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Snooker: ‘Rocket’ O’Sullivan blasts to 1,000th century break

FILE PHOTO: Snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan poses after receiving an OBE from the Prince of Wales at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London
FILE PHOTO: Snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan poses after receiving an OBE from the Prince of Wales at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London, Britain May 6, 2016. REUTERS/John Stillwell/Pool/File Photo

March 10, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Ronnie O’Sullivan recorded a memorable snooker landmark on Sunday when he became the first player ever to compile 1,000 career century breaks en route to winning the Players Championship final in Preston.

The English five-times world champion, the most gifted and arguably greatest cueman the game has known, recorded the three 100-plus breaks in his 10-4 victory over Australian Neil Robertson that he needed to reach the milestone.

The player known throughout snooker as “the Rocket” made breaks of 116 and 105 as he shot into a 7-2 lead at the end of the first session before achieving the landmark, fittingly, in the final frame with a 134 to retain his title.

A measure of the 43-year-old’s achievement in his 50th career final is that Scottish players Stephen Hendry (775) and John Higgins (745) are the only others in the history of snooker to have passed 700.

“It’s great for snooker fans all over the world, but those in Preston tonight, they’re lucky,” O’Sullivan said afterwards. “It’s a great pleasure for me.”

Typically, the master showman O’Sullivan marked the landmark moment in style.

As he prepared to pot the red ball that would take him to the thousandth century, the ambidextrous player switched to stroke the ball left-handed into the center of the pocket.

It was his 35th title, achieved at the same Preston Guild Hall venue where he won his first in 1993 when he beat Hendry in the UK Championship final.

(Writing by Ken Ferris; Editing by Ian Chadband)

Source: OANN

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Ocasio-Cortez raises eyebrows after comparing Trump's border wall to Berlin Wall

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised eyebrows after comparing President Trump’s border wall plans to the Berlin Wall separating communist Germany from the free world.

The New York Democrat made her remarks during a livestream for supporters on Friday, where she spoke out about the scrutiny she received ever since she won the election last year and dethroned top Democrat Joe Crowley.

BILL DE BLASIO CORRECTS OCASIO-CORTEZ'S CLAIM ABOUT SPENDING AMAZON TAX BREAK MONEY

“No matter how you feel about the wall, I think it’s a moral abomination,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the issue of the border wall that Trump has been pushing for since getting into office.

“I think it’s like the Berlin Wall. I think it’s like any other wall designed to separate human beings and block out people who are running away from the humanitarian disasters. I just think it’s wrong,” she added.

The Berlin Wall, which became the most notable border of the “Iron Curtain” during the Cold War, was built following the Soviet Union’s recommendation amid an exodus of Germans living under the communist rule in East Germany following World War II and the partition of the country.

The wall, guarded by soldiers on the East’s side, was a way to block the East Germans from fleeing communism to West Berlin and West Germany, a free and Democratic country. Multiple people were shot by the soldiers in their desperate efforts to escape East Berlin.

“Dear @AOC: Let me serve as your private professor here. The Berlin Wall was meant to keep people inside the socialist/communist utopia and stop them from fleeing to the decadent capitalist west. So as the New Millennial Lenin, you might want to refrain from using this example,” Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist at the John Molson School of Business, tweeted.

NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, 14 OTHER STATES SUE TRUMP IN NINTH CIRCUIT OVER EMERGENCY DECLARATION

“People who compare the US-Mexico border wall to the Berlin wall failed or slept through the easiest history classes in middle school and high school,” wrote another Twitter user.

President Trump’s proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, meanwhile, has been touted as a deterrent against drug and human trafficking, in addition as a way to reduce illegal immigration numbers.

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The White House is planning to move $8 billion in currently appropriated or available funds toward construction of the wall. Of that, $3 billion could be diverted with help from the national emergency declaration.

Source: Fox News Politics

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King: Katahdin Woods and Waters' existence is settled

Sen. Angus King said after a meeting with the acting interior secretary in Bangor that the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument's existence is settled.

King, who met Friday with Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, said there's a line for the monument in the president's budget submitted last week.

The Bangor Daily News reports that Bernhardt spent Thursday touring parts of Acadia National Park. The Katahdin Woods and Watters discussion on Friday included some business owners from the Katahdin region.

The Trump administration previously reviewed the monument created on land donated by the family of Burt's Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby.

The land includes a 17-mile loop road with views of Mount Katahdin; trails for hiking, mountain biking and snowmobiling; and paddling on the Penobscot River's East Branch.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangordailynews.com

Source: Fox News National

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From molecules to electrons; can Big Oil become Big Power?

FILE PHOTO: Power lines connecting pylons of high-tension electricity are seen in Montalto Di Castro
FILE PHOTO: Power lines connecting pylons of high-tension electricity are seen in Montalto Di Castro, Italy, August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo

April 4, 2019

By Ron Bousso and Susanna Twidale

LONDON (Reuters) – European oil companies have started to address what they worry may one day be an existential threat to their business — the end of a century of oil demand growth in a low carbon world.

The emergence of the electric vehicle and demand among investors and consumers for cleaner energy to limit climate change has pushed the European side of Big Oil to take baby steps towards refocusing their businesses from oil production and refining to electricity via natural gas and renewables.

Their funding for oil exploration dwarfs any alternatives, but they are buying up power generation and retail utilities to integrate with their long-standing natural gas and emerging renewables ventures.

Relatively small investments in electricity aim to help them ride the energy transition by offering households and businesses cleaner power than coal can provide and giving their petrol stations a green edge with EV charging.

Testing an electrification route also helps meet demands from shareholders that they “future proof” their businesses.

The International Energy Agency predicts regulatory changes to curb carbon emissions will mean demand for electricity will grow much faster than that for oil as Asia’s power-hungry middle class expands. The industry sees oil demand peaking any time from 2020 to 2040.

Diversification is not new to the oil and gas business and has a patchy record at best. Oil majors have bought stakes in coal, household cleaning, pet food, nutrition, shrimp trading, nappies, hotels and steel, with limited success. Critics say power will not deliver the profits the oil and gas companies need to sustain the large dividends their investors are used to.

BP lost billions in its first foray into renewables 20 years ago when it rebranded itself “Beyond Petroleum”. It closed its solar manufacturing division in 2011 and tried to get rid of its wind farms but says it now has a more successful model.

“Most of the things we do today are linked to our core capabilities,” Dev Sanyal, head of BP’s alternative energy division, told Reuters. “If you can start combining molecules and electrons in an integrated offer you start creating something of greater interest.”

PROFIT

Profit is the first challenge when joining the dots between renewables, gas-fired plants and utilities facing growing competition in markets that are fragmenting fast. None of the companies break down their results from renewables or power.

BP returned to solar in 2017 with a $200 million investment in UK solar generator Lightsource and dipped a toe into UK electricity retail the same year by buying a 25 percent stake in Pure Planet, a small challenger brand supplying some 100,000 customers with renewable electricity.

“The renewables business last year was free cash flow generative… we’ve been moving in a positive trajectory over the past three years,” Sanyal said. “Today we have industrial customers and over time there could be retail customers.”

He said BP plans to expand its alternative energy capacity – the biggest among the majors, according to CDP, a climate-focused research provider that works with major institutional investors. Gazprom’s large hydropower interests put it in second place ahead of Total and then Shell, CDP calculations show.

On retail, the French and Italians are ahead.

French giant Total ‘s purchase of Direct Energie last year gave it a portfolio of gas fired and renewable energy power plants and a platform to challenge state-controlled utility EDF .

It is targeting seven million customers in France and Belgium by 2022 and said in a recent investor presentation it aims to make low carbon electricity 15 to 20 percent of its total offering by 2040.

Eni says it is now Italy’s second largest electricity producer with six power plants, large electricity trading business and two million customers.

Shell says it wants to become the biggest electricity provider and over the past year has made a number of investments including a Brazilian gas-fired power plant and a UK utility.

Last week it renamed that utility Shell Energy and switched all 710,000 customers to 100 percent renewable electricity, offering them discounts on petrol and electric car charging in its petrol stations.

Mark Gainsborough, head of the Anglo-Dutch company’s new energy division, told Reuters it aims to grow its retail customer base in Britain.

Shell looked into acquiring the retail division of rival SSE in recent months but discussions made little progress due to concerns over the government’s decision to cap most domestic energy prices, industry sources said, an example of the risks facing power markets around the world. Both Shell and SSE declined to comment.

In a sign of the growing competition among the majors for power assets, Total is considering a rival bid to Shell for Dutch energy company Eneco, according to sources close to the matter. Total declined to comment.

Eneco is valued at around 3 billion euros and has 2.2 million customers and Shell’s Gainsborough said it could provide a template for a power business model.

“The model aspiration is to find an integrated mode with positions in trading and supply and having customer books,” Gainsborough said.

CAUTION

Former BP CEO John Browne, who drove the London-based company’s first push into renewables, said much lower production costs for wind and solar projects and a greater understanding about the future growth of power markets had changed the picture dramatically since then.

“The question is whether you have the skills, the people and the determination to make this work and are you happy that in reality the returns you make are better than the returns you make in your other business,” Browne told Reuters.

Returns on solar and wind projects are typically around 5-10 percent, according to climate research provider CDP, half of those from many oil and gas projects.

So far the oil majors have committed a small fraction of their annual investment to low-carbon technologies as they balance shareholder demands for returns and innovation.

Shell and Equinor plan to put between 5 and 6 percent of their capex investments into clean energy technologies, while Eni is targeting around 4 percent and Total and BP plan about 3 percent each, CDP research showed.

Those numbers rise with investments in gas-fired power generation but are still small enough to swallow if rivals make things difficult, particularly at the retail end, where they include supermarkets, fintech startups and Amazon.

“If at the end of the day it doesn’t work these companies have deep pockets and would be able to spin off power divisions,” said Munir Hassan, Head of Clean Energy at law firm CMS in the UK.

The differential in returns from power versus oil and gas had not changed much, he said, but there was a new impetus because perceptions among shareholders and their children had.

“Some of the oil companies will succeed,” Hassan said. “But I wonder whether they will find it more painful than they expected.”

(Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: OANN

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New premier urges Algerians to accept dialogue

Algeria's newly appointed prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, speaks during a joint news conference with deputy prime minister Ramtane Lamamra, in Algiers
Algeria's newly appointed prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, speaks during a joint news conference with deputy prime minister Ramtane Lamamra, in Algiers, Algeria March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

March 14, 2019

By Lamine Chikhi

(Reuters) – Algeria’s new prime minister said on Thursday he would form a temporary government of technocrats and others to work toward political change in response to weeks of street protests, and he urged the opposition to join in a dialogue.

Noureddine Bedoui laid out his plans at a news conference in Algiers three days after ailing President Abelaziz Bouteflika announced his decision not to run for a fifth term that would have extended his 20 years in power.

Bouteflika’s offer came after tens of thousands of Algerians staged demonstrations demanding an overhaul of a stagnant political system dominated by veterans of the 1954-62 war of independence.

However, he stopped short of stepping down and many activists fear his move may be a ruse.

Bedoui, who replaced Ahmed Ouyahia on Monday, said the new government would be formed early next week and would rule for “a short period of time”.

It would be technocratic but also include young Algerians involved in the protest movement, including women, he said.

An independent commission will oversee the next presidential election, he said.

The prime minister urged the opposition to accept dialogue. But lawyers and activists who protesters have chosen to lead the drive for reforms are in no mood to compromise and have said they will not negotiate, at least for now.

The government on Wednesday declared itself ready for talks, saying it sought a ruling system based on “the will of the people” after opposition groups rejected proposed reforms as inadequate.

Bouteflika, who has not been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, promised on Monday to work for a new era that would cater to all Algerians.

But the initiative by the veteran revolutionary, who also delayed elections set for April and said a conference would be held to discuss political change, has failed to satisfy many Algerians who want power to move to a younger generation with fresh ideas.

Tens of thousands of people from all social classes have demonstrated over the last three weeks against corruption, unemployment and the ruling class.

The protests have shaken up a long moribund political scene marked by decades of social and economic malaise and behind-the-scenes power-broking by an influential military establishment.

Young Algerians have no bond with the independence war except through their grandparents. Their priorities are to find jobs and better services that the North African country is failing to provide despite its oil and gas wealth.

(Reporting by Algiers bureau, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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Singapore PM’s nephew loses appeal over papers in high-profile contempt case

Li Shengwu who faces contempt of court proceedings in his homeland at Harvard University
FILE PHOTO - Li Shengwu, nephew of Singapore's prime minister, who faces contempt of court proceedings in his homeland as he studies economics at Harvard University, is seen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. on August 12, 2017. Picture taken on August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Tim McLaughlin

April 1, 2019

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A Singapore court on Monday dismissed an appeal by the prime minister’s nephew regarding a contempt of court case that has stirred a bitter public feud among the city-state’s first family.

The attorney general’s office (AGC) began proceedings against Li Shengwu, an assistant professor at Harvard University, in 2017 over a Facebook post in which he said the Singapore government is “very litigious and has a pliant court system”.

Li’s appeal argued the AGC was wrong to serve him court documents outside Singapore. If upheld, it could have given Li’s legal team the chance to suspend the case against him.

Li’s Facebook post came amid a public feud among the children of the island’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, including the current prime minister.

Li’s father, Lee Hsien Yang, and his aunt have accused their older brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of going against their father’s wish to have the family house demolished and trying to use it for political gains.

The prime minister has questioned whether his father wanted the home to be knocked down and he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.

(Reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Neil Fullick)

Source: OANN

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Branson’s Virgin Galactic takes another step toward space tourism

Virgin Galactic rocket plane, the WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane, with SpaceShipTwo passenger craft takes off from Mojave Air and Space Port
Virgin Galactic rocket plane, the WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane, with SpaceShipTwo passenger craft takes off from Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, U.S., February 22, 2019. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

February 22, 2019

By Elizabeth Culliford

MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) – A Virgin Galactic rocket plane on Friday soared to the edge of space with a test passenger for the first time, nudging British billionaire Richard Branson’s company closer to its goal of suborbital flights for space tourists.

Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, who will train future space tourists, joined pilots onboard SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity to evaluate the customer experience and cabin.

“There’s a saying in aviation that the pilots have the best seat in the house, with the view up there. But today, I’m not sure,” pilot David Mackay said after the flight, referring to what Moses could see and do.

The WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane took off soon after 8 a.m. local time (11 a.m. ET) from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. It released the SpaceShipTwo passenger craft at an altitude of about 44,000 feet and then the spaceship was catapulted to 55 miles above Earth.

The reusable SpaceShipTwo craft previously flew to an altitude of more than 51 miles in December 2018, marking the first U.S. commercial human flight beyond the atmosphere since the end of America’s shuttle program in 2011.

Hundreds of spectators, including Virgin Galactic ticket holders and CEO George Whitesides, gathered on a clear morning in the desert to watch this latest test flight. The flight was postponed from Wednesday due to winds.

Beth Moses called it an “indescribable ride,” and said “Richard, you’re going to love it.” 

Branson is racing against competitors such as Blue Origin, the space business of Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring tourists into space. Branson has said he plans to be the first passenger on SpaceShipTwo’s first commercial flight in mid-2019.

More than 600 people from 58 countries, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber, have paid or put down deposits to fly on one of Virgin’s suborbital flights. Some of Virgin Galactic’s ticket holders have been waiting over 14 years for their trip.

A 90-minute flight, which allows passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth’s curvature, costs $250,000. Whitesides said he expected that price would initially increase before going down.

After he founded the company in 2004, Branson’s ambitious timeline for taking customers into space suffered delays and a fatal setback when the original SpaceShipTwo crashed on a test flight in 2014 that killed the co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot.

The company’s two latest test flights mark the only times a crewed spaceship built to carry private passengers has reached what NASA defines as the boundary of space.

Bezos’ New Shepard rocket has already reached the Karman line, an internationally recognized space boundary at 62 miles above the Earth and a higher point than reached by SpaceShipTwo, but Blue Origin’s trips did not carry humans.

SpaceX, which has been ferrying cargo to and from the International Space Station for NASA, also aims to break into space tourism. Last year it named Japanese fashion magnate Yusaku Maezawa as its first customer on a voyage around the moon, tentatively scheduled for 2023.

(Editing by Edward Tobin)

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)

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