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Beto 2020 off to a rocky start


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On the roster: Beto 2020 off to a rocky start - Gillibrand formally joins the 2020 race - Hogan pitches himself as a traditional Republican - Poll: Americans’ trust in Mueller is decreasing - ‘Eat mor chikin’ ad IRL

BETO 2020 OFF TO A ROCKY START
Politico: “A more disciplined candidate might not have been so sloppy, with months to prepare and adoring crowds waiting. Yet there was Beto O’Rourke, wobbling on policy, offending women with a joke about child care, frustrating local Democrats with his high-handedness and picking bewildering fights with the media. … O’Rourke’s liabilities began showing soon after he arrived in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state. On Friday, the second day of his campaign, the former Texas congressman was forced to apologize for what he called ‘really hateful’ writings from his youth… Hours later, O’Rourke was apologizing for ham-handedly joking about his wife, Amy, raising their children ‘sometimes with my help.’ … Yet he was still confronting his previous comments as recently as Sunday — after drawing criticism for remarks printed on the cover of Vanity Fair in which O’Rourke said before entering the race that he was ‘just born to be in it.’ … It was not a clean start to O’Rourke’s 2020 run. Though he benefited from nonstop media coverage, a blockbuster initial fundraising figure, and his own political acuity … O’Rourke’s opening act also laid bare disorder in his nascent campaign.”

But his fundraising is through the roof - WaPo: “Beto O’Rourke reported raising more than $6.1 million during the first 24 hours of his presidential campaign, a record-setting haul that narrowly tops the amount announced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and dwarfs everyone else in the 2020 field. O’Rourke was a fundraising juggernaut during his U.S. Senate race in Texas last year, but there were significant questions about whether that would translate to a national campaign… The answer appears to be yes. O’Rourke’s campaign said he raised $6,136,763 from donations that came from all 50 states, D.C., and every U.S. territory. ‘In just 24 hours, Americans across this country came together to prove that it is possible to run a true grassroots campaign for president — a campaign by all of us for all of us that answers not to the PACs, corporations, and special interests but to the people,’ O’Rourke said in a statement.”

He gave Biden a lot of support to enter the race too - Politico: “The first time Beto O’Rourke praised Joe Biden, it could have been dismissed as an act of diplomacy. ‘I don’t see why not,’ the newly minted presidential candidate said Friday when asked outside a campaign stop in Washington, Iowa, whether he thought Biden should run for president. ‘I think he’s done an extraordinary job for this country as senator and as vice president. … I think very highly of him.’ Then it happened again, when an Iowan in Independence told O’Rourke, who is 46, that he wanted ‘to see some young people run for president’ and would prefer that Biden — who has 30 years on O’Rourke — stay out. O’Rourke could have let the comment hang in the air, but he came immediately to Biden’s defense. And Biden was still on his mind several hours later.”

RNC criticized over St. Patrick’s Day tweet featuring Beto - Fox News: “The Republican National Committee on Sunday tweeted out a ‘special message’ from ‘noted Irishman Robert Francis O’Rourke,’ by sending his mugshot with a leprechaun hat that was widely criticized as insensitive. O’Rourke has previously admitted to a 1998 arrest when he was 26 for drunken driving and said nothing else will come out that could be used against him during the 2020 presidential campaign. O’Rourke told supporters Sunday that there’s ‘nothing’ he hasn’t already revealed about his past that could come back to hurt his run for office. The Washington Examiner reported that several high-profile Republicans came out against the tweet. An aide for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tweeted, ‘If you think you’re funny or clever by stereotyping and making fun of any race or nationality to score political points, you’re an idiot, and you should probably not tweet.’”

THE RULEBOOK: LESSONS FROM THE PAST
“I have thought it not superfluous to give the outlines of this important portion of history; both because it teaches more than one lesson, and because, as a supplement to the outlines of the Achaean constitution, it emphatically illustrates the tendency of federal bodies rather to anarchy among the members, than to tyranny in the head.” – Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, Federalist No. 18

TIME OUT: WORDS REALLY ARE HARD
Smithsonian: “‘French fries’ might not be on the menu if not for ancient farmers, and not because we can now grow plenty of potatoes, but because it would be harder to enunciate the f sounds needed to order them. The ability to make labiodental sounds—which are sounds that require you to put your lower lip on your upper teeth, such as f and v sounds—may not have fully developed until agriculture introduced softer foods to the human diet, changing our jaws, according to an intriguing and controversial study published [on March 14] in Science. Orthodontists know that overbite … are common among people all over the world. But the study’s authors assert that such jaw structures were rarer in the Paleolithic Period, when hunter-gatherer’s rough diets demanded more force from teeth that met edge to edge. Agriculture softened our ancestors’ diets with processed gruels, stews and yogurts, and this fare led to gradually shrinking lower jaws to produce today’s overcrowded mouths.”

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

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval: 
41.6 percent
Average disapproval: 53.8 percent
Net Score: -12.2 points
Change from one week ago: down 1.4 points 
[Average includes: Gallup: 39% approve - 57% disapprove; Monmouth University: 44% approve - 52% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 38% approve - 55% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 53% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 46% approve - 52% disapprove.]

GILLIBRAND FORMALLY JOINS THE 2020 RACE
USA Today: “New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand made official what already was well-known Sunday, formally joining the crowded Democratic field of candidates for president in 2020. ‘I’m running for president,’ she tweeted. ‘Let’s prove that brave wins.’ Gillibrand, 52, made the announcement on Twitter with a two-and-a-half- minute campaign video titled ‘The Brave.’ She discusses ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and urges Americans in ‘the home of the brave’ to support her and her policies. Gillibrand talks about universal health care, family leave, an end to gun violence, the Green New Deal and campaign finance changes. The video concludes with the senator saying that each generation must answer the anthem's question, whether the brave will win. … Gillibrand, one of six women in the Democratic field, launched an exploratory campaign in January. Recent polling of the field shows her garnering 1 percent or less of the vote – an important number because claiming 1 percent or more would qualify her for primary debates.”

Beto, Booker signal toward female VP picks - NYT: “With a record number of female candidates running for president, some male Democratic contenders are signaling that a woman will be on their 2020 ticket — just not at the top. Two male candidates, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, suggested this weekend that they would pick a woman as their vice president if they won the nomination. ‘It would be very difficult not to select a woman, with so many extraordinary women who are running right now,’ Mr. O’Rourke told reporters in Iowa on Saturday night. … Announcing the demographic profile of a potential vice-presidential pick is highly unusual, especially more than 10 months before the first round of voting takes place in Iowa. The comments reflect a desire by male candidates to show that they are not taking female voters for granted, particularly as so many women mount bids of their own for the nomination. … Issues of race and gender have already emerged as a central theme of the Democratic primary race…”

2020 Dems vocalize stance on expanding Supreme Court - Politico: “After watching Mitch McConnell transform the judiciary over the past four years, liberals are demanding a bold response. And Democrats are listening. Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand told POLITICO they would not rule out expanding the Supreme Court if elected president, showcasing a new level of interest in the Democratic field on an issue that has until recently remained on the fringes of debate. The surprising openness from White House hopefuls along with other prominent Senate Democrats to making sweeping changes — from adding seats to the high court to imposing term limits on judges and more — comes as the party is eager to chip away at the GOP’s growing advantage in the courts. … Expanding the Supreme Court would amount to a historic power play by the next Democratic president and Congress, requiring an intense legislative fight and the abandonment of many judicial and congressional norms.”

HOGAN PITCHES HIMSELF AS A TRADITIONAL REPUBLICAN
WaPo: “Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan acknowledges that many Republicans nationwide who have heard about his potential presidential ambitions probably view him as a centrist with little hope of finding support in President Trump’s GOP. But amid growing tensions between Trump and Republican lawmakers over foreign policy and the president’s treatment of global alliances, Hogan is signaling that if he decides to wage an insurgent campaign for the GOP nomination, he would pitch himself as far more in tune with the party’s long-held values and worldview than Trump. ‘I come from the Ronald Reagan school of politics,’ Hogan said last week in a wide-ranging interview at the state capitol, shaking his head in disapproval when asked whether he shares Trump’s nationalism. He said groups such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a frequent target of Trump’s ire, are ‘critically important.’ He expressed alarm about the way the president is ‘not standing by or standing up for some of our allies,’ and he poked fun at Trump’s competence.”

POLL: AMERICANS’ TRUST IN MUELLER IS DECREASING
USA Today: “Amid signs that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference may be near its conclusion, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds that trust in Mueller has eroded and half of Americans agree with President Donald Trump's contention that he has been the victim of a ‘witch hunt.’ Support for the House of Representatives to seriously consider impeaching the president has dropped since last October by 10 percentage points, to 28 percent. Despite that, the survey shows a nation that remains skeptical of Trump's honesty and deeply divided by his leadership. A 52 percent majority say they have little or no trust in the president's denials that his 2016 campaign colluded with Moscow in the election that put him in the Oval Office. That number does reflect an improvement from previous polls. One year ago, 57 percent had little or no trust in his denials; in December, 59 percent did. Twenty-eight percent say they have a lot of trust in former FBI director Mueller's investigation to be fair and accurate. That's the lowest level to date and down 5 points since December.”

Trump backs call for Mueller report to be made public - Fox News: “President Trump on Saturday backed bipartisan calls in Congress for FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election to be made public. ‘Play along with the game!’ the president told Republicans. ‘On the recent non-binding vote (420-0) in Congress about releasing the Mueller Report, I told leadership to let all Republicans vote for transparency,’ he tweeted. ‘Makes us all look good and doesn’t matter.’ The House voted on Thursday in support of a nonbinding resolution to encourage Attorney General William Barr to release the report, amid continuing concerns in some quarters that it won't be made public. Four Republican lawmakers voted present. Since the measure is nonbinding, Mueller, Barr and Trump cannot be forced to release more information to Congress and the public than the Justice Department and federal law require.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Former President George W. Bush talks immigration at naturalization ceremony - CBS News

Dems to use Medicare to target vulnerable senators and House members - WaPo

Pergram: ‘Behind the budget ‘gimmick’ that could help secure Trump’s border wall’ - Fox News

U.S. military to leave 1,000 troops in Syria - WSJ

Donna Brazile: ‘Why I am excited to join Fox News and take part in a civil debate’ - Fox News

AUDIBLE: AMEN
“I try to just avoid ruling things out when there’s others who are in control. The Lord will get me to the right place.” – Mike Pompeo talking about his political future with The Wichita Eagle.

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

‘EAT MOR CHIKIN’ AD IRL
AL.com: “After leading police on a chase across Campus Parkway in Indiana this weekend, a runaway cow crossed over three lanes of traffic before stopping at a Chick-fil-A. With traffic halted for a short while, one driver was able to capture video of the bovine on the loose. In the video … you can see the cow cross over the highway and head down a hill toward the restaurant. A police car pulls up behind the cow shortly after it crosses. … The Noblesville Police Department had some fun with the incident, posting on Facebook that they ‘ran with the bulls’ while chasing a wild bovine all over.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“You bring criminals to justice; you rain destruction on combatants. This is a fundamental distinction that can no longer be avoided.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing for the Washington Post on Sept. 12, 2001.

Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Pope invites foreign press association to Vatican next month

Pope Francis, who travels with journalists aboard the papal plane, is expanding his reach when he meets with members of Italy's 400-strong foreign press association at the Vatican on May 18.

The Argentine-born Francis, the first pope from Latin America, occasionally gives interviews to foreign correspondents. But this will be the first time he will meet separately with such a large group of international journalists. The Vatican announced the move Wednesday.

Francis generally faces questions on issues ranging from the worldwide clerical sex-abuse scandal to efforts to restore diplomatic relations with communist China.

Pope John Paul II was the first pontiff in modern history to take questions from journalists, and in 1988 visited the offices of the Associazione della Stampa Estera, as the foreign press club is called in Italian.

Source: Fox News World

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Buffett’s Suncor bet to revive investor interest in Canadian energy

FILE PHOTO: A Suncor refinery is seen in Sherwood Park
FILE PHOTO: A Suncor refinery is seen in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, November 13, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By John Tilak and Fergal Smith

TORONTO (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s re-investment in Suncor Energy Inc highlights the benefits of being an integrated oil company and could revive investor interest in the languishing Canadian energy sector, fund managers said.

The move is also seen by some as a wager the energy sector could benefit from a change in the guard in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province, which has an election this year.

Berkshire’s new 0.7 percent stake in Suncor, valued at C$488 million ($370.54 million) at current prices, is already worth 23 percent more since Berkshire bought it in the last quarter. It comes more than two years after it sold for $618 million a 1.4 percent stake it had bought in 2013 and added to in 2015.

Its re-entry is seen by analysts as a validation that Canada’s biggest oil and gas company has catalysts – such as a new incoming CEO and the eventual removal of Alberta oil curtailments – that could propel the stock higher.

Berkshire has not publicly discussed its reasons for its recent investment in Suncor, and did not comment when reached by Reuters.

While a bet on Suncor is not seen as a play on the entire industry, major Berkshire shareholder Warren Buffett’s stature as a value investor is expected to prompt other funds to wade back into the Canadian energy sector.

“People always pay attention when Warren Buffett makes a play, and I don’t think it will be any different this time around,” said Mike Archibald, associate portfolio manager at AGF Investments Inc.

“It’s a great signal that foreign capital is starting to flow back to Canada as this will ultimately be the main driver of stock prices.”

Investors and some foreign majors have shunned Canada’s oil patch in recent years due to high production costs, environmental concerns, and difficulties moving crude due to clogged pipelines.

BETTER PLACED

Berkshire has largely avoided big-cap energy stocks with the exception of an investment in Exxon Mobil Corp, which it owned for more than a year before selling the more than $3 billion stake in late 2014 as oil prices fell.

Suncor, however, is positioned to weather more adverse market conditions than many producers because it owns refineries and has committed pipeline space, allowing it to access U.S. markets.

“Berkshire is typically a countercyclical value investor, so we are not surprised the interest was renewed in a name like Suncor,” said Cavan Yie, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management, which manages about $364 billion in assets. Suncor is one of his largest positions.

“Suncor is somewhat insulated from these risks given the fact that they have a strong downstream operation, which financially benefits from oil bottlenecks and that is unique to Suncor, which you can’t get with many other companies in the energy space.”

Suncor shares are up 23 percent year-to-date giving it a $54.6 billion market value, compared with 11 percent for the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 Composite Index.

Buffett has found an “attractive entry point for an out-of-favor sector” and a “good high-quality company that is industry leading”, said Brian Pow, vice president of research and equity analyst at Acumen Capital Finance Partners.

In another Canadian investment, Buffett bought into Home Capital in 2017 when the Canadian alternative mortgage lender was under pressure and made a big profit by largely exiting the position late last year.

Some investors are betting that a change in government in Alberta after a spring election could benefit the oil industry. The governing New Democrats have taken big steps to help the industry, including leasing rail cars this week to move oil, but badly needed pipelines remain stalled due to opposition from environmentalists.

“While a new governing party may not change the actual end outcomes of the pipeline discussion, it may provide some optimism that a new set of solutions will be pursued,” AGF’s Archibald said.

(Reporting by John Tilak and Fergal Smith in Toronto,; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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Charity CEO returns honorary degree over criminal history

The CEO of a prominent western North Carolina charity has returned an honorary degree amid renewed attention to a 1988 child sex offense plea.

Eblen Charities CEO William Murdock tells The Asheville Citizen-Times that he voluntarily returned the University of North Carolina Asheville degree last week. It's the first time a UNC Asheville honorary degree has been returned or rescinded.

Murdock blamed a former Eblen employee with whom he often clashed for the renewed attention. Murdock pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old girl who had been his student. He maintains they never had a sexual relationship, saying he took the plea agreement to avoid an expensive legal battle and possible felony conviction.

The newspaper couldn't reach the former student or her family.

___

Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, http://www.citizen-times.com

Source: Fox News National

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5,000 nationalists protest corruption in Ukraine

About 5,000 nationalist demonstrators have held a protest in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev calling for arrests in a defense industry corruption case.

The Saturday protest was the latest in several weeks of demonstrations by supporters of the far-right focusing on corruption.

A journalistic investigation in February reported that figures close to President Petro Poroshenko and a factory controlled by him were involved in an embezzlement scheme. It has become a top issue in the heated campaign ahead of Ukraine's March 31 presidential election.

Poroshenko is trying to get re-elected, but a deep recession, endemic corruption and a war with Russia-backed separatists that has killed some 13,000 people since 2014 are weighing heavily on his ambitions.

Source: Fox News World

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Sudan’s military seeks to keep upper hand despite protests

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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Arizona hiker describes being hip-deep in quicksand in Utah park

An Arizona man who was hiking with his girlfriend at Zion National Park in Utah is telling the tale of being stuck hip-deep in quicksand for 11 hours during a winter storm over the weekend.

“It was one of those scariest moments of my life,” Ryan Osmun told Shepard Smith on “Shepard Smith Reporting.”

HIKER WHO GOT STUCK IN QUICKSAND FOR 10 HOURS SAYS HE THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO LOSE HIS LEG

He said he was able to stand on his left leg, but the quicksand was up to his hip and right leg.

“I stopped sinking at my hip,” he said.

He struggled to stay awake during his ordeal.

Osmun said he was hiking with his girlfriend, Jessika McNeill, on Saturday when she got stuck in mud and fell into the creek. He helped her up, only to realize he was himself sinking into the sand.

“My leg just went right into the ground, and it sucked me in,” McNeill told Smith.

Osmun's girlfriend tried to free his leg, to no avail. “I was trying to dig him out with my hands, and it was freezing,” she told Smith.

ARIZONA MAN RESCUED AFTER GETTING STUCK IN QUICKSAND FOR HOURS

McNeill left to go get help. One major complication: They were five hours into the hike, with no real trail or cellphone reception.

Osmun recalled collapsing into the water eight hours after his girlfriend left to look for help. He later awoke to a flash of light and thought he was dreaming, when rescuers found him.

Winter storms continued to delay rescue efforts into Sunday afternoon.

“Only after a small break in the weather occurred in the afternoon, the (Utah Department of Public Safety) helicopter was able safely extricated the patient with a hoist rescue operation,” officials said in a news release.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Osmun was reunited with his girlfriend at the hospital, where he was treated for exposure, hypothermia and extremity injuries.

Fox News’ Katherine Lam contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News National

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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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