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A former U.S. congressman said several of his relatives were among the casualties when an Israeli airstrike hit a church in Gaza, which killed at least 18 people. Justin Amash, a Palestinian-American who formerly represented Michigan, revealed on social media that his relatives had been taking refuge in the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church compound in Gaza, partially destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on Thursday. "With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as the result...

President Joe Biden pledged to build a high-speed railway between Scranton, Pennsylvania, and New York City on Wednesday. The president made his bold (and likely unrealistic) pronouncement during his post-midterm election press conference on Wednesday when recalling how a congressman in the state of Pennsylvania asked if his infrastructure plan would include a high-speed rail between the two cities. “We can. First of all, it will make it a lot easier to take a lot of vehicles off the road, and we have more money in the pot now already out there that we voted for than the entire money...

Freepers on Ukraine threads be like:

Former President Donald Trump’s embrace of American exceptionalism has brought forth upon this nation a patriotic rebirth of our founding principles that he will only diminish should he persist in his evident determination to run for reelection in 2024. Today we are engaged in a great and perhaps ultimate spiritual battle challenging the future of the Judeo-Christian principles so dear to our Founders. As John Adams warned, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Perhaps Mr. Trump’s most enduring contribution will be that he radicalized a...

Republican Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem has faced criticism from both sides of the political spectrum on Sunday for telling state residents “don’t wait until Monday to celebrate Native American heritage” in an official statement. Noem only referred to October 11 as Native Americans’ Day, and omitted any reference to the date’s long national significance as Columbus Day.“The second Monday in October has been recognized as a federal holiday since 1968. In 1990, South Dakota was the first state to do things a little differently than the rest of the nation,” Noem said. “In South Dakota, we recognize Monday,...

Georgia-based attorney Lin Wood is getting lots of attention for urging supporters of President Donald Trump to break with the president and not vote for GOP Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in the upcoming January 5 runoff elections. Wood’s public comments run counter to President Trump’s own public statements and wishes, as the president has repeatedly urged his supporters to support Loeffler and Perdue and is heading to Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday to rally with the GOP senators. Wood’s comments are also in line with what top national Democrats are pushing for, as Breitbart News has reported...

Scores of Americans were outraged after seeing a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) presenting an American flag to the family of George Floyd as though he had been killed fighting for the country. The photo, which was seen posted on various social media sites, was confirmed as genuine by BizPac Review after locating it as part of a collection involving the family of Floyd on Pelosi’s official Twitter feed. “Philonise Floyd’s heart-wrenching testimony to @HouseJudiciary left its mark on us all. May this flag, which flew over the Capitol on the day of his brother’s murder, serve as...

USA Today reports that during a question and answer session, an audience member asked Jamie Lee Curtis if she gets scared. “You know, life’s a little scary. I live in America,” she replied. “This (expletive’s) getting real, so I’m scared every day.” Curtis starred as Laurie Strode in the original 1978 Halloween and will play the same character in this year’s reboot, which will hit theaters next month. Curtis has been an outspoken progressive for years. She endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, saying that she “played my woman’s card.”

The Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday called out Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King for an inaccurate tweet that went viral. King got more than 8,000 retweets for claiming that Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said he would never hire former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem. The owner of the Eagles said he wouldn't hire Colin because of his anthem protest, but hired a white player who called black people "nigger" — Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017 Sportswriters on the Eagles beat immediately pointed out that King was mischaracterizing Lurie's comments, but their complaints fell...

By 2030, Russia will send robots to the Moon to collect samples. The program will be punctuated with a manned Moon landing — 60 years after Neil Armstrong’s Apollo mission. Payback, perhaps, for losing out on the major leg of the U.S. and Soviet space race. The optimistic program also lays out plans for active exploration of other planets in the solar system, and ideas for a follow-up to the International Space Station: The ISS is only funded until 2020.

Europe will carry out the first manned mission to Mars together with Russia. Head of the European Space Agency Jean-Jacques Dordain stated this when he visited the International Aviation and Space Salon, MAKS-2011, now under way in Zhukovsky near Moscow. He gave no timeframe, but head of the Russian Space Agency Vladimir Popovkin welcomed his European counterpart’s idea concerning the coordination of the future project. The dream of human beings going to Mars has a long history, and at present, mankind is very close to implement such a project. Some time ago, an interest in the planet was linked to...

 MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S. President George W. Bush's new plan to send men to the moon, Mars and beyond excited Russian space officials and designers, who voiced quick hopes Thursday for winning a lucrative share in the U.S. program and boosting the sagging status of Russia's space program.NASA has already sent its proposals concerning cooperation in moon and Mars missions to the Russian Aerospace Agency, said deputy chief Nikolai Moiseyev, acording to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Moiseyev did not give details of the U.S. proposals, but said that Russia has plentiful know-how to share. Bush's plan could be a chance...

MOSCOW -- Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets, the nation's space chief said in remarks released Thursday.Anatoly Perminov first proposed building the ship at a government meeting Wednesday but initially didn't explain its purpose.He said in remarks posted Thursday on his agency's Web site that the nuclear spaceship should be used for human flights to Mars and other planets. He said the project is challenging technologically, but could capitalize on the Soviet and Russian experience in the field.Perminov said the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it...

The Fobos-Grunt mission might pave the way for humanity's first permanent space base—on Phobos, Mars' bizarre moon.Mars has been nothing but bad luck for the Russians. They have launched 20 probes to the planet since 1960, and all either failed or suffered from severe technical problems. But soon—as early as this October—Russia will attempt to reverse its fortunes with one of the most ambitious unmanned space missions ever. Instead of aiming straight for Mars, the Russians are going after Phobos, the larger of its two little satellites and one of the oddest objects around. Their probe, called Fobos-Grunt (“Phobos...

Russia enters 'space race' to build moon base By Graeme Baker Last Updated: 5:57pm BST 31/08/2007 Russia has revived another Cold War rivalry by entering a new “space race” with America to build a permanent base on the Moon. The moon from Moscow's Novodevichy Monastery Anatoly Perminov, the head of the space agency Roskosmos, said Russia would organise a manned lunar mission by 2025 and would be ready to build an “inhabited station” between 2027 and 2032. From there, cosmonauts could strike out on a long-planned mission to Mars as early as 2035. “According to our estimates we will be...

MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will start an experimental program for preparation for flights to Mars in 2006, said Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos. "The agency is not planning a manned flight to Mars until 2015, although we will start an experimental program at the Institute of Medical and Biological Research next year," he told the Voice of Russia state-controlled radio station. "An international six-men crew will conduct a simulated 500-day flight to Mars." Perminov said Russia would send a probe to Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, to test launch, landing and take-off...

Russian space researchers will lock six men in a metal tube for more than year in an effort to mimic the stresses and challenges of a manned mission to Mars. The 500 Days experiment, under development by the Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, will isolate human volunteers in a mock space station module for -- as its namesake suggests -- a complete 500 days to study how a long mission to Mars might affect its human crew. "Obviously, we're very interested in the results," NASA spokeswoman Dolores Beasley said of the long-duration study during a telephone interview. "It...

Last Update: Tuesday, January 27, 2004. 1:03am (AEDT) Russia, US can collaborate in Mars exploration: Putin Russia and the United States can collaborate in exploring Mars, Russian President Vladimir Putin told US Secretary of State Colin Powell in talks on Monday. Congratulating the envoy on the US mission that has seen two probes land on the surface of the Red Planet in the past three weeks, Mr Putin said that Russia "has noted with interest President Bush's ambitious plans for the conquest of Mars," the Interfax news agency reported. "I believe that in this area there are things we can...

Russia possesses the technology and skills to launch a manned mission to Mars but "the time is not right" for such a venture, a senior government official said, dousing speculation that Russia might seek to match US plans to explore space. "We have all the technology and scientific skills needed (for a flight to Mars), but from the rational point of view the time is not right for such a programme," Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin told the Interfax news agency. "We too have big ambitions, but currently we are not planning concrete moves for the conquest of Mars," he...

In an echo of the Cold War space race, Russia said that it had the know-how to relaunch its space exploration programs, a day after Washington laid out ambitious plans to return to the Moon and press on to Mars. "We have many initiatives from researchers on organizing expeditions to the Moon and Mars," said Nikolai Moiseyev, a deputy director of the Russian Rosaviakosmos space agency. "Before the end of the year, we intend to develop a federal space program until 2015 and it is possible that such projects would be included," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted him as saying...