ST. JOSEPH ISLAND, Seychelles – The submersible dropped from the ocean's surface faster than I had expected. With a loud "psssssss" the air escaped from the ballast tanks and the small craft suddenly tilted forward.
Within seconds, aquanaut Robert Carmichael and I were enveloped by a vibrant shade of blue, watching streaks of sunlight pierce the water's surface. Soon a large manta ray appeared from the darkness below, gently gliding toward our small craft before vanishing into the distance.
The dive took place off a coral atoll called St. Joseph in the outer islands of Seychelles on a mission to explore the Indian Ocean. This body of water is poorly studied and few scientists have ever ventured deeper than the maximum scuba depth of 100 feet.
For more than a month researchers from Nekton, a British-led scientific research charity, have been using submersibles to dive deep below the waves to document the ocean's health.
We arrived at St. Joseph Island in the early hours of the morning, and this was the first submersible dive at the new site. The sea bed suddenly appeared beneath our craft, a landscape no one had ever seen before.
I quickly scribbled down in the mission report the depth and time at which we sighted the bottom: "165 feet, 1144 UTC." Carmichael, a veteran of the sea, relayed the information to the surface via an underwater telephone. Its loud static noise would be a constant of our dive.
We moved across a seabed of rock and sand and scattered soft coral until a great darkness opened ahead. Carmichael lowered us over the side of an underwater cliff. Our target depth was 400 feet.
Oceans cover over two-thirds of the Earth's surface but remain, for the most part, unexplored.
Their role in regulating our climate and the threats they face are underestimated by many people, so scientific missions are crucial to take stock of the health of underwater ecosystems.
Able to operate down to 1,000 feet, these manned submersibles give scientists a unique understanding of changes in habitats as sunlight diminishes through the different layers of ocean. We glided with the current as six cameras mounted around the craft recorded its journey. In the months to come, researchers at Oxford will comb through the footage frame by frame, noting each species encountered.
Suddenly a drop of cold water landed on my arm, triggering alarm. Water is best kept on the outside of a submersible. Carmichael quickly put me at ease: The difference in temperature between the water around us and our submersible had created a layer of condensation on the hatch. We quickly soaked it up with towels.
It was curiosity that drew Carmichael to the ocean. "I just wanted to know what was down here," he said. "It's stunning in so many ways."
This curiosity has attracted mankind for centuries. "The human mind is naturally drawn to grandiose notions of supernatural beings, and the sea is the ideal medium for them," wrote Jules Verne, author of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," possibly the greatest submarine novel of all time, which opens with fears over a mysterious sea monster sinking ships and harvesting the lives of sailors.
Thirty years after reading the novel as a child, I'm sitting in a tiny glass bubble observing the underwater world like Captain Nemo on board the novel's submarine, Nautilus. We are foreigners to this realm, objects of fascination for the reef shark that approaches us, as curious of us as we are of it.
Even in the 19th century, Verne feared the extinction of numerous species of marine life. The fears have been proven true. A WWF report found that marine vertebrate populations have declined by almost half since the 1970s.
Fishing is no longer the sole cause. Man-made pollution, global warming and the acidification of the oceans are new challenges.
As the oceans slowly soak up heat from the atmosphere, marine species will be affected in different ways. Some will adapt. Some will migrate to cooler waters. Others will disappear, leaving a gap in ecosystems that have existed for millennia.
"I came into the Indian Ocean hoping I'd see a giant Napoleon wrasse," Carmichael said of one of the world's largest reef fish. "Here we are, 35 days into the mission and I still haven't seen one."
Maybe we're just not diving in the right places. Maybe the reality is bleaker.
As the surveys ended and the currents became too strong to fight, the surface vessel ordered our submersible to return to the surface.
With the lights off, we floated a few minutes in the semi-darkness before the sound of ballast tanks emptying marked our slow ascent. The dark blue water around us lightened.
"The oceans are all connected and important to the quality of life for all humans," Carmichael said. "It's worth protecting because the air we breathe and the food we eat and the oceans we swim in really do have a meaningful impact on everyone's life."
Mar 13, 2019; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams (12) speaks with Oklaho Thunder guard Terrance Ferguson (23) and Thunder forward Paul George (13) during a stoppage in play in the second half at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports
March 14, 2019
Paul George and Russell Westbrook combined for 56 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the visiting Brooklyn Nets 108-96 on Wednesday night.
Oklahoma City trailed by as much as 17 early in the second quarter and 10 early in the second half. It was the second time this season the Thunder came from a double-digit deficit in the second half to beat the Nets and the 14th game this season that Oklahoma City won after trailing by at least 10.
The comeback wasn’t as dramatic as Dec. 5 in Brooklyn, when the Thunder outscored the Nets by 20 in the fourth quarter to win by two. This time, the comeback happened in the third quarter, when George snapped out of his recent slump with 12 points.
Westbrook finished with 31 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists for his first triple-double since Feb. 28. Spencer Dinwiddie led the Nets with 25 points.
Wizards 100, Magic 90
Bradley Beal scored 23 points, Thomas Bryant added 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Washington defeated visiting Orlando.
Jabari Parker added 19 points and nine rebounds for Washington, which is 2-0 on a crucial five-game homestand. Wizards reserves, led by Bryant, Parker and Chasson Randle (13 points), scored 59 points.
Nikola Vucevic led the Magic with 20 points and 14 rebounds. D.J. Augustin scored 16 points, and Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac had 13 each for the Magic, who have lost four of five.
Heat 108, Pistons 74
Justise Winslow led a balanced attack with 16 points, and host Miami scored the first 21 points of the second half to roll past Detroit.
The Heat outscored the Pistons 33-8 in the third quarter. It was Detroit’s lowest-scoring quarter since Nov. 21, 2012, when the Pistons had an eight-point quarter against Orlando.
Dion Waiters had 14 points, Hassan Whiteside and Josh Richardson scored 13 apiece, and Dwyane Wade tossed in 11 points off the bench for Miami. Blake Griffin led Detroit with 13 points. Former Heat guard Wayne Ellington added 11 points.
Hawks 132, Grizzlies 111
Atlanta continued its hot play on offense, with John Collins, Trae Young and Alex Len combining for 69 points in a win over visiting Memphis. The Hawks entered the game as the NBA’s top offensive team since the All-Star Game, averaging 122.5 points.
Collins finished with 27 points on 11-for-17 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds for his 28th double-double of the season. Young scored 22 points and had eight rebounds. Len came off the bench to add 20 points and eight rebounds.
CJ Miles sank eight 3-pointers and scored 33 points for the Grizzlies. Mike Conley added 20 points and seven assists.
A neighborhood in North London saw its fifth stabbing in the past four days, leaving locals on edge as police increase patrols, according to UK media.
A man in his 30s is reportedly fighting for his life after collapsing in the street, the BBC reports.
Police discovered him suffering from a stab wound at approximately 5:00am on Aberdeen Road in Edmonton – scene of the first of four stabbings that unfolded across 10 hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
"The actions of the suspect, the fact that the incidents are in a similar area and the description given means that we are potentially only looking for one perpetrator," said Chief Superintendent Helen Millichap.
Police say the suspect in the latest attack was described similarly as in prior attacks – a "tall, skinny black man, wearing a hoodie."
Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the attacks, but at least one man has been released on bail and it is still unclear if the stabbings are related, although all victims were reportedly knifed in the back in a similar manner and in the same vicinity.
"I am aware that events from the weekend have caused a huge amount of worry and concern among the community, and that this incident will cause further alarm," said Detective Superintendent Luke Marks.
"While at this stage the incident has not yet been formally linked, the location and manner of this attack will be of concern to the public."
Paul Joseph Watson breaks down how the European Union has officially voted to adopt the Article 13 provision into law which would govern the production and distribution of online content under the presumption of copyright protections, but what this really means is no more creative memes.
Supporters of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) gather in front of the party's headquarters to celebrate the municipal elections results in Ankara, Turkey, March 31, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
April 1, 2019
By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan suffered a severe setback as his ruling AK Party lost control of the capital Ankara for the first time in a local election and he appeared to concede defeat in the country’s largest city, Istanbul.
Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since coming to power 16 years ago and ruled his country with an ever tighter grip, campaigned relentlessly for two months ahead of Sunday’s vote, which he described as a “matter of survival” for Turkey.
But the president’s daily rallies and overwhelmingly supportive media coverage failed to win over the country’s capital or secure a definitive result in Istanbul, as Turkey’s economic downturn weighed heavily on voters.
Turkish broadcasters said opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas had won a clear victory in Ankara, but the vote count in Istanbul was so tight that both parties declared the narrowest of victories.
“The people have voted in favor of democracy, they have chosen democracy,” opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said, declaring that his secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) had taken Ankara and Istanbul from the AK Party and held its Aegean coastal stronghold of Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city,
Defeat for Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted party in Ankara was a significant blow for the president. Losing Istanbul, where he launched his political career and served as mayor in the 1990s, would be an even greater symbolic shock and a broader sign of dwindling support.
State-owned Anadolu Agency said the AKP would appeal in some districts of the capital.
In Istanbul, the AK Party said former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim defeated his CHP rival Ekrem Imamoglu by a mere 4,000 votes – with both candidates polling more than 4 million votes. Imamoglu said he had a lead of 28,000 with only 2,000 votes uncounted.
In a speech to supporters in Ankara, Erdogan appeared to accept AKP defeat in Istanbul, although he maintained that most neighborhoods in the city were held by his party. “Even if our people gave away the mayorship, they gave the districts to the AK Party,” he said.
The party would appeal results wherever needed, he added.
“TURNING A PAGE”
Erdogan pledged that Turkey would now focus on its troubled economy in the run-up to national elections in 2023. “We have a long period ahead where we will carry out economic reforms without compromising on the rules of the free-market economy,” he told reporters.
Turkey’s most prominent leader since the founder of the Turkish republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Erdogan’s support has been based on strong economic growth and backing from a core constituency of pious, conservative Muslim Turks.
A consummate campaigner, he has been the country’s most popular – although divisive – modern politician, tightening his grip in elections last year that ushered in a powerful executive presidency, approved in a bitter 2017 referendum which alarmed Western allies who fear growing authoritarianism in Turkey.
But a currency crisis after last year’s election dragged the lira down by 30 percent and tipped the economy towards recession. With inflation close to 20 percent and unemployment rising, some voters appeared ready to punish the president.
“Today’s elections are as historic as that of 1994,” prominent journalist Rusen Cakir tweeted, referring to the year Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul. “It is a declaration that a page that was opened 25 years ago is being turned.”
As authorities again scrambled to shore up the lira over the past week, Erdogan cast the country’s economic woes as resulting from attacks by the West, saying Turkey would overcome its troubles and adding he was “the boss” of the economy. [nL8N21F3VP]
However Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo political risk advisers, said the AK Party had lost seven of the country’s 12 main cities, even without taking Istanbul into account.
“It’s a bad night for the AK Party,” he said. “They have done very poorly in all the economic powerhouses of country. For a party which portrays itself as pro-business, it’s a huge issue.”
The lira traded at 5.61 to the dollar after initial results came in, compared with 5.55 at Friday’s close and 5.65 in U.S. trading hours later on Friday.
In mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, residents celebrated as the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) won back municipalities that authorities had taken over two years ago, accusing the HDP of terrorist links. The HDP denies links to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
“They robbed us of our will and we overturned this,” Diyarbakir resident Abdullah Elmas said.
(Additional reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Orhan Coskun and Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara, Daren Butler in Istanbul; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Michael Perry)
FILE PHOTO: Mar 2, 2019; Indianapolis, IN, USA; West Virginia quarterback Will Grier (QB04) warms up before doing workout drills during the 2019 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
April 15, 2019
New England brought in a pair of top-five quarterback prospects last week for pre-draft visits, according to a report by the Boston Globe on Sunday.
The Patriots hosted West Virginia’s Will Grier and Duke’s Daniel Jones on Wednesday, according to the report, which detailed an “intriguing week” in Foxborough that also included a visit from Texas A&M tight end Jace Sternberger on Monday.
On Thursday, the Patriots reportedly brought in Iowa tight end Noah Fant, Ole Miss receiver A.J. Brown, Baylor receiver Jalen Hurd and South Carolina receiver Deebo Samuel. Still slated for visits are wide receivers N’Keal Harry (Arizona State) Miles Boykin (Notre Dame).
The Patriots have taken quarterbacks in the second and third rounds in recent years only to have them sit and learn behind Tom Brady and then leave the team: They picked Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round of the 2014 draft and took Jacoby Brissett in the third round in 2016.
Critics call President Donald Trump a diplomatic wrecking ball, while his supporters admiringly watch him take on foreign policy challenges that previous presidents chose to ignore or left to diplomatic "experts."
Who's right? This week, the rubber meets the road. Trump's highly personal approach to negotiating with foreign powers -- while ignoring Congress -- is being put to the test by North Korea and China. Whether presidents should go it alone on foreign policy has been controversial since the founding of the nation. Even the Constitution's framers fought over the question.
Midweek, Trump met one-on-one in Hanoi, Vietnam, with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator he used to taunt as "Little Rocket Man." Previous U.S. presidents stood by while North Korea developed nuclear weapons and brandished them. This president, acting as his own chief arms negotiator, is taking on the problem. This will be Trump's second summit with Kim, following their June meeting at which the dictator promised to work toward the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
So far, that's just an empty promise. Though, admittedly, North Korea has stopped nuclear testing and lighting up the sky with missiles. Trump concedes that "much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one." Is Trump relying only on personal charm? Hardly. American economic sanctions are pushing North Korea into ever more desperate food shortages, and Trump has threatened to meet any North Korean aggression with "fire and fury." So, why not try diplomacy first, the president suggests.
Unlike previous presidents, Trump is also confronting China's unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft head on. He slapped a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and threatened to hike the tariff to 25 percent on March 1 absent a deal.
While hitting hard with tariffs, Trump also praises China's chief negotiator Liu He as "one of the most respected men in all of China, and frankly, one of the most respected men anywhere in the world." At the United Nations last fall, he called President Xi Jinping "my friend" even while saying the trade imbalance with China "is just not acceptable."
Career diplomats for years got nowhere with China. Trump's iron-fisted, velvet-tongued diplomacy seems to be working better. Trump would call it "the art of the deal." On Sunday, he tweeted that he'll delay hiking the tariffs because of the progress made so far in trade talks, and he invited Xi to meet with him personally at Mar-a-Lago in early March to finalize a deal. "I think President Xi and I will work out the final points."
Meanwhile, Congress is on shaky ground trying to rein in Trump's "l'etat c'est moi" diplomacy. Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., introduced a bill to block Trump from withdrawing troops from South Korea, as part of any deal. Sorry. Deciding where to deploy troops is what the commander in chief does, not Congress. Check out Article II of the Constitution.
Congress also wants to limit Trump's power over tariffs. At least there, lawmakers have an argument. Article I gives Congress the power to "regulate commerce with foreign nations." Congress has frequently ceded that power to the president. Now it's having second thoughts.
The tug between Congress and the president over who controls foreign policy has been going on since the nation's founding. When President George Washington declared neutrality in the war between France and its European neighbors in 1793, two of the Constitution's framers, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, disagreed over whether Washington had that power. Madison insisted the power belonged to Congress, while Hamilton argued the decision was the president's.
Trump is by no means the first president to seize control of diplomacy in a personal way. In 1972, President Richard Nixon shocked the establishment with a surprise visit to Communist China, a dramatic first step toward opening diplomatic relations between the rival powers.
And who can forget President Ronald Reagan's personal dealings with Mikhail Gorbachev, which contributed to ending the Cold War?
Face it, Trump's personal diplomacy is controversial because he's controversial. But look beyond his swagger and judge the results.
Guangzhou, the capital of China’s Guangdong Province, is offering to pay citizens in exchange for information on “illegal religious groups” as the Communist Party of China continues to crack down on all forms of religious activity. This includes the remains of the “underground” Catholic Church, not aligned with the recent deals made between the Jesuits and China.
Groups that are not officially registered with the Chinese Communist Party, are now subject to severe persecution, including the detention and forced Communist indoctrination of members and leaders, the destruction of shrines and church buildings, and, in the case of Muslim ethnic minorities in western China, indoctrination and forced-labor internment camps.
As the Associated Press reported, the website of the Guangzhou Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs states it is now offering up to 10,000 Chinese yuan, roughly $15,000, for information on the activities of “underground” Catholic Churchs and other religious groups, that could eventually lead to the arrest of key leaders. The Sinicization of religion has been pushed by President Xi Jinping, who took power in 2013 and who has strengthened government oversight of religious activities.
In the last few weeks, disturbing reports of the destruction or desecration of Evangelical Churches, “underground” Catholic churches and shrines throughout China. Under President Xi Jinping, the clearly Satanic Chinese government has destroyed churches or removed their steeples and crosses as part of a campaign that reflects the Communist Party’s longstanding fear that Christianity, viewed as a Western philosophy, is a threat to the party’s authority, demonstrating once again the Satanic Nature of Communism.
In December of last year, the Golden Lampstand Church in the Shanxi Province was destroyed by paramilitary police officers, and is the perfect example of what the Chi-com Satanists are capable of doing. Remember, Communism is Satanism in disguise and much more than a mere political system.
A growing number of Catholics are deeply disturbed that the Vatican has forged such an alliance with China’s repressive regime, that is persecuting “Underground” Catholics, but Pope Francis and the Jesuits don’t care.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – 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.
LONDON – 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.”
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)
JOHANNESBURG – 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.
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)
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