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1 dead, 2 missing as extreme flooding hinders rescues across Midwest

At least one person is dead and two more are missing after extreme flooding from snowmelt and heavy rains continued to overwhelm most of the Midwest, hindering rescue efforts on Saturday.

James Wilke, 50, died Thursday in Nebraska while trying to rescue a stranded driver using his tractor, family members said. The bridge he was on collapsed and his body was later found downstream.

NEBRASKA FARMER WHO DIED TRYING TO RESCUE A STRANGER FROM FLOODWATERS IS HAILED AS A HERO

Two other people in Nebraska were reported missing because of rising floodwaters. One man was last seen on top of his flooded car late Thursday before being swept away. Another man was carried away by floodwaters when a dam on the Niobrara River collapsed.

Looking southwest toward Waterloo, Neb., high waters from the Elkhorn River cover Maple Street on Saturday. (Jeff Bundy/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

Looking southwest toward Waterloo, Neb., high waters from the Elkhorn River cover Maple Street on Saturday. (Jeff Bundy/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

The dangerous floodwaters come after days of snow and rain swept through the West and Midwest, setting records in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.

On Saturday rescue efforts were stifled in Omaha after levee breaches and washouts of bridges and roads prevented officials from reaching people in need.

Authorities confirmed that a bridge crossing the Elkhorn River washed out Saturday. In Freemont, west of Omaha, the Dodge County Sheriff's Office issued a mandatory evacuation for some residents after floodwaters broke through a levee along the Platte River. And in Mills County, Iowa, authorities ordered people in some rural areas to evacuate after the Missouri River overtopped levees.

Dodge street is closed from flood waters on Saturday March 16, 2019 in Omaha Neb. (Jeff Bundy/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

Dodge street is closed from flood waters on Saturday March 16, 2019 in Omaha Neb. (Jeff Bundy/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

Officials in Sarpy County said Saturday that power may be shut off to communities along the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn Rivers for safety reasons.

Farther east, the Mississippi River saw moderate flooding in Illinois from Rock Island south to Gladstone. Meteorologist Brian Pierce with the National Weather Service's Quad Cities office in Davenport, Iowa, said flooding on the Mississippi could get worse in early April, as more snow melts in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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"What we're having now is the dress rehearsal for the main event that's going to happen in early April," he said of the flooding on the Mississippi.

Rising waters along the Pecatonica and Rock Rivers flooded some homes in the northern Illinois cities of Freeport, Rockford and Machesney Park. The weather service said record crests were possible along the rivers, with water levels forecast to continue to rise over the next several days and remain above flood stage through most of the weekend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Trump signs legislation promoting Bob Dole to colonel for WWII service

President Trump on Monday signed legislation authorizing the honorary promotion of former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., from captain to colonel in the U.S. Army in recognition of his service in World War II.

The legislation, which was passed unanimously last month by the House of Representatives after going through the Senate, recognizes Dole’s time spent in the armed forces during World War II, where he earned two Purple Hearts and was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor.

BOB DOLE TURNS 95 - LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY FRIEND AND A GREAT AMERICAN 

"I was proud to wear our nation's uniform 77 years ago when I enlisted, and my pride in America's brave servicemen and women continues today," Dole said in a statement in March, when Congress passed the legislation authorizing his promotion.

The 95-year-old Dole, who ran for president in 1996, was last seen publicly in December when he rose from a wheelchair to salute the coffin of former President George H.W. Bush in the Capitol rotunda.

BOB DOLE GIVES GEORGE H.W. BUSH STANDING SAULTE, RISING FROM WHEELCHAIR IN DRAMATIC MOMENT

Dole, who represented Kansas in the U.S. House and Senate for a total of 35 years, was injured by German machine gun fire while serving as an infantry lieutenant in 1945 in the European theater. The injury left him with limited use of his right arm.

Trump last year praised Dole as a “great American” during a presentation awarding the former lawmaker the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Judge considers whether terror watchlist is unconstitutional

A federal judge says he will rule in the near future on the constitutionality of a government watchlist that includes more than 1 million people the FBI considers to be "known or suspected terrorists."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sued in 2016 to challenge the watchlist on behalf of Muslim Americans who say they were wrongly placed on it and suffered negative consequences as a result.

The plaintiffs argued Thursday at a hearing in Alexandria that the list is disseminated so broadly that those listed face not only travel woes at airports and border crossings but also difficulty completing financial transactions and interacting with police. They also say the standard for inclusion is overbroad and innocent Muslims are routinely listed by mistake.

Government lawyers say the list is a necessary tool to fight terrorism and that plaintiffs exaggerate the consequences of inclusion.

The watchlist, also known as the Terrorist Screening Database, is maintained by the FBI and shared with a variety of federal agencies. Customs officers have access to the list to check people coming into the country at border crossings, and aviation officials use the database to help form the government's no-fly list.

The watchlist has grown significantly in size over the years. As of June 2017, approximately 1.16 million people were included on the watchlist, according to government documents filed in the lawsuit. In 2013, the number was only 680,000. The vast majority are foreigners, but according to the government, there are roughly 4,600 U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents on the watchlist as well as of 2017.

CAIR lawyer Gadeir Abbas said the intrusions imposed on those listed are all for naught; he argued that the list is worthless in terms of preventing terrorism. He noted that Omar Mateen, the man who shot and killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016, was at one time on the list but was later removed from it. Others who have committed terrorist acts have never even been included on the watchlist.

"The government cannot know who among the innocent will become a terrorist in the future," Abbas said. Because the government has no good standard for inclusion on the list, it falls back to stereotypes and routinely imposes the burden of watchlisting on innocent Muslims.

Justice department lawyer Amy Powell disputed Abbas' analysis and said it's impossible to know what types of terrorist attacks might have been foiled by placing those on the watchlist under greater scrutiny.

She also said that some of the consequences described by plaintiffs in the case, including being handcuffed at border crossings in front of family and having police approach them with guns drawn, may be frightening but are not so serious as to merit judicial intervention.

She said border agents have the right to take precautions when presented with a potential danger because "they have no idea what's coming over the border."

One of the plaintiffs, Hassan Shibly, who works in CAIR's Florida chapter, said he has been searched dozens of times because of his watchlist status and was once handcuffed in front of his grandmother at a border crossing in Detroit.

"It's humiliating," he said. "The government lawyers could never make the arguments they made in court today if they had personally faced the same treatment we've faced," Shibly said after the hearing.

The plaintiffs have alleged that the watchlist intrudes on many aspects of life beyond the ability to travel. Some Muslims have said they believe that financial transactions and interactions with law enforcement have been tainted because the government disseminates the list so broadly.

The case has revealed that the list goes not only to approximately 18,000 state and local law-enforcement agencies, but hundreds of private entities that are deemed "law enforcement adjacent" by the federal government also receive the list. Lawyers with CAIR say the government has interpreted it so broadly that animal shelters and churches have been given access. Government lawyers have responded that these animal shelters have police powers, and the churches are police forces at private schools run by religious organizations.

As for financial transactions, though, the evidence is murkier. The government has been adamant that banks and financial institutions do not get access to the list.

When the lawsuit was first filed, it included an allegation that one person believed to be on the watchlist was denied an opportunity test drive a car after a salesman ran his driver's license before turning over the keys, and came back to report that the man's license showed up on the terrorist watchlist. It turned out that the problem was caused because his name was similar to one on an entirely different list, maintained by the Treasury' Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The government does not confirm whether an individual has been placed on the watchlist, and its secrecy leaves people to wonder whether any unusual interaction was caused by the watchlist. One plaintiff, Hassan Fares, described difficulty opening a bank account, and not knowing whether the problems stemmed for watchlist placement or not.

"It's difficult to determine whether it's random or whether it's connection to something else," he said. "Suspicion just leads to paranoia."

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga said after the hearing that he would issue a written ruling at a later date.

Source: Fox News National

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‘Too early’ to tell if Ocasio-Cortez will help New York: Governor Cuomo

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Ocasio-Cortez speaks during a news conference for a proposed
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a news conference for a proposed "Green New Deal" to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. February 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

February 23, 2019

By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a scion of his party’s establishment wing, said on Friday it was “too early” to know if the young Democrat firebrand from his state, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will help New York while in Congress.

“It’s early yet to find out what she actually produces,” Cuomo told reporters after a news conference in Washington in which he argued for Congress to reverse a provision in the new federal tax code that disproportionately hurts his constituents.

“You know, New York is very basic in our approach, we’re sort of, ‘What have you brought home for us lately?’ I think it’s a little early in the session yet for the evaluation.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated a long-time Democratic lawmaker to get elected to Congress in 2018, has pushed her party to embrace a more liberal platform and ruffled feathers with her quick rise. She’s also become an obsession among conservatives, who jump to attack her every remark.

Cuomo and Ocasio-Cortez ended up on opposite sides of the debate about Amazon.com opening a new headquarters in New York. When the tech company decided last week to abandon plans for a new campus in Queens, Ocasio-Cortez cheered and Cuomo lamented the move.

But he wasn’t ready to put the blame on Ocasio-Cortez.

“God issues fault,” Cuomo said. “She was against it, a number of people were against it, but she did not have an official government role. There were people who had an official government role who were against it and I think they have more of the liability.”

Cuomo dismissed the idea that Ocasio-Cortez could be pushing his party too far to the left, pointing to progressive initiatives that had found favor with voters such as New York’s $15 minimum wage, paid family leave and marriage equality.

“We have a significant Republican population,” Cuomo said. “I’m in my third term, so you can be a progressive and you can win with Democrats and Republicans. So it depends on how its done.”

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: OANN

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Trump responds to Notre Dame cathedral fire: ‘Must act quickly’

President Trump responded to the massive fire that broke out at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Monday.

Trump tweeted his reaction to the fire as video and images of the flames over the famous cathedral were posted on social media.

The president also suggested sending flying water tankers to drown out the flames.

MASSIVE FIRE BREAKS OUT IN NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL IN PARIS

"So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!" Trump wrote.

French President Emmanuel Macron shared his thoughts with the nation and Catholics as "Our Lady of Paris" continued to erupt in flames on Monday.

"Like all our countrymen, I'm sad tonight to see this part of us burn," he wrote, in part, on Twitter.

Macron postponed a pre-recorded speech to the country that was set to be aired later Monday on French TV. Macron was expected to lay out his plan to address the citizen complaints that gave rise to the yellow vest protests that have rocked France since November.

Meanwhile, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called it a "terrible fire."

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL FIRE WITNESSES IN PARIS SHARE SHOCKING VIDEOS: 'IT KEEPS GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER'

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Sources told Fox News that it appears the fire was related to recent construction done at the cathedral.

Notre Dame was undergoing a $6.8 million renovation project, with some sections under scaffolding, while bronze statues were removed last week amid construction.

This is a developing story. Check back here for updates.

Fox News' Lucia I. Suarez Sang and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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WhatsApp Blocks Spanish Party Channel Days Before Election

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp unexpectedly blocked a channel belonging to the Spanish left-wing Podemos Party less than a week before the general election, sparking accusations of meddling.

The party’s account was blocked on Monday following a political debate held the day before. Podemos Communications Secretary Juanma del Olmo was the first to report the blocking.

“We have been operating normally for 15 days, sending messages and communicating with people who have asked us to register,” he said later, adding that the channel was shut down on the last week of the election campaign “when people decide on their votes.”


Leo Zagami lays out the facts about how the globalists have been planning to use Joe Biden as a presidential candidate.

According to Podemos, the party had as many as 50,000 registered followers on WhatsApp at the time the channel was blocked. “With just a few days before the election left, we will not be able to start anew if [the channel] is not restored,” del Olmo said. The party then approached the messaging service seeking clarification but apparently did not receive a reply until Tuesday.

Later, the company said in a brief statement to the media that the blocked account was violating its terms of use. “We apply the same implementation standards for all WhatsApp users worldwide. Our terms and services are explicit and do not allow mass messaging or third-party programs to automate messages,” it said, as cited by El Pais.

Europa Press News/Europa Press via Getty Images

Podemos argued that it used the same tools all other parties were using. “Why have they shut down only the account of Podemos and not those of other parties doing the same?” del Olmo asked in a tweet, singling out the Spanish Socialists.

The Socialist Party rejected the allegations, telling El Pais that it mostly uses its WhatsApp channel “to answer questions of the people, who write to us and not to send mass messages.” Podemos, meanwhile, accused the service of directly intervening in the election.

“This is discriminatory behavior, interference from a company in an electoral process, which… affects the quality of our democracy,” the party said in a Twitter post.

WhatsApp has not commented on the accusations yet. The Podemos channel remained blocked as of April 24, four days before the election.


Tech giant Google celebrated the globalist-created “Earth Day” on its homepage on Monday, but chose to ignore Easter Sunday – Christianity’s holiest day.

Source: InfoWars

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Turkey says it proposed forming working group with U.S. on Russian S-400s

FILE PHOTO: Russian servicemen drive S-400 missile air defence systems during the Victory Day parade at the Red Square in Moscow
FILE PHOTO: Russian servicemen drive S-400 missile air defence systems during the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, at Red Square in Moscow, Russia May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin -/File Photo

April 3, 2019

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has proposed to the United States that they form a technical working group to determine that Russian S-400 missile defence systems do not pose a threat to U.S. or NATO military equipment, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.

The United States and Turkey have been at loggerheads over Ankara’s decision to purchase the S-400s, which are not compatible with NATO systems, from Russia. Washington has warned that proceeding with the deal could result in U.S. sanctions.

“It will not be integrated into the NATO system… therefore we propose the United States to establish a technical working group to make sure that this system will not be a threat – neither to (U.S.) F-35s nor the NATO systems,” Cavusoglu told a panel in the United States.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Sarah Dadouch; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Source: OANN

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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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