TYB
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/9-things-to-know-about-nasas-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope/
moar
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/08/27/nasa-starts-artemis-iii-engine-install-boosters-crew-training-advance/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/civil-servants-sworn-in-at-nasa-ames/
https://www.nasa.gov/people/julie-mcenery-decoding-the-cosmos/
https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/solicitations/roses-2025/d-8-habitable-worlds-observatory-precursor-science-investigations/
9 Things to Know About NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Aug 27, 2026
01
The mission is named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman.
Roman is named after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), NASA’s first chief of astronomy. She championed space-based observatories that could study the universe above Earth’s hazy atmosphere while making their data broadly available to the scientific community.
While she’s known as the “mother” of the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman played an even broader role as the driving force behind NASA’s entire Great Observatories program, which included Hubble along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the retired Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope.
Her vision and leadership helped establish NASA as a world-class scientific institution and laid the foundation for generations of space telescopes that continue to expand humanity’s understanding of the cosmos.
02
Roman will transform our view of the cosmos by showing us the bigger picture.
Roman will pair a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to scan vast, deep swaths of sky. This flagship mission is designed to help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets.
Since each of Roman’s surveys will sample such a large volume of the cosmos, the mission will also offer practically limitless opportunities for astronomers to conduct a broad range of additional science.
From objects in our outer solar system and exploding stars to growing black holes and galaxies by the billions, very little will be beyond Roman’s reach. Roman’s data will be made public as soon as it’s processed, allowing many teams to analyze it simultaneously.
03
The observatory will journey a million miles to join Webb at Lagrange point 2.
Roman will orbit 1 million miles away at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), the same location as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
At L2, gravity from the Sun and Earth works together with an object’s motion around the Sun to hold it roughly in place. This balance will give Roman a relatively steady orbit without using much fuel.
Like Webb, Roman will trace out a large orbit around the actual L2 point — much larger than the Moon’s orbit around Earth — and the two will easily be kept far apart.
04
The spacecraft carries the names of more than a million people.
This summer, everyone was invited to submit their name to be added to a memory card attached to a plaque on the Roman spacecraft. More than 1.3 million people did so and will have their names carried all the way to L2.
05
Roman will scan the skies for at least five years.
Roman will have a primary mission lifetime of five years and is designed to support an additional five-year extended mission.
Fuel is expected to be the mission’s life-limiting resource, and while NASA does not currently have an ability to service observatories at L2, Roman is designed to be refuelable.
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06
Two instruments will enable myriad discoveries.
The observatory’s Wide Field Instrument is a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will give Roman the same sharpness (angular resolution) as Hubble but with a field of view at least 100 times larger.
Using this instrument, each Roman image will capture a patch of the sky about 1.5 times bigger than the apparent size of a full Moon.
Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument is designed to demonstrate the most advanced technologies ever flown in space for directly imaging planets around other stars.
It will block the glare from stars and make it possible for scientists to see the faint reflected light from planets in orbit around them, revealing giant worlds that are older, colder, and in closer orbits than the hot, young super-Jupiters direct imaging has mainly revealed so far.
07
Roman joins an international cohort of teamworking telescopes.
Roman will work in tandem with many other NASA-led and international missions to provide the most complete view of our universe yet.
Roman’s large panoramas will uncover interesting targets that Hubble could follow up on using infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light to offer a more comprehensive view.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can then use its larger mirror and more powerful vision to deliver even more detailed, ultra-sharp observations. And Roman can view regions around objects Hubble or Webb observe to offer context.
Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with key contributions from NASA, will observe a larger area of the sky than Roman, though with less detail.
Since their survey areas will overlap, scientists can use Roman’s higher-quality data to apply corrections to Euclid’s, then extend these refinements over Euclid’s much larger area.
Scientists can also pair Roman’s infrared data with visible-light observations from the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a National Science Foundation–Department of Energy collaboration.
That will allow astronomers to inch closer to achieving Roman-like quality over Rubin’s much greater sky coverage.
By showcasing technology to directly photograph Jupiter-like exoplanets, Roman will also provide a crucial stepping stone for NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory concept, a flagship space telescope that would be designed to photograph Earth-like planets in other solar systems for the first time ever.
08
Watch the Roman launch live from anywhere.
NASA will stream this event live through a variety of platforms. Learn where to watch online: nasa.gov/live.
The launch broadcast will continue until approximately one hour past launch to follow the first several critical milestones post-launch.
09
NASA expects to share Roman’s first images by early 2027.
The Roman team will complete a carefully orchestrated series of deployments, calibrations, and tests in the three months following launch before the observatory reaches its final orbit.
Science operations begin once this commissioning period is completed, starting with the release of Roman’s first science images.
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Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes a Commission to Design the United States Space Academy
August 28, 2026
BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF AMERICAN SPACE LEADERS:
Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to create a Presidential Commission to begin the process of establishing a new federal academy that will prepare the next generation of Americans to advance our Nation’s interests in space.
The Order establishes the Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy, chaired by the NASA Administrator.
The Commission will advise and assist the President on establishing the United States Space Academy, a proposed NASA-led federal academy dedicated to combining rigorous technical education with leadership development, discipline, and a durable commitment to public service.
The United States Space Academy will combine rigorous technical education with leadership development and public service, preparing graduates for careers supporting America’s military, civil, and broader space enterprise.
The Commission will submit recommendations to the President addressing various details of the Academy, including proposals regarding a governance framework, curricula, service obligations of graduates, applicant prerequisites, a process for selecting a permanent location, administrative actions for pilot programs and partnerships, legislative strategy, and implementation strategy.
The NASA Administrator, in coordination with relevant agencies, shall implement the Commission’s approved recommendations, following approval by the President and any necessary legislative action.
ADVANCING AMERICAN SPACE SUPERIORITY: American superiority in space depends not only on our technology, but on the strength, skill, and character of the Americans who explore, secure, and build the industries critical to it.
Space is a critical domain for American national security, economic growth, scientific discovery, and technological innovation.
As competition in space intensifies, the United States must recruit, train, and retain America’s best and brightest to maintain our leadership in exploration and technology while securing and defending our national interests.
The Academy will encourage and guide the next generation of Americans to pursue cutting-edge, technical fields that currently do not have a sufficient amount of programs and graduates needed to ensure America maintains superiority in space.
BUILDING AMERICAN STRENGTH AND DRIVING ACHIEVEMENT: President Trump has demonstrated consistent leadership as a driving force for American strength and achievement in space.
President Trump spearheaded the establishment of the Space Force, the first new branch of the Armed Forces since the creation of the Air Force more than 70 years ago. The Space Force is critical to preparing the Department of War for evolving warfighting conditions and expanding our capabilities.
During his first term, President Trump issued seven groundbreaking Space Policy Directives that instructed NASA to return American astronauts to the Moon and beyond through the Artemis Program, reformed our Nation’s commercial space regulatory framework, established cybersecurity principles for space systems, and much more.
In April 2026, America sent astronauts on Artemis II to lunar orbit for the first time in over 50 years.
In August 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order enabling competition in the commercial space industry to ensure the United States maintains its leading role in the commercial use of space.
In December 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order setting a bold vision for an America First space policy to ensure the United States leads the world in space exploration, security, and commerce.
In July 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a significant proposed rulemaking to waive burdensome environmental reviews for launch infrastructure and enable a commercial space launch renaissance.
In August 2026, President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum reinvigorating America’s leadership in space transportation and enabling over 1,000 launches and reentries on American soil annually by 2030.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-a-commission-to-design-the-united-states-space-academy/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/establishing-the-united-states-space-academy/
https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/on-cloud-9-have-astronomers-discovered-the-first-starless-galaxy
https://arxiv.org/html/2608.20911v1
On Cloud 9: Have astronomers discovered the first starless galaxy?
August 28, 2026
Scientists are closer than ever before to confirming that a galaxy known as "Cloud 9" is the first "starless" or "failed" galaxy ever discovered by humanity.
A starless galaxy is one with virtually no stars despite possessing a wealth of gas and dust that would normally serve as the building blocks of stars.
The dominant element of a starless galaxy would be dark matter, the mysterious "stuff" that remains effectively invisible because it doesn't interact with light.
Located 14 million light-years away near the spiral galaxy Messier 94 (M94), Cloud 9 is currently the best candidate for a starless galaxy humanity has discovered to date.
It contains a vast cloud of hydrogen gas with an estimated mass of 1 million times that of the sun, and dark matter with around 5 million solar masses. Yet, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered in January this year that Cloud 9 emits virtually no starlight.
"But the most striking aspect of our research was the absolute emptiness of the image at the location of Cloud 9.
When you look at an image reaching those depths and see nothing where a structure containing a million solar masses of gas should be, it is genuinely remarkable," team leader Ignacio Trujillo of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain, told Space.com.
"Most objects in the universe leave some trace of light. Cloud 9 does not. That silence is, in its own way, the most compelling result we could have obtained."
On the hunt for a failed galaxy
Trujillo explained that despite having enough raw material to build a small galaxy, Cloud 9 seems to have never formed any significant stellar population.
"That combination — gas but no stars, sitting in a relatively normal environment — makes it one of the most compelling candidates for what theorists call a 'dark' or starless galaxy," Trujillo added.
"The concept has been theoretically predicted for decades, but observationally confirmed cases remain elusive.
"The difficulty is obvious: if there are no stars, there is no visible light to detect, and the only way to find such objects is through their gas emission — typically neutral hydrogen observed at radio wavelengths — combined with extremely deep optical imaging to rule out the presence of even a faint stellar component."
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Trujillo and colleagues set about investigating Cloud 9 using the HiPERCAM camera on the Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world's largest optical telescope.
This led to them obtaining the deepest images ever taken of the Cloud 9 region, approximately ten times deeper than any previous optical imaging of this object.
"Honestly, the depth we achieved with HiPERCAM in just 2.36 hours of integration was striking," Trujillo said. What they saw left no questions about the nature of this galaxy.
"The result was clear: we detected absolutely no stellar emission within the region corresponding to the location of Cloud 9," Trujillo said.
"Assuming an old, metal-poor stellar population — which would be the hardest kind to detect — we can set an upper limit on the total stellar mass of just 16,000 solar masses.
"Cloud-9 appears to be, within the limits of our observations, genuinely starless."
Why do some galaxies 'fail?'
Though starless galaxies are on the verge of escaping the realms of the purely theoretical thanks to this investigation of Cloud 9, how they form is still something of a puzzle.
However, scientists do have a pretty solid idea of how a galaxy could take shape without birthing stars.
"The leading theoretical explanation involves the ultraviolet background radiation that permeates the universe," Trujillo said.
"After the epoch of reionization, this radiation field heats the gas in low-mass dark matter halos to temperatures high enough that the gas cannot cool efficiently and collapse to form stars."
The researcher added that simulations of this period of the cosmos predict that dark matter halos below a certain mass threshold, around 5 billion solar masses, should remain essentially starless.
"Cloud 9 has a halo mass consistent with this regime. In this picture, starless galaxies are not exotic anomalies but a natural and abundant prediction of standard cosmological models," Trujillo explained. "The challenge has simply been finding them."
As impressive as these results are, the jury is still out on Cloud 9 as a starless galaxy. Further investigation will be needed before scientists can firmly declare they have discovered the first starless galaxy.
"On the stellar side, deeper space-based imaging would be particularly valuable because resolving individual stars avoids many of the problems associated with diffuse-light measurements," Trujillo concluded.
"Hubble has already provided extremely strong evidence, and future facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could potentially push the search further, although the optimal filters and stellar tracers would need to be carefully chosen."
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https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteorological_missions/meteosat_third_generation/MTG-I2_completes_Europe_s_latest_weather_trio
moar ESA
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/A_navigation_odyssey
MTG-I2 completes Europe’s latest weather trio
27/08/2026
ESA / Applications / Observing the Earth / Meteorological missions / meteosat third generation
The second Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2) has been launched on board Ariane 6, flight VA270, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
It will complete the first family of MTG satellites, delivering data for weather forecasting over Europe and northern Africa with unprecedented quality, quantity and frequency.
Launch took place on Thursday, 27 August, at 22:11 CEST (17:11 local time).
The MTG mission brings numerous benefits and improvements to weather forecasting and monitoring the atmosphere and climate over Europe and Africa.
It will track developing weather fronts as they happen and provide high-resolution images of the atmosphere over Europe and northern Africa every 2.5 minutes.
This data will support the reliability of early warnings as well as the tracking of wildfires and atmospheric pollution. It will substantially improve weather forecasting for all European countries.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “My congratulations go to all the teams involved who have ensured the successful development of this mission.
MTG-I2 brings advanced satellite technology that will improve climate monitoring and weather forecasts over Europe, offering real benefits to citizens and communities across our continent.
I’d like to extend my gratitude to the European partners and industry who achieved this success through hard work, outstanding expertise and collaboration.”
James Champion, ESA’s MTG Project Manager, said, “After years of development and the past few months of intense launch preparations, it’s fantastic to see MTG-I2 being launched and on its way to take its place in the three-satellite system.
"Our team’s work is not over yet – we still have engineers and personnel in operations and ground systems who will be ensuring the spacecraft remains on track over the coming weeks and months.
But for now, we are all elated that the launch has gone well and we look forward to the coming two weeks or so of orbit-raising manoeuvres during the launch and early operations phase, and then afterwards when the commissioning will begin.”
About Meteosat Third Generation
The MTG family now has three satellites in orbit – the first two have been fully commissioned and handed over to Eumetsat for operational service. Since MTG-I2 is the second imaging satellite to join the MTG constellation, it will provide continuity and operational resilience for the mission. T
he first MTG-Imager satellite was launched in 2022, followed by the MTG-Sounder, launched last year. MTG-I2 completes the three-satellite system and, once it has been commissioned, will enable the mission to begin operating at full capacity.
From 2033, the second ‘family’ of MTG satellites will be launched in sequence to extend the mission’s duration beyond 2040. The MTG satellites continue the services previously provided by the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites, which were placed in orbit between 2002 and 2015.
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Imaging from geostationary orbit
MTG-I2 – just like its counterpart, the MTG-I1 – carries two powerful imaging instruments.
The satellite will be placed in geostationary orbit, sometimes compared to a ‘hawk’s eye’ position because the satellites follow the same point on Earth’s surface as it rotates, observing detail from a great distance of 36 000 km.
One of the instruments on board the MTG-Imager satellites is the Flexible Combined Imager, which can be operated in different scanning modes.
For MTG-I2, it will provide the rapid scanning service over Europe, delivering new observations every 2.5 minutes. Operating MTG-I2 with this fast repeat cycle is a game-changer for weather forecasting, enabling meteorologists to monitor the rapid development and evolution of weather systems in unprecedented detail. In addition to providing a major increase in the quality, quantity and frequency of observations available for European weather forecasting, the instrument also provides valuable data for monitoring and understanding our climate.
The other instrument on board MTG-I2 is the Lightning Imager. This too, is an innovative and powerful instrument, able to capture individual lightning events, by day and night. When it was launched on the first MTG-Imager in 2022, it was the first of its kind in Europe.
The Lightning Imager carried on MTG-I2 provides exactly the same capabilities and can be used for very accurate, short-term forecasting of rapidly evolving weather conditions, sometimes referred to as ‘nowcasting’.
Another innovative product that will be further enhanced once all three of the MTG satellites are in orbit is the weather cube, which will combine data from both the Imager and Sounder satellites to create three-dimensional representations of lightning, winds, internal clouds dynamics and other atmospheric gases, including greenhouse gases and air pollutants.
Weather forecasters, climate scientists and researchers benefit from the advanced data and images provided by the Meteosat series of satellites and MTG is designed to extend that legacy.
The constellation also provides key information and imagery for monitoring hydrology, agriculture, environmental studies as well as risk prevention and disaster warnings.
First step of a long journey
This was the ninth launch of Europe’s heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 6, and the first to take a satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. Ariane 6 was configured with two P120C-based solid-propellant rocket motors propelling it to the farthest the rocket has flown so far.
Following launch, the MTG-I2 satellite separated from its Ariane 6 launcher and communication was immediately established between the spacecraft and the Malindi ground station.
The next steps for the satellite include starting its propulsion system and deploying its solar arrays, to ensure that the spacecraft can generate and store the energy needed for the next stages of the mission.
When the satellite is safely powered, the team will activate the attitude control system, then begin preparations for a series of critical orbital manoeuvres.
This will involve using MTG-I2’s propulsion system to progressively raise the spacecraft’s perigee and adjust its trajectory as it begins its journey towards geostationary orbit.
Once in its final orbit, the satellite will be rotated so that it points towards Earth. This milestone will mark the completion of the launch and early operations phase and the transition towards commissioning.
Partnerships for space
All three of the MTG satellites have been developed by ESA and built by a large consortium of European industries led by Thales Alenia Space with main partners OHB System in Germany and Leonardo in Italy.
Eumetsat operates the satellites after commissioning is complete and disseminates the scientific data. ESA manages the Ariane 6 development programme, ensuring autonomous access to space for the benefit of European citizens. Arianespace was the launch service provider for flight VA270.
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https://www.rt.com/russia/644746-lavrov-goodwill-promises-cia-vatican/
extra RT
https://www.rt.com/news/644773-lavrov-us-eu-ukraine/
https://www.rt.com/russia/644723-west-russia-ukraine-draft/
https://www.rt.com/news/644762-france-seeks-cash-in-on-weapons-for-ukraine/
https://www.rt.com/news/644756-uk-eggs-salmonella-ukraine/
Lavrov reveals what brought CIA chief and Vatican envoy to Moscow
28 Aug, 2026 04:26 | Updated 28 Aug, 2026 16:47
The simultaneous high-level contacts come as Russia says it has lost faith in Western promises
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has addressed this week’s unusually intense diplomatic traffic in Moscow, shedding light on talks with the Vatican’s top diplomat while remaining deliberately vague about a visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, and Ratcliffe were both in the Russian capital this week, prompting RBK to ask Lavrov what was behind the visits.
“In both cases, those who came to us wanted to come and talk,” Lavrov said in an interview published on Friday.
Gestures of goodwill and broken promises
Lavrov said his discussions with Gallagher focused heavily on the Ukraine conflict, with the Vatican envoy reiterating a desire to see hostilities brought to an end as soon as possible and offering continued assistance on humanitarian issues, including prisoner and body exchanges.
The foreign minister used the meeting to recount a long series of diplomatic agreements broken, abandoned or derailed by Kiev and its Western sponsors – from the 2014 Euromaidan coup-era agreement to the Minsk accords used to buy Kiev time to rearm, and the 2022 Istanbul talks derailed by London.
“I pointed out that there had been no shortage of goodwill on our part… I think he understood everything. I would say he had no counterarguments, apart from the general slogan that ‘it needs to stop as soon as possible,’” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also told Gallagher that the Western push for a ceasefire along the current line of contact would merely freeze the fighting without producing a lasting settlement.
Plans to deploy British- and French-led “stabilization forces” would effectively preserve the “neo-Nazi regime” in Kiev that suppresses the Russian language and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he said.
Quiet intelligence channels
Lavrov was much more guarded about Ratcliffe’s visit.
I wasn’t there,” he said, noting that intelligence agencies routinely communicate through established channels and that “there is nothing unusual” about such contacts taking place quietly. Diplomats, he added, also often work “in silence.”
“Of course, we do not disclose details that are too sensitive or are still being worked out, where it is important not to jeopardize possible compromises and consensus,” Lavrov said.
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The top diplomat also denied allegations that Moscow had issued any kind of ultimatum to the administration of US President Donald Trump following media reports that American intelligence has been used to facilitate long-range Ukrainian strikes against Russia.
‘The end has already come’
Lavrov argued that Moscow remains willing to talk to Western governments but no longer assumes that public assurances or negotiated understandings will be honored.
“Deception is the basis of Western diplomacy. And it remains so,” he said, citing what Moscow regards as broken NATO assurances on expansion and successive derailed agreements over Ukraine.
Asked why Russia had continued to give its counterparts the benefit of the doubt, Lavrov said Russians tended to believe in people “until the very end.”
“But the end has already come,” he added, arguing that relations with the West would never return to what they were before February 2022.
What happened to Anchorage?
Lavrov presented last year’s presidential summit in Anchorage as the latest example of that frustration.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin went through a US peace proposal point by point with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who confirmed that it represented the American leader’s position.
Putin then accepted the proposal despite some remaining “nuances,” according to Lavrov.
“If this is not consent and not an agreement, then I don’t know what an agreement is,” he said.
Washington disputes that characterization, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in June that there had been “a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement.”
According to Lavrov, the Anchorage understandings were subsequently undermined over the following months by EU and British leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron eventually declared at the G7 summit in Evian in June that Anchorage had been “buried.”
Trump himself, however, has not explicitly declared the Anchorage framework dead. At the original August 2025 summit, he described the talks positively while cautioning that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Lavrov said Moscow remains ready to hear new US proposals, but in the meantime Russia will “continue working on the ground.”
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Ukrainian Drone Attack Kills One, Sparks Fire at Yaroslavl Oil Refinery
August 28, 2026
A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and sparked a fire at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in the city of Yaroslavl, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said Friday.
Yaroslavl region Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said one civilian was killed and 27 others were injured after falling drone debris hit an intercity bus.
He claimed that 67 Ukrainian drones were downed over the region, but that drone debris fell on residential areas, commercial properties and “industrial infrastructure.”
Ukraine’s military said it struck the Slavneft-Yanos refinery, which it said provides fuel and lubricants for the Russian military.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed the attack and added that Ukraine’s SBU security service had struck a Tu-95MS missile-carrying aircraft in the Saratov region city of Engels.
Independent reports said that Ukrainian drones had already attacked Slavneft-Yanos at least seven times this year before Friday’s attack.
In the Moscow region town of Pavlovsky Posad, a drone slammed into a Magnit grocery store, blowing out windows at a neighboring clinic. Governor Andrei Vorobyov said the clinic remained open despite the damage.
Separate Ukrainian attacks in the southwestern Belgorod region killed two people and injured nine others over the last 24 hours, according to the local governor.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 512 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Thursday night and Friday morning.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/08/28/ukrainian-drone-attack-kills-one-sparks-fire-at-yaroslavl-oil-refinery-a93595
https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-drones-target-moscow-one-of-russias-largest-oil-refineries-in-yaroslavl-sparking-fire-media-reports/
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83260
other Russia and Ukrainie
https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/4780fc22_zelenskyy_sets_ukraine-s/
https://kyivindependent.com/warehouses-targeted-outside-kyiv-in-all-day-drone-attack-as-russian-forces-kill-at-least-10-injure-43-over-past-day-across-ukraine/
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/08/28/8050684/
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ukraines-drone-forces-have-new-target-russian-chemical-plants-sa-082826
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-gasoline-output-drops-70-domestic-demand-late-august-after-drone-attacks-2026-08-28/
https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/60000-books-destroyed-as-russian-drone-hits-warehouse-serving-ukrainian-publishers-22032
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/2026-08-28/live-updates-906868
other Israel
https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/tkhcrs
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/432368
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/IDF-said-to-strike-and-raid-southern-Syria/67001407
https://worldisraelnews.com/idf-chief-israel-on-high-alert-across-all-fronts/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-killed-3-palestinian-terror-operatives-in-rare-west-bank-airstrike/
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/wilsbach-meets-top-israeli-military-leaders/
Live Updates: Araghchi says diplomacy can resume if US stops economic pressure as Trump abandons June MoU terms
August 28, 2026
Majority of residents have not returned to Kibbutz Nir Oz after October 7 • Lebanon claims US ambassador ready to meet with Hezbollah
August 28, 8:04 PM
US Treasury revokes 'critical node' of Iranian access to US dollars in latest Tehran sanctions
The new sanctions come two days after the Treasury cracked down on what it called “far-left terrorist networks.”
The US Treasury Department proposed on Friday to revoke Banque Misr UAE’s correspondent banking access to US financial institutions, calling it a “critical node” in the Iranian regime’s access to US dollars.
The proposal is part of Operation Economic Outcast, a broader effort by the US government to sever remaining “financial lifelines” sustaining the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
August 28, 5:52 PM
WATCH: IDF kills Hamas-linked former senior Jenin terror cell member in West Bank vehicle strike
The senior terrorist, Qais Bitwani, was a Hamas operative in the now-dismantled Jenin terrorist network, according to a joint statement by the IDF and Shin Bet.
The senior terrorist, Qais Bitwani, was a Hamas operative in the now-dismantled Jenin terrorist network, according to the joint statement.
August 28, 3:52 PM
WATCH: IDF kills Hamas commander in Gaza who infiltrated Israel on October 7
According to the IDF, Nabil Ibrahim Bass infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023, and participated in Hamas's October 7 massacre.
The IDF killed a Hamas commander in Gaza's Al-Shati area on Thursday who participated in the October 7 massacre, the military said on Friday.
According to the IDF, Nabil Ibrahim Bass infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023, as part of the massacre.
August 28, 1:19 PM
Iran presses other countries to refrain from implementing US sanctions
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said all countries were obliged to refrain from implementing US sanctions against Tehran, adding that participation in them amounted to complicity in imposing one state’s unlawful will on independent states.
In a statement published on its X account on Friday, the ministry described new US economic measures as illegal and reprehensible "state terrorism" and a crime against humanity, saying they put the health and livelihoods of millions of civilians at serious risk.
It called on the international community to uphold the rule of law and said Tehran would use all its capabilities to defend itself against what it called a combined US-Israeli military and economic assault.
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August 28, 12:54 PM
Majority of residents have not returned to Kibbutz Nir Oz after October 7, chairman says
The majority of former residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz have not yet returned home, and many of them never will, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Tzvi "Tzviki" Tessler, Chairman of Nir Oz, told KAN News on Thursday.
"I didn't think it would take so much time to recover," he said. "We're not giving up. Kibbutz Nir Oz will prosper so that new families will come."
Many of the individuals who used to live in Nir Oz would not return due to the trauma they'd experienced on October 7, Tessler added.
August 28, 10:25 AM
Trump abandons June MoU terms, complicating diplomatic efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz - WSJ
Sources familiar with the matter told the WSJ that Trump is no longer interested in the MoU, which has been heavily criticized as a deal that is too soft on Iran.
US President Donald Trump told its mediators and regional partners that it is uninterested in returning to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding outlined in June, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The report noted that the administration’s stubborn refusal to go back to the terms it reached with Iran earlier this summer has significantly complicated the diplomatic process of restarting negotiations.
After Iran started attacking ships in the strait in an attempt to regain control, Trump began his “Economic D-Day” campaign on Iran, which the White House is calling Operation Economic Outcast.
August 28, 9:54 AM
Iran’s Araghchi says diplomacy can get back on track if US recognizes pressure does not work
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said putting diplomacy back on track was not impossible but hinged on the United States understanding that pressure does not work.
In a post on X, Araqchi said he had held what he described as "creative discussions" with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, adding that Washington should build trust, speak respectfully, acknowledge Iran’s rights, and uphold its commitments.
August 28, 8:44 AM
Lebanon claims US ambassador Michel Issa ready to meet with Hezbollah, US official denies
Issa himself denied on Wednesday that he is currently holding any talks with Hezbollah, but said he would be willing to speak with the organization if it had something to offer.
United States Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa received the green light to meet with Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese report published Thursday evening, but a US official denied the report.
Issa himself denied on Wednesday that he is currently holding any talks with Hezbollah, but said he would be willing to speak with the organization if it had something to offer.
August 28, 7:30 AM
Shipping traffic via Strait of Hormuz slips below 10-day average, data shows
Five commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, down from 17 the day before and below the 10-day average of 15, preliminary shipping data showed on Friday.
Among the five vessels that transited were two medium-range tankers and one very large gas carrier, initial data from ship tracker Kpler showed at 0225 GMT.
The figures could change as some ships typically switch off transponders during the voyage.
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8 dead after drone targets civilians in Sudan’s war-torn North Kordofan
28 Aug 2026 19:13
Eight civilians were killed and dozens more injured in a drone strike targeting people traveling through Sudan’s North Kordofan state, according to the independent Emergency Lawyers rights group.
The attack took place Thursday in the Um Sharu area of Sodari locality, the group said in a statement, describing the toll as an initial documented count, Anadolu Agency reported.
Emergency Lawyers said the drone struck civilians as they were traveling through the area, destroying four civilian vehicles. It alleged that the drone later returned and struck again as people attempted to evacuate those wounded in the initial attack.
According to the rights group, there was no military presence in the area and no armed clashes were underway when the strike occurred.
Emergency Lawyers condemned the attack and warned that it could further deepen the suffering of civilians caught up in Sudan’s ongoing war. It also said the attack could deprive wounded victims of urgently needed medical treatment.
The group described the incident as a violation of international humanitarian law and said it could potentially constitute a war crime.
Emergency Lawyers did not identify those responsible for the strike. Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting for control of the country, had not issued an immediate comment as of 1200 GMT Friday.
North Kordofan is one of Sudan’s three Kordofan states, alongside West Kordofan and South Kordofan. The region has experienced fighting between the army and RSF amid the wider conflict.
Sudan has been engulfed in war between the military and RSF since April 2023. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced around 13 million others from their homes, according to UN and international estimates.
https://news.az/news/8-dead-after-drone-targets-civilians-in-sudans-war-torn-north-kordofan
Greece intercepted a Turkish drone after it violated its airspace
28 August 2026 14:48
On Friday morning, a Turkish drone entered Greece’s area of responsibility and violated its airspace over the Aegean Sea.
The incident occurred in the area between the islands of Samothrace and Lemnos, after which Greek fighter jets intercepted the aircraft.
The Turkish drone approached the runway at the Greek airport in Alexandroupoli just as an Aegean Airlines passenger plane was attempting to take off.
The Greek side reacted immediately: a pair of Greek Air Force F-16 fighter jets took off to detect, identify, and intercept the unmanned aerial vehicle.
Thanks to cooperation between the Civil Aviation Authority and the Greek fighter jets, they managed to divert the drone without compromising the safety of the passenger flight.
However, for safety reasons, the plane was instructed to change its flight path and fly at a low altitude until it exited the area. This was reported by the Kathimerini newspaper.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets landed at the Lielvarde Air Base in Latvia.
An unidentified drone flew into Moldova and Romania.
Earlier, Romania scrambled fighter jets due to the threat of drones near the border with Ukraine.
As a reminder, on Sunday, August 2, air raid sirens were sounded for the civilian population in eastern Romania for the second time that day.
The country’s Ministry of Defense radar surveillance system detected an aerial target near the river border with Ukraine at 3:09 p.m.
In Poland, during a massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine on the night of July 29–30, an air raid alert was issued in part of the Lublin Voivodeship.
After the alert ended, a crater about 10 meters in diameter and debris from an unidentified object were discovered in a field near the villages of Tarnava-Kolonia and Tokary.
https://ua.news/en/world/gretsiia-perekhopila-turetskii-bezpilotnik-pislia-porushennia-povitrianogo-prostoru
Joint Task Force – Southern Border uses high-energy laser system to mitigate cartel-linked drone threats
August 27, 2026
Joint Task Force – Southern Border uses high-energy laser system to mitigate cartel-linked drone threats
FORT BLISS, Texas- Joint Task Force – Southern Border (JTF-SB), operating under U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), successfully defended U.S. military personnel and CBP partners by mitigating three adversarial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) using directed energy capabilities this week.
During the operation, which spanned the late-night hours of August 25 and 26, JTF-SB personnel used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) system to engage and defeat three hostile UAS, determined to be such based on their use in direct support of activities posing a physical threat to U.S. military personnel and CBP partners.
“The successful defeat of these adversarial drones is a direct testament to the readiness, vigilance, and technological edge of the JTF,” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commander of JTF-SB.
“Cartel networks are increasingly employing unmanned aircraft systems to facilitate illicit human-smuggling and actively spy on our personnel and law enforcement partners.
By integrating layered countermeasures alongside advanced directed-energy capabilities like this laser system, we have made it clear that we will not tolerate hostile surveillance.
We also greatly appreciate the support of our Mexican Army partners as we work together to combat this threat to the border region.”
Approximately 8,000 service members are currently deployed under JTF-SB across difficult terrain spanning 1,954 miles.
Since assuming the mission in March 2025, JTF-SB forces have reinforced hundreds of miles of the southern border with wire obstacles; conducted tens of thousands of detection and monitoring patrols, including in partnership with the Mexican military; executed thousands of observation flights; and cleared vegetation in remote areas.
These operations have enhanced CBP’s situational awareness, accelerated response times, and bolstered overall efforts to disrupt cartel-led illegal activity at the southern border.
“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our CBP partners to secure this border, protect our service members, and disrupt these criminal organizations at every turn,” said Taylor.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/573423/joint-task-force-southern-border-uses-high-energy-laser-system-mitigate-cartel-linked-drone-threats
https://dronexl.co/2026/08/28/pentagon-laser-downs-cartel-drones-airspace/
Sorry, aliens didn’t build Dyson spheres around these dwarf stars
Aug 28, 2026 3:01 PM EDT
Searching for E.T. is full of disappointments.
There are many ways to scour the stars for intelligent life. You can search for radio signatures whose repetitions suggest intentional design, or examine a planet that orbits its star in a so-called Goldilocks Zone conducive for habitation.
One of the wildest (but still hypothetically plausible) scenarios involves what’s known as a Dyson sphere.
What is a Dyson sphere?
Named after physicist Freeman Dyson, the idea hinges on an alien civilization so advanced that they invent a method to directly harness the energy of an entire star.
Extraterrestrials could theoretically accomplish this feat in a number of ways, but the simplest approach would likely entail encasing a stellar object with orbital installations that absorb solar radiation, convert it into usable energy, and then re-emit that power back to the Dyson sphere’s engineers.
While Dyson himself once described his original 1960 paper as “a little joke,” he later conceded that the underlying technical details are “correct and uncontroversial.”
Despite the joke, many researchers today agree, and argue that searching for Dyson spheres is one of the easiest ways to identify extraterrestrial life.
Enter the Webb
Unfortunately, an ongoing cosmic survey called Project Hephaistos at Sweden’s Uppsala University has once again crossed off multiple candidates from their list of suspects.
According to their findings detailed in two soon-to-be published studies, a pair of faint, distant red dwarf stars aren’t surrounded by high-tech alien energy harvesters.
Although disappointing, the findings highlight the ongoing versatility of one of astronomy’s most impressive tools—the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb).
Astronomers theorize that any functioning Dyson sphere will generate a technosignature in the form of waste heat that’s emitted as excess mid-infrared radiation.
Researchers including Uppsala University astrophysicist Andreas Korn previously flagged multiple dwarf stars with “unusual infrared properties that seem[ed] to resemble those expected for Dyson spheres.”
These were selected while employing the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite and NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), with the candidates exhibiting unexpectedly low optical fluxes and higher infrared fluxes.
The subject pool was vast—around 1 million stars located within around 1,000 light-years of Earth.
“This is the signature that we were looking for: a star that is a little bit too faint in the optical and has substantial amounts of waste heat in the infrared,” Korn recently explained.
The team ultimately determined their most promising options were two faint M-dwarf stars that are invisible to the naked eye here on Earth and about a few billion years old each.
Researchers then used the JWST to gain a more focused look at each star. Sadly, neither ended up revealing themselves as an elusive Dyson sphere. In actuality, they are pretty standard M dwarfs whose energy is jumbled by background galaxies.
“WISE gives us just a coarse image, and that’s why the photons from the background galaxy and the M dwarfs were blended together so we couldn’t tell them apart,” explained Korn.
“But with Webb, we can tell the two apart and conduct separate analyses of either the galaxy or the foreground M dwarf.”
This isn’t the first time Project Hephaistos has encountered similar issues. As time goes on, it appears that many of their Dyson sphere candidates are obscured by background galaxies.
That may not always be the case, however. Multiple proposed mid-infrared telescopes—including the Giant Magellan Telescope—are scheduled to arrive by the 2030s. Until then, the hunt for Dyson spheres continues.
https://www.popsci.com/science/dyson-sphere-dwarf-star/
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ufo-nuclear-test-link-reportedly-debunked-experts-warning-believers-not-act-like-religion-1816934
https://x.com/MiddleOfMayhem/status/2092383061791117617
https://x.com/MiddleOfMayhem/status/2092394866550722605
https://x.com/MiddleOfMayhem/status/2093146104129057172
UFO Nuclear Test Link Reportedly Debunked by Experts Warning Believers Not To Act Like 'Religion'
28 August 2026, 3:16 PM BST
Astronomers have torn apart UFO claims linking 1950s 'orbiting objects' to nuclear tests, warning that believers must accept scientific scrutiny or risk turning the subject into a kind of religion
International astronomers have published a devastating critique dismantling high-profile 2025 UFO claims that mysterious objects orbited Earth decades before the launch of Sputnik.
Led by researchers from Wellesley College and the University at Albany, the peer-reviewed study, accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, argues that previous assertions linking photographic 'transients' to US nuclear weapons tests relied on faulty mathematics and severely compromised archival data.
The original research, conducted under the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations project, suggested that anomalous light flashes captured by California's Palomar Observatory represented non-human technology drawn to atomic detonations.
However, the latest scientific evaluation exposes deep methodological flaws, proving that glass plate defects, dust scratches, and incorrect observational timescales generated an illusory statistical signal.
As academic backlash mounts against unrefereed counterclaims, the rigorous study revives fierce debates over whether fringe UFO proponents truly welcome scientific stress-testing or prefer shielding speculative hypotheses from empirical reality.
Anatomy of the Original VASCO UFO Claims
The new critique focuses on alleged 'technosignatures' seen on photographic plates decades before the space age.
The controversy began when astronomer Dr Beatriz Villarroel and collaborators reported evidence of objects apparently orbiting Earth years before any human‑made satellite was launched.
Working under the VASCO project, they said old photographic surveys from the Palomar Observatory in California showed fleeting 'transients' that could be sunlight glinting off non‑human technology.
A companion paper, co‑authored with Vanderbilt University anaesthesiologist Stephen Bruehl, went further, claiming a statistical correlation between the dates of those transients and US nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s.
If that had stood up, it would have been dynamite. Mysterious objects in pre‑Sputnik orbit, apparently clustering around nuclear detonations, look like the script treatment for Oppenheimer 2.
It also offered believers what they have long craved, a peer‑reviewed breadcrumb trail pointing towards UFOs as alien surveillance craft drawn to humanity's most dangerous toys.
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How the Vasco UFO Claims Took Off
The VASCO project, short for Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations, is built on a smart, almost old‑school idea.
Villarroel's team uses archival photographic plates, taken long before the sky was crowded with satellites and space junk, to hunt for technosignatures, signs of advanced technology that might briefly flare and then vanish.
The studies at the heart of the current argument used early 1950s images from the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, known as POSS‑I. Each region of sky was photographed twice in quick succession, once with a red‑sensitive plate and once with a blue‑sensitive one.
VASCO's software scanned the digitised plates looking for things that appeared in one exposure but not the other. Those were labelled transients and, in the more speculative framing, possible UFO‑like artefacts in orbit.
The most attention‑grabbing claim was statistical. Villarroel's team said there were far fewer transients recorded on plates taken during Earth's shadow, when sunlight could not reflect off orbiting objects.
They calculated that deficit as a '22 sigma' result. In particle physics, 5 sigma is the gold standard for a discovery. Twenty‑two is almost absurdly strong, the sort of number that suggests either profound new physics or that something, somewhere, has gone mad in the spreadsheets.
In a second paper, Bruehl and Villarroel said that the dates of these transients significantly overlapped with the timing of nuclear tests. The implication, not exactly buried in the framing, was that whoever might be flying those hypothetical craft was paying close attention to mushroom clouds.
Rigorous Scientific Pushback Led by Wesley Watters
The pushback has now arrived in the form of a detailed critique led by Wesley Watters of Wellesley College.
His paper, titled 'Critical Evaluation of Studies Alleging Evidence for Technosignatures in the POSS1 – E Photographic Plates,' was accepted by the Australian astronomy journal after peer review and posted online ahead of print.
What makes this more awkward for UFO enthusiasts is who is doing the debunking. Watters has previously argued that unidentified aerial phenomena deserve serious, agnostic study.
Co‑author Kevin Knuth, a physicist at the University at Albany, SUNY, has published work examining US Navy pilot UAP encounters. Both have been affiliated with Avi Loeb's Galileo Project, which is explicitly set up to examine UAPs scientifically, not to scoff at them.
In other words, this is not a hit job from dyed‑in‑the‑wool sceptics. It is criticism from scientists who, if anything, have stuck their necks out to say UFO reports should not be laughed out of the room.
Watters and his colleagues start with a mundane but brutal problem, the plates themselves. Old photographic glass is riddled with defects, from dust and scratches to emulsion flaws and copying artefacts.
Astronomers spent years trying to use similar plates to catch fleeting optical signals from gamma‑ray bursts, only to conclude the medium just was not up to that kind of work at scale.
Because of that, Watters refuses to call the POSS‑I blips 'transients' at all. His team rebrands them 'Selected POSS 1‑E Features,' or SPFs, until someone can prove they are real astronomical objects.
Then they try to reconstruct, plate by plate, what subset of the survey VASCO actually used, a task made harder because Villarroel's team did not publish their full working dataset.
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Once they do that, a pattern emerges, and not a good one. SPFs cluster at plate edges, disappear in wide stripes, and bunch oddly in certain regions.
The sky map is a mess. For a robust statistical analysis, you need an underlying distribution that is roughly uniform and random, something that can be modelled as a Poisson process.
Watters argues that the VASCO features fail that basic test, which means the more sophisticated maths layered on top is on wobbly ground from the start.
On closer inspection, only 11 of the 645 plates VASCO used were even in shadow, and just five were fully so. Most of the supposed signal came from a single problematic plate that sat in one of the odd 'bands' where defects were already clustering.
Watters' team points out that VASCO's correlation used the wrong observing timescale, treating the survey as if it spanned 2,718 observing days instead of the actual 312 days from which their plates were drawn.
Correct that, and the apparent UFO‑nuclear overlap collapses into something more prosaic.
A loose relationship between the periods when the Palomar telescope was operating and when nuclear tests were conducted, perhaps because both favoured clear weather over the western US.
As for aliens timing their fly‑bys to our detonations, that statistical mirage evaporates.
Collapsing the Statistical Mirage and Timescale Errors
When the Australian‑led group re‑ran the crucial Earth‑shadow calculation with their reconstructed dataset, the jaw‑dropping 22 sigma result vanished. They found no statistically significant deficit of features in Earth's shadow.
Philosophical Friction Between UFO Belief and Scientific Process
The final part of Watters' critique is almost philosophical. He accuses the VASCO papers of circular reasoning, treating the features as genuine transients from the outset and then using that assumption to argue they must be real technosignatures.
Without independent confirmation that most of these specks are not just plate defects, the logic folds in on itself.
None of this means the VASCO concept is useless. On the contrary, trawling clean, digitised archives for technosignatures is a sharp, modern twist on classic astronomy.
The problem, according to Watters, is that this particular dataset is simply too dirty and too sparse in the critical regions to bear the UFO‑flavoured weight put on it.
Predictably, the backlash has not been limited to journal pages. Unrefereed online documents have popped up purporting to rebut the Australian‑led critique, bypassing peer review entirely and demanding to be treated as equal parts of the scientific conversation.
Researchers who are unconvinced by the UFO‑friendly statistics are branded 'part of the problem' or worse. At which point many working scientists quietly ask themselves why they should spend time on this stuff when they could be doing almost anything else.
And that is the uncomfortable question hanging over this latest UFO skirmish. Does the UAP community actually want their favourite claims tested, stress‑tested even, inside the sometimes painful machinery of science, or do they want those claims protected from serious challenge? If you are unwilling to let your beliefs be broken by better data and better maths, you are not really doing science any more. You are doing something else entirely.
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Statesboro Police find missing ‘alien’
Fri, August 28, 2026 at 7:15 AM PDT
STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV) — If you've spent any time in Statesboro, you know the town loves the little green alien that stands outside Charlie's Funky Junk Shop.
So, when the famous landmark went missing, the Statesboro Police Department (SPD) went to work.
After tracking down and finding the statue, SPD returned it to its rightful place: guarding Charlie's.
The folks at Charlie's took to social media to thank the officers who took on the case and resolved it quickly.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/statesboro-police-missing-alien-141502881.html
https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-16088075/nasa-moon-photo-extraterrestrial-life.html
Mysterious object spotted in NASA moon photo sparks theories of extraterrestrial life: '100% proof'
13:50 EDT, 28 August 2026 | Updated: 13:52 EDT, 28 August 2026
I was a church leader. There are secret Bible clues about alien life and I have been threatened for exposing them before… but people must be ready
An image of the moon's surface has sparked theories of extraterrestrial life.
NASA's Lunar Orbiter 3 snapped the photo in 1967, as the agency prepared to send humans there for the first time.
Nearly six decades later, UFO researcher Scott Waring has claimed that it captured something far more extraordinary than the lunar landscape.
He believes an elongated feature in the image is an alien spacecraft hovering above the surface, stretching an astonishing 3.4 miles from end to end.
Waring arrived at that estimate by comparing the feature with Theophilus crater, using a crater diameter of 68 miles and judging the supposed craft to be one-twentieth as long.
For him, the photograph carries a chilling implication: that humanity was being watched before astronauts ever set foot on the moon.
‘This is 100% proof that aliens were watching humans before we ever stepped on the moon,’ he wrote on his website UFO Sightings Daily.
He even suggested that the enormous vessel would be considered a ‘small shuttle craft’ by its supposed occupants.
However, Waring provides no independent evidence that the feature is a spacecraft, and neither its claimed size nor its alleged extraterrestrial origin has been established.
NASA has also maintained that it has no evidence of extraterrestrial life and has yet to find any signs of current or past life on Mars.
Waring, however, is sure that the mysterious object in the photo is an alien craft.
'There is a long spacecraft hovering over the moon's surface in a NASA photo from 1967,' he wrote in his blog.
'I took the measurement of the crater in the photo called Theophilus crater, which is 110km or 68 miles across by 4.4km or 2.7 miles deep, and can conclude that this UFO is 1/20 the length of the crater…equals 5.5km or 3.4 miles long UFO.
'That's huge to us humans, but to aliens, it's considered a small shuttle craft.'
While the American space agency has dismissed aliens visiting the moon, the Trump Administration's UFO files have revealed unexplainable phenomena during the Apollo moon missions.
On May 8, the US Department of War released hundreds of pages of documents, pictures and audio recordings allegedly providing evidence of extraterrestrial sightings dating back to the 1940s.
Included in what has been described as the first batch of UFO files expected to come from the Pentagon this year were the transcripts of the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 moon missions.
Those files and a collection of images taken by the astronauts on the moon revealed multiple encounters with strange objects that appear to fly around their lunar landers.
During the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan, Jack Schmitt and Ron Evans reported seeing a bright object that rotated and flashed rhythmically out in space.
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Cernan said: 'I'm looking at what - what Jack was talking about; and it's definitely not a particle that's nearby because there is another one I can look at and get a three-dimensional comparison with.'
'It is a bright object, and it's obviously rotating because it's flashing. It's way out in the distance, as I say, because there are particles that are close by and it's obviously not one of those,' the astronaut described.
'It's apparently rotating in a very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost - almost on time. And as we look back at the Earth, it's up at about 11:00 about - oh, maybe 10 or 12 Earth diameters. I don't know whether that does you any good, but there is something out there.'
During the lunar landing, which was the last time humans stepped on the moon's surface, the crew of Apollo 17 also reported seeing multiple small objects moving near the spacecraft during their flight.
'Now we've got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,' Evans told the command center on Earth.
'Roger. Understand,' the center replied. 'There's a whole [bunch] of big ones on my window down there - just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron's window,' Schmitt added.
Evans reported: 'Yes. Now you can see some of them in shape. They're very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.'
The astronauts revealed that right after they fired their thrusters to change direction, the crew began to see the bright particles and jagged, angular fragments drifting past the windows.
Jack says it looks like the 'Fourth of July' out Evans' window, with big bright pieces tumbling slowly around the capsule.
The astronauts were also recorded describing the strange objects as pieces of something solid, not fluid, very bright, and mostly moving with the spacecraft but with occasional faster ones zipping by. Evans reported taking pictures of them.
Three years earlier, the Apollo 12 moon mission also reported strange sightings as they neared the lunar surface.
The Trump administration's third batch of UFO files, released on June 12, included recorded NASA briefings after Apollo 16, which referred to an 'alien starbase' on the dark side of the moon.
The comments were not included in the official transcript from the 1972 mission.
Apollo 16 flew from April 16 to April 27, 1972, and saw astronauts John Young and Charles Duke become the first humans to explore the moon's rugged highlands while Thomas 'Ken' Mattingly remained in lunar orbit.
Buried within the 55-minute discussion is a brief exchange about unusual gravity readings, laser measurements and unexplained anomalies detected on the moon's far side.
The speakers focus on what one participant describes as a 'great big hole' near the Van de Graaff crater, a distinctive lunar formation known for unusual magnetic and geochemical characteristics.
'On the backside of the moon around Fendi graph, that's where we get our big hole,' one speaker says.
The discussion then takes an unexpected turn.
'It could be an alien star base or something. Anyway, the next slide shows the front side of the moon.'
The remark appears amid a broader technical discussion of lunar data and anomalies, although the context of the comment remains unclear from the audio alone.
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https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/08/flatworms-black-cocoons-pacific-trench/
4 Black Spheres Found 4 Miles Beneath the Pacific Contained Bizarre, Alien-Like Creatures Inside
August 28, 2026 at 09:14
These black spheres from nearly 4 miles beneath the Pacific conceal fragile creatures with biology scientists did not expect to find in the abyss.
At nearly 4 miles below the Pacific, even basic facts about animal life are difficult to establish. The seafloor is sampled rarely, and fragile animals may never survive the trip to the surface.
Now, direct evidence has come from a handful of black spherical capsules attached to rocks, showing that free-living flatworms reproduce at more than 6,000 meters deep.
In a paper published in Biology Letters, researchers described cocoons recovered from the abyssal slope of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in the northwestern Pacific, at depths of 6,176 to 6,200 meters.
Against that background, marine biologist Sylvia Earle told EL PAÍS that “we know the surface of Mars better than our ocean floors.”
Her point was broader than these worms, but it captures the difficulty researchers face when studying animals living thousands of meters below the surface.
Four Capsules Survived the Trip
At first, most of the capsules were already damaged. Researchers found many dark spherical bodies on rock fragments, but most had been torn open and were empty. Only four intact cocoons were available for close examination.
On Sept. 21, 2023, the rocks were collected during a cruise of the research vessel Hakuho-maru. According to the peer-reviewed account, researchers used a beam trawl to recover the two rock fragments carrying the capsules.
That detail matters because some later reports described the samples as having been retrieved by a remotely operated vehicle, an account that does not match the methods section of the paper.
At Hokkaido University, invertebrate researcher Keiichi Kakui, who helped examine the cocoons and embryos, did not initially recognize the objects.
He told IFLScience, “I thought they may be protists or something.” Then he opened one: “I cut one of them, and a milky liquid-like thing leaked from it,” Kakui said.
Inside were pale, fragile flatworms.
Working with co-author Aoi Tsuyuki, Kakui found that, where measurements were available, the capsules measured about 3.1 to 3.3 millimeters and each held three to seven embryos; while some embryos were still roughly spherical, others were already shaped like worms, forms the researchers interpreted as earlier and later developmental stages.
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DNA Narrowed the Identity
To work out what the animals were, the team extracted DNA from two specimens, one spherical and one worm-shaped.
They compared sequences from genes commonly used to reconstruct evolutionary relationships and also prepared one specimen as microscopic sections just 7 micrometers thick.
In the genetic analysis, the worms fell within Maricola, a small group within the flatworm order Tricladida. The paper notes that Maricola contains about 80 described species and that nearly all comparable members represented in genetic databases came from freshwater, brackish or shallow marine habitats. From that pattern, the researchers suggested that the lineage may have expanded from coastal waters into the abyss.
Using DNA, the team also connected the different-looking embryos.
The sequences showed only minor variation consistent with members of the same species, supporting the conclusion that the spherical and worm-shaped specimens represented different points in development rather than different kinds of animal.
The authors concluded that at least two adults had laid them. On the same rock, genetically distinct individuals appeared among the cocoons.
The Previous Record Was Far Shallower
Before the new specimens were analyzed, the deepest certain record cited for a free-living flatworm was Oligocladus voightae, collected at 3,232 meters.
That’s a long way down. The species was described in a 2006 Zootaxa paper on deep-sea polyclad flatworms from the North Pacific.
Although researchers had reported a possible flatworm from sunken wood at more than 5,200 meters, that record was uncertain because the animal itself was not firmly established as a flatworm and the wood could have carried an organism downward after sinking.
Cocoons fixed to rocks at abyssal depth provide stronger evidence that the newly examined worms were actually reproducing there.
An Ordinary Start in Extreme Water
More unexpectedly, the embryos themselves showed “no obvious differences” from developmental stages already known in other triclads, the authors wrote, despite living under enormous pressure in permanent darkness.
From that comparison, Kakui and Tsuyuki proposed that adapting to the abyss may have involved physiological or ecological changes more than fundamental changes to early development.
Their shallow-water relatives also enclose embryos in capsules attached to hard surfaces, and the deep-sea specimens appear to follow much the same basic plan.
As the sampling gear operated, video showed a muddy seabed scattered with rocks and gravel.
The researchers suggested those hard surfaces could provide places for the flatworms to attach their cocoons, including the rock fragment that returned to the surface carrying seven late-stage embryos.
The next clues are likely to arrive the same way: attached to whatever researchers manage to bring back from the abyss.
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Laura Ingraham
@IngrahamAngle
Dueling cakes — Happy Birthday to Karoline Leavitt & Stephen Miller. Creativity award goes to Katie Miller!
1:36 PM · Aug 24, 2026
https://x.com/IngrahamAngle/status/2091988156753277219
moar
https://x.com/MAGA_Aliens/status/2092795290856071341
https://x.com/theblackvault/status/2093302441437704604
https://x.com/UAPLuigi/status/2093107758363267432
https://x.com/Truth_SeekersTV/status/2093238560493023638
Night Shift Doomer Friday: Both Owners Say Skinwalker Ranch Is Getting Worse
August 28, 2026
*Robert Bigelow owned Skinwalker Ranch for twenty years. Brandon Fugal has had it for the last ten.
This week they sat in the same room for the first time since the sale — and both of them said the same thing: whatever is out there is getting more dangerous.*
Bigelow: the interference "has become much more serious as time gone by." Fugal: the liability waiver everyone signs is "not just theatrical. It's dead serious."
Episode four of the Bigelow Podcast put the only two men who have ever owned Skinwalker Ranch across a table from each other.
Bigelow ran it through the NIDS years and through AAWSAP, the classified DIA effort that eventually had fifty investigators on the property.
Fugal bought it in 2016 as a self-described skeptic — an Eagle Scout who thought it would make a beautiful scouting retreat and fully expected to prove there was nothing there. Twelve minutes in, he says: "I was wrong."
But the part we're spending the hour on is the part nobody is clipping. Read the tape straight through and it is a casualty list. A ranch manager who says he was warned telepathically to stop digging, ignored it, and ended up in hospital with an irradiated skull.
A caretaker who had a cardiac episode on the opposite side of the property from the drilling rig. A NIDS-era manager found beside his horse, who spent four weeks in a coma.
And two owners, thirty years apart, both saying the same thing on camera: it is escalating.
So the question for today is not whether Skinwalker Ranch is real. It's whether anyone should still be standing on it.
Today's run of show
• The line at 9:47 that answers a question Bigelow refused to answer two episodes ago
• Thomas Winterton, the excavation, and the warning he says came before the injury
• Why a cardiac episode hit a man nowhere near the drilling
• The remote viewer Bigelow hired twice — and what he decided to leave buried
• The decomposing carcass that came back a direct match to an extinct direwolf
• Brandon Fugal's Boy Scout campground, and the moment that plan died
• The night a bodyguard gave a film crew five minutes to get to the airport
• Whether "it reads your intent" is a finding or a folk belief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCd09lrW_Ts
https://x.com/ClintWeldon
extra disclosure dejour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p79WtVYCDG8 (Danny Jones: "Blacklisted From Egypt" Explorer Reveals His Forbidden Labyrinth Scans | Louis De Cordier)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp3HAiYW_-M (Ufo's Aliens, Government & Military Cover-ups. Galactic Spiritual Informers Are Back Don't Miss It!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B0M1mY4hKE (JP with David Adair part 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5tCpt2FVc (Raelian Movement: There are no miracles, just different levels of technology | RAEL)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd4uQDuQmH4 (Deisclosure Team: The Final Report: CAPELLA, The Invisible College & 70 Years of UFO Research - Jacques Vallée)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNMNIx3kRrw (Vetted: Jesse Michels Drops UFO Bombshell)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fODLGa7EPm4 (Jack Grodon: I Tried Changing a Flat Earther’s Mind (again))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSxYsvrBjE4 (Institute for Creation Research: Christian Geologist: These Grand Canyon Fossils CONFIRM Biblical Events)