27 Aug, 2023 14:28

China may be behind UFO sightings – former NASA official

Many unidentified aircraft could be “from other places on earth,” Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen has claimed

So-called Chinese “spy balloons” may be mistaken for extraterrestrial craft, former NASA Science Mission Directorate deputy head Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen has told The Telegraph. Zurbuchen remains convinced that something is out there, but warned that “unfriendly”technology from Earth is a likely explanation.

“The fact that there are unexplained phenomena is not a question for me,”Zurbuchen told the British newspaper on Saturday. “What they are and what they mean, and how we prove they exist is something that needs more work.”

As NASA’s longest-serving associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Zurbuchen chaired the agency’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) panel last year. The panel examined hundreds of accounts from witnesses who claimed to have seen mysterious flying objects, but did not conclude that any were of extraterrestrial origin.

“There could be multiple explanations,” he said. “If we are looking at technology then it may not be friendly and that is something we should know. It could be technology from other places on Earth and that would be pretty scary.”

Several months after the panel convened, US fighter jets shot down a high-altitude balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The Pentagon referred to the craft as a Chinese “spy balloon,” although Beijing maintained that it was a civilian airship that had drifted off course. Three other similar balloons were spotted over the US around this time, but none were linked to China.

“The whole balloon phenomena we cannot ignore because if we ignore what we see then we will suddenly get surprised,” Zurbuchen said.

Zurbuchen also suggested that natural phenomena “like luminescent clouds, or something we’ve never seen before,” could explain some sightings, while others could be written off as “some kind of camera problem.”

Some testimony is less easily explainable. A former US Navy fighter pilot who witnessed a tic-tac shaped craft perform impossible feats of aerobatics off the coast of California in 2004 insisted that the object was not man-made. Another pilot stationed on the same aircraft carrier said that she saw the object drop 80,000ft (just under 25,000m) in less than a second, and travel dozens of miles in seconds. Video footage of the encounter was leaked in 2017, but denied by the Pentagon until it was declassified three years later.

“The way that the navy pilots were ridiculed I felt for them,” Zurbuchen told The Telegraph. “I’m convinced they were telling the truth about what they saw. The most important scientists like Einstein went through a time where traditional science ridiculed them.”

The Pentagon created its own UAP tracking unit last year, but has not announced any evidence of alien activity. However, a veteran intelligence officer told a Congressional hearing last month that the US military has been in possession of “non-human” spacecraft and the remains of alien pilots for several decades. The Pentagon has firmly denied his claims.

https://www.rt.com/news/581915-ufo-china-balloon-nasa/

27 Aug, 2023 15:53

NATO’s Ukraine strategy has failed – ex-Italian PM

Western efforts to arm Kiev and break the Russian economy are getting nowhere, Giuseppe Conte has said

NATO’s attempts to inflict defeat on Russia in the Ukraine conflict have completely missed their mark as Moscow continues to stand tall amid Kiev’s faltering counteroffensive and Western sanctions, former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Saturday.

Writing on Facebook, Conte, who leads the Five Star Movement party, noted that the year and a half of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev had shown that it was time to “put aside the optimistic assessments… fueled by a superficial as well as deafening war propaganda” in the West.

The strategy of the US-led military block, which has so far hinged on massive military aid to Kiev and the “logic of escalation,” has failed to bring about the much-hoped-for demise of the Russian military, Conte said. He recalled that Ukraine never managed to push Russian forces back from Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), a key Donbass stronghold that Russia captured in May after months of fierce fighting.

“There has been no disintegration of [Russia’s] military and paramilitary departments, there has been no retreat due to the Ukrainian counteroffensive,” the ex-prime minister stressed, adding that Western hopes for domestic political turmoil in the country also failed to materialize.

Meanwhile, the harsh sanctions imposed by the West on Russia “have not bankrupted it or crippled its economy,” Conte continued, noting that the long-stated goal of isolating Moscow “has by no means been achieved.”

To underscore his point, the politician pointed to the recent BRICS summit – Russia is a member of the group – which ended with an unprecedented expansion of the group.

In addition to this, Conte claimed that the Ukraine conflict “has exposed the EU’s inability to develop an effective common strategy and to express autonomous political and economic leadership.” Instead, it has become yet another indicator of thebloc’s kowtowing to the US.

Conte’s comments come as the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed to gain any significant ground despite more than two months of fighting. According to Moscow, Kiev has lost more than 43,000 service members and nearly 5,000 pieces of military equipment since the start of the push.

The former Italian prime minister, who held the office from 2018 to 2021, has in the past repeatedly called for peace talks between the belligerents in Ukraine while opposing further arms deliveries to Kiev, warning of a potential escalation.

https://www.rt.com/news/581916-italy-conte-nato-failed-ukraine/

27 Aug, 2023 15:58

Ukraine conflict may be lengthy – Canadian PM

Justin Trudeau has pledged that Ottawa, along with the other G7 members, will support Kiev for as long as it takes

It may still be a long time before the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia ends, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said. He added that his country as well as the G7 nations are prepared to support Kiev for the long haul.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Seventh Global Environment Facility Assembly in Vancouver on Saturday, Trudeau said that the Group of Seven leaders have always known that Ukraine’s counteroffensive “was going to be a long process.”

“Certainly from the conversations we’ve had at the G7 and NATO, we are ready for a war that will take as long as it needs to, because we cannot and must not let Russia win,” he added.

Ukraine launched its much-hyped counteroffensive in early June in the east and south of the country, but has yet to make any significant gains. Senior officials in Kiev, including President Vladimir Zelensky, have acknowledged that it is going more slowly than anticipated.

Western media outlets have reported heavy losses among Ukrainian forces as they try to breach Russian defenses.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed earlier this month that Kiev had lost over 43,000 military personnel and nearly 5,000 pieces of military equipment since the start of the counteroffensive.

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous officials in Washington, reported on Thursday that the US is unlikely to give Ukraine “anywhere near the same level” of military aid in 2024 compared to this year.

On Friday, Bloomberg claimed that European officials are growing increasingly concerned that US President Joe Biden could “nudge” Ukraine toward peace talks next year.

Earlier this month, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram that hostilities between Russia and Ukraine could drag on for years or even decades.

For Russia, it is an “existential” matter, he said.

He added that Moscow has “no choice: either we will destroy their hostile political regime, or the collective West will eventually tear Russia to pieces.”

He also called into question the West’s willingness to continue supporting Kiev for the long haul, saying: “someone else’s war sooner or later becomes boring, costly and irrelevant.”

Since the start of the conflict last February, the West has actively been supporting Ukraine with weapons and ammunition deliveries. Moscow has warned that this aid will only serve to prolong the bloodshed, while risking a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.

(While Italy and other EU are admitting it a failure, Canada without the some pressures of EU countries double, btw Canada gives the least of all aid to Ukraine, so Trudeau virtue signals to the ignorant.)

https://www.rt.com/news/581911-canadian-pm-ukraine-conflict-lengthy/

27 Aug, 2023 08:57

Famed Ukrainian fighter pilot dies in jet collision

Andrey ‘Juice’ Pilshchikov, who campaigned for the delivery of F-16s to Kiev, was among the three pilots who died on Friday

Ukraine has lost a “mega talent,” the country’s air force spokesperson has said, commenting on the death of fighter pilot Andrey ‘Juice’ Pilshchikov. One of the faces of Kiev’s campaign for the delivery of F-16 fighter jets, he was killed along with two of his colleagues during a training flight on Friday.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Ukrainian Air Force representative Yury Ignat described Pilshchikov as a “young officer with mega knowledge and mega talent,” who contributed a lot to reforming the country’s military aviation.

The spokesperson added that the late pilot met with US government officials last year, lobbying for the provision of F-16s. According to Ignat, Pilshchikov, who spoke English well, also talked a lot about Kiev’s needs during his numerous interviews with Western media.

The official recounted how much Juice had yearned to fly the F-16, adding that his death has special poignancy now that the “American planes are actually on the horizon.”

In his video address on Telegram on Saturday, President Vladimir Zelensky extended his condolences to the fighter pilot’s family, calling Pilshchikov “one of those who helped our country a lot.”

He added that an investigation into the deadly incident had been launched.

In its statement, the Ukrainian Air Force said that Pilshchikov and two other pilots were killed when two L-39 combat training aircraft collided over Zhytomyr region west of Kiev on Friday.

Several media outlets, citing eyewitnesses and experts, suggested that the two crews may have been practicing formation flying, and that the planes had come too close to each other.

Ukraine had been asking its Western backers to supply it with US-made F-16 fighter jets for months before Denmark and the Netherlands confirmed their readiness to hand over a number of warplanes last week.

On Monday, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed receipt of the requests for F-16 transfers. She added, however, that Ukrainian pilots would first need to improve their English, noting that this is liable to “take some time.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov, in turn, told the media on Tuesday that the fighter jets will not be arriving in Ukraine for at least another six months.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that supplies of more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine by the US and its allies could result in a major escalation of hostilities.

https://www.rt.com/news/581904-ukraine-juice-pilot-killed-crash/