Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

In leaky White House, Trump team keeps Middle East peace plan secret

FILE PHOTO - Haley, Kushner and Greenblatt wait for meeting of UN Security Council in New York
FILE PHOTO - U.S. United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley (C) White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (L) and Jason Greenblatt (R), U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy wait for a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

April 10, 2019

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a White House where no secret is safe for long, one development has remained stubbornly confidential – the contents of a Middle East peace plan authored by President Donald Trump’s advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.

With Trump having delighted Israelis and angered Palestinians by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and moving the American Embassy to the holy city last May, a U.S.-brokered peace deal may seem farther away now than when talks collapsed five years ago.

Then on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election, only days after proposing to annex Jewish West Bank settlements, traditionally viewed as illegal by much of the world. The Trump administration has yet to comment on the election-eve remarks.

Aides expect Trump to release the plan once Netanyahu forms a government coalition, and officials say that despite criticism of the administration’s moves to date, the plan will demand compromises from both sides.

That the peace plan has remained a secret is remarkable in a White House where drafts of executive orders, confidential conversations and internal deliberations all find their way to the front pages.

Kushner and Greenblatt have limited the plan’s distribution over the two years they have been crafting it. It has been kept secret “to ensure people approach it with an open mind” when it is released, a senior administration official said.

Only four people have regular access – Kushner, Greenblatt, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz, the official said.

Trump is briefed regularly on the contents but is not believed to have read the entire document of dozens of pages.

“He is briefed if something interesting is happening or there is an idea they want to run by him,” the official said.

Kushner, a New York real estate developer and husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and Greenblatt, a former lawyer for Trump, joined the process knowing little about the tortured, decades-long path in search of Arab-Israeli peace.

Their proposal addresses such core political issues as the status of Jerusalem, and separately aims at helping the Palestinians strengthen their economy.

Cloaked in secrecy is whether the plan will propose outright the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians’ core demand.

On Wednesday, Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the plan would be presented before too long but, when asked, declined to say whether the administration favored a two-state solution, long the basis of Middle East peacemaking.

Not even Trump, who is known to blurt out news whenever he feels like it, has dribbled out details of the peace plan because of the sensitivity.

He tells his Middle East envoys, “If you guys can get this done you’re going to be the greatest negotiators in history,” said a senior White House official.

‘YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE’

When Kushner and Greenblatt began developing their plan in 2017, they asked the parties to look to the future and describe an outcome on each issue that they could accept rather than get locked into historical stances, two officials said.

“You can’t let your grandfather’s conflict hold back your children’s future” was their message to both sides, one official said.

Palestinians reject Trump’s pro-Israel policies.

“The extremist and militaristic agenda, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has been emboldened by the Trump administration’s reckless policies and blind support,” said PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton are all kept up to date on the peace plan, but have kept a hands-off approach to it, deferring to Kushner, two other officials said.

The secrecy maintained by Kushner and Greenblatt, even as they refine and polish the plan, has posed something of a challenge for Gulf governments, who want to know the details before committing resources to a Palestinian fund.

Kushner and Greenblatt toured Gulf states in February to promote the economic part of the plan and get opinions about it, without providing a detailed view of the contents of the more crucial political section.

One of their stops was in Qatar.

Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Lolwah Al Khater, speaking to a small group of reporters in Washington recently, gave no indication that Kushner and Greenblatt provided much in the way of details on the political plan when they visited.

“I don’t think it’s still set in stone,” she said.

Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East envoy and now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the U.S. team still has “a lot of work to do to make sure that Arab leaders aren’t surprised by what’s going to be presented, and they need to see it in writing, not verbally.”

But he said secrecy at this point is understandable.

“Holding something very close makes sense and it’s not taken as a negative by the parties, because in the end, if the content isn’t leaking out, it also makes sure that what would be controversial doesn’t create an immediate firestorm. There’s a logic to that,” Ross said.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)

Source: OANN

0 0

DNA, forensic genealogy link man who died in 2017 to two cold case rapes, killing

DNA and a forensic genealogy search have solved two cold cases in Maryland — a rape and a murder — but the suspect won’t have to answer for his alleged crimes.

The cases involved the 1989 rape of a 52-year-old woman and the 1994 murder of Le Bich-Thuy, a French-born 42-year-old research biologist who was also raped, Montgomery County Police said last week. Both had been followed home from a Rockville train station.

Police said the person who committed the crimes was Kenneth Day -- but Day has been dead for two years. He died in West Virginia when he was 52 and his obituary said his survivors included a daughter and two grandchildren. It was not immediately clear how Day died. Though several mug shots were released of Day, it also wasn't known what he had been jailed for in those cases.

Officials said Day could be a suspect in other unsolved cases in Montgomery County, too.

Mug shot for Kenneth Day when he was 24 in 1989. Police last week tied Day to an unsolved 1989 in Rockville, Md., using DNA and forensic genealogy.

Mug shot for Kenneth Day when he was 24 in 1989. Police last week tied Day to an unsolved 1989 in Rockville, Md., using DNA and forensic genealogy. (Montgomery County Police Department)

DNA LEADS TO ARREST IN COLD CASE MURDERS OF TWO ALABAMA GIRLS, REPORTS SAY

Retired detective Bob Phillips devoted hours to solving Bich-Thuy’s murder without success, according to a 2010 report.

Phillips was on the job in 1994 when he responded to Bich-Thuy’s home when her body was found.

"I remember responding there that evening with Detective Drury and Detective Bond,” he told NBC 4 DC. “She was not covered up but she just naturally sunk into this English Ivy and was hard to see."

Photo of Kenneth Day when he was 40 in 2005.

Photo of Kenneth Day when he was 40 in 2005. (Montgomery County Police Department )

In 2017 Montgomery detectives produced a composite sketch of the woman’s killer using DNA recovered from the crime scene with the assistance of Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia.

NORTH CAROLINA MAN CHARGED IN QUADRUPLE COLD CASE MURDERS FROM 2008

More recently, detectives used Parabon to upload the crime scene DNA to the genealogy website GEDmatch. That led to the identification of individuals who shared a significant amount of DNA with the suspect. A genealogy search then identified Day.

In the past year, cold case detectives in other parts of the U.S. have used GEDmatch to identify suspects in a number of unsolved cold case rapes and murders, including some that were decades-old.

Police trying to solve the murder of Le Bich-Thuy in 1994 used the killer's DNA from the crime scene to produce these composite sketches of what the suspect may have looked like at age 25 and 45. 

Police trying to solve the murder of Le Bich-Thuy in 1994 used the killer's DNA from the crime scene to produce these composite sketches of what the suspect may have looked like at age 25 and 45.  (Parabon NanoLabs/Montgomery County Police Department)

Even before naming Day, Montgomery police believed the person who killed Bich-Thuy and raped the other woman had committed other unsolved crimes.

“I don’t think he did this just two or three times,” Sgt. Chris Homrock, head of the cold case squad in Montgomery County told the Washington Post last year. “This guy was targeting women in that area for at least five years.”

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Ending the silence on sex abuse: Vatican holds summit

Pope Francis is summoning church leaders from around the world this week for a tutorial on how to deal with cases of sex abuse by clergy.

Many Catholic church leaders around the world continue to protect the church's reputation by denying that priests rape children and by discrediting victims, and the pope himself admits to having made similar mistakes.

But Francis has done an about-face and is bringing the rest of the church leadership along with him at the extraordinary summit starting Thursday.

The meeting will bring together some 190 presidents of bishops' conferences, religious orders and Vatican offices lectures and workshops on preventing sex abuse in their churches, tending to victims, and investigating abuse.

Survivors will be meeting with summit organizers and the bishops themselves ahead of the summit.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Hong Kong protest leaders vow to continue democracy fight ahead of verdict

Pro-democracy activists arrive at the court before a verdict on their involvement in the Occupy Central, also known as
(L-R) Pro-democracy activists Cheung Sau-yin, Chung Yiu-wa, Tanya Chan, Chu Yiu-ming, Chan Kin-man, Benny Tai, Raphael Wong, Lee Wing-tat and Shiu Ka-chun arrive at the court before a verdict on their involvement in the Occupy Central, also known as "Umbrella Movement", in Hong Kong, China April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

April 9, 2019

By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hundreds crowded a Hong Kong court on Tuesday to hear a landmark verdict in the trial of several leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy “Occupy” civil disobedience movement that called for greater democracy for the Chinese-ruled city.

Three of the defendants accused of playing a leading role in planning and mobilizing supporters during the 79-day street occupations in 2014 – Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man, and retired pastor Chu Yiu-ming – face three charges; conspiracy to commit public nuisance, incitement to commit public nuisance, and incitement to incite public nuisance.

The trio has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which each carry a maximum seven years jail.

Tai, speaking to Reuters before the verdict, said: “We will still continue our struggle for democracy … technically we have breached the law and we will have to face legal responsibility.

“The reason that we committed civil disobedience is because we want justice for Hong Kong people.”

There are a total of nine defendants from the 2014 pro-democracy “Occupy” civil disobedience movement.

More than 100 supporters rallied outside the court, holding up yellow umbrellas and placards with the words: “I want universal suffrage”, while others chanted “The Occupy nine are not guilty.”

The protests blocked major roads in the financial center for 79 days in late 2014, presenting Beijing with one of its biggest challenges in decades. They were finally cleared by police, having won no democratic concessions from the government.

Since the city returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, however, critics say China has broken this promise and reneged on its commitment to maintain Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and freedoms under a co-called “one country, two systems” arrangement.

All nine defendants were defiant outside the court, vowing to continue their fight for democracy and saying they weren’t afraid of any outcome as they’d been engaged in a peaceful civil disobedience movement pushing for a fundamental right; to vote freely for the city’s leader and lawmakers as promised in the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

The six other defendants include pro-democracy legislators Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun, two former student leaders Eason Chung and Tommy Cheung, activist Raphael Wong, and veteran democrat Lee Wing-tat.

David Leung, the director of public prosecutions, had earlier argued that Tai, Chan and Chu were the main conspirators who had begun planning the protests a year in advance. He also said the protests were “unlawful” and had caused “unreasonable” public disruptions over nearly three months.

The trial is the latest in a series against Hong Kong’s democratic opposition that have seen scores of activists jailed.

(Reporting by James Pomfret and Jessie Pang; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: OANN

0 0

Biden vows that ‘America is coming back,’ sparking ‘MAGA’ comparisons

The latest entry in the 2020 race, former Vice President Joe Biden, promised Thursday that “America is coming back,” which many critics compared to President Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Biden, who officially launched his 2020 presidential campaign with a video, was swarmed by reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, and was asked if he had a “message for the rest of the world.”

“Yes,” Biden firmly responded. “America’s coming back like it used to be; ethical, straight, telling the truth… supporting our allies. All those good things."

Many on Twitter compared his remarks to Trump’s famous election slogan.

Others mocked Biden’s claim that America is “straight.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Biden enters the race without the endorsement of his former running mate, President Obama.

He does, however, have a comfortable lead in the polls, averaging at 29.3 percent among primary voters according to Real Clear Politics.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Tornadoes slam South, killing at least 4 people as severe threat expands north

At least 4 people were killed -- including 2 children -- after powerful storms roared through the South on Saturday, spawning multiple tornadoes in several states as the threat for severe weather expands north on Sunday.

The Angelina County Sheriff's Office in Texas said an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old died when strong winds toppled a tree onto the back of their family's car in Lufkin, located about 115 miles northeast of Houston.

Capt. Alton Lenderman said the parents, who were in the front seats, were not injured.

A car lies upside down in a ditch following a suspected tornado, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Franklin, Texas. (Associated Press)

A car lies upside down in a ditch following a suspected tornado, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Franklin, Texas. (Associated Press)

In Mississippi, a man was killed in the town of Hamilton when a tree fell on his trailer.

Monroe County Road Manager Sonny Clay said at a news conference Sunday that 19 people were taken to hospitals for treatment, including two in critical condition. Hamilton, Miss., is located 140 miles southwest of Memphis, Tenn.

SOUTHERN STATES BRACE FOR SEVERE WEATHER; TORNADO WARNINGS ISSUED

The tornadoes were from a spring storm system that is shifting northward on Sunday, with the threat for severe weather focused on the Appalachians into the mid-Atlantic, according to Fox News Meteorologist Adam Klotz.

A man looks at a piece of wood that was blown through the windshield of his daughters truck in Hamilton, Miss., after a storm moved through the area Sunday, April 14, 2019.

A man looks at a piece of wood that was blown through the windshield of his daughters truck in Hamilton, Miss., after a storm moved through the area Sunday, April 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Jim Lytle)

"We're talking about tens of millions of people with some stormy weather before this Sunday is over," he said Sunday on "FOX & friends."

MASTERS PREPARES FOR UNPRECEDENTED TEE OFF DUE TO WEATHER, OFFICIALS SAY

The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center said that a line of severe thunderstorms, ongoing from early Sunday morning, is expected to move into the Southeast through the remainder of the morning and early afternoon hours.

"Some fragmentation and possible weakening of this line is expected but a second round of storms is anticipated farther north into the Appalachians later this afternoon," the NWS

A roof is torn off a home following a suspected tornado, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Franklin, Texas.

A roof is torn off a home following a suspected tornado, Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Franklin, Texas. (Laura McKenzie/College Station Eagle via AP)

2019 HURRICANE SEASON WILL BE 'SLIGHTLY BELOW-AVERAGE,' RESEARCHERS SAY

In Central Texas, Robertson County Sheriff Gerald Yezak told the Associated Press a tornado hit the small city of Franklin on Saturday, overturning mobile homes and damaging other residences. Franklin is located about 125 miles south of Dallas.

The National Weather Service said preliminary information showed an EF-3 tornado touched down with winds of 140 mph. Crews will continue to survey the damage over the next few days.

Another possible tornado left damage in southeastern Alabama on Sunday morning.

Debris is strewn in flooded water in the Pemberton Quarters strip mall following severe weather Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Vicksburg, Miss.

Debris is strewn in flooded water in the Pemberton Quarters strip mall following severe weather Saturday, April 13, 2019 in Vicksburg, Miss. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post via AP)

Power poles and trees were knocked over and parts of buildings were left hanging across utility lines in Troy, located about 50 miles south of Montgomery. A mobile home community was damaged, but no injuries are being reported.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The National Weather Service detected a possible twister on radar, but it's unclear whether a tornado or straight-line winds caused the damage. More than 140,000 customers remained without power in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas as of Sunday morning.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

California runner slips on ice, falls 180 feet to his death from San Gabriel Mountains, officials say

A runner in California slipped on a patch of ice on a mountain trail Sunday morning — and fell roughly 180 feet to his death from a mountain peak, officials said.

Ernesto Alonzo Rodriguez, 38, died at Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, located northeast of Los Angeles, KTLA reported.

Rodriguez went on the workout with three other runners, and two of joggers tried to climb down the ravine to help him, the Pasadena Star-News added.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox 11 reported that officials were in the process of notifying his relatives.

Click for more from Fox 11.

Frank Miles is a reporter and editor covering geopolitics, military, crime, technology and sports for FoxNews.com. His email is Frank.Miles@foxnews.com.

Source: Fox News National

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist