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Report: FBI to Meet With Fla. Officials About Election Hacking

The FBI will meet next month with Florida officials to brief them on Russian hackers who might have phished their way into a local elections office, the Miami Herald reported.

Florida's GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., each said Thursday the FBI has asked about scheduling a meeting within the next few weeks to talk about election hacking. 

DeSantis and Scott have blasted federal authorities for their silence in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueler's report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election; the report said the FBI believes Russian hackers were able to "gain access" to "at least one" Florida county government computer network.

"They won't tell us which county it was. Are you kidding me? Why would you not say something immediately?" DeSantis said. "We're looking for answers. I think finally next week we're going to get somebody, or maybe the week after we're going to have somebody come brief us on what happened."

"We're going to make it public," DeSantis added about whatever is discussed with the FBI. "Unless somehow it's classified, the public has a right to know what may have happened."

According to the Herald, it was known even before Mueller's report that hackers tried to hack Florida elections offices by sending emails with malware-laced attachments. Mueller's report was the first official statement to indicate any of those attempts might have been successful, the Herald reported.

Source: NewsMax America

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Curry returns to lead Warriors past Pistons

NBA: Detroit Pistons at Golden State Warriors
Mar 24, 2019; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the ball up the court against the Detroit Pistons in the fourth quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

March 25, 2019

Stephen Curry returned from a one-game absence to hit five 3-pointers and total a game-high 26 points Sunday night as the Golden State Warriors shook off the embarrassment of a 35-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks one day earlier to turn back the Detroit Pistons 121-114 in Oakland, Calif.

The Golden State win, coupled with Denver’s loss at Indiana earlier in the day, allowed the Warriors (50-23) to move a half-game ahead of the Nuggets (49-23) in the race for the best record in the Western Conference.

The 50-win season was the sixth straight for the Warriors, their fifth in a row under coach Steve Kerr.

The loss dropped Detroit (37-36) from sixth to seventh in the Eastern Conference and further jumbled the four-team battle for the final three playoff spots. That duel also includes Brooklyn (38-36), Miami (36-37) and Orlando (35-38).

In a matchup between two teams playing the second night of a back-to-back, with both having lost Saturday, the Warriors finally created some distance between themselves and the Pistons with a 9-0 burst late in the second period.

Andrew Bogut, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney had hoops in the run, which turned a 51-47 game into a 13-point Warriors lead.

Green beat the halftime horn with a 3-pointer to push the Golden State lead to 63-49 at the break, and Golden State went on to lead by as many as 20 in the third period before the Pistons rallied.

Reserves Luke Kennard and Thon Maker had 10 points apiece as Detroit, which lost Saturday night at Portland, got within 112-103 with still 4:59 to play.

But Curry then connected on his fifth 3-pointer of the game, and the Warriors were able to hold the visitors at arm’s length the rest of the way.

Curry shot 5-for-10 on 3-pointers and Thompson 4-for-6, helping Golden State shoot 52.0 percent on threes (13-for-25). Golden State shot 61.3 percent overall.

Curry also found time for a team-high nine rebounds.

Thompson finished with 24 points, Green 14 and Looney 11 for the Warriors, while Kevin Durant recorded a 14-point, 11-assist double-double.

Blake Griffin had 24 points and Andre Drummond a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double for the Pistons, who shot 46.4 percent overall and 12-for-31 (38.7 percent) on 3-pointers.

The Pistons had beaten the Warriors 111-102 in their earlier meeting in Detroit.

Kennard chipped in with 20 points off the bench for Detroit, while Ish Smith had 14, and Maker and Langston Galloway 12 apiece.

The night began with an on-court ceremony during which Pistons center Zaza Pachulia received his 2018 championship ring from the Warriors.

Pachulia played 14 minutes off the bench, totaling four points, four assists and two rebounds.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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NYC trial begins for German woman who allegedly swindled victims out of $275,000 in socialite scam

The onetime darling of the Big Apple social scene — dubbed the “scammer socialite,” she's been accused of posing as a wealthy heiress to infiltrate New York City’s upper echelon — went on trial Wednesday on grand larceny and theft-of-services charges. Authorities allege she swindled various people and businesses out of $275,000 in a 10-month odyssey.

Anna Sorokin traveled in celebrity circles and tossed off $100 tips — all the more reason to believe she was, as she'd claimed, a German heiress.

But behind the jet-set lifestyle, prosecutors says, was a fraudster who got a taste of the high life at the expense of friends, banks and hotels.

Sorokin, 28, lived in luxury New York City hotel rooms she couldn’t afford, promised a friend an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco and then stuck her with the $62,000 bill, and peddled bogus bank statements in a quest for a $22 million loan, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has alleged.

“Her overall scheme has been to claim to be a wealthy German heiress with approximately $60 million in funds being held abroad,” prosecutor Catherine McCaw said after Sorokin’s October 2017 arrest. “She’s born in Russia and has not a cent to her name, as far as we can determine.”

FELICITY HUFFMAN, LORI LOUGHLIN FACE POSSIBLE JAIL TIME FOR COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CHEATING SCANDAL

Sorokin’s attorney said she never intended to commit a crime.

Lawyer Todd Spodek told jurors in an opening statement that Sorokin was exploiting a system after she saw how the appearance of wealth opened doors. Spodek said she was aiming to ultimately launch a business and repay her debts.

“Anna had to fake it until she could make it,” Spodek said.

Sorokin, jailed since her arrest, faces deportation to Germany regardless of the outcome of the trial because authorities say she overstayed her visa. Her story, however, may stick around.

Shonda Rhimes, the force behind “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” is developing a show about Sorokin for Netflix. Lena Dunham, of “Girls” fame, is working on one for HBO.

At different times, it's alleged, Sorokin claimed her dad was a diplomat, an oil baron or a big deal in solar panels. In reality, her father told New York magazine, he’s a former trucker who runs a heating-and-cooling business.

At first, people around Sorokin didn’t see a red flag when she asked them to put cabs and plane fares on their credit cards — she sometimes said she had trouble moving her assets from Europe, they said — and they laughed it off as forgetfulness when they had to hound her to pay them back.

“It was a magic trick,” Rachel Williams, the friend from the Morocco trip, wrote in Vanity Fair. “I’m embarrassed to say that I was one of the props, and the audience, too. Anna’s was a beautiful dream of New York, like one of those nights that never seems to end. And then the bill arrives.”

As she ingratiated herself into the New York party scene, prosecutors said, Sorokin started talking up plans to spend tens of millions of dollars building a private arts club with exhibitions, installations and pop-up shops.

Sorokin kept up the heiress ruse as she went looking for a $22 million loan for the club in November 2016, prosecutors said. She claimed the loan would be secured by a letter of credit from UBS in Switzerland, and showed statements purporting to substantiate her assets, according to an outline of the charges.

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While seeking the loan, prosecutors said, Sorokin convinced one bank to lend her $100,000 to cover due diligence costs. She ended up keeping $55,000 and “frittered away these funds on personal expenses in about one month’s time,” prosecutors said. A few months later, in May 2017, Sorokin allegedly chartered a plane to and from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., but never paid the $35,400 bill.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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School bus, tractor-trailer crash leaves at least 1 dead, several injured

A crash involving a school bus and a tractor-trailer in Maryland Wednesday morning left at least one person dead and several injured, police said.

The accident occurred on Branch Avenue and Surratts Road in Clinton, police said. Six people in total were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, including two teenagers and the bus driver, FOX5 DC reported. Two people refused medical attention.

Police confirmed “an adult female driver was pronounced dead on scene.”

OFF-DUTY MARYLAND STATE TROOPER CHARGED IN ALLEGED ROAD RAGE INCIDENT 

“Other vehicle drivers and passengers involved were transported to the hospital for treatment,” Prince George’s County Police Department tweeted. “Investigators are working to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision.”

The bus was traveling to Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, Md., officials said.

GEORGIA TEEN DROVE 106 MPH, USED SNAPCHAT BEFORE CRASH THAT KILLED FRIEND PLEADS GUILTY TO CHARGES: REPORT

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Source: Fox News National

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Japanese woman honored by Guinness as oldest person at 116

A 116-year-old Japanese woman who loves playing the board game Othello was honored Saturday as the world's oldest living person by Guinness World Records.

The global authority on records officially recognized Kane Tanaka in a ceremony at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka, in Japan's southwest. Her family and the mayor were present to celebrate.

Tanaka was born Jan. 2, 1903, the seventh among eight children. She married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, and they had four children and adopted another child.

She is usually up by 6 a.m. and enjoys studying mathematics.

The previous oldest living person was another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, who died in July at age 117. The oldest person prior to Miyako was also Japanese.

Japanese tend to exhibit longevity and dominate the oldest-person list. Although changing dietary habits mean obesity has been rising, it's still relatively rare in a nation whose culinary tradition focuses on fish, rice, vegetables and other food low in fat. Age is also traditionally respected here, meaning people stay active and feel useful into their 80s and beyond.

But Tanaka has a ways to go before she is the oldest person ever, an achievement of a French woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122 years, according to Guinness World Records.

Guinness said the world's oldest man is still under investigation after the man who had the honors, Masazo Nonaka, living on the Japanese northernmost island of Hokkaido, died in January at 113.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/yurikageyama/?hl=en

Source: Fox News World

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Survey: US manufacturing activity increased in March

U.S. manufacturers grew at a faster pace in March, as the pace of employment jumped and new orders and production improved.

The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, says that its manufacturing index rose to 55.3 last month, up from 54.2 in February. Readings above 50 point toward an expansion in manufacturing. The sector has been reporting growth for 31 months.

ISM's survey of companies for the index is a sign that economic growth should continue, even though the global economy, steel tariffs and the trade battle between the United States and China have been sources of concern.

Source: Fox News National

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Dems: Background Checks for US Citizens, But Don’t Tell ICE if Aliens Fail Gun Check

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

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

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

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

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

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEED FOR CASH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATE COMPETITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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