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Germany to inject more money into Deutsche Bahn rail network: Bild

FILE PHOTO: The front of a German railway Deutsche Bahn AG ICE high speed train is seen at the train station in Hanau
FILE PHOTO: The front of a German railway Deutsche Bahn AG ICE high speed train is seen at the train station in Hanau, Germany, November 23, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

March 24, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government wants to inject some 50 billion euros ($57 billion) into upgrading the national rail network over the next decade, mass-selling Bild newspaper reported on Sunday.

State-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn is under pressure to improve its services and reduce train delays that have become an irritation for commuters.

The company is also facing financial strain. It has a debt mountain of 20 billion euros and its financing deficit is expected to hit 5 billion euros by 2023.

Deutsche Bahn has a deficit of 1.2 billion euros a year in costs for maintaining the rail network and Bild said the finance ministry wants to boost maintenance funds to 4.6 billion euros starting next year from 3.5 billion presently.

That amount should rise to 5.6 billion euros a year between 2025 and 2029, Bild said in an unsourced report.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said he could not immediately comment on the report as negotiations with the government were ongoing. The Finance Ministry could not be reached for comment.

Net profit for the company fell by one third in 2018 to 540 million euros, people familiar with Deutsche Bahn’s financial results said last week.

($1 = 0.8840 euros)

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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‘This is New Zealand’s darkest day’: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responds to Christchurch attacks

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been praised for her leadership in the wake of the horror that has gripped Christchurch following a terrorist attack that killed 49 people.

A gunman opened fire at two mosques in the city and planted explosive devices in two vehicles, before being arrested by police along with two associates.

Dozens are dead and scores are seriously injured, in what Ms. Ardern described as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.

CHRISTCHURCH RESIDENT RECALLS AIDING GUNSHOT VICTIM WHO FLED FROM MASS SHOOTING

The prime minister’s staunch rejection of the “extremist ideology” behind the attacks, which she said had “no place in New Zealand society”, was applauded by those watching events unfold from around the world.

Ms. Ardern said New Zealanders were not chosen for this act of terror because they condone racism but rather that they represent diversity, kindness, compassion and a refuge for those who need it.

“And those values, I can assure you, will not and cannot be shaken by this attack,” she said.

“You may have chosen us, but we utterly reject and condemn you.”

Those values shared by Kiwis meant there would be “the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology”, Ms. Ardern said.

“Many of those directly affected by this shooting may be migrants to New Zealand, they may even be refugees here.

AOC DRAWS IRE RIPPING ‘YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS’ AFTER CHRISTCHURCH MOSQUE SHOOTINGS

“They have chosen to make New Zealand their home. It is their home. They are us. The person who has perpetrated this violence against us is not. They have no place in New Zealand.

“There is no place in New Zealand for such extreme and unprecedented acts of violence.”

Ms. Ardern said the attacks on people in places of worship was abhorrent.

“It happened in a place where people should’ve been expressing their religious freedom, where they should’ve been safe,” she said.

“The people subject to this attack today, New Zealand is their home. They should be safe here.”

Ms. Ardern has been praised on social media for her response to the attacks, briefing the nation on developments in between attending briefings with security agencies.

“On an utterly devastating day, the tiniest ray of light in our prime minister’s words,” writer Rajorshi Chakraborti said.

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Australian media commentator Jamila Rizvi said: “If more politicians had her particular combination of intelligence, strength, clear-sightedness, and empathy, we’d inhabit a better world.”

A Kiwi known as Clementine also Tweeted: “Listening to Jacinda Ardern is comforting in a way I didn’t know I could be comforted by a politician. She condemns the ideology of those behind the terror attack and upholds our compassion.”

This article first appeared on news.com.au.

Source: Fox News World

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NHL roundup: Vasilevskiy sets saves mark in OT win over Caps

NHL: Tampa Bay Lightning at Washington Capitals
Mar 20, 2019; Washington, DC, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman (77) scores the game winning goal against the Washington Capitals during the overtime period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

March 21, 2019

Victor Hedman scored 3:01 into overtime, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made a franchise-record and career-high 54 saves as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals for the second time in five days, 5-4 on Wednesday night.

The old Lightning record for saves was 48, set by Ben Bishop in Jan. 19, 2014, and matched by Vasilevskiy on Dec. 13, 2018. Vasilevskiy was stellar at times, but he allowed Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov to tie the game with 52.6 seconds left in regulation.

The Lightning, though, prevailed for their sixth straight win — one game after clinching the Presidents’ Trophy with a victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Monday. Nikita Kucherov, the NHL leader with 119 points, scored twice during Tampa Bay’s four-goal second period.

Despite recording a franchise-high 58 shots, to Tampa Bay’s 28, Washington had its five-game home winning snapped and could not avenge a 6-3 road loss to the Lightning on Saturday.

Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 2

Auston Matthews and John Tavares each scored a goal and added an assist, and visiting Toronto held on to defeat Buffalo.

Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman also scored for the Maple Leafs, who won for only the second time in six games. Garret Sparks made 22 saves for the Maple Leafs, who swept the four-game season series between the teams.

Casey Mittelstadt and Alexander Nylander scored for the Sabres, who have lost eight of their past nine games (1-7-1). Carter Hutton was much busier than his counterpart, stopping 42 of 45 shots in Buffalo’s goal.

Canucks 7, Senators 4

Tanner Pearson and Bo Horvat both scored twice in three-point games while Loui Eriksson collected one goal and three assists as host Vancouver earned its third consecutive win in beating Ottawa.

Goalie Jacob Markstrom needed to make only 21 saves for Vancouver, which is on a 4-0-1 run and four points out of a playoff spot with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Max Veronneau, the prized product of Princeton University who signed with the Senators on March 12, put Ottawa on the board with his first career goal at 8:54 of the final frame. He was playing in his third NHL game. Anders Nilsson stopped 33 shots for Ottawa.

Jets 3, Ducks 0

Mark Scheifele scored an early goal, and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 29 saves as visiting Winnipeg earned a victory over Anaheim to get some breathing room atop the Central Division.

Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers added third-period goals for the Jets (44-25-4, 92 points), who are now three points ahead of the Nashville Predators in the division thanks to their four-game winning streak. The Jets’ magic number for clinching a playoff spot was reduced to five points.

The Jets held off the Ducks despite playing without defensemen Nathan Beaulieu, Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey. Winnipeg defenseman Joe Morrow did return Wednesday for his first game since Feb. 14 after recovering from a lower-body injury.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Police standoff on an Atlanta-area freeway halts traffic

A standoff with an armed man brought traffic on an Atlanta-area freeway to a standstill Friday until he was apparently taken into custody.

Video from a TV news helicopter showed police pulling the man from a car, apparently ending the confrontation that played out in the middle of Interstate 75.

More than a dozen police officers with guns drawn had filled four lanes of the highway as police confronted a motorist they said was armed and not cooperating with the officers. The showdown lasted more than an hour.

News photos showed that the man was alive as he was carried away by police. No injuries have been reported.

The ordeal began with a report of a robbery in the area of a Walmart a few miles away. Officers spotted a car matching the description and began following it, Marietta police spokesman Chuck McPhilamy said.

"He pulled over to the side of the interstate and then refused to exit the vehicle," McPhilamy said.

That led police to shut down all southbound lanes of I-75 just northwest of Atlanta.

"We had to do that for everyone's safety," McPhilamy said, as police used a telephone line to conduct an "off-and-on negotiation" with the motorist.

News photos showed an officer with a scoped rifle perched atop an armored vehicle and staring down at the suspect as police tried to resolve the situation.

Video from a news helicopter showed the armored vehicle nudging closer to the car as a drone hovered near the motorist's front windshield. Then, the drone flew rapidly skyward and out of the way as officers rushed toward the car and grabbed the motorist inside.

Traffic was backed up for miles. The standoff came on a particularly busy day on Atlanta highways as people were traveling through the city on their way to spring break destinations.

The situation unfolded near SunTrust Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves, but there was no home game at the stadium Friday.

Source: Fox News National

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Grieving New Zealand looks for lessons from Christchurch attack

People visit a memorial site for victims of Friday's shooting, in front of the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch
People visit a memorial site for victims of Friday's shooting, in front of the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

March 18, 2019

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – After days of intense grieving for New Zealand’s worst-ever mass shooting, attention began to turn to how the country’s gun laws need to change and what warning signs might have been missed ahead of a gunman’s attack on two mosques that killed 50 people.

Bodies of the victims of Friday’s attacks in Christchurch were being washed and prepared for burial in a Muslim ritual process, with teams of volunteers flown in from overseas to assist with the heavy workload.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her Cabinet had made in-principle decisions on changes to gun laws which she would announce next Monday, saying now was the time to act on tightening access to firearms.

Simon Bridges, leader of the opposition National Party, said he wanted to get details of the changes to see if there could be bipartisan support in Parliament. The National Party draws support from rural areas, where gun ownership is higher than in urban areas.

“We know that change is required. I’m willing to look at anything that is going to enhance our safety – that’s our position,” Bridges told TVNZ.

In addition to the 50 killed, dozens were wounded at the two mosques in the South Island city during Friday prayers.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist who was living in Dunedin, on New Zealand’s South Island, was charged with murder on Saturday. Tarrant was remanded without a plea and is due back in court on April 5, where police said he was likely to face more charges.

Andrew Little, the minister who oversees New Zealand’s intelligence agencies, said monitoring of online activity had been stepped up in the wake of the Christchurch attacks.

“There are people who have been online making statements who have been interviewed by the police; that will continue. There is a level of intervention, there is a heightened level of monitoring,” Little said on TVNZ on Monday night.

Ardern said there would be an inquiry into what government agencies “knew, or could or should have known” about the alleged gunman and whether the attack could be prevented.

“We have to know whether there have been failings, whether there have been gaps,” Little said on TVNZ. “We have to leave no stone unturned to not only deal with the perpetrator and ensure the criminal justice system gets to deal with him, but to understand how this could have happened in this country.”

More than 250 New Zealand police staff are working on the inquiry in the attacks, with staff from the U.S. FBI and Australia’s Federal Police working with local investigators.

In the wake of the deadly attack, other incidents were drawing scrutiny. A gun club in the northern town of Kaitaia burned down early on Tuesday morning, and police were treating the blaze as suspicious. A bomb hoax that closed Dunedin Airport on Sunday night and caused some flights to be diverted was under investigation, police said.

A black laptop bag was thought to have been bought onto the airfield by someone climbing over fences around the Dunedin airport. Police found a note written by the person who left the “hoax device,” which was dealt with by defense force experts.

“The insensitive nature of this act in light of recent events cannot be overstated,” police said in a statement.

(Writing by John Mair; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

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Mom charged in killing of LA-area girl found in duffel bag

Authorities have arrested a woman on suspicion of murder after the body of her 9-year-old daughter was found in a duffel bag along a suburban horse trail near Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials say Taquesta Graham is expected to be charged on Wednesday. It wasn't known Monday if she has an attorney.

Prosecutors last week charged Graham's boyfriend, Emiel Hunt, with murder in the killing of Trinity Love Jones.

The girl's body was found March 5 in the suburb of Hacienda Heights. She was wearing a pink shirt that said, "Future Princess Hero."

Graham was extradited from Texas to Southern California last week and was initially held on an unrelated warrant.

Prosecutors said the 38-year-old Hunt has a previous child abuse conviction from 2005 in San Diego County.

Source: Fox News National

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Judiciary Chairman Nadler accused of hypocrisy on Mueller report as vintage video surfaces from Clinton days

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler is being accused of hypocrisy by Republican critics for moving to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, as vintage video surfaces from the Clinton days showing him urging caution regarding the release of details from then-Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report.

Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins, R-Ga., blasted Nadler, D-N.Y., on Wednesday for voting to authorize subpoenas, noting that in 1998, Nadler sought to protect grand jury material.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS AUTHORIZE SUBPOENAS FOR MUELLER REPORT

“But now a different political landscape compels the chairman to adopt new standards of fairness, ignore existing law and demand the material he once considered ‘unfair to release,’” Collins said Wednesday. “As much as the chairman or I may want to view this material, it is a fundamental underpinning of our justice system and law that we cannot.”

Nadler maintains he has been consistent in both cases -- calling in 1998 and the present day for the committee to first review the documents, acknowledging in both cases concerns about the release of grand jury materials to the general public.

"In 1998, the central debate was about the public release of some of the materials accompanying the Starr report — materials that Congress already had, and that described private sexual acts in lurid detail. Congress has no business broadcasting graphic accounts of the president’s sex life. It was inappropriate in 1998. It would be inappropriate today," he said Wednesday.

But Republicans suggest that Nadler was far more concerned about the release of sensitive material during the Clinton days than he is now.

A vintage video, posted by The Washington Examiner this week, shows Nadler doing an interview with Charlie Rose in 1998 discussing how the committee would have to go through documents already obtained to screen out “salacious material” that would be “unfair to release.”

“[Grand jury material]—that is material by law unless contravened by a vote in the House, must be kept secret. Somebody, staff of the Judiciary Committee, perhaps the chairman and ranking minority members of the Judiciary Committee is going to have to go over this material—at least the four or five hundred pages of the report to determine what is fit for release,” Nadler said in 1998.

Today, Nadler acknowledges that “some material will have to be redacted before it’s released to the public to protect ... various rights,” saying that's a judgment the committee can make.

But his focus has been largely on obtaining the full report, plus underlying documents, from the Justice Department immediately -- while stressing the importance of some version of that getting out to the public.

"We — the members of the Judiciary Committee, the House of Representatives and the entire American public — are still waiting to see that report. We will not wait much longer," he wrote in The New York Times. “By offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general, a recent political appointee, undermines the work and integrity of the department. He also denies the public the transparency it deserves.”

At issue is Attorney General Bill Barr’s decision to review the more than 300-page Mueller report, with the assistance of the special counsel’s team, to determine which sensitive details should be redacted prior to releasing the report to Congress. Some of that material, the attorney general says, could be grand jury material which is typically kept secret, per U.S. code.

Nadler has argued that the Justice Department is “wrong to try to withhold that information” from the committee.

“Congress is entitled to all of the evidence. This isn’t just my opinion,” Nadler said Wednesday. “It is also a matter of law.”

Republicans charge that Nadler has changed his tune.

“Jerry Nadler was on the opposite side of this, and he thought it was a disgusting terrible thing to even think about giving the Starr report. But now, we should give the Mueller report,” President Trump said in the Oval Office this week.

The president also tweeted that: “In 1998, Rep. Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr Report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM.”

Nadler rejected the president's claims during the committee meeting Wednesday, where the panel -- on a party-line vote -- authorized subpoenas for the Mueller report.

BARR TO RELEASE MUELLER REPORT TO CONGRESS BY 'MID-APRIL, IF NOT SOONER' 

Barr, last month, revealed his summary of the Mueller report, which stated that the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign or the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel was also reviewing whether the president had obstructed justice in any way, but ultimately did not come to a conclusion on that issue. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, though, said the evidence was “not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

Last week, Barr said that he and the special counsel were ““well along in the process of identifying and redacting” sensitive material, including material that “by law cannot be made public,” “material the intelligence community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods; material that could affect other ongoing matters, including those that the Special Counsel has referred to other Department offices; and information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”

Barr vowed to release the report to Congress by mid-April, “if not sooner.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

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

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

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

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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