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Rep. Omar Calls Stephen Miller a ‘White Nationalist’

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., no stranger to saying how she feels, called a senior member of the Trump administration a "white nationalist" Monday afternoon.

Omar tweeted this in response to a claim senior White House adviser Stephen Miller was behind pulling the nomination of a candidate to serve as the director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement:

"Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage."

Acting ICE director Ron Vitiello was picked to serve as director of the agency, but the White House withdrew the nomination in a surprise move late last week. It has been alleged Miller was pushing for someone with a stronger stance on the subject of illegal immigration, which led to President Donald Trump pulling the nomination.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Peaty set for worlds with year’s fastest 100m breaststroke

FILE PHOTO: 2018 European Championships - Glasgow
FILE PHOTO: 2018 European Championships - 50m Breaststroke Men Final - Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow, Britain - August 8, 2018 - Adam Peaty competes. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo

April 16, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Olympic champion Adam Peaty swam the fastest 100m breaststroke of the year on his way to winning gold in the British championships in Glasgow on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old booked his place at the world championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in July — although that was never in any doubt — with his time of 57.87 seconds after reaching the turn in 26.63.

That marked the first time in 2019 that he has gone under 58 seconds.

Peaty’s world record in the distance, set in Glasgow last year, stands at 57.10.

“Coming back on that last 50m, I was just smoothing it out,” he said. “The world championships will be a very different race.

“Taking the winter off from competitions has done me the world of good. My stroke feels amazing and I don’t think I’ve ever, ever been this strong and as powerful.”

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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Border hits ‘breaking point’ in El Paso, CBP commissioner says

The nation’s top border security official said Wednesday that the border is at its "breaking point" during a visit to Texas, where as many as 1,000 migrants crossed into the U.S. and there are not enough agents to respond.

"That breaking point has arrived this week at our border," U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said along the border. "CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border, and nowhere has that crisis manifested more acutely than here in El Paso."

McAleenan said the Border Patrol is on pace for over 100,000 apprehensions and encounters with migrants – mostly from Central America seeking asylum in the U.S. On Monday, agents encountered an estimated 4,000 migrants border-wide, he said.

BORDER AGENTS OVERWHELMED AS TEXAS BEGINS PROCESSING MIGRANT CARAVAN

In February, more than 76,000 migrants were detained, the highest number in 12 years. That figure includes more than 7,000 unaccompanied children. More than 36,000 migrant families have arrived in the El Paso region in fiscal year 2019 compared with about 2,000 at the same time last year, according to CBP data, the El Paso Times reported. The influx is posing new challenges for border agents.

Central American migrants wait for food in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

Central American migrants wait for food in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

Some arrive with viruses, such as the flu or chickenpox, and others with injuries. McAleenan said crowded detention centers could worsen the situation.

LARGE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT GROUPS CROSSING US-MEXICO BORDER PUSHING AGENTS TO ‘BREAKING POINT’

"We are doing everything we can to simply avoid a tragedy in a CBP facility," he said. "But with these numbers, with the types of illnesses we're seeing at the border, I fear that it's just a matter of time."

About 750 border agents have been reassigned from other ports to El Paso and highway security checkpoints in West Texas and New Mexico will temporarily shut down. The reassignments could mean longer wait times at border crossings and may affect trade between the U.S. and Mexico as fewer agents will be available to inspect cargo and normal border traffic.

Immigration-rights advocates have called the situation along the border a humanitarian crisis. They push back at President Trump's national emergency declaration to fund his long-promised border wall. The Pentagon on Monday, authorized the transfer of $1 billion to erect 57 miles of "pedestrian fencing" along the border.

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"There is no need for a national emergency, no need for costly and ineffective walls, or programs that criminalize and dehumanize asylum seekers," Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News.

McAleenan said the only solution is for Congress to act.

"Legislative relief, changes in the law and closing the vulnerabilities in our legal framework is the only way this flow is going to be reduced and we're going to be able to restore integrity to our immigration system," he said.

Source: Fox News National

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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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Japan exports seen falling at slower pace in February, core CPI steady: Reuters poll

FILE PHOTO - Birds fly in front of Mt. Fuji and a crane at a port in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO - Birds fly in front of Mt. Fuji and a crane at a port in Tokyo, Japan January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

March 15, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s exports in February likely fell at a much slower pace than the previous month, but weak global demand and U.S.-China trade frictions continue to cloud the outlook, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Exports are expected to have slipped 0.9 percent in February from a year earlier, the poll of 17 economists found, after slumping 8.4 percent in January, the biggest decline in more than two years.

Imports, however, likely declined at a sharper pace of 5.8 percent in February after falling 0.6 percent in January, according to the poll.

“We expect exports in February made up for some of their losses (in January) caused by the Lunar New Year holiday,” said Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute. The holiday, which causes significant business disruptions across much of Asia, began in early February this year and in mid-February in 2018.

“But the nation’s exports to Asia, especially shipments of IT-related items, are expected to have stayed weak.”

The trade balance likely swung back to a surplus of 310.2 billion yen ($2.78 billion) from a deficit of 1.41 trillion yen in January, the poll showed.

Global trade has slowed amid weaker Chinese and European economic growth and as Washington and Beijing remain locked in a tit-for-tat tariff battle, which is taking an increasing toll on Japan’s export-reliant economy.

The Finance Ministry will release trade data at 8:50 a.m. Japan time on Monday, March 18 (2350 GMT, March 17).

On inflation, Japan’s core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, is forecast to have risen 0.8 percent in February, the same pace as in January.

“Energy bills likely supported core CPI, while prices of gasoline and telecommunications weighed on,” said Shinichiro Kobayashi, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting.

“Core CPI will likely stay lackluster for a while as falls in oil prices will start to appear and mobile carriers are expected to cut phone charges.”

The Internal Affairs Ministry will publish data on consumer prices at 8:30 a.m. Tokyo time on March 22 (2330 GMT on March 21)

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy settings steady on Friday but tempered its optimism that robust exports and factory output will underpin growth, in a nod to heightened overseas risks that threaten to derail a fragile economic recovery.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Connecticut Gun Owner’s Guns Confiscated After Allegedly Making Private Threats

Connecticut appears to treat gun owners differently than anti-gun activists.

Last week, an anti-gun activist was caught allegedly threatening a Connecticut politician.

“If I had a gun, I’d blow away Sampson and a large group of NRA,” a photo of a text message she was in the midst of creating revealed.

The sender of the text was escorted out but faced no further punishment.

“We investigated it and we didn’t feel there was a threat,” Lt. Glen Richards of the Connecticut Capitol Police stated.

When a Connecticut gun owner made similar private threats, however, the full force of the law was employed against him.

On Aug. 29, 2014, Edward “Ted” Taupier, of Cromwell, Connecticut, was part of an email discussion when he said this about his divorced judge, Elizabeth Bozzuto: “Bozzuto lives in Watertown with her boys and Na! … There [are] 245 [yards] between her master bedroom and a cemetery that provides cover and concealment. They could try and put me in jail but that would start the ringing of a bell that can be undone.”

At the time he wrote the email, Bozzuto had ordered no contact between Taupier and his two children for more than three months, he told The Daily Caller.

Bozzuto was not one of the recipients of the email; instead, it was a discussion between other court litigants and activists.

One of the recipients, Jennifer Verraneault, days later shared the email with an individual at the Greater Hartford Legal Aid Society, a state legislator and others. A copy made its way to the Connecticut Judicial Marshals before Bozzuto received a screenshot, Taupier said.

Verraneault and Bozzuto did not return emails for comment.

This triggered an investigation and on Aug. 29, 2014, the Connecticut State Police filed a risk warrant against Taupier.

That risk warrant cited Taupier’s gun collection: “That an inquiry through the State of Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Special Licensing and Firearm Unit database revealed Edward Taupier has a valid Connecticut pistol permit and twelve firearms.”

“If a referral was made to the Connecticut State Police it would have to be investigated fully,” a representative of the Connecticut State Police told the Caller, noting further that a risk warrant was determined to be appropriate.

Risk warrants are the result of so-called red flag laws and Connecticut was the first to pass such a law in 1999.

They allow law enforcement to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed dangerous without that individual being charged with a crime as long as a judge signs a warrant.

The risk warrant against Taupier was as a result of Connecticut’s “red flag law.” Taupier said the Connecticut State Police used overwhelming force to execute the warrant.

“It took 15 members of SEAL Team Six to kill Bin Laden, but 75 to 100 SWAT members to arrest me,” Taupier said.

Though not charged with a crime, Taupier’s guns were confiscated, he was taken into custody and Taupier said his bond was in excess of $1 million. He was also placed on two ankle monitors with a GPS device monitoring.

Connecticut Judge David Gold, who ordered the restrictions, did not respond to a request for comment.

Ironically, Judge Bozzuto recused herself from Taupier’s divorce and the judge who replaced her ordered visitation for Taupier starting in December 2014.

Even though the risk warrant was later dismissed, Taupier was kept on ankle monitors and his guns stayed confiscated until he was formally charged on Nov. 14, 2014. Taupier opted for a bench trial, but before a decision could be made, the U.S. Supreme Court made a pertinent decision.

In Elonis vs. United States, the court heard another case involving a threat made in a divorce. In the case, Anthony Elonis said on Facebook, referring to his ex-wife, “Took all the strength I had not to turn the bitch ghost. Pull my knife, flick my wrist, and slit her throat.”

The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, reversed a lower court and said those words did not constitute a “true threat.” Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion and argued that because Elonis did not have mens rea, a guilty mind, it was not enough to convict.

Roberts stated:

In light of the foregoing, Elonis’s conviction cannot stand. The jury was instructed that the government need prove only that a reasonable person would regard Elonis’s communications as threats, and that was an error. Federal criminal liability generally does not turn solely on the results of an act without considering the defendant’s mental state. That understanding ‘took deep and early root in American soil’ and Congress left it in here: Under Section 875, “wrongdoing must be conscious to be criminal.”

Judge Gold was not convinced: “The objective test described in Krijger as the means of determining what constitutes a true threat continues to be good law in Connecticut even after Elonis.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr. waits for the arrival of Former president George H.W. Bush to lie in State at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill on Monday, Dec. 03, 2018 in Washington, DC. Jabin Botsford/Pool via Reuters

Supreme Court Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr. waits for the arrival of Former president George H.W. Bush to lie in State at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill on Monday, Dec. 03, 2018 in Washington, DC. Jabin Botsford/Pool via Reuters

State v. Krijger, the case cited by Judge Gold, also appears to be a poor precedent because the threat was made directly to the person.

“The defendant was alleged to have made threatening statements to a town attorney immediately after the conclusion of a court hearing at which the town attorney advised the court of the town’s intention to seek to impose fines against the defendant for his continued zoning violations.” Judge Gold stated in his decision.

Even though the Krijger threat was made directly to the person, unlike in Taupier’s case, was still found guilty.

Judge Gold ruled that Taupier’s private email did constitute a “true threat” the legal standard he used to convict:

Using rhetorical embellishments to drive home the point, the defendant’s language was the rough equivalent of “I am going to shoot Judge Bozzuto and there is nothing she can do to stop me” — thereby reasonably suggesting that the defendant had become desperate enough not only to make the threat but also to carry it out.

Judge Gold even noted law enforcement tested Taupier’s guns: “Trooper Matthew Eagleston, of the Connecticut State Police, a firearms expert, inspected and test fired those four weapons (from those taken from Taupier) and concluded that each was fully operable and capable of accurately firing a projectile 245 yards.”

Sunny Kelley was one of the recipients of the email and she disagrees.

“Ted was convicted for his private thoughts,” she told the Caller. Kelley was one several parents featured in a 2018 story from the Caller. She has been barred from seeing her son since 2012.

Taupier was ordered to serve 18 months in prison but allowed on bail while his case was appealed.

In 2017, he made what law enforcement determined was another threat when he wrote on Facebook, “KILL COURT EMPLOYEES AND SAVE THE COUNTRY.”

He was taken into custody but eventually struck a deal, which did not add any prison time. He was released from prison on Dec. 24, 2018. While in prison, his parental rights were terminated.

“I was brought into court handcuffed and shackled,” Taupier said.

“Until further order of the court, the defendant shall have no in-person access with either of the children, and he shall not communicate or attempt to communicate with them in any manner, including by telephone, email, text message, video or internet call, social media, or by any other written or electronic means,” the order stated.

The court justified its order by concluding that “the contact between the children and their father since the date of judgment has been harmful to them. The father argues that he was only trying to teach the children to question authority. In reality, he was abusing his own parental authority to enlist them as foot soldiers in his war against the family court system.”

His case also nearly sparked a new law. In 2017, then Connecticut Democratic Rep. William Tong introduced a law that would increase the penalties for threats to a judge.

Connecticut State House in Hartford, CT (Sean Pavone/Shutterstock)

Connecticut State House in Hartford, CT (Sean Pavone/Shutterstock)

“In one especially chilling case, a top judge in the family court system has been subjected to repeated threats sent by email and recorded on YouTube from a man who said he was going to train his children to kill judges,” The Hartford Courant said in covering debate on the law, presumably referring to Taupier.

Taupier said he did make YouTube videos but never said he was going to train his children to kill judges.

Daniela Altimari, who wrote the story, did not return an email.

Tong is now the Connecticut attorney general, and his director of communications, Elizabeth Benton, confirmed Taupier’s case inspired the proposed law, which ultimately did not pass.

While Taupier has been released, he continues to be on an ankle monitor and has never received his guns back.

Taupier said he feels the real crime has not been prosecuted: “[Connecticut] spent millions prosecuting me while they ignored a real crime.”

Source: The Daily Caller

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Cook County Prosecutor Denies Fixing Jussie Smollett Case

Kim Foxx, the prosecutor who dropped multiple felony charges against TV star Jussie Smollett, justified her conversation with Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama aide who emailed Foxx to say Smollett's family was concerned about the police investigation.

Tchen also later texted with a relative of Smollett's and told them she convinced Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to reach out to the FBI to ask, "that they take over the investigation."

Foxx, according to reports, later texted a family friend of Smollett's that she "spoke to the [police] superintendent earlier, he made the ask. Trying to figure out the logistics."

The person responded, "Omg this would be a huge victory."

"At the time that I spoke to the family member, the superintendent knew that I had spoken to the family member," Foxx said during an appearance on CBS Chicago. "I had shared with him the conversations that we had, and the concerns that they had, and it was the same day that the superintendent went on television and affirmed that Jussie Smollett, at the time, was a victim, and had no reason at that time to suggest otherwise," she added.

Foxx added there was "no attempt, whatsoever, to influence the outcome of this case."

Tchen in a statement said her "sole activity was to put the chief prosecutor in the case in touch with an alleged victim's family who had concerns about how the investigation was being characterized in public."

Source: NewsMax America

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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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