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Chinese student kidnapped in Canadian condo garage

A Chinese national studying in Canada was shocked multiple times by a man with a stun gun in a violent kidnapping in the underground parking garage of his condominium north of Toronto, authorities said Monday.

York regional police said Wanzhen Lu, 22, was walking with his friend toward the elevator of the Markham, Ontario building at around 6 p.m. on Saturday when a black van pulled up behind them after they got out of a Range Rover. Three men got out and ambushed Lu, dragging him into the van.

Police said they have found the van allegedly used to kidnap him.

Const. Andy Pattenden says they are still extremely worried about Lu's safety.

Police are looking for four suspects

Lu, who also goes by the name "Peter," is studying at a school in Toronto. He reportedly also drove a white Lamborghini and Rolls Royce.

He and a female friend who had been in the vehicle with him were walking toward an elevator in the garage at around 6 p.m. on Saturday when they were ambushed.

Pattenden said the friend wasn't taken, leading officers to believe Lu was targeted.

Security images show three suspects wearing jackets with their hoods pulled tight to their heads along with images of the van.

Pattenden said members of his family are on their way to Canada.

Police have not made contact with the suspects, Pattenden said, and to his knowledge no ransom demands have been made.

"This entire case is odd," Pattenden told reporters. "Abductions like this, especially with this level of violence used are very rare in this country."

Source: Fox News World

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How Xi Overplayed His Hand With America

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WASHINGTON -- In the rebalancing of Sino-American relations that's underway, the usual roles are reversed: China's normally deft President Xi Jinping appears to have badly overreached in seeking advantage. And President Trump, who often seems tone-deaf on foreign policy, is riding a bipartisan consensus that it's time to push back against Beijing.

The two nations will probably make a trade deal soon, patching together a working relationship that has been frayed by a year of tariffs and economic brinksmanship. Experts predict an agreement that will boost U.S. exports to China, improve market access for American firms and reduce the power of Chinese state-owned enterprises -- and offer some modest new legal protections for American companies whose commercial secrets have been plundered by Beijing for a half-century.

But as Xi jockeyed for position against America, many U.S. experts argue that he misplayed his hand. After decades of what was known as a "hide and bide" strategy of cautious cooperation, the Chinese leader moved to directly challenge American primacy in technology. This eventually triggered a sharp, bipartisan American response, which Trump has harvested.

"In an incredibly divided Washington, one of the only areas of agreement is that China policy needs to be less accommodating and more resolute toward Beijing," says Kurt Campbell, who oversaw Asia policy in the Obama administration. He credits Trump for recognizing Xi's weakness: "China is not yet ready to take on the U.S., and Trump recognizes this."

The Chinese-American confrontation is partly a spy story, but very different than the cloak-and-dagger escapades of the Cold War: China operates its espionage net partly through universities, research institutes and benign-sounding recruitment plans. Until recently, American companies often didn't realize that their pockets had been picked until it was too late.

China's over-aggressive strategy dates back to the 2008 financial crisis, which Beijing saw as "a strategic window of opportunity for China to become a global superpower," according to Greg Levesque, managing director of Pointe Bello consultants. Using internal Chinese documents, he recently explained to a congressional commission how China targeted "key core technologies" in the West.

An innovative early feature was the "Thousand Talents Plan," established by Beijing in 2008. The program sought to recruit "global experts," in particular those with Chinese ancestry, to join what the plan's website called "National Key Scientific and Technological Projects." By 2014, says the website, more than 4,180 overseas experts had been recruited.

The strategy was formalized in a 2017 speech by Xi. "Made in China 2025" is a roadmap for dominating key technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biopharmaceuticals. Xi mobilized China's nominally private companies through an approach known as "Military-Civil Fusion."

The system for recruiting overseas talent was explained by an article posted April 16, 2018, by a Communist Party organization at Wuhan University People's Hospital, describing how cadres there created an "Overseas Talent Recruitment Station" at a gathering in Dallas of Chinese-American medical researchers.

A Wuhan party official told the Dallas group that he "hoped that more overseas talent would return to the motherland and develop" high-tech projects. (The article was shared with me by a U.S. security-consulting firm.)

Bill Priestap, the FBI's former head of counterintelligence, described the "Thousand Talents Program" in congressional testimony last December as an example of "non-traditional espionage." He said the goal was "luring both Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts alike to bring their knowledge and experience to China, even if that means stealing proprietary information."

The problem for the Chinese is that this so-called "brain gain" effort was so aggressive that it backfired. The New York Times reported this week that the FBI has recommended denying visas to some Chinese academics suspected of having ties to Chinese intelligence. The Energy Department recently banned anyone involved in China's talent-recruiting programs from working in DOE laboratories.

There's blowback in the trade negotiations, too. Lorand Laskai of the Council on Foreign Relations noted last year that the Trump administration mentioned "Made in China 2025" more than 100 times in its Section 301 trade complaint against Beijing. A newly wary China has stopped referring to the Thousand Talents Plan or mentioning award recipients, according to recent reports by Bloomberg News and Nature, respectively.

The Trump administration still doesn't have a consistent, comprehensive strategy for dealing with China. Among other things, it lacks a coherent regional economic framework, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that Trump scuttled. But now is the right time to confront China's bad behavior, before Beijing gets any stronger, and Trump has the political wind at his back.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

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Libya offensive stalls, but Haftar digs in given foreign sympathies

FILE PHOTO: A Libyan man carries a picture of Khalifa Haftar during a demonstration to support Libyan National Army offensive against Tripoli
FILE PHOTO: A Libyan man carries a picture of Khalifa Haftar during a demonstration to support Libyan National Army offensive against Tripoli, in Benghazi, Libya April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori

April 15, 2019

By Ulf Laessing and John Irish

TRIPOLI/PARIS (Reuters) – Military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s intended lightning seizure of Libya’s capital has stalled, but he is unlikely to face real pressure from abroad to pull back as the arrival of hardline opponents bolsters his war cry against “terrorism”.

Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli almost two weeks ago, predicting defections, victory within two days and joyful women ululating in the streets.

However, the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has managed to bog them down in southern suburbs, thanks largely to armed groups who have rushed to aid them from various western Libyan factions.

And instead of ululating, many women in fact joined a rally on Friday in Tripoli against the offensive.

Haftar, a 75-year-old former general in former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s army, has been building up troop numbers and intensifying air strikes in a campaign he is selling as necessary to restore order and eradicate jihadists.

That, however, is uniting Haftar’s enemies behind Serraj, who lacks regular forces and needs help, but may find them difficult to control the longer the war drags on, analysts say.

Renewed conflict has scuppered for now a U.N. peace plan for Libya, with a national reconciliation conference planned for this week postponed. It also threatens to disrupt oil supplies from the OPEC member and cause new migration across the sea to Europe.

Diplomats believe Haftar for now will face no pressure from backers including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and France, who still see him as the best bet to end the chaos and divisions since the ousting of Gaddafi in 2011.

ISLAMISTS IN TRIPOLI

Their case, which undermines calls by former colonial ruler Italy and others for a political solution, is aided by the arrival of militants in recent days to help Serraj’s forces.

One of them is Salah Badi, a commander from nearby Misrata port who has Islamist ties and possible ambitions himself to take Tripoli. In videos from the front line, Badi has been seen directing men as well as a U.N.-sanctioned people trafficker.

Some hardcore Islamists, previously affiliated to Ansar Sharia, have also popped up in the fighting, according to the videos. That group was blamed by Washington for the 2012 storming of a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.France, which has oil assets in Libya though less than Italy, has called for a ceasefire – albeit more reluctantly than Rome – while also echoing Haftar’s narrative that some extremists were among the Tripoli defenders.

“There is an oversimplification. It is not just Haftar the baddy against the goodies in Tripoli and Misrata. There are groups that are at the end of the day allied to al Qaeda on the other side,” said a French diplomatic source.

“Perhaps if those opposed to Haftar had done a deal with him in 2017, the balance of power would not have shifted against them,” the source said, referring to when France brought Haftar and Serraj together for face-to-face talks in Paris.

Serraj’s government has sought to downplay the presence of hardliners. “On both sides there are members accused of being violators,” Mohamed Siyala, his foreign minister, told reporters.

Haftar’s own troops are swelled by an estimated hundreds of Salafist Islamists, and one of his commanders is wanted by the International Criminal Court over the alleged summary execution of dozens of people in the eastern city of Benghazi.

It was there that Haftar in 2014 launched his “Operation Dignity” campaign, naming his forces an “army” to try and distinguish from “militias” elsewhere.

He won the Benghazi battle against mainly Islamists in 2017 with covert support from the UAE, Egypt and France, but some of his defeated foes are now in Tripoli seeking revenge.

“TINY MINORITY”

Neighboring Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi met Haftar at the weekend in Cairo and in a statement “confirmed Egypt’s support for efforts to combat terrorism.”

Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at German think tank SWP, said there was exaggeration of the presence of militants in Tripoli for propaganda purposes.

“These elements are a tiny minority of the forces that are fighting against Haftar right now, but this could become a self-fulfilling prophecy the longer this goes on,” he said.

“So anybody who has an interest in preventing jihadist mobilization in Libya should have an interest in stopping this war now.”

In the past, the UAE and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes in eastern Libya, but it is unclear whether they would do so in the current campaign, diplomats and analysts say.

For Paris, Haftar, or a perceived stable army in Tripoli, is key to its wider policy against militants in the Sahel.

France has some 4,500 troops in the deserts to the south and west of Libya, and wants to ensure the porous borders are locked as tightly as possible. Its support of Haftar will depend on whether it thinks he can win or how much civilian casualties can be contained.

Should those escalate and refugee numbers swell, then it may be forced to be more proactive in pressuring Haftar.

It will also depend on how UAE support evolves.

France has listened increasingly closely to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed’s views on Libya since President Emmanuel Macron came to power. An internal policy battle in France between the foreign and defense ministries prior to his arrival had until then blurred Paris’ lines.

“While France is keen to project its Libya policy as a home-grown policy, in reality France merely follows the UAE — more or less,” said Jalel Harchaoui, research fellow at the Clingendael Institute think-tank in The Hague.

“What this means today is: Unless MBZ decides that Haftar has blown his chance and failed irretrievably, Emmanuel Macron is unlikely to alter or subdue his pro-Haftar policy in Libya.”

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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Dollar shored up by strong U.S. data, commodity currencies sag

FILE PHOTO: Photo illustration of one hundred dollar notes in Seoul
FILE PHOTO: One hundred dollar notes are seen in this photo illustration at a bank in Seoul January 9, 2013. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won

April 12, 2019

By Shinichi Saoshiro

TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar held firm on Friday after strong U.S. labor and inflation data soothed concerns about the world’s largest economy, while falling oil prices weighed on commodity-linked currencies such as the Canadian and Australian dollars.

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 97.166 after climbing 0.25 percent the previous day.

The index was headed for a weekly loss of 0.25 percent, having stumbled at the start of the week as Treasury yields fell in the wake of a mixed March U.S. non-farm jobs report.

Data released on Thursday showed first-time filings for U.S. jobless benefits dropped to a 49-1/2-year low last week, pointing to sustained labor market strength. Overall producer prices increased 0.6% in March, the largest rise since October.

The dollar was little changed at 111.72 yen after gaining 0.6 percent overnight on the robust U.S. data and the subsequent rise in U.S. Treasury yields.

The greenback’s advance, however, stalled ahead of the 112.00 yen threshold.

“Many market players had taken a bearish view on the dollar after the U.S. CPI numbers released earlier in the week, but they were forced to abruptly cover short positions as Thursday’s data proved to be strong,” said Takuya Kanda, general manager at Gaitame.Com Research Institute.

“The rise thus lacked conviction and it remains to be seen if the dollar can sustain its bounce. The prospect of a rate cut by the Fed may have diminished in light of the data, but economic views are not yet strong enough to support rate hike expectations,” Kanda said.

The dollar had sagged on Wednesday after a mixed report on domestic consumer prices reinforced the notion that underlying U.S. inflation remains tame.

The pound was steady at $1.3053 after dipping 0.25 percent the previous day against the broadly firmer dollar.

Volatility for sterling plunged after a midweek deal at an emergency European Union summit to postpone Britain’s exit from the bloc to Oct. 31 meant it would not crash out this week without a treaty to smooth its passage. [GBP/]

The Canadian dollar was more or less steady at C$1.3385 per dollar after shedding 0.5 percent the previous day as crude oil prices retreated from five-month highs.

The Australian dollar dipped 0.1 percent to $0.7117 to extend losses from a day earlier, when it sank 0.7 percent.

A decline in copper prices and political uncertainty were also seen weighing on the Aussie.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday announced a general election to be held on May 18.

The New Zealand dollar, also sensitive to shifts in commodity prices, slipped to $0.6714, its lowest since Jan. 22.

The euro nudged up 0.1 percent to $1.1262 after losing 0.2 percent on Thursday. The single currency has risen about 0.4 percent this week.

(Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Source: OANN

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India’s 2018/19 Iran oil imports up 5 percent year on year despite U.S. sanctions: sources

FILE PHOTO: Iranian crude oil supertanker
FILE PHOTO: Malta-flagged Iranian crude oil supertanker "Delvar" is seen anchored off Singapore March 1, 2012. REUTERS/Tim Chong/File Photo

April 12, 2019

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India imported about 5 percent more oil from Iran in the last fiscal year through March as companies raised purchases ahead of U.S. sanctions against Tehran from November, preliminary tanker arrival data obtained from shipping and industry sources showed.

Despite Washington restricting India’s purchases from Tehran, refiners shipped in about 479,500 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in 2018/19 compared with about 458,000 bpd a year before, according to the data.

The United States introduced sanctions in November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, including India, which allowed them to import some Iranian oil.

India was allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil until early May.

In March India’s oil imports from Iran rose to about 405,000 bpd, about 56 percent higher than February, the data showed. March volumes were however about 6 percent lower than the purchase in the same month a year earlier.

A lack of ships delayed lifting of some cargoes to end-February, leading to higher arrivals in March, sources said. BPCL could not lift a cargo from Iran as tanker was not available, a company source said.

Since November, when India received the sanctions waiver, only state-run Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals have been buying Iranian oil.

India’s overall imports from Iran in 2018/19 were lower than the 500,000 bpd that Iran was hoping to sell to its second-biggest oil client after China. Indian refiners raised purchases from Iran in April-October 2018, drawn to almost free shipping and extended credit offered by Tehran to boost sales.

In the first quarter of 2019, India shipped in about 40 percent less oil from Iran at about 313,400 bpd, the data showed.

The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media.

Indian refiners have not yet placed orders to lift Iranian oil in May pending clarity on whether Washington will extend a the sanctions waiver.

India wants to keep buying Iranian oil at a level of 300,000 bpd, Indian sources said last month.

Refiners placed orders to buy 8 million barrels in April but India would receive higher volumes as some delayed cargoes of March arrive at Indian ports this month.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Ubben’s socially conscious ValueAct Spring Fund bets on workplace wonk

Jeffrey Ubben, Founder & CEO at ValueAct Capital, poses for a portrait before speaking on the Reuters Newsmaker event'
Jeffrey Ubben, Founder & CEO at ValueAct Capital, poses for a portrait before speaking on the Reuters Newsmaker event' "The Future of Shareholder Activism" panel in Manhattan, New York, U.S., February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

February 27, 2019

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Spring Fund, which invests in companies aiming to address environmental and social problems, is making a bet on an academic-turned-hedge-fund-manager who picks stocks based on how effective companies are as employers.

The Spring Fund is buying a stake in Irrational Capital, a hedge fund launched three years ago by Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely and his business partner David van Adelsberg. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It is an unusual move for a hedge fund to back a smaller rival. But ValueAct, the $15 billion fund that last year launched the $350 million Spring Fund, is familiar with such an arrangement. It sold a stake in itself to Affiliated Managers Group more than a decade ago.

So far Spring Fund has mainly bought stakes in publicly listed companies, including power utility Hawaii Electric Industries Inc and gene-editing company Horizon Discovery Group Plc.

“Dan (Ariely’s) work makes the case for connecting positive workforce culture to performance,” Ubben said in an interview. He met the economist seven years ago through a connection at Duke University, where Ubben earned his undergraduate degree.

Ariely and Van Adelsberg have come up with a system to measure employee engagement, pride in their work and sense of purpose across the corporate world. Their data is funneled into a computer that churns out rankings of companies that Irrational Capital then invests in.

Irrational Capital has so far gathered information on over 1,000 companies through “any type of data we can get our hands on,” Ariely said, adding this includes 350 companies with market capitalizations of more then $1 billion. Ariely declined to name the companies, and Ubben said he doesn’t need to know Ariely’s picks.

“We don’t intervene in what the data show by saying something like this company scores highly but we don’t like the CEO. We are true to the data,” Ariely said in an interview.

Ariely, a 51-year old professor, researcher and author, views himself as an expert in understanding human behavior. He spent time in the hospital as a teenager recovering from burns received when a flare exploded during a celebration and said the opportunity to observe nurses at work built his skill.

Meanwhile, Ubben, 57, is fast becoming one of Wall Street’s biggest critics of corporate America’s short-termism. He is now trying to convince investors that positive workplace culture can drive above-average returns.

OPERATIONAL CHANGES

For nearly two decades, Ubben has staked a claim to bringing a long-term approach to activist investing. His playbook does not usually call for a fast return of capital to shareholders or a quick flip of a company to a seller.

Instead, ValueAct prefers to push for operational changes at companies such as Microsoft Corp and Citigroup Inc from behind the scenes. Two years ago, Ubben handed the chief investment officer role at ValueAct to Mason Morfit, but he remains the firm’s CEO and runs the Spring Fund.

Over ValueAct’s lifetime, the main fund has returned an average of nearly 15 percent a year, an investor said. Ubben declined to say how the new fund has done, citing regulations.

Pushing back against corporate greed has galvanized public opinion and politicians alike, and Ubben wants to convince mainstream investors that committing resources to employees’ well-being will not short-change shareholders.

“These hedge fund managers write letters and dictate what should be done by management and then they get their buddies to buy the stock and help hijack the company,” Ubben said of some of his competitors, declining to name them.

Ubben said he was particularly irked when Aramark Inc, the food services and facilities company he recently invested in, was punished by analysts for doing good. Management returned the roughly $100 million windfall the company received through the tax system overhaul to employees in the form of higher wages and by boosting the match to their retirement savings, Ubben said. But Goldman Sachs Group Inc downgraded its rating to neutral from buy, citing growing labor pressures in the sector.

Aramark did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Data from Gallup Inc, known for its public opinion polls, also showed that organizations that are best in engaging their employees deliver earnings per share growth that is more than four times that of their competitors.

“This is the last mile and this is the hardest thing,” Ubben said of Irrational Capital. “We want to spread the word and introduce the concept and grow it so that a lot of people will invest in it.”

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: OANN

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Bolivia’s Morales says Venezuela needs dialogue, not foreign meddling

Greek PM Tsipras and Bolivian President Morales meet at the Maximos Mansion in Athens
Bolivian President Evo Morales speaks during his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (not pictured) at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

March 15, 2019

ATHENS (Reuters) – Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales, a supporter of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, said on Friday European nations should support a dialogue within the country.

“History has taught that there have been many interventions from the outside, such as the case of Libya and Iraq, and they never offered a solution”, Morales said in translated comments after meeting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during an official visit in Athens.

“On the contrary it abolished democracy,” he said.

(Reporting By Renee Maltezou, writing by Angeliki Koutantou and Michele Kambas)

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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