TYB
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman
@NASAAdmin
The time has come for America to get underway on nuclear power in space🇺🇸
Quote
White House OSTP 47
@WHOSTP47
1h
Today, we are releasing new guidance to Federal agencies for establishing a National Initiative for American Space Nuclear Power, as called for by President Trump’s EO on Ensuring American Space Superiority.
Nuclear power in space will give us the sustained electricity, heating, and propulsion essential to a permanent presence on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
7:12 AM · Apr 14, 2026
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2044056202045477261
https://x.com/WHOSTP47/status/2044047936972042663
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/NSTM-3-2026_04_14-corrected.pdf
extra Isaacman
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2043855727702466693
https://x.com/NASARoman/status/2043706223933997434
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/how-artemis-2-commander-reid-wiseman-saved-the-missions-moon-mascot-its-hard-not-to-love-this-little-guy-i-cant-let-rise-out-of-my-sight
https://x.com/astro_reid/status/2043029624146505888
extra Artemis II
https://www.uniladtech.com/science/space/nasa-responds-missing-artemis-2-heat-shield-546085-20260414
https://www.newsnationnow.com/vargasreports/nasa-artemis-ii-critics/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-host-artemis-ii-crew-postflight-news-conference/
https://www.youtube.com/@NASA/videos
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-rollout-event-for-artemis-iii-moon-rocket-stage/
How Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman saved the mission's moon mascot: 'It's hard not to love this little guy. I can't let Rise out of my sight'
April 14, 2026
Reid Wiseman had one last decision to make before leaving his spacecraft post-splashdown: leave something behind in accordance with NASA's post-splashdown checklist, or not?
Reid Wiseman, the NASA Artemis 2 commander, was supposed to leave a little plushie moon toy — called Rise — for later retrieval from his Integrity Orion spacecraft.
But after 10 days floating alongside the mascot to the moon and back again, Wiseman had a different thought about that procedure.
"I was supposed to leave Rise in Integrity … but that was not something I was going to do," Wiseman wrote on X on Saturday (April 11).
Officially, Rise is a zero-gravity indicator created by Lucas Ye, a third grader from California.
It's a mini-moon, with an Earth-colored cap brimmed with stars. Inside the little toy are over 5 million names on an SD card, submitted by folks around the world looking to fly their monikers to the moon.
Rise floated on camera in front of the crew after they reached space April 1, before the eyes of Wiseman, NASA's Victor Glover, NASA's Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen.
But during the unfolding of the historical lunar flyby mission — the first human moon visit in nearly 54 years — Rise also became a symbol far beyond serving as a demonstration of when Integrity left Earth's gravity.
Moon memorial
Crew members often played with Rise during livestreamed conversations with Earth, and the toy also took over NASA's social media streams mid-mission.
But sharp-eyed folks on social media caught something very special in a NASA picture of Ye's family posted Friday (April 10): at some point, Ye's Rise (a prototype of the mascot) was inscribed with the name "Carroll."
Carroll is the name of Wiseman's wife, who died in 2020 of cancer. The crew suggested naming a moon crater after her, during one of the most touching moments of their lunar flyby livestream.
(The suggestion will be sent to the International Astronomical Union, which is the official arbitrator of astronomical monikers).
"A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family and we lost a loved one," Artemis 2 mission specialist Jeremy Hansen said to mission control during the April 6 event.
"Her name was Carroll: the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie." Following the announcement, the four crew members shared one of their many group hugs on camera, before separating and visibly wiping tears.
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Bringing Rise home
Now safely back on his home planet on Friday, Wiseman readied for his self-devised final mission procedure: how to get the palm-sized Rise safely out of the spacecraft to the Pacific Ocean pickup area.
"I stuffed that little guy in a dry bag we had in our survival kit, and hooked the bag onto my pressure suit," Wiseman wrote on X.
This allowed Rise to close out the mission alongside the crew.
Secured on Wiseman's suit, Rise briefly waited on a raft in the Pacific Ocean before a dramatic hoist into a waiting U.S. Navy helicopter, which whisked Rise, Wiseman and Hansen to the USS John P Murtha.
(Glover and Koch, in their own helicopter, took the same journey to the vessel.)
The next day, Wiseman still had Rise with him. He used a lanyard to secure the toy to a water bottle: "It's hard not to love this little guy.
I can't let Rise out of my sight," Wiseman said in a separate X post on Saturday, posted from the crew's next stop at Naval Air Station North Island in California.
As far as we know, Rise is still with Wiseman.
Rise appeared on-stage with Wiseman and the rest of the crew in Houston, at Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center, when they celebrated the end of their mission on Saturday with much of the NASA astronaut corps.
Rise next made a cameo in an image Wiseman posted on X hours later with his daughters, with the simple caption "Mission complete", accompanied by three hearts.
NASA and Wiseman haven't revealed Rise's next adventure yet, but in general, it is up to the agency and U.S. law to determine what happens to space-flown artifacts after a mission (which depends on the program and era).
But folks on Reddit nevertheless joked that Rise is a member of Wiseman's family. "Reid's new child, Rise Wiseman," read one popular comment on Reddit. Or as someone else called the toy: "Rise Weidman."
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Nutrition Research Arrives Aboard Space Station
Apr 14, 2026
No matter how far humanity aims to travel or how ambitious the mission, nutrition will play a key role for the crew members on distant worlds.
Before planning long-term stays on the Moon, Mars, and beyond, humans must learn to grow and care for plants and other sources of nutrition like algae to keep the explorers taking part in these adventures fed.
To solve this problem, NASA and its partners are conducting research aboard the International Space Station to better understand how the space environment affects nutrition-relevant organisms.
Several investigations aboard Northrop Grumman’s 24th commercial resupply mission for NASA support efforts to maintain crew diets as humanity ventures deeper into the cosmos.
Studying plant-microbe interactions
Certain plants have bacteria in their roots that can take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form of food that plants can use for growth.
NASA’s Veg-06 studies alfalfa (Medicago sativa), a model organism, to determine how the plant interacts with this bacterium in space. This study also examines the effects of reduced lignin, which reinforces cell walls and helps plants to grow upright against gravity.
In microgravity, plants may not need lignin, and reduced levels could allow plant parts to be more easily recycled, facilitating the growth of future plant generations.
Improved algae cultivation
Other forms of nutrition that could support crew health include spirulina (Arthorospira), a type of algae high in protein, B vitamins, and antioxidants. Spirulina also has an added benefit of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, helping replenish a crew’s air supply.
While spirulina is typically grown in water tanks, a JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) experiment called Space Surface Spirulina is testing a method to grow the algae on a thin-film surface.
This method allows more efficient production of this high-protein food while conserving water and producing fresh oxygen aboard spacecraft.
Seed studies for better spaceflight plants
The ESA (European Space Agency) investigation Seed Vigour exposes seeds from several plant species to spaceflight conditions aboard the space station to determine if seed growth is affected.
The research builds on a 2015 study in which arugula seeds spent six months in orbit. After returning to Earth, the seeds were distributed to schools in the United Kingdom for further study.
The data contributed to a 2020 publication which found that the space-flown arugula seeds took longer to sprout and demonstrated signs of partial aging, but spaceflight did not compromise seed survival or seedling development.
This new study, flying aboard the resupply mission aims to determine whether these findings apply to other plant species and could help researchers find better ways to protect crop seeds during long-duration space missions.
The Tomatosphere 9 investigation by the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) is exposing 1.8 million tomato seeds to microgravity conditions aboard the orbiting laboratory to give students an opportunity to study how the space environment affects plant growth.
After the seeds return to Earth, they will be distributed to schools across the United States and Canada, where students can plant them alongside ground controls in a blind study to compare results.
Together, these studies aboard space station deepen researchers’ understanding of nutrition in space and inform ways to better grow and maintain food sources that will keep crews healthy on future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/nutrition-research-arrives-aboard-space-station/
extra NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/04/13/canadarm2-installs-cygnus-xl-cargo-craft-to-unity-module/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/04/13/canadarm2-reaches-out-and-captures-cygnus-xl-cargo-craft/
https://x.com/AstroPeggy/status/2044055679044845996
https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/chickpeas-grown-in-lunar-soil/
>NASA Tech to
everyone that wanted it.
What did they really see up there on the backside?
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4852–4858: When Data Take Their Time…
Apr 13, 2026
Earth planning date: Friday, April 3, 2026
I was the geology science team lead on Monday for planning Sols 4852-4853, when our data did not arrive on time for planning.
Thus, we got creative as a team thinking what we could do, not knowing where exactly our rover might be. And for that we first thought about AEGIS, the capability of the rover to find a target for ChemCam LIBS measurements on its own.
We normally use this capability after drives, before we have seen the data here on Earth, to get an extra LIBS measurement. This time, we put two of those observations into the plan, and added many atmospheric and environmental observations, such as dust-devil movies, too. I
t’s an interesting planning session that always makes the team talk more than normal, because there are no routines for those days! I find it both tense and rewarding at the same time.
Anything that isn’t quite as expected adds levels of complexity that require more focus and more thinking, hence making me tense. But it is also really nice when we’ve succeeded in making the best of those days.
My colleagues also seem to have lots of energy and are especially supportive of each other. That said, like everyone else I prefer the routine days where everything goes right and we focus on the science.
All our data arrived perfectly fine in time for planning on Wednesday and we found ourselves in a terrain with many blocks that have polygons on their top surface.
Do check out the images, it’s a wild terrain that reminded me of some boulder-rich terrains we have seen back on the margins of the Gediz Vallis Channel. It is interesting to see the distribution of the blocks, and I am curious how they might change along the traverse up Mount Sharp.
For now, we have an activity that we call “MARDI sidewalk” in the plan. This means the MARDI camera takes images while the rover is driving, on Sol 4855. Those image sequences give great insights into changing terrains, and we are looking forward to the data reaching us!
Over the course of the week, ChemCam did three AEGIS observations and four human-pointed observations on the targets “Las Petas,” “Punta Negra,” “Pampa del Molle,” and “Los Condores.”
We were trying to measure the normal-looking bedrock and all the different features, some of which you can see in the image above. We want to find out what the higher-standing materials are that form those prominent polygons.
APXS is getting four targets in the plan, also looking at the diversity of rocks. These are called “Rio Espiritu Santo,” “La Escalera,” “Los Condores,” and “Tropico de Capricornio.”
It’s all focused on understanding what forms the polygons, because any differences in chemistry could tell us a lot about what happened and how the polygons came to be.
By extension, this will then allow the team to deduce the environmental conditions at the time the polygons formed.
As you may guess, imaging is very important in a landscape as varied as this! Mastcam is looking in many directions in the near-field and further up the road — our projected drive path.
In addition, ChemCam is taking long-distance images with its Remote Micro Imager (RMI) to get a closer look at the walls around us.
The butte called “Mishe Mokwa” is still one of the RMI and Mastcam favorites because it gives us many insights into its structure as we are driving past and also somewhat around it.
Atmospheric and environmental observations occur all across the plans and include atmospheric opacity measurements, dust-devil searches and, in Friday’s plan, also an APXS atmospheric measurement.
The DAN instrument is monitoring water in the subsurface across all plans. So, it’s three full plans, despite the little extra wait on the data!
And while I am writing this, four astronauts in the Orion capsule are on the way around the Moon. I am very excited! When Apollo 8 was the very first mission to ever fly around the Moon in December 1968, I wasn’t born yet.
In fact, I arrived a few months after Apollo 11 had landed on the Moon for the first time. Now being able to witness these lunar missions myself, to hear the voices between the Integrity spacecraft and the control room in Houston, and to see the pictures as they arrive … magnificent!
Go, Artemis II!
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4852-4858-when-data-take-their-time/
extra rover
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4845-4851-bye-bye-boxwork-bye-bye/
Little Green Alien Spotted at Artemis II Crew's Splashdown Following High-Stakes Mission Around the Moon
April 13, 2026 01:39PM EDT
Key Takeaways
The Artemis II crew was greeted by an inflatable green alien waving from a Navy ship window upon returning to Earth
The playful moment was orchestrated by Navy crew members to add humor to the high-stakes recovery operation
Social media users quickly embraced the quirky detail, sharing photos and praising the lighthearted gesture
When the crew from the Artemis II mission splashed down off the coast of San Diego on Friday, April 10, their return was already set to be a milestone moment.
But it was an unexpected — and slightly out-of-this-world — detail that quickly captured attention online.
As recovery efforts got underway, viewers noticed something unusual in the window of the USS John P. Murtha: an inflatable green alien peeking out and appearing to wave along with the crew.
In footage of the moment, astronauts — including pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch — can be seen waving as the inflatable figure looks on from the window, adding a playful touch to the otherwise high-stakes return.
The quirky sight was quickly spotted and shared across social media, where it soon went viral.
"The Artemis II crew returned home to Earth and were greeted by some familiar faces! 👽," one Instagram account, @whistlesports, captioned a roundup of memes of the alien captured in the window.
"This is awesome 😆," one user replied on the post.
"That's so funny! 👽," another commented.
Speaking to Good Morning America, Mike Gallagher, the main propulsion division officer in the U.S. Navy, shared how the lighthearted moment came together.
"Before the astronauts had landed we had been jumping and waving at some of our ship mates on board the flight deck so the HM's and the flight crew," he said.
"We saw the alien in the room with us and realized that would be a really cool thing to do, have it waving at everybody out there who was working on the mission."
Along with Glover and Koch, commander Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen also safely returned, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean just after 5:07 p.m. local time.
The spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere from an altitude of about 400,000 feet around 4:53 p.m., followed by an expected six-minute communications blackout caused by a buildup of plasma around the Orion capsule.
During that period, the capsule reached speeds of approximately 24,661 mph — more than 30 times the speed of sound — while enduring peak heating temperatures of around 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its exterior.
While the mission did not land on the moon, it marked a critical test flight as part of NASA's broader goal of returning humans to the lunar surface within the next two years.
https://people.com/artemis-ii-crew-welcomed-by-green-alien-earth-return-11948406
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYuDsbuDWwQ
extra NASA
https://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsletter?id=C66A3918-4242-47B9-BCCA-A319AF773C7D
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/science-news/2026/04/13/international-collaboration-helps-pinpoint-universes-expansion-rate/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/super-typhoon-sinlaku/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-data-engineering-informatics-support-contract/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/nasa-announces-32nd-annual-human-exploration-rover-challenge-winners/
CAS Space launches 12th Kinetica 1 rocket
Updated: 2026-04-14 17:00
CAS Space, a leading commercial rocket maker in China, launched the 12th rocket in its Kinetica 1 series on Tuesday.
The rocket lifted off at 12:03 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and then placed eight remote-sensing satellites into their preset orbital positions. The mission was China's 24th space launch this year.
By now, CAS Space has used Kinetica 1 rockets to help clients deploy 92 satellites with a combined weight of more than 12 metric tons.
The Kinetica 1 model — with a length of 30 meters, a diameter of 2.65 meters, and a liftoff weight of 135 tons — is capable of deploying satellites with a combined weight of 1.5 tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth.
Meng Xiangfu, deputy project manager of Kinetica 1, said his company can build over 10 Kinetica 1 rockets each year and can prepare a rocket within six months after a client places an order.
https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202604/14/WS69de024da310d6866eb435d7.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIMgk-S1c8I
https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/scientists-use-rare-einstein-cross-to-learn-about-young-galaxy-with-surprisingly-old-stars
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02819-4.epdf
Scientists use rare 'Einstein Cross' to learn about young galaxy with surprisingly old stars
April 14, 2026
"The discovery of this exceptional object has allowed us to accurately study the nature of the stars at the center of an elliptical galaxy in a remote era of the universe, when the galaxy was still young."
Astronomers have discovered a rare "Einstein Cross" gravitational lens, revealing a young galaxy with shockingly mature stars.
The galaxy in question is J1453g, an elliptical galaxy that is the first gravitational lens at a large cosmic distance for which astronomers have been able to precisely "weigh."
J1453g lenses the light from a more distant quasar, a region of space dominated by a ravenously feeding supermassive black hole, magnifying it and causing it to appear multiple times in the same image in the shape of a cross.
The galaxy is seen as it was around 8 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 6 billion years old.
However, though it is a "primordial galaxy" in its early stages of development, J1453g is surprisingly similar to the Milky Way, our "mature" home galaxy.
What this shows us is that the growth and evolution of galaxies could be much more complex than previously theorized.
"The discovery of this exceptional object has allowed us to accurately study the nature of the stars at the center of an elliptical galaxy in a remote era of the universe, when the galaxy was still young," team leader Quirino D'Amato, a researcher at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), said in a statement.
"The fact that their composition is very similar to what we see today in the Milky Way, in a completely different environment and era, is surprising.
"This tells us that we are still far from fully understanding the processes of galaxy formation and evolution, and represents an important point for the development of future models."
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What is gravitational lensing?
This research wouldn't have been possible with a quirk of the cosmos first posited by Albert Einstein in his 1915 magnum opus theory of gravity, general relativity.
General relativity suggests objects with mass give rise to a curvature in the very fabric of space and time, united as a four-dimensional entity called "spacetime."
The bigger the mass of an object, the greater the curvature it generates, and we experience these warps in spacetime as gravity. Thus, the greater mass an object has, the greater its gravitational influence.
And when light passes through warps in spacetime, something fascinating happens. The usually straight path of light gets curved along the warp, with the degree of curvature dictated by how close to the object of mass the light passes.
That means when an object of great mass comes between Earth and a more distant object, light from that background object can arrive at our telescopes at different times.
These intervening bodies can cause background objects to be magnified, or "gravitationally lensed." Indeed, this phenomenon is used to great effect by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to see ancient and distant galaxies.
Every so often, the difference in arrival time can cause a background object to appear multiple times in the same image, too.
These multiple manifestations of the same background body can take circular arrangements, or Einstein Rings, and can also appear as rarer Einstein Crosses.
In the case of this Einstein Cross, the gravitational lens is the galaxy J1453g in near-perfect alignment with Earth and a distant quasar, the active region at the heart of the galaxy, which is powered by a feeding supermassive black hole.
Gravitational lensing isn't just useful for seeing objects ordinarily way beyond our view; the lensing effect can tell scientists a great deal about the body doing the lensing as well.
In this case, the team was able to use the cross-shaped manifestations of this quasar to determine the mass distribution of the stars J1453g to an unprecedented level of precision. That revealed something that defies what current models suggest.
Scientists usually expect the central bulges of elliptical galaxies to form rapidly and thus be dominated by low-mass stars.
However, it appears that J1453g has a configuration like that of the Milky Way, which is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning some elliptical galaxies may form more slowly with higher mass stars at their hearts.
Another possibility is that J1453g was transformed in its early history by a violent incident, such as a collision and merger with another galaxy.
As such, the team's results not only represent one of the most robust measurements of star birth in the adolescence of the universe, but also represent a new window on the formation and evolution of massive cosmic structures.
Indeed, the research suggests a more dynamic and complex history for galaxies than was previously thought possible.
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SpaceX Launches
Starlink Mission
April 14, 2026
On Tuesday, April 14 at 5:23 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the 26th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Ax-2, Euclid, Ax-3, CRS-30, SES ASTRA 1P, NG-21, and now 20 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-10-24
Starlink Mission
April 14, 2026
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is targeting the launch of 25 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the X TV app.
This will be the 21st flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched USSF-62, OneWeb Launch 20, NROL-145, and 17 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
There is the possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-17-27
extra SpaceX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf0sZZOK-fY (SpaceX conducts Booster 19 potential Static Fire on Pad 2)
‘A few kilometers’ left to liberate Donbass – Kremlin
13 Apr, 2026 13:53 | Updated 13 Apr, 2026 14:55
Russian forces only have a few kilometers left before Donbass has been liberated, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday, Peskov was asked to comment on a recent statement by US Vice President J.D. Vance, who said the Ukraine conflict has fundamentally “stopped making sense,” and that the sides are “haggling at this point over a few square kilometers of territory.”
Peskov confirmed that the territorial issue is now down to “ just a few kilometers, roughly speaking.” He stated that Russia still needs to liberate around “18-17% of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)” in order to reach the region’s borders.
Once the army reaches the borders of Russia’s new regions, he said, “a complex, painstaking, and not fast negotiation process” will begin, in which the details of a settlement with Ukraine will have to be determined.
Peskov’s remarks came after the Russia Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it has established control over the village of Dibrova in the DPR and the village of Miropolskoye in Sumy Region.
Moscow has called on Kiev to withdraw from all Russian territories peacefully, stressing that it will liberate Donbass – which voted to join Russia in 2022 – one way or the other.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Moscow issued a two-month deadline for Ukrainian troops to retreat.
The Kremlin rejected the claim, stressing that Zelensky should have issued the withdrawal order long ago, which could have “saved the lives of thousands of people and stopped the hot phase of this war.”
Trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the US have been on hold due to the Iran war, with Peskov describing the pause as “situational.”
Zelensky has rejected any territorial concessions, calling a withdrawal from Donbass a threat to European security.
Moscow insists that a lasting peace must include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and recognition of the regions that voted to join Russia.
https://www.rt.com/russia/638343-peskov-donbass-kilometers-left/
Ukraine’s drone regiment takes out Russian fuel tanker, logistics hub deep in occupied Donetsk, Melitopol, Crimea
14/04/2026
Operators of the 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment "Raid" carried out a coordinated strike on Russian rear positions in occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast using domestically produced strike UAVs, according to footage published on the regiment's channel on 13 April.
The targets included a Russian materiel and technical supply warehouse, a logistics hub, and a fuel tanker. "This will significantly complicate the supply of Russian troops and affect their ability to conduct combat operations on the southern sectors of the front," the regiment stated.
ArmiyaInform previously reported that operators of the same regiment struck a Russian Tor-M2 air defense system in Donetsk Oblast.
Ukraine's drone campaign has repeatedly struck Russian military assets and logistics infrastructure in Russian-occupied territories since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Attacks on fuel storage facilities on the peninsula have reduced available reserves, putting pressure on Russian military logistics along the southern front.
Each air defense system knocked out across the occupied territories leaves remaining military infrastructure more exposed to subsequent strikes.
Melitopol: Substation hit, partial blackout
In the early hours of 14 April, a series of explosions struck occupied Melitopol, followed by a fire at an electrical substation and a partial blackout, RBK-Ukraine reported, citing OSINT channels. Video circulating online showed heavy smoke and flames at the site.
The occupation administration's appointed "governor" of the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Yevhen Balitsky, confirmed the attack on an energy infrastructure facility in the south of the region.
According to him, part of the equipment sustained damage, causing power outages in the city. Casualty figures and the full extent of destruction were still being established at time of reporting, according to Censor.NET, which cited local and Russian Telegram channels.
Melitopol has been under Russian occupation since early March 2022 and functions as a key logistics and transport hub in southern Ukraine. Strikes on military targets, ammunition depots, and infrastructure there have been recorded regularly.
In late December 2025, Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) released footage of an explosion near a military "Ural" vehicle in the city that killed at least four Russian servicemen, according to ArmiyaInform.
In March 2026, a Russian court sentenced three teenagers from Melitopol to between seven and 8.5 years on what human rights advocates described as fabricated "terrorism" charges, calling the prosecutions a war crime.
Crimea: Explosions in Simferopol, Feodosia, and Kerch
A series of explosions was reported across occupied Crimea during the night of 14 April amid what appeared to be a large-scale drone attack, local Telegram channels reported.
Blasts were recorded in Simferopol, Feodosia, and Kerch over the course of several hours. In Simferopol, Russian forces opened machine-gun fire on drones, with shooting reported across multiple city districts and in surrounding settlements.
Particularly intense activity was recorded near the Tavriiska thermal power plant, where at least two powerful explosions were heard, and near the Hvardiiske airfield, where infrastructure may have been struck.
Eyewitnesses reported Pantsir air defense systems in operation, as well as explosions over the sea along the peninsula's southern coast.
Preliminary reports indicated that possible targets included energy and military infrastructure, including an oil depot near Hvardiiske, according to Censor.NET. No immediate official Ukrainian confirmation of the Crimea strikes was available.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/04/14/ukraines-drone-regiment-takes-out-russian-fuel-tanker-logistics-hub-deep-in-occupied-south/
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4112396-ukraine-strikes-russian-drone-storage-site-near-donetsk-airport-with-scalp-missiles.html
other Russia and Ukraine
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/14/zelensky-says-kyiv-seized-a-russian-position-with-drones-and-robots-is-this-a-game-changer-a92497
https://www.newsweek.com/nato-scrambles-fighter-jets-russian-drone-attack-ukraine-war-11825326
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/73920
https://united24media.com/latest-news/ukraines-hornet-drone-is-now-hunting-russian-trucks-on-its-own-17880
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/2026-04-14/live-updates-892905
other Israel
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b1z00vkn3we
https://vinnews.com/2026/04/14/us-centcom-commander-meets-idf-chief-of-staff-holocaust-survivor-on-yom-hashoah/
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893005
https://www.wearethemighty.com/feature/military-autism-neurodivergent-combat-advantage/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-targeted-hezbollah-sites-in-southern-lebanon-town-last-night/
https://eadaily.com/en/news/2026/04/14/the-idf-suffered-record-losses-as-a-result-of-the-operation-in-lebanon
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-killed-several-terror-operatives-in-gaza-strip-in-separate-incidents/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/petition-filed-against-incoming-mossad-director-over-lack-of-trustworthiness/
Live Updates: Katz defines conditions for end of war as Mossad Chief vows Iran regime change efforts to continue
April 14, 2026
IDF reservist killed, 10 wounded in Lebanon clashes • Israel, Lebanon set for talks • Mossad chief vows Iran regime change efforts to continue
April 14, 7:02 PM
WATCH: IDF destroys four Hamas tunnels with weapons, living quarters in Gaza
The total length of the destroyed tunnel routes was approximately 800 meters, with the structures including living quarters and weapons.
IDF destroys four Hamas tunnels in Gaza over weekend, April 14, 2026.. (credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
IDF troops from the 205th Brigade and Yahalom destroyed four underground Hamas tunnel routes in Gaza over the weekend, the IDF announced on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the total length of the tunnel route was approximately 800 meters, all of which was located east of the Yellow line.
April 14, 5:31 PM
Removal of enriched uranium 'threshold condition' for ending Iran campaign, Katz says
The removal of enriched uranium from Iran is a "threshold condition" for Israel ending its campaign in Iran, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday during a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement.
"The enriched material could serve as a basis for an attempt to restart the nuclear project," said Katz, adding "the US and Israel defined the removal of the material from Iran as a threshold condition for ending the campaign."
April 14, 5:01 PM
Iran talks doomed, ceasefire holds by a thread, analyst warns
The collapse of US-Iran talks is casting doubt on the ceasefire, suggesting it may be a fragile pause rather than a path to diplomacy.
IDF SOLDIERS discover weaponry in a civilian house in Lebanon. (Credit: IDF Spokesperon's Unit)
The collapse of US-Iran talks after a full day of negotiations is reinforcing concerns that the current ceasefire may be less a diplomatic opening than a fragile pause shaped by competing strategic calculations.
After nearly a full day of negotiations, talks between the United States and Iran ended without an agreement, underscoring the deep divide between the two sides and raising new questions about whether diplomacy can still play a meaningful role under the current ceasefire framework.
April 14, 5:01 PM
IMF warns of potential global recession if Iran war worsens in latest economic outlook report
The report notes that the worst-case "severe scenario," which assumes an extended conflict and high oil prices, would lead the world into another recession.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its growth outlook on Tuesday due to Iran's war-driven energy price spikes and supply disruptions, warning that the global economy would teeter on the brink of recession if the conflict worsens and oil stays above $100 per barrel through 2027.
With massive uncertainty over the Middle East conflict gripping finance officials gathering for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, the IMF presented three growth scenarios: weaker, worse, and severe, depending on how the war unfolds.
April 14, 5:01 PM
Food shortages and rising costs: UN agency warns of global food crisis if Hormuz remains blocked
The closure of the narrow waterway, which normally carries around a fifth of global Liquified Natural Gas supplies, will have a rippling impact beyond the Middle East, Maximo Torero warned.
The strain on supply chains caused by the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz by both Iran and the United States puts the international community at risk of a global food crisis, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned on Monday.
The closure of the narrow waterway, which normally carries around a fifth of global liquefied natural gas supplies, will have a ripple effect beyond the Middle East, Maximo Torero warned.
“We have 30-35% of the crude oil, which is not moving, 20% of natural gas… and between 20-30% of other fertilizers that are not moving out,” said Torero. “That’s the magnitude of the potential impact.”
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April 14, 5:01 PM
Saudi Arabia asks US to end Hormuz blockade amid worries of possible Houthi retaliation - WSJ
Saudi officials appear to be weighing not only the direct risks in the Gulf, but also the possibility that Iran could respond through allied forces elsewhere in the region.
Saudi Arabia is pressing the United States to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and return to negotiations with Iran, according to a The Wall Street Journal report published on Tuesday. The report said Riyadh fears the standoff could trigger a broader regional escalation, including threats to Red Sea shipping routes and Saudi oil exports.
The concern comes as the US blockade, announced by President Donald Trump after talks with Iran failed, has intensified pressure on one of the world’s most sensitive energy chokepoints. Saudi officials appear to be weighing not only the direct risks in the Gulf, but also the possibility that Iran could respond through allied forces elsewhere in the region.
April 14, 5:01 PM
IDF soldiers wounded by Hezbollah terrorists, as weapons found in Lebanon home
The IDF successfully returned fire and killed two terrorists. The third terrorist attempted to flee, but was also killed by a follow-up strike by the IDF.
Several soldiers were wounded when the IDF encountered a terrorist cell in Bint Jbeil, where three armed terrorists opened fire on the soldiers.
The IDF successfully returned fire and killed two terrorists. The third terrorist attempted to flee, but was also killed by a follow-up strike by the IDF.
April 14, 3:44 PM
WATCH: IDF locates weapons in civilian home in Lebanon
During operations in southern Lebanon, IDF soldiers from the Nahal Brigade located Hezbollah weapons and equipment inside a civilian home.
Among the weaponry were Kalashnikov rifles and magazines, alongside Hezbollah military vests.
April 14, 3:35 PM
Mossad chief Barnea: Iran mission incomplete until it results in regime change
This was the first time that the Mossad chief publicly addressed his role and views about regime change in Iran.
Mossad Director David Barnea on Tuesday proclaimed at the Holocaust ceremony that his spy agency will not rest until it facilitates the fall of the Islamic regime of Iran in favor of a freer and less violent country.
"Our mission is not yet complete. We did not think that our mission would be completed immediately with the fading of the battles, but rather we planned, and [really] we planned to continue, and this will be manifested even after the time of attacks on Tehran," said Barnea.
This was the first time that the Mossad chief publicly addressed his role and views about regime change in Iran.
After regime change in Iran had not transpired in the early weeks of the war, and even more since a ceasefire kicked in without regime change, various Israeli and American officials have sought to blame the Mossad and Barnea for the failure.
April 14, 3:13 PM
Ten IDF soldiers wounded in Lebanon clashes with Hezbollah, three is serious condition
The IDF reported 10 soldiers wounded, one seriously, and one soldier killed in southern Lebanon overnight. The IDF continues operations despite small guerilla warfare threats from Hezbollah.
The IDF announced on Tuesday that 10 soldiers were wounded during fighting in Lebanon overnight.
Three of the soldiers were seriously wounded, one moderately, and another six lightly.
All 10 soldiers were evacuated for medical attention.
Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF had announced that Sergeant Major (Res.) Ayal Uriel Bianco, a 30-year-old fire truck driver in the 188th Brigade from Katzrin, was killed during combat in southern Lebanon.
He is survived by his wife, Yassa, his three young children, his mother, and his brother.
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Drone attacks in Sudan kill two, injure 56, MSF says
Updated: 14 April ,2026: 05:17 PM GST
Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Tuesday it has recorded two deaths and treated 56 wounded people following five drone attacks carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the Darfur region.
MSF works in nine states across Sudan, responding to emergencies and providing medical care amid a war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
“As Sudan enters its fourth year of war, these attacks by the Sudanese Armed Forces demonstrate complete disregard for civilian life,” the Geneva-based medical charity said in a statement. “We call on the warring parties in Sudan to protect civilians.”
The UN human rights office has said there has been a sharp rise in the use of drones in Sudan this year with more than 500 civilians killed from such strikes between January and mid-March.
“Children in Sudan continue to bear the heaviest toll, with drones responsible for nearly 80 percent of all reported child killings and injuries,” Eva Hinds, UNICEF spokesperson in Sudan, told reporters in Geneva.
At least 245 children were reportedly killed or injured in the first three months of 2026, a sharp increase compared to the same period last year, Hinds said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2026/04/14/drone-attacks-in-sudan-kill-two-injure-56-msf-says
https://sudantribune.com/article/312756
Pete Hegseth faces UFO deadline
April 14, 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing a Tuesday deadline to turn over dozens of classified videos documenting apparent encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who chairs the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said unexplained objects operating near U.S. military assets may pose a threat to national security.
Newsweek reached out to Luna’s office and the Defense Department for comment via email, outside of standard working hours on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
The request landed after the Trump administration directed departments to identify and release government files related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrial life.
A 2021 Pew Research survey found that around two-thirds of Americans said they believed intelligent life likely exists on other planets.
What To Know
The letter, signed by Luna and dated March 31, requested over 45 video files that reportedly include spherical, cigar-shaped and ‘Tic Tac’-like objects recorded by U.S. military platforms over war zones, oceans and restricted airspace, with incidents said to include activity near Iran, Syria, U.S. bases and airports, and a 2023 incident over Lake Huron.
“The continued lack of transparency surrounding these anomalies and the potential national security threat they pose is troubling,” read the letter, which was addressed to Hegseth.
“On September 9, 2025, the Task Force held a hearing focused on these concerns.
Whistleblowers informed the Task Force that AARO [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, a part of the Office of the Secretary of Defense] possesses additional video records of potential UAP sightings.
To continue its investigation, the Task Force requests certain video files related to UAP sightings.”
The video delivery was requested “as soon as possible but no later than April 14.”
“The lack of disclosure regarding the very real threat posed by UAPs in and around U.S. restricted airspace is concerning,” wrote Luna.
“The Task Force has found responses from AARO, when questioned about UAP sightings and provided data, less than adequate.
“The presence of UAPs in and around the sensitive airspaces of U.S. military installations poses a threat to the security of the armed forces and their readiness.”
In February, President Donald Trump announced he would be directing Hegseth to begin identifying and releasing UFO-related government files.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It came after viral comments made by former President Barack Obama to political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen in which he answered “they’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” when asked about the existence of alien life.
Obama later sought to clarify his remarks, writing on social media: “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.
But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”
What Happens Next
Speaking to reporters in February, Hegseth said he did not have a timeline for the release of the files requested by Trump.
“I don’t want to oversell how much time it will take, right? We’re digging in. We’re going to be in full compliance with that executive order, eager to provide that for the president.
So, there’ll be more coming on that as far as the process of what we’ll do,” he said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/pete-hegseth-faces-ufo-deadline/ar-AA20QFTb
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6393088516112
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D6uFcGYTCk (Avi Loeb: 46 UFO Videos Facing April 14 Deadline | Planet Tyrus)
A UFO floated onto a baseball field and fans, the announcer, and ESPN still do not know what it was
Mon, April 13, 2026 at 8:44 PM PDT
A bizarre moment at a Minor League Baseball game has taken over Instagram.
The viral clip, shared by ESPN with the caption, “We still haven’t figured it out 😅,” shows a strange white object drifting across the field mid-game, leaving players, announcers, and viewers completely puzzled.
The object floats with a slow, deliberate movement, hovering just above the infield dirt. It does gently bounce but it mostly glides in a calm and almost intentional way. Naturally, speculation took off almost instantly.
The announcer, who has an incredible voice that somehow made the whole situation even more dramatic, gave a play by play that made the moment unforgettable.
Clearly confused but fully committed, he tried to describe what everyone was seeing in real time. “No one has any clue what it is. I'm trying to make sense of it myself.
Is that some sort of foam figure that got caught up in the rainstorm? Is that a balloon covered in dish soap?” From there, his commentary only got better.
He estimated its size as about the length of a leg and tracked its path across the diamond like it was a rogue base runner.
The object touched down between first and second base before drifting behind the mound and toward foul territory on the third base side.
At one point, the announcer compared it to a giant ice cube you might have pulled out of your fridge, which felt oddly specific but somehow accurate.
Things became even more entertaining when the grounds crew stepped in. Head groundskeeper Patrick “Irish” Cochley attempted to scoop up the mysterious object, but it did not go easily.
It floated, shifted, and resisted just enough to make the moment feel even more surreal. The crowd reacted with a mix of confusion and laughter as the scene unfolded.
As expected, the internet quickly turned the moment into comedy. The comment section became a highlight of its own.
One of the funniest and most popular comments came from a user who wrote, “So I actually researched this because I thought it was just foam, but it isn't, it's actually a type of water based…” and then stopped.
When people clicked “See more,” there was nothing else. The joke landed and reflects a growing trend of bait comments designed to trick curious readers.
Other users joined in with their own jokes and theories. Some claimed responsibility, others dropped pop culture references, and a few tried to guess what the object really was. Soap bubbles quickly became the leading theory among viewers trying to solve the mystery.
That theory appears to be correct. The mysterious white object floating during a February 2026 Minor League Baseball game for the Hub City Spartanburgers was most likely a large, intact clump of bubbles.
It may have come from a nearby cleaning activity or even a car wash. Under the right conditions, bubbles can cling together and travel surprisingly far without breaking apart.
Even with a likely explanation, the moment remains just as entertaining.
For a few minutes, this drifting object turned an ordinary game into something unforgettable and gave the internet a mystery that was more fun than it needed to be.
https://creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/story/a-ufo-floated-onto-a-baseball-field-and-fans-the-announcer-and-espn-still-do-not-know-what-it-was-211221473.html
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWzdGCWAC8Y/
I Spent 48 Hours with Bob Lazar (The Truth Is Stranger Than You Think)
April 13, 2026
Our American Alchemist this week is Bob Lazar.
Bob Lazar sat down for the longest and most scientifically rigorous interview he’s done since blowing the whistle on covert Navy UFO reverse engineering programs at Nevada Test Site’s S4 in 1989.
He goes deep on UFO science, how the crafts actually fly, talks gravity-altering propulsion with NASA lead electrostatics scientist Charles Buhler, analyzes newly-leaked footage of a UFO flying at Area51 and unpacks his full experience working on the Sports Model UFO: its test flight, how it was found during an archeological dig on the ocean floor, its Element 115-fueled reactor and gravity-altering emitters.
He also describes seeing 9 other UFOs in the Hangars at S4, the directed energy and time-manipulation programs he was briefed on and being recruited to the program by Manhattan Project pioneer, Edward Teller.
Finally, Lazar says that he now knows how to recreate the exotic, gravity-altering force employed by the UFO he worked in the 80’s but this time in his own personal lab with his own equipment
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
05:08 Sponsors (Kraken/KetoneIQ)
09:30 Bob's Childhood and Science Obsession
17:53 The Jet Car and Getting Hired at Los Alamos
19:42 Meeting Edward Teller at Los Alamos
24:20 Working on the Particle Accelerator
27:27 The MIT and Caltech Credentials Question
30:15 George Knapp's Visit to Los Alamos
32:39 Teller's Referral and the Path to S4
36:17 The EG&G Interview and Redirect to S4
40:26 Arriving at Area 51 and the Bus Ride
43:15 The Briefings: Galileo, Looking Glass, Sidekick
48:04 Medical Screening and Meeting Barry
50:13 First Impressions of the Craft
54:47 The Blacker-Than-Black Portholes
57:01 Crawling Inside the Craft's Cockpit
1:00:05 Witnessing the Craft's Test Flight
1:07:41 Nine Different Craft in the Hangars
1:11:37 Navy Retrieval and the Ocean Theory
1:15:39 Luigi on Bob's Legacy and the Navy
1:19:07 Top Speed, Delta vs. Omicron Modes
1:22:21 Logan Paul's Area 51 UFO Footage
1:28:59 Satellite Evidence and the Map Change
1:35:01 The Reactor Explosion That Killed Three
1:39:29 The Golf Ball and the Reactor Force Field
1:43:54 It's Not Gravity, It's Another Force
1:45:20 Surprise Guest: NASA's Charles Buehler
1:49:23 Buehler's Thrust Results in Hard Vacuum
1:54:03 400 Volts and the Townsend Brown Link
1:56:52 Gravity A and Gravity B Explained
1:58:14 Burkhard Heim and the Sixth Force
2:02:34 Element 115 and Bob's Lab Work at S4
2:04:16 Telling Gene Huff and John Lear
2:10:47 John Lear: Pilot, Friend, Wild Card
2:17:49 Jacques Vallée's Falling Out with Bob
2:19:11 Defending the MIT and Caltech Claims
2:21:37 United Nuclear and Government Contracts
2:26:40 The UFO Cabal and Organized Crime Ties
2:35:54 Epstein, Los Alamos, and Exotic Science
2:43:14 Bob's Current Lab Research Revealed
2:55:00 Identifying Element 115 at S4
3:05:54 Relativistic Electrons and Spacetime
3:12:59 Five Heart Attacks and the Toll of Disclosure
3:15:31 Luigi's Sacrifices Making the S4 Film
3:19:08 Closing: The Future of UFO Science
3:19:33 "BELIEVE" Limited Merch Drop (Pre-order!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9tdJ2SkBKQ
https://x.com/AlchemyAmerican
https://www.ufonews.co/post/bob-lazar-says-classified-files-called-us-containers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGCOp7Njr60
https://x.com/Eyes_OnTheSkies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wloRa9d-Syw (Vetted: Logan Paul Releases Secretly Recorded Footage of Chuck Clarke's UFO Video)
https://x.com/VettedPodcast