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Sanders, O’Rourke Face Off in Iowa; Other Hopefuls in NH, NV

They became notable presidential candidates in Iowa after narrow losses that nonetheless put them on the national political stage. They're competing for some of the same young voters. And this weekend, they've been driving around this first-in-the-nation caucus state reintroducing themselves to voters as others in the 2020 Democratic field dispersed to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

It's been Bernie versus Beto all weekend in Iowa, with both hopefuls reintroducing themselves as the man with a plan to deny President Donald Trump a second term. Sanders swept back into the state as the early front runner after raising $18 million in 41 days during the first quarter of the year, the most of any candidate. O'Rourke raised $9.4 million in 18 days.

In dueling rallies, town halls and house parties, they spoke most of improving health care and affording college tuition.

Other hopefuls fanned out to political hot spots elsewhere, with much the same mission: Gauging early strength in a crowded field and raising enough money to secure a coveted spot in the presidential debates that begin in June.

Republican leaders have relished the jockeying among Democrats.

"I'd be happy with any of 'em, to be honest," the president said of the Democratic derby.

Here's a roundup of the crowded Democratic campaign.

Iowa Democrats know Sanders, the Vermont senator who lost the state — and the Democratic presidential nomination — to Hillary Clinton in 2016. At two town halls in counties he won during that caucus fight, Sanders' questioners asked most about making health care more affordable.

Over and over, people told Sanders grim stories about medical bills putting them deeply in debt. He empathized, at one point putting an arm around a young woman who had begun weeping as she spoke. Sanders told his audience that he supports "Medicare for All" and a single-payer health care system. But he didn't get into specifics.

Shannon Abel, a 28-year-old coordinator at a nonprofit organization in Muscatine, Iowa, said she still liked what she heard from Sanders. Then again, she had only begun seriously paying attention to politics after nearly a year of being ill and seeing the medical bills — with an $80 co-pay — put her family deeply in debt.

Of Sanders, Abel said, "He knows what it's like to not have money."

O'Rourke is calling for a range of educational changes to alleviate college debt, including providing free community college and allowing students to potentially eliminate or refinance their debt through public service.

"The cost of higher education, and not just tuition . is out of reach for so many of our fellow Americans," O'Rourke told a crowd gathered for a campaign house party in Polk City, Iowa. He said the tens of thousands in debt that students carry when they graduate "is a weight that literally sinks them into the ground."

To solve the problem, he offered a number of proposals to help students "stop digging the hole" and stop taking on debt when they go for a college degree: Making community college free, allowing students to earn an associate degree while they're in high school so they're "ready to earn a living wage on day one," increase access to union apprenticeships. For those already saddled with student loan debt, O'Rourke said he'd like to "re-up the public service student debt forgiveness program" — a federal program that currently accepts only a fraction of applicants and is eliminated altogether in President Donald Trump's latest budget proposal.

If students are willing to work in in-demand jobs at places like the Department of Veterans Affairs, or "willing to teach school or be in a support role in a community that needs your talent and human capital, I want to wipe clean your student loan debt. At a minimum I want to refinance what you have at a much lower rate."

Sanders says he wants to make college free and pay for it by getting rid of tax havens and lowering taxes for the richest Americans.

That's been received with some skepticism among budget and deficit hawks. But to Trevor Meyers, 19, it sounds right.

Meyers, like Sanders, is a democratic socialist. The Muscatine County resident attends a nearby college and lives at home with his family, which owns a farm. A sibling, he said, is five figures in debt from college.

"How is anybody in our society going to get started in life?" he wondered.

He liked Sanders, but said he's going to check out one of O'Rourke's events too.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is discussing gun control and death penalty issues with survivors of a massacre that claimed nine Bible study participants at a historic black church in South Carolina.

Hickenlooper sat down on Saturday with Anthony Thompson and Polly Sheppard during a visit to Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston.

Thompson's wife was slain in the June 2015 shooting. Sheppard, who survived the ordeal but lost her son and aunt, has said the shooter told her he was sparing her life so she could tell others what happened. He is now on federal death row.

The church has become a place of pilgrimage for some 2020 presidential candidates as they campaign in the state, home of the first primary in the South.

Hickenlooper is known as a staunch advocate for gun control legislation. Following the fatal 2012 shootings in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater, the then-governor called for and signed bills requiring universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds.

Both Thompson and Sheppard told Hickenlooper they want those kinds of reforms in South Carolina and elsewhere.

Sen. Michael Bennet told reporters in Nashua, New Hampshire, that he hopes to be on the move again a few weeks after surgery for prostate cancer.

"I don't think there's any point in dwelling on it," said the Colorado Democrat. "If it turns out to be worse than I think, I'll deal with it then."

The cancer diagnosis has "slowed us down a little bit," Bennet said when asked about how it would impact him getting on the debate stage for the Democratic presidential debates, with well over a dozen candidates now running.

"It's obviously slowed down our ability to raise money and at some point it could have an effect on whether we get to the debate stage or not, but I think we have a good chance to get there," he said.

And with how he's feeling right now, Bennet said he's likely to run.

"I mean, I didn't pick this particular set of circumstances," he said. "This is not how I would have rolled it out."

Democrats running for president will have to do more than campaign on an anti-Trump message if they want to take back the White House in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Saturday.

"If your message is 'not-Trump,' it's not going to work," the Democratic presidential hopeful told about 500 supporters who packed a high school gymnasium in Reno, Nevada. "Our job is to talk about our vision."

Warren, D-Mass., blasted Trump's economic and environmental policies and touted her plan to invest $500 billion over the next 10 years to build, preserve and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income families. She said she would pay for it by returning the estate tax thresholds to where they were during President George W. Bush's administration and imposing a new "wealth" tax on the nation's 17,000 wealthiest families.

"Washington is working for the ultra-super-duper rich, and until we change that we are going to stay on this path. This is our moment," she told the cheering crowd.

Warren was making her second campaign stop this year in the early caucus state, which on Feb. 22 follows only New Hampshire and Iowa in the nominating process. She spoke for about 30 minutes, took questions from the audience and posed for photographs for another half hour. More than half the crowd lined up to take selfies with her.

____

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg headed to New Hampshire after his campaign announced he'd raised more than $7 million this year.

Hundreds of voters interested in the mayor attended his two events in the state; some were turned away because the venues were at capacity.

The mayor gave short speeches at both his Friday and Saturday events and did not take town hall style questions from the two crowds.

Speaking at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord on Saturday morning, the 37-year-old Buttigieg said he understands people's difficulty in avoiding the spectacle of politics these days.

"As hard as it is to take our eye off what we see on cable, because grotesque things have the quality of drawing your eye, and we can't take our eye off that show, but the show's not what matters," he said. "What matters is our everyday life."

He later told voters, "We've got to change the channel, and that's what we're about."

Source: NewsMax America

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Johnny Bobbitt, Philadelphia homeless man involved in GoFundMe scam, sentenced to probation

A Philadelphia homeless man who conspired with a New Jersey couple to create a GoFundMe scheme that raised more than $400,000 was sentenced Friday to five years of probation and agreed to enter a drug treatment program.

Thirty-six-year-old Johnny Bobbitt Jr. pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit theft by deception charges, admitting to helping Kate McClure and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico in their GoFundMe scam in November 2017, NBC News reported.

'MODERN FAMILY' STAR CALLS OUT 'HATE TWEETS' OVER SHARING GOFUNDME POST

Prosecutors said Bobbitt, a veteran who was homeless at the time, posed with McClure, who posted a fake story to GoFundMe in which she said she was raising money for Bobbitt after he generously gave her his last $20 when her car ran out of gas on the highway.

As part of a plea deal, Bobbitt will be sent to an inpatient rehabilitation center before his release and agreed to testify against McClure and D’Amico in the future. A New Jersey judge said Bobbitt will serve five years in state prison if he violates probation.

About 14,000 people donated almost $403,000 to the GoFundMe page, falling for the story. Bobbitt, who was homeless at the time, exposed the couple’s fraud when he filed a lawsuit against McClure and D’Amico in August, arguing they withheld funds and never cut him in on the deal.

McClure and D’Amico accused the homeless man of spending the GoFundMe money on family, drugs, a truck and a trailer. Federal authorities investigated the case, and prosecutors said the couple was experiencing financial troubles at the time and used the GoFundMe account as a scam.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

McClure pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and will serve a 20-year prison sentence. D’Amico also faces state-level theft and conspiracy charges.

Source: Fox News National

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Foreigners among those targeted in New Zealand mosque attack

Initial reports indicate that several of those killed or wounded in the shooting rampage at two New Zealand mosques were from the Middle East or South Asia.

The attack by an immigrant-hating white nationalist killed at least 49 people as they gathered for Friday prayers.

Bangladesh's honorary consul in Auckland, Shafiqur Rahman Bhuiyan, told The Associated Press that "so far" three Bangladeshis were among those killed and four or five others were wounded, including two left in critical condition.

Two Jordanians were among those killed, and others were wounded. Four Pakistanis were wounded and five are still missing.

Malaysia says two of its citizens were hospitalized, and the Saudi Embassy in Wellington says two Saudis were wounded. Two Indonesians, a father and son, were also among those shot and wounded.

Source: Fox News World

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Poll: 82 Percent Say Release Mueller Report

Eighty-two percent of Americans want special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election should be made public, while just under half still believe President Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice, according to a new survey.

Key results from the Politico/Morning Consult poll:
  • 47 percent of voters think Trump impeded or obstructed justice while the Russia investigation was going on, with 39 percent saying the opposite.
  • 55 percent disapprove of the job Trump is doing, compared to 42 percent who approve.
  • 82 percent said special counsel Robert Mueller's report on his Russia probe should be made public.
  • 39 percent said lawmakers should continue investigating whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to win the 2016 election — despite Mueller clearing Trump of wrongdoing.

The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday.

Attorney General William Barr announced Sunday via a letter to Congress that Mueller found no evidence to suggest Trump colluded with Russia. The letter also said Mueller could not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice — which he was accused of doing by firing James Comey as FBI director in May 2017.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Palestinians pray for fish as Israel opens deeper waters

Sun rises as fishermen are seen at the seaport of Gaza City
The sun rises as fishermen are seen at the seaport of Gaza City, after Israel expanded fishing zone for Palestinians April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

April 2, 2019

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – As their rickety motorboats puttered out into deep Mediterranean waters for the first time in almost two decades, the Palestinian fishermen prayed for deepwater mackerel and tuna to supplement Gaza’s usual shallows fare of sardines, shrimp and crab.

This week, as part of Egyptian-mediated efforts to ease the plight of 2 million residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip, Israel has extended the area where it permits Palestinians to fish.

“Such a distance has been off-limits. And hopefully there are lots of fish to bring back,” said 69-year-old fisherman Ahmed al-Amoudi.

Israel keeps a naval cordon on Gaza, part of a blockade it and neighboring Egypt say is necessary to prevent arms smuggling by the Hamas Islamists that rule the coastal territory.

Since 2000, Israel has limited Palestinian fishing waters to just 6-9 miles (9-15 km) from the Gaza coast. But on Monday it broadened the limit to 12-5 miles (19-24 km) out.

“This step is part of the civilian policy aimed at preventing a humanitarian deterioration in the Gaza Strip and reflects the policy of distinguishing between terror and the uninvolved populace,” an Israeli official said.

Palestinians saw the move as an Israeli concession to a year of protests at the border, combined with several surges of cross-border fighting which have prompted mediation by Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar on ways to help Gaza’s economy.

“Thanks to God and then to the ‘March of Return’, which opened up the sea for us,” al-Amoudi said, referring to the weekly demonstrations at the frontier, which demand a lifting of the blockade and the right for Palestinians to return to homes their families fled or were forced from when Israel was founded.

April to June are peak Gaza fishing season. The sector accounts for less than 5 percent of the enclave’s GDP and supports some 50,000 people, a fraction of the 2 million population.

But the fishing has value beyond the numbers, as one of the few viable industries in Gaza, where more than half the population is unemployed and nearly 80 percent receive some form of aid, according to the World Bank.

With Gaza’s land borders tightly controlled by neighboring Israel and Egypt, the sea’s horizon provides many Palestinians with a glimpse of hoped-for freedoms of movement in the future.

The fishermen still have it hard, with fuel and spare parts for their boats scarce. They say that Israel has also barred the importation to Gaza of wire cables that would allow them to line nets for plumbing the depths.

But fisherman Wael Abu Mohammed was still cautiously upbeat.

“With 15 miles now we will be comfortable, if there are no problems with the Israelis,” the father of 10 said. “We hope for the best.”

The past year has been the deadliest in Gaza since the last war between Hamas and Israel five years ago, with nearly 200 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces at the border demonstrations. One Israeli soldier was killed.

United Nations investigators say Israel has used excessive force. Israel says it has no choice but to use deadly force to protect the border from militants and infiltrators.

The Israeli navy has in the past fired on Palestinian boats that strayed from the fishing zones, sometimes impounding the vessels and detaining their occupants. In addition to smuggling, Israel worries about seaborne attacks. In the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas frogmen swam from Gaza to storm an Israeli coastal base.

The Israeli official said that maintaining the expanded zone for Gaza fisherman “depends on (them) honoring the agreements” and that any attempt to venture beyond it “will be handled accordingly by the (Israeli) security services”.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: OANN

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Georgia elementary school celebrates janitor’s 80th birthday

A Georgia elementary school reportedly surrounded their janitor with cards, songs and even some hugs in honor of his 80th birthday last week.

The celebration for Haze Mabry was organized at Pike County Elementary School and the joyous occasion was caught on video, Fox 35 reported.

The clip was posted on Facebook by the school’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and showed the halls lined with people as they sang “Happy Birthday.”

MICHIGAN BOY, 12, FED UP WITH POTHOLES, DECIDES TO FIX THEM HIMSELF

The man of the hour soon emerged on the clip to cheers and applause and was greeted by students as he walked through the school.

Mabry – an Army veteran – got lots of cards at the event, which was attended by nearly 800 students, The Washington Post reported. He told the outlet about one in particular, in which someone wrote “Mr. Haze, you are my sunshine.”

Apparently, the feeling is mutual, with Mabry telling The Post that he feels “the same way about them.”

The school’s PTO also shared photos from the party on Facebook, including some of Mabry sporting an “80 Years Loved” t-shirt.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

“This man works hard all day until 5:30pm and he does it with a smile on his face! He makes time to speak to every child and staff member he passes,” the post said. “Mr. Haze makes everyone feel important, special, and loved.”

“It may be his birthday, but we are the ones who receive a gift,” it continued. “The gift of having him in our school, lives, and hearts. This is the good stuff! Mr. Haze, you sir are loved, admired, and adored here at PCES. Happy 80th Birthday! We wish you the best today and always! #EightyYearsLoved”

Source: Fox News National

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Sudanese military invites protesters to talks amid tensions

Sudan's ruling military council has proposed a meeting with the organizers of the protests that toppled President Omar al-Bashir after they suspended talks with the generals over the weekend.

The council says it is willing to discuss proposals from the coalition of groups behind the protests for an immediate transfer of power to a transitional civilian government.

The Sudanese Professionals Association and its allies, who organized the four months of demonstrations that drove al-Bashir from power on April 11, have not yet accepted the invitation to Wednesday's meeting.

The military has said it is meeting with all political factions to discuss the transition. The protesters fear the military intends to hold onto power or leave much of al-Bashir's regime intact.

Source: Fox News World

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

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

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

WHY THE MEDIA ARE CONVINCED JOE BIDEN WILL IMPLODE

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

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

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

— Joe Biden

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

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

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

— Dr. Neal Kassell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

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

Source: Fox News Politics

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

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

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

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

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

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEED FOR CASH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATE COMPETITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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