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Opening day intrigue: Ichiro keeps 'em guessing about future

This is the Ichiro effect.

Richard Snitzer had never been to Japan. What finally drove the Japanese-American to travel here from his home in Hayward, California, was Ichiro Suzuki; not family ties, not pure wanderlust, but a chance to see a player he called "simply the best."

And get this. He's not even a Mariners fan, which he's advertised by wearing his A's jersey around the Tokyo Dome.

He'll be there Wednesday when Major League Baseball opens the 2019 season with Seattle facing Oakland to start a two-game series. The 45-year-old Ichiro is expected to play in both. What happens next? Ichiro isn't saying.

One thing is sure. It will be great theater.

"I'll have my phone ready to go, and I'll shoot and stand up and applaud when he bats," Snitzer said. "I just hope he doesn't get the winning hit against the A's. If he hits a home run that doesn't affect the game, I'll be thrilled."

A's pitcher Liam Hendriks probably spoke for both teams.

"We're just happy to be along for the ride," he said. "I can't wait for the opening series when they announce Ichiro and hear that crowd."

Chances are, most baseball fans in other places will be asleep when A's right-hander Mike Fiers throws the first pitch of the year — around 5:30 a.m. EDT.

That's OK, there will be plenty of time for everyone to catch up before the other 28 teams open on March 28 at Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium and points in-between. Plenty to see, too, in a season that will stretch to end of October — Bryce Harper now batting in Philly, the Boston Red Sox trying to repeat as World Series champions and more talk about changing how the game is played.

In the meantime, Ichiro slipped into Tokyo's Haneda airport on Friday under the cover of a gray and black cap pulled way down. He's been highly visible since then; at a rare news conference, showing off in practice with trick catches in right field, and signing autographs to fans lining the foul lines before exhibition games against the Tokyo Giants.

Almost the only shirts for sale in the Tokyo Dome are Ichiro models. And they're not cheap: between $35-45 for a T-shirt, $62 for a sweat shirt, and a baseball with No. 51 goes for $30.

"Yes, we are selling well because Ichiro is a man of effort," said Yu Takamiya, a vendor answering questions through his translator app.

Ichiro told reporters on Saturday that — based on spring training — he's lucky to be here. He hit .080 in Arizona, and he hasn't played a regular-season game in a year. He was 0 for 6 in two exhibition games against the Tokyo Giants. They don't count officially. But if they did, he's hitting .065.

"This is a great gift for me," he said a day after arriving. "I will treasure every moment here on the field. One week after this event, I will be reflecting back on these days."

A's manager Bob Melvin knows Ichiro well from managing the Mariners 15 years ago.

"There are certain guys that create that kind of buzz," Melvin said. "He's used to it, but it's going to be a long few days for him. Once he gets on the field, that's when you just do your thing and insulate."

Melvin recalled Ichiro's relentless training. It hasn't changed. Ichiro was alone running across the outfield in several practices in Tokyo.

"As far as playing and preparing, there was nobody better," Melvin said.

A's outfielder Stephen Piscotty, making his first visit to Japan, called Ichiro "a master."

"He still in control of his destiny here," Piscotty said. "He's pretty special and it's an honor to be on the field with him. Obviously you look around, and you see how important baseball is in Japan, and Ichiro's a part of that."

Other key parts of the upcoming season:

ROSTER RESHUFFLING

Bryce Harper was the biggest name to change places since last season, leaving the Nationals and signing a record $330 million, 13-year contract with Philadelphia. The Phillies were especially busy, adding J.T. Realmuto, Jean Segura, Andrew McCutchen and David Robertson. Also on the move were Manny Machado (Padres), Paul Goldschmidt (Cardinals), Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz (Mets), Nelson Cruz (Twins), Patrick Corbin (Nationals) and Josh Donaldson (Braves).

But another slow market for many free agents meant All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel and former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel didn't have jobs on the brink of a new season.

HIYA, SKIP!

New Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo quickly showed he's all for trying new strategy — he played a four-man outfield defense against Harper in spring training. There are six new skippers in the majors this year: Montoyo, David Bell (Reds), Rocco Baldelli (Twins), Chris Woodward (Rangers) and Brandon Hyde (Orioles) are doing this for the first time in the bigs, Brad Ausmus (Angels) has experience.

NEW RULES

Despite a lot of discussion, nothing major for this season. No prohibition on shifts, no pitch clocks, and no requirement for pitchers to face at least three batters until next year. No robot umpires for now. One change could affect pennant races this summer — no trades after July 31, so no more deals in late August for an extra player in the postseason.

REPEAT AFTER ME

It's been quite a while since a team won back-to-back crowns — the Yankees were the last to do it, taking their third straight title in 2000. Now, AL MVP Mookie Betts and the Red Sox will try to stop baseball's longest gap without a repeat champion. Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers, meanwhile, will try to avoid becoming the first team to lose three straight World Series since star pitcher Christy Mathewson, famed manager John McGraw and the New York Giants fell in 1911-13.

OPENING NEXT

After the Mariners and A's leave Japan, they'll return to the United States to finish out spring training games. Then everyone is in action for regular season play on March 28. Among the matchups: Red Sox at Seattle, Baltimore at Yankee Stadium and Arizona at Dodger Stadium. Also, the Cubs will play at Texas — this will be the Rangers' last season at the park they opened in 1994 before moving into a nearby new home next year.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Source: Fox News World

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Smollett Case Focused Unwanted Attention on Chicago Police

The surprise decision by prosecutors to drop charges against Jussie Smollett angered Chicago's police superintendent and mayor, who said the alleged hoax was costly to investigate and dragged the city's reputation through the mud. It also focused attention on a police department that has struggled to reduce violent crime while defending itself against allegations of brutality.

Police and prosecutors continue to believe that the former "Empire" cast member hired two men to fake a racist and anti-gay attack and then lied about it.

But the charges were dropped without Smollett admitting wrongdoing, typically a requirement in such cases.

Instead, he stood in front of reporters Tuesday and insisted that he'd done nothing wrong and had been "truthful and consistent on every single level since day one." His attorneys said his record had "been wiped clean."

"This is a whitewash of justice," said a visibly angry Mayor Rahm Emanuel, standing beside police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, whom he handpicked to lead the department in a shakeup after the shooting of a black 16-year-old Laquan McDonald by a white officer. "Where is the accountability in the system? You cannot have, because of a person's position, one set of rules apply to them and another set of rules apply to everybody else."

Prosecutors said they needed to focus their own resources on violent crimes, and Smollett's case was treated like thousands of others that have been dropped through a deferred-prosecution program. Cook County First Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Magats said Smollett forfeited a $10,000 bond payment and did community service.

"We are focusing resources combatting violent crime, gun crime and the drivers of violence," Magats said, adding later: "This was not an exoneration."

Johnson said Smollett still owes the city an apology — and that he should have been willing to prove his innocence.

"If someone falsely accused me I would never hide behind a brokered deal and secrecy. Period," Johnson said.

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police he was physically attacked by two men who shouted anti-gay and racial slurs at him before beating him up and throwing some kind of chemical on him the early morning of Jan. 29. He also said his attackers shouted, "This is MAGA country," an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," and looped a rope around his neck.

But police say brothers Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo — bodybuilders and aspiring actors who Smollett knew from the "Empire" set and the gym — told them that Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the attack because he was unhappy about his salary and wanted to promote his career.

Johnson said he was offended when detectives determined that Smollett allegedly lied, saying he'd taken "advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career." He also called it a "publicity stunt" that Chicago didn't deserve.

Violent crime and police brutality claims have dogged Emanuel throughout his two terms as mayor, though he and Johnson have said they're making progress in combatting it. Emanuel did not seek re-election and his term ends in May.

He fired former Superintendent Garry McCarthy in 2015, following the release of dashcam footage showing a white police officer fatally shot McDonald, who had only a small knife on him. He hired Johnson, a lifelong Chicagoan and career police officer, to lead the department in 2016, hoping he could help repair trust between the police and residents.

Johnson, who has pointed to double-digit decreases in gun violence over the past two years, said Smollett's accusations were an undeserved distraction from the city's efforts. While there has been progress in reducing violent crime, Chicago still has more murders than the larger cities of New York and Los Angeles.

Police reviewed video from more than four dozen cameras to trace the brothers' movements before and after the reported attack, determining where they lived and who they were before arresting them a little more than two weeks later. They also reviewed in-car taxi videos, telephone logs, ride-share records and credit card records, according to a summary of the case released by prosecutors.

Emanuel said he felt Tuesday's decision was unfair.

"There is no accountability then in the system. It is wrong, full stop," said Emanuel. He also said the $10,000 paid by Smollett "doesn't even come close to what the city spent in resources."

"Our officers did hard work ... to unwind what actually happened that night, he said. "The city saw its reputation dragged through the mud."

Phil Turner, a Chicago defense attorney and former federal prosecutor with no ties to the case, also said it would be wrong to say leniency was warranted because no serious harm was done. "The reputation of the city has taken a tremendous blow," he said.

Magats, the prosecutor, said he understands why Johnson and Emanuel are upset, but that the agreement was fair.

"I would just say they did a great job and thank them for the work they do." Magats said of the police. "They did great work on this investigation."

Source: NewsMax America

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We Don’t Need Any More Big, Visionary Government

One of the more interesting reactions to the Green New Deal (GND) came courtesy of Ross Douthat.

Writing for the New York Times, Douthat offered “one cheer for the Green New Deal,” two cheers shy of a full endorsement. Given that the GND has been roundly and justifiably mocked for its impossibly extreme goals, why would the conservative Douthat offer even so much as a tentative shrug in its favor?

It is the GND’s unabashed radicalism, writes Douthat, that warrants his mild praise. Not that Douthat supports the GND; clearly, he does not. But he does faintly admire its progenitors for their ambition. “[T]here are virtues in trying to offer not just a technical blueprint but a comprehensive vision of the good society,” writes Douthat, “and virtues as well in insisting that dramatic change is still possible in America, that grand projects and scientific breakthroughs are still within our reach.”

Such sentiment is fairly common. Many people pine for the days when our country was at the center of a fast-moving world and seen by many to be bravely combating intergenerational poverty and racial injustice, standing against the spread of communism, and leading the charge in technological advancement, culminating in the climactic moment when our flag was planted on the surface of the moon.

Those swayed by this historical wistfulness, however, forget that America’s greatest accomplishments have come not from the halls of Congress or the Oval Office, but from free individuals. As economist Milton Friedman pointed out, “Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the auto industry that way.” NASA may have put a man on the moon, but we have private enterprise to thank for light bulbs, radios, televisions, smartphones, and a bevy of other technological wonders and products that enrich our daily lives in ways previously unimaginable.

It should also be noted that some of the federal government’s biggest and most promising projects became embarrassing boondoggles. The heavily subsidized transcontinental railroad, for example, was heralded by the Rocky Mountain News in 1866 as the “remedy for every evil, social, political, financial, and industrial.” In reality, the railroad’s construction, economically unjustifiable from the outset, was perpetually mired in a crony capitalistic mess. Both companies contracted to build it would later go bankrupt, and financial misconduct would lead to a variety of scandals. Nonetheless, images of the golden spike being driven into the final rail at Promontory Point still causes many American hearts to swell with pride. It’s natural for them to feel nostalgic for a time when the country was united behind such a “heroic” venture.

But more than anything, it is the mythologies surrounding Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society that inspire modern progressives. The trailblazing reformers of the ‘30s and ‘60s were paternalists par excellence who were not afraid to use the awesome power of the federal government to reshape society in their image. The miserable failure of these prodigious programs could explain why the country has yet to get behind another massive government initiative.

Unfortunately, politicians have continued to offer us fantastic projects over the past few decades. Every presidential campaign season we are inundated with leftist ideas about ending income inequality, constructing high-speed rail systems, establishing universal health care, and instituting “free” college. Just over a decade ago, America bore witness to the election of one Barack Obama, a candidate who could hardly be accused of stinginess when it came to proposing dramatic change. Indeed, “change” was his defining message. In one particularly revealing speech, Obama announced that his candidacy marked “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” For Democrats at least, the hunger for earthshaking transformation was palpable.

Regardless, Douthat is correct when he says that we have not seen any real comprehensive change in recent years. Despite the overzealous rhetoric, eight years under President Obama brought few substantial policy adjustments. The biggest splashes were made by the Supreme Court, not via legislative or executive action, the Affordable Care Act notwithstanding. Even then, the ACA was far from the revolutionary reform it has been touted as, and is certainly not as far-reaching as the “Medicare-for-All” plan or the Green New Deal.

More recent political battles confirm Douthat’s thesis. Two years into President Trump’s first term and his only major legislative achievement is a modest tax reform law. His signature campaign promise, building a wall along the southern border, has yet to be achieved. And with a Democratic-controlled House, it’s unlikely that Republicans will be able to pass any more significant legislation. As Douthat observes, political stalemate has prevented us from initiating any new game-changing programs.

And yet, is the country any worse for the fact that Washington has done so little? A Washington free to “think big” is likely to make things far worse. Many may very well lament, as Douthat does, America’s metaphysical boredom and cultural balkanization, but these problems probably will not be remedied by some big government scheme.

Perhaps we have finally reached a point in our history where we no longer feel the need to look to Washington to direct the future of civilization. If that is the case, there is a tremendous opportunity — and a tremendous challenge — for free individuals to create for ourselves a vision for the good society, just as we have done in the past. Whether America will take up that challenge remains to be seen.



The ‘non-existent’ border crisis is set to expect up to 1 million illegal immigrants this year.

Source: InfoWars

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HS baseball player allegedly bound and gagged in hazing incident

A New Jersey high school baseball player was bound, gagged and dragged around a field by other players in a hazing incident, local officials said Wednesday.

West New York, N.J., Mayor Felix Roque told NJ.com a school district employee informed him about the alleged incident involving Memorial High School student-athletes. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured or if authorities were looking into the alleged hazing.

NJ HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL PLAYERS ACCUSED OF BITING OTHERS IN HAZING INCIDENT

“It’s abhorrent to see this type of behavior in our school system,” said Roque. He added that he did not know which date the alleged incident occurred or where, but said it was recorded and posted to social media.

In a Tuesday statement, West New York Board of Education Superintendent Clara Brito Herrera said a “bully/hazing” incident involving a few student-athletes occurred, but gave no specifics. She said the district is "committed to conducting a thorough investigation and pursuing disciplinary/corrective action, if warranted” but declined to discuss the matter during the board's Wednesday meeting.

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John Fraraccio, the school’s athletic director referred questions from the news site to Herrera. The school’s Wednesday varsity baseball game was postponed until Thursday because of logistical issues, an official said.

Source: Fox News National

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The Latest: Paris mayor rues ‘terrible fire’ at Notre Dame

The Latest on a fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (all times local):

7:35 p.m.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says firefighters are trying to contain a "terrible fire" at the city's Notre Cathedral.

An AP reporter at the scene of Monday's fire says the roof at the back of the cathedral, behind the nave, is in flames and yellow-brown smoke and ash fill the sky.

Hidalgo urged residents of the French capital to stay away from the security perimeter around the Gothic-style church. The mayor says city officials are in touch with Roman Catholic diocese in Paris.

___

7:30 p.m.

Firefighters are battling a massive blaze at the French capital's iconic Notre Dame Cathedral.

Flames and black smoke were seen shooting from the base of the medieval church's spire on Monday.

The peak of the church is undergoing a 6 million-euro ($6.8 million) renovation project.

French media quoted the Paris fire brigade saying the fire is "potentially linked" to the renovation work.

Source: Fox News World

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Pakistani woman says husband beat her, shaved her head after she refused to dance for him

A Pakistani woman came forward accusing her husband of beating her and shaving her head after she refused to dance for him and his friends.

Asma Aziz, of Lahore, posted a video on social media on Tuesday, March 26 showing her visibly bruised face and shaved head. In the video she explained what her husband Mian Faisal allegedly did to her.

"He took my clothes off in front of his servants. The servants held me as he shaved my hair off and burned it. My clothes were bloody. I was bound by a pipe and hung from the fan. He threatened to hang me naked," she said, according to the BBC.

INDIA AND PAKISTAN'S FIGHT OVER KASHMIR: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE AND INSURGENCY

Aziz said she went to the police “to file a complaint” but “they procrastinated.” Police have denied her claims, saying they dispatched officers to her residence but it was locked.

Faisal and the servant were arrested, the BBC reported. Faisal told officers his wife cut her own hair after being under the influence of drugs.

Aziz said in a statement in court last week that she married her husband four year ago and “he quickly turned hostile,” NPR reported.

The alleged incident sparked conversation on social media regarding spousal abuse in the country.  Amnesty International South Asia tweeted, “While we are glad that strong and swift action has been taken against the torturers of Asma Aziz, we note with dismay the alarming rise in reported cases of violence against women. System change to protect women is necessary. Action can’t only be taken on a case-by-case basis.”

PAKISTAN ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF 360 INDIAN FISHERMEN

Pakistani actress Sanam Saeed defended Aziz on Twitter.

“It’s like saying if a prostitute was raped its her fault anyway. When will some of you really understand the meaning of #consent???” she wrote.

The United Nation’s Gender Inequality Index in 2016 ranked Pakistan 147 out of 188 countries based on its women health, political empowerment and education.

Source: Fox News World

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Democrats Getting Ready To Rig 2020 Election

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Source: InfoWars

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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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