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Huckabee on Sri Lanka Islamic terror: Nothing could be more cowardly, disgusting

Islamic terrorism is a threat spreading to different parts of the world, Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee said Monday in wake of the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday massacre.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas Governor, told "Fox & Friends" said Sunday's attack should remind everyone of the challenges faced across the globe in fighting the scourge of terrorism.

SURVIVOR OF SRI LANKA BOMBING FEARS RETURNING TO CHURCH

"It's global. It's not just targeted to a handful of countries like the United States...not just targeted to Middle Eastern countries...it's a global war on terrorism," Huckabee said.

"These are cowardly people who go after innocents. These aren't folks who take on a military. These are people who blow up innocent people, in this case, people who are going to church, people who are celebrating the holiest day for Christians around the world, and nothing could be more cowardly, nothing could be more disgusting, and it shows you the character of those who were involved in this kind of terror."

CALIFORNIA CHURCH PARISHONERS HELP TACKLE WOMAN WITH GUN WHO ALLEGEDLY THREATENED ATTACK

His comments came after it was reported authorities in Sri Lanka received warnings a domestic radical Muslim group would attack the nation on the Christian holy day.

Despite multiple warnings from international intelligence agencies, however, Sri Lanka’s security officials reportedly failed to heed the alerts and apparently took no action to protect against a potential attack. Authorities were first alerted to the threat April 4.

More than two weeks later, near-simultaneous blasts detonated at three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo, the capital city. Two more explosions occurred hours later outside of Colombo – one at a guesthouse and the other near an overpass.

At least 290 people – including 39 foreigners – were killed and more than 500 people were injured. The government on Monday said the attacks were likely perpetrated by local militant group National Thowfeek Jaamath, a little-known radical Islamist organization.

CNN'S APRIL RYAN CALLS FOR SARAH SANDERS TO BE FIRED

Experts told the New York Times the group promotes an Islamic terrorist ideology.

“These attacks appear to be quite different and look as if they came right out of the ISIS, Al Qaeda, global militant jihadist playbook, as these are attacks fomenting religious hatred by attacking multiple churches on a high religious holiday,” Anne Speckhard, the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, told the newspaper.

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said international agencies warned of possible attacks several times beginning in early April. He said the defense ministry wrote to the police chief on April 9 to give law enforcement a heads up about the intelligence, including providing the group’s name.

Two days later, on April 11, police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division about the warnings. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response.

MILLENNIAL STARTUP CHANGING THE WAY PEOPLE READ THE BIBLE: 'OUR HOPE IS TO DEEPEN YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH GOD'

Top government officials, including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet, were reportedly kept in the dark about the intelligence until after the attack – which Senaratne blamed on political dysfunction within the government.

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“We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” Wickremesinghe said Sunday.

An investigation has been launched into the apparent breakdown of communication within the government.

Source: Fox News World

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2 charged in fatal shooting of off-duty Chicago police officer

Two men – including one who reportedly once applied to be a Chicago police officer – were arrested overnight Monday for allegedly shooting and killing an off-duty cop and critically injuring another man.

Alleged gunman Menelik Jackson, 24, had once applied to be a Chicago cop before he was arrested at the police academy a few years ago in connection with a home invasion. On Monday, he was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 23-year-old Officer John P. Rivera, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The other man charged, Jovan Battle, is accused of being a “co-conspirator” who was with Jackson at the time of the shooting. Police are still seeking a third person of interest, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Monday morning.

Jovan Battle, left, and Menelik Jackson, right, were charged with first-degree murder in off-duty Officer John P. Rivera’s death.

Jovan Battle, left, and Menelik Jackson, right, were charged with first-degree murder in off-duty Officer John P. Rivera’s death. (Chicago Police Department)

OFF-DUTY CHICAGO COP SHOT DEAD WHILE SITTING IN PARKED VEHICLE, ANOTHER MAN CRITICALLY INJURED

Police previously said at least two individuals approached a parked vehicle where Rivera and the other man were sitting, produced a gun and opened fire before running off.

At the time of the attack, four people were sitting in the parked car after having gone to Stout Barrel House & Pizza, the Tribune reported.

Rivera, a two-year veteran and patrol officer who had finished his shift hours earlier, was shot in the chest, arm and mouth. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

His friend, also 23, was taken to the hospital in critical condition and is expected to survive. Another off-duty Chicago cop and a female civilian were in the car, too, but they were not injured, police said.

Guglielmi said video obtained during the investigation did not indicate carjacking as a motive.

CHICAGO REDUCES MURDER RATE IN 2018 BUT LEVEL STILL OUTSTRIPS LA AND NY COMBINED

Jackson was previously arrested July 2, 2017, after allegedly breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and pointing a gun at her head, the Tribune reported.

In that case, the victim told police Jackson told her he was going to the Chicago police academy on the Near West Side before fleeing.

Officers called the academy and Jackson was arrested on home invasion and weapon charges. Court records show he later pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempted burglary and was sentenced to probation, the Tribune reported.

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Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, has been reeling from widespread homicides and gun crime, becoming the crime capital of the country.

Although the city managed to reduce the number of homicides in 2018 -- compared to the two prior years -- more people were killed in the city than in Los Angeles and New York City combined.

Chicago police reported 561 homicides were committed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2018, compared to 660 homicides in 2017 and more than 770 in 2016, which marked a 19-year high and put a national spotlight on Chicago’s persistently high rates of gun violence.

Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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AP Was There: Teen boys unleashed terror, chaos at Columbine

On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys dressed in black trench coats went on a killing rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. They shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded two dozen others before taking their own lives.

Twenty years later, The Associated Press is republishing this story about the attack, the product of reporting from more than a dozen AP journalists who conducted interviews in the hours after it happened. The article first appeared on April 22, 1999.

___

A moment of surprise, then hours of terror

By TED ANTHONY

AP National Writer

LITTLETON, Colo. — Her favorite lunchtime meal was ready — "my only meal," jokes Sarah DeBoer. So, nachos in hand, she headed toward the commons area of the Columbine High School cafeteria.

It was a sunny Tuesday morning, maybe 60 degrees, only 17 school days before graduation, and a spring mentality was afoot — the kind that says summer is on the horizon.

Outside, two disaffected young men knew something their classmates didn't. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had endgame in mind.

Ms. DeBoer, who knew the pair in passing, had talked to them Friday. True, they liked to bluster about guns and vengeance and Adolf Hitler. But they seemed — for them, at least — fine.

Upstairs in the school library, four dozen students were studying their way through the lunch period.

Down the hall, Dave Sanders, a popular instructor and coach, was teaching a science class. Nearby, Stephanie Williams, 16, a junior, was in the choir room singing.

Then, at about 11:15 a.m., a sound from outside: pop-pop-pop-BANG.

In the cafeteria, they thought it was a lunchtime prank. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.

Sarah DeBoer, a 16-year-old sophomore, hit the floor with her lunch companions. As realization washed over her, she uttered one thing. Whether it was aloud or just to herself, she doesn't quite remember.

"I think that I'm going to die."

___

In moments of chaos and hours of confusion, memories can cloud. But, through myriad interviews and briefings, an intelligible if still imprecise portrait emerges of what unfolded behind a suburban school's pale brown walls.

Just after lunch period begins, two young men in black trench coats open fire in the parking lot. Senior Wade Frank, 18, outside in the parking lot next to a picnic area, hears popping sounds and sees a girl lying against a curb, shot in the leg. As he watches, another youth is shot in the back and falls forward.

Then one gunman throws a bomb into the parking lot and heads inside.

"He was just casually walking. He wasn't in any hurry," says Frank.

Sophomore Denny Rowe, 15, is outside having lunch with friends. "These guys opened fire on everything that looked human," says Rowe. Bullets are bouncing everywhere.

"One boy was running and suddenly his ankle just puffed up in blood," says sophomore Don Arnold, 16. "A girl was running and her head popped open."

As the gunmen walk into the school, two students lie dead outside. Still shooting, the two walk to the cafeteria, where food server Karen Nielsen hears someone yell, "Get down!"

Klebold, 17, and Harris, 18, are heavily armed — an assault rifle, sawed-off shotguns, handguns. In the cafeteria, one removes his trench coat to reveal home-made grenades. He tosses a pipe bomb.

Gunshots echo. Students fall. One gets up to run and others follow.

Word spreads: The "Trenchcoat Mafia" has gone nuts. Many of the 900 students in the building duck into closets and bathrooms, under tables and chairs. A couple call 911 with cellular phones. Dozens flee the building and hide in brush around the school.

Senior Nick Foss, 18, and a friend push two teachers, a cook and another woman into a bathroom. "I heard people praying for their husbands and their children," says Foss. The attackers bang on doors, yelling: "We know you're in there."

Casey Brackley, 15, is in the gym when an administrator herds kids into the equipment room.

"I hit my knees and prayed," Ms. Brackley says. They stay for 15 minutes before the administrator directs them outside.

Neil Gardner, the Jefferson County sheriff's deputy assigned to the school full-time, hears shots and spots one of the gunmen in a first-floor hallway. He radios for backup and returns fire as bullets ricochet off lockers. Within minutes, seven officers arrive and begin pulling students, including a few shooting victims, from the building.

In the choir room, above the commons, Stephanie Williams and her classmates hear the sounds.

Someone comes to the door and, with a thumb-forefinger gesture, gives them a warning: gun.

Her teacher tells everyone to sit. But in moments, the school's two-level auditorium next door seems a safer place, so some go; then, after about 10 minutes, they run into the main hall.

"The group I was in headed straight for the door. He was shooting at us," Stephanie says. "All we knew was to run."

As they flee, a door behind them explodes in gunfire.

Sarah DeBoer, separated from her friend who had run into the weight room, lies on the cafeteria floor until she hears a car explode outside. Then she runs into the auditorium and lies down between seats.

There she stays for some time. Fellow students — 15, maybe 20 — cry softly. Teachers warn them to be silent. In the distance, they hear sharp reports and dull explosions. Finally, a janitor enters and tells them: Go!

They run, and gunfire follows.

"I turned, and I saw Dylan was the one who turned and shot at me," Sarah says. "He didn't know it was me; we were just running out of the auditorium."

The gunmen head upstairs toward the library.

___

"All jocks stand up! We're going to kill every one of you," one gunman yells in the library.

Student Aaron Cohn, a ballplayer, is spared because a girl leaps onto his back while he lies on the floor, covering the baseball slogan on his shirt.

"They were laughing after they shot," Cohn says. "It was like they were having the time of their life."

Some students are slain at their desks, one with pencil still in hand. The gunmen play "peek-a-boo" with others, finding them cowering under desks and opening fire. Isaiah Shoels, who is black and has tangled with the gunmen before, is one of those to fall.

Says one assailant: "Oh, my God. Look at this black kid's brain. Awesome, man!"

Some kids play dead. By the time it is over, 12 aren't playing.

Klebold and Harris leave behind shattered windows, bloody floors and a quiet unlike any the library has ever heard. Elsewhere upstairs, Sanders, the teacher, has been shot twice in the chest but manages to get students down a hallway away from danger. He stumbles into a science room, bleeding and coughing blood.

Outside, the first SWAT team is on the scene 20 minutes after the first 911 calls, joining the sheriff's deputies. It finds several explosive devices around the school and treads cautiously.

"We had initial people there right away, but we couldn't get in," Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone says. "We were way outgunned."

About 45 minutes after the shooting begins, at noon, ambulances take the first wounded students — the ones who managed to run outside — to hospitals. Bomb teams, firetrucks, more SWAT units and paramedics arrive.

Nick Foss and other students manage to crawl into a space between the ceiling and acoustic tiles. Foss falls through a tile, crashing onto the floor of the teacher's lounge. He runs.

Kammi Vest, 18, hides in the choir-room closet with up to 60 other students. Others try to crawl through heating vents to safety.

In the science room, Dave Sanders is dying. Students cover the 47-year-old teacher with their shirts and a blanket and keep him talking. But his pulse slows, and he grows cold.

Shots are heard until almost 12:30. About that time, in the library, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris turn their guns on themselves, though no one will be sure of this for hours.

As 12:30 passes, after no shots echo for several minutes, SWAT teams begin sweeping the building room by room. It is, quite literally, a minefield: Dropped backpacks are everywhere, each a potential bomb. In the coming days, bombs will turn up in various shapes and sizes. They include two 35-pound propane bombs hidden in the school's kitchen.

At about 2:30, SWAT teams begin freeing those in hiding. In small groups, hands behind their heads, they run from the school to a holding area. They are frisked, questioned, offered medical care and bused to Leawood Elementary School to be reunited with parents.

By now, the world is seeing it all on TV. Escaped students cling to each other. Tears flow freely for some; for others, it will take time. Even the tough guys, the ones with the backward baseball caps and the baggy camo pants, cry.

At 4:30, with the gunmen's bodies found, authorities declare the school under control. In goes Dr. Chris Colwell, summoned for a medical synopsis. In the sun-dappled, silent library is the worst sight he has ever seen.

"You walk in there with that hope that there might be somebody who's still alive and still salvageable," Colwell says. "It didn't take long to see that wasn't the case."

He pronounces them all dead — 10 students and two alienated schoolmates who let their anger consume them.

The bodies will stay there for an entire day, until the known bombs are cleared.

___

By the following afternoon, nearby Clement Park has become a place of mourning. Students and teachers and gawkers, they come to commiserate, to speak of faith and perseverance, to see the spectacle and talk to the press.

Among the pilgrims: Sarah DeBoer, wearing her Columbine football jersey, and Stephanie Williams, accompanied by a friend to comfort her. They stand together, yards from the scene of their lives' greatest terror, and they try to process the scenes running through their mind.

"Yesterday I was so scared," Ms. DeBoer says, her voice falling.

"They ruined the school, but I think we should definitely go back," she says. "If you don't go back, they'll win."

Source: Fox News National

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Argentina’s billion-dollar buying spree reins in peso, rates

FILE PHOTO: A man shows Argentine pesos outside a bank in Buenos Aires' financial district
FILE PHOTO: A man shows Argentine pesos outside a bank in Buenos Aires' financial district, Argentina August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Walter Bianchi and Adam Jourdan

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s central bank, looking to rein in a stronger peso, has snapped up close to 1 billion U.S. dollars in the last month, helping trim back sky-high interest rates and top up dollar reserves that could combat economic and political uncertainty as an election fight starts to brew.

The bank has bought $978 million since first intervening in the market last month to keep the peso within a trading band agreed with the International Monetary Fund, though it paused its buying late last week as the currency weakened.

Indeed, the currency fell 1.25 percent on Tuesday to 39.29 per U.S. dollar, its weakest close since early October.

Argentina spent many billions of dollars last year propping up the peso, which lost half of its value against the dollar as Argentina was battered by what President Mauricio Macri described as “storms.”

After a calmer start to 2019, analysts and investors fear these uncertainties could revive, hitting the peso, as political opponents begin to mount a challenge to the center-right Macri ahead of national elections in October.

The stronger peso, which has regularly pushed outside the agreed trading band this year, has given the bank an unexpected opportunity, letting it dip into the market and stock up on dollars, in the process weakening the currency back on track.

The trading band, which came into effect in October as part of a $56.3 billion deal Macri agreed with the IMF, was meant to curb central bank intervention unless there was “extreme overshooting of the exchange rate.”

(GRAPHIC: Argentine peso strains against IMF leash – https://tmsnrt.rs/2EbaGaA)

The dollar buying spree could come in handy as Macri now battles to revive the economy ahead of elections, where he is facing a challenge from left-leaning former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

“The recent buying by the central bank has been an opportunity to increase the reserves and could help as more people convert to dollars as the elections get closer,” said Christian Reos, research head at Allaria Ledesma.

Most analysts expect the peso to lose strength ahead of the elections, as people trade their pesos for the safety of the dollar and uncertainties rise over the country’s political future in general.

Macri’s rivals are likely to take a different tack on the economy and may look to renegotiate the IMF deal.

If the peso weakens, dollar reserves would help to prop the currency up. The peso has started to weaken this month and hit a near three-month low against the dollar on Monday.

Gustavo Ber, Buenos Aires-based economist at consultancy Estudio Ber, said the dollar buying had also helped push down rates on the central bank’s benchmark short-term “Leliq” notes, which have fallen 30 percentage points since an October peak.

(GRAPHIC: Argentina rates return to earth – https://tmsnrt.rs/2TTIAWt)

The central bank needs to bring down rates to lure businesses to take out more loans and help revive a stalled economy because many companies cut back on spending after Argentina, Latin America’s third-largest economy, dipped into recession last year.

“(Lowering the rates) could help give some air to the beleaguered economy,” said Ber.

(Reporting by Walter Bianchi and Adam Jourdan; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Matthew Lewis)

Source: OANN

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2 men killed, Louisiana sheriff's deputy hurt in shooting

Two men have been killed and a sheriff's deputy in Louisiana wounded in a shooting during a drug operation.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told news outlets the shooting happened about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday outside a restaurant near Gretna.

Lopinto said two undercover officers had blocked a car with their vehicle and the other car's driver accelerated and hit another officer standing nearby. The undercover officers fired, killing the driver, and wounding a passenger who died at a hospital.

The sheriff said one officer was hit by gunfire, probably from another officer. Lopinto said the officer was out of surgery early Thursday and was expected to recover. The officer hit by the vehicle did not go to the hospital.

The names of those involved weren't immediately released.

Source: Fox News National

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FY20 Budget or Re-election Platform? Both.

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Russ Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, was ready to give his first official press conference. The soft-spoken policy wonk with the thick-rimmed glasses stepped to the podium in the White House briefing room Monday and wished the press corps “Happy Budget Day.”

The occasion was the presentation of the president’s fiscal 2020 budget blueprint, an aspirational document that proposes $4.7 trillion in spending and recommends $2.7 trillion in cuts.

“Our national debt nearly doubled under the previous administration and now stands at more than $22 trillion,” Vought told reporters. This budget, he continued, “shows that we can return to fiscal sanity without halting our economic resurgence while continuing to invest in critical priorities.”

The White House calls it “A Budget for a Better America.” Congress calls it dead on arrival. This is because everyone in Washington knows the document is essentially a wish list, and the unveiling is part of a longstanding D.C. ritual whereby opposition party lawmakers dismiss presidential budgets as quickly as administrations deliver them.

This was not, however, an empty exercise in wonkery. Vought was outlining the president’s 2020 re-election platform as much as he was laying out Trump spending priorities. Congress may axe the document entirely in the coming months. At least on paper, though, voters will know where he stands when they enter the voting booth.

The top lines reflect two major promises Trump made on the campaign trail in 2016. First, rebuilding the armed forces. The budget ask Congress to boost military spending to $750 billion, a 5 percent increase from the current $716 billion, more than even the Pentagon requested. Second, border security. The budget seeks $8.6 billion -- $5 billion from the Department of Homeland Security and $3.6 billion from the Pentagon’s military construction budget.

Both are obvious base-pleasers. Trump regularly brings the conservative faithful to their feet at his rallies when he mentions the military and the border wall. He might not get the sought-after funding for either, but he will get the political credit he needs by fighting for them.

And with this budget proposal, the White House has set the stage for another border brawl.

The president lost the last round when Congress wouldn’t sign off on $5.7 billion to continue building his wall. The government went dark for 35 days, the longest shutdown in history. The White House walked away with a fraction of its initial ask: just $1.37 billion for 55 miles of border barriers. Trump then declared a national emergency, redirecting $7 billion in already appropriated funds.

Now, by seeking additional money, he all but guarantees another showdown come September. Federal funding will run out at the end of that month and campaigning will be approaching full swing. Whatever the outcome, Trump can credibly tell his base that he still fights.

The spending proposal, however, would not eliminate budget deficits, another Trump campaign promise. In fact, according to the administration’s own numbers, the federal government would spend trillions more than it takes in over the next four years. But here the administration has opened up another political front.

The White House is betting that the economy will keep revving enough to bring in increased tax revenues that will balance the budget in 15 years. In the meantime, officials plan on slashing $2.7 trillion in non-defense spending from the budgets of agencies like the EPA. The proposed cuts, the White House brags, are higher than those made by any other administration in history.

Vought told reporters that this kind of fiscal responsibility is possible if Congress swallows the prescribed medicine.  The president has called for spending reductions in each of his budget requests; the difference this time, the OMB official argued, is that Democrats now want “a conversation about the national debt.” That’s a discussion the White House is willing to have, and it is a decidedly anti-establishment conversation that will likely dovetail with the president’s campaign rhetoric.

“What has happened for far too long is that Congress has blamed mandatory spending and then increased discretionary spending, which they have a vote on every single year, by large degrees,” Vought said.

“They continue to let a paradigm exist in this country that says: For every dollar in defense spending, we're going to increase non-defense spending by a dollar.  We think we need to break that paradigm,” he concluded.

Vought stepped away from the podium after about 15 minutes’ worth of detailed questions and even more intricate answers. The 150-page outline he unveiled will be followed by more in-depth numbers. Combined, they amount to a GOP battle plan.

Trump is staying the course with his promise to build the wall and continue rebooting the military, the White House argued. And the president will attack Congress, officials signaled, if lawmakers don’t abide by his prescribed spending cuts.

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Oman FM: Palestinians must reassure Israel it’s not in peril

Oman's foreign minister has called on Palestinians to reassure Israel that it's not under threat in the Middle East — drawing a sharp public rebuke from his Jordanian counterpart.

Oman's Yusuf bin Alawi and Jordan's Ayman Safadi shared the stage Saturday at the World Economic Forum.

Bin Alawi says Palestinians should "help Israel" to no longer feel threatened.

Drawing applause from the audience, Safadi said that in 2002 scores of Arab and Muslim countries offered Israel recognition in exchange for a withdrawal from occupied lands sought for a Palestinian state. Safadi says the problem is whether Israeli occupation "is going to end."

Unlike Jordan, Oman doesn't have formal relations with Israel, but mutual ties are rapidly warming. In October, Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Oman.

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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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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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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