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Newt Gingrich: Left Loves Beto, but Kamala Harris Will Win

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, while addressing the frenzy over Beto O'Rourke's dive into the 2020 Democratic pool of candidates, said he has another favorite to win the eventual party nomination: Sen. Kamala Harris.

"[She is an] African-American woman, [from] the largest state in the country," Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" about the California Democrat. "I think she is a very effective campaigner. I think she will end up being the nominee."

But that doesn't mean Gingrich thinks she'll win against President Donald Trump, and it didn't stop him from getting a dig in at her politics, which include ending private insurance.

"In a Democratic primary, there is nothing nutty enough to disqualify you," said Gingrich.

Meanwhile, Gingrich compared O'Rourke, the former representative from Texas who nearly defeated Sen. Ted Cruz last year for the Senate to another newcomer when it comes to experience: Abraham Lincoln.

"I think that Lincoln had only one term in the House and lost a Senate race," said Gingrich.

But that's where the comparisons ended.

"Lincoln ended up as an amazing president," said Gingrich. "Maybe that will happen to Beto O'Rourke but I somehow doubt it."

Gingrich added that O'Rourke had $80 million in the race against Cruz, but still lost in Texas, and he doesn't think he can take the state from Trump either.

"I love the line, I think in the "Vanity Fair" piece, he said 'I was born to do this,'" said Gingrich. "I thought, there is a certain ego illusion here that the planet had the magic moment and Beto O'Rourke showed up."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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UK’s Prince William meets survivors of Christchurch mosque shootings

Britain’s Prince William visits Christchurch, New Zealand
Britain's Prince William arrives at Christchurch Hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy

April 25, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William met survivors of a deadly shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, including a five-year-old girl recovering in hospital, during a two-day visit to New Zealand.

William, the Duke of Cambridge, was making the trip on behalf of his 93-year-old grandmother Queen Elizabeth, New Zealand’s head of state, following a request from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

He arrived in Christchurch on Thursday afternoon and on Friday visited Christchurch Hospital to meet survivors recovering from injuries from the attacks, before he was set to visit the two mosques where a gunman killed 50 worshippers on March 15.

He had started the visit on Thursday in the country’s largest city of Auckland where he attended an ANZAC memorial service. He later visited Starship Children’s Hospital with Ardern to meet five-year-old Alen Alsati, who had recently woken up from a coma after she and her father were injured in the attacks.

Photos and a video posted on Kensington Palace’s Twitter account showed Prince William sitting on the side of the child’s hospital bed, surrounded by her family and Ardern.

The girl asked if he had a daughter.

“Yes, she’s called Charlotte … she’s about the same age as you,” Prince William replied.

Later in the evening, the Prince went to Christchurch’s justice center to meet first responders to the mosque shootings, including ambulance staff.

“You did an incredible job on a very bad day,” he said, according to Kensington Palace’s Twitter account.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: OANN

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Bjerregaard’s dreams come true with win against Tiger

PGA: WGC - Dell Technologies Match Play - Fourth Round
Mar 30, 2019; Austin, TX, USA; Lucas Bjerregaard chips onto the 18th green during the quarterfinal round of the WGC - Dell Technologies Match Play golf tournament at Austin Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Spillman-USA TODAY Sports

March 31, 2019

(Reuters) – Lucas Bjerregaard fulfilled a childhood dream with his victory over his idol Tiger Woods at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Tournament in Austin, Texas on Saturday.

Bjerregaard, who said he had dreamed of playing against Woods since he was 10, relished the challenge of facing him in person and never looked intimidated as he completed a 1-up victory over the 14-times grand slam winner.

“Yeah, I dreamt about it. I didn’t think it was ever going to come true,” the Dane said after the victory that set up a semi-final with Matt Kuchar on Sunday. “But I’ve definitely seen myself on the practice putting green when I was 10 years old making a putt to beat him or in a major or something like that.

“Obviously didn’t know if it was ever going to come true. And just to get to play him was an experience for me.”

The 27-year-old Bjerregaard might be unknown to the American golfing public but he does have two European victories including a win in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course at St Andrews last year.

He also finished 13th on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings last year, but said on Saturday that he had never experienced the noise or support that Woods attracted in his eight-year professional career.

“It was loud,” Bjerregaard said. “It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

“I’ve played with a lot of good players but nothing can compare to that. You can see, like he’s not just my idol, but a lot of other people.”

Bjerregaard, who met Woods for the first time on the practice tee, nearly fell three holes behind on the front-nine against the American before mounting a charge and producing clutch putting down the stretch.

He eagled the 16th hole to tie, then birdied 17 to remain level and watched Woods miss a putt on the last to end it.

“He hit it well,” Woods said. “He hit a lot of good shots today.

“These are not easy conditions out here. The wind is all over the place. He was flighting it well. His natural ball flight is pretty flat. It’s advantageous in these conditions.”

Thomas Bjorn, last year’s Ryder Cup captain, tweeted his pleasure with his Danish compatriot’s success.

“16 and 17 showed the whole golfing world what (he) is all about,” the Dane said. “Big moment in this guy’s career so far.

“Go on Luke.”

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

Source: OANN

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Doctor’s Testimony Tears Apart Measles Vaccine

Dr. Hooker provided testimony last Friday, February 8, 2019, for the Washington State House Health Committee regarding the vaccines and the Personal Belief Exemption (PBE) bill that was introduced.

Recent outbreaks of measles, especially in Rockland County, New York and Clark County, Washington have created quite a furor in the public health infrastructure of the U.S. and now within state legislatures.

Industry front groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) have seized the opportunity to introduce legislation to remove personal belief exemptions and religious exemptions for vaccinations required for school attendance. Nationwide, over 70 different bills have been introduced or are expected to be introduced in state legislatures to limit these types of exemptions.

I recently had the privilege to testify in the Health Committee in the House of Representatives for Washington State and wanted to share some excerpts of my testimony. In Washington State, legislators have introduced a bill to remove the personal belief exemption specifically for the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine. I want to thank Karl Kanthak and Bernadette Pajer who both contributed important information for my testimony.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency on Jan. 25.

The Following is Taken From My Testimony:

There is a problem with measles in Washington State, but it’s not low vaccination rates, it’s actually high vaccination rates with a vaccine product unable to provide lifetime immunity or vigorous passive maternal protection to infants during the first year of life.

When the measles vaccine was first introduced, most people over the age of 15 who had wild measles had lifetime immunity. In developed nations, like other communicable infections, measles was no longer dangerous except in rare circumstances because of inadequate nutrition, poor sanitation, and / or lack of healthcare. Because having the measles was a routine part of childhood, teens, adults, parents, and grandparents were immune. And because of maternal passive immunity, infants were protected. The death rate due to measles in Washington State in the four years prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine was 1.4 in 10,000 cases and approximately 2 in 1,000,000 in the general population.

Legislators are being told that use of personal and religious belief exemptions are putting the public’s health in danger. They are told that two infants were recently exposed to measles and the babies are in danger. But in fact, if the mothers of the children had wild measles when they were children and they are nursing, the babies may be protected. If the mothers were vaccinated, even if they are nursing, they may not be. Additionally, maternal antibodiestransported across the placenta can provide vital immunity against measles for infants.

Pushing vaccination rates up even higher with an ineffective product is not the answer. As the editor of the journal Vaccine Dr. Gregory Poland of The Mayo Clinic stated in 1994, “…as measles immunization rates rise to high levels in a population, measles becomes a disease of immunized persons.” An MMR vaccination rate of 75% has been reported for the recent measles cluster in Rockland County, New York.

It was reported in the news and provided to legislators that in Clark County, WA there is a 22% exemption rate, but this is based on the voluntary Immunization Information Survey (IIS) which does not accurately reflect the vaccination status of all children enrolled in Washington schools. When compared to the more accurate CDC statistics for the state of Washington for MMR coverage among 19 to 35-month-olds, it is 95.3% +/- 2.6%. The IIS erroneously reports this number at 81.8% and cannot be relied upon.

The current personal belief exemption rate for K-12 for the MMR vaccine in Washington State is only 2.9% (WA DOH School Survey).  Vaccination rates for kindergarteners for at least one MMR vaccine are at least 93% (WA DOH School Survey). Washington State has achieved the public health goal of very high vaccination rates.

As I have already remarked, vaccination does not guarantee immunization and infectious diseases routinely break out in highly vaccinated communities. An example of this is pertussis outbreaks, which occur due to problems with the acellular pertussis portion of the DTaP and Tdap vaccine, creating asymptomatic carriers. An asymptomatic carrier is a person that has become infected with a pathogen, but who display no signs nor symptoms. Although unaffected by the pathogen themselves, carriers can transmit it to others or develop symptoms in later stages of disease.

The SB277 experience in California, where personal belief exemptions were struck down in 2016, has not led to 100% vaccine compliance even within the school system. Removal of personal belief exemptions has served to alienate parents leading to an exodus from the school system (1.2%), as well as from the state, and placing the school districts in the untenable role of “vaccination enforcers.” An additional 1.4% within the school district are still unvaccinated due to Federal Individualized Education Programs, medical and other exemptions. SB277 did not change the minds of non-vaccinating parents. Instead, it pushed families out of school and created lost income to school districts.

(Photo by Dr. Partha Sarathi Sahana, Flickr)

Regarding the Australian experience with vaccine mandates, one official stated that, “Parents reported a greater commitment to their decision not to vaccinate and an increased desire to maintain control over health choices for their children including an unprecedented willingness to become involved in protest action.” (J. Public Health Policy 2018 39:156, Helps et al.) With the removal of the PBE for the MMR vaccine, 2.9% of the children in WA State, which is 15,000 to 20,000 students, will be excluded from school. If the PBE is removed for all vaccines required for school attendance, 37,000 children will be removed from school. For small school districts, this will cause a financial crisis. Mandates do not encourage vaccination, they push exemption-using families out of schools.

The Supreme Court in the Bruesewitz vs. Wyeth case called vaccinations “unavoidably unsafe,” and the scientific literature shows an incidence of vaccine adverse events that is dangerous in light of the proposed mandate. Over the past ten years in the U.S., there has been one reported death from the measles, and it is unclear based on the medical history of the patient whether and how measles played a role in their death. During the same time period (based on Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports), there have been 105 reported deaths associated with the MMR or MMRV vaccinations.

From 2006 to 2011, the CDC funded a project by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc. for the automation of the VAERS database. VAERS up to this point has been a passive surveillance system based on voluntary reporting of vaccine adverse events (AEs) and CDC officials were concerned about underreporting of such events. The team from Harvard Pilgrim set up a monitoring system of a large health care provider (with 35 clinics) and monitoring the outcomes of from 1.4 million vaccines received. Using chart abstraction, 35,570 potential adverse events were reported within a window of 30 days post-vaccination. In other words, the rate of potential adverse events was 2.6%. As legislators, you are feeling pressure to protect infants and others susceptible to poor infection outcome, but taking away the personal belief exemption for an ineffective product is not the answer.

You must not only protect those who are susceptible to poor infection outcome, but protect those who are susceptible to poor vaccination outcome, and to consider the unintended consequences of a fully vaccinated population that does not have lifetime immunity.

The viewpoints expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Infowars.

Owen Shroyer tackles the future for a party so comfortable with lies and hate.

Source: InfoWars

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Orioles’ Davis sets record with 0-for-49 skid

MLB: Oakland Athletics at Baltimore Orioles
Apr 8, 2019; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis (19) flies out to Oakland Athletics left fielder Robbie Grossman (not pictured) extending his streak to 47 consecutive at-bats without a hit which become longest hitless streak by a position player in major-league history during the fifth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

April 9, 2019

Chris Davis stands alone in terms of baseball offensive futility.

The Baltimore Orioles first baseman went 0-for-5 on Monday against the visiting Oakland A’s, leaving him hitless in his past 49 at-bats, dating to last year.

That is a major league record for a position player, passing the mark of 0-for-46 set by Eugenio Velez in 2010-11.

Davis lined out to right in the second inning, lined out to left in the third, then lined out to left in the fifth to pass Velez. He struck out looking in the seventh and fanned swinging in the eighth to leave him 0-for-28 on the season. He entered the night having struck out 13 times and walked four times in 27 plate appearances this year.

Davis has a $23 million salary this year, and he is guaranteed the same amount in 2020, 2021 and 2022, with $17 million to be paid annually and $6 million to be deferred without interest.

He re-signed with Baltimore as a free agent in January 2016, landing a seven-year, $161 million deal after he averaged 42 homers and 109 RBIs over the previous three seasons.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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India’s watchmen question whether Modi embrace will improve their lot

A woman walks past a wall painted with the election symbol of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in an alley at a residential area in Kolkata
A woman walks past a wall painted with the election symbol of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an alley at a residential area in Kolkata, India, March 22, 2019. Picture taken March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

March 23, 2019

By Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – For over a decade Arvind Singh has worked as a watchman in New Delhi, doing the rounds of the streets with a whistle and a wooden stick to keep vigil at night.

Watchmen like him are so ubiquitous in India, guarding everything from offices to homes and stores to factories, that their presence goes almost unnoticed. But over the past week, the watchman has dominated India’s headlines.

That’s because the latest campaign to be launched this week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just before a general election beginning on April 11 is the “Main bhi chowkidar” or “I am also a watchman” campaign.

He tied an appeal to tens of millions of often poorly paid watchmen to the priorities of his own job, following a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 paramilitary policemen in the northern region of Kashmir last month.

“We both work day and night. You guard homes and I guard the nation,” Modi said in an audio speech addressed to watchmen on Wednesday.

“The watchman has become a symbol of the country’s nationalism,” he said, equating everyone from teachers and doctors to watchmen guarding the country in their own way.

The campaign came in response to the opposition Congress party’s slogan “chowkidar chor hai”, or the nation’s “watchman is a thief”, which it began using late last year to refer to Modi in connection with allegations of irregularities in the awarding of a defense contract. Modi has denied any wrongdoing.

In recent days, leaders and supporters of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have launched a coordinated effort to popularize his watchman campaign, with many changing their social media names to add the prefix ‘chowkidar’.

But for many watchmen, who are among the millions in India’s vast informal economy where workers are often poorly paid and barely protected by labor laws, Modi’s campaign is a political gimmick that is unlikely to improve their lives.

“I don’t know why they started it,” said Rakesh Yadav, a 37-year-old watchman from India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

“In the last four years they have done nothing for us,” he said, looking up from a newspaper while on duty outside a residential complex in New Delhi.

“If PM was a chowkidar, would Nirav Modi run away?” said another watchman, Mohammed Nayyar, referring to a billionaire jeweler who fled to Britain last year before an alleged $2 billion loan fraud he is accused of being involved in came to light. The jeweler is not related to the prime minister.

The cash-based economy suffered a serious hit from the Modi government’s shock move to ban high-value currency notes in 2016.

‘DONE A LOT’

Singh remembers being unable to feed his children for some days and standing in long queues at the banks to exchange the voided currency for new notes.

“What has changed in our lives? We are doing the same duty we were doing some years ago,” he said, adding that his salary had not increased from about $130 a month in three years.

The chowkidar campaign is a distinct reminder of Modi’s 2014 “chaiwallah” campaign in which he flaunted his past working for his father as a chaiwallah, or tea vendor.

It may be a gimmick, but such things have worked for Modi in the past, said Priyavadan Patel, a veteran political scientist from Modi’s home state of Gujarat and scholar at the Lokniti research program of Delhi’s Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

“The chaiwalla campaign worked in a big way,” Patel said.

Such connections with the common man helped the BJP to gain a big parliamentary majority, the likes of which had not been seen in three decades in India, in 2014.

But that’s unlikely to be repeated this time.

Polls predict Modi might win a second term but with a much smaller majority, amid concerns about a lack of jobs growth and millions of farmers dissatisfied over depressed crop prices.

Some of the most challenging battleground states for Modi’s party are those that depend on the farm economy. “The chowkidar campaign may not work in such areas,” Patel said.

One of those states is Bihar, where the watchman Singh migrated from 12 years ago. He said he wouldn’t go back because working on the farm back home was not profitable.

Yet, he said he believes in Modi, and praised him for air strikes on neighboring Pakistan in response to last month’s bomb attack.

“I feel like Modi ji has done a lot,” he said, using a suffix that denotes respect. “And I think he will do a lot more in the coming years.”

(Edited by Martin Howell, Robert Birsel)

Source: OANN

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British Parliament votes in favor of Brexit delay, unclear if EU leaders will accept

U.K. lawmakers in Parliament on Thursday voted in favor of a delay in Britain’s departure from the European Union, just weeks before the U.K. is due to leave -- although it is far from clear if E.U. leaders will agree to such a delay.

Lawmakers voted 412-202 in favor of the motion, which urges Prime Minister’s Theresa May’s government to go to Europe and request an extension past the March 29 deadline.

UK LAWMAKERS REJECT 'NO DEAL' BREXIT, TAKE STEP CLOSER TO DELAYING DEPARTURE

It comes as the culmination of a week of furious votes in Parliament, in which May’s withdrawal agreement was overwhelmingly voted down for the second time on Tuesday, On Wednesday, lawmakers voted to reject a “no deal” Brexit.

Currently Britain is set to leave without a deal, something that May’s government and opposition MPs have warned could be chaotic, but that pro-Brexit MPs have noted would simply revert Britain to World Trade Organization (WTO) terms, and have downplayed the disruption it would cause.

Neither the rejection of “no deal” nor the Thursday vote for an extension are binding, and don’t change the facts on the ground. It is now up to May to go to Europe and see if she can agree to a delay -- a delay she previously said would be short-term and no later than June.

TRUMP BACKS BREXIT BY PROMISING 'LARGE SCALE TRADE DEAL' WITH UK

Calls for such a short delay have been greeted frostily on the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that E.U. leaders would only agree to an extension “if it is justified by new choices by the British.”

On Thursday, European Council President Donald Tusk said that he would call for E.U. leaders to be open to a “long extension” but that was on the condition that Britain “rethink its Brexit strategy and build consensus around it.”

E.U. leaders may demand that Britain hold a redo of the 2016 referendum as a condition for a delay. But, while the opposition Labour Party and other smaller parties have backed a second referendum, lawmakers are cautious of being seen to back such a radical move before all other options are exhausted.

An amendment on Thursday that called for a delay so as to allow a second referendum was soundly defeated in Parliament, being voted down 334-85 -- suggesting there isn’t an appetite for a second referendum yet.

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Meanwhile, the BBC reported that May will make a third attempt next week to get her withdrawal deal through Parliament, warning Brexiteers that that will be the only way to prevent a lengthy Brexit delay.

In Washington, President Trump appeared to try and tempt lawmakers to get on with it by renewing his promise for a "large scale trade deal" between the U.S. and the U.K.

Later on Thursday, in the Oval Office alongside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Trump said he was "surprised at how badly it's all gone from the standpoint of a negotiation" and said that May didn't listen to his advice on how to negotiate with the E.U. He also said that a second referendum, that some pro-E.U. politicians are calling for in the U.K., would be "unfair."

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

"I hate to see everything being ripped apart right now, I don't think another vote would be possible because it would be very unfair to the people that won that say: 'What do you mean you're going to take another vote?'" he said. "So that would be tough."

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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