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U.S. wins WTO ruling against China grain import quotas

A WTO logo is pictured on their headquarters in Geneva
FILE PHOTO: A World Trade Organization (WTO) logo is pictured on their headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, June 3, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

April 18, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States won a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling on Thursday against China’s use of tariff-rate quotas for rice, wheat and corn, which it successfully argued limited market access for U.S. grain exports.

The case, lodged by the Obama administration in late 2016, marked the second U.S. victory in as many months. It came amid U.S.-China trade talks and on the heels of Washington clinching a WTO ruling on China’s price support for grains in March.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Michael Shields)

Source: OANN

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Democratic strategist: Dems may yet ‘find a way to not win’ 2020

Democratic strategist Zach Friend said Thursday that the party's presidential candidates may yet “find a way not to win” the 2020 election.

Appearing on "Your World with Neil Cavuto,” he said, "This is the one that I think is a very winnable race for Democrats and we might still find a way to not win it based on some of the things that we're doing,” Friend said.

BUTTIGIEG SURGES TO THIRD PLACE IN NEW NH 2020 DEMS POLL

Friend, who worked for the Barack Obama and John Kerry presidential campaigns, was discussing candidates who've been pushing for tax hikes to pay for costly government programs.

Cavuto asked Friend which candidate he had “hooked up with.”

Friend said he hadn’t aligned himself yet.

In another exchange, he voiced his opinion that were Obama running today, a win would be far from assured. “I've got to say this, that I don't think that Barack Obama would get through the 2020 primary,” Friend said.

“I think the circular firing squad comment he made is spot on,” Friend said.

BARACK OBAMA STILL BELIEVES BIDEN WOULD BE 'AN EXCELLENT PRESIDENT' AMID INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING ALLEGATIONS: REPORT

This past Saturday in Germany, Obama lamented what he saw as a lack of compromise within the party at a crucial time, when Dems are trying to recapture the White House. "One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States … is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be,'" Obama said. "And then we start sometimes creating what’s called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues.

"And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens," Obama added during a town hall event in Berlin.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Oil prices rise on OPEC’s supply cuts and healthy demand

FILE PHOTO: Drilling rigs in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon, Scotland
FILE PHOTO: Drilling rigs are parked up in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon, Scotland, Britain January 27, 2015. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

March 12, 2019

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Tuesday, lifted by output cuts led by producer group OPEC as well as healthy demand, although analysts said economic headwinds posed downside risks to crude markets.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $56.99 per barrel at 0012 GMT, up 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.

Brent crude futures were at $66.76 per barrel, up 18 cents, or 0.3 percent.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch said despite economic headwinds “we still see Brent prices averaging $70 per barrel this year and expect WTI to lag, averaging $59 per barrel in 2019.”

The U.S. bank said this was in part because of strong demand for marine diesel expected from next year as part of new fuel rules coming in place by the International Maritime Organization.

“With diesel yields already maxed out, refiners may need to lift runs in 2H19 to meet rising demand for marine distillates,” Bank of America said.

It added that supply cuts this year by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-affiliated allies like Russia – known as the OPEC+ alliance – aimed at tightening oil markets were also supporting crude prices.

Traders also pointed to the ongoing political and economic crisis in Latin American OPEC-member Venezuela as an oil price driver.

Venezuela’s opposition-run congress on Monday declared a “state of alarm” over a five-day power blackout that has crippled the country’s oil exports and left millions of citizens scrambling to find food and water.

(GRAPHIC: Venezuela crude oil shipments – https://tmsnrt.rs/2NXoYyE)

SURGING U.S. OUTPUT

At least partly offsetting OPEC efforts to tighten the market and disruptions like Venezuela is a surge in U.S. oil supply.

The United States will drive global oil supply growth over the next five years, adding another 4 million barrels per day (bpd) to the country’s already booming output, the International Energy Agency said on Monday.

U.S. oil output, including natural gas liquids and other hydrocarbons, will climb to 19.6 million bpd by 2024 from 15.5 million last year, the Paris-based agency said.

U.S. crude oil output will rise nearly 2.8 million bpd, growing to 13.7 million bpd in 2024 from an average of just under 11 million bpd in 2018, the IEA said, making the United States by far the biggest oil producer in the world.

(GRAPHIC: Russian, U.S. & Saudi crude oil production – https://tmsnrt.rs/2EUHeFO)

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: OANN

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U.S. appeals court says AT&T deal to buy Time Warner is legal

FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is pictured in Pasadena
FILE PHOTO - An AT&T logo is pictured in Pasadena, California, U.S., January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo

February 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court upheld on Tuesday a lower court ruling that wireless and satellite TV provider AT&T Inc’s deal to buy content maker Time Warner for $85.4 billion was legal under antitrust law.

The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled per curiam, or unanimously, in favor of the deal.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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California workers sue union for holding them 'against their will,' despite landmark ruling

Two University of California system employees claim they are effectively being held "against their will" and forced to pay monthly union dues, despite a landmark Supreme Court ruling last summer barring public-sector unions from requiring nonmembers to pay so-called agency fees without their consent.

The June 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME sent shockwaves through organized labor, holding not only that public unions violated the First Amendment by taking money out of unwilling workers' paychecks to fund collective bargaining, but also that employees must "clearly and affirmatively consent" before any fees or dues are collected.

WORKERS SAY UNIONS DEFYING JANUS RULING

The two workers outlined their claims in a federal lawsuit filed late Wednesday against the Teamsters and the University of California system. According to the complaint, exclusively obtained by Fox News, UC administrators are illegally withholding $41 per month from University of California, Santa Barbara finance manager Cara O’Callaghan, and $53 per month from University of California, Los Angeles administrative assistant Jenée Misraje.

On May 31, 2018, according to the complaint filed Wednesday, a union representative "came to O’Callaghan’s workplace and pressured workers to join the Union," without informing O’Callaghan of the impending Janus decision. O’Callaghan, the lawsuit says, "relied on this lack of information and signed an application joining the union and authorizing it to deduct union dues from her paycheck."

On July 25, 2018, "upon learning of the Janus decision of June 27, 2018," O’Callaghan resigned from the union by letter and also wrote to UCSB requesting that it stop deducting union dues from her paycheck.

In response, O'Callaghan said, the union informed UCSB that it should continue withholding money from her paycheck, and the university complied. The union said that, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, O'Callaghan could eventually opt out of the fees -- she would just need to wait until around March 31, 2022.

O'Callaghan and Misraje are represented by the Liberty Justice Center (LJC), which also represented Mark Janus before the Supreme Court last year.

In addition to demanding those wages back, the lawsuit seeks to invalidate a California law requiring that government employers rely on unions to determine which employees' wages should be subjected to union donations, and that all questions about such matters be directed to unions instead of employers.

Mark Janus sued because he didn’t want a certain fee deducted from his paycheck to go toward a union just because he worked for the state.

Mark Janus sued because he didn’t want a certain fee deducted from his paycheck to go toward a union just because he worked for the state. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

The lawsuit also charges that other California laws violate the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights to represent themselves in negotiations -- citing the majority opinion in Janus, which stated, “Compelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable violates that cardinal constitutional command, and in most contexts, any such effort would be universally condemned.”

O'Callaghan and Misraje join a slew of plaintiffs in several states who charge that unions are either flat-out ignoring the Supreme Court's ruling, or establishing a frustrating maze of procedural roadblocks to avoid complying with it.

EXPERTS: JANUS DECISION ENDED CASH COW FOR LIBERAL ACTIVISTS

Neither the Teamsters nor the University of California system replied to Fox News' request for comment.

"Prior to the Janus decision, employees were given an unconstitutional choice: pay the union as a member or pay the union as a nonmember," Kristen Williamson, LJC's communications director, told Fox News. "Now that their right to choose is restored, any permission to deduct dues given before June 27, 2018, should be null and void and workers should be allowed to resign immediately."

Added Williamson: "The University of California system and Teamsters Local 2010 seem intent on holding Cara and Jenée in the union against their will. They've both made multiple requests to resign since the Janus ruling yet continue to have dues deducted from their paychecks."

LJC has filed eight cases in five states -- California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania -- on behalf of workers seeking to opt out of union fees in the wake of the Janus decision. All are ongoing.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

According to the latest complaint, Misraje had a similar experience as O’Callaghan, and was eventually told that she could get out of the payroll deduction only by providing written notice within a narrow "time window" that coincided with the anniversary date of her signed agreement with the union.

Experts have said Janus could end up costing unions hundreds of millions of dollars in California alone. The nation's largest union, the 3-million-member National Education Association, announced plans to cut nearly $40 million from its budget after Janus, amid fears it would lose hundreds of thousands of members.

"We're seeing huge problems across the country," Diana Rickert, the vice president of the LJC, told Fox News months after the Supreme Court's decision. "There is almost no government in America that is fully complying with the Janus ruling."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Keselowski dominates at Martinsville for win No. 29

NASCAR: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
Feb 24, 2019; Hampton, GA, USA; Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Brad Keselowski (2) talks with his wife Paige White and daughter Scarlett Keselowski after winning the Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hagy-USA TODAY Sports

March 24, 2019

One month ago, Brad Keselowski drove to victory in Atlanta despite being caught in the nauseating grip of the flu. On Sunday it was the rest of the drivers in the field who were left feeling queasy as Keselowski was absolutely dominating in winning the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

How dominating was the Michigan native on Sunday? He led 446 of 500 laps, including the final 127, and collected victories in all three stages.

The victory in the first short track race of the season was the second of the season for Keselowski and the third for Team Penske.

It was the 29th victory of Keselowski’s Cup career and his second at NASCAR’s shortest and oldest track.

Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports, who had not led a single lap in 2019, led 49 on Sunday and finished second. The margin of victory was .59 seconds.

“There was a little advantage to being out front,” said Elliott, who challenged for the lead over the final laps but came up just short.

Finishing third was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, who was attempting to win his third straight Cup race.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished fourth while Denny Hamlin of JGR rounded out the top five.

Joey Logano, whose victory at Martinsville last October set up his Cup championship run, started from the pole and led five laps before he was bumped out of the lead by Team Penske teammate Keselowski. Once out front, Keselowski stayed out front as he led the next 319 laps.

Elliott became just the third driver to lead the race when he squeezed past Keselowski on the low side with 176 laps to go.

Keselowski re-captured the lead during yellow flag pit stops and never trailed again.

While Busch’s two-race Cup winning streak came to an end, he was able to leave Martinsville with his 201st win across NASCAR’s top three series as he won Saturday’s Truck Series race.

The winner of last year’s race, Clint Bowyer of Stewart-Haas Racing, twice was penalized for speeding on pit road but still wound up finishing seventh.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Golf: Mexicans serve up Latin flair ahead of Masters

Alvaro Ortiz of Mexico chips to the 2nd green during practice for the 2019 Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Alvaro Ortiz of Mexico chips to the 2nd green during practice for the 2019 Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar

April 8, 2019

By Steve Keating

AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) – The Mexican flag has been waving proudly at Augusta National with amateur Alvaro Ortiz taking the baton from Maria Fassi and carrying it into this week’s Masters with his eyes on a Green Jacket.

After a four-decade absence, Augusta National is getting a fresh taste of Latin flair served up by a new generation of Mexican golfers primed to battle for titles.

Fassi provided Ortiz with a tough act to follow by finishing runner-up to Jennifer Kupcho in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur after a stirring back-nine battle with the American on Saturday.

Now Ortiz steps into the spotlight as he becomes the first player from his country since Victor Regalado in 1979 to play at the Masters and only the second Mexican amateur following Juan Antonio Estrada who featured at Augusta from 1962-64.

The determined Ortiz finished runner-up in the two previous Latin America Amateur Championship tournaments before this year claiming the title and his Masters invite at the third attempt.

“It was a huge deal for my family and me for sure and the whole country,” said Ortiz, who will turn professional immediately after the Masters. “When I came back to Mexico after winning, it was all cheers and people were so happy.

“People were so proud that I was going to be able to put a Mexican flag up there.”

Ortiz said he had received plenty of advice ahead of Thursday’s opening round with most people telling him to relax and enjoy the experience.

But the 23-year-old, showing no fear and more than a little cockiness, said he would be trying to win a Green Jacket like everyone else, although admitting if given a chance to sign for a top 10 right now he would take it.

“In my mind, I’m out here to compete and I want the Green Jacket,” he said. “I think every player is thinking like that.

“Of course, winning the low amateur would be nice,” he said referring to the Silver Cup awarded to the lowest amateur to make the cut.

“Making the cut would be a really good finish too but if you give me a top 10 right now, I’ll sign it for sure.”

While a top 10 finish would guarantee a Masters invite next year, Ortiz is soaking up every moment of his experience now.

He will spend Monday night in the Crow’s Nest above the Augusta National clubhouse, where amateurs have traditionally slept, and promised to bite into the local delicacy — a pimento cheese sandwich — at some point.

“Yeah, everybody was talking about that,” Ortiz said with a smile. “Actually, I received more arguments about the… chicken barbecue sandwich, which I think is pretty good. I already tried that one, but I’ll have to try the pimento cheese.”

(Editing by Ken Ferris)

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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