Philippines mulls pullout of Syria peacekeepers The Philippine foreign secretary says he is recommending to President Benigno Aquino III to pull out all Filipino U.N. peacekeepers from the Golan Heights following the abduction of four by Syrian rebels. More
8 die in clothing factory fire in Bangladesh as Rana Plaza toll passes 900 Eight people were killed when a fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh, police and an industry association official said on Thursday, as the death toll from the collapse of another factory building two weeks ago climbed above 900. More
NASA and Boeing Decide To Proceed With the Momentous Manned Launch of a New Spaceship After a series of setbacks and prolonged delays, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is gearing up for its first crewed launch. This historic mission, slated to depart from Florida as early as May 6, will ... 04/28/2024 - 4:26 am | View Link
China launches Shenzhou-18 manned mission, sending three-member crew to space The mission is China's first manned mission to the space station this year, the third since the space station entered application and development phase, China's 32nd manned flight into space, and the ... 04/27/2024 - 12:48 pm | View Link
China launches space mission for ‘cutting-edge' experiments The Shenzhou-18 spaceship lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center atop a Long March 2F rocket at 8.59 p.m. Beijing time and headed for the Tiangong space station, Xinhua News reported, ... 04/25/2024 - 8:24 pm | View Link
China’s Shenzhou-18 crew arrive at Tiangong space station China’s Shenzhou-18 crew arrive at Tiangong space station China’s three Shenzhou-18 mission astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station Thursday following launch from Jiuquan spaceport. 04/25/2024 - 10:10 am | View Link
Crew of first Boeing Starliner mission arrives at Kennedy Space Center The crew of the first Boeing Starliner space mission arrived Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the spacecraft's debut manned mission on May 6. 04/25/2024 - 9:56 am | View Link
BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities on Saturday were investigating the killing of a well-known social media influencer, who was shot by an armed motorcyclist in front of her home in central Baghdad.
Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known as Um Fahad or “mother of Fahad,” was popular on the social media sites TikTok and Instagram, where she posted videos of herself dancing to music and was followed by tens of thousands of users.
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An Iraqi security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said that the assailant opened fire as Sawadi parked her Cadillac in front of her house on Friday, killing her, then took her phone and fled the scene.
The killing took place in Zayoona, the same neighborhood where a prominent Iraqi researcher and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi was gunned down in 2020.
As we mark Passover, when Jews celebrate their founding liberation from a tyrannical Pharaoh who enslaved them, the sages remind us Pharaohs come in all guises and liberation is not a one-time event. It must be re-enacted in each generation and in each heart.
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Today,16 million Jews in a world of eight billion face rising external threats.
In the early 2000s, one in 12 of the British population was born abroad. Now that figure is closer to one in six—higher than even America, the proverbial land of immigrants. And the number is still rising rapidly; over the last two years, almost 2 million people have moved to the U.
Rags-to-riches tales, revenge plots, and plenty of twists—Chinese viewers are loving what they can find in internet “micro-dramas,” the latest big thing in Chinese entertainment of vertically-shot shows posted on social media with episodes that have runtimes of just a few minutes or less.
But Chinese authorities, wary of losing control over messaging, aren’t loving the new medium so much—and are cracking down on the booming micro-drama industry.
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Unlike legacy television productions with longer production schedules and larger budgets—and strict government oversight—the micro-drama industry has risen through the proliferation of low-budget, quickly made mini-shows that often cost only a fraction of the time and money to put in front of viewers, and until recently, were largely unregulated.
Not known for award- or acclaim-worthy scripts or acting but rather for their pure bingeworthiness, micro-dramas tend to lean into familiar tried-and-tested themes, like love affairs, family disputes, and tensions between the rich and poor.
Read More: China’s Solution to Inequality?
(WASHINGTON) — The U. S. will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defense systems as part of a massive $6 billion additional aid package, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Friday.
The missiles will be used to replenish previously supplied Patriot systems. The package also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars into Ukraine’s existing weaponry, much of which still dates back to the Soviet era.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the need for Patriots early Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries gathering virtually in a Pentagon-led meeting.
Mass graves with hundreds of bodies were discovered last weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, prompting serious concerns about war crimes, according to the OHCHR, the U. N.’s human rights office.
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Much remains unknown about the victims, but the discovery of the bodies comes after Israeli troops ended their two-week operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in early April.