Politics

President Donald Trump. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images Trump is in talks with obscure social media app FreeSpace as he eyes his own network, Axios reported. The app has just 20,000 downloads and says it's "built on the power of positivity." Trump's advisors have repeatedly teased a new media platform since he was banned by Twitter . See more stories on Insider's business page . Twitter banned then-President Donald Trump on January 8, two days after the attacks on the US Capitol, cutting off his access to a bully pulpit of nearly 90 million followers. Facebook followed the next day, severing ties between Trump and another 33 million accounts. Some initially thought Trump might reappear on Parler , a far-right haven that the Trump Organization had previously held talks with, as an anonymous " Person X " - but those efforts fell through. Since then, Trump's advisors have repeatedly teased new media companies that the former president might create to broadcast his message, including one built by his former campaign manager Brad Parscale . But Axios reported Wednesday that Trump is also in talks with a relatively obscure social media app called FreeSpace, an affiliate of Skylab Apps, that has just 20,000 downloads and not many users. By comparison, Twitter has 192 million daily users , according to its latest quarterly earnings report. The details of a Trump-FreeSpace deal, if one is reached at all, aren't yet clear, according to Axios. A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment. FreeSpace says its app is backed by science that makes people "'addicted' to doing good," "built on the power of positivity," and wants to "make social media fun again." It would appear to be an odd partnership for Trump, who is one of the world's largest promoters of misinformation and has consistently used racist , sexist , xenophobic , and violence-inciting language that eventually got him booted from mainstream platforms. Read the original article on Business Insider New MediaMedia CompaniesDownloadsPoliticsMainstream MediaSocial BusinessGetty Images TrumpFreeSpaceAxiosTwitterFacebookThe Trump OrganizationSkylab AppsObscure Social MediaPositivityDonald TrumpBrad Parscale

When President Barack Obama was in office and the White House needed to reach Sen. Joe Manchin, one person was always tasked with making the call: then-Vice President Joe Biden.Read Full StorySenate DemocratsMidterm ElectionPoliticsPresidential ElectionRepublican SenatorsBipartisan SenatorsThe White HouseCongressRepublicansThe Oval OfficeJefferson Jackson DinnerCNNManchin SpaceBiden BurnsCentrist SenatorsJoe BidenBarack ObamaPat ToomeyJay Rockefeller

If you're tired of cancel culture and censorship subscribe to Reclaim The Net. We recently reported about an Aberdeen University student who received a two-week ban from the university’s student association premises for saying “Rule Britannia” in a virtual debate about demilitarizing the campus. We’ve now been informed that she has also been kicked out of the Politics and International Relations Society.Read Full StoryStudent UnionWebchatRule BritanniaInternational PoliticsInternational StudentsFreedom StudentsConservative PoliticsCensorshipReclaim The NetAberdeen UniversityThe British NavyOnline StudentsRadical LeftistsAlleged CommentsConservative Views

Shares in dual-listed Chinese companies fell sharply on Thursday in Asia after the U.S. securities regulator adopted measures that would kick foreign companies off American stock exchanges if they do not comply with U.S. auditing standards. The move by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adds to the ongoing and...Read Full StoryU.s. StocksTech StocksTechnology StocksPoliticsU.S. InvestorsTrading FirmsU.S. SecU.S. FirmsU.S. CompaniesChinese Communist PartyReutersAlibaba Group Holding LtdJD.Com IncNetease IncThe Hang Seng Tech IndexDonald TrumpJoe Biden

In a one-two punch of authoritarian maneuvering shocking in both its scope and its severity, Republicans are fighting to hollow out the right to vote for millions of Black and brown Georgians. And what they can’t take away in the state Senate, the GOP plans to gut with a new Trump-aligned Secretary of State.Read Full StoryAbsentee VotingCivil WarBlack ChurchesMagaVoting RightsRacial InjusticePoliticsGOP VotersDemocratic VotersHouse DemocratsGOP EffortsMAGATrumpianThe State SenateBlack GeorgiansJody HiceBrad RaffenspergerStacey AbramsMax Burns

As of March 24, 2021, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have seen the biggest year-over-year net-worth growth among American billionaires. Chris Hondros/Getty Images There are 657 billionaires in America. Their combined wealth grew by 44.6% during the pandemic, a study from the Institute for Policy Studies shows. Meanwhile, 80 million people in the US lost their jobs from March 2020 to February 2021. See more stories on Insider's business page . The combined wealth of America's 657 billionaires grew by 44.6% - $1.3 trillion - during the pandemic. That's according to a new study released by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The two organizations used information from Forbes to track the fortunes of America's richest people for one year starting on March 18, 2020. The difference between how America's richest people and the rest of the country has fared in this time period is stark . From March 2020 to February 2021, 80 million people in the US lost their jobs. Between June and November 2020, nearly 8 million Americans fell into poverty . "The pandemic has created an astonishing rise in wealth for the nation's billionaires while tens of millions of Americans fell further behind," Frank Clemente, executive director of ATF, said in a statement. "Billionaires are living in a different world from the rest of us." Zooming in on billionaires' rising fortunes in the pandemic year Jeff Bezos, with his $183.9 billion fortune, is the richest man in the US and the world. According to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index (which updates in near-real time), Larry Page and Sergey Brin , the cofounders of Google, have seen the biggest respective increases to their net worths among American billionaires since the pandemic broke out. From March 24, 2020, to March 24, 2021, Page added $11.8 billion to his $94.3 billion fortune. Brin's $91.2 billion fortune has grown by $11.4 billion in the same time period. Berkshire Hathaway CEO and chairman Warren Buffett has seen the third-biggest net-worth growth in this time. His $95.1 billion fortune got a $7.4 billion boost in the past year, per Bloomberg statistics. The past year also saw the minting of 43 new billionaires in the US. Among those are Frank Slootman, CEO of tech giant Snowflake ( $1.9 billion ) and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky ( $14.3 billion ). Both Snowflake and Airbnb number among the many tech companies that went public during the pandemic. As Insider's Juliana Kaplan reported in February, wealthy Americans today pay one-sixth the rate of taxes their counterparts paid in 1953. But President Biden is reportedly getting more serious about taxing America's richest , which could include raising taxes to nearly 40% for the country's top income bracket. Read the original article on Business Insider JobsAirbnbPoliticsPublic HealthWorld PovertyInsiderATFIPSForbesGoogleSnowflakeAmerican BillionairesWealthy AmericansFortuneTaxesSergey BrinLarry PageChris HondrosJeff BezosWarren BuffettBrian Chesky

Late night host and comedian Jay Leno has issued an apology for a series of jokes told over his career targeting Asian communities. The apology comes after nearly 15-year campaign from the activist group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), for remarks as recent as Variety‘s 2020 report that Leno cracked about Koreans eating dog meat — a complaint that offended numerous players on the set of NBC’s “Americas Got Talent.”Read Full StoryAsian PeopleHate CrimesAsian AmericansPoliticsCelebritiesNBCAsiansMedia Action NetworkKoreansAAPIMANAAFox Television StationsJokesOffended Numerous PlayersTruthJay LenoGuy AokiTom Werner

Both of the President and first lady's dogs, Major and Champ, have returned to the White House after spending some time in Delaware following a biting incident involving Major, according to Jill Biden's press secretary Michael LaRosa.Read Full StoryPoliticsThe White HousePetsShelter DogsGermanBidensMajorABC News 'CNN.comHomeWashingtonDelawareSecretaryChampMichael LaRosaJill BidenJen PsakiJoe BidenGeorge StephanopoulosBarack Obama

Split Screen is an interesting experiment carried out by The Markup that visualizes the radical difference between the way the news to which US citizens who voted for Joe Biden and those who voted for Donald Trump are exposed on Facebook, and how the political environment on social networks essentially polarizes people and reinforces the echo chamber effect.Read Full StoryUs CitizensSocial EnvironmentPoliticsAlgorithmsSocial EngagementCommunity EngagementSocial NetworksBenefit SocietyFacebookSocial DynamicsCapitolMarkupUsageDefinitionSpecial InterestsJoe BidenDonald Trump

The House is set to vote Thursday on two proposals that would legalize subsets of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission, as Democrats gauge the chances of approving immigration legislation and sending it to President Biden's desk. The bills are expected to pass in...Read Full StoryU.s. CitizenshipUndocumented ImmigrantsBillsPoliticsUndocumented WorkersImmigrant WorkersHouseDemocraticSenateDACATPSImmigrant FarmworkersU.S. CitizenshipLegal ImmigrationDreamersDonald TrumpZoe LofgrenDan NewhouseDick DurbinNancy Pelosi