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Cummings: Ivanka Trump not saving all official email

Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and a powerful White House aide, is not preserving all of her official email communications as required by federal law, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said on Thursday.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a letter that Trump's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, informed the committee late last year that Trump doesn't preserve official emails she receives in her personal account if she doesn't respond to them. Cummings says that appears to violate the Presidential Records Act.

But just hours later, Lowell issued a letter of his own disputing Cummings' characterization of some of his comments. Lowell said he was referring to Trump's email use before September 2017 and that he told committee staff that now "she always forwards official business to her White House account."

The dispute arose as Cummings raised the latest concern about the use of private email and messaging applications to conduct official White House business. It also details the use of the messaging application WhatsApp by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and of personal email accounts by other former senior White House aides that Cummings says "raises additional security and federal records concerns." Some of those communications involved a proposal to transfer U.S. nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia.

Cummings' letter says Lowell confirmed that Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband and a senior White House aide, uses WhatsApp to conduct official U.S. government business. That includes communicating with "people outside the United States," though Lowell did not provide the identities of those involved.

Lowell also would not tell the committee whether Kushner had ever used WhatsApp to discuss classified information. When asked, Lowell said, "That's above my pay grade," and referred questions to the White House and the National Security Council, according to Cummings' letter. Lowell said Kushner archives the messages he sends by taking screenshots of them and forwarding that record to his official White House email account or the National Security Council.

In his response letter Thursday, Lowell stressed that he didn't say whether Kushner used WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders or officials. He said he also informed the committee that Kushner complies with all protocols involving classified information. CNN reported last year that Kushner was communicating with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman using WhatsApp.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The House committee's investigation comes after Ivanka Trump last year dismissed any comparison to the use of private email by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which prompted an FBI investigation and inspired the "Lock Her Up" chant at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign rallies.

While the top U.S. diplomat, Clinton sent thousands of emails using a private server set up at her home in Chappaqua, New York. The FBI found classified information in some of the emails that were sent or received on the nongovernment system, but federal authorities declined to pursue charges against Clinton.

Last year, The Washington Post reported that Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails about government business from a personal email account to White House aides, Cabinet members and her assistant. The newspaper said many of those communications, during the early months of the administration, violated federal public records rules.

In a previous written statement, Lowell spokesman Peter Mirijanian has acknowledged that Ivanka Trump used private email while transitioning to a position in the White House but said that the emails were retained "in conformity with records preservation laws and rules."

He also noted that "there was never classified information transmitted" using her private email account.

In an interview with ABC News last year, Ivanka Trump defended her use of a private email account, saying: "All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions."

In his letter, Cummings also singled out former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, questioning whether they preserved documents related to a proposal to transfer nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. That proposal is under investigation by Cummings' committee, which is looking into information from whistleblowers who have said they witnessed "abnormal acts" within the Trump National Security Council involving senior White House officials who were pushing the plan.

The committee found that McFarland used an AOL account to discuss the effort pushed by Trump friend Tom Barrack. It cites a Feb. 6, 2017, email between McFarland and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Bannon also received a Jan. 29, 2017, email from Barrack that Cummings said was a pitch of the plan sent to inform "Bannon's official work relating to developing 'broader Middle East policy.'"

Cummings is asking the White House whether these communications were properly preserved.

Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for McFarland, declined comment.

A representative for Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

___

Read Cummings' letter: http://apne.ws/a1Yeukl

Read Lowell's letter: http://apne.ws/3PQPwC9

Source: Fox News National

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Zara founder’s real estate arm buys Amazon offices in Seattle

People shop at a Zara store during the grand opening of The Hudson Yards development in New York
People shop at a Zara store during the grand opening of The Hudson Yards development, a residential, commercial, and retail space on Manhattan's West side in New York City, New York, U.S., March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 28, 2019

MADRID (Reuters) – Pontegadea Inmobiliaria, the real estate arm of the founder of fashion group Inditex, Amancio Ortega, this week completed the purchase of two Seattle office blocks leased to Amazon, a Pontegadea spokesman said on Thursday.

Pontegadea bought the buildings from U.S. investment fund USAA Real Estate, the spokesman said, adding it was the Spanish fund’s biggest ever deal in the United States.

The buildings were sold for $740 million, according to the Seattle Times. Pontegadea declined to comment on the transaction value.

Ortega has made largely debt-free purchases of prime buildings from London to New York, becoming a major commercial real estate player, using the cash from massive dividend payouts from Inditex.

Europe’s richest man, who holds a 59.29 percent stake in Inditex, not only rents out his commercial property to Inditex stores like Zara and Massimo Dutti at market rates but also to rivals such as H&M of Sweden and Gap Inc of the United States.

Pontegadea bought the Adelphi building in Westminster, London, in the second half of last year, home to the music-streaming service Spotify and media company Conde Nast.

Other properties include a stretch of London’s prime shopping drag Oxford Street and the historic E.V. Haughwout Building in SoHo, New York.

(Reporting By Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Paul Day and Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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NASA’s Twins Study Sees No Red Flags for Human Space Travel

From his eyes to his immune system, astronaut Scott Kelly's body sometimes reacted strangely to nearly a year in orbit, at least compared to his Earth-bound identical twin — but newly published research shows nothing that would cancel even longer space treks, like to Mars.

The good news: Kelly largely bounced back after returning home, say scientists who released final results from NASA's "twins study," a never-before opportunity to track the biological consequences of spaceflight in genetic doubles.

It marks "the dawn of human genomics in space," said Dr. Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins University. He led one of 10 teams of researchers that scrutinized the twins' health down to the molecular level before, during and after Kelly's 340-day stay at the International Space Station.

More importantly, the study "represents more than one small step for mankind" by pointing out potential risks of longer-duration spaceflight that need study in more astronauts, said Markus Lobrich of Germany's Darmstadt University and Penny Jeggo of the University of Sussex, who weren't involved in the work.

The findings were published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, on some notable space anniversaries — when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space in 1961, and the first launch of the space shuttle in 1981.

KEY FINDINGS

NASA already knew some of the toll of space travel, such as bone loss that requires exercise to counter. This time, NASA-funded scientists looked for a gamut of physiologic and genomic changes that Scott Kelly experienced in space, comparing them to his DNA double on the ground, former astronaut Mark Kelly. Some results had been reported in February.

Possibly the weirdest finding had to do with something called telomeres, the protective ends of chromosomes. Those tips gradually shorten as we get older, and are thought to be linked to age-related diseases including some cancers.

But in space, Scott Kelly's telomeres got longer. "We were surprised," said Colorado State University telomere expert Susan Bailey. She can't explain it although it doesn't mean Kelly got younger. Back on Earth, his telomeres mostly returned to preflight average although he did have more short telomeres than before.

Next, Kelly's DNA wasn't mutated in space but the activity of many of his genes — how they switch on and off — did change, especially in the last half of the voyage, which ended in March 2016.

Immune system genes especially were affected, putting it "almost on high alert as a way to try and understand this new environment," said study co-author Christopher Mason, a Weill Cornell Medicine geneticist in New York.

Again, most gene expression returned to normal back home, but some of the immune-related genes were hyperactive six months later.

Other findings:

—Some changes in the structure of Kelly's eye and thickening of his retina suggested that, like about 40% of astronauts, he experienced symptoms of "spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome." It may be caused by fluids shifting in the absence of gravity.

—He experienced some chromosomal instability that might reflect radiation exposure in space.

—A flu shot given in space worked as well as one on Earth.

—Kelly aced cognitive tests in space but slowed down after his return, maybe as more things competed for his attention.

ULTRA LONG-DISTANCE TESTING

Researchers needed months' worth of blood, urine and fecal samples, along with cognitive and physical tests and ultrasound scans. That meant getting creative: Some blood samples required analysis so rapidly that Kelly would time collection so the blood could travel on Russian Soyuz capsules carrying other astronauts back to Earth.

That wouldn't be an option on a three-year trip to Mars. One of the study's technological advances: Portable DNA-sequencing equipment that will let astronauts run some of their own genomic analyses on future missions, said Weill Cornell's Mason.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Studying one pair of twins can't prove risks of spaceflight, researchers cautioned. And longer missions, to the moon or Mars, will mean greater stress and radiation exposure.

Colorado State's Bailey plans to study 10 additional astronauts on year-long missions, using the twin findings as a road map.

"We need to get outside of low-Earth orbit and we need for the astronauts to spend longer periods of time to really evaluate some of these health effects," she said.

Source: NewsMax America

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Fire at Cairo’s main train station kills at least 10: medical sources

Rescue workers and people are seen after a fire caused deaths and injuries at the main train station in Cairo
Rescue workers and people are seen after a fire caused deaths and injuries at the main train station in Cairo, Egypt, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

February 27, 2019

CAIRO (Reuters) – At least 10 people were killed and more than 20 injured when a fire broke out at the main train station in Egypt’s capital on Wednesday, two medical sources said.

A witness said there was a blast when a train rammed into a steel barrier at Ramses station in central Cairo.

(Reporting by Ahmed Hassan; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Peter Schiff Slams Fed for Printing Money While Artificially Keeping Interest Rates Down

During the New Orleans Investment Conference, Peter Schiff participated in a panel discussion with Ben Hunt and Mike Larson. They talked about bubbles, booms and busts.

Hunt called it the “bubble of everything.” But he said the “gravitational force” created by all of the assets central banks have purchased over the last year have changed the “bubble-popping process.” That makes it hard to predict when things will actually start to deflate. He said it will take something the undermines the market confidence that central banks can bail us out. Hunt said inflation was possibly the pin that could prick the bubble.

Larson called it the “uber-bubble,” and he said he already sees some of the background concerns that have been simmering for  a long time are starting to “bubble over.” (Pun intended.) He said the last two bubbles were high in amplitude, but limited to certain parts of the economy (dot-coms and housing). The current bubble isn’t as high in amplitude, but it’s broader-based. We see bubbles in stocks, high-yield bonds, housing (again), and commercial real estate, along with a lot of other assets you don’t hear as much about – such as art and comic books.

“I think the process of unwinding this is already beginning.”

Peter focused in on the cause of the bubbles.

“When you see rampant, wide-scale bad decisions, generally a central banker is behind it, and they have made a bad decision to create too much money and to artificially manipulate interest rates down.”

This creates distortions in the economy because interest rates are really nothing more than price signals.

“And like all prices, they need to be determined by the free market.”

Whenever the government – and central banks are really an extension of governments – price fixes something, it creates big distortions and malinvestments.

“We have had artificially low-interest rates for an unprecedented number of years at an unprecedented low rate. So, the mistakes that have been made during this time period dwarf the mistakes that have ever been made in any bubble in the past because the bubble is so much bigger.”

When a bubble finally bursts, it’s really just the free market trying to clean up the mess created by the intervention. The bigger the boom, the bigger the bust.

“The problem now is that the boom is so big that the bust will be catastrophic. And what’s going to make this bust different is that there is no bailout. There is no stimulus. It is impossible to reflate this bubble, because, as has been said, this is a bubble of everything. They can’t make a bubble go someplace else. It already is everyplace.”

(Photo by Wikimedia Commons)

Peter said the only place there isn’t a bubble is in gold. That means there is also a bubble in complacency and optimism.

“People are so drunk on all this cheap money, they think nothing can go wrong.”

As far as what pin will prick the bubble, Peter said there are all kinds of pins out there. The problem is that when you’re in a bubble, you can’t see the pins.

The panel goes on to discuss some of the specific manifestations of the bubbles and where they see trouble spots.

And Peter makes a pitch for gold, saying his 24 karat gold cufflinks will outperform the S&P 500 over the next five years. He pointed out that when they started popping the dot-com bubble, gold was under $300. It got as high as $1,900 in 2011.

“This game is not over. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. When this final bubble pops, gold is going through the roof –I do think that by the time this bubble has run its course, you’ll be able to buy the Dow Jones for an ounce of gold.”


Owen Shroyer delivers an epic rant on how U.S. soldiers were disrespected at the southern border by the Mexican Army.

Source: InfoWars

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EU watchdogs give banks no leeway on Brexit-driven hub demands

FILE PHOTO: The skyline of banking district is photographed in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The skyline of banking district is photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

April 23, 2019

By Huw Jones, Sinead Cruise and Francesco Canepa

LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Union regulators are refusing to cut British-based banks any slack over bulking up in the bloc in preparation for Brexit, despite an extension to the process which some have taken as an opportunity to drag their feet.

Cost-conscious banks are reluctant to spend millions more and cause further disruption to already unsettled staff given uncertainty over how and when Britain will leave the EU.

“Businesses are trying to be savvy, to meet the minimum legal requirement and figure the rest out after Brexit,” Hakan Enver, managing director for financial services at recruiter Morgan McKinley told Reuters.

Banks are trying to minimize staff moves despite pressure from the European Central Bank (ECB), which set a proviso to granting licenses that firms would beef up their EU units with more employees and assets over the next one to two years.

This requirement has not changed, a source close to the matter said, even though the EU has given Britain until Oct. 31 to leave, an extension from the original “Brexit Day” of March 29.

“Banks are still expected to stick to the timeline agreed with the ECB,” the source said.

Dozens of banks have already set up new bases in the EU to avoid disrupting services to clients. Regulators issued licenses for them, even though they are thinly staffed, so that they could be operational when Britain was meant to quit the EU.

HSBC, which declined to comment, shifted some staff from London to its Paris subsidiary in case of a no-deal Brexit on April 12, only to recall them when a new delay was agreed.

And a source at a major U.S. bank said it had dozens of staff lined up to move if there was a no-deal Brexit, but stood them down and is now awaiting clarity before any further moves.

“We are inclined to say that while we remain in this holding pattern, we don’t have to move anyone or anything,” the source said, adding that Brexit could yet be scrapped completely.

The Bank of England expects about 4,000 banking and insurance jobs will have moved from London to new EU hubs by Brexit Day, but recruiters and banking sources say the number that have moved so far is much lower than that.

Some banks were behind with plans to be operationally ready and are now using the delay to complete moves of customer accounts to new hubs, a senior official at a global bank said.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority’s has warned financial firms sending staff to new EU hubs to ensure they still have “appropriate senior oversight” of their operations left behind in Britain.

BACK-TO-BACK

Banks have so far moved around a trillion euros in stocks, bonds, derivatives contracts and other assets from London to their new EU hubs. Accounts of EU clients must also be moved to conduct business from these hubs, a process known as repapering.

But there is still a long tail of small customers for whom repapering is a burdensome task of changing IT and controls systems, limiting how much business new hubs can take on despite regulatory pressure to move in to higher gear.

“Nobody is yet really doing any substantive business, but there will be a robust dialogue between banks and regulators about when to transfer substantive amounts of business and client preferences will play a big role,” said Vishal Vedi, lead financial services Brexit partner at Deloitte.

EU regulators gave temporary concessions to banks to obtain a license, such as continuing to book some trades in London, but their tolerance is waning.

“We expect some back-to-back (trading) to continue, though new hubs in Frankfurt will have to show the ECB that they can stand on their own two feet if need be,” a senior banking regulator told Reuters.

Having to build up capital in a new unit is expensive for banks at a time of a slowdown in European investment banking.

European M&A was down 67 percent in the first quarter of the year, while first quarter results due out over the next few weeks are expected to show trading volumes at European investment banks were down 15 to 20 percent.

“The longer the extension period, the longer it will be problematic for firms,” Andrew Gray, head of UK financial services at PwC, said.

(Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Thai March headline inflation rate seen quickening to 0.93 percent

A vendor sells snacks at a market in Bangkok
A vendor sells snacks at a market in Bangkok, Thailand March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

March 29, 2019

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s annual headline inflation rate in March likely picked up from the previous month, but stayed below the central bank’s target range for a fifth straight month, a Reuters poll showed.

The median forecast of 11 economists was for the headline consumer price index (CPI) to rise 0.93 percent in March from a year earlier, after February’s 0.73 percent increase.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has forecast 2019 headline inflation of 1.0 percent, against its 1-4 percent target range.

According to the poll, the core inflation rate, which strips out energy and fresh food prices, was seen at 0.60 percent in March, the same as in February.

Last week, Thailand’s monetary policy committee(MPC) voted unanimously to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.75 percent for a second straight review after raising it in December for the first time since 2011.

It will next review monetary policy on May 8.

(Reporting by Satawasin Staporncharnchai; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

Source: OANN

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Joe Biden’s brain surgeon said his former patient is “totally in the clear” as speculation over the candidate’s health — with Biden possibly becoming the oldest president in U.S. history — is likely to become a campaign issue.

The former vice president, who had been perceived by many as the strongest potential contender for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, formally announced his candidacy Thursday.

But Biden’s age – 76 – is expected to become a source of attacks from a younger generation of Democrats not because of obvious generational differences, but possibly for actual health concerns if Biden gets into office.

WHY THE MEDIA ARE CONVINCED JOE BIDEN WILL IMPLODE

Biden himself agreed last year that “it’s totally legitimate” for people to ask questions about his health if he decides to run for president, given his medical history — which has included brain surgery in 1988.

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality,” Biden told “CBS This Morning.” “Can I still run up the steps of Air Force Two? Am I still in good shape? Am I – do I have all my faculties? Am I energetic? I think it’s totally legitimate people ask those questions.”

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality. …  I think it’s totally legitimate [that] people ask those questions.”

— Joe Biden

But Dr. Neal Kassell, the neurosurgeon who operated on Biden for an aneurysm three decades ago, told the Washington Examiner that Biden appears to be “totally in the clear” — and even joked that the operation made Biden “better than how he was.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it,” Kassell said. “That’s more than I can say about all the other candidates or the incumbents.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it.”

— Dr. Neal Kassell

BIDEN’S CLAIM HE DIDN’T WANT OBAMA TO ENDORSE TRIGGERS MOCKERY

At the same time, however, Biden hasn’t been forthcoming about his health at least since 2008 when he released his medical records as a vice presidential candidate. The disclosure that time revealed some fairly minor issues such as an irregular heartbeat in addition to detailing previous operations, including removing a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996, the outlet reported.

It remains unclear if Biden had more aneurysms. Some medical experts say that people who have had an aneurysm can have another one.

An aneurysm, or a weakening of an artery wall, can lead to a rupture and internal bleeding, potentially placing a patient’s life in jeopardy.

Biden won’t be the only Democrat grappling with old age. Sen. Bernie Sanders, another 2020 frontrunner, is currently 77 years old and agreed with Biden last year that their ages will be an issue in the race.

“It’s part of a discussion, but it has to be part of an overall view of what somebody is and what somebody has accomplished,” Sanders told Politico.

“Look, you’ve got people who are 50 years of age who are not well, right? You’ve got people who are 90 years of age who are going to work every day, doing excellent work. And obviously, age is a factor. But it depends on the overall health and wellbeing of the individual.”

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Sanders released his medical records in 2016, with a Senate physician saying in a letter that the senator was “in overall very good health.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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