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UK lawmakers might need to sit on Brexit day

An EU flag flies outside the Houses of Parliament in London
An EU flag flies outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay

April 4, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The lower house of Britain’s parliament might need to sit on Friday, April 12, the day the country is currently due to leave the European Union, the government’s leader in the House of Commons said on Thursday.

“It is likely that we may need to sit on Friday of next week and I will update colleagues on this as early as possible next week,” Andrea Leadsom told lawmakers.

She said parliament might also need to sit on April 15 and 16.

Parliament had originally been due to break for the Easter holidays on Thursday but the government previously extended its session as it sought to break the Brexit impasse.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Guy Faulconbridge; writing by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison)

Source: OANN

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MLB notebook: Orioles’ Cobb (groin) lands on IL

FILE PHOTO: MLB: Spring Training-Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays
FILE PHOTO: Mar 16, 2019; Dunedin, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Alex Cobb (17) fields a ground ball from Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jonathan Davis (not pictured) during the fifth inning at Dunedin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports

March 26, 2019

The Baltimore Orioles placed scheduled Opening Day starter Alex Cobb on the 10-day injured list with a strained right groin, the club announced Monday.

Cobb departed his final spring training outing after one inning Saturday due to the injury.

Fellow right-hander Andrew Cashner likely will draw the season-opening assignment for Baltimore on Thursday against the host New York Yankees.

The Orioles hope Cobb will be healthy in time to start the team’s home opener against the Yankees on April 4.

–The Cleveland Indians can breathe a sigh of relief after All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez was confirmed to have only a knee contusion after fouling a pitch off his left knee Sunday.

X-rays were negative for any fractures. Ramirez will stay in Goodyear, Ariz., for treatment while the Indians play their final exhibition games, then join the team in Minnesota for the season opener.

Indians manager Terry Francona said Ramirez is day-to-day.

–Los Angeles superstar outfielder Mike Trout admits that watching Manny Machado and Bryce Harper plod through free agency this offseason helped him decide to sign a mega-extension with the Angels, he told The Athletic.

“I kind of saw what Bryce and Manny went through and it drew a red flag for me,” Trout said. “I talked to Manny and Bryce. It was a tough couple months in the offseason. They put it (in) perspective in my mind. I obviously want to be an Angel for life. That was a big key.”

Trout, the two-time Most Valuable Player and seven-time All-Star, would have become a free agent after the 2020 season. Instead, he signed a 12-year, $426.5 million contract extension.

–In somewhat of a surprise move, the Miami Marlins released veteran starting pitcher Dan Straily just three days before the start of the regular season.

The 30-year-old right-hander was expected to be the most experienced member of the young Marlins’ rotation this season, and he had settled for a $5 million contract this season to avoid arbitration. But the team instead says it was impressed enough with the young arms this spring that it decided to go all-in with inexperienced but talented starters.

In seven big-league seasons, Straily is 42-36 with a 4.23 ERA in 142 appearances (132 starts), with a career-best season in 2016 with the Reds (14-8, 3.76 ERA).

–Right-handed relief pitcher Daniel Hudson, who appeared in 40 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, signed a one-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, the team announced. The deal is for $1.5 million, according to multiple reports.

Hudson, 32, was released Friday by the Los Angeles Angels. He had a 6.75 ERA in 6 2/3 innings in spring training this season.

The Blue Jays moved second baseman Devon Travis (knee surgery) to the 60-day injured list to make room for Hudson on the 40-man roster.

–Two days after being released by the Blue Jays, relief pitcher John Axford was re-signed by the team after having his prior minor league contract reworked, according to reports.

Axford’s initial release came on the heels of the right-hander being diagnosed with a stress reaction in his pitching elbow on Thursday. Axford, who turns 36 on April 1, was with Toronto for part of last season but was traded to the Dodgers in July.

A 10-year veteran, Axford has pitched for eight teams and logged a 38-34 record with 144 saves and a 3.87 ERA.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Mutual friends and borrowed cars: how Ukraine’s would-be leader is linked to tycoon

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with journalists before undergoing a drugs and alcohol test in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with journalists before undergoing a drugs and alcohol test, which is a precondition to participate in a policy debate ahead of the second round of a presidential election, outside a hospital in Kiev, Ukraine April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 16, 2019

By Polina Ivanova

KIEV (Reuters) – Volodymyr Zelenskiy, front runner to be the next Ukrainian president, has connections to one of the country’s wealthiest tycoons that are undermining his image as an insurgent who will sweep aside the powerful moneyed elite.

Presenting himself as an anti-establishment outsider backed by spontaneous grass-roots support, Zelenskiy won the first round of voting last month, and opinion polls make him strong favorite in the run-off on April 21 against the incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko.

Zelenskiy’s ties to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky have, however, become an election issue. Poroshenko has said that, if elected, Zelenskiy will do the businessman’s bidding, something the front runner denies. In interviews, Zelenskiy has bridled at suggestions he is Kolomoisky’s “puppet”.

The Ukrainian government has alleged that billions of dollars were fraudulently siphoned out of PrivatBank, Ukraine’s biggest lender, while Kolomoisky owned it. It has since been nationalized. Kolomoisky denied any wrongdoing.

Zelenskiy’s celebrity was established by a comedy show – in which he played an everyman who accidentally becomes president – broadcast by 1+1, a TV network controlled by Kolomoisky.

A study by Reuters of vehicle registration databases, company ownership documents and photographic records indicates that Kolomoisky and the Zelenskiy intersect in other ways.

According to that evidence, the two men have business partners in common, Zelenskiy uses security staff also seen in the past accompanying Kolomoisky, a former Kolomoisky adviser is on Zelenskiy’s campaign team and at least two vehicles used by Zelenskiy and his entourage are owned by people or entities linked to Kolomoisky.

None of the evidence demonstrates that Kolomoisky is financing Zelenskiy’s campaign or influencing him.

Both Zelenskiy and Kolomoisky have said their relationship is strictly professional, and centered on the comedian’s TV work. Both say no undue influence is being exerted by the oligarch.

ELECTION RESULT

While Zelenskiy’s connections to Kolomoisky are not seen as swaying the election result, given the candidate’s popularity with voters, commentators question how the relationship would develop later.

“The risks of influence are there, and they will most likely become evident in his hiring policies,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, political analyst and director of Kiev’s Penta think-tank.

“If Zelenskiy becomes president, taking into account that he basically doesn’t have any people, or has very few, Kolomoisky can suggest different people to him (for government office) through whom he will then exert his influence on power.”

Asked to comment on the connections documented by Reuters, Zelenskiy’s campaign did not reply. Kolomoisky did not reply to a request for comment sent to him via his 1+1 media company.

After one campaign stop on April 5, Zelenskiy squeezed through a scrum of journalists and climbed into a black bulletproof Mercedes that was registered, according to a vehicle ownership database, to an associate of Kolomoisky.

The car is an example of a web of connections between Zelenskiy and Kolomoisky that have muddied the candidate’s image as an outsider

The Mercedes was registered in the name of a Ukrainian businessman called Timur Mindych, who is on the board of trustees of the Jewish Community of Dnipropetrovsk, a body of which Kolomoisky is president.

Until recently Mindych shared ownership with Kolomoisky of Vision TV. In 2017 Mindych was registered as holding a 9 percent stake in Kolomoisky’s Belize offshore company, Harley Trading Limited, one of the firms via which Kolomoisky controls the 1+1 media empire.

Mindych is also a part of Zelenskiy’s orbit.

Cyprus and Ukrainian business registry records show that he is a co-owner of Cyprus-registered Green Family Ltd, founded by Zelenskiy and his partners in 2012. Zelenskiy exited the company in January this year.

Ukrainian business ownership records list Mindych as co-owner, with Green Family Ltd and other owners, of three companies involved in producing Zelenskiy’s TV shows, among other activities.

Calls to a phone number listed for Mindych went unanswered.

CAMPAIGN

Some of the people helping Zelenskiy with his election campaign have worked in the past for Kolomoisky.

A lawyer called Andrei Bogdan is on Zelenskiy’s staff, and represented him at a meeting with a government official last week, the official’s press office confirmed.

Bogdan became Kolomoisky’s adviser in 2014, when the businessman was the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, the lawyer told the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper in 2016.

Dmytro Razumkov, an adviser to Zelenskiy’s campaign, declined to answer questions from Reuters about Bogdan’s role and declined to put Reuters in contact with him. Ukrainian media outlet Bihus quoted Razumkov as saying Bogdan was involved in Zelenskiy’s campaign “as his old friend”.

At the appearance in April, Zelenskiy was accompanied by a man who appeared to be in his security detail. The two were also photographed together during the campaign in the city of Lviv.

Reuters has also found photographs from six different occasions when the same man was with Kolomoisky.

Earlier this year, members of Zelenskiy’s security detail were filmed with him in a van owned by a company connected to Kolomoisky. Asked for comment, Zelenskiy’s campaign and Kolomoisky’s representatives did not reply.

(Reporting by Polina Ivanova, Natalia Zinets, Sergiy Karazy and Pavel Polityuk in KIEV, Rinat Sagdiev and Anton Zverev in MOSCOW; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: OANN

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Trump's Fed Pick Owes IRS $75K

Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump's pick for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, owes the Internal Revenue Service $75,328, reports The Guardian.

A January 2018 filing shows the U.S. government won a judgment against Moore for a federal tax lien valued at $75,328 for unpaid taxes, penalties, interests, and other costs in 2014.

Moore disputes the claim and said he was eager to "reach an agreement" with authorities.

"For several years I have been working through a dispute with the IRS, attempting to be returned what my attorneys and accountant believe were tax overpayments of tens of thousands of dollars," he said.

"It is an honor to have the opportunity to serve my country with distinction by being nominated for the Federal Reserve board, and I am ready to move forward with confirmation."

Trump last Friday announced plans to nominate Moore, 59, for a sixth seat on the board. He is still subject to confirmation.

Moore, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, referred questions about the matter to his wife, Anne Carey, who blamed the judgment on a mix-up where Moore accidentally claimed alimony and child-support payments to his ex-wife as deductions. Only alimony is tax deductible.

"It was not an attempt at defrauding the U.S. government," Carey said, according to the Washington Examiner.

Source: NewsMax America

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Liberal arts colleges across the country face ‘existential threat’

MARLBORO, Vt. – Economists and higher education experts are warning small liberal arts colleges across the country to brace for the worst.

"Their business models are breaking," said Michael Horn, who studies trends in the higher education industry. "Their costs continue to go up the pressure to increase costs continue to go up and yet the revenue just isn't there."

At the end of the spring 2019 semester, six institutions from Vermont to Oregon are expected to shut their doors due to financial woes, adding to a growing list of private liberal arts colleges failing to stay afloat.

Credit rating agency Moody's estimates that with a quarter of private colleges in the red, there could be as many as 11 closures by the end of the year. The report found that one in five small private colleges in the nation is under "fundamental stress."

NEW JERSEY TEEN ONCE HOMELESS ACCEPTED INTO 17 COLLEGES, OVERCOMES FAMILY OBSTACLES

At Marlboro College in southern Vermont, the student body of roughly 200 is well-aware of the school's financial difficulties.

"If you say something to one person, the entire school is going to know it in a week," said Sage Kampitsis, a senior at Marlboro.

Marlboro College is a liberal arts college with roughly 200 students in southern Vermont. 

Marlboro College is a liberal arts college with roughly 200 students in southern Vermont.  (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

The college has gotten innovative with new ways to raise money, throwing community fundraisers and looking at new methods of recruitment. With other rural Vermont colleges boarding up, like Green Mountain College a few miles away, Marlboro College's president Kevin Quigly is working to defy the odds.

"Underway is really an effort to kind of shift our financial model where at a place like Marlboro we have challenges," said Quigly. "We recognize those challenges and we're working to address them."

Over the years, as tuition across the country has soared, colleges have been discounting tuition to make themselves more attractive to prospective students. Larger universities do not rely as heavily on tuition as a primary source of revenue, making it difficult for smaller colleges to stay competitive — and realistic for low-income and middle-class families.

"That's really a double whammy that adversely affects the finances of these small colleges," said Quigly.

Kampitsis, like most others, said the financial aid she received from Marlboro made going there feasible for her. Marlboro, which is in better shape than most of its peers with minimal debt and a larger endowment than most, just lowered the sticker-price tuition to better reflect what students will actually be paying.

USC, YALE AMONG COLLEGES SUED BY STUDENTS AMID COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL

"The bigger colleges across the country and the elite schools don't have this problem because they are still able to attract students," said Horn, the higher ed researcher.  "These large endowments are often public sources of funding that allow them to get by this demographic cliff we're starting to hit."

That demographic cliff: the pool of 18-year-olds looking to go to small rural colleges is declining, instead favoring urban universities with better networking opportunities. Kampitsis also sees a shift in focus away from liberal arts to more marketable majors for potential employers as a contributing factor.

"Things like sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history — they're not the majors that are like really big in the job market," Kampitsis said. "They're not the things are making a lot of money. And so those since those majors are losing their economic value, they then, in turn, lose their moral value."

“Make no mistake. This is an existential threat to entire sectors of higher education, and New England is, unfortunately, ground zero,” said UMass President Marty Meehan at a State of the University speech last month. UMass recently absorbed the doomed Mount Ida College in Newton, which it now plans to turn into a satellite campus.

Meanwhile, colleges elsewhere in the country are increasingly meeting the same fate.

Recent closures of small liberal arts colleges in the U.S.

Recent closures of small liberal arts colleges in the U.S.

"I think it's going to be really brutal in some of these rural communities where the small liberal arts school is the mainstay of the economy," said Horn.

Some small schools are hoping to remain viable by developing a niche, like offering online courses or specialized programs. In northern Vermont at Sterling College, a hundred-student campus focused on ecology and environmentalism, enrollment is up.

Horn said thinking outside of the box could mean life or death for these schools.

"These new sources of revenue could be found through innovation like using online learning to take strengths that maybe you uniquely have on your campus and start to be able to attract students across the region or even nationwide," Horn said.

Another strategy, like in the case of Mount Ida, has been turning to larger universities, asking to be acquired. Boston's Wheelock College has reopened as a Boston University campus.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But others, like Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., are planning to fight for every penny to stay open—and independent.

"I think we can do this," said interim Hampshire College President Ken Rosenthal in a letter to an anxious student body. "We’ll need to raise $15-20 million over the next year, and then, over the next five or six years, perhaps close to $100 million. It’s not unprecedented, and we’ll have to move fast and work hard, but I’m optimistic."

Source: Fox News National

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WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Trump Plans to Prosecute Hundreds of Deep Staters in 2019

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Supreme Court Case Could Help Pick 2024 Election Winners

Joshua A. Douglas writes that if the Supreme Court agrees to the Trump administration's request to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, it would result in an undercount in states -- directly impacting the Electoral College and congressional representation.

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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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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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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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