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Paul Ryan on advice to AOC: ‘I don’t think she really listened to a thing I said’

In an interview Tuesday night at an event in his home state, Wisconsin, former House speaker Paul Ryan told attendees he offered New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez some pointers for life in Congress as a young freshman representative -- and insisted that she didn't appear to listen to "a thing" he said.

Ryan, addressing several hundred members of the business and civic organization Forward Jainesville, began by reflecting on his election at age 28 to the House in 1998. Ryan opted not to run for re-election in 2018, and now serves on the board of the Fox Corporation, which owns the Fox News Channel.

"It was different then," Ryan said, noting that only one other member of Congress was, like him, in his 20s. "Everybody else was like, 15, 20 years older than us. So, we were sort of the beginning of that trend of younger people coming. For a while, they stopped me from coming on the [House] floor because they thought I was a staffer."

Ryan said with youth came "energy" and the chance to make a real difference -- but he also discussed some of the possible pitfalls.

FEC COMPLAINT ACCUSES OCASIO-CORTEZ OF ORGANIZING 'SUBSIDY SCHEME'

"The best advice that I gave myself -- that my mom gave me, that others gave me -- was, you got two ears and one mouth, use it in that proportion," Ryan said. "You come in ready to go, but you have to know that you don't know everything. There's a lot you can learn from, listen and apply."

Prompted by a moderator's question, Ryan added: "Actually, I talked to AOC -- AOC, everybody calls her AOC. She's a year older than when I came in -- she's the youngest person now there. I gave her just a few little tips on just being a good member of Congress, new. I don't think she really listened to a thing I said," Ryan said as the audience laughed.

"Take it easy, just watch things for a while, don't ruffle any — see how it works first," he said, recounting his advice.

Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as one of the most vocal members of a Democratic freshman class in the House that includes some other prominent names -- including Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (who has vowed, sometimes using colorful language, to impeach President Trump) and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (whose repeated use of tropes called anti-Semitic has prompted rebukes from her own party).

From her sweeping environmental and social proposal called the Green New Deal, which some estimates say could cost more than $90 trillion, to her public spats with everyone from Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney to Trump and the White House, Ocasio-Cortez has made clear she has no plans to lie low -- even telling critics in February, "I'm the boss."

"I don't think she really listened to a thing I said."

— Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, on AOC

On Wednesday, Trump fired back, deriding Ocasio-Cortez as a "young bartender, 29 years old," and mocking senior Democrats for being "petrified" of her political clout.

"The Green New Deal. The first time I heard it, I said, 'That’s the craziest thing,'" Trump told House GOP lawmakers. "You have senators that are professionals, that you guys know, that have been there for a long time ... and they’re standing behind her shaking. They’re petrified of her."

Ocasio-Cortez worked as a bartender and political organizer in New York City before unseating incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in a Democratic primary last year.

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For Ryan, though, age may not be the best line of attack for Republicans hoping to minimize Ocasio-Cortez's influence.

"A wave of young people started coming in more and more" starting in the early 2000s, Ryan said. "I think it's fantastic."

Source: Fox News Politics

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France to match tax cuts with spending cuts: finance minister

FILE PHOTO: French Finance Minster Bruno Le Maire leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris
FILE PHOTO: French Finance Minster Bruno Le Maire leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace dedicated to the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral two days after a massive fire devastated large parts of the gothic structure in Paris, France, April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

April 26, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday that further cuts to income tax would be matched euro-for-euro by cuts in public spending.

In his response to months of anti-government protests, President Emmanuel Macron said late on Thursday that he would cut income tax further by 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion).

“The president has set a principle of which I am the guarantor: each euro of decrease in income tax must be financed by a decrease of one euro in public spending,” Le Maire told LCI television.

Le Maire said the tax cut would benefit 15 million households and target the middle classes in particular. He also said the public deficit and debt would not be allowed to spiral out of control.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

Source: OANN

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Chris Pratt calls fiancee Katherine Schwarzenegger 'high maintenance'

Chris Pratt poked fun at fiancee Katherine Schwarzenegger while showing off his latest achievement on his farm.

CHRIS PRATT SLAMS ELLEN PAGE'S CLAIM THAT HIS CHURCH IS ANTI-LGBTQ

Pratt, 39, posted a photo of his 29-year-old bride-to-be cuddling with a lamb on Saturday, writing, "@katherineschwarzenegger rocks the latest trend in fierce accessories. The eggshell wool baby lamb. Super high maintenance but worth it for this fashion icon. #farmlife."

On Valentine's Day, the "Guardians of the Galaxy" star showed off his season's first lamb, which he named Cupid in honor of the holiday.

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Pratt is an avid lover of farming, much to the chagrin of critics who consider his farm-to-table and hunting habits "problematic."

The actor previously revealed that he's looking forward to spending more time on his farm and less time on movie sets, telling press that in the future he wants "lots of kids."

CHRIS PRATT CREDITS FAITH WITH SAVING HIM FROM THE 'LION'S DEN' OF FAME

"Maybe less time spent working, more time spent enjoying life," he said. "I always want to be that guy that works to live, not lives to work. I think [I want to spend] just a lot of time at the farm and a lot of time catching a lot of fish and seeing lots of sunsets."

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LVMH shares touch record highs after luxury group’s solid first-quarter sales

FILE PHOTO: Woman with a Louis Vuitton-branded shopping bag looks towards a branch store in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: A woman with a Louis Vuitton-branded shopping bag looks towards the entrance of a branch store by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton in Vienna, Austria October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo

April 11, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – LVMH’s shares hit record highs on Thursday, after the Louis Vuitton owner posted strong first quarter sales which set a high bar for rival luxury companies also chasing Chinese demand for high-end handbags and clothing.

LVMH said late on Wednesday that revenues rose 16 percent to 12.5 billion euros ($14.10 billion), up 11 percent on a like-for-like basis, which strips out currency swings and the impact of acquisitions or disposals, and beating analyst forecasts.

LVMH’s shares were up 3.3 percent in early session trading, touching record highs and lifting the shares of peers such as Gucci-owner Kering and Hermes.

SocGen raised its rating on LVMH to “buy” from “hold”.

“We expect growth to continue to slow down in the sector in the first quarter, but LVMH is accelerating from the fourth quarter and should stand above the peer average this year, unlike in 2018,” SocGen wrote in a note.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Sarah White)

Source: OANN

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Dem slams Trump’s call for Smollett investigation, accuses him of being silent on ‘rise of white nationalism’

The curious case of Jussie Smollett is quickly becoming a political battleground.

Smollett sensationally had all charges against him dropped this week after being accused of faking a hate crime. But the sudden end to the case raised widespread speculation over what exactly happened behind the scenes that led to a deal with Cook County prosecutors. The “Empire” star claims he was attacked by two masked men who hurled racial and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him and placed a rope around his neck before yelling, “This is MAGA country!”

The shock decision to abruptly drop all charges caught the attention of President Trump, who tweeted: "FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. It is an embarrassment to our Nation!"

He doubled down on his criticism during a rally in Michigan Thursday night, telling the crowd Smollett is an: “embarrassment to our country.”

RAHM EMANUEL BLAMES TRUMP FOR JUSSIE SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY, CREATING 'TOXIC ENVIRONMENT'

Now, the Congressional Black Caucus has pushed back against the president’s attacks, calling them “bizarre” and divisive.

"Yesterday, President Trump bizarrely called for a federal investigation into actor Jussie Smollett's case instead of focusing on his Administration’s attempt to strip Americans of their health care," Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., said in a statement.

Rep. Bass then accused the president of being silent on more pressing issues, such as “the rise of white nationalism” and violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“The President’s silence on the rise of white nationalism across the country only signals his complicity,” the statement read. “Where was the President's call for an investigation when white nationalists marched across the campus of University of Virginia and resulted in an anti-racist demonstrator losing her life?”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT'S LAWYER SUGGESTS OSUNDAIRO BROTHERS WORE WHITE MAKEUP DURING ATTACK, BRUSHES OFF FBI PROBE

Bass added: “Instead of focusing on this case, the President should be demanding his Attorney General to release the full Mueller report to the American people. But in true Trump fashion, the President is attempting to distract and divide instead of demonstrating transparent and ethical leadership.”

The California Democrat’s comments came after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel went so far as to point the finger at President Trump amid the ongoing Smollett scandal.

CHICAGO SEEKS $130G FROM JUSSIE SMOLLETT AS ACTOR'S LEGAL TEAM DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM MAYOR, POLICE CHIEF

Speaking to reporters, Emanuel said President Trump’s behavior is responsible for creating an environment where someone would allegedly fabricate such an attack.

“Let me be clear about something. The only reason Jussie Smollett thought he could take advantage of a hoax about a hate crime is because of the environment, the toxic environment that Donald Trump created,” Emanuel said. “This is a president who drew a moral equivalency between people who are trying to perpetuate bigotry and those who are trying to fight bigotry."

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Emanuel continued: "As somebody who has started his own journey in politics fighting the neo-Nazis in Skokie and then down to Marquette Park, President Trump should literally take his politics, move it aside. He's created a toxic environment and now he's created a toxic, vicious cycle in my view. The only reason Jussie Smollett thought he could get away with this hoax about a hate crime is because of the environment President Trump created.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Calm appears to hold in Gaza despite exchange of fire

An unofficial cease-fire appears to be holding between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers despite limited exchanges of fire.

Schools reopened in southern Israel on Wednesday after late-night rocket attacks from Gaza set off air-raid sirens, breaking a daylong lull. The Israeli military struck back against additional Hamas targets but there were no reports of casualties on either side.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and dozens of skirmishes since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. The latest round was triggered by a Gaza rocket fired early Monday that slammed into a house in central Israel and wounded seven people.

Large Gaza protests are expected this weekend, marking the anniversary of weekly rallies in which nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.

Source: Fox News World

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Explainer: What might be blacked out of Mueller’s Trump-Russia report?

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Trump declares a national emergency at the southern border during remarks at the White House in Washington
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump heads back to the Oval Office after declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border during remarks about border security in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attorney General William Barr has pledged to release next week Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election and contacts between Moscow and President Donald Trump’s campaign, albeit with color-coded redactions.

While congressional Democrats have demanded the release of the full report with nothing blacked out, as well as the underlying evidence Mueller collected, Barr has said he will redact four categories of sensitive information.

Barr told a congressional committee on Tuesday these redactions will be color-coded and accompanied by notes explaining the grounds for withholding information. It is unclear how much will be blacked out.

According to a March 24 letter Barr sent to lawmakers, Mueller’s nearly 400-page report presents evidence on both sides of the question of whether Trump engaged in obstruction of justice, and while it “does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Barr said in his letter that Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Barr also said that he as attorney general concluded that Mueller’s evidence was “not sufficient” to establish that Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice.

Here is an explanation of the four categories of information that Barr has said will be redacted.

GRAND JURY MATERIAL

In the U.S. criminal justice system, prosecutors generally must get authorization from a group of citizens known as a grand jury before bringing criminal charges or issuing subpoenas. Grand juries meet in secret to ensure that people being investigated are not tipped off, while also protecting the privacy of potential criminal defendants who ultimately are not charged.

Over the course of Mueller’s investigation, which led to charges against 34 people and three Russian companies, his team used grand jury proceedings to issue more than 2,800 subpoenas and executed nearly 500 search warrants. A provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure called Rule 6(e) requires government lawyers to maintain the confidentiality of “matters” before grand juries, with some exceptions.

This rule is unlikely to lead to many redactions in the part of the Mueller report dealing with whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice with actions aimed at impeding the inquiry. For that investigation, Mueller’s team gathered evidence through voluntary FBI interviews with witnesses, which do not implicate grand jury secrecy rules.

Mueller did use a grand jury to question associates of Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump who came under scrutiny due to his interactions with the Wikileaks website that published emails the special counsel has said were hacked by Russia to harm Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. In January, Mueller indicted Stone on charges including obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering and making false statements. Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Another key figure who testified before Mueller’s grand jury was George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman involved in an effort to set up a back channel between the incoming Trump administration and the Kremlin while Barack Obama was still president, according to a Washington Post report.

INFORMATION THAT COULD AFFECT ONGOING CASES

Barr has said he will redact information that could interfere with ongoing prosecutions.

“You’ll recall that the special counsel did spin off a number of cases that are still being pursued,” Barr told lawmakers. “And we want to make sure that none of the information in the report would impinge upon either the ability of the prosecutors to prosecute the cases, or the fairness to the defendants.”

Mueller’s team has enlisted attorneys from other parts of the Justice Department, court records show, to jointly prosecute certain ongoing cases. These include: charges against Stone; witness-tampering charges against Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian associate of Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort; charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking Democratic emails; and a Russian “troll farm” accused of flooding social media sites with propaganda to promote Trump and disparage Clinton.

Separately, referrals by Mueller gave rise to inquiries by federal prosecutors in Washington, Virginia and New York. The New York referral related to Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and is due to report to prison for a three-year sentence in May. U.S. prosecutors in Virginia are investigating secret Turkish lobbying involving Michael Flynn, Trump’s fired former national security adviser. In Washington, lobbyist Samuel Patten pleaded guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians and helping a pro-Russian Ukrainian businessman illegally purchase tickets to Trump’s inauguration.

Stone’s trial is set to begin in November and Manafort has been hit with state charges in New York, so information about those two men could be redacted.

‘PERIPHERAL THIRD PARTIES’

Barr has said he will redact “information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.” This is another way of articulating a long-standing Justice Department policy of not releasing disparaging information about a person unless the individual is indicted. The policy is grounded in the belief that people who are indicted can defend themselves in court, but people who are investigated without being charged do not have this opportunity.

This policy has been dispensed with before, including in June 2016 when then-FBI Director James Comey publicly pronounced that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in handling classified information even though she was never charged.

Some legal experts have said this policy should not apply to Mueller’s report because it was primarily a counterintelligence operation, rather than a traditional criminal investigation. By focusing on the privacy rights of “peripheral” third parties, Barr may be signaling he will make an exception to the policy in order to allow information to remain unredacted concerning people who, while not charged with crimes, are central to the probe, potentially including Trump.

INTELLIGENCE-GATHERING SOURCES AND METHODS

In investigating Russian election interference, Mueller’s team may have relied on information from top-secret intelligence sources. Justice Department officials last year turned down a request by Republican lawmakers for certain information about Mueller’s investigation, saying doing so could put lives at risk and expose the identity of a U.S. citizen who provided intelligence to the FBI. While redacting such material, Barr might opt to divulge it to certain lawmakers behind closed doors.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: OANN

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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)

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