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Disabled man seeks $13.5M after convictions overturned

Four years after Richard Lapointe's murder conviction was overturned and he was released from prison, Connecticut officials continue to insist the mentally disabled man brutally killed his wife's grandmother in 1987 as they now fight his demand for $13.5 million in state compensation for the 26 years of freedom he lost.

The compensation battle is playing out before the state claims commissioner, with Lapointe's lawyers saying DNA testing exonerated him and state lawyers arguing it did not. It's not clear when Commissioner Christy Scott will rule, and any approval of a payout must be approved by the state legislature.

"The nightmare continues," said Paul Casteleiro, a New Jersey lawyer representing Lapointe. "The case and the facts border on the preposterous yet they maintain he is guilty. They accomplished what they wanted to do — destroy this guy's life."

Lapointe, now 73, is suffering from dementia and living under 24-hour care at a nursing center, said Casteleiro, who works for Centurion Ministries, which advocates for the wrongly convicted.

Lapointe was convicted in 1992 of killing his wife's 88-year-old grandmother, Bernice Martin, who was found stabbed, raped and strangled in her burning Manchester apartment in 1987. A judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of release.

His case became a cause celebre, receiving widespread publicity as advocates for the mentally disabled and other supporters rallied to prove his innocence. Writers Arthur Miller and William Styron were among those who protested the conviction.

Key evidence for the prosecution included Lapointe's confessions during a 9 1/2-hour interrogation by Manchester police. Defense lawyers said Lapointe suffers from Dandy-Walker syndrome, a congenital brain malformation that made him gullible and vulnerable to giving a false confession.

The state Supreme Court overturned Lapointe's convictions and ordered a new trial in 2015, saying he was deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors failed to disclose notes by a police officer that may have supported his alibi defense that he was home at the time the fire began in Martin's apartment. He was freed on bail in April 2015, and prosecutors later decided not to retry him.

Lapointe's lawyers have argued that DNA testing performed after the convictions were overturned excluded him from committing the crimes and proved his innocence.

In documents filed with the claims commissioner last month, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Beizer responded that witnesses for the state will testify "the DNA testing is inconclusive, does not establish the claimant's innocence and would still allow for the claimant to be convicted.

"It remains the state's belief that the claimant is responsible for the killing of Ms. Martin," Beizer wrote.

State law allows for compensation for wrongful imprisonment, if charges are dismissed on grounds of innocence or wrongdoing by officials that contributed to the conviction and imprisonment.

Prosecutor David Zagaja said that while the "touch DNA" tests did not show evidence of Lapointe's presence at the crime scene, that doesn't mean he wasn't there.

Zagaja said the tests turned up several different partial profiles, making it appear that the crime scene was contaminated by several people, likely first responders, forensic experts and other officials.

"The problem is everyone's hands had been on those items," he said. "The integrity of the evidence is gone. It's just not there. The state is not of the opinion that this is an innocent man."

Besides the confessions, Zagaja said other proof included Lapointe suggesting shortly after Martin's death that she was raped, before anyone knew she had been sexually assaulted.

Source: Fox News National

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Old Liberals Go Nuts at Anti-Trump Protest

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Trump announces change at Homeland Security: Nielsen Fired, CBP boss McAleenan in #MAGAFirstNews with @PeterBoykin

Trump announces change at Homeland Security: Nielsen Fired, CBP boss McAleenan in #MAGAFirstNews with @PeterBoykin NIELSEN OUT AT HOMELAND SECURITY: President Trump announced Sunday that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen "will be leaving her position" after 16 months in the job. Nielsen tweeted Sunday evening that she had submitted her resignation. ... The president said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will replace Nielsen as ... See More acting secretary, tweeting, "I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!" Nielsen met with Trump at the White House Sunday amid an ongoing influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that has been taxing America's immigration system and sparking frustration within the administration. The Associated Press, citing two sources, reported that Nielsen had been frustrated with the difficulty of getting other departments to help deal with the growing number of families crossing the southwestern border. -- Kevin McAleenan, new acting DHS boss, has long record in border security -- Former acting ICE Director Tom Homan: Trump made the right move picking McAleenan for DHS DEMS POUNCE AFTER CHANGE AT DHS: Democrats – particularly those eyeing the White House in 2020 -- were quick to respond Sunday after President Trump announced the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and the appointment of Customs and Border Protection chief Kevin McAleenan as acting head of DHS. ... “About time,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted, adding that in her view, Nielsen’s “legacy of tearing innocent families apart will follow her for the rest of her life — and she should be ashamed of the role she played. She was completely unqualified to lead @DHS — and that's why I voted against confirming her.” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., wrote that, “Kirstjen Nielsen misled the American people and defended Trump's inhumane policy of separating children from their parents. It was long past time for her to go.” -- Ex-Dem staffer admits doxxing five GOP senators during Kavanaugh hearings -- Romney blasts House Democrats' 'moronic' maneuvers to try getting Trump tax returns

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Oil near 2019 highs amid OPEC supply cuts, but rising U.S. output weighs

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield
FILE PHOTO: A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices hovered near 2019 highs on Wednesday, supported by OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, but capped by soaring U.S. production and expectations of an economic slowdown.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $55.93 per barrel at 0042 GMT, down 16 cents from their last settlement, but not far off their 2019 high of $56.33 reached earlier this week.

International Brent crude futures had yet to trade. They also hit a 2019 high of $66.83 per barrel this week.

Prices have been driven up by supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC’s – and the world’s – biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia is expected to reduce shipments of light crude oil to Asia in March as part of the effort to tighten markets.

OPEC as well as some non-affiliated producers such as Russia agreed late last year to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to prevent a large supply overhang from swelling.

“We have lowered Saudi crude oil output in line with announcements … (and) are now assuming that Saudi Arabia will produce in the first three quarters of 2019 less than the 10.31 million bpd target it agreed to at the 7 December OPEC, non-OPEC meeting,” French bank BNP Paribas said in a note.

Because of the cuts, BNP said it expected oil prices “to rally through Q3 2019”, with Brent to average $73 per barrel by then and WTI to average $66.

Another key oil price driver has been U.S. sanctions on oil exporters Iran and Venezuela.

Despite the sanctions, Iran’s crude exports were higher than expected in January, averaging around 1.25 million bpd, according to Refinitiv ship tracking data. Many analysts had expected Iran oil exports to drop below 1 million bpd after the imposition of U.S. sanctions last November.

Standing against the supply cuts and sanctions is U.S. crude output, which soared by more than 2 million bpd in 2018 to a record 11.9 million bpd, thanks to booming shale oil production, which the Energy Information Administration on Tuesday said was expected to keep rising.

BNP Paribas said surging U.S. output would feed into lower oil prices toward the end of the year, with Brent to dip to an average of $67 a barrel by the fourth quarter and WTI to average $61.

“U.S. oil production growth, driven by shale, will be increasingly exported in greater volumes to international markets while the global economy is expected to witness a synchronized slowdown in growth,” the bank said.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford)

Source: OANN

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Boeing profit falls 21 percent after 737 MAX groundings

FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

April 24, 2019

(Reuters) – Boeing Co reported a 21 percent fall in first-quarter profit on Wednesday and suspended its 2019 outlook as the world’s largest planemaker worked to get its 737 MAX jets back in the air after two deadly accidents.

The company said it would be issuing a new forecast in the future when it has more clarity around the issues surrounding the 737 MAX.

Excluding certain items, Boeing said its core earnings fell to $1.99 billion, or $3.16 per share, in the quarter ended March 31 from $2.51 billion, or $3.64 per share, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Rigby and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee: I 'Regret' Wearing Confederate Uniform in College

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was 17 when he joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity at Auburn University, which every spring held an "Old South" party where he and other members dressed in Confederate uniforms.

The fraternity has since ended the tradition, and Lee, four decades removed from his undergraduate days at the Alabama university, says he regrets attending and wearing the uniform, and has come to see his participation in the event differently.

A spokeswoman for Lee confirmed on Thursday that Auburn's 1980 yearbook includes a photo of the governor and another man in Confederate uniforms.

"While I never intentionally acted in an insensitive way, with 40 years of hindsight, I have come to realize that was insensitive and have come to regret that," the Republican governor said.

The scandal involving two Virginia politicians who once wore blackface has brought renewed scrutiny to the past behavior of elected officials around the country when it comes to race. Lee's comments came during interviews The Associated Press conducted with governors across the country following the scandal in Virginia. Comments from Lee were first reported Wednesday by The Tennessean.

Lee, who was sworn in as governor in January, spoke to the AP briefly about how he has come to view his actions. He later said through a spokeswoman that he has never worn blackface or attended parties where others were doing so, nor has he taken part in other activities or organizations since college that would be considered racially insensitive or offensive.

Kappa Alpha's annual "Old South" parade at Auburn ended in 1992, said university spokesman Preston Sparks. The fraternity's national organization, meanwhile, prohibited the use of Confederate flags at any chapter in 2001 and the wearing of uniforms and parades in 2010, a spokesman told the AP.

In the 1980 yearbook photo, Lee is wearing a Confederate soldier uniform and is standing with a woman in an antebellum dress. Lee's office said it did not immediately know the identity of the woman.

Another unidentified woman and man are also in the photo wearing the same kind of outfits.

Two other photos with different people in Confederate clothing are on the page, which has the caption, "The South shall rise again, right Bill! When the band plays 'Dixie', a tear comes to our eyes. I'd do anything Lee, but she comes first."

The page also explains that Kappa Alpha was based on ideals that "constituted the frame and fabric of Southern Culture" and that its founding fathers saw in Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee "chivalry, valor, loyalty and reverence for womankind."

Auburn's yearbook from 1978, Lee's freshman year, called the party sponsored by Lee's Kappa Alpha fraternity "one of the biggest social events on campus."

It described the festivities this way: "Preliminary parties last for a week and finally culminate on Saturday night. The sound of rebel yells and horses' hooves can be heard as the KA's parade down College Street - reminiscent of one of the South's hardest, yet grandest times."

The yearbook noted that Kappa Alpha also sponsored an event called Convivium, a celebration of Robert E. Lee's birthday. The yearbook said he was "exemplary of the Southern gentleman" and represented attributes "that KA strives to uphold — to mold leaders not simply followers."

Old South parties were a Kappa Alpha tradition on other campuses, including at the University of Georgia in 1983, when Georgia's current governor, Republican Brian Kemp, was a student. Kemp was a member of a different fraternity, and there is nothing in his yearbooks to suggest he attended the parties.

Kemp did not respond to the AP survey.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey attended Auburn a decade earlier than Lee. Her sorority's 1967 yearbook photo shows five members with black masks portraying "minstrels" in a rush skit, but Ivey said she is not in the photograph. Its caption reads, "Alpha Gam Minstrels welcome rushees aboard their showboat."

The photo is on the same page as a description of the sorority and the accomplishments of its members. The page notes that Ivey was vice president of the student body.

Ivey, a Republican, said she did not recall the skit.

"When I was shown that picture, it had to be a rush skit or something at the sorority at some point in time, but no, I didn't remember it," she said. "I certainly wasn't a part of it."

Ivey said "there is no place" for blackface and that she had never worn it. When asked if she had ever made a remark perceived as racially insensitive, she replied that she hoped not.

Source: NewsMax America

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German, US military police oversee boy’s rescue from shaft

Police say they have rescued a 17-month-old boy three hours after he fell into a three-meter (nearly 10-foot) shaft in western Germany.

Rescue workers were called on Monday afternoon after the boy lifted a cover from the empty conduit while playing with his brother and fell inside the shaft.

German and U.S. military police helped oversee the operation in the village of Erzenhausen, which is near the United States' Ramstein Air Base.

Fire personnel used a small excavator to uncover the conduit as far as possible and then opened it up to free the toddler. The child was taken to a local hospital for observation and reported to be uninjured.

Source: Fox News World

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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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