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U.S. Congress invites pharmacy benefit managers to third drug pricing hearing

FILE PHOTO: Senators arrive for weekly party caucus luncheons
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) speaks with reporters as he arrives for the weekly Senate Republican caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

March 13, 2019

(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has invited executives from five pharmacy benefit managers to testify on April 3 on the rising costs of prescription medicines, in Congress’s latest effort to question industry officials directly over an issue voters consistently cite as a top concern.

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) administer drug benefits for employers and health plans and also run large mail-order pharmacies. Drugmakers say they are under pressure to provide rebates to the handful of PBMs dominating the market to get their products included on preferred coverage lists.

PBMs have come under increased scrutiny both by President Donald Trump’s administration and lawmakers who say there needs to be more transparency about how drug prices get so high. The effect of rebates to PBMs are of particular concern.

The committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, and its top Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden, on Tuesday invited executives from UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, Cigna Corp, Humana Inc, CVS Health Corp, CVS Caremark and Prime Therapeutics LLC to the hearing, the third in a series examining rising prescription drug costs.

“There’s far too much bureaucracy and too little transparency getting in the way of affordable, quality health care,” Grassley and Wyden said, calling for the executives to provide real information and discuss real solutions.

The committee last month heard from seven pharmaceutical company executives. Its first hearing on Jan. 29 focused on insulin affordability.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru and Yasmeen Abutaleb in Washington; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: OANN

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BMW’s UK Mini plant shuts for four weeks despite Brexit delay

FILE PHOTO: A Mini badge is seen at the car making plant in Oxford
FILE PHOTO: A Mini badge is seen at the car making plant in Oxford, western England July 9, 2012. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo

April 1, 2019

By Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) – BMW’s Mini plant in Britain closes for four weeks from Monday in a move planned over a half year ago to help the company deal with any disruption resulting from Brexit, which has since been delayed.

The German carmaker, which builds just over 15 percent of Britain’s 1.5 million cars, moved its annual summertime shutdown to April to “minimise the risk of any possible short-term parts-supply disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.”

But Britain’s departure from the EU has now been pushed back from March 29 until at least April 12 or potentially much later, scuppering the timing of major contingency plans for some carmakers.

Shutdowns are organized far in advance so employee holidays can be scheduled and suppliers can adjust volumes, making them hard to move.

“This is what our company and our workforce have planned for over many months and it is fixed into our business planning,” said a BMW spokesman.

It represents the latest headache for Britain’s once roaring car sector which had been on track for record production but since 2017 has posted sharp falls in sales, output and investment.

The overwhelmingly foreign-owned industry has become increasingly incredulous as a stable and attractive investment environment descends into one of its deepest political crises, risking the free and frictionless trade the sector relies on.

BMW’s Rolls-Royce factory in Goodwood will close for two weeks whilst Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) three car plants and engine facility and Honda’s Swindon facility will also shut for a few days this month as part of Brexit contingencies.

It has been a turbulent few months for the sector after Nissan canceled plans to build a new sport utility vehicle at its English Sunderland plant and Honda said it would shutter its plant in 2021 in the biggest blow to the sector for years.

Toyota provided a rare boost when it announced plans to build cars for Suzuki at its English car plant.

BMW, which is also closing its central English Hams Hall engine facility and Swindon press shop and sub-assembly site for four weeks, has said it could move some engine and Mini output out of Britain if there is not an orderly Brexit.

Carmakers face a number of risks if there is a disorderly Brexit, including delays to the supply of ports and finished models, new customs bureaucracy, the need to recertify models and an up to 10 percent tariff on finished vehicles.

A series of investment decisions are coming up, including whether Peugeot’s parent company PSA will keep its Ellesmere Port plant open and if it will build electric vans at its southern English Luton facility.

Petrochemicals firm Ineos is also due to choose the location for its off-roader whilst a decision is pending on whether JLR will build electric vehicles in its home market.

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Source: OANN

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China’s ShFE launches crude oil futures index; plans more products

FILE PHOTO: A company logo of Shanghai Futures Exchange is displayed at a booth during LME Week Asia in Hong Kong
FILE PHOTO: A company logo of Shanghai Futures Exchange is displayed at a booth during LME Week Asia in Hong Kong, China June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo

March 26, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) will start on Tuesday publishing an index linked to the prices of its crude oil futures contracts, a year after the launch of futures trading, the ShFE said in a release posted on its WeChat channel.

The crude oil futures index will measure the price movements and the rate of return for the most actively traded contract for the ShFE’s crude futures, according to the release.

The ShFE began calculating the index based on futures trading during the night session of March 25 and the index rose during morning trading on Tuesday.

The ShFE also plans to deepen cooperation with Chinese stock exchanges by launching a crude oil exchange-traded fund (ETF) and other new products.

This will help improve the structure of investors and lower systemic risks of investment portfolio, it said.

China launched its yuan-denominated crude oil futures on March 26, 2018, and it has gained substantial volumes from international Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures.

The total trading volume of the ShFE crude oil futures contracts was 36.7 million lots by March 25, the exchange said in separate release on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Min Zhang in BEIJING and Chen Aizhu in SINGAPORE; editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Source: OANN

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Elizabeth Warren sprints to catch New York City train in viral video: 'Try and keep up'

Like a typical New Yorker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was seen sprinting to catch a train at New York City's Penn Station — surprising at least one reporter who struggled to keep up.

The 2020 presidential hopeful didn't have much time to answer a TMZ reporter's questions Monday afternoon, as she was concerned about missing her scheduled train. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts was in New York for an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," which aired later that night.

"You're the fastest presidential nominee that's ever ... run for a train," the reporter joked as he filmed Warren.

ELIZABETH WARREN TELLS COLBERT SHE DOESN’T TRUST AG BARR’S MUELLER SUMMARY, WANTS FULL REPORT MADE PUBLIC

In a two-minute video published by TMZ, Warren can be seen running into Penn Station from 8th Avenue and down the stairs, even as the TMZ reporter tried to keep up.

“Hi how are you,” she can be heard saying in the video. She also quickly apologized as she rushed past the reporter: “Sorry, I’m running for a train.”

When she arrived in the station and the reporter had caught up, she answered some of his questions about the campaign and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s newly released report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The senator hardly seemed out of breath as she reiterated that Mueller’s report should be made public, though she added that voters aren’t as interested in the special counsel’s findings as they are about other issues.

WARREN MAY BE TOO WONKISH TO CONNECT TO VOTERS, SOME SAY

“I just spent the last two days doing public events in New Hampshire. I took a ton of questions. Do you know how many questions I got about the Mueller report? Zero,” she said in the video, which has been viewed more than 4,000 times on YouTube.

“People want to know about the things that touch their lives every day,” she added, in part, before apologizing for "running off" earlier.

The senator later tweeted at the outlet, which compared her to Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, saying: “Try and keep up, @TMZ.” The tweet garnered nearly 900 retweets by Tuesday afternoon.

Attorney General William Barr released his summary of Mueller's investigation on Sunday, in which he revealed the investigation found no indication that President Trump or his administration colluded with Russian forces to meddle in the 2016 election or obstruct justice in the years that have followed. Although Mueller also noted his report did not "exonerate" Trump on obstruction, Barr wrote, the "report does not recommend any further indictments, nor did the Special Counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public."

The House of Representatives voted unanimously 420-0 that the Mueller's report — not just Barr's summary — should be made public upon its completion. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's attempt to unanimously pass the non-binding measure without a roll call vote. The passage of the measure was previously challenged by Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, earlier this month.

Fox News’ Anna Hopkins and Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Ex-Wisconsin university chancellor’s husband accused of sexually harassing at least 7 women, probe finds

The husband of former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper was accused of sexually harassing at least seven students or staff and possibly as many as 10, an investigation found.

The independent investigation into Kopper’s husband, Alan “Pete” Hill, found no evidence the former chancellor knew about or facilitated her husband’s behavior, even though it was "pervasive and well-known." The first harassment claim was made in 2017.

Hill, who previously denied the allegations, was banned from the university’s campus in June after three women said Hill harassed them, an earlier investigation found. He was also stripped of his ceremonial, unpaid title of associate to the chancellor.

"The large number of complaints suggest that Hill's unprofessional and improper behavior toward women was pervasive and well-known; indeed, a number of university employees made note of his behavior and took steps to protect one another from Hill," the 18-page investigative report stated. "At best, this suggests that Hill's behavior was a blind spot for the Chancellor."

MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE PROFESSOR ASKED STUDENTS TO CALCULATE DOSE OF LETHAL GAS USED IN NAZI GAS CHAMBERS

The university conducted a second investigation from September to December and discovered at least seven and potentially as many as 10 women, including university employees and students, said Hill sexually harassed them. The university released the report with about 850 pages of attachments on Friday in response to an open records request from The Associated Press and other media outlets.

Investigators found there was “credible evidence” Hill sexually harassed the women and that the harassment occurred on campus or at university-related events, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

There was no definitive evidence that Kopper retaliated directly against anyone who made a report of sexual harassment against her husband, the report said. However, it also said she didn't inquire about allegations "because she was wearing her Chancellor's hat."

LORI LOUGHLIN HAD AN 'OBSESSION' WITH USC LEADING UP TO COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL

Kopper became chancellor in 2015 and resigned from her position in December 2018 after UW President Ray Cross was briefed on the findings of the report.

"She did, and the report speaks for itself," UW System spokesman Mark Pitsch said in a statement.

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Kopper is still receiving her chancellor salary of $242,760 while on administrative leave until she returns in the fall to teach. Her salary will be reduced to $118,308 when she assumes her teaching duties.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News National

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Citi cuts 2019 Brazil GDP growth forecast to 1.8 percent

FILE PHOTO: The Citigroup Inc logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto
FILE PHOTO: The Citigroup Inc (Citi) logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

April 4, 2019

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Economists at Citi on Thursday cut their economic growth outlook for Brazil to 1.8 percent this year from 2.2 percent, saying that recent economic indicators suggest the economy’s tepid recovery may even be slowing further.

They also lowered their 2019 inflation outlook to 3.8 percent from 4.0 percent, and pushed back the timing of the central bank’s interest rate “normalization” process until the end of next year.

As a result, they now expect the benchmark Selic rate to be at 7.00 percent by the end of 2020, down from their previous forecast of 8.25 percent. The Selic rate has been at a record low 6.50 percent since March last year.

“After the fragile GDP expansion of 0.1 percent in 4Q 2018, the performance of activity indicators continues to disappoint,” Citi’s Brazil economists wrote in a note, specifically citing the central bank’s monthly activity indicator.

“This additional sign of an even weaker economic recovery reinforces a slower-than-expected activity outlook and triggers a downward revision of our 2019 GDP growth forecast to 1.8 percent,” they said on Thursday.

They maintained their forecast that the government’s pension reform proposals aimed at generating savings of 1.1 trillion reais ($283.91 billion) over 10 years, seen as critical to resuscitating the recovery, will be watered down to 500 billion to 750 billion reais.

Last month the central bank cut its 2019 growth outlook to 2.0 percent from 2.4 percent, and the government lowered its forecast to 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent.

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: OANN

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Watters on felons voting: Dems want to ‘change the rules’ rather than ‘change their message’

Jesse Watters, co-host of "The Five," suggested Tuesday that Democrats wanted to grant felons voting rights so they could "change the rules" in American elections.

"The reason they're doing this ... is because they can't persuade enough actual voters about their ideas so they have to create new voters," he said on "The Five." "They got rocked in 2016 so instead of trying to change their message, they're just trying to change the rules."

Watters likened that proposal to Democratic pushes to abolish the electoral college and add justices to the Supreme Court.

Co-host Juan Williams responded by noting that Democrats won the popular vote in 2016. "Democrats got more votes than Republicans in 2016." "All of them were felons," co-host Greg Gutfeld joked in response.

MEGHAN MCCAIN AND WHOOPI GOLDBERG CLASH OVER VOTING RIGHTS FOR BOSTON BOMBER: 'HE IS A TERRORIST'

Watters' comments came after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the frontrunner among declared Democratic candidates as of Tuesday, indicated he would be willing to let Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev vote as part of his plan to extend that right to felons in prison.

Regardless of what Democrats intended, Watters predicted that policy would ruin their electoral prospects. "They just handled Donald Trump the wedgiest of wedge issues," he said before asking Williams if Democrats actually wanted to lose in 2020. "This is made to order for Donald Trump," Watters added.

Sanders' proposal, Watters suggested, would result in corruption and fraud. "[Democrats] have totally undercut their messaging on election integrity," he said.

BERNIE SANDERS BACKERS UPSET WITH PETE BUTTIGIEG OVER TRUMP COMPARISON

Sanders, who faced a wave of criticism for his proposal, defended felons' voting rights as part of American democracy. "I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy," he said Monday.

"Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘That guy committed a terrible crime, not gonna let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not gonna let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope," he added.

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According to polling from April, Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden gathered the most support of Democratic voters in New Hampshire. Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have both called for a restoration of felons' voting rights after their release from prison. Buttigieg, however, disagreed with Sanders' proposal to let felons vote while they remained in prison.

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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