal with terrorism and supporters. Not taking strict measures against terrorism and those against humanity, also encourages terrorism.”

(Photo by Kremlin)

Saudi Arabia Aims to ‘De-Escalate’ Tensions

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said it would try to “de-escalate” rising tensions between Pakistan and India during a high-profile summit in Islamabad.

The kingdom’s foreign minister spoke at a press conference in Islamabad as Pakistan recalled its envoy from Delhi for “consultations.”

“Our objective is to try to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, neighboring countries, and to see if there is a path forward to resolving those differences peacefully,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.

India and Pakistan both administer parts of the border region of Kashmir, with both laying claim to more of the disputed territory. It’s one of the main disputes between the uneasy nuclear neighbors.

Owen Shroyer delivers commentary on the rise of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in America.

Source: InfoWars

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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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