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UK marketing spending rises despite Brexit, uncertainty clouds forecast: survey

FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London
FILE PHOTO: The Canary Wharf financial district is seen at dusk in London, Britain, March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Marika Kochiashvili/File Photo

April 16, 2019

(Reuters) – British companies spent more on marketing in the opening quarter of 2019 despite uncertainty around Brexit, but their budgets for the rest of the year could be the most subdued since after the financial crisis, a survey showed.

The IPA Bellwether survey, conducted by IHS Markit, showed on Wednesday that 21.6 percent of marketing executives raised their budgets during the quarter, while just under 12.8 percent of executives who took part in the survey cut their marketing budgets.

“This sharp increase following Q4 2018’s flatlining signals that UK marketing budgets have received a much-needed kiss of life in an economy gripped by Brexit uncertainty,” IPA Director General Paul Bainsfair said.

Bainsfair, however, added that the forecast for the year ahead was uncertain given the seemingly endless negotiations around Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The report showed that cautious undertones were still apparent in budget plans for the current financial year, with panelists providing only modest growth expectations in available marketing spend.

Brexit was postponed by a late-night agreement in Brussels last week that gave Prime Minister Theresa May until Oct. 31 to persuade parliament to approve the terms of the country’s departure.

“A return to growth in marketing budgets during the opening quarter of 2019 may come as a surprise given that the uncertainty that shrouds the UK political and economic climate has only built further,” said Joe Hayes, economist at IHS Markit.

A six-year run of marketing spending growth at British companies ended in the final quarter of 2018 as uncertainty over Brexit led companies to clamp down on costs.

While Brexit uncertainty continued to prompt belt tightening and a delay in decision-making, some companies pushed resources into their brands in the first quarter, the report showed.

The survey found that the best performing category was internet with its net balance seen at a growth of 17.2 percent in the quarter.

The rise in marketing spend was supported by demand for big ticket advertising campaigns such as those on TV and radio. The survey also flagged that marketing executives expect further growth in traditional media advertising through the year.

Around 300 UK marketing professionals, primarily from Britain’s top 1,000 companies and across all key business sectors, were interviewed for the survey.

(Reporting by Samantha Machado and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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Karachi revitalization drive aims to remake Pakistan’s largest city

General view of Empress Market building after the removal of surrounding encroachments in Karachi
General view of the British era Empress Market building is seen after the removal of surrounding encroachments on the order of Supreme Court in Karachi, Pakistan January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

March 31, 2019

By Saad Sayeed and Syed Raza Hassan

KARACHI (Reuters) – At a historic market commissioned by Queen Victoria in Pakistan’s southern metropolis of Karachi, third-generation spice seller Mohammad Shakeel Abbasi complains that a move to clear illegal encroachments has left poor shopkeepers jobless.

“My own business has been cut in half,” said Abbasi of the modernization drive ordered by the country’s Supreme Court in January to clean-up large swathes of the city’s historic center, which he says has driven away so many vendors that fewer people now visit the area.

“We need these changes for the country to move forward but it needs to be done properly,” he said, surrounded by barrels of mango pickle, chilli powder and turmeric at the stall his grandfather built more than 80 years ago.

The modernization of Karachi’s old downtown is one of a string of projects aimed at revitalizing Pakistan’s largest city and economic powerhouse, which has long been plagued by traffic congestion, water and electricity shortages and rampant crime.

But experts say the politicking by local parties and wrangling between different levels of government that have stalled Karachi’s growth for decades continue to hold back development.

Public transit programs, including a shiny new bus service and the revival of a long-closed inner city rail service, are among the projects stuck in the gridlock.

Both transport schemes have been held up awaiting authorization from Islamabad to invite bids to supply new buses and begin laying railways tracks, according to Sindh province’s Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah.

Muhammad Sualeh Faruqui, CEO of the federal development corporation in charge of the bus project that is expected to move 250,000 commuters daily, said an agreement between the provincial and federal government should be finalised soon.

But no movement has been made on the bus or rail projects since Reuters spoke to Faruqui in January.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the allocation of 162 billion rupees ($1.15 billion) for Karachi’s development, to be primarily spent on transport and sewage projects.

“We need to make a master plan for Karachi and define the limits of the city and whether it will expand beyond its current area,” Khan said.

CONGESTION CRISIS

In the 1960s, Karachi boasted the tallest building in South Asia, an operational inner-city rail service, vibrant nightlife, and booming tourism.

But more than 50 years later, the city’s infrastructure has failed to keep pace with a population that has sky-rocketed more than 300 percent, leaving many public services such as health, transport, and water either provided by an informal private sector or controlled by organized crime.

The city nevertheless remains key to Pakistan’s shaky economy, now on the verge of its 13th IMF bailout since the late 1980s, accounting for 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to World Bank figures.

“Improving Karachi’s efficiency and Karachi’s economy, improves Pakistan efficiency and Pakistan’s economy,” said former finance minister and Karachi resident Mifath Ismail. “It is the only port city in Pakistan and it’s the hub of all international trade.”

A study by the NED University of Engineering and Technology found that traffic congestion costs Karachi $2 billion annually. Data from the local municipal corporation showed more than 3 million motorcycles currently in use with 25,000 added each month.

CRIME AND NEGLECT

To be sure, efforts to revitalize Karachi have achieved some success, most notably in curbing the violent crime for which the city had become notorious.

In 2013, the national government of then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gave free rein to the paramilitary Rangers for a sweeping crackdown on criminal gangs.

That, say police officials, saw the annual number of murders fall from more than 2,500 to fewer than 500 in the space of a year.

“If this had been achieved in the West, studies would have been carried out to replicate these results,” said senior police official Abdul Khalique Shaikh.

The falling crime rate has meant some upscale neighborhoods have seen a spike in new restaurants, from hipster burger joints to taco food trucks, alongside high-end retail outlets.

But decades of growing congestion and neglect have turned places such as the Saddar area, where the Empress Market is located, from a spot where all Karachiites once rubbed shoulders into a rundown shopping and business district avoided by the well-off.

The once fashionable part of town, now lined with crumbling colonial-era buildings, is a transport hub for nearly 20 million residents. Every day, an overcrowded network of private buses and vans cart thousands to and from work in the bustling downtown.

Shah, the provincial transport minister, blames delays in the rail and bus projects on the federal government, which he accuses of “playing political games”.

The federal information ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Karachi’s administration has been dominated for decades by the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), which has traditionally drawn support from the descendents of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India following partition in 1947, but had little following beyond the city.

The MQM was involved in bloody factional battles in the 1990s and 2000s and was accused by opponents of running the city like a mafia fiefdom, allegations it denied.

It has come under increasing pressure since the crime crackdown, which saw the party split into several factions. As a result, the city’s politics are now more competitive, but also more fragmented.

“There is no one taking ownership of Karachi,” the city’s MQM mayor Waseem Akhtar told Reuters, adding the city saw little return for the millions in revenue that went to provincial and federal governments. “From the Federal or Sindh government there is no seriousness.”

None of this is any comfort for Karachi’s long suffering commuters who are forced to trudge through hours of traffic on their daily commutes, as the city’s main traffic artery comes to a complete standstill during rush hours.

“With the non-serious attitude of all the parties involved, I don’t see the project taking off for the next two, three years,” a senior bureaucrat, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

(Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Columbine shooting 20th anniversary: Survivors reflect on how massacre changed their lives forever

Columbine shooting survivors and the families of those who died say the upcoming 20th anniversary of the massacre is conjuring up feelings of pain, hope, love and despair – on top of their concerns of the unexpected as they watch their own children head off to school each day.

The attack on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, forever changed the debate about gun violence in American schools. Now two decades later, the children of Dave Sanders -- the lone teacher who died in the shootings at Columbine High School – say strangers still come up to them to thank them for their father’s heroics that day. Sanders has been credited with leading dozens to students to safety before succumbing to his wounds.

“I run into kids who had him as a teacher, and one of them said, 'Can I take a picture of you holding my child?' And I said, 'Why?' And they said, 'Because he wouldn't be here without your dad,’” Coni Sanders told Fox31 in an interview this week.

“And so we're seeing these generations of kids who had a chance to grow up to be adults and parents and grandparents [because of my dad],” she added. “My sisters and I are so proud.”

WOMAN ‘INFATUATED’ WITH COLUMBINE, CONNECTED TO COLORADO SCHOOL THREATS FOUND DEAD

Kacey Ruegsegger, 17, is wheeled from a Denver hospital by Patty Anderson, center, after being released in May 1999. Walking beside her are her parents Greg, left, and Darcy, right. Ruegsegger Johnson survived a shotgun blast during the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School that left 12 students, one teacher, and both gunmen dead.

Kacey Ruegsegger, 17, is wheeled from a Denver hospital by Patty Anderson, center, after being released in May 1999. Walking beside her are her parents Greg, left, and Darcy, right. Ruegsegger Johnson survived a shotgun blast during the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School that left 12 students, one teacher, and both gunmen dead. (AP/File)

For survivors like Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson though, the emotional toll remains heavy as she lives out her life post-Columbine and watches her four children grow up. For the last 20 years, she has lived with post-traumatic stress disorder, along with physical pain. She worked as a nurse until the injuries to her arm – caused by a shotgun blast to her right shoulder during the massacre -- forced her to stop.

“I’m grateful I have the chance to be a mom. I know some of my classmates weren’t given that opportunity,” Ruegsegger Johnson told the Associated Press, with tears in her eyes. “There are parts of the world I wish our kids never had to know about. I wish that there would never be a day I had to tell them the things I’ve been through.”

In an interview with the news agency published this week, Ruegsegger Johnson revealed how she would cry most mornings as her children left her car, and that she relied on texted photos from their teachers to make it through the day.

TEEN BOYS UNLEASHED TERROR, CHAOS AT COLUMBINE

On a recent sunny spring morning, she helped her kids find their book bags and tie their shoes before ushering them to her car. She prayed aloud as they neared the school, giving thanks for a beautiful morning and asking for a day of learning and friendship. And as always, the Associated Press says, she made a silent addition: Keep them safe.

Amy Over, who escaped the cafeteria at Columbine during the mass shooting, says she saw Sanders in the last hours of his life. She suffered no physical injuries from the attack, but has struggled emotionally for years.

Over told the Associated Press that waving goodbye to her daughter on the first day of preschool triggered a panic attack — the first of many. She was diagnosed with chronic panic disorder, underwent therapy and found new strategies for her life as a mother of two.

She now coaches her 13-year-old daughter Brie when she ventures to places outside her mom’s control: Where is the closest exit? What street are you on? Who is around you?

“I never want my kids to feel an ounce of pain, the way that I felt pain,” Over said. “I know that that’s something that I can’t control. And I think that’s hard on me.”

LOCKOUT AT COLUMBINE, OTHER COLORADO SCHOOL TRIGGERED BY 'ARMED', 'EXTREMELY DANGEROUS' WOMAN: OFFICIALS

Members of a police SWAT team march to Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

Members of a police SWAT team march to Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. (AP/File)

Over says she first told Brie about her experience at Columbine two years ago, a few days before the anniversary.

That April 20, they visited the school for a memorial ceremony that included a reading of the names of the 13 people killed. Afterward, the Overs walked together through the quiet school.

Over told the Associated Press that opening up to her daughter was cathartic and so they have continued to attend annual memorial events, now imbued with a gentler tone with the girl by her side.

“It’s a day of reflection,” Over said. “It’s a day of love and hope. And I get to share that with my daughter.”

Frank DeAngelis, the principal of Columbine when the shooting happened, told CBS News in a recent interview that he starts his days reflecting on the 13 who were killed in the attack.

“Every morning when I wake up, as soon as I get out of bed I recite the names of my beloved 13," he said. "I’ve done it since the shootings happened and they are not with us physically but spiritually, they’re with me every day.”

Michelle Wheeler, another survivor who appeared alongside him and now teaches middle school English in Columbine's district, said she has given up on trying to figure out why the "broken souls" behind the attack carried it out.

"I’ve forgiven them. I think they lost their lives way before the 20th," she said. “There is nothing I would get out of knowing why."

Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson poses for a portrait at her home in Cary, N.C., in late March. (AP)

Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson poses for a portrait at her home in Cary, N.C., in late March. (AP)

Wheeler also said wherever she goes with her daughter, she is on alert for potential escape routes.

“We’ll be in the doctor’s office… and I’ll say ‘show me five places where you’ll hide’," she told CBS News. "Because it could happen anywhere and I want her to be prepared. And I think it makes me feel prepared.”

“We’ll be in the doctor’s office… and I’ll say ‘show me five places where you’ll hide... Because it could happen anywhere and I want her to be prepared. And I think it makes me feel prepared.”

— Michelle Wheeler

Austin Eubanks, who survived being shot in the Columbine library, is among those who doesn’t fear the schools his sons, ages 13 and 9, attend.

Instead, he laments that active-shooter drills, video surveillance and armed guards are all too routine for them — as natural as a tornado drill was for him growing up in Oklahoma.

“We are so unwilling to actually make meaningful progress on eradicating the issue,” said Eubanks, who remains scarred by watching his best friend, Corey DePooter, die. “So we’re just going to focus on teaching kids to hide better, regardless of the emotional impact that that bears on their life. To me, that’s pretty sad.”

Isolation, depression, addiction and suicide are among the larger dangers he sees facing his kids’ generation, and he knows firsthand the damage those can cause.

A woman embraces her daughter after they were reunited following the Columbine High School shooting. (AP/File)

A woman embraces her daughter after they were reunited following the Columbine High School shooting. (AP/File)

For more than a decade after the attack, Eubanks was addicted to prescription pain medication, according to the Associated Press. He got sober in 2011 and began repairing his family, including his relationship with his sons and their mother. He now works at an addiction treatment facility and travels the country telling his story.

At home in Colorado, he tries to help his sons become attuned to pain others may be feeling. He encourages them to talk to an adult when peers seem so angry or afraid that they may need help. He tries to remember that — for them — all of the changes in schools are just normal.

He was horrified by videos that Marjory Stoneman Douglas students shot in Parkland, Florida, last year as they hid inside a classroom while a gunman moved through the halls of the high school. He has urged his own boys to always try to escape first — whatever it takes — even if school safety drills advise staying put.

“These are my children, and what I care about most is their safety,” he said. “And I know that for them, in a situation like that, getting away from it as quickly as possible is the best likelihood of success.”

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And he still honors DePooter when going fly-fishing in the wilderness, according to Fox31.

“When I'm out there and I catch a fish that's of above-average size, I kind of give him a nod and say, you know, 'He was with me today,'” Eubanks told the station.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Bitcoin briefly hits $5,000 after 20 percent surge

A sticker of French startup Keplerk, indicating that clients can purchase bitcoins, is seen on a tobacco shop at Rueil-Malmaison
A sticker of French startup Keplerk, indicating that clients can purchase bitcoins, is seen on a tobacco shop at Rueil-Malmaison, France, January 8, 2019. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

April 2, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Bitcoin briefly touched $5,000 on Tuesday, its highest level since late November, while other cryptocurrencies also surged.

On the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, Bitcoin rose as much as 20 percent in Asian trading to briefly touch the $5,000 mark before settling at $4,730 by 0700 GMT, up 14 percent on the day; still its biggest one-day gain since April of last year.

Ethereum’s ether and Ripple’s XRP, two other large cryptocurrencies, also jumped higher.

It was not immediately clear what was behind the rally in virtual currency prices.

(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan)

Source: OANN

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Venezuela’s Fabiana Rosales, a young activist, emerges into the political spotlight

FILE PHOTO: Fabiana Rosales, wife of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido, smiles after a meeting at Peru's Foreign Ministry in Lima
FILE PHOTO: Fabiana Rosales, wife of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido, smiles after a meeting at Peru's Foreign Ministry in Lima, Peru March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Janine Costa/File Photo

March 28, 2019

By Luc Cohen and Roberta Rampton

CARACAS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Barely two months after emerging from obscurity in her home country of Venezuela, political activist Fabiana Rosales sat in the Oval Office across from U.S. President Donald Trump in a yellow armchair normally reserved for visiting heads of state.

Rosales’ husband is Juan Guaido, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January. While she was drumming up support at the White House, Guaido was calling for protests against a nationwide blackout, the second to hit the oil-rich country in a month.

A day earlier, assailants had thrown stones and attempted to enter Guaido’s car in downtown Caracas, according to a Reuters witness.

Officials in President Nicolas Maduro’s government have launched criminal investigations into Guaido – recognized by the United States and most Western countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

“What they don’t know is that, when they do that, what they’re doing is pushing us forward,” Rosales said at the White House. “We will not rest. We are here to save lives and to give back freedom.”

Spies and pro-government armed groups have long followed her and Guaido, who have a nearly two-year-old daughter named Miranda Eugenia, the 26-year-old Rosales told Reuters during a trip to Peru.

“She’s been through a lot, let’s put it that way,” Trump said in remarks that were translated into Spanish, as Rosales nodded and smiled. On Thursday, Rosales traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, to meet with U.S. first lady Melania Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Rosales, who was born in the Andean city of Merida and was in primary school when Maduro’s predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, became involved in Venezuela’s volatile politics at a young age.

While studying journalism at university in western Zulia state, Rosales was a student activist for the Popular Will opposition political party, to which both Guaido and prominent former mayor Leopoldo Lopez, now under house arrest, belong.

She later worked as a press officer for a city council in her home state, before moving onto a similar role in a district of Caracas.

She and Guaido, a 35-year-old engineer who represents the coastal state of Vargas in the assembly, married in 2013. They have a yellow Labrador named Regulo, who takes classes at a training school for dogs, according to Rosales’ Instagram account.

As Guaido’s prominence has risen, the government has escalated the rhetoric against him, with Maduro implying he was behind alleged “attacks” on a power generator that caused the blackout, while the country’s state comptroller on Thursday announced he would be banned from public office for 15 years.

Maduro dismisses Guaido’s claim to the presidency as a Washington-backed effort to seize power in Venezuela.

“Despite the persecution, intimidation and even kidnappings of those who fight for a better Venezuela, the work has not stopped,” Rosales wrote on Twitter. “Our commitment to Venezuelans is stronger than any low blow by the usurpers.”

Last week, Guaido’s chief of staff was detained by intelligence agents on accusations of terrorism that allies denied. The incident raised concern that Maduro may soon detain Guaido. Nevertheless, Guaido has continued to call on his supporters to take to the streets in a bid to oust Maduro.

“I decided to leave fear aside, I decided to fight for my country,” Rosales said during the interview in Lima. “The greatest inheritance I can leave for my daughter is a free country.”

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Luc Cohen in Caracas and by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Additional reporting by Mitra Taj in Lima, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Source: OANN

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House set to vote to end Trump’s border wall ’emergency’

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi, flanked by Representative Castro, holds a news conference about their proposed resolution to terminate Trump's Emergency Declaration, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), flanked by Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) (L) and House Democrats hold a news conference about their proposed resolution to terminate U.S. President Trump's Emergency Declaration on the southern border with Mexico, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. February 25, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

February 26, 2019

By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives votes on Tuesday on a resolution to terminate President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

House Democrats introduced the resolution last week, challenging Trump’s assertion that he could take money Congress had appropriated for other activities and use it to build the wall.

The resolution is expected to sail easily through the Democratic-controlled House. Action then moves to the Republican-majority Senate, where the measure’s future is uncertain even though it only requires a simple majority to pass.

While Tuesday’s vote will be another chapter in a long-running fight between Trump and Democrats over border security and immigration policy, it also will be a test of constitutional separation of powers, as it is the House and Senate that primarily dictate spending priorities, not the president.

The No. 2 House Democrat, Representative Steny Hoyer, said at a press conference on Monday that he had traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border twice in the past few weeks.

“What I concluded is there is no crisis at the border. The issue … will be whether there is a crisis of our constitutional adherence,” Hoyer said.

At least two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have told the media they are likely to vote for the measure. But at least another two Republican votes would be needed if the resolution is to pass that chamber, assuming all Democrats and two independents back it.

Trump, who declared the national emergency this month after Congress declined his request for $5.7 billion to help build a border wall, vowed last week to veto the measure if it passes both chambers.

Congress would then have to muster the two-thirds majority necessary – a high hurdle – to override the president’s veto in order for the measure to take effect.

A bipartisan group of 58 former national security officials issued a statement Monday saying there was no “factual basis” for Trump’s emergency declaration.

Lawmakers must not allow “any president (to) on a whim declare emergencies, simply because he or she can’t get their way in the Congress,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer declared Monday.

Schumer warned Trump’s emergency declaration “could cannibalize funding from worthy projects all over the country,” noting that the administration had not even decided yet what projects to take the funds from.

About 226 House lawmakers are co-sponsoring the bill, including all but a handful of Democrats as well as one Republican, Justin Amash.

The issue is also in the courts. A coalition of 16 U.S. states led by California have sued Trump and top members of his administration to block his emergency declaration.

Congress this month appropriated $1.37 billion for building border barriers following a battle with Trump, which included a 35-day partial government shutdown – the longest in U.S. history – when agency funding lapsed on Dec. 22.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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AOC calls new campaign finance complaint ‘bogus’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told Fox News Wednesday that new claims of campaign finance violations by her and her campaign manager were "bogus."

According to a complaint filed earlier Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Ocasio-Cortez and her then-campaign manager Saikat Chakrabarti created a "shadowy web" of political action committees (PACs) allowing them to raise more money than they otherwise could have mustered.

"I mean, it’s conservative interest groups just filing bogus proposals," Ocasio-Cortez said while heading to a meeting of the House Financial Services Committee.

OCASIO-CORTEZ HIT WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT OVER BOYFRIEND'S EMAIL ACCOUNT

The complaint also alleges that Chakrabarti, now Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, established a limited liability company (LLC) that offered Ocasio-Cortez and other Democratic candidates political consulting services at below-market rates, something the complaints says is in violation of FEC rules. At the same time, the complaint says, Chakrabarti served as Ocasio-Cortez's campaign manager, sat on the board of the Justice Democrats PAC and co-founded the Brand New Congress PAC.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti are seen in this July 2018 photo. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti are seen in this July 2018 photo. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

"While I agree with everyone from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to [Rep.] Mark Meadows [R-N.C.] that super PACs should be banned, for years I’ve noted that creating an LLC to funnel political money is worse than a super PAC because you never learn the donors to an LLC," says John Pudner, a former George W. Bush campaign and the executive director of the conservative campaign finance reform group Take Back Our Republic.

OCASIO-CORTEZ DE-LISTED FROM BOARD OF JUSTICE DEMOCRATS AFTER CONTROVERSY

According to a July 2018 post on the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog, Ocasio-Cortez received $5,000 from each of two left-wing PACs --Justice Democrats and MoveOn.org -- following her primary win over incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley.

Wednesday's complaint is the second filed against Ocasio-Cortez in less than a month by conservative Virginia attorney Dan Backer. His previous complaint alleged that Ocasio-Cortez's campaign funneled at least $6,000 to her boyfriend through the Brand New Congress PAC.

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A separate complaint filed last month alleges that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti redirected $885,000 in campaign contributions from Congress PAC and Justice Democrats PAC to Brand New Campaign LLC and Brand New Congress LLC. The PACs claimed at the time that the payments were for "strategic consulting."

A couple of weeks after the initial complaints were filed, Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti were removed from the board of Justice Democrats.

Fox News' Andrew Keiper, Gregg Re, Perry Chiaramonte and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

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.)

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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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