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Albania opposition protests against governing Socialists

Supporters of Albania's opposition have thrown flares and torched a car tire outside the country's parliament in an attempt to block governing lawmakers entering the building amid calls for the government to quit.

The center-right Democratic Party-led opposition claims the leftist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama is corrupt and has links to organized crime. Opposition lawmakers want the government to make way for a caretaker administration and call early elections.

Albania's parliament holds sessions on Thursdays, but moved this week's meeting to Tuesday to avoid a planned demonstration. Supporters of the opposition then moved their demonstration, too.

The governing Socialists hold 74 seats in the 140-seat parliament. Opposition lawmakers have already quit as they push for early elections.

Source: Fox News World

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Top Iditarod mushers, 41 minutes apart, near final push to Nome

FILE PHOTO: Aliy Zirkle and her dogs head out at the ceremonial start of the 47th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage
FILE PHOTO: Aliy Zirkle and her dogs head out at the ceremonial start of the 47th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Kerry Tasker/File Photo

March 12, 2019

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a topsy-turvy slog this year marked by heavy wet snow, occasional rain, dwindling ice and a dog rebellion, was expected to conclude early on Wednesday with either an Alaskan or Norwegian musher crowned the winner.

Pete Kaiser of Bethel, Alaska, was out in front early on Tuesday, but only narrowly, with a 41-minute lead over defending champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway. The two front-runners led a field of 42 remaining mushers, after 10 teams dropped out during the contest.

Kaiser and Liefseth Ulsom both arrived in the morning at the native Inupiat village of White Mountain, a checkpoint 77 miles (124 km) from the finish line at the Gold Rush town of Nome. Rules require an eight-hour stop at White Mountain before the final push to Nome. The two contenders were expected to leave the village late Tuesday afternoon.

If he wins, Kaiser, who is Yupik, will be the first Alaska Native Iditarod champion since 2011, when Inupiat John Baker claimed victory. Should Liefseth Ulsom cross the finish line first, he would become only the second Norwegian champion, following two previous victories by his countryman Robert Sorlie in the 1,000-mile (1,600-km) Alaska race.

The winner this year will be awarded a new truck and about $50,000 in cash, the top prize from a total $500,000 purse. The world’s best-known dog-sled race commemorates a rescue mission that used a dog-team relay to deliver lifesaving medicine to Nome during a 1925 diphtheria outbreak.

FRENCH MUSHER

Until Monday, French-born musher Nicolas Petit of Girdwood, Alaska, had appeared to be en route to victory – until his dogs stopped along a stretch of the Bering Sea coastline, about 200 miles (320 km) from Nome, and refused to go farther. Petit sent his dogs off the trail by snowmobile and officially dropped out of the race on Monday night.

In third and fourth place on Tuesday were the Iditarod’s top women: Jessie Royer of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers, Alaska.

The Iditarod speed record is eight days, three hours and 40 minutes, set by Mitch Seavey in 2017. This year’s race, which began on March 2 in Anchorage, has been significantly slower.

Higher-than-normal temperatures created soft conditions, bogging down the teams. The Bering Sea, usually coated with a layer of ice on the northern section, is almost entirely free of ice, so race officials made course alterations that slightly lengthened part of the route. Racers also had to detour around some spots of open river water.

Many contestants timed their runs for after dark to take advantage of cooler weather favored by their dogs.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; Editing by Steve Gorman and Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Neutron Stars Merge, Form An Extremely Powerful Magnetic Field

A University of Arkansas researcher is part of a team of astronomers who have identified an outburst of X-ray emission from a galaxy approximately 6.5 billion light years away, which is consistent with the merger of two neutron stars to form a magnetar — a large neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field.

Based on this observation, the researchers were able to calculate that mergers like this happen roughly 20 times per year in each region of a billion light years cubed.

The research team, which includes Bret Lehmer, assistant professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, analyzed data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s flagship X-ray telescope.

The Chandra Deep Field-South survey includes more than 100 X-ray observations of a single area of the sky over a period of more than 16 years to collect information about galaxies throughout the universe. Lehmer, who has worked with the observatory for 15 years, collaborated with colleagues in China, Chile and the Netherlands, and at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Nevada. The study was published in Nature.


Paul Joseph Watson asks why scaremongers should continue to be believed.

A neutron star is a small, very dense star, averaging around 12 miles in diameter. Neutron stars are formed by the collapse of a star massive enough to produce a supernova, but not massive enough to become a black hole. When two neutron stars merge to become a magnetar, the resulting magnetic field is 10 trillion times stronger than a kitchen magnet.

“Neutron stars are mysterious because the matter in them is so extremely dense and unlike anything reproducible in a laboratory,” Lehmer explained. “We do not yet have a good understanding of the physical state of the matter in neutron stars. Mergers involving neutron stars produce lots of unique data that gives us clues about the nature of neutron stars themselves and what happens when they collide.”

A previous discovery of two neutron stars merging, which used gravitational waves and gamma rays to make the observation, gave astronomers new insight into these objects. The research team used this new information to look for patterns in Chandra Observatory’s X-ray data that were consistent with what they learned about merging neutron stars.

(Photo by ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0, Wiki)

The researchers found an outburst of X-rays in the data from the Chandra Deep Field-South survey. After ruling out other possible sources of the X-rays, they determined the signals came from the process of two neutron stars forming a magnetar.

“A key piece of evidence is how the signal changed over time,” said Lehmer. “It had a bright phase that plateaued and then dropped off in a very specific way. That is exactly what you’d expect from a magnetar that is rapidly losing its magnetic field through radiation.”

Similar calculations about the rate of neutron star mergers have been made based on the mergers detected by gravitational waves and gamma rays, strengthening the case for using X-ray data to find such exotic merger events in the universe.


Alex Jones breaks down the audio of Julian’s message and possible meaning.

Source: InfoWars

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Trump says EU tariffs on Harley Davidson unfair, vows to reciprocate

The logo of U.S. motorcycle company Harley-Davidson is seen on one of their models at a shop in Paris
FILE PHOTO: The logo of U.S. motorcycle company Harley-Davidson is seen on one of their models at a shop in Paris, France, August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

April 23, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said European Union tariffs facing motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson Inc were “unfair” and vowed to reciprocate, but gave no other details.

“So unfair to U.S. We will Reciprocate!” Trump tweeted, citing comments by a Fox Business Network host.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Makini Brice)

Source: OANN

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Many Claimed Countless Times Over The Last 2 Years That ‘Mueller Is Closing In’ — Then He Filed His Report

After news broke Friday that the Mueller report was finished and no more indictments were forthcoming, the walls “closed in” around an ominous phrase that many political and media figures used frequently over the past two years.

Presumably hoping that his two-year inquiry would lead to the president’s impeachment and removal from office, many verified Twitter accounts had described special counsel Robert Mueller as “closing in” around President Donald Trump at various times throughout the investigation, according to a popular meme circulating online and confirmed by The Daily Caller.

FILE PHOTO: Robert Mueller, as FBI director, listens during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing about the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 19, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Robert Mueller, as FBI director, listens during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing about the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 19, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo

One of the earliest uses of the phrase seems to be from a tweet by Foreign Policy magazine that touted a column by Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist and senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. “Trump should be scared,” the tweet warned. “Robert Mueller is closing in on him.”

Written June 2017, a month after the special counsel’s appointment, Boot’s piece claimed that Trump was terrified in light of Mueller’s character—”universally respected for his integrity and doggedness”—and the tenacious competence of his “hunter-killer team of crack investigators and lawyers.” He asserted that “what worries Trump is not that Mueller may be a Democratic partisan […] but that the Marine combat veteran cannot be bought off or intimidated.”

Boot teamed up later that year with Max Bergman, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, to write a December 2017 column for The Guardian about how much further Mueller had “closed in.” “Mueller is coming,” they predicted in the wake of the indictments of Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn. (RELATED: Michael Flynn Charged With Making False Statement To The FBI)

Claiming that Mueller’s indictments were moving closer and closer into the president’s inner circle, Bergman and Boot argued that an indictment of Trump was inevitable, for which reason Congress was duty-bound to pass legislation preventing the investigation from being shut down.

Over the years, the “closing in” analogy seemingly became a mantra among those who anxiously awaited Mueller to issue the death knell of the Trump presidency.

Former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen departs after he testified behind closed doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen departs after he testified behind closed doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown went after Trump and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 7, 2018, after the Department of Justice sued the state of California for failing to enforce federal immigration law. Brown dismissed the lawsuit as a “political stunt” enacted by an attorney general who could not be normal because Mueller was “closing in” and about to issue more indictments. (RELATED: California Gov. Channels Trump In Response To DOJ Lawsuit)

Outspoken liberal Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who became famous in the 1970s playing progressive layabout Michael “Meathead” Stivic on “All in the Family,” claimed on May 10, 2018, that Vice President Mike Pence’s call for an end to the Mueller investigation was an indication that “the special counsel is closing in on guilt” and that Trump “doesn’t know whether to shit or wind his watch.”

Former CIA Director John O. Brennan said Dec. 7, 2018, on “Morning Joe” that “Mr. Trump is seeing more and more of the walls closing in on him, which is why he’s becoming increasingly desperate.” (FLASHBACK: John Brennan Predicted Additional Mueller Indictments Just Two Weeks Ago)

Politico quoted multimedia journalist Chris Whipple in December 2018 as saying, “This White House is headed into a world of trouble — a Democratic Congress, Mueller closing in, and anybody who comes into this White House has to be thinking about lawyering up.”

The Democratic Party’s National Lawyers Council chair Andrew Weinstein scolded Trump for the impending government shutdown on Dec. 20, tweeting, “The economy is slowing, the Dow is tanking, Mueller is closing in, North Korea still has nukes, Putin is getting his way in Syria, and yet Republicans in Congress are willing to shutdown the government over Trump’s stupid wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. What a disgrace.”

On the same day, executive producer of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Andy Lassner, tweeted, “Trump knows Mueller is closing in fast. So now, he’s gonna bring down the whole fucking thing with him. Brace yourselves.”

When BuzzFeed reported on Jan. 17, 2019 that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen told investigators that the president had instructed him to lie to Congress, former CBS news anchor Dan Rather tweeted that the bombshell, if true, was “a political earthquake” and concluded that “the walls do appear to be closing in” around Trump. Mueller’s office personally denied BuzzFeed’s story the next day, in a rare public statement. (RELATED: Mueller’s Office Disputes BuzzFeed’s Report)

Since Mueller delivered his report to Attorney General William Barr with no further indictments, many pundits have been comparatively muted as the walls have seemingly stopped closing in for now. As Reuters tweeted Friday, “Robert Mueller is closing up shop …”

Max Boot reminded his Twitter followers Saturday that “Trump is doing great damage even when he is not violating the law.”

“I figured I would go on Twitter to suggest we all give social media a break until we actually have something to read and talk about,” Dan Rather reflected Saturday afternoon. “Maybe take a walk? Call an old friend? Read a book? Check out college basketball…”

Source: The Daily Caller

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Dems Must Move Fearlessly Toward Impeachment

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WASHINGTON -- The constitutional case for impeaching President Trump was best made two decades ago by one of his most servile enablers, Lindsey Graham, now the senior senator from South Carolina:

"You don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if this body [the Senate] determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role … because impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office."

The political case for moving deliberately but fearlessly toward impeachment is even clearer: If timorous Democrats do not seize and define this moment, Trump surely will.

What just happened is that special counsel Robert Mueller delivered a searing indictment of a president who has no idea what "honor" and "integrity" even mean -- a president who lies almost pathologically, who orders subordinates to lie, who has no respect for the rule of law, who welcomed Russian meddling in the 2016 election, who clumsily tried to orchestrate a cover-up, who tried his best to impede a lawful Justice Department investigation and failed only to the extent that aides ignored his outrageous and improper orders.

What Trump claims just happened is a "witch hunt."

Anyone who thinks there is a chance that Trump will lick his wounds and move on has not been paying attention. Having escaped criminal charges -- because he is a sitting president -- Trump will go on the offensive. With the help of Attorney General William Barr, whose title really should be Minister of Spin, the president will push to investigate the investigators and sell the bogus counternarrative of an attempted "coup" by politically motivated elements of the "deep state."

Here is the important thing: Trump will mount this attack no matter what Democrats do. And strictly as a matter of practical politics, the best defense against Trump has to be a powerful offense.

I fail to see the benefit for Democrats, heading into the 2020 election, of being seen as such fraidy-cats that they shirk their constitutional duty. Mueller's portrait of this president and his administration is devastating. According to Lindsey Graham's "honor and integrity" standard -- which he laid out in January 1999, when he was one of the House prosecutors in Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in the Senate -- beginning the process of impeaching Trump is not a close call.

It is also important for Democrats to keep their eyes on the prize. The election is the one guaranteed opportunity to throw Trump and his band of grifters out of the White House, and the big anti-Trump majority that was on display in last year's midterm must be maintained and, one hopes, expanded.

But that task will largely fall to the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever that turns out to be. Presidential contenders should be free to position themselves however they see fit on the impeachment question. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has chosen to single herself out by leading the charge. Others may choose to demur and focus instead on the kitchen-table issues, such as health care, that polls show voters care about.

But most Democratic members of Congress (believe it or not) are not running for president. Their focus has to be on their constitutional duty -- and nowhere in the Constitution does it say "never mind about presidential obstruction of justice or abuse of power if there's an election next year."

I have no intention of letting congressional Republicans off the hook. They have constitutional responsibilities as well, though it's clear they will not fulfill them. Imagine, for a moment, if the tables were turned -- if a GOP majority were running the House and a Democratic president did half of what Trump did. Do you think Republicans would hesitate for a New York minute? Articles of impeachment would have been drawn up long ago and stern-faced senators, including Graham, would already be sitting in judgment.

The conventional wisdom is that Republicans made a political error by impeaching Clinton. But they did win the presidency in 2000 and go on to dominate Congress for most of George W. Bush's tenure. If impeachment was a mistake, it wasn't a very costly one.

Does it "play into Trump's hands" to speak of impeachment? I think it plays into the president's hands to disappoint the Democratic base and come across as weak and frightened. Voters who saw the need to hold Trump accountable decided to give Democrats some power -- and now expect them to use it.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

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Nicklaus thinks Augusta National will eventually allow smartphones

Nicklaus tees off during the ceremonial start on the first day of play at the 2019 Master golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Honorary starter Jack Nicklaus of the U.S. tees off during the ceremonial start on the first day of play at the 2019 Master golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar

April 11, 2019

By Andrew Both

AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) – Six-times Masters champion Jack Nicklaus once said he did not carry a mobile phone because people never called to offer him something, but only if they wanted something.

Times have changed since he made those remarks some two decades ago and these days Nicklaus is as wedded to his smartphone as billions of other people around the world.

The PGA Tour relented on its phone ban in 2011, asking spectators to put the devices on silent mode so as not to distract players. With occasional exceptions, the policy has worked smoothly.

But the Masters still bans such devices at Augusta National, and players have said that they find it a refreshing change.

Nicklaus, however, thinks the writing is on the wall, and that the tournament will end up following the PGA Tour’s lead.

“I think they probably will change that shortly,” Nicklaus, an Augusta National member, said on Thursday after hitting the ceremonial first tee shot to kick off the 83rd Masters.

“I think you should ask the PGA Tour if the cell phone has become a problem, or has it become something that’s so much of everyday life that people have learned how to respect it and use it properly.

“I understand exactly what’s going on here and I respect that but I think times have changed … but not my call.”

His comments came less than 24 hours after Masters chairman Fred Ridley reiterated the club’s strict policy on the matter.

“I think our patrons appreciate our cell phone policy,” said Ridley.

“I know that we have now become an outlier, if not the only outlier in golf.

“I don’t believe that’s a policy that anyone should expect is going to change in the near future, if ever.

“I can’t speak for future chairmen, but speaking for myself, I think we got that right.”

Given that Ridley is a fit and healthy 66-year-old, his tenure as chairman could last quite a while.

But Nicklaus thinks the old problem of players being put off when phones made a clicking sound taking pictures no longer exists.

“Doesn’t make a noise anymore,” he said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a distraction from the gallery that ever affected what happened in the tournament.”

(Reporting by Andrew Both, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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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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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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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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