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Brexhaustion: Long, grinding Brexit is stressing people out

Elly Wright can't sleep through the night.

The Dutch native, who has lived in Britain for 51 years, keeps thinking about the black boots of Nazi soldiers marching by her basement window as they brought Jews to a nearby camp in her homeland. The flashbacks have been triggered by Britain's heated debate over leaving the European Union, which has brought division, strife and fear of foreigners. The 77-year-old painter says it has shattered her sense of belonging.

"(Britain) is my home," Wright said quietly. "That is being taken away from me."

Wright isn't alone in her angst. The acrimony over Brexit, which has reached fever pitch as deadlines come and go while politicians squabble, is affecting the mental wellbeing of people from Belfast to Brighton.

Job uncertainty. Visa worries. Confrontational conversations between family members or friends with opposing views on Brexit. The fatigue and stress caused by three years of conflict has spawned new terms: Brexhaustion or Strexit.

"It's a civil war," said Cary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology at Manchester Business School. "What the country is going through is not a war with Europe. It's not us against them. It's internal."

Just when some thought a conclusion could be drawn, Britain's departure was delayed by six months at an emergency EU summit this week. Whether in favor of exit or hoping to stay, the long argument just got longer, and, for many more stressful.

Some have taken note of the trend. Online meditation provider Headspace has added bespoke meditations to help people manage Brexit stress, addressing issues such as having difficult conversations and what to do when you feel overwhelmed. Mike Ward, a London-based therapist who specializes in treating anxiety, estimates that some 40 percent of his patients now bring up Brexit-related issues, while cognitive-behavioral clinical hypnotherapist Becca Teers says many of her clients struggle with their lack of control over how Brexit might affect them.

Researchers at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, found that the "subjective well-being," or happiness, of Britons has declined since the 2016 referendum — regardless of a person's position on Brexit. The researchers believe this is because those in favor of remaining in the EU are upset with the outcome, and those who want to leave are unhappy with how politicians are handling the process.

The study was based on an analysis of the Eurobarometer surveys conducted every year that ask 1,000 people in each EU country about the economic outlook, their job prospects and issues ranging from terrorism to immigration and climate change.

Business consultant BritainThinks asked focus groups to name a song that encapsulated their emotions about Brexit. Their answer: the theme song from the classic horror movie "The Exorcist." And that question was asked before the EU stretched the deadline to Oct. 31, Halloween.

"People consistently tell us how worried (Brexit) makes them feel," said Tom Clarkson, research director at BritainThinks. "It's just pessimistic mood music in the background."

Brexit has been a major story in Britain since before the June 2016 referendum, as the country tries to unpick the legal and economic ties that have bound it to the EU for over 40 years. Things have ramped up since December as Parliament repeatedly rejected a withdrawal agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May, raising the prospect of a chaotic no-deal exit that could have devastating effects on the economy.

Television news broadcasts are dominated by Brexit, with pundits dissecting daily developments and politicians trading insults. Some people are glued to live parliamentary debates with a dedication normally reserved for soccer, but others have tuned out, unable to bear news of the latest incremental development that seems to resolve nothing. Meanwhile, issues like a surge in knife crime, homelessness and rising childhood poverty get scant coverage.

Wright, for example, is watching the debates in Parliament, trying to make sense of all the arcane procedures and motions, knowing that the decision has implications for her life.

"I try to curtail (my viewing), but I get sucked in," she said. "I want to understand."

Members of Parliament aren't immune to the stress. Lawmakers say they regularly receive death threats because of their positions on Brexit and some have publicly broken down in tears.

Andrew Percy, an MP from the governing Conservative Party, said recently that he had found a cupboard inside the House of Commons where he occasionally retreats for a few moments of calm between debates.

"It feels as if we are under siege," Labour Party lawmaker Chris Bryant told the Times. "I know three MPs who have partners who are dying. They daily have to make the decision of whether to go home to see them or hang out for a vote that may never happen."

Beyond Westminster, uncertainty is pervasive as companies try to prepare for the future without knowing what the economic rules will be.

Autoworkers are already getting bad news, as companies like Honda and Nissan curtail investment to focus on countries where there is less insecurity. Bankers, farmworkers, even doctors and nurses in the National Health Service are wondering what the future holds.

"Going on for three years, people look around them and see that people are losing jobs, companies planning to move staff. It's been three years of constant instability," said Cooper, an expert on workplace issues.

That frustration recently spilled into the streets, with hundreds of thousands marching on Parliament to demand that the government give the people a second vote on leaving the EU.

Less than a week later, after Parliament forced May to delay Britain's departure, Brexit supporters held a smaller but equally animated protest to decry politicians they said were ignoring the will of 17.4 million people who voted to leave.

In the middle of this morass sit people like Elena Remigi, who runs the In Limbo Project, a Facebook forum for EU citizens living in the U.K.

One recent post tries to explain what Brexit means for many expatriates by using imagery from Dante's medieval poem "Inferno," where "the straight path has been lost" in a dark forest.

"The dark forest truly represents our limbo: a place of uncertainty, sadness, confusion, fragility, anger and many other painful feelings," she wrote.

"The human cost is huge and it has been hugely underestimated," Remigi later told The Associated Press. "I find that as more time goes by the more stressed people are."

Source: Fox News World

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Airline SAS braces for pilot strike as midnight deadline nears

FILE PHOTO: A SAS Airbus A320 airplane takes off from the airport in Palma de Mallorca
FILE PHOTO: A Scandanavian Airlines, known as SAS, Airbus A320-200 airplane takes off from the airport in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 29, 2018. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo

April 25, 2019

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Seventy thousand travelers with SAS will see their flights canceled on Friday unless negotiators agree a last-minute deal to stop nearly all of its around 1,500 pilots going on strike after midnight, the carrier said on Thursday.

Swedish, Danish and Norwegian pilot unions earlier this month called a strike if there was no agreement on wages and other terms after an earlier round of talks broke down without the parties finding common ground.

National mediators in the three countries have been trying to broker a deal since last week between delegations of the two parties. SAS spokeswoman Freja Annamatz said negotiations were still ongoing.

A strike would affect 70 percent of SAS flights. The remaining 30 percent are operated by partners that would not be affected by strike action, Annamatz said.

Should a strike last through the weekend, around 170,000 travelers would be affected in total, she added.

Earlier this week, the airline offered travelers concerned about a possible strike the chance to reschedule flights for the April 26-29 period to another date free of charge.

SAS is in the midst of renewing an elderly and fuel-intensive fleet after spending years cutting costs in the face of cut-price competition from budget carriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle and Ryanair.

The airline reported a bigger than expected loss for its fiscal first quarter in February, but said it still expected to run a profit for the full year.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Niklas Pollard and Jan Harvey)

Source: OANN

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Trump's Twitter Habits Influencing Politics, And The Law

President Donald Trump's Twitter habits have influenced how other elected and government officials interact with constituents online – and has become a free speech issue being battled in court, The Washington Post reported.

In court cases in Wisconsin, Missouri, and South Carolina, politicians are fighting over whether they can block their constituents from Twitter online conversations — and in each, a federal court ruling against Trump last May was cited — a case that is due to be argued on appeal Tuesday.

In the case, U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald of New York said Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking individual users critical of the president or his policies. The comments attached to Trump's tweets are a public forum, the judge ruled. Trump unblocked the seven people behind the lawsuit and appealed.

"Sometimes public officials don't back down," Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University — who is scheduled to argue the case against the president Tuesday — told the Post.

"But the courts seem to be siding with the constituents who are blocked, and in some cases the public officials are changing their minds."

Justice Department lawyers say in court filings in New York that @realDonaldTrump is a personal account on a privately owned digital platform. Trump created the account before he took office, and it is subject to his control — not the control of the federal government, they argue.

Analiese Eicher, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, told the Post that being able to monitor state officials and interact with them online is critical to the group's work on voting rights, student loan debt and free speech.

Banning people is just as problematic "online as it is at a town hall meeting," she told the Post.

"Free speech is not just for people or organizations with whom public officials like or agree with," she told the Post.

Source: NewsMax America

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Indiana active-shooter training to give teachers option of getting shot with projectiles, lawmakers say

Lawmakers in Indiana discussed a proposal on Wednesday that would allow teachers to choose whether or not they are shot with projectiles during active-shooter drills.

The proposal follows an incident in January where teachers participating in the training said they were shot with plastic pellets, without warning or consent, and were left with bruises. State lawmakers barred the practice completely last week, but now the committee has said it will allow the use of projectiles if teachers first agree to it.

INDIANA TEACHERS HIT WITH PLASTIC PELLETS DURING ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILL: 'IT HURT SO BAD'

"It's got to do with reality and making sure they experience the emotions and adrenaline and everything that happens in the training," Republican State Sen. Jeff Raatz told WISH-TV. "But, it's not required for anybody to participate. Again, it would only be if the teacher, as you mentioned, if a teacher would desire to be part of the training first of all."

The Indiana State Teachers Association had originally asked for language that would prevent the use of projectiles, the Indianapolis Star reported. A teacher's labor union official called the new proposal a step in the right direction.

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"Allowing the pellets, as an opt-in or opt-out ...or projectiles ... that's probably better than not having language at all about that," Sally Sloan, executive director of the American Federation of Teachers, Indiana, told the WISH.

The bill is headed to the State Senate floor for a vote.

Source: Fox News National

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Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke Endorses Ilhan Omar

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Comey scoffs at Barr testimony, claims ‘surveillance’ is not ‘spying’

Former FBI Director James Comey joined the chorus of Democratic critics complaining about Attorney General Bill Barr’s testimony this week that “spying did occur” against the 2016 Trump campaign, claiming he has no idea what the Justice Department leader is talking about -- and saying he “never thought of” electronic surveillance as “spying.”

Comey sought to draw a distinction between surveillance -- which was authorized against a Trump adviser -- and spying during a cybersecurity conference in California on Thursday, echoing Democratic lawmakers who have accused Barr of going too far in his Senate testimony this week.

BARR HAMMERED FOR STATING 'SPYING DID OCCUR,' DESPITE CONFIRMATION OF TRUMP TEAM SURVEILLANCE

“I have no idea what he’s talking about so it’s hard for me to comment,” Comey said.

“When I hear that kind of language used, it’s concerning because the FBI and the Department of Justice conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance,” he continued. “I have never thought of that as spying.”

He added: “If the attorney general has come to the belief that that should be called spying, wow.”

“That’s going to require a whole lot of conversations inside the Department of Justice. But I don’t know what he meant,” Comey said.

Before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, Barr testified that he believes “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign, adding, “the question is whether it was adequately predicated.” Barr said he believed it was his “obligation” to review where there was any misconduct in the intelligence gathering during the origins of the Russia investigation.

But despite the backlash from Democrats over his use of the term, Barr's testimony appeared to refer to intelligence collection that already has been widely reported and confirmed.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page are currently the subject of a Justice Department inspector general investigation looking at potential misconduct in the issuance of those warrants. That review also reportedly is scrutinizing the role of an FBI informant who had contacts with Trump advisers in the early stages of the Russia investigation.

TRUMP DEFENDS BARR, SAYS THERE 'ABSOLUTELY' WAS SPYING AGAINST HIS CAMPAIGN

When asked about the controversy surrounding Barr’s remarks, a person familiar with his thinking denied that he was trying to fuel conspiracy theories or play to the conservative base.

“When he used the word spying, he means intelligence collecting,” the source told Fox News, also noting Barr’s history as a CIA analyst in the 1970s. “He wasn’t using it in a pejorative sense, he was using it in the classic sense.”

The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘spying’ as: “to collect information about something to use in deciding how to act,” or to “observe furtively.”

The use of the term as it applies to the FBI's surveillance in 2016 has been fiercely disputed. The New York Times, even as it reported last year on how the FBI sent an informant to speak to campaign advisers amid concerns about suspicious Russia contacts, stated that this was to "investigate" Russia ties and "not to spy."

But Barr's testimony suggests he makes no distinction between the two. He also stressed that the question for him is whether that "spying" was justified.

“I want to make sure there was no unauthorized surveillance,” Barr said.

President Trump defended the attorney general Thursday, saying that his statement was “absolutely true.”

“There was absolutely spying into my campaign,” Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office. “I’ll go a step further and say it was illegal spying. Unprecedented spying.”

Meanwhile, Comey touted Barr’s experience at the Justice Department.

“I think his career has earned him a presumption that he will be one of the rare Trump Cabinet members who will stand up for truth,” Comey said. “Language like this makes it harder, but I still think he’s entitled to that presumption and because I don’t understand what the heck he’s talking about, that’s all I can say.”

Whether proper or improper, the issue of surveillance of the Trump campaign has been widely documented.

The FISA warrants, for example, were the subject of a GOP House Intelligence Committee memo last year. That memo alleged the unverified anti-Trump dossier provided much of the basis for law enforcement officials to repeatedly secure FISA warrants against Page, though Democrats have pushed back on parts of the GOP report.

House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Thursday notified Barr of criminal referrals related to the case alleging several "potential violations" of the law.

“In late 2015, early 2016, spying began on the Trump campaign,” Nunes said on “Hannity” on Thursday. “That information leaked, that led to what they considered to be ‘legal spying’ that began, that they acknowledge they started doing at the end of July.”

He added, referring to Comey's memo-taking from high-level meetings: “You have the culmination of the ultimate spying where you have the FBI director spying on the president, taking notes, illegally leaking those notes of classified information. Why? So they can appoint a special counsel to spy on an acting president again. So there’s a lot of spying and a lot of leaking.”

Meanwhile, as part of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation, he is reportedly probing the involvement of FBI informant Stefan Halper—whose role first emerged last year. During the 2016 campaign, Halper reportedly contacted several members of the Trump campaign, including former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and Page. Halper also reportedly contacted former campaign aide Sam Clovis.

BARR REVEALS HE IS REVIEWING 'CONDUCT' OF FBI'S ORIGINAL RUSSIA PROBE

Barr also testified this week that he is conducting a Justice Department review of the “conduct” of the original Russia investigation.

“[I’m] trying to get my arms around all of the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted in the summer of 2016,” Barr said before the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday.

Fox News' Jake Gibson and Gregg Re contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News Politics

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Georgia Democrat pushes 'testicular bill of rights' to parody ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill

A Georgia state lawmaker is drafting legislation banning vasectomies and requiring men to get permission from their sex partners before obtaining a prescription for Viagra or any erectile dysfunction medication.

The legislation would also restrict men's access to pornography and sex toys.

GEORGIA HOUSE COMMITTEE REPORTEDLY APPROVES PRO-LIFE 'HEARTBEAT' LEGISLATION, BILL SENT FOR FULL VOTE

State Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, a Democrat, says she proposed the legislation to parody a restrictive new abortion bill, known as the 'heartbeat' bill, which was approved by the state’s House of Representatives last week. The legislation bans most abortions after a doctor can detect a heartbeat in the womb, which is usually during around 6 weeks into pregnancy.

Kendrick tweeted part of an email she sent to legislative counsel directing them to draft a bill she calls the "Testicular Bill of Rights."

“You want some regulation of bodies and choice? Done!” Kendrick tweeted Monday.

The legislation would also classify sex without a condom as "aggravated assault" and require paternity testing before 8 weeks of pregnancy as well as make it mandatory for expectant fathers to start paying child support immediately. The proposed legislation would also implement a 24-hour “waiting period” for men to purchase porn or adult toys.

GEORGIA LAWMAKER TO RESIGN AFTER YELLING RACIAL SLURS, DROPPING PANTS ON SACHA BARON COHEN SHOW 

Kendrick told Fox 5 in Atlanta the bill is designed “to show how ridiculous it is that any state government should regulate what people do to their bodies."

"Some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it, but at the end of the day, I am a staunch, pro-choice Democrat that was elected by 54,000 people to come down there and fight for them. That's what I'm doing is fighting," said Kendrick.

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As for the 'heartbeat' bill, it now moves to the state Senate, which has a Republican majority.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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