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Brazil’s Bolsonaro begins Israel visit with embassy decision pending

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he stands next to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during a welcoming ceremony upon his arrival in Israel, at Ben Gurion International airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he stands next to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during a welcoming ceremony upon his arrival in Israel, at Ben Gurion International airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel March 31, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

March 31, 2019

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began a visit to Israel on Sunday with a decision pending on fulfilling a promise to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, a policy change opposed by military officers in his cabinet.

The four-day visit by the far-right leader comes a week before Israel’s closely contested election in which the right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is battling a popular centrist candidate and corruption allegations, which he denies.

“I love Israel,” Bolsonaro said in Hebrew at a welcoming ceremony, with Netanyahu at his side, at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport.

Netanyahu said he and Bolsonaro would sign “many agreements”, including security deals, and that the Brazilian leader would visit Judaism’s holy Western Wall, “in Jerusalem, our eternal capital”.

A leading Israeli financial news website, Calcalist, reported on Sunday that Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras was considering bidding in a new tender to explore for oil and gas offshore Israel and a final decision would be announced during Bolsonaro’s visit.

Earlier this month, a Brazilian government official told Reuters no decision had been made on the embassy move, but “something will have to be said about the embassy during the trip”.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that a formal announcement might not come during the visit.

Visiting Brazil for the Jan. 1 presidential inauguration, Netanyahu said Bolsonaro had told him that moving the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv was a matter of “when, not if”.

Like Netanyahu, Bolsonaro is an outspoken admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, who moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem last May, five months after breaking with international consensus and recognizing the city as Israel’s capital.

Bolsonaro also enjoys strong evangelical support at home. Netanyahu has courted U.S. evangelical leaders during his current decade in power.

But in an interview in February, Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao, a retired army general, told Reuters that moving the embassy was a bad idea because it would hurt Brazil’s exports to Arab countries, including an estimated $5 billion in sales of halal food that comply with Muslim dietary laws.

Bolsonaro’s economic team and the country’s powerful farm lobby have advised against relocating the embassy to Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek to establish a state in the two territories, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Source: OANN

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Sudan’s Bashir moved to Khartoum’s Kobar prison: family sources

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir addresses a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir addresses a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdalla/File Photo

April 17, 2019

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan’s deposed president Omar al-Bashir was moved to Kobar prison in the capital Khartoum late on Tuesday, two family sources said.

Sudanese sources had told Reuters that Bashir was being held under guard in a presidential residence following his removal by the military on April 11.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Yousef Saba; editing by John Stonestreet)

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Boeing’s safety analysis of 737 MAX flight control had crucial flaws: Seattle Times

The first Boeing 737 MAX 7 is unveiled in Renton
The first Boeing 737 MAX 7 is unveiled in Renton, Washington, U.S. February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Redmond

March 17, 2019

(Reuters) – Boeing Co’s safety analysis of a new flight control system on 737 MAX jets had several crucial flaws, the Seattle Times reported on Sunday.

Boeing’s safety analysis of the flight control system called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) understated the power of this system, the Seattle Times said, citing current and former engineers at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The FAA also did not delve into any detailed inquiries and followed a standard certification process on the MAX, the Seattle Times reported citing an FAA spokesman.

The report also said both Boeing and the FAA were informed of the specifics of this story and were asked for responses 11 days ago, before the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX last Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The same model flown by Lion Air crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October, killing all 189 on board

Boeing was not immediately available for comment.

The FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Gaurika Juneja; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Source: OANN

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Trump push to invalidate ObamaCare sparked clash within administration

President Trump’s fresh push for the elimination of ObamaCare followed a disagreement within the administration, with top officials and Vice President Pence advising against such move, according to multiple reports.

The Trump administration on Monday told a federal appeals court that the whole Affordable Care Act should be abolished, with Justice Department attorneys filing a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans agreeing with a ruling by a federal judge in Texas last year that the health care law is unconstitutional.

"The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed. Because the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed, the government intends to file a brief on the appellees’ schedule," the filing read.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BACKS TOTAL OVERTURN OF OBAMACARE, WILL SUPPORT STATES CHALLENGING THE LAW

The decision to support the total overturn of the law was made after Trump sided with White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a staunch critic of the Obama-era health care program, rather than following the advice of Attorney General William Barr and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who both reportedly cautioned against proceeding.

FILE- In this Jan. 2, 2019, file photo White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE- In this Jan. 2, 2019, file photo White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump was apparently encouraged by Mulvaney and saw the move as a way to deliver on his campaign promise to overturn ObamaCare in its entirety instead of only partly dismantling the system -- by nixing the penalty on the individual mandate.

But the health secretary insisted that backing a lawsuit to repeal the health care law is untenable as there’s no Republican alternative, according to Politico. Mulvaney reportedly dismissed the concerns, claiming that such a bold move would force Congress to come up with alternatives.

Barr, who was recently praised by Trump over the handling of the end of the Robert Mueller probe, reportedly sided against Trump, saying the effort is doomed to fail as the Supreme Court has already upheld the legality of the law.

According to The New York Times, Pence also voiced reservations. He reportedly cautioned about the risks of pursuing the case without a “strategy or a plan to handle the suddenly uninsured if the suit succeeds.”

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS RATTLED BY TRUMP'S PIVOT TO OBAMACARE FIGHT AFTER MUELLER SUMMARY

Trump spoke about ObamaCare on Wednesday, but didn’t address the disagreement within the administration.

“ObamaCare is a disaster. It's too expensive by far. People can't afford it and the deductible is horrible,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “The premiums are too expensive. People are going broke trying to pay for it.”

“If the Supreme Court rules that ObamaCare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than ObamaCare,” Trump added.

“If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.”

— President Trump

The Department of Health and Human Services provided a statement to Politico, denying any rift in the administration.

“Secretary Azar fully supports the Administration's litigation position in the ACA case, which bears his name,” said an agency spokeswoman. “Any insinuation that Secretary Azar has 'butted heads' with Mulvaney on this issue is false.”

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS RATTLED BY TRUMP PIVOT TO OBAMACARE

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled last year that ObamaCare is no longer constitutional because the tax reform package – as enacted by Republicans – eliminated the health care law’s penalty for not having health insurance.

The administration initially insisted that only certain parts of the law should be invalidated. But the latest filing moved on from the earlier position and embraces the total overturn of the law.

The filing noted that the government will file a brief in support of the Texas-led coalition of states that are trying to overturn the health care law, given that “the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed,” the Washington Post reported.

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“The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, told the newspaper.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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The week in pictures, Apr. 6 – Apr. 12

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_AP19101306251662.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

Stars are seen over Dunstanburgh Castle in the early hours of the morning, between the villages of Craster and Embleton, in Northumberland, England, April 11, 2019. 

Owen Humphreys/PA via AP

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_AP19101306251662.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

Source: Fox News World

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Ballot Harvesting Divide Persists Amid Elections Debate

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During last week’s fierce partisan debate over House Democrats’ campaign finance/elections and ethics overhaul, there was one thing Republicans and Democrats appeared to agree on:  the dearth of information about ballot harvesting – the controversial practice of campaign workers, union members, and volunteers collecting mail-in ballots from voters and delivering them to election officials to be counted – and its impact on elections.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Democratic measure, which was designed to make voting easier and which passed on a party-line vote, for not addressing “sketchy” ballot harvesting practices. The GOP leader pointed to the fraud uncovered in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, which both Democrats and Republicans have condemned.

It was illegal to collect absentee ballots in North Carolina because Republicans passed a law barring the practice. But some form of ballot harvesting takes place in 19 other states, where little or no data has been collected on the practice’s impact and abuses.

The Democrats’ bill, HR 1, is “suspiciously silent on the murky ballot harvesting practices that recently threw North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District into chaos,” McConnell said during a recent speech on the Senate floor.

Shortly after the midterms, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan made national headlines by calling the practice “bizarre” and arguing that what happened in California, where several seats in traditionally red Orange County flipped, “defies logic.” Several Republicans saw election night leads dwindle away in the days and weeks afterward as mail-in and absentee votes were counted. Three years ago the state legislature passed a law making it lawful for anyone to collect voters’ absentee ballots and drop them off.

Democrats have countered that the GOP hasn’t shown any documented evidence of fraud involved with the practice and is simply trying to make it harder for Democrats to vote, especially in minority communities where voters may not be close to polling places or have transportation available to them.

John Santos, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, told RealClearPolitics that the party is fighting to overturn laws barring ballot harvesting in Arizona and other places because there “is no evidence of widespread fraud” that “would justify blanket bans.”

During consideration of HR 1 on the House floor last week, Democrats voted down amendments from GOP Reps. Ken Calvert of California and Mark Walker of North Carolina that would have prohibited ballot harvesting nationwide.

“For years, conservatives who questioned ballot harvesting – a practice where unvetted organizers can go door-to-door, collecting absentee ballots like candy – were criticized and demeaned,” Walker (pictured) said in a statement afterward. “Now, as we see election fraud in my home state and House Democrats are rightfully calling for additional election-security measures, they are rejecting common-sense proposals, fearing a breakdown of their legislated electoral advantages.

“Ballot-harvesting is a cooking pot for election fraud and abuse, and we need to get all the cooks out of the kitchen,” he added.

Before the GOP amendment was rejected, the Native American Rights Fund, the oldest and largest nonprofit law firm devoted to defending the rights of Indian tribes, wrote a letter to members of Congress calling on them to oppose Calvert’s proposal, arguing that “mailing locations are not as accessible for natives on tribal lands as they are to non-natives off tribal lands. Home mail-service does not exist throughout Indian Country.”

The Calvert amendment is a solution in search of a problem, the group wrote, adding, “On the rare occasions in which improprieties are alleged to have occurred in the handling of ballots, such as those that have come to light in North Carolina … they are already prohibited under state law. The answer to these sorts of violations is to use existing laws, not pass unneeded federal legislation that will disenfranchise Native American voters.”

Republicans say they proposed the nationwide ban precisely because states have become a patchwork of expansions and prohibitions regarding the practice, depending on which party controls the legislature.  

Calvert said last week that the practice lacks transparency, which has understandably led to voter concern. He said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and other election officials “have provided little if any information on the rules and regulations covering ballot harvesting since Democrats legalized the practice” there.

On March 4 he sent a list of 27 questions to his local Riverside County Registrar of Voters that he said remain unanswered. For instance, he questioned whether those turning in collected ballots are required to provide their name or the name of the organization they are working on behalf of or any other identifying information, and whether they are barred from turning over a ballot to another individual or organization before turning it in to an authorized voting location.

Calvert also asked whether the registrar requires any identifying information from the individual who drops off the ballot, whether a list of those persons is created and whether that list is subject to public disclosure. Because the law states it’s illegal to fail to “deliver the ballot in a timely fashion,” he asked what constituted a “timely fashion” and if there were any hard deadlines involved.

“Our election laws should always be focused on what protects the confidence and integrity in our elections, not what gives one party an advantage over the other,” Calvert said a statement.

In response to Calvert’s questions, Padilla said only that California is “expanding opportunities for eligible citizens to register to vote and for registered voters to cast their ballot.”

“These opportunities include in-person early voting, the option to vote-by-mail, and giving voters the power to decide who they most trust to return their vote-by-mail ballot for them if they so choose,” he told the Riverside Press Enterprise.

“As other states are rolling back voting rights, California is modernizing our elections and making it easier for all eligible citizens to participate.”

McConnell said he and other Republicans have opposed ballot harvesting and called for other “common-sense” election safeguards only to be “demonized by Democrats and their allies.”

Susan Crabtree is a veteran Washington reporter who has spent two decades covering the White House and Congress.

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The Boy Crisis: The Statistics Tell Us That American Boys Are Falling Behind In Just About Every Area

As a society we appear to be really dropping the ball, because the numbers indicate that American boys are deeply struggling in just about every area. 

Many professionals are pointing to a “crisis of fatherhood” as one of the key factors, and as I pointed out the other day, approximately a third of all U.S. children are now being raised in a home without a father.  Of course this negatively affects our girls as well, but there is something about that lack of a masculine role model that seems to particularly hurt boys.  However, the lack of a traditional family structure cannot explain all of the numbers that I am about to share with you.  As you will see, we are facing a crisis that will not easily be solved.

Warren Farrell, the co-author of a new book entitled “The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It”, has identified three key areas that he is most concerned about.

The first is education

It is a crisis of education. Worldwide, 60% of the students who achieve less than the baseline level of proficiency in any of the three core subjects of the Program for the International Assessment are boys. Even boys’ IQs are dropping.

Today, girls are educationally outperforming boys in elementary school, middle school and high school.


Gillette will use Amy Schumer as the spokesmodel for their “Venus” line of feminine razors. Famed memester Carpe Donktum joins Owen to discuss the insanity of Gillettes social justice agenda.

And by the time college rolls around, the performance gap is absolutely enormous.  In fact, females have earned at least 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in the United States for 18 years in a row.

The second area Farrell is deeply concerned about is mental health

It is a crisis of mental health. Boys’ suicide rate goes from only slightly more than girls before age 14 to three times that of girls’ between 15 and 19, to 4 1/2 times that of girls between 20 and 24. Mass shooters, prisoners and Islamic State terrorism recruits are at least 90% male.

In addition to all of that, males commit 90 percent of all homicides in the United States, and men lead women by a very wide margin in just about every other violent crime category as well.

This is one area where the lack of a father in the home really seems to make a difference.  According to one very alarming study, when there is a 1 percent increase in fatherlessness in a neighborhood, on average it leads to a 3 percent rise in adolescent violence.

Sadly, it appears that our young people are steadily becoming unhappier over time.  The following numbers come from the Free Beacon

Recent years have seen a rise in Americans 12 to 25 saying they are unhappy. Since 2012, the proportion of 8th and 10th graders who tell the Monitoring the Future survey that they felt unhappy has crept up from 13 percent to 18 percent. In roughly the same time, the proportion of 18- to 25-year-olds who say they are unhappy has risen from 11 to 17 percent, according to the General Social Survey.

And as I pointed out in one recent article, other studies have found a clear link between unhappiness and social media use.

The Internet can be used for great good, but it can also be heavily toxic, and today many of our young people are “plugged in” almost constantly

Essentially 100 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are on social media. Fifty-four percent think they spend too much time on their cellphone; 72 percent of teens say their phone is sometimes the first thing they look at upon waking up.

This, Twenge argues in her book iGen, explains a lot about why they are unhappy. Using several national surveys, Twenge argues that screen-using activities are linked to indicators of depression and unhappiness. For example, she finds that kids using devices more than three hours a day are 30 percent more likely to have an indicator of suicidality.

The third major area that Farrell is deeply concerned about is physical health

It is a crisis of physical health. American men’s life expectancy has decreased two-tenths of a year even as American women’s has remained the same. Boys and men are dying earlier in 14 out of 15 of the leading causes of death.

Overall, men are living 4.9 years less than women in the United States.

One thing that would help would be to encourage our young men to avoid engaging in extremely risky behavior.  Young males tend to get hooked on drugs and alcohol at much higher rates than young females, and one recent study found that an alarming percentage of our boys are having sex before they reach the age of 13.  The following comes from CBS News

Talking to your children about sex can be awkward, but new research suggests that parents need to have those conversations much earlier than they do.

In two national surveys, investigators found that between 4% and 8% of boys reported having sex before they were 13. That number varied greatly depending on where the boys lived. In San Francisco, just 5% of boys said they had sex before 13, but in Memphis that number jumped to 25%.

Can that number for Memphis possibly be accurate?

I certainly hope not.

Unfortunately, it is not just in the United States where boys are falling behind.  If you can believe it, boys are educationally behind girls in each of the 63 largest developed nations.

The world has changed, and it appears to be leaving boys behind.

But what is going to happen when all of those boys grow up?

The young people of today are the future, and right now that future is not looking very promising at all.

Source: InfoWars

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Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas
Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s foreign minister and a Venezuelan judge, according to a statement on the department’s website.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and a judge, Carol Padilla, were targeted over the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, the Treasury Department said, the latest in a list of officials blacklisted by U.S. authorities for their role in President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Makini Brice and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of
Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of “Avengers: Endgame” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut, distributor Walt Disney Co said.

Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attends the funeral service for murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS

April 26, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a state dinner which will be part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain in June.

“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” Corbyn said in a statement.

He said maintaining the relationship with the United States did not require “the pomp and ceremony of a state visit” and he said he would welcome a meeting with Trump “to discuss all matters of interest.”

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg)

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A bedridden 67-year-old woman and more than a dozen animals were rescued Thursday after a welfare check found that they were living in a home filled with trash, urine, and feces, Florida police said.

Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies said when they arrived at the home in Dunedin around 7:20 p.m. Thursday, they could smell the odor of rotting trash and animal feces as they walked up to the driveway.

“Inside the residence, the odor of feces and urine was so overwhelming that deputies had to don masks,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Walking throughout the residence, the deputies found 10 emaciated dogs and puppies living in bins filled with their own feces, five large Macaw birds flying freely, rats, bugs and overall squalor.

Puppies discovered living in their own feces inside a Florida home that was filled with trash, urine, and feces.

Puppies discovered living in their own feces inside a Florida home that was filled with trash, urine, and feces. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

Deputies said due to the large amounts of trash in the home, they had to clear a path to reach the victim’s bedroom.

“None of the home’s toilets were working and all were found to be overflowing with feces,” deputies said. “The only working sink was located on the opposite end of the house from the victim’s bedroom.”

They said there was no food or water for the victim or the animals.

FLORIDA MAN IN EASTER BUNNY COSTUME CAUGHT IN VIRAL BRAWL IS WANTED IN NEW JERSEY, HAS HISTORY OF ARRESTS

The victim was transported to a local hospital for injuries that were non-life threatening, while the animals were transported to shelters.

The woman’s caretaker, Richard Lawrence Goodwin, 65, was arrested and charged with abuse and neglect of an elderly person, disabled person, and cruelty to animals.

Richard Goodwin, 69, was arrested for abuse and neglect of an elderly and disabled person after deputies found she was living in deplorable conditions.

Richard Goodwin, 69, was arrested for abuse and neglect of an elderly and disabled person after deputies found she was living in deplorable conditions. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

The sheriff’s department said this was Goodwin’s second arrest for abuse and neglect of the same victim. He was previously arrested in May 2018.

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Neighbor Victoria Muenzerbeer told FOX 13 that Goodwin and the victim were hoarders and the conditions inside the home were horrible years ago when she visited once.

“I went in and it was absolutely, a human being couldn’t live there,” she said. “The kitchen wasn’t usable and part of the wall was falling in.”

Source: Fox News National

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Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli
Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli, Libya April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

April 26, 2019

By Ulf Laessing

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s U.N.-recognized government has budgeted up to 2 billion dinars ($1.43 billion) to cover costs of a three-week-old war for control of the capital, such as treatment for the wounded, to be funded without new borrowing, the economy minister said.

Ali Abdulaziz Issawi suggested the government hoped for business to continue more or less as usual despite the assault on Tripoli, in the country’s northwest, by forces tied to a parallel administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Once Africa’s third largest producer of oil, Libya has been riven by factional conflict since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the country now broadly split between eastern-based forces under Khalifa Haftar and the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, under Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.

Still, with Haftar’s Libyan National Army forces unable so far to pierce defenses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, normal life and business activities continue in much of the capital and western coastal towns.

Issawi, in an interview with Reuters in his Tripoli office, also said Libya’s commercial ports and wheat imports were still functioning normally, although some roads have been blocked.

He said the Serraj government estimates it will spend up to 2 billion dinars extra on medical treatment for wounded, aid for displaced people and other “emergency” war costs.

He said this was not military spending but analysts believe that the sum will also cover expenditures such as pay for allied armed groups or food for fighters.

“We could actually spend less,” he added, in comments that gave the first insight into the economic impact of the fighting.

Issawi said the Tripoli government, which controls little territory beyond the greater capital region, would not incur new debt to fund the war costs, sticking to a plan to post a 2019 budget without a deficit.

Tripoli derives revenue largely from oil and natural gas production, interest-free loans from local banks to the central bank, and a 183 percent surcharge on foreign exchange transactions conducted at official rates.

But with centralized tax collection greatly diminished, public debt has piled up – to 68 billion dinars in the west, including unpaid state obligations such as social insurance.

Some analysts expect Serraj’s government will be forced to raise new debt if the war for control of Tripoli drags on.

With much of Libya dominated by armed factions that also act as security forces, the public wage bill for both the western and eastern administrations has soared as fighters have been made public employees in efforts to buy their loyalty.

The east has sold bonds worth 35 billion dinars outside the official financial system as the Tripoli central bank does not fund the parallel government apart from some wages.

Despite its limited reach, the Tripoli government still runs an annual budget of around 46.8 billion dinars, mainly for public salaries and fuel subsidies.

“This year we cannot finance via debt…we will not borrow (by agreement with the central bank),” Issawi said.

According to International Monetary Fund data, Libya’s central government debt-to-GDP ratio is 143 percent, making it one of the most heavily indebted in the world on that measure.

Issawi declined to say what parts of the budget would be trimmed to support the extra outlay for war costs.

However, with some 70 percent of the budget allocated to public wages, fuel subsidies and other welfare benefits, a portion devoted to infrastructure is most likely to be axed.

Widespread lawlessness has meant there have been no major infrastructural projects since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi, leaving schools, hospitals and roads in acute need of restoration.

FOREX SURCHARGE

Issawi said the government planned to raise as much as 30 billion dinars by the end of 2019 from hard currency deals after imposing in September a 183 percent surcharge on commercial and private transactions done on the official rate of 1.4 to the U.S. dollar. That fee has effectively devalued the official rate to 3.9, much closer to the black market equivalent.

Some 17 billion dinars have been raised since then, with hard currency allocated for import credit letters now issued without delays, Issawi said. The forex fee has helped the government forecast a budget in the black for 2019.

Despite the narrowing spread between the two rates, the black market continues to thrive. Dozens of traders remained at their favorite spot behind the central bank headquarters in Tripoli when Reuters reporters visited it last week.

But traders said it could take time for the Serraj government to register the extra forex receipts as official banking channels were taking up to six months to approve import financing, keeping the black market in play for dealers.

Issawi said authorities planned to lower the forex fee from 183 percent, without saying when. The black market rate has dropped from 6 to around 4.1 since September but it has hardly moved of late as demand for black market cash remains high.

The Tripoli government has stopped subsidizing food and bread, which used to be cheaper than drinking water in Libya. Wheat imports are now being arranged by private traders and there are surplus stocks of flour at the moment, Issawi said.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Tripoli with additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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