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MLB notebook: Angels, Trout reportedly near $430M deal

FILE PHOTO: MLB: Spring Training-Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Angels
FILE PHOTO: Mar 7, 2019; Tempe, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout (27) runs to third base after hitting a triple against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

March 20, 2019

Mike Trout is on the verge of a 12-year, $430 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels, ESPN reported Tuesday.

Trout, 27, is a two-time American League Most Valuable Player and is scheduled to become a free agent in 2020. The agreement, per ESPN, will tack on 10 years to the final two seasons remaining on Trout’s $144.5 million agreement with the Angels.

The deal would smash the massive contract signed by outfielder Bryce Harper — 13 years, $330 million with the Philadelphia Phillies — on March 2.

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke currently holds the record MLB annual average salary at $34.4 million. Trout would eclipse that mark with an average of approximately $36 million.

–New York Yankees reliever Dellin Betances will begin the season on the injured list as he recovers from a right shoulder impingement, general manager Brian Cashman confirmed.

An MRI exam revealed the injury after the club was worried about the four-time All-Star’s velocity this spring. Although there was no timetable for the 30-year-old right-hander’s return, it is not considered a serious setback as he will be treated with anti-inflammatory medication.

“I’m just a little behind,” Betances said. “That’s how I feel right now. I’m not concerned at all.”

–Detroit Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer is being advised to undergo Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow, although the team said he “is seeking a third opinion at this time.”

The Tigers announced that results of an MRI exam and a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews led to the recommendation of reconstructive surgery on Fulmer’s ulnar collateral ligament.

Fulmer, 23, was shut down by the Tigers earlier this spring to work on “lower-body mechanics” as he worked his way back from knee problems that cut short his 2018 season in mid-September. The Tigers said Fulmer began to experience right elbow soreness after a recent bullpen session.

–Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler has been ruled out as a replacement for Clayton Kershaw as the team’s Opening Day starter.

Buehler, 24, has been slowed by shoulder issues this spring. He went 8-5 with a 2.62 ERA in 24 appearances (23 starts) last season while finishing third in NL Rookie of the Year balloting.

Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda are the top candidates to take the hill when the season starts on March 28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Former Obama lawyer Craig charged in Mueller spin-off probe

FILE PHOTO: Attorney Greg Craig speaks to reporters on the outcome of the courts' decision regarding Elian Gonzalez, in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Attorney Greg Craig speaks to reporters on the outcome of the courts' decision regarding Elian Gonzalez, in Washington, U.S., June 1, 2000. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Greg Craig, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, was charged on Thursday with lying about work he performed in 2012 for Ukraine in a case that grew out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Craig, 74, faces up to 10 years in prison for charges of making false statements and violating a lobbying law.

He is accused of lying to the Justice Department about his work on a 2012 report aimed at justifying the prosecution of a political enemy of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian-aligned president of Ukraine at the time.

Craig’s lawyers declined immediate comment.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, the New York law firm that produced the report, agreed in January to turn over the $4.6 million it was paid and retroactively register as a foreign agent, as part of a settlement with the Justice Department.

Skadden produced the 187-page report at the behest of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign who is currently serving a 7 1/2-year prison sentence for lobbying violations and financial crimes.

Manafort was apparently happy with Craig’s work.

“You are ‘THE MAN,'” he wrote Craig in an email after the report received favorable media coverage, according to the indictment.

The report was meant to be an objective review of the Ukrainian government’s prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, the country’s former prime minister who was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

It was used by Yanukovych’s government to justify Tymoshenko’s pretrial detention to the European Court of Human Rights and influence U.S. lawmakers.

Yanukovich was one of Manafort’s main lobbying clients.

According to the indictment, Craig covered up aspects of his work in order to avoid registering as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a rarely enforced law that was enacted in 1938 to counter Nazi propaganda.

Had Craig complied with the law, he would have been forced to reveal that the report was funded by a private Ukranian citizen, not the government, and disclose that Skadden was simultaneously helping out with Tymoshenko’s prosecution on other charges.

“That would do enormous damage to the credibility” of the report, Craig wrote in an email to other Skadden attorneys, according to the indictment.

Craig privately had reservations about Tymoshenko’s treatment but left them out of the report, the indictment said.

“Evidence of criminal intent – i.e., that she intended to commit a crime – is virtually non-existent,” he wrote in a memorandum that was not included in the report, according to the charges.

The case stems from Mueller’s 22-month investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign worked with Russia to influence 2016 election.

That probe led to charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former key Trump allies, but Attorney General William Barr said last month that Mueller did not find enough evidence to charge Trump or others with criminal conspiracy.

Barr also said that he decided there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. He is expected to release a redacted version of Mueller’s final report to Congress next week.

(Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann and Nathan Layne; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot)

Source: OANN

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Regulators fine Wynn Resorts $20 M over sex allegations

Nevada gambling regulators have fined casino mogul Steve Wynn's former company a record $20 million for failing to investigate claims of sexual misconduct made against him before he resigned a year ago.

The penalty announced Tuesday against Wynn Resorts Ltd. settles an investigation that began after The Wall Street Journal reported that several women said the company founder harassed or assaulted them.

The agreement with the Nevada Gaming Commission allows Wynn Resorts to keep its gambling license.

The fine tops the previous highest in state history: a $5.5 million penalty in 2014 against the sports betting company now known as CG Technology.

Steve Wynn himself is not part of the Wynn Resorts settlement. He has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

Source: Fox News National

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Thomson Reuters posts 9 percent rise in quarterly revenue

FILE PHOTO: CEO Jim Smith speaks during the Thomson Reuters annual general meeting for shareholders in Toronto
FILE PHOTO: Thomson Reuters CEO Jim Smith speaks during the Thomson Reuters Corp. annual general meeting for shareholders in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo

February 26, 2019

TORONTO (Reuters) – Thomson Reuters on Tuesday reported a 9 percent rise in quarterly revenue, stripping out the impact of currency, helped by higher sales at its Legal and Tax & Accounting businesses.

The news and information provider reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.52 billion, compared with $1.41 billion a year ago. Earnings excluding special items were 20 cents per share, down from 22 cents per share a year ago.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: OANN

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EU rejects US recognition of Israeli control over Golan

The European Union says it will not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, despite the U.S. policy reversal on the disputed territory.

The EU Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement Wednesday that it was the "unanimous position" of all 28 member states not to change their stance in line with U.N. resolutions that identify the Golan Heights as occupied territory and reject the seizure of land by force.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981.

U.S. President Trump signed the proclamation recognizing Israel's authority on Monday, upending over a half-century of U.S. policy. The U.S. is the first country to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan, which the rest of the international community regards as occupied territory.

Source: Fox News World

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Top House Dem says Cohen likely to face DOJ perjury probe; admits blocking Fox News from primary debates 'doesn't help'

A top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee told "Fox News Sunday" that she believes the panel's chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings, will "end up referring" former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation, after numerous contradictions and inconsistencies have surfaced in his dramatic public testimony late last month.

Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., who also serves as the liason to the Democratic leadership, additionally charged that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) erred by blocking Fox News from hosting any Democratic primary debates, saying the move doesn't do anything to "help" the growing partisan tensions.

Hill's comments came as Cohen's own lawyer, Lanny Davis, has corrected Cohen's statements before the House oversight panel. Several Republicans have accused Cohen of perjury on a variety of matters.

Fox News exclusively reported on Friday, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that Cohen met with staff for Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for more than 10 hours before his testimony. In addition to his public remarks, Cohen has met with the House panel several times behind closed doors.

Even as she seemingly acknowledged that Democrats "can't go anywhere" on impeaching President Trump at the moment, Hill indicated that Cummings had more than enough justification to request another criminal probe into Cohen, who has already pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 concerning the duration of negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

SCHIFF STAFF WENT TO NEW YORK FOUR TIMES TO MEET WITH COHEN FOR MORE THAN 10 HOURS -- FOR TESTIMONY LASTING ONLY 7 HOURS, SOURCES SAY. WAS HE COACHED?

"I don’t know if he lied or not," Hill said. "I think that this is, Chairman Cummings is incredibly deliberate. I know that he's reviewing the entire testimony, all the transcripts with [GOP ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan] who also is going to make sure that we get to the bottom of this."

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, becomes emotional as he finishes a day of testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, becomes emotional as he finishes a day of testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Among the key areas of focus: Cohen's own attorney, Lanny Davis, seemingly contradicted Cohen's claims under oath that he had never sought a pardon from the White House.

On Friday, President Trump blasted Cohen, confirming that he denied Cohen's request for a pardon.

"Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!" Trump tweeted.

Hill told Wallace she was not sure "how that went down exactly," but suggested that Cohen was in a "panic."

"I would imagine that in the panic that was going on when you’re about to go down [on criminal charges], right, that you’re going to say like 'yeah, figure out whatever you can do,'" Hill said. "And I imagine that Chairman Cummings will end up referring him. That’s just my guess."

Cummings said on Thursday that he has "to make sure" that Cohen's statements were "true inconsistencies and not outright lies,” and claimed he told Cohen personally that he would “nail you to the cross” if he had lied to Congress again. “And I meant that,” Cummings said.

Referencing those comments, Hill told Wallace: "When [Cummings] says something like, 'I'm going to nail you to the cross'  he means it. I've seen him in action. He's not going to let this go."

"He's not going to let this go."

— Rep. Katie Hill, on Elijah Cummings

And Cohen has also faced scrutiny from multiple fronts -- including CNN and the Trump administration -- for claiming under oath that he had not sought out a job in the Trump White House. Davis later acknowledged that Cohen was, in fact, at one time considering the possibility of working in the White House.

Cohen is set to head to prison in May, although his sentence is yet to be determined. Some Republicans accused Cohen of seeking to garner favor with prosecutors with his testimony.

Still, despite the debate over Cohen's truthfulness, Hill said, the Trump administration is still blameworthy -- even if it may lack criminal culpability.

"I really think that this is about getting to the truth, about showing it to the American people, and then we go from there. But at the end of the day if -- if people -- you know, the citizens of the United States -- don't believe that it has risen to that level, then we can't go anywhere," Hill said. "So really it's about exposing the truth and it's about getting to the bottom of this and it's about asking the questions of 'Is this the kind of government, is this the kind of leadership that we want to see, is this OK, is this the kind of state that we want to leave our democracy in to our children?' And right now I just don't believe that it is."

Hill went on to imply that the media climate has become "more and more partisan," after anchor Chris Wallace pressed for her response to DNC Chairman Tom Perez's decision to ban Fox News from hosting Democratic primary debates. Perez claimed Fox News would not be “fair and neutral” forums for the candidates, citing contested allegations in a recent article in The New Yorker.

"I think it’s the Democratic primary and I think we know that there are basically no Democrats who watch Fox News, so to me that's pretty fair," Hill began, although she later acknowledged that "certainly Independents" would be potential debate viewers.

"I'm here because I do represent a purple district," Hill told Wallace. "You know, I think that there's a lack of bias and I'm hoping that we can change that. I feel like you're treating me without bias, and I appreciate that. And I think that this is something we have to change. I personally don't think it helps when we're saying we're not going to have any of the debates on Fox News."

Hill added: "I don't know how much of that was driven by the candidates, how much of it was driven by the party. I'd like to see all of that change. I want to see the media become as unbiased as possible, but you know, I don't know that we're in that state right now, which is really unfortunate."

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Former DNC Chairman Ed Rendell told Fox News on Thursday that the decision was a grave strategic mistake by Democrats.

“If we could pick the commentators and moderators, I think we should have the debate on Fox, because let me tell you — even if we can persuade 3 percent of Fox viewers, 3 percent last time out, carries Michigan,” Rendell, who served as DNC chair during the 2000 election, said in an interview. “I was the DNC chair, I would say, ‘Give me Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Juan Williams, and you can have that Fox debate anywhere, anytime, any number of times."

Fox News' Chris Wallace and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Attorney slams Engler for attending game amid Nassar probe

John Engler's front-row interest in Michigan State University basketball has led to a war of words over the former school president's availability to speak to investigators about the Larry Nassar scandal .

Things have become so nasty that Engler's attorney has advised him not to cooperate if state Assistant Attorney General Christina Grossi remains on the case.

The attorney general's office wants to talk to Engler about campus changes after the sexual-assault scandal involving Nassar, a sports doctor, an interview that could take less than an hour. Engler was interim president for about a year until Jan. 17.

Grossi said Engler was scheduled to be interviewed March 28 in Washington, where he works, because he didn't plan to be in Michigan earlier. But she suddenly scratched that date this week. Grossi was upset to learn that the former Michigan governor was in a courtside seat at a MSU basketball game on March 9.

She suggested Engler could have carved out time to meet in Michigan long before March 28.

"Your client's brazen disregard for this investigation and his willingness to lie about his whereabouts is not only appalling but does a terrible disservice to the university," Grossi told attorney Seth Waxman in an email Tuesday.

"As an alumna of Michigan State, I'm embarrassed that our university's former president can make time to attend basketball games but not to sit to discuss the largest sexual assault scandal in the history of higher education," Grossi wrote.

In response, Waxman said he never indicated that Engler was unwilling to travel to Michigan. The lawyer said he was unavailable during the week of March 4, not Engler.

Waxman told Grossi that he's advising Engler to decline to speak to investigators unless she is dropped from the Nassar investigation. He accused her of "unfounded attacks" and said her "biases and prejudices" are unethical.

"The fact that the underlying conduct involved unspeakable harms," Waxman said of Nassar's assaults, "does not give the attorney general's office and its agents the right to attack, manipulate and deceive innocent people, including Mr. Engler."

Separately, Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the head of MSU's governing board to demand that Engler cooperate, under terms of his contract. She also wants the university to release more than 6,000 documents related to Nassar.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap

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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