Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Biden ‘shared his regret’ with Anita Hill decades after Clarence Thomas hearing

Former Vice President Joe Biden “shared his regret” with Anita Hill during a “private discussion” about his role in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings nearly three decades ago, a spokesperson said Thursday.

A Biden spokesperson told Fox News that the newly announced presidential candidate spoke to Hill and thanked her for all she has done in her pursuit of change. He also apologized for what she “endured.”

“Vice President Biden has spoken with Anita Hill. They had a private discussion where he shared with her directly his regret for what she endured and his admiration for everything she has done to change the culture around sexual harassment in this country,” the statement read.

Former Vice President Joe Biden,left, served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when Anita Hill, right, testified allegations of sexual misconduct by then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas.

Former Vice President Joe Biden,left, served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when Anita Hill, right, testified allegations of sexual misconduct by then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas. (AP)

Biden, 76,  served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment during his Supreme Court confirmation process.

JOE BIDEN OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL BID

Similarly, Biden seemed to regret his actions last month when he said that Hill, a black woman, should not have been forced to face a panel of “a bunch of white guys.”

"To this day I regret I couldn't come up with a way to give her the kind of hearing she deserved," he said at an event in New York on March 26. "I wish I could have done something."

JOE BIDEN LAMENTS ‘WHITE MAN’S CULTURE,’ COMES UNDER FIRE FROM HILLARY CLINTON AIDE FOR ROLE IN ANITA HILL HEARING

But in an interview with The New York Times, Hill stopped short of calling Biden’s words an apology.

“I cannot be satisfied by simply saying I’m sorry for what happened to you. I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose,” she said.

Hill told The Times that the conversation, which took place earlier this month, is just the beginning of Biden’s apology tour, pointing to the recent allegations of inappropriate touching leveled against the former vice president.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“The focus on apology to me is one thing,” she told the paper. “But he needs to give an apology to the other women and to the American public because we know now how deeply disappointed Americans around the country were about what they saw.”

Biden officially announced his bid for the White House on Thursday, several weeks after allegations of inappropriate touching were made against him.

Fox News’ Liam Quinn contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

French court ruling due in UBS $6 billion tax case

FILE PHOTO: Logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich, Switzerland October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Inti Landauro and Emmanuel Jarry

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court will rule on Wednesday whether UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, helped wealthy French clients evade taxes between 2004 and 2012 and launder the proceeds.

French prosecutors are demanding a 3.7 billion euro ($4.2 billion) fine, while the French state is seeking an additional 1.6 billion euros in damages. Such a combined penalty would be a record for France and exceed the Swiss bank’s 2018 net profit.

UBS denies any wrongdoing and the case could drag on for years if appealed by either side. It has set aside $2.46 billion to cover potential losses from litigation and regulatory requirements.

The French trial follows a similar case in the United States, where UBS accepted a $780 million settlement in 2009 and in Germany, where it agreed to a 300 million euro fine in 2014. UBS last month reported a 2018 net profit of $4.9 billion.

European banks have come under pressure from regulators to tighten compliance with anti money laundering rules since the financial crisis and will scrutinize the ruling, analysts say.

“Bankers in Europe are watching this case closely and will try to assess how exposed they are to similar risk,” Thierry Bonneau, a banking law professor at Paris Pantheon-Assas University, said ahead of the ruling.

The penalty French prosecutors are seeking is high by European standards, although in the United States judges have levied higher fines including the $8.9 billion a U.S. court in 2015 ordered BNP Paribas to pay for violating U.S. economic sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

GOLF AND HUNTING

The French court ruling marks the culmination of a seven-year investigation and aborted settlement negotiations.

French prosecutors say UBS sent Swiss bankers to golf tournaments, classical music concerts and hunting parties to solicit new clients illegally, while the bank is also alleged to have helped its clients launder the money involved.

The prosecutors said UBS was “systematic” in its support to tax-evading customers and that the laundering of proceeds from the tax fraud was done on an “industrial” scale.

Under French law, those convicted of money laundering can be ordered to pay a fine totaling half the amount laundered. The prosecution estimates UBS’s customers hid billions of euros from the French tax authorities.

Prosecutors told the court that UBS’s bankers would hand over business cards without any logo and used computers which carried software allowing data to be quickly erased.

Six former UBS executives, including its former head in France, Raoul Weil, could be fined of between 50,000 and 500,000 euros and suspended jail terms if convicted. The six have all pleaded not guilty in the case.

Lawyers for UBS have called the magnitude of the possible penalty “irrational” and “extravagant” and said prosecutors failed to bring material evidence against the bank.

UBS, whose lawyers said the case had become politicized, turned down a settlement offer of 1.1 billion euros, an amount the bank was later requested to pay as a court bond.

($1 = 0.8851 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Emmanuel Jarry and Angelika Gruber; editing by Richard Lough)

Source: OANN

0 0

Tiger Woods’ Masters win gives Nike investors another reason to cheer

Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
FILE PHOTO: Golf - Masters - Augusta National Golf Club - Augusta, Georgia, U.S. - April 14, 2019 - Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

April 15, 2019

(Reuters) – Nike Inc’s long-time brand ambassador Tiger Woods gave investors another reason to cheer on Monday, after the world’s biggest name in golf won the Masters, pushing the company’s stock higher.

In his signature red shirt and black shoes with the Nike “swoosh” logo, the 43-year-old came back from a series of setbacks to claim his fifth Green Jacket on Sunday, ending an 11-year major title drought.

“A win for a high profile endorser is a clear win for the brand,” Nomura Instinet analyst Simeon Siegel said.

Nike celebrated his victory by posting an ad on its website titled “Tiger Woods: Same Dream,” which has received nearly 500,000 views on YouTube in less than a day.

President Donald Trump praised the win, tweeting: “Love people who are great under pressure. What a fantastic life comeback for a really great guy!”

Nike and Woods forged a partnership that dates back more than two decades through good times and bad publicity.

The brand already has a celebrated pool of endorsers, including tennis star Serena Williams, basketball phenom LeBron James, soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr, as well as golfers Francesco Molinari and Brooks Koepka.

While not transformational, Woods’ win should provide a boost to Nike’s golf apparel business, marketing consultancy firm Metaforce co-founder Allen Adamson said.

“His win is good for golf and its good for Nike,” he said.

Nike’s shares were up about 1 percent at $87 Monday morning.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Uday Sampath Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

0 0

Lufthansa plans to buy either Boeing 737 MAX or Airbus A320neo

FILE PHOTO: German airline Lufthansa's Chief Executive Officer Spohr attends the company's annual news conference in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: German airline Lufthansa's Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr attends the company's annual news conference in Frankfurt, Germany March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

March 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Deutsche Lufthansa AG plans to buy a triple-digit number of either Boeing 737 MAX or Airbus A320neo jetliners to expand its fleet, chief executive Carsten Spohr said on Tuesday.

“We have not lost our trust in Boeing” following two fatal 737 MAX crashes and the grounding earlier this month of the worldwide fleet, Spohr said in a meeting with reporters.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

0 0

Boeing loses $4.9B order for 737 Max jets, but Indonesia's Garuda carrier open to buying different model

Indonesian airline Garuda has canceled its order for 49 more Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, worth nearly $5 billion, citing "consumers' low confidence," a spokesman for the company said Friday. But a Garuda official said the airline may be open to acquiring another Boeing model instead to salvage the deal.

The move follows deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia involving two of the aircraft model.

“We have sent a letter to Boeing requesting that the order be canceled," Garuda spokesman Ikhsan Rosan told Agence France-Presse. “The reason is that Garuda passengers in Indonesia have lost trust and no longer have the confidence” in the plane.

LION AIR BOEING 737 MAX 8 WAS REPORTEDLY SAVED BY OFF-DUTY PILOT DAY BEFORE DEADLY CRASH IN INDONESIA

On March 12, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing Max 8 jet crashed soon after takeoff near Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people aboard. Five months earlier, the same model of aircraft used by Lion Air crashed, killing all 189 aboard.

The Garuda order of 50 jets was first announced in October 2014, the Washington Post reported.

Garuda has already received one of the planes, AFP reported. The company is talking to Boeing about whether to return the aircraft, the report said.

The carrier has paid Boeing $26 million so far, and would consider switching to a new version of the single-aisle jet, a top Garuda official told Indonesian media outlet Detik, according to AFP.

“In principle, it’s not that we want to replace Boeing, but maybe we will replace (these planes) with another model,” Garuda Indonesia director I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra told Detik.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Rosan told the Post that airline officials were scheduled to meet with representatives from Boeing to discuss the decision on March 28.

“The discussion won’t be easy,” he said.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

NFL notebook: Cardinals reportedly fielding offers for top pick

FILE PHOTO: Former NFL quarterback Manning arrives for funeral of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush at Washington National Cathedral
FILE PHOTO: Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning arrives prior to the state funeral for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, U.S., December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Young

April 23, 2019

The Arizona Cardinals still haven’t tipped their hand as to how they’ll use the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft on Thursday, and teams continue to inquire about a trade, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Monday.

He also said general manager Steve Keim, coach Kliff Kingsbury and owner Michael Bidwill have a final meeting scheduled to make a decision.

The assumption is Cardinals will draft Kyler Murray, who won the Heisman Trophy and led Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff in 2018. Reports over the weekend surfaced that the Cardinals plan to keep Josh Rosen at quarterback and draft a difference-maker on defense.

CBS Sports columnist Pete Prisco reported that Bidwill wanted the team to take Murray, but that has changed. “Now all of a sudden they’re pulling back and, from what I have been told, they’re going to go in a different direction,” Prisco said. “They’re not going to draft Kyler Murray.”

–Washington Redskins senior vice president of player personnel Doug Williams made it clear that the team is still seeking an upgrade at quarterback after trading for Case Keenum last month.

The Redskins, who hold the 15th pick in Thursday’s first round, have been connected to some of the draft’s top quarterback prospects and also to Rosen, whom the Cardinals could trade if they draft Murray.

“Case has done a good job over the last couple of years where he’s been, and you know, we needed a quarterback and was able to trade for Case,” Williams told reporters. “But that does not put us out of the realm of picking a quarterback if there’s one there that we like at 15. We don’t know who’s going to be there at 15. We’ve got some guys we do like, and if those guys are there, that’s the discussion that has to be had.”

–Peyton Manning will not join ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast team this season, Sporting News reported.

The future Hall of Fame quarterback met with network executives last month in Denver about replacing Jason Witten, who has returned to the Dallas Cowboys after one season in the booth.

But Manning is reluctant to comment on games while his younger brother, Eli, is still playing, according to NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. Eli’s New York Giants have two Monday night games scheduled in 2019.

–Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb clarified his recent comments about current Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz.

“For those of you who misread, didn’t understand, were confused or just didn’t like my comments let me clarify it for you,” McNabb wrote on Twitter. “Let me start by saying there’s no beef, riff or ill-will toward (Wentz) or the @Eagles. My comments were strictly based off of experience and understanding of how the business of football works.”

McNabb said on Saturday the team should consider drafting another quarterback if Wentz doesn’t take the Eagles beyond the second round of the playoffs within “two years or so.”

–A week after Russell Wilson agreed to his four-year, $140 million deal with the Seahawks, he reportedly decided to share the wealth with the Seattle offensive linemen, gifting them each $12,000 in Amazon stock.

Each of Wilson’s 13 linemen reportedly received a letter with the gift, expressing his gratitude and hopes that the gift would help them “prepare for life after football.”

“You sacrifice your physical and mental well-being to protect me, which in turn allows me to provide and care for my family. This does not go unnoticed and it is never forgotten,” he wrote in a letter first published by TMZ.

–Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett signed his franchise tender on Monday, locking in a one-year, $15,209,000 salary for 2019.

The team has been vocal about its intentions to sign Jarrett to a long-term deal, which the sides have until July 15 to negotiate. If no extension is agreed upon, he will play out 2019 on the tag.

The Falcons also announced the signing of free agent safety J.J. Wilcox, who spent 2018 with the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts.

–The Green Bay Packers intend to exercise their fifth-year option, expected to be worth about $8 million, on defensive tackle Kenny Clark for the 2020 season.

General manager Brian Gutekunst confirmed that plan to reporters, although the team has until a May 3 deadline to make the move official.

–Buffalo signed free agent running back T.J. Yeldon to a two-year contract. Terms were not disclosed.

Yeldon, 25, had 414 rushing yards and one touchdown with the Jacksonville Jaguars last season.

–The Denver Broncos signed defensive linemen Billy Winn and Mike Purcell, along with offensive lineman Jake Rodgers.

Winn was out of the league last year after missing all of 2017 with a knee injury. He had 19 tackles for Denver in 2016.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

0 0

U.S. apartment vacancy rate flat at 4.8 percent in first quarter: Reis

A
A "For Rent" sign is posted outside a small apartment complex in Carlsbad, California, U.S., January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

March 29, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. apartment vacancy rate was flat in the first quarter, with vacancy rising in only 15 of 79 metros, real estate research firm Reis Inc said on Thursday.

The national vacancy rate was 4.8 percent, unchanged from the fourth quarter and marginally up from 4.7 percent a year earlier.

“Far fewer metros saw a vacancy rate increase in the quarter: 15, down from 40 last quarter. Most of the increases were due to high construction that exceeded net absorption,” Reis said in a statement.

Both the national average asking rent and effective rent, excluding landlord concessions, increased 0.5 percent from the previous quarter, Reis said.

Net absorption fell about 21.6 percent to 37,159 units in the first quarter from a year earlier, while new construction dropped 40.6 percent to 33,276 units.

“While we expect some revisions to these numbers, we were surprised by the low levels,” Reis said. “This year is expected to add more apartment units than last year in which 254,000 units were added.”

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist