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“Goods were being transported from one country to another, and they ended up in a third country with nobody owning the goods. Why did they end up here?” said Ghassan Hasbani, a former Lebanese deputy prime minister and opposition figure. Those linked to the shipment and interviewed by Reuters all denied knowledge of the cargo’s original owner or declined to answer the question. Those who said they didn’t know included the ship’s captain, the Georgian fertilizer maker who produced the cargo and the African firm that ordered it but said it never paid for it.

Sports leagues and players have turned racial justice issues into a “circus” by focusing more on who’s kneeling or what message is written on players’ jerseys rather than real change, basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said Friday. “I think we’re missing the point,” the former 76ers, Suns and Rockets star told CNBC. “We need police reform, we need prison reform. ... My concern is turning this into a circus instead of trying to do some good stuff.” The media contributes to the "circus" by focusing on kneeling and messages on buses and jerseys, he added.

The "Father of Modern Rocketry" was American scientist Robert H. Goddard . He ushered in the "Space Age" by creating the world's first liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard was born in 1882 and raised Episcopalian. He wrote of a pivotal moment when he was 17-years-old, after having read H.G. Wells' 1897 science-fiction novel War of the Worlds: "On the afternoon of October 19, 1899, I climbed a tall cherry tree and, armed with a saw which I still have, and a hatchet, started to trim the dead limbs from the cherry tree. ... It was one of the quiet, colorful afternoons of...

The U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad was hit by multiple rockets on Sunday, two U.S. officials told ABC News. This is the first time the compound has been hit directly in years and comes just weeks after pro-Iranian militia members and their supporters assaulted the compound in Iraq. Rocket attacks on the Green Zone are very common. Last week three rockets were fired into Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified area of the capital that houses the embassy, government buildings and U.S. service members. Iraqi officials said Monday that there were no injuries. Both U.S. officials told ABC News that...

Three rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad overnight as security services continued firing live ammunition at anti-government protesters in the city. The rockets were fired from a makeshift launcher in Zafaraniya, on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, and landed inside the fortified Green Zone - but failed to cause significant damage and did not kill anyone. Meanwhile three anti-government protesters were killed overnight protesting in Tahrir Square after security forces opened fire with live ammunition. The clashes prompted authorities to close key streets and thoroughfares leading to the Iraqi capital's centre. The violence was the latest...

As the funeral for Qasem Soleimani began Saturday, two blasts were heard throughout Baghdad. It turns out that a rocket attack took place on the heavily fortified Green Zone which houses the United States embassy, The Jerusalem Post reported. According to Reuters , the Iraqi military revealed that the rockets also fell in the city's Jadriya neighborhood and the Balad air base, which houses American troops. “Several rockets targeting Celebration Square and the Jadriya area in Baghdad, and the Balad air base in Salahuddin province, with no loss of life. Further details to come,” the Iraqi military said in a...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:00 P.M.) – A base housing U.S. military personnel near Baghdad was reportedly targeted by several rockets this evening, the AFP News Agency reported. “4 rockets target base housing US personnel near Iraq capital,” the AFP reported, citing a security official.

video of interceptsOn 29 November, the IDF said that a rocket was fired from Gaza "at Israeli civilians", noting that it was the fourth launch that week. Following the attack, the IDF conducted a retaliatory air strike against a Hamas military post in Gaza. Air-raid sirens were activated in the Gaza Strip and Sderot on Saturday, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The IDF said that three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, noting that two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System. ​Twitter users shared videos allegedly showing the moment...

Some political news first, about the elections in Israel, followed by comments on the chaos in Iran, and then, as has been posted elsewhere including FR, reports of the spectacular failure of the attempted rocket attack on Israel. Amir says Israel interfered with the GPS reception. More favorable comments about President Trump and some outspoken remarks on the media and Carter. Things are progressing toward war but be of good cheer.

The NBA was understandably excited to start its season and get away from the China controversy that had embroiled the league over the past couple weeks. However, even more controversy ensued on Tuesday night and on into Wednesday as video surfaced showing LeBron James walking off the court and screaming while the national anthem played. James faced a firestorm of criticism after saying that Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey “wasn’t educated” on the China-Hong-Kong issue, before he sent a message of support to pro-democracy protesters earlier this month. While backpedaling, James said that he is not a politician, and...

Terrorists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired approximately 50 rockets at Israel Tuesday morning, following the elimination of a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist in Gaza. As of 9:10 a.m. (Israel time), some 50 rocket launches were reported, while Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system fired approximately 20 missiles at incoming rockets. Three Israelis were reported injured as a result of the rocket attacks, including two suffering from shock, and a third injured while running to a bomb shelter. A home in southern Israel was struck by a rocket, which scored a direct hit on the building. Sirens were sounded in...

HOUSTON -- A group of 30 fans at the Houston Rockets' season opener against Milwaukee held signs and wore shirts in support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong on Thursday night. Houston general manager Daryl Morey angered the Chinese government with a since-deleted tweet in support of the protesters earlier this month. Tuesday's opening-night games were not televised in China in the wake of Morey's tweet, which caused tension between the NBA and Chinese officials.

The Chinese government asked the N.B.A. to fire a team executive who posted on social media in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, said on Thursday in his first public appearance in the United States since returning from a contentious trip to Asia. “We said there’s no chance that’s happening,” Silver said. “There’s no chance we’ll even discipline him.” The executive, Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, set off the international firestorm with a Twitter post using a slogan used by the protesters in Hong Kong, just as the league was...

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - Hancock County is soon to be home to a 3D printing rocket factory. In just a few years, the rocket company Relativity says it plans to have its manufacturing operations up and running at Stennis Space Center. The company is now hiring to find the right men and women to make it all a reality. As the future of aerospace continues to lift off in Hancock County, David Sykes and Jon Oliver say they are excited to be a part of it. Both men have returned home to Mississippi to work for Relativity Space, a...

Iran acknowledged for the first time on Monday that a rocket at its Imam Khomeini Space Center exploded after satellite photos showed the blast last week, with an official saying a technical malfunction during a test caused the explosion. The comments by government spokesman Ali Rabiei were the first explanation offered by Iran for Thursday’s explosion, which came ahead of a planned satellite launch by the Islamic Republic that the U.S. has criticized. Rabiei also criticized President Donald Trump for tweeting what appeared to be a surveillance photo of the aftermath of the explosion shot by a U.S. spy satellite....

The occultist rocketeer of the real-life Suicide Squad BY STRANGEREMAINS on AUGUST 8, 2016 • ( 2 ) Although the Suicide Squad is best known today as a movie about a fictional group of supervillains drafted by the government to undertake dangerous missions in exchange for commuted sentences, there was a real-life Suicide Squad at Caltech in the 1940’s. As I read about the original Suicide Squad, I became fascinated with the life and death of its strangest member, Jack Parsons. Jack Parsons (2 October 1914-17 June 1952) was an explosives aficionado who worked at the rocketry research lab at...

On July 3, 1969, just 17 days before Neil Armstrong and Ed Aldrin walked on the lunar surface, the USSR made its second attempt to test-fire its own moon rocket, known as N1. No official announcement about the secret mission had ever been made, but in subsequent passes over the Soviet test range in Tyuratam, Kazakhstan, U.S. spy satellites glimpsed utter devastation at one of the two launch pads known to host the moon rocket. The Soviet Union didn't know it at the time, but its hopes for reaching the moon also ended on that charred launch pad in 1969.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The first commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26. Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said the company is in talks with prospective customers for the first commercial launch of that system roughly two years from now. “We are in discussions with three different customers as we speak right now to be that first mission,” Hofeller said at the APSAT conference here. “Those are all telecom companies.” SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage are being designed to launch...

Two hundred rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Saturday, and Israel's Iron Dome system intercepted dozens of them. Air raid sirens sounded in Gaza-area towns, as well as in Beit Shemesh and other Jerusalem-area towns. Rockets also landed in the courtyards of a home and school in Kiryat Gat. "We can confirm that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad together with Hamas are responsible for firing 200 rockets from Gaza at Israeli civilians over the last 8 hours," an IDF statement read. An 80-year-old woman was severely injured in Kiryat Gat, after suffering shrapnel wounds to her face. It is...

paceX's Falcon Heavy rocket successfully took its second flight ever on Thursday afternoon, when it lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying Lockheed Martin's Arabsat 6A communications satellite. As if that weren't exciting enough, SpaceX also managed to make history by landing three boosters back on Earth for the first time. Just minutes into the launch, the giant rocket's central core landed safely on SpaceX's offshore barge in the Atlantic Ocean, dubbed 'Of Course I Still Love You,' while the two side boosters landed back on pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zone 1 and...