FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX), candidate for U.S. Senate greets supporters at a campaign rally in Plano, Texas, U.S., November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
March 14, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Beto O’Rourke, the youthful Texan who gained a national following with his long-shot election battle against U.S. Senator Ted Cruz last year, told a Texas TV station on Wednesday he will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
“I’m really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents,” O’Rourke said in a text to TV station KTSM. “It’s a big part of why I’m running. This city is the best example of this country at its best.”
A formal announcement will be made on Thursday morning, the television station said.
Former FBI Director James Comey turned heads on Twitter in a new way Monday -- when he seemingly announced a White House run on April Fools' Day.
Comey, whom President Trump had fired in May 2017, tweeted a picture of himself in the middle of a road. The accompanying text: “I’m in. We need someone in the middle. #2020”
It's not clear exactly where the photo was taken, or when.
He later provided a follow-up tweet to seemingly clarify his original intent: “But could you imagine a president who used this website to make dad jokes rather than to hurl insults? Happy #AprilFools. #VoteDem2020”
Comey has posted a string of tweets, many of them seemingly referring to President Trump, and many of them including photos of the former FBI boss in picturesque surroundings. Last month, after findings from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation were released, Comey tweeted a photo of him in a forest of tall trees, with the caption: “So many questions.”
President Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017, telling him in a brief letter that he could not “effectively lead” the bureau. Mueller's Russia probe began shortly afterward.
Frank Miles is a reporter and editor covering geopolitics, military, crime, technology and sports for FoxNews.com. His email is Frank.Miles@foxnews.com.
NEW YORK – The New York City Health Department ordered all ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in a neighborhood of Brooklyn on Monday to exclude unvaccinated students from classes during the current measles outbreak.
In issuing the order, the health department said that any yeshiva in Williamsburg that does not comply will face fines and possible closure.
City health officials said the measles outbreak among Orthodox Jewish communities continues to increase "at an alarming rate."
Officials say 285 cases have been confirmed in New York City since the beginning of the outbreak in October. Most cases have been reported from Williamsburg and Borough Park — two Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations, in which vaccination rates tend to be lower.
New York City accounted for about two-thirds of all U.S. measles cases reported last week. But areas outside the city are also seeing a surge in cases.
Last week, a state judge issued a preliminary injunction against a Rockland County emergency order banning children from public places unless they've been vaccinated against measles. Civil rights lawyer Michael Sussman called the order "arbitrary and capricious."
The county had enacted the 30-day emergency order to fight a measles outbreak that has infected at least 166 people since October. Rockland's outbreak has most heavily affected Orthodox Jewish communities.
Health officials say the best way to stop the disease's spread is a vaccination rate in the community of 92 to 95 percent.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all children get two doses of measles vaccine. It says the vaccine is 97% effective.
Chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee Mike Enzi (R-WY) waits for order to be restored as protestors interrupt the markup of the FY2018 Budget reconciliation legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
March 13, 2019
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior Senate Republican gave a lukewarm welcome to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget plan, complaining on Wednesday that growing debt was taking the country in “an ominous direction.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi opened a hearing on the Republican president’s proposal with a broad attack on what he said was the growing, misguided view that U.S. debt and deficits do not matter.
“We’re in a credit-card Congress,” Enzi said, noting the United States would soon face annual government deficits of over $1 trillion. “We are clearly headed in an ominous direction.”
Trump’s plan is highly unlikely to become law in the face of opposition from Democrats, who control the House of Representatives.
Democrats at the hearing focused on Trump’s proposed cuts to social programs, making clear they would continue to emphasize them in the 2020 presidential election campaign.
The budget proposal “practices the Robin Hood principle in reverse,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, budget panel member and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. “It takes from the poor and working families and gives to the very wealthy.”
In his $4.7 trillion budget unveiled on Monday, Trump called for overhauling social programs that help poor and elderly Americans, while boosting military spending and funding a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The Trump administration has said the plan represents an attempt to be fiscally responsible at a time of trillion-dollar budget deficits.
Tax cuts were a priority for the Trump White House and congressional Republicans in recent years, rather than deficit reduction. The U.S. deficit is expected to run to $900 billion in 2019 and the national debt has ballooned to $22 trillion.
Enzi blamed both Republicans and Democrats for the trend toward trillion-dollar deficits. The Republican lawmaker cited a report from the Congressional Budget Office that the public debt is expected to reach 78 percent of gross domestic product this year.
Russell Vought, acting White House budget director, defended Trump’s plan, saying the president was requesting more spending cuts than any previous administration.
House Democrats are working on their own budget proposal that would be a blueprint for setting spending levels.
The party is divided over costly ideas like a “Medicare for All” universal healthcare proposal and the “Green New Deal” to eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions within a decade.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Peter Cooney)
There is an upcoming solar storm expected this weekend. Researchers have noticed a sunspot that will bombard the Earth with solar particles on Monday.
Sunspots are patches of darkness on the Sun which are caused by an underlying magnetism beneath the surface. A solar storm occurs when that magnetism bubbles up and is released in the form of solar flares, which spew cosmic particles into space. Earth is in the path of these particles, so we can expect an exceptional aural display at the poles soon!
Auroras are caused when solar particles hit the atmosphere. These include the northern lights, or aurora borealis and southern lights, or aurora australis. Both are expected to put on incredible shows thanks to this solar storm. The light show will appear when the magnetosphere gets bombarded by solar winds and that layer of the atmosphere deflects the particles.
According to the Express, a cosmic forecasting website called Space Weather said:
“A minor hole in the sun’s atmosphere is turning toward Earth and spewing a stream of solar wind in our direction. The estimated time of arrival is April 22nd. Geomagnetic unrest and polar auroras are possible when the gaseous material arrives.”
Solar particles have been responsible for power grid failures and disruption in communications systems on Earth when they’ve been strong enough. A surge of particles can lead to high currents in the magnetosphere, which can cause a higher than normal level of electricity in power lines. The results could be devastating, especially considering Earth’s magnetic field is weakening. Eventually, as a solar storm could cause electrical transformers and power stations blowouts and a loss of power. Solar storms can also affect satellites in orbit, potentially leading to a lack of GPS navigation, mobile phone signals, and satellite TV.
Earth’s magnetic field is getting significantly weaker, the magnetic north pole is shifting at an accelerating pace, and scientists readily admit that a sudden pole shift could potentially cause “trillions of dollars” in damage. Today, most of us take the protection provided by Earth’s magnetic field completely for granted. It is essentially a colossal force field which surrounds our planet and makes life possible. And even with such protection, a giant solar storm could still potentially hit our planet and completely fry our power grid. But as our magnetic field continues to get weaker and weaker, even much smaller solar storms will have the potential to be cataclysmic. And once the magnetic field gets weak enough, we will be facing much bigger problems. As you will see below, if enough solar radiation starts reaching our planet none of us will survive. -Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog
The weakening magnetic field could have apocalyptic implications for all of us. Increased cancer rates will occur and there will be increasingly dangerous outcomes of fairly minor solar storms such as the one expected on Monday.
The sign of a Best Buy store in Pasadena, California U.S., February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
February 27, 2019
(Reuters) – Best Buy Co Inc reported better-than-expected holiday quarter profit and sales on Wednesday, driven by strong demand for wearable devices, gaming consoles and appliances.
Shares in Best Buy surged 10 percent on the numbers, which come at the end of a year when it and rivals Target Corp and Walmart Inc have all benefited from the impact of rising wages, low unemployment and tax cuts on U.S. consumers.
The company said domestic online revenue rose 9.3 percent to $2.96 billion in the fourth quarter, primarily due to higher conversion rates and increased traffic.
Best Buy also forecast fiscal 2020 adjusted profit of $5.45 to $5.65 per share, the mid-point of which was above analysts’ expectations of $5.49.
Best Buy’s domestic comparable sales rose 3 percent in the three months ended Feb. 2. Analysts on average had expected a 2.03 percent rise, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The company said comparable sales benefited from growth across categories such as wearables, appliances, smart home and gaming but saw declines in mobile phone sales.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned $2.72 per share. Analysts on average were expecting earnings of $2.57.
Total revenue fell 3.7 percent to $14.80 billion, as the year-ago quarter had an extra week, but still came above expectations of $14.70 billion.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Anil D’Silva)
FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory groundbreaking ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
April 22, 2019
(Reuters) – Tesla Inc will focus on its autonomous driving system when it hosts its investor day on Monday.
Elon Musk, the electric vehicle company’s chief executive officer, has touted the company’s self-driving capabilities over the years, highlighting its semi-autonomous Autopilot system.
Tesla began offering a feature described as “Full Self-Driving Capability” in 2016. The company instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel when those systems are engaged, sparking some criticism of terms used.
The company’s investor day starts at 2 p.m. ET.
Following are the comments made by Musk and Tesla related to the topic in the past few years:
2019
April 15 – Musk says that buying a car that can’t upgrade to full self-driving is like “buying a horse instead of a car in 2019.”
April 11 – Tesla says that Autopilot, the company’s advanced driver assistance system, is now standard on all vehicles.
April 3 – Tesla says it is making “significant progress” in development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including the FSD (Full Self-Driving) computer, saying the computer is in production and will enable full-self driving through over-the-air software updates in future.
Feb. 28 – In response to a media question whether it is problematic that Musk uses the term “full self-driving,” Musk replies: “I think we’re very clear when you buy the car what is meant by full self-driving. It means it’s feature complete. Feature complete requiring supervision … There’s really three steps: feature complete of full self-driving but requiring supervision, feature complete but not requiring supervision, feature complete not requiring supervision and regulators agree.”
2018
Oct. 5 – Tesla introduces software version 9.0 with a number of features including ‘Navigate on Autopilot’ – intended to guide a car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes, navigating highway interchanges and taking exits that would still require driver supervision [http://bit.ly/2IFfMMN]
June 11 – Musk tweets that Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system will get full self-driving features following a software upgrade in August
May 23 – Two U.S. consumer advocacy groups urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Tesla’s “deceptive and misleading” use of the name Autopilot for its assisted-driving technology
Feb. 2018 – Musk says Tesla can do a coast-to-coast autonomous drive in 3 months, 6 months at most
Oct. 19 – Musk says he expects that by the end of 2017 a Tesla would be able to drive in full autonomous mode from Los Angeles to New York “without the need for a single touch” on the wheel. [https://reut.rs/2Pk7RYI]
Oct. 2016 – Tesla begins to sell a “Full Self-Driving Capability” option in its vehicles for $3,000, on top of the $5,000 price for “Enhanced Autopilot.” Musk says full self-driving features will be rolled out in future via over-the-air updates when available. The option was removed in October 2018, then reinstated in February 2019.
Oct 2016 – Musk says all new Teslas built have the hardware required for full self-driving.
2015
Oct. 15 – Tesla launches an advanced driver assistance system called Autopilot, with Musk cautioning that drivers should keep their hand on the wheel. [https://reut.rs/2VS8gnB]
(Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru and Alexandria Sage in San Francisco; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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.
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.”
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.”
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – 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.
LONDON – 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.”
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)
JOHANNESBURG – 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.
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