UK’s credit rating downgraded by Moody’s

The UK’s credit rating has been cut over concerns about the UK’s public finances and fears Brexit could damage the country’s economic growth.

Moody’s, one of the major ratings agencies, downgraded the UK to an Aa2 rating from Aa1.

It said leaving the European Union was creating economic uncertainty at a time when the UK’s debt reduction plans were already off course.

Downing Street said the firm’s Brexit assessments were “outdated”.

The other major agencies, Fitch and S&P, changed their ratings in 2016, with S&P cutting it two notches from AAA to AA, and Fitch lowering it from AA+ to AA.

Moody’s said the government had “yielded to pressure and raised spending in several areas” including health and social care.

It says revenues were unlikely to compensate for the higher spending.

The agency said because the government had not secured a majority in the snap election it “further obscures the future direction of economic policy”.

It also said Brexit would dominate legislative priorities, so there could be limited capacity to address “substantial” challenges.

It added “any free trade agreement will likely take years to negotiate, prolonging the current uncertainty for business”.

Moody’s has also changed the UK’s long-term issuer and debt ratings to “stable” from “negative”.

Moody’s stripped Britain of its top-notch AAA rating in 2013.

The government said the latest downgrade followed a meeting on 19 September, and did not consider the prime minister’s speech on Friday, in which she outlined her vision for Brexit.

“The prime minister has just set out an ambitious vision for the UK’s future relationship with the EU, making clear that both sides will benefit from a new and unique partnership,” it said.

“The foundations on which we build this partnership are strong.”

It said it had a robust economic record and had made substantial progress in reducing the deficit.

“We are not complacent about the challenges ahead, but we are optimistic about our bright future.”

Consequences for borrowing

But Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Peter Dowd, called the downgrade a “hammer blow” to the economic credibility of the Conservatives and Chancellor Philip Hammond.

He pointed out that it was the second time the credit rating had shifted downwards under their government.

Credit rating agencies, in essence, rate a country on the strength of its economy – scoring governments or large companies on how likely they are to pay back their debt.

A rating downgrade can affect how much it costs governments to borrow money in the international financial markets.

In theory, a high credit rating means a lower interest rate, and vice versa.

Posted in BBC

China imposes limits on oil supply to North Korea

China is limiting its oil exports to North Korea to comply with new sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council last week, which include fuel import restrictions.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website on Saturday that China would limit exports of refined petroleum products from October 1, and ban condensates and liquefied natural gas immediately.

China will also ban textile imports from the North Korea, the ministry said.

Textiles are one of North Korea’s last major sources of foreign revenue following repeated rounds of UN sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods.

China accounts for about 90 percent of North Korea’s trade, making its cooperation critical to any efforts to derail Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

‘Too soon to tell’

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said that “it is too early to say how effective these new limits will be”.

He added: “Of course, it’s going to take months for the impact of these sanctions to be felt, but certainly banning imports of North Korea textiles will hurt the regime because textiles provides what the regime really needs most right now, which is hard currency.”

Chinese leaders were long North Korea’s diplomatic protectors but express increasing frustration with the government of Kim Jong-un.

OPINION: War on the Korean Peninsula is not inevitable

They supported the latest rounds of UN Security Council sanctions but are reluctant to push Pyongyang too hard for fear the government might collapse.

They also argue against doing anything that might hurt ordinary North Koreans.

Joseph Cheng of the Chinese University of Hong Kong told Al Jazeera that “China wants to demonstrate its support of the world community’s position dissuade North Korea from continuing to hold nuclear tests and long-range missile tests”.

But Cheng also said that Beijing understands that economic sanctions alone “will not be able to persuade Pyongyang to give up their programmes”.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump praised China for increasing financial restrictions, and has been pushing Beijing to apply more pressure to North Korea over it nuclear programme.

His comments came a day after he signed an executive order allowing Washington to ramp up sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear missile programme.

Trump said the measure would allow sanctions against “individuals and companies that finance and facilitate trade” with Pyongyang.

Also on Friday, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said his country could consider a hydrogen bomb test on an unprecedented scale on the Pacific Ocean – a threat, Japan labelled as “totally unacceptable”.

 

China limits oil trade to North Korea and bans textile trade

China has moved to limit North Korea’s oil supply and will stop buying textiles from the politically isolated nation, it said on Saturday.

China is North Korea’s most important trading partner, and one of its only sources of hard currency.

The ban on textiles trade will hurt Pyongyang’s income, while China’s oil exports are the country’s main source of petroleum products.

The tougher stance follows North Korea’s latest nuclear test this month.

The United Nations agreed fresh sanctions – including the textiles and petroleum restrictions – in response.

A statement from China’s commerce ministry said restrictions on refined petroleum products would apply from 1 October, and on liquefied natural gas immediately.

Under the UN resolution, China will still be able to export a maximum of two million barrels of refined petroleum to North Korea annually, beginning next year.

North Korea is estimated to have imported 6,000 barrels of refined petroleum daily from China in 2016 – the equivalent of nearly 2.2 million in total for the entire year.

But China has not published data on oil exports since 2014.

The ban on textiles – Pyongyang’s second-biggest export – is expected to cost the country more than $700m (£530m) a year.

Clothing has often partially been made in North Korea, but finished in China, allowing a Made in China label to be legally sewn onto the clothing, BBC World Service Asia-Pacific Editor Celia Hatton says.

China and Russia had initially opposed a proposal from the US to completely ban oil exports, but later agreed to the reduced measures.

North Korea has little energy production of its own, but does refine some petroleum products from crude oil it imports – which is not included in the new ban.

Petrol prices in Pyongyang have risen by about 20% in the past two months, the AFP news agency reports.

“It was $1.90 yesterday, today it is $2,” a petrol station employee told the agency. “I expect the price will go up in the future.”

North Korea also produces coal, some $1.2bn of which was exported to China in 2016, but China had already strictly limited its imports of North Korean coal earlier this year.

North Korea’s foreign minister is expected to speak at the United Nations General Assembly later on Saturday, amid an escalating war of words between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.

The North Korean leader earlier labelled Mr Trump “mentally deranged” and a “dotard” while Mr Trump labelled Mr Kim a “madman” in response.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the row was “like when children in a kindergarten start fighting and no-one can stop them“.

Mr Lavrov said a pause was needed, “to calm down the hotheads”.

The pair were at odds over President Trump’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if forced to do so in defence of the US or its allies.

He also mocked Kim Jong-un with a disparaging nickname, saying: “Rocket man is on a suicide mission.”

But the North Korean leader said remarks by the “deranged” US president convinced him he is right to develop weapons for North Korea.

In a personal address unprecedented from a North Korean leader, Mr Kim said Mr Trump would “pay dearly” for his speech, which he labelled “unprecedented rude nonsense”.

He said Mr Trump had insulted his country in the eyes of the world, and threatened to “surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire”.

Posted in BBC

Indonesia raises Bali volcano alert to highest level

THE NUMBER of tremors recorded at Bali’s Mt Agung volcano has increased again late Saturday after a lull during the morning.

Authorities say they still cannot predict when the mountain will erupt but with the threat level at its highest, an emergency response period has been declared.

And Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport (Denpasar International Airport) is preparing an emergency operations centre, in the event of an eruption closing the busy airport.

The Operations Section Head of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Misranedi, said today that airports in Lombok and Surabaya, in East Java, were being prepared as alternatives, assuming they too were not affected.

Misranedi said that taxis and buses would be provided to take people to the Padangbai seaport so they could go by boat to Lombok or Surabaya.

“We are preparing our emergency operation center (EOC). In the EOC, we will coordinate with the BMKG, Air Navigation, and all related parties. When the eruption happens and the airport must be closed, we have prepared alternative airports, such as Lombok airport and Juanda airport. I hope the two airport will not be affected by the eruption,” Misranedi said.

According to police almost 28,000 villagers living Mt Agung volcano have now been evacuated to shelters.

Hundreds of tremors, from deep within Mt Agung, are now being recorded daily as the majestic mountain rumbles into action for the first time in five decades.

In the 12 hours, from midnight on Friday until noon today, a total of 198 tremors were recorded.

The threat level was increased to four on Friday night, by the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation agency, the third time in the past week the level has been raised.

And the exclusion zone was doubled to 12km from the summit, a calculation based on the track of ash cloud and lava from the last time Mt Agung erupted, back in 1963.

The head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation ( PVMBG), Kasbani, said today that very small tremors had been detected at Mt Agung since its last eruption in 1963. These started to increase markedly last month and this month had reached an extreme level.

“Four days after we raised the alert level to level three, (earlier this week) there were extraordinary tremors … the biggest since 1963. So, we raised the alert level to level four,” Hasbani said.

Early on Saturday the tremors had started to decrease but by the afternoon were increasing again.

“We could not predict when the mountain will erupt,” he said.

Nor could they predict how long the eruption will last. But based on the 1963 eruption, it could be erupting for a year.

“However, we don’t know whether the eruption now will be bigger or smaller. If we see the eruption in 1963, it could take one year,” Hasbani said.

He said the 1963 eruption had seen hot ash clouds gush out with extraordinary speed, reaching 14km to the north, 12km to the southeast and 12km to the south and southwest.

At that time, rocks and lava the size of a human head had rained down.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head, Willem Rampangilei, said all people in the region 9-12km from the mountain must evacuate.

“We have prepared 500,000 masks to anticipate volcanic ash which is very important, because the ash is very dangerous,” Rampangilei said today.

“This is a very complex work. We should work hard to minimise victims. We keep hoping that the eruption will not happen. However, we should be ready for the best scenario if the eruption does happen,” he said.

“We have declared that we are in emergency response period for next one month. I hope, the eruption will not happen.”

TRAVEL WARNING

DFAT has updated its travel advisory, warning tourists to monitor the situation closely and follow instructions of officials, saying an eruption could impact air travel.

Bali tourist officials have also become frustrated at exaggerated reporting causing panic among tourists. Mt Agung is about 72km from the densely populated tourist district of Kuta and concern is highest for those locals living in the villages surrounding the mountain itself. The main concern for tourists is the expected closure of the airport and delayed flights should the mountain erupt.

ANIMALS FLEE

Indonesian media is reporting that wild animals — including snakes and apes — are panicked by the stirring volcano and moving through settled areas.

It’s been a growing trend over the past three days, the Tribun Kaltim news service says.

“It may be hot on Mount Agung. So the animals (come) out and to the settlement,” it reports district identity Jro Mangku as saying.

Men from a traditional village in the volcano’s shadow believe the descent of animals from the top of the mountain is one of “seven signs” an eruption will occur. Small numbers begin to move up to three months before an eruption.

“Maybe this is a sign — the sign of the mountain will erupt. This condition is not as usual,” Jro Mangku reportedly said.

Such an animal exodus was observed before Mount Agung’s previous eruption in 1963.

Other signs locals have come to expect before an eruption are yet to emerge. For example, there is no evidence of fine ash yet, which can cause skin to itch.

GROWING HAZARD

The Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation reports the volcano’s seismic activity has dramatically increased. “This number of seismicity is an unprecedented seismic observation at Agung volcano ever recorded by our seismic networks,” it said in a statement.

Earlier, the Department of Meteorology, Climate and Geophysics said in a statement there has been a “tremendous increase” in seismic activity at the mountain, indicating a greater probability of an eruption.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said overnight that the hazardous zone had been increased from 9km to 12km, covering an area encompassing about 240,000 people and prompting further evacuations. He urged people to “calm down” and seek reliable information.

“Estimated danger zones are dynamic and are being continuously evaluated. (They) are subject to change at any time following the most recent observation data,” Indonesia’s volcano observation authority warned.

‘KILLER’ VOLCANO

Indonesia’s volcano monitoring body, MAGMA, warns Mount Agung’s eruptions are characteristicly explosive and effusive — resulting in deadly pyroclastic flows of ash, rock and lava.

“In case of eruption, the potential primary hazard that may occur within a radius of 9km is pyroclastic fall of size equal to or greater than 6cm,” its website states.

But its modelling for some of the terrain around the volcano also shows such flows could cover 10km in less than 3 minutes.

“If an eruption occurs, there is considerable disaster potential,” it warns. “People around Mount Agung also do not have enough experience to face the eruption because this volcano last erupted … 54 years ago.”

Agung last erupted in 1963, unpleasing deadly pyroclastic flows which killed about 1100 people and hurling ash as high as 10 kilometres.

It is just one of 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” convergence of tectonic plates.

Emeritus professor Richard John Arculus of Australian National University has published a blog saying Mount Agung has produced some of the largest eruptions of the past 100 years.
“Our ability to predict eruptions has improved dramatically since this last event, so we can hope such a death toll will not occur again,” he writes.

“A primary line of evidence is the frequency and locations of earthquakes beneath the volcano, caused by upward flowing magma. Swelling and inflation of the volcano coupled with measurements of the temperatures and composition of gases emerging from the crater also give clues as to the likelihood of an eruption.

“So there is no need to be caught unawares by Mt Agung, providing the advice of the authorities, armed with expert assessments, is followed.”

 

Indonesia: Bali volcano highest alert issued

Indonesia has issued its highest level alert for a volcano on Bali, warning that an eruption on the popular tourist island could be imminent.

About 10,000 people have already been evacuated, with officials urging people to stay at least nine kilometres (5.6 miles) away from Mount Agung.

Tremors have been reported, and there are indications that magma is rising to the surface, the officials say.

More than 1,000 people died when Mount Agung last erupted in 1963.

“There should be zero public activity within the specified radius in case there is an eruption,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency was quoted as saying by Reuters.

One villager, I Wayan Suwarjana, told the AFP news agency: “Tremors happen very often, so we are afraid and I have taken all my family members to the refugee shelter.”

Early on Saturday, officials said that increased seismic activity was ongoing, hours after the alert level was raised.

The latest report from Indonesia’s volcano observatory for aviation said the likelihood of an eruption appears to be increasing. But it added that eruptions cannot be predicted with perfect accuracy.

Bali’s international airport in Denpasar, which is used by millions of foreign tourists each year, is currently operating as normal, the officials say.

Australia’s department of foreign affairs has issued an advisory for the region, warning travellers that a possible eruption could severely disrupt air travel.

Predictions about the potential eruption are based on the one in 1963, which saw the volcano expel large amounts of debris and extensive lava flows.

It also involved a pyroclastic flow – a dangerous fast-moving hot cloud of gas, ash and volcanic matter.

Mount Agung, which is more than 3,000m above sea level, lies in the eastern part of Bali.

It is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia – an archipelago prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes as it sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

 

Posted in BBC

Buck Sexton: Trump is pushing Kim Jong Un into a corner. Who knows what happens next?

President Trump is forcing North Korea’s hand.  With his executive order imposing new sanctions on entities that do business with the rogue nation, the president has sent a clear message to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that the United States will not be trifled with.

America is now in the midst of a nuclear standoff with the highest possible stakes.

The White House has cast aside the ineffectual “strategic patience” doctrine of the Obama era, and has replaced it with a demand for “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

Kim has responded with even more belligerent rhetoric, including calling our commander-in-chief a “mentally deranged dotard” in an official statement.

Much more troubling than the personal insult is Kim’s threat to detonate a thermonuclear device over the Pacific Ocean. Given recent North Korean provocations, including missiles fired over our close ally Japan, the threat of such a major escalation has to be taken seriously.

Nobody knows with any certainty how the Kim regime will respond. A government that uses mass hunger as a mechanism of control, that executes its citizens for the crime of carrying a Bible, and that maintains a vast modern-day gulag is thoroughly evil.

And given its absence of moral boundaries, the North Korean government is also unpredictable. Kim certainly doesn’t care how much his people suffer, and would likely be willing to sacrifice huge numbers of them in a military conflict of his choosing.

Many major wars throughout history have started under what appeared to be unthinkable, irrational circumstances. While it should not be overstated, North Korea certainly poses such a risk.

The Kim regime is a cult of personality presiding over a hyper-militaristic state steeped in both a siege mentality and promises of a glorious future victory. Its vast parades of troops and missiles, alongside its paranoid and aggressive propaganda, are not just for show.

Given this mentality and history of the Kim regime, catastrophic miscalculation is a dark specter that hangs above the Korean peninsula and it is growing.

This nuclear brinksmanship will not soon be resolved. For the Kim regime, weapons of mass destruction are more than just a bargaining chip. The very legitimacy of the Kim dynasty is built on its ability to defy international pressure and eventually reunify the Korean peninsula through force.

From Kim’s perspective, abandoning the very weapons that may neutralize the military advantage of South Korea’s allies would be irrational.

North Korea could live without nuclear weapons. But if Kim thinks he can’t, it won’t matter how much outside pressure is placed on his pariah state. His overriding motivation will be defiance, and his hostility to the United States and its allies will reach new heights.

This is why President Trump’s approach is fraught with risk. By disrupting the status quo on North Korea relations, he has accelerated the timetable. This could result in a rash response from the dangerous, vicious dictator who rules North Korea.

But after decades of delay by other administrations, President Trump is finally confronting the monster above the 38th parallel.  If he is successful and North Korea begins to denuclearize, it will be the most important diplomatic breakthrough of a generation, perhaps a lifetime.

But it’s very early, and we are in uncharted territory. President Trump is pushing Kim Jong Un into a corner. How the tyrant of Pyonyang responds will determine the fate of millions.

Russia: Trump and Kim are like ‘children in a kindergarten’

Russia’s foreign minister has likened the war of words between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un to a kindergarten fight between children.

The North Korean leader earlier labelled Mr Trump “mentally deranged” and a “dotard” after Mr Trump threatened to destroy his country.

Mr Trump responded with a tweet calling Kim Jong-un “a madman” who “will be tested like never before!”

Moscow’s Sergei Lavrov said a pause was needed, “to calm down the hotheads”.

“Yes, it’s unacceptable to silently watch North Korea’s nuclear military adventures but it is also unacceptable to unleash war on the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

He called for a political process, which he said was a key part of the United Nations Security Council process.

“Together with China we’ll continue to strive for a reasonable approach and not an emotional one like when children in a kindergarten start fighting and no-one can stop them,” he said.

The North Korean leader had attacked Donald Trump days after his speech at the UN, in which the US president said he would “totally destroy” North Korea if the US was forced to defend itself or its allies.

He also mocked Kim Jong-un with a disparaging nickname, saying: “Rocket man is on a suicide mission.”

But the North Korean leader said remarks by the “deranged” US president convinced him he is right to develop weapons for North Korea.

In an unprecedented personal statement, Mr Kim said Mr Trump would “pay dearly” for his speech, which he labelled “unprecedented rude nonsense”.

He said Mr Trump had insulted his country in the eyes of the world, and threatened to “surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”

Experts say this is the first time a North Korean leader has made a direct address to an international audience – and it merits serious and thorough consideration.

China also urged a calming of the heated rhetoric on both sides, saying the issue was “complicated and sensitive”.

“All relevant parties should exercise restraint instead of provoking each other,” said Foreign Minister spokesman Lu Kang.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme has demonstrated unprecedented progress this year. It recently conducted its sixth nuclear test and now claims it has miniaturised a nuclear warhead to fit on a long-range missile.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho earlier warned that Pyongyang could test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean in response to the US president’s threat.

That would demonstrate North Korea’s claimed thermonuclear capability as a credible threat.

But the risk of such a move would be very high. It is not certain that missile defence systems in the Pacific could intercept the missile, and the risk of accidentally striking Japan – over which recent tests have flown – could spark a serious conflict.

Earlier, Mr Kim’s comments had prompted swift criticism from the Japanese government.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a news conference on Friday: “North Korea’s remarks and behaviour are provocative to regional and international security, and they are absolutely unacceptable.”

Mr Trump on Thursday signed a new order boosting sanctions against North Korea, where the US treasury would target firms and financial institutions doing business with Pyongyang.

He said: “For much too long North Korea has been allowed to abuse the international financial system to facilitate funding for its nuclear weapons and missile programs.”

The UN Security Council had approved new rounds of sanctions earlier this month aimed at starving North Korea of fuel and income, which were in response to Pyongyang’s much-condemned sixth nuclear test on 3 September.

Posted in BBC

The latest gender discrimination allegations against Fox News, explained

Less than a month after parting ways with one of its hosts over allegations of sexual harassment, Fox News is being sued by a political commentator who says the network smeared her after she reported her rape.

Scottie Nell Hughes filed suit against the network on Monday, alleging that anchor Charles Payne raped her and then forced her into a years-long sexual relationship in exchange for promises of favors, according to Emily Steel at the New York Times.

In her suit, Hughes says Payne, the host of Making Money on Fox Business, raped her in July 2013. Then, she says, he coerced her into a relationship by offering her appearances on Fox News and Fox Business and the promise of a contributor contract at one of the channels, which she never received.

Hughes says she was blacklisted from the network after ending her relationship with Payne. She also says after she reported his actions this June, the network leaked a story to the National Enquirer that the two had engaged in an affair.

“In July of 2013, I was raped by Charles Payne,” Hughes told the Times. “In July of 2017, I was raped again by Fox News. Since then, I have been living an absolute hell.”

Meanwhile, Payne’s lawyer told the Times that the former anchor “vehemently denies any wrongdoing,” and the network labeled it a “publicity stunt of a lawsuit.”

The allegations, chilling on their own, are part of a growing pattern for Fox News. More than a dozen women have accused anchors and executives at the news network of sexual harassment and assault in recent years. And while Fox News made changes in 2016 in the wake of a suit against Roger Ailes, Hughes’s lawsuit alleges that the old practices of covering up allegations against powerful men are still very much in place.

At least five high-profile men at Fox News have now been accused of harassment or assault

The founder of Fox News, Roger Ailes, who died in May, was forced to resign in 2016 after more than 20 women, including former anchors Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly, accused him of sexual harassment. In her suit against Ailes, Carlson also accused Steve Doocy, her co-host at Fox & Friends, of “a pattern and practice of severe and pervasive sexual harassment,” including “mocking her during commercial breaks, shunning her off air, refusing to engage with her on air, belittling her contributions to the show, and generally attempting to put her in her place by refusing to accept and treat her as an intelligent and insightful female journalist rather than just a blond prop.” Doocy remains at Fox & Friends.

In April of this year, Fox dropped Bill O’Reilly, who had been accused of sexual harassment by five women. The accusations went back to 2002 and cost Fox more than $13 million, but O’Reilly wasn’t ousted until after a New York Times story on the complaints sparked an advertising boycott.

In August, Yashar Ali of HuffPost reported that Eric Bolling, a co-host of The Fox News Specialists, had been accused of sending unsolicited photos of male genitals to three women colleagues several years ago. Bolling responded by suing Ali, whose story had 14 sources. Fox News dropped Bolling and canceled The Specialists earlier this month, according to Steel at the Times, but the future of that lawsuit remains unclear.

Charles Payne is the fifth high-profile man at Fox to be accused of sexual harassment or assault in a two-year period. While workplace harassment remains distressingly common — at least a quarter of women in general have experienced it, according to the National Women’s Law Center — the many allegations against Fox anchors may reveal a larger cultural problem at the network, as Vox’s Constance Grady explains.

“Fox News is the network that in 2014 endorsed calling date rape ‘mistake sex.’ It’s the network that has joked about how female soldiers are ‘boobs on the ground,’” Grady writes. “Under the Fox News ideology of women, it makes perfect sense that powerful men like O’Reilly and Ailes would sexually harass their employees. They’re not doing anything more than practicing the theory Fox News has been espousing for years.”

The commentator who made the “boobs on the ground” remark, incidentally, was Eric Bolling.

As Steel reported after Bolling’s departure, Fox has made some changes since Carlson sued Ailes in 2016, including hiring a new head of human resources and urging employees to report misconduct. But in her lawsuit, Hughes says two Fox executives moved to discredit her allegations rather than dealing with them. She accuses Dianne Brandi, Fox’s executive vice president of legal and business affairs at skyypro News, and Irena Briganti, the executive vice president of corporate communications, of planting the story in the Enquirer, and says they “knowingly and maliciously aided and abetted the unlawful employment practices, discrimination and retaliation.”

It’s not clear what, if anything, will happen to Charles Payne, who denies any wrongdoing. Fox has called Hughes’s lawsuit “bogus” and promised to “vigorously defend” itself against it. The network suspended Payne in July after the publication of the National Enquirer story mentioned in Hughes’s suit. In the story, he apologized for an extramarital “romantic affair.”

Fox said in July that it was investigating Payne’s conduct. According to the Times, that investigation has concluded, and Payne is back at work.

Posted in VOX

Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico may be months without power

Hurricane Maria has knocked out power across the island of Puerto Rico, home to 3.5m people, officials have said.

Flash flood warnings cover the entire island, which continues to be lashed by heavy rain in the storm’s wake.

Meanwhile more pictures are emerging of widespread destruction on the small island of Dominica, hit on Monday.

Maria, now a category three storm, has been lashing the Dominican Republic further west and heading towards the Turks and Caicos Islands.

It is the second devastating storm to hit the Caribbean this hurricane season – the first being category five Irma earlier in September.

‘Our island destroyed’

US President Donald Trump said the storm had “totally obliterated” the US territory, and pledged to visit Puerto Rico.

The island’s Governor Ricardo Rossello described the hurricane as “the most devastating storm in a century” and said that Maria had hit the island’s electricity grid so badly that it could take months to restore power.

In pictures: Maria aftermath on Puerto Rico

The storm is being blamed for at least 10 deaths across the Caribbean. In Puerto Rico one man died after being struck by a board he had used to cover his windows.

The authorities have warned people to move to higher ground amid “catastrophic” flooding, and with up to 30in (76cm) more rain predicted by Saturday.

Images shared on social media show roofs being stripped away as winds as strong as 140mph (225km/h) whipped trees and power lines in Puerto Rico’s capital city, San Juan.

“God is with us; we are stronger than any hurricane,” Mr Rossello said. “Together we will rise again.”

The governor has asked President Donald Trump to declare the island a disaster area after the storm unleashed heavy flooding and life-threatening winds, and damaged infrastructure across the territory.

The US president is yet to do so, but has made federal emergency aid available.

Hurricane Maria: What to do before, during and after


At the scene: A city under curfew

By Will Grant in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Not far down the coast from the Puerto Rican capital, the small town of Cataño is trying to pick itself up after Hurricane Maria. The massive storm hit the town with incredible power when it swept over the island, tearing roofs off homes, flooding many houses and even destroying entire buildings.

The whole town is now gingerly making its way outside to begin the daunting task of clearing up. Some though, have nowhere to start.

I spoke to one resident, Juan Romero as he surveyed what’s left of his house: a tangled pile of wooden beams, rubble and twisted metal. “All I own is the clothes I’m wearing,” he told me. Nevertheless he was just thankful to have survived.

His neighbour then called me over to see her kitchen, its roof ripped clean off. Evelyn had also lost much, all her possessions are soaked and need replacing. However, it was concern for her aged mother that moved her to tears. At 101 years old she is too frail to be made to live elsewhere at this stage in life.

Just as I was leaving their street, a small piece of good news: Juan Romero found his two cats that had been missing in the ruins of his home, Blanca and Negra. Drenched and scared, they were at least alive.

“They’d had me worried”, Juan said with obvious relief.


What happened in Dominica?

The storm has cut a swathe through the Caribbean on its north-westerly trajectory, hitting Dominica on Monday night.

At least 15 people are dead and 20 others are missing on Dominica after Hurricane Maria, the Caribbean island’s prime minister has said.

Homes have been flattened, schools have been destroyed, telecommunications have been cut off and the island’s main hospital is still without electricity, he said.

On Thursday CNN posted footage from a flight over the island showing scattered debris from homes ripped open and thousands of broken trees.

An adviser to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, Hartley Henry, said on Facebook: “The country is in a daze – no electricity, no running water – as a result of uprooted pipes in most communities and definitely [no] landline or cellphone services on island, and that will be for quite a while.”

Images from the capital, Roseau, show some streets knee-deep in debris.

Aid agencies have been preparing to go to Dominica to provide relief.

Hours before reaching Puerto Rico, Maria barrelled through the St Croix in the US Virgin Islands as a category five storm, sustaining winds of up to 175mph (281km/h).

The French territory of Guadeloupe suffered flooding on Monday and one person was killed by a falling tree and another died on the seafront. At least two others were missing after their ship sank near Desirade, the easternmost island in the archipelago.

 

 

Posted in BBC

Tony Abbott head-butt: ‘No same-sex marriage link’

A man charged with head-butting former Australian leader Tony Abbott says the incident was nothing to do with the same-sex marriage vote.

Mr Abbott says he was assaulted by a man wearing a “vote yes” badge on Thursday in Hobart, Tasmania.

The politician is a prominent opponent of same-sex marriage, which is being voted on by Australians at the moment.

But Hobart DJ Astro Labe told Australian media that his actions were unrelated to the debate.

The 38-year-old said he was an anarchist who head-butted Mr Abbott “because I didn’t think it was an opportunity I’d get again”, the ABC reported.

He also told the Hobart Mercury that it was “personal hatred” for Mr Abbott that motivated the attack.

Thursday’s incident came as Australia holds a two-month poll on whether to allow same-sex marriage – an issue which has prompted fierce debate.

‘Liverpool kiss’

Mr Abbott, who was left with a swollen lip after the incident, had described it as “politically-motivated violence” and suggested it showed how nasty the discourse had become in recent weeks.

He said his attacker claimed: “You deserve it because of what you’ve said.”

“It was very disconcerting to find that the Love is Love brigade, or at least someone who was advocating a “yes” vote, should under the guise of shaking your hand actually give you a so-called Liverpool kiss,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.

Mr Labe told the Hobart Mercury that it was a coincidence he was wearing a “vote yes” sticker, saying he had it “purely because a friend of mine had walked past handing them out and had stuck one on my jacket”.

The attack dominated Australian news on Friday, with both sides of politics and marriage equality campaigners condemning the incident.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said earlier there was “zero tolerance” for violence and disrespectful conduct.

Alex Greenwich, the co-chair of Australian Marriage Equality, was also quick to denounce the incident.

“There is absolutely no place for violence in the marriage equality debate,” he wrote on Twitter. “This is about treating people fairly and with respect & dignity.”

Tasmania state police say they have charged a 38-year-old man with common assault. He has been granted bail and will appear in a local court on 23 October.

Last week, a man was charged with punching the godson of former prime minister Kevin Rudd in a dispute over same-sex marriage.

The results of the postal survey, due in November, could prompt a non-binding vote in parliament.

Posted in BBC