SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea says it is considering dispatching a special envoy to North Korea in an apparent effort to revive stalled nuclear talks.
Negotiations over North Korea's nuclear program have remained stalemated since a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam last month ended without any agreement.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is to travel to Washington next week to discuss the nuclear diplomacy with Trump.
Moon facilitated the U.S.-North Korean talks last year.
Moon's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told lawmakers on Thursday that his government is also considering sending a special envoy to North Korea. He didn't elaborate.
Moon's government wants reconciliation with North Korea and a negotiated solution of the nuclear dispute.
Suspected vandals who defaced a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts Monday used the phrase, “This is MAGA country!,” leading many to question whether the act could be a hate crime hoax similar to the one allegedly perpetrated by Empire actor Jussie Smollett.
WBZ-TV reports at least 30 gravestones in the Fall River Hebrew Cemetery were hit with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti praising Adolf Hitler and President Donald Trump.
However, one marked gravestone in particular stood out among others, with the curious expression, “This is MAGA country!” a phrase which gained notoriety after Smollett attributed it to white Trump supporters he alleged beat him and threw a noose around his neck in Chicago.
Many on Facebook were quick to question the vandals’ use of the phrase, especially in light of the Smollett incident.
Smollett’s version of events was brought into question after two men he supposedly paid to attack him confessed he staged the entire incident.
The Cook County State’s Attorney office eventually brought felony charges against the actor, accusing him of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
If convicted, Smollett faces up to three years in prison.
Fall River Police and the Anti-Defamation League are offering rewards of up to $1,500 for information that can lead to the arrest of the individuals responsible.
The White House will defer the review of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to Attorney General Bill Barr, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a Friday afternoon statement.
The next steps are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course. The White House has not received or been briefed on the Special Counsel’s report.
“The next steps are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course. The White House has not received or been briefed on the Special Counsel’s report,” Sanders said minutes after Barr revealed that he had received the report. (RELATED: The Mueller Investigation Is Over)
FBI Director Robert Mueller speaks during a news conference at the FBI headquarters June 25, 2008 in Washington, DC. The news conference was to mark the 5th anniversary of Innocence Lost initiative. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Mueller delivered his final report to Barr after 675 extraordinary days of appointment, during which he sought to review any potential contact between Russia and the Trump 2016 campaign. The investigation became a sprawling review and led to the indictment of many of those in Trump’s orbit. It dominated headlines in the first two years of Trump’s presidency and became a major foil for the president who decried it as a “WITCH HUNT” throughout the process.
William Barr, nominee to be US Attorney General, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, January 15, 2019. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Mueller’s appointment came in May 2017 after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him. Rosenstein appointed Mueller after a period of turmoil during which Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, prompting questions of whether he did so to curtail the Russia investigation.
Barr will now review Mueller’s report and told lawmakers Friday afternoon that he hopes to share the top findings of the report with them as soon as this weekend. Barr’s letter noted that at no point did the Department of Justice curtail any of Mueller’s activities.
Police in California are searching for a woman who was caught on surveillance video ripping down a "thin blue line" flag meant to support law enforcement.
The unidentified woman was spotted on the 2400 block of Santa Clara Avenue on March 26, according to a Facebook post from the Alameda Police Department.
Video footage showed the woman donning a yellow sweater or sweatshirt as she walked down a sidewalk with someone. The two passed a "thin blue line" flag posted outside a storefront when the woman jumped up to grab it and tried to pull it to the ground.
Before the flag hit the ground it appeared to hit her in the head. The woman then dragged the flag and tossed it on the ground nearby.
Investigators said that the woman "later returned to further vandalize the victim's property."
The "thin blue line" flag that was displayed is a flag designed to show support of police and other law enforcement agencies. It's a black and white American flag with a blue line that replaces one of the 13 stripes.
Those with information that can help identify the woman are asked to contact the Alameda Police Department at 510-337-8340 and refer to case No.19-01667.
Nigel Farage has only just launched his new ‘Brexit’ Party, but it’s already becoming a force in UK politics, attracting some Tory defectors, including the sister of European Research Group leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the leading Brexiteers.
The Brexit party is fortunate to have such a high calibre candidate but I am sorry that Annunziata has left the Conservative party.https://t.co/ngzjaVHXEB
During an interview before the event, Farage introduced the new party as a ‘mirror’ of UKIP on policies, but without what he described as the Islamophobic, far-right faction.
Farage, who has been credited as one of the godfathers of Brexit, left UKIP, the party that he helped create and build into a force on the right of British politics, claiming that the party had been taken over by racists and Islamophobes and that its brand was now ‘tarnished.’
Paul Joseph Watson explains the betrayal of Britain by the Prime Minister.
He promised the Brexit Party would be “deeply intolerant of all intolerance” and would represent a cross-section of society.
“In terms of policy, there’s no difference (to UKIP), but in terms of personnel there is a vast difference.”
“UKIP did struggle to get enough good people into it but unfortunately what it’s chosen to do is allow the far right to join it and take it over and I’m afraid the brand is now tarnished.”
With Parliament on recess until April 23, Farage apparently timed the party launch so as to grab maximum media coverage. When it came his turn to speak at the launch, Farage again called for a “Democratic revolution” to ensure that the outcome of the Brexit referendum is honored, and once again “start to put the fear of god into our MPs.” He also declared that the Brexit Party wouldn’t be taking donations from Aaron Banks, a millionaire mining mogul who helped to bankroll UKIP and was recently the target of an extensive investigative report published by the New Yorker that delved into suspicions that Banks helped launder foreign money – specifically, from Russia – into the Brexit campaign.
“The brand is now tarnished” – Nigel Farage attacks his old party, UKIP, for allowing the far right to join – saying his new Brexit Party will put “competence back into British politics”https://t.co/38cIQbBDC3@BBCr4todaypic.twitter.com/fpPaf0JqoJ
The Brexit party already has 70 candidates to stand in the European elections, which are expected to begin on May 23.
In response to UKIP leader Gerard Batten rebutted Farage’s claims about the Brexit Party being a mirror image of UKIP, arguing that UKIP has “a manifesto and policies” while the Brexit Party is just a “vehicle” for Farage. But if the party wins at least a few seats in the EU Parliament, it would likely join with the growing populist coalition being organized by Italy’s Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, helping to establish a powerful eurosceptic bloc in the legislature.
A masked criminal shot bleach at Michael Knowles while he delivered a speech called “Men Are Not Women”. Paul Jospeh Watson joins Alex to expose the increasing insanity on the left.
2020 White House candidate Cory Booker denied he's a socialist and vowed he would not consider pardoning President Trump if he were elected to the White House, in an interview Monday night.
"I am for capitalism and I'm tired of companies engaging in socialism where they outsource their costs... I am a capitalist. Monopolies are not capitalism... I'm not a socialist. I am a Democrat. I believe in fundamental Democratic principles. I believe that we need more democracy, not less," the New Jersey Democrat told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
The cable news host also brought up then-President Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon in 1974 -- and posed a hypothetical to Booker.
“Would you consider pardoning Trump if you took the presidency?” Matthews asked.
“No,” Booker firmly responded.
“Why?” Matthews followed. “You said you want to unite the country. Wouldn’t that unite the country?”
Booker asked for clarification as to what crime Trump may have committed, which Matthews responded with “obstruction of justice,” something the MSNBC host insisted is “certainly in play.”
“This is why our justice system has lost so much legitimacy,” Booker continued. “We have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. There’s a whole bunch of people that, if I’m president, that I’m looking to pardon or who are being punished unjustly in this country.”
The former Newark mayor cited statistics that showed more arrests in 2017 were related to marijuana than to all violent crimes combined. He said the “privileged” on Yale University’s campus and presidents and senators who have “bragged” about smoking marijuana benefited from a double standard as opposed to young people who have criminal records for doing the same.
“Now we’re talking about a billionaire getting another pardon,” Booker said.
BERLIN – Thousands of students are gathering in the German capital, skipping school to take part in a rally demanding action against climate change.
Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who inspired the protests in Germany and elsewhere by staging weekly "school strikes," is expected to lead the Friday rally through Berlin's government district.
The 16-year-old is also meeting with scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, just outside the German capital.
The weekly "Fridays for Future" protests have been largely welcomed by German politicians, though some have criticized students for protesting during school time.
One placard at the protest read: "I'll go to school if you keep the planet cool."
Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the protests "a very good initiative."
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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