Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am


Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Americans Not Optimistic on Economy

Every time the folks at the Federal Reserve talk about the “Powell Pause,” they assure us that the US economy is still strong. The president assures us that the US economy is still strong. The pundits on the financial news networks assure us that the US economy is still strong. But the US consumer doesn’t seem to be buying it.

US consumer confidence declined for the fourth month out of five in February, surprising economists who expected an increase in optimism.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell from 131.4 to 124.1. This missed every economist’s estimate in a Bloomberg survey. They were expecting a rise to 132.5. Meanwhile, consumers’ views on the present situation fell to the lowest level in almost a year, and the expectations index weakened as well.

The consumer confidence numbers come even as a major recession warning sign is flashing. Last week, the yield curve inverted. The yield on 10-year Treasurys fell below the yield on 3-year bonds for the first time since 2007 – the cusp of the Great Recession.


Mike Adams exposes the agenda of the private Fed as a war against the prosperity of Americans that simply want to make America great.

Peter Schiff has been saying a recession is a done deal for quite some time. Economist Marc Faber says we’re probably already in a recession. Perhaps American consumers are figuring it out. As Bloomberg put it “dimmer assessments of present conditions suggest that weak first-quarter growth and slower job gains in February are weighing on attitudes and potentially spending.”

According to Bloomberg, the weak February jobs report likely shook consumer confidence. The economy added just 20,000 jobs last month. There are also concerns about rising gasoline prices “leaving Americans with less power to spend on other goods and services.”

There are other gloomy numbers out there that we’ve reported, including rising wholesale inventories, high levels of consumer debt, and skyrocketing federal budget deficits.

(Photo by Chris Dlugosz, Flickr)

Interestingly, the economists Bloomberg quoted tried to slap some lipstick on the pig, saying that consumers are overreacting.

“While economic conditions are likely to moderate this year –- meaning we’ve passed peak confidence for the cycle — this month’s slump is too severe when measured against underlying conditions.”

This underscores a point Peter made in his podcast earlier this week. The markets and the pundits still haven’t caught on to what’s going on. The Fed is giving us every signal we need. It has done a complete 180 on monetary policy. But it’s not telling the truth about why. It’s making excuses. It’s talking about a global slowdown and muted inflation. The truth is given the enormity of these deficits and the ever-upward spiraling debt, the Fed has no choice but to call off the tightening. You can’t raise interest rates in an economy built on piles of debt. But the Fed can’t tell the markets that, and at this point, the markets haven’t figured it out. Peter said they don’t really want to.

“They don’t want to admit I was right from the beginning – that the Fed checked us into a monetary roach motel and there’s no way to ever check out. But I do believe the markets are going to figure this out, whether the Fed admits it or not – during the next recession.”

The recent drop in consumer confidence indicates the American public might just be a step ahead of the markets.


Alex Jones coins a new word while breaking down how elites manipulate online comments to control content creators.

Source: InfoWars

0 0

Meadows, Jordan probe House Dems' alleged leak of Kushner, Ivanka Trump security clearance docs

The top Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are demanding to know why the panel's Democratic leadership allegedly leaked key documents concerning Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances to the media, without bothering to keep Republicans on the committee in the loop and while continuing to press the White House to provide the same documents.

In a letter sent Monday to House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking members Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan raised the alarm over a Mar. 8, 2019 article in Axios, in which reporter Alexi McCammond wrote that a "senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents" told the outlet that "the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide."

McCammond went on to write that Axios had "obtained" one of those documents, which "provides some details about why Kushner's security clearance was changed to 'interim' in September 2017. One document quoted by Axios read: "Per conversation with WH counsel the clearance was changed to interim Top Secret until we can confirm that the DOJ or someone else actually granted a final clearance. This action was taken out of an abundance of caution because the background investigation has not been completed."

Another document, dated Feb. 23, 2018, read simply: "Clearance downgraded to Interim Secret per COS direction" — then-chief of staff John Kelly, according to Axios.

KUSHNER TEAM RESPONDS TO SECURITY CLEARANCE ALLEGATIONS 

The article raised several questions for Jordan, R-Ohio, and Meadows, R-N.C., especially given the oversight panel's repeated requests to the White House, from January through February, for documents pertaining to the security clearance process. Earlier this month, White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote a letter to Cummings rejecting the committee's request for documents as "extraordinarily intrusive," while asserting that Cummings has rejected reasonable compromises.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump make their way to board Marine One before departing from South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on October 30, 2018. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump make their way to board Marine One before departing from South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on October 30, 2018. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

"We first learned about these documents from Axios’s reporting," Meadows and Jordan wrote to Cummings. "However, according to the article, the Committee had been in possession of the documents since early February. The article quoted a 'senior Democratic aide' as characterizing the documents as 'part of the puzzle that we would be asking for.' Axios reported that it had even obtained access to at least one of these documents."

The Republicans continued: "Axios’s reporting, if accurate, is concerning for two reasons. First, if you already possessed in early February the documents that you 'would be asking for' from the White House, there would be no legitimate oversight basis to renew your request that the White House produce these documents to the Committee on February 11, 2019.

"Second, and most troubling, the Axios article—if accurate—suggests a departure from the Committee’s historical practice of sharing documents that will be made publicly available," the GOP representatives added. "The Axios article suggests the reporter 'obtained' a document from a larger group of documents provided to the Committee. If accurate, the story seems to suggest that you made these documents available to the press. We have yet to receive this same courtesy."

"These actions are not indicative of the objective, fact-based oversight you promised."

— GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows

By not sharing documents with Republicans on the committee, Meadows and Jordan wrote, Cummings had deprived the panel's GOP minority of the "opportunity to participate in and be aware of the Committee’s work."

"Without access to these documents, we cannot determine whether the information in the Axios story is cherry-picked, inaccurate, or out of context," they wrote. "In addition, the disclosure of documents to the press so early in an investigation undercuts the sincerity of the Committee’s investigation. By providing documents to the media before the Committee issues any reports or holds any hearings, one may conclude that the Committee is seeking documents for future public disclosure to harass and embarrass the President and his senior advisors."

Meadows and Jordan charged that "this conduct seems to be part of a larger trend," noting that "as the star witness of your first big hearing, you invited Michael Cohen, a convicted liar who then lied to the Committee several times under oath."

They concluded with a demand for the documents, and an admonition: "These actions are not indicative of the objective, fact-based oversight you promised."

Late last month, a spokesman for Kushner's attorney told Fox News that President Trump's son-in-law received a top-secret security clearance through "the regular process with no pressure from anyone," after The New York Times reported that Trump "ordered" then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to grant the clearance against the advice of then-White House Counsel Don McGhan.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News reported in May 2018 that Kushner had obtained a full security clearance. He had been working at the White House with an interim security clearance for the better part of a year, through late February 2018. That month, Kushner's interim clearance was downgraded from "interim top secret" to "interim secret" after Kelly set a Feb. 23, 2018, deadline for halting access to top-secret information for those whose applications have been pending since June 1, 2017, or earlier.

The Times report, which cited "four people briefed on the matter," said that Trump told Kelly to grant Kushner a top-secret clearance the day after the White House Counsel's Office recommended that he not be given one. The report claimed that Kelly was so disturbed by Trump's command that he wrote an internal memo stating that he had been "ordered" to give Kushner the clearance.

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Explainer: Betting on the past? Europe decides on connected car standards

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess address a news conference in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Volkswagen in Berlin, Germany February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo

April 18, 2019

By Douglas Busvine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Commission’s push to implement a Wi-Fi standard for connected cars has won the support of lawmakers in a victory for Germany’s Volkswagen, although competitor BMW and other backers of a rival technology still hope to overturn the decision.

Advocates of the alternative C-V2X standard – which stands for Cellular Vehicle to Everything – say their technology is already viable and will only improve as next-generation 5G mobile networks are rolled out.

The apparently dry debate over acronyms has divided the car and telecoms industries and will influence which continent ends up dominating automated driving technologies that promise to be safer than people behind the wheel.

There are around 25,000 annual road fatalities in the EU and another 135,000 serious injuries. The Commission wants to halve both by 2030 as part of a long-term ‘Vision Zero’ goal to virtually eliminate them by 2050.

China, the world’s biggest car market, is already pressing ahead with C-V2X, which is designed to work with 5G but is incompatible with Wi-Fi. Ford will deploy C-V2X there in 2021 and has committed to install it in all its new cars and trucks in the United States from 2022.

The European Council, the intergovernmental part of the EU’s decision-making process, is due to take a decision by mid-May.

Here’s an explainer of what’s at stake and how the process is likely to play out:

WHAT IS THE COMMISSION PROPOSING AND WHO BACKS IT?

The European Commission has proposed a legal act to regulate so-called ‘Cooperative-Intelligent Transport Systems’ (C-ITS). This backs the ITS-G5 Wi-Fi standard that has already been adopted by much of the auto industry and is already certified.

The most prominent supporter of ITS-G5 is Volkswagen, which says it will start fitting the Wi-Fi technology to vehicles this year.

VW argues that viable C-V2X technology is years away, while Commission researchers could not find any commercially available C-V2X gear to test, according to a document seen by Reuters.

Also backing ITS-G5 are Renault, Toyota, VW truck units MAN and Scania, chip maker NXP, road-toll company Kapsch and technical standards umbrella group VdTueV.

WHY DO OTHER AUTO MAKERS AND TELECOMS PREFER 5G?

Supporters of C-V2X have grown rapidly in number since eight companies – Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson ERICb.ST>, Huawei, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm – founded an alliance in 2016.

The group, the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), now counts more than 100 members who argue that C-V2X is better than Wi-Fi in terms of security, reliability, range and reaction time.

5G advocates object to a review process foreseen by the Commission that would allow other technologies to be admitted later to C-ITS, once certified. They say such interoperability is impossible because Wi-Fi and cellular radio technologies are incompatible.

“It’s like putting a DVD into a VHS player and trying to make it work,” Mats Granryd, head of the GSMA telecoms industry group, wrote in a letter to EU lawmakers this week.

WHICH IS THE BETTER TECHNOLOGY?

Participants in the debate agree that C-V2X running on 5G networks will be the better technology – even Volkswagen is a member of the 5GAA – but they differ on when it will be ready for prime time.

C-V2X could, for example, help a connected car spot a person on foot carrying a smartphone before the driver does, making it possible for automated systems to hit the brakes and alert the pedestrian to the danger – a potential lifesaver.

Wi-Fi is cheaper, because 5G operators would charge for data. On the other hand, regulated mobile networks would likely be safer, says independent technology analyst Richard Windsor: “Would you trust your vehicle to be driven by a home router?” he asked.

Other markets led by China are meanwhile pressing ahead with C-V2X, potentially burdening European auto makers with the expense of developing and installing different systems in cars for the home market and for export.

WHO’S LIKELY TO PREVAIL IN THE END?

European lawmakers passed the Commission’s legal act by a narrow majority on Wednesday and the matter now goes before the European Council.

Here, opponents of the Commission’s proposal would need the backing of a so-called qualified majority of the EU’s 28 member states – 16 countries representing 65 percent of its population – to block it.

That will be a tall order, but 5G backers are hoping that a skeptical opinion expressed by the Commission’s own legal advisory team will bolster their case, say sources. A Council working party meets again on May 3 and May 10 to review that advice.

The government of EU heavyweight Germany says it has taken note of those reservations and has yet to make up its mind. A decision in the Council is due by May 13, although the review period may be extended.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Kirsten Donovan)

Source: OANN

0 0

Heavily armed foreigners arrested in Haiti sent to United States, officials say

A man rides a bike in front of a main Haitian police station, where a group of foreign nationals including Americans are detained after finding them armed with semi-automatic weapons after a week of anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince
FILE PHOTO - A man rides a bike in front of a main Haitian police station, where according to local media a group of foreign nationals including Americans armed with semi-automatic weapons were detained, after anti-government protests, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

February 21, 2019

By Anthony Esposito

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – A heavily armed group of foreign nationals, who were arrested in Haiti on Sunday after days of massive anti-government protests, were handed over to U.S. authorities on Wednesday, Haitian and U.S. authorities said.

It was unclear if all the members of the group, which reportedly included five Americans, a Serb and a Russian, were flown to the United States.

“The return of the individuals to the U.S. was coordinated with the Haitian authorities,” a State Department representative for Western Hemisphere Affairs said in an emailed statement, without providing further details.

A spokesman for Haiti’s Justice Ministry also confirmed that the individuals were “were handed over to U.S. authorities this Wednesday.”

Media reports said that, at the time of their arrest, the men were armed with semi-automatic weapons, rifles, pistols, drones and satellite phones in their two vehicles.

Videos circulating on social media alleged to show at least six men being escorted through the airport in Port-au-Prince toward a plane bound for the United States.

Since the arrests, Haitian newspapers have printed names that corresponded to social media profiles of U.S. citizens claiming military backgrounds. However, Reuters could not independently confirm the identities of the arrested men.

Thousands of demonstrators called for President Jovenel Moise to resign and for an independent probe into the whereabouts of funds from the PetroCaribe agreement, an alliance between Caribbean countries and OPEC member Venezuela.

Protests that began on Feb. 7 died down after about a week-and-a-half but opposition leaders have called for Haitians to take to the streets again on Friday.

The State Department last week ordered all non-emergency U.S. personnel and their families to leave Haiti and advised U.S. citizens not to travel there.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

0 0

ECB stimulus remains essential: Draghi in annual report

FILE PHOTO: 28th Frankfurt European Banking Congress (EBC) takes place in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi speaks at the 28th Frankfurt European Banking Congress (EBC) at the Old Opera house in Frankfurt, Germany November 16, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

April 1, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank needs to keep providing substantial stimulus to combat risks related to geopolitical uncertainties, ECB President Mario Draghi said in the bank’s 2018 annual report on Monday.

“Substantial monetary policy stimulus remains essential to

ensure the continued build-up of domestic price pressures over the medium term,” Draghi said, repeating the ECB’s long-standing policy message.

“In view of the persistence of uncertainties related to geopolitical factors, the threat of protectionism and vulnerabilities in emerging markets, the conduct of monetary policy in the euro area will continue to require patience, prudence and persistence,” he added.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi)

Source: OANN

0 0

Imperiled Doug Jones to Back Dems' Presidential Nominee

X

Story Stream

recent articles

For any other Democrat, the move would not be remarkable. For Sen. Doug Jones, the Democrat from Alabama, it could complicate his already precarious bid for re-election. He just pledged to support whomever Democrats nominate for president.

“Whatever we’re going to do, we will end up supporting the nominee,” Jones told Alabama voters on Friday. “I’m not going to run away from that. And I’m going to hope to have some of my colleagues come down here.”

That 2020 nominee remains unknown, of course, with the primary season still nearly a year away. Like the rest of the electorate, voters in Alabama are still getting to know the dozen-plus presidential aspirants. History indicates they might not like what they find.

The state known as the Heart of Dixie soured early on the last candidate Democrats nominated. Hillary Clinton would lose there to Donald Trump by more than half a million votes, a nearly 30 percentage-point margin. The state was so bright red in 2016 that Clinton never even visited.

Democrats will likely have a hard time improving on that record next year. Some of the candidates lining up to challenge Trump are much farther to the left ideologically than Clinton.

Whoever gets the nod will share a ticket with the Southern moderate Jones. He is just one of two Senate Democrats running for re-election in states that Trump carried, and his second race is expected to be substantially more difficult than his first.

Jones, who became the first Senate Democrat to win in the state in a quarter-century, was considered something of a “fluke” among the Alabama political class. He owes his seat less to any genius strategy than to a disgraced Republican opponent. He had the good fortune to run against Roy Moore, the former state Supreme Court judge who appeared to be a shoo-in until allegations of sexual dalliances with underage girls surfaced.

Moore drew national condemnation, and Jones went on to win the special election for the seat vacated by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But just barely: He prevailed by less than two percentage points (just 22,000 votes).

Those political circumstances make Jones a marked man as he seeks a full six-year term. The National Republican Senate Committee sees Alabama as a prime pickup opportunity, and survival in the Deep South hinges on striking a moderate tone.  Jones has delivered so far by bucking party brass, siding more than once with Republicans and shying away from criticism of Trump. During his first year in the Senate, he voted with the president more than 50 percent of the time, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight.

Pointing to that record, Jones told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” that he is “as close to the middle as you can possibly get.” Summing up the Southern political climate, the senator told the talk show host, “That is just where we are as a party in the South. … I call it the radical middle.”

Republicans see it differently. Rep. Bradley Byrne, who plans to run for the seat, told RealClearPolitics that the early 2020 endorsement is more evidence that Jones “is a die-hard liberal.”

“It is no surprise to hear he will support the Democrat nominee for President in 2020 — whoever it is,” Byrne said in a statement. “This Democrat Presidential primary is a race to see how far to the left they can go, and I look forward to Doug Jones defending radical ideas like the Green New Deal and infanticide to Alabama voters.”

The early endorsement may be evidence of another harsh political reality. While the presidential nomination is anyone’s guess at this point, the odds seem to favor Democrats picking a senator to challenge Trump. Six of Jones’ colleagues are already in the race.

One longtime Alabama strategist told RCP that Jones would be seen as unserious if he were to remain coy and withhold his support.

“I think it is one of those things where he doesn’t want to be too cute by half,” said David Mowery, who has worked for both Democrats and Republicans. "If it is a fellow senator, it will be hard not to endorse. I just don’t think anyone would believe it.”

The strategist agreed with the conventional wisdom that Jones is essentially a dead man walking. Endorsing early appears to be part of an effort to counter a political deck that’s stacked against him.  “The hope,” Mowery concluded, “is that voters say, ‘We knew that, but we like Doug.’” 

0 0

AP PHOTOS: Teen gunmen unleashed terror, chaos at Columbine

On April 20, 1999, two teenage gunmen dressed in black trench coats went on a killing rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver.

They shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded two dozen others in what was then the United States' deadliest school shooting. The boys then took their own lives.

The shooting shocked the country as it played out on TV news shows from coast to coast. Images from the scene showed terrified students fleeing the school, SWAT officers waiting to enter and an injured boy trying to escape through a window.

Source: Fox News National

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

Source: OANN

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

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

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

Title

Artist