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Captain Scott Kelly, former NASA astronaut at the Greenwich Library
November 19 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Greenwich Library is pleased to welcome Captain Scott Kelly, former NASA astronaut, retired U.S. Navy Captain, and U.S. spaceflight record holder to the Berkley Theater.
Kelly will deliver a keynote address as part of the Lynne and Richard Pasculano Signature Series.
A former fighter pilot, Kelly flew the F-14 Tomcat aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kelly was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1996.
A veteran of four space flights, he piloted Space Shuttle Discovery to the Hubble space telescope in 1999 and subsequently commanded Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to the International Space Station in 2007.
His long-duration space flight experience includes two flights on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, launching and landing from Kazakhstan and two stays aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as commander, the first a 159-day mission in 2010-2011 followed by his recorded-breaking 340-day mission to the ISS in 2015.
https://ctexaminer.com/events/captain-scott-kelly-former-nasa-astronaut-at-the-greenwich-library/
https://greenwichlibrary.libcal.com/event/13840341
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/11/us-slams-discriminatory-draft-eu-space-law-as-imperiling-nato-cooperation/
US slams ‘discriminatory’ draft EU space law as imperiling NATO cooperation
November 05, 2025 2:40 pm
The US has come out swinging against a draft law by the European Union that Washington claims would establish restrictive market barriers, impose costly environmental protection requirements, and create regulatory hurdles for US commercial firms — thus undermining bilateral, as well as NATO-wide, cooperation.
The US “expresses deep concern regarding measures in the proposed Act that would impose unacceptable regulatory burdens on U.S. providers of space services to European customers,” the State Department charges in a document submitted to the EU on Tuesday.
The draft EU Space Act, publicized in June, has three key pillars, according to a fact sheet by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch:
“Safety: The Act introduces robust rules for tracking space objects and mitigating space debris, preserving Europe’s secure and uninterrupted access to space.
Resilience: Tailored cybersecurity requirements will strengthen protection of European space infrastructure and ensure business continuity.
Sustainability: Operators will need to assess and reduce the environmental impact of their space activities, while benefiting from support for innovation in emerging technologies like in-orbit servicing and debris removal.”
The European Commission maintains that the goals of the draft law are primarily aimed at domestic issues — namely to overcome national stovepipes and create a unified regional space market, as well as protect EU space systems from malicious cyber attacks by criminals and adversary governments alike.
“The EU Space Act intends to cut red tape, protect space assets, and create a fair, predictable playing field for businesses,” the Commission said in a June 24 press release presenting the draft.
But it’s also yet another prong in a cross-institutional regional effort to bolster “strategic autonomy” in the face of widespread European government concerns about the direction of US policy, ranging from the Trump administration’s about-face on Ukraine support in war with Russia to the president’s punitive tariffs on European imports.
The push for EU security independence includes the planned move by the European Space Agency, for the first time in its 50-year existence, to take on projects in support of European defense ministries.
“This is about safeguarding Europe’s place in the next era of space innovation,” the European Commision, the EU’s executive branch, said in a June 24 post on Facebook.
The State Department’s analysis, meanwhile, claims the Act’s provisions in general amount to “non-tariff barriers.”
If approved, the law would “introduce challenges” to US government-to-government cooperation with the 27-member EU, individual EU countries, and ESA, State says.
This would include cooperation in the areas of “space weather, remote sensing, space exploration, spaceflight safety, space debris mitigation and remediation, [and] communications.”
Provisions of specific concern include environmental protection requirements for commercial satellites that are more strict than those imposed by US regulatory bodies and a “discriminatory” clause that says outside EU launch providers will only be approved “when ‘no readily available substitute or realistic alternative exist in the Union […].'”
The document asserts that the draft law thus “contradicts” the Aug. 21 “United States-EU Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade” designed “to resolve trade imbalances, improve market access, increase our trade and investment relationship, and reduce or eliminate non-tariff barriers.”
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State also argues that even some EU member states may not approve of any union restrictions on their individual government rights to choose space partnership agreements with third-party nations.
“As currently drafted, the EU Space Act would apply to civil governmental activities of European countries and European institutions such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
Many USG [US government] departments and agencies cooperate with EU member states and these institutions,” the document stresses.
For example, the Defense Department relies in part on data from EUMETSAT birds for weather prediction crucial to planning operations abroad.
“We are concerned that as drafted, the requirements of the Act could be interpreted as applying to these USG activities.
That is not acceptable, and we expect many EU member states will share our concerns about application of the Act to national sovereign activities,” State’s analysis stresses.
Further, the document asserts that the provision in the draft EU law to allow exemptions by member states for national security reasons is not enough to ensure military-to-military cooperation with the US and NATO-wide.
“[W]hile the EU Space Act attempts to exempt national security activities, this exemption could cause issues in practice as currently drafted.
The United States does not believe the provisions are sufficient to protect national security equities, assets, and operations because the Act threatens U.S. and EU development of commercial space capabilities, introducing doubt about interoperability of systems and the ability to use collaboratively developed or owned space assets for national security purposes,” it states.
The submission notes that the response, which includes provision-by-provision criticisms and recommendations for changes, was coordinated with other US agencies and space industry representatives.
“Following the release of the draft EU Space Act in June 2025, the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce solicited feedback from USG agencies and commercial stakeholders on its potential impact on the United States.
This consultation included input from U.S. trade associations representing a broad cross-section of the U.S. commercial space industry, as well as over 70 responding companies that have active or potential future commercial interests in the EU market,’ the document explains.
In particular, State argues that several provisions seemed aimed at US companies solely because of their size and dominance in the global market, especially in the area of “large telecommunications constellations” — that appears to be, while not specifically saying so, taking aim at EU efforts to counter SpaceX.
“Such unfair and unwarranted regulations are unacceptable to the United States and must be removed,” the document states.
The draft EU Space Act has been referred to the EU Parliament for debate. If given a thumbs up, the draft will then go to the ruling EU Council of Ministers for a vote.
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Astronomers discover bizarre 'runaway' planet that's acting like a star, eating 6 billion tons per second
November 6, 2025
Astronomers have spotted a "rogue" planet gobbling gas and dust at a record rate, and they can't explain its baffling behavior.
Although many rogue planets, which float freely through space without orbiting a star, have been discovered before, this one — known as Cha 1107-7626 — appears to be the fastest-growing free-floating planet ever discovered, gorging at a peak rate of 6.6 billion tons (6 billion metric tons) of matter per second, according to observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The exoplanet's rapid growth spurt may help scientists learn more about the difference between large planets and small stars, the team reported Oct. 2 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"Our main motivation to study this kind of object is to understand whether these objects are former planets that have been ejected from their planetary system, or they have formed 'isolated' from the gravitational collapse of molecular cloud material, like stars," lead study author Víctor Almendros-Abad, an astronomer at the Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Italy, told Live Science in an email.
The team spotted an "accretion burst," which happens when a planet suddenly pulls in a lot of material from its surrounding disk of gas and dust.
Cha 1107-7626 is always accreting from this source material, but the study shows that the accretion rate is not steady. In fact, in August 2025, the planet was accreting eight times faster than it was a few months before.
Accretion bursts suggest that rogue worlds may be like young stars, since these sudden bursts of eating have been observed in stars. But because rogue planets are so much smaller than stars, it's unclear where their formation pathways diverge.
"Accretion bursts have been known for quite some time; the first was discovered in the late 1930s, long before it was clear what we are witnessing," study co-author Alexander Scholz, a professor of astrophysics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, told Live Science in an email.
"Such events are now understood to play an important role in the assembly of stars. They also shape the environment in which planetary systems form, by heating the gas and dust nebula surrounding young stars.
"The relics of such bursts may be seen in the chemistry of meteorites in our own solar system," Scholz continued. "It is not clear if bursts happen to all young stars, and what triggers them.
The discovery of a similar event in a planetary-mass object may be a clue that there is a universal mechanism behind accretion bursts. In this sense, our discovery will have a much wider impact."
Scientists have spotted more rogue planets in recent years, including a notable haul by JWST that discovered more than 500 of these worlds in a trapezoid-shaped spot within the Orion Nebula, a vast gas cloud noted for its star births.
Rogue planets remain hard to find, however, as they glow in infrared light (radiant energy) best visible in large telescopes such as JWST and VLT, Almendros-Abad said.
The scientists hope VLT and JWST can look at more of these rogue planets, to learn whether they form like stars or planets. Almendros-Abad noted that the accretion parallels between stars and planets are not fully understood.
"One of the next steps is to understand how common these types of events are in 'rogue planets,'" he said. "This will tell us how important [accretion events] are in their evolution."
https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/astronomers-discover-bizarre-runaway-planet-thats-acting-like-a-star-eating-6-billion-tons-per-second
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae09a8
Space manufacturing shows potential for next-generation therapies
November 6, 2025
The space environment is rapidly emerging as a vital platform for scientific discovery and biomedical advancement.
As space becomes more accessible, pharmaceutical and biotech companies are focusing on low-Earth orbit to explore new opportunities in drug development and disease modeling and therapeutic design, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Microgravity affects biological and chemical processes in ways that cannot be replicated on earth. In this environment, cells and tissues grow differently, revealing insights into human health and disease progression.
The International Space Station (ISS) has conducted experiments demonstrating that protein crystals grown in space are more uniform and stable, enabling the creation of more effective and targeted therapies.
Gaffar Aga, Strategic Intelligence Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Microgravity provides a novel insight into how biology truly operates.
Without the interference of gravity, researchers can study cellular behavior in its purest form, uncovering new pathways for drug discovery and innovation.”
Space-based research has also enabled breakthroughs in 3D bio-printing, where human tissues are printed in microgravity to create structures that cannot be formed on Earth.
Such developments could potentially lead to organ printing for transplantation and regenerative therapies. Additionally, studies in protein crystallization and nanomaterial formation have the potential to improve drug formulations to ultimately improve patient outcomes.
George El-Helou, Strategic Intelligence Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “As commercial access expands, space is becoming a laboratory for innovation.
This offers the pharmaceutical industry an opportunity to design products and treatments that were once unheard of.”
Researchers are also leveraging the rapid aging effects seen in microgravity to accelerate biomedical research.
Cells and tissues age faster in space, allowing scientists to study degenerative conditions as well as test anti-aging treatments in shorter time-periods than required on Earth.
With the ongoing collaboration between agencies such as NASA, the UK Space Agency, and private biotech firms, space is quickly becoming a promising means of developing novel therapeutics within the pharmaceutical industry.
Aga and El-Helou conclude: “As populations live longer, the need for faster and more effective therapies is critical. Space-based manufacturing and research will be key to develop the next-generation healthcare solutions.”
https://www.pharmalive.com/space-manufacturing-shows-potential-for-next-generation-therapies/
Three Chinese astronauts stranded in space 'due to mystery object'
October 6, 2025
Three astronauts are currently stranded in orbit after their return capsule was hit by what is believed to be space debris.
Astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie have been aboard the Tiangong space station, known as China's "Heavenly Palace", for six months.
They embarked on their space journey in April and were scheduled to return to Earth on November 5, but disaster struck when their ship was hit by an "unknown" object. Damage to their capsule's hull has left them stranded.
The China Manned Spaceflight Agency (CMSA) has reported that the astronauts of the Shenzhou-20 mission are now trapped on the Tiangong space station.
The trio had been conducting experiments and space walks while residing on the CCP-operated space station. The CMSA suspects that the crew's return capsule was hit by a small piece of space debris.
On Wednesday, the agency announced: "The Shenzhou-20 manned spacecraft is suspected of being hit by a tiny piece of space debris, and an impact analysis and risk assessment are under way.", reports the Express.
This incident has sparked concerns about whether they will ever return to Earth. The men must now conduct careful examinations on the capsule before they can attempt to use it again.
The group of astronauts who were supposed to replace them had already arrived at Tiangong before the collision was detected. Both crews are now collaborating to inspect the spacecraft and assess whether repairs can make it safe for re-entry.
The CMSA announced: "To ensure the safety and health of the astronauts and the success of the mission, it has been decided that the Shenzhou-20 return mission, originally scheduled for 5 November, will be postponed."
Chinese science influencer Yu Jun posted on X: "Shenzhou-22 and the Long March 2F (launcher) were already on standby. This is our rolling backup mechanism.
"They are in 'emergency duty' mode and ready to bring our astronauts home safely if needed."
https://www.newsbreak.com/express-u-s–316349130/4334765277918-three-chinese-astronauts-stranded-in-space-due-to-mystery-object
China reached out to NASA to avoid a potential satellite collision in 1st-of-its-kind space cooperation
November 6, 2025
China recently reached out to NASA over a maneuver to prevent a possible collision between satellites, a space sustainability official said, marking a first for space traffic management.
"For years, if we had a conjunction, we would send a note to the Chinese saying, 'We think we're going to run into you.
You hold still, we'll maneuver around you,'" Alvin Drew, director for NASA Space Sustainability, said during a plenary session at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 2.
A big shift had come a day earlier, Drew revealed.
"Just yesterday, we had a bit of a celebration because, for the first time, the Chinese National Space Agency reached out to us and said, 'We see a conjunction amongst our satellites.
We recommend you hold still. We'll do the maneuver.' And that's the first time that's ever happened," Drew said.
The move by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) comes as both the United States, notably through SpaceX's commercial Starlink constellation, and China, in the shape of the Guowang and Thousand Sails megaconstellations, are rapidly increasing the number of satellites they have in orbit.
This means an increasing need for satellite operators to coordinate to limit the chances of collisions between satellites and prevent events that cause new clouds of space debris.
The development also indirectly suggests that China's space situational awareness, or understanding what is going on in orbit at any moment, has reached the level of being able to flag conjunctions and begin to coordinate with other operators.
China noted this as a priority in a 2022 space white paper that outlined its ambitions for the period 2021 to 2026. The country also recently stated that it is working on capabilities to remove junk from space.
Contact between CNSA and NASA is generally limited by the so-called Wolf Amendment, which prevents most bilateral interaction between NASA and Chinese state entities.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/china-reached-out-to-nasa-to-avoid-a-potential-satellite-collision-in-1st-of-its-kind-space-cooperation
SpaceX, ULA line up double launch night that would tie Space Coast record
November 6, 2025
While SpaceX has managed the lion's share of launches this year, it's set to be a team effort with United Launch Alliance as the two companies have lined up a pair of launches that would tie the annual record for orbital missions from the Space Coast.
Both a SpaceX Falcon 9 and ULA Atlas V stand less than two miles from one another at a pair of launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ready to lift off in the evening.
First up is SpaceX on the Starlink 6-81 mission carrying 29 satellites from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 during the launch window that runs from 6:08–10:08 p.m.
This is the fifth flight of the first stage booster that will aim for a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.
Next will be ULA flying the ViaSat-3 F2 mission from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 at 10:24 p.m. at the opening of a 44-minute window.
Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron says there's a better than 95% chance for good launch conditions for the SpaceX attempt and a 95% chance for good conditions for the ULA attempt.
After this launch, all of the remaining 11 Atlas V rockets are set aside for either Amazon's Project Kuiper or Boeing's Starliner.
If both rockets take flight, it would mark the 93rd launch of the year, tying the Space Coast record from 2024.
SpaceX will have flown 87, ULA five and Blue Origin one.
Cape Canaveral's three pads in use this year will have managed 73 of them, with Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A managing the other 20 so far.
Four of ULA's five launches have been the Atlas V, but it also flew its new Vulcan rocket once.
Blue Origin's New Glenn flew in January, but is slated to launch its second-ever mission as early as Sunday, according to the FAA.
SpaceX has been responsible for all four of the human spaceflight missions from the Space Coast this year—Crew-10, Fram2, Ax-4 and Crew-11—but has no others lined up until 2026.
All of SpaceX's launches have been its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket with no Falcon Heavy launches planned.
Combined, the three launch providers should surpass 100 launches from the Space Coast before the end of the year.
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-spacex-ula-line-night-space.html#goog_rewarded
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-11-14
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-6-81
https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/next-launch/atlas-v-viasat-3-f2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWgoYkFr-HE
See stunning photos of November's full 'Beaver Moon' — the biggest supermoon of 2025
November 6, 2025
The November full moon put on a magnificent show for stargazers on Nov. 5, as the largest and brightest supermoon of 2025 flooded the sky with reflected sunlight mere hours before it reached its closest point to Earth in its 27-day orbit.
November's full moon is also known as the "Beaver Moon", in reference to the period when the buck-toothed mammals become particularly active in preparation for the long winter months.
It is also known as the Frost Moon and the Digging/Scratching Moon, to reflect the time when bears build their winter dens, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.
Photographers around the world captured a treasure trove of magnificent lunar portraits as the disk of Earth's natural satellite climbed over the eastern horizon last night, rising close to ancient monuments and modern skyscrapers along with breathtaking natural landscapes.
Read on to see a selection of beautiful images of the November full moon — and if you missed the show on Nov. 5, there's no need to worry, as the lunar disk will appear near-full to the casual observer for several nights to come.
The 2025 full 'Beaver' supermoon in photos''
moar images
https://www.space.com/stargazing/see-stunning-photos-full-beaver-moon-largest-supermoon-nov-5-2025
Ancient Australian rocks may shed new light on the birth of the moon
November 6, 2025
Some of Earth's oldest rocks buried deep in Western Australia may hold new clues about the dramatic event that gave rise to our moon.
In a new study led by the University of Western Australia (UWA), researchers analyzed 3.7-billion-year-old feldspar crystals found within magmatic anorthosite rocks from the Murchison region — among the oldest surviving pieces of Earth's crust — to uncover chemical fingerprints from our planet's earliest days.
These anorthosites are particularly intriguing because while they're very common on the moon, they are rarely found on Earth, hinting at a deep connection between the two worlds, according to a statement from UWA.
"The timing and rate of early crustal growth on Earth remains contentious due to the scarcity of very ancient rocks," Matilda Boyce, lead author of the study and Ph.D. student at UWA, said in the statement.
“We used fine-scale analytical methods to isolate the fresh areas of plagioclase feldspar crystals, which record the isotopic 'fingerprint' of the ancient mantle."
Anorthosite rocks formed when molten magma slowly cooled deep beneath the surface, allowing large plagioclase feldspar crystals to grow and lock in chemical clues about the environment in which they formed.
Because these ancient rocks have remained remarkably intact for billions of years, isotopic dating reveals when the minerals solidified, unlocking a direct glimpse into Earth's earliest crust and our planet’s infancy.
Using this method, the team was able to measure isotopic ratios that reveal what Earth's mantle and crust looked like billions of years ago.
Their results suggest that continental growth didn’t begin immediately after the planet formed, but rather started later, around 3.5 billion years ago — nearly a billion years after Earth's birth.
Even more striking, the researchers found that the isotopic signatures from the Australian rocks closely resemble those found in lunar samples collected during NASA's Apollo missions.
That chemical link supports the leading "giant impact" theory for the moon's formation, in which a Mars-size object slammed into early Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, ejecting material that eventually coalesced into the moon.
Because intact rocks from this ancient era are so rare, the discovery offers a unique opportunity to peer directly into Earth's formative past.
These ancient minerals may preserve a record of the chemical mix left behind by that cataclysmic collision — a link between the infant Earth and its newly formed satellite.
"Our comparison was consistent with the Earth and moon having the same starting composition of around 4.5 billion years ago," Boyce said in the statement.
"This supports the theory that a planet collided with early Earth and the high-energy impact resulted in the formation of the moon."
The study, conducted with collaborators from the University of Bristol, the Geological Survey of Western Australia and Curtin University, was published Oct. 31 in Nature Communications.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/ancient-australian-rocks-may-shed-new-light-on-the-birth-of-the-moon
https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2025/november/ancient-rocks-offer-insight-into-origins-of-earth-and-moon
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64641-2
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A Broader Look at Dynamic Space Operations: Creating Multi-Dimensional Dilemmas for Adversaries
November 6, 2025
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is pleased to announce a new entry in its Research Studies series, A Broader Look at Dynamic Space Operations:
Creating Multi-Dimensional Dilemmas for Adversaries by Col Charles S. Galbreath, USSF (Ret.), Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute.
Legacy U.S. space system designs were premised on a peaceful, non-hostile space domain and operated static missions in energy-constant orbits.
Space is now a warfighting domain, with new and growing threats to space systems, plus increasing operational demands on U.S. space capabilities.
New capabilities that increase the resilience and effectiveness of the U.S. military’s space architecture are needed.
Space operations must similarly transform to one defined by dynamic space operations (DSO)—employing these new capabilities with the ability to frequently and rapidly change parameters to achieve mission effects.
A broad application of DSO will increase the overall flexibility of the U.S. space architecture, thereby accelerating a greater application of long-standing principles of warfare such as maneuver and surprise, which will in turn increase resilience and mission effectiveness.
It will facilitate the employment of new missions and novel approaches to help U.S. forces maintain the initiative and create compounding problems for potential adversaries—ultimately strengthening the deterrent posture of the United States.
Should the United States fail to adapt and adopt dynamic space operations, its vulnerabilities in the domain will endure and risk losing U.S. space superiority—a unique advantage that is foundational to all U.S. joint operations. Now is the time to accelerate dynamic space operations.
The Mitchell Institute’s Research Studies serve as an authoritative avenue for innovative, in-depth, insightful, and effective ideas and solutions for strengthening America’s aerospace power.
For media inquiries, email our publications team at publications.mitchellaerospacepower@afa.org
Copies of Policy Papers can be downloaded at https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/category/publications/
https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/a-broader-look-at-dynamic-space-operations-creating-multi-dimensional-dilemmas-for-adversaries/
US Space Force Deploying Ground-Based Jammers to Counter Chinese, Russian Surveillance
November 6, 2025
The US Space Force is preparing to field two new ground-based systems designed to jam Chinese and Russian spy satellites, expanding the Pentagon’s ability to disrupt enemy surveillance in space.
Called Meadowlands and the Remote Modular Terminal (RMT), the systems will join the older Counter Communications System, which became operational in 2020 to “dominate the electromagnetic spectrum” during conflict.
Unlike the larger system, the new jammers are smaller, more mobile, and can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world.
The Meadowlands, developed by L3Harris Technologies, faced years of technical setbacks but is now undergoing final training and live-fire testing, with the Space Operations Command expecting it to be fielded within the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the RMT, developed under a 2022 contract with Northstrat and CACI International, is already being deployed overseas in undisclosed locations and is in an “early-use phase,” allowing it to be used even while testing is in progress, according to Bloomberg.
The outlet previously reported that Washington plans to buy up to 32 Meadowlands units and 24 RMTs.
To coordinate global operations, the space force will establish a Space Electromagnetic Tactical Operations Center, which will manage jamming and enemy interference tracking tasks.
It will leverage a monitoring network called Bounty Hunter, used to detect signal disruptions against US satellites. The system was first sent to US Indo-Pacific Command in 2018 and later to the US Central Command in 2019.
China’s Expanding Space Surveillance
An unclassified Space Threat Fact Sheet from the US Department of Defense updated last month said that China now has approximately 1,200 satellites in orbit, including more than 510 used by the People’s Liberation Army for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
These satellites help Beijing track American military movements such as aircraft carriers and expeditionary forces.
Gen. Bradley Chance Saltzman, the US Space Force’s top officer, told US lawmakers earlier this year that China’s growing space presence poses “a powerful destabilizing force to our economy and our national security.”
He added that the East Asian country increasingly treats space as a warfighting domain and regularly practices radio signal jamming of communications, radar, and GPS systems during military drills.
Defensive Focus, Not Destruction
The US Space Force clarified that the new systems will not destroy satellites but rather serve as defensive tools meant to block or interfere with hostile surveillance, unlike Moscow’s alleged nuclear-based weapon capable of producing high-altitude electromagnetic pulses to disable satellites and communications networks.
Victoria Samson, director for space security and stability at the Colorado-based nonprofit group Secure World Foundation, verified that there are three “openly acknowledged offensive counter-space systems the US has fielded to date,” Bloomberg reported.
She added that the platforms “respond to an immediate military need but using them isn’t perceived as having crossed a red line or means that there will be active conflict in space.
And price-wise, they are far more affordable than space-based jammers.”
https://thedefensepost.com/2025/11/06/us-ground-satellite-jammers/
https://www.sciencealert.com/alien-probes-could-already-lurk-in-our-solar-system-study-says
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.00082
Alien Probes Could Already Lurk in Our Solar System, Study Says
06 November 2025
In 1949, famed mathematician and physicist John von Neumann delivered a series of addresses at the University of Illinois, where he introduced the concept of "universal constructor."
The theory was further detailed in the 1966 book, Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, a collection of von Neumann's writings compiled and completed by a colleague after his death.
In the years that followed, scientists engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) considered how advanced civilizations could rely on self-replicating probes to explore the galaxy.
As many theoretical studies have shown, self-replicating probes (released from a single planet) could proliferate and explore the entire galaxy within a few eons.
According to new research by Professor Alex Ellery of Carleton University, these probes may have already visited the Solar System, and some could be operating here right now.
As he recommends in a recent paper, future SETI surveys should be on the lookout for the telltale technosignatures these probes would produce.
Alex Ellery is an Engineering professor with the Centre for Self-Replication Research (CESER) and the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Carleton University.
In the past, Ellery has explored the concept of Von Neumann probes and their potential as a viable method for interstellar exploration by advanced civilizations, as well as the implications this has for SETI.
In this latest paper, he revisits the rationale for such probes, their implications for the Fermi Paradox, and how resource requirements would drive their behavior, producing discernible technosignatures in the process.
As a researcher with CESER, Ellery is well-versed in the concept of Von Neumann probes and the technological innovations that will go into creating them.
In a previous study, Ellery has detailed how 3D printing, self-replication, and robotics will allow humans to build Von Neumann probes sooner than expected.
He also conducted a detailed study on how human engineers could place limits on the number of times each probe could reproduce itself, thus ensuring that they do not run amok (per the Berserker Hypothesis).
In these and other papers, Ellery also argues that the search for Von Neumann probes and the technosignatures they would produce is a focus that SETI researchers should prioritize, rather than the traditional practice of searching the night sky for signs of radio transmissions.
These searches, he's indicated, should consider the Solar System as a good starting point, which echoes similar recommendations made by Professor Gregory L. Matloff in his paper "Von Neumann probes: rational propulsion interstellar transfer timing."
As he told Universe Today at the time of the paper's publication:
The Solar System is huge and mostly unexplored, and the probes could be very small.
There could be probes everywhere: in craters on the Moon, or lurkers in the Asteroid Belt and Kuiper Belt. There are 100 million objects in the Kuiper Belt alone, and we have examined only two, one of which was very anomalous in its shape.
Similarly, Ellery considers how SETI researchers and future explorers could look for evidence of extraterrestrial probes through a dedicated search. The first step, he argues, is to consider the rationale for sending out self-replicating probes.
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Motivations
As he indicated in his paper, the most obvious reason for a species to engage in interstellar exploration is survival.
This could be motivated by a desire to live beyond the main sequence phase of its star, the threat of destruction at the hands of a more advanced civilization, or fear that technology advancements will eventually threaten the existence of its creators.
As Ellery told Universe Today via email, in all cases, self-replicating probes offer the most efficient and plausible means for ensuring the survival of an advanced civilization:
ET probes would be driven by survival of their local environment, be it main-sequence star lifetime, tectonic activity, etc., plus military reconnaissance to assess threats and alliances.
Although many of us are motivated [by the desire] for knowledge (of which military reconnaissance is a type), science per se is not much of a driver.
Nor is the exploration instinct - usually, greed or escape underlies exploration. Columbus wanted to find a route to the riches of Cathay, but America was in the way.
What's more, he goes on to demonstrate that such probes would not be hampered by the same restrictions as biological organisms.
This is true of propulsion, since advanced probes would be able to withstand acceleration beyond 9.8 m2 (the force of Earth's gravity) and would not require exotic propulsion methods.
In addition, interstellar probes would not require supplies, bioregenerative life support systems, or have to worry about waste disposal. All the materials they would need could be harvested along the way.
This would include extracting resources from star systems (such as asteroid belts and/or smaller rocky-metallic bodies) or from objects found in the interstellar medium, including asteroids, comets, and rogue planets.
This desire for exploration and threat assessment, paired with the need for resources, would lead to predictable behaviors that could help guide the search for interstellar probes.
Activities
From the question of motivations, Ellery concludes that the activities of interstellar self-replicating probes would follow a basic pattern that can be broken down into the six likely steps.
First, they would target the ubiquitous asteroids and moons in a specific system for their readily accessible raw materials, which are required for universal construction.
Second, from these materials, they would build surveying probes to survey the extrasolar system for resources and life-bearing environments comprehensively.
An asteroid behind a spacecraft
NASA's Psyche mission to a distant metal asteroid will carry a revolutionary Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) package. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Third, they would select and secure resource-rich locations to establish bases for self-replication operations. Fourth, they would begin replicating more copies of themselves, including surveyor probes and sentinels.
The fifth step would consist of the long-term and detailed exploration of the extrasolar system using these same probes.
The sixth and final step would see the probes execute specific task instructions, which could include building O'Neill Cylinders for future settlers while (hopefully) not encroaching on potentially life-bearing planets.
Another possible task, and a highly controversial one, would be the seeding of planets with simple or more complex organisms (aka. Directed Panspermia).
Based on this breakdown of activities, self-replicating probes would produce technosignatures that future surveys could look for.
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Possible Signatures
Beyond returning to the Moon by the end of this decade and sending crewed exploration missions to Mars in the next, numerous plans exist for the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit (LEO), cislunar space, and beyond.
These efforts, it is hoped, will facilitate the "Great Migration" to space, possibly leading to settlements on other bodies and "Islands in Space" (a la O'Neill Cylinder and Stanford Torii).
As Ellery explained, for human exploration of the Solar System to consolidate into commercial industrialization, we must know where to find the resources we need to make that transition happen.
First, Ellery considered asteroid resources, which are likely to be as abundant in extrasolar solar systems as they are in our own.
Beyond the Copernican Principle, which states that Earth and our Solar System are typical of the norm, there is also considerable evidence to support this idea.
This includes studies of presolar interplanetary dust particles, which have been observed to contain metal nitrides, carbides, oxides, silicates, and iron-nickel alloys – the building blocks of planets, planetesimals, and asteroids.
Furthermore, extrasolar planetesimals observed accreting onto white dwarfs within a 650 light-year (200 parsec) radius of Earth were predominantly composed of oxygen, magnesium, silicon, and iron, with smaller concentrations of volatiles such as carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen – similar to asteroids and moons in our Solar System.
In addition to asteroids, self-replicating probes would likely be attracted to the Moon and similar rocky bodies because of their composition (silica, nickel-iron, and other metals), which is partly due to asteroid impacts that occurred over several billion years.
Illustration of asteroids on the Moon
Artist's impression of Artemis astronauts operating on the lunar surface. (NASA)
Ultimately, Ellery concluded that asteroidal processing would be difficult to distinguish from natural processes and that the Moon would be an ideal base for self-replicating probes to center their manufacturing operations.
Moreover, he suggests that nuclear reactors would likely power these operations, as they are a highly fuel-efficient power source that provides virtually unlimited energy density.
This could include Magnox models, a type of gas-cooled reactor that utilizes natural uranium, graphite, and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant.
These, he concluded, could be constructed using lunar resources, and that the reactors would have left isotopic ratio signatures of Thorium-232, Neodinium-144, and/or Barium-137.
"We further suggest that in anticipatory economic trade for resources, a self-replicating probe may have left artifacts buried with asteroidal resources on the Moon," he wrote.
"Such gifts would be detectable and accessible only once a threshold of technological sophistication has been achieved." All of this makes the Moon the ideal place to begin searching for possible indications of associated technosignatures.
These searches could take advantage of NASA's and other space agencies' plans to create "a sustained program of lunar exploration and development." As he summarized:
I think measurable technosignatures will be on the Moon - unusual surface Uranium or Thorium isotope ratios and subsurface magnetic anomalies.
If we begin to settle the Moon, we will search for resources to utilize, specifically nickel, cobalt, and tungsten, which are delivered by asteroids to the lunar subsurface.
I think that if we have been visited, a gift in return for mining of our resources may be hidden among those asteroidal metals.
The gift could be a universal constructor machine that would be of immediate and future utility to any civilization settling its solar system before interstellar ventures.
In the near future, it is predicted that human exploration of the Solar System will give way to commercial development and the establishment of permanent outposts in space, as well as on other planets and celestial bodies.
Before we establish footholds beyond Earth and LEO, perhaps we should consider exploring for more than just resources and building sites.
A dedicated technosignature search could reveal something far greater, such as evidence that humanity is not alone in the Universe.
Similarly, the Solar System has been largely overlooked when it comes to SETI efforts in general and technosignature searches in particular.
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Ukraine to lose key city within one week – Russian military commander
6 Nov, 2025 05:31
Russian troops expect to fully capture the city of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region within the coming week, according to the commander of the assault unit involved in the operation. Kiev has continued to deny the gravity of the situation on the ground.
The Russian Defense Ministry says that the position of Ukrainian forces encircled near Kupyansk continues to deteriorate rapidly, leaving them no chance of escape aside from surrendering to Russian troops.
The commander of the 121st Regiment of the 68th Motorized Rifle Division, call sign Lavrik, said that his unit cleared 25 buildings in the city on Wednesday alone and “continues to advance.”
“I am confident that the city will be completely liberated within the next week. Our morale is high, and we will accomplish our mission,” he said in a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Kupyansk, located in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, and Krasnoarmeysk, in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, had been encircled by Moscow’s forces.
He urged Kiev to agree to an honorable surrender of the blockaded troops.
Moscow has estimated that more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers are trapped in the two cities.
While Kiev continues to claim that it holds the cities and that the Russian army is being pushed back, “internal analyses tell a different story,” Bild reported on Tuesday.
Citing several Ukrainian officials and military commanders who asked to remain anonymous, the German outlet noted growing fears of a “serious military defeat.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky previously claimed that the Russian military presence near Kupyansk was limited to a mere 60 troops and that the Ukrainian military had a roadmap for completing a “swipe” of the area, which he declined to disclose.
Zelensky is “divorced from reality,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. “The head of the Kiev regime is fully divorced from reality and, after hearing untrue reports from [Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Aleksandr] Syrsky, has no command of the operative situation on the ground,” the statement said.
Kupyansk has been a major contested logistics hub in the conflict’s northeastern front. Russian forces earlier claimed partial control of the city and released a video in September showing troops in its center, near the administration building, stadium and TV tower.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627398-ukraine-to-lose-key-city/
Complaints about ‘illegal’ Ukrainian mobilization double – ombudsman
6 Nov, 2025 09:35
Ukrainians have filed twice as many complaints about forced conscription since the beginning of June as during the first five months of 2025, the country’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmitry Lubinets, has said.
Citizens have reported that draft enforcers have engaged in illegal activity almost 5,000 times since the start of the year, Lubinets told Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper on Wednesday.
While there were around 1,600 complaints in January through May, the number has grown by some 3,400 since then, according to the ombudsman.
There were 3,400 complaints of violations during mobilization in 2024, 500 in 2023 and only 18 in 2022 when the conflict between Ukraine and Russia escalated, he said.
Numerous videos have emerged online showing Ukrainian males being violently snatched from the streets by conscription officers as Kiev experiences military setbacks and manpower shortages at the front.
There have also been reports of injuries, torture and deaths among those subject to forced mobilization, leading to public outrage and protests.
The term ‘busification’ has become widespread in Ukraine, referring to minibuses being deployed by conscription officers.
In July, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, sounded the alarm over “systematic and widespread” abuse by Ukrainian draft enforces, urging the authorities in Kiev to properly investigate the incidents and prevent further human rights violations.
Nikita Poturaev, the head of the Ukrainian parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, attempted to downplay the situation last month, saying that breaches of law by conscription officers were few.
He claimed that most of the videos of forced mobilization “were either filmed outside of Ukraine… or created using AI. They are simply deepfakes.”
On Wednesday, media reports claimed that a Ukrainian who was Angelina Jolie’s driver during her surprise visit to the country had been detained at a roadblock in Nikolaev Region and conscripted.
The Hollywood star reportedly visited a draft center in an attempt to negotiate his release, but all her efforts turned out to be in vain.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627406-ukraine-mobilization-complaints-ombudsman/
West planning major sabotage at Zaporozhye nuclear plant – Moscow
6 Nov, 2025 09:10
The West is urging Kiev to commit a major act of sabotage at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant that would lead to casualties among Ukrainian and EU citizens, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed, adding that Moscow is set to be blamed for the incident.
One of the proposals allegedly put forward by Kiev’s foreign backers as the “most effective,” is to commit a “major act of sabotage” that will result in significant civilian casualties, the SVR said.
The West is said to be considering orchestrating an accident at the Zaporozhye NPP, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, that would lead to a meltdown of the reactor core.
The SVR stated that British NGO Chatham House has already calculated the consequences of such an accident and determined that residents of Kiev-controlled territories and EU countries near the Ukrainian western border would be in the area of radioactive particle dispersion.
According to the SVR, the British think tank has noted that “the most challenging aspect of implementing such a plot is determining how to attribute responsibility for the catastrophe to Russia.”
Chatham House is allegedly already preparing arguments for all possible developments of the situation in advance so as to make sure the Western public “unequivocally takes Kiev’s side” in determining who is responsible for the accident, the intelligence service added.
It also noted that the plan is set to be “similar” to the tragedy of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people on board.
The incident occurred as Kiev’s troops were attempting to retake the then self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Ukraine and its Western backers widely blamed the incident on Russia while Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, insisting the plane was brought down by a missile only used by Kiev’s forces.
“The collective West is once again ready to deceive and even to kill Ukrainians and citizens of the Western countries in order to attribute the crimes of the Kiev regime to Russia and to justify its Russophobic policy and efforts to incite the war,” the SVR concluded.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627411-nato-sabotage-nuclear-plant-kiev/
Orban heads to meet Trump: How conservative allies are repairing Biden-era damage
6 Nov, 2025 13:37
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban intends to open a new phase of relations with the US during his upcoming trip to Washington this week.
The Hungarian leader, a close conservative political ally of US President Donald Trump, noted on X on Thursday that new opportunities have emerged following years of tension under Joe Biden’s administration.
“The politically motivated sanctions have disappeared, American funding for NGOs attacking Hungary has ended, and we can once again travel to the United States without a visa. With this, the first phase has come to an end,” Orban wrote.
USAID accused of funding anti-Orban groups
In March, Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Office accused foreign donors of channeling nearly $70 million to organizations allegedly trying to undermine the Orban government.
The report identified the US Democratic Party and allies among business elites, as one of the main contributors, working alongside the EU leadership and major Western foundations, including the Open Society Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund.
Between 2022 and 2024, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) transferred over $10 million to Hungarian activist groups, the office said.
The Trump administration has since moved to dismantle USAID, claiming it wasted taxpayer funds on ideologically driven projects that did not serve US national interests.
Biden-era pressure
Relations between Budapest and Washington deteriorated sharply under the Biden administration, which accused Orban of undermining democracy and failing to downgrade ties with Moscow.
In 2024, then US Ambassador David Pressman labeled Orban a “temporary” leader who could not simply “wait out” American pressure, since, he warned, Washington was not sitting idle.
The US imposed visa restrictions on Hungarian passport holders in 2021, citing security concerns – measures that Trump lifted in September.
Budapest peace summit on hold
Orban has consistently criticized Western military aid to Ukraine, arguing that the conflict causes economic damage to the European Union. He said the Biden administration was part of “pro-war international interest groups” pushing for hostilities.
The Hungarian leader expressed strong support for Trump’s mediation efforts, including a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest that was proposed last month.
Although both sides agreed in principle, the meeting was postponed after disagreements reportedly emerged over the agenda.
Sanctions, exemptions, and energy security
Following the delay of the summit, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Russian oil companies. Hungary, which depends on Russian crude for its refineries, is seeking exemptions from the restrictions.
Budapest has also condemned Kiev’s attacks on the Druzhba pipeline, through which Russian oil flows to Hungary, and accused Brussels of ignoring its legitimate energy concerns for the sake of pro-Kiev policies.
Ukraine justified its attempted sabotage, claiming that no nation should buy Russian products and blasting Hungary’s opposition to its bids to join the EU and NATO.
https://www.rt.com/news/627421-orban-trump-new-phase/
https://twitter.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1986335955083489691
US Navy SEALs eyed for Maduro murder mission – NYT
6 Nov, 2025 11:46
The administration of US President Donald Trump is considering three ways of removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, including through a Navy SEALs operation, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous officials.
The report comes after a recent US military buildup in the Caribbean, following Trump’s accusation that Maduro is tied to “narcoterrorist” networks which smuggle drugs into the United States.
Last month, Trump authorized CIA operations in Venezuela over alleged state-backed trafficking, and Washington has deployed naval forces to the western Caribbean with orders to use overwhelming force against suspected drug-running vessels.
Maduro has denied the allegations, accusing Trump of “fabricating a new war.”
According to the NYT, the plans under review could include a combination of airstrikes against military installations that support Maduro, special operations missions targeting the president directly, and efforts to seize control of Venezuela’s oil fields and infrastructure.
One proposed scenario reportedly involves airstrikes against military facilities, some of which US officials claim might be involved in facilitating drug trafficking, the outlet said. The aim of this approach would be to collapse Venezuelan military support for Maduro.
A second plan would be to deploy US Special Operations forces, including the elite Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 known as ‘Navy SEALs’, to capture or kill Maduro, the outlet claimed.
The White House would seek to bypass existing restrictions on targeting foreign leaders by characterizing Maduro as the leader of a narcoterrorist gang, echoing justifications for US airstrikes against drug-smuggling vessels, the article stated.
The third plan would reportedly send counterterrorism forces to Venezuela to seize control of airports, oilfields, and critical infrastructure.
The US has offered a $50 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction.
According to multiple media reports last week, Washington is planning operations inside Venezuela and has identified potential targets allegedly linked to drug smuggling.
The US has reportedly deployed around 10,000 soldiers and eight Navy warships to the region. Venezuela has condemned the military buildup as a sovereign violation and a coup attempt.
The government is reportedly seeking support from Russia, China, and Iran. Moscow recently reaffirmed its partnership with Caracas, expressing strong support for the country’s leadership in defending its sovereignty.
https://www.rt.com/news/627415-us-maduro-murder/
Russia's Volgograd oil refinery halts operations after Ukrainian drone attack, sources say
November 6, 20255:57 AM PST
Russian oil major Lukoil's (LKOH.MM), opens new tab Volgograd refinery has halted operations after it was struck by Ukrainian drones, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Ukraine has for several months been striking Russian oil refineries, depots and pipelines, while Ukrainian energy infrastructure has also been the target of Russian strikes in a war that is approaching its fourth year.
They said that the primary processing unit, CDU-5, with a daily capacity of 9,100 metric tons, or 66,700 barrels per day - a fifth of the plant's total capability - and a hydrocracker with a capacity of 11,000 tons per day were damaged during the attack.
Lukoil did not respond to a request for comment.
"The plant has been stopped. CDU-5 was on fire, there is some damage to the hydrocracker," one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
In 2024 the Volgograd refinery processed 13.7 million metric tons of oil, or 5.1% of the total volume at Russian refineries.
Ukraine struck Russia with at least 75 drones on Thursday, sparking a fire in an industrial area of the southern city of Volgograd, killing at least one and halting dozens of flights across the country, Russian officials said.
Volgograd Governor Andrei Bocharov said a 48-year-old man was killed by shrapnel and that a fire was sparked in an industrial zone in the Krasnoarmeysk district of the city, which was formerly known as Stalingrad.
The district is home to the Volgograd refinery which has been repeatedly targeted by Ukraine.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-volgograd-oil-refinery-halts-operations-after-ukrainian-drone-attack-2025-11-06/
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/11/06/ukrainian-drone-strike-forces-shutdown-at-major-russian-oil-refinery-in-volgograd/
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/11/06/ukraine-confirms-strikes-on-volgograd-oil-refinery-crimean-fuel-depots-and-donetsk-shahed-drone-base-video/
related Russia and Ukraine
https://militarnyi.com/en/news/madyar-storage-and-launch-base-for-shahed-drones-destroyed-in-occupied-donetsk/
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4055711-oil-depot-near-simferopol-on-fire-in-crimea-after-drone-attack.html
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/drone-strike-triggers-multiple-explosions-1762380454.html
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/belgium-outlines-response-measures-following-1762439320.html
Drones Strike Russia’s Third Most Powerful Thermal Power Station – Kostroma TPP
November 6, 2025 10:19
Early on November 6, the Kostroma Thermal Power Plant – Russia’s third most powerful – was targeted.
Photos and videos from the scene, published by Astra, confirm the incident.
The plant is located in the city of Volgorechensk in the Kostroma region.
The facility sustained damage, with local sources reporting explosions and a fire on the premises.
The regional authorities reported an attack by Ukrainian drones and explosions.
“Emergency services are currently working at the site to eliminate the consequences at the energy infrastructure facilities.
Power supply has not been disrupted, and there are no casualties,” the head of the region assured.
The regional governor stated that Russian air defense forces ‘fought off the drone attack’.
Residents of Volgorechensk reported several powerful explosions and flashes in the area of the power plant.
Photos and videos that appeared on social media confirm a strike on the facility.
The Kostroma TPP is the third-largest thermal power station in Russia by installed capacity.
It supplies electricity to a significant part of the country’s central region, including industrial facilities of defense importance.
https://militarnyi.com/en/news/drones-strike-russia-s-third-most-powerful-thermal-power-station-kostroma-tpp/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/idf-strikes-hezbollah-linked-sites-153006984.html
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-completed-wave-of-airstrikes-targeting-elite-hezbollah-unit-in-south-lebanon/
other Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/senior-idf-officer-strikes-in-lebanon-preview-of-what-to-come-if-beirut-doesnt-disarm-hezbollah/
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-11-06/ty-article-live/israel-working-to-identify-body-of-deceased-hostage-returned-from-gaza/0000019a-56e8-d5d0-a59f-76eff0780000
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-commandos-detained-man-planning-terror-attack-in-overnight-west-bank-raid/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-idf-wants-to-take-out-100-terrorists-stuck-in-gaza-tunnels/
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/11/06/hostage-gaza-Joshua-Mollel/7471762441587/
IDF escalates strikes on Hezbollah in villages to press for disarmament
Thu, November 6, 2025 at 7:30 AM PST
IDF Northern Command Chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo on Thursday told regional northern leaders, "we know we need to be determined to attack, to strike, and to destroy in order to keep Hezbollah weak."
The IDF carried out a series of airstrikes against Hezbollah on Thursday which represented an intensification of its pressure to convince the organization and the Lebanese government to disarm the group.
The military has continued striking Hezbollah, sometimes multiple times in a week, throughout the period following the November 2024 ceasefire between the sides.
However, mostly these have been one-off strikes against one or a few Hezbollah terrorists in an open area, with fewer wider consequences for Lebanese villages.
In contrast, on Thursday, the air force attacked Radwan's weapons storage structures inside several Lebanese villages directly, including issuing no less than three separate warnings to civilians in those villages to evacuate prior to the airstrikes.
According to IDF sources, they do not in any sense see even Thursday's attacks as a prelude to returning to war, but they do understand that attacking the villages has a different level of significance both to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.
The clear purposes for the IDF of the airstrikes are: to try to roll back the progress Hezbollah has started to make in recent months in rebuilding aspects of its fighting capabilities, which could threaten Israel; and to pressure all parties in Lebanon to follow through on Hezbollah's disarmament.
IDF Northern Command Chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo on Thursday told regional northern leaders, "we know we need to be determined to attack, to strike, and to destroy in order to keep Hezbollah weak."
Optimism towards Hezbollah's disarmament has dwindled
Following the IDF's pummeling of Hezbollah into a ceasefire on mostly Israeli terms in November 2024 and following the election of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in January of this year, there was temporary optimism that real progress would be made toward disarming Hezbollah.
Yet, much of that optimism has dwindled once running into the realities of the terror group's resistance to the idea.
Even on Thursday, Hezbollah signaled its defiance toward Israel's attacks and toward the Lebanese government negotiating with Israel over the future security realities confronting the sides.
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A major goal of Hezbollah and the Lebanese government is to get Israel to withdraw from five outposts it established close to the border even as it withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon in February of this year following a massive invasion of Lebanon in September 2024.
But Israel has said it is reluctant to carry out any further withdrawals if Hezbollah is not disarmed or at least does not freeze its ongoing efforts to increase its military capabilities.
Without increasing its capabilities, Hezbollah did finish the war with Israel still wielding tens of thousands of rockets, but this paled in comparison to its pre war arsenal of 150,000 rockets, and many more such rockets and missiles of higher quality.
According to the IDF, the first site it struck at Tyre belonged to Hezbollah’s Construction Unit.
It was used to manufacture equipment used by the terror group to rebuild its infrastructure that had been previously targeted and dismantled during the war.
“These actions of Hezbollah terrorists at the infrastructure site constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF said.
The strike, which took place in the South Lebanon Governorate, was the latest in a series of preemptive Israeli actions designed to prevent Hezbollah from rehabilitating the extensive infrastructure damaged during recent hostilities.
According to the US Department of the Treasury, the Construction Unit, or Jihad al-Binaa, is a key component of Hezbollah’s military-industrial complex, often operating under a civilian facade while simultaneously developing and restoring military and logistical assets, including the tunnel networks.
The repeated targeting of such sites, including construction materials and engineering equipment, underscores Israel's commitment to disrupting the group's attempts to solidify its presence south of the Litani River.
Israel continues to maintain high pressure as the organization pivots its focus toward Hezbollah's weapons production and military networks repair, often leveraging civilian infrastructure as a cover, a practice the IDF frequently highlights as endangering the Lebanese civilian population.
Last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun instructed the army to confront any Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon after, according to Reuters "Israeli forces crossed the border overnight and killed a municipal employee, despite a US-brokered ceasefire."
Israel disputes some of the circumstances of that incident, but is also investigating the incident signaling the IDF believes its forces on the ground may have made errors.
Israel will now see if Aoun truly means to respond to the IDF's aerial actions against Hezbollah or whether he only meant actions by ground troops, or whether he was bluffing entirely.
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