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Denny Hamlin wins Daytona 500 after string of dramatic wrecks

Denny Hamlin came out on top in the 61st running of the Daytona 500 Sunday -- not long after a string of dramatic wrecks took out much of the competition in “The Great American Race.”

Paul Menard triggered the biggest multi-car wreck shortly after a restart with 10 laps to go.

Another crash soon afterwards involved William Byron, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski, among others.

Menard turned Matt DiBenedetto, who slammed into the wall and started a chain-reaction crash that collected nearly 20 cars. It brought out a red flag that stopped the race during the cleanup. There were no reports of anybody hurt.

Menard took responsibility for “The Big One” — NASCAR slang describing any crash usually involving five or more cars: “I’ll take the blame for that one.”

He also said: “It was go time, and I was pushing the 95 [Matt DiBenedetto] and it looked like he was trying to get to the middle and I started trying to get to the outside and just barely hooked him. Yeah, that was my bad. I wrecked a lot of cars. I feel bad about that.”

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Defending Daytona 500 champion Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez were among those involved in the mess.

Almirola seemingly had the wildest ride, his back wheels getting lifted off the pavement and landing on David Ragan’s windshield.

This is a developing story; check back for updates. Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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With energy exports depressed, Turkmens turn to towel smuggling

Passengers of a flight from Ashgabat gather at Almaty International Airport
People, including passengers of a flight from the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, gather in the baggage claim area upon their arrival at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Mariya Gordeyeva

April 23, 2019

By Mariya Gordeyeva

ALMATY (Reuters) – Beset by economic hardship, enterprising Turkmens have found a way to supplement their incomes – smuggling towels and bed linen into neighboring Kazakhstan.

Moving hundreds of items every trip in trademark Chinese plaid bags which at times have clogged airport luggage belts, informal traders – mostly women in their late forties and fifties – hand them over to relatives or local partners to be resold for up to five times the purchase price.

Dressed in traditional Central Asian garb such as headscarves and long skirts, these women arrive on almost every flight from Ashgabat to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city.

Textiles are among the few items manufactured domestically from local feedstock and prices for items produced by state-owned companies have remained stable for years even as the Turkmen manat lost four-fifths of its value on the black market due to Turkmenistan’s falling gas export revenue.

A deal to resume gas exports to Russia this month brought hope, but turned out to be small and short-term.

Turkmenistan, where president Kurbanguly Berdimukhamedov rules with an elaborate personality cult, is one of the world’s most closed countries.

There are no opposition parties or media critical of the government and Berdymukhamedov, often referred to as Arkadag (Protector), wields sweeping powers.

Turkmenistan rarely allows visits by foreign journalists and the textile trade offers a glimpse into the depth of its economic problems.

INDUSTRIAL SCALE

The trade attracted the attention of Almaty airport officials this year when luggage from Turkmenistan started clogging its belts. The planes, it turned out, were stuffed with textiles.

“My daughter trades at a bazaar (in Kazakhstan) and I bring her goods little by little… which I buy from our (Turkmen) stores,” said a Turkmen woman picking up bags from the luggage belt in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s commercial hub.

Like all other people involved in this informal textiles trading, the woman spoke on the condition of anonymity because traders like her dodge customs duties by claiming their goods are personal belongings not meant for resale.

These de facto smuggling operations reached industrial scale in early 2019, prompting the Almaty airport to lodge an official complaint with the Turkmen flag carrier.

“There were parcels weighing over 50-60 kilograms (110-130 pounds) each,” said Marina Zabara, a complaints inspector at the airport.

Oversized parcels have since disappeared but the flow of textiles continues. A Reuters reporter saw Turkmen travelers pick up parcels of textiles upon arrival in Almaty this month.

“A woman from Turkmenistan moved to our village last year and offered us to sell their textiles,” said a Kazakh trader working at a market on the outskirts of Almaty. “Her mother brings the goods as luggage, as many items as she can.”

At Almaty’s biggest market, traders display Turkmen bedding – often with traditional patterns based on deer and sheep horns or abstract human figures – from fully-packed cargo containers.

“The demand is good, with the most expensive bedding set priced at 10,000 tenge ($26),” said one trader.

Some hotels have also become wholesale buyers, Turkmens say.

The official exchange rate of the manat is 3.5 per dollar, but on the black market a dollar fetches 18.6 manat.

A Kazakh citizen who used to live in Turkmenistan told Reuters that by buying out luggage allowances from other travelers and bribing airline officials, a “shuttle trader” can move up to 200 kilograms (441 pounds) in one trip.

(Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty and Marat Gurt in Ashgabat,; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov, editing by Ed Osmond)

Source: OANN

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New Jersey Governor Wants to Tax Poor People’s Right to Self-Defense

According to a New York Times report, Governor Phil Murphy wants to significantly increase the tax on gun ownership in New Jersey.

New Jersey’s firearm ID currently costs $5, while a permit to own and carry a gun costs $2 and $20 respectively.

Governor Murphy, however, wants to raise those fees to $100 for the ID, $50 to own a firearm, and $400 just to carry a firearm.

And that’s not all.

Murphy wants to tax ammo by 10 percent and guns by 2.5 percent.

These proposals are included in the state budget which has to be passed on the deadline of June 30.

Like universal background checks, these new fees would disproportionately punish the poor and minorities.

John Lott has noted this in his book The War on Guns:

There are real costs of expanding background checks to private transfers. In particular, the fees on private transfers reduce gun ownership, particularly among law-abiding poor blacks who live in high crime urban areas and who benefit the most from protecting themselves; they will be the ones most likely priced out of owning guns for protection.

The New Jersey Governor asserts that he is not waging a “war on responsible gun owners.”

Instead, Murphy says that the funds raised from this gun tax would go towards “anti-violence” programs.

Murphy concluded, “We can support the efforts of the attorney general, state troopers, county and local law enforcement, to do the stuff we need to do: track crime, track gun violence, combat trafficking of illegal guns.”

Cody McLaughlin, the spokesman for the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, pushed back, saying that “This is clear bullying of law-abiding gun owners in the state.”

McLaughlin added, “You’re talking about sportsmen that are already paying hundreds of dollars a year in license fees.”

Lisa Caso, owner of Caso’s Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, stated that “It’s [gun tax} going to affect gun shops tremendously” and will “deter a lot of people from buying permits. In our business, you have people coming in who barely have money to buy the most modestly priced guns, which are around $300.”

In the meantime, Caso alleges that she has heard rumors about people scrambling to buy gun permits “ahead of the potentially higher fees.”

New Jersey is one of the most anti-gun states in America, with Guns & Ammo magazine ranking it in 50th place in 2018.

Since the Parkland shooting, New Jersey has embraced a wide array of gun control measures, which notably included a 3D printable gun ban.

Should these taxes pass, New Jersey will only cement its status as one of the least friendly states for gun owners in America.

Source: InfoWars

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US cardinals hope new accountability stops abusers in future

Two U.S. cardinals attending the Vatican's sex abuse prevention summit said Friday that the downfall of their former colleague, Theodore McCarrick, was sad for the Catholic church but they hoped a new spirit of accountability would prevent future cover-ups of bishop misconduct.

Cardinals Sean O'Malley of Boston and Blase Cupich of Chicago addressed the McCarrick scandal at a press conference on the second day of Pope Francis' summit, which was dedicated Friday to holding the Catholic hierarchy accountable for preventing sexual abuse.

Francis defrocked McCarrick, 88, last week after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adults, including during confession. His downfall has sparked a crisis in credibility in the Catholic hierarchy, since it was apparently an open secret in some U.S. and Vatican circles that he slept with seminarians.

"The situation of Theodore McCarrick is a very, very sad moment in history. It's a shameful moment," Cupich told reporters. "And yet, at the same time, it causes each one of us to make sure we live our lives authentically before the people of God that we serve."

O'Malley said he expected the Vatican and the four U.S. dioceses investigating McCarrick would soon release the results of their investigations. The Holy See refused a request from the U.S. bishops conference to conduct a full-scale Vatican investigation into who knew what and when about McCarrick's rise through the church's ranks, agreeing instead to a limited review of the Holy See's own archives.

The Vatican has said it would release the results, though no timeframe has been given. Separately, the four U.S. dioceses where McCarrick worked — New York City; Metuchen, New Jersey; Newark, New Jersey and Washington — are conducting their own reviews.

O'Malley said he hoped the discussions at the sex abuse summit about how bishops are responsible for the universal church would prevent another such cover-up.

"I would hope that any bishop who is aware of this kind of misbehavior would certainly make that known to the Holy See, and not feel that they in any way should try to cover up or turn a blind eye to this," he said. "Transparency is what the way forward is about.

"We have to be able to confront our sinfulness and deal with the conflict and not sweep it under the carpet," said O'Malley.

The Vatican starting in 2000 was aware of rumors of McCarrick's penchant for seminarians. A New York priest wrote a letter at the urging of the Vatican's ambassador to the U.S. after his seminarians complained about his behavior. And yet McCarrick was made a cardinal in 2001 and served as a frontman for the U.S. bishops when they adopted a get-tough policy against sexually abusive priests in 2002.

Bishops, however, were exempt from that policy. The Vatican is still struggling to articulate firm protocols on how to handle accusations of misconduct against them.

___

More AP coverage of clergy sex abuse at https://www.apnews.com/Sexualabusebyclergy

Source: Fox News World

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EU parliament votes to fine internet firms for not removing extremist content quickly

FILE PHOTO: The building of the European Parliament is seen in Strasbourg
FILE PHOTO: The building of the European Parliament, designed by Architecture-Studio architects, is seen in Strasbourg, France March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/File Photo

April 17, 2019

By Foo Yun Chee

STRASBROUG (Reuters) – The European parliament voted on Wednesday to fine firms like Facebook, Google and Twitter up to 4 percent of their turnover if they persistently fail to remove extremist content within one hour of being asked to do so by authorities.

The measures have been brought into sharper focus since the live streaming on one of Facebook’s platforms of a lone gunman killing 50 people at two New Zealand mosques in March.

The parliament voted 308 to 204 with 70 abstentions to back the proposal to tackle the misuse of internet hosting services for “terrorist purposes” .

“Companies that systematically and persistently fail to abide by the law may be sanctioned with up to 4 percent of their global turnover,” it said.

A new European Parliament, to be elected on May 23-26, will finalize the text of the law in negotiations with the European Commission and representatives of EU governments, a process likely to take many months.

“There is clearly a problem with terrorist material circulating unchecked on the internet for too long,” said Daniel Dalton, the parliament’s rapporteur for the proposal.

“This propaganda can be linked to actual terrorist incidents and national authorities must be able to act decisively. Any new legislation must be practical and proportionate if we are to safeguard free speech,” he said.

“It …absolutely cannot lead to a general monitoring of content by the back door.”

EU officials moved to regulate because they believe internet companies are not doing enough under voluntary measures, even though the first hour is the most vital to stemming the viral spread of online content.

Facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos containing footage of the New Zealand attack in the first 24 hours after the shootings.

Worries the new rules are lacking and could be misused have been expressed by three U.N. special rapporteurs for human rights and by the EU’s own rights watchdog.

Companies rely on a mix of automated tools and human moderators to spot and delete extremist content. However, when illegal content is taken down from one platform, it often crops up on another, straining authorities’ ability to police the web.

In response to industry concerns that smaller platforms do not have the same resources to comply as speedily with tougher EU rules, lawmakers said authorities should take into account the size and revenue of companies concerned.

Draft measures call on the bloc’s national governments to put in place the tools to identify extremist content and an appeals procedure. The one-hour rule would apply from the point of notification by national authorities.

Brussels has been at the forefront of a push by regulators worldwide to force tech companies to take greater responsibility for content on their sites.

(Writing By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Source: OANN

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Judge Napolitano on census: ‘The only question you are obliged to answer is the total number of people who live there’

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Tuesday that as it stands, the only information that must be disclosed for the census is the total number of people who live in a residence.

Napolitano appeared on "Fox & Friends" on the same day the Supreme Court was to hear arguments over whether the 2020 census can include a question about citizenship, ensuring a quick review of a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration from doing that.

“The government is looking to acquire information about where people live and where people who are not authorized to be here live because that has a profound effect on federal aid to cities and has a profound effect on members of Congress,” said Napolitano.

SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE WHETHER CITIZENSHIP QUESTION CAN BE INCLUDED IN 2020 CENSUS

After hearing arguments, the high court is expected to announce a decision by late June.

Justices were slated to hear the case on Feb. 19, but in January, justices suspended oral arguments on the plan to add a citizenship question to the census next year. The justices put the matter on hold after a federal district court judge ruled the government could not proceed with its plans.

The Trump administration, though, then announced it would directly ask the Supreme Court to overrule the federal court judge, who said in a court opinion that such a question would dramatically reduce the response rate—and congressional representation—of non-citizens.

Napolitano said he doesn’t know which way the Supreme Court is going to go, but offered some insight as to what information must be provided as it currently stands.

“Now what a lot of people don't know is, the population consists of everybody who lives here, lawful or unlawful. And that number, that base number also affects the amount of money that the federal government gives to certain localities, depending upon a variety of formulas. So the argument in favor of this is, the more the government knows, the fairer it can be in the distribution of assets and the determination of how many members of Congress,” said Napolitano.

FEDERAL JUDGE BARS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FROM ADDING CITIZENSHIP QUESTION TO 2020 CENSUS

“The other argument is, that people are afraid to answer truthfully because if they are here unlawfully, they think that’s it's going to result in their detention or deportation.”

He added, “If the census people come knocking at your door and say ‘What is your nationality?’ Do you have to answer? They’re not going to like what I'm about to tell you, the answer is no.”

He went on to explain the only question that must be answered, “How many people are living there? That, you have to answer.”

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Napolitano added, “You can ask any question you want and most people will think because the government is asking I must answer. But the only question you are obliged to answer is the total number of people who live there.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Weak tech demand shrinks Taiwan export orders, rebound tipped in third-quarter

FILE PHOTO: People fish in front of an Orient Overseas Container Line container ship
FILE PHOTO: People fish in front of an Orient Overseas Container Line container ship, at Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

April 22, 2019

By Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s export orders fell for the fifth straight month in March, and at a much sharper pace than expected, as the island’s manufacturers kept struggling with a drop in global tech demand.

Orders in March dropped 9 percent from a year earlier to $38.59 billion, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed on Monday.

For January-March, export orders slid 8.4 percent, the biggest annual drop for a first quarter since 2009 when they tumbled 30 percent, the ministry said.

March orders fell at almost twice the 5.45 percent forecast in a Reuters poll, though the pace was less than February’s 10.9 percent, the sharpest fall in nearly three years.

Taiwan’s hi-tech factories are major suppliers for global tech heavyweights such as Apple Inc and Qualcomm, and the continued drop in orders suggests global electronic could remain soft for some time.

The ministry said the March shrinkage was also due to declining machinery orders due to business caution in China as the U.S-Sino trade dispute continues.

However, launches of smartphone models and demand for new technology such as artificial intelligence and 5G could support a rebound of orders for electronics in coming months, it said.

The faster 5G networks are coming on line in the United States, China, South Korea and other places this year, but probably will not be widespread until 2020. The telecommunications industry is expected to spend $275 billion over seven years in the United States alone, according to Accenture estimates.

Carl Liu, an analyst at KGI Securities, said Taiwan export orders “are unlikely to return to growth until in June, thanks to re-stocking of electronics ahead of the peak season in the third quarter”.

CAUTION ON OUTLOOK

The ministry said it expects April export orders to decline 6.7-9.2 percent, and that it could be July before orders rebound.

“We remain cautious about orders in the first half and expect a year-on-year decline for the second quarter,” ministry official Lin Lee-jen said.

The slowing tech demand has taken a toll on Taiwan’s supply chain manufacturers. Chipmaker TSMC last week posted its steepest quarterly profit drop in more than seven years partly due to sluggish smartphone sales.

But the company gave an upbeat forecast for the coming months, betting on rising chip demand thanks to a rollout of 5G mobile network.

In March, weak export demand was seen from all Taiwan’s major markets.

Orders from the United States fell 9.7 percent on-year, on top of February’s 5.5 percent decline.

Those from China dropped 13.7 percent, compared with a fall of 14.3 percent the previous month, while orders from Europe slipped 2.4 percent. Japan orders declined 5.8 percent.

Taiwan’s government in February trimmed its 2019 economic growth forecast to 2.27 percent, citing growing uncertainties over global growth.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Taipei newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

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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