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Trump administration ends MLB/Cuba baseball deal

The Trump administration is moving to end a deal allowing Cuban baseball players to sign contracts directly with Major League Baseball organizations, a change that appears to once again require Cuban players to cut ties with their national program before signing with MLB.

The Treasury Department told MLB attorneys in a letter Friday that it was reversing an Obama administration rule allowing the major leagues to pay the Cuban Baseball Federation a release fee equal to a percentage of each Cuban player's signing bonus. The letter was made public Monday afternoon.

By barring the payments, it appears to make the deal unworkable. The Cuban federation had agreed to release all players 25 and older with at least six years of professional experience.

Source: Fox News World

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Police: Vandals defaced Confederate statue with KKK hoods

Police say they arrested two people who climbed and placed Ku Klux Klan hoods on statues at a Confederate monument in North Carolina.

News outlets report that Enzo Niebuhr and Jody Anderson were detained Sunday during a protest near the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy monument. The monument is located in the capital of Raleigh near the Statehouse.

Police said Niebuhr and Anderson are charged with defacing a public monument and disorderly conduct. The reports did not say whether the two have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.

The news outlets quote the "Smash Racism Raleigh" group as saying that its members were holding a peaceful protest to provide context about the history of the statues. The group says Niebuhr and Anderson shouldn't have been arrested.

Source: Fox News National

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MSNBC Creating Conspiracy Theory Claiming Deep State Elected Trump

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Wednesday, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough questioned former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe over the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Scarborough asked McCabe what “regrets” he had about former FBI Director Jim Comey’s decision to send Congress a letter that said the Bureau had learned of emails “pertinent” to the probe, adding the “Deep State elected Donald Trump.”

“This is one of the most bizarre things when I hear about the deep state conspiracies about Donald Trump,” Scarborough said. “The ‘Deep State’ elected Donald Trump. If you talked to Donald Trump during that time, he would tell you that letter actually gave him a chance to win the presidency. What regrets do you or Jim Comey have about that letter that you can speak to on Jim Comey … Do you regret that letter was sent 10 days before the election?”

“I didn’t agree with the decision to send that letter at the time,” McCabe replied. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t a decision I had the opportunity to participate in because of all the issues that were swirling around me as a result of The Wall Street Journal reporting and this idea that I would recuse from the case. Jim told me he didn’t want me to participate in that discussion and in that decision.”

Scarborough later said it was “bizarre” to see the “Deep State” working for Donald Trump.

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‘It Feels Like A Dry Run For 2020’: Donald Trump Jr. Slams Social Media Censorship

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In an appearance Monday on “Fox and Friends,” first son Donald Trump Jr. slammed social media networks for their bias and censorship of opposing viewpoints, saying that it was like a “dry run” for the 2020 election cycle.

“I put out a tweet sarcastically, hitting Jussie Smollett, people in downtown Chicago, were knot there in wearing MAGA hat. If you wore a MAGA hat in Downtown Chicago, two seconds you would get shot. It has been pulled,” said Trump Jr. “Because I had the gal to question, what seemed like a crazy story. We haven’t anymore question something. This is couple weeks ago. I sort of questioning it before others because it just didn’t seem to add up to me.”

He added: “Seemed a little bit weird, sort of liberal activist that has been so there, someone would wait at 2:00 A.M., to try to take him out on coldest night of the year, because rich actors go out to subway at 2:00 A.M. It didn’t add up. Most thinking the same thing, these days, it takes guts to go out there and question the narrative.”

WATCH:

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Tennis: Crisis? What crisis? Briton Moore completes amazing comeback

FILE PHOTO: WTA Premier - Nature Valley Classic
FILE PHOTO: Tennis - WTA Premier - Nature Valley Classic - Edgbaston Priory Club, Birmingham, Britain - June 16, 2018 Great Britain's Tara Moore in action during her qualifying match against Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko Action Images via Reuters/Ed Sykes

April 10, 2019

(Reuters) – Britain’s Tara Moore stared the dreaded ‘double bagel’ in the face as she trailed 0-6 0-5 30-40 to French third seed Jessika Ponchet in this week’s ITF World Tour event in Sunderland and could have been excused for wanting the ground to open up.

Instead, she produced a great sporting comeback — recovering to win from a seemingly impossible position.

Languishing at nearly 500 in the WTA rankings, Moore saved the match point with a smash that skimmed the net tape before landing on the line — then set about clawing her way back into contention before winning 0-6 7-6 6-3.

“Never in doubt” the 26-year-old, who reached the second round of Wimbledon in 2016, said on social media.

Tennis has seen many great comebacks in the past.

Andre Agassi won the 1999 French Open final against Andrei Medvedev after winning only three games in the first two sets.

Before that in 1987 his fellow American Jimmy Connors, aged 34, trailed Swede Mikael Pernfors 6-1 6-1 4-1 at Wimbledon before pulling off a remarkable victory.

This year Czech Karolina Pliskova trailed 5-1 in the final set of her Australian Open quarter-final against Serena Williams, but won the last six games to triumph.

While Moore’s snatching of victory from the jaws of defeat perhaps surpasses those, American Lisa Raymond went one better at the 2004 French Open.

She trailed 6-0 5-0 and faced two match points against Czech Ľubomira Kurhajcova before winning 0-6 7-5 6-3.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Ken Ferris)

Source: OANN

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Missing Marine's SUV found, crews continue search ahead of late-winter storm, authorities say

A search team found the rental vehicle of First Lt. Matthew Kraft, the missing Camp Pendleton Marine who failed to return from a ski trip through California’s rugged Sierra Nevada six days ago, authorities said Saturday.

Crews located the Jeep Wrangler that Kraft parked before starting his backcountry trek on the Sierra High Route near Independence, Calif., on Feb. 23, said Inyo County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carma Roper. Kraft was scheduled to end the trip Monday or Tuesday of last week near Bridgeport, about 130 miles to the south.

MARINE FROM CAMP PENDLETON AND VEHICLE MISSING AFTER SKI TRIP; SEARCH UNDERWAY

Kraft, with the 1st Marine Division, has had survival training, buoying hopes for the infantry officer’s survival as the search heads into a seventh day.

"He has the skills to survive in austere environments, and we're hoping for the best here," 1st Marine Capt. Paul Gainey said.

First Lt. Matthew Kraft, inset in an undated photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, began his trek at the Kearsarge Pass trailhead on Feb. 23. Officials released a photo showing an aerial view of the trail area being searched.

First Lt. Matthew Kraft, inset in an undated photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, began his trek at the Kearsarge Pass trailhead on Feb. 23. Officials released a photo showing an aerial view of the trail area being searched. (Inyo County Sheriff's Office/ U.S. Marine Corps via AP)

The Mono County Sheriff's Office initiated a search on March 4, when Kraft’s father did not hear from his son. The search then expanded last Tuesday to a joint operation with crews from local, state and federal agencies.

Officials employed both ground and air teams to search a 400-square-mile area from Yosemite down to Sierra and Inyo National Forests and Kings Canyon National Park, according to a statement from the county sheriff’s office. The team also deployed a snowcat “to rope-tow search” up to the Onion Valley parking area near Independence.

Officials released a photo showing an aerial view of the heavy snow that inundated the area near the Onion Valley hiker parking lot, where rescue teams are searching.

Officials released a photo showing an aerial view of the heavy snow that inundated the area near the Onion Valley hiker parking lot, where rescue teams are searching. (Inyo County Sheriff's Office)

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But thick clouds have mired the aerial search, and winter weather has made searches by ski on the ground unsafe, Roper said. The searches were to continue as long as the weather permitted. Another storm was in the forecast Saturday afternoon through the weekend.

Recent winter storms have dumped record amounts of snow in the Sierra and led to avalanche warnings in the backcountry.

Fox News' Amy Lieu and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Wisconsin shapes up as top battleground


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On the roster: Wisconsin shapes up as top battleground - I’ll Tell You What: Place your Beto’s - Tlaib blames Dem Islamophobia for anti-Semitism rebuke - GOP Senate scrambles to help Trump save face - Prayers may be in order…

WISCONSIN SHAPES UP AS TOP BATTLEGROUND
U.S. News and World: “The 2020 presidential race is ushering in a new premiere battleground state: Wisconsin. Democrats' selection of Milwaukee as the site for the party's national convention next year cements the Badger State as one of the most significant prizes on the electoral map and represents a burgeoning belief that the Rust Belt will factor more crucially than the Sun Belt in this campaign for the White House. Choosing Milwaukee over the larger southern cities of Miami and Houston also discards the historical notion that the convention host city doesn't matter politically. … The upper Midwestern state's 10 electoral votes are also just as important to President Donald Trump's re-election calculus. Wisconsin, of course, was one of the three traditionally blue states – along with Michigan and Pennsylvania – that Trump was able to flip out of the Democratic Party's column in 2016, securing his astounding upset over Hillary Clinton. Of the three, Republican operatives see Wisconsin as the most friendly turf to retain.”

Biden hints at April announcement - Fox News: “Former Vice President Joe Biden dropped a major hint on Tuesday that he’ll likely launch a Democratic presidential campaign in the coming weeks. Biden was greeted with chants of ‘run Joe, run’ as he took the podium in Washington, D.C. at the annual convention of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) union. Many in the crowd also were waving ‘Run, Joe, Run,’ and ‘Fire Fighters for Biden’ signs. A few minutes later, during his keynote address, Biden said: ‘I appreciate the energy you showed when I got up here. Save it a little longer. I may need it in a few weeks.’ The comment brought a standing ovation from the audience. … Sources familiar with the planning of Biden’s inner circle last week confirmed to Fox News that top advisers to the former vice president are getting their ducks in a row… Those sources pointed to a likely April campaign launch.”

Hogan to speak in New Hampshire in April - WaPo: “Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who is weighing a primary challenge to President Trump, has accepted an invitation from the New Hampshire Institute of Politics to speak at the Politics & Eggs series at Saint Anselm College next month. The Politics & Eggs series is a must-attend event for potential presidential candidates. Amelia Chasse, a spokeswoman for Hogan, said the governor will speak April 23. Hogan is being wooed by Republican critics of Trump to run against him in the 2020 GOP primary. The popular governor, who is barred by state law from seeking a third term, has not ruled out a possible White House run. But he has also made clear that he would not launch a campaign unless Trump is weakened. Last week, Hogan spent two days in Iowa, the first caucus state. He attended meetings for the National Governors Association and said he was not there to lay the groundwork for a presidential run.”

Rahm Emanuel: ‘How not to lose to Donald Trump’ - Atlantic: “But Democrats haven’t won the 2020 election yet—and we’ve got a long way to go. At this stage in the 1992 election cycle, President George H. W. Bush was riding high, buoyed by America’s success in the Gulf War. Less than two years later, Bill Clinton moved into the White House. Trump might prove incapable of engineering such a dramatic reversal of fortune. But if the economy continues to hum and he racks up a couple of wins on foreign policy, the public’s perception of his presidency could shift. Democrats can’t bank on voters being more dismayed by him than they are enamored of us. For that reason, Democrats need to take a strategic approach to the next 20 months. In the last election, Democrats were too quick to dismiss the possibility that voters would take Trump ‘seriously, not literally.’ This time, we should not only take him seriously—we should take him literally when he tells us exactly how he’s going to run his reelection campaign.”

THE RULEBOOK: FLUX CAPACITOR 
“Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general government.” – Alexander HamiltonFederalist No. 28

TIME OUT: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT SOCRATES
NatGeo: “Socrates is considered by many to be the founding father of Western philosophy—as well as one of the most enigmatic figures of ancient history. He wrote nothing himself, so all knowledge of the Greek philosopher has been handed down through the writings of his contemporaries and his students, primarily his star pupil, Plato. Scholars still grapple with ‘the Socratic problem’: how to distinguish the historical Socrates from the individual portrayed and interpreted by various authors through the ages. But as any law student will attest, his interrogative ‘Socratic method’ of teaching is as alive and well today as it was when the great thinker questioned everything and everyone in Athens in the fifth century B.C. Socrates first distinguished himself as a hoplite, or heavily armed infantryman, in the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. … [Upon his death] [a]s chronicled by Plato, ‘He appeared happy both in manner and words as he died nobly and without fear.’”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval: 
42.4 percent
Average disapproval: 53.2 percent
Net Score: -10.8 points
Change from one week ago: down 0.4 points 
[Average includes: Monmouth University: 44% approve - 52% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 38% approve - 55% disapprove; Gallup: 43% approve - 54% unapproved; IBD: 41% approve - 53% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 46% approve - 52% disapprove.]

I’LL TELL YOU WHAT: PLACE YOUR BETO’S
This week, Dana Perino and Chris Stirewalt discuss the emerging 2020 field, REO Speedwagon and Mitt Romney's Twinkie birthday cake. Plus, mailbag questions and trivia. LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

TLAIB BLAMES DEM ISLAMOPHOBIA FOR ANTI-SEMITISM REBUKE 
Fox News: “Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, defended her colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar from backlash within their own party regarding the Minnesota representative's controversial remarks deemed by some to be anti-Semitic. … In a preview clip of an interview on Showtime’s ‘The Circus,’ Tlaib suggested that ‘Islamophobia’ within their party could be behind the swift condemnation for the comments. ‘You know, I'm trying to figure it out. It's just this past week, I feel, and I know this would be somewhat shocking for some, but I think Islamophobia is very much among the Democratic Party as well as the Republican Party,’ Tlaib answered. ‘And I know that's hard for people to hear, but there's only been four members of Congress that are of Muslim faith. Three of them currently serve in this institution. More of us need to get elected, but more of us need to understand as we come into this institution that I have a lot of work to do with my colleagues.’”

Who’s the boss? - Fox News: “Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Twitter bio declares her the ‘Unbossed Congresswoman’ for Michigan’s 13th District. While the moniker has roots in Shirley Chisholm’s successful campaign to become the first black congresswoman, nowadays it also could be seen as a blunt message to Democratic leadership: Nobody is bossing around the class of 2019. … [A] squad of first-year congresswomen are flexing their muscle and posing an implicit challenge to Democratic honchos like Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Their stridently liberal agenda – and power to steer the national conversation via social media and press attention – has fueled tensions inside the party tent that in turn are testing leadership's control while stirring political concerns going into 2020. ‘All of our problems are caused by three people,’ one senior House Democrat lamented to Fox News. That would be New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Tlaib – all freshmen, and all uniquely unencumbered by things like decorum or deference to party elders.”

GOP SENATE SCRAMBLES TO HELP TRUMP SAVE FACE
Politico: “Senate Republicans are trying to head off a collision with President Donald Trump over the border wall this week… Some GOP senators are discussing a potential compromise with the White House in order to limit Republican defections on a vote this week to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration, according to GOP senators and aides. The matter was unresolved as of Monday evening, senators said… Republican senators queasy about the legality and precedent of Trump’s unilateral move to fund his wall are exploring whether the president will commit to signing a bill amending the National Emergency Act and curtailing presidential power. In exchange, they would consider standing with the president and potentially vote against the House-passed disapproval measure. …  Two GOP senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, discussed the potential changes to the law with the White House over the weekend.”

Pergram: Republicans’ dessert dilemma - Fox News: “President Trump’s national emergency declaration plunders various appropriations silos, which Congress targeted for specific Pentagon and ‘Military Construction’ projects. The national emergency redistributes money for the wall. GOPers want the wall. But they also don’t want President Trump to pilfer their pet project back home. So, maybe the best solution to the quandary is the appropriations equivalent of an ice cream cake. All lawmakers know right now are the general pots of money from which the Trump administration will loot funds for the wall. But everyone’s in the dark when it comes to specifics.”

THERESA MAY’S REVISED BREXIT DEAL FACES SECOND DEFEAT
Fox News: “British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal was given another thumping defeat in Parliament on Tuesday, despite her last-minute efforts to secure concessions from E.U. leaders -- just weeks before Britain is set to leave the bloc. The withdrawal agreement, hashed out with European leaders in 2018, was defeated 391-242, despite a dramatic, last-minute trip to Strasbourg by May on Monday, after which she had declared she had secured legally binding changes to the deal in an effort to appease parliamentarians. It was the second such defeat for the bill, after it was rejected 432-202 in January -- the largest defeat for a prime minister in the history of the House of Commons. May and her allies had sought to rally MPs to the deal in the hours before the vote, with a series of speeches urging lawmakers to back the deal to make sure Britain can leave the bloc with a deal on March 29.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Rep. Al Green brushes off Pelosi pushback, says he’ll pursue Trump impeachment Fox News

Former Vice President Dick Cheney challenges Pence face-to-face over Trump foreign policy Fox News

David Brooks: ‘If Stalin had a smartphone’ - NYT

N.Y. AG issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for Trump projects - NYT

AUDIBLE: OOF 
“I was so far off in the wings that I felt like a Ugandan swimmer at the Olympics.” – John Kasich said in reference to the 2016 Republican debates while at the South by Southwest festival over the weekend.  

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“Chris, Let me start by saying I enjoy hearing your comments on Special Report. It reminds me of the insights we used to get from Charles Krauthammer. Your commentary on the Debt Farce is spot on.  So how do we break this situation and force the politicians to make the painful and difficult decisions that will basically alienate some fraction of the voters against them? To me this is the key right now.  The politics say that we will never address the deficit until we default and have to inflate our way out of the problem and pay off the creditors with worthless script that is ‘backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.’” – Peter Eick, Houston

[Ed. note: Good salesmanship is very much about timing. The guy selling beer and tanning oil at the beach does better on Saturday afternoon than the guy selling aspirin and aloe vera. But Sunday morning is a different story. I believe that the dereliction of both parties on the subject of fiscal responsibility has created substantial peril for the republic, but I also believe that it has created a substantial opportunity for other politicians. Our balanced budgets at the end of the previous century were the result of the dawn of the information age and the end of the Cold War, but they were also caused by the independent candidacy of Ross Perot, who poked both major parties with a very sharp stick on the subject of debt and borrowing. Voters want balanced budgets and creative candidates will sooner or later find a way to make it a winning issue.]      

“As a [Massachusetts] resident perhaps I'm in no position to ask this question but... what is up with the … districts which elected Reps. [Ilhan Omar] and [Rashida Tlaib]? Was there really no viable opponent in either case? Or was it a matter of low turnout deciding for the district as a whole, as was the case with [Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez]? Thanks!” – Frank Townley, Dover, Mass.

[Ed. note: Omar’s Minneapolis district and Tlaib’s Detroit district are among the most Democratic in the nation. It would be about as likely for a Republican to win there as it would be for a Democrat to prevail in North Georgia or Eastern Kentucky. And as is the case in many such districts, red and blue, the primary is the only real contest. In the case of both Omar and Tlaib, crowded primary fields and a breakdown in party machinery allowed unlikely winners to slip past more mainstream choices. In Tlaib’s case, the situation was compounded by the resignation of longtime Congressman John Conyers amid a #metoo scandal. While Ocasio-Cortez felled an entrenched incumbent in New York, her fellow insurgents had easier rows to hoe.]   

Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

PRAYERS MAY BE IN ORDER…
WKRC: “The season of Lent means Christians are fasting and giving up certain pleasures or vices. One Ohio man is taking a page from history. For 46 days, Del Hall is drinking only beer. … Hall says he’s taking a nod from monks in the 1600’s that would fast during the season by a bock beer diet. ‘Being master brewers, they decided they would take a popular style of beer in Germany, bock beer, make it extra hearty and that would be their liquid bread and that’s what they call it,’ Hall said. ‘So the monks in Bavaria, they would call doppelbock liquid bread and basically it would sustain them through the 46 days of Lent.’ … ‘So I'm just curious if I'm up to the challenge, if I'm going to be able to do it or not.’ The beer connoisseur will still consume water during the fast and will be checking in with a doctor.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“Trump’s people have already shown a delicate touch in dealing with his bouts of loopiness.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing for the Washington Post on Feb. 23, 2017. 

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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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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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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