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Nevada seeks to become eighth state to allow physician-assisted suicide

LAS VEGAS -- Donald Strait’s wife, Caren, died last summer after a nearly four-year-long battle with cancer, but he said he’s still fighting on her behalf.

“I'm not certain if she died of starvation, malnutrition or if she died of dehydration – lack of water,” Straight, a resident of Nevada, told Fox News. “But either way she would have much rather have been able to just simply take a pill or several pills, or whatever it takes and just be able to end it.”

Straight is referring to the Death with Dignity laws, which in seven states plus the District of Columbia allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients.

Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Hawaii, Colorado, California and Washington D.C. all have assisted dying statutes, in addition to Montana, which became legal after a state Supreme Court ruling in 2009.

Don Strait said hopes to see Senate Bill 165 pass so terminally ill patients don't suffer like his wife, who died last summer of adnominal cancer.

Don Strait said hopes to see Senate Bill 165 pass so terminally ill patients don't suffer like his wife, who died last summer of adnominal cancer.

Nevada is the latest state seeking to allow physician-assisted dying, which is also referred to as “Death with Dignity” or “Medical Aid in Dying,” after a bill was introduced in the legislature earlier this month.  

“Unfortunately, because of the way the laws were written here in this state she was forced to just lay in a bed and slowly waste away,” Straight said about his wife, who was hoping to make the trek to Washington to obtain the necessary prescription to end her life, but was too weak to travel in her final days suffering from Carcinomatosis – a form of abdominal cancer.

NJ CLEARS 1ST HURDLE TO MAKE ASSISTED SUICIDE LEGAL; OPPOSITION CALLS HEARING A 'CHARADE'

Caren eventually became unable to eat and requested no further food or liquids. It took 12 days for her to die, Donald said.

Death with dignity bills have faced strong opposition from Catholic groups, which equate them to suicide. The groups say the bill lack safeguards to protect against abuse.

“Legalizing suicide is not a solution. In the face of these challenges, we should support and accompany our loved ones with genuine compassion, not with the false compassion of assisted suicide,” said Las Vegas Bishop George Leo Thomas said.

The bills have also been questioned by some in the medical community who say it puts “too much power” in the hands of doctors.

“The choice all sounds wonderful until you start to think about that it’s going to become a burden, it’s going to become the duty to do this instead of a choice,” Dr. Kirk Bronander, a medical professor and Nevada director of the American Academy of Medical Ethics. “It’ll be a duty because families may be pushing you to do this, it may be a duty because the insurance companies are pushing you to do this.”

He warns against medical professionals taking the decision lightly.

“It does not take great skill to kill the patient,” he said, “it takes great skill to hold their hand and give them proper end of life care.”

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Nevada Democratic State Sen. David Parks, a primary sponsor of the bill in his state, said the legislation hits home in a personal way as he “made a promise some years ago to a lady who was a co-worker and she ended up succumbing to bladder cancer.”

“She said to me at one point if I was healthy enough I’d move to Oregon, and that was when Oregon was the only state that offered the Death with Dignity legislation,” Parks said, adding that she begged him to introduce a similar bill in Nevada.

NEW MEXICO ABORTION BILL CALLED 'MOST EXTREME IN THE NATION'

According to data from the Oregon Health Authority, of the 168 Death With Dignity Act deaths in 2018, the top four end-of-life concerns included losing autonomy, less able to engage in activities, loss of dignity and being a burden on family, friends/caregivers.

While losing autonomy and being less able to engage in activities was a concern for roughly 95 percent of the patients, loss of dignity and being a burden represented 79 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

Oregon’s Death with Dignity law passed in 1997, with a total of 2,217 prescriptions written under the law and 1,459 people actually having died from ingesting the pills, the data showed.

Dr. Thomas Hunt, a professor at Roseman University of Health Sciences, believes the bill has the proper safeguards in place – including being diagnosed with a terminal condition with six months or less to live, being diagnosed by two separate physicians, submitting two written requests and verbal request and the patient has to be deemed competent.

Hunt sees the controversial topic as a personal choice issue.

“If a patient feels that this is in their best interest and they feel like they have they want control over those last days weeks or maybe even a couple of months I think they should have that,” he said.

Ashley Cardenas, police and programs director for Compassion and Choices, an organization that educates the public about end-of-life care, said the “in more than 40 years of combined experience, we've never had an incident that has been substantiated for coercion or abuse or insurance fraud."

Nevada lawmakers heard the bill on Monday in Carson City. It will now head to a working group for discussion before a vote is taken up on the floor.

Source: Fox News National

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Sudan protest leaders urge people to remain in streets amid military coup, with 16 people killed in last few days

Sudanese protest leaders are urging people to remain in the streets of the capital Khartoum following the military coup even as activists say 16 people have been killed by the regime in the last few days.

The protesters marched for the introduction of the civilian rule rather than letting the military to rule the country after the army forced President Omar al-Bashir from power amid months of anti-government protests.

“We will never leave the place. We will shout together. We will shout to our freedom, to our liberty,” protester Rami Mustafa said Saturday.

“We will never leave the place. We will shout together. We will shout to our freedom, to our liberty.”

— Protester Rami Mustafa

SUDAN'S UPHEAVAL BRINGS FEARS FOR SOUTH SUDAN'S PEACE DEAL

The army said it wants to govern the country for two years and only then call an election for a new head of government, a plan that raised concerns among human rights experts and groups.

The demonstrators fear that the military, dominated by al-Bashir loyalists, won’t give up the power after two years or will hand it only to one of their own.

Sudanese activists say that 16 people, including a soldier, have been killed in the two days since the military coup.

Demonstrators gather in Sudan's capital of Khartoum, Friday, April 12, 2019. The Sudanese protest movement has rejected the military's declaration that it has no ambitions to hold the reins of power for long after ousting the president of 30 years, Omar al-Bashir.

Demonstrators gather in Sudan's capital of Khartoum, Friday, April 12, 2019. The Sudanese protest movement has rejected the military's declaration that it has no ambitions to hold the reins of power for long after ousting the president of 30 years, Omar al-Bashir. (AP Photo)

At least 13 people were shot dead on Thursday while another three people were killed on Friday, activists from the Sudan Doctors Committee said, claiming that the victims died “at the hands of regime forces and its shadow militias.”

Sudanese police confirmed the figure on Friday, though saying that the 16 people were killed by “stray bullets. At least 20 people were also wounded at rallies and sit-ins across the country.

A TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS IN RULE OF SUDAN'S AL-BASHIR

The activist group said that at least 38 people, including at least six soldiers, have been killed since the protests began on April 6.

Demonstrators gather in Sudan's capital of Khartoum, Friday, April 12, 2019. The Sudanese protest movement has rejected the military's declaration that it has no ambitions to hold the reins of power for long after ousting the president of 30 years, Omar al-Bashir.

Demonstrators gather in Sudan's capital of Khartoum, Friday, April 12, 2019. The Sudanese protest movement has rejected the military's declaration that it has no ambitions to hold the reins of power for long after ousting the president of 30 years, Omar al-Bashir. (AP Photo)

Al-Bashir was ousted from power earlier this week following nearly four months of protests calling for an end to his nearly 30-year rule. The people at first protested against price hikes and shortages, but it quickly turned into a larger movement for Democracy and autocratic rule.

The ousted president is under house arrest and will be tried for unspecified crimes by Sudanese courts, the military said.

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Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for allegedly playing a role in a genocide linked to the war in Sudan’s Darfur region in the 2000s.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Premier: China needs 'strong measures' to support economy

China's top economic official says the country needs "strong measures" to counteract downward pressure on growth but Beijing plans to promote market-oriented reforms instead of relying on more lending and deficit government spending.

Premier Li Keqiang, speaking in a nationally televised news conference, said Friday the communist government will cut taxes and take other steps to "boost the vitality of the market."

Li said, "We certainly need to take strong measures to cope with rising uncertainties that we face this year." However, he added that boosting lending or government spending might "lead to future problems."

Li expressed confidence Beijing can achieve its annual growth target of 6 to 6.5 percent. Economic growth last year fell to a three-decade low of 6.6 percent.

Source: Fox News World

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Darfur justice could prove elusive despite al-Bashir’s fall

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, driven from power and now languishing in a prison where his opponents were once jailed and tortured, is more vulnerable than ever to a decade-old international arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Darfur.

But the military, which forced him from power after four months of mass protests, says it won't extradite him to the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Even many of al-Bashir's opponents are reluctant to hand him over to the ICC, saying they prefer to bring him to justice in Sudan.

Any attempt to hold him and other top officials accountable could pose risks to the transition to civilian rule sought by the protesters.

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003, eventually killing an estimated 300,000 people and displacing some 2.7 million.

Source: Fox News World

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HSBC’s 2018 profit misses estimates; China weakness poses growth risks

FILE PHOTO: The HSBC bank logo at the bank's Canary Wharf offices
FILE PHOTO: The HSBC bank logo at the bank's offices in the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause/File Photo

February 19, 2019

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings Plc posted on Tuesday a 15.9 percent rise in 2018 profit, supported by business growth in its core markets of Asia and Britain, but market weakness in the fourth quarter resulted in the bank missing street estimates.

An economic slowdown in China, the world’s second-largest economy, poses a challenge to the bank’s strategy of pouring more resources into Asia where it already makes over three quarters of its profits.

HSBC reported a profit before tax of $19.9 billion for 2018 compared with $17.2 billion the year before. The profit for the year, however, was below an average estimate of $22 billion, according to Refinitiv data based on forecasts from 17 analysts.

Europe’s biggest bank by market capitalization said it would pay a full-year dividend of $0.51 per share, roughly in line with analysts’ expectations. The bank was confident of maintaining the dividend at this level, it said.

“Despite more challenging market conditions at the end of the year and a weaker global economic outlook, we are committed to the targets we announced in June,” HSBC CEO John Flint said in the statement.

In the first public outlining of his strategy at the helm of HSBC, Flint had said in June that HSBC would invest $15-$17 billion in the next three years in areas including technology and China, while keeping profitability and dividend targets little changed.

“We will be proactive in managing costs and investment to meet the risks to revenue growth where necessary, but we will not take short-term decisions that harm the long-term interests of the business.”

China’s economic growth slowed to 6.6 percent in 2018, the weakest in 28 years, weighed down by rising borrowing costs and a clampdown on riskier lending that starved smaller, private companies of capital and stifled investment.

Flint, who completed his first year in charge of the lender, said that the bank remained alert to the downside risks of the current economic environment, global trade tensions and the future path of interest rates.

The lender’s core capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, fell to 14 percent at end-December from 14.5 percent at the end of 2017, mainly due to adverse foreign exchange movements, it said in the statement.

(Reporting By Sumeet Chatterjee and Lawrence White; additional reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Source: OANN

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Boeing unveils unmanned combat jet developed in Australia

FILE PHOTO: The Boeing logo is pictured at Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil
FILE PHOTO: The Boeing logo is pictured at the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition fair (LABACE) at Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Aug. 14, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo

February 26, 2019

By Jamie Freed

AVALON, Australia (Reuters) – Boeing Co on Wednesday unveiled an unmanned, fighter-like jet developed in Australia and designed to fly alongside crewed aircraft in combat for a fraction of the cost.

The U.S. manufacturer hopes to sell the multi-role aircraft, which is 38 feet long (11.6 meters) and has a 2,000 nautical mile (3,704 kilometer) range, to customers around the world, modifying it as requested.

It is Australia’s first domestically developed combat aircraft in decades and Boeing’s biggest investment in unmanned systems outside the United States, although the company declined to specify the dollar amount.

Defense contractors are investing increasingly in autonomous technology as militaries around the world look for a cheaper and safer way to maximize their resources.

Boeing rivals like Lockheed Martin Corp and Kratos Defense and Security Solutions Inc are also investing in such aircraft.

Four to six of the new aircraft, called the Boeing Airpower Teaming System, can fly alongside a F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, said Shane Arnott, director of Boeing research and prototype arm Phantom Works International.

“To bring that extra component and the advantage of unmanned capability, you can accept a higher level of risk,” he said.

The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in the United States said last year that the U.S. Air Force should explore pairing crewed and uncrewed aircraft to expand its fleet and complement a limited number of “exquisite, expensive, but highly potent fifth-generation aircraft” like the F-35.

“Human performance factors are a major driver behind current aerial combat practices,” the policy paper said. “Humans can only pull a certain number of Gs, fly for a certain number of hours, or process a certain amount of information at a given time.”

In addition to performing like a fighter jet, other roles for the Boeing system early warning, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance alongside aircraft like the P-8 Poseidon and E-7 Wedgetail, said Kristin Robertson, vice president and general manager of Boeing Autonomous Systems.

“It is operationally very flexible, modular, multi-mission,” she said. “It is a very disruptive price point. Fighter-like capability at a fraction of the cost.”

Robertson declined to comment on the cost, saying that it would depend on the configuration chosen by individual customers.

The jet is powered by a derivative of a commercially available engine, uses standard runways for take-off and landing, and can be modified for carrier operations at sea, Robertson said. She declined to specify whether it could reach supersonic speeds, common for modern fighter aircraft.

Its first flight is expected in 2020, with Boeing and the Australian government producing a concept demonstrator to pave the way for full production.

Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, is home to Boeing’s largest footprint outside the United States and has vast airspace with relatively low traffic for flight testing.

The Boeing Airpower Teaming System will be manufactured in Australia, but production lines could be set up in other countries depending on sales, Arnott said.

The United States, which has the world’s biggest military budget, would be among the natural customers for the product.

The U.S. Air Force 2030 project foresees the Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter working together with stealthy combat drones, called the “Loyal Wingman” concept, said Derrick Maple, principal analyst for unmanned systems at IHS Markit.

“The U.S. has more specific plans for the wingman concept, but Western Europe will likely develop their requirements in parallel, to abate the capabilities of China and the Russian Federation and other potential threats,” he said.

Robertson declined to name potential customers and would not comment on potential stealth properties, but said the aircraft had the potential to sell globally.

“We didn’t design this as a point solution but a very flexible solution that we could outfit with payloads, sensors, different mission sets to complement whatever their fleet is,” she said. “Don’t think of it as a specific product that is tailored to do only one mission.”

(Reporting by Jamie Freed; additional reporting by Gerry Doyle; editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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WhatsApp Blocks Spanish Party Channel Days Before Election

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp unexpectedly blocked a channel belonging to the Spanish left-wing Podemos Party less than a week before the general election, sparking accusations of meddling.

The party’s account was blocked on Monday following a political debate held the day before. Podemos Communications Secretary Juanma del Olmo was the first to report the blocking.

“We have been operating normally for 15 days, sending messages and communicating with people who have asked us to register,” he said later, adding that the channel was shut down on the last week of the election campaign “when people decide on their votes.”


Leo Zagami lays out the facts about how the globalists have been planning to use Joe Biden as a presidential candidate.

According to Podemos, the party had as many as 50,000 registered followers on WhatsApp at the time the channel was blocked. “With just a few days before the election left, we will not be able to start anew if [the channel] is not restored,” del Olmo said. The party then approached the messaging service seeking clarification but apparently did not receive a reply until Tuesday.

Later, the company said in a brief statement to the media that the blocked account was violating its terms of use. “We apply the same implementation standards for all WhatsApp users worldwide. Our terms and services are explicit and do not allow mass messaging or third-party programs to automate messages,” it said, as cited by El Pais.

Europa Press News/Europa Press via Getty Images

Podemos argued that it used the same tools all other parties were using. “Why have they shut down only the account of Podemos and not those of other parties doing the same?” del Olmo asked in a tweet, singling out the Spanish Socialists.

The Socialist Party rejected the allegations, telling El Pais that it mostly uses its WhatsApp channel “to answer questions of the people, who write to us and not to send mass messages.” Podemos, meanwhile, accused the service of directly intervening in the election.

“This is discriminatory behavior, interference from a company in an electoral process, which… affects the quality of our democracy,” the party said in a Twitter post.

WhatsApp has not commented on the accusations yet. The Podemos channel remained blocked as of April 24, four days before the election.


Tech giant Google celebrated the globalist-created “Earth Day” on its homepage on Monday, but chose to ignore Easter Sunday – Christianity’s holiest day.

Source: InfoWars

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

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

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

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

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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