President Donald Trump said he doesn’t expect to lift sanctions on Kim Jong Un’s regime, as he prepares for a summit with the North Korean leader this week on American demands that Pyongyang end its nuclear program.
“I’m not pushing for speed, but we’re not removing the sanctions,” Trump told U.S. governors gathered at the White House on Sunday evening. He didn’t elaborate.
Kim has made little secret that his key goal for the Feb. 27-28 meeting in Hanoi is to ease sanctions that a choking North Korea’s faltering economy. Trump fed expectations of relief with comments Wednesday that he would “love to be able to” lift sanctions, provided he got “something that’s meaningful.”
The Trump administration had previously insisted sanctions would remain in place until the “final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”
North Korea faces a complex web of penalties piled on by the United Nations, U.S. and American allies such as Japan, South Korea and the European Union, which now give Trump a sliding scale of possibilities for relaxing pressure. Current sanctions do everything from curbing the regime’s ability to import oil to preventing small items like laptop computers from being brought into the country.
Trump predicted the summit would produce “a very interesting two-and-a-half days” and said “we have a chance for total denuclearization.”
But he added that he didn’t feel a sense of urgency about reaching an agreement as long as North Korea continues a halt on testing of nuclear weapons and missiles.
“I’m not in a rush,” Trump said. “As long as there’s no testing we’re happy.”
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an Itau Unibanco logo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares
April 23, 2019
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Any delay in passing pension reform in Brazil is likely to slow the pace of initial public offerings in the country, Itaú Unibanco Holding SA’s head of Global Markets and Treasury said on Tuesday.
Brazil’s Congress is mulling the government’s pension reform proposal, which many view as crucial to stabilizing the country’s rickety public finances and kick-starting growth in Latin America’s No. 1 economy.
Speaking in Sao Paulo, Christian Egan said “there may be room” for follow-on operations from companies with higher valuation levels.
“It’s case-by-case, but IPOs would be unlocked much faster (with the reform approved),” he said.
Egan said there is great interest from foreign investors in Brazil, who are awaiting the for the passing of the pensions overhaul to invest, particularly in areas like infrastructure.
Also on Tuesday, Brazil’s government reached a deal with lawmakers, paving the way for a congressional committee to vote on its pension bill later in the day, boosting investor sentiment and lifting local financial markets.
(Reporting by José de Castro; Editing by David Gregorio)
NEW DELHI – India's main opposition Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi has released its election manifesto ahead of a multiphase general election that begins April 11.
The 48-year-old grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi blasted the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for working "to divide the nation and spread hatred" in a speech Tuesday in New Delhi outlining the party manifesto.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP swept elections in 2014 promising to boost the Indian economy.
Gandhi also singled out the government's record on jobs. The first item in the party's 54-page manifesto describes its plan for creating new jobs.
The manifesto also promises an income subsidy program for the poorest families and for farmers.
It is unclear when the BJP will release its party manifesto.
LAS VEGAS – Las Vegas-based casino company MGM Resorts International has announced a first phase of layoffs in a cost-cutting operational shift as it aims to boost earnings.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the 254 layoffs announced Thursday will cut labor costs by $100 million.
In a letter to employees, CEO Jim Murren calls it streamlining and says more positions will be eliminated in coming weeks.
MGM Resorts in January announced its MGM 2020 plan to boost earnings by $200 million by next year.
It says the current cuts affect managers, not union workers.
The company has about 77,000 employees and is the largest employer in Nevada.
It's under investor pressure to improve earnings after share prices have fallen 12 percent since August.
MGM shares closed Thursday at $27.75, down 14 cents.
WALTERBORO, S.C. – The Latest on the death of a 5th grader who died after a fight at her South Carolina school (all times local):
12:30 p.m.
The family of a 10-year-old South Carolina girl is disputing authorities' account that the 5th grader died from natural causes after a brief "slap fight."
Margie Pizarro is an attorney for the family of Raniya Wright, who died two days after the classroom fight March 25. Pizarro told reporters Friday a private investigator hired by the family interviewed one student who said Raniya was attacked from behind, punched several times in the head, and pushed into a file cabinet and a bookshelf.
She spoke after the sheriff and lead prosecutor for Colleton County told a news conference the girl died from rupturing blood vessels caused by a birth defect. They said an autopsy found no external or internal injuries from a fight.
Pizarro said the family is conducting its own investigation.
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11 a.m.
A South Carolina prosecutor says the investigation into the death of a 5th grader last month was due to natural causes and not a fight with another student.
Solicitor Duffie Stone said at a press conference Friday that 10-year-old Raniya Wright died of a congenital condition called an arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of abnormal blood vessels in the brain. The child had repeatedly complained of headaches in the days and weeks before her death.
Stone said that pathology and other scientific reports showed no evidence of trauma to the body that would have indicated the child died of injuries sustained in a fight on March 25.
The child's family had maintained that another fifth grader at Forest Hills Elementary School in Walterboro had hit or pushed the girl.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – More than 300 people were killed in bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Sri Lankan authorities say at least 31 foreigners died in the attacks.
Some details on the victims:
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SRI LANKA: The vast majority of the victims were Sri Lankan, many from the island nation's Christian minority. Their names and other details of their lives were slow to trickle in and difficult to report, in part because authorities blocked most social media after the blasts.
But among them was Dileep Roshan, 37, a carpenter who left behind a wife and daughter, his family told The Associated Press.
"His wife and daughter won't be able to do much now because he is gone," said his older brother, Sanjeevani Roshan. "The real question is what will happen to their future."
The archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, said at least 110 people were killed at St. Sebastian's Church, located in a seaside fishing town at the center of Sri Lanka's small Catholic community.
The town, Negombo, is called "Little Rome" for its abundance of churches. On Monday, house after house near St. Sebastian's flew small white flags — a sign that someone who lived there had died.
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UNITED KINGDOM: Sri Lanka's top diplomat in Britain says authorities know of eight British nationals killed in the bombings.
Among them were lawyer Anita Nicholson, son Alex Nicholson and daughter Annabel Nicholson, her husband, Ben Nicholson, confirmed in a statement. Nicholson said the family was on vacation, sitting in a restaurant at the Shangri-la Hotel when they were killed. He said, "The holiday we had just enjoyed was a testament to Anita's enjoyment of travel and providing a rich and colorful life for our family, and especially our children."
Former firefighter Bill Harrop and doctor Sally Bradley, a British couple who lived in Australia, were killed in one of the hotels, a family statement to The Australian newspaper said.
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INDIA: Indian officials say eight Indians died in the attacks.
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UNITED STATES: The State Department says at least four Americans were killed and several others seriously injured. It gave no details about the victims' identities.
Fifth-grader Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa, spending a year in Sri Lanka on leave from the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., was among those killed, the school said in an email to parents, according to the Washington Post. The email said, "Kieran was passionate about learning, he adored his friends, and he was incredibly excited about returning to Sidwell Friends this coming school year."
Dieter Kowalski, who lived in Denver and worked for international education company Pearson, died in the blasts shortly after he arrived at his hotel for a business trip, the company and his family told the AP. A Friday Facebook post reads: "And the fun begins. Love these work trips. 24 hours of flying. See you soon Sri Lanka!"
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DENMARK: The Bestseller clothing chain confirmed Danish media reports that three of the children of its owner, business tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, were killed in the attacks. However, spokesman Jesper Stubkier gave no details in an emailed response to a query on the matter and said the company had no further comment.
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SWITZERLAND: The foreign ministry says a Swiss national, a Swiss dual national and a non-Swiss member of the same family were killed. It didn't identify the second country or give other details on the victims.
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SPAIN: Spain's foreign ministry says a Spanish man and woman were killed but didn't provide further details. The mayor of Pontecesures in northwest Spain, Juan Manuel Vidal, told Radio Galega that he knew the local pair and says they were in their 30s, according to a report by Spanish private news agency Europa Press.
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AUSTRALIA: Australia's prime minister says a mother and daughter from that country were killed. Manik Suriaaratchi and her 10-year-old daughter, Alexendria, were attending a church service in Negombo when they died.
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CHINA: State media say two Chinese died in the blasts.
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OTHERS: The Netherlands, Japan and Portugal have confirmed their nationals were among the dead.
Left-wing Labour MP Rupa Huq, who said that ISIS bride Shamima Begum should “come back” to the UK, is now calling for President Donald Trump to be banned from entering the country on a state visit because of “racism”.
During a radio interview in February, Huq said Begum, who had her citizenship revoked, had suffered “trial by media” and should have been allowed to return to the UK from Syria.
This despite the fact that Begum literally stitched bombs into suicide vests to ensure they exploded when taken off during her time alongside ISIS jihadists in Syria.
Begum was also a member of the “hisba” enforcement group, which handed out brutal punishments to those found flouting ISIS laws on how to dress and behave. She also pointed an automatic weapon at women in Syria for “wearing brightly colored shoes”.
She also said during interviews that seeing decapitated heads in trash cans didn’t faze her because the victims were “enemies of Islam”.
While Huq is happy to see Begum return to the UK, she doesn’t want the leader of the free world and the UK’s number one ally to enter the country.
Huq is one of several Labour MPs who have put their name to a parliamentary motion that “calls on the Prime Minister and the Government to rescind the advice to offer a full state visit to President Trump.”
The reasons given include Trump not believing in man-made climate change, him being mean to London Mayor Sadiq Khan and general accusations of “racism” and “misogynism”.
Huq also said that Trump’s visit would not be “conducive to good race relations in this country” and said granting him a parliamentary address would also send out “all the wrong messages”.
Maybe if Trump had run off to Syria and joined ISIS, he’d get a fairer hearing from the left.
Some of the same people who openly advocate letting ISIS jihadists return to the UK want Trump to be banned from entering the country ‘because racism’.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – 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.
LONDON – 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.”
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)
JOHANNESBURG – 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.
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)
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