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Michael Avenatti's a 'fool' who seemingly exploited Stormy Daniels for attention, Tammy Bruce says

Radio host Tammy Bruce blasted attorney Michael Avenatti calling him a "fool" and mocking his recent legal troubles Tuesday while appearing on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“Look, what I really enjoyed, what was very important about your initial coverage of this fool was the fact that he appeared to be exploiting one of his clients, Stormy Daniels,” Bruce told Tucker Carlson. “He was making money from her and she was reduced to doing tours of strip clubs in the process of him representing her.”

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“I feel bad for her,” Carlson interjected. “I said that to him and he said that her stripping in some sad club in Richmond, Virginia, was an act of female empowerment.”

“You know when you're 7 years old... show me a 7-year-old who says, 'when I grow up I want to be stripping at some clubs,'” Bruce said.

Daniels, an adult-film star, cut ties with Avenatti last month.

Avenatti was accused Monday by federal prosecutors in New York of trying to extort between $15 and $25 million from sports apparel company Nike.

The attorney was charged with wire fraud and bank fraud in a separate case out of California

“And look, if all of the charges against him are true, this guy is like the 'Zelig' of criminals. So I mean, he's trying. He's trying to adjust or would seem to be involved in so many different kinds of behaviors and crime,” Bruce said, seemingly alluding to a 1983 film in which Woody Allen adapts to different environments.

Avenatti denied the charges in a "CBS Evening News" interview Tuesday. He cited unnamed "legal experts," who he said contended that he was "well within the line as an aggressive attorney."

Carlson and Bruce noted that just last year Avenatti was touted as a possible 2020 Democratic presidential contender.

AVENATTI SUGGESTS LOS ANGELES FRAUD CASE IS CONNECTED TO TRUMP

The conversation also addressed an appearance Avenatti made on “The View” last year where his sexual fantasies came up. Avenatti told the hosts they involved handcuffs.

“It looks like he's gotten one part of his dream fulfilled,” Bruce said.

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“We always get what we want in the end, don't we,” Carlson added.

“You do. You just watch out for what you wish for because you just might get it,” Bruce said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Italian students handed $30M fine after barbecue started massive forest fire

Two university students are accused of igniting a massive forest fire in northern Italy last December and they were hit with the bill for the damages: a cool $15.3 million each.

The two students – identified in the Italian press as Alessio Molteni and Daniele Borghi, both 22 – were having a cookout to celebrate the upcoming New Year at one of their grandparents’ mountain-side homes near Lake Como when the blaze broke out.

Molteni told La Stampa that he and Borghi immediately called the fire department and “threw ourselves into the flames to try to extinguish them.”

FORMER NFL STAR IS HELPING TO REBUILD 3 LOUISIANA CHURCHES RUINED IN ARSON ATTACKS

He claimed they were “scapegoats” for the blaze and that their barbecue did not spark the forest fire because there were “many outbreaks.”

Prosecutors said they traced the path of the fire back to the mountain-side property and said it had started from the embers from the barbecue.

MACRON’S VOW TO REBUILD NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL WITHIN 5 YEARS UNREALISTIC, SOME EXPERTS SAY

The fire, which last several days, destroyed almost 2,500 acres of forest on Monte Berlinghera, the BBC reported

The fine was calculated by forest police based on an established formula under local laws, which calls for a fine of $135 to $670 per square meter. The estimated damage was calculated at some 6,840 square meters, La Stampa reported.

His attorney, Ivana Anomali, slammed the fine, telling La Stampa that fining the two students such a huge sum made no sense because they would never be able to pay it.

“What is the sense of imposing a sanction of €13.5 million ($15.3 million) each knowing that these two kids, who are still students, cannot pay it,” she said.

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Prosecutors told local outlet Il Giorno Como that the fine was a “signal that we need to push people to greater responsibility in protecting the environment.”

Source: Fox News World

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Rashida Tlaib calls for hunger strikes to shut down ICE

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) urged her supporters to join her in a hunger strike to push for action to "shut down" U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arguing the radical push to abolish ICE can't be achieved by Congress.

Tlaib, headlining a Detroit fundraiser this past weekend for the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, complained of colleagues who are constantly "policing" what she says and lack willingness to embrace bold stands such as abolishing ICE. She called on her activist audience to join her in a hunger strike at the border.

"It's going to take movements outside the halls of Congress," Tlaib told the crowd, according to video captured by America Rising, a conservative group.

AOC BACKS TLAIB'S IMPEACHMENT RESOLUTION

"I want you all to shut them down, we can shut them down," Tlaib said to applause. "Don't wait for this Congress to act, shut them down."

"I know what they're going to say, they'll go, ‘What do you mean Rashida?' Well I'll tell you. There are some people that are using hunger strike, all these other things, going to the border, and I plan to."

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon

Source: Fox News Politics

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Reality TV private eye in court accused of plan to scare sexual assault victim into not testifying

Former reality TV private investigator Vincent Parco was in a New York courtroom on Monday facing charges that he hatched a plan to scare a sexual-assault victim from taking the stand against his client, a now-convicted pedophile.

Parco was charged with unlawful surveillance, promoting prostitution and tampering with a witness.

The "Parco P.I." star, his client Samuel Israel, 45, and ex-associate Tanya Freudenthaler, are accused of trying to silence the woman into not cooperating in the prosecution of Israel by blackmailing her family.

NEW YORK MAN, 80, CHARGES IN 1973 KILLINGS OF TWO 19-YEAR-OLD WOMEN IN BEACH COTTAGE

Israel, who pleaded guilty to charges of criminal sex act and witness tampering, was sentenced in October to 8 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old family member for 6 years. During his trial, he also confessed to hiring Parco, the 69-year-old mustachioed Court TV private eye, to terrorize the woman so she wouldn't testify against him.

Israel said he paid Parco $17,000 to set up and record a relative of the victim with prostitutes.

Prosecutors say Parco and Freudenthaler lured a family member of the victim to a hotel room in Sunset Park on Dec. 17, 2016, where she and Parco had installed video recording equipment. They also hired a prostitute who they tried to record having sex with the family member but the equipment malfunctioned. Two days later, Freudenthaler set up another meeting - this time with two prostitutes. The family member was secretly recorded with both women.

Prosecutors say on January 17, 2017, the family member who was recorded at the hotel was "approached by a stranger wearing a scarf who showed him a cell phone video of the hotel encounter and stated: 'Be smart. Stop making trouble.'"

Instead of backing down, the family member reported the incident to the district attorney's office.

As this was playing out, Israel's court case was proceeding and a trial date was set for June 26, 2017.

"On June 22, 2017, a stranger approached another member of the victim's family and showed that person a cell phone containing video from the hotel," prosecutors said.

8 REALITY TV TRAGEDIES

Soon after, a third person contacted the family member and allegedly "offered to act as a mediator" and said he would get the incriminating video from Israel, destroy it and "obtain a statement from Israel admitting to his crimes as 'insurance' in the event the video gets released" but warned the family member not to go to the police.

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The family member almost immediately reported the incident to the authorities.

The District Attorney's office issued search warrants and the steamy video was found on Parco's computer.

Source: Fox News National

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Male rape emerging as one of the most under-reported weapons of war

It is one of the darkest, most secretive weapons used in war. But slowly, the widespread nature of sexual abuse of boys and men is being cast under anguished limelight as survivors and activists seek more awareness and perpetrator accountability.

“I didn’t see him because they blindfolded us before the interrogation, but I heard the officers calling for Abo Somar to torture me,” Marwan al Qarout, 38, told Fox News of his abuser. “He hit me on my genitals and threatened me with cutting it off so I could not ‘re-produce terrorists.’ After an hour of hitting me, another (torturer) came. He stuck a rifle up my bottom.”

Qarout, a pseudonym, an activist who was peacefully demonstrating against the Syrian dictatorship led by Bashar al-Assad, was subsequently arrested by an Air Force intelligence branch on April 23, 2014, in his hometown of Homs City. He spent five months behind bars – five months marked by fear and the kind of abuse he lives over and over in his mind.

“I haven’t survived it,” he lamented, acknowledging that while he wants the perpetrators to be held accountable and punished by the international community, he has not sought any professional help and only a few close family members know about what he endured.

“People who know sympathize with me,” Qarout continued. “But all of us, all detainees have suffered from this problem in one way or another.”

GRUESOME RAPE, MURDER OF KASHMIR GIRL RAISES TENSIONS

And for fellow Syrian activist Khalid Terkawi, the screams of his fellow male detainees still echo the walls of his mind.

“First, there was a woman who had iron sticks inside her genitals. Then the men had wooden sticks shoved in their ass whenever the interrogator wanted to torture,” Terkawi, 34, who is now based in Istanbul but spent two different stints in detention for protesting the government, recalled. “But the victim cannot speak about this in our society.”

Throughout the eight-year civil war that has rubbled Syria and left more than half a million dead, sexual violence against women in detention has emerged as one of the horrific methods of torture at the hands of government forces. However, only now is it coming to light just how extensively male sexual violence too has – and continues to be – deployed against male detainees inside the dark walls of secrecy and shame.

The remnants of an ISIS prison in Raqqa, Syria (Fox News/Hollie McKay)

The remnants of an ISIS prison in Raqqa, Syria (Fox News/Hollie McKay)

A report released this month by Syrian rights organization Lawyers and Doctors for Human Rights documented 138 accounts of male detainee abuse, of which more than 40 percent detailed occurrences of sexual abuse ranging from forced nudity and sterilization, to the mutilation of genitals and rape, sometimes resulting in false confessions.

But the issue is hardly confined to the Syrian conflict alone.

“The scale of sexual violence against young males and men in conflict and near-conflict spaces represents a global epidemic that knows no borders,” said Ian Bradbury, CEO of 1st NAEF, a non-profit focused on humanitarian aid and assisting victims of all gender-based violence. “It has been observed prominently in Afghanistan, Iraq, Philippines, Indonesia, Syria, Nigeria, Libya, Sudan and other conflict zones. And it is not limited to these areas alone.”

Indeed, the Qaddafi regime was accused of male rape as a tool of war during the 2011 revolution in Libya, with the systematic tactic used by several different factions in the severed nation in the ensuing years. Videos and testimony collected in recent years by a Tunis-based advocacy group painted a painful picture of victims having been forced to rape other male detainees behind bars, as well as men being sodomized by objects such as rockets and broom handles.

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Rudolph Atallah, now chief executive officer of White Mountain Research, and former Africa Counterterrorism in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, also recalled hushed accounts of male sexual abuse throughout the conflicts spawning Bosnia and eastern Congo – pointing out that it also happens in conflict-riddled parts of Africa under the auspice of witch doctor creed that sometimes claims raping young boys can bring about cures for major diseases like HIV.

“It breaks the victims down so much, it is often impossible for them to talk openly,” he said. “There is so much stigma, so much taboo. For the perpetrator, it’s about dominance and control that destroy a victim internally, make them feel no longer male.”

Moreover, a report released by Amnesty International earlier this month, following a detailed investigation, illuminated that boys as young as eight have been raped in the Yemeni city of Ta’iz. Many of the suspected perpetrators, according to Amnesty, belong to militias aligned with the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led Coalition.

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2017 file photo, tribesmen loyal to Houthi rebels chant slogans during a gathering aimed at mobilizing more fighters into battlefronts to fight pro-government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2017 file photo, tribesmen loyal to Houthi rebels chant slogans during a gathering aimed at mobilizing more fighters into battlefronts to fight pro-government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

Two medical reports viewed by Amnesty indicated signs of anus lesions on two of the survivors, which was consistent with their testimony.

In one case, a 16-year-old boy recalled being raped in December 2018 by an Islahi-affiliated militiaman in Ta’iz, describing how he was beaten with a rifle and pushed to the ground. He was unable to sit or go to the bathroom for days, his complexion drained and yellow, his psychological state marked by sheer fright. His mother reported the incident to the Ta’iz Criminal Investigations Department who issued an order for a forensic medical exam. Yet according to the investigation, the doctor too was under militia control and refused, the hospital wanted money that the mother was not able to produce, and the report was never finished.

“Considering all of the problems the international community is trying to tackle in Yemen, I don’t think anything is really being done,” noted Philippe Nassif, Amnesty’s advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, with regards to the issue of sexual abuse amid a war that has left more than eleven million people starving and more than one hundred thousand dead. “This is an issue that has always existed in Yemen, but it has only gotten worse because of the conflict. We know it is taboo, but it is being weaponized. That demands the international community face it.”

Earlier this month amid the backdrop of citizen outrage, Yemen’s government was prompted to establish a committee to investigate the cold-blooded killing of Raafat Danbaa in the port city of Aden, who was slain seemingly in retaliation for testifying against militiamen accused of raping a seven-year-old boy amid the protracted conflict.

Accusations of sexual abuse also plague the Iran-backed Houthi rebels on the other side of the conflict, who continue to control pockets of northern Yemen and the capital city Sana’a. Psychologists treating former child soldiers forced to fight for the Houthis told Fox News last year that at least 50 to 60 percent of the boys aged between 12 and 15 had experienced some form of sexual abuse at the behest of their superiors.

ESCAPE FROM ISIS: YAZIDI WOMAN RECOUNTS LIFE AS A SEX SLAVE

And while females undoubtedly constitute the overwhelming majority of sexual violence in conflict overall, researchers believe that in some conflict-riddled countries, men make up more than a quarter of the survivors. The UN notes that sexual violence against males in armed conflict is common, but no accurate statistics are available. The sense of disgrace that pervades the notion of male sexual abuse means that not only is it rarely even acknowledged, but little help is sought out or even offered as the psychological wounds bleed soundlessly.

“Male victims suffer in silence. We have a care gap – young male victims of sexual violence in conflict are not being recognized as victims, let alone being treated as such,” Bradbury explained. “The risks associated with not addressing this care gap is likely to be an increased probability of failed peace processes, due to the increased likelihood that these victims could go on to repeat cycles of violence if they remain untreated.”

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018 file photo, former child soldiers stand in line waiting to be registered with UNICEF to receive a release package, in Yambio, South Sudan. In an interview with The Associated Press in civil war-torn South Sudan, Romeo Dallaire, the former commander of the failed U.N. peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide, says the current approach to combatting child soldier recruitment is not "sufficient". (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018 file photo, former child soldiers stand in line waiting to be registered with UNICEF to receive a release package, in Yambio, South Sudan. In an interview with The Associated Press in civil war-torn South Sudan, Romeo Dallaire, the former commander of the failed U.N. peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide, says the current approach to combatting child soldier recruitment is not "sufficient". (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)

And in some countries where homosexuality is outlawed, survivors are even at risk of being arrested by law enforcement – under the presumption of being gay – should their trauma ever be brought to light. Historically, medical and legal personnel have lacked the training and preparation needed to address or identify male victims, contributing to the silent nature of the crime – a critical GAP that individuals such as Karen Naimer, Deputy Director of Programs and Director of the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), is purporting to mend.

“We work with local clinics, doctors, nurses, police officers, lawyers and judges to help them understand that these are very legitimate experiences and to help improve not only access to care and treatment; but to allow the survivor to come forward with a dignified experience,” Naimer explained.

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A prominent portion of PHR’s work in recent times has been centered in the northern swaths of Iraq, in which thousands from the Yazidi community are recovering from being brutally targeted as sex slaves under ISIS occupation. While the vast number of survivors are female, Naimer said that, anecdotally speaking, there too are male survivors of sexual abuse from under the ISIS reign.

“We are seeing strides we are seeing a shift in attitudes and behaviors,” she added with regards to the openness and willingness of war-torn communities to treat male sexual assault victims over recent years. “But it is going to take a lot more time, and a lot of commitment and investment to really see the change that is needed.”

Source: Fox News World

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Sen. Graham Rips Dems’ ‘Oliver Stone Approach’ to Mueller Findings

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., slammed Democrats' response to special counsel Robert Mueller Russia report findings as an "Oliver Stone approach" in a new interview.

Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was on Fox News on Thursday afternoon to discuss Mueller's findings — which were summarized in a brief memo released by Attorney General William Barr last weekend.

"Do you really believe that Bill Barr would give us a summary of the key findings and it not be supported by the report? Give me a break," Graham said. "I mean, this whole Oliver Stone approach to the Mueller report by Democrats is getting a bit old."

Some Democrats, in particular House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said this week they still believe there is evidence President Donald Trump conspired with the Russians to win the 2016 election — despite Mueller concluding Trump did not collude.

Graham called Schiff "the Jim Garrison figure, trying to look for somebody who actually shot President Kennedy. This is getting to be a bit ridiculous. He told us time and time again he knows there's collusion, he's seen evidence of it. Well, Mr. Mueller undercut that narrative.

"So, Adam Schiff's got to make a decision about his political future. Does he want to be the guy that won't let it go when the authority of the investigation, Mr. Mueller, has concluded there was no collusion?"

Source: NewsMax America

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Huckabee lashes out at Trump critic Romney: ‘Makes me sick’ you could have been POTUS

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lashed out at Sen. Mitt Romney after the Utah Republican said he was “sickened” by the level of dishonesty from President Trump’s administration in response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“Know what makes me sick, Mitt? Not how disingenuous you were to take @realDonaldTrump $$ and then 4 yrs later jealously trash him & then love him again when you begged to be Sec of State, but makes me sick that you got GOP nomination and could have been @POTUS," Huckabee tweeted Friday.

Earlier in the day, Romney tweeted that it was good news that there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump with collusion or obstruction of justice. The former GOP 2012 presidential candidate then blasted Trump and his campaign for having contacts with Russians.

"I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President," Romney posted.

"I am appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia — including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement," he wrote.

Mueller's long-awaited report was released Thursday morning and contains nearly 900 redactions. It showed investigators found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. No conclusion was reached on whether Trump’s actions amounted to obstruction.

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Huckabee ran against Romney for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination and is the father of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Romney and Trump’s contentious relationship has been well documented, with both men having exchanged congratulations and insults over the years.

Source: Fox News Politics

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

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FLOOD WARNINGS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A government spokesman declined to comment.

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

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

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

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

Only for them to surge after the vote.

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

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

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

Source: OANN

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