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Czech police say PM Babis should stand trial in fraud case

FILE PHOTO: Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis attends a parliamentary session during a no-confidence vote for the government he leads, in Prague
FILE PHOTO: Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis attends a parliamentary session during a no-confidence vote for the government he leads, in Prague, Czech Republic, November 23, 2018. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo

April 17, 2019

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech police said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Andrej Babis and others should stand trial for alleged fraud involving the handling of a 2 million euro European Union subsidy – charges that could see him jailed for up to 10 years.

Babis, a billionaire media and chemicals entrepreneur, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and told the state CTK news agency on Wednesday that the case was part of a political plot against him. “It has been politicized,” he said.

His junior coalition partners – the center-left Social Democrats who have threatened to pull out of the government in the past over the accusations – said that they would wait for the state attorney’s decision.

“The investigation by the police has been concluded and … there is a recommendation to indict all those charged by the police,” the spokesman for the Prague district state attorney’s office said. Babis was among those charged, the spokesman added.

In the Czech legal system, police bring initial charges. They then investigate and present findings to a state attorney who decides whether to go to court, ask police to investigate further, or halt the proceedings.

Thousands of opposition supporters and other activists have taken to the streets protesting against Babis since the charges emerged in 2017.

But the case has not dented Babis’ overall popularity ahead of the European Parliament elections in May. His centrist ANO party, a member of that parliament’s ALDE faction, leads in polls with a double-digit margin.

Elections for the Czech parliament are not due until 2021.

Police have said they are looking into accusations that Babis hid his ownership of a farm and conference center, called Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest), so that it could qualify for an EU subsidy meant for small businesses.

Babis has said it was owned by his family members when the subsidy was awarded and only later folded into his Agrofert group of companies.

The European Union has said its OLAF anti-fraud unit has also been looking into the case.

(Reporting by Robert Muller, Editing by Michael Kahn and Andrew Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Kenneth Starr ‘very proud’ of William Barr’s handling of Mueller report

As Attorney General William Barr faced questions on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the Mueller report, former independent counsel Kenneth Starr praised Barr for doing what the law requires while being as transparent as possible.

“I’m very proud of Bill Barr. He’s a great lawyer. He’s a great Attorney General already in these early weeks under enormous pressure. He is doing what the law requires,” said Starr on “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday.

AG WILLIAM BARR TESTIFIES AT HOUSE HEARING, FIRST SINCE MUELLER REPORT MEMO RELEASE -- LIVE BLOG

Starr spoke as as Barr testified before a House subcommittee, marking his first appearance before lawmakers on Capitol Hill since releasing his four-page memo on the key findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

During the hearing, Barr vowed to release a redacted version of Mueller's report "within a week," as he pushed back at Democrats blasting him for what they called his "unacceptable" handling of the initial summary of that document.

“I think he (Barr) wants to do everything that he can in favor of transparency within the confines of the law and of course unless we have these materials page by page and we don’t we can’t make an intelligent assessment of the specifics,” Starr, who also wrote the book “Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation,” said.

BARR VOWS MUELLER REPORT RELEASE 'WITHIN A WEEK,' AS DEMS RIP 'UNACCEPTABLE' HANDLING AT HEATED HEARING 

He added that he thought Barr was “cool” and “collected” as he testified before a congressional panel on Capitol Hill.

On Tuesday, Barr said that he identified four areas of the report that he believed should be redacted, including grand jury material. He maintained that he is working "diligently to make as much information as possible available to Congress."

“With respect to the Mueller report, he’s standing his ground and I'm also very happy to hear him defend the March 24 letter,” said Starr referring to the letter summarizing the findings of Mueller’s report. Starr added that the letter “specifically and expressly quotes from the Mueller report itself setting forth the principle conclusions.”

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“That’s precisely what he (Barr) is required to do under the governing regulations so he is going by the books and that is what he is telling the committee today, ‘I’m a by the books law guy. I’m not a politician,’” said Starr who added that Barr is, “The nation’s leading lawyer right now. Let’s let him follow the law.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Commemoration held at trade center site for 1993 bombing

A crowd has marked the anniversary of the 1993 bombing at the old World Trade Center that foreshadowed 9/11.

A bell tolled at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza on Tuesday to mark the midday moment when a truck bomb exploded in an underground garage 26 years ago.

Six people died, one of them pregnant. Relatives read their names.

More than 1,000 people were injured.

Authorities say the bomb was set by Muslim extremists angry about U.S. policies in the Mideast.

Six suspects were convicted and imprisoned. A seventh remains at large.

Former trade center director Charles Maikish (MAY'-kihsh) told Tuesday's crowd the 1993 bombing was "a lesson, hard-learned, and a wake-up call."

He credited subsequent safety upgrades with speeding the twin towers' evacuation on Sept. 11, 2001.

Source: Fox News National

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Trudeau, a champion of political correctness, faces controversy over his own actions

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing controversy over whether his public image as a champion of political correctness matches his private actions, in the wake of a string of resignations, including two high-profile women ministers in Trudeau’s Cabinet, among them Canada’s first indigenous justice minister.

The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, said Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of a plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake.

“I was not aware of that erosion of trust, and as prime minister and head of cabinet, I should have been,” Trudeau, who stopped short of an apology, said of the resignations during a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday. “Ultimately, I believe our government will be stronger for having wrestled with these issues.”

A federal election in Canada is scheduled for later this year.

Trudeau had promised transparency while describing himself as a feminist determined to right the wrongs against Canada’s indigenous people. Women make up half of his cabinet.

“He depicted himself as a feminist, as someone who believes in indigenous reconciliation, and then you have two of his top female Cabinet ministers resign, and they are depicting him in a very different light,” Daniel Beland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal, said.

Eddie Goldenberg, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, said: “There is a political correctness here. Nobody wants to go after an indigenous woman minister. It’s become politically incorrect to question the former minister.”

JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S GOVERNMENT HIT WITH ANOTHER CABINET MINISTER RESIGNATION AS CORRUPTION ROW INTENSIFIES

Trudeau has said he asked Wilson-Raybould to revisit her decision not to instruct prosecutors and said she agreed to consider that. He denied applying any inappropriate pressure, saying he and his officials only were pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of jobs.

SNC-Lavalin has pleaded not guilty to fraud and corruption charges related to allegations it paid about $35 million in bribes to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011.

“It’s a pseudo-scandal... What the hell? You are doing business in Libya and you are not bribing?” said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. “It does suggest to me that the director of public prosecutions... is also nuts. And so is Wilson-Raybould. These people are delusional.”

Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle by Trudeau. She has testified that she believed she lost the justice job because she did not give in to “sustained” pressure to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin.

That solution would have avoided a potential criminal conviction that would bar the company from receiving any federal government business for a decade. The company is a major employer in Quebec, Trudeau’s home province. It has about 9,000 employees in Canada and more than 50,000 worldwide.

The company publicly led the lobbying charge for a law that allows for deferred prosecution agreements as a way to resolve the criminal charges it faces. The new attorney general has not ruled out approving a settlement.

Wilson-Raybould has said herself that the pressure from Trudeau and others was not illegal and that she was not explicitly instructed to do a remediation agreement.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU DODGES CALLS TO RESIGN AMID FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL’S ALLEGATIONS IN BRIBERY SCANDAL

Some Liberal lawmakers have expressed confidence in Trudeau.

Trudeau said he tried to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, “I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?”

“When you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised,” she also tweeted.

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Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for re-election, has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, a respected Cabinet minister who said she lost confidence in how the government has handled the affair.

“It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our Attorney General should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases,” Philpott wrote in the resignation letter to Trudeau.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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DUP says it wants a Brexit deal, more progress needed on backstop

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy leader Nigel Dodds, speaks to the media outside the Cabinet Office, in London
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy leader Nigel Dodds, speaks to the media outside the Cabinet Office, in London, Britain March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

March 15, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The deputy leader of the Northern Irish party which props up Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said his party wanted to agree a Brexit deal but the issue over the so-called Irish backstop remained the key problem.

Nigel Dodds said there had been good talks with senior British ministers, including finance minister Philip Hammond, and progress had been made but it was insufficient and much would depend on what guarantees the government could offer.

“We have always said that we want to get a deal. But it has to be the right deal,” Dodds, of the Democratic Unionist Party, told reporters.

He said his party had been very disappointed by the legal opinion put forward by the British Attorney General this week on the backstop.

“Now the government is very focused on ensuring that the issue of the backstop, the separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom, that that is addressed,” he said.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout and William James; editing by Michael Holden/Guy Faulconbridge)

Source: OANN

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The Latest: Twin bombings rock Syria's Idlib

The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

Syrian opposition activists and paramedics say two bomb blasts in the northwestern city of Idlib have inflicted casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts in the Qusour neighborhood during rush hour wounded about 30 people. It said there were unconfirmed reports of deaths.

The Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Civil Defense, a group of first responders, also reported casualties. The bombs went off in the same area, just seconds apart.

The city of Idlib is controlled by al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has wide influence in northern Syria.

The city has been hit with bombings in recent months that killed or wounded scores of people.

The Observatory and the Syrian Civil Defense earlier reported government shelling of rebel-held towns south of Idlib, saying several people were wounded.

___

12:30 p.m.

More than 300 Islamic State militants who are holed up in a tiny area in eastern Syria are refusing to surrender to U.S.-backed Syrian forces and are trying to negotiate an exit.

A person familiar with the negotiations says the militants are asking for a corridor to the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the talks, which he described as taking place indirectly.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that monitors the civil war in Syria, says another request by the Islamic State group to be evacuated to neighboring Iraq was also rejected.

The militants are making their last stand in eastern Syria, hiding among hundreds of civilians.

Source: Fox News World

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Brexit defections reveal frayed fabric of UK politics

An anti-Brexit protester waves an EU flag opposite the Houses of Parliament in London
An anti-Brexit protester waves an EU flag opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain June 8, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

February 21, 2019

By William James

LONDON (Reuters) – Brexit has torn the fabric of Britain’s political system, say a group of 11 lawmakers behind a dramatic series of defections that have sent shockwaves through one of the world’s oldest and most stable parliaments.

But the group needs to incite a much wider rebellion to achieve its goal of triggering a rethink over the country’s exit from the European Union and smashing a two-party structure that they say is no longer fit for purpose.

“Where will it lead? It could lead to nowhere, it could become a footnote in the history of Brexit, or it could become the beginnings of the break-up of the party system which has been going for the last 100 years,” said Tony Wright, Emeritus Professor of Government and Public Policy at UCL university.

“They need numbers. You’re going to need some cabinet resignations, that would really set things moving.”

Just 36 days from Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to find a divorce deal with the EU that parliament will approve, leaving the world’s fifth largest economy and all its global investors staring down the barrel of a potentially chaotic exit.

Over three days of high political theater in London this week, three members of May’s right-leaning Conservative Party and eight from the leftist Labour opposition have quit their parties to become independent lawmakers.

It is already the most significant breakaway group in almost four decades for a parliament in which the two main parties have formed the government of the day for almost a century, largely restricting smaller groups to the political fringes.

The defectors, now known as ‘The Independent Group’, say their old parties have been hijacked by far-left and far-right factions, leaving the center ground of British politics unmanned and powerless to exert its influence.

“You don’t join a political party to fight it, and you don’t stay in it and skirmish in the margins when the truth is the battle is over and the other side has won,” said Anna Soubry, the one-time Conservative minister who resigned on Wednesday.

NO CHANGE TO BREXIT ARITHMETIC

Brexit has proved to be the tipping point.

The 2016 referendum that split the country 52-48 percent in favor of leaving also divided both main political parties, drawing a new battle line in parliament between ‘Leavers’ and ‘Remainers’ that cuts right through traditional party loyalties.

While the country is divided over EU membership, most agree it is at a crossroads and that its choices over Brexit will shape the prosperity of future generations.

May has failed to rally eurosceptic and pro-EU wings of her party around a common position on how best to leave the bloc. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused by critics of equivocation and a lack of clear direction.

“If Brexit was a pained clarion call for change, then we hear it,” said Heidi Allen, another of the former Conservative lawmakers.

“Our parties have been unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenge and have no plan to respond, nor heal the division across our cities, our villages and our dining tables.”

The party discipline that typically prevails and helps the government set policy has broken down. Positions are entrenched, rebellions are commonplace, and the government has become accustomed to losing votes. Policymaking on all fronts has ground to a halt.

Therein lies both the difficulty and the opportunity for the new group.

The now-independent lawmakers were already voting against the government, so their resignation has not changed the arithmetic in a parliament which won’t approve May’s Brexit deal, but can’t agree on what alternative path it wants to pursue.

The group knows it can only capitalize on widespread frustration over this stalemate and fears over the ticking Brexit clock if they succeed in convincing others there is a viable alternative to the two positions offered by Labour and the Conservatives.

“We have taken the first step in leaving the old tribal politics behind and we invite others who share our political values to do so too,” said former Labour lawmaker Chuka Umunna, who resigned on Monday.

SECOND REFERENDUM

The lawmakers have not yet formed a new party with an agreed set of policies and positions on key issues. But their future will almost certainly be defined by Brexit, and they do not have much time to make an impact.

Almost all the group’s members are clear that they do not want Britain to leave the EU without a deal, and they do want to hold a second referendum.

One or both of those views are shared by many in parliament, including ministers who have so far remained loyal to May and voted in favor of her deal despite their reservations.

But even in government, patience is wearing thin.

One minister who declined to be named, told Reuters prior to the defections that he was ready to vote against the government and face the sack if May hadn’t made any progress on a deal. Several other have signaled publicly they could do the same.

Their loyalty is set to be tested next week when May either returns to parliament with a revised Brexit deal, or to set out what progress she has made towards one. Lawmakers will have a chance to vote on what happens next.

Those votes could see May’s deal rejected and parliament handed an opportunity to seize control of the process and use it to rule out a no-deal exit and delay Britain’s departure.

For The Independent Group this will be a defining moment to swell their ranks and reach the critical mass they need to attract the funding required to build a political party capable of fighting an election.

“Frankly if we have got the courage to do this, they can follow that. See it, grasp it, do the right thing by your country,” Soubry said.

(Reporting by William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark John)

Source: OANN

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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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