With a handful of US technology giants growing more powerful and dominant, debate is intensifying on whether big tech’s growth is healthy or not. Over the past few years, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon have become among the world’s most valuable companies. Along with stalwarts like Microsoft and rising stars like Netflix, the tech firms exercise enormous control over what people see and how they live.

Increasingly, policymakers and others have begun to consider breaking up or regulating the biggest technology companies, although imminent action appears unlikely. While many consumers welcome innovation from the tech sector, critics have complained about the power of “gatekeepers” of information and other content.

Google holds around 90 percent of the internet search market in the United States and Europe. Facebook and Google scoop up some 60 percent of digital ad revenues and are eating up 90 percent of new ad growth in the United States. Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS power the overwhelming majority of mobile devices. Amazon accounts for nearly half of US online sales and is expanding into new sectors.

Barry Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute, said three firms — Google, Facebook and Amazon — “have more power than any previous monopolies we’ve dealt with in the past century.” “We have to be incredibly concerned about the power of Facebook, Google and Amazon,” said Lynn, who launched his research center last month after his team was ousted from the Google-funded New America Foundation. “They have their hands on the flow of news, the flow of books and they are manipulating that flow in a conscious way to promote their interests.”

The Government responded by warning that Boeing’s behaviour “could jeopardise” future Ministry of Defence contracts for its aircraft such as Apache helicopters. The Prime Minister has appealed directly to President Donald Trump to intervene in the dispute, which has dented her hopes of signing a post-Brexit free trade deal with the US.

She said that Boeing's long-term partnership with the Government is being "undermined by this behaviour." "We are very clear about the importance of Bombardier and the importance of those jobs in Northern Ireland and we will be doing everything we can to ensure that we can see those jobs being guaranteed in future," she added.

Both sides claim the other has benefited from state aid at some point - given the high cost of producing aircraft, state subsidies have been an inevitable part of the aerospace sector for a long time. Unsurprisingly, some have accused Boeing of hypocrisy in taking on Bombardier, a much smaller rival, over the issue.

What's more, Berlin’s uber stable political system has splintered which means we now enter territory unchartered for a lifetime. Because the swing to the Free Democrats (FDP) and AfD is over fourteen percentage points and almost all these gains are at the expense of the outgoing “grand coalition” of the centrist CDU/CSU and SPD parties. Both of whom have dominated Germany’s democratic parliaments since the Second World War.

For instance, in 1980, the pair controlled 87 percent of the vote in the old Federal Republic, and now they can barely manage a majority, between them, with only 53 percent of preferences. Furthermore, for the first time since 1924, six parties have achieved more than five percent of the vote. And this serves to highlight just how fragmented German politics has become.

Of course, it hardly signals a return to the Weimar days, but the relative chaos exposes how a large number of Germans have become disillusioned with the status quo. The grievances range from growing inequality and rising levels of immigration to a feeling that the political class is out of touch. The latter two concerns are often combined when voters react to Merkel’s unilateral decision to open Germany’s borders to large numbers of migrants in 2015.

Literally anything goes, as long as a profit can be had. Indeed, Israeli society is so used to this type of behavior that there appear to be no ramifications for getting caught trying to cheat a client or customer. If caught, the ‘seller’ just shrugs — “Everyone does it” — and the buyer, shrugs back with a smile, “Caught you!” Business proceeds.

Foreigners should be aware that to an Israeli you are a “frier,” which means a sucker. Non-Israelis are simply easy targets for deceptive business practices because outside of Israel, in the more ‘civilized’ world, people take the Golden Rule for granted. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In other words, treat business partners and customers fairly.

But, in Israel the golden rule is different — it means, “Screw the other guy before he screws you.” This is “shitat matzliach” in its most base form. All Israelis know what the term “frier” means, and many liberally apply it to the less clever folks from abroad. Yes, in every country there are cheaters, but in Israel, it is an art and way of life.

"The German armed forces" are "to be reformed," so that their "intervention readiness includes being operational for missions of the highest intensity," according to the AfD election program. "For years," the Bundeswehr has been suffering "under the rigorous austerity dictate of conservative politicians," writes the Chair of the SPD Bundestag's Parliamentary Group, Thomas Oppermann. "Therefore, a sustained increase in the defense budget is necessary."

"Without a doubt, we, in Germany, need a powerful and operational Bundeswehr," declared the top candidate for the Greens, Özdemir, cautiously but openly to his party's clientele, some of whom had been engaged in the peace movement. "Our arms expenditures should be oriented on our needs." The FDP also calls for "a modern Bundeswehr with mission-oriented structures, capable of both alliance and national defense, as well as international missions."

The Chancellor, herself, formulated the demand for a massive arms buildup for the conservative parties.

Sunday's devastating results for Germany's conservative parties seemed to show that the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a populist far-right force across Germany has forever buried that notion. The CSU, Bavarian allies to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) but traditionally a little more conservative, scored its lowest ever result on Sunday, with just under 39 percent of the vote in its home state — over 10 percentage points down on 2013.

Media commentators were quick to draw two conclusions — that CSU leader Horst Seehofer's position was looking very precarious, and the CSU will have to shift to the right to win back its lost voters — particularly ahead of the Bavarian state election next fall. For now, the CSU holds an absolute majority in Bavaria, the only German state with a single-party government.

His plans include shared eurozone budget alongside closer links between European voters and their institutions. He said the drive of the Franco-German partnership would be decisive for Europe, as he pushed for a group dedictated to the "re-foundation of Europe".

Speaking on defence, he said: "At the beginning of the next decade, Europe must have a joint intervention force, a common defence budget and a joint doctrine for action." And he set out a vision of a common European civilian force "to fight droughts or fires or earthquakes together".

Tackling immigration, he said: “I want a for us to have an effective European border police that everywhere has strict border control and makes sure anyone who can’t stay here is sent to their countries."

According to a report from The College Fix, the ball pits are used “as icebreakers, to break down racial barriers, facilitate lessons on wellness, and as part of freshmen orientation. The ball pits were perfect for allowing students to feel comfortable,” explained Kate Ayotte, a wellness programs administrator at Central Connecticut State University. “That was the greatest benefit for helping them have conversations with other students they didn’t know and talk about mental health. They were so relaxed and just hanging out in the pools,” Ayotte added.

But Central Connecticut State University isn’t the only institution participating in the ball pit trend. Schools such as St Mary’s College, Northwestern State University, the University of Delaware, and Ole Miss have joined in on the craze, all offering their students a chance to unwind in a ball pit.

Meade predicted that a rogue planet named Nibiru would slam into the Earth on September 23 and bring about a global apocalypse. NASA had publicly debunked the “Planet X” conspiracy theory in 2012, but it didn’t stop the self-published author from writing and speaking about the doomsday prediction. Now that the fateful Saturday has passed, Meade has reportedly revised his schedule for the planet’s last day.

The controversial doomsayer claims his September 23 prediction was misinterpreted and that the world will actually end at some point starting in October. Meade now believes the new date will begin a seven-year period of world-ending events. “That’s when the action starts. Hold on and watch — wait until the middle of October and I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed,” he wrote on his website.

The former student of astronomy at the University of Louisville says his predictions come from deciphering codes in the Bible as well as other ancient markers like the Great Pyramids.

So there is absolutely no need to “take a knee” when our national anthem is being played and the American flag is being honored.  As I explained a couple days ago, the national anthem and the American flag are symbols that represent the entire country.  When someone disrespects those symbols, they are disrespecting our great land, everyone that lives here, and everyone that ever fought, bled and died for America.

Everyone involved with the NFL that participated in that absolutely shameful display on Sunday needs to apologize to all of the rest of us immediately.  In 2017, many Americans no longer understand the importance of the national anthem and the flag, but there are still millions of us that do.  And the outrage that has been unleashed as a result of this controversy is off the charts. 

If you go on to YouTube, you will find dozens of videos of fans burning their NFL jerseys.  There is even a new hashtag (#NFLburnnotice) that has gone viral over the past couple of days because so many people are doing this, and many mainstream news outlets are publishing reports on this phenomenon…

Yes, owners, coaches and players may have a First Amendment right to do what they did, but we also have a right to let them know what we think about what they just did.

As the weeks and months roll along, millions of former fans are going to be turning the games off and finding other ways to spend their Sunday afternoons.  And once these fans are gone, do you think that they will come back? When you disrespect the anthem or the flag, you are disrespecting all of us and everything that this country is supposed to stand for.

If you want to make a political point, find some other way to do it.  Treating our national symbols with contempt is never appropriate, and those that have done so should be utterly ashamed of themselves.