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Website Aims to Promote Women Speakers

A website aiming to amplify women's "unique voices in the public discourse" has been launched by veteran public speaker, lawyer and human rights activist Orit Kopel.

The site, Glass Voices, sets an ambitious goal to confront "gender inequality in all fields, and particularly the gender imbalance seen among keynote speakers and participants at professional conferences and public expert panels."

Kopel is co-founder of WikiTribune and the Jimmy Wales Foundation for freedom of expression.

"Glass Voices was created in order to shed light on the gender imbalance in the public discourse," Kopel said in a statement to Newsmax. "We are used to seeing a panel of men, featuring only one or two women at best, while assuming that there just aren't enough women specialists in the field. I want to challenge this presumption.'

"My goal is challenging the gender imbalance in the public sphere and presenting to the next generations many more inspiring women as role models," she added.

Included so far on the speakers' roster is Vera Kobalia, who served as the country of Georgia's minister of economy and sustainable development.

"Brilliant women have professional expertise in tech, business, science, journalism, economics, security, law, education, politics, and more," a statement on the site declares.

"They should all be granted greater opportunities to have their voices heard."

Source: NewsMax America

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China’s March exports seen rebounding, imports falling again: Reuters poll

Containers and trucks are seen on a snowy day at an automated container terminal in Qingdao port
Containers and trucks are seen on a snowy day at an automated container terminal in Qingdao port, Shandong province, China December 10, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

April 10, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s exports are expected to have rebounded in March after a sharp drop in February, while imports likely shrank for a fourth straight month but at a more modest pace, a Reuters poll showed.

If Friday’s data are in line with forecasts or better, it could add to early signs of stabilization in the world’s largest trading nation as worries grow over slowing global growth.

But veteran China watchers said the gains may be due more to seasonal factors than a turnaround in lackluster global demand, with shipments likely to jump after long Lunar New Year holidays had dampened business activity in February.

Exports in March are expected to have risen 7.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the median estimate of 32 economists in a Reuters poll, following a 20.8 percent drop in February.

“This distortion is particularly strong in early March but no longer around in the second half of the month as the impacts of the festival normally last for less than a month,” analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note.

China’s Commerce Ministry said recently that both exports and imports had rebounded in the first half of March.

Factory surveys for March also provided some glimmers of hope on the export front. While export orders remained sluggish, there were some signs that a long spell of contraction is easing.

“We do not expect a distinct pick-up in exports in the coming months as the recovery of the global economy is slowing down and a relatively strong yuan currency is expected to cap the rise,” said Nie Wen, an economist at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators wrapped up their latest round of trade talks last week and were scheduled to resume discussions this week to try to secure a pact that would end a tit-for-tat tariff battle that has disrupted global supply chains and roiled financial markets.

A top White House official said on Monday the U.S. side is “not satisfied yet” about all the issues standing in the way of a deal to end the U.S.-China trade war, but said progress was made in talks last week.

President Donald Trump said last week that a deal could be reached in about four weeks.

The global economy is slowing more than expected and a sharp downturn could require world leaders to coordinate stimulus measures, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday as it cut its forecast for 2019 world economic growth for the third time.

But the IMF edged up its outlook for Chinese growth to 6.3 percent this year, in part because the Sino-U.S. trade war had not escalated as much as feared.

WEAK IMPORTS

China’s imports in March are expected to have fallen 1.3 percent from a year earlier, though the drop was seen narrowing from the previous month’s 5.2 percent decline.

Factory activity surveys had shown an unexpected return to growth last month, suggesting domestic demand was starting to respond to a slew of government economic support measures.

Still, most of the poll respondents penciled in a contraction in imports, with the lowest forecast projecting a 18.2 percent drop.

“Ramped up infrastructure investment has lifted imports last month, but factories restocking demand likely stayed weak as fears about the medium- to long- term economic outlook remained,” Nie said.

Policymakers have acknowledged the economy is under pressure as multi-year debt and pollution crackdowns have deterred investment, while the U.S.-China trade war is hurting China’s export sector, threatening even more jobs.

In response, Beijing has announced more spending on roads, railways and ports, along with trillions of yuan of tax cuts to ease pressure on corporate balance sheets and avert a sharper economic slowdown.

Investors are closely watching to see how long it will take those support measures to take hold, which could lift some of the gloom hanging over the global economy. But analysts believe China will still need to loosen policy further in coming months to ensure a sustained economic turnaround.

China’s overall trade surplus is seen to have expanded to $7.05 billion in March from $4.08 billion the previous month, according to the Reuters poll.

(Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Barbara Fialho Wins Day With Racy Lingerie Throwback Shot

Barbara Fialho absolutely won the day Friday when she shared a jaw-dropping throwback lingerie shot from her appearance in the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

The 31-year-old Victoria’s Secret model looked incredible strutting down the catwalk at the annual show wearing a metallic silver bra, matching underwear set and robe. (SLIDESHOW: 142 Times Josephine Skriver Barely Wore Anything)

She didn’t explain very much about the great picture and only captioned it, “I woke up like this today! @VictoriasSecret” (RELATED: Take A Look Back At Adriana Lima’s Career With Victoria’s Secret)

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The lingerie model’s social media account is always pure fire with some incredible snaps she’s shared from her past fashion photo shoots to her swimsuit-clad trips around the world. (RELATED: Celebrate National Selfie Day With The Hottest Selfies On Instagram [SLIDESHOW])

Here are a few that really stood out, including one clip of her rocking a black bikini on the runway and looking terrific. (SLIDESHOW: These Women On Instagram Hate Wearing Clothes)

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Not to mention, a handful she’s posted from her stunning appearances in the annual underwear show.

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Source: The Daily Caller

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Asian shares edge up to nine month high, European, Japan PMIs awaited

FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an electronic board showing the Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an electronic board showing the Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

April 18, 2019

By Daniel Leussink

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares were subdued on Thursday after a negative performance on Wall Street, with caution ahead of business surveys in Europe and Japan, and the Good Friday and Easter holidays keeping investors on the sidelines.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.08 percent, trading just below its highest since late July 2018 brushed on Wednesday.

Australian shares advanced a quarter of a percent while Japan’s Nikkei was a shade lower.

“We’re in this kind of hiatus in the global economy,” said Chris Weston, head of research at foreign exchange brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne.

“People are starting to believe that we’re going to see better times in the second quarter and probably into the third quarter as well, and that perhaps the first quarter has been that trough.”

Wall Street shares ended in the red on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.2 percent as a drop in healthcare equities outweighed upbeat economic data from the United States and China.

The U.S. trade deficit fell to an eight-month low in February as imports from China plunged, data on Wednesday showed.

Separate figures from China earlier in the day showed the world’s second-largest economy grew at a steady 6.4 percent pace in the first quarter, defying forecasts for a slowdown. Attention is now turning to how much more stimulus Beijing will apply without triggering more financial risks.

Investors’ immediate focus turned to the release of Purchasing Managers Indexes (PMIs) for the manufacturing and service sectors in Europe later on Thursday to provide more clues on the strength of the euro zone economy.

“It’s going to be interesting to see if we see some stabilization there in line with what we’ve been seeing in the stabilization in the Chinese data flow,” said Pepperstone’s Weston.

A flash manufacturing reading will also be released for Japan.

YEN NEAR 2019 LOW

Market participants are also eyeing signs of progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations.

Washington and Beijing set a tentative timeline for a fresh round of face-to-face meetings ahead of a possible signing ceremony in late May or early June, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Attorney General William Barr is set to hold a news conference at 1330 GMT to discuss the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race.

“The lack of love for the yen, I suppose, is just telling us that people aren’t seeing this as a general risk event,” said Pepperstone’s Weston.

“It’s probably worth keeping a beady eye in case something really does come out that shocks market into life.”

In the currency market, the safe-haven yen was slightly up at 112.00 yen per dollar, sitting just above a near four-month low of 112.17 brushed overnight.

The euro ticked up to $1.1297, while the Australian dollar was 0.1 percent lower at $0.7173 ahead of job data (0130 GMT).

The dollar index held steady at 97.019 after ending the previous session basically unchanged.

In commodity markets, oil prices were slightly lower as U.S. government data overnight showed inventories drew down less than an industry report had suggested on Tuesday.

U.S. crude was last down 8 cents at $63.68 a barrel, while global benchmark Brent crude futures dipped 7 cents to $71.55.

Spot gold held steady at $1,274.60 per ounce, hovering near its lowest for the year.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Honda to recall about 1 million vehicles in the US with Takata airbags

89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva
The Honda logo is displayed at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

March 12, 2019

(Reuters) – Honda Motor Co said on Tuesday its American unit will recall about 1.1 million Acura and Honda vehicles in the United States to fix a defect in Takata airbags in driver’s seat.

The company said https://hondanews.com/channels/corporate-recalls/releases/statement-by-american-honda-regarding-recall-of-takata-desiccated-replacement-driver-front-airbag-inflators it is aware of one injury linked to a defect in the airbag that may cause the airbag to rupture when deployed in a crash.

Free recall repairs would begin immediately in the United States with replacement parts made by alternate suppliers, Honda said.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

Source: OANN

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Volvo’s Polestar joins electric car race with rival to Tesla 3

Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer of Polestar speaks during a launch event in Shanghai
Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer of Polestar speaks during a launch event in Shanghai, China October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Adam Jourdan

February 27, 2019

By Esha Vaish

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Volvo Cars’ luxury performance brand Polestar unveiled online its first fully electric sedan on Wednesday, with a price and driving range to rival Tesla’s mass market Model 3.

The Polestar 2 will cost about 59,900 euros ($68,100) for its launch edition and can be driven for around 275 miles before it needs recharging – broadly in line with the Model 3’s current price in Europe of 58,800 euros and 260 miles range.

The Model 3 and Polestar 2 are cheaper than most of the electric models launched by traditional premium carmakers so far, as Tesla and Polestar bet mass market customers are on the verge of adopting battery technology. Both have also promised even lower prices later on.

Polestar’s launch comes as Tesla is trying to ramp up Model 3 sales in Europe and China, where recent government subsidies and programs are boosting the take up of electric vehicles. A cut in subsidies in the United States, in contrast, in dampening demand in the Californian start-up’s home market.

Tesla was dealt a setback this month after influential U.S. magazine Consumer Reports withdrew its endorsement for the Model 3, citing reliability problems. Analysts say Polestar has strong engineering as it is built on the Volvo platform.

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told Reuters he hoped to sell “north of” 50,000 Polestar 2s in the 2-3 years after deliveries start from the first half of 2020, but said how much production capacity the company sets up would depend on market conditions.

“If the market develops fine, I don’t think the production volume will be the limitation. It depends much more on how the car resonates with the market, how the market develops and how the tariffs develops,” he said.

Carmakers including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are beginning deliveries of premium electric cars unveiled over the past year as they try to muscle in on a market that Tesla has dominated so far.

Securing the electric market has become increasingly important as demand for traditional combustion engine vehicles slows in China and Europe, partly due to tariffs stemming from Washington’s trade war with Beijing.

Although electric carmakers have also been affected, with Tesla having adjusted Model 3 prices in China after tariffs, Ingenlath said he expected electric sales to be supported by government subsidies and as the market grows from a low base.

Electric vehicle sales forecasts support this view.

Polestar 2 is the first of five fully electric vehicles that Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Geely, has promised.

The car will be available for online order initially in China, the United States and Canada as well as six European launch markets, and Ingenlath said he expected the three continents to each account for roughly a third of sales.

Volvo, which owns half of Polestar with the rest held by its parent Geely, said earlier this year it was talking to investors about raising funds to support Polestar’s electrification costs. Ingenlath said it was too early to give an update on how that was progressing.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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After weeks of protests, Algeria PM starts talks on new government

Demonstrators stand atop of a building during a protest over President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's decision to postpone elections and extend his fourth term in office, in Algiers
Demonstrators stand atop of a building during a protest over President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's decision to postpone elections and extend his fourth term in office, in Algiers, Algeria March 15, 2019.REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

March 17, 2019

By Lamine Chikhi and Hamid Ould Ahmed

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s newly-appointed prime minister has started talks to form a new government, the state news agency reported on Sunday, in a move designed to appease protesters demanding President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika and his inner circle step down.

The new cabinet will include experts without political affiliation and will “reflect the demographics of the Algerian society”, APS quoted an official source as saying.

The aim is to “show willingness to establish a government of great openness”.

Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui is unlikely to defuse anger on the streets by kicking off talks on a new administration.

Algerians, who have been demonstrating for over three weeks, have rejected overtures by Bouteflika, who has reversed a decision to stand for another term after 20 years in power.

“The new government will fall in 24 hours as long as it lacks legitimacy and popular support,” said Fodil Boumala, one of the people protesters have chosen to spearhead popular pressure against what they see as an authoritarian system.

Bouteflika stopped short of relinquishing office and said he would stay on until a new constitution is adopted, meaning he will likely remain in power for some time.

Algerians have previously heard promises from Bouteflika, who has hinted at wide ranging political reform and steps to improve an economy which has offered many Algerians few opportunities despite the country’s oil and natural gas wealth.

Protesters have grown tired of the same ruling elite, veterans of the 1954-1962 war of independence against France, the military, intelligence agencies and big businessmen.

Algerians have made it clear they will only settle for new leaders who can improve living standards, deliver greater freedoms and dismantle a Soviet-style bureaucracy that has discouraged investors.

On Friday, hundreds of thousands of people staged the biggest demonstration since the unrest began. Some carried banners saying “No to Bedoui”.

Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. Protesters say he is no longer fit for office.

The president has been losing allies in recent days since returning from medical treatment in Switzerland, including senior members of the ruling National Liberation Front party, known by its French acronym FLN.

Protests have been mostly peaceful, with security forces showing restraint. The military, which is expected to keep playing its influential behind-the-scenes role as a power broker, has stayed in the barracks.

(Reporting By Algeria Newsroom; Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by Toby Chopra, William Maclean)

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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