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Russia says it repelled drone attack on region hosting brigade Ukraine accuses of deadly strike
Updated: Apr 16, 2025, 07:03:00 PM IST
The Russian military said on Wednesday its air defence forces had destroyed seven Ukrainian drones over Russia's Ivanovo region, the location of one of two missile brigades which Kyiv accuses of a deadly weekend attack on the city of Sumy.
Ukraine's HUR military intelligence agency named Russia's 112th missile brigade, which according to publicly available information is based in the town of Shuya in the Ivanovo region, as having fired on Sumy in the Sunday attack which killed at least 35 people and was widely condemned in the West.
Russia's Defence Ministry, which says the Sumy attack targeted a meeting of Ukrainian military officers, said in a statement that Wednesday's attempted Ukrainian strike on Ivanovo had been conducted by aeroplane-style drones in the morning.
It did not mention the missile brigade based in the region, but local media reported it had been the intended target.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
"According to operational data from headquarters, there were no fatalities and two lightly injured people received medical assistance," the local government of the Ivanovo region said in a statement.
"The emergency notification system worked normally. No evacuation was announced. Emergency services specialists are dealing with the aftermath."
Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that it had hit a base in Russia's Kursk region belonging to the 448th missile brigade, the other brigade which Kyiv accused of involvement in the Sumy attack.
The Russian military said on the same day it had intercepted or destroyed 109 Ukrainian drones over the Kursk region overnight. One elderly woman had been killed in the Ukrainian attack, local authorities said.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/russia-says-it-repelled-drone-attack-on-region-hosting-brigade-ukraine-accuses-of-deadly-strike/articleshow/120347575.cms
FAA Annual Drone Safety Day is Saturday, April 26, 2025
Last Updated April 10, 2025
Drone Safety Day (DSD) is the FAA’s annual campaign dedicated to educating the drone community of the importance of flying safely and highlight the good that drones contribute to our community.
DSD will highlight the benefits of safe drone operations with in-person, virtual, and hybrid events in focus areas such as Education, Environment, and Emergencies.
Join us by having an event of your own!
Our annual theme is “Fly Right”:
Register your drone – FAADroneZone
Interact with others
Gain knowledge
Have a safety plan
TRUST and Train
https://www.faa.gov/uas/events/drone_safety_day
Former Kursk Oblast governor arrested for embezzlement in Ukraine border fortifications
April 16, 2025 9:46 PM
A Moscow court sent former Kursk Oblast Governor Alexei Smirnov to a two-month pre-trial detention center on April 16 in connection with a fraud case, the press service of Moscow courts reported.
Smirnov and his deputy Alexei Dedov are accused of embezzling over a billion rubles ($12 million) from the budget allocated to the Kursk Oblast Development Corporation for the construction of fortifications on the border with Ukraine.
Smirnov served as governor of Kursk Oblast from May to December 2024, during which Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the oblast in August 2024 and managed to occupy part of the region until March of this year.
The former governor pleaded not guilty, Russian state media TASS reported, citing sources in law enforcement agencies.
According to Russia's Interior Ministry, Smirnov and Dedov led a criminal group and acted together with the management of the Kursk Oblast Development Corporation to embezzle funds meant for fortifications.
Earlier, law enforcement agencies also detained three corporation executives and the heads of unnamed companies that received payments but did not complete the contracted works.
Following Smirnov's resignation as governor in December 2024, Alexander Khinshtein became the acting governor of Kursk Oblast.
Ukraine initially seized 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory before Moscow, reinforced by North Korean units, launched a counteroffensive in March.
The Russian push coincided with a temporary pause in U.S. intelligence and military support for Ukraine, which resumed on March 11.
https://kyivindependent.com/ex-kursk-oblast-governor-detained-due-to-embezzlement-in-fortifications-construction-on-border-with-ukraine/
‘No, it’s not a UFO’: Mysterious balloon’s identity revealed
Updated: Apr 15, 2025 / 06:37 PM HST
Over the last several weeks, KHON2 received numerous calls and e-mails about a balloon flying high over Oahu and Molokai.
“Around 10 this morning up Maunalani Heights we saw something, it was stationary, not moving at all and no sound.
It was high altitude and we didn’t know what it was,” said Oahu resident Ken Inouye. “We were wondering could it be foreign matter? Or weather maybe?”
The balloon was able to be tracked on Flightradar24.com and found its registration number and eventually the owner, Aerostar, which is located about 4,000 miles away in Sioux Falls, S.D.
“No, it’s not a UFO, it’s pretty well identified, and it’s not Chinese,” said Russ Van Der Werff, vice president of stratospheric solutions at Aerostar. “It’s from South Dakota.”
He said the balloon left Sioux Falls about two months ago and has been flying around the islands the last few weeks and is currently in research and development, or “R and D,” mode.
“There’s a lot of problems out in the Pacific region that are unique, whether it be weather monitoring or illegal fishing, even some of the natural disaster stuff, doing damage assessment, communications, monitoring, wildfires and things, so we’ve got a lot of people interested out there and we like to put stuff up where people are interested when we’re doing R and D, just to show them what we’re capable of,” Van Der Werff added.
Unlike a satellite which goes around earth once or twice a day, these balloons can stay over a specific area for long periods of time. Right now, it’s traveling at about 10 to 15 miles per hour in the stratosphere.
“This is all something that we can remote control from the ground through a computer, and we’re always coordinating in real time with air traffic control regional military authorities,” Van Der Werff explained.
The balloon runs on solar energy which is being fed into the batteries to keep it going.
“The helium is sealed inside the balloon that provides a lift and then to steer the balloon, we use the winds that are up there in the stratosphere at different altitudes and we have a computer machine learning model that’s pulling in lots of weather data, and it’s assessing what direction the wind will be going at those different altitudes,” he added.
Similar to a sailboat, the balloon can be raised or lowered to catch the wind going in the direction they want it to go.
Recently, Aerostar showed the U.S. Forest Service in the western U.S. how they can monitor the progression of new wildfires.
“The guys on the ground who are trying to fight these fires, you know, they can see on their phone, which is connected up to the balloon, where they’re at, where the fire is at, how things are moving, which can really be a lifesaver kind of deal in that situation,” Van Der Werff added.
The balloon has been seen mostly around Molokai and Oahu. Aerostar says it’s about 70 feet in length and hovering about 50,000 to 100,000 feet in the air.
The company said the balloon has about three months of life in it before heading back to South Dakota.
Van Der Werff added that Aerostar has been around since 1956, and was around even before NASA. The company has been helping with the space race decades ago and works with NASA on several projects to date.
The company has been working with Google on a project called ‘loon’ for about 15 to 20 years which does cellular connections from balloons.
Last month the company set a world record with the longest continuous flight in the stratosphere by a controllable flight vehicle.
It stayed in the air for 336 days and traveled over 80,500 nautical miles from Florida, to the Caribbean, to the Midwest, to Hawaii and south across the Equator to the South Pacific.
https://www.khon2.com/local-news/no-its-not-a-ufo-mysterious-balloons-identity-revealed/
WEAPONIZED : EPISODE #73
April 15, 2025
Crew members aboard the USS Jackson witnessed an astonishing encounter with four unknown objects off the coast of Southern California in February 2023, and now, one of those eyewitnesses is stepping forward.
In this episode, Jeremy and George are joined by an active-duty Navy veteran who describes in vivid detail seeing a glowing, Tic-Tac-shaped object emerge from the ocean.
The transmedium craft then linked up with three other Tic Tacs which subsequently zipped away in tight formation.
The objects were detected on multiple sensors and a video was recorded by crew members inside the Combat Information Center of the ship.
The witness, Alex Wiggins, is a 23-year veteran of the Navy and says sailors routinely encounter unidentified objects in the area where the first Tic Tac was documented back in 2004.
https://www.weaponizedpodcast.com/episodes-3/episode-73
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFmK-NSnKI
After 100 Years Of Searching, A Live Colossal Squid Has Been Filmed For First Time
April 16, 2025
Behold: a live colossal squid in all its glory. After a century of searching, the extremely elusive cephalopod has been caught on camera alive in its natural habitat for the first time (and, for once, not inside the belly of a whale or washed up dead on a beach).
The juvenile squid was filmed on March 9 at a depth of 600 meters (1,968 feet) in waters off the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Scientists onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) captured the video using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) – and experts are very pleased with the results.
“It’s exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist,” Dr Kat Bolstad, a cephalopod biologist at the Auckland University of Technology who consulted the team and helped to verify the species, said in a statement.
“For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish."
Colossal squids (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) are a member of the glass squid family (Cranchiidae), hence this specimen's see-through body.
Because sightings are so rare, much of what we know about its behavior and life cycle remains a mystery. However, scientists believe that as these squids mature, their once-transparent bodies gradually darken with age.
The filmed individual is a young’un, just 30 centimeters (under 1 foot) long, but the species can grow up to 7 meters (23 feet) in length and can weigh as much as 500 kilograms (1,100 lbs), making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet.
Giant squids (Architeuthis dux) are longer at up to 13 meters (43 feet) but not as hefty at about half that weight.
The researchers, however, are not disappointed that this individual is a little bit puny. Speaking at a media conference, Dr Bolstad said, "I really love that this is the first view that we have of the colossal squid.”
"This is not what many of us would have pictured as what we might see the first time we saw a colossal squid. We know how large the species can grow.
We know it's the heaviest invertebrate on the planet […] This is a great example of the beauty of many deep-sea animals, in contrast to the ‘stuff of nightmares’ clickbait titles we get when the media covers these animals,” she added.
Between December 2022 and March 2023, the nonprofit group Kolossal embarked on an expedition to Antarctica in search of the elusive colossal squid.
During their journey, they captured footage of a glass squid measuring 10–12 centimeters (3.9–4.7 inches), which they believed might have been a juvenile colossal squid.
However, its exact identity was in doubt because the video quality wasn’t ideal – it could also have been an adult Galiteuthis glacialis (another glass squid) or even a previously unknown species.
This latest footage is much clearer and more certain. Dr Bolstad and Dr Aaron Evans, another independent expert on the glass squid family, managed to confirm the individual was a colossal squid after noting the presence of hooks in the middle of their eight arms.
This, they say, is a notable feature that helps to distinguish them from other more common squid.
“It’s incredible that we can leverage the power of the taxonomic community through R/V Falkor (too) telepresence while we are out at sea,” said the expedition’s chief scientist, Dr Michelle Taylor of the University of Essex, who led The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census team on the South Sandwich Islands expedition.
“The Ocean Census international science network is proud to work together with the Schmidt Ocean Institute to accelerate species discovery and expand our knowledge of ocean life, live online with the world’s science community.”
Incredibly, the discovery coincides with the 100th anniversary of the identification and formal naming of the colossal squid.
The species was first discovered in 1925 when body parts of a strange squid were found in the guts of a sperm whale near the Shetland Islands.
The pieces were sent back to the British Museum, where they were formally identified as a new species: Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni.
It only took a century, but science has finally managed to see a live one in the flesh.
https://www.iflscience.com/after-100-years-of-searching-a-live-colossal-squid-has-been-filmed-for-first-time-78831
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_–y3XatAY
https://www.journee-mondiale.com/en/10-bizarre-national-parks-that-look-like-alien-planets-hiding-in-america/
10 Bizarre National Parks That Look Like Alien Planets Hiding in America
14/04/2025
America’s most extraordinary natural wonders often hide in plain sight, far from the crowded pathways of Yellowstone or Yosemite.
These ten unusual national parks challenge imagination with landscapes so bizarre they seem transplanted from alien worlds.
From underground labyrinths to psychedelic badlands, these parks showcase nature’s most creative moments.
Mammoth Cave: The Subterranean Kingdom
Beneath Kentucky’s rolling hills lies the world’s longest known cave system—a mind-boggling 400+ miles of mapped passages.
Unlike typical caves, Mammoth Cave features cathedral-sized rooms where stalactites hang like frozen waterfalls and ancient fossils tell 300-million-year-old stories.
Guided tours reveal this underground wilderness where early miners once extracted minerals by torchlight, leaving behind haunting signatures that still mark the walls today.
White Sands: America’s Desert Mirage
New Mexico’s White Sands presents a surreal landscape where 275 square miles of gypsum dunes create an otherworldly white desert.
These wave-like formations shift constantly in the wind, swallowing footprints within hours. Visitors sledding down brilliant slopes experience a snow-like adventure in 90-degree heat—the ultimate desert contradiction.
Local Mescalero Apache legends speak of the dunes as the scattered remains of a great white bear that protected their ancestors.
Haleakalā: Dawn Above the Clouds
Standing atop Maui’s 10,023-foot volcano at sunrise feels like witnessing the birth of the world. As first light breaks across the crater, the landscape transforms from inky blackness to a kaleidoscope of reds and purples.
“To watch the sun rise from Haleakalā is to witness the marriage of heaven and earth,” explains native Hawaiian cultural practitioner Clifford Nae’ole.
The volcanic moonscape below—filled with cinder cones and silversword plants found nowhere else on Earth—completes this otherworldly experience.
Gates of the Arctic: America’s Last True Wilderness
Alaska’s northernmost national park remains one of America’s least visited for good reason—it contains no roads, trails, or visitor facilities.
This pristine wilderness larger than Switzerland demands self-sufficiency from the few hundred annual visitors who brave its unmarked terrain.
Here, the Brooks Range creates a jagged horizon beneath which wolves and grizzlies roam freely, completely unaccustomed to human presence. Like certain remote islands in the Indian Ocean, its isolation is its greatest treasure.
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Great Basin: Where Ancient Trees Meet Midnight Stars
Nevada’s hidden gem harbors 5,000-year-old bristlecone pines—Earth’s oldest living organisms—their gnarled trunks twisted by millennia of harsh conditions.
By night, the park transforms into one of America’s darkest sky sanctuaries where the Milky Way casts shadows.
The park’s Lehman Caves feature rare shield formations that defy gravity, extending horizontally from cave ceilings like suspended stone dinner plates.
North Cascades: America’s Alpine Secret
Despite containing over 300 glaciers—more than Glacier National Park—North Cascades remains Washington’s hidden treasure.
Its jagged peaks rise like the dramatic coastal cliffs of the Mediterranean, creating an alpine wonderland where turquoise lakes reflect snow-capped summits.
Park ranger Rosemary Seifried notes, “Visitors often say they feel transported to Switzerland, yet they’ve encountered fewer than a dozen other hikers all day.”
Isle Royale: The Island Time Forgot
This isolated Lake Superior island—accessible only by seaplane or boat—hosts America’s least-visited national park despite containing 165 miles of pristine hiking trails.
The island’s wolf and moose populations have been studied continuously since 1958 in the world’s longest predator-prey research project.
Like certain volcanic islands that suddenly appeared, Isle Royale feels like a world apart, offering a wilderness experience where visitors might go days without encountering another human.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison: The Vertical Abyss
Colorado’s least famous canyon plunges almost 2,000 vertical feet—deeper than the Empire State Building is tall—creating walls so steep and narrow that parts of the gorge receive just 33 minutes of sunlight daily.
The striated Precambrian rock tells a 2-billion-year geological story, with some of North America’s oldest exposed rock. Rock climbers face what many consider America’s most challenging multi-pitch ascents on walls darker than midnight.
Capitol Reef: The Wrinkle in Earth’s Crust
Utah’s hidden gem features the Waterpocket Fold—a 100-mile wrinkle in Earth’s crust creating a landscape of multicolored cliffs and domes resembling South Pacific paradise islands frozen in stone.
Ancient petroglyphs from the Fremont people share walls with pioneer inscriptions, creating an open-air museum spanning thousands of years.
The park’s historic orchards allow visitors to harvest heritage fruits in season—a living connection to 19th-century settlers.
Congaree: The Primeval Swamp Cathedral
South Carolina’s forgotten wonder preserves America’s largest intact tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest.
Massive bald cypress trees emerge from blackwater swamps like ancient columns, creating a cathedral-like canopy where visitors paddle through flooded forests.
“Walking the elevated boardwalk during a firefly display is like floating through a galaxy of living stars,” describes ranger Marcus Amaker.
The park’s trees have witnessed centuries of history, much like ancient cities where wildlife and human history intertwine.
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Shocking 'UFO' Footage Goes Viral: Video Of Mysterious Lights In Sky Ignites Speculation About Alien Life
Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:42 PM (IST)
A new viral video showcasing strange, moving lights in the night sky has sent the internet into a frenzy, with many declaring it the clearest UFO footage ever captured.
The captivating footage, featuring colourful lights or glowing orbs shifting in a mysterious manner, has reignited discussions about extraterrestrial life and unexplained aerial phenomena.
The video is a compilation of clips showing various instances of similar phenomena—bright, spherical lights moving across the sky in a way that defies immediate explanation.
At one point, the lights appear to align in a linear formation, further deepening the mystery of what exactly is being captured on camera.
What makes this video stand out, however, is its exceptional clarity.
Unlike other UFO videos that often feature low-resolution, grainy footage, this particular clip is sharp and clear, offering a more detailed view of the lights' movement.
The quality of the video has only fueled speculation about the nature of the lights and their potential origins.
An Internet Frenzy
The video has sparked a wave of reactions on social media. Many viewers were quick to label the lights as "UFOs" or extraterrestrial in origin, drawing parallels to previous sightings of mysterious aerial phenomena.
One user, commenting on the video, noted, "Kinda weird how every single video is in the clouds, and for the most part, the clouds look completely off," hinting at the possibility that the video was fabricated or that the lighting conditions were unusual.
Others, however, are less convinced by the viral footage. "Fake alien invasion here we come," wrote another user, expressing their scepticism about the possibility of aliens making an appearance.
Despite the divide in opinions, the video has undoubtedly captured the collective imagination, reigniting the long-standing debate about UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
Fake alien invasion here we come.
Questions Without Answers
As of now, the exact date and location of the sighting remain unknown. This lack of clarity has only fueled the intrigue surrounding the footage.
Was it a simple case of the atmospheric phenomenon or is there more to this mysterious sighting than meets the eye?
With the video spreading rapidly across social media platforms, the questions surrounding the lights in the sky are only intensifying.
https://english.jagran.com/world/shocking-ufo-footage-goes-viral-video-of-mysterious-lights-in-sky-ignites-speculation-about-alien-life-watch-10230987
https://x.com/dom_lucre/status/1912240470480285729