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Security upgrades for Texas school district include AR-15's, tracking IDs: 'We're not playing around'

TEXAS CITY, TEXAS -- Tracking IDs, facial recognition technology, 22 AR-15’s. These are just some of the security measures that schools in this district will see in the coming months, marking what some say is likely the most comprehensive plan for a school district.

“We’re not playing around. This isn’t some kind of little game to us. We put a lot of time, money, and effort into this,” said Dr. Rodney Cavness, superintendent of schools for the Texas City Independent School District.

Cavness said district officials took on the initiative last year, days after the shooting in nearby Santa Fe High School. The shooting, which happened minutes down the road from Texas City, left 10 people dead.

Texas City Independent School District has 22 AR-15s. Each deputy of every school is assigned one, and it is kept in a safe that can only be accessed with a code. 

Texas City Independent School District has 22 AR-15s. Each deputy of every school is assigned one, and it is kept in a safe that can only be accessed with a code.  (Fox News)

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“I think we’re living in a sick society, and there are some very deeply troubled people out there that want to do harm to kids and to campuses and to teachers, and we’re not going to let that happen,” said Cavness.

Cavness created a new position for security and school safety and hired Mike Matranga, who drew from more than 12 years of experience as a Secret Service agent to formulate a plan.

Some of the measures have already been implemented. Students and staff wear radio frequency identification cards, capable of tracking their whereabouts in school. They’ve lined glass doors with intrusion filming, making them impact resistant.

“What we’re trying to do is buy time, and by buying time and by having a deputy on campus or multiple deputies on campus, that time allows our deputies to respond and do their job,” said Matranga.

Every deputy in each school also receives an AR-15, which is kept in a safe that can only be unlocked with a code.

Radio frequency identification cards track the locations of students and staff.

Radio frequency identification cards track the locations of students and staff. (Fox News)

HOW CAN THE U.S. DO A BETTER JOB OF KEEPING KIDS SAFE AT SCHOOL

“These are the weapons we purchased for our deputies. I’m a firm believer that we fight firepower with superior firepower,” said Matranga.

In May, Texas City voters approved a $6.5 million bond for safety and security measures.

“I would vote for anything in favor of protecting my children,” said Justin Graves, a parent with a child at Heights Elementary School.

“I’m in support of the security measures they implemented. It gives me a sense of security,” said Trisha Jones, who also has children at the school.

Within the last year, several schools across the country rolled out or approved funding for security upgrades. Santa Fe High School put up metal detectors and hired more officers. Schools in Wisconsin received safety grants from the state last year, and many used the money to install security cameras and new classroom door handles. In Florida, Broward County outlined security plans last summer in response to the Parkland shooting.

Ken Trump, president of National School and Security Services and no relation to the U.S. president, said Texas City’s security measures seem to be the most intensive for a school district.

TCISD says it hopes to implement the security measures in all of its 14 schools by May.

TCISD says it hopes to implement the security measures in all of its 14 schools by May. (Fox News)

“This district seemed to gather a lot of attention because they put a whole lot of money in a short period of time,” said Trump.

But, he has concerns.

“The question isn’t really whether school safety is the top priority now, but six months down the road when the memories of Parkland fade, will there be the same investment not only in time and dollars but the people?” said Trump.

Ed Scruggs, vice chair of Texas Gun Sense, said certain technological features like facial recognition and new door locks will be effective. But, he said, other preventative measures outside of a school environment are also necessary.

“More universal background checks on gun sales, better mental health, better background check system… if we can keep guns out of the hands of people that shouldn’t have them, we’re going to automatically be safer,” said Scruggs.

Meanwhile, Matranga said he believes there is no substitute to having eyes and ears on the ground and reporting suspicious behavior. Ultimately, he said, teachers are the best line of defense.

“It’s not about the camera system. It’s not about the electronic locks. Though we’re doing that, it’s about investing in people," Matranga said, "and that’s the key.”

Source: Fox News National

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Exclusive: Brazil’s Odebrecht to propose bondholder losses of over 70 percent – sources

The corporate logo of the Odebrecht SA construction conglomerate is pictured at its headquarters in Sao Paulo
The corporate logo of the Odebrecht SA construction conglomerate is pictured at its headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Tatiana Bautzer

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA next week will ask its bondholders to accept losses of more than 70 percent from their bonds’ face value as part of a restructuring, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Around $3 billion in outstanding Odebrecht Finance Ltd bonds will be affected, the sources added, asking for anonymity to disclose private plans.

The exact size of the haircut is still undefined, but the person said it could be between 70 percent and 80 percent of the bonds’ value.

The restructuring proposal, which will also include a grace period for payments and extension of maturities on the bonds, will be presented by Odebrecht’s advisers, U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co and law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, in a meeting in New York next week.

Moelis and Cleary Gottlieb press representatives did not immediately reply to requests for comment. In a statement, Odebrecht said it “is keeping constructive talks with bondholders” and declined to comment further on the specifics of the restructuring proposal.

The corruption-ensnared conglomerate, best known as a provider of engineering and infrastructure, decided not to pay $11.5 million in interest on the 2025 bonds that were due last November. The bonds, related to the conglomerate’s construction unit known as OEC, were traded at 12.25 cents to the dollar this week, according to Refinitiv data..

The proposal to bondholders is being drafted as part of a larger renegotiation of the conglomerate’s 70 billion reais ($18.83 billion) in debt. Odebrecht also wants to extend maturities in its debt with local banks, a source with knowledge of the matter said last month.

Odebrecht proposed in January that its local creditors in Brazil take over its sugar and ethanol unit, Atvos Agroindustrial Participacoes SA, in exchange for reducing the company’s 12 billion reais in debt, Reuters reported.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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Pentagon Ultimatum to Erdogan: No F-35s If You Buy Russian Tech

The Pentagon is getting close to slamming the door on Turkey regarding the contentious transfer of Lockheed F-35 stealth jets purchased previously by Ankara, an issue debated this week in Congressional hearings.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has now offered a stern ultimatum and warning, telling Turkey: don’t expect to receive F-35s if Russia’s anti-air defense system is bought.

Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers said Friday morning that there will be “grave consequences” if Turkey moves forward in purchasing Russia’s S-400, according to Bloomberg — this after the top US commander in Europe, Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, recommended to Congress this week that delivery to Turkey of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter should ultimately be canceled, nothing that the S-400 remains “a problem to all of our aircraft, but specifically the F-35.”


The money missing from the Pentagon books is equivalent to the entire national debt.

Turkey’s currency fell 1.5 percent this week amid fears relations with Washington could worsen over the standoff. President Erdogan has further missed a “soft deadline” previously set by the US over an offer to buy $3.5 billion Raytheon Co. Patriot missile shield system, as an alternative to the Russian S-400. The Pentagon said the Patriot offer would be impossible should Turkey seek the Russian system.

Failure to receive the F-35s could further impact Turkey’s economy given that a number of Turkish defense technology companies have contracts to build and develop systems and add-ons needed for Turkey to operate the aircraft, such as cockpit displays for the multi-national fighter jet.

However, Erdogan has remained unmoved as the issue has come to a head, repeating during a Turkish TV broadcast interview this week, “this is over” in reference to continued debate. “There can never be a turning back. This would not be ethical, it would be immoral. Nobody should ask us to lick up what we spat,” he said.

(Photo by Pixabay)

Thus far Erdogan has dismissed all Pentagon and US ultimatums. “We are an independent Turkey, we are not slaves,” he said during the interview previously this week.

The advanced Russian-made S-400 air defense system sought by Turkey has been seen as a threat by the United States, given the potential for compromising the F-35 advanced radar-evading and electronics capabilities.

The main argument for blocking the F-35 transfer is the fear that Russia would get access to the extremely advanced Joint Strike Fighter stealth aircraft, enabling Moscow to detect and exploit its vulnerabilities. Russia would ultimately learn how the S-400 could take out an F-35.

Also this week the US State Department warned that transferal of S-400 systems could result in far-reaching sanctions against Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), despite its NATO status.


David Knight breaks down how in a recent radio broadcast, former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke praised Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for her recent statements against Israel.

Source: InfoWars

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Revolution hopes to rev up attack against Minnesota United

FILE PHOTO: NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round-Michigan State vs Minnesota
FILE PHOTO: Mar 23, 2019; Des Moines, IA, United States; Minnesota Golden Gophers center Daniel Oturu (25) reacts on the bench during the second half against the Michigan State Spartans in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

March 29, 2019

One hot and one not so hot MLS team meet Saturday as Minnesota United travels to take on the New England Revolution in Foxborough, Mass.

New England (0-3-1, one point) played without some key players last week and dropped a 2-0 game at home to FC Cincinnati.

The biggest problem facing New England is the lack of being able to put together a full game. In its four starts thus far, the effort has been better in the second half than the opening 45 minutes.

“The confidence is something we have to get back for the players to be able to do it for 90 minutes,” said New England coach Brad Friedel. “The players we have here know whatever we say, it’s not personal. We’re just trying to improve the group collectively. I stand by the fact we have good players and I stand by the fact that once we put it together for 90 minutes, we’ll start getting results. I hope that starts Saturday.”

Minnesota (2-1-0, six points) is coming off a bye during International week where players were called into service for their respective countries.

Adrian Heath, the Minnesota coach, has seen exactly what Friedel talked about in regard to New England.

“I’ve watched the last two or three games and they’ve had key opportunities at crucial moments in games,” said Heath of New England. “We keep saying goals change games. Maybe when you’re at home and you concede a goal maybe sometime against the run of play, you think, here we go again.”

Heath also knows that with Friedel openly questioning some of his players, he is expecting a fired up New England squad.

“They will come out flying on Saturday,” said Heath of New England. “We have to be ready for that and there will be no excuses. When the coach calls you out, invariably players react, so we have to be ready for that.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Doug Collins: House vote to make Mueller report public a failed stunt by Dems

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, voted for the resolution calling for any final report in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be made public, but told Fox News on Sunday it was unnecessary.

“It was a political stunt by the Democrats who felt that they could divide Republicans into voting no upon it because at the end of the day after I looked at it, when they dropped it … they said this is nothing but simply a first-year law student’s restatement of what the regular regulations say that Mr. (Attorney General William) Barr is going to have to do,” he said on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.

The House voted unanimously Thursday for the resolution, a symbolic action designed to urge Barr into releasing as much information as possible when the investigation is concluded.

The Democratic-backed resolution, which passed 420-0, comes as Mueller appears to be nearing an end to his investigation. Lawmakers in both parties have maintained there will have to be some sort of public resolution when the report is done — and privately hope that a report shows conclusions that are favorable to their own side.

Four Republicans voted present: Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.

The nonbinding House resolution calls for the public release of any report Mueller provides to Barr, with an exception for classified material. The resolution also calls for the full report to be released to Congress.

“We know and you know, as you said earlier, that there's not going to be collusion here. This is where it is going to be … very hard for the Democrats. All this was. Don't be fooled by this. This was simply a stunt because they thought they could divide Republicans to make us look bad as not being transparent,” Collins said Sunday. “I have no problem being transparent with what we see is coming forward, and it's within the regulation to say that this was nothing more than a political stunt.”

He called the resolution an act of nothingness.

“This is the sad part we're at right now, Maria,” he told Bartiromo. “They have no agenda, they have nothing that they can actually put on the floor, so they wasted an entire week of the American taxpayers’ dollar to actually put a report on the floor that said nothing, basically except the same thing the regulations say that Mr. Barr needs to do so.”

WORLD LEADERS INCLUDING TRUMP ANGERED BY NEW ZEALAND VIOLENCE

President Trump tweeted Saturday: “I told leadership to let all Republicans vote for transparency. Makes us all look good and doesn’t matter. Play along with the game!”

It’s unclear exactly what documentation will be produced at the end of the probe into possible coordination between Trump associates and Russia, and how much of that the Justice Department will allow people to see. Mueller is required to submit a report to Barr, and then Barr can decide how much of that is released publicly.

Barr said at his confirmation hearing in January that he took seriously the department regulations that said Mueller’s report should be confidential. Those regulations required only that the report explain decisions to pursue or to decline prosecutions, which could be as simple as a bullet-point list or as lengthy as a report running hundreds of pages.

“I don’t know what, at the end of the day, what will be releasable. I don’t know what Bob Mueller is writing,” Barr said at the hearing.

Democrats said they were unsatisfied with Barr’s answers and wanted a stronger commitment to releasing the full report, along with interview transcripts and other underlying evidence.

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Republicans have agreed — to a point. In making an argument for transparency, Republican leaders have pointed to Barr’s comments and the existing regulations, without explicitly pressing for the underlying evidence.

Collins concluded Sunday to Bartiromo: “We just call their bluff, and just say, fine we can vote for this, because this is actually what Bill Barr said he is going to do. Why are we wasting the American people's time?”

Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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ABB names Voser as interim CEO after Spiesshofer quits

FILE PHOTO: Chairman Voser of Swiss power technology and automation group ABB addresses annual shareholder meeting in Zurich
FILE PHOTO: Chairman Peter Voser of Swiss power technology and automation group ABB addresses the company's annual shareholder meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 17, 2019

ZURICH (Reuters) – ABB Chairman Peter Voser has taken over as temporary chief executive at the Swiss engineering group, the company said on Wednesday, after CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer stepped down.

Spiesshofer, CEO since 2013, agreed with the board to step down and a search has now begun for a successor, ABB said.

(Reporting by John Revill)

Source: OANN

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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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