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Elizabeth Warren proposes breaking up Apple, in addition to Google, Facebook, and Amazon

Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced in an interview on Saturday that she wants to break up not only Amazon, Google, and Facebook, but also Apple -- as the Massachusetts senator pushes further to the left of her numerous Democratic rivals on a host of populist issues.

Speaking to The Verge at the South by Southwest (SXSW) technology conference in Austin, Texas, Warren specifically demanded that Apple must be forced to either surrender control over the App Store, or cease selling its own apps within it.

"Apple, you’ve got to break it apart from their App Store. It’s got to be one or the other," Warren said. "Either they run the platform or they play in the store. They don’t get to do both at the same time."

She elaborated: "If you run a platform where others come to sell, then you don’t get to sell your own items on the platform because you have two comparative advantages. One, you’ve sucked up information about every buyer and every seller before you’ve made a decision about what you’re going to to sell. And second, you have the capacity — because you run the platform — to prefer your product over anyone else’s product. It gives an enormous comparative advantage to the platform."

Warren asserted that similar antitrust principles were "applied to railroad companies more than a hundred years ago," and that "we need to now look at those tech platforms the same way."

Responding to a federal appeals court's recent rejection of the Trump Justice Department's bid to block the planned AT&T-Time Warner merger, Warren told The Verge: "How well do I think the Justice Department and the FTC are doing? Not well at all, and not well for a long time now."

WARREN FLOATS IDEA OF TAXPAYER-FUNDED REPARATIONS FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS, BUT ALSO NATIVE AMERICANS

In a lengthy post on the website Medium on Friday, Warren targeted Amazon, Facebook, and Google for breakup, but did not mention Apple.

Warren said the large tech giants had used mergers to "limit competition," citing examples such as Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp; Amazon using its market power to "force" smaller competitors, such as Diapers.com to sell to the company; and Google buying mapping company Waze and advertising company DoubleClick.

President Donald Trump talks to Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook during the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board's first meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump talks to Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook during the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board's first meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

She also mentioned that their marketplaces were used to limit competition. "Amazon crushes small companies by copying the goods they sell on the Amazon Marketplace and then selling its own branded version. Google allegedly snuffed out a competing small search engine by demoting its content on its search algorithm, and it has favored its own restaurant ratings over those of Yelp," Warren wrote.

Warren, who specifically denied being a Socialist as recently as this weekend, proposed two ways of restoring competition to the tech sector, including passing legislation that would designate the large platforms as "platform utilities" and reversing already approved mergers, which she deemed "illegal and anti-competitive."

TRUMP CALLS TIM COOK 'TIM APPLE' TO HIS FACE; COOK REACTS BY CHANGING NAME ON TWITTER

Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a think tank for science and technology policy, sharply disagreed with Warren's proposal.

"The Warren campaign’s call to break up big tech companies reflects a 'big is bad, small is beautiful' ideology run amok," Atkinson said in a statement obtained by Fox News. "The proposal ignores the fact that many of the services big tech companies now provide free used to cost consumers money. Breaking up large Internet companies just because they are large won’t help consumers. It will hurt them by reducing convenience, reducing quality of service and innovation, and in some cases leading to the introduction of priced services."

"Breaking up large Internet companies just because they are large won’t help consumers."

— ITIF president Rob Atkinson

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Warren herself tempered some of her rhetoric on Saturday, saying simply, "I am not" when asked if she considered herself a democratic Socialist, in the vein of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“All I can tell you is what I believe – there’s an enormous amount to be gained from markets. Markets create opportunities. … but markets have to have rules. They have to have a cop on the beat,” Warren told an energetic crowd at the Austin City Limits’ Moody Theater.

Warren's calls for major changes in antitrust law follow her other relatively radical proposals, including her idea of taxing idle wealth. Specifically, Warren has proposed an annual 2 percent tax on every dollar of net worth above $50 million and a 3 percent tax on every dollar of net worth above $1 billion.

But because Warren would seek to tax wealth itself -- as opposed to income or some other kind of transfer -- without equally apportioning such a tax among the states, legal experts say it is likely unconstitutional.

Warren has also said that Native Americans should be “part of the conversation” on reparations for African-Americans -- a move that threatens to bring back her own history with Native Americans.

Her fellow 2020 hopefuls Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro have come out in favor of reparations for African Americans, but have so far not gone as far as Warren in opening the door to reparations for Native Americans.

Fox News' Chris Ciaccia and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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McCabe tells 'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert he remains suspicious of President Trump

Continuing to promote his new book, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe made an appearance Tuesday night on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

During the interview, McCabe insisted that his discussion with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the 25th Amendment did not represent a potential “coup” against the Trump administration, as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had suggested.

“It was not very coup-y,” McCabe said of his talk with Rosenstein, using a description initiated by Colbert. “Again, it was a mention in the midst of a wide-ranging conversation.

MCCABE REVEALS THE 'ONE THING' THAT STOOD OUT FROM HIS FATEFUL CALL WITH FLYNN

“I’m not aware that Rod ever took any efforts to pursue that. I’m not aware of any meetings about it or other discussions on it. It was for me really just an indicator of just how frenzied and fraught the situation was that we were in, and those were the kinds of things that were bouncing around.”

Colbert then asked if McCabe had any reason to be “less suspicious of the president” over the last two years, to which McCabe simply answered, “No.”

On Sunday morning, Graham gave his response after CBS released portions of a taped “60 Minutes” interview with McCabe that would air that night.

McCabe had told CBS’s Scott Pelley that Rosenstein had discussed the possibility of wearing a wire to gather evidence against the Trump administration and discussing with Cabinet members the 25th Amendment, which sets rules for removing a president from office if deemed necessary.

ANDREW MCCABE 'SHOULD BE PROSECUTED' FOR RECENT '60 MINUTES' INTERVIEW: JASON CHAFFETZ

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Graham questioned whether the McCabe-Rosenstein conversation represented “an attempted bureaucratic coup,” and told host Margaret Brennan he intended to subpoena both McCabe and Rosenstein to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Graham is chairman.

“How can I not, if that’s what it takes?” Graham said, adding that McCabe “went on national television and made an accusation that floors me."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“You know, I can imagine, if the shoe were on the other foot,” Graham continued, “if we were talking about getting rid of President Clinton, it’d be front-page news all over the world. Well, we’re going to find out what happened here, and the only way I know to find out is to call the people in under oath and find out, through questioning, who’s telling the truth because the underlying accusation here is beyond stunning.”

McCabe’s book is called “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of terror and Trump.”

Prior to his appearance on Colbert’s show, McCabe also appeared Tuesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360" and ABC's "The View."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Are We Heading Toward a Political Realignment?

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WASHINGTON -- Dick Cheney, the former vice president, made just about the nastiest crack a Republican could offer about President Trump's foreign policy when he said it "looks a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan."

Obviously, the comparison is flawed. But say this much for Cheney: He's the rare Republican who isn't intimidated by Trump these days. Cheney made a string of similarly blistering comments at a supposedly off-the-record conversation with Vice President Pence at a gathering in Sea Island, Georgia, last weekend hosted by the American Enterprise Institute.

Cheney's remarks tell us that we are experiencing what may be a political realignment in America, in which some of our political labels don't work very well. There's a populist wing in both parties, with Trump and some progressive Democrats expressing broadly similar concerns about America's overextension in the world and the unfairness of the existing global order to working people.

There's a traditionalist wing in both parties, too, which supports the old Cheney-esque American-led world order and its network of alliances and trade agreements. This traditionalist approach was embodied in the shared invitation this week by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to address a joint session of Congress.

There's a world of difference, to be sure, between Trump's bullying, rich-guy version of populism and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' empathetic, progressive version. Similarly, Pelosi's version of internationalism is less defense-oriented and hawkish than McConnell's. But politics is confusing these days partly because the usual left-right spectrum doesn't always apply. Is free trade liberal or conservative? How about internationalism? What about privacy protection?

American politics has always been more personality-driven than ideological, and when we think of eras, they're usually defined by presidents. George Washington personified the Federalist Era; Andrew Jackson defined a freewheeling Democratic Party assault on the elites; Abraham Lincoln created the modern Republican Party in the Civil War; and Theodore Roosevelt recast it in the Progressive Era; Franklin Roosevelt created a new Democratic coalition; and Reagan framed a new Republican one.

Is Trump such a transitional figure? I doubt it. He seems more an emblem of our current political disorder than the architect of a new political alignment. But he's a harbinger of change in our party system.

Trump already has led one of the most successful insurgencies in American politics. He destroyed the existing Republican establishment, savaging the GOP's field of presidential candidates in 2016. His defiant, carnival-barker politics of resentment was on display this month at the CPAC convention. It was a bizarre, idiosyncratic performance, but it clearly enthralled his audience. Trump owns what's left of the party he wrecked.

Democrats these days can seem just as frightened as Republicans by a party base that's in ferment. An example is former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, an ex-entrepreneur who created a bipartisan base in his home state. Hickenlooper is the embodiment of a moderate Democrat. But he verged on incoherence last week on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when host Joe Scarborough asked him if he was a "socialist" or "capitalist." Watching him, it seemed possible that Democrats are as jittery about offending Sanders supporters as Republicans are of crossing Trump.

Maybe Sanders has the passion and progressive appeal to make "democratic socialism" a winning strategy for 2020. He's undeniably appealing to the Democratic base; polls show him gaining steadily over the past two months, while most of the rest of the field has been treading water.

But I'll be very surprised if Sanders can make it to the White House. The Democrat who can beat Trump is more likely to be a large but also reassuring personality, acceptable to blue-collar Democrats and also exciting to younger voters -- a more youthful version of Joe Biden, perhaps. People who occupy that space (at least on my mental map) include Sen. Michael Bennett; Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Seth Moulton and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

Political systems can be like scientific theories. Sometimes there emerge so many anomalous elements that don't fit the existing structure that the theory collapses, and a new one arises. In science, that means, for example, that the theory that the sun revolves around the earth loses its explanatory power, and evidence proves the opposite is the case. In politics, new parties emerge, or the existing ones develop new identities.

We may be entering such a period. The definition of a winning Democrat may be that, in response to Trump's rambling circus of self-aggrandizement, he or she could create a genuinely coherent new political order.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

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Google flipped seats, shifted millions of votes to Dems in 2018 midterms, researcher tells RT

Google’s biased search algorithm actually flipped seats in the 2018 US midterm elections, according to a researcher who found the search engine’s “dramatically biased” results could have shifted over 78 million votes to Democrats.

Upwards of 25 percent of the national elections in the world are being decided without people’s knowledge by Google’s search algorithm,” senior research psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology told RT, calling the search engine the “deciding factor” in close races.

Epstein’s study of three 2018 California House races found Google played the deciding role in flipping those Republican-held seats to the Democrats, influencing millions of undecided voters by controlling what they saw when they searched 500 election-related terms. Google’s results showed a “significant liberal bias,” unlike Bing’s or Yahoo’s – and with 90 percent of the search engine’s market share in the US, that bias is enormously influential.

Search results favoring one side of an issue can influence anywhere from 20 to 80 percent of undecided voters, depending on the issue and demographic group, Epstein said. He has spent six years investigating the role of what he calls the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) in swaying public opinion, more recently focusing on the political ramifications by looking at various countries’ elections.

People trust algorithmic output. They trust Google. They think because it’s generated by a computer, they don’t see the human hand – they think it’s impartial and objective and, because of that, their opinions change,” Epstein said.

While Google denies it manipulates search rankings to manipulate political sentiment or makes election-specific tweaks, Epstein says their response is disingenuous – he never claimed they re-ranked results, merely that the results they displayed were biased.

We found very consistently that on Google they ended up with search results favoring liberals and favoring liberal news sources, and it was quite a dramatic effect.

Source: InfoWars

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Russia’s Deripaska ready to give up control of van maker GAZ as sanctions bite

An employee looks on at the assembly line of Gorkovsky Automobile Plant (GAZ) in Nizhny Novgorod
An employee looks on at the assembly line of Gorkovsky Automobile Plant (GAZ) in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

April 16, 2019

By Gleb Stolyarov

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia (Reuters) – Germany’s Daimler and some others have stopped dealing with sanctions-hit van maker GAZ, controlled by Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, he told reporters, adding he was ready to give up control of the company.

Deripaska and some of the businesses which he controls were hit by U.S. sanctions a year ago, when Washington imposed sweeping measures on some of Russia’s biggest companies and business figures to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and other “malign activity.”

Sanctions against GAZ, Russia’s biggest van maker, have not yet taken full effect due to licenses for extensions issued by Washington, but are impacting the company, Deripaska said.

“It’s a tough time,” he told reporters on Tuesday on a visit to the GAZ factory in Russia’s central region of Nizhny Novgorod.

If sanctions are not lifted, he said, there was no chance GAZ would survive, even if the company is granted another extension in early July, because these extensions “do not give you full freedom.”

A lot of suppliers and partners have stopped working with GAZ due to the risk of secondary sanctions, Deripaska said, adding there was also huge pressure on GAZ from its banks.

GAZ, which competes with a joint venture between Ford and its Russian partner Sollers among others, mainly sells its vehicles in Russia and the former Soviet Union, making it less dependent on dollar sales.

MARKET SHARE

However, GAZ has contracts with Western partners and relies on vital supplies of foreign components. Along with Daimler, Volkswagen and U.S.-based Cummins have contracts with GAZ.

Volkswagen, Daimler and Cummins did not reply to a Reuters’ request for comment.

The company is also losing market share to rivals like Toyota and Ford, Deripaska added.

GAZ did not disclose its 2018 sales. According to the AEB lobby group, its sales of light commercial vehicles, or vans and minibuses, rose 4 percent in 2018 to 60,677.

The U.S. Treasury said in March it was extending by four months to July 6 a deadline for investors to divest from GAZ, giving Deripaska more time to lower his stake and potentially allowing the company to be removed from the U.S. sanctions list.

Washington lifted sanctions on Deripaska’s main assets – aluminum maker Rusal and its parent En+ – in January after he dropped control in them. Asked if he was ready to give up control of GAZ, Deripaska said: “Yes, as it was done in En+.”

Yet GAZ does not have such weight in global markets as Rusal and En+, so talks on any deal are slower and more difficult, sources close to GAZ previously told Reuters.

Deripaska himself remains blacklisted and is suing the United States, alleging it had overstepped its legal powers in imposing sanctions on him.

He admits his suit against Washington “would be a difficult case” but still hopes his name will eventually be cleared, he told reporters.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Polina Devitt; Editing by David Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Florida man who filmed Instagram Live shooting fired at deputies first, police say

A 23-year-old domestic violence suspect in Florida, who was armed with a gun and live-streaming the incident on Instagram, was shot at last week after he opened fire first at officers, according to police.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office released body camera video on Thursday of the incident Wednesday involving Laforest Duron Gray Jr and three officers.

"After talking with the deputies involved and reviewing the bodycam footage, the suspect clearly shot at our officers one time," Orange County Sheriff John Mina told reporters. "The officers returned fire."

Officers had been called to the home after a neighbor called 911 to report a domestic violence incident between Gray and his wife, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by FOX35.

TEXAS WOMAN ACCUSED OF DRIVING DRUNK, CRASHING INTO POLICE VEHICLE

The neighbor had told deputies that Gray's wife jumped into his car asking for help before the suspect opened the car door, dragged her out by her hair, and implied to the driver that he had a gun, according to the arrest report.

Laforest Duron Gray Jr. is now charged with four counts of attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, domestic violence, and burglary.

Laforest Duron Gray Jr. is now charged with four counts of attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, domestic violence, and burglary. (Orange County Jail)

Video released by the sheriff's office shows that when deputies arrived and ordered Gray to put both hands up in the air as he was holding a phone in his left hand and live-streaming the encounter on Instagram.

CALIFORNIA WOMAN STABBED OFFICER AFTER DRIVING OVER 100 MPH ON INTERSTATE 5, POLICE SAY

When Gray finally lifted his left hand, the video shows Gray holding onto a silver pistol with his right hand, pointing it at deputies and firing off a round. Three deputies then fired at Gray, but no one was struck during the gun battle.

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Deputies used a K-9 to eventually get Gray into custody. He is now charged with four counts of attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, domestic violence, and burglary. He is currently being held at the Orange County Jail without bond.

Source: Fox News National

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Explainer: How Wednesday’s parliamentary Brexit debate will work

Commuters cross Westminster bridge in London
Commuters cross Westminster bridge in London, Britain, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

February 27, 2019

By William James

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will on Wednesday update parliament on her progress towards securing a Brexit deal, giving lawmakers the chance to challenge her approach and vote on alternatives.

May wants to negotiate changes to the departure deal she agreed with the European Union last year and has promised to bring it back for approval in parliament by March 12 at the latest.

She looks to have postponed a moment of reckoning in the deeply divided legislature by promising lawmakers they will be given the chance next month to block a no-deal Brexit and delay Britain’s exit day if her agreement is rejected.

Wednesday’s debate will not involve a vote on whether to approve or reject a Brexit deal.

WHAT WILL THEY DEBATE?

Lawmakers will debate a government statement which reads: “This House notes the Prime Minister’s statement on EU exit of 26 February, 2019; and further notes that discussions between the UK and the EU are ongoing.”

CAN LAWMAKERS PROPOSE CHANGES TO THE WORDING?

Yes. They are known as amendments and, if approved by a vote, could exert political pressure on May to change the course of Brexit. However, the government is not legally bound to follow any changes approved following the debate.

Parliament Speaker John Bercow chooses which amendments are selected for debate.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?

May’s move to de-escalate a showdown in parliament over fears that her strategy could result in Britain leaving the EU without a deal means that a plan for parliament to seize back control of the process is not expected to be voted upon.

However, voting on other alternatives will take place and a number of amendments could be put to a vote. The final wording of amendments has not yet been published.

WILL THERE BE VOTES?

Bercow will decide whether to select any of the amendments for a vote at the start of the debate, due around 1300 GMT.

Lawmakers will vote on each of the selected amendments one by one, before voting to give final approval to the wording of the motion itself. Voting is due to begin at 1900 GMT. Each vote takes around 15 minutes and the result is read out in parliament.

WHAT AMENDMENTS ARE EXPECTED?

1. A cross-party group of lawmakers, led by the Labour Party’s Yvette Cooper, proposed a plan that would give parliament the legal power to force May to seek an extension to the negotiating period. However, it is expected to be withdrawn before a vote provided ministers confirm the timetable May set out on Tuesday.

Two other amendments from the group have been proposed relating to increasing parliament’s role in the Brexit process.

2. The opposition Labour Party put down an amendment setting out their own vision for Brexit and demanding the government adopt its negotiating position. Among other things, Labour is calling for a permanent UK-EU customs union.

3. A Conservative lawmaker put forward a plan seeking to ensure that safeguards on the rights of EU citizens, which have been agreed with Brussels as part of the withdrawal deal, would apply even if the government was not able to ratify the exit deal.

4. The Scottish National Party also put forward an amendment calling for the government to delay Britain’s EU exit date.

5. Lawmakers from the newly formed Independent Group of lawmakers proposed an amendment calling for the government to set out the steps needed for a second referendum.

(Reporting by William James; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Janet Lawrence)

Source: OANN

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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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