Russian TV has broadcasted US military facilities that Russia would target with nuclear strikes, and has even claimed that Moscow is developing a hypersonic missile that can hit the targets in under five minutes.
The targets include the Pentagon and the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, according to Reuters.
“In the Sunday evening broadcast, Dmitry Kiselyov, presenter of Russia’s main weekly TV news show ‘Vesti Nedeli’, showed a map of the United States and identified several targets he said Moscow would want to hit in the event of a nuclear war,” the outlet reported.
Russia published the list in response to reports that the Pentagon may consider the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe amid the US withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
“The US claims Moscow breached the agreement that bans the production, testing and deployment of cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 310 to 3,410 miles in Europe,” reported the New York Post. “In his annual state-of-the-nation speech earlier Wednesday, Putin vowed to keep in step with the US on new weapon development so that Russia would be prepared to respond to any threats.”
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin also said Moscow is prepared for a new ‘Cuban Missile’-style crisis if tensions between the two counties escalate.
The US has since dismissed the comments as boasting and stated that it has no immediate plans to deploy missiles to Europe.
“Some analysts have seen his approach as a tactic to try to re-engage the United States in talks about the strategic balance between the two powers, something Moscow has long pushed for, with mixed results,” reported Reuters.
AUSTIN, Texas – A supplier of Texas' execution drugs can remain secret under a court ruling that cited a risk of "physical harm" to the compounding pharmacy if the information became public.
The Texas Supreme Court's decision Friday ends a long-running legal battle that began in 2014 over the drugs used in the nation's busiest execution chamber.
Defense attorneys argued that the supplier identity was needed to verify drug quality and spare condemned inmates from unconstitutional pain and suffering. Texas officials have said disclosing the source would "threaten the death penalty's operation nationwide."
Availability of execution drugs has become an issue in many death penalty states. The Texas decision only applies to drugs used in a few past executions, since Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law in 2015 making supplier records secret.
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a Citibank branch in lower Manhattan, New York October 16, 2012. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
March 11, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Investment bank Citi said on Monday that its clients had turned cautious on emerging market assets over the last week, with both real money and leveraged investors pulling out funds following four weeks of inflows.
“Real money and leveraged investor flows turned negative across EM last week, suggesting trimming of EM exposure amidst decline in the EUR and risk assets in general,” Citi’s Dirk Willer wrote in a note to clients, referring to the week ending Friday March 8.
There was some divergence across regions, with real money outflows dominating investors’ movements last week. Indonesia’s rupiah, Hong Kong dollar, Malaysian ringgit and Philippine peso suffered the heftiest flows, Citi found analyzing its clients’ money flows.
“Anxiety over US-China deal and weakness of risk assets may have triggered trimming of exposure,” Willer wrote.
Data showed that investors pulled out of Latin America with Chilean and Colombian peso at the fore front, while low yielders such as Polish zloty and the Czech crown attracted flows.
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Tom Arnold)
FILE PHOTO: Dennis Muilenburg, CEO, Boeing speaks during a roundtable discussion on defense issues with U.S. President Donald Trump at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, U.S., October 19, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
April 11, 2019
DALLAS (Reuters) – Boeing Co Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said on Thursday that 67 percent of its more than 50 737 MAX customers have tested the manufacturer’s software fix in simulator sessions, with additional tests expected in the coming weeks.
Speaking at a leadership forum in Dallas, Muilenburg said the Boeing team had made 96 flights totaling a little over 159 hours of air time with the updated software, which is under scrutiny following two fatal crashes.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Writing by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Caroline Stauffer)
Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said Friday there are parallels in 'acceptance' between his country's current Brexit situation and President Trump's 2016 triumph.
"It's the same game. Both Brexit and Trump were huge seismic shocks in the political arena and just as our [members of parliament] here don't accept Brexit, many of them want to stop it or overturn it," Farage told "Fox & Friends."
"In America, you've got large sections of the media and of the left who do not accept the legitimacy of this president, do not believe could possibly have won by fair means, and come up with endless conspiracy theories about Russia or whatever else it may be. I think the parallels are remarkable."
"The problem is hundreds of our members of parliament didn't only vote the other way but they have never ever respected the result and are doing their best to overturn it, to frustrate it," Farage told co-host Steve Doocy.
"And in the middle of all this Theresa May has made the most holy mess of the thing by putting on the table a document that is completely unacceptable."
Britain, by law, will leave the EU on March 29 with or without a deal, unless it cancels Brexit or secures a delay.
Pro-Brexit lawmakers in Prime Minister May’s Conservative Party have rejected her withdrawal deal, which outlines a future relationship with the EU, believing it restricts them.
"This is one of the oldest functioning democracies in the world and our democracy is being walked all over. It's one of the most shameful episodes in the history of my country," Farage said.
"In the end it's up to our prime minister, if she was bold or brave we'd still leave in two weeks time. But I'm afraid she's buckling to political pressure and it looks like there's going to be a delay to Brexit and that's going to make this country very, very angry indeed."
A 7-year-old boy was allegedly called “little Hitler” while selling hot chocolate to raise money for President Trump’s border wall.
The child, Benton Stevens, asked his parents about the wall while watching the State of the Union Address earlier this month and announced, “I want to raise money for the wall.”
Benton’s parents, Shane and Jennifer, live in Austin, Texas and are Republican National Convention members who support Trump.
The family says Benton begged them to set up a booth and was helped by his older brother and mother.
Speaking with Austin’s KXAN, Jennifer said, “People think he’s brainwashed. Well, of course, he supports Trump because we do, and he hears how we talk and this and that. Call that brainwashing, but I call it parenting because we instill our values in him.”
Benton’s stand allegedly raised $231 in sales on Saturday, proving that even in liberal Austin, Texas Americans back President Trump’s proposal.
Similarly to the left’s reaction to the Covington High School controversy, liberals once again attacked a pro-Trump child, calling Benton “little Hitler” and complaining to the owner of the store closest to the hot chocolate stand.
“I guess some liberals – or whatever you want to call them – they were griping at the owner (of the store) and going in and yelling at him and slamming him on Facebook,” Jennifer Stevens said.
She also claims somebody took pictures of Benton behind the booth and posted them to multiple Facebook groups, causing quite the uproar.
“It seems like there are more people supporting it than against it but the people that are against it keep going and going and going.”
Despite the negative feedback of some, Stevens says Benton was “fired up” and decided to go back on Sunday.
Upon returning, Benton was met with more #Resistance with one man reportedly pointing at him from his car and saying “he doesn’t like brown people.”
The fundraiser has been a success as Benton has raised around $1,400 between sales and Venmo donations.
Jennifer and Shane promise the money will be spent appropriately, saying, “We’re also part of the RNC and we’re pretty connected there so we will 100 percent make sure it goes towards the wall.”
ROME – Italy's government has written to the European Union asking it to prepare a plan of action to address the risk of a new wave of migrants escaping from the armed conflict in Libya.
Italy's Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero spoke on Wednesday at a joint news conference in Rome after meeting with the United Nation envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame. Moavero didn't provide additional details on Italy's request.
Italy's anti-immigration Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has ordered that migrant rescue boats cannot enter Italian ports.
Salame downplayed Italy's fears that a huge number of African refugees could leave Libya trying to reach Europe.
"We know that about 700,000 migrants are in our country now, but not even a minority of them wants to cross the Mediterranean," Salame told journalists.
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)
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)
KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.
The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.
Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.
The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.
The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
April 26, 2019
By Charlotte Greenfield
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.
Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.
Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.
In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.
“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.
Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.
The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.
“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.
New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.
He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.
The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University
He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.
“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.
Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.
On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.
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