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MSM Claims Creepy Biden Meme Shared by Trump “Doctored”

After President Trump tweeted a comedy video showing Joe Biden rubbing his own shoulders, MSM uniformly released headlines calling the meme a “doctored” video.

The word “doctored” insinuates Trump intended to deceive people and the media is fully aware of their implications.

Watch the hilarious video Trump tweeted below:

Sadly, many headline readers will believe POTUS tweeted fake or edited footage in an attempt to fool people when it’s clear he was simply sharing a funny video.

See the dissemination of Democrat talking points for yourself in the following mainstream media headlines.

The creator of the meme Trump shared is Carpe Donktum, who happens to be the winner of the Infowars $10,000 NPC Meme contest held in November of 2018.

President Trump also tweeted a Carpe Donktum video in February that was deleted by Twitter over copyright claims.

Donktum has been a guest on Infowars’ The Alex Jones Show and War Room programs.

See meme master Carpe Donktum’s Infowars appearances in the two videos below:

On the topic of “doctored” videos, this flashback Paul Joseph Watson report breaks down the time mainstream media claimed Trump shared a “doctored” Infowars video of Jim Acosta karate chopping a White House intern.

Source: InfoWars

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Mike Spann’s daughter on John Walker Lindh’s early release: it’s a slap in the face

It was a text message that, for 26-year-old Alison Spann, ripped open old wounds of mourning.

“My grandfather wrote that he needed to talk to me about news of an early release of John Walker Lindh,” Spann told Fox News on Friday, two days after that dread message ping. “It floored me. This man sat in front of my father and let him be killed. The fact that he is now able to get out early is unacceptable. It feels like such a slap in the face.”

Alison was just nine years old when her father, Johnny “Mike” Spann, a U.S Marine turned CIA paramilitary operative, became the first American to be killed in combat in Afghanistan, amid the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

In November 2001, U.S forces learned that an American – Lindh – was among the cluster of Taliban fighters left in limbo after their leader surrendered to the Northern Alliance in the northern Afghanistan province of Mazar-i-Sharif. Spann was first into the compound, serving as a prison, to interview Lindh, peppering him with questions about where he was from and what he was doing. But Lindh refused to respond.

“In those moments, when he chose to stay silent, he sealed his fate as a traitor to the United States,” Spann said. “At any point, he could have warned him that something was being planned.”

TWO US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

Hours later, Lindh’s fellow detainees erupted in a violent revolt that left Mike Spann dead.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Lindh – who is currently behind bars in Terra Haute, Indiana – will be discharged on May 23, several years in advance of his initial 20-year jail sentence. The initial charges leveled against the then 20-year-old Lindh in 2002 included one for murder conspiracy for the part he played in the killing of Americans, including Spann, in the prison rebellion.

John Walker Lindh

John Walker Lindh (AP)

However, nine of the ten counts in the indictment were dropped and he ended up pleading guilty to disobeying an executive order outlawing support to the Taliban and for possessing a weapon in Afghanistan.

It is not apparent why Lindh, now 38, has been made eligible for a premature release, and the BOP did not immediately respond to a comment request. Yet his sentencing reports indicated that “good behavior” could serve as justification.

“I was so young when it all happened, but I knew there was a man named John Walker Lindh, who was an American and had been at the prison when my father had been killed,” Spann said. “I saw his image on television, but my family tried to shield me from too many details. As I got older, I started to ask questions and understand what happened.”

In Spann’s view, 20 years was a “measly” sentence to begin with, but the notion of that being reduced is heartbreaking.

The forthcoming release of Lindh, however, has prompted steep security concerns. In 2017, the National Counterterrorism Center, according to documents obtained by Foreign Policy, underscored that he has continued to "advocate for global jihad and write and translate violent extremist texts."

Furthermore, he is alleged to have told a TV producer last March that he would “continue to spread violent extremism Islam upon his release.”

In 2013, the designated “detainee number 001 in the war on terror” was able to obtain Irish citizenship from behind bars as result of his father’s ancestry, and is reported to have expressed an intention to relocate to Ireland after being freed.

EXILED AFGHAN LEADER, AND ONE-TIME U.S. ALLY, WARNS AGAINST "PEACE" WITH TALIBAN FROM POSITION OF WEAKNESS

A convert to Islam and hailing from northern California’s Marin County, Lindh made the journey to Afghanistan after Yemen and Pakistan as a 19-year-old shortly before the September 11 attacks. He underwent training in Kandahar, where he met with mastermind Usama bin Laden on at least one occasion.

While Lindh quickly became labeled as the “American Taliban” in the western media, one investigator and documentarian who interviewed the young jihadist in northern Afghanistan, Robert Young Pelton, emphasized that he very much belonged to the outfit who “ran planes into our buildings.”

“John Walker Lindh was al Qaeda, and that was why we were in Afghanistan,” Pelton said. “And now we are grappling with the same thing over what to do with the American ISIS. These are the same types of people.”

Nonetheless, the early release news has triggered a renewed wave of emotion and frustration for the Spann family.

“He’s as much responsible for Mike’s death as the people who beat him and shot him,” Spann’s father, Mike, told a local Alabama outlet this week, stressing that if Lindh had identified himself as a fellow U.S. citizen and revealed that a prison uprising was being orchestrated, his son may never have lost his life.

Furthermore, Alison Spann is also preparing to send a letter to the White House requesting the Executive Branch to intervene and put a stop to the early release. In the letter viewed by Fox News, Spann asks that her father’s sacrifice “not be in vain.”

“He should be made to serve his full sentence – one that pales in comparison to the one that so many American families have had to pay in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism,” she writes.

Alison Spann, 26, wants the White House to stop the early release of John Walker Lindh

Alison Spann, 26, wants the White House to stop the early release of John Walker Lindh (Spann family)

In contrast, in the ensuing years since the Afghanistan war was ignited, Lindh’s father, Frank, has decried much of the terrorist characterization of his son. Rather, he has painted him as a spiritual youngster who made a “rash and blindly idealistic” decision but was not “sinister or traitorous” in his intentions.

Spann isn’t buying it.

“If John was so innocent, why didn’t he jump at the chance to be saved or pulled out by another American? Instead, he refused to speak up. I find it hard to believe he didn’t have a role,” she said. “This isn’t just a slap in the face to me and my family, but to the U.S. military and anyone else who have sacrificed their lives in the war, as well as the victims of 9/11 and the millions of Muslims worldwide who aren’t radical.”

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Johnny Spann, a native of Winfield, Alabama and the father of three, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in late 2001, where he was revered by then-CIA Director George Tenet as an individual devoted to building a “better, safer world” and that it was his “quest for right” that led him to Afghanistan.

Johnny "Mike" Spann with his three children

Johnny "Mike" Spann with his three children (Spann family)

Spann’s star serves as the 79th one chiseled on the Agency’s Memorial Wall.

“Our family is serving a life sentence. We are forever affected by what happened. John Walker Lindh is 38, an age my father never got to live to. John Walker Lindh gets to go on and have a life regardless,” Alison Spann added. “Why are we giving him any extra years of freedom?”

Source: Fox News National

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Swedish student Greta’s climate ‘school strike’ goes global

Swedish 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends a protest next to Sweden's parliament in Stockholm
Swedish 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends a protest next to Sweden's parliament in Stockholm, Sweden March 8, 2019. Picture taken March 8, 2019. The sign reads "School strike for the climate". REUTERS/Ilze Filks

March 11, 2019

By Ilze Filks

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Students around the world are expected to skip school on March 15 in order to demonstrate against climate change, taking their cue from Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg whose weekly “school strike for climate” has won a global following.

The then 15-year-old Thunberg began riding her bicycle to parliament last August, taking up a place on the cobblestones in front of Stockholm’s Parliament House with her “school strike for climate” hand-painted sign.

Thousands of students around the world have since copied her and youth organizations are calling for an unprecedented strike on Friday in which students in more than 40 countries are expected to participate.

“I think this movement is very important. It not only makes people aware, and makes people talk about it more, but also to show the people in power that this is the most important thing there is,” Thunberg told Reuters in an interview.

Thunberg has almost 250,000 followers on Twitter where her movement carries the hashtags #FridaysForFuture and #SchoolStrike4Climate.

A TEDx talk she delivered on climate change now carried on TED’s main website has garnered more than 1.2 million views and last month Thunberg joined protests in Belgium, where she won a European Union pledge to spend billions of euros to combat climate change.

“I think the most fun thing is to watch all the pictures around the world of hundreds of thousands of children school striking for the climate,” Thunberg told Reuters.

She has also had an impact on her parents, author and actor Svante Thunberg and opera singer Malena Ernman.

Inspired by their daughter’s concern for the environment, the pair have stopped flying and have adopted vegan diets as part of their efforts to live more environmentally sustainable lives, Svante Thunberg told a conference in Katowice, Poland, in December.

Specifically, Thunberg said she wants Sweden to adhere to the Paris Agreement, part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“I’ve said that I will continue to strike every Friday until Sweden is in line with the Paris Agreement,” she said. “That may take a couple of years and I’ll just have to try to be patient.”

(Reporting by Ilze Filks; editing by Jason Neely)

Source: OANN

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Gaza’s ‘night disturbers’ put Israeli border villagers on edge ahead of anniversary

FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises after an explosion as Palestinians take part in a night protest held along the Gaza side of the border with Israel, as seen from southern Israel
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises after an explosion as Palestinians take part in a night protest held along the Gaza side of the border with Israel, as seen from southern Israel March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

March 29, 2019

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Rami Amichay

GAZA-ISRAEL BORDER (Reuters) – Hurling pipe bombs and setting off firecrackers, “Night Disturbance Units” have become a new phenomenon on the Gaza-Israel border in the run-up to the first anniversary of deadly border protests.

Organizers say the intention of the night-time events is to fray the nerves of Israeli military lookouts and to lower morale in Israeli villages along the 30-mile frontier.

With loudspeakers blaring patriotic music into the dark, the dusk-till-dawn demonstrations began small and escalated in recent days, ahead of a massive protest rally expected at sites along the frontier on Saturday.

“We come at night to prove to the occupation that we do not fear your weapons, they should fear us,” said one 20-year-old Gazan undergraduate.

“We burn tyres, hurl stones, make noises using firecrackers. Why should our people suffer alone, they should suffer too,” added the protester, who would not give his name, fearing Israeli reprisals.

Although scores of Gazans attend, the night protests are not as big as in the daytime. In the dark, the demonstrators cannot see far as they face off against Israeli security forces firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

LETHAL RESPONSE

Last Sunday a 24-year-old man died after being wounded by Israeli gunfire overnight, said Gaza health officials. The Israeli military said explosives had been hurled at the fence that night, and its forces “struck two Hamas posts in response”.

Israeli troops have killed nearly 200 Palestinians at the weekly border protests, which began on March 30 last year, and have wounded thousands more.

Israel’s lethal response has been criticized by human rights groups, who say it is targeting protesters who pose little threat to heavily armed soldiers. U.N. investigators said last week that Israeli forces may be guilty of war crimes for using excessive force.

Israel rejects the criticism, saying its troops are defending the border against rioters, and it has no choice but to use lethal force where necessary. Israeli commanders say they are protecting the residents of nearby Israeli towns, who live in fear of Palestinian rockets and militant infiltrators.

“We hear the bombs they throw at our soldiers every night – hundreds of bombs, hundreds of explosions,” said Yifat Ben-Shushan, a bleary-eyed mother of two from Nativ Haasara.

Her border village has endured years of shelling attacks by Hamas, but she described the nightly commotion as disruptive on another level.

“A child does not know how to tell the difference between a rocket or someone throwing a bomb,” she told Reuters. “I have two children, (and) rise to or three times a night to make sure they are still in their beds.”

The Gaza protesters are calling for the lifting of a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt, and for Palestinians to have the right to return to land from which their families fled or were forced to flee during Israel’s founding in 1948.

The blockade, imposed for security reasons after the militant group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, has reduced the densely populated coastal strip to economic near collapse.

Israel says the protests are backed by Hamas, which uses them as cover for attacks on the frontier. On Friday Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that in the past year Hamas had fired 1233 rockets from Gaza, set off 94 explosive devices and set fire to more than 8,000 acres of Israeli land near the border.

Security in the south is expected to be an important issue in Israel’s April 9 election, when right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a strong electoral challenge after a decade in power.

Israel and Hamas fought three wars from 2007-2014 and have come close to all-out conflict several times since. The past week saw a major escalation in cross-border fighting after a Palestinian rocket fired deep into Israel wounded seven people.

There were no large-scale protests planned for Friday. With Israeli tanks massed on the border ahead of the anniversary, Palestinian officials said Egyptian mediators were to meet with protest organizers to urge that Saturday’s rally be peaceful.

(Writing by Stephen Farrell and Dan Williams)

Source: OANN

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Bidding slows in German 5G auction, could be the cheapest ever

FILE PHOTO: A logo of the upcoming mobile standard 5G is pictured at the Hanover trade fair, in Hanover
FILE PHOTO: A logo of the upcoming mobile standard 5G is pictured at the Hanover trade fair, in Hanover, Germany March 31, 2019. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo

April 3, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bidding slowed on Wednesday in Germany’s 5G mobile spectrum auction, and with offers from the four companies taking part totaling just 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) it could end up being the cheapest ever.

That sum is less than half the amount raised in the last spectrum auction in 2015 and a tiny fraction of the 50 billion euros spent on the 3G auction of 2000 that forced some players out of the market and others to merge.

Results from the 118th round of the auction https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/_tools/FrequenzXml/Auktion2019_XML/118.html;jsessionid=E63E2FD08872677D72E48735A476D2BC, being held at an old army barracks in the western city of Mainz, showed fresh bids for only 5 of the 41 spectrum blocks that are on offer in the 2GHz and 3.6GHz bands.

The auction, which began on March 19, ends if no fresh bids are entered.

Analysts had forecast that proceeds could be as low as 3 billion euros, while cautioning that the entry of tycoon Ralph Dommermuth’s 1&1 Drillisch as a fourth player could drive spectrum costs higher.

Drillisch is vying with Germany’s three existing operators – Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland for spectrum that could deliver ultra-fast wireless broadband to the home or run automated factories.

According to the latest results, Deutsche Telekom was leading in 12 blocks, Telefonica and Drillisch in 10 each, and Vodafone in nine.

Shares in Drillisch, and its listed parent United Internet, rose on Wednesday by around 5 percent as traders took the view that the cost of becoming Germany’s fourth network operator could be less than earlier feared.

Deutsche Telekom traded flat while Telefonica Deutschland added 1.6 percent on the day.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by David Evans)

Source: OANN

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Hungarian PM Orban apologizes for insulting EU allies

Hungary's prime minister has apologized for calling some of his allies in the European Parliament "useful idiots," but continues to face demands that he and his right-wing Fidesz party be expelled from the political group.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent apologetic letters to the leaders of 13 parties belonging to the European People's Party who have called for his ouster from the group, which has 49 parties altogether. Those wanting him ousted say Orban's fierce anti-migrant stance does not fit with the EPP's general centrist political bent.

In the letter sent to Wouter Beke, leader of Belgium's Dutch-speaking Christian Democrats, Orban attributed the "useful idiots" insult to Lenin, saying he meant "to criticize a certain policy and not certain politicians."

"I would herby like to express my apologies, if you found my quote personally offensive," Orban wrote, while also noting that his Fidesz party and Beke's have "serious disagreements ... on the issue of migration, the protection of Christian culture and the future of Europe."

Beke, however, said Thursday that while he accepted the apology, Orban's views on European values and migration still had no place in the Christian Democratic family and his party has not changed its mind on expelling Fidesz from the EPP.

A decision on the expulsion is expected Wednesday at an EPP political assembly.

EPP leader Manfred Weber met Tuesday with Orban in Budapest, but said the talks had not resolved the issues that could lead to the expulsion of Fidesz.

Weber has also urged Orban to end an ad campaign targeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU — which Fidesz said it would do — and guarantee the continued operations in Budapest of Central European University, which was founded by Hungarian-American financier George Soros.

CEU is one of Hungary's top universities, but announced last year that it would move its programs issuing U.S.-accredited diplomas to Vienna from the coming academic year after Orban refused to guarantee its full operations in Budapest, where it has been since 1993.

Weber met with CEU rector and president Michael Ignatieff during his Tuesday visit to Budapest and revealed a plan involving the Technical University of Munich and German automaker BMW that could allow CEU to comply with amendments to Hungary's law on higher education.

Ignatieff hailed Weber's initiative — "and the possibility it opens of reversing CEU's ouster from Budapest" — with reservations. He called on Orban to make "an authoritative political commitment" and provide long-term legal assurances that would allow CEU to stay in Budapest.

___

Gorondi reported from Budapest.

Source: Fox News World

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NY Times Releases Bizarre Sandy Hook 2nd Shooter Story

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Source: InfoWars

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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.)

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LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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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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