Veronika, 20, admitted on the show, which aired last night on 5Star, that she’s never had to worry about earning money, enjoying an allowance from her family, who also pay her bills and for her rented flat in Chelsea. 

She goes to stay with Brandon and Rachel Slater, who live in a rented three-bedroom house with their three children, Brooke, Declan and Olivia in Leeds, EvDEn eve NakLiyat who work multiple jobs to make ends meet. 

Thanks to her time with the family, who have only a couple of hundreds pounds left to enjoy after bills per month, Veronika gained a newfound appreciation of her privileged life, while the family were surprised by how ‘lovely’ she was. 

The 20-year-old was born in St Petersburg, but was raised in France and moved to the UK when she was eight. 

She was educated at Marlborough College, where the Princess of Wales also studied, and where tuition can reach £40,000 a year. 

The heiress lives alone, in a one bedroom flat in the affluent neighbourhood of Chelsea, with her dog, and likes to indulge in shopping trips to Selfridges  

‘I do love to take myself on a Selfridges trip when I can,’ she said. 

She is also the proud owner of a designer bag collection, however, most of them were not bought by her, and were inherited from her mother, now holding a sentimental value. 

‘A girl can never have too many bags,’ the heiress joked, adding that getting her hair extension, her hair cut and her nails done costs her up to £600 a month. 

Veronika said she hoped going to stay with the Slaters would teach her how to be more reasonable with her spending.  

‘I feel like this experience will teach me that it’s a lot easier to save up than I think, and I should be saving a lot more money than I do,’ she said. 

She travelled to Leeds to stay with the Slaters, whose financial reality was very different from hers. 

Brandon has an ‘on an off’ bouncy castle for hire business he’s kept going for 14 years.

To make ends meet, he’s turned to making toys for soft play in his free time, and sometimes picks up shifts as a carrier if the family needs extra cash, which has become a common occurrence for them in the face of the cost of living crisis. 

Brandon admitted on the show that he doesn’t know what he is going to make month-to-month, and whether he’ll have enough of one job to feed the family, or if he’ll need to take on three jobs at the same time to make ends meet. 

Meanwhile, Rachel works in a nursery and owns a floristry business on the side. 

While the family struggled financially, only being left with about £200 at most of disposable income for the month, Brandon and Rachel said they wouldn’t have it any other way. 

‘Money don’t matter, it can’t buy you hell,’ the father-of-three said. 

‘We’ve got everything.That’s worth more to me than what their dad’s given to them with their credit card,’ he added. If you have any inquiries regarding exactly where and how to use evDEN EVE nAkLiyaT, you can call us at our own web-page.  

The family spend £830 on rent, and £220 on a storage unit, plus on food for five and the essentials. 

They also have five pets: two dogs, two tortoises and a bearded dragon, which made Veronika feel like she was in a ‘petting zoo,’ she said when she visited. 

Asked what he expected the rich kid to think of his family, he said: ‘I think they will be shocked at how much work goes into what we do every day of life for a little money. 

‘I don’t know whether they have a job or just spend their mum and dads inheritance or money.

‘They’re certainly not going to do what I do for 50 quid, and they’re not going to do what I do for a 100 quid,’ he said, adding: ‘they probably spend that on a pizza.’

Veronika didn’t pack too many brands in the overnight bag she took to the Slaters, but still took her Chanel bag and Evden Eve NAkLiyAT a £300 woollen hoodie, EvdEn evE naKliyAt Gucci trainers, and a £150 pair of jeans. 

‘I’m just kind of getting ready to be independent from my family and making my own money, so seeing families that operate on a much tighter budget would be a good experience to prepare me for the real world,’ she said. 

Right after meeting, conversation between Veronika and the Slater turned awkward after the heiress admitted: ‘I’ve never had a paid job.But I’ve done work experience at places.’

She went on to say that the two things she has to spend money on per month is herself and her dog. 

One of the luxuries in the Slater household is a pool table they paid £800, and for which the couple saved for eight months in order to afford.  

The Slater family have not always struggled with money, but lost their savings after running into some life set backs. 

‘We’re not left with a fortune, couple of hundred pound a month leftover, before Declan decides he needs some new trainers for school, Brook needs new tights, it is a struggle at the moment,’ Brandon said. 

Brandon and Rachel also told Veronika they haven’t had a glass of wine since their wedding day because they can’t afford it.  

After a game of football at the park with Brandon and Declan, the heiress followed Rachel to the local shop, where she was tasked with getting a meal for six for just £10. 

Veronika spent £9.49 on a couple of chicken breasts, one pepper, one onion, tortillas and some seasoning, and set out to make fajitas, relying on the family’s cupboard to make the meal. 

While it was too spicy for most of them to enjoy, Brendon and Rachel were thankful for the efforts she put in. 

‘I think I could have done better but considering the limited options at the shop, this is probably the best they could do,’ she said. 

‘Definitely would have bought the proper fajita kit,’ and added it would have been even better ‘if we have the budget to get guacamole, sour cream.’

The next day, Veronika surprised Brandon with her positive attitude as he took her and Brook and friend Mila to help with the bouncy castle business.  

The experience was an eye-opener for the heiress, who said she couldn’t believe that after all the work they put in, Brandon, the girls and herself only made a £65 profit out of setting up the bouncy castle for EVdeN evE NaKLiYAT an event. 

‘It really makes me appreciate my life and how privileged I am with what I’ve got,’ she said. 

‘I don’t have necessarily a passion for bouncy castles, so I will probably try to pursue my own career in something else,’ she said. 

She went on to help Rachel with her floral arrangements for her floristry business, before packing up to go back to London. 

‘I’ve had the best time ever, thank you so much for having me, it’s been a great experience,’ she told Brandon and evden evE Nakliyat Rachel, adding she was ‘100 per cent’ glad she came to live with them. 

‘It wasn’t what I was expecting it to be,’ she said. 

‘It’s been a very interesting experience, and I think the main thing that I got out of it is you can’t always judge a book by its cover,’ the heiress said. 

‘Despite the fact the family have a lovely home, obviously, they do struggle financially to maintain that

‘I have also realised a lot of labour goes into things behind the scenes, such as having to load up the truck every morning and not just showing up and setting everything up,’ she said, about Brandon’s bouncy castle business. 

The father-of-three also admitted to have been surprised by his ‘lovely’ guest.  

‘She was different from what we expected,’ admitted they expected Veronika to be ‘a brat and a bit spoiled,’ but adding she was none of those things. 

He added they could definitely see themselves being friends with Veronika.  

To thank the family for allowing her to stay with them, Veronika also treated them to a go-carting experience.  

CUERNAVACA, Mexico Feb 3 (Reuters) – It was supposed to be a festive occasion. Regional politicians, officials and military officers gathered in the Morelos state capital of Cuernavaca for breakfast in February 2022 to mark Mexico´s annual Army day.Cuauhtémoc Blanco, a former Mexican soccer star and the state´s governor, celebrated with red wine. But he wasn´t happy.

Among those in attendance was state Attorney General Uriel Carmona – who had recently been asked by state legislators to investigate the governor´s suspected ties to drug traffickers.As Carmona moved to shake Blanco´s hand and bid him goodbye, the attorney general alleges, the governor grabbed his arm. Blanco said he´d been tipped off that another prosecutor was sniffing around his eldest son´s financial accounts.

A line had been crossed, the barrel-chested Blanco said, and warned: “Now I´m going to mess with your families, and I´m not going to hold back.”

Carmona told the governor that he was leveling threats against law enforcement – a potential felony.He described the encounter in a criminal complaint, viewed by Reuters, filed two days later against Blanco with an independent state anti-corruption prosecutorial body.

The breakfast confrontation and the criminal complaint, which haven´t been previously reported, add to a cloud of scandal over one of Mexico´s most famous men – a legend on the soccer pitch, working-class hero and a rising star in politics.

The dust-up came just six weeks after Mexican newspaper El Sol de México published a photo of the governor posing with three alleged drug traffickers in Morelos. The headline on that front-page photo: “Blanco met with narco leaders in Morelos.” The newspaper said the photo was found on the phone of a drug trafficker arrested by the military in November 2021.

The news outlet did not explain how it obtained the photo, and it´s not clear who shot it.

Mexican drug lords have a long tradition of buying off politicians in exchange for government protection of their illicit trade. The bombshell photo is what prompted state lawmakers to demand the investigation into Blanco in complaints filed with state and federal authorities in January 2022.One of the men in the undated image was Homero Figueroa, the purported leader of the Comando Tlahuica crime group. Another, Raymundo Castro, the alleged boss of the Guerreros Unidos cartel in Morelos, had been on the run from authorities since 2014. Reuters confirmed their identities with six law enforcement officials.

In an interview with Reuters, Blanco said Attorney General Carmona, who was appointed by the governor’s predecessor, is a tool of his political enemies.He denied making death threats – or drinking wine at the breakfast.

“I´m not a drug trafficker,” Blanco said in Cuernavaca´s colonial-era government palace building. As for the alleged warning to Carmona, he said: “I´m not so crazy or deranged as to threaten his family.”

Blanco also denied knowing the trio in the photo and dismissed the picture as a routine snap with strangers at a public gathering.That assertion is not credible, two prosecutors and a third source in the state attorney general´s office told Reuters. They said the encounter captured in the photo occurred in a small room of a church complex near Cuernavaca capable of holding about ten people. Rival drug kingpins don´t tend to hobnob at casual mixers, the prosecutors said, and they would have traveled with so many armed guards that Blanco´s own security detail would have known something was amiss.

Blanco´s son, also named Cuauhtémoc, did not respond to requests for comment about the allegation that his finances were under scrutiny by law enforcement.He has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Attempts to reach two of the alleged drug traffickers in the photo – Figueroa and Irving Solano Vera – were unsuccessful. Castro, the third purported gangster, died in prison in 2019.

In many other countries, mingling with suspected drug traffickers might be a political death sentence.But Blanco´s career has prospered, in large part because he has a powerful backer: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Mexican leader has transformed the nation´s political landscape in recent years, constructing an electoral juggernaut with his Morena party, which has grabbed power from established parties.His populist pitch to clean up Mexico´s corrupt politics has won him poll ratings that are some of the highest in the world for a national leader.

López Obrador repeatedly has ignored controversy swirling around Blanco, whose athletic achievements and rags-to-riches story have proved electoral gold in soccer-obsessed Mexico.Their alliance dates to the 2018 national elections. Then-presidential candidate López Obrador backed Blanco´s bid for EvDEN EVe NakLiYaT the Morelos governorship, recognizing the ex-player´s appeal, particularly among poor voters at the core of both men´s power base.

The president´s office did not respond to requests for comment for this report.

The probe of Blanco´s suspected cartel ties comes on top of multiple corruption investigations into his activities as a public servant.The inquiries began with his first elected office as mayor of the picturesque colonial city of Cuernavaca from January 2016 to July 2018. On Blanco´s watch, control of the city´s water utility and its cash receipts ended up in the hands of Figueroa, the alleged mobster with his arm around Blanco in the photo, according to Morelos prosecutors, military intelligence documents viewed by Reuters and interviews with five people who worked for the utility.

Blanco said the water utility was “fine” during his tenure and its debts went down, though the utility´s official figures contradict this.

Prosecutors also discovered more than $2 million stashed in four undeclared bank accounts belonging to Blanco, according to a non-public document filed by prosecutors with the Morelos legislature on April 18, 2022, which was viewed by Reuters.The news agency is the first to report on these bank accounts, one of them in the United States. Blanco did not list the accounts on asset disclosures required of all Mexican public officials.

Blanco confirmed the existence of the four accounts to Reuters.”I´ve got an account in the United States. What´s the problem?” Blanco said. Initially, he claimed to have declared them, but when pressed, the governor said he didn´t publicly divulge these assets due to “security” concerns.

He also revealed he has a flat in Chicago, which is undeclared, that he said he is selling.Local property records show Blanco owns a condominium just steps away from the city´s famed Michigan Avenue shopping district, purchased for $450,000 in August 2007.

Blanco said the source of his wealth is money he earned as a footballer, including being paid up to $1 million for commercials when he played professionally in the United States.Blanco played for Major League Soccer´s Chicago Fire from 2007 to 2009.

He said he is happy to have the information about his assets out there so he can “shut the mouths of those assholes.”

“I´ve got nothing to hide,” he said.

Through it all, López Obrador has consistently defended Blanco, calling local government investigations against him “political maneuvering” by his enemies.”They don´t stop attacking, but I support him,” López Obrador said last year.

Blanco, like all elected officials in Mexico, enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. He has not been charged with any crime.

Prosecutors in April asked the Morelos state congress to impeach Blanco so that he could be stripped of that shield.But state lawmakers aligned with López Obrador have stymied those efforts. In September, the ex-soccer star ditched his Social Encounter Party to join the president´s Morena.

Blanco´s political career may yet hit new heights.In Morelos, he is being touted as a possible Morena candidate for the 2024 race to be mayor of Mexico City, one of the country´s most influential offices. Blanco said running for mayor is a possibility, but it would depend on his poll ratings, and he would need “authorization” from López Obrador.

Two government officials and a Morena party politician familiar with the situation told Reuters they doubt Blanco can leapfrog more experienced rivals to win the nod from his new party.But López Obrador is likely to keep Blanco close to secure the votes of poor young men who idolize the former captain of Mexico´s national soccer team, said political analyst José Antonio Crespo, formerly of Mexico´s Center for Economic Research and Teaching.

“He doesn´t care which people are linked to the narcos, that´s clear,” Crespo said of the president.”What´s important to him is winning. It doesn´t matter how or with whom.”

FROM THE SLUMS TO THE STATEHOUSE

Blanco, 50, is one of Mexico´s all-time sports greats. After breaking through in the early 1990s with Club América, the country´s most successful soccer team, the pugnacious attacker quickly became a fan favorite.Supporters adored his style, EVdeN Eve NAkliYAT melding combativeness with silky smooth dribbling skills.

At the 1998 World Cup in France, he awed fans with his signature “Cuauhtemiña” move: trapping the ball between his legs and jumping between two defenders.In case you loved this informative article and you would like to receive much more information regarding EVDEn eve nakLiyat assure visit our internet site. Even his name dazzled. Cuauhtémoc was the last Aztec emperor, a warrior whose name signifies the “descending eagle” dive-bombing its prey.

Blanco grew up in Mexico City´s Tepito neighborhood, one of Latin America´s most notorious slums, evDen Eve NakLiyAt where he honed his toughness and street smarts.In a 2015 ESPN interview he recalled peddling pirated cassette tapes as a kid. He would go on to earn millions playing for clubs in Spain and the United States. Tabloids lapped up his party-animal persona and combustible relationships with models and telenovela stars.

In 2014, as age and injuries forced Blanco to contemplate retirement, two little-known politicians in Cuernavaca say they approached him with a proposal.Brothers Roberto and Julio Yáñez, who at the time ran the small Social Democratic Party, wanted to harness Blanco´s fame to wrest the mayor´s office from established parties.

The brothers told Reuters that Blanco at first resisted their overtures to run for election, telling them he “hates politics.” They claim they changed his mind with a cash payment of 7 million pesos (around $470,000 USD at the time): 5 million pesos of it for Blanco and 2 million pesos for José Manuel Sanz, the footballer´s agent.The Yáñezes said the money was put up by a group of businessmen who wanted access to the mayor and to secure public contracts if Blanco won. The Yáñezes declined to name the businessmen.

Blanco said he was approached by the Yáñezes about entering the mayoral race and mulled the idea for a month before committing because he disliked politics.But he said no money changed hands and that there was no contract. “It´s totally a lie,” Blanco said, in reference to the Yáñezes´ allegations, first reported by Mexican media in 2016.

Sanz likewise denied receiving kickbacks.”It´s false,” he said of the Yáñezes´ claims.

Roberto Yáñez showed Reuters a signed copy of Blanco´s contract laying out expectations for the candidate´s run. The soccer star was instructed to pose for photos with prospective voters, dash off autographs and greet women with a kiss, according to the document, which Blanco has claimed is fake.

What´s undisputed is that Blanco was a sensation on the campaign trail.Voters queued for hours to snatch selfies and get soccer balls signed, ultimately carrying him to victory over more seasoned competitors. “I fucked them over,” he crowed on election night in June 2015.

Blanco quickly adopted some practices of his predecessors.He doled out top jobs to friends and family. He established alleged links with drug traffickers, according to two prosecutors and 2019 military intelligence documents seen by Reuters. And he significantly worsened the fortunes of SAPAC, Cuernavaca´s water utility, according to former agency head Remigio Alvarez and five current SAPAC employees.

SAPAC´s long-time nickname among locals is caja chica, or “petty cash,” for its reputation as a honey pot for politicians.Blanco´s arrival signaled a new era for the utility, alleged ex-chief Alvarez, opening the door to organized crime. “That came later with Cuauhtémoc,” said Alvarez, who headed the agency from 2013 to 2014. He provided no documents or other evidence to back up his claims.

Blanco denied allowing organized crime to flourish at SAPAC.”It´s not true,” he said.

His alleged collusion with organized crime is emblematic of what Mexican authorities say is a wider shift across Mexico in recent years. Groups that once focused almost solely on narcotics are diversifying how they make and move money, spreading into almost every corner of Mexican society.

Morelos prosecutors told Reuters they believe Blanco “delivered” control of SAPAC to Figueroa, the alleged head of the Comando Tlahuica cartel.They say Figueroa skimmed cash payments from utility customers and paid kickbacks to the mayor for the privilege. The five SAPAC employees who spoke with Reuters described a takeover by the gangster.

Starting around 2016, the five said, more than a dozen armed men working on behalf of Figueroa suddenly appeared at the utility´s headquarters.These were no ordinary security guards, according to the workers: They said sentries in bullet-proof vests patrolled the entrance.

Inside, men in civilian clothes watched over cashiers´ windows where water customers lined up to pay their bills in cash.Many clients had no choice but to do so, the employees said, after SAPAC that year eliminated the option to pay by debit card or at convenience stores. Three Cuernavaca residents confirmed this reduction in payment options, which they said were restored after about a year.

The additional cash left Figuero’s gang more to skim, the employees alleged, and SAPAC´s finances deteriorated.The utility slowed payments to vendors and fell behind on paying employees´ health insurance and payroll taxes. During Blanco´s tenure as mayor, the utility´s known debt increased 58% to 403 million pesos ($21.6 million) by the end of 2018, according to a public SAPAC document.

Figueroa also warned two employee unions operating at SAPAC that he would brook no dissent, the five employees said.They recounted that during a 2017 labor dispute, the alleged mobster sent men to beat up one syndicate leader. Separately, Figueroa phoned SAPAC headquarters and asked to talk with another trade union chief on speakerphone, so that other staffers could hear him deliver a threat, two of the employees said.

“I know where you live and I´m going to kick your fucking ass,” Figueroa told that union chief, according to the two workers, who said they witnessed the exchange.”If you don´t drop your demands, we are going to disappear you.” The syndicate leaders backed down and kept quiet, the workers said.

Reuters could not independently verify the workers´ account of events.

Figueroa could not be reached for comment.

When Blanco stepped down in July 2018 to run for governor, his successor as mayor, Antonio Villalobos, refused to honor Blanco´s suspected agreement with the Comando Tlahuica cartel, according to a military intelligence document viewed by Reuters.Instead, individuals linked to other mafia moved to seize control of the utility from Figueroa, the five SAPAC employees told Reuters.

At least four people linked to SAPAC have died violently in the past four years in turf battles over the water service, three Morelos officials told Reuters.Villalobos was arrested in September and charged with abuse of office over alleged corruption at SAPAC. He remains in jail.

Villalobos could not be reached for comment and Reuters could not ascertain whether he entered a plea. Neither his attorney or a family member responded to requests for comment.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

Blanco´s stint as mayor was widely panned by political commentators.Still, as national elections loomed in 2018, presidential candidate López Obrador chose Blanco over his own party´s contender to run as governor of Morelos on a coalition slate. By this time, Blanco had left the Social Democratic Party for the Social Encounter Party.

“He likes me very much because I´m not a politician,” Blanco told Reuters, in reference to the president.

Once elected, Blanco again dished out top jobs to friends and family.Sanz, his former sports agent, continued as his chief of staff. The governor placed buddy and ex-soccer player Luis Hernández Mondragón in charge of the Acquisitions Office, overseeing procurement of goods and services worth tens of millions of dollars.

Hernández told Reuters via WhatsApp that the post required someone with the “full confidence” of Blanco to fight corruption. He said was given the job because he “always acted with honesty and morality.”

Some staffers took to calling Blanco the “absent governor.” In his first year on the job, Blanco´s official calendar showed no work activities on 207 out of 365 days, according to a freedom of information request by a local accountability organization, Morelos Rinde Cuentas.”As a footballer he got used to playing on Sundays and not working Mondays,” a former Blanco staffer told Reuters.

Blanco dismissed claims of his indolence as an unjust smear attempt by his critics.

Scandals soon rocked Blanco´s government.In March 2020, Mexico´s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), which investigates suspected financial crimes, in a news conference said that it was scrutinizing members of Blanco´s inner circle. The UIF claimed to have uncovered about 750 million pesos ($40.2 million) in irregular banking transactions, including huge cash deposits, executed by then-Chief of Staff Sanz, three family members and EVDen EvE nAkliYaT two other associates, UIF documents viewed by Reuters show.

The UIF that month handed its evidence to the federal Office of the Attorney General (FGR), headed by Alejandro Gertz, and asked prosecutors to take up the case, according to that non-public 93-page UIF document reviewed by Reuters.

Between 2014 and 2019, individuals close to Blanco had made bank deposits and transactions that investigators concluded likely originated “from illicit activity,” the report said.The purpose of the alleged scheme, the document said, was to hide the origin or ownership of the assets.

Federal prosecutors verified most of the suspect transactions unearthed by UIF investigators, according to nearly 200 pages of non-public FGR documents reviewed by Reuters.No charges have been filed, and the case has stalled for unknown reasons, according to a source familiar with the probe.

Gertz, the attorney general, did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the investigation.

Sanz denied wrongdoing.He told Reuters the federal investigation “is now over” and he had been “exonerated,” claims that have not been confirmed by prosecutors.

Blanco, too, denied wrongdoing. “I´m clean,” he said in the interview.

More allegations soon surfaced.In September 2021, Gerardo Becerra, the official anti-corruption advisor to Blanco, quit the government and publicly alleged widespread graft relating to public contracting. Becerra said he stepped down because the administration was not interested in stopping it.

“I started to get all the information about the corruption of the government of Cuauhtémoc Blanco,” he said.”They stopped me, they didn´t like it.”

Becerra did not specify who in Blanco´s administration allegedly kept him from doing his job.

He told Reuters he filed a confidential complaint to Morelos´ anti-corruption prosecutorial body alleging that 96% of contracts handed out during Blanco´s tenure were no-bid deals that violated state law.Morelos law requires a minimum of three bidders to ensure competition.

Blanco denied Becerra´s claims, saying they are “not true.”

Hernández, Blanco´s procurement chief, did not respond to a request for comment on Becerra´s allegations.

Local prosecutors digging into corruption allegations against the governor uncovered three undeclared Mexican bank accounts belonging to Blanco containing a total of 16 million Mexican pesos ($858,000).They also found a U.S. bank account with $1.25 million (23.3 million pesos), according to the non-public documents filed by prosecutors with the Morelos state congress in April 2022 asking lawmakers to impeach Blanco.

In their request, prosecutors accused Blanco of illegal enrichment and alleged that his “assets have increased in an important and inexplicable manner” during his stint as a public servant.

Days later, López Obrador publicly backed Blanco.And local lawmakers from Blanco´s Morena party, helped by a handful of allies from other parties, blocked the impeachment.

In August 2022, Blanco´s brother Ulises Bravo Molina was placed in charge of the local branch of López Obrador´s Morena party in Morelos.The following month, Blanco switched parties, saying he joined Morena with “pride, gratitude and determination”.

`ABSOLUTE IMPUNITY´

September 2022 brought a new source for public speculation about Blanco and the alleged drug traffickers who posed with him in the now-famous photo.

That month, the Latin American hacker group Guacamaya leaked a trove of classified documents from the Mexican military.Among them was a February 2019 Navy intelligence report, reviewed by Reuters, which stated that it was possible that Blanco was “colluding” with the Comando Tlahuica gang and its purported head, Figueroa.

Mexico´s Navy did not respond to a request for comment.Figueroa could not be reached for comment.

Another document in that cache, a May 2019 Mexican Army memo, referenced the two other alleged drug traffickers shown in the undated photo with Blanco: Raymundo Castro, the Morelos boss of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, and his cartel colleague Irving Solano Vera.

The memo summarized a conversation Solano had with a Mexican Army intelligence agent shortly after the May 2019 capture of Castro by federal police.Solano told the army that Castro had cut a deal with Blanco: Guerreros Unidos could act with “absolute impunity” in Morelos if Castro backed the governor´s political campaign and kept violence low on his turf, Solano alleged.

Castro was killed in a prison brawl in October 2019, according to authorities.Solano was captured by the Mexican military in February 2021. He is believed to be in a maximum-security lock-up and could not be reached for comment. Reuters was unable to determine the identity of his legal counsel. Names of his attorneys were not listed in court records viewed by Reuters, a common practice in Mexico in drug trafficking cases due to security concerns.

Three Mexican security officials told Reuters that Castro and Solano also worked alongside the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which has a partnership with Guerreros Unidos.U.S. authorities rank Jalisco New Generation among the world´s most dangerous transnational crime organizations. They blame it for flooding the United States with fentanyl and other synthetic drugs that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year.

Blanco stood defiant amid a flood of disparaging news coverage following the leaks.”He who has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear,” Blanco said in an Oct. 10, 2022 statement. “Let them investigate.”

In Cuernavaca, the state´s one-time tourist hotspot, many fearful residents now scurry home before dark. In Blanco´s four years as Morelos governor, homicides in the state increased by 50% to 1,174 in 2022 from 783 in 2018, federal government data show.In the same period, murders declined 8.2% nationally.

On a park bench in Cuernavaca, Marcelo Rocha, a 71-year-old pensioner, complained of crime and water shortages plaguing his neighborhood. He said he regrets voting for Blanco.

“He has failed us a lot,” Rocha said.

Blanco dismissed any notion that he´s on the side of alleged traffickers in the photo or any other outlaws.He told Reuters he´s working to bring alleged kingpin Figueroa to justice.

“I have never entered into a pact with drug traffickers or criminals,” Blanco said. “I´m not a damn criminal, a crook or a bad person. I´m a well-mannered man of principles.” ($1 = 18.6527 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Additional reporting by Mike Berens in Chicago; and Dave Graham, Stephen Eisenhammer, Diego Oré and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Marla Dickerson)

Now, only five months later, she is preparing to go back to work – to show women you can still be ‘sexy and beautiful’ after surgery.

Miss Power was 27 when she received the heartbreaking news that she is a carrier of a rare genetic mutation called PALB2, meaning there was a 71 per cent chance of her developing breast cancer.

The mother of one chose to be tested after her sister Donna, 39, was diagnosed with the disease in 2020.Their eldest sister Claire, 44, did not carry the mutation.

Jade, 29, who is a former Miss Sussex, had her double mastectomy, under breast surgeon Hisham Hamed, at Guy’s Hospital in London on August 13. 

And determined to raise awareness of breast cancer mutations, she is already planning her return to modelling – and she will not be shying away from underwear shoots.Her goal is to show women that they can still feel attractive following a double mastectomy.

Miss Power, who lives in London with her partner and evdeN eVE NakLiyaT one-year-old son Zander, said: ‘After my genetic test result, I felt like my breasts were the enemy and could potentially kill me at any time.

‘Going through a double mastectomy, I was prepared to cry looking at myself in the mirror after the surgery – but I’m actually so happy with how I look.If you cherished this information in addition to you want to obtain more details concerning EvDEn EVe nakLiYAT kindly go to our own web-page. I just want women to know that you can still be sexy and beautiful after going through something like this and life goes on.

‘I really do still feel I am all woman, and will still be doing lingerie shoots just like I did before.’

Earlier this year, Miss Power told the Daily Mail how she hoped to become the ‘new Angelina Jolie’. The actress raised awareness of a mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer in a gene called BRCA1 after she had a preventative double mastectomy in 2013.

Miss Power and her sister Donna launched a social media campaign, under the slogan Not Just BRCA, EVDEN EvE nAkLiyat so women are informed about PALB2, which is less well-known but can also devastate families who are unaware that they carry the mutation.

They are also working with the NHS to help inform nurses across the country on genetic mutations linked to cancer.

Miss Power received implants after her surgery to restore her bust.She said: ‘I am counting my blessings, safe in the amazing knowledge that I have a greatly reduced breast cancer risk now, and will still be dressing up like I always have.’

Titus Day was sentenced to a maximum four years in prison by Judge Tim Gartelmann at ‘s Downing Centre District Court on Thursday afternoon. 

Judge Gartelmann said the offences ‘all were committed for financial gain’ but it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt that 49-year-old Day was motivated by greed.

‘There is no evidence of remorse as the offender maintains his innocence – nor is there any evidence regarding prospects of rehabilitation,’ Judge Gartelmann said.

He found Day re-offending was nonetheless unlikely. 

Day was originally charged with 50 counts of embezzling at least $886,175 in royalties, performance fees and an ambassadorship from Sebastian between 2013 and 2020.

A jury found the father-of-three guilty in June of 34 offences in relation to money totalling $624,675 after deliberating for almost a week.

The offending was a breach of trust but there had been no significant organisation or planning, Judge Gartelmann found. It was not known how Day spent the money.

Publicity surrounding the case and the destruction of Day’s reputation had left him ‘devastated’ and it was unlikely he could ever recover professionally. 

The court case pitted two men who were once extremely close against each other and dragged in their wives, who had also been friends. 

The brutal split between Sebastian and Day also rocked the entertainment industry. 

Judge Gartelmann said character witnesses had universally described Day as generous, honest and trustworthy. All considered his offending out of character. 

Singer Tina Arena was among those who provided a reference for EvDEN EVE NAkliYaT Day, describing him as ‘someone she trusts’ and a man with ‘honesty and integrity’.

The trial was beset by woes, including the death of original judge Peter Zahra, the dismissal of five jurors from a panel of 15 and Sebastian and Crown Prosecutor David Morters SC contracting . 

While it was Day fighting for his liberty, Sebastian said he felt he was on trial during the hearing and most of the media attention focused on him. 

The Voice judge was forced to reveal intimate details of his finances, including sometimes astronomical fees for performances and so-called ‘contra’ deals. 

The ARIA Award-winner was in the witness box for evDEn Eve NAKLiyAt more than a week giving evidence in chief before Mr Morters and under cross-examination by Day’s barrister Dominic Toomey SC.          

Sebastian – who never signed a contract with Day – had so much money coming in from so many sources he did not notice hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from his bank account for years.

Jurors heard Sebastian was paid $494,360 to support Taylor Swift during the four-city Australian leg of her ‘The Red Tour’ in December 2013. 

He charged $54,341 to sing at a wedding in Jakarta in July 2017 and McDonald’s paid the entertainer $66,000 to appear at a conference in September that year.

The hit-maker also received $49,114.62 for singing at Allianz Stadium in Sydney during the British and Irish Lions rugby tour in 2013. 

The sums that were embezzled range from $593.53 in royalties from Sony Music to $187,524. If you liked this posting and you would like to obtain far more details with regards to EVden eve nakliYat kindly visit our internet site. 42 for the Taylor Swift gigs. They also included $57,086.93 for a performance in Singapore and $77,042.96 from a Dreamworld ambassadorship. 

Day contended some of the money was withheld to pay expenses and buy shares on Sebastian’s behalf but Judge Gartelmann did not find evidence to support those suggestions. 

Sebastian gave evidence he had been given a boat, international air fares and the use of two Toyota LandCruisers for himself and his wife instead of cash payment from major companies. 

Day, a qualified lawyer, had first managed Sebastian in 2007 while working for 22 Management. Sebastian had about nine months left on a three-year contract when Day approached him in July 2009 to join his own new company 6 Degrees.

The performer had an agreement with Day under which the agent was to receive a 20 per cent commission on his earning and was paying his manager $500,000 a year.

Sebastian terminated the arrangement in November 2017 in what became an acrimonious split. 

He subsequently found ‘anomalies’ in financial records suggesting he was still owed payments by Day and in July 2018 launched a civil claim against him.

Day made a counter claim against Sebastian alleging he was owed money, which led to an examination of the agent’s banking records revealing further anomalies.Sebastian then went to police.

Day told police the chart-topper owed him $1.2million in outstanding commissions.

Mr Toomey took Sebastian through invoices, payment statements and banking records, many of which the singer said he did not recall ever seeing.

At one point a frustrated Sebastian told Mr Toomey.’I am not forensically skilled… when it comes to money and numbers it is pretty clearly not my forte.’ 

Sebastian told the court some of what Day did for him required a ‘heavy work load’ but for other tasks he needed ‘very little’ assistance. 

Day’s contribution to marketing Sebastian’s song writing and television appearances was negligible.Day would ‘hardly ever rock up’ when he was a judge on The X Factor, for instance, ‘but will take a $200,000 fee’. 

Sebastian denied he felt ‘great animosity’ towards Day, saying he instead felt ‘great disappointment’ in his former agent.

‘I have a lot of confusion as to now it’s got to this point,’ he said.

In another exchange, Mr Toomey suggested to Sebastian he was ‘earning a large sum of money’ during his time under Day’s management.

‘Not as large as it should have been, Mr Toomey,’ he said.    

Mr Toomey quizzed Sebastian about ‘contra’ payments, which involved receiving goods for his services rather than money.   

Sebastian agreed he been involved in ambassadorships with Bose, AirAsia, Canon and Yamaha and accepted a Bluefin boat as payment for performing at a festival in Queensland.  

Mr Toomey asked Sebastian if he considered ‘contra’ – to be income.’I’m not sure,’ he responded.

‘It’s not something I’ve ever thought about. I hire accountants who’ve been instructed to do everything by the book. You don’t buy a dog and bark yourself.’     

Sebastian also had to contend with an email he sent to Day describing the fans of Westlife singer Shane Filan as being ‘fat older women’.

Sebastian had been reluctant to support the Irish boy band star on a 2017 tour because his appearance would not be ‘the right fit’.

‘I said something which wasn’t great, something about feral old women or something,’ he told the court.  

In another sideshow to the trial, Jules Sebastian repeatedly denied her husband EVDEN evE nAKLiyAT was a violent man when she was quizzed about an incident in the couple’s home in 2012.

Mrs Sebastian had rung her husband about an intruder she said was attempting to enter the couple’s house at Maroubra in Sydney’s south-east.

Her husband confronted the young man and there was a physical altercation but he denied headbutting the young man, although he told friends he had.

Day sought an apprehended violence order against Sebastian eight years later, citing his ‘violent history’.

It was two days after the AVO was served that Sebastian went to police with his complaint that Day had withheld money from him. 

Day had told police he received a phone call in May 2020 in which someone said:  ‘Guy Sebastian wants you f***ed’.

‘Two weeks ago he sent emails to my wife trying to intimidate her,’ Day claimed.Three weeks ago someone came on my property and let down my car tyres.’

Sebastian told the court he had never done anything to threaten Day or his wife and had no knowledge of anyone else having done so. Day eventually withdrew the AVO. 

Judge Gartelmann ordered Day, who has already indicated he would appeal his conviction, repay $624,675.He will be eligible for parole on May 16, 2025. 

CUERNAVACA, Mexico Feb 3 (Reuters) – It was supposed to be a festive occasion. Regional politicians, officials and military officers gathered in the Morelos state capital of Cuernavaca for breakfast in February 2022 to mark Mexico´s annual Army day.Cuauhtémoc Blanco, a former Mexican soccer star and the state´s governor, celebrated with red wine. But he wasn´t happy.

Among those in attendance was state Attorney General Uriel Carmona – who had recently been asked by state legislators to investigate the governor´s suspected ties to drug traffickers.As Carmona moved to shake Blanco´s hand and bid him goodbye, the attorney general alleges, the governor grabbed his arm. Blanco said he´d been tipped off that another prosecutor was sniffing around his eldest son´s financial accounts.

A line had been crossed, the barrel-chested Blanco said, and warned: “Now I´m going to mess with your families, and I´m not going to hold back.”

Carmona told the governor that he was leveling threats against law enforcement – a potential felony.He described the encounter in a criminal complaint, viewed by Reuters, filed two days later against Blanco with an independent state anti-corruption prosecutorial body.

The breakfast confrontation and the criminal complaint, which haven´t been previously reported, add to a cloud of scandal over one of Mexico´s most famous men – a legend on the soccer pitch, working-class hero and a rising star in politics.

The dust-up came just six weeks after Mexican newspaper El Sol de México published a photo of the governor posing with three alleged drug traffickers in Morelos. The headline on that front-page photo: “Blanco met with narco leaders in Morelos.” The newspaper said the photo was found on the phone of a drug trafficker arrested by the military in November 2021.

The news outlet did not explain how it obtained the photo, and it´s not clear who shot it.

Mexican drug lords have a long tradition of buying off politicians in exchange for government protection of their illicit trade. The bombshell photo is what prompted state lawmakers to demand the investigation into Blanco in complaints filed with state and federal authorities in January 2022.One of the men in the undated image was Homero Figueroa, the purported leader of the Comando Tlahuica crime group. Another, Raymundo Castro, the alleged boss of the Guerreros Unidos cartel in Morelos, had been on the run from authorities since 2014. Reuters confirmed their identities with six law enforcement officials.

In an interview with Reuters, Blanco said Attorney General Carmona, who was appointed by the governor’s predecessor, is a tool of his political enemies.He denied making death threats – or drinking wine at the breakfast.

“I´m not a drug trafficker,” Blanco said in Cuernavaca´s colonial-era government palace building. As for the alleged warning to Carmona, he said: “I´m not so crazy or deranged as to threaten his family.”

Blanco also denied knowing the trio in the photo and dismissed the picture as a routine snap with strangers at a public gathering.That assertion is not credible, two prosecutors and a third source in the state attorney general´s office told Reuters. They said the encounter captured in the photo occurred in a small room of a church complex near Cuernavaca capable of holding about ten people. Rival drug kingpins don´t tend to hobnob at casual mixers, the prosecutors said, and they would have traveled with so many armed guards that Blanco´s own security detail would have known something was amiss.

Blanco´s son, also named Cuauhtémoc, did not respond to requests for comment about the allegation that his finances were under scrutiny by law enforcement.He has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Attempts to reach two of the alleged drug traffickers in the photo – Figueroa and Irving Solano Vera – were unsuccessful. Castro, the third purported gangster, died in prison in 2019.

In many other countries, mingling with suspected drug traffickers might be a political death sentence.But Blanco´s career has prospered, in large part because he has a powerful backer: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Mexican leader has transformed the nation´s political landscape in recent years, constructing an electoral juggernaut with his Morena party, which has grabbed power from established parties.His populist pitch to clean up Mexico´s corrupt politics has won him poll ratings that are some of the highest in the world for a national leader.

López Obrador repeatedly has ignored controversy swirling around Blanco, whose athletic achievements and rags-to-riches story have proved electoral gold in soccer-obsessed Mexico.Their alliance dates to the 2018 national elections. Then-presidential candidate López Obrador backed Blanco´s bid for the Morelos governorship, recognizing the ex-player´s appeal, particularly among poor voters at the core of both men´s power base.

The president´s office did not respond to requests for comment for this report.

The probe of Blanco´s suspected cartel ties comes on top of multiple corruption investigations into his activities as a public servant.The inquiries began with his first elected office as mayor of the picturesque colonial city of Cuernavaca from January 2016 to July 2018. On Blanco´s watch, control of the city´s water utility and its cash receipts ended up in the hands of Figueroa, the alleged mobster with his arm around Blanco in the photo, according to Morelos prosecutors, military intelligence documents viewed by Reuters and interviews with five people who worked for the utility.

Blanco said the water utility was “fine” during his tenure and its debts went down, though the utility´s official figures contradict this.

Prosecutors also discovered more than $2 million stashed in four undeclared bank accounts belonging to Blanco, according to a non-public document filed by prosecutors with the Morelos legislature on April 18, 2022, which was viewed by Reuters.The news agency is the first to report on these bank accounts, one of them in the United States. Blanco did not list the accounts on asset disclosures required of all Mexican public officials.

Blanco confirmed the existence of the four accounts to Reuters.”I´ve got an account in the United States. What´s the problem?” Blanco said. Initially, he claimed to have declared them, but when pressed, the governor said he didn´t publicly divulge these assets due to “security” concerns.

He also revealed he has a flat in Chicago, which is undeclared, that he said he is selling.Local property records show Blanco owns a condominium just steps away from the city´s famed Michigan Avenue shopping district, purchased for $450,000 in August 2007.

Blanco said the source of his wealth is money he earned as a footballer, including being paid up to $1 million for commercials when he played professionally in the United States.Blanco played for Major League Soccer´s Chicago Fire from 2007 to 2009.

He said he is happy to have the information about his assets out there so he can “shut the mouths of those assholes.”

“I´ve got nothing to hide,” he said.

Through it all, López Obrador has consistently defended Blanco, calling local government investigations against him “political maneuvering” by his enemies.”They don´t stop attacking, but I support him,” López Obrador said last year.

Blanco, like all elected officials in Mexico, enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. He has not been charged with any crime.

Prosecutors in April asked the Morelos state congress to impeach Blanco so that he could be stripped of that shield.But state lawmakers aligned with López Obrador have stymied those efforts. In September, the ex-soccer star ditched his Social Encounter Party to join the president´s Morena.

Blanco´s political career may yet hit new heights.In Morelos, he is being touted as a possible Morena candidate for the 2024 race to be mayor of Mexico City, one of the country´s most influential offices. Blanco said running for mayor is a possibility, but it would depend on his poll ratings, and he would need “authorization” from López Obrador.

Two government officials and a Morena party politician familiar with the situation told Reuters they doubt Blanco can leapfrog more experienced rivals to win the nod from his new party.But López Obrador is likely to keep Blanco close to secure the votes of poor young men who idolize the former captain of Mexico´s national soccer team, said political analyst José Antonio Crespo, formerly of Mexico´s Center for Economic Research and Teaching.

“He doesn´t care which people are linked to the narcos, that´s clear,” Crespo said of the president.”What´s important to him is winning. It doesn´t matter how or with whom.”

FROM THE SLUMS TO THE STATEHOUSE

Blanco, 50, is one of Mexico´s all-time sports greats. After breaking through in the early 1990s with Club América, the country´s most successful soccer team, the pugnacious attacker quickly became a fan favorite.Supporters adored his style, melding combativeness with silky smooth dribbling skills.

At the 1998 World Cup in France, he awed fans with his signature “Cuauhtemiña” move: evDen eVE NaKLiyaT trapping the ball between his legs and jumping between two defenders.Even his name dazzled. Cuauhtémoc was the last Aztec emperor, a warrior whose name signifies the “descending eagle” dive-bombing its prey.

Blanco grew up in Mexico City´s Tepito neighborhood, one of Latin America´s most notorious slums, where he honed his toughness and street smarts.In a 2015 ESPN interview he recalled peddling pirated cassette tapes as a kid. He would go on to earn millions playing for clubs in Spain and the United States. Tabloids lapped up his party-animal persona and combustible relationships with models and telenovela stars.

In 2014, as age and injuries forced Blanco to contemplate retirement, two little-known politicians in Cuernavaca say they approached him with a proposal.Brothers Roberto and Julio Yáñez, who at the time ran the small Social Democratic Party, wanted to harness Blanco´s fame to wrest the mayor´s office from established parties.

The brothers told Reuters that Blanco at first resisted their overtures to run for election, telling them he “hates politics.” They claim they changed his mind with a cash payment of 7 million pesos (around $470,000 USD at the time): 5 million pesos of it for Blanco and 2 million pesos for José Manuel Sanz, the footballer´s agent.The Yáñezes said the money was put up by a group of businessmen who wanted access to the mayor and to secure public contracts if Blanco won. The Yáñezes declined to name the businessmen.

Blanco said he was approached by the Yáñezes about entering the mayoral race and mulled the idea for a month before committing because he disliked politics.But he said no money changed hands and that there was no contract. “It´s totally a lie,” Blanco said, in reference to the Yáñezes´ allegations, first reported by Mexican media in 2016.

Sanz likewise denied receiving kickbacks.”It´s false,” he said of the Yáñezes´ claims.

Roberto Yáñez showed Reuters a signed copy of Blanco´s contract laying out expectations for the candidate´s run. The soccer star was instructed to pose for photos with prospective voters, dash off autographs and greet women with a kiss, according to the document, which Blanco has claimed is fake.

What´s undisputed is that Blanco was a sensation on the campaign trail.Voters queued for hours to snatch selfies and evDEn eVe NakLiYAT get soccer balls signed, ultimately carrying him to victory over more seasoned competitors. “I fucked them over,” he crowed on election night in June 2015.

Blanco quickly adopted some practices of his predecessors.He doled out top jobs to friends and family. He established alleged links with drug traffickers, according to two prosecutors and 2019 military intelligence documents seen by Reuters. And he significantly worsened the fortunes of SAPAC, Cuernavaca´s water utility, according to former agency head Remigio Alvarez and five current SAPAC employees.

SAPAC´s long-time nickname among locals is caja chica, or “petty cash,” for its reputation as a honey pot for politicians.Blanco´s arrival signaled a new era for the utility, alleged ex-chief Alvarez, opening the door to organized crime. “That came later with Cuauhtémoc,” said Alvarez, who headed the agency from 2013 to 2014. He provided no documents or other evidence to back up his claims.

Blanco denied allowing organized crime to flourish at SAPAC.”It´s not true,” he said.

His alleged collusion with organized crime is emblematic of what Mexican authorities say is a wider shift across Mexico in recent years. Groups that once focused almost solely on narcotics are diversifying how they make and move money, spreading into almost every corner of Mexican society.

Morelos prosecutors told Reuters they believe Blanco “delivered” control of SAPAC to Figueroa, the alleged head of the Comando Tlahuica cartel.They say Figueroa skimmed cash payments from utility customers and paid kickbacks to the mayor for the privilege. The five SAPAC employees who spoke with Reuters described a takeover by the gangster.

Starting around 2016, the five said, more than a dozen armed men working on behalf of Figueroa suddenly appeared at the utility´s headquarters.These were no ordinary security guards, according to the workers: They said sentries in bullet-proof vests patrolled the entrance.

Inside, men in civilian clothes watched over cashiers´ windows where water customers lined up to pay their bills in cash.Many clients had no choice but to do so, the employees said, after SAPAC that year eliminated the option to pay by debit card or at convenience stores. Three Cuernavaca residents confirmed this reduction in payment options, which they said were restored after about a year.

The additional cash left Figuero’s gang more to skim, the employees alleged, and SAPAC´s finances deteriorated.The utility slowed payments to vendors and fell behind on paying employees´ health insurance and payroll taxes. During Blanco´s tenure as mayor, the utility´s known debt increased 58% to 403 million pesos ($21.6 million) by the end of 2018, according to a public SAPAC document.

Figueroa also warned two employee unions operating at SAPAC that he would brook no dissent, the five employees said.They recounted that during a 2017 labor dispute, the alleged mobster sent men to beat up one syndicate leader. Separately, Figueroa phoned SAPAC headquarters and asked to talk with another trade union chief on speakerphone, so that other staffers could hear him deliver a threat, two of the employees said.

“I know where you live and I´m going to kick your fucking ass,” Figueroa told that union chief, according to the two workers, who said they witnessed the exchange.”If you don´t drop your demands, we are going to disappear you.” The syndicate leaders backed down and kept quiet, the workers said.

Reuters could not independently verify the workers´ account of events.

Figueroa could not be reached for comment.

When Blanco stepped down in July 2018 to run for governor, his successor as mayor, Antonio Villalobos, refused to honor Blanco´s suspected agreement with the Comando Tlahuica cartel, according to a military intelligence document viewed by Reuters.Instead, individuals linked to other mafia moved to seize control of the utility from Figueroa, the five SAPAC employees told Reuters.

At least four people linked to SAPAC have died violently in the past four years in turf battles over the water service, three Morelos officials told Reuters.Villalobos was arrested in September and charged with abuse of office over alleged corruption at SAPAC. He remains in jail.

Villalobos could not be reached for comment and Reuters could not ascertain whether he entered a plea. Neither his attorney or a family member responded to requests for comment.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

Blanco´s stint as mayor was widely panned by political commentators.Still, as national elections loomed in 2018, presidential candidate López Obrador evdEn evE NaKLiyat chose Blanco over his own party´s contender to run as governor of Morelos on a coalition slate. By this time, Blanco had left the Social Democratic Party for the Social Encounter Party.

“He likes me very much because I´m not a politician,” Blanco told Reuters, in reference to the president.

Once elected, Blanco again dished out top jobs to friends and family.Sanz, his former sports agent, continued as his chief of staff. The governor placed buddy and ex-soccer player Luis Hernández Mondragón in charge of the Acquisitions Office, overseeing procurement of goods and services worth tens of millions of dollars.

Hernández told Reuters via WhatsApp that the post required someone with the “full confidence” of Blanco to fight corruption. He said was given the job because he “always acted with honesty and morality.”

Some staffers took to calling Blanco the “absent governor.” In his first year on the job, Blanco´s official calendar showed no work activities on 207 out of 365 days, according to a freedom of information request by a local accountability organization, Morelos Rinde Cuentas.”As a footballer he got used to playing on Sundays and not working Mondays,” a former Blanco staffer told Reuters.

Blanco dismissed claims of his indolence as an unjust smear attempt by his critics.

Scandals soon rocked Blanco´s government.In March 2020, Mexico´s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), which investigates suspected financial crimes, in a news conference said that it was scrutinizing members of Blanco´s inner circle. The UIF claimed to have uncovered about 750 million pesos ($40.2 million) in irregular banking transactions, including huge cash deposits, executed by then-Chief of Staff Sanz, three family members and two other associates, UIF documents viewed by Reuters show.

The UIF that month handed its evidence to the federal Office of the Attorney General (FGR), headed by Alejandro Gertz, and asked prosecutors to take up the case, according to that non-public 93-page UIF document reviewed by Reuters.

Between 2014 and 2019, individuals close to Blanco had made bank deposits and transactions that investigators concluded likely originated “from illicit activity,” the report said.The purpose of the alleged scheme, the document said, was to hide the origin or ownership of the assets.

Federal prosecutors verified most of the suspect transactions unearthed by UIF investigators, according to nearly 200 pages of non-public FGR documents reviewed by Reuters.No charges have been filed, and the case has stalled for unknown reasons, according to a source familiar with the probe.

Gertz, the attorney general, did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the investigation.

Sanz denied wrongdoing.He told Reuters the federal investigation “is now over” and he had been “exonerated,” claims that have not been confirmed by prosecutors.

Blanco, too, denied wrongdoing. “I´m clean,” he said in the interview.

More allegations soon surfaced.In September 2021, Gerardo Becerra, the official anti-corruption advisor to Blanco, quit the government and publicly alleged widespread graft relating to public contracting. Becerra said he stepped down because the administration was not interested in stopping it.

“I started to get all the information about the corruption of the government of Cuauhtémoc Blanco,” he said.”They stopped me, they didn´t like it.”

Becerra did not specify who in Blanco´s administration allegedly kept him from doing his job.

He told Reuters he filed a confidential complaint to Morelos´ anti-corruption prosecutorial body alleging that 96% of contracts handed out during Blanco´s tenure were no-bid deals that violated state law.Morelos law requires a minimum of three bidders to ensure competition.

Blanco denied Becerra´s claims, saying they are “not true.”

Hernández, Blanco´s procurement chief, did not respond to a request for comment on Becerra´s allegations.

Local prosecutors digging into corruption allegations against the governor uncovered three undeclared Mexican bank accounts belonging to Blanco containing a total of 16 million Mexican pesos ($858,000).They also found a U.S. bank account with $1.25 million (23.3 million pesos), according to the non-public documents filed by prosecutors with the Morelos state congress in April 2022 asking lawmakers to impeach Blanco.

In their request, prosecutors accused Blanco of illegal enrichment and alleged that his “assets have increased in an important and inexplicable manner” during his stint as a public servant.

Days later, López Obrador publicly backed Blanco.And local lawmakers from Blanco´s Morena party, helped by a handful of allies from other parties, blocked the impeachment.

In August 2022, Blanco´s brother Ulises Bravo Molina was placed in charge of the local branch of López Obrador´s Morena party in Morelos.The following month, Blanco switched parties, saying he joined Morena with “pride, gratitude and determination”.

`ABSOLUTE IMPUNITY´

September 2022 brought a new source for public speculation about Blanco and the alleged drug traffickers who posed with him in the now-famous photo.

That month, the Latin American hacker group Guacamaya leaked a trove of classified documents from the Mexican military.Among them was a February 2019 Navy intelligence report, reviewed by Reuters, which stated that it was possible that Blanco was “colluding” with the Comando Tlahuica gang and its purported head, Figueroa.

Mexico´s Navy did not respond to a request for comment.Figueroa could not be reached for comment.

Another document in that cache, a May 2019 Mexican Army memo, referenced the two other alleged drug traffickers shown in the undated photo with Blanco: Raymundo Castro, the Morelos boss of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, and his cartel colleague Irving Solano Vera.

The memo summarized a conversation Solano had with a Mexican Army intelligence agent shortly after the May 2019 capture of Castro by federal police.Solano told the army that Castro had cut a deal with Blanco: Guerreros Unidos could act with “absolute impunity” in Morelos if Castro backed the governor´s political campaign and kept violence low on his turf, Solano alleged.

Castro was killed in a prison brawl in October 2019, according to authorities.If you have just about any concerns about exactly where and also how to employ EvDEn eVE nAkLiYat, you’ll be able to call us in our web site. Solano was captured by the Mexican military in February 2021. He is believed to be in a maximum-security lock-up and could not be reached for comment. Reuters was unable to determine the identity of his legal counsel. Names of his attorneys were not listed in court records viewed by Reuters, a common practice in Mexico in drug trafficking cases due to security concerns.

Three Mexican security officials told Reuters that Castro and Solano also worked alongside the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which has a partnership with Guerreros Unidos.U.S. authorities rank Jalisco New Generation among the world´s most dangerous transnational crime organizations. They blame it for flooding the United States with fentanyl and other synthetic drugs that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year.

Blanco stood defiant amid a flood of disparaging news coverage following the leaks.”He who has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear,” Blanco said in an Oct. 10, 2022 statement. “Let them investigate.”

In Cuernavaca, the state´s one-time tourist hotspot, many fearful residents now scurry home before dark. In Blanco´s four years as Morelos governor, homicides in the state increased by 50% to 1,174 in 2022 from 783 in 2018, federal government data show.In the same period, murders declined 8.2% nationally.

On a park bench in Cuernavaca, Marcelo Rocha, a 71-year-old pensioner, complained of crime and water shortages plaguing his neighborhood. He said he regrets voting for Blanco.

“He has failed us a lot,” Rocha said.

Blanco dismissed any notion that he´s on the side of alleged traffickers in the photo or any other outlaws.He told Reuters he´s working to bring alleged kingpin Figueroa to justice.

“I have never entered into a pact with drug traffickers or criminals,” Blanco said. “I´m not a damn criminal, a crook or a bad person. I´m a well-mannered man of principles.” ($1 = 18.6527 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Additional reporting by Mike Berens in Chicago; and Dave Graham, Stephen Eisenhammer, Diego Oré and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Marla Dickerson)

A recent report by climate group One Home estimated that coastal homes in England worth a total of £584million could be lost to cliff collapses by 2100. 

The report accounts for 2,218 homes across 21 coastal communities that have been brought closer to crumbling cliffs over the years.

Some homeowners expressed nervousness about having children stay overnight while others say they are too scared to cut the grass holding together the narrow stretches of turf along the cliff edges.

Grenadier Guard Lance Martin, 65, is among the householders in Hemsby, Norfolk who may be forced to move homes. 

Mr Martin is living in the last house left on his road, The Marrams, in a one-bed detached house where the cliff edge hugs his back patio fence.

His 11 neighbours have all been forced to abandon their properties to the sea since 2017, when Mr Martin moved in.

He only managed to remain on his property by dragging it 10.5 metres back from the cliff edge with a tractor after the 2018 Beast from the East storm ate away metres of ground from under his kitchen.

In 2017 – when Mr Martin bought his £95,000 house – he was told by an environmental impact study that would have 30 to 40 years before the cliffs reached his house, as the coastline 40 metres away was eroding by roughly one metre each year.

Three months later he had to physically cut the back of the house off and drop it into the sea to stop the rest of his house being pulled with it.

‘I was standing in the kitchen and heard a great big horrendous crack.I looked down and saw the sea underneath my feet,’ Mr Martin explained.

He has watched his neighbours move away one by one as their houses were demolished by the council after being deemed a public health and safety risk. 

He said: ‘It was horrible, some went slowly, some very quickly.I got the council to delay demolishing my house because I was determined to save my property.’

He was given two days to ‘pull his house back’ from the cliff. He hired a man with a tractor and a winch and together they felled two telegraph poles at the front and back of the property and pulled the house back by nearly 11 metres.

Ian Brennan is Chairman of the Save Hemsby Coastline charity, which has spent 10 years campaigning in an effort to convince Great Yarmouth Borough Council to take the erosion of the village seriously.

The 63-year-old retired telecoms manager lives further into the village but cares deeply about the problems his friends and neighbours face.

According to Mr Brennan, 90 homes are at risk of being lost in Hemsby over the next 25 years.

‘The whole thing is a political decision,’ Mr Brennan claimed. 

‘In Holland, most of the country should be in the water but they don’t have this problem because they spend the money that needs to be spent to protect the country.

‘I’m trying to persuade people that Hemsby is worth saving.’

He is currently waiting on planning permission for a multi-million-pound rock berm to be put in place to slow the erosion of the coast. 

A rock berm is a ridge constructed of compacted soil, gravel, rocks, and stones to direct water away from a particular area.Mr Brennan is hoping to raise money to fund the project. 

He said: ‘We can’t stop global warming, we can’t stop coastal erosion, but we can slow it down. We’re trying to buy time so people like Lance don’t have to worry.

‘Every time a storm hits the residents are nervous that they may have to walk away from their house with nothing but a carrier bag.

‘That’s the mental health impact we’re talking about.These people deserve to get a good night’s sleep – a rock berm will buy us 25 years. That’s enough time for people to decide what they want to do with their house and with their lives.’

Thirteen miles up the coast is Happisburgh, Norfolk, a village that has also experienced the loss of more than an entire street and 34 homes in the last 20 years.

Retired teacher Bryony Nierop-Reading, 77, lost her bungalow to erosion during a huge tidal surge in 2013. She had moved into a caravan further inland that night because she felt so unsafe in her home.

The next morning, she found the bungalow was still standing, but the back third of her home was hanging metres off of a cliff edge – that used to be solid ground.

‘To go from having a house to live in to not having a house to live in is shattering.It made me understand more how people who suffered in the tsunami in 2010 – there were pictures of people just sitting around,’ she recalled.

‘You get hit by the shock, then you can’t make decisions. It took me about six months before I could think properly.I struggled.’

A week after the storm struck, North Norfolk Council told Ms Nierop-Reading she couldn’t live in the caravan on her land. She pushed back against the council’s ruling but after four years of legal battles she ultimately lost the fight.

In 2018, she bought a two-bed semi-detached house for £99,000 at the end of the road.

‘I could have moved inland but I knew that if I did, I’d be like everybody else down the road who thinks erosion is somebody else’s problem,’ she explained.

‘I thought it would keep my mind concentrated if I lived on the edge.My family were very cross with me.’

The tarmac on Ms Nierop-Reading’s road, Beach Road, drops away suddenly 40 metres away from her front door. 

According to her measurements the road has lost eight metres in the last 12 months alone. She says the council are doing nothing to stop it.

Insurance companies also won’t cover for damage caused by erosion.

Though she’s worried about losing the value of her house, Ms Nierop-Reading said she is more concerned about what will happen when she’s no longer here.

Ms Nierop-Reading, who was widowed last year, said: ‘The government’s response is to “adapt”- all that means is not doing anything about the problem.

‘As a country we cannot ignore the fact that we are losing land all the time.

‘How long can they carry on shunting people inland?If the country gets smaller and smaller due to unaddressed erosion we will have a smaller country with an enlarged population with no way to feed them and house them.’

Nicola Bayless, a 47-year-old nurse, is Ms Nierop-Reading’s next-door neighbour.She has lived on the road for 19 years. 

Her home is attached to Ms Nierop-Reading’s house but faces inland. The pair are baffled by the reluctance to use any sea defences by the government.

‘As a teenager I used to come down here to my parents’ chalet – that’s no longer here.I’m very upset and stressed about the prospect of moving,’ Ms Bayless said.

‘I fell in love with the area and thought this is where we wanted to stay- we want our children to grow up somewhere lovely.’

Ms Bayless said the prospect of moving out of her three bedroom home within the next ten years – which is when she estimates the cliff will be on her doorstep – has left her feeling ‘very stressed and upset.’

‘You never know when your time is up really.It’s like renting. One day you could have another Beast from the East and lose half a field,’ she said.

‘Your house shakes. I opened the curtain the next morning in 2018 and thought, “Where the hell has the field gone?”‘

Similarly, the roads leading to East Yorkshire’s erosion hotspots are littered with signs advertising ‘holiday homes’,  many with price tags of £100,100 to £200,000.

Planning consent has also been granted for hundreds of new houses on fields just inland from the static caravans perched perilously above a 50 foot drop to the sea at Holderness.

Many of the caravan dwellers have seen entire rows of the caravan pitches in front of them topple into the sea in recent years.

Whether your pitch is a hundred yards either way of the ugly sea defences already scarring the sandy beaches stretching away to Filey Light House can make all the difference, residents stressed.

‘I always wanted to live by the sea but I could not afford a second house,’ Carol Stoker, 62, a retired secondary teacher from Halifax, West Yorkshire, said.

‘When I first looked out of the window of our caravan I nearly cried. It was the most beautiful view I had ever seen.

‘When I first bought the place I asked the seller “How long do you think we have got?” She said “20 years” – and I giggle about that now. For those who have any questions about where in addition to the best way to make use of evdEn eVe NAKLiYAt, you can email us from our web site. ‘

Ms Stoker bought her caravan about four years ago.She experienced the impacts of coastal erosion that same year. 

‘There was a big cliff fall and about 3 metres went. There used to be a car park in front of us then,’ she said.

‘When you go out for a walk you see a crack in the ground.The next time you pass by you see it has got deeper. The next time that section of the cliff has gone completely.

‘The Government should do more because it is not just the caravans at risk – a load of agricultural land has been lost too.’

Robin Hargreaves, 67, also from Halifax, paid £10,000 for a static caravan and has lived on the site for nearly five years, having retired from running a nursing home.

He claims there is evidence of fresh erosion up the coast from his caravan.

‘There is always a bit of erosion going on somewhere.I can see it crumbling as I walk along the cliff,’ Mr Hargreaves shared.

‘We are talking about a 40 mile length of the coastline. I think the policy to protect the towns is sensible because you cannot do much about the force of nature.

‘I have seen entire rows of caravan pitches which have been lost.When they know one is going to go they have to dismantle the concrete base so it does not topple onto the beach.

‘But I won’t be going anywhere because I love it here. But I can see the cracks when I am out walking. It does not come crashing down. It just slides gently into the sea when it happens,

‘It is quite stable at the moment – but we do not take it for granted.’

Both Ms Stoker and Mr Hargreaves live a little over 100 yards beyond the Hornsea sea defences, meaning their caravans do not benefit from the concrete blocks and groynes that help reduce the impact of the waves.

Some of the other caravans above the sea defences are actually closer to the edge of the cliff – but the land is relatively stable.

John Hughes, 71, a retired fibre optic planner, is only six feet from the brink – and is taking no chances with the £37,000 static home he bought seven years ago with wife Carole, 71, a former secretary at Portsmouth University.

He said: ‘I never cut the grass – because the grass is helping hold the soil together and preventing it slipping off.

‘Everything in front of us has gone.If the worst comes to the worst the site will move the caravan further back but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’

The couple live on the stable part of the cliff above the sea defences. 

‘But if the erosion continues further up, where we are is going to become a peninsula,’ Mrs Hughes added.

‘The Government just seem content to let it go.If you live in a house around here it’s terrible.

‘We have got insurance so if anything was to happen it would not be very nice but it would not be the end of the world financially.

‘Obviously, it is not something you would want to happen if you have got the grandchildren staying.

‘You see someone checking the edge of the cliff every morning so they are really on top of it.But we are not so much concerned for ourselves as other people.’

‘There are building a whole load of new houses on a field not far from here. We are surprised they got planning permission but they did.’

Pat Cummings, 64, a retired Leeds dinner lady, is also above the sea defences and the ground seems stable.

She paid £30,000 for the caravan more than four years ago and reckons her investment is safe for the foreseeable future.

She said: ‘We have not had any movement here for 15 to 16 years which is good because I come here to read and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.’

Villagers in Thorpeness, East Suffolk, are ‘scared for the future’ of their homes, as they see properties decimated by cliff erosion. 

Lucy Ansbro, 54, claims her house is now 12 metres closer to the cliff edge than it was when she first moved in 14 years ago.

Part of her garden has now fallen away and her house now lies only 20 metres from the edge.

At the time she purchased the £600k four bedroom property, she was told it would be upwards of 50 years before the erosion would be as bad as it is currently.

She now says the property would be worth ‘nothing’.

The TV and theatre producer said: ‘Where it is now was supposed to happen in 50 years, not 14.It’s just all happened very quickly.

‘It’s always been an issue on the east coast, there was a surge in 2010, but in the winter of 2019 we noticed the fences were eroding very quickly.

‘By February 2020, it a lot more erosion had happened and the house next doors defences had disappeared.

‘On Easter weekend of 2020 as we were sitting in the living room, we literally saw bits of our garden falling off of the cliff.

‘Since moving in, we’re 12 metres closer to the cliff, eVDeN evE NakliYAT almost a metre a year, and the house next door lost about 25 metres.

‘We’ve spent £400,000 building proper defences, so we’re safe for now, but the house would be worth nothing now until it’s properly defended but it’s very concerning.’

In October last year, the house next door to Ms Ansbro’s had to be completely demolished as it was no longer safe to inhabit.

The demolished house, locally known as the ‘red house’, was built in the 1920s and was thought to have been worth £2million before it had to be torn down.

The owners had not installed the same defences Ms Ansbro has.

Ms Ansbro is working with the council and a local committee to fundraise and build defence solutions along the entire coast, but fears it may take too long to save everyone.

She said: ‘Thorpeness isn’t my main concern – it’s quite a wealthy village with a lot of second homeowners.There’s so many other places along the east coast who simply don’t have the money to defend their houses – and it’s their only property they’re living in with their children.

‘We’re trying to do as much as we can to raise awareness and raise money to be ready for when sea levels rise.’

Another homeowner in Thorpness, Ben Brown, says his home is in a similar situation to his neighbours’.

Although the farmer was aware of the coastal erosion problem on the coast when they bought the property two years ago, he was told by surveyors that it wouldn’t be a serious issue for another 60 years.

The 52-year-old, whose home is a mere 70 metres from the cliff, said: ‘We knew about the issue and we had a survey done before we bought it to let us know how long we had before there would be trouble.

‘Things have accelerated so fast since then, and although the survey said it would be 60 years, I think it will be a lot sooner if nothing is done.

‘We live over the track so we’re not quite at the forefront yet but the house opposite unfortunately had to be taken down.

‘It’s definitely a worry because we’ve invested a lot of money here and we expected to have it a lot longer – it’s awful and we’re scared for the future. 

‘But I think there’s a plan being put together now and the intention is to get the cliff protected.’

Adidas owns the design rights for both existing and future colors and versions of the Yeezy line, but not the Yeezy name.The company said it will continue to sell the sneaker and apparel line, but stripped of the name and branding, reported. 

‘Going forward, we will leverage the existing inventory with the exact plans being developed as we speak,’ Adidas finance chief Harm Ohlmeyer said Wednesday. If you liked this report and you would like to get much more facts relating to EVdeN EVe nAKliyAt kindly stop by the webpage.  

The German shoe and sportswear maker cut its sales and profit outlook part of its third-quarter earnings statement, even as the company’s chief financial officer said the profitability of the Yeezy shoe collaboration with Ye had been ‘overstated.’ 

The company slashed its expectations in half for net profit from continuing operations to $252 million this year from about $500 million. That matched its earlier statement that ending the partnership with Ye would cost it $252 million in profits.

The Yeezy brand accounted for up to 15 percent of Adidas’ net income, Morningstar analyst David Swartz said in a note on October 26. 

Adidas split from Ye on October 25 just days after the rapper claimed on a podcast that , eVDeN eve nAkliYaT despite saying ‘anti-Semitic things’. 

Adidas has lowered its revenue forecast for eVDen EVE NAkliYAT the year to a low single-digit increase from a mid-single-digit increase.

The split with Ye, with production of all Yeezy products halted and royalty payments ended, will leave Adidas searching for another star to help it compete with ever-larger rival Nike. 

The company would largely offset the impact of the breakup next year by no longer having to pay royalties and marketing fees for the brand, EvdEN eVE nAkliYAt CFO Harm Ohlmeyer said. 

Adidas also is facing internal upheaval, with its  Friday. 

He was previously expected to hand over next year, but the company announced the quicker change on Tuesday as it named Puma CEO Bjørn Gulden as his replacement.

Adidas faced pressure to split with Ye as other brands did earlier over the rapper´s anti-Semitic comments in interviews and social media, including a Twitter post earlier this month that he would soon go ‘death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,’ an apparent reference to the U.S.defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON. 

He was suspended from both Twitter and Instagram.

Ohlmeyer also said that the profitability of the Yeezy business had been overstated because its costs only included expenses directly related to the products and not central overhead costs borne by the company.

‘In other words, it does not include any further central cost allocation for sourcing, digital, retail, or any other services that this part of our business has been benefitting from and that were essential for evDEn EVe naKLiyAT its success,’ Ohlmeyer said.

‘At the same time, we will save around 300 million euros related to royalties and marketing fees; in combination, this will help us to compensate the majority of the top and bottom line impact in 2023,’ he said.