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Trump reverses slew of Obama-era Cuba policies in new crackdown

The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded several Obama-era policies toward Cuba, while imposing tough sanctions against Venezuela and Nicaragua – as part of a new crackdown on what National Security Adviser John Bolton dubbed the “three stooges of socialism."

Bolton outlined the steps during an event in Coral Gables, Fla., honoring veterans of the United States' failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Among the moves being taken against Cuba, the Trump administration is restricting non-family travel to the island and limiting the amount of remittances a person in the U.S. can send to family in Cuba to $1,000 per quarter.

US PERMITS LAWSUITS AGAINST COMPANIES USING PROPERTY SEIZED BY CASTRO'S CUBA, POMPEO ANNOUNCES

Bolton also announced additions to the Cuba Restrict List, which prohibits direct financial transactions with entities tied to the communist nation’s military, intelligence, and security services.

“While the last administration wanted to improve relations with the tyrants in Havana, and to convince the world that they posed no threat, the Cuban regime tightened its grip and extended its tentacles,” Bolton said in reference to the Obama administration’s thaw in the icy relationship with Cuba.

“These new measures will help steer American dollars away from the Cuban regime, or its military and security services,” Bolton said.

The announcement aligns with the hardline stance President Trump has taken toward Cuba since taking office, especially when it comes to the country’s close ties with the government of disputed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Bolton’s speech came just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration will allow Cubans who fled Fidel Castro’s regime to sue companies that have used their former property on the island.

Pompeo said he would not suspend a provision in the 1996 Helms-Burton Act that allowed such litigation and had been blocked by every presidential administration since Bill Clinton. The move could affect dozens of Canadian and European companies doing business in Cuba – embroiling the businesses in litigation that could cost them billions of dollars and upending relations between Washington and its traditional allies.

"Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement," Pompeo said.

CUBA CITES LACK OF EVIDENCE IN MYSTERIOUS SONIC ATTACKS ON DIPLOMATS

Spain has already slammed the move, saying Washington's move damages relations between Europe and the United States and will lead to lawsuits and counterclaims. Spain contends that the U.S. action runs counter to international law, and says European Union countries are preparing to fight it.

Spanish companies are among Cuba's main foreign investors.

Besides the new policies regarding Cuba, the Trump administration took action against the other two countries in Bolton’s so-called “troika of tyranny”: Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The U.S. is imposing sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela, arguing that the bank has been instrumental in propping up the Maduro regime. The move, which is aimed at restricting U.S. transactions with the bank and cutting off the bank's access to U.S. currency, is meant to be a warning to others, including Russia, against deploying military assets to Venezuela to help Maduro stay in power, Bolton said.

“The United States will use its economic tools to the maximum capacity to constrict Maduro and ensure that his cronies no longer pilfer what rightfully belongs to the people of Venezuela,” Bolton said.

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The Trump administration is also levying more penalties against Bancorp in Nicaragua — claiming the bank is a "slush fund" for the country's president, Daniel Ortega. The bank already has been sanctioned by the United States for its links to Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

Trump issued an executive order in November targeting the Ortega government and its supporters for allegedly engaging in corruption and human rights abuses, and exploiting citizens and public resources.

One of those sanctioned is Vice President Rosario Murillo.

Bolton added the U.S. is now imposing additional sanctions now on Bancorp as well as Laureano Ortega, one of Daniel Ortega's son's.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Thousands more Central American migrants approach U.S.-Mexico border

Thousands more migrants are heading toward the U.S.-Mexican border, hoping to gain permanent residency here even as the Trump administration tightens rules on detention and obtaining political asylum.

Some 2,000 migrants arrived in Mexico this week, forcing officials of Chiapas state to declare an emergency. 5,000 more migrants had set out toward the U.S. on Monday, according to the Mexico News Daily.

Meanwhile, "Pueblos Sin Frontreras," a group often cited as being behind the caravans since last year, denied on its Facebook page in a post on Tuesday that it is organizing the large groups and leading them on the long journey to the U.S. border from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“Nonetheless, as defenders of human rights of the migrants we are in solidarity with the families, children, men and women that see as their only option to flee their communities and migrate.”

Pueblos Sin Frontreras assailed Mexican authorities for what the group says is their failure to honor previous promises to treat the migrants humanely by giving them visitor visas on humanitarian grounds, and are instead adopting a hard line to keep them from getting close to the United States.

BORDER PATROL OFFICIAL: CARAVAN-SIZE INFLUX OF MIGRANTS ARRIVING EVERY WEEK IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY

“Mexico is acquiescing to the U.S. and handling this in a law enforcement, rather than humanitarian, manner,” the group said.

Calls to Pueblos Sin Frontreras seeking comment were not returned.

Tensions have flared between the migrants and authorities in countries they pass through, including Mexico.

Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, walk on the shoulder of a road in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico on Friday.The group pushed past police guarding the bridge and joined a larger group of about 2,000 migrants who are walking toward Tapachula, the latest caravan to enter Mexico.

Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, walk on the shoulder of a road in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico on Friday.The group pushed past police guarding the bridge and joined a larger group of about 2,000 migrants who are walking toward Tapachula, the latest caravan to enter Mexico. (AP)

This week, they tried to push past police, who urged them to stay in makeshift shelters. Officials also told people to stay indoors, warning the migrants were a threat to safety. The town’s cold reception contrasts with the warm welcome it gave to caravans just last year.

More than 7,000 migrants are in Chiapas, according to the newspaper, waiting to receive documents that would allow them to work and live there while they try to apply for asylum in the United States.

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President Donald Trump has called the large numbers of migrants approaching the border an emergency, and has pushed the construction of a wall. U.S. Attorney General William Barr decided Tuesday that asylum seekers who clear a “credible fear” interview and are facing removal don’t have the right to be released on bond by an immigration court judge while their cases are pending. The attorney general has the authority to overturn prior rulings made by immigration courts, which fall under the Justice Department.

Trump also warned Mexico to step up efforts to deal with the groups of migrants trying to get to the U.S., or risk U.S. tariffs on auto imports.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Florida man serving 23 years in prison back in custody after accidental release, authorities say

A 29-year-old convicted criminal walked out of a Florida prison last week after he was accidentally released decades early and enjoyed four days of freedom before turning himself into U.S. Marshals on Monday, authorities said.

Cedrick Gant's accidental freedom stemmed from a paperwork mix-up when he was transferred from the Lake County Jail to the Brevard County Jail to face sentencing for several misdemeanor charges, Lake County Sheriff’s Office Lt. John Herrell told FOX35.

FLORIDA MAN IN EASTER BUNNY COSTUME CAUGHT IN VIRAL BRAWL REVEALS WHO HE IS, WHY HE HOPPED INTO ACTION

An employee in Lake County misread Gant’s paperwork and crossed off that he was on a hold by U.S. Marshals, Herrell said. The mistake allowed a judge to release Gant for time served on Thursday, the Orlando Sentinel reported, citing court records.

“He did that without realizing that he had already been sentenced to 23 years on those federal charges, so it’s definitely a human mistake,” said Herrell.

Cedrick Gant, 29, tried to carjack two separate victims in the 2017 crime spree, reports said.

Cedrick Gant, 29, tried to carjack two separate victims in the 2017 crime spree, reports said. (Brevard County Sheriff's Office)

In February, Gant had already been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to carjacking and branding a semi-automatic assault weapon, the Sentinel reported.

The “human mistake” didn’t sit well with Scott Young, who told FOX35 that Gant had carjacked him at gunpoint outside his home in 2017 while his wife and son were inside the house.

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“Nobody knows what he could have done,” Young said. “He got a get-out-of-jail-free-card. He could have went on a free for all. It could have been a lot worse than what it was. I’m very glad nothing else happened.”

Authorities in both counties said there will be an investigation into how Gant was released.

Source: Fox News National

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Boeing software engaged repeatedly before crash: sources

FILE PHOTO: Airplane engine parts are seen at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu
FILE PHOTO: Airplane engine parts are seen at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo

April 3, 2019

SEATTLE/PARIS (Reuters) – Boeing anti-stall software on a doomed Ethiopian Airlines jet re-engaged as many as four times after the crew initially turned it off due to suspect data from an airflow sensor, two people familiar with the matter said.

It was not immediately clear whether the crew had chosen to re-deploy the system, which pushes the nose of the Boeing 737 MAX downwards, but one person with knowledge of the matter said investigators were studying the possibility that the software had kicked in again without human intervention.

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment. Ethiopian investigators were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, Tim Hepher, Jamie Freed, Editing by Laurence Frost)

Source: OANN

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Colombia rejects Russia warning against Venezuelan military action

Colombian President Ivan Duque speaks during the presentation of a security report, accompanied by the military commands in the presidential palace, in Bogota
Colombian President Ivan Duque speaks during the presentation of a security report, accompanied by the military commands in the presidential palace, in Bogota, Colombia April 2, 2019. Courtesy of Colombian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

April 2, 2019

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia on Tuesday rejected a Russian warning against foreign military intervention in Venezuela and said it supported a peaceful transition to democracy in the neighboring South American country.

“Colombia reiterates that the transition to democracy must be conducted by the Venezuelans themselves peacefully and within the framework of the Constitution and international law, supported by political and diplomatic means, without the use of force,” Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said in a statement.

He was responding to a March 28 letter from the upper house of Russia’s parliament, forwarded to Colombia’s Congress by Russian Ambassador Sergei Koshkin, that said the “illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted … as an act of aggression against a sovereign state.”

Russia has emerged as a staunch backer of Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro as his nation descended into political turmoil this year. The United States and dozens of other nations have backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume Venezuela’s interim presidency in January, arguing that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

Colombia, which supports Guaido, has repeatedly denied it has any intention of launching a military offensive across its border with Venezuela.

But in his statement on Tuesday, Trujillo said military support for Maduro’s socialist government risked harming the transition to democracy while threatening regional peace and security.

The March touchdown near Caracas of two Russian air force planes carrying some 100 Russian special forces and cyber-security personnel has raised international concerns about Moscow’s backing for Maduro.

Russia, which has supplied fighter jets, tanks, and air defense systems to Venezuela, has dismissed U.S. criticism of its military cooperation with Caracas saying it is not interfering in the Latin American country’s internal affairs and poses no threat to regional stability.

Colombia acted as a staging ground in February as the United States and other countries supported Guaido’s effort to transport hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid into Venezuela. Maduro, who dismisses Guaido as a U.S. puppet, blocked the aid and Venezuelan troops pushed back protesters with tear gas.

Millions of Venezuelans have fled to Colombia to escape widespread food and medicine shortages in their chaotic homeland, seeking jobs locally and passage into other Latin American countries.

(Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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George Papadopoulos: I knew Mueller probe was a 'hoax,' but was barred from speaking out

Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos clarified the “misinformation” about his guilty plea in the Russia probe, saying Tuesday that entire thing was “basically fabricated” by western intelligence.

The 31-year-old, who pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to FBI agents, said on “Fox & Friends” that he knew the probe by Robert Mueller was a “hoax” but could not speak out about it until after he was sentenced.

“There has been so much misinformation about what my real case was all about. It was about a professor I met in London who the FBI told the world was a Russian agent,” he said.

EX-CIA DIRECTOR JOHN BRENNAN ADMITS HE MAY HAVE HAD 'BAD INFORMATION' REGARDING PRESIDENT TRUMP AND RUSSIA

Papadopoulos was talking about Joseph Misfud, whom the FBI has said was a Russian agent with connections to high-ranking Russian officials. He has been declared missing by Italian officials in September 2018.

“I met this man through an intermediary who represents the FBI in the U.K. and I met him at a university in Rome. I never expected this guy to be a Russian agent,” Papadopoulos said. “Then one day, this person tells me that the Russians have Hillary Clinton’s emails, out of the blue. I don’t believe him. This was not a credible person.”

Papadopoulos said that meeting and a subsequent “bizarre” meeting with Alexander Downer, the top Australian diplomat to the United Kingdom, where he commented about the claim that Russia had Clinton’s emails, triggered the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s presidential campaign.

“I actually was the one who reported Downer to both the FBI and Bob Mueller because of his very bizarre, strange behavior during my meeting with him. He was pulling his phone out, he was recording me. It was very bizarre,” he said.

TRUMP JR.: RUSSIA COLLUSION 'THE GREATEST FARCE EVER PERPETRATED ON OUR DEMOCRACY'

Papadopoulos, who served 14 days at a federal prison in Wisconsin, said he was questioned more than 20 hours where they allegedly tried to force him to “admit” that he had told someone on the Trump presidential campaign about his meetings with Misfud.

“Because if I had told anyone in the campaign, it would have been a conspiracy, but it would have been based on western intelligence basically fabricating the entire thing,” he said. “As I am talking to Mueller’s people and they are trying to get me to say something that I know is not true, I just couldn’t. I had to stick to the facts, the truth.”

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Papadopoulos opened up about the whole ordeal in his new book, “Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump,” out now.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Ferry sinks in Tigris near Iraq's Mosul, killing 40

A ferry overloaded with people celebrating the Kurdish new year sank in the Tigris river near the Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, an official said.

Col. Hussam Khalil, head of the Civil Defense in the Nineveh province, told The Associated Press the accident occurred as scores of people were out in the tourist area celebrating Nowruz, which marks the Kurdish new year and the arrival of spring.

Khalil said many of the dead were women and children, adding that search operations are still underway.

Iraqi forces drove the Islamic State group from Mosul in 2017 after a devastating campaign that left entire neighborhoods in ruins.

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.)

NEED FOR CASH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATE COMPETITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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