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Recent reports about the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appear to be exaggerated. Cuban state media released images of the 88-year-old Castro who has not been seen in public for more than a year, an absence that has led to speculation he is ailing or worse.

The photographs are the first since August 2014 when Castro was shown talking to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In the images released today, the former Cuban leader is seen talking to Randy Perdemo Garcia, the head of the country's main student union. An accompanying piece by Perdemo Garcia says the three-hour meeting to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Castro starting his studies at the University of Havana took place Jan. 23. The Associated Press has more:

"The student leader says Castro said that he is keeping abreast of the news and performing daily exercises, and he engaged Perdomo in a wide-ranging discussion of topics including international politics, agriculture, astronomy, and even Namibia's donation of animals to Cuba's National Zoo.

"Perdomo says the two men discussed the release of three Cuban intelligence agents as part of the Dec. 17 declaration by Cuba and the United States that they would move to re-establish full diplomatic relations. The photos show Castro examining a newspaper report on their release."

On Jan. 26, the Communist Party-run Granma newspaper released a letter that it attributed to Castro, in which, as NPR's Eyder Peralta reported, he insisted Cuba will defend its ideals in the face of a planned rapprochement between his country and the U.S.

"I don't trust the politics of the United States and I've not said a word to them," he wrote. "This doesn't mean, however, that I reject a peaceful outcome... We will always defend the cooperation and friendship with all of the world and our our political adversaries."

An ailing Castro stepped down as Cuba's president in 2006 and handed the country's reins to his brother, Raul Castro. Rumors of his death have surfaced periodically since then.

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After dozens of votes attacking Obamacare in recent years, House Republicans' latest attempt Tuesday finally gets real.

Not in the sense that the full repeal bill will become law — it's not likely to pass the Senate and, in any event, faces a certain presidential veto even if it somehow did. What makes today a milestone is that, for the first time, House Republicans plan to vote on whether to actually take health coverage away from millions of Americans who now have it.

More precisely: 19 million of them by the end of the year, according to a recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. And with a new study showing that 60 percent of Affordable Care Act beneficiaries receiving subsidies from the federal exchange are from the South and 60 percent of them non-Hispanic whites, House Republicans would be casting votes to eliminate a program that to a large extent benefits their own constituents.

How this new reality will affect the vote count is unclear. Republicans have been solid in their opposition to the health care law. The last time the House voted to repeal the law in entirety — rather than tweak one or more small provisions — was May 16, 2013. Not a single Republican voted against it. But that was when the first enrollment period was still months away, and the vote could still largely be framed as a matter of political philosophy.

That was also before Republicans picked up 13 Democratic seats in the 2014 midterm elections, some of which are in swing districts that could swing right back to Democrats.

One of those new Republicans, in fact, could serve as the poster-child for the party's potential problems with the vote. Rep. Carlos Curbelo represents the western suburbs of Miami, some of Florida's poorest communities. The majority-Latino district also happens to contain one zip code with one of the highest Obamacare enrollments in the country, and is blocks away from two others.

This could be one reason why Curbelo's Spanish response to President Obama's State of the Union address last month avoided the Affordable Care Act altogether. Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, in the English response, described Obamacare as an example of "failed policies." Curbelo, though, spoke instead about education and the income gap — and chided Washington for not working "toward a health economy that offers opportunities to everyone who lives in this country, not just the most privileged," according to a comparison done by the Miami Herald.

Other Republicans have recognized for some time that taking away access to health care for the working poor was not necessarily good politics, and have advocated a "repeal and replace" strategy to show that the GOP also cares about the issue.

No Republican alternative to the ACA has yet emerged since they took control of the House in 2011, and none is in today's bill, either. However, the proposal does instruct three House committees to recommend ideas to replace Obamacare, including such things as limiting medical malpractice lawsuits and giving states more flexibility in administering Medicaid.

This week figures to be a big one in the debate about how to regulate the Internet.

Yesterday the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission announced he'll try to overrule laws in two states that restrict community-owned broadband networks. Later this week, he's expected to propose exactly what President Obama asked for last year: reclassifying the Internet under regulations known in the parlance of telecom wonks as Title II.

"In plain English, I'm asking them to recognize that for most Americans, the Internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life," Obama said in November.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, left, speaks Oct. 8 during new conference in Washington. Wheeler has spoken in favor of regulating Internet providers as public utilities, an issue the commission is expected to decide on this month. Jose Luis Magana/AP hide caption

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, left, speaks Oct. 8 during new conference in Washington. Wheeler has spoken in favor of regulating Internet providers as public utilities, an issue the commission is expected to decide on this month.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Big cable and phone companies warn that would stifle investment and cost consumers more, but the truth may be more complicated.

This policy shift, which the FCC is expected to vote before the end of the month, is what many Internet companies and public interest groups say is what the commission needs to do to stop broadband companies from charging extra to get information to consumers faster. But phone and cable companies warn that Title II would be a disaster.

"These regulations that we're talking about are public-utility-style regulations, and this industry's moving fast," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told an industry conference in November. "And if you can't bring new products to service at your speed, not the government's speed, why would you ever make these investments?"

Broadband industry executives have told the same story on Capitol Hill. But Fran Shammo, the chief financial officer of Verizon, seemed to go off script when he was asked about Title II at an investor conference in December.

"To be real clear, I mean, this does not influence the way we invest," Shammo said. "We're gonna continue to invest in our networks and our platforms. Nothing will influence that."

The differing messages don't necessarily result from a difference of opinion, but a difference of audience, says Susan Crawford, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

"When they're talking to Wall Street, they say different things than when they're talking to the press about what the FCC might like to do," she says. "They trot out these really simple and nonsensical platitudes, like 'regulation inevitably leads to lower investment.' That's just not true."

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The phone and cable industries also have warned that Title II could lead to billions of dollars in new taxes on consumer's broadband bills, but Open Internet advocates say those claims are wrong.

They also argue that Title II and robust investment can coexist, pointing to the success of the wireless phone industry, which is regulated in part under Title II. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that cell companies have been "monumentally successful" under Title II regulations, noting they made billions in investment under that system.

In theory, reclassification would give the FCC broad powers — including the ability to cap the price your Internet provider can charge. Wheeler has hinted that the commission won't actually try to use that power, but the mere threat of price regulation is enough to scare Wall Street, says Paul Gallant, an industry analyst at Guggenheim Partners.

"The uncertainty that Wall Street has, though, right now about Title II is a little bit overdone," he says. "I don't think there's any real prospect that the FCC will end up regulating prices. I just don't think is a realistic fear."

Still, Gallant says phone and cable companies might find it harder to borrow money under Title II, which could in turn could be a drag on investment in their networks.

But Michael Powell, a former chairman of the FCC who now heads the cable industry's trade group, said the the question is one of degree.

"All hyperbole aside, the issue isn't whether people will invest — of course they will, they have businesses to run," Powell said. "The real question is, will it be at a diminished and dampened level compared to the velocity and ambitions that the country has?"

Amid the disputes about customer bills and pace of investing, however, one thing is viewed as an absolute certainty: Big phone and cable companies almost certainly will take the FCC to court if the commission moves toward Title II, as anticipated.

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The Academy Awards are coming this month and if you're still trying to see all the Oscar-nominated films, it may be easier to find them in China than the U.S.

A few weeks ago, the films flooded into the pirated DVD store down the street from my apartment in Shanghai. It happens like clockwork every year.

I asked T.J. Greene, an American executive who runs a small movie theater company here in China, to visit the store and explain what was happening.

There is nothing subtle about the store, which has a huge "DVD" sign on top and pipes music out onto the sidewalk. We strolled inside to find a dozen shelves worth of pirated DVDs. The front rack, visible from the street, was filled with all the Oscar hopefuls, including American Sniper, Selma and Birdman.

"Every single one of them is in perfect and nicely wrapped plastic and in great, great condition," Greene said, admiring the packaging. "You can even read the synopsis on the back."

"Before, if it was just a Hollywood cinema or a Warner Brothers cinema, there wasn't as much pressure to crack down, because it's foreign. But now it's having an effect on their own pocketbooks.

- T.J. Greene, executive of a movie theater company in China

A female clerk, who wore the store uniform, a bright yellow wind-breaker, assured Greene all the DVDs had high-quality pictures and audio.

"What happens if [there's] bad quality, can we bring it back?" Greene said to the clerk.

"OK, no problem," the clerk answered cheerily.

Greene is the CEO of Apex Entertainment, which has a cinema in the eastern city of Suzhou and is building nine more around China. He often checks out pirated DVD stores to gauge the competition.

After scanning the Oscar nominees, Greene asked about the latest Hunger Games film, which opened around the world in late November, but will only come to China this month.

"The copy not very well ... so you can wait," said the clerk. "Maybe after Chinese New Year, I have very good one."

As Greene chatted with the clerk, the store's enforcer, a Chinese man about six feet tall, continued to eye us from just a few feet away and frown. We decided to leave and head to my apartment to talk about what we'd seen.

All the Oscar-nominated movies in the store were copies of screeners, the DVDs sent to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the nomination process. Greene says the copies could have come from factories that made the screeners or from the homes of members themselves.

Members are not supposed to show a screener to other people. "But, hey, this is the real world," Greene says. "It can easily get into the hands of others."

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Online piracy in China remains a big problem, but DVDs on the streets have actually improved. When Greene arrived here in 2004, vendors across the city were still operating carts containing hundreds of DVDs each. Since then, authorities have run most street vendors out of business.

Greene says a big reason is the explosion of movie theaters in China.

When he came here, there were about 2,000 screens. Most of the theaters were rundown and had lousy sound systems. Today, there are about 25,000 screens, most state-of-the-art. Nearly all are locally or state-owned, which means China's government has a big incentive to protect them.

"Before, if it was just a Hollywood cinema or a Warner Brothers cinema, there wasn't as much pressure to crack down, because it's foreign," Greene says. "But now it's having an effect on their own pocketbooks."

That's probably one reason why the DVD store in my neighborhood didn't have a clean copy of the new Hunger Games movie. A pirated DVD of the movie would have eaten into potential ticket sales here over the last two months.

To protect domestic filmmakers, China only allows 34 foreign movies into the country each year. Greene says that's an even bigger problem than piracy, because it severely limits what Hollywood can show here and what audiences can legally see.

"This weekend, I went to Hong Kong and I was able to watch American Sniper," Greene says. "That film will never see the light of day here because of the quota system."

China says it will increase the foreign quota in two to three years. Until then, Greene says film fans here will have to keep going to pirated websites, or stores like the one in my neighborhood, to see some of Hollywood's best movies.

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