TYB
Watch: Rare meteor explosion caught on live stream from space
Tue, November 11, 2025 at 6:33 AM PST
For what many believe to be the first time ever, a meteor explosion was caught live on camera from space.
Live-streaming company Sen caught the explosion live on their 24/7 livestream from space on the morning of Nov. 10.
Sen was created earlier this year and offers a live, 4K video stream of Earth and space from the International Space Station that runs 24/7.
The live feed caught the event of a bolide exploding over the North Pacific Ocean around 8:45am EST on Monday.
A bolide is a meteor that explodes mid-air and creates a flash of light with an occasional sonic boom.
The phenomenon occurs when the space rock travels at high speeds, and compresses and heats the air in front of it, causing the meteor to explode.
The remnants of the bolide that may sometimes reach the Earth's ground are what are known as meteorites.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/watch-rare-meteor-explosion-caught-143333146.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t-6tJtll8w
https://about.sen.com/
Astronomers discover the famous Pleiades star cluster could be 20 times bigger than we thought
November 12, 2025
Astronomers have discovered that the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades star cluster have more stellar siblings than we thought — a lot more.
Using NASA's exoplanet hunting spacecraft TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the European Space Agency star tracking spacecraft Gaia, scientists found that this highly familiar astronomical body contains around 20 times more stars than was previously known.
The discovery not only has wide-reaching implications for the study of young star systems, but also cultural implications, as the Pleiades have been featured throughout recorded history around the world including mentions in the Old Testament and the Talmud.
The scientists behind the discovery say it could shift how humanity views one of the most well-known groupings of stars visible to the naked eye.
"This study changes how we see the Pleiades — not just seven bright stars, but thousands of long-lost siblings scattered across the whole sky," Andrew Boyle, lead author and graduate student in physics and astronomy at UNC-Chapel Hill, said in a statement.
The previously hidden new members of the Pleiades were discovered when a team of researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill used data from Gaia and TESS to measure the speed of known stars' rotations.
These measurements can reveal familial associations between stars that have drifted apart because the rate at which stars spin can be used as a cosmic 'clock' to determine their ages.
Young stars spin more rapidly, while older stars spin more slowly.
The team's new approach of mapping stars by tracking their rotation could reveal that many star clusters that were previously independent are actually part of much larger stellar families.
"We're realizing that many stars near the sun are part of massive extended stellar families with complex structures," said team member Andrew Mann, professor of physics and astronomy at UNC-Chapel Hill.
"Our work provides a new way to uncover these hidden relationships."
Indeed, using this technique to trace the family trees and birth locations of stars could help track down the stellar family from which our own star, the sun, originated, and that would provide scientists a much better understanding of how the solar system came to be and how our own Milky Way galaxy took shape.
"By measuring how stars spin, we can identify stellar groups too scattered to detect with traditional methods — opening a new window into the hidden architecture of our galaxy," Boyle concluded.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/astronomers-discover-the-famous-pleiades-star-cluster-could-be-20-times-bigger-than-we-thought
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae0724
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1105024?
https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/astronomers-spot-1st-coronal-mass-ejection-from-an-alien-star-and-thats-bad-news-in-the-search-for-life
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09715-3.epdf
Astronomers spot 1st coronal mass ejection from an alien star – and that's bad news in the search for life
November 12, 2025
Thanks to the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft XMM-Newton, astronomers have seen a powerful explosion of plasma erupting from a distant star for the first time.
We have seen (and felt) plenty of these coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun, but even though we have long thought other stars expel such powerful outflows of superheated gas and magnetic field, astronomers had never before spotted them in any convincing way.
This first extra-solar CME, which erupted from a red dwarf star, wasn't any run-of-the-mill stellar blast either.
This CME was dense enough and carried enough energy to strip away the atmosphere of any closely orbiting planet, with the ejected material traveling at 5.4 million miles per hour (2,400 kilometers per second).
That speed, around 3,500 times as fast as a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter, is something that is only observed in around 1 in 20 CMEs from our sun.
The atmosphere-stripping potential of this outburst means the observation of this CME could help astronomers better refine which extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, orbiting distant stars are capable of supporting life.
"Astronomers have wanted to spot a CME on another star for decades," team member Joe Callingham of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) said in a statement.
"Previous findings have inferred that they exist, or hinted at their presence, but haven’t actually confirmed that material has definitively escaped out into space. We’ve now managed to do this for the first time."
The discovery of this extra-solar CME was aided by the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope, which is capable of detecting radio signals that are created by CMEs when they ripple through the outer layers of stars and emerge into interplanetary space.
This creates a shock wave and an associated telltale burst of light in the radio wave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
"This kind of radio signal just wouldn’t exist unless material had completely left the star’s bubble of powerful magnetism," Callingham said. "In other words, it's caused by a CME."
This extra-solar CME was first spotted in data from LOFAR thanks to a new data processing technique. XMM-Newton was then used to determine the temperature of the star that created it, its rotational speed, and its brightness in X-ray light.
This revealed that this red dwarf, located around 40 light-years away, has around half the mass of the sun, but rotates around 20 times faster than our star and has a magnetic field around 300 times more powerful than the solar magnetic field.
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"We needed the sensitivity and frequency of LOFAR to detect the radio waves," team member David Konijn, a PhD student at ASTRON, explained.
"And without XMM-Newton, we wouldn’t have been able to determine the CME’s motion or put it in a solar context, both crucial for proving what we’d found.
Neither telescope alone would have been enough – we needed both."
This research could also help us better understand the CMEs launched by the sun and how they drive space weather around Earth.
"XMM-Newton is now helping us discover how CMEs vary by star, something that’s not only interesting in our study of stars and our sun, but also our hunt for habitable worlds around other stars," said Erik Kuulkers, an ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist.
"It also demonstrates the immense power of collaboration, which underpins all successful science. The discovery was a true team effort, and resolves the decades-long search for CMEs beyond the sun."
CMEs and the search for life
The fact that the CME was fast and dense enough to strip away a planetary atmosphere also adds additional information to the criteria that define what a habitable planet is.
"This work opens up a new observational frontier for studying and understanding eruptions and space weather around other stars," Henrik Eklund, an ESA at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, said.
"We're no longer limited to extrapolating our understanding of the sun's CMEs to other stars. It seems that intense space weather may be even more extreme around smaller stars – the primary hosts of potentially habitable exoplanets.
This has important implications for how these planets keep hold of their atmospheres and possibly remain habitable over time."
Currently, to be considered habitable, a planet has to sit in the zone around its star that is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water, known as the habitable or "Goldilocks" zone.
But, if the star at the heart of that zone is particularly active and is throwing out violent and frequent CMEs, not even a stable orbit in the Goldilocks zone will help it sustain an atmosphere, and thus the conditions needed for life to prosper.
That is a significant discovery because red dwarf stars like this one are the most common stars in the Milky Way. Thus, more of these stars than was previously believed may be stripping their orbiting planets of their atmospheres.
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Mars orbiter spies 'barcode' aftermath of rare Red Planet avalanche caused by meteoroid impact
November 12, 2025
On Christmas Eve in 2023, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft captured what looks like a barcode etched into the rusty slopes of Mars.
The image, taken by ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, shows dark, finger-like trails streaking down the flanks of Apollinaris Mons, a vast extinct volcano near the Martian equator.
Each stripe — some just a few yards wide, others hundreds across — traces the path of a dust avalanche, triggered when a meteoroid struck the surface, shaking loose fine grains that cascaded downslope, according to a ESA statement.
Although these enigmatic features occupy less than 0.1% of the Martian surface, they play an outsized role in the planet's dust cycle, scientists say.
Together, slope streaks move enough dust each Martian year to rival at least two global storms, making them important players in Mars' climate system.
A new study led by Valentin Bickel of the University of Bern in Switzerland finds that fewer than one in a thousand slope streaks form after meteoroid impacts like the one near Apollinaris Mons.
Instead, most are sparked by seasonal changes in wind and dust activity, the study reports. "Meteoroid impacts and quakes seem to be locally distinct, yet globally relatively insignificant drivers," Bickel said in the ESA statement.
To reach that conclusion, the researcher analyzed more than 2 million slope streaks across 90,000 orbital images of Mars taken between 2006 and 2024 — most from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Building on earlier work that cataloged 86,000 streaks, Bickel cross-referenced their new database with global maps of temperature, wind speed, surface hydration, landslides and dust-devil activity.
Using an improved deep-learning algorithm, the researcher scanned the full archive of images taken by MRO's Context Camera, or CTX, which is designed to monitor changes across the Martian surface.
This approach let him pinpoint when and where streaks formed — revealing global patterns of seasonality of slope streak formation across Mars — and estimate how much dust these processes inject into Mars' atmosphere.
The findings show that most of the streaks appear in step with the planet's dustiest seasons, especially during the southern summer and autumn, when winds exceed the threshold needed to set sand-sized particles in motion.
By estimating how much dust slope streaks move in total and comparing that with existing data on Mars' global dust circulation, Bickel found that these small streaks together lift about a quarter of all the dust exchanged between the surface and atmosphere each year, roughly the same amount stirred up by two planet-wide dust storms.
"The conditions most conducive to seasonal streak formation appear to occur at sunrise and sunset," Bickel wrote in the new paper. Because Mars orbiters rarely capture images at these dimmer hours, such events have yet to be seen unfolding in real time, he added.
The study also highlights five global "hotspots" for slope streaks — Amazonis, the Olympus Mons aureole, Tharsis, Arabia, and Elysium — all major geographical features on Mars where steep slopes, loose dust, and just-strong-enough winds combine to set the surface in motion.
"These observations could lead to a better understanding of what happens on Mars today," Colin Wilson, the project scientist for the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, said in the statement.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/mars-orbiter-spies-barcode-aftermath-of-rare-red-planet-avalanche-caused-by-meteoroid-impact
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65522-4
Hopefully all game companies will adopt this and fix the buggy messes everywhere.
Comet Lemmon photos are plagued by satellite streaks. Here's how amateur astronomers face the problem
November 12, 2025
Recent months have seen space fans revel in a wealth of spectacular astrophotography depicting the evolution of Comet Lemmon's glowing coma and twisting tail as it journeyed through a Northern Hemisphere night sky swarming with satellites.
While the vast majority of photographers opted to post sanitized views of Comet Lemmon, others intentionally compiled their images to reveal the incredible number of satellites that crossed the night sky over the course of multiple exposures.
In each instance, Comet Lemmon is shown surrounded by a crazed network of thin, web-like lines, each of which represents the path of an orbiting satellite over the course of a short camera exposure.
"Photographically, if someone is attempting to take a single image of a target and needs the image to be 'clean' — free of manmade objects — well, that image is nearly impossible to obtain," astrophotographer Dan Bartlett told Space.com in an email.
"Every single subframe I take (prior to stacking) now contains at least one, and usually more than one satellite streak."
There are currently about 13,000 operational satellites orbiting Earth, of which about 8,900 are SpaceX Starlink craft.
This number is set to exponentially increase, with SpaceX alone aiming to orbit up to 42,000 of its internet-beaming spacecraft, while competing companies aim to add thousands more satellites to their own "megaconstellations."
Thankfully, astrophotographers have access to powerful editing tools that allow them to remove the unsightly streaks with ease.
"Despite the enormous increase in satellite traffic over the past few years, eliminating the satellite trails in post processing is actually fairly simple using the right tools," explained Bartlett.
"I certainly don't like seeing so many satellites everywhere I point my telescope or even a good pair of binoculars, but we're still not at the point where you can't enjoy the night sky (there can be a thrill seen visually when a satellite passes through your field of view)."
Astrophotographers combat satellite streaks by capturing a multitude of short exposures over the course of a single session.
The images are then combined and subjected to an algorithm that determines a median value for each pixel before rejecting outlier pixels with values that exceed set parameters.
"If you take at least a dozen images to stack, then you can use a combine method called Sigma Rejection," said astrophotographer Chris Schur in an email to Space.com.
"This is available in nearly all astronomical imaging processing software. A single shot to up to about 6 images, the sigma does not have enough data to reject all the trails.
So that's why comet and deep-sky imagers take sets of at least a dozen images as a normal process, so that the stacking software has a good set to perform its algorithm."
The end result is a gorgeous composite image of an ancient solar system comet, which has been locked in an orbital dance around the sun since the creation of the planets over four billion years ago.
Stargazers looking to capture their own views of the night sky should check out our picks for the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography, along with our guide to observing and photographing comets.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/comet-lemmon-photos-are-plagued-by-satellite-streaks-heres-how-amateur-astronomers-face-the-problem
https://twitter.com/amazingskyguy/status/1982966188222362039
Russian forces continue advance on encircled city in Donbass – MOD
12 Nov, 2025 15:48
Russian forces have made gains around the Ukrainian-held stronghold of Mirnograd (Dimitrov) after liberating a village on the outskirts of the city, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Wednesday.
The village of Sukhoi Yar lies around 1km to the south of the city in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), where Ukrainian forces were encircled late last month.
Russian troops have also made new advances inside the city itself, making gains in its east, the ministry said in its daily briefing.
More than 250 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 22 pieces of military hardware destroyed in the area over the past 24 hours, it added.
The defense ministry also provided an update on another frontline hotspot – the city of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region.
The country’s forces have continued the search-and-destroy operation in the city, targeting the encircled remnants of its garrison as well as thwarting Kiev’s attempts to evacuate them, it said.
The ministry published a video of the commander of an assault unit with the 121st Regiment of the 68th Guards Motorized Rifle Division, call sign Lavrik, who said his men continued to sweep through the western part of the city.
Over the past day, the unit secured three more streets in the area, as well as shelled Ukrainian positions to the south of Kupyansk.
“Fifteen [Ukrainian] militants holding their positions were eliminated in combat. The spirits are high. We will accomplish the assigned task,” Lavrik stated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that over 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen had been surrounded in Kupyansk, as well as the Mirnograd-Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) agglomeration in the southwest of the DPR.
The city of Pokrovsk has largely fallen under Russian control since then, with the Ukrainian troops remaining encircled in Mirnograd despite the continuous effort by Kiev to relieve them.
Publicly, Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly denied the encirclements, insisting that the situation in the aforementioned locations was “under control” and describing the Russian advances as small-scale “infiltration” of reconnaissance units.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627683-pokrovsk-kupyansk-advance-update/
Russia prepared for Western military threat – Kremlin
12 Nov, 2025 14:07
Moscow is aware that Western countries are rearming for a possible confrontation with Russia, and is fully prepared for such a scenario, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Peskov said he agrees with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who warned earlier this week that the rapid militarization of Europe makes a direct conflict between Russia and Western nations increasingly likely.
”There are clear [militaristic] moods [in the West], and that is bad,” Peskov stated. “But we have always known this risk existed and have taken all necessary measures in advance to safeguard our interests and security.”
The EU’s rearmament drive, involving hundreds of billions of euros in proposed spending, is being justified under the pretext of a Russian threat. Moscow, however, maintains that the claims are fabricated to divert public attention from the bloc’s economic troubles and social discontent.
”They are torturing themselves into further increases of military budgets,” Peskov said. “Poland has already boosted its defense spending to nearly 5% of GDP, and others are following the same path, even though they are killing their own economies by doing that.”
Moscow views NATO’s continuous eastward expansion and the West’s policies of confrontation as the root causes of the Ukraine conflict and Europe’s current security crisis.
The US-led military bloc pledged to admit Ukraine at its 2008 Bucharest summit. Following the Western-backed coup in 2014, Ukraine adopted an openly anti-Russian policy.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627679-west-militarization-russia-ready-peskov/
Corruption consumes Kiev: Zelensky’s justice and energy ministers exit (Live Updates)
12 Nov, 2025 16:27
A probe by a Western-backed anti-corruption agency, that Vladimir Zelensky unsuccessfully tried to take control of, has forced the resignation of his justice and energy ministers.
On Wednesday, Justice Minister German Galushchenko tendered his resignation, followed by Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk hours later, with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko confirming the officials’ decisions.
The resignations followed a probe by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) targeting a “high-level criminal organization” allegedly headed by a former business associate of Zelensky, Timur Mindich.
12 November 2025
17:47 GMT
Long-time Financial Times Kiev correspondent Christopher Miller has noted on X that while Zelensky’s office promised to impose sanctions on Timur Mindich, the latter somehow “managed to flee Ukraine” already.
17:46 GMT
An anti-corruption court in Kiev has placed another suspect in the graft investigation, Lesya Ustimenko, in pre-trial custody for 60 days, local media has reported.
She is suspected of working in the ring’s “back office” and helping launder some 145 million hryvnia ($3,4 million).
17:43 GMT
The NABU investigation – codenamed Operation Midas – lasted about 15 months and involved 1,000 hours of wiretapping, the authorities have stated. During the course of the probe, multiple bags of cash were seized.
According to investigators, the suspects – five of whom have been apprehended – manipulated contracts at Energoatom, extracting kickbacks worth 10-15% of contract values. The ring is believed to have amassed around $100 million.
17:28 GMT
Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Aleksandr Dubinsky has claimed in a post on X that the unfolding corruption scandal marks the “beginning of the end for Zelensky.”
He said that “blatant theft” has been uncovered by anti-corruption investigators, for which there can be “no justification.” The MP further alleged that those involved enjoyed the personal protection of Zelensky.
16:59 GMT
In July, Zelensky attempted to strip the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) of its independence, only to backtrack shortly afterwards in the face of sharp criticism from Ukraine's Western backers.
Zelensky’s move was perceived by some observers as a ploy to shield his inner circle from scrutiny.
The current anti-corruption framework was established after the 2014 Maidan coup, with the stated goal of preventing the embezzlement of foreign aid under Ukraine’s new political leadership.
16:50 GMT
The high-profile corruption scandal “could bring down” Zelensky, The Spectator has claimed.
The British media outlet speculated that the revelations have cast a cloud on the Ukrainian leader’s political future, despite him paying lip service to anti-corruption investigators.
16:26 GMT
An anti-corruption court in Kiev has ruled that a former aide to Energy Minister Grinchuk be kept in custody for 60 days, unless he can lodge a bail of 126 million hryvnias ($3 million).
Igor Mironyuk is a suspect in the major corruption investigation involving Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627686-ukraine-leadership-corruption-scandal-ministers-resign/
https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1988638442981318882
https://twitter.com/Dubinsky_pro/status/1988246409544430013
Ukrainian civilian opens fire on draft squad – media
12 Nov, 2025 12:43
A Ukrainian man opened fire on staff from the Territorial Center for Recruitment (TCR) in the city of Dnepr, wounding two draft officers after they attempted to forcibly conscript him, according to a video circulating on social media.
Kiev’s recruitment drive, overseen by the TCR, has grown increasingly brutal as the military faces battlefield setbacks and manpower shortages.
Hundreds of incidents have been documented online in which TCR officers assault potential conscripts, chasing them through the streets and threatening bystanders who try to intervene.
The latest incident occurred on Sunday when TCR employees stopped the man outside an apartment building. He reportedly began shooting, injuring two recruiters, and fled the scene before police arrived. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Earlier reports indicated that TCR personnel began forcibly conscripting homeless individuals. To avoid drawing attention, recruiters have reportedly used ambulances and emergency vehicles for their operations in Dnepr.
Ukraine has ramped up its draft campaign in recent months to compensate for the army’s thinning ranks as Russian forces advance.
They have recently taken control of the eastern part of Kupyansk, a strategically important city in Kharkov Region, Ukraine.
Tensions over Kiev’s mobilization drive are growing. Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmitry Lubinets, reported that complaints regarding illegal conscription practices have surged, with nearly 5,000 filed this year.
Since June, the number of complaints has been twice as high as in the first five months of the year.
In July, Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, raised concerns about “systematic and widespread” abuses by Ukrainian draft officers, urging the authorities in Kiev to investigate these incidents and prevent future violations.
https://www.rt.com/russia/627669-ukraine-mobilization-shooting/
https://t.me/dneproperatyv/150398?single
Its like the leftover spot from using the paint 3D magic tool
Drone Raid Sparks Fire at Russian Petrochemical Giant - Second Strike in Weeks
UPDATED: Nov. 12, 11:56 am
Updated with reports from the SSO and the General Staff confirming their involvement in the attack.]
Drones reportedly targeted Stavrolen LLC, one of Russia’s largest petrochemical producers, in the city of Budyonnovsk in the Stavropol Territory early Wednesday morning, Nov. 12.
According to Russian Telegram channels, explosions were heard following the announcement of an air raid alert. Local authorities warned of possible restrictions on mobile internet and disruptions to digital television services.
The Exilenova+ Telegram channel published videos showing explosions and flashes in the area.
Later, regional governor Vladimir Vladimirov confirmed that air defense forces had repelled a drone attack over the Budyonnovsk district. He said debris from downed drones caused a fire in the city’s industrial zone.
“Firefighters and emergency services are working at the scene. According to preliminary data, there are no casualties, and residential buildings were not damaged,” Vladimirov said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that four drones were shot down over the Stavropol Territory overnight.
Meanwhile, several local media outlets reported that the Stavrolen enterprise - a major producer of polyethylene and benzene - was among the targets.
“Budennovsk, Stavropol Territory - video of the fire after the attack on LLC Stavrolen. Local authorities have mentioned debris but not the site, while residents confirmed it was the Stavrolen plant,” Exilenova+ wrote.
The Budyonnovsk Gas Processing Plant, which processes up to 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas annually, also plays a key role in supplying the Budyonnovsk CHPP, Lukoil facilities, and the region’s petrochemical industry.
The Special Operations Forces (SSO) later reported the successful strike on Stavrolen.
“On the night of Nov. 12, the Deep Strike units of the Special Operations Forces carried out a successful fire defeat of the petrochemical enterprise Stavrolen,” the Telegram report read.
Several SSO drones reached their target, and the strike was reportedly confirmed by local residents on social media. The General Staff of Ukraine also confirmed the enterprise was struck.
According to the report, the plant operates a full cycle of hydrocarbon processing and produces polymers used in composite materials, vehicle body parts, seals, insulation for various Russian military equipment, and components for UAVs.
“Numerous explosions and fires were recorded in the target area. The results of the attack are being clarified,” the report added.
In addition, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck an ammunition depot in the temporarily occupied Novy Svit settlement of the Donetsk region. Explosions were recorded at the site, and the extent of the damage is still being assessed.
This was not the first attack on the facility - Stavrolen was previously targeted on Oct. 29 as part of Ukraine’s broader campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.
Drones struck multiple targets across Russia early Oct. 29, setting fire to an oil depot in the Ulyanovsk region and briefly disrupting flights at airports from Moscow to the North Caucasus.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, air defenses shot down about 100 drones overnight.
However, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) confirmed they carried out coordinated deep strikes on “three major energy targets” - the Mariysk Oil Refinery in Mari El, the Novospassky Refinery in the Ulyanovsk region, and the Budyonnovsk Gas Refinery in the Stavropol Territory.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s drone and missile strikes have destroyed up to 27% of Russia’s fuel production capacity, forcing Moscow to reroute supplies and import fuel from abroad.
Since August, Ukraine has intensified drone operations against Russian oil and gas infrastructure, temporarily disabling nearly 40% of refineries by early October and sparking nationwide fuel shortages.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/64077
other Russia and Ukraine
https://news.ssbcrack.com/ukrainian-attack-destroys-new-russian-drone-base-near-donetsk/
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4057893-zelensky-announces-significant-increase-in-effectiveness-of-interceptor-drones.html
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/12/2353438/-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Ukraine-prepares-to-deploy-drone-minefield-in-the-sky
https://abcnews.go.com/International/drone-crashes-romania-russia-attacks-ukraine-defense-ministry/story?id=127405741
US sanctions 32 individuals and entities linked to Iran’s missile and drone programmes
November 12, 2025, 23:26:42 IST
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on individuals and entities across several countries for allegedly supporting Iran’s ballistic missile and drone development programmes, marking Washington’s latest move to tighten pressure on Tehran.
According to a statement from the US Treasury Department, 32 individuals and entities based in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, Hong Kong, India, Germany, and Ukraine have been targeted.
The designated groups are accused of operating procurement networks that assist Iran’s weapons manufacturing efforts.
“These networks pose a threat to US and allied personnel in the West Asia and to commercial shipping in the Red Sea,” the department said.
The US along with its European partners and Israel, has long accused Tehran of using its nuclear programme as a cover to develop weapons capabilities, a charge Iran denies, insisting that its activities are solely for peaceful purposes.
This action is also in furtherance of President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-2 to counter Iran’s aggressive development of missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities and deny the IRGC access to assets and resources that sustain their destabilising activities, the US Department of State said in a statement.
The United States will continue to use all available means, including sanctions on entities based in third countries, to expose, disrupt, and counter Iran’s procurement of equipment and items for its ballistic missile and UAV programs, which jeopardize regional security and international stability, it said.
https://www.firstpost.com/world/us-sanctions-32-individuals-and-entities-linked-to-irans-missile-and-drone-programmes-ws-e-13950148.html
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0313
Burma too
Treasury Sanctions Burma Armed Group and Companies Linked to Organized Crime Targeting Americans
November 12, 2025
WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), a Burmese armed group, along with four of its senior leaders, for supporting cyber scam centers in Burma that target Americans using fraudulent investment schemes.
OFAC is also designating Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Company Limited (Trans Asia), Troth Star Company Limited (Troth Star), and Thai national Chamu Sawang, who are linked to Chinese organized crime and have worked with the DKBA and other armed groups to develop these scam centers.
The revenue generated by scam center workers—who are often themselves victims of human trafficking—supports organized crime and allows the DKBA to finance its harmful activities.
“Criminal networks operating out of Burma are stealing billions of dollars from hardworking Americans through online scams,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.
“These same networks traffic human beings and help fuel Burma’s brutal civil war. The Administration will keep using every tool we have to go after these cybercriminals—wherever they operate—and to protect American families from their exploitation.”
This action was taken in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) San Diego field office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the criminal division of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Today, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, together with the Criminal Division of Department of Justice, the FBI, and the USSS, is also announcing the establishment of a Scam Center Strike Force.
Recognizing the immense impact of Southeast Asian scam centers on Americans, the Scam Center Strike Force has tasked agents and attorneys from offices across these agencies to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute the most egregious Southeast Asian scam centers and their leaders, with a focus on Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
The Scam Center Strike Force will work collaboratively with OFAC, the Department of State, and other agencies to use all tools available to the government to disrupt scam centers at the highest levels through sanctions, seizures, and criminal prosecution of individuals; securing U.S infrastructure against use by scammers; and supporting and protecting U.S. victims of these scams through public education and restitution.
cont.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0312
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-873645
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/IDF:-Three-'terrorists'-eliminated-in-Rafah/65173435
https://www.ifcj.org/news/stand-for-israel-blog/idf-completes-large-scale-multi-branch-exercise
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-killed-another-terror-operative-who-crossed-yellow-line-in-south-gaza/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-chief-says-army-will-not-tolerate-extremist-settler-attacks-in-west-bank/
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/k8s47z7yk
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ca484btml
Jared Kushner Can Finish What He Began: The Only Path to End Hamas and Save Gaza
NOVEMBER 12, 2025 15:57
History asks rare things of men: to see beyond the day’s outrage, to stitch broken frameworks into durable institutions, and to bear the loneliness of long flights and longer negotiations so others can sleep in safety. Jared Kushner answered such a calling.
As the chief U.S. architect behind the Abraham Accords — the 2020 normalization agreements that first bound the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to Israel and were later joined by Morocco and Sudan — he did more than broker diplomacy; he reset the strategic calculus of a region weary of stasis.
To compare contemporary statesmen is dangerous and reductive, yet the scale of Kushner’s achievement invites a straight line of comparison to the last American who re-ordered the Middle East’s strategic map: Henry Kissinger.
Like Kissinger, Kushner reframed the interests of states, not merely their grievances; he turned possibility into momentum and momentum into policy.
The Abraham Accords proved that the Arab-Israeli equation could change not because grievances vanished, but because sound strategic incentives were assembled and sold as mutual gain.
But peace is not an event; it is a process that demands follow-through. The Accords were never meant to be a comfortable end point for elites. They were intended as the first act in a longer project — expanding reconciliation into cooperation, and cooperation into shared prosperity.
That ambition, of a corridor of wealth and opportunity linking markets from the Gulf to the Mediterranean and beyond, is being renewed even now as States discuss widening the Accords’ circle.
That is precisely why a man like Jared — who could, by all rights, have spent his post-government years deploying capital in hedge funds and tech ventures — instead chose the harder road: shuttle diplomacy, sleepless brokering, and the patient cultivation of trust among skeptical leaders.
That choice matters. It is the practical morality of sacrifice: choosing service over comfort so others may prosper.
Today, the moral urgency is unmistakable. The specter of Hamas — a terrorist organization that has perpetrated unspeakable crimes against Israelis and inflicted devastating harm on Palestinians under its own rule — must be removed from any credible future for Gaza.
The secure accord signed under President Trump in Sharm el-Sheikh, already envisioned exactly that: the destruction of terrorist arsenals and the neutralization of political structures that enable violence — preconditions for any sustainable reconstruction and normalcy.
I am painfully aware of how fraught this argument sounds. Calls to eliminate a terrorist movement can drift into the language of collective punishment; they can be twisted into justification for dispossession.
I reject that. Justice in war must be lawful, proportionate, and human. But there is also realpolitik: the community of states that embraced the Accords must now help close the loop on the security guarantees that made them possible.
That means dismantling Hamas’s terrorist capacity and the political apparatus that sustains it — and then ensuring those individuals do not reconstitute a political or military threat to Gaza or to Israel.
Israel indisputably has the right to continue the military fight on the ground to eliminate Hamas operatives and dismantle their networks. But war has its limits: how long will this campaign take?
How many more months of grinding operations will Israeli soldiers and their nation be asked to endure? How long will the region — and the fragile coalition that the Abraham Accords began to build — tolerate protracted instability?
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I do not know that Jared Kushner himself would have the luxury of endless patience for shuttle diplomacy.
For these practical and moral reasons, it is right, however difficult, to pursue parallel tracks: continue necessary military pressure while vigorously negotiating the strict terms of disarmament with the remaining Hamas leadership.
I am convinced Jared can help finalize such an agreement — one that secures the surrender of weapons and the dissolution of terrorist command structures, then places those individuals in a third country under international guarantees that they will live as civilians and be expressly prohibited from any political or paramilitary activity.
That negotiated, tightly monitored solution offers the quickest, most humane route to disarmament and to opening Gaza to reconstruction that answers to its people, not to terrorists.
A successful operation to remove Hamas from Gaza would not be a local victory alone; it would reshape the region’s dynamics.
Weakening and neutralizing Hamas would undercut one of Tehran’s most visible tools in the Palestinian arena and would alter the calculations of Hezbollah in Lebanon — a group that has repeatedly stated it will not remain passive while Hamas fights.
Such a course is bold, uncomfortable, and precisely the kind of policy that turns accords into institutions. It will require the Netanyahu government and the Arab signatories to the Accords to act in concert — to trust Kushner’s original premise: that mutual interest can tame old enmities.
It will require international guarantees, humanitarian oversight, and an economic plan that replaces guns with jobs and tunnels with ports, schools, and factories.
We stand at a moral and strategic hinge.
We can let the moment pass — returning to the grim symmetry of attacks and reprisals — or we can back the pragmatic, humane yet unflinching strategy someone like Jared Kushner has shown is possible: where courage is paired with a plan for reconstruction, and where political courage is matched by economic vision. The region deserves nothing less.
Future generations will judge us not by how loudly we denounced what was wrong, but by how creatively and ruthlessly we stripped power from those who refuse peace and then built structures that made peace permanent.
I believe Jared Kushner helped plant the first trees. Let us now help cultivate the orchard.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/abraham-accords/article-873625
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/kushner-idf-said-working-on-separate-contingency-plans-for-gaza-in-case-trumps-fails/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kushner-netanyahu-still-seeking-solution-to-impasse-on-terrorists-in-rafah-tunnels/
other Israel
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Defense Minister Israel Katz moves to shut down IDF's Army Radio after 75 years of broadcasting
Updated: NOVEMBER 12, 2025 17:26
Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday that he will submit a proposal to the government to close the military radio station, Army Radio (Galei Tzahal), a move that would suspend its broadcasts by March 1, 2026.
Katz said a professional team will be established within the Defense Ministry to oversee the implementation of the decision, ensuring civilian employees at the station can end their employment under proper arrangements while safeguarding their rights.
In a statement, Katz emphasized that the station’s original purpose - as a platform serving IDF soldiers and their families - has been overshadowed by political content that, in his view, undermines the army.
“As I have made clear, what was is not what will be. Army Radio was established by the Israeli government as a military station to serve as a mouthpiece and an ear for IDF soldiers and their families - and not as a platform for voicing opinions, many of which attack the IDF and the IDF soldiers themselves,” he said.
Katz argued that continuing the station’s operation drags the IDF into political discourse and harms its reputation as the people’s army.
“Operating a civilian radio station by the military is an anomaly that has no equal in any democratic country in the world,” he said.
“Over the past two years, throughout the war, many soldiers and civilians, including bereaved families, have complained that they feel the station does not represent them and is even harming the war effort and morale.
Worse still, our enemies interpret these messages as being conveyed by the IDF.”
Ending 75 years of Army Radio broadcasting to Israeli public
Army Radio has broadcast to the Israeli public for 75 years, serving as both a news outlet and a cultural presence for the military.
The decision follows the recommendations of a committee Katz established two weeks ago, after just 19 days of deliberations.
The committee described the very existence of a military radio station broadcasting to the general public as “a democratic anomaly that has no equal in the world,” and said its involvement in current affairs and news “harms the IDF’s status as the people’s army.”
The committee considered several alternatives, including transferring the station to another public body, privatization, or partial closure.
It recommended two viable paths: either convert Army Radio into a “Soldiers’ Home” model, broadcasting only music and brief news flashes without current affairs or political content, or close the station entirely and return its frequencies to the Ministry of Communications.
In contrast, the committee advised that Galgalatz, the music and transportation station operated by the IDF, should continue in its current format.
Legal concerns have already been raised regarding the closure. Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara said the move “raises concerns about political interference in public broadcasting and raises questions regarding the violation of freedom of expression and the press.”
Katz, however, insisted that government approval is the proper mechanism for the decision, noting that decades of past defense ministers and chiefs of staff had considered various options for the station, but none had been implemented.
“I intend to bring the decision to close the station to the government soon,” Katz said. “This is the necessary step to preserve the state character of the IDF and strengthen public trust in it.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-873559