Former Argentina's Economy Minister and potential 2019 presidential candidate, Roberto Lavagna, gestures during a news conference at the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
April 9, 2019
By Nicolás Misculin and Eliana Raszewski
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – In the run-up to Argentina’s presidential election this year, a third potential candidate is seeking to stake out the middle ground, tapping into rising discontent among the country’s voters amid swirling economic crisis.
Roberto Lavagna, a former economy minister and part of the moderate flank of the Peronist opposition, is positioning himself between President Mauricio Macri’s austerity economics and left-leaning former leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
“We’re looking for a future outside the two extremes that have been dominating Argentine politics for the last eight years,” he told Reuters and other media on Tuesday.
“That’s not Macri’s economic tweaks, and not the indiscriminate intervention of the previous government,” he said, referring to Fernandez, whose policies included high subsidies and currency controls.
He did not announce or rule out an election run. People close to him politically said he would likely stay quiet until closer to a June deadline for candidates to formally enter the race.
He would be a dark horse candidate, but has been rising lately in opinion polls. Fernandez and Macri currently command around 30 percent support each, while Lavagna polls at a little over 10 percent.
Lavagna is best-known for his stewardship of Argentina’s tumultuous economy during 2002 to 2005, when he led a devaluation of the peso currency and the restructuring of Argentina’s debt, months after the largest sovereign default in history of nearly $100 billion.
That was followed by a strong revival in growth of over 8 percent annually, memories of which could benefit Lavagna at a time when voters are increasingly worried about the recession-hit economy, rampant inflation and volatile peso currency.
Even opponents agree he is a good man in a crisis.
“He’s a moderate, politically in the center, and he’s a ‘storm pilot’,” a former minister who worked with Lavagna and is now in the Fernandez camp told Reuters.
The person, who declined to be named, added that Lavagna’s age could count against him, however. Lavagna is 77 and would finish his potential four-year term at the age of 81.
That raises a question as to whether he can appeal to younger voters, in particular.
His policies would include seeking to boost flagging domestic demand and renegotiating the terms of a financing deal Argentina agreed with the International Monetary Fund last year for $56 billion, he said on Tuesday.
Candidates compete in a first round in October, after which if no individual has 45 percent of the vote, or 40 percent and a ten point lead over second place, a second round run-off is held in November.
Analysts say that if Lavagna could make it to the second round, he would have a better shot than Fernandez of beating Macri.
“If at the end of May, moderate Peronists like Lavagna can reach 30 points of voter support, they will keep rising,” Mariel Fornoni, director of consultancy Management & Fit, said.
“If not, the election will be polarized between Macri and Fernandez.”
(Reporting by Nicolas Misculin and Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
President Donald Trump will ask Congress for an additional $8.6 billion for wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, a move that will likely set up another fierce battle over border security funding.
The president is expected to roll out his 2020 budget proposal Monday, which will include billions more than his previous demand for wall funding. The budget will request $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military construction budget to build more sections of wall along the U.S. southern border, The Washington Post reported.
Announcement of the new budget proposal comes shortly after the federal government ended a historic 35-day partial shutdown over wall funding.
Trump in December demanded $5.7 billion to help fund massive wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, following major gridlock between Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Congress allocated only $1.375 billion to finance 55 miles of barrier in Texas. The president accepted that funding in February but also declared a national emergency that ultimately gave him a total of $8 billion in funding.
A number of lawsuits have since been filed against the national emergency, and the Senate is set to pass a resolution that disapproves of the move.
(Photo by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Flickr)
The additional $8.6 billion — combined with funds from the emergency declaration — will allow the completion of 722 miles of barrier construction, a long-sought goal by the Trump administration. The White House claims that about 122 miles of border barriers have already been finished or are currently under construction. The entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border is 1,954 miles, with most walls located on the border’s western half.
The 2020 budget proposal will undoubtedly keep border security a top issue as the presidential election gets underway. The upcoming fiscal year ends just one month before the presidential election.
During an interview on Fox News, the White House’s top economic adviser said a budget battle is coming.
“I suppose there will be,” Larry Kudlow said Sunday. “I would just say that the whole issue of the wall, of border security, is of paramount importance. We have a crisis down there. I think the president has made that case very effectively.”
Dr. Nick Begich breaks down the booming middle class in Asia and exposes how the west’s economy has been systematically transferred eastward to allow for this financial boom, especially in China.
Tennis - WTA Premier 5 - Dubai Tennis Championships - Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates - February 22, 2019 Ukraine's Elina Svitolina in action during the Semi Final against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
February 22, 2019
(Reuters) – Second seed Petra Kvitova recovered from a set down against Hsieh Su-wei to end the unseeded Taiwanese’s run at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Friday with a 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory that saw the Czech reach her third final of the year.
Kvitova, who made an astute tactical adjustment midway through the match that changed the course of the contest, will face either defending champion Elina Svitolina or unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic in Saturday’s final.
Hsieh, who knocked out Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber and fourth seed Karolina Pliskova during her remarkable run to the semi-finals, kept Kvitova guessing with her unorthodox shot selection and soon had the world number four on the back foot.
Two-times Wimbledon champion Kvitova is one of the hardest hitters in the women’s game, but found herself outwitted by Hsieh in a tense first set and the Czech’s frustration showed as she made 12 unforced errors to Hsieh’s one in the opener.
Kvitova, this year’s Australian Open runner-up and the champion in Dubai in 2013, switched things up in the second set, stepping up well within the baseline to take time away from Hsieh and rushing to the net behind her own powerful serve.
The new approach paid dividends and Kvitova began reeling off winners at will as she raced into a 4-1 lead before claiming the set to force a decider.
The pair began the third set with an exchange of service breaks, but Kvitova broke again and then held her serve to get in front before wrapping up the win.
In the end, for all her guile and improvisational shot-making, Hsieh had no answer to Kvitova’s raw power, mustering just 14 clean winners compared to 48 from her opponent.
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
Benny Gantz, head of Blue and White party, delivers a speech following the announcement of exit polls in Israel's parliamentary election at his party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
April 9, 2019
By Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger Benny Gantz both claimed victory in Israel’s election on Tuesday.
Israeli TV exit polls produced differing results about who will emerge as the leader of the largest single party, and the polls have been wrong in the past.
So both sides still have all to play for. However, there are indications that Netanyahu has a clearer path to forming a coalition government with other right-wing, far-right and religious parties.
Here’s a quick guide to what happens next:
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE THE RESULTS TO COME IN?
Final results are expected by Friday, but partial results are published by the Knesset as the vote-counting proceeds, so a clearer picture will begin to emerge before the final tally.
HOW ARE RESULTS CALCULATED AND WHY DOES IT TAKE TIME?
Israel has a parliamentary system, which means voters choose from party lists of candidates to serve in the 120-seat Knesset. No party has won a majority since Israel’s first election, in 1949.
In the 2019 election, about 6 million Israelis are eligible to vote. To enter parliament, a party must pass a threshold of at least 3.25 percent of the national vote, equivalent to 4 Knesset seats.
With 40 parties running, of which at least 12 have a real chance of passing the threshold, the calculations take time.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE ELECTION RESULTS ARE PUBLISHED?
Israel’s president will consult with the leaders of every party that won seats about their preference for prime minister, and will then choose the legislator who he believes has the best chance of putting together a coalition.
The nominee, who does not necessarily have to be the head of the largest party, has up to 42 days to form a government. If he or she fails, the president asks another politician to try. The leading candidates usually have a good idea whether they have majority support before they meet with the president, but things can often change in the process of deal-making.
WHAT SORT OF COALITION COULD BE FORMED?
Netanyahu will likely seek a coalition similar to his current government, with ultranationalist and Jewish Orthodox parties. Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White Party, will likely have the support of the left-wing parties. But early exit polls predict that even with that he would fall short of a governing majority.
HOW LONG UNTIL A GOVERNMENT IS IN PLACE?
Past coalition negotiations have often dragged on. Whoever is asked to form the next government will have to accommodate numerous parties, unless Netanyahu and Gantz choose to join forces and form a unity government.
WHAT OTHER FACTORS ARE THERE?
Netanyahu’s corruption cases. The prime minister is facing possible indictment in three graft cases, and may learn later this year if he will be formally charged. That could weaken his hand in negotiations with potential coalition partners who may condition their support, should he be indicted, on Netanyahu meeting their demands for cabinet posts and policy concessions.
The attorney general is expected to hand down his decision by the end of 2019. If Netanyahu is charged, his political allies will have to decide whether to continue supporting him. There is no guarantee that they will.
Netanyahu denies wrongdoing in all three cases and has the opportunity to convince the attorney general not to charge him in a pre-trial hearing, which is expected in July.
Another factor to watch is that U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to release his long-awaited Middle East peace plan some time after the election.
So far he has been a close ally of Netanyahu, but if he asks Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, especially anything involving ceding land, some of Netanyahu’s far-right allies will be furious.
Gantz has vowed to pursue peace but has stopped short of endorsing Palestinian statehood.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Stephen Farrell and Sonya Hepinstall)
Charles Eugene Ferris, 50, and Christopher Hicks, 36, were arrested after they allegedly shot at each other while wearing a bulletproof vest. (Benton County Sheriff's Office)
The good news is the bulletproof vests worked.
But two Arkansas men could still be in legal jeopardy after a night of drinking led them to test the vests by shooting at each other, officials said.
Charles Eugene Ferris, 50, and Christopher Hicks, 36, were arrested Sunday after Hicks showed up at a Rogers hospital complaining about chest pain.
Not wanting to reveal the true story of the backyard shootout, police said Ferris invented a lively story to explain the situation, KFSM reported.
Ferris allegedly told authorities he'd been paid $200 to protect an “asset,” whom he followed into the woods at Hobbs State Park. Ferris reportedly said that, while in the woods at about 10 p.m., the pair met a third man who approached the "asset" and prompted a gunfight. Cops say Ferris claimed to have been struck six times while returning fire and finally driving away with the “asset.”
Ferris allegedly said the “asset” dropped him off at his vehicle and the 50-year-old then dumped his weapons and drove to the hospital.
But officials say Ferris went from looking like 007 to just looking like a zero when his wife showed up at the hospital and spilled the beans: Ferris and Hicks shot each other while drinking on the back porch of their home.
Ferris then reportedly recanted his far-fetched story and told authorities he lied to protect Hicks from getting in trouble.
Police said Ferris then admitted to wearing the bulletproof vest and asking Hicks to shoot him with a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. The vest stopped the bullet -- but it also hurt and left a mark on Ferris’ chest.
Ferris allegedly said he got angry and “unloaded the clip into Christopher’s back.” Hicks only suffered bruising from the gunshots, police said.
Both men were charged with aggravated assault and face up to six years in prison.
A boy places flowers at a memorial as a tribute to victims of the mosque attacks, near a police line outside Masjid Al Noor in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
March 16, 2019
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s cricket team left New Zealand on Saturday, less than 24 hours after narrowly avoiding being involved in the worst mass shooting in the country, which now had to accept that sporting events were likely to have been changed for ever.
A lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 20 during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch in the country’s worst mass shooting which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned as “a terrorist attack”.
The Bangladesh team were on a bus that was approaching the Al Noor mosque, where 41 people died, on the eve of the third test at nearby Hagley Oval when the shooting began.
The test match, which had been scheduled to start on Saturday, was canceled after the shooting and Bangladesh’s tour abandoned.
Violent crime is extremely rare in New Zealand and the Bangladesh Cricket Board said the attacks had now changed their perception about team security on tours.
“We’ll demand proper security wherever our team goes in future,” BCB President Nazmul Hassan told reporters in Dhaka on Friday. “If a country provides proper security as per our demand, then we will go otherwise not.
“I can say that everything will change after this incident.”
Pakistan’s Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari also suggested the world governing body, the International Cricket Council, should possibly take a harder line against hosting matches in New Zealand.
“ICC shd take note & perhaps suspend int cricket in NZ after this act of terrorism?” Mazari said on Twitter.
Pakistan has been unable to host matches at home since 2009, when gunmen attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lanka team to a match in Lahore. Six of the visiting team were wounded and eight locals killed.
New Zealand have not toured Pakistan since 2002 following a suicide bombing outside their hotel in Karachi and instead played their games in the United Arab Emirates.
They also abandoned a tour of Sri Lanka in 1987 following a bombing near their hotel in Colombo.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said the country would now also need to accept they were no longer immune from acts of extreme violence and that would need to be factored in when they hosted sports events and teams.
“This is shocking. This will change the entire fabric of international sports hosting. I think everything changes now,” he said.
“We’ll certainly be having to look at our security in depth. I think the idea of New Zealand being a safe haven is gone now.
“We now have to be very, very vigilant – all the authorities and sporting organizations, absolutely.”
(Writing by Greg Stutchbury; Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Saad Sayeed in Pakistan; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "thief" and a "tyrant" in the latest spat between the two leaders.
The dispute comes after Erdogan's spokesman denounced Netanyahu as a racist for saying that Israel was the nation-state of the Jewish people only. Netanyahu then struck back calling Erdogan a dictator and criticizing the country for imprisoning journalists.
Speaking at an election campaign rally on Wednesday, Erdogan addressed Netanyahu as "the thief who heads Israel" in reference to corruption allegations against him.
Erdogan continued: "you are a tyrant. You are a tyrant who slaughters 7-year-old Palestinian kids."
Israel and Turkey were once close allies. But under Erdogan, Turkey has become the most vocal critic of Israel's policies toward Palestinians.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – 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.
LONDON – 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.”
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)
JOHANNESBURG – 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.
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)
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