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ISIS bride's dad suing Trump, US to let her back into the country

The father of the Alabama woman begging to be let back into the U.S. after leaving years ago to join ISIS is now launching a legal campaign against President Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr.

Attorneys from the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America have filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ahmed Ali Muthana arguing his daughter Hoda and her 18-month-old son should be allowed to return to America, and her citizenship – which the U.S. government disputes – should be recognized.

The suit also seeks a judgment that Muthana's father is “entitled to send his daughter money to ensure the survival of his daughter and grandson, and enable them safe passage home, without subjecting himself to criminal liability” under U.S. law.

Muthana currently is living at a refugee camp in northeast Syria and she "is willing to pay whatever debts she has to society” – even if it means serving a lengthy prison sentence, her family's lawyer told Fox News on Thursday.

ISIS WIFE BEGGING FOR US RETURN IS 'GOING TO HAVE TO ANSWER TO GOD FOR HER DECISIONS', ATTORNEY SAYS

In 2015, Muthana allegedly operated a Twitter account that, on at least one occasion, tried to incite Americans to commit acts of violence on national holidays.

Pompeo though has said Muthana is not an American citizen and Trump has vowed not to let her back into the country.

“In Ms. Muthana’s words, she recognizes that she has ‘ruined’ her own life, but she does not want to ruin the life of her young child,” the attorneys who filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia told AL.com in a statement. “Citizenship is a core right under the Constitution, and once recognized should not be able to be unilaterally revoked by tweet—no matter how egregious the intervening conduct may be."

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But Zuhdi Jasser, the Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy -- a group that describes itself as a “Muslim-led organization working on the front lines for reform at all levels of the Muslim community” -- told Fox News yesterday the government shouldn’t even bother with Muthana.

“She became, not only a terrorist, she became an enemy of our country and if she did believe in the citizenship oath…she abandoned it and actually violated it and became an enemy combatant,” he said on "America’s Newsroom."

Source: Fox News National

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Michigan police officers drive 9-year-old boy to school, surprise him with birthday cake

A call for birthday backup led to a sweet treat for a Michigan boy.

Police officers in Grand Rapids surprised a 9-year-old boy with birthday cake, presents and a singing quartet at his bus stop Tuesday.

GEORGIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CELEBRATES JANITOR’S 80TH BIRTHDAY

Officer Lynema spotted Thomas Daniels running for his school bus and offered him a ride, with his mom's permission, when the bus didn't stop.

Officer Lynema spotted Thomas Daniels running for his school bus and offered him a ride, with his mom's permission, when the bus didn't stop. (Grand Rapids Police Department)

Grand Rapids Police Officer Lynema first spotted 9-year-old Thomas Daniel chasing down his school bus Monday. When the bus did not stop for the boy, Lynema offered to help. Thomas' mother, who does not have a car, gave the officer permission to drive her son to school, according to the police department's Facebook post.

During the car ride, Thomas told the officer that it was his 9th birthday and invited him to his party after school. The boy said he had been bullied and feared none of his classmates would attend. Lynema gladly paid the party a visit only to find no cake and just Thomas's siblings in attendance.

Officer Lynema attended the first birthday party at Thomas Daniel's home only to find that none of his classmates came to celebrate.

Officer Lynema attended the first birthday party at Thomas Daniel's home only to find that none of his classmates came to celebrate. (Grand Rapids Police Department)

Lynema decided to call his fellow officers for some birthday backup.

When the youngster got off the bus the next day, he was surprised to find officers waiting for him with a Krispy Kreme donut cake and presents.

"This is the best birthday ever!" Thomas told the officers, who also sang "Happy Birthday" in an impromptu quartet.

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“No kid should get bullied, and no kid should worry if anyone will come to the party,” the police department said in the post.

“Next year Thomas Daniel, make sure you drop us that invite a little sooner. We wouldn't want to miss it!”

Source: Fox News National

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Ukraine says ambassador’s car is rammed twice in London

The Ukrainian Embassy says its ambassador's car was rammed twice while it was parked in front of the London embassy building. British police say they opened fire on the suspect's car before detaining the alleged perpetrator.

The embassy says in a statement Saturday that no one on the embassy staff was injured and that a suspect was apprehended and taken to a British police station.

London police say the Saturday morning incident is not ongoing. The suspect has not been identified or charged. Police did not report any injuries to the suspect.

The embassy is located in Holland Park, west London.

Source: Fox News World

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Tense calm on Gaza-Israel border after flareup

Palestinian man inspects his damaged house after Israeli air strikes targeted a nearby Hamas site on Monday, in Gaza City
A Palestinian man inspects his damaged house after Israeli air strikes targeted a nearby Hamas site on Monday, in Gaza City March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

March 27, 2019

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Schools reopened in southern Israel and traffic clogged Gaza’s streets on Wednesday in signs of a pullback from the most serious escalation of cross-border fighting in months.

But while violence eased amid Egyptian mediation, Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were on hair-trigger footing, with rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli air strikes in the enclave briefly resuming late on Tuesday after a day-long lull.

Despite dozens of rocket launchings and Israeli attacks, no deaths have been reported. Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile interceptors have destroyed some of the rockets and Palestinian militants vacated facilities targeted in the air strikes.

Towns in southern Israel, where rocket-warning sirens have disrupted daily life since the current round of fighting began on Monday, reopened classrooms. In Gaza, schools were also operating and cars filled the streets.

The Gaza frontier remained tense, however, with Israeli troops and tanks deployed along the border. Both Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group made clear that attacks by the other side would not be tolerated.

Even if the crisis subsides, it could shadow Israel’s April 9 election, in which right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned on a tough security platform.

TENSIONS BUILDING

The latest fighting has added to tensions that were already building ahead of the first anniversary on March 30 of the start of weekly Gaza protests at the border. Some 200 Gazans have been killed and thousands wounded by Israeli fire during those protests, and one Israeli soldier has been killed.

Israel says its use of lethal force is meant to stop attempts to breach the border and launch attack on its troops and civilians.

The protesters are demanding the right to return to lands Palestinians fled or were forced to leave in Israel during fighting that accompanied its founding in 1948.

Seven Israelis were injured in Monday’s initial rocket attack that hit the village of Mishmeret, 120 km (75 miles) north of Gaza. No other casualties in Israel have been reported. Twelve Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli strikes, Gaza health officials said.

Egypt was expected to pursue further truce talks on Wednesday, said a Palestinian official involved in the efforts.

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council on Tuesday he had been working with Egypt to secure a ceasefire and that a fragile calm had taken hold.

Security is a major issue for Netanyahu, in power for a decade and beset by corruption allegations that he denies. He is facing his strongest electoral challenge from a centrist coalition led by a former general.

In Dheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, a 17-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes with stone-throwers, an ambulance service official said, identifying him as a volunteer wearing a paramedic uniform. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Maayan Lubell and Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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Gavin Newsom’s El Salvador investment push is ‘wrong move,’ angel mom says, as California ‘has a lot of issues’

An angel mother is pushing back on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mission to spur investment in El Salvador as a way of mitigating the surge of migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border, telling Fox News on Tuesday that “he ought to be focusing on what is happening in our state.”

Agnes Gibboney, whose son Ronald da Silva was shot and killed in the Los Angeles-area in 2002 by an illegal immigrant, made the comment on "Fox & Friends" following the Democrat’s recent trip to the Central American country.

“Absolutely the wrong move. California has a lot of issues,” she said when asked about Newsom’s approach, lamenting the Golden State’s infrastructure, economic growth, schools, and tax system. “He ought to be focusing on what is happening in our state, not another country. It’s not his job to be doing that.”

Newsom is hoping that by attracting investment in El Salvador, its citizens will have less of a desire to flee there in hopes of coming to America, where federal officials are grappling with a surge in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

OPINION: GAVIN NEWSOM'S 'TRAIN TO NOWHERE' REPRESENTS A BIG PART OF THE GREEN NEW DEAL

“Helping stabilize El Salvador directly helps California by mitigating the border challenges, by mitigating migration, by tempering the rhetoric with the Trump administration,” the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying. “It’s about finding a different angle in the debate.”

“I think the economic opportunities, the investment opportunities are real, and getting some California industry, business interests to take a look at El Salvador is something that we’re clearly going to pursue,” he also said.

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But Gibboney believes California and Newsom should protect their own, not those living in El Salvador. She says her son’s killer, Luis Gonzalez – a reported gang member -- is set to walk free in February next year.

“I have no respect for the California government because they let me down. They protect criminal illegal aliens – they’re not protecting my family,” she told ‘Fox & Friends’. “Where was my son’s sanctuary? Where is my sanctuary? And to let everyone know, the individual that murdered my son will be released from prison in the state of California next year in February. This is an outrage. We need to protect our own – not criminals and not illegals that are costing taxpayers billions and billions of dollars a year.”

Source: Fox News National

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Iran to ‘resist’ Trump decision on Israel’s hold over Golan

Iran's president says his country will resist the Trump administration's acceptance of Israel's control over the Golan Heights.

Hassan Rouhani said on Friday that President Donald Trump's decision this week is "trampling on international regulations about the Golan."

Rouhani says Iranians too "should resist and that way gain victory" over the U.S. and Israel.

Israel seized the Golan in the 1967 Mideast war after Syria had for years used the strategic plateau to shell northern Israel. Syria and many Arab states have denounced Trump's move.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday the U.S. decision is a reminder to Arab and Muslim countries that U.S. and Israel "will steal your lands."

Iran doesn't recognize Israel and supports Syria and anti-Israeli militant groups like Hamas and Lebanese's Hezbollah.

Source: Fox News World

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Japanese firms see flat business spending amid trade frictions, tax hike jitters

FILE PHOTO: Worker cycles near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki
FILE PHOTO: A worker cycles near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, Japan February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) – Business investment in Japan has been a rare bright spot in the world’s third-largest economy but that may now be fading amid anxiety over an upcoming sales tax hike and global trade frictions, a Reuters monthly corporate survey showed.

Just over half, or 56 percent, predict domestic investment in factories and equipment will be flat in the next fiscal year that starts in April, while 30 percent project an increase and 14 percent a decline, the survey of more than 250 companies in Japan found.

The outlook for foreign capital expenditure was even less optimistic: two-thirds of firms expect that to remain unchanged while 19 percent see a rise and 15 percent a drop.

Figures out on Monday suggested a slump in demand may have already started. Overseas orders for Japanese machinery posted their biggest fall in more than a decade in December and manufacturers expect orders to sink further as trade friction weighs on global demand.

“We have no choice but to become cautious when we take into account the global slowdown,” a manager of a transport equipment manufacturer said in the survey. Respondents’ answers to questions and comments in the survey are anonymous.

“There’s growing uncertainty in our overseas outlook due to the U.S.-China trade war and Brexit,” a transportation firm manager wrote.

The darker outlook comes after upbeat results from the December “tankan” survey, which showed that major corporations plan to raise investment by an average 14.3 percent for this fiscal year, the highest since 1990, at the end of Japan’s Bubble Era.

Despite gloom surrounding the external environment, more than two-thirds of respondents want Japan’s proposed tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent, scheduled for October, to go ahead, the survey showed.

“The sales tax must be raised this time. Japan’s public finances will collapse sooner or later, which would throw the economy into turmoil, if the current balance between revenue and expenditure is left unattended,” said an electric machinery maker manager.

Japan’s mounting public debt, at more than twice the size of its economy, is the industrial world’s heaviest.

Additionally, many firms expect to make investment in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things to expand. Popular investments include labor-saving efforts, boosting capacity and research and development, the Feb. 1-14 poll showed.

STAGNANT WAGES

Jitters over trade friction and the tax hike are also keeping a lid on wage gains.

Some 51 percent of companies polled expect wages to rise around 1.5-2 percent at annual spring wage talks between unions and companies. That’s lower than last year’s 2.07 percent average across all Japanese industries.

One-third of firms see wage hikes of under 1.5 percent and the remainder expect them to rise 2.1 percent or more.

Since taking office in late 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing companies to raise wages by around 2 percent to stimulate growth, and many companies have acquiesced.

Companies are wary of raising wages, even though many have been raking in hefty profits, because it commits them to higher fixed personnel costs at a time of uncertainty.

“Japanese firms are probably turning cautious about wage hikes out of fear that the U.S.-China trade friction may cause a deteriorating economic outlook,” a manager of a machinery maker wrote in the survey, compiled for Reuters by Nikkei Research.

“Even though the outlook is murky, we hope to raise wages to an extent that would help employees keep their living standards and cope with the October tax hike,” another machinery maker manager wrote.

BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS

Steps to improve working conditions will also be in focus during this year’s labor talks, as part of Abe’s reforms to curb Japan’s notoriously long work hours and narrow the pay and benefit gap between salaried employees and contract or part-time workers.

The survey showed that half of Japanese firms expect overall personnel costs to increase in the coming fiscal year as they seek to encourage flexible working schedules and develop talent. Some 45 percent see personnel costs unchanged, while 5 percent see lower costs.

“Personnel costs will rise as curbing working hours per employee will force us to hire more people,” a manager at an electrical machinery maker wrote.

Japan’s retirement age is also seen as an issue given the aging and declining population. Currently, many firms require full-time employees to retire at 60, with an option of five more years’ work for reduced pay and terms, however, the government is considering raising the age at which people would be eligible to receive pension benefits to 75 eventually.

When asked the age to which firms could raise their employees’ retirement, 89 percent chose 65, and the rest opted for 70.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; additional reporting by Izumi Nakagawa; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

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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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