RSN: Marc Ash | A Conclusion Without a Report

25 March 19 Down But Not Out We have great people contributing to Reader Supported News. These are wonderful contributions coming in. But there is a problem! We MUST find a way to get more of you to join them. The numbers are still unworkably low. This is a fight we must win. We will not walk away from it. Marc Ash Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Update My Monthly Donation If you would prefer to send a check: Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts, CA 95611

25 March 19 AM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News NEED A QUICK START ON DONATIONS THIS MORNING - Yesterday was quite a bad day. Need to catch up a bit today. Normally if we get a good start early, it sets the tone for the entire day. Can you help with that? / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! RSN: Marc Ash | A Conclusion Without a Report  Marc Ash, Reader Supported News Ash writes: "What does Mueller's report actually say? We are still not permitted to know." READ MORE Attorney General William Barr departs his home on Friday in McLean, Virginia. (photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images) William Barr Can't Exonerate Donald Trump David R. Lurie, Slate Lurie writes: "Despite what the attorney general's letter to Congress states, his argument clearing the president of obstruction goes against established law and is profoundly dangerous." READ MORE A little girl holding a Trump campaign sign. (photo: Getty Images) Report: Donald Trump Campaign Visit Preceded Rise in Hate Crimes Ibn Safir, The Root Safir writes: "According to the Washington Post, counties that hosted Donald Trump rallies saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes in the months following Trump's stop in town." READ MORE Two women exchanging rings. (photo: Getty Images) Alabama Lawmaker Wants to Eliminate All Marriage Licenses Rather Than Issue Them to Same-Sex Couples Casey Quinlan, ThinkProgress Quinlan writes: "In response to probate judges refusing to issue marriage licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage, a Republican lawmaker sponsored a bill to get rid of marriage licenses altogether." READ MORE After the 2016 election, Katie Fahey wrote in a Facebook post that she wanted 'to take on gerrymandering in Michigan.' (photo: David Eggert/AP) Supreme Court Again Considers Partisan Gerrymandering, but Voters Are Not Waiting Robert Barnes, The Washington Post Barnes writes: "It is an issue that has vexed the Supreme Court, and it returns to the justices this week in cases from North Carolina and Maryland." READ MORE Joaquin Joao Chidja, 16, dries his family photos on the roof of a commercial building in Buzi, Mozambique, where the death toll from the cyclone has now reached 446. (photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images) Cyclone Idai Death Toll Passes 750 With More Than 110,000 Now in Camps Guardian UK Excerpt: "Cyclone Idai's death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers try to restore electricity and water and prevent an outbreak of cholera." READ MORE Smoke rises from a fire burning at the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park, east of Houston, Texas, U.S., March 18, 2019. (photo: Jaimie Meldrum/Reuters) Planned US Oil Storage Boom Faces New Scrutiny After Tank-Farm Fire Collin Eaton, Reuters Eaton writes: "A three-day petrochemical fire that spread a cancer-causing chemical and thick smoke over Houston suburbs this week has spurred calls for tougher safety regulations that could affect a nearly dozen crude-export terminals proposed for the U.S. Gulf Coast." READ MORE Contribute to RSN Update My Monthly Donation

CorpWatch: Credit Suisse Condemned For Secret Military Loans To Mozambique

Credit Suisse Condemned For Secret Military Loans To Mozambique by Richard Smallteacher, Special to CorpWatch May 9th, 2016

Interceptor boat bought by Mozambique. Photo: CMN. Activists have condemned Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia for lending $850 million to Mozambique in 2013 that was used mostly to buy military equipment, despite telling the public that the money would be used to buy fishing boats. Today Mozambique says it cannot repay the money and has been negotiating to issue a new set of bonds at 14.4 percent interest to pay off the original loans. "Credit Suisse is responsible along with the Mozambican government for these debts being hidden from the Mozambican people and the IMF (International Monetary Fund)," Tim Jones, a policy officer at Jubilee Debt Campaign, said in a press release. "It is unjust to lend money for military purposes, and irresponsible and undemocratic for such debts to be covered up. Credit Suisse and VTB should pay the price for these illegitimate loans, and should not be bailed out by the IMF or anyone else." At the time that the loans were made, investors were eager to put their money into the southern African country, which has historically ranked in the poorest ten in the world, after the government and the oil industry announced that the country had found 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. So the Swiss bank helped Mozambique issue $500 million in bonds at 8.5 percent interest to buy boats for Empresa Mocambicana de Atum (Ematum), a state owned tuna fishing company. VTB helped Ematun issue a further $350 million in bonds. Unknown to the public, Credit Suisse also made an additional $622 million loan for the military equipment, which was revealed last month in the Wall Street Journal. At the time of the loan, Credit Suisse assured the media that the money was solely for fishing boats. "There are no weapons or combat systems of any kind on any of the vessels being built under the EMATUM contract," Adam Bradbery, a Credit Suisse spokesman, told Bloomberg news via email. VTB made a similar statement. "This is for fishing boats, for training centers, for spare parts and for patrol boats to protect fishing business and waters of Mozambique," Makram Abboud told the news agency. "We have always said it’s infrastructure to support the fishing industry. That means all infrastructure to reduce the risk of the boats being taken over by pirates the next day or stolen." Although Ematum did buy 24 fishing vessels from Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) in France, most of the money was used by a different Mozambican state owned company named Proindicus to buy Interceptor ships and radar installations from CMN for the country's navy. In theory the Interceptors were intended to protect the tuna boats from pirates, but it turns out that the Ematum brought in just $450,000 of tuna last year, a fraction of the $18 million that it was projected to bring in. One journalist was told that the 24 fishing boats that were bought for Ematum have been abandoned completely. "Sorry sir, we don't have tuna on the menu," Raul, a waiter at a restaurant in the Maputo harbor right next to where the fleet is anchored, told Reuters news agency. "The boats never go out. They are resting." Today Mozambique debt rating has been slashed to selective default. The country has also borrowed heavily for other projects such as $725 million to pay for China Road and Bridge Corporation to build a bridge that will connect the port of Maputo to Catembe to replace the current ferry system and a $300 million contract to create a digital TV system for the country. That contract was won by StarTimes, a Chinese company whose local subsidiary is run by the daughter of Armando Guebuza, the former president. As a result, between 2012 and the present day, Mozambique's national debt has more than doubled from $6 billion to $12.5 billion with annual debt payments alone amounting to  $12.5 billion, one eighth of the country's gross domestic product. The Wall Street Journal revelations have had an immediate impact. Less than a fortnight after, the IMF canceled a plan to meet with the country to discuss a $55 million loan disbursement. "Undisclosed borrowing exceeds $1 billion and significantly changes our assessment of Mozambique's macroeconomic outlook," Antoinette Sayeh, the Africa director of the IMF, told a press conference. "We are currently ascertaining in cooperation with the authorities, the facts regarding this borrowing." The loans have also created a headache for Tidjane Thiam, the new CEO of Credit Suisse, and an African citizen himself, who had denounced such loans just months prior. "I did a lot of infrastructure development in my life," Thiam told a Financial Times conference on African business in October 2015. "To fund them with foreign currency is madness. OK? Madness." http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=16076

RSN: Senate Panel Sets Hearing on Keystone XL, The NYPD's Insubordination, and Why the Right Should Oppose It, Toddler Kills Mother With Her Own Gun

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Medea Benjamin | 10 Good Things About the Year 2014

Medea Benjamin, Commmon Dreams
Benjamin writes: "It's been a year of fervent activism on police accountability, living wages, climate change, personal freedoms, immigrant rights, an open internet and diplomacy over war."
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2014 Exposed the US Myth of Equality Under the Law
Christian Christensen, Al Jazeera America
Christensen writes: "The description of the United States as the world's policeman has always been laced with a heavy dose of irony and sarcasm. In democratic societies, the police are meant to uphold the law, but the U.S. has shown time and again that international legal conventions are not things to which the U.S. considers itself bound."
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The NYPD's Insubordination, and Why the Right Should Oppose It
Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Friedersdorf writes: "In New York City, 'NYPD traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses have dropped off by a staggering 94 percent following the execution of two cops,' the New York Post reports, attributing the 'virtual work stoppage' to rank-and-file police officers who 'feel betrayed by the mayor and fear for their safety.'"
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Palestinian Statehood Bid Falls One Vote Short, With US and UK Voting 'No'
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "The UN Security Council has rejected a Palestinian resolution calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to Israel's occupation by 2017."
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Toddler Kills Mother With Her Own Gun
Jamie Tarabay, Al Jazeera America
Tarabay writes: "A Walmart store in northern Idaho was the scene of the latest tragedy in a spate of accidental killings on Tuesday, when a toddler shot and killed his mother with the gun she was carrying in her purse, authorities said."
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Child Brides: Married Off in Mozambique
Katya Cengel, Al Jazeera America
Cengel writes: "Teenage pregnancy is a widespread problem in the developed and the developing world. But in this coastal country in southern Africa, it is often accompanied by early marriage, which, studies show, sets a girl up for a life of extreme poverty and deprivation."
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Senate Panel Sets Hearing on Keystone XL
Laura Barron-Lopez, The Hill
Barron-Lopez writes: "The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline next week. The hearing, announced Tuesday, will be the first one held by new Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)."
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