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Japan February manufacturing shrinks for first time since 2016 amid trade war-flash PMI

FILE PHOTO: Employees work an assembly line at a factory of Glory Ltd., a manufacturer of automatic change dispensers, in Kazo, north of Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: Employees work an assembly line at a factory of Glory Ltd., a manufacturer of automatic change dispensers, in Kazo, north of Tokyo, Japan, July 1, 2015. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

February 21, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese manufacturing activity contracted in February for the first time in two-and-a-half years as factories cut back output amid shrinking domestic and export orders, a private business survey showed on Thursday.

The survey also showed business confidence in Japan soured for the first time in more than six years, highlighting the growing toll that the U.S.-China trade war is inflicting on Asia’s export-reliant economies and global manufacturing.

The Flash Markit/Nikkei Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 48.5 in February from a final 50.3 in January.

The index fell below the 50 threshold that separates contraction from expansion for the first time since August 2016.

The pessimistic turn in business sentiment “comes as no surprise given the international headwinds Japanese manufacturers are facing such as a China slowdown and the global trade cycle losing further steam,” said Joe Hayes, economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey.

“Unless service sector activity can recover from January’s decline, the chance of Japan entering a recession in 2019 looks set to rise.”

The output component of the flash PMI index fell to a preliminary 47.0 from a final 54.4 in January to show the fastest contraction since May 2016.

Indicators of future activity were equally grim.

Total new orders – domestic and foreign – pointed to a sharper decline in demand than the previous month. Though export orders contracted at a slightly slower pace, it is unlikely to ease doubts about the outlook for overseas demand.

Companies also reduced their purchases of raw materials and other inputs for the second month running.

The PMI survey comes one day after government data showed Japan’s exports fell the most in more than two years in January as China-bound shipments tumbled.

Global trade has slowed over the past year as Washington and Beijing ramped up tariffs on each others’ goods, disrupting supply chains worldwide. At the same time, economic activity has been weakening noticeably in China and Europe.

Japan could face further weakness if the United States and China do not quickly resolve their differences over trade, some economists say.

Negotiators from both sides are racing to beat a March 1 deadline for a deal, though U.S. President Donald Trump has said that could be extended if an agreement appeared close.

Japan’s economy bounced back in the fourth quarter as business and consumer spending recovered from the impact of natural disasters, but trade frictions and a proposed sales tax hike are expected to hinder growth this year.

(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Kim Coghill; stanley.white@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441 1984 twitter.com/stanleywhite1; Reuters Messaging: stanley.white.reuters.com@reuters.net)

Source: OANN

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Trump on Smollett Case: FBI, DOJ to Review 'Embarrassment to Our Nation!'

The FBI and the Department of Justice will review the "outrageous" Jussie Smollett case in Chicago, President Donald Trump announced Thursday on Twitter.

Trump called this week's decision by Illinois prosecutors to drop all charges against the "Empire" star for allegedly fabricating a hate crime "an embarrassment to our Nation!"

FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. It is an embarrassment to our Nation!

On Tuesday, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office suddenly dropping the charges for allegedly filing a false police report after claiming in late January to have been beaten up and subjected to homophobic and racist slurs by two masked men in Chicago. Smollett forfeited his $10,000 bail as part of the deal.

The decision to drop charges has sparked a backlash from officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the public, prompting the actor's lawyer  to issue a blistering statement Wednesday accusing Chicago officials and police of trying to "smear" Smollett even after the case is closed.

"We are disappointed the local authorities have continued their campaign against Jussie Smollett after the charges against him have been dropped," said attorney Patricia Brown Holmes, "We should all allow Mr. Smollett to move on with his life as a free citizen."

Material from The Associated Press was use in compiling this report.

Source: NewsMax America

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After Paris violence, pressure mounts on Macron’s post-debate response

French President Emmanuel Macron holds a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron holds a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France March 18, 2019. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS

March 18, 2019

By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) – Just when Emmanuel Macron thought he had regained the upper hand over the yellow vest protest movement with his “great debate”, the latest flare-up of violence reminded the French leader that putting his reform agenda back on track won’t be easy.

Town hall meetings across France launched two months ago to defuse the unrest helped Macron reconnect with voters, boosting his popularity and lifting the gloom in the Elysee, even if some participants felt the encounters were a pointless talk shop.

But images of burning banks and ransacked restaurants on the famed Champs-Elysees in Paris this past weekend have put Macron back on the defensive – just as he mulls new policies to appease the “yellow vest” protesters.

“Saturday’s images of the Champs-Elysees threaten the early signs of appeasement that national debate seemed to have created,” Bernard Sananes of polling institute Elabe said.

Organizers of Saturday’s protest called it an “ultimatum”, seeking to intensify pressure on the 41-year-old president as he digests hours of facetime with mayors, high school students, workers and stay-at-home mothers, as well as 1.4 million online contributions.

“His debate may be finished but we are still here on the streets,” 43-year old unemployed Agnes told Reuters TV during the yellow vest march in Paris. “And if he does not satisfy our demands, we will take back the roundabouts, we will go and block everything.”

Whether it was a protesters’ swansong, as his interior minister suggested, or sign of an “endless crisis” as newspaper Le Monde put it in its editorial, Saturday’s destruction pointed to the tense environment in which Macron must make decisions that will shape the rest of his five-year mandate.

Aware of the dangers of high expectations and the limited wiggle room French public finances allow, Macron had visibly instructed his ministers to play down the scope of the announcements he said he would make before mid-April.

“Will we be able to implement all the recommendations and meet all expectations? No, because politics is about making choices,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.

But Macron’s aides acknowledge he will have to change both his style – critics say he is too controlling while voters have been angered by his perceived loftiness and arrogance – and allow for more participatory democracy.

RISK OF DISAPPOINTMENT

The option of a referendum – which has the advantages of appealing to those nostalgic for Charles de Gaulle’s taste for plebiscites while responding to the yellow vests’ key demand for more people’s votes – remains on the table. But the policy issues that could be put to a plebiscite are yet to be decided.

“The worst thing would be to end up with a great disappointment,” one presidential adviser said. “The president was clear, he does not want the post-debate period to be like the one before the debate.”

Less than three months before European elections that anti-establishment nationalists want to use as a show of force across the continent, a lost referendum could also backfire and offer Macron’s opponents an opportunity to challenge his legitimacy.

The anti-government protests have shown the French crave less inequality, between Paris and the poorest parts of the country as much as between the poor and the rich in general.

That’s why the worst violence since November has targeted the Champs-Elysees boulevard and its boutiques, symbols of an opulent, successful, bourgeois Paris that those who struggle to make ends meet in the provinces resent.

Reducing territorial inequalities and “making work pay” for the poorest was an integral part of Macron’s 2017 manifesto, his aides say, and they are confident households will start to feel the benefits of measures put in place in the last 22 months.

He gave priority early in his presidency to pro-business tax cuts over measures to help low-income workers, and that angered left-leaning voters.

With France having one of the world’s highest tax burdens, financing costly measures to reduce the sense of isolation in small towns and the countryside by adding more hospitals or re-opening closed schools would be difficult, Macron’s aides say.

That means his response is more likely to be a mix of symbolic measures meant to give more say to people and changes to education and training systems.

“We’ve reached the limits of spreading wealth,” one adviser said. “But the potential is huge for tackling the roots of inequalities. So we may have lost sight of some of our goals initially, but we’re firmly back on track now and accelerating.”

(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Hedge fund Appaloosa unimpressed by Allergan board promises

The Allergan logo is seen in this photo illustration
The Allergan logo is seen in this photo illustration November 23, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo

March 25, 2019

(Reuters) – Activist investor Appaloosa LP responded to proposed concessions from the board of Allergan Plc by saying it had done everything “except what needs to be done” and calling on other investors to take further “disruptive” steps to change the company.

The hedge fund, led by billionaire David Tepper, has been pressing Allergan since last year to separate the roles of CEO and chairman or potentially sell or merge the company.

Allergan on Friday agreed to split its chairman and chief executive roles, but only at its next scheduled leadership change.

“Unless the board intends to make a CEO transition in the very near-term, these measures are no more than a meaningless series of gestures intended to preserve the current system of lax oversight and further entrench management,” Appaloosa said in a statement http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20190325:nBw6QP7rwa.

“The status quo is unacceptable and disruptive measures are necessary for shareholders to convince this board that it must make the decisions required to fix the company or, if they are unwilling, sell it to a more capable acquirer or merger partner.”

(Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru)

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Estonian watchdog says unacceptable clients remain in banking system

FILE PHOTO: A Swedbank sign on the bank's Estonian headquarters in Tallinn
FILE PHOTO: A Swedbank sign on the bank's Estonian headquarters in Tallinn, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

April 10, 2019

By Tarmo Virki and Johan Ahlander

TALLINN (Reuters) – Unacceptable clients remain in the Estonian banking system despite tougher regulation, the country’s financial watchdog said on Wednesday, adding that some lenders will be placed under detailed monitoring.

The move by Estonia’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) follows a special review of the country’s 16 banks, instigated after 200 billion euros ($225 billion) of suspicious payments were last year found to have moved through Danske Bank’s small Estonian branch.

“Despite the implementation of know-your-customer measures there are clients who are not acceptable for the Estonian financial system,” FSA board member Andre Nomm told a news conference.

The money laundering crisis deepened when Swedish lender Swedbank was linked to the scandal in February.

Swedbank is the subject of a joint investigation by the Swedish and Baltic financial watchdogs after media reports said the bank knew about transactions worth up to 20 billion euros a year from high-risk, non-resident clients through its Estonian branch between 2010 and 2016.

Nomm said the risks to Estonian banking from serving non-residents have been substantially reduced and that the majority of the banking was now focused on serving local business and private clients.

However, he said some banks, including Swedbank, had been put on detailed monitoring plans. Nomm declined to name the other banks but said they covered the entire spectrum of the country’s banking system.

“We are giving a single and consistent message to the managers of the banks that Estonia is no place for dodgy banking,” Nomm said in a separate statement.

Swedbank Chairman Lars Idermark quit last week, only days after the board ousted its chief executive over her handling of the money laundering scandal.

(Editing by Simon Johnson and David Goodman)

Source: OANN

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Australian election May 18 to be fought on refugees, economy

Australia's prime minister on Thursday called a May 18 election that will be fought on issues including climate change, asylum seekers and economic management.

"We live in the best country in the world," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters after advising the governor-general to authorize the election.

"But to secure your future, the road ahead depends on a strong economy. And that's why there is so much at stake at this election," he added.

Morrison's conservative coalition is seeking a third three-year term. But Morrison is the third prime minister to lead a divided government in that time and only took the helm in late August.

Opinion polls suggest his reign will become one of the shortest in the 118-year history of Australian prime ministers on election day. The polls suggest center-left opposition leader Bill Shorten will become the eighth prime minister since the country plunged into an extraordinary period of political instability in 2007.

The election pits Shorten, a former labor union leader who has presented himself as the alternative prime minister for the past six years, and Morrison, a leader who the Australian public is still getting to know.

Shorten said in his first news conference since the election was called that his government will take "real action on climate change" and reduce inequality in Australian society if his Labor Party wins power.

"Australians face a real and vital choice at this election. Do you want Labor's energy, versus the government's tiredness? Labor's focus on the future, versus being stuck in the past?" Shorten said.

Morrison is seen as the architect of Australia's tough refugee policy that has all but stopped the people-smuggling traffic of boats from Southeast Asian ports since 2014. The policy has been condemned by human rights groups as an abrogation of Australia's responsibilities as a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention.

Morrison's first job in Prime Minister Tony Abbott's newly elected coalition government in 2013 was as minister for immigration and border protection. He oversaw the secretive military-run Operation Sovereign Borders.

Asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia would typically disable or sink their boats when intercepted by patrol ships in waters north of Australia so that the Australian crews would have to rescue them rather than turn the boats away. Under the new regime, the asylum seekers were placed in motorized life boats that were towed back to Indonesia. The life boats had just enough fuel to reach the Indonesian coast. The Indonesian government complained the policy was an affront to Indonesian sovereignty.

The government has also maintained a policy adopted in the final months of a Labor government in 2013 of sending boat arrivals to camps on the Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Those who attempt to reach Australia by boat are told they will never be allowed to settle there.

Morrison remains proud of virtually stopping people-smuggler boat traffic. He has a trophy shaped like a people-smuggler's boat in his office inscribed with "I Stopped These."

Labor has promised to maintain the policy of banishing boat arrivals to the islands. But Labor says it would give priority to finding permanent homes for the asylum seekers who have languished in island camps for years.

The conservative coalition argues that the boats would start coming again because a Labor government would soften the regime. The government introduced temporary protection visas for boat arrivals so that refugees face potential deportation every three years if the circumstances that they fled in their homelands improve. Labor would give refugees permanent visas so that they have the certainty to plan their lives.

Climate change policy is a political battlefield in a country that is the world's largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas and has been one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters on a per capita basis because of its heavily reliance on coal-fired power generation.

Disagreement over energy policy has been a factor in the last six changes of prime minister.

Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced a carbon tax in 2012. Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott scrapped it two years later.

The coalition is torn between lawmakers who want polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions and those who reject any measures that would increase household power bills.

The government aims to reduce Australian greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Labor has promised a more ambitious target of a 45% reduction in the same time frame.

Action on climate change was a major priority for votes when conservative Prime Minister John Howard's reign ended after more than 11 years at an election in 2007.

Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd immediately signed up to the U.N.'s 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions. Australia and the United States had been the only industrialized countries to hold out.

Climate change dropped down the list of Australian priorities after the global financial crisis hit.

But after Australians sweltered through a record hot summer and grappled with devastating drought, global warming has become a high-priority issue for voters again.

The government warns that Labor's emissions reduction plan would wreck the economy.

The coalition also argues that Labor would further damage the economy with its policy of reducing tax breaks for landlords as real estate prices fall in Australia's largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne.

Morrison boasts that the conservative administration Prime Minister Howard led delivered 10 annual surplus budgets and paid off all federal government debt before the government changed at the 2007 election.

Rudd had planned a budget surplus in his government's first fiscal year, but the global financial crisis struck.

Many economists congratulate Rudd for keeping the Australian economy out of recession through stimulus spending. The coalition has accused Labor of spending too much and sinking Australia too deep in debt,

But debt has continued to mount since the conservatives regained the reins in 2013. But opinion polls suggest voters consider the conservatives to be better economic managers.

The government brought forward its annual budget blueprint by a month to April 2 and revealed a plan to balance Australia's books in the next fiscal year for the first time in 12 years.

Labor also promised to deliver a surplus budget in the year starting July 1, but it has yet to detail how it will achieve this goal.

Labor has also promised to spend an additional AU$2.3 billion ($1.6 billion) over four years on covering treatment costs of cancer patients. It's an attractive offer with half Australia's population expected to be diagnosed with some form of the disease in their lifetimes.

The conservatives have largely taken credit for Australia's remarkable run of 28 years of economic growth since its last recession under Labor's rule.

Morrison hopes that voters will look to him to deliver a sequel to the Howard years when a mining boom delivered ever-increasing budget surpluses.

Source: Fox News World

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Catholic cardinal calls mass migration ‘a new form of slavery,’ says Bible shouldn’t be used to promote it

A top African cardinal of the Catholic Church branded mass migration a “new form of slavery” and said those who seek to use the Bible to promote migration are pushing a “false" interpretation of the scriptures.

“It is a false exegesis to use the Word of God to promote migration. God never wanted these rifts,” Cardinal Robert Sarah said in a new interview with French publication Valeurs Actuelles.

POPE FRANCIS TAKES THINLY VEILED SWIPE AT TRUMP, CALLS OUT LEADERS WHO WANT WALLS

Sarah, who serves as the head of the Vatican's liturgy office, is often named in traditionalist circles as their hope to one day succeed Pope Francis. He's frequently made waves with his more conservative stances on liturgical practices, Islam, migration and other issues.

Those positions were on full display in the French article, in which Sarah, from Guinea, blasted priests and bishops who “say fuzzy things, vague, imprecise, to escape criticism, and they marry the stupid evolution of the world.” On Europe, Sarah said that the Church should not cooperate with the increasing acceptance by politicians of mass migration into the traditionally Christian continent.

“All migrants who arrive in Europe are penniless, without work, without dignity...This is what the Church wants?” he asked. “The Church can not cooperate with this new form of slavery that has become mass migration. If the West continues in this fatal way, there is a great risk that, due to a lack of birth, it will disappear, invaded by foreigners, just as Rome has been invaded by barbarians.”

Sarah added: “My country is predominantly Muslim. I think I know what reality I'm talking about."

POPE FRANCIS CALLS CHURCH CRITICS 'FRIENDS OF THE DEVIL' AS ABUSE VICTIMS DEMAND TO MEET HIM 

Sarah’s comments are in stark contrast to those from Pope Francis on the subject. Francis has repeatedly stressed the value of migration and has encouraged European countries, in particular, to open their border to flows of migrants coming from the third world.

Last week, he spoke in Morocco, the main destination for sub-Saharan African migrants seeking to reach Europe via Spain, and frequently mentioned migration.

"The issue of migration will never be resolved by raising barriers, fomenting fear of others or denying assistance to those who legitimately aspire to a better life for themselves and their families," Francis said.

He also praised Morocco’s efforts to allow religious coexistence and to promote moderate forms of Islam.

But Sarah is much more skeptical of whether the Church should be open to immigration. He cited the example of Poland, a Catholic country that has strict immigration policies, and said he had urged it not to sacrifice its Polish and Catholic identities “on the altar of a technocratic and stateless Europe.”

“She is free to tell Europe that everyone was created by God to be placed in a specific place, with its culture, traditions, and history,” he told the paper. “This current desire to globalize the world by suppressing nations, specificities, is pure madness.”

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In the interview, he urged Europe to avoid embracing materialism and forgetting its Christian heritage, warning that it could lead to the extinction of Europe itself.

“If Europe disappears, and with it the invaluable values of the old continent, Islam will invade the world," Sarah said. "And we will totally change culture, anthropology, and moral vision."

Source: Fox News World

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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)

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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)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

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

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

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

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

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

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FLOOD WARNINGS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

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