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Southwest 737 Max Makes Emergency Landing in Orlando

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max made a safe emergency landing Tuesday in Orlando, Florida, after experiencing an engine problem, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The crew declared an emergency after taking off from Orlando International Airport around 2:50 p.m., and returned to the airport safely. No passengers were on board, and the aircraft was being ferried to Victorville, California, where Southwest is storing the airplanes.

The 737 Max was grounded in the U.S. March 13 after a deadly crash involving a Max in Ethiopia on March 10. It was the second fatal crash involving the airplane. U.S. airlines are allowed to shuttle the planes but cannot carry passengers.

The FAA says it's investigating but the emergency was not related to anti-stall software that is suspected as a cause of the two fatal crashes including one last year involving a plane from Indonesia.

Airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell says one of the airport's three runways was shut down for cleaning after the landing. She says its standard procedure to check a runway for debris after an emergency landing. It wasn't clear if any parts actually fell off the plane.

Fennell says the airport's other two runways remained open, and normal operations weren't affected.

Southwest said the plane's pilots reported a "performance issue" with an engine shortly after taking off for the California airport, where it was flying to be in short-term storage. The Max 8 jet was to be moved to Southwest's Orlando maintenance facility to be checked, a company statement said.

Source: NewsMax America

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Exclusive: Grab targets another $2 billion funding this year: CEO

A Grab motorbike helmet is displayed during Grab's fifth anniversary news conference in Singapore
A Grab motorbike helmet is displayed during Grab's fifth anniversary news conference in Singapore June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su

April 8, 2019

By Aradhana Aravindan and Anshuman Daga

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Grab expects to raise another $2 billion from strategic investors this year, the CEO of Southeast Asia’s biggest ride-hailing firm said, just weeks after it announced funding of over $4.5 billion in the region’s largest private financing round.

“We expect to raise $6.5 billion of total capital this year,” Anthony Tan told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The funding will be a mix of debt and equity, the co-founder said, adding that Grab is looking to rapidly expand its business in financial services and food delivery.

Grab is also looking to make at least six investments or acquisitions this year, said Tan, adding that the Singapore-headquartered company had no need for a stock market listing.

Grab’s massive financing round started shortly after it bought Uber’s Southeast Asian operations in March 2018 and, in return, Uber acquired a 27.5 percent stake in Grab’s business.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan and Anshuman Daga)

Source: OANN

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Commerzbank CEO and board take a pay cut in 2018

FILE PHOTO: Martin Zielke, CEO of Germany's Commerzbank addresses the media during the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: Martin Zielke, CEO of Germany's Commerzbank addresses the media during the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

March 27, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Commerzbank’s chief executive officer took a 32 percent pay cut in 2018, according to the bank’s annual report on Wednesday.

Total compensation for Martin Zielke was 1.97 million euros, down from 2.88 million euros in 2017.

Pay for the management board of the German bank, which is in talks with Deutsche Bank to merge, declined 24 percent.

(Reporting by Tom Sims, Hans Seidenstuecker and Arno Schuetze; editing by Thomas Seythal)

Source: OANN

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How I Knew Russia Collusion Was a Lie From the Start

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From the beginning, I repeatedly said the charge that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election was a lie. The president's description of it as a "witch hunt" was accurate.

I regularly acknowledged that I was putting my credibility on the line by stating that it was all a hoax. But how did I know that? After all, I wasn't privy to any confidential intelligence.

One answer is I used common sense. The Trump-Russia collusion charge and the Donald-Trump-is-an-agent-of-the-Kremlin charge struck me -- and tens of millions of other Americans -- as absurd. Vladimir Putin's influence on the 2016 election was negligible, and as president, Trump has been harder on Russia -- in supporting Ukraine's anti-Russian government, in fighting Syria's pro-Russian government and in confronting Iran's pro-Russian regime -- than Barack Obama was.

But the biggest reason I never believed the Russian collusion charge was that the charge emanated from the left. And the left lies about everything. Truth is a liberal value, and truth is a conservative value, but it has never been a left-wing value. People on the left say whatever advances their immediate agenda. Power is their moral lodestar; therefore, truth is always subservient to it.

The left wanted to undo the 2016 presidential election from the day Trump won. So they made up the Russian collusion story. This was obvious to every conservative -- except for "Never Trumpers," who, with regard to Trump, have been indistinguishable from the left and were therefore as prepared as any leftist to believe the Trump-Russia collusion tale. We conservatives knew that a) the left wanted to invalidate the election and b) the left lies when it is in their interest to do so. So we knew the collusion charge was a fabrication.

We also suspected that the collusion hoax may well have been an effort to divert attention from the real crimes here: American intelligence agencies' being used to spy on a presidential candidate for the first time in American history; getting Clinton off the hook for her illegal use of a private server while secretary of state; her use of that office to enrich herself and her husband; and her destruction of the evidence once her hidden emails were subpoenaed.

If you always doubt a leftist claim, you will almost always be closer to the truth. I employed that rule in concluding the collusion story was a fraud, and it served me well.

Name the issue and you will likely find a left-wing lie. The left claims our universities are saturated by a "culture of rape." Not only is that a lie, but deep down, leftists know it's a lie. The proof? Every left-wing parent who speaks about the "culture of rape" on college campuses sends his or her daughter to college. As no parents would ever send their daughter to an actual rape culture, left-wing parents who send their daughters to college know it is not really a rape culture. They say it is a rape culture solely to buttress the feminist argument that American males are misogynists and to provide young women with the highest status in the left-wing value system: victim.

Although I haven't been a student or taught at a college in many decades, that's how I knew American colleges were not rape cultures. I knew it because the left said they were. Again, just assume the left is lying and you will be close to arriving at the truth.

How do I know there are only two sexes? The most obvious reason is, again, common sense. But the second most powerful reason is the left denies there are only two sexes and claims there is no such thing as sex, only subjective "gender." Last week, a writer for the left-wing magazine The Nation defended the victory of two high school male-bodied trans women who defeated all the female-bodied women in a Connecticut track competition -- because, in his words, "trans women are in fact women."

Now, we all know trans women are not in fact women, that they are biologically men who regard themselves as women. And in private life, I have no problem treating trans women as women if they look and dress female and take on a female name. But it is completely unjust to have them compete against born females in sports. They are not in fact women; they consider themselves women despite the facts. Again, assuming the left is lying to advance its agenda leads one to truth.

When the left tells us the Earth has 12 years left because of global warming, I assume they are not telling the truth. One bit of proof is that almost no one on the global-warming-will-destroy-life left advocates the safest, cheapest and most practical non-fossil-based source of energy: nuclear power. If they really believed life was existentially threatened by fossil-based fuel, they would be building nuclear reactors as fast they could make them. One reason I haven't believed man-made global warming will destroy the Earth is that the left does.

So, while the latest left-wing lie -- Trump-Russia collusion -- is now exposed, there is little to cheer about. Without missing a beat, the left -- the Democratic Party, the media and academia -- will move on to another lie.

And there will be no soul-searching on the part of the media or the rest of the left.

Why won't there be? Because no leftist acknowledges the collusion story was a lie.

Truth has never been a left-wing value. Like "gender," it is whatever you want it to be.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM

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South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg Emerges as Dem 2020 Threat

The little-known mayor of South Bend, Indiana has emerged as one of the top candidates in the Democratic race for president, according to poll results and Democratic strategists.

The results of an Emerson poll of Iowa voters released over the weekend showed that 37-year-old Pete Buttigieg has the third-highest amount of support among Democrats, putting him behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Democratic strategists agree that Buttigieg, the only openly gay candidate in the 2020 election, is a contender.

"A couple of weeks ago I wasn't giving him any attention at all, in part because I didn't think he had a chance, but I am getting more and more intrigued," Democratic strategist Jim Manley told The Hill.

Added Democratic strategist Christy Setzer, "The Buttigieg Boomlet is real. He's everywhere, he's authentic and he's interesting and counterintuitive in his message — all of which makes him both a media darling and a serious source of intrigue for primary voters."

New York author and socialite Molly Jong-Fast, a supporter of Buttigieg, told NBC News he is the party's future regardless of what happens in 2020.

"It's so diametrically opposed to everything Trump," she said. "Even if Pete is not the candidate, he is the future of the Democratic Party."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Democrats Vote To Give Illegal Immigrants The Right To Vote

Update: House Democrats voted Friday to defend localities that allow illegal immigrants to vote in their elections, turning back a GOP attempt to discourage the practice. As The Washington Times reports, the vote marks a stunning reversal from just six months ago, when the chamber – then under GOP control – voted to decry illegal immigrant voting.

“We are prepared to open up the political process and let all of the people come in,” Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and hero of the civil rights movement, told colleagues as he led opposition to the GOP measure.

Texas Republican. Rep. Dan Crenshaw raged:

“It sounds like I’m making it up. What kind of government would cancel the vote of its own citizens, and replace it with noncitizens?”

*  *  *

As we detailed earlier, using carefully chosen words in what appears an attempt to hide the truth, House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi admitted this week  at a news conference on voting rights with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) in Austin, Texas on Tuesday, that Democrats want illegal immigrants to be able to come into the nation freely, across their open borders, in order to rig elections for the Democrats.

As CNSnews.com reports, Speaker Pelosi spoke on the importance of passing H.R. 1, the “For the People Act of 2019,” “to lay the foundation to pass the Voting Rights Act, strengthened after the actions of the Supreme Court, which significantly weakened it,” she said.


David Knight presents video footage of Steny Hoyer, a Representative from Maryland, pushing back against socialist Bernie Sanders’ position on the Democrats’ Resolution opposing hate, prompted by comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar, proving how divided the democrats have truly become.

Specifically, Pelosi said immigrants “make America more American,” and we should not be “suppressing the vote of our newcomers to America.”

“So, when we talk about newcomers, we have to recognize the constant reinvigoration of America that they are, that we all have been – our families,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

“And that, unless you’re blessed to be Native American – which is a blessing in itself that we respect – but that constant reinvigoration of hope, determination, optimism, courage, to make the future better for the next generation, those are American traits. And these newcomers make America more American. And we want them, when they come here, to be fully part of our system. And that means not suppressing the vote of our newcomers to America.”

She then quoted former President Reagan out of context to support her argument:

“In the campaign, the candidate that I, the president that I quoted the most was Ronald Reagan. Does that surprise you? Maybe. But Ronald Reagan said this: ‘This is the last speech I will make as President of the United States. And I have a message I want to communicate to the country I love.’ He went on to talk about the Statue of Liberty and what it means to the world – that beacon of hope, what it means to people who have come here and seen that statue welcoming them – he said, our ancestors, our grandparents, our parents.”

As President Trump’s son Donald Jr noted: “And there it is folks. What we all knew but no one would say. It’s only about votes for Democrats. “

Additionally, we note that friend-of-AOC, Rep. Ayanna Pressley may have outdone Pelosi with her latest stunt, an attempt to lower the federal voting age to 16.

“I am honored & excited to be introducing my very 1st amendment on the House floor, an amendment to #HR1, the #ForthePeopleAct. My amendment will lower the voting age from 18 to 16, allowing our youth to have a seat at the table of democracy. #16toVote,” she said.

Source: InfoWars

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For EU, Brexit has trashed May's 'strong and stable' image

Prime Minister Theresa May used to promise "strong and stable" government. Fellow EU leaders used to believe her.

But then came almost three years of Brexit missteps and mayhem. For the EU, Britain's 2016 vote to leave was a shock; what has happened since has left the reputation of Britain's prime minister, and the country's political institutions, badly tarnished.

May triggered the formal two-year countdown to Brexit while Britain was still divided over departure terms. Then she called a snap election to strengthen her bargaining hand — and lost her majority in Parliament.

Since then, Brexit has become gridlocked, with May too weak to push through her plans and lawmakers too divided to force an alternate course.

Leaders across Europe have watched with surprise, dismay and mounting frustration as Britain's widely respected institutions — a 1,000-year-old Parliament, an electoral system built to supply stable majority governments — failed repeatedly to make crucial decisions while the clock ticked down.

"The patience slowly, slowly is running out," one EU official said at this week's Brussels summit as the bloc's leaders — without May — debated whether to step in to prevent Britain crashing out of the bloc on its scheduled March 29 departure date.

In response to May's request for a three-month delay, the bloc offered a short two-step extension, with a deadline of April 12 for Britain to choose between May's deal, no deal, a long delay or no Brexit at all.

EU leaders said they had stepped in where Britain had failed, to avert the chaos of a messy Brexit next week.

"The European Union has, very clearly, been faced today with a British political crisis," French President Emmanuel Macron said as he left the talks early Friday. "British politicians are incapable of implementing what the people asked them.

"It's a real political and democratic crisis. But this crisis is British. In no way must we (the EU-27) become stuck in this situation."

Newspapers in Britain and the EU were united in seeing the EU's offer as proof Britain had lost control of its Brexit destiny.

"EU takes control of Brexit as May is sidelined," said the front page of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph. Spain's El Pais said the EU had given May a "20-day ultimatum." France's Le Figaro said the bloc's "confidence in Theresa May has evaporated," while Liberation summarized the mood of EU participants at the summit as "irritation, tiredness and a clear sense of being fed-up."

Some European politicians lay blame for the crisis squarely on May, a politician whose strengths — tenacity, stamina, a remarkable ability to keep plowing on in the face of opposition — have become weaknesses.

When May addressed EU leaders at the summit on Thursday, many were frustrated that she would not reveal a "Plan B" if her twice-rejected divorce deal was thrown out by Parliament again. They were downright alarmed by the impression that she would opt for a "no-deal" Brexit rather than accept a long delay.

"When she was asked what happens if you can't get the deal through next week, the answer was basically, 'I don't know,'" Philippe Lamberts, a Belgian member of the European Parliament, told the BBC. "And that is of course scary."

Giving Britain's Parliament a few more weeks to decide on Brexit offers lawmakers the chance to take control out of May's hands — if they can agree on a course of action. Many pro-EU lawmakers favor a long delay followed by a soft Brexit or remaining in the EU.

Either of those options would likely lead to May's departure — either voluntarily or under pressure from an exasperated Conservative Party.

EU leaders know better than anyone the burden of leading a government. For some, frustration over Brexit is tempered by sympathy and respect.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently compared May to the Black Knight in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," who loses limb after limb in battle but fights on, insisting "it's only a flesh wound."

Rutte said he had not meant it as an insult.

"Her tenacity is enormous," Rutte said at the summit. "I can only with the highest admiration and astonishment look how she is doing this."

___

Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

Source: Fox News World

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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