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Errol Musk eyes Bosnia for research hub on gravity and space
Jul 24, 2025 | 9:13 AM
SARAJEVO (Reuters) -South African businessman Errol Musk, the father of billionaire Elon Musk, visited Bosnia this week to assess its potential as a location for a research institute on gravity, space-time and longevity, months after saying he planned to base it in Dubai.
The elder Musk, a 79-year-old engineer who is estranged from his son, was quoted by Bosnia’s Klix news portal as saying he had been offered a location in the United Arab Emirates but was advised to try the Balkans by a friend there originally from the region.
“I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by what I found. The economy, the availability of things, the behavior of people.
I spent a few days here and thought – this is idyllic,” the news portal quoted the South African businessman as saying.
“My initial idea was that the UAE was ideal, but now that I’ve seen this … I’d say this is much better.”
The Chamber of Commerce of Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation said it had highlighted the country’s educated workforce and economic potential in a presentation to Errol Musk on Wednesday.
He said he had not spoken to Bosnian government officials about what he said was a private initiative to investigate the “four realms of longevity, fusion, space-time and gravity”.
He feared any over-controlling governments and wanted to attract people who were not “already brainwashed and think that such things are not possible”, adding that he had also visited Austria and Serbia.
Bosnia, once part of Socialist Yugoslavia, consists of a Bosniak-Croat Federation and Serb Republic linked by weak state authorities.
An international envoy oversees it to prevent a return to fighting between its Serbs, Croats and Muslims which tore it apart in 1992-5.
Errol Musk said he had not investigated Bosnia’s political system or discussed a potential investment there with his son, but would try to persuade him.
https://kfgo.com/2025/07/24/errol-musk-eyes-bosnia-for-research-hub-on-gravity-and-space/
Inside Project Kuiper's Florida hub: Preparing satellites for Amazon's space network
July 24, 2025
Amazon is continuing its full-scale deployment of Project Kuiper, a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network that will bring fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world.
We recently opened a key piece of that infrastructure: a 100,000-square-foot payload processing facility at Kennedy Space Center that prepares satellites for their upcoming launches into orbit.
We have secured more than 80 launches to deploy our initial satellite constellation, using a combination of rockets from Arianespace, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Most of those missions will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and having our own dedicated payload processing facility nearby means we can streamline satellite processing, integration, and encapsulation work, and move more quickly from the factory to the launch pad.
The facility was operational in time to support our first mission in April and subsequent launches with SpaceX and ULA, and we’ve already completed integration for our next launch on the manifest.
At full capacity, the new site will be able to process more than 100 satellites per month and support three simultaneous launch campaigns, and construction is underway on a $19.5 million secondary support site that will help us move even faster.
“We’ve completed three missions in less than three months, and we’re continuing to pick up the pace as we prepare to begin delivering service to customers.
Our facilities and team in Florida play a critical role in that process,” said Steve Metayer, vice president of production operations at Project Kuiper.
“At full capacity, this building will house three dispenser systems stacked full of Kuiper satellites, and a combination of fairings from rockets like Atlas V, Vulcan, New Glenn, and Falcon 9.
There’s nothing else like it on the Space Coast.”
From the factory to the launch pad
Project Kuiper opened a satellite production factory last year in Kirkland, Washington, that gives us the capacity to build up to five satellites per day at peak.
Once satellites are built, tested, and cleared for launch, they’re safely transported across the country to our payload processing facility at Kennedy Space Center.
Upon arrival, satellites are moved into the processing bay.
For any given satellite, Project Kuiper technicians remove the lid of the satellite container and move the satellite to the electrical checkout area, where its battery is charged and satellite health is verified.
The satellite is then moved to a propellant loading bay, where krypton propellant is added to the onboard propulsion system—a critical design feature that allows us to operate safely through each phase of the mission.
From there, satellites are integrated with a multi-level dispenser system and moved into one of three encapsulation bays to be enclosed safely in the rocket fairing.
The total number of satellites per dispenser varies based on the mission and capacity of the launch vehicle, but each mission will launch dozens of Kuiper satellites at a time.
Once satellites are safely encapsulated, the enclosed fairing exits through a 100-foot-tall high bay door to head to partner launch facilities, where it will be joined with the rest of the rocket in a vertical or horizontal integration facility.
Supporting jobs and economic development on the Space Coast
In addition to the primary processing facility, Project Kuiper is adding a facility to provide extra space to process and store flight hardware.
Our total investment in the payload processing site will reach more than $140 million and has generated more than 130 jobs on the Space Coast since 2024.
But the site is just one part of a broader investment in the region: Our launch contracts support thousands of jobs and suppliers across the U.S., and our joint investments with ULA are supporting infrastructure and service upgrades that benefit other commercial and government customers operating out of Cape Canaveral.
"There is no better place than Florida’s Space Coast to fulfill Kuiper’s promise to bring broadband to unserved and underserved across the nation and world," said Brian Huseman,
Amazon's vice president for public policy and community engagement. "We are proud to make investments in Florida that will impact the local community and ultimately our customers.
We look forward to our long-term partnership with Space Florida, NASA, Space Force, and state and local officials, as well as our launch providers and community partners."
(Amazon links no work, counts as spam, so I split the link)
https://www.aboutamazon.
com/news/innovation-at-amazon/project-kuiper-florida-satellite-facility
New Neil Armstrong Prize Aims to Be the Nobel of Space
24 July 2025
Purdue University has launched a major international prize named after Neil Armstrong, with the aim of becoming the leading global award for achievements in space.
Unveiled on the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Neil Armstrong Space Prize will recognise innovation, exploration, and scientific discovery across the space sector.
The university, known as the “cradle of astronauts,” announced the award during an event in Washington, D.C., with eight of its astronaut alumni in attendance.
Purdue has produced more astronauts than any other institution, 28 in total, including Armstrong himself, who graduated in aeronautical engineering in 1955.
Set to Rival the Nobels, With a Clear Focus on Space
Organisers say the prize is designed to sit alongside the world’s most prestigious honours, but with a sharp focus on space.
It will be awarded across three categories: technologies that improve life on Earth, discoveries that expand our understanding of the universe, and space exploration milestones that inspire future breakthroughs.
Nominations will open in August and run until 1 November 2025, ahead of the prize’s first presentation next year.
The selection panel brings together some of the most influential figures in spaceflight, including former NASA leaders Jim Free and Thomas Zurbuchen, SpaceX’s Starbase manager Kathy Lueders, and ex-Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson.
The committee is chaired by Dan Dumbacher, professor of engineering practice at Purdue.
“This prize carries Armstrong’s name and Purdue’s space legacy,” said university president Mung Chiang. “We’re announcing it at a transformational moment for the next giant leaps in space.”
Built to Inspire, Backed by Spaceflight Veterans
The announcement was supported by a strong showing from Purdue’s astronaut community.
Seven-time shuttle flyer Jerry Ross led a group that included Roy Bridges, Mark Polansky, Charlie Walker, and several commercial and suborbital astronauts such as Sirisha Bandla and Beth Moses.
Purdue College of Engineering dean Arvind Raman called the prize a signal of intent, designed to highlight the university’s enduring role in space research, partnerships, and security.
“At a time when space is more accessible than ever,” he said, “this award aims to inspire the next generation of space leaders.”
https://orbitaltoday.com/2025/07/24/new-neil-armstrong-prize-aims-to-be-the-nobel-of-space/
https://www.space.com/astronomy/venus/2-earth-weather-satellites-accidentally-spy-on-venus
https://earth-planets-space.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40623-025-02223-8
2 Earth weather satellites accidentally spy on Venus
July 23, 2025
In a serendipitous turn of events, scientists have discovered that Japan's Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 weather satellites, designed to monitor storms and climate patterns here on Earth, have also been quietly collecting valuable data on Venus for nearly a decade.
Although meteorological satellites orbit Earth and scan the skies around it, their imaging range extends into space, allowing them to occasionally catch glimpses of other celestial neighbors, such as the moon, stars and other planets in our solar system.
"This started by chance," explained Gaku Nishiyama, a postdoctoral researcher at the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym, DLR) in Berlin in an interview with Space.com.
"One of my best friends, who has a Ph.D. in astronomy and is a certified weather forecaster in Japan, found lunar images in Himawari-8/9 datasets and asked me to look."
At the time, Nishiyama was focused on lunar science, and he began using the Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 weather satellites — which launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively — in an unconventional way: as space telescopes.
By analyzing the light the moon emitted in infrared wavelengths, he and his team were able to test the satellites' ability to capture temperature variations across the moon's surface as well as determine its physical properties.
"During this lunar work, we also found other solar-system bodies, namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, in the datasets. We were interested in what phenomena were recorded there," Nishiyama explained.
To spot Venus in the Himawari data, the team used the precise imaging schedule and position of the satellites.
"Because we know almost exactly when and where Himawari is looking," Nishiyama said, "we can roughly predict where Venus will appear in each image.
From there, we isolate the pixels corresponding to Venus."
Nishiyama and his colleagues were analyzing subtle changes in the intensity of light Venus was emitting.
Such data allows scientists to track how a celestial body's brightness varies over time, which in turn reveals details about it.
The Himawari satellites ended up capturing one of the longest multiband infrared records of Venus ever assembled.
This unique dataset revealed subtle, year-to-year changes in the planet's cloud-top temperatures, as well as signs of phenomena called thermal tides and Rossby waves.
"Thermal tides are global-scale gravity waves excited by solar heating in the cloud layers of Venus," Nishiyama explained.
"When the atmosphere is stratified, like on Venus (i.e., a warm upper layer atop a cold lower layer), a restoring force acts upon heated air parcels, and the resulting vertical oscillations propagate as gravity waves.
Rossby waves [also seen in Earth's oceans and atmosphere] are also a global-scale wave caused by variations in the Coriolis force with latitude.
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"Both types of waves are crucial for transporting heat and momentum through Venus' atmosphere," he continued.
"Tracking how these waves change over time helps us better understand the planet's atmospheric dynamics, especially since other data, like wind speeds and cloud reflectivity, have shown variations that play out over several years.
"Specifically, we succeeded in detecting variations in temperature fields caused by Rossby waves at various altitudes for the first time, which is important to understanding the physics behind the years-scale variation of the Venus atmosphere," said Nishiyama.
These new observations help fill a crucial gap in our understanding of Venus' dynamic upper atmosphere and open a new frontier in planetary monitoring from Earth orbit.
The team's findings also challenge the calibration of key instruments on dedicated Venus spacecraft, like the LIR camera aboard Japan's Akatsuki Venus orbiter.
"To understand the atmospheric structure of Venus, determination of temperature at infrared wavelengths is crucial," said Nishiyama.
"LIR was expected to provide accurate temperature information; however, LIR has faced several issues in instrument calibration."
Comparing images taken by LIR and Himawari satellites at the same time and under identical geometric conditions, the team found discrepancies and suspects that LIR may be underestimating Venus' radiance.
"Our comparison between Himawari and LIR sheds light on how to recalibrate the LIR data, leading to a more accurate understanding of Venus' atmosphere," Nishiyama said.
The team is also hopeful that Himawari will complement data from missions such as Akatsuki and BepiColombo, a joint Japanese-European mission that's currently establishing itself in orbit around Mercury.
Nishiyama explained that, compared to Akatsuki, Himawari covers a wider range of infrared wavelengths and provides information across various altitudes.
In contrast to BepiColombo, which observed Venus only during a flyby, Himawari can monitor the planet over a much longer timescale.
"Earth-observing satellites [like Himawari] are generally calibrated so accurately that they can provide reference data for instrument calibrations in future planetary missions," he said.
"Unlike meteorological observation on the Earth, there are often time gaps between planetary missions.
Since meteorological satellites continue observation from space for decadal timescales, these satellites can supplement data even when there are no planetary exploration spacecraft orbiting around planets."
Nishiyama said that the team has already archived other solar-system bodies, which are now being analyzed.
"We believe that continuing such activities will further expand our horizon in the field of planetary science," he concluded.
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See Tianzhou 9 cargo mission dock at China's Tiangong space station (video)
July 23, 2025
A new Chinese freighter spacecraft arrived at the Tiangong space station last week, packed with supplies.
Tianzhou 9 launched July 14 atop a Long March 7 rocket at 5:34 p.m. EDT (2134 GMT; 5:34 a.m. on July 15 China Standard Time), sending the spacecraft into orbit.
Just over three hours later, at 8:52 p.m. EDT (0052 GMT; 8:52 p.m. China Standard Time on July 15), Tianzhou 9 docked at the rear docking port of the Tiangong space station's Tianhe core module, according to China's human spaceflight agency, CMSA.
Packed aboard Tianzhou 9 was 7.2 tons (6.5 metric tons) of cargo, including 1.65 tons (1.5 metric tons) of food for the three Shenzhou 20 mission astronauts, who arrived at Tiangong on April 24, and the Shenzhou 21 crew, expected to launch to the space station around October to begin their own six-month-long stay in orbit.
Also aboard Tianzhou 9 were two new sets of Feitian extravehicular spacesuits, which have been upgraded with greater durability and mission lifetime; core muscle exercise equipment for astronaut fitness; and scientific payloads for various fields of research.
Astronaut core strength was highlighted as key to performance and health while in orbit and for recovery back on the ground, as well as for grand future plans. "The stronger [our astronauts are], the longer and farther we can go.
Core strength is crucial not only for space station operations but also for future missions to the moon," Li Yinghui, researcher at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told China Central Television, regarding the 287-pound (130 kilograms) core exercise device.
Among the science payloads were three sets of samples for cellular biology experiments.
These are bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells for studying bone loss caused by the prolonged absence of gravitational stimulation, cells derived from failing hearts with the aim of developing therapeutic measures, and samples related to anti-aging research.
Another experiment will involve cutting-edge biotechnology, using human pluripotent stem cells to build miniature brain-like organoid models on chips roughly the size of a credit card, hosted in the biotechnology experiment cabinet onboard the Wentian lab module.
The Tianzhou 9 spacecraft itself features a number of upgrades over previous models. It has the greatest payload volume of any of the Tianzhou spacecraft so far launched by China.
It is also more easily prepared for space launch in the event of an emergency.
"Tianzhou 9 is the first cargo spacecraft capable of emergency launch, able to be launched to the space station within three months if required.
This is the significance of an emergency response spacecraft," Li Zhiyong, a member of the Tianzhou spacecraft development team with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), told CCTV.
The first Tianzhou vehicle launched in April 2017 and docked with Tiangong 2, a prototype lab used as a stepping stone toward building the three-module Tiangong, which was constructed across 2021 and 2022.
Tiangong is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station. China has suggested, however, that it will expand the orbital outpost in the coming years.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/see-tianzhou-9-cargo-mission-dock-at-chinas-tiangong-space-station-video
Scientists may have solved a chemistry mystery about Jupiter's ocean moon Europa
July 23, 2025
A long-standing mystery about the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa may be closer to being solved.
Hydrogen peroxide forms as a byproduct when energetic particles break apart water molecules, leading to the recombination of OH radicals — highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons.
H2O2 was first observed on Europa by the Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, a scientific instrument aboard NASA's Galileo Jupiter orbiter that was designed to study the composition and surface features of the gas giant's moons and atmosphere using infrared light.
Later, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) noticed elevated levels of hydrogen peroxide in unexpected areas on the Jovian satellite.
Lab studies predicted that higher concentrations of hydrogen peroxide would be found in Europa's colder polar regions — but JWST observations showed the opposite, detecting higher levels in the moon's warmer equatorial regions.
These areas, known as chaos terrains, are marked by broken blocks of surface ice that appear to have shifted, drifted and refrozen.
"Europa's peroxide distribution does not follow the temperature dependence predicted for pure water ice," wrote the team in their paper. Lab studies consistently show that colder ice has more H2O2, while warmer ice has less.
In a new study, scientists report that they have noticed higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the chaos terrains alongside elevated levels of H2O2.
This is probably the result of CO2 escaping Europa's subsurface ocean through cracks in the ice, the researchers say.
The team therefore wondered if the presence of CO2 might be changing the ice's chemistry.
"Could the presence of CO2 drive the enhanced peroxide production in Europa's chaos regions, signaling a surface composition more conducive to the formation of this radiolytic oxidant?" they wrote in their paper.
"Supporting this hypothesis are preliminary experiments on irradiated H2O-CO2 ice mixtures that show increased H2O2 yields compared to pure water ice."
To find a definitive answer, they "simulated the surface environment of Europa inside a vacuum chamber by depositing water ice mixed with CO2," Bereket Mamo, a graduate student at The University of Texas at San Antonio and a contractor with the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement.
"We then irradiated this ice mixture with energetic electrons to see how the peroxide production changed."
The experiment confirmed what the team had suspected: Even small amounts of CO2 in water ice can greatly boost hydrogen peroxide production at temperatures similar to those on Europa's surface, helping to explain the unexpected JWST observations.
This occurs because CO2 molecules behave as "molecular scavengers," grabbing hold of any stray electrons produced when radiation hits the water ice.
By capturing these electrons, the CO2 helps protect hydrogen peroxide from being broken apart by further impacts or reactions.
"Synthesis of oxidants like hydrogen peroxide on Europa's surface is important from an astrobiological point of view," said study co-author Richard Cartwright, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
"In fact, an entire NASA mission, the Europa Clipper, is en route to the Jovian system right now to explore the icy moon and help us understand Europa's habitability.
"Our experiments provide clues to better understand JWST Europa observations and serve as a prelude to upcoming close-range investigations by Europa Clipper and ESA's [the European Space Agency] JUICE spacecraft," Cartwright added.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/jupiter/scientists-may-have-solved-a-chemistry-mystery-about-jupiters-ocean-moon-europa
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ade3d8
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/the-largest-supernova-catalog-ever-made-has-some-news-about-the-dark-universe
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/07/21/super-set-of-supernovae-suggests-dark-energy-surprise/
Largest-ever supernova catalog ever provides further evidence dark energy is weakening
July 24, 2025
Using the largest catalog of exploding white dwarf vampire stars ever gathered has provided further evidence that dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the universe, is getting weaker.
Hints at the evolution of dark energy, which accounts for around 70% of the universe's mass and energy, were first delivered last year by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI).
This indication was shocking because the best description we have of the cosmos, the standard model of cosmology, or the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model, predicts that dark energy should be constant over time.
These new results, provided by the Supernova Cosmology Project and consisting of 2,087 detonating vampire stars, otherwise called standardized Type 1a supernovas, constitute another line of evidence that dark energy is not constant and that the LCDM may need revision.
If dark energy is weakening, this would have ramifications for our understanding of how the cosmos will end.
"Dark energy makes up almost 70% of the universe and is what drives the expansion, so if it is getting weaker, we would expect to see expansion slow over time," team leader and University of Hawaii at Mānoa researcher David Rubin said in a statement.
"Does the universe expand forever, or eventually stall, or even start contracting again? It depends on this balance between dark energy and matter.
"We want to find out which wins, and we want to understand this underlying piece of our universe."
Exploding vampires and cosmic rulers
Type 1a supernovas involve stellar remnants called white dwarfs that are left behind when stars around the size of the sun die. When in close binary partnerships with other stars, these stellar corpses can steal matter like a cosmic vampire.
This material builds up on a white dwarf until the dead star is tipped over the so-called Chandrasekhar limit, around 1.4 times the mass of the sun. Exceeding this limit means the white dwarf can go supernova.
The resultant explosions are Type 1a supernovas — and they are useful as a measurement tool for astronomers because their light output is uniform from event to event.
By comparing Type 1a supernovas at different distances and seeing how their light has been redshifted by the expansion of the universe, the value for the rate of expansion of the universe (the Hubble constant) can be obtained.
Then, that can be used to understand the impact of dark energy on the cosmos at different times.
This story is fitting because it was the study of 50 Type 1a supernovas that first tipped astronomers off to the existence of dark energy in the first place back in 1998.
Since then, astronomers have observed a further 2,000 Type 1a supernovas with different telescopes.
This new project corrects any differences between those observations caused by different astronomical instruments, such as how the filters of telescopes drift over time, to curate the largest standardized Type 1a supernova dataset ever. It's named Union3.
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Union3 contains 2,087 supernovas from 24 different datasets spanning 7 billion years of cosmic time. It builds upon the 557 supernovas catalogued in an original dataset called Union2.
Analysis of Union3 does indeed seem to corroborate the results of DESI — that dark energy is weakening over time — but the results aren't yet conclusive.
What is impressive about Union3, however, is that it presents two separate routes of investigation that both point toward non-constant dark energy.
"I don't think anyone is jumping up and down getting overly excited yet, but that's because we scientists are suppressing any premature elation since we know that this could go away once we get even better data," Saul Perlmutter, study team member and a researcher at Berkeley Lab, said in a statement.
"On the other hand, people are certainly sitting up in their chairs now that two separate techniques are showing moderate disagreement with the simple Lambda CDM model."
And when it comes to dark energy in general, Perlmutter says the scientific community will pay attention. After all, he shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering this strange force.
"It's exciting that we’re finally starting to reach levels of precision where things become interesting and you can begin to differentiate between the different theories of dark energy," Perlmutter said.
The team's Type 1a supernova dataset will grow with a further three datasets due to be added next year.
Two of these will be high-redshift supernovas seen at great distances, while one will contain more local low-redshift supernovas. That should help better calibrate the new results, the researchers say.
"We wanted to set a baseline before we bring in several hundred new low-redshift supernovas, which is one of the areas where the calibration is most crucial and where we have some of the weakest datasets in the results so far," Greg Aldering, study team member and a researcher at Berkley Lab, said in the statement.
"We think we really understand the calibration in a way no one has before, and we’re excited to add more supernovas and see what they can tell us about dark energy."
This analysis will be further bolstered when data starts rolling in from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Rubin is projected to potentially uncover 1 million Type 1a supernovas over its ten-year-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) survey.
This research could really deliver when it is once again combined and compared with observations of fluctuations in the early matter concentrations called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) measured by DESI.
"BAO can look further back in time to when dark energy played less of a role in the universe, and supernovas are particularly precise in the more recent universe," Perlmutter said.
"The two techniques are getting good enough that we can really start saying things about the dark energy models.
"We've been waiting to reach this point for a long time."
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https://www.airandspaceforces.com/guetlein-first-priority-golden-dome-c2/
Guetlein Talks Golden Dome Priorities, Says Missile Interceptors are Feasible
July 23, 2025
Freshly installed as the direct reporting program manager for the Golden Dome missile defense project, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said July 22 that his first line of effort will be to create a command-and-control network—and argued that the space-based interceptors envisioned for the project are technically difficult but not infeasible.
Guetlein made the comments at a Space Foundation conference just two days into his new job, citing plenty of lessons learned from his time as a Space Force leader as he contemplates how to execute one of the biggest projects in Pentagon history.
Golden Dome is meant to be a comprehensive air and missile defense shield for the U.S. homeland.
“I’ve been given 60 days to come up with the objective architecture I need,” Guetlein said in a fireside chat with retired Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. Raymond.
“I owe that back to the deputy secretary of defense in 60 days. So in 60 days I’ll be able to talk in depth about, ‘Hey, this is our vision for what we want to get after for Golden Dome.’”
Guetlein has said he believes the technology that would make Golden Dome possible already exists.
“It’s just never been brought to bear on this problem set, to protect the homeland, nor has it been brought to bear on this form factor,” he told Raymond.
The four-star argues Golden Dome will require a level of national effort and coordination on par with the Manhattan Project.
Guetlein sees organization as his biggest challenge: how to marshal all the different services, agencies, industry partners, and more needed to make the project work.
To that end, he said Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg has granted him sweeping powers to get after the problem, including “budget authorities, acquisition authorities, direct hiring authorities, technical authorities, architectural authorities, liaison authorities.”
Working across bureaucracies and with industry and allies are skills Guetlein has honed through his time as vice chief of space operations and head of Space Systems Command, the Space Force’s acquisition branch, he said.
Command and Control
President Donald Trump has set an ambitious goal for the multibillion-dollar Golden Dome to field a capability by the end of his term in January 2029—a timeline experts argue will be punishing, if not infeasible.
To meet that, Guetlein indicated he’ll focus first on connecting existing systems across the armed forces.
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“First and foremost is getting out of the gate on C2,” Guetlein said, referring to a command-and-control network that can operate seamlessly across domains and with all revelant systems.
In many ways, the idea is similar to the long-standing Pentagon effort dubbed Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, meant to connect sensors and shooters around the globe.
The department has claimed a “minimum viable capability” for JADC2, but the sprawling effort has proven challenging and is still ongoing.
For Golden Dome, though, a unified C2 network is a must, Guetlein said.
“We have to deliver on that vision of integrated command and control across the nation, across all these multiple platforms,” he said.
“Then we have to bring to bear an integrated network of sensors to be able to close the fire control loop with an integrated network of interceptors that have probably never been brought together before, between the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and even the Marine Corps.”
Guetlein’s initial plan is to have “incremental demonstrations” of that network every six months, he added, and his work has already begun.
He plans to visit U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Space Command in the coming days.
Interceptors
While C2 is the initial priority, the element of Golden Dome that has attracted the most attention is the idea of space-based interceptors, an idea that DOD has bandied about for decades.
SBIs, as they are called, are the biggest technical challenge for Golden Dome, Guetlein acknowledged. But he pushed back against criticism that they are not physically or technically possible.
“I believe we have proven every element of the physics that we can work,” Guetlein said. “What we have not proven is, first, can I do it economically, and then second, can I do it at scale?”
Industry is eager to prove it can. On July 22, Northrop Grumman Chief Executive Officer Kathy Warden disclosed in an earnings call that the company has already started ground testing on an interceptor.
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition, told lawmakers during a congressional hearing July 22 that in talking with Guetlein, DOD plans to try “novel ideas like prize activities [and] cooperative work with industry” to get interceptors, instead of developing detailed requirements.
The Space Force has already announced it is conducting market research on interceptors, and Guetlein touted the value of so-called “reverse industry days” for solving hard problems.
“We spend half a day telling you what my problem is, and spend the next day and a half on one-on-ones, listening to you tell me how you think you can solve the problem,” he said.
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USSF Space Systems Command stands up two new System Deltas
July 24, 2025
Space Systems Command, the U.S. Space Force field command responsible for developing and delivering resilient space capabilities, stood up two System Deltas in an activation ceremony at Los Angeles Air Force Base on July 10.
Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, SSC commander, presided over the ceremony at which Col. Stevie Medeiros assumed command of the Space Sensing System Delta 84 and Col. Dane Bannach assumed command of System Delta 810. “It is a truly momentous and historic day,” Garrant said.
“Through unity of effort, the Space Force’s System Delta framework allows us to streamline the work between acquisitions and operations accomplished through intimate collaboration with our Mission Delta counterparts across the field commands.
SYDs consolidate SSC program offices that design, develop and deliver mission systems under a force design structure for acquisitions.
The SYDs will ensure mission area analysis is continuous and improves upon mission advocacy with a singular focus on mission sets, unity of effort and properly aligned accountability.
SSC sustainment units have already transferred to the Space Operations Command Mission Deltas that perform mission generation, intelligence support, and cyber defense.
“This alignment is the natural progression to ensure more acquisition personnel are ultimately focused on organizing activities around mission areas rather than functional specialties," Bannach said.
“System Deltas will execute commander’s authorities and provide leadership and oversee all aspects of capability development for specific USSF mission areas.”
SYD 84 is responsible for Space-Based Missile Warning and Tracking, which responds to emerging threats such as hypersonic weapons that place the Nation’s warfighters, allies and capabilities at risk.
It is directly linked to its sister SpOC Mission Delta 4.
SYD 810 is responsible for the Space-Based Sensing and Targeting mission area, which includes the Environmental Monitoring and Tactical Sensing portfolio.
It provides global terrestrial cloud forecasting and theater weather imagery data, for timely mission operations, planning and execution. This SYD also provides critical and actionable environmental surveillance to military operations.
It is directly linked to its sister SpOC Mission Delta 2, as well as Space Force Component Commands in multiple theaters.
“Our mission has not changed,” Medeiros said. “Our goal is simple yet demanding. We must deliver the systems that our warfighters need to accomplish their mission.
This is the cornerstone of our efforts moving forward. Delivering isn’t just about meeting deadlines and achieving technical milestones, it’s about a mindset, dedication and commitment to something larger than ourselves.”
The alignment of System Deltas and Mission Deltas between the two USSF Field Commands began in 2023 with pilot pairings, of what was then known as Integrated Mission Deltas (IMDs) in SpOC, with complementary SYDs in SSC.
“With proven success from the pilot IMDs and SYDs construct, SSC is implementing this structure across the command where it makes sense,” Garrant said.
“With the initial activation of these two Space Sensing SYDs, we are currently working to transition more SSC Acquisition Deltas to System Deltas in the coming months.”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4254268/ussf-space-systems-command-stands-up-two-new-system-deltas/
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4254019/space-systems-commands-casr-conducts-second-wargame/
Space Systems Command’s CASR conducts second wargame
July 24, 2025
Data from real-world scenarios set the stage for Space Systems Command’s Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve Space Domain Awareness wargame.
Wargames are strategy games designed to simulate real-world warfare scenarios to examine warfighting concepts and tactics, train officers in tactical and strategic decision-making and assess potential outcomes.
This wargame, the second in a series, took place July 8-9 at the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Participants included CASR SDA commercial partners, government participants, SDA subject matter experts, and SSC’s CASR team, including Lt. Col. Timothy Trimailo, SSC’s Commercial Space Office director.
“The CASR SDA wargame built upon the progress we made following our first wargame in March, which focused on Commercial Satellite Communication,” said Lt. Col. Brandon Galindo, CASR division chief at SSC.
“We applied those lessons learned through the use of digital communication tools and basing our scenario design on real-world use cases.”
The wargame revealed several preparation requirements including the critical need for clear activation triggers, robust incentive structures for commercial partners, and enhanced information sharing processes.
Major takeaways emphasized the importance of a diversified infrastructure to mitigate single points of failure and the necessity for comprehensive personnel and organizational readiness to quickly respond to crises.
“I’m incredibly proud of our team and everyone who contributed to deliver a successful event that will shape how we leverage Space Force’s commercial space strength to respond to crises and conflict,” Galindo said.
“This wargame has set a new benchmark for future events, driving strategic improvements and operational readiness in the CASR program.”
CASR is a relatively new SSC strategic initiative designed to ensure access to commercial capabilities throughout the spectrum of conflict while maintaining security, reliability and availability.
The goal is to identify voluntary commercial partners and ensure interoperability through training, wargames, and exercises, while also crafting pre-negotiated space acquisition contracts with commercial space companies to provide surge capacity when needed.
These services could include several Space Force mission areas, to include, but not limited to, satellite communications and SDA.
The CASR SDA wargame featured three scenarios followed by a detailed “hot wash” to capture lessons learned and determine follow-up actions.
For example, using data from the 2024 Intelsat 33e breakup event, which involved a communications satellite breaking into at least 20 pieces, one scenario focused on space assets being eliminated in geosynchronous orbit and Low Earth orbit, driving an increase in capacity.
Multiple breakups in different orbits can give officials an idea of what types of surge capacity needs might arise in both hazard and threat environments.
Barbara Golf, executive agent for SDA within the Space Combat Power Program Executive Office at SSC, opened the wargame by sharing the importance of defining thresholds for various scenarios, emphasizing the need to start with “what” and “why” before determining who will activate the process.
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“We’re going to go back and forth between what we are doing and why we are doing it,” Golf said. “Those are going to be our anchor points from these inputs.
From these inputs, we want to be able to draft the set of H clauses and contract CLINs (a specific section within a contract that contains special space acquisition contract requirements, terms, and conditions) for us as a team to review and then price out.”
“How do we do this? What is this going to cost? When you look at what it’s going to mean for all of us, this includes things like fees for services,” Golf said.
“How much sensor capacity would we need to activate in a hazard scenario? What are the gradations that I need to have already pre-priced for buying?”
“What are the conditions?” Golf added. “Is this prioritized support? Is this exclusive support? For exclusive support, does that mean I buy your company? What does this entail? What are you willing to do?”
“Do we have enough people to do this?” Golf continued. “Duration: how long do we support a CASR type catastrophe? Is this three months? Six months?
A year? Is the situation actually so bad that it becomes a permanent-type state? In which case, that’s not a CASR problem, that’s a welcome-to-the-new-normal problem.”
The wargame was structured to rigorously evaluate the CASR framework and processes, revealing any critical gaps and challenges in rapidly scaling SDA capabilities during a major crisis.
Priority questions during the scenarios included terrestrial reconstruction, mitigating the loss of on-orbit assets, resilience, commercial intel and attribution, command and control structure, cyber defense, and legal and policy hurdles.
“What are the hurdles that you’re seeing from a commercial perspective in legal and policy?” Galindo asked the commercial participants. “You all operate globally.
Just last week, I heard an anecdote that construction is going to be the shortest pole in the tent – the longest pole is going to be all of the legal and policy hurdles that you have to jump through to get an international site set up.”
“CASR is moving so fast and the more we learn, the more we have to iterate and evolve what CASR means,” Galindo said. “One thing that has not changed is securing access to what we already use.
That’s really what’s at the heart of what we’re trying to do. If we’re partnering with you during peacetime and we find ourselves in an existential conflict or crisis, we want to make sure we have everything in place to transition there seamlessly.”
By 2026, Galindo said SSC aims to have CASR Tier 1 stood up, with baseline, day-to-day operations and contract provisions in place for surge support. If CASR had to be fully activated in a crisis, that would be a Tier 2 scenario.
“There will be some level of priority that the government will hold for CASR members or exclusive rights to capabilities,” Galindo said. “We need to find out what those trade-offs look like.”
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Canadian general assumes key role in US Space Command, S4S leadership
July 23, 2025
VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) – U.S. Space Force – Space welcomed Royal Canadian Air Force Brig. Gen. Kyle C. Paul as the new Deputy Combined Joint Force Space Component commander at S4S headquarters, July 21.
Stationed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Paul steps into a senior role within U.S. Space Command, supporting Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, S4S commander and CJFSCC.
His appointment marks a major milestone in U.S.-Canada defense collaboration, particularly in the growing domain of space operations.
“Brigadier General Paul’s position reflects the strength and depth of our allied integration,” Schiess said. “At S4S, we don’t just coordinate with partners — we operationalize together.
His leadership as the DCJFSCC will sharpen our coalition’s readiness and reinforce the strategic unity that defines our approach to global space operations.”
As the DCJFSCC, Paul will help integrate space capabilities into allied missions. He will advise on multinational strategy and interoperability, while contributing to long-term planning for global space superiority.
His new position also supports strategic goals laid out in the U.S. Space Command’s vision, including building resilient partnerships and advancing joint mission operations.
As Canada is a member of a Multinational Force – Operation OLYMPIC DEFENDER nation, he brings a unique perspective that will help ensure space remains a domain that benefits all of humanity.
Previously, Paul served as deputy commander for Operations, Plans, Training, and Force Development at Space Operations Command in Colorado Springs.
His career includes deployments with NATO, NORAD, and the Canadian Joint Operations Command, offering critical experience in space coordination and multinational military support.
Paul’s leadership role reflects a deep trust between allied forces and is expected to improve cross-national planning, strengthen global readiness, and help assure space effects “anytime, anywhere.”
As nations face growing challenges in orbit, his command position represents a unified commitment to protect and defend freedom of action in the space domain.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4253448/canadian-general-assumes-key-role-in-us-space-command-s4s-leadership/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2025/07/23/russian-nuclear-sabotage-in-space-could-decimate-western-satellites/
Russian Nuclear Sabotage In Space Could Blast U.S., SpaceX Satellites
Jul 23, 2025, 07:34pm EDT
Even as Russia races to perfect a nuclear-armed spacecraft, its space weapons designers are likely also preparing to launch a stealth alternative to similarly threaten constellations of Western satellites speeding around the planet.
As the Kremlin ramps up its secret, subversive attacks on the Western powers aiding besieged Ukraine, its century-long expertise in sabotage—starting with Soviet insurrectionists Lenin and Stalin—could next be directed to upend the realm of low Earth orbit, says Elena Grossfeld, an expert on Russian space arms and intelligence operations at King’s College London.
While Moscow presses forward with its top-secret project, discovered by American intelligence agencies, to deploy nuclear-tipped anti-satellite missiles in orbit, the detonation of a fission bomb hundreds of kilometers above the Earth would undoubtedly trigger a rapid response by NATO, Grossfeld tells me in an interview.
An Accidental Nuclear Explosion In Space Provides “Plausible Deniability”
Less obviously confrontational would be the ‘accidental’ explosion of a nuclear-powered spacecraft, which could likewise take out a sizable swath of Allied satellites while shielding Moscow in a cloud of “plausible deniability,” she says.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos has already launched a satellite—likely a defense prototype on a precursor mission—sent into orbit near the edge of the high-radiation rings of the Van Allen belt, she says.
Sabotaging this orbital zone by remotely triggering the explosion of a nuclear-propelled craft would pump up the belt’s radiation levels and in turn destroy or damage a cascade of nearby satellites.
The ‘Beauty’ of Sabotage - in the Eyes of the Kremlin
The ‘beauty’ of this type of sabotage operation, she says, is that it could never be absolutely proven to have been an intentional Russian attack on American and European spacecraft, which could forestall a collective NATO response.
Sabotage is a central component of the Kremlin’s statecraft, and random acts of subversion—believed to be orchestrated by Moscow—have proliferated across Europe since Russian tanks and missiles began pummeling Ukraine three years ago.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said during a summit of the alliance’s foreign ministers that Russia has “tried to destabilize our countries and divide our societies with acts of sabotage.”
NATO Leaders Seek Collective Response to Russian Acts of Sabotage
Ministers representing the 32 NATO nations, Rutte said, have “agreed a set of measures to counter Russia’s hostile and cyber activities, including enhanced intelligence exchange, more exercises, better protection of critical infrastructure.”
Moscow’s spiraling campaign of sabotage, he added, reflected “the escalating dangers of the ongoing war in Ukraine.”
The Kremlin’s steady stream of threats to use its nuclear weapons arsenal—the world’s largest—against any NATO nation directly intervening to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion forces signals that it already views the West as an enemy, Grossfeld says.
And the current overwhelming, supreme U.S. power in orbit, with advanced imaging, intelligence and nuclear command and control satellites, makes its ever-expanding constellations attractive targets.
Leveling the Battlefield Before Space War I
To level the battlefield before an anticipated Space War I, she predicts, Russia might opt to stage a devastating pre-emptive sabotage strike, via the self-destruction of its nuclear-powered craft.
The intensified charged particles whizzing through orbit— triggered by the Kremlin’s space kamikaze mission—might take out thousands of American satellites, she predicts, while potentially sparking indecision across the West on whether to treat this maneuver as the orbital version of a Pearl Harbor attack.
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SpaceX Could Be a Prime Target of Russian Space Sabotage Mission
SpaceX’s mega-constellation of Starlink satellites, which have provided Ukraine’s embattled president, national security council and citizenry with crucial internet connections, would be a prime target in Russia’s orbital sabotage.
Since Moscow’s missiles began blitzing democratic Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s emissaries to the UN have repeatedly threatened to start shooting down SpaceX satellites, and Russia has already deployed advanced jet fighters, missile brigades and swarms of suicide drones to attack Starlink terminals across Ukraine.
While warning it could commence firing anti-satellite missiles against any Western spacecraft aiding Ukraine, Grossfeld tells me, “Russia has been investing in multiple launch methods” for its fleets of ASATs.
Yet a booby-trapped nuclear-fueled spacecraft, she adds, would be a far more powerful weapon.
Moscow’s stepped-up embrace of sabotage is part of Putin’s overarching goal of restoring Russia to its position as a Soviet superpower, when it ruled over a far greater realm.
Just as Russia has declined in its military might since the break-up of the Soviet Union a generation ago, Grossfeld says, its status as one of the globe’s foremost space powers has likewise slipped away.
A grand strategy of nuclear sabotage in space would be aimed at decimating American dominance in orbit, even if it meant that Russia destroyed part of its own diminutive constellations in the process, she says.
Russia Arming for Space War I with the Western Allies Russia has already amply signaled it is arming for Space War I with the Western Allies, Grossfeld points out.
Even before Kremlin troops began storming Ukraine’s borders, before their missiles were launched to engulf Ukraine’s cities and cathedrals in flames, their commanders led a secret mission they hoped would ensure a speedy victory in a lightning war.
Russia’s First Attack on an American Satellite System
Moscow’s military intelligence leadership carried out a surprise ambush in the first battle of this space war by targeting the ground terminals of the U.S. satellite constellation that Ukraine’s defense ministry relied on to command air force pilots, navy captains and soldiers across the nation.
This cyber-attack swiftly crashed thousands of Viasat transceivers, and cut off communication lifelines linking Ukraine’s democratic rulers with their armed guardians, and with their allies across Europe and the globe.
The United Kingdom’s foreign secretary lashed out at “Russian Military Intelligence” for staging the assault on the American satellite operator, and on Ukraine, and threatened the Kremlin would face “severe repercussions.”
Yet since then, Grossfeld says, sanctions imposed on Russia have failed to deter Putin’s expansionist ambitions and dreams of a renewed Soviet empire, or his escalating acts of sabotage aimed at destroying the willpower of the West and its backing for Ukraine.
“Despite multiple sabotage operations in Europe,” she adds, “no actions have been taken by either the U.S. or NATO against Russia.”
That could inspire Putin to extend his clandestine campaigns of subversion into the heavens, she predicts, even as he gains ground in his terrestrial war against Ukraine.
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How the Epstein saga exposed a system built on silence
23 Jul, 2025 15:34
In an age where every celebrity meltdown or presidential tantrum is livestreamed, where partisan jabs flood timelines within seconds, and where outrage is algorithmically amplified to viral proportions, one might assume that the most heinous crimes – especially those committed against the most vulnerable – would dominate media discourse.
Yet the opposite is true.
Global child trafficking, particularly when it implicates oligarchs, elite institutions, humanitarian organizations, and religious authorities, remains one of the most underreported, diluted, and actively suppressed issues across both mainstream and alternative media ecosystems. The selective silence is not accidental as it is designed to shield power from scrutiny while feigning moral concern.
Take the decades-long cover-up of Jimmy Savile’s crimes in Britain. For years, the BBC and the broader British establishment, including members of the royal family, ignored, enabled, or even protected a prolific predator in their midst.
Keir Starmer, now prime minister, has faced longstanding accusations that he obstructed investigations into Savile’s network during his tenure as head of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Instead of truth and accountability, Britain witnessed institutional inertia and elite protectionism.
Across the Atlantic, things are no better. US President Donald Trump – whose populist rise partly hinged on ‘draining the swamp’ and exposing elite pedophile rings – recently declared that there is “nothing to see” in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
He even dismissed ongoing public concern about the case as “stupid.” This abrupt reversal betrayed many who viewed Epstein’s exposure as a gateway to unraveling deeper systemic rot.
Except for hardcore MAGA grifters and the ‘compromised cohort’, nobody bought Trump’s deflections this time around.
MIT scholar and activist Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai recently issued a single, scathing tweet – linked here – sharing FBI and DOJ files which contradicted Trump’s words.
These were not conspiracy breadcrumbs but official documents, offering a damning appetizer for anyone willing to dig deeper.
But legacy media will ignore it, and alternative influencers will likely pivot to more ‘monetizable’ culture-war topics.
Curiously, the Democratic Party – always eager to weaponize Trump’s prevarications – remained suspiciously muted on the subject.
The reason is not hard to fathom. America’s political establishment functions as a duopoly. Republican or Democrat, both parties have skeletons in the same basement.
When it comes to institutional crimes against children, mutual silence becomes a form of mutual protection.
At one point, the hashtag #PedoPete – referring to then-President Joe Biden – trended briefly on Twitter. Today, the trend has flipped: #PedoTrump now circulates with greater, more sustained intensity.
These hashtags may sound juvenile, but they reflect the fact that both sides of the political divide are equally compromised. When elite crimes threaten to break through media filters, the duopoly instinctively closes ranks.
This is not just a media failure. It is a civilizational failure.
The refusal to investigate, question, or even discuss the abuse of children by people in power suggests that, despite all our technological progress, we remain governed by the same feudal reflexes which protect the nobility, silence the peasants, and punish the whistleblowers.
That so few journalists, influencers, or institutions dare to speak plainly about this issue is not due to lack of evidence. It is due to a lack of will. The media’s silence is not benign; rather, it is complicity by omission.
And increasingly, even independent platforms mirror the same herd behavior: Mainstream mimics mainstream; conspiracy mimics conspiracy. Viral outrage loops endlessly, but the hard questions go unasked.
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In an attention economy driven by clicks and tribal confirmation, there’s little incentive to tackle issues that require long attention spans, moral courage, or cross-partisan inquiry.
And so, the real stories – the ones involving systemic abuse, elite immunity, and generational trauma – remain locked in the basement of our public consciousness.
The question is no longer whether the truth is out there. It is whether we are still capable of seeking it.
The sordid stats
According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 1.7 million children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation worldwide. (I believe this number to be grossly underreported).
The figure does not include forced labor, child marriages, and trafficking under the guise of ‘adoption’ or ‘rescue’.
These crimes often occur in the shadows, but the silence surrounding them is deafening, especially considering the alleged involvement of trusted institutions like the UN, NGOs, and faith-based charities.
In 2017, leaked internal UN reports and whistleblower testimonies revealed a disturbing pattern of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in several African countries, notably the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Victims were children – orphaned, impoverished, and completely powerless. These revelations barely made headlines beyond a few days of fleeting, dissembled horror.
There was no sustained investigation, no sweeping reckoning. The UN promised reforms, but follow-up reporting was minimal. And today, those same peacekeeping structures continue to operate with minimal public scrutiny.
What happened to the Syrian children who disappeared during the years the West, Israel, Türkiye, and Global Jihad Inc. waged war on Bashar Assad?
There were disturbing allegations that US intelligence had recruited children as suicide bombers for its jihadist proxies, some of whom were also accused of harvesting the organs of over 18,000 minors.
So is it any wonder that Trump – who once vowed to defeat “radical Islamic terror” – personally lavished praise on Syria’s new president and jihadist war criminal extraordinaire Ahmed al-Sharaa?
Charitable Trojan Horses
There is perhaps no greater moral shield for crimes against children than the Trojan Horse of charity. Some of the most egregious trafficking networks operate under the halo of humanitarian work.
In Haiti, multiple investigations have revealed how certain orphanages and foreign-run NGOs were fronts for abuse and trafficking.
In India and Nepal, similar patterns emerged: Western ‘voluntourists’ and missionaries gain access to vulnerable children under the pretext of aid, only to become conduits for exploitation.
Mother Teresa’s charity organization itself was linked to child trafficking networks spanning India to Haiti.
Stories like these are often relegated to obscure human rights blogs or independent journalists with limited reach.
Beholden to the same donor networks and oligarchic interests, the mainstream press simply looks away.
The AI crisis no one mentions
While the AI boom dominates headlines in terms of productivity and existential risk, almost no major outlet has dared to delve into how generative AI tools are being used to create photorealistic child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The dark web is rife with communities exchanging AI-generated images, bypassing existing legal frameworks which often only address real photographic evidence.
This raises disturbing questions: What constitutes child abuse imagery in the age of AI? How will law enforcement adapt? And why is no one talking about it?
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The tech platforms developing these tools are often mum about their misuse. Regulatory agencies are slow, and public debate is nearly non-existent.
The media, meanwhile, prefers to debate AI replacing screenwriters rather than protecting children. In fact, AI parodies of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza are more likely to get censored than child sexual abuse material.
Impunity and immunity
The Epstein case should have shattered any illusions about elite immunity.
A convicted sex offender with connections to presidents, royalty, and top scientists managed to operate a trafficking network for years – even after his initial conviction.
His mysterious ‘death in custody’ convinced no one with two functioning brain cells. His co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted. Yet not a single client has been named in court.
Rather than igniting systemic media scrutiny into elite involvement in trafficking, the Epstein saga has been conveniently bracketed as an anomaly or relegated to conspiracy land.
But it was never just about Epstein. Similar scandals have emerged in the UK (the VIP child abuse ring), in Hollywood (Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon), and within religious institutions across continents.
While the media has been reduced to a recycled echo chamber, the lesson bears repeating: The elite criminal class continues to get away with crimes against children with impunity.
The hashtag #ArrestObama is trending before another sensationalist deflection takes over. What next? A few carefully scripted jabs at Benjamin Netanyahu to regain credibility with disillusioned MAGA voters?
The cost of silence
The decentralization of news via social media was expected to fill in vital gaps in mainstream reports.
To some extent, it has. Survivors, whistleblowers, and independent researchers have found platforms to speak out. Hashtags like #SaveTheChildren briefly trended.
But these moments are fleeting. The attention span of social media is short, and the billionaire owners of these platforms are inextricably linked to various elite pedophile networks.
A 2024 meta-analysis by the University of Edinburgh estimated 302 million children (1 in 8 globally) experienced online sexual abuse annually, with platforms like Facebook serving as vectors for exploitation.
Earlier, in 2020, Facebook accounted for around 20 million child sexual abuse material reports, constituting nearly 95% of all incidents submitted through its systems.
By comparison, Google logged 500,000, Snapchat 150,000, and Twitter just 65,000.
Serious discussions are also often hijacked by fringe accounts, QAnon-style disinformation, or bad-faith actors. As a result, the issue itself becomes tainted via guilt by association.
Even legitimate stories and investigations are dismissed because they were shared by someone with suspect affiliations. This is a classic tactic perfected by the likes of the CIA and Mossad.
The cost of media complicity in the face of global child trafficking is not just journalistic failure; it is moral collapse.
The ongoing crimes against children is a human story of betrayal, of complicity, and of the innocent lives that are shattered while the world scrolls on.
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Russia and Ukraine trade drone attacks after latest ceasefire talks
July 24, 2025
Drone strikes by both Moscow and Kyiv killed two in Russia and three in Ukraine, hours after a brief third round of ceasefire talks concluded in Istanbul.
Three people were found dead in the rubble of a house after a strike in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region and several people were wounded in the cities of Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia.
The famous Pryvoz market - a Unesco world heritage site in the Black Sea port city of Odesa - was also hit and several fires broke out across the city following an overnight attack, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities said two people were killed and 11 injured in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike on Sochi, in Russia's Krasnodar region.
Another Russian attack on the Ukrainian city Kharkiv on Thursday morning also left 33 injured.
Ukrainian and Russian delegations met on Wednesday evening in Istanbul in the third round of ceasefire talks.
Neither side appeared to harbour much hope for progress before start of the talks, which according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation lasted barely an hour.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said both countries agreed to swap 1,200 prisoners of war and that Russia had offered to transfer 3,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers back to Kyiv.
But no tangible steps were taken to end the conflict, now well into its fourth year, and both sides accused the other of rejecting their ideas.
"We did not expect a breakthrough. A breakthrough is hardly possible," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday.
Ahead of the meeting the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, said the "priority" for Kyiv was to organise a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before the end of August.
But Peskov poured cold water on the idea, saying it was "premature" for the two presidents to meet.
"They [Ukraine] are trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse," he said, adding much more work had to be done before any such meeting could take place.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Hocharenko said on Facebook that a separate meeting between Umerov and Medinsky had taken place behind closed doors on the sidelines of the main talks.
Hocharenko said Umerov and Medinsky have a "good relationship".
The first two rounds of ceasefire talks were held in May and June at the request of US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to see the end of the "horrible, bloody war" that was sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this month Trump set a deadline of 50 days for Russia and Ukraine to end the war, threatening "severe tariffs" on Moscow if a deal is not reached.
Russia has long refused to budge on its preconditions for peace - namely the removal of the "root causes" of the war, which include Ukraine becoming a neutral state, dramatically reducing its military and abandoning its Nato aspirations.
None of these are acceptable to Kyiv, or to its Western allies. "We will do everything to make diplomacy work," Zelensky said on social media on Thursday after the talks. "But it is Russia that must end this war that it started itself."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crene7d5w2jo
https://t.me/dsns_telegram/46574
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/56867
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/56871
Drone strikes hit Russian airfields in Crimea overnight
24.07.2025 10:32
Overnight, July 23 to July 24, the Kacha and Saky airfields in the temporarily occupied Crimea came under drone attack.
This was reported by the Telegram channel Krymskyi Veter (Crimean Wind), according to Ukrinform.
“Not only the Kacha airfield but also the Saky airfield in Novofedorivka was struck overnight,” the report said.
Helicopters were reportedly used to counter Ukrainian drones during the attack.
The consequences of the strikes are currently unknown.
There were also sightings of drones flying toward the Belbek airfield.
As of the morning of July 24, reports indicated that Dzhankoi, Krasnoperekopsk, and Rozdolne districts of occupied Crimea were under drone threat.
Ukrinform had earlier reported that a Nebo-M radar system in Crimea, valued at approximately $100 million, had been successfully targeted.
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4018333-drone-strikes-hit-russian-airfields-in-crimea-overnight.html
Ukrainian air defense neutralizes 90 of 103 Russian drones, intercepts one cruise missile
24.07.2025 13:08
Ukraine's air defense forces shot down and jammed 90 out of 103 Russian drones and intercepted one Iskander-K cruise missile during a large-scale overnight attack.
According to Ukrinform, the Ukrainian Air Force announced this via Telegram.
"During the night of July 24 (starting at 22:40 on July 23), the enemy launched 107 aerial attack assets, including four Iskander-K cruise missiles and 103 strike UAVs of the Shahed type and various types of decoy drones.
Launches were carried out from multiple directions, including Bryansk, Kursk, Shatalovo, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, as well as Chauda and Hvardiiske in temporarily occupied Crimea," the statement said.
The attack targeted multiple regions, including Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Cherkasy, and Zaporizhzhia.
As of 11:30, preliminary reports indicated that air defense systems had shot down or suppressed one Iskander-K cruise missile and 90 Shahed-type and other enemy drones over northern, southern, eastern, and central Ukraine.
There were confirmed strikes by 13 drones and three missiles at 11 locations, with debris from intercepted targets falling at six additional locations.
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4018399-ukrainian-air-defense-neutralizes-90-of-103-russian-drones-intercepts-one-cruise-missile.html
https://t.me/kpszsu/39131
China sells drone engines to Russia under guise of refrigerators
24.07.2025 07:56
Chinese engines for combat drones are being shipped to Russia in circumvention of sanctions under the guise of “industrial refrigeration units”.
According to a Ukrinform correspondent, Reuters reports this regarding its own sources in European security agencies, as well as customs documents.
“Chinese-made engines are being covertly shipped via front companies to a state-owned drone manufacturer in Russia, labelled as 'industrial refrigeration units' to avoid detection in the wake of Western sanctions,” the article says.
It is noted that these engines have allowed the Russian weapons-maker IEMZ Kupol to increase production of Garpiya-A1 attack drone combat drones, despite U.S. and EU sanctions aimed at disrupting the supply chains of the Russian defense industry.
Reuters notes that Kupol has signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense to produce more than 6,000 Garpiya attack drones this year, three times more than last year. “
The document stated that more than 1,500 drones had already been delivered by April,” the agency said.
It should be noted that Russia is actively using these drones to strike Ukrainian territory.
“Describing them as cooling units allowed the goods to be exported to Russia without alerting Chinese authorities,” one of Reuters' interlocutors said.
However, according to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia uses about 500 such drones every month, most of which are made in China.
At the same time, Beijing has officially denied the improper supply of dual-use goods to Russia.
As reported by Ukrinform, China, including Hong Kong, is responsible for 80% of the circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions.
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4018276-china-sells-drone-engines-to-russia-under-the-guise-of-refrigerators.html
Sudanese army drone strike kills key paramilitary commander in Kordofan
July 23, 2025
(ABU ZABAD, West Kordofan) – A Sudanese army drone strike killed a key commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in West Kordofan state on Wednesday, military sources said, a development that has reportedly sparked internal disputes within the group.
General Al-Taj Youssef Aboukadair, known as “Folgank,” was killed when the strike hit a gathering of his forces in the city of Abu Zabad, the sources said.
Two other prominent RSF leaders in Folgank’s unit, Al-Sadiq Humaidan Hamoudi and Hussein Issa, were also killed.
The killing comes as the army’s air force has intensified strikes across the wider Kordofan region in recent weeks, with reports of dozens of civilian casualties in repeated bombings of cities including Bara, Al-Nuhud, and Al-Fulah.
The killing of a general in Sudan’s Kordofan region has sparked a storm of internal disputes and accusations within the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), even as its members mourned his death on Telegram.
According to videos posted on social media, a field commander accused internal intelligence moles of betraying Folgank by revealing his location to the army.
Folgank’s unit, “Group 13,” was heavily involved in major battles in the capital Khartoum early in the war, which began in April 2023.
They participated in attacks on the army’s Signals Corps, Armoured Corps, and Central Reserve Police headquarters.
As the army gained ground in Khartoum in recent months, Folgank and his forces retreated to West Kordofan, basing themselves in the state capital, Al-Fulah.
Military sources in the region told Sudan Tribune he was in charge of smuggling fuel, food, and military equipment from neighbouring South Sudan.
Folgank was one of four prominent RSF commanders from the Misseriya ethnic group. One of them, Hussein Barsham, was sanctioned by the European Union (EU) for alleged human rights violations.
Just two days before he was killed, Folgank appeared in a video surrounded by his fighters near the city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, threatening an invasion.
https://sudantribune.com/article303166/
A very HOTT summer