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Ilhan Omar & AOC Defend 9/11 Terrorists

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Source: InfoWars

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Woman sues Chinese billionaire Liu for alleged rape

A woman who said she was raped by JD.com founder Richard Liu filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the billionaire and his company alleging he and other wealthy Chinese executives coerced her to drink during a dinner in the hours before she was attacked.

Jingyao Liu, a student at the University of Minnesota, claims Liu forced himself upon her in his vehicle after the dinner and later raped her at her apartment. The lawsuit seeks damages of more than $50,000.

Richard Liu, founder of the Beijing-based e-commerce site JD.com, was arrested Aug. 31 in Minneapolis on suspicion of felony rape and released within hours. Prosecutors announced in December that he would face no criminal charges because the case had "profound evidentiary problems" and that it was unlikely they could prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Liu's defense attorneys said at the time that his arrest was based on a false claim. Liu released a statement on Chinese social media then saying he broke no law, but that his interactions with the woman hurt his family, especially his wife, and he hoped she would accept his apology.

Attorneys for Richard Liu and representatives of JD.com did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The alleged attack happened while Liu was in Minneapolis for a weeklong residency as part of the University of Minnesota's doctor of business administration China program. The four-year program in the university's management school is geared toward high-level executives in China and is a partnership with Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.

Jingyao Liu is a Chinese citizen studying at the university on a student visa. The Associated Press does not generally name alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent; her attorney Wil Florin said Jingyao Liu had agreed to be named.

On the night of the alleged attack, Liu and other executives went to Origami, a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis. The woman went to the dinner as a volunteer, Florin has said. She felt coerced to drink as the powerful men toasted her, he said.

Text messages reviewed by The Associated Press and portions of the woman's interviews with police show the woman claims Liu pulled her into a vehicle and made advances despite her protests. The woman texted a friend: "I begged him don't. But he didn't listen." She said he raped her at her apartment.

Liu, known in Chinese as Liu Qiangdong, is a prominent member of the Chinese tech elite, with a fortune of $7.5 billion. He is part of a generation of entrepreneurs who have created China's internet, e-commerce, mobile phone and other technology industries since the late 1990s. The son of peasants, Liu built a Beijing electronics shop into JD.com, China's biggest online direct retailer, selling everything from clothes to toys to fresh vegetables.

___

Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti

Source: Fox News National

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Police don’t believe missing five-year-old Illinois boy was abducted or wandered off

Following a frantic search for a missing five-year-old boy, police have revealed that they do not believe he was abducted or wandered away from his suburban Chicago home.

The parents of Andrew "AJ" Freund told police on Thursday that they last saw their son when they put him to bed around 9 p.m. the previous night and had no idea what happened to him. Police are now saying that they're placing a renewed focus on the home after dogs "only picked up Andrew's 'scent' within the residence indicating that Andrew had not walked away on foot," ABC 7 reports.

"(T)here is no indication that would lead police to believe that an abduction had taken place," Crystal Lake Police Department said in a press release.

An investigation is still ongoing as AJ has yet to be found after police searched about 373 acres of the surrounding area on foot, and another 500 acres using drones. On Thursday, teams used sonar to check the nearby Crystal Lake and beach area to no avail.

It was additionally revealed that there have been previous allegations of abuse and neglect against AJ's mother, JoAnn Cunningham. The Illinois Department of Child and Family services has "been involved with the family" since AJ was born, a spokesperson said.

Shortly after his birth, he was brought into the department's custody, and he resided in the care of someone other than his parents from 2015 to 2018. The parents have another child who was reportedly living in the home up until AJ's disappearance this week and has now been placed with another family.

POLICE RELEASE FOOTAGE OF AURORA, ILLINOIS WAREHOUSE SHOOTING

MAN WHO CLAIMED TO BE TIMMOTHY PITZEN CHARGED WITH LYING TO FBI

In March and December of 2018, the department was called to AJ's home on reports of abuse and neglect, which were ultimately unfounded, the spokesperson added.

Through her lawyer, Ms. Cunningham denied any insinuation that she was involved in her son's disappearance.

She "doesn't know what happened to AJ, and had nothing to do with the disappearance of AJ," her attorney George Kililis said. "Ms. Cunningham is worried sick. She is devastated."

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While speaking on television this week, AJ's father, Andrew Freund Sr., addressed his son directly.

"AJ, please come home," he said. "We love you very much. You're not in any trouble. We're just worried to death. Please, please come home."

Source: Fox News National

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Exclusive: Saudi court approves detained tycoon Sanea’s bankruptcy filing

People gather as Saudi authorities auction vehicles and other possessions belonging to billionaire Maan al-Sanea and his company in Dammam
People gather as Saudi authorities auction vehicles and other possessions belonging to billionaire Maan al-Sanea and his company in Dammam, Saudi Arabia March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Zuhair Al-Traifi

March 9, 2019

By Davide Barbuscia and Marwa Rashad

DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) – A Saudi court has approved an application by detained and indebted billionaire Maan al-Sanea and his company, Saad, to have their case resolved through the kingdom’s new bankruptcy law, the company’s financial adviser and two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The ruling in February could provide a resolution to one of the kingdom’s longest-running debt sagas.

Saad, with interests from banking to healthcare, defaulted together with another conglomerate, Ahmad Hamad al-Gosaibi and Brothers (AHAB), in 2009, leaving banks with unpaid debts of about $22 billion

Creditors have spent the past 10 years pursuing Saad, which is based in the city of Khobar in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, for claims that some observers familiar with the case last year estimated at between $11 billion and $16 billion.

“This is a landmark step for all stakeholders since 2009,” said Ahmed Ismail, the chief executive of Reemas Consultants, which was appointed as Saad’s financial adviser in late 2017 to find a settlement with creditors.

“The regional and international creditors represent more than 85 percent of total debt, some of whom advised filing under the new bankruptcy law,” he said.

“Given that it is more or less aligned with regional and international commercial law practices, the probability of its success is much higher.”

A commercial court in Dammam last month approved an application for financial reorganization under the terms of the Saudi bankruptcy law and appointed an independent trustee to oversee the process. Such decisions are not made public.

The trustee, Saleh A. Al-Naim, sent a notice to creditors – seen by Reuters – announcing the beginning of the financial reorganization proceedings, and asked them to submit their claims within 90 days.

Saad’s filing is among the first to be accepted under Saudi Arabia’s bankruptcy law, which came into effect last August and is part of the Saudi government’s efforts to make the Arab world’s largest economy more attractive to investors.

Until last year the main options for debt defaults were liquidation or cash injections. The law provides more options and regulates procedures such as settlements and liquidation.

Sanea, ranked by Forbes in 2007 as one of the world’s 100 richest people, was detained in Khobar in 2017 for unpaid debts dating back to 2009 when Saad Group defaulted.

In late 2017 a three-judge tribunal established to resolve Saad’s debt dispute appointed a consortium called Etqaan Alliance to liquidate assets owned by the billionaire by auctions in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Riyadh and Jeddah.

Etqaan Alliance has already held three auctions for Sanea’s vehicles, warehouses and real estate assets. Sources told Reuters last month the auctions raised around 350 million riyals ($93.34 million).

“In addition to strengthening investors’ confidence with the local market, the new law will raise the value of the debtors’ assets, since they will not be obliged to sell for low prices through an enforced liquidation,” Ismail said.

“The realized value of the last three auctions was at 30 percent of market value in a normal buyer-and-seller market, which would have significantly jeopardized the recovery ratio for all creditors.”

AHAB, the other defaulted conglomerate, applied to begin a “protective settlement procedure” under the bankruptcy law, but in January the Dammam commercial court rejected the filing saying the company had not provided all the information needed as part of the law and its regulations.

AHAB said last month it filed additional information with the commercial court of appeal at Dammam’s commercial court, effectively appealing against its decision.

(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia and Marwa Rashad; Editing by Ros Russell)

Source: OANN

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New Jersey Governor Wants to Tax Poor People’s Right to Self-Defense

According to a New York Times report, Governor Phil Murphy wants to significantly increase the tax on gun ownership in New Jersey.

New Jersey’s firearm ID currently costs $5, while a permit to own and carry a gun costs $2 and $20 respectively.

Governor Murphy, however, wants to raise those fees to $100 for the ID, $50 to own a firearm, and $400 just to carry a firearm.

And that’s not all.

Murphy wants to tax ammo by 10 percent and guns by 2.5 percent.

These proposals are included in the state budget which has to be passed on the deadline of June 30.

Like universal background checks, these new fees would disproportionately punish the poor and minorities.

John Lott has noted this in his book The War on Guns:

There are real costs of expanding background checks to private transfers. In particular, the fees on private transfers reduce gun ownership, particularly among law-abiding poor blacks who live in high crime urban areas and who benefit the most from protecting themselves; they will be the ones most likely priced out of owning guns for protection.

The New Jersey Governor asserts that he is not waging a “war on responsible gun owners.”

Instead, Murphy says that the funds raised from this gun tax would go towards “anti-violence” programs.

Murphy concluded, “We can support the efforts of the attorney general, state troopers, county and local law enforcement, to do the stuff we need to do: track crime, track gun violence, combat trafficking of illegal guns.”

Cody McLaughlin, the spokesman for the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, pushed back, saying that “This is clear bullying of law-abiding gun owners in the state.”

McLaughlin added, “You’re talking about sportsmen that are already paying hundreds of dollars a year in license fees.”

Lisa Caso, owner of Caso’s Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, stated that “It’s [gun tax} going to affect gun shops tremendously” and will “deter a lot of people from buying permits. In our business, you have people coming in who barely have money to buy the most modestly priced guns, which are around $300.”

In the meantime, Caso alleges that she has heard rumors about people scrambling to buy gun permits “ahead of the potentially higher fees.”

New Jersey is one of the most anti-gun states in America, with Guns & Ammo magazine ranking it in 50th place in 2018.

Since the Parkland shooting, New Jersey has embraced a wide array of gun control measures, which notably included a 3D printable gun ban.

Should these taxes pass, New Jersey will only cement its status as one of the least friendly states for gun owners in America.

Source: InfoWars

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Role of a Lifetime: Life Lessons with Peter Krause

FILE PHOTO: Actor Krause announces the nominations for the 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills
FILE PHOTO: Actor Peter Krause announces the nominations for the 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California December 11, 2014. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

March 18, 2019

By Chris Taylor

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you are looking for steady work, it is probably best not to go into show business. Unless you are Peter Krause, that is.

The 53-year-old Minnesota native has been a staple of U.S. TV screens for years, with roles in shows like “Sports Night,” “Six Feet Under,” “Parenthood,” and his current series “9-1-1,” which begins its spring season tonight on Fox.

For the latest in Reuters’ “Life Lessons” series, Krause talked with us about the heartland principles that have kept him working steadily in Hollywood for a couple of decades.

Q: Was an acting career always on your radar, even as a kid?

A: When I turned 16 in Roseville, Minnesota, it was expected that I would get a job, so I got one at the local movie theater.

It’s gone now, which is kind of sad. But I got to see every movie that came out, multiple times: Films like “The Mission,” “Chariots of Fire,” “On Golden Pond,” and “The Pope of Greenwich Village.”

So I got to really study those performances, even though I wasn’t thinking about being an actor at the time.

Q: Did your folks give you a hard time about your career choice?

A: My dad was a farm kid, always doing chores, who didn’t even have plumbing or electricity until he was 16. By the time he was 18, he was boots on the ground in Germany, as part of the army of occupation after World War Two. So the idea of acting was very foreign to him. We had a bit of a battle at first.

Q: What was the money situation like early on?

A: My parents didn’t have a lot of money. All of our family vacations were by car. So when I flew into New York City to go to New York University, I had never even been on a plane before.

I took the bus from LaGuardia Airport to Grand Central Station, and then walked from there down to NYU, which was about 40 blocks. Seeing the city like that was a shock to the system, since I had grown up in a small town in the middle of cornfields.

Q: Were those early acting years tough financially?

A: I had been bartending on Broadway in theaters, which is where I first met Aaron Sorkin, who was a bar manager at the Palace Theatre at the time, when they were playing “La Cage aux Folles.”

But one of my first shows out of college was with Carol Burnett, which was helpful with my parents, because they knew who she was. I finally got to take my dad out for lunch, and grabbed the check and signed the bill. He looked at me and said, “Well, this is different.”

Q: Which of your roles taught you the most?

A: All roles teach you something new. Different characters have different life rules, and some of those characters end up bleeding into me a little.

Nate Fisher from “Six Feet Under” was very difficult to play, because he was so at odds with himself all the time. That was a defining moment in my career. Working on that show was like a daily meditation on life and death.

Q: Have you thought about the future, and what retirement is going to look like for you?

A: I don’t plan on retiring. I’ll do this as long as I can. I still enjoy acting as much as I ever did. Right now on “9-1-1” I get to be a firefighter, which is basically my childhood dream come true.

Q: You have a kid, so what life lessons do you try to pass along to him?

A: He just turned 17, so I have taught him all sorts of things: How to ride a bike, drive a car. I was even his baseball coach for three years. What I have tried to impart to him the most is to figure out what makes him happy. For myself, I spent a fair amount of time trying to make my parents happy, and wanting to be a success in their eyes. That kind of messed me up. So I want to get my son to listen to his own compass.

(The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.)

(Editing by Beth Pinsker; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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Jussie Smollett, who fooled the media and faced the backlash, beats the system

I'm not saying Jussie Smollett should have gotten 10 years in prison.

If he had pleaded guilty, paid a big fine and got stuck with community service, I wouldn't have lost any sleep.

But what happened in Chicago was an absolute travesty of justice.

Axios is calling it "one of the biggest non-Trump stories of 2019." But like so much else in our culture, it is very much a Trump story.

It was no minor detail that the "Empire" actor claimed he was beaten up on the street by two thugs proclaiming the neighborhood "MAGA country." That, along with their supposed noose, was central to depicting the incident as an anti-black, anti-gay hate crime perpetrated by Trump zealots.

And it was all a lie, of course.

But now Smollett will never be prosecuted. He will never be held to account for how he traumatized his city and betrayed his supporters.

READ THE CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT'S JUSSIE SMOLLETT CASE FILES

He doesn't even have to admit that he constructed a damnable lie.

The charges have suddenly, mysteriously, conveniently been dropped.

Rahm Emanuel is outraged, as is the city's police superintendent.

The mayor called it a "whitewash of justice" at a news conference, at one point so agitated that he demanded of Smollett, "How dare he?"

"You cannot have, because of a person's position, one set of rules apply to them and one set of rules apply to everybody else," Emanuel said, adding that the city's reputation was "dragged through the mud."

CHICAGO COPS SMELL POLITICAL RAT IN WAKE OF JUSSIE SMOLLETT CASE DISMISSAL

Smollett still insists he's innocent. That's the infuriating part.

"I've been truthful and consistent on every single level since Day One," he announced. "This has been an incredibly difficult time, honestly one of the worst of my entire life."

Tell that to the Jamaican brothers he hired for $4,000 to stage the late-night attack. They've suddenly gone quiet.

The decision by the Cook County state's attorney not to pursue the indictment, which included charges of lying to police, did not exactly play well at home.

"It's an indefensible decision, a deal hashed out in secret, with — this is outrageous — Smollett not even required to take ownership of his apparent hoax." a Chicago Tribune editorial said. "Not even required to apologize for allegedly exploiting hate crime laws. And not even required to reimburse Chicago taxpayers for the enormous cost of this investigation."

And how did prosecutors justify this travesty? With a vague statement claiming that "we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."

Imagine some working-class dude who pulled the same stunt. Of course he would have been prosecuted. The moral here is that another well-connected celebrity skates without so much as an expression of regret.

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Other than forfeiting a $10,000 bond, Smollett — who police said faked the crime to try to get the Fox show to give him a raise — gets away with it.

Says National Review: "Rarely do we find ourselves nodding vigorously in agreement with Rahm Emanuel or David Axelrod, but both onetime Obama lieutenants expressed needful levels of disbelief and disgust at the surprise outcome of L'Affaire Jussie Smollett ...

"Smollett's staging was obviously intended to disparage his avowed political enemy Donald Trump and Trump supporters, and he even said on 'Good Morning America' that he believed his 'attackers' were motivated by his public anti-Trump stance. Sharing his priors about the deplorables, far too many Americans who should have known better believed Smollett's tall tale."

In the end, Smollett's alleged scam wasn't about the president. But it was very much about Trump country.

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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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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