Kidambi Srikanth has scaled the peak of the men’s BWF men’s singles rankings for the first time, his place at No 1 confirmed on Thursday to further underscore how potent a force he has become in world badminton. The 25-year-old shuttler’s prolific form in 2017, during which he won a record four Super Series titles, has helped him reach 76895 rating points, the best ever by an Indian male badminton player. Srikanth, who was crowned Sportsperson of the Year at the third Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) in February, today displaced Denmark’s Victok Axelsen from the top spot. He was a member of the Indian team that won the country’s first mixed team gold medal at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Australia, and looks primed to win his first individual medal at the CWG as India’s shuttlers promise a gold rush. It truly has been a remarkable rise for Srikanth, one of Dronacharya Pullela Gopichand’s pupils. His ascension to No 1 in the BWF rankings began during a successful 2016, in which he won two gold medals in the men's team and men's singles of the 2016 South Asian Games, followed by reaching the quarter-finals of the Rio Olympics. For his successful 2016, Srikanth was the recipient of the TOISA Badminton Player of the Year [People’s Choice]. Srikanth’s first Super Series title came when he beat Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai 21-11, 21-19 to win the Indonesia Open Super Series. A week later, beat world and Olympic champion Chen Long in straight games 22-20, 21-16 to claim the Australia Open Super Series. With these wins, he became the first Indian to claim back-to-back Super Series titles and subsequently broke into the top ten of the BWF men’s singles rankings for the first time in ten months, up to eighth. In October 2017, Srikanth became the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to win the Denmark Open, the second Indian, after Saina, and first male to claim three Super Series in a year. History was made a week later, when he lifted the French Open by beating Kento Nishimoto 21-14, 21-13. With this, Srikanth moved from No 4 to a No 2 in the BWF men’s singles rankings.

A wickedly fast fastball isn’t the anomaly it once was. A decade ago, Major League pitchers threw a grand total of just 196 triple-digit fastballs in a single season. Last year, 40 pitchers collectively threw 1,017. But while baseball’s hallmark pitch has increased in popularity, it hasn’t increased in velocity. Consider the confusion over the game’s fastest fastball ever. On paper, the honor goes to Yankees relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman, who clocked 105.1 miles per hour in 2010. But the record could have been set all the way back in 1974. Back then, Nolan Ryan was the first MLB pitcher to be tracked by radar during a game—and while his heater topped out at 100.8 miles per hour, the radar measured Ryan’s ball just before it crossed the plate. Had it eyed the pitch as it was leaving Ryan’s hand (as Chapman’s was), experts believe it might have registered at upwards of 108 miles per hour. Similar retroactive estimates have put Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller’s fastest fastball at 107.6 miles per hour—and that was all the way back in 1946. Walter Johnson, who played from 1907 to 1927, is also thought to have thrown pitches at a 100 mph or more. All of which is to say: Pitchers have been throwing north of 100-mph for the past 100 years. Over the same time period, advances in training, technology, nutrition, and, yes, drugs, have fueled a dramatic upward trend in world-record athletic performances, from the marathon to the long jump to the 50 meter freestyle. But when it comes to hurling a five-ounce, leather-wrapped sphere as fast as possible, humans appear to have plateaued. “I don’t see it going much higher,” says biomedical engineer Glenn Fleisig, research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute and an expert in the biomechanics of pitching. “I'm sorry to say that, but I don’t see it happening. Baseball isn’t like other sports, where we see people running faster or swimming harder or whatever, where today’s records are smashing the records from 10 years ago.”

In 2008, an Olympic year, Lee Sweeney's phone was ringing nonstop. For a busy physiologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, that may be expected, but the reason behind the calls wasn't exactly run-of-the-mill. The people on the other end of the line were athletes in search of a particular kind of fix: They wanted him to dope them -- via their genes. In the late 1990s, Sweeney made headlines because of his research on "Schwarzenegger mice," which were up to 30% stronger than their average counterparts. Sweeney had been able to isolate the gene responsible for activating a protein -- IGF-1 -- that controls muscle growth and repair. The main focus of his experiments was on how to limit the deterioration of muscles with age, but the results also appealed to athletes in search of a performance boost. Word got out, however, that he was not interested. Ahead of this year's Commonwealth Games, which started April 4, Sweeney's was not such a hot number for athletes in search of an unfair advantage -- possibly because he is now an adviser for the World Anti-Doping Agency. "At the beginning, when we first started publishing on this, we did get contacted by high-level athletes," said Sweeney, who's also director of the University of Florida's Myology Institute. "These days, it's mostly body builders and people desperate to increase their performance or abilities." Back then, gene therapy -- defined as the technique of using and manipulating genes in order to treat or prevent diseases -- wasn't as established as it is today and wasn't recognised as enough of a threat to be listed as a banned practice in sport. But it soon became known that gene therapies could one day be used for much more than disease. Responding promptly to the possibility, in 2002, the anti-doping agency established "gene and cell-doping panels" of expert scientists to discuss how best to head off the problem. In 2003, the organization banned "gene doping," which it defined as the "nontherapeutic use of cells, genes, genetic elements, or modulation of gene expression, having the capacity to enhance performance." This new frontier of doping presented a simple and dark idea: What if there was a way for dopers to never be caught? Now, almost 20 years later, the technology is has finally been used to treat patients with rare diseases -- such as severe combined immunodeficiency, chronic granulomatous disorder, hemophilia, blindness, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases -- by transferring missing genes into skeletal muscles, Sweeney said. "So because of that, it is now at a point where potentially it could be used by athletes. "It could be done today in athletes if some company and government would put the resources (in) to make it happen," he said. Getting inside your genes In the case of the "Schwarzenegger mice," Sweeney used the classic method of gene therapy, in which he modified the animals' DNA using a virus to deliver and insert the required gene that would make the mice stronger. Genes are delivered into an organism using a "vector," the most common being viruses, like that used by Sweeney, which have been modified to be safe and no longer cause disease. The vectors carry the desired gene into targeted cells and, there, unload the genetic material, which in turn instructs the organism to produce the protein the gene encodes. One example of a protein well-known to athletes is erythropoietin, commonly known as EPO, which regulates the production of red blood cells in the body, increasing hemoglobin and oxygen delivery to tissues. With the injection of external EPO, elite athletes -- often cyclists -- have been enhancing performance for years, but authorities have caught on. Anti-doping controls can now detect external EPO efficiently through blood and urine tests. If extra EPO is being produced organically by a cell's machinery, however, it is almost impossible to detect as a banned substance. But the technology is not quite at that level yet. "Making the viruses that are involved in doing the gene transfer is still difficult," Sweeney said, highlighting that the science is still complicated and not something athletes could readily do at home. Another way to dope an athlete's genes is through CRISPR, or CRISPR-Cas9, a technique that allows geneticists to edit specific parts of a person's genome by removing or altering sections of DNA -- also known as gene editing. The technique is rapidly developing, leading to a World Anti-Doping Agency announcement in October that it was expanding its "gene-doping" ban to "gene editing agents designed to alter genome sequences and/or the transcriptional or epigenetic regulation of gene expression." The ban went into effect in January. "There's a couple of ways you can use CRISPR-Cas9," Sweeney said. "One is to take cells from a person, modify those cells and put them back into the person, and that is probably the safest way to use it. "The other way to use it, which is to modify your existent DNA in the body, is potentially very unsafe." Sweeney pointed out that scientists do not know what unintended consequences could come from changing a specific gene in an individual, meaning the technology is not even ready for trials in patients with lethal diseases. In the case of gene-doping through gene therapies, using vectors for delivery, it's relatively easy to look for an extra copy of a gene and confirm that an athlete has been doped when you have access to a biological sample, such as blood, said Olivier Rabin, senior executive director of sciences and international partnerships at the anti-doping agency. In particular, Rabin said, the agency looks at white-blood cells and has developed a methodology that can be applied to search for different genes. Further detail was not provided, as it is kept confidential in order to catch athletes, he added. "Gene editing is a little more complex than gene therapy," Rabin added. The anti-doping agency is working on strategies to reveal the possibility of people editing their genes for performance enhancement, he said. Rabin highlighted that most of the agency's efforts focus on white blood cells as "pretty good markers of gene manipulation" because some evidence of manipulation will usually end up in the blood. Asked what it is doing to monitor and test athletes for gene doping, the International Olympic Committee did not comment directly but said, "We have nothing to add to the section on gene doping in WADA's prohibited list." The question now is whether the first few cases have, in fact, happened without our knowledge. Modern occurrence "I never heard anything about it except for one time, and it was around five years ago," said Sebastian Weber, coach of four-time Union Cycliste Internationale world champion (time trialling) Tony Martin. "There was some buzz around a substance called AICAR," or 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide. AICAR is a performance-enhancing drug that the French Anti-Doping Agency suspected was used in the 2009 Tour de France; it stimulates mitochondria, the part in the muscles responsible for aerobic energy production. In cycling, for gene doping to be effective, techniques should target both EPO levels and red blood cell production to have a higher oxygen delivery to the muscles, Weber says -- but they would also need to increase the mass and number of mitochondria in order to actually produce energy from that oxygen. "Just because you have more oxygen, it doesn't necessary mean you also have the capacity to produce energy out of it," Weber said. As AICAR was a drug, it wasn't gene doping, but it led people to wonder about what was next, he says, after this "first step" toward stimulating the body's mitochondria. "That was the only time I heard people talking about the possibility of gene-doping." Tailoring to your genes There are other ways genetics -- and a deep knowledge of them -- could help athletes improve their performance, by understanding their physiology. For example, project GENESIS -- focused on how applied genomics in elite sports can improve performance -- and its offshoot, the RugbyGene Project, are trying to identify which genetic characteristics help athletes succeed. "We recognize it is not only genetic," said Dr. Alun Williams, an exercise geneticist at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK who works on both projects. "Training, diet and other lifestyle habits are massive factors. But along with that, the evidence is that it's impossible to have success in sports without some genetic [factors] in your favor." The researchers of these projects are hoping to identify which genes help -- or hinder -- athletes in their specific disciplines, to develop their skills in a more tailored way. For example, if an athlete has shown to have a higher genetic vulnerability to tendon injuries, scientists and coaches could reduce certain aspects of their training load over the course of the season, give longer rest periods, reduce the number of matches played in a season, or provide specific exercises and pre-habilitation workouts. But Williams points out that the field is still at an early stage. "This picture where certain genes (or even two or three genes) are related to a particular characteristic, like the tendon injury, is still a small bit of a bigger picture," he said. "So it's very important that this information that is available is put into context." A different point of view Some experts argue that we're looking at it all wrong and that athletes will always use the most modern technology to seek out an advantage -- illegal or not. "Modern sports have been principally valued on the basis of record-breaking and being able to witness extraordinary performances," said bioethicist Andy Miah, the University of Salford Chair in Science Communication and Future Media and author of "Genetically Modified Athletes: Biomedical Ethics, Gene Doping and Sport." "Even if it's not a world record, it's about trying to see something special in what humans can do, and often, that is about transcending boundaries." We give athletes all sort of technology to do that, added Miah, who readily claims to "disagree with anti-doping." Instead of the current scenario, in which anti-doping keeps trying to catch up with doping, Miah suggests a safer form of performance enhancement. "If we can have a system where enhancement was actually medically supervised, then I think that is a much more safe and healthy.

Silicon Valley, the southern region of San Francisco Bay Area of California, is arguably the most expensive place in the United States to live. At the epicenter of all this, Palo Alto is a breeding ground for many unicorn start-ups and overvalued technology companies. The region has a median home price of roughly $2,598,200. To gain a perspective of just how outrageous real estate in Silicon Valley is, the median sales price of existing homes in the United States averages around $241,000. The meteoric rise in home prices has accelerated Silicon Valley’s real estate market into bubble territory. Even San Francisco’s median cost of a one-bedroom rental floats around $3,590 per month. As the housing bubble infects much of the San Francisco Bay area, we have stumbled across the latest installment of real estate insanity that could very well be an essential clue to what comes next. Take, for instance, a burned-out shack in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood listed on Monday for $799,000. The realtor said the asking price is reasonable — given the housing market dynamics and its geographical location, said KTVU FOX 2. Img he owners of an abandoned, fire-destroyed home in San Jose are asking $800,000 for the house and surrounding 5,800 square foot lot. Holly Barr Realtor Holly Barr told KTVU the owners of an abandoned, fire-destroyed shack reflects the value of the property, not necessarily the burnt down structure. She noted in the interview, the home caught fire more than two years ago, and has been dormant ever since. “They did leave it standing so you can remodel it versus tearing it down so you save a lot of money when you can leave a wall up and do a remodel versus a complete tear-down,” Barr told the station. The Bird Avenue address in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood sits close to a proposed transit-oriented Google “village” of offices, research sites and retail stores. Barr’s realtor Facebook page describes the home and lot combination as a “Great opportunity to build your dream home!” Since the posting, Barr told KTVU she has received ten offers and expected a contract on the property by the end of the week. on Twitter Barr has yet to list the property on multiple listing services (MLS), a suite of services that real estate brokers use for completing transactions. However, she says, a home down the street recently sold for $1.6 million. Glancing at the current Glen San Jose real estate market (Zillow), the average price of a home is around $1,365,900 with total square footage around 2,500 sqft. Some Facebook users found the price of the shack as absurd. Here is what they said: “800k for that…What has this area come to when a family earning good money cannot even afford to buy even a burnt out wreak.Greed, pure greed from all concerned right here,” said Cally Jayne, a Facebook user. “And here we see a perfect example of unchecked free market capitalism. A Chinese billionaire will pay $850k without blinking an eye because all they are interested in is the land as an investment. Thousands of properties bought up like this with zero interest in actually living in that lot or renting or anything. The actual housing market shrinks as a result to the point where even Silicon Valley engineers are priced out. Years later, we’ll all shrug our shoulders and go “WHAT HAPPENED!?!” like it’ll be some big mystery,” said another Facebook user. Shocking, one Facebook user claims this million dollar neighborhood filled with shacks is located down the street from “homeless encampments every which way you turn!!!” Another user warns the neighborhood where the million dollar shack resides is “full of crime” and homeless people. About a hundred comments down, Facebook users started revolting against the realtor — showing pictures of their non-shack, McMansions for substantially less in other states… “This only cost me 250k to build but I’m in Texas lol,” said Gomez. ..And alas, the problem has been solved, the Bay Area has fewer people with much more money chasing the same houses, a classic symptom of a bubble. As for the burned out shack worth 3.3x than the median sales price of existing homes in the United State, well, that is also a sign of peak stupidity for whoever buys it next.

Chaos reigns in the United States, spreading to its closest allies. The war amongst Western elites is in full swing, manifesting itself from commercial wars to failed diplomacy, empty threats of war, corruption, and announced military withdrawals and attacks. To sum up the last few weeks of international events, it is worth comparing the direction taken by the multipolar troika of Russia, China and Iran, and the one taken by the fading unipolar order led by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. We can analyze the respective changes taking place within the unipolar and multipolar camps, especially in the economic, commercial, diplomatic and military fields. The introduction by the US of duties on imports, applied to 1,300 products, including iron and aluminum, has triggered a chain of events, including the imposition of as many duties on various products exported by the US to China. The pressure on America’s European allies continues, against the protests of France and Germany. It seems that Europe is struggling to form a common front on many issues relating from foreign policy to trade. The Western elites continue its in-fighting, between the European Union (led by Berlin and Paris) and the UK and the US, clashing over agreements between London and Brussels and Washington and Brussels. The Trump tariff war aims to deliver a blow to America’s opponents, but it risks provoking strong responses, even from allies. Moreover, many analysts and economists have warned that this form of commercial warfare risks harming American workers the most. A divided Europe finds itself dealing with an ever-increasing need to justify its defense and security package. The British, thanks to the artificial Russian threat – characterized by fake chemical attacks, hypothetical invasions of the Baltic countries, and the situation in Ukraine – continue to sustain an environment in which Europeans seek the protection of NATO, which includes Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Looking at this critically, the intent of Berlin, Paris, and especially London and Washington, is evidently to justify increased military spending to counter an alleged threat emanating from Moscow. All this comes down to increased sales of British, German, French and, above all, American weapons to NATO and EU countries. This only serves to continue the flow of money into the coffers of the elite, thanks to artificial tensions like the one generated between Russia and the UK over the poisoning of the former Russian spy in England. If the unipolar world seems to have thrown to the wind the concept of diplomacy and adherence to international norms – with a flurry of expulsions of diplomats, false accusations, one-sided motions in the UN’s Security Council, and ignoring the basic rules of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – in Asia, on the other side of the globe, diplomacy continues to bear fruit. Xi Jinping just met with Kim Jong-un, in the first of a series of meetings that could bring the North Korean leader to an initial meeting with Moon Jae-in, and later with Putin. We have heard from Washington only bellicose rhetoric directed against Pyongyang, even within the confines of the United Nations. In line with the ideological attitude of American exceptionalism, the American establishment appreciates Trump's threats, but is quite naturally less enamored with the announcement of a meeting between the American president and the North Korean leader. According to America’s traditional ideology, no negotiations are to be entered into with geopolitical opponents and peer competitors, for the simple reason that Washington is not willing to negotiate or make any concession on any matter; the only way it knows how to engage in international relations is to impose its will by any means possible. In Syria, the example is clear, where indirect or direct military force has failed to remove Assad, and now Washington finds itself isolated, mainly diplomatically, with the Geneva II Conference on Syria now replaced by the agreement reached in Sochi, from which the United States excluded itself on account of not enjoying a leading position, thereby conceding this role to Ankara, Tehran and Moscow. This is a good example of how the Western elite's strategic attempt to overthrow Assad and partition Syria has ran into the military reality on the ground, which includes the strength of alliances (especially between Iran, Russia and China), and the willingness of Moscow and Tehran to resolve the Syrian crisis by military and diplomatic means. In economic terms, the revolution the petro-yuan represents becomes more and more real, this new medium of exchange set to sooner or later involve Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of crude oil, with China as its largest buyer. The Western elites will try to oppose by any means possible such an arrangement, given that the petrodollar is the basis American military power. But it is an inevitable process, which must necessarily be backed up with a military component in order to discourage the United States from behaving recklessly. Iraq and other countries have been on the receiving end of America’s imposition of its petrodollar hegemony militarily. For this and other reasons, mainly related to US ABM systems placed all around Russian borders, Putin has had to resort to a very public demonstration of the Russian Federation’s means of deterrence, advertising the existence of the country’s new hypersonic weapons. As demonstrated by the recent meeting between the defense ministers of Russia and China, the multipolar strategy is now wide-ranging, relegating Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh to further digging themselves into the hole they have already dug themselves into (see recent events in Syria with Israel launching 8 missiles and Trump beating the drums of war). As General Wei Fenghe stated, “We came to Moscow to let the Americans know about the close military ties between the armed forces of China and Russia.” When these two military and economic powers unite their efforts, involving regional powers and mediating over various conflicts, it becomes clear that the challenge to Washington’s hegemony is progressively leading away from an international reality consisting of one superpower to one consisting of three to four powers that maintain an international balance via diplomatic, economic and military means. The phase in which we currently live is turbulent and is essentially caused by a single factor that has two very strong thrusts. The acceleration of the dwindling of the unipolar phase is directly connected with the strategic and tactical errors of the American deep state and its main sponsors, like Israel and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the opposing push comes from the multipolar environment, which tends to consolidate its sphere of influence via diplomatic and military means. The goal for Moscow and Beijing is to present to the American and European elites a viable alternative that is shared among several actors. For the time being, the Euro-Atlantic establishment continues to consider itself capable of changing the course of events and preventing the drift towards multipolarity. Whether the Western oligarchy is a victim to its own propaganda or whether it simply wishes to avoid facing reality and is using every means available to postpone an epochal change, is difficult to determine; and this makes the future uncertain, and is therefore highly dangerous.

It’s an open secret that the “Soros network” has an extensive sphere of influence in the European Parliament and in other European Union institutions. The list of Soros has been made public recently. The document lists 226 MEPs from all sides of political spectrum, including former President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt, seven vice-presidents, and a number of committee heads, coordinators, and quaestors. These people promote the ideas of Soros, such as bringing in more migrants, same-sex marriages, integration of Ukraine into the EU, and countering Russia. There are 751 members of the European Parliament. It means that the Soros friends have more than one third of seats. George Soros, a Hungarian-American investor and the founder and owner of Open Society Foundations NGO, was able to meet with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker with “no transparent agenda for their closed-door meeting”, and pointed out how EU proposals to redistribute quotas of migrants across the EU are eerily familiar to Soros’s own self-published plan for dealing with the crisis. The billionaire financier believes that the European Union should receive millions of immigrants from the Middle East and Northern Africa, provide each one with an annual 15,000 EUR in aid, and resettle these migrants in member-states where they do not wish to go and are not necessarily welcome. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accused the EU of “eating out of the hand” of Soros. He believes that the billionaire open borders campaigner is behind the attacks on Hungary. The reason is the government’s attempts to take legal action over a new law which requires foreign-supported ‘civil society’ organizations — many funded by Soros — to list their big overseas donors in a public register and be transparent about their funding sources in their publications. The Hungarian government is applying efforts to close the Budapest-based Central European University founded by Soros. “The whole of the European Union is in trouble because its leaders and bureaucrats adopt decisions like this,” said Orbán. “The people support the ideal of the European Union. At the same time, they can’t stand the leadership of the EU, because it insults the Member-States with things like this, and it abuses its power. Everyone in Europe can see that. This is why the European leadership is not respected.” The Visegrad group is trying to stand tall under the EU pressure on migrants’ policy. The European Commission of Migration and Home Affairs is pushing a new bill to make migrants quotas obligatory. At least 30 Soros supporters work for the commission. Many people listed in the document are known for attacks on Russia. For instance, Rebecca Harms, a MEP from German Green Party, regularly calls the European Parliament to toughen the sanctions regime against Moscow. Guy Verhofstadt blames Russia for almost each and every thing going wrong in Europe. His article Putting Putin in his Place made a lot of noise last year. In 2012, former Croatian Primer Tonino Picula, who was the head of an observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), slammed the Russian presidential election of 2012 as unfair, saying it was “skewed” in Vladimir Putin’s favor. The Soros list sheds light on the question of what makes the EU leadership implement policies, which run counter to the interests of Europeans. The answer is corruption. The politicians bribed by Soros dance to his tune. They fight against the attempts of national leaders to protect the interests of their peoples. Quite often those who oppose such policies have to face the resistance of political elites of their own countries. The standoff between Hungarian PM Orbán and the Soros network is a good example to illustrate how it works. The European Parliament under the influence of Soros friends is pushing Europe to suicide by letting millions of migrants in. It shows that the much-vaunted European democracy is a façade to hide the activities of power structure close to feudal system with local lord holding the reins. It can hardly be called the power of people. The publication of Soros list provides a clue to understanding who rules the EU and who instigates anti-Russia sentiments in Europe. Actually, this is the case when EU member countries like Hungary happen to be in the same boat with Russia opposing the very same US-based forces, while protecting their sovereignty and independence. This is the time for Europeans to think about transforming the system to do away with outside pressure.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey blasts President Donald Trump as unethical and “untethered to truth” in a sharply critical new book that describes Trump as fixated in the early days of his administration on having the FBI debunk salacious rumors he insisted were untrue but could distress his wife. In the forthcoming book, Comey compares Trump to a mafia don and calls his leadership of the country “ego driven and about personal loyalty.” He also reveals new details about his interactions with Trump and his own decision-making in handling the Hillary Clinton email investigation before the 2016 election. He casts Trump as a mobster-like figure who sought to blur the line between law enforcement and politics and tried to pressure him personally regarding his investigation into Russian election interference. The book adheres closely to Comey’s public testimony and written statements about his contacts with Trump and his growing concern about Trump’s integrity. It also includes strikingly personal jabs at Trump that appear sure to irritate the president. The 6-foot-8 Comey describes Trump as shorter than he expected with a “too long” tie and “bright white half-moons” under his eyes that he suggests came from tanning goggles. He also says he made a conscious effort to check the president’s hand size, saying it was “smaller than mine but did not seem unusually so.” The book, “A Higher Loyalty,” is to be released next week. The Associated Press purchased a copy this week. “Donald Trump’s presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation,” Comey writes, calling the administration a “forest fire” that can’t be contained by ethical leaders within the government. On a more-personal level, Comey describes Trump repeatedly asking him to consider investigating an allegation involving Trump and Russian prostitutes urinating on a bed in a Moscow hotel, in order to prove it was a lie. Trump has strongly denied the allegation, and Comey says that it appeared the president wanted it investigated to reassure his wife, Melania Trump. Trump fired Comey in May 2017, setting off a scramble at the Justice Department that led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation. Mueller’s probe has expanded to include whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey, which the president denies. Trump has assailed Comey as a “showboat” and a “liar.” Comey’s account lands at a particularly sensitive moment for Trump and the White House. Officials there describe the president as enraged over a recent FBI raid of his personal lawyer’s home and office, raising the prospect that he could fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, or try to shut down the probe on his own. The Republican National Committee is poised to lead the pushback effort against Comey by launching a website and supplying surrogates with talking points that question his credibility. Trump has said he fired Comey because of his handling of the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s email practices. Trump used the investigation as a cudgel in the campaign and repeatedly said Clinton should be jailed for using a personal email system while serving as secretary of state. Democrats, on the other hand, have accused Comey of politicizing the investigation, and Clinton herself has said it hurt her election prospects. Comey writes that he regrets his approach and some of the wording he used in his July 2016 press conference in which he announced the decision not to prosecute Clinton. But he says he believes he did the right thing by going before the cameras and making his statement, noting that the Justice Department had done so in other high profile cases. Every person on the investigative team, Comey writes, found that there was no prosecutable case against Clinton and that the FBI didn’t find that she lied under its questioning. He also reveals new details about how the government had unverified classified information that he believes could have been used to cast doubt on Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s independence in the Clinton probe. While Comey does not outline the details of the information — and says he didn’t see indications of Lynch inappropriately influencing the investigation — he says it worried him that the material could be used to attack the integrity of the probe and the FBI’s independence. Comey’s book will be heavily scrutinized by the president’s legal team looking for any inconsistencies between it and his public testimony, under oath, before Congress. They will be looking to impeach Comey’s credibility as a key witness in Mueller’s obstruction investigation, which the president has cast as a political motivated witch hunt. The former FBI director provides new details of his firing. He writes that then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly — now Trump’s chief of staff — offered to quit out of disgust at how Comey was dismissed. Kelly has been increasingly marginalized in the White House and the president has mused to confidants about firing him. Comey also writes extensively about his first meeting with Trump after the election, a briefing in January 2017 at Trump Tower in New York City. Others in the meeting included Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, Michael Flynn, who would become national security adviser, and incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer. Comey was also joined by NSA Director Mike Rogers, CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. After Clapper briefed the team on the intelligence community’s findings of Russian election interference, Comey said he was taken aback by what the Trump team didn’t ask. “They were about to lead a country that had been attacked by a foreign adversary, yet they had no questions about what the future Russian threat might be,” Comey writes. Instead, they launched into a strategy session about how to “spin what we’d just told them” for the public. Comey says he had flashbacks to his time investigating the Italian Mafia as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, thinking that Trump “was trying to make us all part of the same family.” “For my entire career, intelligence was a thing of mine and political spin a thing of yours. Team Trump wanted to change that,” he writes. Comey then describes talking to Trump one-on-one after the broader meeting. He says he described the allegations about Russian prostitutes. He writes that he told Trump about the dossier because it was the FBI’s responsibility to protect the presidency from coercion related to harmful allegations, whether supported or not. Comey said he left out one detail involving an allegation that the prostitutes had urinated on a bed once used by the Obamas. Trump raised the subject again a week later, after the dossier had been made public. He then told Comey, the director writes, that he had not stayed in the hotel and that the most salacious charge could not have been true because, Trump said, “I’m a germaphobe. There’s no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way.” Comey writes that Trump raised the issue again, unprompted, during their one-on-one dinner at the White House and it bothered the president that there might be even “a one percent chance” his wife might think it was true. Comey then registers surprise, writing that he thought to himself “why his wife would think there was any chance, even a small one, that he had been with prostitutes urinating on each other in a Moscow hotel room.”

Denmark recognized the impossibility of blocking the "Nord Stream-2". Copenhagen was between the hammer and the anvil, an assessment of the situation on the radio Sputnik radio gave analyst Igor Yushkov. The Danish government can not block the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, Prime Minister Lars Lecke Rasmussen said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to the Danish TV channel TV2, Rasmussen added that Denmark does not have legal opportunities to prevent the implementation of this project, but there are opportunities to slow it down. At the same time, the Prime Minister noted that the Government of Denmark has not yet decided to issue a permit for the construction of Nord Stream 2 in the Danish maritime zone in the Baltic Sea. Earlier, Merkel said after negotiations with Rasmussen that Ukraine, despite the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, should continue to play a role in gas transit. Leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund, lecturer of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Igor Yushkov on the radio Sputnik commented on Denmark's position. "Denmark is between a hammer and an anvil, and I think that they deliberately publicly declare that they can not prohibit the construction of the Northern Stream-2, that is, they will issue a permit." I think this is a certain signal from the US: if you want us to "The Danes simply want to absolve themselves of responsibility and show that now they will issue a permit, and if the Americans want to block, then let them take on this responsibility," Igor Yushkov said. In his opinion, Denmark's decision is not final. "I think the risks remain, because it was the Danes, under the pressure of the Americans, that passed a special law that would have to consider Gazprom's application not only from an environmental point of view but also from the point of view of national security. responsibility for these complex issues.If to block, it means that the Americans should do this and openly say so that everyone understands that this decision is not from Denmark, but from the US While the decision of Berlin is outweighed and the responsibility for granting permission is not the Danes They want to take it on, they want to transfer it to Berlin.This position: we are on the side, big uncles will decide everything, and we are a peaceful small country, we want to live peacefully, "said Igor Yushkov. The Nord Stream-2 project involves the construction of two strings with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Pipes lay from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany, next to the current "Nord Stream". The permission for the construction of the gas pipeline on the territory of their countries has already been issued by Germany and Finland. The operator of the project - Nord Stream 2 AG remained to receive the consent of Russia, Sweden and Denmark. Link: https://ria.ru/radio_brief/20180413/1518532571.html

MOSCOW, April 13 (Itar-Tass) - RIA Novosti. Chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who calls himself one of the creators of the "Novice", explained how the former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia could survive the impact of the nerve agent. Thus, he commented on the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which concluded that the "Novice" was applied to the victims. In an interview with "Kommersant FM" Mirzayanov explained that "Novices" have a high hydro-vulnerability, that is, they are unstable connections. This substance can be stable only in the absence of moisture. In England on March 4, when the Skripali was poisoned, there was a fog, the chemist said. "In conditions of humidity, this substance could only be used by an idiot," he added. The OPCW published on Thursday a report on the substance that was poisoned by Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia - experts classified the name of the toxic substance, but said that the results of the tests confirm London's conclusions about the nature of this substance. The British Foreign Office refused to answer a question from RIA Novosti about whether the report featured the title "Novice". Occurrence in Salisbury Julia Skripal was discharged from the hospital in Salisbury on April 9. The medical institution stated that she and her father responded very well to treatment, but are at different stages of recovery. On the same day, Julia, in a telephone conversation with her cousin Sister Victoria, said that they are all right with their father, both are recovering. On March 4 former Colonel GRU Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia found unconscious in the center of Salisbury In Britain they claim that Skripal was poisoned with a substance developed within the framework of the Soviet program "Novice". At the same time, there was no project with such a name in the USSR, and figures used in the designation of the system. The name "Newcomer" was replicated by foreign mass media from the Soviet scientist Vila Mirzayanov, who had nothing to do with the development of chemical weapons. Link: https://ria.ru/world/20180413/1518550839.html

S.-PETERSBURG, April 13 - RIA Novosti. A possible ban on the import of tobacco products from the US will not affect the Russian cigarette market, but may affect the supply of raw materials, which in turn may cause its shortage, Maxim Korolyov, editor-in-chief of the Russian Tobacco Information Agency, told journalists. The bill, which provides for retaliatory actions against the anti-Russian policy of the United States, was introduced to the Duma by the factions' heads and speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. According to the first vice-speaker of the Duma, Ivan Melnikov, the project on measures of the Russian Federation in response to US sanctions contains a ban on the import of American agricultural, alcoholic and tobacco products. "If sanctions are imposed precisely against the US, this will not have a significant impact on the Russian tobacco market, we do not have equipment and cigarettes from there," Korolev said. At the same time, restrictions may affect other tobacco products, for example, American cigarillos, he said. "With a rough ban, problems with raw materials may arise, the largest aggregators of the tobacco leaf, Alliance One and Universal Tobacco, have American roots, but in practice the tobacco grown in the US practically does not reach us: it is very expensive against the background of alternatives from Africa, South America and India, "the expert added. "But the specified operators of raw materials can formally suffer, and there is a shortage on the market," he concluded. Link: https://ria.ru/economy/20180413/1518546985.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has put off a final decision on possible military strikes against Syria after tweeting earlier that they could happen “very soon or not so soon at all.” The White House said Thursday he would consult further with allies. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned such an attack carried the risk of spinning out of control, suggesting caution ahead of a decision on how to respond to an attack against civilians last weekend that U.S. officials are increasingly certain involved the use of banned chemical weapons. British officials said up to 75 people were killed. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a brief statement after Trump met with Mattis and other members of his National Security Council: “No final decision has been made. We are continuing to assess intelligence and are engaged in conversations with our partners and allies.” Sanders said Trump would speak later with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May. Although Mattis noted that military action carried risks, he also emphasized that Syrian use of chemical weapons should not be tolerated. And he insisted it remains U.S. policy not to be involved directly in Syria’s civil war. “Our strategy remains the same as a year ago,” he said. “It is to drive this to a U.N.-brokered peace but, at the same time, keep our foot on the neck of ISIS until we suffocate it,” referring to the Islamic State extremist group. Mattis’ remarks at a House Armed Services Committee hearing followed a series of Trump tweets this week that initially indicated he was committed to bombing Syria but later suggested he was awaiting further advice and assessment. Trump wrote in a Thursday morning tweet that an attack could happen “very soon or not so soon at all.” Later Thursday he was noncommittal. “We’re looking very, very seriously, very closely at the whole situation,” he told reporters. Mattis said options would be discussed with Trump at a meeting of his National Security Council on Thursday afternoon. That meant airstrikes, possibly in tandem with France and other allies that have expressed outrage at the alleged Syrian chemical attack, could be launched within hours of a presidential decision. The U.S., France and Britain have been in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week, U.S. officials have said. A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the U.S. in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons. Macron said Thursday that France has proof that the Syrian government launched chlorine gas attacks and said France would not tolerate “regimes that think everything is permitted.” After May met with her Cabinet, a spokesperson issued a statement saying it is highly likely that Syria’s President Bashar Assad was responsible for Saturday’s attack that killed dozens outside Damascus. The Cabinet agreed on the need to “take action” to deter further chemical weapons use by Assad, but added that May would continue to consult with allies to coordinate an international response. Mattis said that although the United States has no hard proof, he believes the Syrian government was responsible for Saturday’s attack. Initial reports indicated the use of chlorine gas, possibly in addition to the nerve agent Sarin. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told NBC News on Thursday the administration has “enough proof” of the chemical attack but was still considering its response. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in the Netherlands, announced it was sending a fact-finding team to the site of the attack outside Damascus, and it was due to arrive Saturday. It was not clear whether the presence of the investigators could affect the timing of any U.S. military action. At the House hearing, Democrats grilled Mattis on the wisdom and legality of Trump ordering an attack on Syria without explicit authorization from Congress. Mattis argued it would be justified as an act of self-defense, with 2,000 U.S. ground troops in Syria; he insisted he could not talk about military plans because an attack “is not yet in the offing.” Mattis said he personally believes Syria is guilty of an “inexcusable” use of chemical weapons, while noting that the international fact-finding team would likely fall short of determining who was responsible. Asked about the risks of U.S. military retaliation, Mattis cited two concerns, starting with avoiding civilian casualties. “On a strategic level, it’s how do we keep this from escalating out of control, if you get my drift on that,” he said. Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he sees no legal justification for a U.S. strike in Syria, absent explicit authorization by Congress. More broadly, he doubted the wisdom of bombing. “Until we have a more long-term strategy, until we have some idea where we’re going in Syria and the Middle East, it seems unwise, to me, to start launching missiles,” said Smith, D-Wash. “We need to know where that’s going, what the purpose of it is before we take that act.” At stake in Syria is the potential for confrontation, if not outright conflict, between the U.S. and Russia, former Cold War foes whose relations have deteriorated in recent years over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russian lawmakers have warned the United States that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war crime and that it could trigger a direct U.S-Russian military clash. Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon said any missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launching sites targeted — a stark warning of a potential major confrontation. At the House hearing, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, disputed Trump’s legal authority to act without congressional authority and suggested a U.S. strike would lead to war with Russia. “I’m not ready to speculate that that would happen,” Mattis said.

HOW SWEET Long before humans inhabited Polynesia, sweet potatoes may have been carried across the ocean from South America to the South Pacific islands by wind, water or maybe even birds. Sweet potatoes were domesticated thousands of years ago in the Americas. So 18th century European explorers were surprised to find Polynesians had been growing the crop for centuries. Anthropologists have since hypothesized that Polynesian seafarers had brought the tuber back from expeditions to South America — a journey of over 7,500 kilometers. New genetic evidence instead suggests that wild precursors to sweet potatoes reached Polynesia at least 100,000 years ago — long before humans inhabited the South Pacific islands, researchers report April 12 in Current Biology. If true, it could also challenge the idea that Polynesian seafarers reached the Americas around the 12th century. For the new study, the researchers analyzed the DNA of 199 specimens taken from sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) and 36 species of its wild relatives. The goal, says plant geneticist Tom Carruthers of the University of Oxford, was to “gain insight into the origins of the sweet potato — when it arose, where it arose and how it arose.” Carruthers and his colleagues confirmed previous research that the sweet potato’s closest relative is the flowering Ipomoea trifida, which is similar to a morning glory. The genetic analysis shows that sweet potatoes originated from I. trifida at least 800,000 years ago, and then later interbred with I. trifida. It also shows that a specimen preserved from Captain James Cook’s 1769 expedition to the South Pacific is genetically different from South American sweet potatoes. The researchers calculated the average rate of genetic change for the plant, determining that the Polynesian sweet potato diverged from its South American cousin at least 100,000 years ago. That suggests the plants, or their seeds, somehow migrated across the ocean on their own, possibly via wind, water or birds. Precedent exists, the authors note. Two other Ipomoea species crossed the Pacific millions of years ago — to Hawaii in one case, and to islands from Polynesia to Madagascar in the other. “It could be true,” says biological anthropologist Lisa Matisoo-Smith of the University of Otago in New Zealand. But she and other researchers remain dubious about the findings. Among the issues, the analysis involved just a single historical sample. That doesn’t provide “enough data to reject the argument of human-mediated transport,” Matisoo-Smith says. And it’s unlikely that I. batata would have been domesticated independently in different places and look the same, evolutionary biologist Caroline Roullier at CNRS in Montpellier, France, and others argue. Genetics are only part of the sweet potato puzzle. Archaeological, anthropological, historical and other data all need to be considered, Roullier says. For instance, the Polynesian word for the tuber, “kuumala,” is extremely similar to the Andean people’s Quechuan word, “kumara.” This linguistic evidence for humans introducing sweet potatoes to the South Pacific is highly compelling, says anthropologist Seth Quintus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The new study leaves “a lot of questions that are not answered,” Quintus says. And it doesn’t change the accomplishments of Polynesian navigators, he says. “They were the greatest in the world at that time.”

Now that it's done with the Galaxy S8/S8+ and Note 8, Samsung prepares Android 8.0 Oreo updates for other smartphones. The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are surely among the most probable candidates for Android 8.0 Oreo updates, but Samsung plans to deploy the update to some mid-range handsets as well. A handful of Samsung smartphones powered by Android 8.0 Oreo have been recently spotted at Wi-Fi Alliance, even though they have been originally released on the market with an older version of the OS on board. Among them, we reckon there are some nice surprises like the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A3 (2017). Also, the Samsung Xcover 4 is listed at Wi-Fi Alliance as well, along with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Aside from the smartphones listed at Wi-Fi Alliance, we're also expecting the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 to receive the Android 8.0 Oreo update as well. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are too old to still be eligible for a software upgrade, and since Samsung recently dropped support for these two phones, it's unlikely they will receive any new updates in the future.

Now that all of the last year's Samsung flagships have started receiving Oreo, the South Korean company seems to have shifted its focus to the next batch of devices that will get the update. The batch will likely include the Galaxy S7/S7 edge, Galaxy A5 (2017), and Galaxy A3 (2017), as all of these devices has been spotted on the website of WiFi Alliance with Android 8.0 on board. A WiFi certification usually indicates the update roll out preparation is in last stages. While there's currently no official information on exactly when the update will arrive, leaks and rumors so far have suggested April roll out for the Galaxy S7 Oreo update and May roll out for the other two devices.

Samsung Galaxy J7 is one of the many mid-range Android smartphones that are expected to make their debut on the market in the coming months. We've been reported in the last couple of weeks about various Galaxy J7 models that may have similar specs but different names, so many of you probably know about its existence already. Today, another Galaxy J7 model appeared online, but this time the information comes directly from Samsung. The Galaxy J7 Duo manual that's now available for download tells the story of a decent mid-range smartphone. Apparently, the phone will include a dual-camera setup and a front-facing LED flash for those who wish to take selfie even in low-light conditions. A fingerprint sensor will be available as well, but not on the back of the phone, as the phone comes with a physical home button. Also, the phone features a Bixby-dedicated button, along with microUSB and 3.5mm audio jack ports. We also get a first look at what the phone looks like, so there's that. The phone is likely to be released worldwide but under different names and not necessarily the same specs. Hopefully, it will have a competitive price everywhere in the world

The last "mini" handset launched by Samsung was the Galaxy S5 mini, which was released in 2014. Now, it appears as though Samsung is going to bring back a mini version of its latest flagship phone. That is, if a Geekbench listing is legitimate. According to the benchmark test, the Galaxy S9 mini has a model number of SM-G8750, and will feature the Snapdragon 660 mobile platform under the hood. The chipset carries an octa-core CPU and the Adreno 512 GPU. Remember when only flagship models were equipped with 4GB of RAM? The Geekbench test reveals that the Galaxy S9 mini will come with 4GB of RAM with Android Oreo pre-installed. Since three months passed between the release of the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S5 mini, we might not see the Galaxy S9 mini hit the market until June or July. That is assuming that the device benchmarked was really the Galaxy S9 mini and not a different unreleased Samsung Galaxy phone. These days, a mini device means a handset sporting a 5-inch display. We could see the same Infinity Display on the Galaxy S9 mini, with an edge-to-edge design and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. Considering that the Galaxy S9 carries a 3000mAh battery, perhaps a 2500-2750mAh cell will be found powering the handset. To reiterate, the SM-G8750 doesn't necessarily have to be the Samsung Galaxy S9 mini. If you are hoping that the "mini" has returned, you might want to keep your fingers crossed until we find evidence that is more definitive.

Samsung revealed the Exynos 9810 chipset at the beginning of 2018, but everyone is already talking about 5G development. Qualcomm, as previously reported, will unveil a 5G Snapdragon modem next year and will start employing it into smartphones. According to the latest information, though, Samsung’s in-house Exynos platform is heading that way as well with the Exynos 9820. According to the leak, a Samsung Electronics employee is working on the Exynos 9820 project since January 2018 on various tasks like CPU validation, Debug architecture and solving issues. The same worker is also on the 5G RF chip that is bound to bring gigabit speeds into our daily lives. The Exynos 9820 SoC is most likely to be an upgrade over the current Exynos 9810. It is expected to be built on the 7nm EUV process that is already part of Samsung’s production line.

OnePlus' decision to adopt an iPhone X-like notch on its upcoming OnePlus 6 rustled a lot of jimmies from the company's fanbase, which took it to the OnePlus forums to dissect the matter at hand. Obviously, the company has kept an ear close to the ground as CEO Pete Lau recently chimed in, revealing that users will be able to disable and black out the display area around the notch for a more traditional display appearance: "A black-out feature was seriously considered in the early stages of the development of the OnePlus 6. At the time we decided against adding this feature. We wanted to focus all of our time and resources on delivering an exceptional full-screen experience. I still believe the best way to experience the OnePlus 6 is using the full potential of the display. Recently many users have raised interest in having a black-out function. We respect your feedback, and would like to give everyone the ability to choose. This function will enable you to black out the background of the notifications and status bar. It will be added in a future software update released after the launch of the OnePlus 6. Look forward to sharing this new update with you all. Thank you for making us better!" This promise should alleviate some of the concerns expressed in the forum thread, with the resounding one being that OnePlus doesn't listen or care to its fans' opinions and forces the notch on them just to jump on the latest design fad. Having the option to black out the display horns would allow the notch-haters to use their device as they prefer, whereas users looking forward to maximizing screen real estate will also have an option going on for themselves. The OnePlus 6 is likely coming soon given the steadily-increasing number of leaks and even official tidbits of info regarding the device. OnePlus discontinuing its latest OnePlus 5T further corroborates this expectation of ours. You can read more about the OnePlus 6 in our dedicated rumor review which is linked just below.

Today, a launch invitation confirms that Black Shark will be launching a new gamer-centric smartphone to compete against the likes of the Razer phone. This invite mentions April 13 as the date that the company will announce such a device in Beijing, China. The company is actually backed by Xiaomi, so the device will likely feature the Black Shark branding and not Xiaomi’s. It will definitely be easier to spell and pronounce than “Xiaomi” in western markets. Qualcomm’s logo is also on the invite so we will likely see a Snapdragon 845 inside this device. Other expected specs include between 6GB and 8GB RAM and between 64GB and 256GB of storage. We are also expecting a 120Hz display for a smooth gaming experience. If anyone is waiting to purchase a Razer phone, you may want to wait until more about the Black Shark phone is revealed. We can pretty much guarantee it will be cheaper than the Razer Phone as Xiaomi is usually aggressive with pricing its products.

Motorola's upcoming lineup of smartphones leaked online months ago and not just once. We know just about everything there is to know about the Moto G6 series, including what they have to offer in terms of specs and how much they'll cost. The Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus, and Moto G6 Play are likely to be the first mid-range smartphones Motorola launches this year, but the US company is expected to introduce at least one high-end device by the end of the year. Well, it looks like Motorola plans to unveil the Moto G6 family later this month. According to a “greenish” invitation that has just popped up in Brazil, Motorola has already scheduled a “save the date” event on April 19. It is yet unclear whether this is a global event or just a local one that will introduce Motorola fans in Brazil to the new Moto G6 series. Even so, We'll let you know once we learn more about Motorola's plans for the rest of the year.

More than half a decade ago a unique FBI operation took down several pirate Android app 'stores' and arrested their operators. One of the accused men was just a teenager at the time. While he admitted to criminal copyright infringement, the Georgia District Court has agreed to a lower sentence without prison. Assisted by police in France and the Netherlands, the FBI took down the “pirate” Android stores Appbucket, Applanet and SnappzMarket in the summer of 2012. During the years that followed several people connected to the Android app sites were arrested and indicted, and slowly but surely these cases are reaching their conclusions. This week the Northern District Court of Georgia announced the sentencing of one of the youngest defendants. Aaron Buckley was fifteen when he started working on Applanet, and still a teenager when armed agents raided his house. Years passed and a lot has changed since then, Buckley’s attorney informed the court before sentencing. The former pirate, who pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Copyright Infringement and Criminal Copyright Infringement, is a completely different person today. Similar to many people who have a run-in with the law, life wasn’t always easy on him. Computers offered a welcome escape but also dragged Buckley into trouble, something he deeply regrets now. Following the indictment, things started to change. The Applanet operator picked up his life, away from the computer, and also got involved in community work. Among other things, he plays a leading role in a popular support community for LGBT teenagers. Given the tough circumstances of his personal life, which we won’t elaborate on, his attorney requested a downward departure from the regular sentencing guidelines, to allow for lesser punishment. After considering all the options, District Court Judge Timothy C. Batten agreed to a lower sentence. Unlike some other pirate app stores operators, who must spend years in prison, Buckley will not be incarcerated. Instead, the Applanet operator, who is now in his mid-twenties, will be put on probation for three years, including a year of home confinement. The sentence (pdf) In addition, he has to perform 20 hours of community service and work towards passing a General Educational Development (GED) exam. It’s tough to live with the prospect of possibly spending years in jail, especially for more than a decade. Given the circumstances, this sentence must be a huge relief. TorrentFreak contacted Buckley, who informed us that he is happy with the outcome and ready to work on a bright future. “I really respect the government and the judge in their sentencing and am extremely grateful that they took into account all concerns of my health and life situation in regards to possible sentences,” he tells us. “I am just glad to have another chance to use my time and skills to hopefully contribute to society in a more positive way as much as I am capable thanks to the outcome of the case.”

This year’s top-of-the-line iPhone flagship could be more expensive than ever. Late last year, Apple entered previously-uncharted territory with the launch of the iPhone X, priced at $999. Despite initial reluctance, sales have seen only a minimal decline which the higher price point makes up for, although the company was forced to cut orders for the device after launch. Now, however, it's reported that Apple is looking to establish a whole new pricing bracket which would begin at $999. The way the company will achieve this is by introducing a larger-screened model of the iPhone X’s successor, which could start as high as $1,100. This would then create a new pricing band that could stretch as high as $1200 or, possibly even more, when different storage configurations are taken into account. In addition to this, though, Apple is reportedly aiming to entice users on the lower-end of the pricing spectrum, with 2016’s iPhone SE likely to receive yet another price cut, this time to $300, that could attract a number of customers. After all, the company is said to have a three-step strategy that begins with pushing premium features down to lower-cost devices. Following on from this, the aim is then to gradually push these customers up the pricing spectrum whenever they upgrade their devices. While, last of all, the company aims at establishing new price groups that can allow it to push customers even further up the pricing band, while also lowering the price of older devices to entice even more potential customers. Since the end of 2010, Apple has gradually raised the average selling price of its iPhone lineup, going from just under $670 to nearly $800. With the launch of an even pricier iPhone device this year, Apple could once again push its average selling price up even further, perhaps eventually reaching $900.

TRUTH OR DARE MAKES THE LEAST OF ITS PARTS, WASTING A PROMISING PREMISE WITH CLICHÉD HORROR TROPES AND AN UNINSPIRED NARRATIVE. Truth or Dare is the latest film from Blumhouse, a production company that’s become renowned in recent years for their stable of micro-budgeted, highly-profitable horror movies. The studio is coming off a banner year in 2017 that saw a number of hits, including Split, Happy Death Day, and the Oscar-winning Get Out. With the genre as a whole experiencing quite a resurgence in regards to its critical standing and commercial clout, there was hope that this latest outing could continue that hot streak and be another memorable offering. Sadly, that isn’t the case. Truth or Dare makes the least of its parts, wasting a promising premise with clichéd horror tropes and an uninspired narrative. After college student Olivia Barron (Lucy Hale) is convinced by her best friend Markie Cameron (Violett Beane) to join their group on what is their last spring break, they all head to Mexico to enjoy each other’s company and party. During their last night in the country, Olivia meets a guy named Carter (Landon Liboiron), and the two share a number of drinks. As the bar starts to close, Carter invites Olivia, Markie, and their friends Lucas (Tyler Posey), Ronnie (Sam Lerner), Brad (Hayden Szeto), Penelope (Sophia Ali), and Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk) to join him so they can keep the festivities going. He leads them to an abandoned mission where they play a seemingly harmless game of Truth or Dare, teasing each other about buried secrets. When it’s Carter’s turn, he reveals the real reason he invited Olivia’s group to the mission is so he can pass off a terrifying curse to other people he has no emotional attachment to. As he explains to Olivia, the game is real and the players have to either tell the truth or do the dare to prevent certain death. At first, Olivia brushes it off as crazy talk, but when the gang returns from Mexico, she realizes Carter was being honest, and now Olivia and her friends have work together to figure out how to stop it. On the surface, Truth or Dare sports a similarly interesting high concept to Happy Death Day, but it unfortunately is at odds with itself. Instead of fully embracing the over-the-top ridiculousness of it all, director Jeff Wadlow tries to walk a fine line and play it mostly serious – which is to the movie’s detriment. There are many instances where Truth or Dare comes across as unintentionally comedic (the film even pokes fun at its own “possessed face” effect) instead of frightening. A different approach may have helped elevate the final product, but the filmmakers hardly dig below the surface. The script, credited to Wadlow, Jillian Jacobs, Michael Reisz, and Christopher Roach, doesn’t do the movie any favors either, with some laughable moments and plot contrivances that are forced for the sake of drama. The main ensemble has a fairly rough go of it thanks to the screenplay, thinly drawing the characters without giving the audience anyone to really latch onto. In terms of the lead, Hale is adequate as Olivia, though twists in the plot make her less endearing to viewers as the film goes on. Her relationships with both Markie and Lucas develop in pretty predictable ways, underscored by painfully obvious foreshadowing that leaves little room for creativity or subtly. This is more a fault of the writing, however, than singling out a bad performance. The likes of Posey and Beane are stuck playing stock figures with little to them than some very basic traits, carrying out arcs that feel unearned. Their supporting cast fares even worse, existing mainly to just be picked off one at a time to underline what’s at stake. The only problem is there’s so little investment in the characters’ fates that red-shirting some of Olivia’s classmates along the way doesn’t do anything in getting audiences to care about what happens. For stretches, Truth or Dare is a fairly boring affair that meanders to an unsatisfying conclusion. There are no real scares to be had, and most of them are just basic jump scares that even a horror novice can see coming. In an era where horror films are earning more artistic credibility (this is coming on the heels of A Quiet Place), Truth or Dare feels like a step backwards into mediocrity. Wadlow is also hamstrung by the decision to go for the PG-13 rating in an attempt to appeal to younger audiences. Because there’s a limit with what one can do with that classification, Truth or Dare lacks some truly shocking and disturbing kills that would have helped increase the entertainment value of the movie. The more graphic incidents are either cut around in editing or shown off-camera, with most of the onscreen violence relegated to pretty standard action. One sequence involving a rooftop is a clear standout, but that’s barely enough to make up for the rest of a film that isn’t entirely sure what it wants to be and is poorly executed. In the end, Truth or Dare is a rare misfire for Blumhouse that proves they are human after all. If one goes into with the right mindset and views it more as a schlocky horror comedy, there could be some fun to be had with it – especially with a group of friends in a crowded theater. However, there’s very little in it to recommend a trip to the multiplex, especially with A Quiet Place available as a far more rewarding option for horror fans. Truth or Dare is a forgettable and generic endeavor that doesn’t bring much to the table.

The beta version of Launcher app got updated last month with a handful of bug fixes and under-the-hood enhancements, but those using the stable iteration had to wait until now to get all those improvements. Well, if you didn't know what the latest beta update brought for Microsoft Launcher users about two weeks ago, here is what you'll get now: Fixed top crashes and App Not Responding Errors; Support applying icon pack over single custom-set icons; Adjustments to wallpaper settings experience; Fixed several badge count issues; Performance/memory/CPU improvements. Microsoft's Launcher surpassed 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store, so the app seems to be pretty popular among Android users. The app's overall rating is very high as well with a score of 4.6 out of 5.0, which is quite an achievement considering that more than half a million people rated the Microsoft Launcher. If you haven't tried it yet, perhaps it's time to give it a go and see how it suits your needs. The launcher should work on just about any device that's powered by Android 4.0.3 and higher.

OnePlus had been selling accessories for its flagship killers since forever, so it's no wonder that the upcoming OnePlus 6 will come with one such product in tow. The sequel to the popular OnePlus Bullets V2 earphones has just been spotted at Bluetooth certification agency, which suggests OnePlus plans to unveil them along with the flagship. They are called OnePlus Bullets Wireless and, unlike the Bullets V2, they are … wireless. There's little chance that they will be part of the OnePlus 6's retail box, but if sold separately, they will probably be very cheap. When OnePlus launched the Bullets V2 wired headphones two years ago, they were available (and still are) for purchase for just $20, a great price for such an accessory to go with a OnePlus flagship killer. The OnePlus 6 may be officially introduced later this month, but the phone will be slightly pricier than the previous model. An Avengers-themed model might be in the works as well, which is expected to be unveiled on April 27 or around that date.