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Mexico restarts search for missing, digging for 1970s victim

The Mexican government is re-launching its search for the country's 40,000 missing people by resuming a decade-old effort to dig for remains of an activist who disappeared in 1974.

There have already been a half-dozen rounds of excavations at old army bases in southern Guerrero state to find the remains of Rosendo Radilla, with no luck so far.

But the government said the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador started more digs for Radilla on Monday.

Radilla disappeared at a military checkpoint during the army's "dirty war" against leftist guerrillas and social movements.

At least 26,000 unidentified bodies have passed through morgues in Mexico in recent years.

On Sunday, Lopez Obrador pledged to spare no expense in finding the missing.

Source: Fox News World

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Ryanair’s plans to order Boeing 737 MAX unchanged: executive

FILE PHOTO: Ryanair pilots and cabin crew stage a 24-hour strike in Germany
FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair aircraft stands on the tarmac at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport during a strike of their pilots and cabin crew in Hahn, near Frankfurt, Germany, September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

March 21, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Two deadly crashes involving Boeing’s 737 MAX jet have not changed Ryanair’s plans to buy the model, an executive of the Irish airline told Reuters on Thursday.

“Nothing changes because we are still awaiting the outcome of the investigation,” Chief Marketing Officer Ryanair Kenny Jacobs said.

He added that the delayed deliveries of five of the airliners to Ryanair will not have an impact on the budget carrier’s summer schedule.

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; writing by Thomas Seythal; Editing by Edward Taylor)

Source: OANN

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California wildfires: Seeking solutions to a wicked problem

More than 2.7 million Californians live in areas that are at very high risk for wildfires, according to our analysis of census data and state fire maps. They live in more than 1.1 million housing units, or in about one in 12 of the state's homes.

That's right: one in 12 homes in California are at high risk of burning in a wildfire .

This is a wicked problem with no easy answers. And the more information we can share about where and how we're falling short, the quicker we can come together on potential solutions .

That was the spirit in which journalists from USA TODAY Network-California, McClatchy, Media News and the Associated Press came together in late 2018 after November's Camp Fire in Paradise that took 85 lives.

We asked this question: If California is destined to burn, how can we have a sophisticated conversation about how to lessen the impacts on people who live here?

Over five months we analyzed state hazard assessments, wind models and the age of our housing stock to identify the 15 places most likely to burn. We evaluated evacuation plans for the 187 cities and towns designated as high risk, as Paradise was. We used demographic and socioeconomic data, road patterns and other materials to determine which of these communities' residents would have the most trouble evacuating.

What we found is deeply troubling. And yet there are actionable steps we can take today that will help tomorrow and in the years to come.

We interviewed residents whose homes survived to learn about what they did and what others can do. We detail how many homes are built to fire-resistant standards and how to tell if yours is not.

Our goal with this collaboration is to put a spotlight on policy issues that can and should be raised in the halls of the state Capitol and by local communities that set defensible space standards and evacuation routes.

We hope you read and share these powerful, revelatory stories and videos as we look to bend the trajectory of wildfire's impact.

We begin with today's Sacramento Bee, Chico Enterprise-Record and Paradise Post stories. In two weeks, reporting teams from the Redding Record Searchlight, Reno Gazette-Journal, Ventura County Star, The Desert Sun and Associated Press will publish work about ineffective evacuation routes and what we can learn from those who must leave areas quickly elsewhere in the country.

The AP earlier this month shared data with all of its California member news organizations so they could better understand the conditions in their communities. It is also distributing this reporting to all AP member news organizations for publication across the state and beyond.

Thanks as always for your support of local journalism. We look forward to continuing a critical conversation with you in the weeks and months to come.

___

Lauren Gustus is Editor of The Sacramento Bee and West Region Editor for McClatchy.

Source: Fox News National

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China producer inflation picks up for first time in nine months, eases deflation worries

Chinese banknotes are seen at a vendor's cash box at a market in Beijing
Chinese banknotes are seen at a vendor's cash box at a market in Beijing February 14, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

April 11, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s factory-gate inflation picked up for the first time in nine months in March, edging away from deflationary territory, in a fresh sign that government efforts to boost the economy may be starting to revitalize domestic demand.

Consumer inflation also quickened, jumping to the highest since October 2018 as pork prices soared due to a growing epidemic of swine fever, official data showed on Thursday.

The pick-up in producer inflation, while slight, will likely add to optimism that the world’s second-largest economy is slowly starting to turn the corner, after recent surveys showed factory activity expanded for the first time in months.

But analysts urge caution, saying it will take a few more months of data and more policy support from Beijing to see if a recovery can be sustained.

China’s producer price index (PPI) in March rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier, in line with analysts’ forecasts in a Reuters poll and advancing from a 0.1 percent increase in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Most of the gain was in mining, with prices in extraction rising 4.2 percent on-year, up from 1.8 percent in February. Drops in raw material prices also moderated.

But improvements may have been due more to changes in commodity prices than stronger demand. Prices of consumer durables fell for a second month, pointing to lingering weakness.

On a monthly basis, producer prices increased for the first time in five months. The index inched up 0.1 percent, compared with a 0.1 percent decrease in February.

The world’s second-largest economy is growing at its weakest pace in almost three decades amid weaker domestic demand and a year-long trade war with the United States. Multi-year campaigns to curb debt risks and pollution have deterred fresh investment.

In response, Beijing plans more spending on roads, railways and ports, which is expected to push up demand for and prices of construction materials. Last month, the government announced nearly 2 trillion yuan ($297.27 billion) in additional tax cuts to ease the pressure on corporate balance sheets.

Cuts in value-added tax (VAT) that kicked in on April 1 have already led authorities to reduce prices for electricity and natural gas. Retail gasoline and diesel prices are to be reduced as well.

A growing number of companies ranging from Apple Inc to BMW have lowered prices for their products following the tax cuts.

SWINE FEVER DRIVING UP PORK PRICES

The consumer price index (CPI) in March rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier, a five-month high, largely due to higher pork prices as the spread of African swine fever prompts farmers to cull their herds.

That was more than a 1.5 percent increase in February but just below market expectations for a 2.4 percent rise.

Pork prices rose 5.1 percent in March from a year earlier, the first increase after a 25-month declining streak.

On a month-on-month basis, CPI rose 1.2 percent.

Some analysts forecast pig production in China, which eats about half of the world’s pork, will fall by around 30 percent in 2019, which would send meat prices soaring.

But economists say the central bank is unlikely to overreact to a food price spike if it appears temporary and core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, remains steady.

Non-food consumer inflation was up 1.8 percent on-year, just a touch more than February.

(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Se Young Lee; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Is Notre Dame Fire A Signal Of France’s Islamic Takeover?

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Source: InfoWars

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Fed to raise interest rates once more in third quarter, then done: Reuters poll

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell holds a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during his news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

March 15, 2019

By Rahul Karunakar

BENGALURU (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve will remain patient for a little longer than thought just last month, waiting until the third quarter before raising rates once more, and then stay on the sidelines, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

That comes on the heels of a similar Reuters survey which concluded there is a significant risk the European Central Bank goes into the next economic downturn without having raised interest rates at all.

The latest poll of over 100 economists taken March 11-14 also lines up with recent remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who said the central bank does “not feel any hurry” to change rates again.

But with growth due to slow over the next three years and the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation not expected to show any significant pick up, an increasing number of economists have turned dovish on the U.S. interest rate outlook.

“The Fed is…not in a hurry to raise its target rate again anytime soon,” noted Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at Unicredit. “Accordingly, we have taken the possibility of a June hike off the table. While the Fed may be eyeing a later rise, we continue to expect that the window of opportunity will close in the second half of the year.”

While economists polled unanimously expect the Fed to keep rates unchanged at its March 19-20 meeting, 55 percent of them said it will have hiked at least once by end-September, when the median suggests it will be 25 basis points higher at 2.50-2.75 percent.

Just last month, the consensus predicted a hike in the second quarter.

The latest poll also showed an increasing number of economists predicting no further rate hikes. Financial markets have also priced out further rate rises.

“We no longer expect any rate hike this year…(and) we doubt that the economic data will be strong enough to build a case for a re-start of the hiking cycle,” said Philip Marey, senior U.S. strategist at Rabobank.

Over one-quarter of respondents who provided forecasts going all the way out to end-2020 predicted the Fed would have cut rates at least once by then, including two who forecast that to happen as soon as the third quarter of this year.

U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to expand at an annualized rate of 1.6 percent this quarter, down from the 2.6 percent in the previous quarter and a cut from 1.9 percent predicted last month.

GDP growth is then forecast in a 2.0-2.5 percent range throughout 2019, slowing to 1.8 percent by mid-2020, according to the consensus.

But the median probability of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months held stable compared with February at 25 percent, with the chances of a recession in the next two years steady at 40 percent.

“The Fed is normally one of the major factors in recession (and so) we just think they will be very careful here,” said Ethan Harris, head of global economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

“We don’t have factors that have been associated with every modern recession in the U.S.,” he said. “It has to be something big, like a major escalation in the trade war causing a freezing up of business investment, a big sell-off in the equity market. That would probably be enough to create a recession.”

(Analysis and polling by Sujith Pai, Tushar Goenka and Anisha Sheth; additional reporting by Manjul Paul and Sujith Pai; Editing by Ross Finley and Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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As bumper harvest nears, Argentina’s soy farmers stall deals waiting for trade war’s end

FILE PHOTO: Soy beans are seen at storage plant in Carlos Casares
FILE PHOTO: Soy beans are seen at a storage plant in Carlos Casares, Argentina, April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian/File Photo

March 20, 2019

By Hugh Bronstein and Karl Plume

PERGAMINO, Argentina/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Francisco Santillan, 55, a grains farmer from the heart of Argentina’s soybean country, has two things on his mind: the rains and twists and turns in a bitter trade war between the United States and China that has hurt prices.

The weather-worn farmer, who rides a Harley-Davidson around the 4,500 hectares of farmland he manages, is expecting a bumper soybean crop when he begins harvesting this month, but he and his neighbors are holding off from sealing deals with buyers in the hope a trade war breakthrough will bolster prices.

The United States and China, the world’s top soybean producer and importer respectively, have slapped import duties on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of each other’s products in their dispute. Tariffs made U.S. soybeans too expensive so Beijing stopped buying them, resulting in a glut that has hit soybean contracts in Chicago, the reference price for the global trade.

Trump said on Wednesday that a trade deal with Beijing was coming along nicely, with U.S. negotiators poised to head to China next week for another round of talks. Negotiations to resolve the dispute have been turbulent – Trump also said on Wednesday tariffs would remain in place for a long time and last week that he was in no rush to reach a deal.

Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures are hovering near $9 per bushel, only about 90 cents above decade lows posted in September.

“I am waiting for a better price,” said Santillan, one of a group of farmers who spoke to Reuters among fields of green, knee-high soy plants in the country’s fertile Pampas, where the ground was damp from heavy rains.

“The season is coming along very well. The harvest will be above 55 million tonnes and that will have a huge impact on the economy,” Santillan said. “But with news about the U.S.-China trade war determining Chicago reference prices, rather than supply and demand, it’s like we are flying without instruments.”

CASH CROP

Much in Argentina, the world’s No. 3 soybean producer and the top exporter of soyoil and the soymeal livestock feed that is fuelling Asia’s shift in diet from rice to pork and poultry, hangs on the soy crop.

A severe drought last year dragged the economy into recession, while bumper tax revenues this year could help support government spending and prop up President Mauricio Macri’s bid for re-election.

Delayed sales could hamper that. Just 16.2 percent of this season’s expected crop was sold by early March versus 30.5 percent at the same point a year earlier, government data show.

The uncertainty over prices – and the delays to deals – could also rattle the global trade as major buyers look to lock in supply, namely Archer Daniels Midland Co, Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Louis Dreyfus Co.

The “ABCD” quartet, which dominates global grain trade, rely on a steady flow of grain to turn a profit in a typically thin-margin business. Farmers’ reluctance to sell at low prices has stung the grains merchants recently, particularly Bunge, which blamed limited farmer selling in Brazil for earnings misses last year.

Bunge’s acting Chief Executive Gregory Heckman called Argentina “one of the larger wild cards” for the firm’s oilseeds business in 2019, and said the firm anticipated farmers would hold more of their soybeans as a hedge against inflation and currency fluctuations.

“Soybean sales are happening slower this season than at any point over the last 10 years,” said a Buenos Aires-based grains broker. “Farmers are saying ‘I don’t like the price and I don’t need the money now because I was able to make cash with wheat and corn. So I’ll wait’.”

The uncertainty for the soy harvest comes at a complex time for President Macri too, who is battling to revive the economy while fending of challenges from political rivals ahead of national elections in October.

“For Argentina, the trade war between the United States and China is piling uncertainty on a country that is already full of uncertainty,” said Jorge Bianciotto, who manages a 2,300-hectare farm called La Lucila in Pergamino.

“This generates risks in terms of next year’s planting and investment decisions.”

His neighbor, Juan Girado, who manages a 500-hectare plantation, shared his concern.

“When they say the conflict is likely to end, prices rise. When the conflict looks like it’s deepening, prices fall,” he said. “So with a big crop on the way, and with prices as low as they are, it would be good for us for the trade war to end.”

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Karl Plume; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Susan Thomas)

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.

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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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