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Pakistan dismisses Indian terror dossier as mostly ‘social media content’

Indian soldiers examine the debris after an explosion in Lethpora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district
Indian soldiers examine the debris after an explosion in Lethpora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Younis Khaliq

March 28, 2019

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan on Thursday dismissed a dossier handed over by India in the wake of a suicide attack that nearly sparked a full-blown conflict earlier this month, saying the allegation that Pakistani groups were involved was unsubstantiated.

At least 40 Indian security personnel were killed when a suicide bomber from Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM) attacked a convoy on Feb. 14, at Pulwama, a town in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Jaish later claimed responsibility for the attack carried out by a young Muslim man from Pulwama. Pakistan maintains that the insurgency in the disputed region is being fought by Muslim separatists from India’s side of Kashmir.

Following the Pulwama attack, both countries carried out aerial bombings missions on each other’s soil and their warplanes also fought a brief dogfight over Kashmir’s skies.

Tensions cooled when global powers intervened to prevent a full-scale conflict between the nuclear armed neighbors and Pakistan handed back a captured Indian pilot.

India, which alleges Islamabad had a hand in the suicide bombing, last month presented what it said was a dossier of evidence about the Pulwama attack, and alleged links to Pakistan.

Pakistan has consistently denied playing any role. And after briefing foreign diplomats in Islamabad, Pakistan’s foreign ministry issued a statement asserting that most of India’s dossier was based on “social media content”.

It said the Indian dossier listed 90 individuals suspected of belonging to banned organizations with militant links and 22 locations of alleged militant training camps.

“While 54 detained individuals are being investigated, no details linking them to Pulwama have been found so far,” said the ministry, which handed the findings to India on Wednesday.

“Similarly, the 22 pin locations shared by India have been examined. No such camps exist.”

Pakistan said it was willing to allow visits to the locations of alleged training camps if there was any request, but it would need more documents and additional information from India to continue its investigation.

India said it hit a JeM militant training camp on Feb. 26 during an aerial bombing mission inside Pakistan though Islamabad denied the existence of the camp, and said the Indian raid had hit a largely empty hillside.

Local villagers from the area told Reuters that there was a JeM-run seminary nearby but it was unclear whether it was occupied. They also said they had seen no signs of any casualties from the Indian raid.

Earlier this month, Pakistan announced a crackdown against militant groups based on its soil, but India remains skeptical as it believes Pakistan’s security establishment views these proscribed groups as strategic assets.

Pakistan’s previous offers to investigate attacks carried out by anti-India militants have yielded scant results.

(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Source: OANN

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Filipino devotees nailed to crosses to re-enact crucifixion

Filipino devotees are nailed on wooden crosses during a crucifixion re-enactment on Good Friday, in San Fernando City
Filipino devotees are nailed on wooden crosses during a crucifixion re-enactment on Good Friday, in San Fernando City, Pampanga province, Philippines, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

April 19, 2019

By Ronn Bautista

CUTUD, Philippines (Reuters) – Hundreds of tourists watched in shock as actors dressed as Roman soldiers hammered four-inch nails through the hands and feet of a Filipino into a wooden cross for the 33rd time in a Good Friday re-enactment of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.

The gory display of devotion, which the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines looks down upon, draws tourists to the province of Pampanga, north of the capital, year after year as barefoot penitents also whip themselves as a form of penance.

“I thought they wouldn’t be nailed but they were really nailed, and it was for me a great event to see it live,” said German tourist Johann Tenken.

Devotees, including 58-year old Ruben Enaje who has performed the act 33 times, believe their penance will wash away their sins, cure illness and lead to blessings.

Enaje was among the four people who were nailed to crosses in the village, including a woman taking part for the 17th time.

The crucifixions were the most extreme display of faith this mainly Catholic country, where millions were praying and fasting ahead of the Easter weekend.

Five other Filipinos were nailed to crosses in two other villages in Pampanga.

“At the end of the day, you have to respect the people doing this because that’s devotion,” said Filipino tourist Bianca Yao.

Christians believe Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sins of humanity and rose from the dead two days later.

(Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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Before mosque attacks, New Zealand failed to record hate crimes for years

FILE PHOTO: A police officer stands guard outside Al Noor mosque in Christchurch
FILE PHOTO: A police officer stands guard outside Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

March 30, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield and Praveen Menon

CHRISTCHURCH/WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Weeks before a gunman killed 50 Muslims in Christchurch, a man had threatened to burn copies of the Koran outside New Zealand mosques, in what community leaders said was the latest in a long list of threatening behavior against religious minorities.

Police said they warned a 38-year-old man over the incident, which was unrelated to the Christchurch attack, but could not say if it was part of a pattern.

That’s because, unlike many Western countries including the United Kingdom and the United States, New Zealand’s government keeps no comprehensive record of hate crimes, failing to act on requests to do so from local and international agencies spanning more than a decade.

“For many years our view has consistently been that this needs to be prioritized and implemented urgently,” said Janet Anderson-Bidois, Chief Legal Adviser at the Human Rights Commission, the independent government agency tasked with protecting human rights.

“It is imperative that we have good data.”

A suspected white supremacist has been charged with murder over the Christchurch shootings and will appear in court again on April 5.

In the wake of New Zealand’s worst mass shooting, questions are being asked about what signs agencies missed and where resources should have been allocated to protect vulnerable communities.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered a Royal Commission, a powerful form of inquiry, into the attack.

Anwar Ghani from the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, said anecdotal evidence suggested there had been a rise in anti-Muslim behavior in recent years.

“When there is a hot spot in global events and when Muslims are involved…we do see the pulse of hate crime coming from certain members of the community,” he said.

“NOT A PRIORITY”

Joris De Bres, New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner between 2002 and 2013, said he was alarmed at signs of an uptick in threats against Muslims when he took up the role soon after the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

De Bres said he repeatedly asked the government and police to create a central system for recording details about crimes motivated by hatred and racism.

He raised the issue with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which in its 2007 review of New Zealand said the lack of records was a concern, and asked the government to collect data on complaints of racially motivated crimes.

“I listed it every year…I wrote at various points to government about it and it was simply said that it wasn’t necessary and it wasn’t a priority,” De Bres said.

In its latest report on New Zealand in 2017, the UN committee repeated its concerns and requests and asked the government to provide the data for its next report as a priority.

When current Justice and Intelligence Services Minister Andrew Little took office in late 2017, the Human Rights Commission said in their incoming briefing the country needed a central system for recording details about crimes motivated by hatred and racism and steps currently taken by police were insufficient.

“Understanding the scale, extent, and location of hate crimes is essential and is a prerequisite to ensuring adequate resources are available to address the issue,” the briefing said.

Little did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment but told local media on Saturday that current hate speech laws were inadequate and he would work with officials to review the legislation, including considering whether a separate hate crime offense should be created.

Police said they took hate crimes seriously and were continually looking to improve the way they worked.

“We are engaged in ongoing conversations with community leaders and representatives about a range of issues, including how police record allegations of hate crime and crimes of prejudice,” said a police spokesperson via email.

The National Party, in power from 2008 to 2017, said while in government, it introduced legislation to protect people from harmful communication online.

“There are hate speech laws in the Human Rights Act, but whether data should be collected is an operational matter for Police,” a spokeswoman said by email.

NO ONE WAS LISTENING

New Zealand has had no previous extremist mass attacks, unlike neighboring Australia, but civil society members say an underbelly of racism has always existed and may have been escalating.

Anjum Rahman from the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand said the group had repeatedly alerted the government over the past five years about the rise of the extreme right and the growing threat Muslim women felt in New Zealand.

“Without the data, without the measurement it’s really hard to push for change…I feel like it wasn’t taken seriously because it wasn’t hard data because we didn’t have it,” she said, adding she felt “a resistance to creating that data.”

One in 10 New Zealand adults have experienced hate speech online according to a 2018 study by internet safety organization Netsafe, with people of Asian descent or who identified as ‘other’ ethnicity most affected.

Since 2002, a law has specified judges should take hostility toward a group of people with a “common characteristic”, such as race or religion, into account when sentencing.

A Reuters review of sentencing records found 22 such cases since 2002, most with a racial motive.

Those included the murder of a Korean student, the hurling of a pipe bomb at a Sikh Temple, and threats to politicians by a non-Muslim posing as an Islamic extremist, which the judge described as a “deliberate attempt to tap into public fear about radicalized Muslims”.

The likely number is far higher, say human rights experts, because accessible records encompass only cases that are appealed or the most severe charges that reach New Zealand’s highest courts, not the tens of thousands of cases dealt with in lower District Courts each year.

One of those was a 2016 case, first reported by the New Zealand Herald, in which a Christchurch man delivered a bloodied pig’s head to Al Noor mosque, which was attacked this month.

He was charged with “offensive behavior” and fined NZ$800 ($543), court records show.

In 2017, lawmakers asked police whether hate crime was increasing but were told it could not be measured because it was not recorded as a specific category, according to Parliamentary records.

The Human Rights Commission said it received 417 complaints relating to race in 2018, up from 350 in 2014. Those included 63 complaints of “racial disharmony”, which includes hate speech, a 26 percent jump from four years earlier.

Lawmaker Golriz Ghahraman, a former human rights lawyer who was born in Iran and came to New Zealand as a child refugee, said she had received death threats and xenophobia including being called a “terrorist” and “Jihadist” online.

Before the Christchurch attacks, most of the public had felt safe, she said.

“Minorities didn’t, but no one was listening to them.”

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield and Praveen Menon.; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Source: OANN

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3 Bernie Sanders policies now embraced by the Democratic field

Bernie Sanders is one of the front-runners — raising $18 million in the first six weeks of his campaign — among a crowded field of 2020 presidential hopefuls, but the self-described democratic socialist has also been a trend-setter for the field.

Since the Vermont senator mapped out his plans for a "political revolution" in 2016, many members of Congress have embraced his policies and ideas. And now several candidates are using them as talking points as they hit the campaign trail.

BERNIE SANDERS FAST FACTS: 5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE VERMONT SENATOR

Sanders will join Fox News Channel for a town hall co-anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum on Monday, April 15, at 6:30 p.m. ET in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Here's a look at some of the biggest proposals the 77-year-old — the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history — has championed for years that 2020 Democrats are now touting.

"Medicare for All"

Sanders first introduced the "Medicare for All" bill in 2016. He saw it as a step toward achieving universal health care.

The single-payer health insurance plan would require all U.S. residents to be covered with no copays and deductibles for medical services. The insurance industry would be regulated to play a minor role in the system.

HOW MUCH WOULD 'MEDICARE FOR ALL' COST? DEMOCRATS' HEALTH CARE PLAN EXPLAINED

In August 2017, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., became the first Senate Democrat to support Sanders' bill. During a speech to officially launch her 2020 run, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., declared "health care is a fundamental right" and vowed to serve her constituents by supporting "Medicare for All."

Since then, 2020 candidates Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., have also endorsed the program.

Sanders is expected to introduce an updated version of his "Medicare for All" plan on Wednesday.

$15 minimum wage

For years, Sanders has made passionate pushes to increase the minimum wage. He recently reintroduced legislation to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour by 2024.

"While the official unemployment rate is relatively low, too many workers in America today are making wages that don’t pay enough to make ends meet. Workers and their families cannot make it on $9 an hour or $10 an hour – or even less," Sanders said in a statement in November, claiming it would give 40 million workers a raise. "We have got to raise the minimum wage in this country to a living wage – at least $15 an hour."

At least 20 states increased their minimum wages since the start of the New Year, according to Fox Business.

BERNIE SANDERS' BIGGEST STAR-STUDDED BACKERS: MARK RUFFALO, DANNY DEVITO AND OTHERS

The Raise the Wage Act legislation that was reintroduced in the new Congress by Sanders this year, was cosponsored by several 2020 contenders including Booker, Gillibrand, Harris, Warren and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

Tuition-free college

Once again, Sanders has vowed as a presidential candidate that he will aim “to make public colleges and universities tuition free.”

“Higher education in America should be a right for all, not a privilege for the few,” Sanders has said. “If we are to succeed in a highly competitive global economy and have the best-educated workforce in the world, public colleges and universities must become tuition-free for working families and we must substantially reduce student debt.”

Under Sanders' "College for All Act," which he introduced alongside Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., in 2017, the government would be responsible for 67 percent ($47 billion) of the cost of tuition and states would pay for the remaining 33 percent ($23 billion).

"The legislation would eliminate tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities for families making up to $125,000 – about 80 percent of the population – and make community college tuition- and fee-free for all," according to a statement released by Sanders' campaign at the time.

The proposal has been backed by Warren, Harris, Gillibrand.

Some candidates, such as Klobuchar, however, have blasted the idea.

“No, I am not for free college for all,” Klobuchar said during a televised town hall in Manchester in February. “I wish if I was a magic genie and could give that to everyone and we could afford it, I would.  I’m just trying to find a mix of incentives and make sure kids are in need- and that’s why I talked about expanding Pell Grants, can go to college and be able to afford it and make sure that people who can’t afford it are able to pay.”

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, too, hasn't fully joined the tuition-free college rallying cry.

“Americans who have a college degree earn more than Americans who don’t,” Buttigieg recently said, per Politico. “As a progressive, I have a hard time getting my head around the idea of a majority who earn less because they didn’t go to college subsidizing a minority who earn more because they did.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Sheriff Revolt Over Gun Control Shows Why America Needs More Decentralization

Recently, a dozen sheriffs in Washington State announced that they would refuse to enforce the newly passed referendum 1639 which raised the legal age of purchasing a firearm of any sort to 21, expanded background check requirements, increased the waiting period and mandated weapon storage when not in active use.

Predictably, political proponents immediately threatened these sheriffs, who were hired to enforce county, not State, laws, with legal action. Of course, when I say passed, what I really mean is that 14 of 39 counties in Washington decided the referendum was a good idea.

Based on actual voting patterns, the victory of this particular bill can be almost entirely explained by the margin of victory in King County (506k), where Seattle is located, which accounted for 87% the margin of victory of the State-wide referendum (580k). This is a common phenomenon in many States that have a large single urban population. Another classic example is New York and the political dominance of the City in State-wide politics.

What the refusal of the 12 county law enforcement officials is doing is voicing displeasure with what amounts to a distant population dictating how they’ll operate in their own homes. Why are people in Seattle, who may never even set foot on the Eastern-side of the Cascades, let alone actually make that region their permanent home, imposing law on residents of Omak?

A nearly identical result of the above picture was experienced in Legislative Initiative 940, which mandated law enforcement personnel behave like good citizens, such as mandating de-escalation as first response and legally mandating police provide first aid to wounded individuals, including suspects shot.

Though to be fair to residents of King County, this reliance on State-wide referendums for local issues can backfire. Initiative 1634, which banned taxation of sodas and other items politicians in Seattle find in vogue to tax, also passed, essentially with only King, San Juan and Jefferson disagreeing with it.

An identical result to the above picture was experienced, though with colors flipped since it failed, for Initiative 1631 which would have imposed CO2 taxes on Washington residents. If we take all four referendums in bulk, only six counties in Washington can be considered 100% happy about the results. Everyone else basically only got some of the policies they wanted. This means that only the majorities of 15% of the counties in the State could be classified as satisfied with the results of the election cycle, leaving the other 85% stewing like those dozen sheriffs.

This is a terrible way to run a society, where only a small fraction of the people are happy with political and social decisions, the vast majority always having to eat “compromise” imposed upon them by outsiders.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Residents of Seattle, San Francisco and New York City shouldn’t have to believe that they can’t live their chosen lifestyle without this strange belief that those same policies and decisions must radiate out hundreds of miles from their borders. Nor do residents who aren’t part of large urban centers need to feel like they have to strategically handcuff urban dwellers to avoid getting swept up in their preferences.

The solution to these issues is radical decentralization. There is no logical reason why Washington State must continue to exist and can’t be split up into 39 new States. Just like there is very little that is done in D.C. that can’t be done just as well, or better, in Olympia, there’s very little that is done in Olympia that can’t be done just as well, or better, in Ephrata, Washington. This way, the people of the new State of King can have gun laws, soda taxes, a kinder police force and CO2 taxes without stepping on the toes of people in the new State of Yakima. The only real objections would come from politicians, both in D.C. and in Washington State, who are only concerned with maintaining personal power – if Washington State decentralizes into 39 independent entities, all that would happen is a layer of State politicians and bureaucrats would be laid-off and US Senators would find their vote is no longer worth 1% of the Senate but 0.6%.

In reality, the US should be made up of, at minimum, 3,142 States (the number of counties and census areas), though certain areas, like Los Angeles County can be split into at least 17 distinct States itself and NYC can be cut into 73 around police districts, each of which are large cities in their own right. Again, the only real objection to this would be the middlemen State-level politicians that no longer have a job and Congressmen that now see their voting power radically diluted. Which, to say, is not a legitimate reason oppose splitting the US up into smaller political jurisdictions.

Under such a system, people will have far fewer political grievances since they’ll unlikely have to live under a regime that’s disavorable to them. It’s much easier for someone unhappy with policies of the hypothetical State of King to move to the hypothetical State of Kittitas than it is to relocate to Idaho, similar to how it’s easier for a resident of New Mexico to relocate to Texas than it is to New Zealand. Similar to the setup in Luxemburg, or even how Clark County residents have employment in Portland, dividing up political jurisdictions into small pieces allows for people to work and live in preferred jurisdictions without significant inconvenience of a long-distance move. It’s much easier to find a county with a preferred lifestyle than trying to get an entire State to fit your preferences. This would radically reduce the desire of local sheriffs to rebel against imposed laws and people would be far happier with the expanded political choices – finding common political and social ground with 50 thousand is far easier than 7.5 million.

Source: InfoWars

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Slovak lawmakers reject international women’s rights treaty

Slovakia's lawmakers have approved a resolution to reject an international treaty on women's rights.

In the 150-seat Parliament, 101 lawmakers voted Friday to ask the government to stop the process of ratification of the treaty known as the Istanbul Convention and inform the Council of Europe that Slovakia will stay out of it.

The document was adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011 in a bid to fight violence against women throughout Europe.

The resolution was drafted by the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party, a member of the ruling coalition. Opponents of the convention in Slovakia, a Roman Catholic stronghold, charge that some provisions would violate the Slovak constitution — for example because the constitution defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

Source: Fox News World

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United Methodist delegates defeat bid to ease LGBT bans

The United Methodist Church, America's second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference Tuesday rejected a move to ease the faith's ban on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy.

Some supporters of greater LGBT inclusion were in tears, while others vented their anger after delegates, on a 449-374 vote, defeated a proposal that would have let regional and local church bodies decide for themselves on gay-friendly policies.

"Devastation," was how former Methodist pastor Rebecca Wilson of Detroit described her feelings. "As someone who left because I'm gay, I'm waiting for the church I love to stop bringing more hate."

Delegates then took up a competing measure, known as the Traditional Plan, that would tighten enforcement of the LGBT bans and encourage Methodists who oppose those policies to leave the church. It won majority support in a preliminary vote on Monday.

The Traditional Plan's success was due to an alliance of conservatives from the U.S. and overseas. About 43 percent of the delegates are from abroad, mostly from Africa, and overwhelmingly support the LGBT bans.

If the bans were eased, "the church in Africa would cease to exist," said the Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia. "We can't do anything but to support the Traditional Plan — it is the biblical plan."

The deep split within the church was evident in several fiery speeches opposing the Traditional Plan.

"If we bring this virus into our church, it will bring illness to us all," said the Rev. Thomas Berlin of Herndon, Virginia. He predicted many Methodist churchgoers and some regional bodies would leave the church, while others would "stay and fight," performing same-sex weddings even if it meant punishment.

Many supporters of the more liberal plan stood in support as Berlin spoke. Some wore rainbow-motif garments or sat behind rainbow banners.

The Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill, a pastor from Portland, Maine, pledged defiance of the Traditional Plan, tweeting: "I will not participate in your bigotry, sin & violence."

An association of Methodist theological schools warned that if the Traditional Plan passes, the church "will lose an entire generation of leaders in America."

Formed in a merger in 1968, the United Methodist Church claims about 12.6 million members worldwide, including nearly 7 million in the United States.

While other mainline Protestant denominations, such as the Episcopal and Presbyterian (U.S.A.) churches, have embraced gay-friendly practices, the Methodist church still bans them, though acts of defiance by pro-LGBT clergy have multiplied.

___

Crary reported from New York.

Source: Fox News National

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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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