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U.S. lawmakers say Trump-era transatlantic rift mere family ‘squabbles’

U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi attends a news conference in Brussels
U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi attends a news conference following the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels, Belgium, February 19, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

February 19, 2019

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A delegation of U.S. lawmakers sought to reassure European allies in Brussels on Tuesday that differences over President Donald Trump’s policies were mere “family squabbles” and transatlantic ties remain strong.

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi cast the visit by a 50-strong delegation to Europe as proof of enduring bonds despite anger in European capitals over what is seen as Trump’s disregard for their interests.

“It is about one word: it is about respect,” Pelosi told reporters, stressing that the delegation was the largest yet to attend the Munich Security conference over the weekend.

Misgivings over Washington’s leadership on foreign policy issues was on full display at the conference of world leaders, with anxiety mounting over division in the West on how to deal with threats ranging from nuclear arms to climate change.

“Like in a family, there are ups and downs,” congressman Eliot Engel, chairman of the foreign affairs committee said. “Things sometimes are bumpy, but they straighten out.”

Referring to unease in transatlantic ties, congressman Gregory Meeks remarked: “We may have a squabble but those squabbles will dissolve.”

The European Union and the United States have traditionally been the closest of allies, working together also via NATO.

Trump, however, has lambasted his European peers for not spending enough on defense, raising doubts among many in Europe about his commitment to the Western military alliance and Europe’s broader security.

Speaking in Brussels, Pelosi pointed to bipartisan support for NATO after the U.S. House of Representatives last month approved legislation aimed at stopping Trump from withdrawing the United States from military alliance.

“I don’t think there is any difference between democrats and republicans on our relationship with NATO,” she said.

(Reporting by Clare Roth and Alissa de Carbonnel, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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Factbox: Five things to look for in Mueller’s Trump-Russia report

FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after briefing the U.S. House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after briefing the U.S. House Intelligence Committee on his investigation of potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/File Photo

April 8, 2019

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) – Attorney General William Barr has provided only a glimpse of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the inquiry into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election, with many details expected to emerge when the document is finally released.

Barr on March 24 sent a four-page letter to lawmakers detailing Mueller’s “principal conclusions” including that the 22-month probe did not establish that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team conspired with Russia. Barr said he found insufficient evidence in Mueller’s report to conclude that Trump committed obstruction of justice, though the special counsel did not make a formal finding one way or the other on that.

The attorney general has pledged to release the nearly 400-page report by mid-April, but has said portions will be blacked out to protect certain types of sensitive information.

Here are five things to look for when the report is issued.

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: WHY NO EXONERATION?

Perhaps the biggest political risk for Trump is the special counsel’s supporting evidence behind Mueller’s assertion that while the report does not conclude the Republican president committed the crime of obstruction of justice it “also does not exonerate him” on that point.

According to Barr’s March 24 letter, Mueller has presented evidence on both sides of the question without concluding whether to prosecute. Barr filled that void by asserting there was no prosecutable case. But Barr’s statement in the letter that “most” of Trump’s actions that had raised questions about obstruction were “the subject of public reporting” suggested that some actions were not publicly known.

Democrats in Congress do not believe Barr, a Trump appointee, should have the final say on the matter. While the prospect that the Democratic-led House of Representatives would begin the impeachment process to try to remove Trump from office appears to have receded, the House Judiciary Committee will be looking for any evidence relevant to ongoing probes into obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power by the president or others in the administration.

Barr’s comment that most of what Mueller probed on obstruction has been publicly reported indicates that events like Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 when the agency was heading the Russia inquiry are likely to be the focus of this section of the report.

RUSSIAN ‘INFORMATION WARFARE’ AND CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

The report will detail indictments by Mueller of two Kremlin-backed operations to influence the 2016 election: one against a St. Petersburg-based troll farm called the Internet Research Agency accused of waging “information warfare” over social media; and the other charging Russian intelligence officers with hacking into Democratic Party servers and pilfering emails leaked to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

With those two indictments already public and bearing no apparent link to the president, the focus may be on what Mueller concluded, if anything, about other incidents that involved contacts between Russians and people in Trump’s orbit. That could include the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York in which a Russian lawyer promised “dirt” on Clinton to senior campaign officials, as well as a secret January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles investigated as a possible attempt to set up a back channel between the incoming Trump administration and the Kremlin while Democrat Barack Obama was still president.

Any analysis of such contacts could shed light on why Mueller, according to Barr’s summary, “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

MANAFORT, UKRAINE POLICY AND POLLING DATA

In the weeks before Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced in March to 7-1/2 years in prison mostly for financial crimes related to millions of dollars he was paid by pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians, Mueller’s team provided hints about what their pursuit of him was really about.

Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told a judge in February that an Aug. 2, 2016 meeting between Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a consultant Mueller has said has ties to Russian intelligence, “went to the heart of” the special counsel’s investigation.

The meeting included a discussion about a proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine in terms favorable to the Kremlin, an issue that has damaged Russia’s relations with the West. Prosecutors also said Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with Kilimnik, although the significance of that act remains unclear.

One focus will be on what Mueller ultimately concluded about Manafort’s interactions with Kilimnik and whether a failed attempt to secure cooperation from Manafort, who was found by a judge to have lied to prosecutors in breach of a plea agreement, significantly impeded the special counsel’s work.

NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS

While Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy with Russia, according to Barr, there is a chance the report will detail behavior and financial entanglements that give fodder to critics who have said Trump has shown a pattern of deference to the Kremlin.

One example of such an entanglement was the proposal to build a Trump tower in Moscow, a deal potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars that never materialized. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, admitted to lying to Congress about the project to provide cover because Trump on the campaign trail had denied any dealings with Russia.

In the absence of criminal charges arising from Mueller’s inquiry, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has shifted his focus to whether Trump is “compromised” by such entanglements, influencing his policy decisions and posing a risk to national security.

Some legal experts have said the counterintelligence probe Mueller inherited from Comey may prove more significant than his criminal inquiry, though it is not clear to what degree counterintelligence findings will be included in the report. Barr also has said he planned to redact material related to intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

MIDDLE EAST INFLUENCE AND OTHER PROBES

Another focus is whether Mueller will disclose anything from his inquiries into Middle Eastern efforts to influence Trump.

One mystery is what, if anything, came of the special counsel’s questioning of George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and consultant to the crown princes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia who started cooperating with Mueller last year.

Nader attended the Seychelles meeting. He also was present at a Trump Tower meeting in August 2016, three months before the election, at which an Israeli social media specialist spoke with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., about how his firm Psy-Group, which employed several former Israeli intelligence officers, could help the Trump campaign, according to the New York Times. Mueller’s interest in Nader suggested the special counsel looked into whether additional countries sought to influence the election and whether they did so in concert with Russia.

A lawyer for Nader did not respond to a request for comment.

Barr has said he will redact from the Mueller report information on “other ongoing matters,” including inquiries referred to other offices in the Justice Department. That makes it unclear if any findings related to the Middle East will appear in the report.

(Compiled by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: OANN

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European researchers to drill for ancient Antarctic ice

A group of 14 European scientific institutions plan to retrieve the world's oldest ice as part of research into past climate change.

The consortium led by the Germany-based Alfred Wegener Institute said Tuesday it has identified an area in Antarctica, nicknamed "Little Dome C," that should harbor ice as old as 1.5 million years.

So-called ice core measurements are crucial for scientists' understanding of past climatic changes on Earth and the models they use to predict future global warming or cooling.

Current ice core measurements provide reliable data going back only about 800,000 years.

At a meeting in Vienna, the institutes said they spent the past three years working with American, Australian, Japanese and Russian colleagues using radar to determine the best possible site for drilling.

Source: Fox News World

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Police: Man arrested doesn’t remember Seattle shootings

A man accused of randomly shooting at cars and a public bus in Seattle, leaving two people dead and two injured, told police afterward that he was in an alcoholic blackout and didn't remember doing it, authorities said in court documents Friday.

Tad-Michael Norman, 33, was charged in King County Superior Court with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder in the Wednesday afternoon rampage. He was being held without bail. It was not immediately clear if he had obtained a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

"The defendant's actions - purposely firing a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol at five random members of the community on a public street, killing two and wounding two others - demonstrate the extreme danger he poses to the community," senior deputy prosecutor Scott O'Toole wrote in charging papers. "Taking at face value his claim to detectives that he has no recollection of the events leading up to and including the shooting only heightens the danger he poses."

According to a probable cause statement by Seattle Police Detective Alan Cruise, Norman told investigators he went to a Fred Meyer grocery store earlier in the day and bought vodka, rum and wine. He began drinking at about 12:30 p.m., about 3½ hours before the shootings, and he remembered playing video games, but after that he recalled nothing until he was being treated for minor injuries at Harborview Medical Center on Wednesday night, the statement said.

"He described the nature of his alcohol abuse as blackout drinking," Cruise wrote. "Detectives recounted a summary of what we believed happened including him shooting 3 people, carjacking a vehicle and being involved in (a) serious vehicle collision," Cruise wrote. "Norman said he has no memory of any of that."

According to police, Norman walked into the street in front of his home in northeast Seattle and fired at a car driven by Julie Blair, who was not injured. Her car was struck twice. Blair said that as she drove away she could see him firing at another car.

Schoolteacher Deborah Judd told reporters in her hospital room Thursday that she had been driving home from a staff meeting — "zipping along, I think I was eating Cheez-Its" — when she saw a man in the middle of the road shooting at her. She was struck in the arm, shoulder and lung, she said. She remained in satisfactory condition Friday.

Bus driver Eric Stark said the gunman fired into his windshield, striking him in the chest. After taking stock of his injuries and hitting an emergency alert, Stark managed to reverse the bus away and turn it around, getting his passengers to safety. He told reporters from his hospital bed Friday that the shooter "didn't seem panicked or crazy."

"Just seemed really calm, like he was shooting paper target at a range," Stark said.

Police said Norman then shot and killed another driver — Robert M. Hassan, 76 — and fled in Hassan's car, crashing head-on into another vehicle. That vehicle's driver, Richard T. Lee, 75, was killed.

Hassan was a retired physician and Air Force colonel, his brother told The Seattle Times.

Norman did not appear to have any criminal history in Washington state. He was a vendor with Microsoft, and his contract ended last year, a company representative said.

Source: Fox News National

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Previously Deported MS-13 Gang Member Sentenced To Prison For Reentering U.S.

A judge sentenced a previously deported MS-13 gang member from El Salvador to one year in prison for illegally re-entering the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady handed Fily Giovany Amaya-Martinez the sentence Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Amaya-Martinez, a 36-year-old known member of MS-13, was deported from the U.S. in 2003 after authorities convicted him of an aggravated felony near Washington, D.C. However, he returned to the U.S. in 2009 after being charged with several murders in his home country of El Salvador.

Amaya-Martinez was able to live illegally in the U.S., undetected, for nearly a decade until an anti-gang task force discovered him in 2018.

“Amaya-Martinez fled justice in his home country and defied the laws of this country when he illegally reentered,” said Lyle Boelens, the acting field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations in Washington, D.C. “Today’s sentencing answers his defiance. We stand with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in resolute commitment to continue to ensure that our communities are safe from dangerous criminals.”

The chief federal law enforcement officer for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) hailed the case as an example for the need of strong immigration enforcement.

“After allegedly committing multiple murders in El Salvador, this violent MS-13 gang member fled El Salvador and illegally crossed our southern border to get back into the United States,” stated EDVA U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger.

“This case is a prime example of our need for strong borders and why this office continues to prioritize criminal immigration cases. My thanks to the dedicated anti-gang task force agents for their outstanding work on this important case, and for removing this dangerous felon from our community,” Terwilliger continued.

Amaya-Martinez’s sentencing comes as the Trump administration continues to clash with congressional Democrats over immigration and border enforcement.

The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, a five-member board that controls the House of Representatives’ general counsel, voted 3-2 along party lines Thursday to initiate a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration on the southern border. Democrats, with the help of some GOP support, had previously passed a resolution that condemned his border emergency. However, Trump vetoed the resolution and lawmakers were not able to override it.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has also asked Congress to pass a series of measures to alleviate the immigration situation, but with Democrats controlling the House, these requests are not expected to be met.


Alex Jones and callers discuss how Texas Governor Greg Abbott must be ready to take action and defend the southern border, with or without permission from the federal government or President Trump.

Source: InfoWars

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Turkish unemployment surges to almost 10-year high in December-February: stats institute

FILE PHOTO: A street vendor stands next to his stall in front of a jewellery shop in Istanbul
FILE PHOTO: A street vendor stands next to his stall in front of a jewellery shop in Istanbul, Turkey, April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

April 15, 2019

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s unemployment rate surged to 14.7 percent in the December-February period, its highest level in almost 10 years, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute showed on Monday.

Non-agricultural unemployment stood at 16.8 percent in the same period, the data showed. In the November-January period, unemployment stood at 13.5 percent while non-agricultural unemployment was at 15.6 percent.

Unemployment last stood at 14.7 percent in the February-April period of 2009.

(Reporting by Behiye Selin Taner; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Source: OANN

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Mexico to purge nonworking teachers from payroll

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says his government will conduct a census to determine which teachers are working and purge the rest from the payroll.

Speaking in the western state of Michoacan, the president gestured with a thumb Saturday to indicate that any "freeloader" found on the payroll will be tossed.

López Obrador plans to federalize education rather than allocate school funds to states. The president said some governors spend federal money earmarked for education on other things and then ask for more money.

López Obrador said that "we are going to bring order."

Michoacan suffered paralyzing rail blockades in January by striking teachers demanding back pay from the state government.

The crowd booed Michoacan Gov. Silvano Aureoles, who appeared alongside López Obrador on Saturday.

Source: Fox News World

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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

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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

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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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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

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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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