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Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Ukraine Thursday -- paying his second visit to the country's capital city since the war with Russia began more than six months ago. The top US diplomat will meet with Ukrainian officials. His trip comes as Ukraine has launched a counteroffensives aimed at reclaiming Russian occupied areas in the south and northeast of the country. It also coincides with a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, hosted by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

German and Spanish missile manufacturers jointly aim to develop a hypersonic missile interceptor, a move that will seek to modernize wider Europe’s missile defenses against emerging new Russian threats. The European Hypersonic Defense Interceptor (EU HYDEF) project will cover the concept phase to develop a so-called endo-atmospheric interceptor, which will aim to cover threats from 2035 and beyond. It will run for 36 months at a projected cost of US$110 million, with the EU contributing almost $100 million to the effort. Defense News reports that the program’s goal is to field a countermeasure that can eventually be integrated into existing...

Thursday 8 September 2022The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary Feast St Mary's Catholic ChurchSalem, South Dakota Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(II).First readingMicah 5:1-4 ©He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the LordThe Lord says this:But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,the least of the clans of Judah,out of you will be born for methe one who is to rule over Israel;his origin goes back to the distant past,to the days of old.The Lord is therefore going to abandon themtill the time when she who is to give birth gives birth.Then the remnant of his brothers will...

Just before 11 a.m. Moscow Standard Time on March 1, after a night of Russian strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, a set of Russian-language Twitter accounts spread a lie that Ukraine was fabricating civilian casualties. (snip) Late last month, the network of accounts shifted to focus almost exclusively on Ukraine, echoing similar narratives and content across accounts and platforms. A popular post by the account @QR_Kod accused the Ukrainian military of using civilians as human shields. Another post by @QR_Kod portrayed Ukraine as provoking Russia at the behest of its NATO masters. Both tweets received hundreds of likes...

A leading Catholic scholar claimed that alleged alien abductions stories have parallels with people who say they have encountered demons. Theologian Dr Paul Thigpen went on to add that aliens are in fact more than likely " demons ". He also said that the US government know more than they publicly state in relation to UAPs ('Unexplained Aerial Phenomena' - a US military term for UFOs ). Dr Thigpen told the National Catholic Register: “With UAP we may actually be dealing with extraordinary phenomena of various origins despite similar characteristics. “Extra-terrestrial hypothesis – the notion that we are encountering non-human...

If you’re a GOP congressional candidate, who should you take advice from on how to win your election? Mitch McConnell -- who, by all appearances, is a Disney animatron created to trip up Republican contenders -- or Ron DeSantis, ultra-successful governor of Florida and a candidate who won a nail-biter in 2018, which was a very Democrat year? If GOP candidates follow DeSantis, the Vegas odds favor them bagging their Democrat opponents. DeSantis is no Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits. He’s smart, tough, and relentless – and he’s right on the issues. He wins. Expect DeSantis to dispatch hatin’ Charlie Crist...

A Black woman from Michigan says she was racially discriminated against when three employees at a Fifth Third Bank told her a casino jackpot check she was trying to deposit was fraudulent, according to a recently filed federal lawsuit. Lizzie Pugh, 71, tried to deposit the check April 11 at one of the bank’s Livonia branches, according to the suit filed Aug. 29 in U.S. District Court in Michigan. The lawsuit said Pugh had a check in hand from the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant, where she had hit a slot machine jackpot on April 9 while...

While some of the fiscal Republicans remain in office and continue to work hard in defense of the pre-MAGA Republican agenda by supporting bipartisan legislation, they are largely outshined by election deniers and Trump-endorsed candidates. Representative Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, just lost her primary to the Trump backed candidate in Wyoming, known as Cheney territory, after taking a stand against former President Trump and fighting to preserve our democracy. It’s a notable example of just how great the influence of MAGA Republicans in fact is. GOP establishment figures like the Cheneys are being pushed...

Greece’s government has written to the country’s NATO and European Union partners and the head of the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn increasingly aggressive talk by officials in neighboring Turkey and suggesting that current bilateral tensions could escalate into a second open conflict on European soil. In the letters, copies of which were seen Wednesday by The Associated Press, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the behavior of his country’s historic regional rival — and NATO ally — should be censured by the three bodies. “By not doing so in time or by underestimating the seriousness of the...

The race for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District’s seat will take its final shape Sept. 13. Republican primary voters will decide who will face off in the general election against U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, the two-term Democratic incumbent from Manchester. The five Republicans running in the Sept. 13 primary present voters with the opportunity to nominate a conservative from the younger generation of the party in state Rep. Tim Baxter, former White House aide Karoline Leavitt or former U.S. State Department official Matt Mowers, who was the 2020 nominee for the CD 1 seat, losing to Pappas in the general...

DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Wednesday struck down Michigan's 1931 anti-abortion law, months after suspending it, the latest development over abortion rights in a state where the issue is being argued in courtrooms and, possibly, at the ballot box. The law, which was long dormant before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, violates the Michigan Constitution, said Judge Elizabeth Gleicher. “A law denying safe, routine medical care not only denies women of their ability to control their bodies and their lives — it denies them of their dignity,” Gleicher of the Court of Claims wrote....

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 60% of Republicans don't think Trump's MAGA movement represents the majority of the party.

To the sound of cheers from some in attendance, the Miami-Dade School Board voted Wednesday night to reject making October LGBTQ history month

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1:16 video of reporter asking her if she would be interested in being Trump's VP and gets clubbed like a baby seal.

FULL SCRUM: After the Arizona Chamber of Commerce forum, Kari Lake takes on The Fake News Media, SLAMS her opponent Katie Hobbs for her refusal to Debate & responds to questions from the Media about being VP.

Both Republicans have been at odds with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and neither of them are running for reelection Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, one of Texas’ most prominent Republican local leaders, is backing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Democratic challenger. “The one person who I’ll support statewide that will get me a little in trouble: Mike Collier for lieutenant governor,” Whitley said on Y’all-itics, a WFAA politics podcast. Whitley and Patrick have frequently clashed, and on the podcast Whitley slammed Patrick for waging “war on local elected officials.” Just days after Whitley made the endorsement that crossed party lines, an...

Anderson Cooper has testified that he will accept pre-agreed answers during interviews about legally-thorny topics, in a deposition that lifts the lid on CNN's journalistic processes. The 55-year-old journalist, one of CNN's biggest stars, bristled when the lawyer deposing him described him as a television 'host,' and insisted that he was fully involved in reporting and not just the face of the news. He said he never attended morning editorial meetings, and, asked about who controlled his social media, replied: 'I don't look at social media that much.' On the advice of his lawyer, Cooper refused to answer questions about...