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Hong Kong Airlines faces more uncertainty as chairman challenges his removal

FILE PHOTO: A Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330 passenger plane taxies on the tarmac at the Hong Kong Airport
FILE PHOTO: A Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330-300 passenger plane taxies on the tarmac at the Hong Kong Airport September 11, 2013. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 17, 2019

By Jennifer Hughes and Kane Wu

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong Airlines, partially owned by China’s HNA Group, was thrown into deeper uncertainty on Wednesday after Hou Wei disputed a decision that removed him as chairman and said he was still in charge of the struggling carrier.

Former Hong Kong Airlines director Zhong Guosong announced on Tuesday he had been appointed chairman after a shareholder meeting where he and Chinese private equity firm Frontier Investment Partner, who together control about 61 percent of the shares, voted in additional board members, including Zhong as chairman.

Hou Wei joined Hong Kong Airlines in September last year, having previously worked for units of HNA’s Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth-largest carrier.

Referring to himself as chairman of the airline, Hou on Wednesday challenged the decision to remove him. In an internal letter sent to employees and shown to Reuters by Hong Kong Airlines, Hou said the board changes were a result of a shareholder dispute and would not have any impact on the company’s operations.

“I will continue to work hand in hand with our leadership team to take concrete actions to secure Hong Kong Airlines’ future,” Hou said.

Hong Kong Airlines Consultation Service Co., which Zhong controls, and Frontier responded by saying that the April 16 meeting was conducted legitimately under proper procedures supported by multiple legal opinions.

“These steps were taken to secure the financial future of Hong Kong Airlines and stop further related party transactions and any embezzlement of company assets amid a period of significant financial stress and reports of serious financial misappropriation,” said the two.

HNA, which holds about 29 percent of the carrier, declined to comment.

The dispute follows another shareholder meeting earlier this month where Hong Kong Airlines executives told investors the company needed to raise at least HK$2 billion ($255.12 million) or risk losing its operating license.

The shareholders reacted angrily, Reuters reported last week, and questioned Hong Kong Airlines’ dealings with other HNA affiliates, demanding the company provide full 2018 financial figures before they would consider providing fresh capital.

Formerly acquisitive HNA – a planes-to-banking Chinese conglomerate – has been working to improve its finances since China cracked down on aggressive debt-fueled foreign dealmaking in mid-2017.

By that point, a $50 billion spree had netted HNA assets including the single largest stake in Deutsche Bank. It has since been reducing its portfolio and last month sold low-cost carrier Hong Kong Express Airways.

On Tuesday, HNA unit CWT International Ltd said it had defaulted on a HK$1.4 billion ($179 million) loan and had less than 24 hours to pay funds due or lose assets pledged as collateral.

(Reporting by Jennifer Hughes, Kane Wu and Julie Zhu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kirsten Donovan)

Source: OANN

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Republicans demand Michael Cohen transcript be sent to DOJ for review, potential perjury prosecution

House Oversight Committee Republicans on Wednesday introduced a resolution to force committee Chairman Elijah Cummings to send ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony to the Justice Department for review -- and possible prosecution for alleged perjury.

The resolution, rolled out by freshman Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, requests that the transcript of Cohen’s Feb. 27 interview before the committee be submitted for review to Attorney General Bill Barr.

GOP REP. MEADOWS FILES CRIMINAL REFERRAL FOR MICHAEL COHEN OVER FOREIGN CONTRACTS

"If Chairman Cummings fails to refer Mr. Cohen to the Department of Justice for perjury, it will forever mar the reputation of the oversight committee and call into question the integrity of the entire House. Mr. Chairman, do what you said you'd do and hold Mr. Cohen accountable for lying before our committee," Green said Wednesday.

“Chairman Cummings promised the American people that if Michael Cohen lied, he’d hold him accountable and I quote ‘nail him to the cross’ end quote,” Green added. “But 43 days later, nothing from Chairman Cummings. ... It appears they’re perfectly okay with witnesses lying to them as long as it supports their anti-Trump agenda.”

Green called for a vote on the floor to “allow this resolution” to refer Cohen to the Justice Department.

“Let’s give the entire body the opportunity to do what they said they were going to do,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., blasted Democrats for bringing Cohen before the panel as their "star witness" after he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

The measure is unlikely to advance in the Democrat-controlled House but represents the latest effort by Republicans to call Cohen's testimony -- in which he called Trump a “racist,” a “conman” and a cheat” -- into question, as he continues to reach out to congressional Democrats.

Cohen’s legal team, just last week, penned a letter to House Oversight Committee Democrats saying that he was still sorting through documents in his personal files that might be of interest to them in their investigations into President Trump, including emails, voice recordings, images and other documents on a hard drive.

“To date, Mr. Cohen has located several documents that we believe have significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees,” Cohen’s attorneys Lanny Davis, Michael Monico, and Carly Chocron wrote in the letter, pleading with House Democrats to help keep Cohen out of prison.

"It is our hope that the authorities in the Southern District of New York will consider this total picture of cooperation by Mr. Cohen, verified by your letter and the important new evidence he has made available or could make available to assist the government, and the particular facts involved here to grant Mr. Cohen a reduced term following the rules and procedures of the Southern District of New York,” they wrote.

The resolution also comes after mounting requests by top Republicans on the committee—including Ranking Member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. The pair referred Cohen to the Justice Department in February for alleged perjury, claiming that he lied during sworn testimony before the panel about a number of issues, including his ambitions to work in the Trump administration and contracts with foreign entities.

MICHAEL COHEN FACING MOUNTING QUESTIONS OVER INCONSISTENCIES IN TESTIMONY

Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, also filed a criminal referral for Cohen in February, claiming that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by not disclosing his foreign contracts.

Cohen, who is slated to report to prison for three years next month as part of his guilty plea related to Mueller’s investigation and the criminal investigation into his personal business dealings led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, was challenged over several claims made in his testimony.

One was his assertion that he “never asked for, nor would [he] accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.”

Last month, though, Davis said that Cohen was “open to the ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media.” Davis also said that Cohen “directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump.”

Davis, defending his client’s credibility, did say, however, that since July 2, 2018, when he began representing Cohen, he has said that he “would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered.”

GOP REPS REFER MICHAEL COHEN TO DOJ FOR ALLEGED PERJURY DURING HEARING

“That continues to be the case,” Davis said. “And his statement at the Oversight Hearing was true—and consistent with his post joint defense agreement commitment to tell the truth.”

Meanwhile, Cohen has been criticized for his statements about potentially working in the Trump White House. During the hearing last week, Jordan accused Cohen of turning on the president because he didn’t land a job at the White House. Cohen denied this, saying he just wanted to be “the personal attorney to the president.”

“I got exactly what I wanted,” Cohen testified.

Shortly afterward, Davis acknowledged that Cohen was, in fact, at one time considering the possibility of working in the White House. “The fact is, early on, Michael Cohen speculated about a possible position in the White House,” Davis said in a statement. “But after he consulted with his family and friends, he decided that he preferred to stay at home in New York City and be ‘personal attorney to the president.’”

MICHAEL COHEN ASKS HOUSE DEMOCRATS TO HELP KEEP HIM OUT OF PRISON

Another inconsistency is related to the Trump Tower project in Moscow. Cohen is going to jail, in part, for lying to Congress during a closed-door hearing with the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 about the timeline of communications with Russia about the project. Cohen initially told the committee communications ended before the first contest in the 2016 primary season but later admitted they continued through June 2016, after Trump had become the Republican nominee.

During the February hearing, Cohen told the committee that Trump’s attorneys, including Jay Sekulow, reviewed and edited the statement he provided to Congress in 2017 about the project, including concerning the timeline of discussions. But Sekulow said in a statement after the hearing that the “testimony by Michael Cohen that attorneys for the President edited or changed his statement to Congress to alter the duration of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations is completely false.”

Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News Politics

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Chelsea Handler Says She’s ‘Very Sexually Attracted’ To Robert Mueller

Scott Morefield | Reporter

Comedian Chelsea Handler tweeted that she is “very sexually attracted” to special counsel Robert Mueller.

“If I’m being completely honest, I am very sexually attracted to Robert Mueller,” Handler tweeted. “I know it’s not meant to be, but that doesn’t mean I won’t hang a poster of him above my bed.”

The Handler tweet was in response to Friday’s news that the completed Mueller report had been delivered to Attorney General William Barr. It was unclear whether the liberal comedian understood that the report didn’t include any new indictments of President Donald Trump or anyone else associated with him. (RELATED: Chelsea Handler Chooses ‘National Coming Out Day’ To Imply That Lindsey Graham Is ‘Closeted’)

Several were quick to mock Handler on Twitter, but the reactions were best summed up by mixed martial artist Ben Askren, who tweeted: “You have issues, get help.”

Follow Scott on Twitter

Source: The Daily Caller

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Insane: Quoting Mother Theresa Is Now Hate Speech

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Source: InfoWars

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Economic Council's Hassett: Trump Growth Is Sustainable

Economic growth averaging 2.8 percent reached under President Donald Trump's policies can be sustained over the next decade, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett said Wednesday.

"What happened is we went from 1 percent growth, the new normal that would be disappointing forever, to 3 percent growth over the last two years with deregulation and tax cuts," Hassett told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" on Wednesday morning. "Everything has lifted off and our view is it will continue. It is continuing because the policies are working."

The Trump administration is assuming Congress will make tax cuts permanent, as some will expire, Hassett said.

"Regulatory costs in the U.S. declined under President Trump last year because he has a regulatory budget, and paperwork costs are going down for the U.S. government," Hassett said. "As far back as we looked, we couldn't see a year like that."

The forecast assumes Trump's policies are enacted, Hassett said, and "hopefully Congress will look at that and be convinced."

Analysts from Wall Street and the Federal Reserve paint a different picture for the economy, projecting 1.9 percent growth for the long-run forecast, noted show co-anchor Sandra Smith, but Hassett disagreed.

"If you go back to the first year that we said growth would inch up a little bit, everybody said we were crazy," Hassett said. "Our policies are working the way the academic literature says they should and confident they'll continue to grow going forward. The people criticizing us were wrong. How many years in a row do we have to be right before they question their models?"

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Happening: Obama White House Counsel INDICTED for Lying to Mueller Team

An attorney for the White House under President Barack Obama has been indicted by the Trump Justice Department for allegedly lying about his lobbying work for a former Ukrainian president.

On Thursday DOJ charged former White House Counsel Greg Craig with two counts of making false statements regarding his connections to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

In a twist of irony, Craig’s alleged dealings were brought to light by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, making him the first Democrat to be indicted as a result of the now-completed probe.

“The Washington-based lawyer was indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly falsifying and concealing “material facts” and making false statements to the DOJ National Security Division’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit, which is responsible for enforcing foreign lobbying laws,” reports Fox News.

“Craig allegedly made false statements to investigators looking into whether he appropriately registered foreign agent under FARA, which requires lobbyists to declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders, governments or their political parties.”

In the indictment [see below], Craig is quoted as asking a partner in a February 12 email: “I don’t want to register as a foreign agent under FARA. I think we don’t have to with this assignment, yes?”

Craig allegedly lobbied for Yanukovych in 2012 while he served as a partner at the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm, helping the ousted president write a report defending his government’s decision to prosecute the country’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Craig’s former law firm… reached a settlement with the Justice Department in January to resolve an investigation into the firm’s role in working on the Tymoshenko report and the subsequent public relations rollout,” reports Buzzfeed News. “The firm didn’t face criminal charges, but agreed to retroactively register as an agent for a foreign government and pay the US Treasury $4.6 million, representing the money the firm earned for its work.”

The settlement, Buzzfeed notes, cleared the firm as an entity, notably excluding individual partners who could later be charged.

The indictment charges Craig purposely avoided registering as a foreign agent for various purposes and benefits.

“The purpose of the scheme was for Craig to avoid registration as an agent of Ukraine,” the indictment reads. “Registration would require disclosure of the fact that Private Ukrainian had paid Craig and the Law Firm more than $4 million … [and] undermine the Report and Craig’s perceived independence; and impair the ability of Craig and others at the Law Firm to later return to government positions.”

According to Fox News,

Craig faces a total of up to 10 years in prison — up to five years and a possible $250,000 fine for allegedly willfully falsifying and concealing material facts from the FARA Unit, and another five years and $10,000 fine for making false and misleading statements to the FARA Unit.

“Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government’s stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” Craig’s lawyers argued in a statement.

Each charge against Craig carries a maximum punishment of up to five years in prison.

Craig served as White House lawyer under President Barack Obama from 2009-2010 and previously served as assistant to the Bill Clinton White House, where he defended Clinton against impeachment.

Read the full indictment below:


Source: InfoWars

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Options-based funds offer succor to investors wary of volatility

FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington
FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 3, 2019

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s pivot on tightening U.S. monetary policy this year and a change in a bond market gauge that is often viewed as a harbinger of a recession pose a dilemma for investors: how to stay in stocks without running the risk of losing one’s shirt when risk assets stumble.

Alternative mutual funds that use options to maintain exposure to stocks even as they tamp down volatility could provide the buffer between mild gains and massive losses.

“We definitely think now is a good time to be looking at strategies that can both participate in market advances and reliably deliver protection,” said David Jilek, chief investment strategist at Gateway Investment Advisers in Boston.

The $8.27 billion Gateway Fund – the oldest and largest fund in Morningstar’s options-based category – has a three-decade history of running low-volatility equity index options strategies.

The fund, which marries stock ownership with index call and put options hedges, aims to capture a portion of equity market returns but with less volatility.

In the fourth quarter when the S&P 500 Total Return index tanked 13.52%, the fund’s Y class shares fell only 7.47%. On the flip side, when stocks rebounded 13.65% in the first quarter, the fund’s shares only gained 5.01%.

Like any investment, gaining protection from volatility carries risk. Over the longterm, investors may miss out on big gains by opting for nearterm protection from huge losses.

For instance, an investment of $10,000 in the Gateway fund 10 years ago would now be worth about $17,500, according to Thomson Reuters data. By comparison, the same amount invested in the S&P 500 S&P 500 Index’s tracking fund, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, would have returned more than $44,000, albeit with a higher degree of volatility.

“Investors would be better off just putting their money in passive funds,” said Mark Hebner, president of Irvine, California-based independent financial adviser Index Funds Advisors.

Equity markets have enjoyed a period of very low volatility and strong returns over the last decade, but that may be set to change.

Stocks tumbled hard late last year, as investors fretted over mounting concerns about global growth, waning corporate profits, U.S.-China trade tensions and the Fed’s path on rate hikes.

Even though most of those losses have been recouped, jitters remain, with some worrying that the Fed’s dovish tilt is an implicit confirmation of the markets’ anxiety about growth.

The recent inversion of the yield curve — the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond slipped below 3-month T-bill rates for the first time in more than a decade – is considered a classic signal that a recession may follow in the next one to two years.

“I think there are a lot of advisers who are looking for that downside protection, but they don’t want to bet against the market and they don’t want to be overallocated to bonds. Our strategy fits that need pretty well,” Jilek said.

GRAPHIC: Gateway fund performance, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2VcjmDs

ROCKY PATH AHEAD

Notwithstanding worries about an approaching recession, quitting stocks altogether may prove expensive.

“Historically, equity markets tended to produce some of the strongest returns in the months and quarters following an inversion,” J.P. Morgan strategist Marko Kolanovic said in a recent note.

But it might not be all smooth sailing.

“The last three years of the ’90s bull market were very profitable but very volatile,” said Eli Pars, co-chief investment officer at fund manager Calamos Investments in Chicago. “We may be looking at a period like that again.”

Pars leads strategy for the Calamos Hedged Equity Income Fund, which uses a covered call strategy – selling call options against a portfolio of equities – while using puts to limit downside.

“It’s geared toward investors that may be a little less comfortable – either because where we are in the cycle or just in general – with full-on exposure to the equity market,” Pars said.

For 2018 fourth quarter, the fund fell 6.32%, compared with a drop of 13.52% for the S&P 500 Total Return index, according to Morningstar data. In the 2019 first quarter, the fund’s shares gained 6.38%, compared with a 13.65% gain for stocks.

The fund, a relatively new spinoff from the $6 billion Calamos Market Neutral Income Fund, has gone from managing $10 million to $160 million over the last 18 months, Pars said.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; editing by Jennifer Ablan and Leslie Adler)

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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