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Jim Jordan: Schumer's threats to Trump were 'dangerous thinking'

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, took aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday, slamming the New York Democrat as reckless for “dangerous thinking” that Jordan said fed into the special counsel's investigation into Russia collusion.

Speaking with Fox News’ Todd Starnes, Jordan recalled the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 where Schumer seemingly threatened Trump with a possible probe.

“So the president hadn’t been sworn in yet but Sen. Schumer, the highest ranking Democrat at the time in the government, said when you mess with the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you.”

REP. JORDAN CALLS FOR ALL DOCUMENTS FROM MUELLER INVESTIGATION TO BE RELEASED

Jordan, 55, who has served in the House since 2007 and is ranking member of the Oversight and Reform Committee, called it “a scary statement” and said that Schumer’s comments were reason enough to continue to track down the source of the Russia collusion accusations.

“Tell me who in the intelligence community was ever elected by the people, who put their name on a ballot and for the top Democrat in the government at the time to suggest that the intel community will get back with you because you ‘messed with them,’ referring to President Trump, that is dangerous thinking.”

He continued: “That is why I am committed to making sure that we find out who was responsible for launching this ridiculous thing in the first place.”

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Jordan said that while he is happy with the conclusion of the Mueller report after 22 months, he’s alarmed at how it could’ve all started.

“I do think it's scary how this all started and we need to get to the bottom of that.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Michigan men accused of wiring $88M overseas claim it was for their families

Three Michigan men accused of wiring $88 million to multiple overseas accounts claim they did nothing wrong, arguing they were just sending the money to relatives.

Federal prosecutors, however, claim the trio created phony businesses with the express purpose of moving large amounts of cash out of the country.

Omar Alhalmi, 38, was charged last month with funneling $22.3 million to Yemen and other countries, while Fahd Samaha, 45, and Maged Alsabahi, 29, are accused of running an illegal cash delivery operation from 2013 through 2015, the Detroit Free Press.

4 PEOPLE KILLED, INCLUDING 3 CHILDREN, IN POSSIBLE MURDER-SUICIDE IN MICHIGAN: OFFICIALS

According to indictments filed Jan. 22, the three men engaged in secret banking practices by creating multiple fake businesses by using the addresses of vacant buildings, storefronts of residences and used “straw business owners” or “fronts” to help send millions to various countries, including Yemen and China.

Prosecutors claim Alhalmi never disclosed where the money came from and where it was going and created at least 13 phony business bank accounts from 2011 to 2016 to access the banking industry’s wiring service, the Free Press reported.

However, Alhalmi’s attorney claims the government knew exactly what he was doing and there was nothing illicit about where the money came from or where it was going.

Nabih Ayad told the Free Press that Alhalmi and the other two men collected from people in the Yemeni community who wanted to send cash to loved ones back home. He said users were charged a fee to have their money wired back to Yemen.

MICHIGAN COMMUNITY REELING AFTER 3 TEENS COMMITTED SUICIDE IN LAST EIGHT MONTHS

“Not everyone has a bank in the old country,” he told the newspaper. “You’re talking about a large Yemeni community (in metro Detroit). That how they get money back home.”

He added: “They are just creating an opportunity for their loved ones to receive money…In the olden days, they used to just pass it off by hand. Here, they are doing it through a wiring service.”

Ayad said he believes the government is being overzealous in the case and that the government has never suggested the money wound up in the wrong hands.

“In my client’s case, the government had already visited his business in 2013 and never told him to stop doing it,” he added.

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The three men are charged with using the filing of a false currency transaction report and operating an unlicensed money transmitting businesses. The crimes carry a maximum punishment of five years in prison.

Source: Fox News National

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H&M limits free deliveries for low-spending loyalty club members

FILE PHOTO: Logo of H&M is seen in a display window of a store in Zurich, Switzerland
FILE PHOTO: The logo of H&M is seen in a display window of a store in Zurich, Switzerland January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

April 9, 2019

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Fashion retailer H&M has reintroduced delivery fees for its core brand’s loyalty club members on small online orders to cut logistics costs and help restore group profitability.

The world’s second-biggest clothing retailer, whose core H&M chain accounts for the bulk of group sales, is investing heavily in adapting to rapidly changing consumer habits after seeing profits fall and inventories pile up in recent years.

A new version of the customer loyalty scheme separates members into a “base” tier or a “plus” tier depending on how many points they earned in the past year, according to Samuel Holst, head of the fast-growing H&M Club.

It means base members in Germany, the Swedish group’s biggest market, will need to spend at least 25 euros ($28) to get free delivery. In its home market, the minimum outlay is 200 Swedish crowns ($22).

“We have a lot of logistics around the customers that shop online,” Holst told Reuters in an interview at H&M’s headquarters. “For the plus level, deliveries will remain free for all purchases, but for the base level there will be a cap, ” he said. “You will need to shop for a certain amount to get free delivery. Returns remain free for all. “

Holst declined to say how much H&M expects to save from the move.

The company has an H&M Club in 16 of the H&M brand’s 71 markets. It plans to add seven more markets, including the United States, by the end of the year.

The number of members doubled in 2018 to 30 million, helped by the introduction of free deliveries and returns for all members. Another 5 million joined in the first quarter of 2019.

“We want to keep up the growth pace we’ve had so far, and increase it this year,” Holst said.

Members earn points through reviews and rating purchases, and otherwise interacting with H&M in the app, as well as on purchases, he said.

H&M’s move to rein in free deliveries for scheme members comes after German online clothing marketplace Zalando recently introduced a minimum order threshold in Italy to increase orders.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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Court reinstates late Aaron Hernandez's murder conviction

Aaron Hernandez's murder conviction was reinstated Wednesday in a sweeping ruling from Massachusetts' highest court that does away with the legal principle that made the former NFL star innocent in the eyes of the law after he killed himself in prison.

The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously found that the legal rule that erased Hernandez's conviction is "outdated and no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life." It ordered that Hernandez's conviction be restored and that the practice be abolished for future cases. The ruling does not affect past cases.

Hernandez was convicted in 2015 of killing semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. Two years later, the 27-year-old killed himself in his prison cell days after being acquitted of most charges in a separate double-murder case.

A judge threw out Hernandez's conviction that year, citing the legal principle that holds that a defendant convicted at trial who dies before an appeal is heard should no longer be considered guilty in the eyes of the law, thereby returning the case to its pretrial status. The prosecution then appealed, seeking to have the conviction reinstated.

Under the doctrine, rooted in centuries of English law, a conviction should not be considered final until an appeal can determine whether mistakes were made that deprived the defendant of a fair trial, legal experts say.

How states handle cases such as Hernandez's varies widely. Some, like Massachusetts, toss the convictions, while other states dismiss the defendant's appeal and the conviction stands. Others allow appellate courts to consider a dead defendant's case, prosecutors said.

The district attorney whose office prosecuted Hernandez's case applauded the court's decision.

"We are pleased justice is served in this case, the antiquated practice of vacating a valid conviction is being eliminated and the victim's family can get the closure they deserve," Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said in a tweet.

Prosecutors argued that the legal doctrine is outdated and unfair to victims. Quinn told the court that the defendant's estate should be allowed to appeal the case, if they wish. Otherwise, the conviction should stand, he argued.

Under the new rule laid out by the court, the conviction will stand, but the court record will note the conviction was neither affirmed nor reversed because the defendant died while the appeal was pending.

Other high-profile Massachusetts criminals whose convictions have been erased after their deaths include John Salvi, who was convicted of killing two abortion clinic workers and wounding five other people during a shooting rampage in Brookline in 1994.

Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan, a key figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the Boston archdiocese and spread across the globe, also had his child molestation conviction vacated after he was beaten to death in 2003 in his cell at the same Massachusetts maximum-security prison where Hernandez died.

Hernandez's attorney had previously argued the legal doctrine should remain intact, saying juries make mistakes. An email requesting comment on the court's decision was sent to his attorney Wednesday.

___

Follow Alanna Durkin Richer at http://www.twitter.com/aedurkinricher

Source: Fox News National

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Mexican president jeered by hostile crowd at baseball event

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during the opening celebrations of the Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium in Mexico City
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during the opening celebrations of the Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico March 23, 2019. Press Office Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador/Handout via REUTERS

March 24, 2019

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has enjoyed soaring approval ratings in his first few months in power, got a rare taste of public animosity on Saturday when he was booed at the inauguration of a baseball stadium in Mexico City.

In an evening ceremony to mark the opening of the new home of the Diablos Rojos de Mexico (Mexico City Red Devils), Lopez Obrador endured cat whistles, boos and cries of “out” from the packed crowd at the stadium close to the city’s airport.

It was unclear why sections of the crowd were hostile towards the president, but the self-professed baseball fan hit back against the criticism, scoffing at his adversaries.

“I’m not going to talk much, because there are some fans here from team ‘fifi’,” he said from the pitch, using a term sometimes rendered as ‘sissy’ he favors to belittle critical voices.

“But the majority of the people are in favor of change and in favor of the king of sports: baseball,” he continued, as the Diablos Rojos prepared to play the San Diego Padres.

Lopez Obrador, a leftist former mayor of Mexico City, took power in December following a landslide election win last July.

During the five month transition, he quickly set about stamping his authority on Mexico, pledging to revamp the economy from the bottom up and upsetting some of the country’s wealthier citizens with his decisions, particularly on economic policy.

His Oct. 29 cancellation of a partly-built, $13 billion new airport for the capital proved especially contentious.

Since taking power, Lopez Obrador has taken a firm grip of the national agenda with daily news conferences at 7 a.m. The public has warmed to it, and his approval ratings have flown as high as 80 percent or above, according to opinion polls.

Amid boos and applause, Lopez Obrador mixed baseball terms and rhetoric from his campaign to tell the crowd he would deliver on promises to defeat the corrupt “mafia” he says is the root cause of violence, poverty and inequality in Mexico.

“We’re going to continue subjecting the ‘mafia of power’ to strikeouts,” he said, winding up his speech quickly before throwing the first ceremonial pitch to open the stadium.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Ruble up on monthly taxes; sanctions and finance ministry in focus

Person holds Russian rouble notes in St. Petersburg
A person holds Russian rouble notes in St. Petersburg December 18, 2008. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk

February 19, 2019

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian ruble edged up on Tuesday, supported by higher oil prices and month-end tax payments that usually prompt companies to convert their dollars to meet local duties.

At 0739 GMT, the ruble was 0.1 percent stronger against the dollar at 66.20 and had gained 0.2 percent to trade at 74.82 versus the euro.

The ruble is likely to benefit from companies needing to pay up to 1.8 trillion rubles ($27.21 billion) in taxes in February, according to a Reuters survey of analysts.

“We believe exporters will increase their hard currency offer in coming days, ahead of looming taxes,” VTB Capital said in a research note.

The ruble is seen firming into a range of 65-66 versus the dollar in the next few days if there are no negative sanctions-related news or a decline in investor appetite for emerging market currencies, Promsvyazbank said in a note.

The room for rouble gains, however, is limited by concerns about more U.S. sanctions against Moscow.

Last week, the threat of sanctions re-emerged as U.S. policymakers presented a new bill that was a tougher version of the one that failed to pass in Washington last year and included a proposal to impose restrictions on Russia’s sovereign debt.

Yields of Russia’s 10-year indicative OFZ treasury bonds, which move inversely with their prices, jumped to 8.5 percent last week, but soon declined and hovered near 8.28 percent on Tuesday.

Russia’s finance ministry will be in focus later in the day as it will announce details of its auctions of OFZ bonds, the papers at risk of being targeted by the U.S. sanctions.

Oil prices were supportive for Russian assets as Brent crude oil futures hovered around $66.5 a barrel, near the $66.83 level – their highest since November – hit on Monday.

Gains in Russian stock indexes, however, were modest amid sanctions concerns.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was little changed at 1,177.0 points, while the rouble-based MOEX was 0.05 percent higher at 2,473.8 points.

“The Russian market is likely to struggle, once again, for direction today, mirroring the global trend, as investors look for fresh catalysts and wait for a breakthrough in trade talks,” Alfa Bank said in a note to clients.

(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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Baez homers twice as Cubs rough up Rangers

MLB: Chicago Cubs at Texas Rangers
Mar 28, 2019; Arlington, TX, USA; Chicago Cubs shortstop Javier Baez (9) circles the bases after hitting a three-run home run in the fifth inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Mandatory Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

March 28, 2019

Javier Baez hit two homers and drove in four runs to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 12-4, season-opening win against the Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.

Baez became the first Cubs player with a multi-homer game in the season opener since Corey Patterson in 2003.

David Bote, Jason Heyward and Albert Almora Jr. had two hits each, and Kris Bryant drove in two of his three runs with an eighth-inning homer for Chicago.

Cubs left-hander Jon Lester (1-0) went six innings, allowing two runs and four hits with three strikeouts and two walks.

Elvis Andrus and Nomar Mazara each hit two-run homers for the Rangers.

Texas left-hander Mike Minor (0-1) pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing six runs and five hits with three strikeouts and two walks.

Minor breezed through the first 3 2/3 innings before giving up a solo home run to Baez with two outs in the fourth to cut Texas’ lead to 2-1.

Minor started Chicago’s six-run fifth by hitting Bote with a pitch. He then gave up a single to Ben Zobrist, moving the runner to third. Heyward drove in Bote with an infield single to second base to tie the score, and No. 9 hitter Mark Zagunis followed with a double to center, scoring Zobrist and putting runners on second and third.

After Almora fanned, Bryant’s groundout to short made it 4-2. Anthony Rizzo then walked to end Minor’s day. Jesse Chavez entered and gave up a three-run homer to Baez on his first pitch for a 7-2 lead.

The Cubs tacked on two more runs in the sixth, another in the seventh and two more in the eighth on the home run by Bryant.

Lester, who went 11-2 with a 2.87 ERA in road games last season to tie a career high for away wins, only faced trouble in the first and third innings, both after two were out.

After Texas’ Rougned Odor doubled down the right field line with two outs in the third, Andrus hit a two-run homer for a 2-0 lead.

–Field Level Media

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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