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Christians’ ethnic inclusion in Sri Lanka keeps fragile calm

During the bad years, when rebels mostly from the ethnic minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese government forces were slaughtering each other in a horrific civil war, Gnanamani found solace in something many of her fellow Tamils didn't have: Christianity, and especially its long inclusion in Sri Lanka's main ethnic groups.

A religious minority here, Christians are part of both the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups, unlike the mainly homogenous Tamil Hindus and Sinhalese Buddhists on the teardrop-shaped island in the Indian Ocean.

After Islamic militants detonated suicide bombs on Sunday that killed Easter worshippers in three churches, including St. Anthony's, a few blocks from Gnanamani's home in the warren of streets of Colombo's 13th zone, she and other Tamil and Sinhalese Christians are once again turning to a religion that, unusually for Sri Lanka, binds people of different ethnicities by a single faith.

Experts and Christians interviewed by The Associated Press after the attacks say this imbedded ethnic cooperation, along with Christian leaders who have consistently preached restraint, helps explain the measured calm that has — so far — been the response to the coordinated bombing of churches and hotels that killed 253 people.

"Being a Christian sets an example to others, because we did not retaliate after this violence was done to us. We were restrained — Sinhalese and Tamil Christians both," Gnanamani, a 60-year-old housewife who goes by one name, said as she squatted on her stoop in a narrow, sunless alley, hundreds of black and white condolence streamers fluttering in a breeze above. "If this happened to Buddhist shrines or temples, there would have been an explosion of violence."

There is indeed widespread fear here that more attacks, especially if they target other faiths, could return Sri Lanka, which is majority Buddhist but has significant Christian, Muslim and Hindu populations, to something like the cycle of sectarian violence and retaliation that marked the nearly three-decade civil war that ended in 2009.

"Within the Christian community there has to be moderation because by its nature it consists of two different ethnic communities. There's a natural instinct for them to look at such religious and ethnic issues with deep compassion," said Rohan Gunaratna, a religion and security expert and co-author of "The Three Pillars of Radicalization."

But peace is not guaranteed.

"Sri Lanka must not take this Christian interreligious harmony for granted," Gunaratna said in a phone interview. "The danger is that the Christian patience could break if there are more attacks, and that is what the terrorists want."

About 7% of Sri Lanka's 21 million people are Christian, and most are Roman Catholic, according to Mathew Schmalz, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross and an expert on Christianity in South Asia.

There has not always been universal Christian unity and restraint in Sri Lanka.

During the civil war that began in 1983, Christianity was divided, with members of the faith fighting for both the largely ethnic Tamil separatists and the mostly Sinhalese Buddhist government forces, experts say, and some tension still lingers.

With the recent attacks against Christians and foreigners, there's worry that militant anti-Muslim Buddhists might be strengthened. "There might be less incentive now to step in to defend Muslims, and militant Buddhists might claim that they had been right all along to see Muslims as a threat," Schmalz said by email.

The largely peaceful mixing of religions and ethnicities found in many parts of Colombo can be seen in the extended family of Anoma Damayanthi Liyanage, a 52-year-old Buddhist factory worker who lives in a small, neat, tin-roofed house in an alley off Jampettah Street in the Kochchikade neighborhood near St. Anthony's.

Liyanage's 25-year-old daughter, who married into a Christian family, was seriously injured in the blast. Liyanage herself was at St. Anthony's and escaped the bomb only because she left a few minutes earlier with her Christian son-in-law when her 1 ½-year-old granddaughter began crying too loudly.

"It's common for Tamil and Sinhalese Christians to marry each other," Pradeepa Jayasinghe, a Sinhalese Christian relative, said. "We've always understood each other very well. We were raised from childhood together."

Her daughter, 21-year-old Hishara, said, "We get together because of our Christian traditions. We're not Tamil or Sinhalese. We look first if there is Christianity."

The bombings, however, have stirred complex feelings among Christians.

Not far from the bombed church of St. Sebastian's in a village in the city of Negombo, beyond the metal security barriers and the dozens of camouflaged soldiers carrying automatic weapons, Catholic priests Niroshan Perera and Anthony Nishan stand in their long white cassocks and watch fresh graves being dug for Christians killed by the attack on their church. There are 41 dirt mounds piled with flowers and candles, with wooden crosses marked mostly with numbers that correspond to names in a book that the priests keep.

There's fear of more violence and deep grief in this majority Christian enclave outside Colombo. "The whole village is a funeral. The houses here are filled with coffins," Nishan said of a place where about 120 Christians died in the bombing.

There's also rage. Father Perera, 45, had a single description for the politicians who were told that terror attacks against Christians might be coming but didn't notify the communities: "terrorists."

A Catholic villager — Senake Perera, 55, a Sinhalese Catholic — said he would follow the restraint preached by Catholic leaders. But he also had a very human response to the fresh graves and wooden crosses, to the coffins and the dozens of color photos of the victims displayed on banners that fill this neighborhood.

"I have a feeling in my heart that we should go after the Muslims, that we should retaliate," he said.

For the time being, however, like the Christians of Colombo interviewed by AP, there's a belief that Catholics won't hit back.

"After the tragedy, we are united because of the practice of dealing with other ethnicities which is within our Christianity," said Father Nishan, 29, who's the son of a Tamil father and Sinhalese mother, and who often gives Masses in Tamil, Sinhala and English. "Even if there are more attacks, Catholics won't respond with violence," he said. "That's the beauty of Christianity here. We don't have the division. We have to live together."

Source: Fox News World

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Trump expected to sign memorandum on federal housing finance reform

U.S. President Trump arrives for a closed Senate Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters as the president arrives for a closed Senate Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis

March 27, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is expected to sign a memorandum on federal housing finance reform on Wednesday, according to a White House official.

In January, the White House said it was preparing a framework for an overhaul that “fully addresses the risks to taxpayers presented by the current housing finance system.”

Congress is debating its own housing finance reform options, but has struggled in recent years to advance a plan.

The Trump administration has identified reforming mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a top priority. The two government-sponsored enterprises have remained under a government conservatorship since 2008, when the two faced collapse during the subprime mortgage crisis.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Nude Florida women were ‘air drying’ at rest stop, police say, before leading them on wild chase

A trio of nude women who told police they were “air drying” in public after showering at a Florida rest stop reportedly were arrested following a wild chase that included the use of a metal bat, tasers and spike strips, reports say.

Oasis Mcleod, 18, Jeniyah Mcleod, 19, and Cecilia Young, 19, are now facing charges -- such as fleeing to elude, aggravated assault and lewd behavior stemming from the alleged chaos that is said to have unfolded yesterday in Pasco County.

"There's three women standing in the nude putting on suntan lotion," a Florida Highway Patrol trooper was first heard saying to dispatchers while at a rest stop on northbound I-75, according to WTSP.

The cop reportedly was told by the women that they were “air drying” in the 80-degree weather after showering, but when the trooper tried to get more information, they got into a car and sped off.

Police then tracked the vehicle to a convenience store parking lot, where it was found empty. They spotted all three females leaving the store and a trooper attempted to arrest one who wasn’t able to get back inside the vehicle, FOX13 reported.

But while trying to make that arrest, the suspect behind the wheel of the car "purposely drove directly” at the trooper and then its passenger got out and started swinging around a metal bat, the station added.

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Another officer on-scene reportedly rammed the suspects’ car before it took off a second time. A short while later though, the car came to a halt with the help of spike strips deployed by the Dade City Police Department, according to FOX13.

Once stopped, the women are said to have interlocked their arms together inside of the vehicle, refusing to come out. Officers at the scene then tasered the trio and took them into custody, suffering only minor injuries throughout the entire episode.

Source: Fox News National

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Germany: 2 arrested on suspicion of making child porn

Police in southern Germany say they have arrested two people suspected of making and spreading child porn following raids at several locations, including a child care center.

Police and prosecutors said the raids in the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg were carried out on Wednesday. They said Thursday that the two suspects are suspected of spreading the material, showing young boys, on the darknet, a part of the web accessible only with specialized identity-cloaking tools.

Investigators said one of the suspects had ties to the child care center, but didn't elaborate.

Source: Fox News World

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IG’s FISA Probe May Hamper Dems’ Impeachment Plans

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As Democrats mull how far to push the impeachment envelope against President Trump after Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election but punted on obstruction of justice charges, another investigation could further blunt their attempts to oust the president from office or damage his re-election chances.

Amid calls from Trump and his supporters to “investigate the investigators,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been hard at work over the last year looking into the sources and methods the FBI used to begin surveillance of a one-time Trump campaign adviser based at least in part on discredited information gathered by a former British spy.

That packet of intelligence, known as the “Steele dossier,” contains salacious and unsubstantiated details about Trump’s alleged romps with Russian prostitutes, along with business and political quid pro quos with Russian officials.

Attorney General Robert Barr said the inspector general is wrapping up his probe and could release a final report as early as next month.

Those interviewed by Horowitz and his team over the past year, according to Politico, say he seems intensely focused on undermining the dossier and credibility of Christopher Steele, the former British MI6 agent who produced the document. Steele had served as a confidential source for the FBI since 2010 until a falling out over his leaks to the media about the Trump-Russia probe.

While prominent Democrats have accused Mueller of failing to do his duty and Barr of prioritizing the interests of Trump over the American people, they’ll have a more difficult time assailing Horowitz, a Harvard-educated lawyer appointed by President Obama to the DoJ’s top watchdog post in 2012.

Horowitz, who was a partner in New York City’s oldest law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, before becoming inspector general, served as a board member of the Ethics Resource Center and the Society of Corporate Compliance Ethics.

He began his career at the Justice Department in the 1990s, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, including stints as the chief of the public corruption unit. Before leaving in 2002, he worked as the deputy assistant attorney general of the criminal division and as its chief of staff.

Roughly a year ago, Horowitz also proved he’s willing to disappoint Trump and his supporters. He thoroughly investigated the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and charges that the probe was rigged to let Clinton off the hook.

Horowitz amassed a mountain of embarrassing emails and electronic messages between former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and his co-worker and lover, Lisa Page, about their hatred for Trump and an “insurance plan” to derail his presidency. However, Horowitz concluded that he could not link the “appearance” of personal bias against Trump to “evidence that any political bias or improper considerations actually” impacted the way the FBI pursued the Clinton email probe.

He also harshly criticized then-FBI Director James Comey for his July 2016 announcement that he would not recommend any charges against Clinton, and his subsequent October 2016 decision to tell Congress that the FBI had discovered new emails and had re-opened the case.

Still, Horowitz concluded that Comey hadn’t acted out of political bias, but did “deviate” from established procedures and engaged “in his own subjective, ad hoc decision making” in what the IG described as an extremely unusual case with high political stakes. 

The stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to Horowitz’ current probe. Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS in 2016 to look into Trump’s Russia ties, and that work was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through a law firm.

Republican members of Congress and other Trump allies allege the only true collusion took place between the Clinton camp and the FBI, with Steele’s help. They accuse the DoJ and the FBI of abusing the FISA process and misleading the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by relying on the dossier to obtain approvals for the surveillance without disclosing that the information was unverified or paid for by Democrats and the Clinton campaign itself.

Democrats counter that the FBI wouldn’t be doing its job if it hadn’t investigated Trump associates’ ties to Russia. For instance, the unpaid campaign adviser at the center of the FISA controversy, Carter Page, first attracted FBI attention back in 2013 when he interacted with undercover intelligence agents in New York City. Carter’s trip to Russia in the summer of 2016 sparked more scrutiny and justified the warrant the FBI submitted to in October 2016, they argue.

But Trump and his supporters have blasted the FBI for continuing to use the dossier to attain FISA court warrants even after Steele was terminated for unauthorized and potentially criminal leaks to the media.

Last January, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who now helms that panel, referred Steele to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for lying about his contacts with several media organizations before the 2016 election.

Rep. Jim Jordan, who serves as the ranking Republican member on the House Oversight Committee, on Saturday pointed to the dossier as the rationale used to launch an investigation “on a false premise.”

“You can’t have the FBI using one party’s opposition research document to launch an investigation and spy on the other party’s campaign,” he said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a conservative Republican from Florida, over the weekend said Horowitz has evidence that FBI officials received tickets to concerts and athletic events from members of the press as incentives to leak to them.

“One of the … nuggets that the inspector general is working on is the corruption that existed between the media and members of the FBI,” Gaetz said, without citing his sources for the information.

The American public, especially those on the right, are already highly skeptical of the mainstream media, whose credibility has continued to sink during its coverage of the Trump administration amid the president’s frequent charges of “fake news” and the media’s torrent of stories alleging Trump’s collusion with Russia.

A Morning Consult/Hollywood Reporter survey released earlier this month found that the share of adults who said some of the biggest media outlets – including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, NPR and the Wall Street Journal – were credible dropped an average of 5 percentage points over the past three years, from 56% to 44%.

The media skepticism was predictably most pronounced among Republicans, whose responses show a 12-point drop in their trust in news outlets over the course of the last three years.

It also doesn’t help that the dossier first surfaced in the liberal media when BuzzFeed posted it online – complete with the lurid details of a sex tape featuring prostitutes that the Russian government was said to be holding over Trump. Mueller’s investigation found no evidence that such a tape existed. It also didn’t corroborate another dossier claim published in a McClatchy report that then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen met with Russian officials in Prague.

The Mueller report’s conclusions poked huge holes in the Democrats’ Trump-Russia narrative and sparked new questions about the way the FBI went about investigating it, as well as the media’s role in fanning its flames. Horowitz’ report will try to address both issues.

At the beginning of the Horowitz probe, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler – who is weighing whether to begin impeachment proceedings against the president -- said it’s a “shame” that the inspector general has to “devote resources to investigate a conspiracy theory as fact-free, openly political, and thoroughly debunked as the president’s do-called ‘FISA abuse.’”

As the probe is winding down, Steele himself appears less sanguine about Horowitz’ findings and conclusions. He has reportedly declined to be interviewed and plans to rebut the IG’s characterizations in a rare public statement.

The New York Times on Friday also reported that Steele never tried portray the dossier as anything other than raw intelligence — jumping off points for the FBI to begin investigating.

How that assertion squares with Horowitz’s findings will be closely watched by those on both sides of the aisle. But for Democrats eager to herald the Mueller report’s details on possible obstruction, the IG’s work could be tough to portray as just another government investigation biased in Trump’s favor.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' White House/national political correspondent.

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Cancun club shooting leaves 5 dead, 5 wounded, authorities say

At least five people were killed and another five were wounded Saturday after four gunmen opened fire inside a club in Cancun, Mexico, authorities said.

The men, armed with a long gun and three handguns, opened fire inside La Kuka, a club located on a main avenue in central Cancun about 4 miles away from the seaside tourist hotel zone, Quintana Roo state prosecutors said.

Two of the five wounded in the shooting remains in critical condition on Sunday.

Cancun and Quintaroo have seen an uptick in violence in the last year, with federal authorities reporting 774 people killed in the state last year, compared to the recorded 359 killings in 2017.

The violence may be due to reports of the Jalisco New Generation cartel moving into the Caribbean resort city and fighting other local gangs to gain control of the area.

MEXICO MURDER RATE BREAKS RECORD WITH MORE THAN 33,000 CASES OPENED IN 2018, STATISTICS SHOW

In January, three gunmen in Cancun shot and killed seven people at a home. The deadly shooting was due to an apparent dispute and ordered by a suspected gang leader who has been linked to the Jalisco cartel.

At least five people were killed when a gunman opened fire inside a club in Cancun, Mexico.

At least five people were killed when a gunman opened fire inside a club in Cancun, Mexico. (iStock)

Homicide cases in Mexico rose by 33 percent in 2018, shattering the country’s record for the second consecutive year, government statistics show. The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory in November urged people to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to Mexico due to crime.

“Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread,” the advisory stated.

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Cancun remains one of the most popular travel destinations in Mexico and in the world.

Fox News' Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Biden faces scrutiny for demanding ouster of Ukraine official probing firm that employed his son

Former Vice President Joe Biden is facing new scrutiny over his past comments and actions in Ukraine, including bragging that he pressured the country to fire its top prosecutor, who happened to be leading a corruption investigation of a natural gas company that employed his son Hunter Biden.

The focus on Biden's past comes on the heels of at least two women stepping forward with accusations of improper physical contact by the nation's former No. 2, potentially hurting his 2020 presidential election chances, though he still hasn’t formally announced his run for the White House.

If Biden ultimately decides to enter the race, he may also have to answer questions about Ukraine. Aside from the matter involving the top prosecutor were comments regarding Ukrainian women -- Biden once told then-President Viktor Yushchenko during a state visit that they were “the most beautiful women in the world."

"That's my observation," Biden continued. "It's certain you have so many beautiful women."

"That's my observation. It's certain you have so many beautiful women."

— Then-Vice President Joe Biden, during a state visit to Ukraine

But Biden's role in the firing of Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in 2016, after Shokin as part of a corruption probe targeted a natural gas firm that hired Biden's son two years earlier, could prove a bigger issue.

BIDEN'S 'EXPRESSIONS OF AFFECTION' MAY TAKE HIM OUT OF 2020 RACE, MARK STEYN TELLS TUCKER CARLSON

Last year, during a Council on Foreign Relations event, Biden told the audience that he pressed President Petro Poroshenko to fire the country’s top prosecutor, including threatening to withdraw a $1 billion U.S. loan from the country, which has been economically decimated due to its war with Russian forces since 2014.

“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden said he told Poroshenko.

“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ ... I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.'”

— Joe Biden

“Well, son of a b----, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden added.

While the fired prosecutor was reportedly criticized back then by both Ukrainians and international officials for not bringing enough corruption prosecutions, the prosecutor also worked on a corruption probe that implicated the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, a company that employed Biden’s younger son, Hunter, as a board member, The Hill reported.

UKRAINE ENERGY FIRM HIRING BIDEN’S SON RAISES ETHICAL CONCERNS

Shokin told The Hill that he had made “specific plans” for the probe, including “interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”

“I would like to emphasize the fact that presumption of innocence is a principle in Ukraine,” he added.

A representative for Joe Biden did not respond to a request for comment for this report; neither did a representative at Hunter Biden's current company.

Hunter Biden, now 49, is the younger son of the former vice president, whose elder son Beau died of cancer in 2015.

The probe shortly ended after Shokin was fired, and no charges were filed against any individuals of the company. Prosecutors apparently weren't able to obtain required documents by the deadline.

But according to the Hill, General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko reopened the case in 2018 following Biden’s remarks at the event, with the prosecutor saying that the evidence in the case may be of interest to U.S. authorities.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Biden had correlated and connected this aid with some of the HR (personnel) issues and changes in the prosecutor’s office,” Lutsenko told the outlet.

Ukraine experts previously warned that Biden’s son's involvement in the company undercut the Obama administration’s anti-corruption message in Ukraine. Biden was also aware of his son’s dealings months, if not years, before the supposed warning to the Ukrainian president.

“Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer,” Kate Bedingfield, then-spokeswoman for the vice president, told the New York Times at the time.

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“The vice president does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company. The vice president has pushed aggressively for years, both publicly with groups like the U.S.-Ukraine Business Forum and privately in meetings with Ukrainian leaders, for Ukraine to make every effort to investigate and prosecute corruption in accordance with the rule of law. It will once again be a key focus during his trip this week.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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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.”

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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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