Devin Patrick Kelley, the man who killed 26 people at the Sutherland Springs church, was armed with three guns and had argued with his mother-in-law before the rampage, officials say.
The gunman opened fire at the small church outside San Antonio during Sunday services.
Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, called his father after he was shot by an armed bystander and said he did not think he would survive.
According to officials, he was not legally permitted to own the weapons, including a semi-automatic rifle and two pistols.
Freeman Martin, the regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters it appeared that Devin Patrick Kelley died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after first being shot by a “good Samaritan”.
“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs,” Freeman Martin said.
“There was a domestic situation going on with the family and in-laws,” he said, adding that Devin Patrick Kelley had sent threatening texts to his mother-in-law.
His mother-in-law, Michelle Schields, was not present during the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
However, Michelle Schields’ mother – Lula White – was killed in the hail of bullets, according to relatives’ Facebook posts and interviews with the New York Daily News.
Devin Patrick Kelley fled the scene after exchanging gunfire with a local resident who heard gunshots from coming from across the road, Freeman Martin told reporters on November 6.
Johnnie Langendorff told local media that he picked up the Texas man, identified by media as Stephen Willeford, and the pair pursued Kelley in a car chase.
He said they drove at speeds of up to 95mph until the attacker lost control of his car and crashed.
Devin Patrick Kelley was later found dead inside his vehicle with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said between 12 and 14 children were among those killed in the attack in Sutherland Springs, a small town 30 miles south-east of the city of San Antonio.
The First Baptist Church’s pastor, Frank Pomeroy, told media his 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, was among those killed.
According to officials, 23 people were found dead inside the church while two people were fatally shot outside. Another died in hospital, authorities said.
Of the 20 wounded, 10 are in hospital in a critical condition.
Devin Patrick Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 after he was accused of assault against his wife and step-son. He was sentenced to 12 months’ confinement.
The Paradise Papers have revealed that Apple has a secretive new structure that would enable it to continue avoiding billions in taxes.
The leaked documents also show how the world’s most profitable company sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its controversial Irish tax practices by actively shopping around for a tax haven.
Apple then moved the company holding most of its untaxed offshore cash, now $252 billion, to the Channel Island of Jersey.
The company said the new structure had not lowered its taxes.
Apple said it remained the world’s largest taxpayer, paying about $35 billion in corporation tax over the past three years, that it had followed the law and its changes “did not reduce our tax payments in any country”.
The Paradise Papers is the name for a huge leak of financial documents that is throwing light on the world of offshore finance.
Up until 2014, Apple had been exploiting a loophole in tax laws in the US and the Republic of Ireland known as the “double Irish”.
This allowed Apple to funnel all its sales outside of the Americas – currently about 55% of its revenue – through Irish subsidiaries that were effectively stateless for taxation purposes, and so incurred hardly any tax.
Instead of paying Irish corporation tax of 12.5%, or the US rate of 35%, Apple’s avoidance structure helped it reduce its tax rate on profits outside of the US to the extent that its foreign tax payments rarely amounted to more than 5% of its foreign profits, and in some years dipped below 2%.
The European Commission calculated the rate of tax for one of Apple’s Irish companies for one year had been just 0.005%.
The tech giant came under pressure in 2013 in the US Senate, when CEO Tim Cook was forced to defend its tax system.
After the EU announced in 2013 that it was investigating Apple’s Irish arrangement, Ireland’s government decided that companies incorporated there could no longer be stateless for tax purposes.
In order to keep its tax rates low, Apple needed to find an offshore financial center that would serve as the tax residency for its Irish subsidiaries.
In March 2014, Apple’s legal advisers sent a questionnaire to Appleby, a leading offshore finance law firm and source of much of the Paradise Papers leak.
They asked what benefits different offshore jurisdictions – the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey – could offer Apple.
The questionnaire included key questions such as was it possible to “obtain an official assurance of tax exemption” and could it be confirmed that an Irish company might “conduct management activities… without being subject to taxation in your jurisdiction”.
The document also asked whether a change of government was likely, what information would be visible to the public and how easy it would be to exit the jurisdiction.
Prince Mansour bin Muqrin of Saudi Arabia and seven other officials have been killed in a helicopter crash near the country’s border with Yemen, state media report.
The prince – the deputy governor of Asir province – was returning from an inspection tour when his aircraft came down near Abha on November 5, the interior ministry said.
It did not give a cause for the crash.
The incident came hours after a major purge of Saudi Arabia’s political and business leadership.
An anti-corruption body led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the detentions of dozens of people, including 11 princes, four ministers and dozens of ex-ministers.
Analysts see the unprecedented move as an attempt to cement the power of the heir to the throne.
Prince Mansour was the son of Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, a former intelligence chief who was crown prince between January and April 2015, when he was pushed aside by Prince Mohammed’s father, King Salman.
The late prince served as a consultant to his father’s royal court and in April 2017 was among 8 young royals appointed deputy governors.
An interior ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency said Prince Mansour and seven provincial officials had boarded a helicopter on November 6 to tour a number of coastal projects west of the city of Abha.
The statement also said: “While returning in the evening of the same day, contact with the plane was lost in the vicinity of the Reda reserve.
“The authorities are currently searching for survivors as the wreckage has been found.”
Later, state news channel al-Ikhbariya announced the death of Prince Mansour.
According to provisional figures from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2017 is “very likely” to be in the top three warmest years on record.
The WMO says 2017 will likely be the hottest year in the absence of the El Niño phenomenon.
The scientists argue that the long-term trend of warming driven by human activities continues unabated.
They say many of the “extraordinary” weather events seen during 2017 bear the hallmarks of climate change.
On the opening day of this year’s key UN climate talks, researchers from the WMO have presented their annual State of the Global Climate report.
It follows hot on the heels of their greenhouse gases study from last week which found that concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere were the highest on record.
While the new study only covers January to September, the WMO says the average global temperature was 1.1C above the pre-industrial figure.
This is getting dangerously close to the 1.5 degrees threshold that many island states feel temperatures must be kept under to ensure their survival.
The analysis suggests that 2017 is likely to come in 0.47C warmer than the 1981-2010 average.
This is slightly down on 2016 when the El Niño weather phenomenon saw temperatures that were 0.56C above the average.
According to the WMO, 2017 vies with 2015 to be the second or third warmest mark yet recorded.
Sean Diddy Combs has decided to change his name again.
While celebrating his 48th birthday on November 4, the rapper revealed that he will no longer be answering to any of his previous names including Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, Diddy.
He tweeted: “I decided to change my name again! My new name is LOVE aka Brother Love. #TakeDat”
The Paradise Papers are a huge leak of financial documents that reveals how politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals use offshore structures to protect their cash from higher taxes.
There are more than 1,400GB of data, containing about 13.4 million documents. Some 6.8 million come from the offshore legal service provider Appleby and corporate services provider Estera. The two operated together under the Appleby name until Estera became independent in 2016. Another six million documents come from corporate registries in some 19 jurisdictions, mostly in the Caribbean. A smaller amount comes from the Singapore-based international trust and corporate services provider, Asiaciti Trust. The leaked data covers seven decades, from 1950 to 2016.
As with 2016 Panama Papers leak, the documents were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, which called in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)to oversee the investigation. Nearly 100 media groups investigating the papers.
The Paradise Papers name was chosen because of the idyllic profiles of many of the offshore jurisdictions whose workings are unveiled, including Bermuda, the HQ of the main company involved, Appleby. It also dovetails nicely with the French term for a tax haven – paradis fiscal.
Image source Flickr
The offshore financial affairs of hundreds of politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals, some of them household names, have been revealed. The papers also throw light on the legal firms, financial institutions and accountants working in the sector and on the jurisdictions that adopt offshore tax rules to attract money. The top stories so far include:
One of President Donald Trump’s top administration officials kept a financial stake in a company whose major partners include a Russian company part-owned by President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law
A key aide of Canada’s PM has been linked to offshore schemes that may have cost the nation millions of dollars in taxes, threatening to embarrass Justin Trudeau, who has campaigned to shut tax havens
How questions were raised about who is controlling Everton FC
An oligarch with close links to the Kremlin may have secretly taken ownership of a company responsible for anti-money laundering checks on Russian cash
Appleby is alaw firm that helps corporations, financial institutions and high-net-worth individuals set up and register companies in offshore jurisdictions.
With its headquarters in Bermuda and a history dating back to the 1890s, Appleby has become one of the largest and best known of about 10 major companies involved in the specialist arena. The leak shows the US dominates Appleby’s client register, with more than 31,000 US addresses for clients.
Having an extravagant garden is lovely in spring and summer, but when the autumn comes, the once beautiful green leaves become a nuisance. If you are looking for an efficient way to remove all of them out of your yard, you have
found the right place.
If you click on a gardening website, you can see specific methods available, including using the right tools and raking smartly. They save you from an unpleasant backache after a long time working vigorously in your yard. However, none of them are the best one, because the cleaning is still all of hardship and toils.
…will go away by a vacuum mulcher!!
No more sweats for you this autumn. Find a vacuum mulcher, and you are free of the nuisance. The countless leaves will disappear in just a blink and turn into a package of ground material.
It is a leaf vacuum with the mulching function integrated. The suck-and- grind machine will collect all the leaves on your way and mulch them into tiny pieces. There is a large bag attached to the device, which is easy to put on remove, to store the debris.
Of course, there are left vacuums without the grinding blade. However, unground leaves take more place in the bag so you will have to stop to do the disposing task more often. The machines are designed for a wide range of yard sizes, so make sure you find a vacuum mulcher which is suitable for your household.
Why should I find a vacuum mulcher?
A vacuum mulcher will reduce the quantity of the leaf pile you have collected, which saves your time and energy. Besides, if you are planning to use the leaves for composting, you should know that shredded material is more accessible to break down and turn into natural fertilizer for your garden.
In fact, dried leaves from a large shade tree may be as beneficial as $50 worth of plant food. If you have trouble making leaf pile compost in the past, now may be the time for a change.
Moreover, a vacuum mulcher is more useful than other garden cleansing tools you can find. Sometimes while raking the yard, you must have noticed leaves stuck in awkward corners that require you to bend down and get them out by hand.
Now, with the device, all you have to do is to reach the crevice, turn the vacuum mode on and get rid of the persistent debris. Manufacturers intentionally design the suction hoses to be long and flexible enough to go down under the fence, behind the landscapes and between large bushes.
What to be noted while using a vacuum mulcher
You should only vacuum when it’s dry
I know you are eager the try the new gardening tool right after you bring it home from the store. However, some types of weather are not ideal for the vacuuming function.
Leaves and grass clippings are infamous to be hard to remove when they are wet. Unless you are planning to get rid of them by hand, it is tough to separate them from the surface they are on. On the other hand, dry leaves are less resistant so that you can lift them off the ground quickly by both a leaf vacuum and a rake.
Besides, the too dry weather is also not suitable for vacuuming or blowing leaves. You may trigger a pile of dust and send it to the atmosphere.
Be a good neighbor
You should keep in mind that a vacuum mulcher, just like other gardening machines, can be incredibly noisy. Will you feel irritated when be awakened from a sound sleep by the unpleasant noise from your neighbor’s cleansing? Me, too. So, respect people around you by choosing the right time to do your gardening.
Protect yourself
Leaf vacuuming seems safer than blowing since the debris will not be tossed everywhere and hit your eyes by accident. However, since the leaf vacuums often have the blowing function, you should wear the proper outfit to protect yourself from unwanted situations.
That means you should have a pair of gloves, sturdy shoes, long pants, and protecting googles. Your ears may need some covering, too, in case the noise gets too loud.
Conclusion
Will you find a vacuum mulcher for your garden after reading the article? We hope you have seen the advantages the useful tool can bring about. If you have any question about the topic, please leave it right here. We are eager to answer your queries at any time.
At least 26 people have been killed after a gunman opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, during Sunday services, police say.
Sutherland Springs is a small town in Wilson County.
Police official Albert Gamez Jr. confirmed the number of fatalities to CBS News.
The gunman, who is reported to have been killed in the aftermath, entered the church and opened fire at around 11:30 local time.
Albert Gamez Jr. said: “The details are kind of sketchy but what I know right now, what they’re telling me, like 27 deceased and over 20, 25 injured.”
“They’re talking about the shooter is dead also,” he added.
According to locals, about 50 people usually attend the service. Local media outlets reported that children were among the dead.
The gunman died after a brief car chase into nearby Guadalupe County slightly to the north, a Sherriff’s Office deputy from that county told CNN.
However, it is not clear if he was killed by police or killed himself, the spokesman said.
The pastor and his wife were out of town at the time, the pastor of neighboring River Oak Church told KSAT 12.
“We were in the middle of our church service down the road when we got phone calls from friends about this – and they said there was an active shooter at First Baptist Church,” he said.
“We had some first responders in our church, who immediately left and went down there. And then my church went to do what we do – we started praying… we knew the best thing we could do was stay out of the way.”
The River Oak Church pastor said people had been told some news which was “private and personal for the families that are here… we cannot release any of that”.
Sutherland Springs is a small town with just a few hundred residents, which lies about 30 miles southeast of the city of San Antonio.
The San Antonio FBI branch said its agents had been deployed, and there was no indication of the gunman’s motive.
The FBI also said that while only one shooter was reported, it was looking into other possibilities.
Photos and video from the scene showed the area taped off by local law enforcement.
A number of helicopters have arrived to transport the wounded, KSAT 12 reporter Max Massey said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said: “Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act. Our thanks to law enforcement for their response.”
He said more details would be released by the Texas Department of Public Safety shortly.
President DonaldTrump, who is on a tour of Asia, tweeted: “May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan.”
The church is southeast of San Antonio between La Vernia, Floresville and Stockdale off Texas 87 at 216 4th Street.
Sutherland Springs is about 21 miles east of Downtown San Antonio and according to the latest data has a population of about 643.
About $13 million of Queen Elizabeth’s private money was invested offshore, the leaked Paradise Papers have revealed.
The Duchy of Lancaster, the private estate of the British sovereign, which provides the Queen with an income, held funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
A small amount ended up in the company behind BrightHouse, a chain accused of irresponsible lending, and Threshers, which went bust owing £17.5 million ($23 million) in UK tax.
The Duchy said the BrightHouse holding now equates to £3,208 ($4,202) and it was not involved in fund investment decisions.
It added it had been unaware the stores featured in the investments.
Details about the Duchy’s investments came to light in the Paradise Papers – a leak of 13.4 million documents from companies including Appleby, one of the world’s leading offshore law firms.
The two funds were based in British overseas territories with no corporation tax and at the center of the offshore financial industry.
However, the Duchy said it was not aware there were tax advantages to it from investing in offshore funds, adding that tax strategy was not a part of the estate’s investment policy.
The documents show the Duchy of Lancaster put £5 million ($6.5 million) in the Jubilee Absolute Return Fund Limited in Bermuda in 2004, with the investment coming to an end in 2010.
In 2005, the Duchy agreed to put $7.5 million in the Dover Street VI Cayman Fund LP.
The Paradise Papers show the fund invested in medical and technology companies.
The connection to rent-to-buy company BrightHouse began in 2007 when the US company running the fund asked the Duchy to contribute $450,000 to five projects, including the purchase of the two UK High Street retailers.
This included an interest in London-based private equity firm Vision Capital, the company which acquired 100% of BrightHouse and 75% of the owners of Threshers off license chain.
Iran has rejected “unfounded accusations” by Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as Lebanon’s prime minister citing Tehran’s “grip” on his country and threats to his life.
It says the surprise resignation of Lebanese prime minister is part of a plot to stoke tensions in the region.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei accused the United States and Saudi Arabia of being behind the move.
Saad al-Hariri announced his resignation in a TV broadcast from Saudi Arabia, accusing Iran of sowing “fear and destruction” in several countries, including Lebanon.
He said he was stepping down because he feared for his life.
Saad al-Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, was assassinated in 2005.
Correspondents say Saad al-Hariri’s sudden departure plunges Lebanon into a new political crisis and raises fears that it may be at the forefront of the regional rivalry between Shia power Iran and Sunni stronghold Saudi Arabia.
Following the statement on November 4, Iranian politicians lined up to denounce Saad al-Hariri’s assertions.
Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kahmenei, said: “Hariri’s resignation was done with planning by [President] Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi, quoted by the official Irna news agency, said Saad al-Hariri’s departure was aimed at creating tension in Lebanon and the region.
Bahram Qasemi said Saad al-Hariri had repeated “unrealistic and unfounded accusations” and had aligned himself with “those who want ill for the region”, singling out Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US.
Saad al-Hariri, whose family is close to Saudi Arabia, has been prime minister since December 2016, after previously holding the position between 2009 and 2011.
His father, Rafik al-Hariri was killed by a bomb in 2005 in an attack widely blamed on the Iran-backed Shia movement Hezbollah, which wields considerable power in Lebanon.
Rand Paul, seen as representing the Libertarian wing of the Republicans, ran for the party’s presidential nomination in the 2016 election but dropped out after a fifth place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
An ophthalmologist, Rand Paul represents Kentucky in the Senate and is the son of former Congressman Ron Paul, who ran for president several times.
Saudi Arabia has intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen, after a loud explosion was heard near Riyadh airport on November 4.
According to officials, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency, the missile was destroyed over the capital and fragments landed in the airport area.
A TV channel linked to Houthi rebels in Yemen said the missile was fired at the King Khalid International Airport.
The Saudi civil aviation authority said that air traffic was not disrupted.
Saudi forces have reported shooting down Houthi missiles in the past, though none has come so close to a major population centre.
Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, said: “The missile was launched indiscriminately to target the civilian and populated areas.
“Shattered fragments from the intercepted missile landed in an uninhabited area of the airport and there were no injuries.”
Witnesses reported seeing parts of the missile in the airport’s car park, Al-Arabiya reported.
Residents in the north of Riyadh said their windows were rattled by a loud blast that was followed by the roar of low-flying aircraft.
The Houthi-run Saba News in Yemen said the missile had been a Burkan H2.
The rebel group is believed to have access to a stockpile of Scud ballistic missiles and home-grown variants. Saudi forces have previously brought them down with Patriot surface-to-air missiles bought from the US.
In May, a day before President Donald Trump was due to arrive in Riyadh for a visit, the Houthis fired a missile towards the city, but it was shot down 120 miles from the capital.
Yemen has been devastated by a war between forces loyal to the internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement.
Saudi Arabia is leading a campaign to defeat the Houthis, and is the biggest power in an international air coalition that has bombed the rebel group since 2015.
On November 1, a suspected strike by the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 26 people at a hotel and market in northern Yemen, medics and local officials said.
The coalition, which rights groups say has bombed schools, hospitals, markets and residential areas, said it struck a “legitimate military target”.
Eleven Saudi princes, four sitting ministers and dozens of former ministers have been detained by Saudi Arabia’s new anticorruption body, local media reports say.
Those detained were not named and it is not clear what they are suspected of.
However, local broadcaster Al-Arabiya said fresh investigations had been launched into the 2009 Jeddah floods and the outbreak of the MERS virus which emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
The detentions came hours after the new anti-corruption committee was formed.
The anti-corruption committee is headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and has the power to issue arrest warrants and travel bans, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Separately, the heads of the Saudi National Guard and the navy were replaced in a series of high-profile sackings.
According to SPA, King Salman had dismissed National Guard minister Prince Miteb bin Abdullah and navy commander Admiral Abdullah bin Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Sultan.
No official explanation was given for their removal.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently said the return of “moderate Islam” was key to his plans to modernize Saudi Arabia.
Addressing an economic conference in Riyadh, the crown prince vowed to “eradicate the remnants of extremism very soon”.
In 2016, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled a wide-ranging plan to bring social and economic change to Saudi Arabia.
Lebanon’s PM Saad al-Hariri has announced his resignation in a TV broadcast from Saudi Arabia.
Saad al-Hariri also said that he feared for his life, while fiercely criticizing Iran.
He accused Iran of sowing “fear and destruction” in several countries, including Lebanon.
Saad al-Hariri’s father, former PM Rafik al-Hariri, was assassinated in 2005.
The Hariri family is close to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional competitor.
Saad al- Hariri has been prime minister since December 2016, after previously holding the position between 2009 and 2011.
“We are living in a climate similar to the atmosphere that prevailed before the assassination of martyr Rafik al-Hariri,” he said in the broadcast from Riyadh.
“I have sensed what is being plotted covertly to target my life.”
When you are strapped for cash, getting a short-term loan is what most people can think about. Unlike in the past where you had to make a trip to the bank and apply for a loan, now you can get a quick short-term loan at the comfort of your home.
However, it’s important that you make an informed choice to ensure that you are getting the most suitable online loan. Doing this requires that you have a clear understanding of various aspects of the loans as well as the lenders. In this article, you’ll learn some actionable tips to help you get the best loan.
Consider your intended use for the loan to know exactly how much you need to borrow
There are multiple reasons for taking loans but the reason behind the borrowing could influence the available choices. There are some lenders who are not concerned with how you spend the money but there are others who limit where the money can be spent.
After knowing how the money is going to be used, you can now settle on an amount that is sufficient to cover the expenses as well as any upfront fees for the short term loan. If you are using the short-term loan to take care of a major expense, then it’s important you create a budget and capture every expense.
Basically, almost every lender has the minimum loan as well as the maximum amount available for their clients to borrow. When you know how much you need, it’s easy to choose the most appropriate lender.
Image source The Blue Diamond Gallery
Take a look at your financial situation and determine the monthly payments you can comfortably pay
If you are not confident in your financial situation, it’s likely that you won’t be comfortable with the payments. Generally, there is no point in taking loan whose monthly payments will stretch your finances and make life unbearable.
Before you settle for a short-term loan, it’s important to know if you can manage to pay the monthly payments and at the same time pay all your bills. This calls choosing a loan with favorable terms that are largely determined by the following factors.
The repayment period and this is usually in months
The amount borrowed
The interest rates charged
To be on the safe side, choose a monthly payment amount that allows you to have some extra cash to take care of other financial obligations. If you are patient in your search, you’ll find multiple lenders who can give you a short-term loan that suits your financial situation.
Choosing the right online lender
While finding an online lender willing to offer you a loan will be easy, picking the best from the sea of different lenders isn’t easy.
To get started, ask a few trustworthy people if they have used any loan provider in the past. If you don’t have a relative or friend with such knowledge, you can ask a reputable financial professional. However, you should be cautious when taking recommendations from people who get some commissions from lending companies.
Check the credentials of the lender to ensure that they are authorized to conduct business in your state. It’s also important to check the lender’s rating with the BBB as well as the reviews on their websites.
The most appropriate $5000 income based lender is one who has sufficient experience in the financial industry and understands the market dynamics. You should settle for lenders who have a good track record since they already have a reputation to guard and therefore have a tendency to offer better customer service. Otherwise, avoid any fly-by-night operators who are characterized by little or no reputation in the market.
Look beyond teaser rates and calculate the APR
A legitimate lender will always strive to offer loans with transparent and reasonable terms. However, you’ll come across multiple adverts that quote the low rates just to get your attention. Don’t take the bait because the rates quoted “as low as” are normally out of reach for average borrowers.
Instead, settle on lenders who are free to reveal the exact APR for a loan without presenting you with multiple figures for the same loan. The APR should be made of the loan fee, interest rates, and the loan term so a good company won’t be presenting some additional rates.
Read the fine print in the loan agreement
While it’s important to deal with companies with a sufficient experience, track record of great service, nothing can equal a clear understanding of the loan agreement.
If a lender is good, they will include all the fees and charges in the agreement. However, it’s important to study the document just to be sure that there aren’t any hidden charges that can cause problems along the way. Normally, you’ll find the hidden charges disguised as application fees, pre-payment penalties or membership fees.
But if the agreement captures all the expected terms and rates that you are comfortable with, you can go ahead and sign it. You should know that this is a legally binding agreement and you are expected to honor the agreed terms.
Responsible borrowing
While it’s important that you be on the lookout for predatory lenders, you must exercise responsible borrowing. As a rule of thumb, short-term loans are only meant to be used to solve short-term financial difficulties. This is because most lenders expect you to repay the money in a few weeks or months.
In addition, it’s always prudent to draft a budget before taking a loan so that you can be accountable for the expenditures. If you realize that you can’t meet the loan obligations due to unforeseen circumstances, you should communicate with your lender immediately. In most cases, they are ready to help by offering alternative rates and terms that are suitable to your current financial state.
Final words
Online loans are not new in the market. In fact, most of the traditional banks that had not adopted the technology are now actively doing business online. This offers the advantage of lower operating costs, efficiency and convenience to both parties.
Since you can easily compare different lenders in a short time, you have the advantage of choosing the most appropriate lender to work with. The tips discussed here can help you navigate the pitfalls of online short term loans.
President Donald Trump has begun an 12-day trip to Asia during which he will visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The trip will be the longest tour of Asia by an American president in 25 years.
It comes at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program and missile tests.
President Trump is expected to show a united front with South Korea and Japan while pressing China to take a stronger line with North Korea.
He flew first to Hawaii where he visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor – the scene of the 1941 Japanese attack that drew the US into World War Two.
He also took part in a briefing at the US Pacific Command.
From Hawaii, the president and First Lady Melania Trump will head to Japan and then on to South Korea.
President Trump has previously exchanged some fiery rhetoric with North Korea over its ballistic missile tests but aides said earlier this week that he would not go to the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the border between South and North Korea.
He is, however, to visit Camp Humphreys, a US military complex south of Seoul.
In Vietnam, President Trump will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Da Nang and make a state visit to Hanoi.
His final engagement will be a summit of South East Asian nations in the Philippine capital, Manila.
The last time an American president made such a marathon trip to Asia was when George H.W. Bush visited the region in late 1991 and early 1992.
Netflix has decided to sever ties with Kevin Spacey amid a number of assault allegations against him.
The entertainment company said it would hold talks with House of Cards’ producers to see if production, which was suspended this week, could resume without Kevin Spacey.
Netflix also said it would not release Kevin Spacey’s movie about Gore Vidal.
Meanwhile, the UK police have opened an investigation into Kevin Spacey over an alleged assault.
On November 2, Kevin Spacey said he was seeking treatment after facing allegations of misconduct from a string of men.
Netflix suspended House of Cards production on October 31 following allegations by Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, who said Kevin Spacey had tried to “seduce” him when he was 14.
The Oscar-winning actor said he was “beyond horrified” to hear of the incident, which he said he did not remember.
House of Cards, an adaptation of the 1990 miniseries of the same name, was first broadcast in 2013.
The first season garnered nine Emmy nominations, becoming the first online streaming series to win such mainstream accolades.
A Netflix spokesman said in a statement: “Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey.
“We will continue to work with MRC [series producer Media Rights Capital] during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show.
“We have also decided we will not be moving forward with the release of the film Gore, which was in post-production, starring and produced by Kevin Spacey.”
MRC said in a statement earlier that it was “deeply troubled” about the allegations against Kevin Spacey.
It said it had dealt with one incident in 2012 in which an unnamed crew member “shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey”, that immediate action had been taken and that the issue had been resolved.
Kevin Spacey had “willingly participated in a training process”, MRC added.
Spain has issued European Arrest Warrants (EAW) for ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and four of his allies who went to Belgium.
The five failed to attend a high court hearing in Madrid on November 2 when nine other ex-members of the regional government were taken into custody.
One of those detained has been freed on bail of €50,000 ($58,000).
They all face charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds for pursuing Catalan independence.
Carles Puigdemont has said he will not return to Spain unless he receives guarantees of a fair trial.
Belgium will “study” the warrant, a spokesman for the state prosecutor told AFP.
The regional parliament in Catalonia voted to proclaim an independent republic on October 27, following an illegal referendum on independence organized by the Catalan government on October 1.
No other country recognized the move and Spain’s central government moved swiftly to impose control, using emergency powers under the constitution.
Carles Puigdemont was the president of the autonomous region of Catalonia until the proclamation of independence and continues to regard himself as the president of the newly proclaimed “Republic of Catalonia”.
The ousted and his colleagues travelled to Belgium to raise their case for statehood at the EU institutions and he insists he is not trying to evade “real justice”.
During an interview with Belgian TV, aired on November 3, Carles Puigdemont that he would co-operate with Belgian judicial authorities.
He also said that he was ready to run in snap regional elections in Catalonia next month.
The other four warrants are for: ex-agriculture minister Meritxell Serret, ex-health minister Antoni Comín, ex-culture minister Lluís Puig and ex-education minister Clara Ponsatí.
The warrants were sent to Belgian prosecutors, who have 24 hours to decide whether the paperwork is correct.
If they do, they will forward them on to a judge who will decide whether Carles Puigdemont and the four others should be arrested.
Belgium has a maximum of 60 days to return the suspects to Spain after arrest. However, if the suspects do not raise legal objections, a transfer could happen much sooner.
A country can reject an EU arrest warrant if it fears that extradition would violate the suspect’s human rights.
Discrimination based on politics, religion or race is grounds for refusal. So are fears that the suspect would not get a fair trial.
There is an agreed EU list of 32 offences – in Article Two of the EAW law – for which there is no requirement for the offence to be a crime in both countries. In other words, any of those offences can be a justification for extradition, provided the penalty is at least three years in jail.
However, neither “sedition” nor “rebellion” – two of the Spanish accusations against the Catalan leaders – are on that list.
The man, aged 23 at the time, is said to have run from the property after Kevin Spacey allegedly said: “Don’t tell anyone about this.”
A police spokesman said it had no record of any arrests having been made in connection with the investigation and police declined to comment on The Sun‘s report, which says the complainant had been interviewed by police.
It comes after a number of allegations, including CNN reporting that Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix’s House of Cards into a “toxic” work environment through a pattern of harassment.
The CNN report said allegations were made by eight people who currently work on the show, or worked on it in the past, with one former employee alleging Kevin Spacey assaulted him.
House of Cards production has been suspended on October 31 following allegations by Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed Kevin Spacey tried to “seduce” him when he was 14.
Kevin Spacey said he was “beyond horrified” to hear of the incident, which he does not remember.
Meanwhile, director Tony Montana also claimed he was groped by Kevin Spacey in a Los Angeles bar in 2003.
Tony Montana said he was left with PTSD for six months after the incident.
Incidents regarding the Oscar-winning actor are also alleged to have taken place in the UK while he was the artistic director at the Old Vic in London between 2004 and 2015.
Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who acted in several plays at the theater, claimed Kevin Spacey “routinely preyed” on young male actors.
Earlier this week, the Old Vic set up a confidential complaints process for anyone connected to the theatre to come forward.
The Old Vic said in a statement: “We aim to foster a safe and supportive environment without prejudice, harassment or bullying of any sort, at any level.”
Thousands of Catalans have taken the streets of Barcelona to protest against the detention of eight regional ministers sacked over Catalonia’s push for independence from Spain.
The eight officials – who appeared in Spain’s high court – are accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
Prosecutors are also seeking a European Arrest Warrant for ousted Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont, who did not show up in court and is now in Belgium.
The request also covers four other ex-ministers who ignored the summons.
Spain has been gripped by a constitutional crisis since a referendum on independence from Spain was held in Catalonia on October 1 in defiance of a constitutional court ruling that had declared it illegal.
Last week, Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy imposed direct rule on Catalonia, dissolving the regional parliament and calling local elections for December 21.
This came after Catalonia’s parliament voted to declare the independence of the affluent north-eastern region.
The Catalan government said that of the 43% of potential voters who took part in the referendum, 90% were in favor of independence.
On November 2, thousands of people gathered outside Catalonia’s regional parliament in Barcelona.
Many carried Catalan flags and slogans that read “Freedom for political prisoners”.
Similar protest rallies were held in other Catalan towns.
Political parties and civic groups in the affluent north-eastern region also condemned the judicial move.
Nine out of 14 summoned Catalan ex-ministers appeared before Judge Carmen Lamela.
The judge said they had to be detained because they might otherwise leave the country or destroy evidence.
Those who were held are: ex-Deputy Vice-President Oriol Junqueras, ex-Interior Minister Joaquim Forn, ex-Foreign Affairs Minister Raül Romeva, ex-Justice Minister Carles Mundó, ex-Labour Minister Dolors Bassa, ex-Government Presidency Councillor Jordi Turull, ex-Sustainable Development Minister Josep Rull and ex-Culture Minister Meritxell Borras.
The ninth official, ex-Business Minister Santi Vila, was granted bail at the request of prosecutors. He quit before the Catalan parliament voted for independence on October 27.
In addition to Carles Puigdemont, prosecutors have asked Spain’s high court judge to issue European arrest warrants for the following Catalan officials: ex-Agriculture Minister Meritxell Serret, Ex-Health Minister Antoni Comín, ex-Culture Minister Lluís Puig, Ex-Education Minister Clara Ponsatí.
Five other senior members of the Catalan parliament, as well as Speaker Carme Forcadell, are facing the same charges but, because of their parliamentary immunity, their cases are being handled by the Supreme Court.
Their hearings have been postponed until November 9.
In a statement broadcast on Catalan TV from an undisclosed location in Belgium, Carles Puigdemont described the detentions as “an act that breaks with the basic principles of democracy”.
“I demand the release of the ministers and the vice-president,” he added.
Carles Puigdemont, who was spotted in a Brussels cafe on November 2, has said he will not return to Spain unless he receives guarantees of a fair trial. He did not specify his exact demands.
According to Efe news agency, Belgium’s federal prosecutor has said the law will be applied once an arrest warrant is received.
Carles Puigdemont’s lawyer said the climate was “not good” for him to appear in court, but he also said his client would co-operate with the authorities in Spain and Belgium.
It is better to remember that having a good credit score doesn’t’ ensure that the application submitted by you will be accepted for credit and you’ll be accessible with least interest rates. Remember that the lender’s decision is never made solely on the credit score.
It would be crucial to mention here that it hardly takes much to get bad credit. The worse thing is the one can ruin the credit score even before the person realized that he/she has one or even before the same understand the importance of having a good credit score.
The credit score reflects the way how you’ve managed the financial obligations and all the information are directly reported to the credit bureaus by different companies like lenders, credit card issuers, etc. Having a poor or bad credit score is always stressful and costly but it’s simply not the end. So, you need to do something for your credit repair and to get rid of all the hassles. Read the tips discussed below to get it done easily.
Ensure that the Credit Reports are Accurate
The first and the foremost step in this context would be to check out the accuracy of the credit reports. Everybody is offered with three credit reports (already stated above). According to a study report published by the Federal Trade Commission in 2012, it was discovered that 1 out of 5 customers had an inaccuracy in the credit reports. In the continuation study that came out in 2015, it was found that people who reported about an unsettled error on one of the outcomes consider that the doubtful information is still erroneous.
Fix all the Late Dues and Payments
Well, closing down all the account doesn’t make any change and they won’t make the late payment disappear. The challenge in this context is to get be on the usual track. This can be done by setting up reimbursement due date warnings with the loans as well as credit cards and get well-organized. The due dates of the credit card payment can be easily moved to the lender or bank’s website. It is also important to inquire about the compensation due dates related to the paycheck schedule.
Avert New Credit Card Application or Purchases
Experts recommend that as long as you are in credit repairing mode, you should avoid making a new application for a credit card because it may adversely affect the credit score. Opening new credit account will also lower the average credit which is another potential action to hurt your credit score.
Getting new credit card acquisitions will increase the utilization of the credit, i.e. the ratio of the credit card stabilities to their corresponding credit restrictions. The greater your balances are, the higher the utilization of the credit card and consequently more your credit score will be affected.
After trying every possible way to improve the credit score, the best and the ultimate thing one can do is to hire credit repair professional agency. These agencies have got the knowledge, experience as well as expertise both to offer great assistance for planning the repair of the credit score.
Salvează
It would be crucial to mention here that it hardly takes much to get bad credit. The worse thing is the one can ruin the credit score even before the person realized that he/she has one or even before the same understand the importance of having a good credit score. In most cases, being ignorant about some of the mostcommon credit card terms can lead to confusion and thus bad credit score.
President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was down for 11 minutes on November 2, the social media company said.
A Twitter employee deactivated the @realdonaldtrump account, the company said, clarifying that it had been their last day in the job.
Twitter is now investigating.
Tweets from President Trump, who has 41.7 million followers, have frequently caused controversy.
The latest incident has sparked debate about the security of the president’s account, given the potential consequences of posts falsely attributed to Donald Trump being published.
However, @POTUS, the official account of the US president, was unaffected.
On November 2, visitors to Donald Trump’s page for a short time could only see a message that read: “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!”
After the account was restored, Donald Trump’s first tweet was about the Republican Party’s tax cuts plan.
Twitter said it was investigating the problem and taking steps to avoid it happening again.
It later said: “Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review.”
Donald Trump joined Twitter in March 2009 and he has tweeted more than 36,000 times.
He has been actively using the social media platform to promote his policies and also attack his political opponents both during the presidential campaign in 2016 and since taking office in January.
In one interview he said that when someone said something about him, he was able to go “bing, bing, bing on Twitter” – and take care of it.
After the president appeared to directly threaten North Korea with destruction in a tweet in September, Twitter was forced to justify allowing the post to stand.
President Trump tweeted: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
Twitter said that President Trump’s tweet was “newsworthy”.
Donald Trump’s allies have also got into hot water over their use of Twitter.
Roger Stone, who advised him during his election campaign, was suspended from Twitter after he used abusive and homophobic language to target journalists, including a gay CNN presenter, Don Lemon.
He said he had been told by Twitter that he had violated its rules.
Roger Stone said he would sue Twitter for blocking his account.
The 2017 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report has suggested that the equality gap between men and women would take 100 years to close at its current rate.
It is the first time that data from the WEF has shown a year-on-year worsening of the gender gap since it began charting it in 2006.
The report ranks 144 countries by economic opportunities, education, political participation and health.
Women are measured as having 68% of the chances and outcomes that men have.
This is slightly down from the 68.3% measured last year.
The WEF predicts that it would take a century to close all areas of equality it monitors globally, well up from the 83 years predicted in 2016.
Gender parity is closest in areas of health and education, it says, but significant gaps in economic participation and political empowerment continue to endure across the world.
The figures suggest that women will have to wait 217 years before they earn as much as men and are equally represented in the workplace.
Nordic countries remain among some of the world’s best for overall equality with Iceland topping the list with a 12% gender gap across all the WEF’s measures. Norway, Finland and Sweden are all in the top five.
Rwanda came fourth in the list for overall gender equality with a gap of 18%. It has the highest share of women in parliament in the world – they occupy three in every five seats.
Nicaragua, Slovenia, Ireland, New Zealand and the Philippines also made the top 10 on the Global Gender Gap rankings.
Women in the Middle East and North Africa fared the worst, with war-torn Yemen coming last on the list with a gender equality score of just 52%.
The WEF report shows women in the world earn less not just because of gendered salary differences, but because women are more likely to do unpaid or part-time work than men.
Women also generally tend to work in lower-paid professions and are less likely to be in highly-paid senior roles in companies.
Slovenia has the smallest gap in gender earnings – with women there on average earning 80.5% of the male national average.
The WEF report says that if the economic gender gap was totally closed:
China could add $2.5 trillion to its GDP
The US could add $1.75 billion
France and Germany could add more than $300 billion each
Both Canada and France saw improvements to their political empowerment measures after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron added more women in ministerial positions within their governments.
The US saw a marked drop in this area, with female political empowerment at its lowest rate in 10 years. It came 96th in this area.
The WEF report blames a significant decrease in female ministerial positions for the fall – a Freedom of Information request in March revealed that only 27% of all jobs within the Trump administration were taken by women.
Overall the US fell four places to take 49th position.
Other countries that improved overall included Bangladesh, which now ranks 47th in the world and the highest in South Asia after increasing female employment in professions.
Sub-Saharan African countries made marked improvements in women’s health. Nine countries from the region are in the world’s top 20 for high female labor force participation.
Eight dismissed members of Catalonia’s regional government are facing jail over their role in October’s disputed independence referendum, Madrid prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, nine Catalan officials testified at Spain’s high court over accusations of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
Ousted Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont and four others disregarded a summons.
Carles Puigdemont, who is in Belgium, said the trial was “political”.
Spain has been gripped by a constitutional crisis since the referendum was held on October 1 in defiance of a constitutional court ruling that had declared it illegal.
Last week, Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy imposed direct rule on Catalonia, dissolving the regional parliament and calling snap local elections for December 21.
This came after Catalan lawmakers voted to declare independence of the north-eastern region.
The Catalan government said that of the 43% of potential voters who took part in the referendum, 90% were in favor of independence.
Prosecutors asked the high court judge to jail eight of the nine members who turned up for questioning.
Those included dismissed deputy leader Oriol Junqueras, Interior Minister Joaquin Forn, foreign affairs chief Raül Romeva and spokesman Jordi Turull.
The ninth, Catalonia’s former business minister Santi Vila, should be granted a €50,000 ($58,000) bail, prosecutors said. He resigned before the Catalan parliament voted for independence on October 27.
The Catalan leaders are yet to be formally charged. They were accused of rebellion – which carries a maximum 30-year jail term – as well as sedition and misuse of funds.
A judge will decide whether the officials should go to jail, pending an investigation that could potentially lead to a trial.
The judge can also grant them conditional bail and order them to surrender their passports.
Five dismissed Catalan officials stayed in Brussels, including Carles Puigdemont, who had previously said he would not return to Spain if he and his colleagues did not receive unspecified guarantees of a fair trial.
Reports suggest some of them requested to appear before the judges via video conference.
Carles Puigdemont’s Belgian lawyer told Reuters that he would co-operate with the authorities in Spain and Belgium, but did not appear before the judges because “the climate is not good”.
The dismissed leader’s handling of the crisis has drawn criticism among some other Catalan politicians, with left-wing parliamentary deputy Joan Josep Nuet criticizing him for creating “yet more bewilderment”.
Meanwhile, five other senior members of the Catalan parliament, as well as speaker Carme Forcadell, are facing the same charges but, because of their parliamentary immunity, their cases are being handled by the Supreme Court.
Their hearings have been postponed until November 9.
If those Catalan politicians appearing in court are denied bail it will cause further anger among those who want Catalonia to break away.
The court summons also gave them three days to pay a deposit of €6.2 million ($7.2 million) to cover potential liabilities.
