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Chiefs acquire Seahawks’ Clark, agree on $105 million deal: reports

FILE PHOTO: NFL: NFC Wild Card-Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys
FILE PHOTO: Jan 5, 2019; Arlington, TX, USA; Seattle Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark (55) warms up before a NFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo

April 23, 2019

The Seattle Seahawks agreed to trade franchise-tagged defensive end Frank Clark to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2019 first-round pick, a 2020 second-round pick and a swap of 2019 third-round picks, according to multiple reports on Tuesday.

Clark, who must pass a physical for the trade to become official, has also agreed in principle with the Chiefs on a five-year, $105.5 million contract with $63.5 million guaranteed, according to multiple reports.

The Seahawks tagged Clark earlier this offseason, and both sides expressed a desire to keep him in Seattle long-term, but multiple outlets reported over the weekend that he could be dealt before the draft was set to begin Thursday.

Seattle now has two first-round picks — its own at No. 21 and the Chiefs’ at No. 29.

“They had other plans,” Clark told ESPN of the Seahawks’ position. “It got to a point where Seattle had used me for everything I had for them already. At the end of the day it’s a business.

.”.. It just sucks that we weren’t able to get something done, because they knew how I felt about being in Seattle and how I felt about my future, and I feel like at the end of the day it was all ignored. But it is part of the business.”

Clark added, “I wanted to be somewhere where I’m wanted, where I’m appreciated.”

He also told ESPN it was understood that any trade would require the acquiring team to sign him to an extension topping the one Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence (five years, $105 million, $65 million guaranteed), signed earlier this month. Clark’s annual average now trails only Chicago’s Khalil Mack ($23.5 million) among defensive ends.

Clark, who turns 26 in June, was set to make $17.1 million on the franchise tag in 2019. He posted career highs of 13 sacks and 27 quarterback hits last season while starting all 16 games for the first time in his career.

The Chiefs traded their own franchise-tagged edge rusher, Dee Ford, to the San Francisco 49ers earlier this offseason, receiving a 2020 second-round pick in return. Ford, deemed an imperfect fit as Kansas City switches from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 under new coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, signed a five-year, $85.5 million extension with the 49ers after the trade.

Kansas City also released long-time edge rusher Justin Houston this offseason, before signing former New Orleans Saints defensive end Alex Okafor in free agency and trading for Cleveland Browns defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah.

Clark has 35 sacks and 72 QB hits through 62 games (33 starts) over four seasons since being drafted in the second round by Seattle in 2015.

Once considered a top prospect, he slipped to the second round after being dismissed by the Michigan football team following his 2014 arrest on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and assault. Clark later pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace.

The Chiefs have dealt with multiple players with incidents of domestic violence recently.

They drafted receiver Tyreek Hill in the fifth round in 2016, a year and a half after he was dismissed from Oklahoma State following his pleading guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation of his then-pregnant girlfriend. Overland Park (Kan.) Police are currently investigating two March incidents, one for child abuse and neglect and one for battery, involving a juvenile at Hill’s home.

In November, the Chiefs released Pro Bowl running back Kareem Hunt after video surfaced of him shoving and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel during a January 2018 incident.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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US drops appeal dismissing female genital mutilation charges

The U.S. Justice Department won't appeal a decision by a Detroit federal judge who threw out female genital mutilation charges against members of a Muslim sect.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco calls it an "especially heinous practice." But in a letter to Congress, he says the law needs to be changed to be constitutional under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Judge Bernard Friedman in November said the law was unconstitutional because Congress didn't have power to regulate genital mutilation. The government pulled its appeal on March 30.

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala was accused of performing genital mutilation on nine girls at a suburban Detroit clinic. She denies any crime and says she performed a religious custom. The girls were from Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

There still are other charges in the case.

Source: Fox News National

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U.S. mulls sanctions against those behind rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang

An armed police officer stands guard outside the entrance of what is officially called a vocational skills education centre in Hotan
FILE PHOTO: An armed police officer stands guard outside the entrance of what is officially called a vocational skills education centre in Hotan in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

March 14, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is considering sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations against Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Thursday, calling it a “great shame for humanity.”

“We are committed to promoting accountability for those who are committing these violations and considering targeted sanctions as well, targeted measures, as well,” spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters at a briefing.

“We will continue to call on China to end these policies and to free these people who have been arbitrarily detained,” he said.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: OANN

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Rhetoric vs. reality: Kamala Harris’ progressive platform undercut by prosecutor past

Kamala Harris began her 2020 presidential campaign with a sweeping anti-Trump speech on Jan. 27 that took pains to mollify progressive critics arguing that, when Harris was a prosecutor and California's attorney general, she shunned some of the same proposals she now claims are critical to stem racial injustice in the court system.

In the weeks since that address to supporters at Oakland City Hall, though, concerns from prominent progressives and members of the legal community back in California have only grown louder -- as has pressure on Harris to prove that her newfound commitment to these issues is genuine.

CALIFORNIA REDUCES CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR THEFT -- YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENS TO THE NUMBER OF THEFTS

A scathing op-ed published in January in The New York Times, written by a law professor who directed the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles, kickstarted renewed scrutiny on Harris.

The law professor, Lara Bazelon, charged in the piece that Harris previously "fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors."

Bazelon further suggested that Harris should "apologize to the wrongfully convicted people she has fought to keep in prison and to do what she can to make sure they get justice," or otherwise make clear she has "radically broken from her past."

Sen. Kamala Harris talking to a crowd at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, N.H.

Sen. Kamala Harris talking to a crowd at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, N.H. (Fox News)

Asked by Fox News this week whether she thought Harris has since taken the necessary steps to atone for her previous positions, Bazelon responded, "The short answer is no, I don’t."

"I am disappointed in Kamala Harris," Bazelon continued. "Her tenure as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general was riven by the failures to embrace bold necessary change--or even change that wasn’t so bold but merely consistent with her prosecutorial mission--for example, conceding error on wrongful conviction cases rather than weaponize technicalities to keep people locked up."

Harris' "after-the-fact claim to have been a 'progressive prosecutor,'" Bazelon added, "rings hollow for the reasons I said in my [New York Times] piece." She cited shifting comments on marijuana and cash bail, adding: "What progressives like me want to see -- and have not -- is Harris reckon honestly with her record. ... I think voters are hungry for authenticity. It isn’t authentic to claim to be something you were not."

Other progressive advocates had a similar assessment. Just months after she joined the Senate in 2017, Harris touted her bipartisan bail reform package on Facebook, telling her thousands of followers that she wanted states to move away from cash bail entirely, and for judges to set bail amounts based only on the risks posed by defendants -- not the "money they’ve got in their bank account."

The goal, Harris said, was to reduce the effects of the bail system on impoverished minority communities. But her choice surprised some bail reform advocates back in California. In her seven years as a district attorney from 2004 to 2011, and then six as attorney general, Harris was absent on the issue, they say.

In fact, less than a year earlier, her office defended the cash bail system in a pair of federal court cases, shifting course only weeks before she entered the Senate.

"For her entire career, she used some of the highest money bail amounts in the country to keep people in jail cells and saddle poor families with financial debt," Alec Karakatsanis, an attorney who has brought several legal challenges to California's bail system, told The Associated Press. "And as soon as she had no influence on that issue practically, she announces she has a different view on it."

Harris' campaign did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.

JUST HOW MUCH MONEY HAS HARRIS RAISED SO FAR, COMPARED TO OTHER TOP DEM 2020 CONTENDERS?

Now a presidential candidate, Harris is casting herself as a progressive who consistently leveraged her power in the justice system to further civil rights causes and advocate for the disadvantaged. She has pledged a wholesale overhaul of the country's fractured criminal justice system, arguing for marijuana legalization, bail reform and a moratorium on the death penalty. But when she had a chance to take a bold stand on these issues as a top law enforcement officer, Harris often opted for a careful approach or defended the status quo.

In this Friday, March 8, 2019, photo, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, speaks at a town hall gathering in Hemingway, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

In this Friday, March 8, 2019, photo, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, speaks at a town hall gathering in Hemingway, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

"I never had a sense she was forward thinking or reforming," said John Raphling, a bail reform advocate and senior researcher at Human Rights Watch who faced off against Harris's state Justice Department as a criminal defense attorney. "Bail reform is a trendy issue, and a lot of politicians are jumping on it and saying this is unfair. I don't have any evidence that Harris was seeing that unfairness back when she was attorney general — but to her credit, we evolve, we learn, we see things."

Harris' supporters say as a prosecutor she was tasked with upholding the law and, as attorney general, defending the state, not making policy. She had limited ability to effect change within the rigid structure of the courts, they argue.

Argued Lateefah Simon, a civil rights activist who worked for Harris in San Francisco: "Everyone who has experienced the criminal justice system knows it's broken. She would say, 'we're confined by the rules of the law, and in the areas where we have discretion, we are going to work to try to move justice.'"

"I deeply know her convictions about what could be possible and what we needed to do, but also what the boundaries and limitations were," Simon said.

Senate Judiciary Committee members Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., left, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., arrive at the chamber for the final vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, at the Capitol in Washington.

Senate Judiciary Committee members Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., left, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., arrive at the chamber for the final vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, at the Capitol in Washington. (Associated Press)

Simon wrote a response to Bazelon's op-ed, which praised Harris for enacting "the first statewide implicit bias and procedural justice training in the country" and making "officers wear body cameras," as well as for starting "pattern and practice investigations into discriminatory actions" and demanding "that data on in-custody deaths and police shootings be made public to ensure accountability."

Simon also said Harris worked to hire more minority prosecutors. In her first year as San Francisco district attorney, she launched a re-entry program designed to keep low-level drug offenders from returning to prison. That same year she refused to seek the death penalty for a man who killed a police officer, infuriating the Bay Area political establishment and creating friction with the law enforcement community.

But in many cases throughout her career, Harris embraced the traditional role of prosecutor.

"I am disappointed in Kamala Harris."

— Law professor Lara Bazelon

She refused to take a position on a pair of sentencing reform ballot measures, arguing she must remain neutral because her office was responsible for preparing ballot text. She defended the death penalty in court, setting aside her personal opposition to capital punishment.

In response to critics who've pushed her to use her power in the courts to usher in change, she told The New York Times in 2016, "I have a client, I don't get to choose my client."

Harris now says she would call for a federal moratorium on the death penalty if elected president.

Harris' law enforcement approach has at times put her out of step with California's activist community. When she pushed a controversial policy that criminalized truancy, threatening to jail parents of children who missed too much school, even Harris' staff "winced at the plan," she wrote in her first book released just in time for her campaign for attorney general in 2010.

The program has since become a source of tension with criminal justice advocates, who see it as a sign of Harris' outdated approach to dealing with problems that stem from poverty. The Huffington Post recently spotlighted the case of a woman who was arrested under the program over her daughter's inconsistent school attendance -- though much of that was due to medical issues.

In a recent NPR interview, Harris said her truancy initiative was not designed to punish vulnerable families, but "put a spotlight" on the problem and direct resources to needy families. Her campaign hails the effort as a success, and supporters have lauded Harris for prioritizing a child's education.

"As a result of our initiative, which never resulted in any parent going to jail — never — because that was never the goal," Harris said.

But Harris' legacy remains on the state's books: She pushed a state-wide truancy law modeled after her San Francisco program. It has resulted in hundreds of parents in often less affluent and less politically liberal California counties being prosecuted.

Harris' approach at the time was considered smart politics for a politician seeking to run statewide. Throughout her career, Harris worked to win over powerful police unions. She refused to support a bill requiring her office to investigate shootings involving law enforcement officers. In 2015, she declined to back statewide standards for body cameras, arguing that individual departments should decide how to use the technology.

It is true, Bazelon conceded in her op-ed, that "politicians must make concessions to get the support of key interest groups," and that the "fierce, collective opposition of law enforcement and local district attorney associations can be hard to overcome at the ballot box." But, Bazelon charged, Harris "did not barter or trade to get the support of more conservative law-and-order types; she gave it all away."

As Harris transitioned from law enforcement to legislating, the politics of criminal justice issues were changing fast. The deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police in 2014 and 2015 prompted outcry and spawned the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement. Democrats began rethinking their tough-on-crime strategies, focusing more on inequality and abuse in the system. Prosecutors and police came under increasing scrutiny for their roles.

Harris' views appear to have been changing, too.

In 2014, she was opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana, and when she ran against a Republican challenger for re-election as attorney general she took the more conservative view: He wanted to legalize. Harris laughed at the idea in a local television interview.

HARRIS SAID SHE LISTENED TO TUPAC WHILE SHE WAS HIGH IN COLLEGE, BEFORE HE EVEN MADE MUSIC

But Harris's public tone changed as speculation grew about her running for president in 2020. Last year, Harris endorsed Democratic Sen. Cory Booker's bill for federal legalization of marijuana. She argued on Twitter that "making marijuana legal at the federal level is the smart thing to do and it's the right thing to do." She released a video declaring that "marijuana laws are not applied and enforced in the same way for all people."

Last month, she went as far as acknowledging to a pair of morning radio hosts that she's used recreational marijuana: "I have, and I did inhale; that was a long time ago."

Some see a similar pattern when it comes to the call for bail reform. Shortly after announcing her presidential bid in January, Harris declared on Twitter: "It's long past time to address bail reform across the country."

"This is a serious injustice," she wrote.

Three years earlier, Harris's office was defending cash bail in a federal case. "Neither the bail law nor the bail schedule discriminate on the basis of wealth, poverty, or economic status of any kind," Harris wrote. In response to the notion that money bail schemes unfairly punish low-income defendants, Harris shot back, "the state is not constitutionally required to remove obstacles not of its own creation."

Harris appeared to have shifted her stance 10 months later. In December of 2016, Harris filed a motion in a case challenging the application of California's money bail laws saying the system is deserving "of intense scrutiny." She pledged not to defend any bail scheme that fails to take into account a defendant's ability to pay. Three weeks later she was sworn in to the Senate.

Still, she asked the judge to toss the case, arguing that the laws were constitutional even if the way some counties implemented those laws was not. "The bail system at issue here does not categorically deny bail to any group of individuals," she wrote.

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The move perplexed bail reform advocates who say she could have used her position of power to do more as the top law enforcement official in the state, overseeing thousands of prosecutors who each day requested cash bail for those they charged with crimes.

"I'm glad she's come to the right position now, but it's too late for tens of thousands of Californians, real human beings who have been detained in jail every day in California throughout the whole state, that the attorney general could have stopped," Phil Telfeyan, one of the plaintiff's attorneys in the bail cases, told the AP.

Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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AP Explains: What everyone wants at the Trump-Kim summit

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will likely be all smiles as they shake hands later this week in Hanoi for a meeting meant to put flesh on what many critics call their frustratingly vague first summit in Singapore. But behind the grins is a swirl of competing goals and fears.

In addition to the two main players, China, South Korea and Japan also have deep interests in what Trump and Kim can hammer out in Vietnam, including the biggest question of them all: Can the U.S. and North Korea agree on what the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" means — the wishy-washy language they settled on in Singapore — and, if so, can they create a successful framework that gets it done?

A look at the contending goals in a summit meant to settle the world's most vexing nuclear standoff.

___

NORTH KOREA

If the U.S. position is fairly clear — ridding North Korea of as much of its nuclear program as possible — it is much less certain how much Kim is willing to relinquish of what his propaganda services call the nation's "treasured sword."

Kim is clearly doing something different than his dictator father and grandfather.

In addition to building a nuclear arsenal that commands world attention and working to ensure economic, military and personal security, he's also pushing to lift his nation from poverty.

To do that, he needs to find a way to ease crushing international sanctions so he can pursue engagement projects with South Korea, including two big-ticket ventures to reopen a jointly run industrial park and a tourist resort that once brought in as much as an estimated $150 million in cash every year.

North Korea also has pushed for a peace declaration ending the Korean War, which halted in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. North Korea may see this declaration, and an eventual peace treaty, as a way to eventually draw down U.S. forces in South Korea and allow the two Koreas to pursue the dream of reunification, on North Korea's terms.

North Korea has repeatedly insisted that "denuclearization" must be a two-way street: It will not be giving away its nukes cheaply.

Kim must also be convinced of an improvement in what he sees as an existential U.S. threat to his nation's viability — tens of thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan and a huge array of military firepower meant to protect Washington's allies.

Despite deep skepticism about Kim's intentions, many North Korea nuclear experts suggest that even Kim himself may not know if he will give up his nuclear weapons.

The Hanoi summit is, in many ways, a test of what the North Korean leader will be willing to accept for sacrificing this ultimate security guarantee.

___

UNITED STATES

Trump savored the wall-to-wall coverage of his first summit with Kim last June. But he's under pressure to do better this time.

The U.S. president wants progress on denuclearization, even as he tries to keep expectations low, saying he has no "pressing time schedule" in mind.

At the Vietnam summit, the U.S. is likely to seek an agreement on how to start work on Kim's previously reported statements that he's ready to dismantle his country's plutonium and uranium enrichment facilities.

Trump wants Kim to formalize his offer to let international experts in to verify dismantling steps at North Korea's main rocket launch site and a nuclear testing site. Trump also would like to get back the remains of more Americans killed during the Korean War and to move toward a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Ultimately, the U.S. also wants an inventory of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile facilities, equipment and material, and then an agreed-upon process for destroying them in a way that can be verified. But no one expects the two sides to reach that point in Vietnam.

No matter what, Trump the showman wants to be seen as a strong leader on the world stage, leaving behind for a moment the rancor at home over his long-sought wall on the Mexican border and the multiplying investigations into his campaign and business dealings.

___

SOUTH KOREA

Seoul has prioritized stabilizing its bilateral relationship with North Korea amid the larger nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and the North. It now hopes the second Trump-Kim summit will provide an opportunity to restart inter-Korean economic projects held back by heavy U.S.-led sanctions against the North.

In a recent telephone conversation with Trump, South Korea's liberal president, Moon Jae-in, said Seoul was ready to restart joint economic projects with North Korea and asked Trump to consider offering them as incentives for the North to denuclearize when he meets Kim.

Moon, the son of North Korean war refugees, held three meetings with Kim last year and describes inter-Korean reconciliation as crucial for resolving the nuclear standoff. But the tough sanctions have limited the range of joint activities the two Koreas can undertake, with Washington encouraging its allies to maintain economic pressure on North Korea until it takes firmer steps toward denuclearization.

Some experts question whether Seoul's expectations for sanctions relief for North Korea are realistic when Kim has yet to show he's willing to deal away his arsenal.

___

CHINA

For China, concerns about instability in North Korea, its ostensible communist ally, have long overridden worries about its nuclear arsenal. Beijing chiefly fears a collapse of the North Korean economy that could lead to armed conflict within the government and a potential flood of refugees streaming across the rivers that separate the neighbors.

China is North Korea's chief source of assistance and trade, and any movement toward sanctions relief would be warmly welcomed by its business community.

To preserve its interests, China has sought regular contact with Kim, hosting him for three visits since the announcement of the first round of talks last year. President Xi Jinping also met Kim informally in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian in what some in the United States saw at the time as an act of Chinese meddling ahead of the Singapore summit.

Xi's meetings with Kim are more convincingly seen as an attempt to help guide the process while offering encouragement and ensuring that China's status as a key regional power broker remains intact.

___

JAPAN

Japan, which is still tormented by kidnappings of its citizens by North Korea decades ago and lies within easy striking distance of the North's missiles, has long wanted a deal.

But not just any accord will do.

There's worry about reports that Trump may seek an agreement that only partially targets North Korea's missile program — for example, that would scrap the North's long-range nuclear missiles aimed at the United States and leave in place its shorter-range missiles.

Japan also doesn't want to be left behind as negotiations proceed. It is seen as a U.S. bulwark in the region, with tens of thousands of U.S. troops and their high-tech equipment stationed throughout the archipelago.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly expressed hope that he can meet with Kim and, to make sure Japanese interests aren't forgotten, has also worked hard to get close to Trump, so much so that Trump said Abe nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, something Abe didn't deny.

___

AP reporters Deb Riechmann in Washington, Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, and Chris Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

___

Foster Klug is the AP's bureau chief in South Korea and has covered the Koreas since 2005. Follow him at www.twitter.com/apklug

Source: Fox News World

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Rep. Turner: Mueller Report Restores Confidence in Democracy

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report, which will be released to Congress and the American public later this week, has restored confidence in the nation's democracy, but the revelations will be the "tip of the iceberg," as there are still concerns about Russia and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, predicted Monday.

"There was no collusion and we know that we did not have the aspect of the Trump campaign doing that," Rep. Turner told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "I do think there should be a concern, though, in knowing what has happened with respect to the Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee-funded dossier where they actually hired a retired former intelligence officer that was British for the purposes of talking to Russians, and then used that information in a way where the government used it to undertake surveillance on the other campaign.

"I think that's wrong, and I think that's a threat."

Turner said it is important to know Attorney General William Barr quoted directly from the report, "which told us there was no collusion, neither tacit or expressed . . . hopefully we'll see in this report additional information about what Russia was doing and interfering and working."

Meanwhile, the investigation was not just about President Donald Trump's campaign, but about Russian interference, Turner said.

"The Mueller report will be interesting because they would have had access to things that the rest of us have not had," Turner said. "That hopefully can give us a greater picture. I think it will be the tip of the iceberg."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Swedbank chairman quits over money laundering scandal

FILE PHOTO: Swedbank Acting CEO Karlsson and Chairman of the Board Idermark attend a news conference in Stockholm
FILE PHOTO: Swedbank Acting CEO Anders Karlsson and Chairman of the Board Lars Idermark attend a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Johan Ahlander/File Photo

April 5, 2019

By Johannes Hellstrom and Helena Soderpalm

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedbank Chairman Lars Idermark has quit only a week after the lender’s chief executive was ousted over her handling of a money laundering scandal, saying the controversy threatened to distract from his role as head of forestry group Sodra.

The bank, Sweden’s biggest mortgage lender, had fired its CEO Birgitte Bonnesen last week only an hour before a heated annual shareholder meeting marked by disgruntled investors rounding on her handling of the money laundering allegations.

Allegations against Swedbank, largely reported by Swedish TV, have linked it to a scandal at Danske Bank, which faces potential lawsuits, fines and sanctions after admitting last year that 200 billion euros ($225 billion) of suspicious payments had flowed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

“Following recent strong debate about Swedbank and questions about the bank’s control of suspicious money laundering in the Baltics, I have concluded that the media attention is not compatible with my CEO role at Sodra,” Idermark said in a statement on Friday.

“Therefore, I have decided that the best alternative is to leave the position as chair of Swedbank with immediate effect.”

In connection with last week’s meeting, where many investors were vocal in their criticism of the bank’s management, third-largest shareholder Alecta had warned it could demand further dismissals if the board did not take immediate action to restore confidence in the bank.

“It’s a welcomed and expected decision, but it’s shouldn’t have taken so long; it would have been better if he resigned before the AGM,” Swedish Shareholders’ Association chief Joacim Olsson told Reuters.

Olsson called on the bank to put all cards on the table, including internal investigations into its dealings in the Baltics.

Alecta on Friday said that the Swedbank nomination committee should continue to strengthen the board.

“They need to be thorough, but it shouldn’t take too long,” an Alecta spokesman said.

Both Bonnesen and Idermark had been under fire for the bank’s communications and how they have handled the allegations, which have sparked a four-way investigation by regulatory authorities in Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Swedbank shares, meanwhile, have lost about a third of their value.

The shares were unchanged at 146.50 Swedish crowns by 0805 GMT on Friday, having recovered from a seven-year low of 127.2 crowns set on March 29 when the departure of its CEO was announced.

The committee in charge of the bank’s executive appointments said it would intensify work on strengthening the board, including finding a new chairman. The board said it would call a special shareholder meeting to confirm any appointment.

($1 = 0.8908 euros)

(Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Johannes Hellstrom; Additional reporting by Johan Ahlander; Editing by David Holmes and David Goodman)

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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