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Latest: New Mexico man charged after weapons found at home

The Latest on weapons charges filed against a member of an armed civilian group that detained migrants on the US-Mexico border (all times local):

1:10 p.m.

A member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border was charged Monday with being a felon in possession of firearms.

The federal charges stem from a search of his New Mexico home in 2017.

Larry Hopkins made his initial court appearance Monday in Las Cruces. The 69-year-old man was arrested over the weekend near Sunland Park, where he and others members of his group have been patrolling the border.

The group gained attention last week for stopping hundreds of migrants, drawing criticism from immigrant advocates and Democratic leaders in New Mexico.

A criminal complaint states Hopkins, who has three prior felony convictions, had nine firearms and ammunition in his northern New Mexico home.

Federal officials declined to say why they waited over a year to file the charges.

Hopkins' lawyer said he plans to enter a plea of not guilty at a bond hearing in Albuquerque next week.

___

11:00 a.m.

A member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border is set to make his first court appearance following his weekend arrest on firearms charges.

Larry Hopkins was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of firearms. He reportedly faced similar charges 13 years ago in Oregon.

The 69-year-old is scheduled for an appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

Armed civilian groups have been a fixture on the border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants come through. The latest influx includes many families and children.

An FBI spokesman said additional information about Hopkins would be released after his court appearance.

Source: Fox News National

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Jimmy Carter says Trump called him to discuss US-China relations

Former President Jimmy Carter reportedly said Sunday that President Trump had given him a call the previous night to discuss relations with China.

Speaking during a church service in Georgia on Sunday, Carter – the longest living president in United States history – did not go into detail about his Saturday night conversation with Trump, but said that the current president was "rightly" concerned that "China is getting ahead of us," as NPR reported.

The White House Monday confirmed that Trump and Carter spoke.

"President Jimmy Carter wrote President Trump a beautiful letter about the current negotiations with China and on Saturday they had a very good telephone conversation about President Trump’s stance on trade with China and numerous other topics," the White House said in a statement. "The President has always liked President Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter, and extended his best wishes to them on behalf of the American people."

Former president Jimmy Carter, seen here in September 2018, reportedly said President Trump had called him to discuss China. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images, File)

Former president Jimmy Carter, seen here in September 2018, reportedly said President Trump had called him to discuss China. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images, File)

Carter, who in 1979 signed the accords that helped normalize relations with China, has been a strong voice in urging Washington and Beijing to find common ground and improve relations. Carter also has warned that the current trade conflict with China has distracted the two world powers.

JIMMY CARTER SMOOCHES WIFE ROSALYNN ON KISS CAM AT ATLANTA HAWKS GAME

China and the U.S. said recently they achieved new progress in talks aimed at ending a tariff standoff over Beijing's industrial and technology policies. A conclusion to the dispute, which has shaken financial markets, remained uncertain.

The two issues at the center of China-U.S. trade frictions have been forced technology transfer and intellectual property.

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The trade dispute between the two countries escalated last year after the U.S. made several complaints, including that China was stealing U.S. trade secrets and was forcing companies to give them technology to access its market. Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports. China retaliated with tariffs on about $110 billion of U.S. items.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News Politics

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Would a political Fed rescue the world?

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo/File Photo/File Photo

April 14, 2019

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As a financial crisis spread across the globe in September of 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve gathered in an emergency atmosphere as requests flooded in from other central banks for access to dollars.

The “swap lines” that the Fed quickly approved helped ease intense financial stress in foreign markets, but also showed the U.S. central bank was prepared to stand behind the global system.

Would an “America First” Fed do the same?

The question is suddenly relevant for global economic officials and central bankers after moves by President Donald Trump to put two strong partisans on the Federal Reserve board.

Both economic commentator Stephen Moore and businessman Herman Cain have been critical of Fed policies, and Moore in particular has opposed the extraordinary measures employed to stabilize the economy through the deepest crisis since the Great Depression.

Should Trump shape a Fed that answers first to his politics, it could roil the landscape for other central banks, and for a dollar-dependent world financial system whose fortunes can swing dramatically based on Fed decisions.

“I’m certainly worried about central bank independence in other countries, especially … in the most important jurisdiction in the world,” said European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, in Washington for spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

SENSITIVE MOMENT

Trump’s decision to consider close political allies for the central bank comes at a sensitive moment for the world economy and the IMF. Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde last week asked member countries to strive to “do no harm,” yet its largest shareholder, the United States, has become a concern.

Trump’s ongoing trade battles have been cited as a reason global growth is slowing, and the idea of a Fed stacked with officials looking first at the U.S. political calendar has overseas central bankers nervous.

The IMF has commended the steady evolution of Fed policy under chairman Jerome Powell, but Trump has demanded he cut rates and Moore has endorsed the idea.

The actions of one central bank often impacts the economies of other nations. But the rule of thumb is to set policy as much as possible on the basis of detached analysis, not to gain a short-term trade or political advantage.

If the Fed were to cut rates to counter a U.S. slowdown, it would be one thing. But juicing a mostly healthy economy to make Trump look good would send a bad signal – and hurt countries that are grappling with their own economic problems.

Lower rates could weaken the dollar, boosting U.S. exports and appealing to a core Trump campaign aim of expanding U.S. manufacturing jobs. But it would make it harder for the Bank of Japan to follow its own strategy of targeting specific levels for long-term bond yields, and undercut growth in Europe that the European Central Bank is trying to support. Emerging markets could see destablizing capital flows.

“Can a politicized Fed be relied on to do what it did in 2008, when it was lender of last resort for the world? You would really have to worry about this – that rather than be the strongest proponent of stability, the Fed all of a sudden becomes an agent of instability,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Already some of Trump’s policies have European financial leaders thinking about ways to boost the euro as a reserve currency on views the oversized influence of the dollar in global markets leaves Europe vulnerable to U.S. political decisions.

POOR HISTORY FOR POLITICIZED FED

Both Moore and Cain have yet to be nominated formally, and Cain’s prospects look bleak. Fed governors must be approved by the U.S. Senate, and enough Republican lawmakers have come out against Cain to scuttle his chances.

Moore, meanwhile, has sent mixed signals about his policies, but in general has criticized the Fed flooding markets with dollars during the crisis and its aftermath. He has favored tying the Fed to a strict rule, based on commodity prices. Critics of rule-based monetary policy cite its lack of flexibility to respond to unexpected events.

The Fed has had deeply political governors before, perhaps most notably in the 1980s when a group loyal to then-President Ronald Reagan opposed policy set by then-Chairman Paul Volcker, said William English, the former head of the Fed’s monetary affairs division and now a professor at Yale.

They didn’t succeed, English said, evidence of the influence of a strong Fed chair and of the limits an individual governor has in an institution with a strong technocratic bent, and on a policy panel that at peak strength includes 19 people. Twelve of them, moreover, are appointed by regional banks outside the president’s reach.

But before Volcker, he said, the Fed did mold policy around the demands of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and arguably contributed to the runaway inflation of the 1970s.

“We did that experiment…The outcome was bad,” he said.

For the IMF and other global institutions, there’s a broader issue if the world’s dominant economy steers away from the norms recommended for other countries, as the Trump administration has already done on trade. Whether it is the potential for unhindered government borrowing or a politicized central bank, the United States may be writing a script that other, less resilient countries, may be tempted to follow.

“The Fund likes to live in a world….where all of its members are treated evenhandedly,” said Nathan Sheets, former under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs and now chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income. If the United States starts opening the Fed to partisan politics or shifting away from other norms, “that is a risk for them.”

(Additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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Tucker Mocks CNN’s Don Lemon For Playing ‘Holy Victim’ Over Smollett

Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked CNN host Don Lemon for playing a “holy victim” in an epic rant on the Smollett case Thursday night.

TUCKER CARLSON: Well, before he claimed that white supremacists beat him up on the street, most people had never heard of Jussie Smollett. And after he became a victim everybody wanted to be his friend. Here’s Don Lemon over on CNN bragging how he texts his new pal Jussie every single day. He’s his cell number. That’s how close they are. Really tight.

DON LEMON (on Red Table Talk): My concern is for him.

(…)

LEMON: And for his well-being. [Transition] Every day I say I know you think I’m annoying. I can show you the text. “I know you think I’m annoying you, but I just want to know how you’re doing. That you’re okay. If you need somebody, you can talk to me because there is not a lot of us out there.” And sometimes he responds. Sometimes he doesn’t. He responds and says, “you are not annoying”.

CARLSON: “You can talk to me”, Don Lemon says, “because there is not a lot of us out there.” Well, here’s the translation. “Us” means people who’ve been oppressed in the ways Jussie Smollett has been oppressed. Lemon is letting you know he’s in that group too. Yes, he’s a highly paid news anchor with his own TV show. And yet, like Jussie Smollett Don Lemon is a holy victim.


It’s clear the “Jussie Smollett hoax” benefits the globalists’ false flag agenda. Alex calls in from the road to expose those that actually want to divide America.

So, there’s a mad scramble over who’s the victim here. Who is the victim? Well, there is one. What Smollett did is not a victimless crime. There’s no such thing as that. An entire group of people did get slandered by this hoax. Regular people from outside the coastal cities. People with the wrong political beliefs and the wrong skin color. Smollett and his many defenders savagely attacked these people and not apologizing for doing it.

Instead, they are telling you, and hearing it everywhere, that the real losers here are the authentic victims of hate crimes who won’t be believed the next time. Okay. That’s fine. But what about the innocent Americans they just poured venom on for two weeks because it matched some bigoted stereotypes they had about middle America? What about them? There’s no mention of them.

Don Lemon would very much like to keep up those attacks on those people. Attacking them allows him to feel oppressed. That is why, when Smollett was finally caught, Lemon reacted in a puzzling way. He didn’t seem especially concerned that his buddy had lied to further divide the country to hurt America, which he did. No, that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem, according to Don Lemon is that Smollett’s arrest might discredit the cult of victimhood.

LEMON: This is playing out every single moment in cable news. Sean Hannity is going to eat Jussie Smollett’s lunch every single second. Tucker Carlson is going to eat Jussie Smollett’s lunch every single second.

CARLSON: Yeah, because when you tell the truth about a hate hoax you’re the real hater.

With spicy hot takes like these, it’s hard to believe Carlson’s still allowed on TV!

Source: InfoWars

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Ohio police officer helps lure runaway pig into car with pizza

This little piggy may have run away, but all it took was an Ohio police officer offering up some leftover pizza to get him back home.

It was not immediately clear if he went "wee wee wee" all the way there.

The Xenia Police Department shared on Facebook video of the unique Saturday encounter, which began when the pig, named Wilbur, became separated from his family.

NEBRASKA TROOPER STUNNED TO 'PULL OVER' CAR MADE OF SNOW

"Every day is an adventure here at Xenia PD," the department wrote.

The department said it had been a couple of years since they had to deal with "runaway swine," but Officer Dan Smith was tasked with trying to bring Wilbur back home.​

​​​​​​TERMINALLY ILL WISCONSIN GIRL WHO LOVES DOGS VISITED BY K-9 OFFICERS, NEARLY 40 POLICE DEPARTMENTS

Smith used some leftover pizza in order to coax the pig towards his police vehicle before using a "little muscle" to finally get him inside.

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The department said that Wilbur was "taken into custody without being injured" and was eventually reunited with his family.

Source: Fox News National

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Indonesia blocks EU spirits, link seen to palm oil spat: industry

A server passes a wine rack at the Cork & Screw restaurant in Jakarta
A server passes a wine rack at the Cork & Screw restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 20, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

April 5, 2019

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European spirits makers say they are facing difficulties exporting drinks to Indonesia amid tension after Jakarta said it was unhappy with an EU decision that palm oil should not be considered a green fuel.

SpiritsEurope, which represents major European spirits makers and national associations, said on Thursday it had learnt from members with business in Indonesia that they were suffering delays in securing approval to import EU products into the country.

Indonesia regulates imports of alcohol through an annual import and distribution plan.

Spirits makers were finding that non-EU products, such as tequila, were securing approval, but EU-origin products were not, an industry source said.

Diageo, the world’s largest spirits company, declined to comment.

The European Commission, which oversees trade policy for the 28 EU countries, decided in March that palm oil cultivation in general results in excessive deforestation, setting the bloc on a collision course with major producers Malaysia and Indonesia.

The EU plans to increase its use of renewable energy sources by 2030 and to take into account deforestation when it determines what can be labeled renewable.

In Jakarta, a trade ministry official confirmed there were some delays in granting import licenses for spirits from Europe.

But Karyanto Suprih, the ministry’s secretary general, denied that it was in retaliation for the EU plan to phase out palm oil use in renewable fuels.

“This is just about market preference. It seems like the market wants spirits from America,” Suprih said on Friday.

Indonesia, which has said it would file a World Trade Organization complaint against the EU over the palm oil issue, has threatened to quit the Paris climate accord and said it was examining relations with EU members.

Malaysia’s prime minister told Reuters last week that the EU was risking a trade war over palm oil.

The European Commission said it was checking the situation on the ground and looking into possible additional measures applied to imports of alcohol from the EU.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; additional reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe, Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta; Editing by Susan Fenton and Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Montenegrin authorities seize drugs on navy training ship

Montenegrin naval training ship
FILE PHOTO: Montenegrin naval training ship "Jadran" in Perast, Montenegro May 6, 2006. REUTERS/Stevo Vasiljevic

April 19, 2019

PODGORICA (Reuters) – Montenegrin military police have seized around 50 kilograms of drugs on board a naval training ship, hours before it was scheduled to take students on a training cruise, the defence ministry and local media said on Friday.

In a pre-dawn raid prompted by a tip-off, the military police found “tens of kilograms of matter that appears to be a psychoactive substance” inside Jadran, a sailing ship which was moored in the Adriatic port of Tivat, the ministry said.

Montenegrin navy divers have also searched the hull of the ship, it said in a statement.

The Podgorica-based daily Vijesti said authorities had seized as much as 50 kilograms of cocaine on board the vessel but that no arrests had been made.

Teachers and students of Montenegro’s Naval Faculty were not on board the vessel during the raid, the ministry said. They were expected to board the ship later and depart on a training cruise.

“Operatives of the police department and the military police … are taking steps to uncover the culprits,” the ministry said in a statement.

Jadran, once the main training ship of the now-defunct Yugoslav Naval Academy, was taken over by Montenegro’s navy after the country declared independence from Belgrade in 2006. It is used solely for training purposes.

Montenegro, a member of NATO, also aspires to join the European Union but it must first do more to tackle organized crime and corruption and to improve the rule of law.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEED FOR CASH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATE COMPETITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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