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The Latest: Gaza demonstrators gather for anniversary march

The Latest on protests at Gaza border with Israel (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

Crowds of Palestinians are heading to rallying points near the Israeli border fence an hour before the planned mass rally to mark one year of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of volunteers in fluorescent vests prepared to restrain demonstrators from getting too close to the border fence. Ambulances lined up in front of clinics and police supervised encampments erected far from the fence.

Some protesters started approaching the barrier, prompting Israeli forces to respond with tear gas.

Fouad Aishan, 40, came with his five children to the frontier. He said he plans to show his children the Israeli soldiers and return to safety before the march started.

"I come here driven by personal national motivation," he said. "It has nothing to do with what the politicians do."

Source: Fox News World

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Rep. Peter King: Keeping asylum seekers in custody until hearings is what ‘has to be done’

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has backed Attorney General William Barr's order to keep asylum-seekers in custody until they can have a hearing to determine the legitimacy of their claims.

Barr decided Tuesday that asylum seekers who clear a "credible fear" interview and are facing removal don't have the right to be released on bond by an immigration court judge while their cases are pending. It's Barr's first immigration-related decision since taking office.

Typically, an asylum seeker who crosses between ports of entry would have the right to ask a judge to grant them bond for release. Under the new ruling, they will have to wait in detention until their case is adjudicated.

Rep. King, who is a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said on "America's Newsroom" on Wednesday that although he is empathetic to those coming to America to seek refuge from their home countries, everyone cannot be accepted.

"I think it's something that has to be done," King said. "Our hearts go out to people all over the world, but the reality is we can't take everybody in, and we have to look carefully at these asylum claims because many of them turn out not to be real or phony, then they disappear [on bond] or come back two years later for a court hearing.

NEARLY 60K KNOWN OR SUSPECTED 'ALIENS' IN FEDERAL PRISONS, DOJ SAYS

DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHOSE SPOUSE IS A FALLEN US SOLDIER ALLOWED REENTRY INTO US

"I think the Attorney General is doing what has to be done and I fully support him."

Barr's decision doesn't affect asylum-seeking families because they generally can't be held for longer than 20 days. It also doesn't apply to unaccompanied minors.

The ruling takes effect in 90 days and comes amid a frustrating time for the administration as the number of border crossers has skyrocketed. Most of them are families from Central America who are fleeing violence and poverty. Many seek asylum.

There were a total of 161,000 asylum applications filed in the last fiscal year and 46,000 in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts.

On "America's Newsroom," Rep. King continued to say he doubts House Democrats will agree to any compromises in attempts to reform immigration policies and will instead "reject everything the president proposes."

"We have to find some common ground here," he said. "I support what the president is doing here."

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"I think we are going to be stuck for a while until both sides realize they have to move. We are a country which has always prided itself on providing asylum, but you can't allow it to be abused the way that it is now."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Berlin's polar bear cub growing fast, public debut soon

Berlin's Tierpark zoo says its polar bear cub is almost ready to be introduced to visitors.

The zoo on Tuesday released new photos of the as-yet-unnamed female cub and her mother, Tonja. The bear was born Dec. 1 and weighed 8.5 kilograms (18.7 pounds) by the time of her first medical checkup nearly two weeks ago.

Zoo director Andreas Knieriem says that keepers are very satisfied with the cub's development and Tonja is a good mother. Mother and daughter will probably make their first appearance in the bears' outside enclosure — and see visitors for the first time — in mid-March.

The Tierpark has the same management as Berlin's other zoo, which was home a decade ago to celebrity polar bear Knut.

Source: Fox News World

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Legal Experts: Hacking Charge Undercuts Any ‘Free Speech’ Defense for Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has portrayed himself as a champion of a free press, but the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to charge him with conspiring to hack government computers limits his ability to mount a vigorous free speech defense, some legal experts said.

The charge unsealed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday said that in 2010 Assange agreed to help Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst then known as Bradley Manning, crack a password to a U.S. government network.

At the time, Manning had already given WikiLeaks classified information about U.S. war activities in both Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Guantanamo Bay detainees, prosecutors said. The scheme would have allowed Manning to log in to the network anonymously and avoid detection, the indictment said.

Robert Chesney, a professor of national security law at the University of Texas, said that the case did not implicate free speech rights because it turned on the idea that Assange tried to hack a password.

"The charge is extremely narrow and that's by design," said Chesney.

U.S. prosecutors could still add charges against Assange, legal experts said.

The indictment, which was made secretly last year and released on Thursday, does not charge Assange for publishing classified material. WikiLeaks released the classified war information on its website in 2010 and 2011.

There is no mention in the indictment of WikiLeaks' publication of emails damaging to 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were stolen by Russia in a bid to boost Republican Donald Trump's candidacy.

British police carried Assange out of Ecuador's embassy in London on Thursday after his seven-year asylum there was revoked. The U.S. Department of Justice said Assange, 47, was arrested under an extradition treaty between the United States and Britain.

Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Assange, suggested in a statement that the indictment could chill press freedom, saying journalists should be "deeply troubled" by the "unprecedented" charges.

"While the indictment against Julian Assange disclosed today charges a conspiracy to commit computer crimes, the factual allegations against Mr. Assange boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source," Pollack said.

Assange has long said WikiLeaks is a journalistic endeavor protected by freedom of the press laws. In 2017, a U.K. tribunal recognized WikiLeaks as a "media organization."

The Justice Department debated for years whether prosecuting Assange and WikiLeaks would encroach on First Amendment protections, according to former officials.

The department under President Barack Obama made a conscious decision not to bring charges against Assange on the grounds that WikiLeaks' activities were too similar to what conventional journalists do, the former officials said.

The charge against Assange of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion minimized concerns that freedom of the press would be undermined and made it more difficult for him to argue that his free speech rights were at stake, some legal experts said.

"A lot of the broader legal and policy implications have been alleviated by how narrowly tailored this indictment is," said Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer in Washington who represents whistleblowers and journalists.

Free speech advocates had worried that Assange would be prosecuted for publishing classified information he obtained from Manning in violation of the Espionage Act.

It is not unusual for journalists to publish classified material they obtain from sources and such a prosecution against Assange would have raised concerns that reporters could face similar charges, according to Steve Vladeck, a professor of national security law at the University of Texas.

Assange is likely to argue that the conspiracy charge was a pretext and the government really is prosecuting him for the publication of classified documents, lawyers not involved in the case said.

David Miller, a former federal prosecutor in New York and Virginia, said Assange's defense would likely face "an uphill battle" assuming the government's proof of communications and contacts with Manning is strong.

Prosecutors will emphasize that cracking a password is far outside the realm of what respectable journalists do, Chesney at the University of Texas said.

"All of this turns on the idea that Assange tries to hack a password," Chesney said. "That's not journalism, that's theft."

Manning was convicted by court martial in 2013 of espionage and other offenses for furnishing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks. Obama, in his last days in office, commuted the final 28 years of Manning’s 35-year sentence.

Source: NewsMax America

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Rep. Jim Jordan: Democrats are ‘out to get’ President Trump with Mueller report demands

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, charged Tuesday Democrats' demands to see the full Mueller report without redactions showed they are “so committed to getting at this president” and “not focused on frankly doing what’s best for the country.”

“You got the chairman of the intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, saying ‘go ahead make public classified information’ and then you have the chairman of the judiciary committee saying ‘go ahead and make public grand jury material.’ Now that’s scary,” Jordan said on “Fox & Friends.”

“This is where they’re at because the Mueller report was not the bombshell that they had hoped it would be. But when you have the head of the intelligence committee, the head of the judiciary committee saying make public material that’s not supposed to get public, that’s not consistent with the law, that’s just wrong, just plain wrong.”

Democratic lawmakers, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-NY and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, have been demanding access in full to special counsel Robert Mueller's report in. Attorney General Bill Barr has said that he and the special counsel’s team are “well along in the process of identifying and redacting” sensitive material in the more than 300-page report and can likely have it to Congress by mid-April, “if not sooner.”

But Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are preparing to authorize subpoenas for the report this week, giving the panel the option to pursue that route if necessary.

TRUMP SAYS DEMS HAVE FORESAKEN MUELLER AFTER TREATING HIM AS 'GOD-LIKE' 

The report was first transmitted to Barr at the Justice Department last month. Barr issued a four-page initial summary of Mueller’s findings to Congress and to the public just days after. Barr’s summary said that the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 presidential election.

Immediately, Democrats began demanding to view the full Mueller report and underlying evidence that brought the special counsel to its decision.

Barr has indicated he does plan on sharing much of the report, noting that, with the help of the special counsel’s office, the Justice Department is reviewing material that “by law cannot be made public” -- covering “material the intelligence community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods; material that could affect ongoing matters, including those that the Special Counsel has referred to other Department offices; and information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”

“Bill Barr said he will err on the side of transparency, he wants to release as much possible but he’s going to do it consistent with the law, which is what we should expect from an attorney general of the United States of America, “ Jordan said on “Fox and Friends."

“Understand that this report was not what they had hoped. First the Cohen hearing they had was a flop, then the Mueller report comes out, it’s not the bombshell they hoped. Remember what Bill Barr said special council Mueller found, no new indictments, no sealed indictments, no collusion, no obstruction. As definitive as you can get. And so now what they’re saying is 'we want to find something, we have to find something, cause we’re so committed to getting at this president and not focused on frankly doing what’s best for the country.'”

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump blasted Nadler and Schiff on twitter.

“There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!” Trump tweeted.

Minutes later, Schiff fired back.

“The House voted 420-0 to release the full Mueller report to the public. The American people overwhelmingly support the same. What are you afraid of, Mr. President?” Schiff tweeted.

The Judiciary Committee cited “historical precedent” for the full release of the Mueller report—specifically Watergate, when a judge ordered a 55-page grand jury roadmap to be provided to the committee; and during the Ken Starr investigation of former President Bill Clinton, when a 455-page report, along with evidence including grand jury material, was provided to the panel.

On September 9, 1998, on PBS’ “Charlie Rose," Nadler said, “As a matter of decency and protecting people’s privacy rights, people who may be totally innocent, third parties, what must not be released at all,”  when talking about the Starr report on Clinton. “It’s grand jury material. It represents statements which may or may not be true by various witnesses, salacious material, all kinds of material that it would be unfair to release.” The clip aired on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday.

PRESIDENT TRUMP CALLS ON ADAM SCHIFF TO RESIGN, ACCUSES HIM OF 'KNOWINGLY AND UNLAWFULLY LYING AND LEAKING'

The president took to Twitter Tuesday morning to respond to the statements Nadler made more than a decade ago.

“In 1998, Rep. Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM! @foxandfriends”

“This is now about President Trump who they’re out to get,” said Jordan. “Again, this is the chairman of the judiciary, the long history the judiciary has in protecting fundamental liberties, fundamental rights and following the law and yet you now have the chairman saying ‘I don’t care. I don’t care. Give me everything we want to make public.’ That is what is so wrong.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He added, “It’s because Bill Barr’s letter spelling out what the special counsel found and the principal conclusions of his report was so strong for the president, complete vindication for the president, they are now, Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and others are now saying ‘We got to have stuff that’s not consistent with how the rule of law works and has historically worked in this great country.’”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Air is so dirty in northern Thailand, leader flies to see it

The air hanging over Thailand's far north is so polluted, it's drawn a visit from the prime minister to see in person what's been called a severe health crisis.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha flew Tuesday to the city of Chiang Mai to see firsthand the pollution that's been unusually bad and prolonged this year.

Northern Thailand has suffered severe seasonal haze for years, usually blamed on burning of forests in neighboring Myanmar. Worsening the problem this year are wildfires caused by a drier-than-usual dry season as well as Thai farmers and hunters clearing land.

Standard measurements of air quality have soared into the danger zone.

Prayuth handed out firefighting supplies and told local military personnel and firefighters that he came there because he wanted to show his support.

Source: Fox News World

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Sportswriter takes swing at Trump: Book says president cheats at golf, battled locals to build course

The latest anti-Trump exposé isn't about Russia collusion, his taxes or his tweets. It's about his favorite pastime.

A new book from longtime sportswriter Rick Reilly on the president's relationship with golf takes more than a few swings at the commander-in-chief -- detailing how Trump ran into local opposition while building one of his international courses, and including allegations from fellow players that he cheats.

Reilly, a former Sports Illustrated and ESPN columnist, detailed in his book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump” how Trump once found himself in an ugly spat with locals as he made moves to build the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2006.

TRUMP DISMISSES MAR-A-LAGO BREACH AS 'JUST A FLUKE,' DENIES KNOWING CINDY YANG

According to Reilly, Trump thought the properties surrounding the planned site of his course were “ugly,” and tried to convince two property owners to sell him their land -- before he showed "official interest" in the constructing the course.

Trump, according to the book, allegedly sent his project director around to inquire as to whether the neighbors would sell. They refused, but Trump went ahead in buying the rest of the land and began building his course.

After Trump was reportedly denied using what Scotland calls “compulsory purchase” – similar to eminent domain – he began going after the neighbors, according to the new book. Two of the neighbors, identified as Michael Forbes and David Milne, were willing to take a swing back at the president.

DONALD TRUMP CALLS JUSSIE SMOLLETT 'THE ACTOR THAT NOBODY EVER HEARD OF'

When the president made a visit to the course in 2016, the two men poked fun at Trump by putting up Mexican flags on their properties.

The new book also delved into allegations the president isn't always honest out on the course.

Reilly detailed one time Trump played with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson shortly after becoming president. Trump’s partner, Fox Sports golf analyst Brad Faxon, said the president marked down a score that didn’t account for two balls he hit in the water.

Faxon recalled that he was laughing about the situation at the time, “because Trump was actually putting for a seven, but he was claiming it was for a four, which would’ve worked out to a three with his free stroke on the hole.”

A second allegation was made stemming from a round the president played with Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski and Mike Tirico.

Tirico recalled hitting a shot that landed near the pin on a par 5. However, when the long-time sports broadcaster got to the green, he was shocked to find his ball in the bunker. Tirico told Reilly that Trump’s caddy explained what happened.

“Trump’s caddy came up to me and said, ‘You know that shot you hit on the par 5? It was about 10 feet from the hole. Trump threw it into the bunker. I watched him do it,” Tirico told Reilly in the book.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Reilly was stinging in his criticism of Trump in the book, writing: “He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching, and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that’s how he plays golf, that’s how he learned it, and that’s how he needs it, and whether you’re his pharmacist or Tiger Woods, if you’re playing golf with him, he’s going to cheat.”

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment from Fox News.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Joe Biden’s brain surgeon said his former patient is “totally in the clear” as speculation over the candidate’s health — with Biden possibly becoming the oldest president in U.S. history — is likely to become a campaign issue.

The former vice president, who had been perceived by many as the strongest potential contender for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, formally announced his candidacy Thursday.

But Biden’s age – 76 – is expected to become a source of attacks from a younger generation of Democrats not because of obvious generational differences, but possibly for actual health concerns if Biden gets into office.

WHY THE MEDIA ARE CONVINCED JOE BIDEN WILL IMPLODE

Biden himself agreed last year that “it’s totally legitimate” for people to ask questions about his health if he decides to run for president, given his medical history — which has included brain surgery in 1988.

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality,” Biden told “CBS This Morning.” “Can I still run up the steps of Air Force Two? Am I still in good shape? Am I – do I have all my faculties? Am I energetic? I think it’s totally legitimate people ask those questions.”

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality. …  I think it’s totally legitimate [that] people ask those questions.”

— Joe Biden

But Dr. Neal Kassell, the neurosurgeon who operated on Biden for an aneurysm three decades ago, told the Washington Examiner that Biden appears to be “totally in the clear” — and even joked that the operation made Biden “better than how he was.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it,” Kassell said. “That’s more than I can say about all the other candidates or the incumbents.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it.”

— Dr. Neal Kassell

BIDEN’S CLAIM HE DIDN’T WANT OBAMA TO ENDORSE TRIGGERS MOCKERY

At the same time, however, Biden hasn’t been forthcoming about his health at least since 2008 when he released his medical records as a vice presidential candidate. The disclosure that time revealed some fairly minor issues such as an irregular heartbeat in addition to detailing previous operations, including removing a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996, the outlet reported.

It remains unclear if Biden had more aneurysms. Some medical experts say that people who have had an aneurysm can have another one.

An aneurysm, or a weakening of an artery wall, can lead to a rupture and internal bleeding, potentially placing a patient’s life in jeopardy.

Biden won’t be the only Democrat grappling with old age. Sen. Bernie Sanders, another 2020 frontrunner, is currently 77 years old and agreed with Biden last year that their ages will be an issue in the race.

“It’s part of a discussion, but it has to be part of an overall view of what somebody is and what somebody has accomplished,” Sanders told Politico.

“Look, you’ve got people who are 50 years of age who are not well, right? You’ve got people who are 90 years of age who are going to work every day, doing excellent work. And obviously, age is a factor. But it depends on the overall health and wellbeing of the individual.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Sanders released his medical records in 2016, with a Senate physician saying in a letter that the senator was “in overall very good health.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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

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

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

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

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

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEED FOR CASH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATE COMPETITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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