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U.S. intelligence says Huawei funded by Chinese state security: report

Huawei logo is pictured during the media day for the Shanghai auto show in Shanghai
A Huawei logo is pictured during the media day for the Shanghai auto show in Shanghai, China April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

April 20, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. intelligence has accused Huawei Technologies of being funded by Chinese state security, The Times said on Saturday, adding to the list of allegations faced by the Chinese technology company in the West.

The CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from China’s National Security Commission, the People’s Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network, the British newspaper reported, citing a source.

Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence shared its claims with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, which includes Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, according to the report http://bit.ly/2KT7ztd.

Huawei dismissed the allegations in a statement cited by the newspaper.

“Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources,” a Huawei representative told The Times.

The company, the CIA and Chinese state security agencies did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The accusation comes at a time of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing and amid concerns in the United States that Huawei’s equipment could be used for espionage. The company has said the concerns are unfounded.

Authorities in the United States are probing Huawei for alleged sanctions violations.

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States on charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

She denies wrongdoing and her father has previously said the arrest was “politically motivated”.

Amid such charges, top educational institutions in the West have recently severed ties with Huawei to avoid losing federal funding.

Another Chinese technology company, ZTE Corp, has also been at the center of similar controversies in the United States.

U.S. sanctions forced ZTE to stop most business between April and July last year after Commerce Department officials said it broke a pact and was caught illegally shipping U.S.-origin goods to Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties.

Reuters reported earlier this week that the United States will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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With budget, Trump throws opening jab in next funding fight with Congress

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a rally at El Paso County Coliseum in El Paso
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a rally at El Paso County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas, U.S., February 11, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

March 11, 2019

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Monday will ask lawmakers to hike spending for the military and the wall he wants to build on the U.S.-Mexico border and slash other programs in his 2020 budget, the opening move in his next funding fight with Congress.

The Republican president’s proposal, slated for release at 11:30 a.m., is expected to be rejected by Congress, where Democratic leaders on Sunday warned Trump against what they called a “repeat performance” of last year’s funding war, which led to a five-week partial shutdown of the federal government.

This year, the stakes are higher. The Oct. 1 deadline for a funding deadline to keep the government running coincides with the deadline to lift the debt limit – without which the U.S. government would risk a default, which would shock the world economy.

Trump’s budget will ask for $8.6 billion to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, officials familiar with the budget told Reuters.

That is more than six times what Congress gave him for border projects in each of the past two fiscal years, and 6 percent more than the president has corralled by invoking emergency powers this year after he failed to get the money he wanted.

Immigration enforcement, veterans’ healthcare and opioid addiction programs will get a boost in the budget. But Trump will propose to cut non-defense spending by an average of 5 percent below caps that Congress had set for fiscal 2019, the White House Office of Management and Budget said on Sunday.

Some programs will be targeted for cancellation altogether to push total non-defense discretionary spending below a cap of $542 billion established in a 2011 fiscal restraint law, an administration official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tax cuts have been a priority for the Republican White House and Congress in recent years, rather than deficit reduction. The deficit ran to $900 billion in 2019, and the national debt has ballooned to $22 trillion.

Trump’s budget would propose $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over a decade – but even that would not be enough to balance the budget. The OMB said the budget was designed to balance by 2034, exceeding the traditional 10-year budget outlook.

Trump will propose to boost defense spending by an as-yet-unspecified amount in fiscal 2020. But to get around the spending caps, those increases will be funneled through the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, more traditionally used for emergencies.

The tactic has already drawn criticism from fiscal hawks. “We’ve long argued that OCO is a gimmick,” said Romina Boccia, who specializes in fiscal and economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Boccia said she saw the move as an opening bid to try to break the pattern of making increases in defense spending contingent on hikes in non-defense programs.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Asia shares tick up, dollar near three-week low after Powell comments

FILE PHOTO : A man is reflected on an electronic board showing a graph analyzing recent change of Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO : A man is reflected on an electronic board showing a graph analyzing recent change of Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

February 27, 2019

By Tomo Uetake

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares edged higher on Wednesday and the dollar fell to a three-week low after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reinforced the U.S. central bank’s recent shift toward a more “patient” approach on policy in the face of a slowing economy.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent in early trade, not far from its five-month high marked on Monday.

Japan’s Nikkei share average gained 0.4 percent, while Australian stocks rose 0.3 percent.

The Fed is in “no rush to make a judgment” about further changes to interest rates, Powell told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday as he spelled out the central bank’s approach to an economy that is likely slowing.

In two hours of testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Powell elaborated on the “conflicting signals” the Fed has tried to decipher in recent weeks, including disappointing data on retail sales and other aspects of the economy that contrast with steady hiring, wage growth, and ongoing low unemployment.

More evidence of the hot and cold economy was in evidence overnight, with weaker-than-expected U.S. housing data and a rosy consumer confidence report.

U.S. homebuilding tumbled to a more than two-year low in December as construction of both single and multi-family housing declined, which overshadowed the rebound in consumer confidence in February after three months of declines.

The contrasting data points left Wall Street underpowered, with the benchmark S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite closing down 0.1 percent each.

“Chairman Powell’s comments were neutral and the economic data released overnight was mixed, insufficient to provide implications for the Fed’s policy and directions to the market,” said Yasuo Sakuma, chief investment officer at Libra Investments.

In the currency market, the dollar was softer after the Fed chief’s testimony, with its index measure against major peers dipping to its lowest in three weeks overnight. It last traded flat at 96.079.

The British pound vaulted after Prime Minister Theresa May offered lawmakers the chance to vote on delaying Brexit.

Sterling last traded at $1.3255, having risen to $1.3288 on Tuesday, its highest levels in five months. Against the euro, it hit a 21-month high of 0.8563.

Investors will be keeping an eye on the U.S.-North Korean summit, scheduled to kickoff in Hanoi later on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were due to meet for their second summit, betting that their personal relationship can break a stalemate over the North’s nuclear weapons and end more than 70 years of hostility.

Oil futures rose slightly on Tuesday after news that OPEC planned to continue production cuts despite Trump criticizing the producer group for rising crude prices a day earlier.

U.S. crude futures stood at $56.02 per barrel, up 0.9 percent, in early Asian trade.

(Reporting by Tomo Uetake, additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Source: OANN

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German regulator suspects manipulation of Wirecard stock, informs prosecutors

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim
FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim near Munich, Germany September 6, 2018. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo

April 16, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s financial market regulator said it had filed a complaint alleging market manipulation in the shares of Wirecard, a payments company whose shares were hit by a Jan. 30 report in the Financial Times alleging financial wrongdoing.

A spokeswoman for regulator Bafin said the complaint, filed to the Munich Prosecutor’s Office, concerned around a dozen people it suspects of market manipulation in a short-selling attack, which wiped billions off Wirecard’s market value.

(Reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Michelle Martin)

Source: OANN

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AP Was There: Hours of terror unfold inside Columbine

On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys dressed in black trench coats went on a killing rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. They shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded two dozen others before taking their own lives.

Twenty years later, The Associated Press is republishing this story about the attack, the product of reporting from more than a dozen AP journalists who conducted interviews in the hours after it happened. The article first appeared on April 22, 1999.

___

A moment of surprise, then hours of terror

By TED ANTHONY

AP National Writer

LITTLETON, Colo. — Her favorite lunchtime meal was ready — "my only meal," jokes Sarah DeBoer. So, nachos in hand, she headed toward the commons area of the Columbine High School cafeteria.

It was a sunny Tuesday morning, maybe 60 degrees, only 17 school days before graduation, and a spring mentality was afoot — the kind that says summer is on the horizon.

Outside, two disaffected young men knew something their classmates didn't. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had endgame in mind.

Ms. DeBoer, who knew the pair in passing, had talked to them Friday. True, they liked to bluster about guns and vengeance and Adolf Hitler. But they seemed — for them, at least — fine.

Upstairs in the school library, four dozen students were studying their way through the lunch period.

Down the hall, Dave Sanders, a popular instructor and coach, was teaching a science class. Nearby, Stephanie Williams, 16, a junior, was in the choir room singing.

Then, at about 11:15 a.m., a sound from outside: pop-pop-pop-BANG.

In the cafeteria, they thought it was a lunchtime prank. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.

Sarah DeBoer, a 16-year-old sophomore, hit the floor with her lunch companions. As realization washed over her, she uttered one thing. Whether it was aloud or just to herself, she doesn't quite remember.

"I think that I'm going to die."

___

In moments of chaos and hours of confusion, memories can cloud. But, through myriad interviews and briefings, an intelligible if still imprecise portrait emerges of what unfolded behind a suburban school's pale brown walls.

Just after lunch period begins, two young men in black trench coats open fire in the parking lot. Senior Wade Frank, 18, outside in the parking lot next to a picnic area, hears popping sounds and sees a girl lying against a curb, shot in the leg. As he watches, another youth is shot in the back and falls forward.

Then one gunman throws a bomb into the parking lot and heads inside.

"He was just casually walking. He wasn't in any hurry," says Frank.

Sophomore Denny Rowe, 15, is outside having lunch with friends. "These guys opened fire on everything that looked human," says Rowe. Bullets are bouncing everywhere.

"One boy was running and suddenly his ankle just puffed up in blood," says sophomore Don Arnold, 16. "A girl was running and her head popped open."

As the gunmen walk into the school, two students lie dead outside. Still shooting, the two walk to the cafeteria, where food server Karen Nielsen hears someone yell, "Get down!"

Klebold, 17, and Harris, 18, are heavily armed — an assault rifle, sawed-off shotguns, handguns. In the cafeteria, one removes his trench coat to reveal home-made grenades. He tosses a pipe bomb.

Gunshots echo. Students fall. One gets up to run and others follow.

Word spreads: The "Trenchcoat Mafia" has gone nuts. Many of the 900 students in the building duck into closets and bathrooms, under tables and chairs. A couple call 911 with cellular phones. Dozens flee the building and hide in brush around the school.

Senior Nick Foss, 18, and a friend push two teachers, a cook and another woman into a bathroom. "I heard people praying for their husbands and their children," says Foss. The attackers bang on doors, yelling: "We know you're in there."

Casey Brackley, 15, is in the gym when an administrator herds kids into the equipment room.

"I hit my knees and prayed," Ms. Brackley says. They stay for 15 minutes before the administrator directs them outside.

Neil Gardner, the Jefferson County sheriff's deputy assigned to the school full-time, hears shots and spots one of the gunmen in a first-floor hallway. He radios for backup and returns fire as bullets ricochet off lockers. Within minutes, seven officers arrive and begin pulling students, including a few shooting victims, from the building.

In the choir room, above the commons, Stephanie Williams and her classmates hear the sounds.

Someone comes to the door and, with a thumb-forefinger gesture, gives them a warning: gun.

Her teacher tells everyone to sit. But in moments, the school's two-level auditorium next door seems a safer place, so some go; then, after about 10 minutes, they run into the main hall.

"The group I was in headed straight for the door. He was shooting at us," Stephanie says. "All we knew was to run."

As they flee, a door behind them explodes in gunfire.

Sarah DeBoer, separated from her friend who had run into the weight room, lies on the cafeteria floor until she hears a car explode outside. Then she runs into the auditorium and lies down between seats.

There she stays for some time. Fellow students — 15, maybe 20 — cry softly. Teachers warn them to be silent. In the distance, they hear sharp reports and dull explosions. Finally, a janitor enters and tells them: Go!

They run, and gunfire follows.

"I turned, and I saw Dylan was the one who turned and shot at me," Sarah says. "He didn't know it was me; we were just running out of the auditorium."

The gunmen head upstairs toward the library.

___

"All jocks stand up! We're going to kill every one of you," one gunman yells in the library.

Student Aaron Cohn, a ballplayer, is spared because a girl leaps onto his back while he lies on the floor, covering the baseball slogan on his shirt.

"They were laughing after they shot," Cohn says. "It was like they were having the time of their life."

Some students are slain at their desks, one with pencil still in hand. The gunmen play "peek-a-boo" with others, finding them cowering under desks and opening fire. Isaiah Shoels, who is black and has tangled with the gunmen before, is one of those to fall.

Says one assailant: "Oh, my God. Look at this black kid's brain. Awesome, man!"

Some kids play dead. By the time it is over, 12 aren't playing.

Klebold and Harris leave behind shattered windows, bloody floors and a quiet unlike any the library has ever heard. Elsewhere upstairs, Sanders, the teacher, has been shot twice in the chest but manages to get students down a hallway away from danger. He stumbles into a science room, bleeding and coughing blood.

Outside, the first SWAT team is on the scene 20 minutes after the first 911 calls, joining the sheriff's deputies. It finds several explosive devices around the school and treads cautiously.

"We had initial people there right away, but we couldn't get in," Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone says. "We were way outgunned."

About 45 minutes after the shooting begins, at noon, ambulances take the first wounded students — the ones who managed to run outside — to hospitals. Bomb teams, firetrucks, more SWAT units and paramedics arrive.

Nick Foss and other students manage to crawl into a space between the ceiling and acoustic tiles. Foss falls through a tile, crashing onto the floor of the teacher's lounge. He runs.

Kammi Vest, 18, hides in the choir-room closet with up to 60 other students. Others try to crawl through heating vents to safety.

In the science room, Dave Sanders is dying. Students cover the 47-year-old teacher with their shirts and a blanket and keep him talking. But his pulse slows, and he grows cold.

Shots are heard until almost 12:30. About that time, in the library, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris turn their guns on themselves, though no one will be sure of this for hours.

As 12:30 passes, after no shots echo for several minutes, SWAT teams begin sweeping the building room by room. It is, quite literally, a minefield: Dropped backpacks are everywhere, each a potential bomb. In the coming days, bombs will turn up in various shapes and sizes. They include two 35-pound propane bombs hidden in the school's kitchen.

At about 2:30, SWAT teams begin freeing those in hiding. In small groups, hands behind their heads, they run from the school to a holding area. They are frisked, questioned, offered medical care and bused to Leawood Elementary School to be reunited with parents.

By now, the world is seeing it all on TV. Escaped students cling to each other. Tears flow freely for some; for others, it will take time. Even the tough guys, the ones with the backward baseball caps and the baggy camo pants, cry.

At 4:30, with the gunmen's bodies found, authorities declare the school under control. In goes Dr. Chris Colwell, summoned for a medical synopsis. In the sun-dappled, silent library is the worst sight he has ever seen.

"You walk in there with that hope that there might be somebody who's still alive and still salvageable," Colwell says. "It didn't take long to see that wasn't the case."

He pronounces them all dead — 10 students and two alienated schoolmates who let their anger consume them.

The bodies will stay there for an entire day, until the known bombs are cleared.

___

By the following afternoon, nearby Clement Park has become a place of mourning. Students and teachers and gawkers, they come to commiserate, to speak of faith and perseverance, to see the spectacle and talk to the press.

Among the pilgrims: Sarah DeBoer, wearing her Columbine football jersey, and Stephanie Williams, accompanied by a friend to comfort her. They stand together, yards from the scene of their lives' greatest terror, and they try to process the scenes running through their mind.

"Yesterday I was so scared," Ms. DeBoer says, her voice falling.

"They ruined the school, but I think we should definitely go back," she says. "If you don't go back, they'll win."

Source: Fox News National

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Duke’s Williamson named AP Player of the Year

FILE PHOTO: NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-East Regional-Virginia Tech vs Duke
FILE PHOTO: Mar 29, 2019; Washington, DC, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward Zion Williamson (1) reacts during the second half against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the semifinals of the east regional of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

April 5, 2019

Duke freshman forward Zion Williamson was named the Associated Press Player of the Year on Friday.

He received 59 of the possible 64 votes in winning the award.

Williamson, who was also a unanimous selection to the 2019 college basketball All-America team on Tuesday, averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.8 blocks per game.

His 68 percent shooting from the field was second nationally.

Williamson is projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, though he has yet to officially commit to going pro.

The Blue Devils lost to Michigan State in the Elite Eight, despite being the overall top seed.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Bahrain opposition figure gets 6 months for Sudan tweet

A prominent opposition politician in Bahrain faces up to six months in prison for a tweet about Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Bahraini prosecutors have long targeted Ebrahim Sharif over his outspokenness in an island kingdom in the grips of a yearslong crackdown on dissent.

Both Amnesty International and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy reported the court ruling Wednesday.

Sharif must pay bail of over $1,300 to remain free pending a possible appeal.

His tweet in December 2018 called for al-Bashir to leave office. The Sudanese president has faced months of protest over his rule.

Authorities in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet and a British naval base, did not respond to a request for comment.

Source: Fox News World

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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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