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China launched what it calls the most advanced and largest warship in Asia on Wednesday, billing it as a major step forward in the modernisation of its navy, the official military newspaper said. The first of the new type 055 guided-missile destroyers, which has a displacement of more than 10,000 tons and was built at the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai, is equipped with air defence, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons, the PLA Daily reported. The launch of the ship marks an important step towards China’s dream of having a strong and modern naval force, a member of the Central Military...

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Nick Drake was a British singer-songwriter and musician who died at a very young age in 1974. Known for his acoustic guitar-based songs, his music has posthumously achieved more recognition. 'Strange Face: Adventures With A Lost Nick Drake Recording' is the incredibly unique and poignant show written by and starring the composer and performer, Michael Burdett. Burdett discovered a recording of Nick Drake’s music in a skip in the 1970’s. Thirty years later Burdett travelled around the UK playing the music for people in return for being photographed.

Sarah Palin has announced a lawsuit against the NYT and i have a quick question, NYT has 2 classes of stock, Class A is publically traded and the families Class B which is not traded and really controls the company, Can Sarah Palin demand payment especially for punitive damages in Class B stock rather than cash, That would really get their attention and make them make real changes, I doubt that it can be done,

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday that opposing the Republican health-care bill wasn't enough and the Democratic Party should start running on a new national single-payer plan. "President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts," she told The Wall Street Journal. "Now it's time for the next step. And the next step is single payer." Polling has shown government-provided health care to be a very popular notion among Americans. Depending on whether it's described as...

... US Commerce Secretary Ross had hinted last month in an interview with US media that the Trump administration would be "open" to resuming talks on a free trade pact with the EU. However, his speech on Tuesday was the clearest signal yet that talks could resume. "I stand before you tonight to say this in a more explicit fashion: we, as major trading partners of each other, should have a free trade agreement," Ross said. Initial talks on creating a free trade area on both sides of the Atlantic had been ongoing for years, but came to a halt...

Historians and political scientists will study Donald Trump’s 2016 Electoral College victory for years to come and I encourage you to read the works of established professionals. In the meantime, here’s armchair analysis from a Midwestern-bred stand-up comedian that enjoys talking politics with a wide variety of people. In my view, the primary thing liberals need to understand is, Donald Trump represents a diverse coalition rather than the triumph of a coherent political ideology. When Donald Trump takes two or three different positions on an particular issue, he is often speaking to these different audiences. Here are some basic categories...

CNN reporter Jim Acosta complained Tuesday that White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was taking too many questions from conservatives. “Does this feel like America?” Acosta complained on Twitter. “Where the White House takes q’s from conservatives, then openly trashes the news media in the briefing room.” CNN found itself in another scandal early Tuesday after the conservative group Project Veritas released an undercover video in which a health news producer for the network was recorded saying that CNN’s coverage of Trump-Russia connections was “mostly bullshit.” Sanders asserted that the video was “a disgrace to all of media.”

You know how at some fairs and amusement parks you can have your face put on a fake magazine cover? Well, a framed copy of a fake Time cover featuring Donald Trump hung from the walls of at least five of the president's clubs, including Mar-a-Lago, The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold reported Tuesday.

The Florida Gators captured the College World Series title on Sunday night with a 6–1 win over the LSU Tigers to sweep the best-of-three series. Florida scored its first two runs in the bottom of first and second inning before holding the lead. LSU scored its first run in the seventh inning but also lost a run due to an interference call on a Tigers base runner. LSU threatened in the eighth inning but failed to score. Florida added four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to seal the victory.

On 25th February 2014 Sun produced X4.9 flare which on 27th February caused G2 (KP 6) geomagnetic storm on Earth. It was the brightest aurora display so far during this solar maximum which I could witness with auroral displays overhead in the far north of Scotland. This short movie illustrates what has been seen from latitude 58.3 degrees north. Here is a link to the music used, as many of you asked about it http://www.pond5.com/stock-music/1070...

North Korea compares Trump to Hitler in harshest language so far out of Pyongyang By Jonathan Cheng Published: June 27, 2017 9:27 a.m. ET While North Korean propaganda regularly targets the U.S. with military threats, it had remained quiet on the president himself SEOUL—North Korea’s state media described President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy as “Nazism in the 21st century,” and compared the U.S. president to Adolf Hitler, in the harshest language that Pyongyang has directed at the Trump administration. Trump’s policy “is the American version of Nazism far surpassing the fascism in the last century in its ferocious, brutal...

Europeans who are joining ISIS make up one big reason the rise of terrorism isn’t going to be thwarted anytime soon, an expert on the subject told a congressional panel. “At least 5,000 to 6,000 Europeans who have fought alongside ISIS and other Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq are now returning to their home countries,” Heritage Foundation scholar Robin Simcox testified Tuesday. Simcox, the Margaret Thatcher fellow at the conservative think tank, specializes in terrorism and national security. He said the terrorist threat is becoming more widespread across Europe, pointing to Germany as an example. {..snip..}

Gerrymandering has become a big problem in states like Maryland where some neighborhoods have wound up split into as many as four different congressional districts. The paint by numbers congressional map could soon get a facelift due to some important court cases. Gerrymandering in Crofton Jennifer Bevan-Dangel has lived in the same house in Crofton, MD for 10 years, but in 2012 local officials redrew congressional district lines and split her community in half. "We have lived in two different congressional districts just by staying in the exact same house," Bevan-Dangel said. That line change is called gerrymandering, and it...

"I was at Ascot race course on ladies day enjoying a few drinks, the beautiful weather and a few bets. A fight broke out behind me and it was too funny to miss."

White house economists overestimated annual economic growth by about 80 percent on average for a six year stretch during Barack Obama’s presidency, according to Freedom Works economic consultant Stephen Moore. Economists predicted growth between 3.2 to 4.6 percent for the years 2010 through 2015. Actual economic growth never hit above 2.6 percent. {..snip..}

A helicopter has apparently tried to bomb Venezuela's Supreme Court in what President Nicolas Maduro called a "terrorist attack". The government says a police office flew the helicopter over the capital, Caracas, and dropped grenades. Footage on social media shows a helicopter circling over the city before a loud bang is heard. The officer believed to have seized the aircraft has issued a video statement condemning the government...... President Maduro said grenades had been dropped in the attack and he promised that security forces would capture those behind it. "I have activated the entire armed forces to defend the peace,"...

June 28, 2017 Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr Reading 1 Gn 15:1-12, 17-18The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram!I am your shield;I will make your reward very great." But Abram said,"O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,if I keep on being childlessand have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?"Abram continued,"See, you have given me no offspring,and so one of my servants will be my heir."Then the word of the LORD came to him:"No, that one shall not be your heir;your own issue shall be your...

We are looking at vacation spots - is Houston recommended?

New Orleans police have arrested a robbery suspect they say is one of four who carried out a brutal attack on two Boston men who were in the Big Easy for a church conference. Dejuan Paul, 21, is charged with robbery for the attack, which happened about 9 p.m. Saturday in the city’s French Quarter section. The two Boston men, who do computer work for the Unitarian Universalist Association, were in town for the church’s annual General Assembly, which took place from Wednesday to Sunday.