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UK should ‘cool down’, drop Brexit – Socialist candidate to head EU Commission

FILE PHOTO: Frans Timmermans, the newly elected Party of European Socialists President, speaks during the Party of European Socialists annual meeting in Lisbon
FILE PHOTO: Frans Timmermans, the newly elected Party of European Socialists President, speaks during the Party of European Socialists annual meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, December 8, 2018. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo

April 17, 2019

By Peter Maushagen

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – Britain should use the next few months to “cool down and rethink” its decision to leave the European Union, the socialist candidate to head the next European Commission, Frans Timmermans, said on Wednesday.

Last week EU leaders gave Britain an extension of its departure date until Oct. 31, with the possibility of leaving sooner if parliament ratifies a divorce deal Prime Minister Theresa May has negotiated with the EU. Lawmakers have already rejected the deal three times.

“I absolutely hope that the UK might stay in the EU,” Timmermans, now the Commission’s first vice president, said in a television debate with his main rival, Manfred Weber of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP).

“I hope this period of extension will be used for Britain to calm down and rethink things a bit, perhaps for politicians to be more responsible with the promises they make, and then look at the issue again later this year,” the Dutchman said.

“Who knows what might change in the meantime?” he said.

Timmermans was expressing a sentiment shared by some in the EU, notably the chairman of EU leaders, Donald Tusk, that Britain could still change its mind and stay in the EU.

LABOUR TO TIMMERMANS’ RESCUE?

Polls show that enough Britons may have had a change of heart about Brexit since the 2016 referendum, in which they voted to leave the bloc by 52 to 48 percent. But May and her government remain strongly opposed to holding another vote.

Timmermans hopes to replace the EPP’s Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission, the most powerful of EU institutions. He is running on a ticket from the EU’s second biggest political family, the socialists.

Britain is likely to still be a member of the EU at the time of the European Parliament elections on May 23-26, which means it would take part in the vote. Britain’s opposition Labour Party, which backs a second referendum, could help Timmermans’ socialists win more seats in the 751-seat European assembly.

Weber does not stand to benefit in the same way from British participation in the EU elections because no UK parties belong to the EPP, currently the largest grouping in the parliament.

“I have a problem that they (Britain) are now participating in the EU elections, are deciding about the future of our union,” Weber said during the TV debate with Timmermans.

“That is not easy to understand. I respect the outcome, and if they are part of the EU, they have the right to vote – don’t get me wrong,” he added.

The EU political family with most seats in the European Parliament expects its candidate for Commission president to land the job, although the decision formally lies with EU leaders.

Latest polls – which assume UK participation in the elections – show the EPP winning 178 seats and the socialists getting 144 seats.

(Reporting By Peter Maushagen, Writing by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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China diplomat: centers for Muslims there are “campuses”

Detention centers for Muslims in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang are "campuses, not camps" and are set to be closed as a "training program" for the ethnic Uighurs is downsized, a top Chinese diplomat said Friday.

At the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Executive Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng reiterated China's insistence that the centers are designed to provide training and fight terrorism that, he said, has infected the region for years. He also took aim at a U.S.-led "side event" in Geneva on Xinjiang — calling that "unacceptable" interference in Chinese sovereignty.

He said officials from around the world, including from the U.N., had visited the region and that the centers in Xinjiang are "actually boarding schools or campuses, not camps as claimed by the ill-intentioned few."

He didn't specify when the centers would be closed, other than telling reporters afterward that they would be "at the appropriate time."

Le also told reporters he had recently visited some centers in Xinjiang — and played ping pong and ate halal food there.

The centers have drawn condemnation from across the world, including from the United States, as well as from human rights groups.

The comments by Le came as China was responding to more than 200 recommendations by other countries on ways that Beijing could improve human rights as part of a Human Rights Council process known as the Universal Periodic Review, or UPR.

All U.N. member states undergo such screening, generally every four to five years. Le said China had accepted 82 percent of the recommendations presented during the review last November. The council formally adopted the review of China without a vote on Friday.

The U.S. State Department this week said China "significantly intensified" a campaign of mass detentions over the last year, with between 800,000 and 2 million people from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region interned in camps.

The United States, historically one of the few countries to confront China over its human rights records, pulled out of the 47-country Geneva-based U.N. body last year, alleging it has an anti-Israeli bias and other shortcomings.

Norway's ambassador in Geneva voiced the most criticism among diplomats at the council on Friday. Hans Brattskar said the Nordic country regretted that China did not accept any recommendations in the UPR process related to the situation in Xinjiang.

Source: Fox News World

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LSU on attack with Michigan State on deck

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round-Michigan State vs Minnesota
Mar 23, 2019; Des Moines, IA, United States; Michigan State Spartans forward Xavier Tillman (23) shoots the ball against Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Amir Coffey (5) during the second half in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

March 26, 2019

One program is busy proving people wrong. The other is back where many always expected it to be.

That’s the essence of the matchup when No. 2 Michigan State takes on No. 3 LSU in the East Region semifinals of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

The Spartans, who are playing in their 14th Sweet 16 under coach Tom Izzo, had failed to get out of the first weekend of the tournament in each of the past three seasons but are back after bouncing Bradley and Minnesota in the first two rounds.

The Tigers, the regular-season champion of the SEC, were counted out by many when coach Will Wade was suspended indefinitely after he was allegedly caught on a wiretap discussing a possible payment to a player. Instead of crumble, the Tigers rebounded to beat upset-minded Yale then won in the final seconds over Maryland on Tremont Waters’ drive and scoop.

“It was a good weekend for us as far as winning,” Izzo said. “We had mixed feelings on how we played, then I watched the rest of the tournament and realized so many teams had struggles in games.

“We’re excited for the opportunity to play another weekend. There are only 16 teams left and the weather is getting nice, days are getting longer and we’re practicing at the right time of the year.”

It was reaching the point where getting this far was hardly a sure thing for a Michigan State team that is playing in its 22nd straight NCAA Tournament, the third-longest active streak behind Kansas (30) and Duke (24).

After reaching the Final Four in 2015, Michigan State lost as a tournament favorite in the first round in 2016 to Middle Tennessee State and followed that with two second-round exits – in 2017 to Kansas and last season to Syracuse.

Now that the Spartans have overcome the first-weekend woes, they’re focused on getting to the eighth Final Four under Izzo, something that starts with LSU but would include a win over either No. 1 Duke or No. 4 Virginia Tech.

“We do want to win the weekend and the only reason I do is I learned that from some great programs around the country,” Izzo said. “It’s what you do after you get your program to a certain level when winning a game in the NCAA Tournament doesn’t matter anymore.

“I know conventional wisdom says you have to win your first one before you win the second one, but that’s just not the way we operate. Today we’ll look at all three teams a little bit and we’ll try to figure out what they do. … The goal still is to win the weekend and we’ll try to prepare that way.”

When it comes to winning the weekend, LSU (28-6) is starting to figure, “Why not us?”

Even with Javonte Smart cleared to return to the lineup, many believed the pressure of not having their coach would lead to a quick exit for the Tigers. Instead, interim coach Tony Benford has the Tigers believing.

Waters will have a marquee matchup with All-Big Ten point guard Cassius Winston. Both can score, control the tempo, and get after it on defense.

Benford is the first interim coach since Michigan’s Steve Fisher in 1989 to take a team this far in the tournament. It’s LSU’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since reaching the Final Four in 2006 and 10th overall.

“It’s huge for these guys,” Benford said. “They’re the ones that paid the price. They’ve been through a lot. We know the story of adversity these guys have gone through.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Bill Barr, Dirty Cops, and the O.J. Simpson Trial

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When Attorney General Bill Barr testified last week that, yes, “spying did occur” in the government’s Trump-Russia investigation and that spying on a political campaign is a “big deal,” the Democrats were apoplectic. How could he dare say such a thing? The saintly James Comey went even further. He told an audience that he didn’t even know what spying meant. No, siree, he had no idea.

Barr’s candor is what Michael Kinsley famously called a “Washington gaffe,” where the naked truth somehow slips out. Naturally, it set off a firestorm.

Democrats demanded an immediate retraction but got only an anodyne rewording. Use a synonym and call it “surveillance.” The real question, Barr explained, was not whether there was spying—there obviously was—but whether it was legally justified. That is precisely what he intends to find out, he told Congress. He will also find out if the spymasters lied to Congress, about which he has now received criminal referrals.

The Democrats’ ferocious pushback confirms the gravity of the issue. Their fears are well-founded. The Obama administration politicized the Department of Justice, FBI, and intelligence agencies, and a serious investigation is very likely to find criminal wrong-doing. The response of top Democrats is to smear Barr as a partisan hack.

The mainstream media, predictably, adopted the Democratic perspective, even in their “hard news” coverage. Take the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, which used a slick verb and quotation marks to signal its skepticism. Its headline: “Barr Aligns with Trump on ‘Spying.’” CNN went further: “Barr obliterates honest broker persona with 'spying' comment.” Those sentiments are similar to Nancy Pelosi’s: “I don’t trust Barr.” Later, she added, “How very, very dismaying and disappointing that the chief law enforcement officer of our country is going off the rails.”

Republicans, by contrast, were delighted by Barr’s comments. They were even more pleased that he intends to investigate what happened, who authorized it, and on what basis. He and Inspector General Michael Horowitz also want to know who leaked information about these on-going investigations, a felony in its own right.

For Republicans, the attorney general’s testimony merely confirmed the obvious, what Trump himself has said for two years and what subsequent testimony and leaks make clear. For them, it was beyond dispute that the FBI, DoJ, and intelligence agencies had conducted a multi-pronged effort to spy on the Trump campaign and the newly elected president. Their questions have always been:

When did the investigations start, and on what basis?

Did U.S. intelligence agencies use their resources to try and entrap people associated with the Trump campaign? Did they or the FBI try to plant “human sources” inside the campaign itself?

Were warrants to spy on an American citizen obtained honestly?

How, exactly, did a counter-intelligence operation morph into a criminal investigation?

If law enforcement and intelligence agencies believed the Russians were trying to infiltrate the Trump campaign, why did they choose not to brief Trump himself, so he could work with them to stop it?

How high up in Loretta Lynch’s DoJ and the Obama White House did knowledge of these surveillance operations go? Did the White House ultimately control these operations?

Republicans have related questions about the slapdash investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, which they see as a whitewash. In fact, they see the Clinton and Trump investigations as evil twins, one to clear the candidate they liked, the other to destroy the candidate they loathed. In short, they see Dirty Cops and Dirty Spymasters, who stepped across a bright line to interfere in our country’s domestic politics. That is a constitutional abomination.

What is so striking is not just the starkly different partisan views of Barr’s testimony and, worse, his integrity. After all, that chasm is now the defining characteristic of American political life. What is striking—and truly disturbing—is how each side thinks the other’s views are so obviously wrong that they must be corrupt and dishonest, explicable only by “bad faith” and malevolent intentions.

We saw just such a division during the O.J. Simpson trial, where the fault line was race. When O.J. was tried for double homicide in the mid-1990s, only 22 percent of African Americans thought he was guilty, according to Washington Post-ABC News surveys. The number for whites was three times higher. When the verdict was announced, there was open celebration in black communities, open disbelief in white ones. Far more blacks were convinced O.J. was the victim of dirty cops and a biased justice system, something they understood from personal experience.

Over time, though, views changed. Immediately after the trial, four out of five whites became convinced of Simpson’s guilt, less than one in five blacks. Since then, numbers among whites have remained roughly the same, but black opinions have changed dramatically. By 1997, 31 percent of blacks said he was guilty; by 2007, that number had risen to 45 percent. By 2015, 57 percent of black respondents said O.J. Simpson was guilty. That number is fairly close to white responses during the trial itself and vastly different from black responses at the time. Opinions can change when the heat is turned off.

In today’s Washington, however, the burners are turned on full blast. Republicans believe James Comey’s FBI and Loretta Lynch’s DoJ were led by dirty cops. The Democrats think the same thing about Donald Trump and his political appointees, including the attorney general. Several leading Democrats are going on TV and proclaiming Trump conspired with the Russians to win the White House.

Evidence? We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence. They must not, since Mueller’s intensive investigation did not indict a single American, much less a member of the Trump campaign, for colluding with the Russians. Mueller’s bottom line, as quoted by Barr, is that the Russians did meddle in the 2016 election but there was no collusion, cooperation, or coordination with the Trump campaign.

These partisan divisions will only harden as the presidential race heats up. They may fade in years to come, as they did after the O.J. trial, but they rend our democracy now.

These accusations of bad faith raise another troubling question: In this hyper-partisan environment, will both parties accept the evidence Barr and Horowitz find? If they do not, if Democrats continue to say everything is the malign work of partisan hacks, then, Lord help us, we’re in for another special counsel.

Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he is founding director of PIPES, the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security. He can be reached at charles.lipson@gmail.com.

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Michael Cohen asks House Democrats to help keep him out of prison

With a little less than a month to go until he is slated to report to prison, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen is asking House Democrats to help keep him out of the big house.

In a letter sent to lawmakers Thursday, Cohen's legal team said he was still sorting through documents in his personal files that might be of interest to House Democrats investigating President Trump, including emails, voice recordings, images and other documents on a hard drive.

The letter was sent to a veritable who's-who of Trump opponents, including Reps. Adam Schiff of California, Jerry Nadler of New York, Maxine Waters of California and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, all Democrats.

"To date, Mr. Cohen has located several documents that we believe have significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees," wrote the attorneys, Lanny Davis, Michael Monico and Carly Chocron.

Davis had served as then-President Bill Clinton special counsel in the 1990s, including during Clinton’s impeachment. He supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

The lawyers said if Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, has been going through the documents alone, without any help, and if he reports to prison May 6 as scheduled, he won't be able to finish reviewing the material.

COHEN CALLS TRUMP A RACIST FRAUD AT EXPLOSIVE HOUSE HEARING, SAYS TRUMP BULLIED COLLEGES NOT TO DISCLOSE GRADES

They asked the lawmakers to write letters saying that Cohen was cooperating and that "the substantial trove of new information, documents, recordings, and other evidence he can provide requires substantial time with him and ready access to him by congressional committees and staff to complete their investigations and to fulfill their oversight responsibilities."

Michael Cohen hired former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis to represent him in the criminal investigation.

Michael Cohen hired former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis to represent him in the criminal investigation. (Lanny Davis/Twitter)

If any lawmakers were to write such a letter, it could be useful if Cohen petitioned the court to delay his prison report date.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to tax evasion, fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations, already has received one short delay on medical grounds while he recovered from shoulder surgery.

In their letter to lawmakers, Cohen's lawyers said they were still holding out hope that federal prosecutors in New York not only would back another delay in the start of his prison term, but also would agree to reopen his case and advocate for a lighter sentence. He has been sentenced to a three-year term.

"It is our hope that the authorities in the Southern District of New York will consider this total picture of cooperation by Mr. Cohen, verified by your letter and the important new evidence he has made available or could make available to assist the government, and the particular facts involved here to grant Mr. Cohen a reduced term following the rules and procedures of the Southern District of New York."

Democrats, including Schiff, have signaled they've intended to keep investigating alleged collusion by the Trump campaign, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded a nearly two-year, $25 million investigation last month. Mueller found no evidence of any such collusion -- despite repeated efforts by Russia to conspire with the Trump team, according to a summary from Attorney General Bill Barr.

At a hearing this past February, Democrats questioning Cohen pushed an unproven theory that Trump, along with his family, could be compromised by the Russians. "Is it possible the whole family is conflicted or compromised with a foreign adversary in the months before the election?” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, asked Cohen. Wasserman Schultz led the committee when its emails were hacked.

“Yes,” Cohen replied.

After the hearing, House Oversight Committee Republicans referred Cohen to the Justice Department for alleged perjury, claiming he lied during sworn testimony before the panel about a number of issues including his ambitions to work in the Trump administration and contracts with foreign entities. And, a top House Democrat told Fox News that Cummings, the Democrat oversight chair, probably would make a perjury referral.

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A spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Manhattan declined to comment on the letter from Cohen's attorneys.

New York prosecutors previously advocated for a tough sentence, saying the crimes were serious and that the help Cohen had provided to ongoing investigations wasn't as valuable or as complete as Cohen had claimed.

Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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American Airlines extends Boeing 737 MAX flight cancellations through April 24

FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight approaches for landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles approaches for landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

March 24, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines said Sunday it will extend flight cancellation through April 24 because of the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX after two fatal crashes since October and cut some additional flights.

American, the largest U.S. carrier, said it is cancelling about 90 flights a day. American is the second-largest U.S. operator of the MAX in the United States with 24 jets, behind Southwest Airlines with 34.

American said earlier this month it was flying about 85 flights a day out of its 6,700 daily departures on 737 MAX planes when the grounded was announced.

The airline said it was making the announcement “to provide more certainty to our customers and team members and better protect our customers on other flights to their final destination.”

Boeing Co is expected as early as Monday to formally disclose a planned upgrade to its anti-stall system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that has been in the works since October’s Lion Air crash but still needs approval from U.S. regulators.

The FAA has said it plans to mandate the upgrade by April, but it is still not clear if the upgrade will address any issues after the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash.

American, Southwest and United Airlines were all meeting with Boeing this weekend to review the software upgrade, Reuters reported Saturday.

The FAA said earlier the “design changes” would result in flight control system enhancements that will provide “reduced reliance on procedures associated with required pilot memory items.”

Reuters reported Thursday the upgrade will include a previously optional warning light. Many airlines, including American, already had the optional light.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

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Kim looks to Russia as sanctions bite North Korea’s economy

Two months after he failed to win a badly needed easing of sanctions from President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is traveling to Russia in a possible attempt to win its help as the U.S.-led trade sanctions hurt his country's already-struggling economy.

There are no signs of a financial or humanitarian crisis in North Korea. But some observers say the sanctions, toughened over the past several years, are gradually drying up Kim's foreign currency reserves and he is desperate to find ways to bring in hard currency. His propaganda service is already saying that North Koreans can survive with only "water and air."

Russia, along with China, has called for the easing of the sanctions, though both are members of the U.N. Security Council, which has approved a total of 11 rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006. Some experts say Kim may ask Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting set to take place in Vladivostok on Thursday to voice strong opposition to the sanctions, enforce them less stringently and send humanitarian food aid to North Korea.

It's still unclear how much assistance Kim could get from Putin. Along with China, Russia isn't likely to want to openly evade the sanctions and face diplomatic friction with the United States. More than 90% of North Korea's foreign trade has gone through China, with which it shares a long, porous land border.

Analyst Go Myong-Hyun of the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies said Kim's Russia trip, the first by a North Korean leader since 2011, may have been planned long before the February breakdown of the second summit between Kim and Trump in Vietnam. Go said North Korea and Russia had wanted to discuss economic cooperation if the summit had resulted in an easing of sanctions.

What will still likely be on the agenda is a request by Kim for food aid. In February, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, issued an unusual appeal for "urgent" food assistance. North Korean officials blamed the shortage on bad weather and the sanctions.

Analyst Cho Bong-hyun of Seoul's IBK Economic Research Institute said North Korea needs more than 1 million tons of food aid, so it would want Russia to provide hundreds of thousands of tons of corn, flour and other foodstuff. Russia could send North Korea food, but mostly in a secret manner, Cho said.

Kim will also likely raise the issue of thousands of North Korean workers in Russia, who must return home along with other overseas North Korean workers worldwide by the end of this year under the U.N. sanctions.

"There is a high possibility that Kim will ask Putin to be flexible on the issue as it's related to the inflow of dollars," said analyst Shin Beomchul of the Asan institute. He said North Korea may seek to persuade Russia to overlook North Korean visitors with short-term non-employment visas engaging in illegal work.

In May last year, South Korea's Unification Ministry said North Korea sends an estimated 50,000 workers aboard, mostly to China and Russia. Most work at factories, construction sites, lumber camps and restaurants. They often toil in tough working conditions and large portions of their salaries are taken by North Korea's government, according to activists and defectors.

After Kim failed to get sanctions relief from Trump in Vietnam, he called for national unity under the banner of self-reliance to surmount the sanctions. His state media called self-reliance "the treasured sword," a term previously used to refer to his nuclear weapons.

"It is necessary to sweep away the whirlwind of sanctions by the hostile forces," Kim said in a rare speech at the country's rubber-stamp parliament earlier this month.

The Vietnam summit collapsed after Trump rejected Kim's calls for the end of five of the 11 sanctions that he said impede his country's civilian economy in return for partial steps toward nuclear disarmament. They include a ban on key exports such as coal, textiles and seafood; a significant curtailing of oil imports; and the repatriation of North Korean overseas workers by December.

These sanctions, approved one by one since 2016 when Kim began a series of nuclear and missile tests, are inflicting more pain than the six previously imposed sanctions that largely target North Korea's weapons industry.

The new sanctions especially affect North Korea's official external trade. According to China Customs figures, China's imports from North Korea dropped by 88% and exports to the North by 33% in 2018. South Korea's central bank said North Korea's economy contracted 3.5% in 2017 from a year earlier.

North Korea monitoring groups in Seoul say the prices of rice and other key commodities at hundreds of markets in North Korea remain largely unchanged. South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers last month that it hasn't detected any signs of mass starvation.

Some experts say Kim has likely used some of his foreign currency reserves to import goods from China to maintain price stability. Some say North Korea's huge trade deficit may have been offset by illicit border trade with China that is likely thriving again with lax enforcement of the U.N. sanctions. Others say North Korea is trying to locally produce items it had imported.

"It's certain that North Korea is releasing a large amount of money," Go said. "When its money runs out, it'll face an urgent situation and step up calls for sanctions relief."

There is no independently confirmed data on the size of North Korea's foreign currency reserves. Go said some economists estimate them at $5 billon. Outside speculation varies over how long North Korea can withstand the impact of the sanctions without major economic and social chaos.

Cho speculates North Korea will likely hold out for the next three to five years. But others say it could face a drain on its foreign currency reserves sooner, by December or next year at the earliest.

Whether the sanctions will eventually force Kim to fully give up his nuclear program is unclear. Kim considers his nuclear weapons a stronger security assurance than any non-aggression promises the U.S. could offer. In his April 12 parliamentary speech, he described the sanctions as a plot to disarm North Korea before trying to overthrow his government.

If there is an indication of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, many experts say China will likely make large-scale food shipments to prevent the exodus of refugees from the North.

Thae Yong Ho, a former minster at the North Korean Embassy in London who defected to South Korea in 2016, said in a recent blog post that there are rumors among North Korean residents that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, in May. He said North Korea's hard-line stance will continue for the time being if it gets help from Russia and China.

___

Associated Press researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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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.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATE COMPETITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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