President Donald Trump walks after stepping off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is returning from a trip to California and Nevada. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. is designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization," in an effort to increase pressure on the country that could have significant diplomatic implications in the Middle East.
It is the first time that the U.S. has designated a part of another government as a terrorist organization.
The designation imposes sanctions that include freezes on assets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it.
"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said in a statement.
Iran has threatened to retaliate for the decision.
The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend its clerically overseen government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.
The designation allows the U.S. to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with material support or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.
It will also complicate diplomacy. Without exclusions or waivers to the designation, U.S. troops and diplomats could be barred from contact with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who interact with Guard officials or surrogates.
The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move does not allow contact with foreign officials who may have met with or communicated with Guard personnel. Those concerns have in part dissuaded previous administrations from taking the step, which has been considered for more than a decade.
The department currently designates 60 groups, such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State and their various affiliates, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions, as "foreign terrorist organizations." But none of them is a state-run military.
Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume slammed former CIA Director John Brennan on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” Tuesday night for Brennan's role in perpetuating the slew of President Trump-Russian collusion claims in the mainstream media that ultimately led to a dead end.
On Monday, a day after Attorney General William Barr released a summary of Mueller's findings showing there was no evidence Trump or anyone close to him colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, Brennan admitted he may have gotten it wrong.
Hume went much further. “He was utterly and completely wrong. From the get-go, he was wrong,” he told MacCallum, noting the apologies were “too little, too late.”
Brennan blamed bad information for his near-constant attacks on Trump. Brennan and Trump regularly have sparred since Brennan left his post as CIA director in January 2017.
“I think Brennan is a very bad guy and, if you look at it, a lot of things happened under his watch,” Trump told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson last July. “I think he's a very bad person.”
Trump also revoked Brennan’s security clearance in 2018.
Brennan, whose role in the Obama administration helped land him a job as an MSNBC contributor and lent his perspective on national security major gravitas, once warned that the Mueller probe showed “our nation’s future is at stake.”
Hume said now there must be a reckoning with the mainstream media: “The list of bad stories is fairly long.”
He added that liberal journalists have to face culpability, saying solutions are not: “What did you want us to do? Not cover the story? We were just reporters covering the story!”
He hoped the reckoning would have the mainstream media questioning whose voice is allowed on television and what that voice is saying.
The onslaught of coverage came from television pundits to print columns to digital think pieces: “It was everywhere, it was all around you.”
Fox News' Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.
Tommy Robinson joins Alex Jones live via Skype to discuss how his banned documentary “Panodrama” exposes corrupt elements within the US and the UK.
In coordination with George Soros groups, the mockingbird media is conjuring fake stories to not just to de-platform people, but to put them in prison.
Following the interview, watch the documentary film “Panodrama” for free!
Tommy Robinson has been banned on Facebook and Instagram for “hate speech,” but the timing appears convenient since his recently released documentary exposed a plot by the BBC to commit a false flag to blame on Robinson.
Alex exposes the fascist tactics being used by the left.
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2018 file photo, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, addresses a gathering during a campaign event for Eddie Edwards, who is running for the U.S. Congress, in Portsmouth, N.H. President Donald Trump will not answer any questions, written or in-person, about possible obstruction of justice, Giuliani told The Associated Press. Giuliani’s statement was the most definitive rejection yet of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s efforts to interview the president about any efforts to block the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russians. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File ) (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Welcome to Fox News First. Not signed up yet? Click here.
Developing now, Tuesday, March 26, 2019
NO APOLOGIES FROM CNN, MAINSTREAM MEDIA: CNN, MSNBC and other members of the mainstream media are not apologizing for the way they covered President Trump and the Russia collusion investigation ...Some pundits on CNN, like former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, are defending their years of analysis while others are mostly remaining silent on their coverage. Rudy Giuliani, in a heated interview Monday with CNN's Chris Cuomo, demanded that the network apologize; Cuomo refused. Some members of the mainstream media suggested that Trump was the one who should apologize - to Robert Mueller for trashing his investigation as a "witch hunt" for two years.
AVALANCHE OF TROUBLE FOR AVENATTI - AND HE SUGGESTS TRUMP IS TO BLAME: Michael Avenatti, former attorney for adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels, is free on $300,000 bond Tuesday as he faces serious charges in two separate federal cases in New York and Los Angeles ... In New York, he is accused of attempting to extort between $15 and $25 million from sports apparel giant Nike. A suspected co-conspirator working alongside Avenatti in the alleged extortion was identified Monday by the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal as now-former CNN contributor Mark Geragos, who has represented celebrities including Michael Jackson and more recently, "Empire" star Jussie Smollett.
In addition, Avenatti is charged with wire fraud and bank fraud in a separate case out of California. In a statement to Fox News late Monday, Avenatti suggested the California case against him is politically-motivated and has ties to the Trump administration.
FUNDS TO 'BUILD THAT WALL' OK'ED: The Pentagon notified Congress late Monday that it authorized the transfer of up to $1 billion to erect 57 miles of "pedestrian fencing" along the U.S.-Mexico border in direct support of President Trump's national emergency declaration from last month ... The fencing, which will be 18 feet high, is to be erected in the Yuma and El Paso sectors, the statement read. The Pentagon's announcement was made as Trump nears a victory over Democrats as the House tries to override his first veto, a vote that seems certain to fail and allow his declaration to stand. The vote, which is set for Tuesday, would keep Trump's border emergency declaration intact.
SECOND MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT DEM DONOR'S HOME RULED AN OVERDOSE: The death of second man at the West Hollywood apartment of Democratic Party megadonor has been ruled an overdose, according to a report ... Timothy Dean, 55, was the second man found dead in the apartment of donor Ed Buck over an 18-month span. Buck has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic Party candidates and is well known in LGBTQ political circles. Authorities reportedly determined that Dean died from a methamphetamine overdose.
THE SOUNDBITE
'WORST JOURNALISTIC DEBACLE OF MY LIFETIME' - "It is the worst journalistic debacle of my lifetime and I’ve been in this business about 50 years. I’ve never seen anything quite this bad last this long. It was a terrible thing. There needs to be a lot of soul-searching among many leading members of the media today and going forward." – Brit Hume, Fox News senior political analyst, eviscerating the mainstream media's coverage of President Trump and the Russia collusion investigation. (Click the image above to watch the full video.)
Moms - Military Moms Their spouses and children serve our country – now Rachel Campos Duffy sits down with military moms to discuss the sacrifices and challenges they face. Watch a preview of the show now. Not a subscriber? Click here to join Fox Nation today! Fox Nation is a subscription streaming service offering daily shows and documentaries that you can’t watch anywhere else. Watch from your phone, computer and select TV devices.
On Fox News:
Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos weighs in on the Mueller investigation's findings; U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., on Trump officially recognizing Golan Heights as part of Israel; Elisabeth Hasselbeck gives insight on her new book
Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4 p.m. ET: Special guests include: U.S. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
The Fox News Rundown podcast: "Mueller Report: Breakdown and Reaction" - Attorney General William Barr shared his summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Sunday. Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's attorney, joins the podcast to discuss what this means for the president’s legal team. Mueller’s work may be done but some Democrats say they are just getting started. Former Independent Counsel Ken Starr talks about the process of a special investigation and what to possibly expect next from Trump's political foes. Plus, commentary by Leslie Marshall, Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor.
The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. ET: All the aftermath and latest ramifications of the Mueller report's conclusions, plus the latest on Michael Avenatti's legal troubles with the following guests: Reaction to the Mueller report's conclusions with the following guests: Deroy Murdock, contributing editor with National Review and a Fox News contributor; Chris Stirewalt, Fox News digital politics editor; U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Texas; Maria Bartiromo, "Mornings with Maria" host; George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign aide.
The Todd Starnes Show, Noon ET: Todd speaks with U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, about whether there will be more investigations after the Mueller report.
The Tom Shillue Show, 3 p.m. ET: Authorandadio host Ben Shapiro on The fallout from the Mueller report
#TheFlashback 1997: The bodies of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate techno-religious cult who committed suicide are found inside a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. 1989: The science-fiction TV series "Quantum Leap," starring Scott Bakula as an errant time-traveler, premieres on NBC. 1979: A peace treaty is signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and witnessed by President Jimmy Carter at the White House.
Fox News First is compiled by Fox News' Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Have a good day! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Wednesday morning.
MELBOURNE, Australia – The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy's credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up.
Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' top financial adviser and the Vatican's economy minister, bowed his head but then regained his composure as the 12-member jury delivered unanimous verdicts in the Victoria state County Court on Dec. 11 after more than two days of deliberation.
The court had until Tuesday forbidden publication of any details about the trial.
Pell faces a potential maximum 50-year prison term after a sentencing hearing that begins on Wednesday. He lodged an appeal last week against the convictions.
Details of the trial had been suppressed because until Tuesday, Pell had faced a second trial in April on charges that he indecently assaulted two boys aged 9 or 10 and 11 or 12 as a young priest in the late 1970s in a public pool in his hometown of Ballarat.
Prosecutor Fran Dalziel told the court on Tuesday that the Ballarat charges had been dropped and asked for the suppression order to be lifted.
"This is not a special case," Dalziel said.
The victim who testified at Pell's trial said after the conviction was revealed that he has experienced "shame, loneliness, depression and struggle." In his statement, the man said it had taken him years to understand the impact the assault had on his life.
Lawyer Lisa Flynn said the father of the second victim, who died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31, is planning to sue the church or Pell individually once the appeal is resolved.
Pell's lawyer Robert Richter initially wanted details of the trial suppressed until his appeal was heard, but later withdraw the application.
Pell was surrounded by a crush of cameras and members of the public as he was ushered from the courthouse to a waiting car. "You're a monster!" one man shouted. "You're going to burn in hell, you freak!"
"Are you sorry?" one woman shouted. Pell did not respond.
Another of Pell's lawyers, Paul Galbally, said Pell continued to maintain his innocence.
"Although the cardinal originally faced allegations from a number of complainants, all of those complaints and allegations save for the matters that are subject to the appeal have all been either withdrawn or discontinued," Galbally told reporters outside.
Pell has initially been charged with more than 20 charges of sexual abuse against various complainants.
The revelations came in the same month that the Vatican announced Francis approved the expulsion from the priesthood for a former high-ranking American cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, for sexual abuse of minors and adults.
The convictions were also confirmed days after Francis concluded his extraordinary summit of Catholic leaders summoned to Rome for a tutorial on preventing clergy sexual abuse and protecting children from predator priests.
The lifting of the suppression order was welcomed by SNAP, a U.S. support group for victim of clergy abuse.
"We hope that his conviction will not only bring healing to his victims in Australia but hope to survivors across the world who are yearning for accountability at the top levels of the church," SNAP said in a statement. "We believe (the) conviction will make Australian children safer and parents and parishioners better informed about how to prevent sexual abuse."
The jury convicted Pell of abusing two boys whom he had caught swigging sacramental wine in a rear room of Melbourne's St. Patrick's Cathedral in late 1996, as hundreds of worshippers were streaming out of Sunday services.
Pell, now 77 but 55 at the time, had just been named the most senior Catholic in Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne.
The boys were both 13 years old. The jury also found Pell guilty of indecently assaulting one of the boys in a corridor more than a month later.
Pell had maintained his innocence throughout, describing the accusations as "vile and disgusting conduct" that went against everything he believed in.
Richter, his lawyer, had told the jury that only a "mad man" would take the risk of abusing boys in such a public place. He said it was "laughable" that Pell would have been able to expose his penis and force the victim to take it in his mouth, given the cumbersome robes he was wearing.
Both he and Chief Judge Peter Kidd urged the jury of eight men and four women not to punish Pell for all the failings of the Catholic Church, which in Australia have been staggering.
"You must not scapegoat Cardinal Pell," Kidd told the jury.
Along with Ireland and the U.S., Australia has been devastated by the impact of the clerical abuse scandal, with a Royal Commission inquiry finding that 4,444 people reported they had been abused at more than 1,000 Catholic institutions across Australia between 1980 and 2015.
Pell's own hometown of Ballarat had such a high incidence of abuse — and, survivors say, a correlated higher-than-average incidence of suicide — that the city warranted its own case study in the Royal Commission report.
As a result, Pell's trial amounted to something of a reckoning for survivors, with the brash and towering cardinal becoming the poster child for all that went wrong with the way the Catholic Church handled the scandal.
The conviction capped a year that had been so dominated by revelations of high-ranking sex abuse and cover-up that analysts openly speak of a crisis unparalleled since the Reformation. In addition to Pell, the allegations against McCarrick of groping a minor in the 1970s and of sleeping with adult seminarians became public.
As a result of the scandal, Francis' approval ratings have tanked in the United States, and his standing with conservative Catholics around the world — already on shaky ground over his outreach to divorcees — has plunged.
Up until the verdict, Pell's lawyers had appeared confident that they had established a reasonable doubt and had expected quick verdicts of not guilty.
When the jury chairman delivered the first guilty verdict, Pell's hands slipped from the arm rests of the chair where he sat in the dock at the back of the courtroom. His head bowed after the second verdict, but he restored his composure for the final verdicts.
Pell, who walked to and from court throughout his monthlong trial with a crutch under his right arm, was released on bail to undergo surgical knee replacements in Sydney on Dec. 14. Prosecutor Mark Gibson did not oppose bail, saying the surgery would be more easily managed outside the prison system.
The first four offenses occurred at the first or second Solemn Mass that Archbishop Pell celebrated as leader of the magnificent blue-stone century-old cathedral in the center of Melbourne. Pell was wearing his full robes — though not his staff or pointed bishops' hat — at the time.
The now 34-year-old survivor told the court that Pell orally raped him, then crouched and fondled the complainant's genitals while masturbating.
"I was young and I didn't really know what had happened to me. I didn't really know what it was, if it was normal," the complainant told the court.
The other victim died of a heroin overdose in 2014 without ever complaining of the abuse, and even denying to his suspicious mother that he had been molested while he was part of the choir.
Neither boy can now be identified, because it is illegal to name victims of sexual assault in Victoria state.
Pell was initially charged with orally raping the second boy. But that charge was downgraded to indecent assault when the victim who testified said that he couldn't see the other's boy mouth at that moment from his vantage point.
More than a month later, the complainant testified that Pell pushed him against a cathedral corridor wall after a Mass and squeezed the boy's genitals painfully before walking away in silence.
"Pell was in robes and I was in robes. He squeezed and kept walking," the complainant told the jurors. "I didn't tell anyone at the time because I didn't want to jeopardize anything. I didn't want to rock the boat with my family, my schooling, my life."
The complainant testified that he feared that making such accusations against a powerful church man would cost him his place in the choir and with it his scholarship to prestigious St. Kevin's College.
Pell pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four counts of willfully committing an indecent act with or in the presence of a child under 16 in late 1996 and early 1997.
He did not testify at his trial. But the jury saw a video recording of an interview he gave Australian detectives in Rome in 2016 in which he stridently denied the allegations.
Pell grimaced, appearing incredulous and distressed, waved his arms over his head and muttered to himself as the detectives detailed the accusations that his victim had leveled against him a year earlier.
"The allegations involve vile and disgusting conduct contrary to everything I hold dear and contrary to the explicit teachings of the church which I have spent my life representing," Pell told police.
Richter told the jury that the prosecution case compounded a series of improbabilities and impossibilities.
He told the jury that Pell could not have "parted" his robes as the complainant had described.
The jury was handed the actual cumbersome robes Pell wore as archbishop. Over his regular clothes, Pell would wear a full-length white robe called an alb that was tied around his waist with a rope-like cincture. Over that, he would drape a 3-meter (10-foot) band of cloth called a stole around his neck. The outermost garment was the long poncho-like chasuble.
More than 20 witnesses, including clerics, choristers and altar servers, testified during the trial. None recalled ever seeing the complainant and the other victim break from a procession of choristers, altar servers and clerics to go to the back room.
The complainant testified that he and his friend had run from the procession and back into the cathedral through a side door to, as Gibson, the prosecutor, said, "have some fun."
Monsignor Charles Portelli, who was the cathedral's master of ceremonies in the 1990s, testified that he was always with Pell after Mass to help him disrobe in the sacristy.
The defense argued that Pell's usual practice was to linger at the cathedral front steps talking to members of the congregation after Mass. But Gibson said there was evidence that Pell didn't always chat outside and had the opportunity to commit the crimes.
The lifting of the gag order comes after Francis charted a new course for the Catholic Church to confront clergy sexual abuse and cover-up, a scandal that has consumed his papacy and threatens the credibility of the Catholic hierarchy at large.
Opening a first-ever Vatican summit on preventing abuse, Francis warned 190 bishops and religious superiors last week that their flocks were demanding concrete action, not just words, to punish predator priests and keep children safe. He offered them 21 proposals to consider going forward, some of them obvious and easy to adopt, others requiring new laws.
But Francis went into the meeting even more weakened and discredited after one of his top advisers was convicted of the very crime he has now decided is worth fighting on a universal scale.
Pell's downfall will invariably tarnish the pope, since Francis appointed Pell economy minister in 2014 even though some of the allegations against him were known at the time.
In October, Francis finally cut Pell loose, removing him as a member of his informal cabinet. Pell technically remains prefect of the Vatican's economy ministry, but his five-year term expires this year and is not expected to be renewed.
___
Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei brand logo is seen above a store of the telecoms equipment maker in Beijing, China, March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
March 12, 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) – China’s Huawei on Tuesday criticized the United States for warning Berlin that it could scale back intelligence cooperation with Germany if it allows Huawei to participate in construction of a next-generation mobile network.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell last week sent a letter to Germany’s Economy Minister Altmaier warning of security concerns linked to Huawei’s role in building critical infrastructure..
In an interview with business daily Handelsblatt, Huawei’s chief for West Europe, Vincent Pang, said the U.S. warning went too far. “In my opinion, a country should not use its political power to harm a commercial business,” the paper quoted him as saying.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Andrea Shalal)
FILE PHOTO: A man looks on in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China February 13, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
April 5, 2019
By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian share markets consolidated weekly gains on Friday as Sino-U.S. talks dragged on with no concrete conclusions, while caution ahead of U.S. payrolls and a holiday in China and Hong Kong dampened volatility.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed and near its highest since the end of August. It was still up 1.9 percent for the week and 13 percent for the year so far.
Japan’s Nikkei added 0.1 percent, to be 2.6 percent firmer for the week. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 edged up 0.04 percent.
“Share markets have run hard and fast from their December lows and are vulnerable to a short-term pullback,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital.
“But valuations are okay, global growth is expected to improve into the second half of the year, monetary and fiscal policy has become more supportive of markets and the trade war threat is receding.”
Xinhua reported Chinese President Xi Jinping had said progress was being made and called for an early conclusion of negotiations.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a deal could be announced in about four weeks, but warned it would be difficult to let China trade with the United States if remaining issues were not resolved.
Investors are also waiting on the U.S. payrolls report which is forecast to bounce back by 180,000 in March, following February’s distorted 20,000 rise. One focus will be hourly earnings which climbed to 3.4 percent in February, the fastest pace since April 2009.
Hopes for a solid number were boosted by data on jobless claims which fell to a 49-year low last week, pointing to sustained labor market strength.
The Dow ended Thursday up 0.64 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.21 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.05 percent. The S&P 500 reached its highest level since Oct. 9 and is only 1.75 percent below its all-time closing high.
YEN EASING
In currencies, the progress on trade was enough to keep the safe-haven yen under pressure and lift the dollar to its highest in three weeks at 111.79. The next chart stops were 111.89 and the March peak around 112.12.
Against a basket of currencies the dollar had bounced back to 97.312, from Wednesday’s low of 96.962.
Reuters reported Saudi Arabia is threatening to sell its oil in currencies other than the dollar if Washington passes a bill exposing OPEC members to U.S. antitrust lawsuits, three sources familiar with Saudi energy policy said.
The euro was flat at $1.1227 having dipped overnight in the wake of poor German data. Industrial orders there fell by the most in more than two years in February as foreign demand slumped, another sign that Europe’s largest economy had a weak start to the year.
Sterling was stalled at $1.3077 as markets awaited some clarity on where Brexit was heading.
Pro-Brexit lawmakers in Britain’s upper house of parliament tried on Thursday to thwart the approval of a new law that would force Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a delay to prevent a disorderly EU exit on April 12 without a deal.
A source close to negotiations on the timetable for the bill said they expected it to be finalised on Monday.
In commodity markets, spot gold steadied at $1,291.61 per ounce after touching a near 10-week low overnight.
Brent oil had briefly touched $70 a barrel for the first time since November on Thursday as expectations of tight global supply outweighed pressure from rising U.S. production. [O/R}
Brent crude futures were off 15 cents at $69.25, while U.S. crude rose 3 cents to $62.13 a barrel.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – 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.
LONDON – 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.”
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)
JOHANNESBURG – 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.
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)
Click below to consent to the use of the cookie technology provided by vi (video intelligence AG) to personalize content and advertising. For more info please access vi's website.