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Mexico president seeks investigation of losses at Pemex plants

FILE PHOTO: The Pemex logo is pictured during the 80th anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico's oil industry in Mexico City
FILE PHOTO: The Pemex logo is pictured during the 80th anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico's oil industry in Mexico City, Mexico March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo

February 26, 2019

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s president said on Tuesday his government would push for an investigation into the hundreds of millions of dollars squandered by state oil company Pemex after its purchase of two struggling fertilizer plants during the previous administration.

A report by the Federal Audit Office last week said that Pemex burned through $665 million at its fertilizer unit in 2017 after purchasing the plants in 2013 and 2016 that became a major burden for the cash-strapped firm.

Pemex is highly indebted and last month suffered a downgrade to its credit rating, which triggered concern at the central bank and has put pressure on the peso currency.

Both plants had once belonged to Pemex before being privatized in the 1990s by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which long dominated Mexican politics and handed over power to Lopez Obrador in December.

The first plant, ProAgro, was not operational when Pemex bought it back for $475 million. In spite of three attempts to revive it, the facility was still not up and running this year, according to the report by the audit office. The second plant, Fertinal, operated well below capacity, the report said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who handed the PRI a crushing defeat in last July’s presidential election, told his regular morning news conference the plants had been turned into “junk” and that his government had an obligation to act.

“In all these cases we’re going to present complaints so that we’re not accomplices,” Lopez Obrador said after being asked about several cases of public money being wasted.

He said it would be up to the attorney general’s office to investigate the complaint.

Lopez Obrador has pledged to revive Pemex and he told the news conference his government would weed out employees who were “not helping” there and in other parts of the public sector.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Source: OANN

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Brazilian police say 10 dead after bank robbery

Police in Brazil say 10 people were killed in a shooting between alleged robbers and police in the outskirts of the country's biggest city.

Police commander Mario Alves da Silva told journalists that the incident took place in the city of Guararema, outside Sao Paulo, Thursday afternoon.

The police commander said at least 25 suspected criminals were involved in the robberies.

He did not confirm if those killed were all suspected criminals, but said no policemen were killed in the shootings.

Footage obtained by TV Globo shows two bank branches with their windows smashed.

Source: Fox News World

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European shares retreat after strong surge; trade talks, banks M&A on tap

The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 4, 2019

(Reuters) – European stocks took a breather on Thursday after hitting an eight-month high in the previous session, with banking mergers in focus while investors awaited more developments in U.S.-China trade talks.

At 0720 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.4 percent, having risen more than 3 percent climb in the previous four sessions on hopes that a U.S.-China trade deal could be imminent after both sides reported progress.

Commerzbank shares rose 3 percent as the race to acquire the German lender heated up. The Financial Times reported that Italy’s UniCredit was preparing a bid as Deutsche Bank’s attempt faces obstacles.

The FT said UniCredit was unlikely to gatecrash current merger negotiations with Deutsche but might make a move if these fell apart.

The news is likely to rekindle expectations of further consolidation in the battered European banking sector, which has underperformed the STOXX 600 this year. It was also among leading decliners on Thursday.

Britain’s exporter-heavy FTSE 100 continued to be pressured by a rise in sterling, boosted by hopes of progress or at least a longer Brexit delay as Prime Minister Theresa May seeks a joint approach with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to end a parliamentary deadlock.

Dampening sentiment was data out of Germany that showed an unexpected drop in industrial orders in February, hit by a slump in foreign demand.

Saga Plc shares crashed nearly 40 percent, on course for its worst daily performance, after the over-50s tourism and insurance firm forecast lower annual underlying pretax profit and cut its dividend as it struggles to keep up in a competitive motor and home insurance sector.

Steel maker Thyssenkrupp fell 1.5 percent as workers demanded substantial guarantees for jobs and plants even if a planned joint venture with India’s Tata Steel falls apart.

Novartis dipped after an influential non-profit organization said the $4 million to $5 million value put on a course of its experimental gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is excessive.

Among bright spots was the British home repairs provider HomeServe Plc, which led gains on the STOXX after forecasting full-year adjusted pretax profit at the upper end of market expectations.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: OANN

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New Delivery Bot Threatens to Destroy Gig-Economy

FedEx Corp. unveiled an autonomous delivery robot designed to assist retailers with last-mile deliveries to customers, which debuted on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Feb. 26.

The next day, the Memphis, Tenn.-based shipping company issued a press release that stated: “FedEx SameDay Bot ” will have the capabilities to aid retailers in accepting orders from customers and deliver directly to their homes or businesses.

FedEx is collaborating with retailers such as AutoZone, Lowe’s, Target, Walgreens and Walmart, in the development of autonomous delivery.

The FedEx SameDay Bot is an innovation designed to change the face of local delivery and help retailers efficiently address their customers’ rising expectations,” said Brie Carere, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for FedEx.

“The bot represents a milestone in our ongoing mission to solve the complexities and expense of same-day, last-mile delivery for the growing e-commerce market in a manner that is safe and environmentally friendly.”

FedEx SameDay Bot can travel on sidewalks and along roadsides, delivering small packages to customers’ homes and businesses. Bot features include pedestrian-safe technologies, including LiDAR and multiple sensors, battery power for zero emissions, and machine-learning algorithms to detect and avoid objects.

FedEx is preparing a pilot test this summer in select markets, including Memphis, Tenn., pending final approval from local officials.

“We couldn’t be more excited that FedEx chose its hometown as one of the pilot cities for this revolutionary innovation,” Mayor Jim Strickland, City of Memphis, said.

“We look forward to working with FedEx to continue introducing technologies that will help improve the quality of life in our community.”

(Photo by Spencer Pxhere / CC0 Public Domain)

The test will include deliveries between selected FedEx Office locations.

FedEx said 60% of merchants’ customers live within a three-mile circumference of most stores. The upcoming test will run through the end of the year to see if autonomous delivery at the last mile is a viable solution for cheap deliveries.

Unlocking new technology that eliminates costs from the last mile is any delivery company and retailers’ dream heading into 2020. Restaurants pay third-party delivery companies like Uber Eats, DoorDash and GrubHub commissions of 10-30% per order.

So if FedEx succeeds in its upcoming test and offers a nationwide rollout, let’s say sometime in the early 2020s, then thousands of broke Americans who are working last-mile gig-economy jobs could find themselves displaced by robots.


Dr. Nick Begich explains how patriots and conservatives must kick down the digital doorway blocking their voice from being heard before it’s too late.

Source: InfoWars

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Criminal Bullies! CNN Calls For Roger Stone To Be Gang Raped

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Source: InfoWars

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Trump administration ends California talks on auto emissions: White House

U.S. President Donald Trump waves as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz departs at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump waves as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz departs at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Young

February 21, 2019

By David Shepardson and Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has formally ended talks with California over federal plans to roll back fuel economy rules, the White House said on Thursday, setting the stage for what could be a lengthy legal fight over the state’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

California could be joined in any court fight by 12 other states that have adopted its standards and want stricter rules to fight climate change. Several other states have also demanded the administration abandon its August proposal to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards after 2020 and take away California’s ability to impose stricter emissions rules.

The administration has said tighter emissions controls would make automobiles too expensive.

“The administration is moving forward to finalize a rule later this year with the goal of promoting safer, cleaner and more affordable vehicles,” the White House said in a statement.

California has been allowed to set state standards that are stricter than federal rules under an exemption granted by the Environmental Protection Agency. The administration wants to revoke that waiver, saying California should not “dictate” policy for the rest of the country and arguing that another law pre-empts California from setting its own vehicle rules.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the administration’s decision to scrap the talks was a sign of its “weakness and fallibility.”

“California and states throughout America are prepared to defend our national Clean Car standards even if the Trump administration intends to go AWOL,” he said in an email statement.

California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols said the end of negotiations was “unfortunate.”

General Motors said it was “disappointed” that the talks ended.

GM, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles generate most of their global profits from U.S. sales of large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. All three have discontinued or plan to drop small and medium-sized sedans from their lineups, making it harder for their fleets to meet tighter emissions standards.

“We continue to prioritize the need for one national program and remain hopeful that the parties can find a solution to achieve this goal,” GM said, adding that it was committed to “an all-electric future.”

Ford said that it wanted “regulatory certainty, not protracted litigation.”

“A coordinated program with every stakeholder is in the best interest of Ford’s customers, and is the best path forward to achieve reductions in carbon dioxide emissions,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of global operations, said in a statement.

An administration official familiar with the negotiations said California had failed to compromise. Instead, the official said, the state insisted on sticking with tougher Obama-era mandates and it would offer only a short extension in applying them.

The official also said California “demanded” that the federal government “surrender” authority to set emissions and economy standards for the rest of the country.

Trump escalated his administration’s power struggle with California on Tuesday, when the administration canceled $929 million in federal funds for a California high-speed rail project. The state’s governor said the move was in retaliation for California leading a 16-state coalition challenging Trump’s national emergency to obtain funds for building a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Obama-era rules would require automakers roughly to double average fuel efficiency by 2025, sharply reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, which is linked to climate change. It was one of that administration’s most significant climate policy actions.

Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, one of 13 states that had adopted California’s standards, said he was “deeply disappointed” by failure of the talks.

“Repeatedly, I have urged this administration to strike a deal with the State of California and seize the win-win opportunity to keep the American auto industry globally competitive and create more good paying jobs here at home while protecting our environment,” he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman, Joe White, Valerie Volcovici, David Shepardson, Susan Heavey and Chris Sanders; Writing by Diane Bartz and Meredith Mazzilli; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, David Gregorio and Dan Grebler)

Source: OANN

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Amazon, Comcast, Electronic Arts submit bids for Nexon holding firm: Maeil report

The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, U.S., February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

February 27, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc, Comcast Corp and Electronic Arts Inc submitted initial bids for the holding firm of South Korea’s biggest gaming firm Nexon, Maeil Business Newspaper said on Wednesday, citing investment banking sources.

Last week, South Korean tech firms Netmarble and Kakao and private equity fund MBK Partners submitted letters of intent to buy the holding firm, NXC Corp, in what could be one of South Korea’s biggest deals, a source familiar with the matter said.

A Nexon spokeswoman declined to comment. Amazon, Comcast and Electronic Arts did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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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