Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Ex-Florida mayor allegedly smoked crack, acted as doctor at his home, report says

The former mayor of a Florida town – who is facing multiple charges, including allegedly shooting at cops and conspiring to impede an investigation against him – reportedly smoked crack cocaine nightly and used meth while he was still in office.

The new allegations against former Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad were revealed in court records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times on Thursday. Massad, while he was in office, allegedly received drugs via drug runners and acted as a doctor for friends at his home, the newspaper reported.

FLORIDA MAYOR WHO ALLEGEDLY SHOT AT COPS RE-ARRESTED, ACTING MAYOR IN CUSTODY, TOO

An investigation into Massad was reportedly launched after authorities received tips that Massad was engaging in corruption, using drugs and acting as a doctor in his home. Massad had previously lost his medical license in 1992 over a toddler’s death, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Massad was arrested in February for allegedly shooting at Pasco County sheriff’s deputies who were trying to serve a search warrant at his residence after reports he was operating an illegal medical practice at his home. He eventually surrendered to police and was taken into custody.

Massad was then re-arrested in March, along with the town’s acting Mayor Terrence Rowe, for allegedly conspiring to intimidate a city police officer who was involved in his February arrest.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said at the time it received information the two men had discussed ways to intimidate the police officer during a recorded phone call in March at the Pasco County Jail.

Court records, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, revealed Massad bought crystal methamphetamine from a man named Corey White. He nicknamed the drug “jet fuel” and White told officers he had delivered the drug to the mayor dozens of times. Massad would also arrange others to buy the drugs for him, according to the documents.

Massad’s lawyers have maintained the former mayor is innocent of the allegations against him.

Bjorn Brunvand told the Tampa Bay Times the people who spoke to law enforcement shouldn’t be considered credible.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“We have to be very, very careful about how much weight we give to those individuals,” he told the paper.

Fox News’ Lucia I. Suarez Sang contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Egypt releases prominent activist after five years in prison

Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah stands behind bars before his verdict is announced at a court in Cairo
FILE PHOTO: Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah stands behind bars before his verdict is announced at a court in Cairo, February 23, 2015. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

March 29, 2019

CAIRO (Reuters) – A prominent Egyptian activist has been freed after spending five years in jail, his sisters and lawyer said on Friday.

Alaa Abdel Fattah, a blogger and software engineer, was a leading voice amongst the liberal young Egyptians who initially led the 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel Fattah was jailed for protesting without permission in breach of a 2013 law that rights groups say effectively bans protests. His imprisonment has been seen by activists as an example of what they describe as the worst crackdown on freedoms in Egypt’s modern history.

“Alaa got out,” his sister Mona Seif wrote on Facebook and Twitter on Friday.

His other sister Sanaa Seif posted a video on Facebook of Abdel Fattah playing with a dog. “Thank God. Alaa Abdel Fattah in his home,” his lawyer Khaled Ali wrote in a Facebook post along with a photo of Abdel Fattah and the dog.

Abdel Fattah smiled as he hugged waiting friends upon his release, a video posted on the Facebook page “Free Alaa” showed.

As part of his sentence, Abdel Fattah is required to spend his nights at a police station for the next five years despite his release.

Abdel Fattah is one of many activists jailed since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood as well as secular pro-democracy activists.

When an Egyptian court upheld a five-year jail sentence against Abdel Fattah in 2017 after he had already served more than three years, prosecutors said he was guilty of organizing a protest in November 2013 because he had promoted it on social media.

Rights activists say that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Egypt since he took power in 2014. At least 60,000 people have been jailed on political grounds, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate.

Sisi has denied holding political prisoners and his backers say the measures were necessary to stabilize Egypt after its 2011 uprising.

(Reporting and writing by Lena Masri; additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

0 0

Man jailed for cracking egg on head of UK opposition leader Corbyn

FILE PHOTO - Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Corbyn and EU's Chief Brexit Negotiator Barnier meet in Brussels
FILE PHOTO - Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives at the European Commission headquarters ahead of a meeting with European Union's Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels, Belgium March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville

March 25, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – A man who hit Britain’s opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn on the head with an egg in an attack apparently provoked by the politician’s stance on Brexit was sentenced to 28 days in jail on Monday.

Closed circuit television footage showed John Murphy, 31, approach Corbyn, who was visiting a Muslim community center in London’s Finsbury Park on March 3 with his wife and supporters, and crack the egg on the side of his head.

“Although Mr Corbyn was not seriously hurt, Murphy had come with a number of eggs that he could have used had he not been detained quickly,” Kevin Christie, District Crown Prosecutor at CPS London North.

Prosecutors said Murphy shouted “respect the vote”, an apparent reference to the 2016 EU referendum result. The attack occurred days after Corbyn, 69, had said his Labour party would support a second referendum if it could not get backing for its alternative Brexit plans.

Murphy, who pleaded guilty, was jailed for 28 days and made to pay a 115-pound ($152) victim surcharge.

“Whilst I am in a very public role, it is often very painful to see my wife, my sons and my wider family suffer deep stress because of my role and because of this attack upon me,” Corbyn said in a statement read out in court.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by David Clarke)

Source: OANN

0 0

Poland open to meeting with Israel after Holocaust spat

Poland is open to a meeting with Israel also involving other countries from central Europe, after it pulled out of a similar meeting last week, Poland's foreign minister said Wednesday.

Jacek Czaputowicz said after talks with his Hungarian counterpart in Budapest that there are "no obstacles" to the meeting, although "some things still have to be cleared up with the Israeli side."

Poland pulled out of the Feb. 19 meeting after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Poles had cooperated with the Nazis during the Holocaust and Israel's acting foreign minister referenced a quote from former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who said that Poles "suckled anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk."

Regarding Brexit, Czaputowicz said Poland would support delaying the European Union-Britain breakup "if it helps work out a better position."

"What is very important for us is that there should not be a no-deal Brexit," Czaputowicz said. "This would not be advantageous for the European Union, for Great Britain or for Poland."

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that the two countries "were proud" that they were the first in Europe to oppose the United Nations' compact on migration and were still opposed to any even partial implementation of the deal endorsed in December by the U.N. General Assembly seeking to ensure safe and orderly migration. The U.S., Israel and the Czech Republic also voted against the deal.

"We won't allow the stealthy advance of the migration package," Szijjarto said. "We were the first to block the U.N. from presenting this as the greatest decision in the history of humanity."

At the same time, Szijjarto said the two countries would split the costs of rebuilding an orphanage in the Syrian city of Homs which houses 130 children and provides day care services for 250.

Szijjarto was also defiant on the procedures launched by the EU against Poland over the alleged erosion of judicial independence and against Hungary over concerns about the rule of law and a perceived threat to European values.

Poland and Hungary "are two countries against which the Brussels bureaucracy is carrying out a revenge campaign ... but we will never give in," Szijjarto said. "Hungary will always veto any sanctions against Poland that the EU would want to introduce."

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Germany: teen with knives detained after school threat

Police in northern Germany say they have detained a 17-year-old boy with several knives after being tipped off to an online chat in which someone threatened to kill several people at a school.

Officers checked students entering the school in Flensburg, just south of the Danish border, on Wednesday morning and detained the German teenager. Police said initial investigations firmed up suspicions against him, without elaborating. The chat surfaced on Tuesday evening and the threat applied to Wednesday.

Lessons were held as normal after boy was detained.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Two Gifts For Democrats, If They Will Take Them

COMMENTARY

X

Story Stream

recent articles

President Trump was spared charges on Sunday that would have led to his impeachment, claimed “total exoneration” and angrily pledged retribution against Democrats and media figures he blames for feeding the Russian collusion story. On Monday his Department of Justice reaffirmed support for a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. For Democrats who can think straight, both of these events can be helpful to their party in the long run.  

To start with, they should accept that because Trump has largely been freed from the burden of doubt he has been under during the entirely of his presidency, next year’s election won’t be the referendum they had hoped for, but a choice election that the incumbent now has a far better chance of winning. And because the special counsel did not choose to charge him with obstruction of justice, something many of Trump’s allies and aides feared was likely, impeachment is -- for all intents and purposes -- now off the table. Without that charge from Bob Mueller or Attorney General Bob Barr, Senate Republicans would never go along with any Democratic impeachment. Democrats should see this as a good thing.

Smart Democrats will start by expressing their relief that a U.S. president has not been charged with conspiracy and was not found to have rigged his election with an adversarial government -- something that would have traumatized and likely irreparably damaged our country. Democrats should also thank Mueller for his integrity, and for a fair and lawful process. They are right to call for the full release of Mueller’s findings, as have many Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley. House committees also have more investigations planned or in the pipeline -- and oversight of the White House’s security clearance process, Jared Kushner’s potential business dealings with the Saudi Kingdom and Qatar while deciding national security policy, the Trump Organization’s loans from Russians that may have made the president and/or his family members beholden to the Putin government, are all appropriate areas of inquiry. But attempts to keep the prospects of impeachment alive, no matter what Mueller’s findings reveal on potential obstruction of justice, will backfire on Democrats for certain.

House Democratic leaders, starting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has dismissed impeachment for months, affirmed Tuesday they want to focus on policy instead of probes. News of the administration’s support for ending all ACA protections has focused the minds of Democratic leaders, with Majority Whip Jim Clyburn telling CNN Tuesday morning that the Mueller chapter has “closed” and that health care is “the new chapter.” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said health care "was a defining issue of the 2018 midterm elections. We embrace this fight because House Democrats were given the majority in order to defend health care."

The leadership will, no matter the contents of the special counsel’s report, struggle to keep everyone in line. There are those who have been around forever -- such as impeachment advocate Rep. Al Green, who on Twitter promoted his lunch Tuesday with Tom Steyer in the members dining room of the House -- and those who are new to the House, such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who decided to call for a commission on the question as soon as Trump was cleared. In a letter to her colleagues, Tlaib wrote: "I, firmly, believe that the House Committee on Judiciary should seek out whether President Trump has committed 'High crimes and Misdemeanors' as designated by the U.S. Constitution and if the facts support those findings, that Congress begin impeachment proceedings.”

Democrats didn’t run on Trump’s troubles or the Mueller investigation in the midterms and little has changed out on the campaign trail where Democratic candidates running to be the party’s nominee in 2020 are being asked by voters about health care, climate change, gun control, college loan reform, immigration, taxes and jobs. Not only was health care the top issue in the midterms for Democrats, it was for most voters, and the candidates who championed coverage for pre-existing conditions and other Obamacare protections won those voters by a 75 percent-23 percent margin. During the midterms, Democrats cited, to great effect, a provision from one of the GOP replacement plans that never passed, an “age tax” that would allow insurers to charge patients age 50 and over five times more for coverage.

Health care remains the Republicans’ and Trump’s worst political liability, having failed since 2011 as a party to repeal and replace it, which Trump promised in 2016 and 2017 that they would finally do. After that failure, Trump and GOP candidates also promised voters in the 2018 election they would not allow insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, after they eliminated the ACA’s individual mandate to purchase health care as part of their tax reform law. But that will occur should a court ultimately overturn the law.  

Health care coverage, and other pocketbook issues, are likely the reason Republicans saw an erosion of support from white women without a college degree, a key to Trump’s 2016 voting base, in the midterms. Writing for CNN, political analyst Ron Brownstein identified non-evangelical working-class white women as a key target bloc for Democrats next year “in pivotal Rust Belt states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where relatively fewer blue-collar whites are also evangelical Christians,” adding that nationwide nearly three-fifths of these women voted for Democrats last November and told exit pollsters they disapproved of Trump’s performance in office.

Those women may not have benefited from the tax cut, may see their communities suffering from Trump’s trade wars, may have not seen any factories moving back into town, and aren’t likely to see Trump fulfill his broken promise on health care, no matter how many times he rebrands the GOP as “the party of health care,” as he has this week.  President Trump is likely to spend a lot of time talking about the Mueller probe and collusion in his campaign next year, according to aides and advisers, and his allies are seeking an “investigation of the investigators.” If Democrats talk about Trump, or Mueller or Barr, these very same voters may sit 2020 out, but if the Democratic nominee talks about their challenges and the policy prescriptions that could alleviate their problems, the party is in the running to win them over and beat Trump.

A.B. Stoddard is associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist. 

0 0

Macron tests German patience in split over Brexit delay

Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
French President Emmanuel Macron leaves after an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Eva Plevier

April 11, 2019

By Michel Rose, Andreas Rinke and Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The ‘De Gaulle moment’ that many had speculated about before Wednesday night’s Brexit summit did not come, but President Emmanuel Macron still lived up to the spirit of the post-war French leader by throwing his weight around the EU table.

Macron may not have used his veto, but his dogged determination to block a one-year extension to Britain’s divorce talks with the EU, favored by a majority of European leaders, irritated many in Brussels – and chiefly Germany.

That could signal a new willingness to challenge Angela Merkel’s moral leadership in Europe as the German chancellor nears the end of her reign and France grows impatient with what it sees as her tendency to procrastinate.

Unusually, the EU’s two most powerful leaders failed to reach a Franco-German compromise at their bilateral meeting in Brussels before the summit with the other EU leaders started, diplomats said.

Macron was therefore left to fight a largely solo battle to convince his counterparts that giving Britain an extra year to make up its mind was too risky for EU institutions, and would send the wrong message about respecting popular votes.

French officials said Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Malta were sympathetic to Macron’s view – but others privately expressed irritation with what they saw as Gallic grandstanding.

“It probably has more to do with internal French politics,” a German diplomatic source said. “Maybe it is seen as important to contradict the Germans and be nasty to the Brits. In the end, it does not help Macron.”

At the end of the day, a typically European compromise to extend the Brexit talks to Oct. 31 – neither long nor short – was hatched. But on Thursday morning, Germany’s irritation burst into the open.

“A longer Brexit extension would have been better!” tweeted Norbert Roettgen, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a member of Merkel’s party. “But Macron prioritized his own election campaign and interests over European unity.”

NO ‘SPLENDID ISOLATION’

Macron said after the summit that he was ready to stand alone if that meant preserving the EU’s ‘common good’:

“I make no apology for being clear. I think it’s also France’s role in these moments to try and stick to principles.”

In what could be seen as bid to reclaim the mantle of EU leadership, he alluded to France’s role in launching the European integration project after World War Two – without mentioning President Charles De Gaulle’s veto of Britain’s accession in 1961.

A French diplomatic source said Macron was not content with face-saving compromises with Germany, but wanted to work with others such as the Dutch, Danes and Swedes to get his way.

“We’re not after a leadership of isolation – splendid isolation if you will – but after a leadership that can rally others around us,” the source said.

Macron feels Merkel’s tendency to avoid making decisions until the last minute – which France thinks had disastrous effects during the euro zone crisis – is counter-productive in the Brexit process.

He argued that EU leaders should not try to keep Britain in and so undo the result of its 2016 referendum, saying it would send the wrong message to voters in next month’s European Parliament elections who are tempted by populists vowing to oust unelected technocrats ignoring the will of the people.

One senior EU official said it had been a bad night for French diplomacy and that Macron, having pushed hard for a short extension, had been forced to compromise.

“He wants to show that the French president has a strong say. Maybe he fears that the European Parliament elections will show that France is more eurosceptic than Britain. In any case, it was ill-prepared,” the official said.

“TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP”

France and Germany, former enemies who lost millions of lives in wars in the last century, form the backbone of the historic, integrationist core of the European Union and their relationship remains vital to bloc’s future.

The French president needs Berlin’s support if he is to succeed in deepening cooperation on matters ranging from border control and immigration to European defense and fiscal policy.

Yet with Merkel’s power diminished as she heads toward the exit, Macron himself preoccupied by months of “yellow vest” protests against his economic policies, and Europe distracted by Brexit, the momentum for reform that he had sought is largely lost.

Moreover, Paris and Berlin are at odds on a wide range of subjects.

“Franco-German relations are in a troubled period,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. He cited differences on euro zone reform, relations with the United States, EU defense policy and tax rules for the digital economy.

“More broadly, France wants Europe to be a power and therefore believes it needs radical reform,” Grant said. Germany is quite happy with the way the EU works at the moment.”

Yet differences between Paris and Berlin are nothing new, and the summit’s Brexit compromise showed that the classic fudge still had its place in EU diplomacy.

“Everything goes more smoothly when France and Germany are aligned,” an EU source said. “But in the end, this was very much a Franco-German compromise, in the best tradition of Franco-German cooperation.”

(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Luke Baker and Richard Lough in Paris; writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough and Kevin Liffey)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist