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zpulatisha – Announcement.News https://www.announcement.news Online News Portal Tue, 16 May 2023 01:11:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 222850030 N. American pipeline operator Enbridge swings to loss on $1.86 bln… https://www.announcement.news/n-american-pipeline-operator-enbridge-swings-to-loss-on-1-86-bln-28/ https://www.announcement.news/n-american-pipeline-operator-enbridge-swings-to-loss-on-1-86-bln-28/#respond Tue, 16 May 2023 01:11:59 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=72224 By Arshreet Singh and Rod Nickel

Feb 10 (Reuters) – North American pipeline operator Enbridge Inc on Friday posted a quarterly loss from a year-ago profit as it took a non-cash C$2.5 billion ($1.86 billion) hit from higher cost of capital related to its natural gas transmission business.

U.S.refinery outages, a global glut of high sulphur fuel oil and the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases of heavy sour barrels weakened demand for EvdEn EVe NAkLiyat Western Canada Select crude in the fourth quarter.

Enbridge, a leading transporter of crude oil and natural gas, delivered 3.1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) on its Mainline system, slightly higher than the 3 million bpd delivered a year ago.

The Calgary-based company lost C$1.07 billion, or 53 Canadian cents, in the fourth quarter, compared with a profit of C$1.84 billion, or 91 Canadian cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Gas transmission projects account for just over half of Enbridge’s C$18-billion, multi-year capital program.Chief Executive Greg Ebel told analysts that Enbridge is in good position to manage inflation because the timing of its projects is staggered.

On an adjusted basis, Enbridge earned 63 Canadian cents per share, eVdeN eVE NakLiyaT missing analysts’ average expectation of 73 Canadian cents, according to Refinitiv data.The company cited rising interest rates in its lower adjusted earnings.

Enbridge shares rose 0.5% in Toronto.

Enbridge is in “constructive” negotiations with oil shippers on a new basis to charge for space on its Mainline, Evden evE naKliyAt Ebel said, after the Canada Energy Regulator rejected in 2021 Enbridge’s plan to sell nearly all of its space under long-term contract.

Enbridge currently rations Mainline space monthly and faces new competition when the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion wraps up late this year.

The Mainline is Canada’s longest oil pipeline, EvdEn EVe naKLiYAt moving crude from Western Canada to refineries in Eastern Canada and the U.S.Midwest. If you have any sort of questions pertaining to where and just how to utilize eVdEN eVe NAKliyAt, you could contact us at our own page. ($1 = 1.3447 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Arshreet Singh and Rod Nickel; Editing by Devika Syamnath and EVDeN EVE nakLiYAt Marguerita Choy)

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Back in February, my husband and I booked a Virgin cruise for November 2022 through the agent Imagine Cruising, paying £1,988 https://www.announcement.news/back-in-february-my-husband-and-i-booked-a-virgin-cruise-for-november-2022-through-the-agent-imagine-cruising-paying-1988-15/ https://www.announcement.news/back-in-february-my-husband-and-i-booked-a-virgin-cruise-for-november-2022-through-the-agent-imagine-cruising-paying-1988-15/#respond Mon, 15 May 2023 09:36:03 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=72096 Back in February, my husband EvdEN EvE nakLiYAt and I booked a Virgin cruise for November 2022 through the agent Imagine Cruising, paying £1,988.

But hours later, we realised that we had accidentally booked for November 2023.

We emailed Imagine to cancel the next morning, but it said we could not have a refund and could only move the booking to new dates, eVdEN evE NaKLiyaT which would incur an administration fee of £1,500.

We cannot travel on those dates in 2023 because it is our Grandson’s Bar Mitzvah.

Mistake: L.D and her husband booked a holiday online, eVdEN Eve NaKLiyAT but accidentally chose November 2023 as the date, rather than November 2022

We wondering why there wasn’t a ‘cooling off’ period in place for the booking – isn’t this fairly standard?

We would like either the money back or a credit for the full amount so we can rebook.

We don’t mind paying a fee as this was our mistake, but an extra £1,500 on a £2,000 holiday is excessive – especially as the firm won’t have any trouble re-selling our cabin with almost two years’ notice.In case you loved this article and you would love to receive much more information about eVdEn EvE nAKliYaT generously visit the web page. Can you help? L.D, via email

Helen Crane of This is Money replies: You told me you had been ‘so excited’ to book the cruise as you and your husband had not been away for more than three years during the pandemic, and EvDEn EVE nAkliyAT it was a special trip to celebrate both your seventieth birthdays.

But that excitement soon turned into horror, EvdEn EVE NaKLiyAT as you received the booking confirmation email and realised that you had accidentally paid for a trip in November 2023 – not November 2022 as you intended.

https://www.announcement.news/back-in-february-my-husband-and-i-booked-a-virgin-cruise-for-november-2022-through-the-agent-imagine-cruising-paying-1988-15/feed/ 0 72096 A Mexican soccer icon entered politics. Prosecutors say narcos… https://www.announcement.news/a-mexican-soccer-icon-entered-politics-prosecutors-say-narcos-25/ https://www.announcement.news/a-mexican-soccer-icon-entered-politics-prosecutors-say-narcos-25/#respond Sun, 14 May 2023 18:05:43 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=71966 By Drazen Jorgic

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 EVDeN evE nakLiYAt 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. If you loved this article and you would like to acquire more details concerning EVDEn eve NAkLiyat kindly check out our own web site. 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, EVDEN EVe naKLiYaT 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: trapping the ball between his legs and eVdEn Eve naKliYaT 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, Evden eVE NakLiYAt 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 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)

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A Mexican soccer icon entered politics. Prosecutors say narcos… https://www.announcement.news/a-mexican-soccer-icon-entered-politics-prosecutors-say-narcos-23/ https://www.announcement.news/a-mexican-soccer-icon-entered-politics-prosecutors-say-narcos-23/#respond Sun, 14 May 2023 02:37:46 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=71840 By Drazen Jorgic

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: 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, EvDEn EVE nAkliyaT 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. In case you adored this information in addition to you would like to be given more info relating to EvDEn EVe NakliYAT kindly pay a visit to the website. 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, EVdEn eve NAkLiyAt 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, evdEN EVE nAKliYaT 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)

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Canopy Growth sheds assets in Canada, plans more layoffs https://www.announcement.news/canopy-growth-sheds-assets-in-canada-plans-more-layoffs-4/ https://www.announcement.news/canopy-growth-sheds-assets-in-canada-plans-more-layoffs-4/#respond Fri, 05 May 2023 00:04:49 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=69582 By Ankit Kumar

Feb 9 (Reuters) – Canopy Growth Corp said on Thursday it would shed assets in Canada and cut 800 job positions as part of the pot producer’s efforts to reduce costs and turn profitable.

Shares of the company, which reported a bigger quarterly loss, plunged 16.6% to C$3.06 at the closing of trade.

The company has been cutting costs through layoffs, exit from some international markets, store closures and divestiture of its retail business across Canada.

The company expects to save C$140 million ($104.10 million)to C$160 million over the next 12 months.

Its streamlining efforts in Canada include exiting cannabis flower cultivation in its Smiths Falls, Ontario facility, ceasing the sourcing of cannabis flower from the Quebec facility, and moving to a third-party sourcing model for cannabis beverages, edibles, vapes and extracts.

The company expects to complete the operational changes in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 and record restructuring-related pretax charges of C$425 million to C$525 million in the current quarter and EvdEn EVE NAKliYaT the first half of fiscal 2024.

Canopy Growth’s current headcount was 2,250, out of which 1,450 employees will remain after the reductions announced on Thursday, the company said.

“Canopy is now in a position where its success will largely depend on investor enthusiasm amid an environment where cannabis sentiment is at best apathetic,” Stifel analyst Andrew Carter said in a note.

The company’s adjusted core loss widened to C$87.5 million in the quarter ended Dec.When you loved this information and also you want to get more info relating to EVDeN EVe NaKliyAt i implore you to stop by the web site. 31, from C$67.4 million a year earlier.

Smaller rival Aurora Cannabis Inc, eVDeN EVe NAkLiyAt however, reported an adjusted core profit of C$1.4 million, compared to a loss of C$7.1 million in the year-ago quarter, helped by higher revenue and reduction in expenses.($1 = 1.3449 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Ankit Kumar, EvDEn EvE nakLiyat additional reporting by Sourasis Bose; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shailesh Kuber)

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Super Bowl parties hit Americans in the pocket as cost of food soars https://www.announcement.news/super-bowl-parties-hit-americans-in-the-pocket-as-cost-of-food-soars-7/ https://www.announcement.news/super-bowl-parties-hit-americans-in-the-pocket-as-cost-of-food-soars-7/#respond Thu, 04 May 2023 00:43:44 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=69256 Unless you’ve got a craving for chicken wings, this year’s party might leave your wallet a little lighter. 

As the City Chiefs set to do battle with the Philadelphia Eagles in front of an audience likely to soar over 100 million, many together with friends and family at parties.

Those Super Bowl parties could be the latest thing wreaks havoc with, as the price of food and drink has gone up in 2023. 

The claims that alcoholic beverages have gone up six percent in cost from 2022.

Even your party’s designated driver will suffer: the cost of non-alcoholic drinks rose 13 percent year-over-year. 

Unless you’ve got a craving for chicken wings, this year’s Super Bowl party might leave your wallet a little lighter

The food to go along with those drinks isn’t getting cheaper either: evden eVe NaKLiYaT the price of meat, fish and eggs as well as fruits and vegetables are up eight percent from 2022.

However, there is one category where consumers are likely to feel only stomach pain rather than financial ones: chicken wings. 

The popular appetizer’s prices have g has rocked the United States in the past year, with Miami being hit hardest as  to corral the soaring cost of living.

Miami, Phoenix, Seattle, Atlanta and EVDeN EVE nAkliYaT Philadelphia finished 2022 with the highest annual inflation rate increases.

Higher energy, rising food prices and evdEN evE naKLiyAT housing costs have been cited as the top drivers of inflation, including in , which may be a victim of its own success, as . 

Federal data listed Phoenix’s rent increase at 21.9 percent, with Miami at 18.6 percent, after the city saw the highest inbound population increase of any city since the pandemic began. 

Miami was one of four cities to make the top ten among cities with a population of over 150,000 – with a move-in rate of 55.2 percent  

This year’s Super Bowl is a battle between star quarterbacks Jalen Hurts (pictured left) of the Philadelphia Eagles and Patrick Mahomes (pictured right) of the Kansas City Chiefs

Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages have seen a surge in pricing

Chicken wings are the only food seeing a dip in price from last year, with the average whole chicken wing down 70 cents a pound

Inflation has rocked the United States hard in the past year, with Miami being hit hardest as consumers continue to get priced out

The top ten was rounded out by New York/Newark, Baltimore, Detroit, St.If you loved this article and you simply would like to get more info relating to EVDeN eVE nakliyaT nicely visit our own web page. Louis and Chicago. 

Los Angeles and San Francisco had some of the lowest inflation rates, which may be due to a slowing of people moving to those areas. 

Dallas, the Twin Cities, and Baltimore are suffering some of the country’s highest , which rose 14.1%, 13.7%, and 13.5% in those cities respectively, according to an Axios analysis. 

The news comes after the  raised its target interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, and signaled that even though inflation is easing, it remains high enough to require further hikes. 

The set the US central bank’s benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.50-4.75 percent range, the highest since November 2007, when rates were slashed at the onset of the financial crisis.

Though this increase was smaller than its previous hike – and even larger rate increases before that – the Fed’s latest move will further raise the costs of many consumer and business loans, and could increase the risk of a recession. 

In a policy statement, the Fed continued to promise ‘ongoing increases’ in borrowing costs, a signal that policymakers intend to raise their benchmark rate again when they next meet in March and perhaps in May as well. 

Still, the major stock indexes, which had spent the day in the red, rallied to positive territory as Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke after the decision, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.59 percent late in the session. 

Miami’s inflation rate is at 18.6 percent, after the city saw the highest inbound population increase of any city since the pandemic began

Seattle finished 2022 with the second-highest annual inflation rate increase

The Federal Reserve has raised its target interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, slowing down from the rapid hikes implemented last year

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said ‘the job is not fully done’ in bringing down inflation, noting policymakers are ‘strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2% goal’

‘We will need substantially more evidence to be confident that inflation is on a long, sustained downward path,’ said Powell.

“It would be very premature to declare victory or think that we really got this,” Powell added.”We have to complete the job.” 

Fed policymakers hope to avoid triggering a recession, and economic data since their last policy meeting in December generally has moved in the right direction.

Though , it is slowing under the impact of higher interest rates, while the economy continues to grow and create jobs at a reasonable pace.

‘The Fed isn’t done fighting inflation,’ said John Leer, chief economist at decision intelligence company Morning Consult. ‘Anyone who thought the Fed had won the war on inflation needs to buckle up for a protracted battle.’

Although the labor market remains tight, Leer said it ‘remains premature to conclude American workers will emerge unscathed from this hiking cycle’ as the full impact of higher interest rates on the job market has yet to play out.

The Fed is attempting to tame inflation by slowing the economy with higher interest rates, but hopes to avoid triggering a recession.

For consumers, the rate hike will likely mean higher interest payments for credit cards and variable-rate loans. 

Mortgage rates, however, remain near 6 percent after peaking above 7 percent in October, and experts expect them to remain relatively stable or fall further. 

Generally, mortgage rates follow yields on the 10-Year Treasury note, which have fallen significantly in the past month amid signs of slowing inflation.  

The Fed is attempting to walk a tightrope by raising rates enough to battle inflation, without tipping the economy into a full-blown recession.

Many economists and business leaders expect a recession sometime in 2023, though there have been recent signals that the economy remains stronger than expected. 

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The man who monetized community in the office space with the controversial WeWork has turned the same theory to residential properties with his newest venture Flow https://www.announcement.news/the-man-who-monetized-community-in-the-office-space-with-the-controversial-wework-has-turned-the-same-theory-to-residential-properties-with-his-newest-venture-flow-9/ https://www.announcement.news/the-man-who-monetized-community-in-the-office-space-with-the-controversial-wework-has-turned-the-same-theory-to-residential-properties-with-his-newest-venture-flow-9/#respond Mon, 01 May 2023 20:16:04 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=68729 The man who monetized community in the office space with the controversial WeWork has turned the same theory to residential properties with his newest venture Flow. 

Adam Neumann, 43, has described how the company will transform how people interact with their homes and give them with a sense of ownership even though they’re renting. To illustrate the idea he said tenants would plunge their own toilets instead of calling supers.

In , made public on Monday, Neumann discussed at length for the first time the vision behind his new real estate venture which will launch this year with properties in Atlanta, Miami and Nashville.

Flow will provide an ‘elevated experience’ and ‘find a way to share with the resident a portion of the value that they create’ to give them a sense of ‘equity’ in their homes.

During the 50-minute talk Neumann was joined by Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which .

Adam Neumann, 43 who unsuccessfully attempted to revolutionize the commercial property industry with WeWork wants to change the way home rental works by giving renters a sense of ownership 

The cash injection .A website for the project just says: ‘Live life in Flow. Coming 2023.’ It is not clear when this year it is expected to launch.

Neumann spoke of ‘pillars’ to the business, which would allow his company manage and own buildings but also oversee the collection of rent.

Firstly, he said he would use ‘branded technology’ to ‘operate a management company that runs the buildings’.Second he would manage a portfolio of property like a traditional real estate fund.

Flow would also serve as a financial services company that would handle monthly rent payments, which make up 35 percent of a renter’s expenditure, he said. 

A fourth and final pillar was the more abstract idea of finding a way to impart a sense of ownership in renters, but he also said that ‘ownership is a very complicated word’. 

‘If you’re in your apartment building and you’re a renter and your toilet gets clogged you call the super,’ he said.’If you’re in your own apartment and you bought it and you own it and your toilet gets clogged, you take the plunger 

‘It’s the difference when feeling like you own something to just feeling like you’re renting, from being transactional to actually being part of a community,’ he added.

‘If we are able to take this value creating mechanism and share with the residents a portion of the value, it’s going to make them feel ownership,’ he said.’If that value appreciates over time then I feel like I’m part of a community.’

Neumann said that for most Americans the majority of their equity is in their homes, but on the other hand renting is becoming more common, and people are needing to rent for decades and raise families in rented homes.

The new company will own and manage residential property in Atlanta, Miami and Nashville this year, EVdeN eve NakliyAT it says

Marc Andreessen (pictured) is a co-founder of the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which invested $350 million into Flow last August

‘If you’re going to go into these multi-family buildings and you’re going to have this disconnected experience that you just said, but you’re not only going to be there for two years and then get married and move, you’re going to be there for 20.That sounds soul-crushing,’ he said.

Neumann put a lot of emphasis on the way technology would be used to enhance the renter’s experience. The company has posted job listings for more than ten engineering roles on its website, several of which are in New York and Texas and are related to the development of a ‘payments platform’.

In a last August announcing his firm’s investment in Flow, Marc Andreessen praised Neumann who he said was a ‘visionary leader’.

He added that for all the scrutiny facing Neumann after his failed IPO and questionable management style, ‘it’s often under appreciated that only one person has fundamentally redesigned the office experience …Adam Neumann’.

In explaining the firm’s decision to invest Andreessen hailed Neumann as the person who could fix the current issues with the housing industry.

Flow will provide an ‘elevated experience’ and evdEN eVE nAKliYAt ‘find a way to share, with the resident, a portion of the value that they create’ to give them a sense of equity in the business

Neumann has bought up apartment complexes, like Stacks on Main in Nashville, Tennessee

An entity tied to Neumann also owns Society Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

‘The demographic trends driving America’s housing market are impossible to ignore: Our country is creating households faster than we’re building houses,’ he wrote.

‘Structural shortages in available homes for sale push housing prices higher, while young people are staying single for longer and increasingly concentrating in highly desirable urban centers.’

And as a result of the pandemic, Andreessen wrote, ‘many people will live in places far away from where they work, and many more will shift to a hybrid environment.’

‘Many people are voting with their feet and moving away from traditional economic hub cities to different cities, towns or rural areas with no diminishment of economic opportunity,’ he continued.

‘The residential real estate world needs to address these changing dynamics.And yet, virtually no aspect of the modern housing market is ready for these changes. If you adored this article and you would certainly like to receive additional details regarding EVDEN EVe nAKLiYAT kindly check out the web site. ‘

‘We think it is natural that for his first venture since WeWork, Adam returns to the theme of connecting people through transforming their physical spaces and building communities where people spend the most time: their homes.’

https://www.announcement.news/the-man-who-monetized-community-in-the-office-space-with-the-controversial-wework-has-turned-the-same-theory-to-residential-properties-with-his-newest-venture-flow-9/feed/ 0 68729 Pia Miller says she 'truly hates' Balenciaga https://www.announcement.news/pia-miller-says-she-truly-hates-balenciaga-5/ https://www.announcement.news/pia-miller-says-she-truly-hates-balenciaga-5/#respond Mon, 01 May 2023 07:31:22 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=68578 Pia Whitesell (nee Miller) has said she ‘truly hates’ amid the fashion house’s BDSM-inspired child photoshoot scandal.

The star, 39, took to her Instagram story on Tuesday to slam the brand.

‘I hate.I mean truly hate Balenciaga,’ she wrote.

Pia Whitesell, 39, (pictured) has said she ‘truly hates’ Balenciaga amid the fashion house’s BDSM-inspired child photoshoot scandal

Pia has two children of her own, Isaiah, 20, who she welcomed when she was just 19 and  Lennox, 16, who she shares with AFL-star ex-husband Brad Miller.

The Chilean-born star relocated from Australia to live in Los Angeles with her multimillionaire Hollywood agent husband Patrick last year. 

Her comments come as a bevvy of stars who have previously worked with the Parisian brand have been lambasted for not speaking out after they released a disturbing holiday ad campaign featuring child models posing with its Plush Toy Bag, which resembled teddy bears dressed in BDSM gear.

The Home and Away star, 39, previously known as Pia Miller, took to her Instagram story on Tuesday to slam the fashion house.When you have any kind of inquiries about where by in addition to how you can work with EvDeN EVE naKLiYat, you can call us at our site. ‘I hate. I mean truly hate Balenciaga,’ she wrote

Pia has two children of her own, Isaiah, 20, who she welcomed when she was just 19 and Lennox, 16, who she shares with AFL-star ex-husband Brad Miller

In the shoot, the children also appeared to be surrounded by empty wine and champagne glasses, further contributing to the disturbing setting.

More revelations have also come out about the brand’s previous campaigns, with fans discovering the Spring/Summer 2023 campaign featured pages from a US Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws. 

In a lengthy apology statement on Monday, the fashion house took full responsibility for the teddy bear images but insisted it had no involvement in the photoshoot featuring child porn legislation. 

Balenciaga triggered outrage with its 2022 Holiday advertising campaign, which depicted children holding teddy bears that were dressed in bondage attire (pictured)  

Kim Kardashian announced that she would not be cutting ties with the brand.  

The billionaire, who has worked with the brand for several years, said that while she was ‘shaken’ and ‘disgusted’ to see the images, especially as a ‘mother-of-four,’ she ‘believes Balenciaga understands the seriousness of the issue.’

She added that she was ‘re-evaluating her relationship’ with the brand EVden eVE NAkLiyat ‘based off its willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with’ – but many social media users were angered that she didn’t condemn the fashion house further.

‘Silence is deafening’: Nicole Kidman has been lambasted for refusing to address Balenciaga’s BDSM child photo scandal after working with the brand (pictured at the brand’s FW22/23 show) 

Bella Hadid in the Balenciaga Spring ’23 campaign for its collaboration with Adidas.She is yet to comment on the multiple child imagery scandals engulfing the brand 

Her sister Kylie Jenner, has hit back at TikTok users accusing her of deliberately posting photos of her son to detract from the scandal .

Nicole Kidman and Bella Hadid, who have both modelled for the brand, are facing growing calls to comment on the controversy.

Ruby Tuesday Matthews, an outspoken influencer based in Byron Bay, has also blasted the brand for seemingly shifting the blame in its official apology statement this week. 

She wrote to Instagram on Tuesday: ‘This is your apology Balenciaga?As a brand I’ve admired and loved for years I’m so angry at this response’.

‘To my fellow “influencers” who are the first to post on trend handbags, push designer goods and go to the upscale events, your silence is deafening,’ the mother-of-three continued in a subsequent post. 

Balenciaga, which is popular with A-list celebrities including the likes of Kim Kardashian – has deleted two shocking images showing two young girls holding a teddy bear in bondage style gear on the gift shop section of its website

After the BDSM bears fiasco, eagle-eyed critics started examining the rest of Balenciaga’s campaigns closely.They soon discovered that in the background of an image from the Spring ’23 campaign was a printout of a Supreme Court ruling on whether or not internet child porn can be legally considered free speech (pictured) 

Matthews, an outspoken influencer based in Byron Bay, has blasted the brand for seemingly shifting the blame, writing to Instagram on Tuesday: ‘This is your apology Balenciaga?As a brand I’ve admired and loved for years I’m so angry at this response’ 

‘You still have time to be a voice for children. To use your platform for good. I’m sure you’ll still be invited to the events and get your free bags.Because they will need a PR miracle after this,’ she added. 

Balenciaga ignored the scandal around the teddy bear photos at first and seemingly allowed the photographer who was involved, Gabriele Galimberti, to take the heat. 

He released a statement saying he had no control over the content of the shoot and eventually, Balenciaga released its own statement agreeing with him and taking responsibility for the campaign. 

Kim initially issued a statement on her Instagram Stories account on Sunday night

In an additional post, this time to both Twitter and Instagram, Kardashian said she was reconsidering her relationship with the fashion brand

It has now been pulled from the internet. 

After the BDSM bears fiasco, eagle-eyed critics started examining the rest of Balenciaga’s campaigns closely. 

They soon discovered that in the background of an image from the Spring ’23 campaign was a printout of a Supreme Court ruling on whether or not internet child porn can be legally considered free speech. 

On the back of the bears scandal, many critics said it pointed to a troubling pattern within Balenciaga. 

Balenciaga was quick to blame North Six, a production company that helped arrange the shoot, for the inclusion of those documents. 

On Sunday Kim Kardashian (pictured), the brand’s biggest ambassador, said she is ‘re-evaluating’ her relationship with the fashion house in light of the scandal, Evden EVE NAkliYAT but fell short of distancing herself from the brand evdEN EVe NAKliYat for good 

This is the July ad campaign which featured the printout of the US Supreme Court child porn ruling 

They claimed they entrusted all of the props from the photoshoot to North Six, and that their team was assured everything that was included was fake. 

Balenciaga is yet to answer for the inclusion of a book by Michael Borremans in the background of two of the images from the Spring ’23 campaign. 

Borremans is a Belgian painter whose work includes a troubling 2017 series called Fire From The Sun. 

It depicts naked toddlers – some of them castrated – playing in a group and at times alone. 

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Confusion reigned at https://www.announcement.news/confusion-reigned-at-5/ https://www.announcement.news/confusion-reigned-at-5/#respond Sun, 30 Apr 2023 08:30:21 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=68290 Confusion reigned at ‘s school in  on Thursday after the principal said it was closing permanently, only for parents hours later to email all and say classes would continue.

Reports then emerged that the teachers had quit – following the string of controversial and antisemitic rants its founder has made in recent weeks.

It was not clear how many teachers had quit, and how many remained, but the chaos comes amid  following his tweets.

Donda Academy, in the Simi Valley, is highly secretive, with parents signing a non-disclosure agreement to keep the school’s location secret and agreeing to say nothing about it.

There are believed to be around 100 students from pre-K to 12th grade paying $15,000 a year, and 16 teachers.

On Wednesday, the principal, Jason Angell, sent an email to parents explaining that West, 45, had decided to close the school ‘effective immediately,’ with classes being cancelled as of Thursday.

Around midnight on Wednesday, however, parents at the exclusive Christian school received the following morning.

‘Join us tomorrow morning in worship for the return of Donda Academy,’ the email read. 

‘With the help of our parents and community, we are back and returning with a vengeance!’

Kanye West’s exclusive Christian school announced it would be closing for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year as the rapper continues to face fallout for his repeated anti-semitic comments

Students at West’s Donda Academy wear black Balenciaga uniforms designed by West himself.Above, Celtics basketball player Jaylen Brown pays a visit to the school. Brown this week said he was severing ties with West

A school in the Simi Valley, just north of Los Angeles, which is believed to be the Donda Academy

West returned to Instagram this week after being banned earlier this month, announcing he lost $2 billion in a single day, On Thursday the rapper said on Instagram that he ‘lost 2 billion dollars in one day’ in an apparent reference to the flock of brands which have dropped him in the wake of his bigoted behavior.

This week Adidas dropped his Yeezy shoe line – a deal which was worth $1.5billion – with Gap, Footlocker, TJ Maxx, and Balenciaga all following suit and cutting ties with the rapper.

Donda Academy’s closure and sudden reopening come just two months after it started up in August. 

The school did not respond to DailyMail.com requests for comment. 

The exclusive pre-K through 12 school – named after West’s mother, Donda – is located in a secret location in the Simi Valley just north of Los Angeles, and charges $15,000 per student.About half the student body receives financial aid and scholarships, according to The Post.

There are reportedly a number of celebrities’ children in attendance – including R&B singer Keyshia Cole’s son Daniel – and the school is well known for its high-powered basketball team.Rising star Robert Dillingham, 17, plays for the school, and eVdeN EVe nAkLiyAT NBA players like Celtics player Jaylen Brown have made appearances at the school. 

Students wear all black Balenciaga uniforms and Yeezy shoes designed by West himself.

Despite running the school, West’s children do not attend, and he has clashed with Kim Kardashian on the matter.

West previously complained on social media that Kim wouldn’t agree to send their four children for ‘[two] days at one school, three days at another.’ 

As of September the school had not yet been accredited, according to the , which means colleges might not accept diplomas from the school.

The Donda Academy website states that the school’s goal is ‘to provide the youth with the passion, purpose and spiritual foundations they need to thrive in tomorrow’s world.’

The curriculum has a strong focus on Christianity, the arts, and math and science.Students can take parkour as a physical activity, and the school has a strong high school basketball program. 

The school enrolls about 100 students and 16 teachers, with a number of students being the children of celebrities

The exclusive pre-K through 12 Donda Academy is located in a secret location in the Simi Valley just north of Los Angeles, and charges $15,000 per student

Parents sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep the school’s location secret

The curriculum has a strong focus on Christianity, the arts, and math and science.If you have any inquiries pertaining to where and ways to use evDEn EvE nAKliyat, you can contact us at our internet site. Students can take parkour as a physical activity, and the school has a strong high school basketball program

Angell emailed parents on Wednesday announcing the school’s closure for the remainder of the school year.

‘At the discretion of our founder, Donda Academy will close for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year effective immediately, he wrote.

‘There is no school tomorrow [Thursday].’

Angell noted that the school’s leadership would help parents and students transition into their new school, and added that the Donda would begin ‘afresh’ in September 2023. 

On Wednesday the school’s basketball team was booted from the The Scholastic Play-By-Play Classics tournament, saying West’s ‘words and actions violate our values as a company and a country, and what we seek to ensure at all of our events – a spirit of diversity, sportsmanship, inclusion, equity and mutual respect.’

Representatives for the tournament expressed their remorse that West’s words cost his students the experience of participating in the coveted high school basketball tournament. 

‘While we are firm in our reasoning for this decision, it does not diminish our heartache and regret for Donda’s hardworking athletes who will lose out the most as a result of Kanye’s actions,’ the school added. 

‘Unfortunately, we cannot in good conscience host an organization founded and directed by Mr.West at our events.’

TJ Maxx has become the latest company to sever ties with Kanye West in the wake of his vile anti-Semitic outbursts (pictured on Wednesday at a bagel shop in Los Angeles before arriving at the Skechers HQ) 

He was seen near a parking lot before he was escorted out of Sketchers HQ

TJ Maxx, whose CEO is Ernie Herrman (pictured in 2014) follows Gap and Foot Locker in no longer stocking any Yeezy merchandise in its stores 

On Wednesday, the rapper was embarrassingly escorted out of Skechers headquarters after showing up unannounced to pitch his Yeezy brand a day after being dropped by Adidas and having his songs banned by Peloton.

Ye was taken out by two ‘executives’ according to a statement released by the company Wednesday afternoon. 

 said in a statement: ‘Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation. Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West.

‘We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech.The Company would like to again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.’ 

West may have faced additional opposition if he had gotten a preapproved sit-down meeestimates comes from real estate, cash, his music catalog, and a 5 percent stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm, Skims.

But as corporations around the world break off deals with Ye, music streaming service said it would not remove the rapper’s music unless his label requested it.

Recent anti-Semitic remarks made by the rapper are ‘just awful comments,’ and would have warranted removal from Spotify for violating its policies if they had been on a podcast or recording, Spotify chief Daniel Ek said.

However, music from the artist now known as Ye does not violate anti-hate policies, and any anti-Semitic comments he has made cannot be found on the music streaming platform.

‘It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy,’ said Ek, adding, ‘It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not.’

Universal Music’s Def Jam label, which owns the copyright to West’s recordings from 2002 through 2016, and continued distributing his releases until last year, issued a statement condemning Ye’s remarks, saying: ‘There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society’.But the label has not asked for the removal of Ye’s recordings, many of which are critically acclaimed works.

Kanye West has seen several high profile and lucrative partnerships with major brands severed amid the backlash from anti-Semitic remarks

Ye has refused to walk back his remarks, blaming Jewish people for his mental health struggles in a recent podcast

A pair of Yeezy shoes are seen in a Foot Locker store on the day Adidas terminated its partnership with the American rapper and designer Kanye West, now known as Ye, in Garden City, New York, U.S., October 25, 2022

https://www.announcement.news/confusion-reigned-at-5/feed/ 0 68290 Cody Gakpo joined Liverpool TOO EARLY, claims Holland's Ronald Koeman https://www.announcement.news/cody-gakpo-joined-liverpool-too-early-claims-hollands-ronald-koeman-6/ https://www.announcement.news/cody-gakpo-joined-liverpool-too-early-claims-hollands-ronald-koeman-6/#respond Wed, 26 Apr 2023 18:07:26 +0000 https://www.announcement.news/?p=67370

might have made the move to too early, new Holland boss has claimed.

The 23-year-old forward but is yet to score or make an assist in his first six appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

His new national team coach said it was good to have young Dutch players moving to bigger leagues.

However, Koeman added that it could also be difficult for them and said the Dutchman is currently struggling to find his feet.

Koeman said the fact that Liverpool, who snatched the Dutch forward from under the noses of Manchester United, were underperforming did not benefit Gakpo’s game.

Cody Gakpo has struggled since making a £44million switch from PSV to Liverpool in January

Ronald Koeman said it was good to have young Dutch players moving to bigger leagues

‘You can see that, that he has ended up in a team that is not doing well.Then it becomes more difficult for him, as a new signing. You are tested right away,’ he said. 

‘And if you don’t score or you’re not important and you don’t win any matches, it’s very difficult, especially for a young player. 

‘If that’s was someone aged 28 with experience, it would be different.

‘The level in England is higher than in the Netherlands, but they are also young boys, aren’t they? Like (Ryan) Gravenberch going to Bayern (Munich) and not playing.Then that is difficult,’ he said on a YouTube show hosted by former footballer Andy van der Meyde.

Before joining Liverpool, EVDen eVE nakliyAt Gakpo had scored nine goals and made 12 assists in 14 matches for PSV in the Eredivisie this season. If you cherished this write-up and you would like to get extra data regarding evDen Eve NakLiYAT kindly visit our web site.  

He also scored three goals for his national side during their World Cup campaign in Qatar.

Koeman, who began his second stint in charge on January 1, said he was keeping a keen eye on all Dutch exports as he considers his first selection for the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

The Netherlands take on France and Gibraltar in March.

Before joining Liverpool, Gakpo had scored nine goals and made 12 assists in 14 matches for EVdEN eVE NAkLiyaT PSV in the Eredivisie this season

He also scored three goals for his national side during their World Cup campaign in Qatar

After signing, evdeN eve nakliyAT Gakpo told the ‘I feel really good, I’m really excited to be here.I’m looking forward to start training and start playing for this amazing club.

‘I think this is a great club for me to come in and try to show what I can [do] and try to help the team to achieve more beautiful moments that they already did in the past years.

‘I think for me personally it’s also good to develop here and there’s a lot of great players here [who] I can learn a lot of things from.’

He added: ‘I’m really looking forward to [playing at Anfield].I heard a lot of great stories about the stadium, about the atmosphere. I cannot wait.

‘Obviously [my aim is] to win as many prizes as we can as a team, to perform well, to show the world what we can do as a team and what I can do as a player.And personally, just to keep developing and become a better player every season.

‘I’m really thankful that everybody is giving me such a warm welcome and I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody in the stadium and around the city.’

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