Aliens? Lack of US info on shootdowns breeds wild ideas

A U.S. Navy sailor assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 conducts a search for debris with an underwater vehicle during recovery efforts of a high-altitude Chinese balloon shot down by the U.S. Air Force off the coast of South Carolina for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek on February 7, 2023, in this image released by the U.S. Navy in Washington, U.S. February 13, 2023. (REUTERS)
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Updated 14 February 2023
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Aliens? Lack of US info on shootdowns breeds wild ideas

  • White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did have at least one definitive statement to try to tamp down unrestrained theories: 'I know there’s been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no — indication of aliens'

WASHINGTON: With few confirmed details from President Joe Biden’s White House, the downing of three unknown aerial objects in as many days by US fighter jets has prompted wild speculation about what they were and where they came from. It even fell to his press secretary on Monday to announce earnestly there was no indication of “aliens or extraterrestrial activity.”
The president had no public events Monday and has offered little reassurance or explanation of what to make of it all, following the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon crossing the country and the unprecedented peacetime shootdowns that have followed.
US officials said they still know little about the three objects downed Friday off the coast of Alaska, Saturday over Canada and Sunday over Lake Huron. But those shootdowns have been part of a more assertive response to aerial phenomena following the balloon episode blamed on an ongoing Beijing espionage program.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did have at least one definitive statement to try to tamp down unrestrained theories: “I know there’s been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no — indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity.”
The US government insists the three objects did not pose a threat to American security and that even the massive spy balloon provided “limited additive capabilities” to China’s other surveillance programs. Still, they were shot out of the sky “out of an abundance of caution,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Biden’s unparalleled decision to shoot down four objects over North America in eight days — when combined with US officials’ efforts to publicly downplay the foreign threat — has furthered the dissonant messages being sent about sensitive efforts to protect the homeland.
US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, acknowledge the confusion, saying the administration wants to keep the American public from becoming unnecessarily worried while also trying to maintain a tough posture toward China.
Kirby said that while the US has no specific reasons to suspect the aerial objects were spying, “we couldn’t rule that out.” He added that the most recent objects, flying between 20,000 and 40,000 feet, could have posed a remote risk to civilian planes.
That legal justification for the downings — that the objects might imperil civilian flight — is viewed by some officials as such a remote possibility that it raises questions about whether it was a mere pretext for acting tough.
Biden “wants to appear tough on China, and this is a good example of where actions speak louder than words,” said Brian Ott, co-author of “The Twitter Presidency: Donald J. Trump and the Politics of White Rage.”
“If we find ourselves next year in a presidential debate between the two of them, Trump will try to cast Biden as weak on national security, and Biden will be able turn to Trump and say, ‘How many of these Chinese balloons and unidentified objects did you shoot out of the sky?’”
Ott, a professor of communications at Missouri State University, said Biden’s relative silence on the takedown of the Chinese balloon and other objects could be guided, at least in part, by his 2024 reelection considerations. Republicans, from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to right-wing firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticized Biden in the days after the Chinese balloon was spotted in US airspace for being slow to act.
When pressed on whether the decision to shoot the objects down came in response to such criticism, Kirby insisted: “These were decisions based purely and simply on what was in the best interests of the American people.”
With little information to go on, senators in both parties demanded answers as they returned to Washington on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that senators would receive a classified briefing Tuesday morning and that Congress would work in coming weeks to get the “full story of what happened.” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat behind Schumer, said Biden “owes the country some answers.”
Republican McConnell said Biden “needs to communicate and level with the American people.” He questioned what the administration knew about China’s surveillance efforts before the first balloon crossed the country.
After the balloon was shot down, the White House revealed that such balloons had traversed US territory at least three times during Trump’s administration unbeknownst to the former president or his aides — and that others have flown over dozens of nations across five continents. Kirby emphasized Monday that they were only detected by the Biden administration.
Jim Ludes, a former national defense analyst who now leads the Pell Center for International Affairs and Public Policy at Salve Regina University, said political parrying is inevitable.
“It doesn’t matter what the administration says. People are going to play politics with it and try to score points,” he said. “Either they acted too slowly, or too hastily.”
There’s good reason for the Biden administration to be cautious, Ludes added, noting that the blow-up over the aerial devices comes amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan. The wrong statement from Biden could destabilize an already fraught situation.
“Next time we fly a B-52 down the straits, what does China do?” Ludes said. “There are opportunities for this to become very complex very quickly.”
Kirby on Monday sought to draw a distinction between the latest objects and the confirmed surveillance balloon, emphasizing their far smaller size, lack of maneuverability and the lack of any indication they were communicating before they were shot down. They were only detected, he said, because the US had adjusted the sensitivity on air defense radars to detect high-flying, slow-moving objects like the surveillance balloon.
Officials have yet to retrieve any parts of the three unidentified objects, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, citing the treacherous terrain, water and weather where they were brought down. US officials could not even say whether they were balloons or some other type of aerial vehicle, and have thus far declined to share imagery taken before they were shot down.
All that is clear, it seems, is that it wasn’t ET.
Kirby echoed Jean-Pierre on that: “I don’t think the American people need to be worried about aliens with respect to these craft.”

 


Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in US cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them

Updated 7 sec ago
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Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in US cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them

  • Already, several universities have announced hiring freezes, laid off staff or stopped admitting new graduate students

As the Trump administration cut billions of dollars in federal funding to scientific research, thousands of scientists in the US lost their jobs or grants — and governments and universities around the world spotted an opportunity.
The “Canada Leads” program, launched in April, hopes to foster the next generation of innovators by bringing early-career biomedical researchers north of the border.
Aix-Marseille University in France started the “Safe Place for Science” program in March — pledging to “welcome” US-based scientists who “may feel threatened or hindered in their research.”
Australia’s “Global Talent Attraction Program,” announced in April, promises competitive salaries and relocation packages.
“In response to what is happening in the US,” said Anna-Maria Arabia, head of the Australian Academy of Sciences, “we see an unparalleled opportunity to attract some of the smartest minds here.”
Since World War II, the US has invested huge amounts of money in scientific research conducted at independent universities and federal agencies. That funding helped the US to become the world’s leading scientific power — and has led to the invention of cell phones and the Internet as well as new ways to treat cancer, heart disease and strokes, noted Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the journal Science.
But today that system is being shaken.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has pointed to what it calls waste and inefficiency in federal science spending and made major cuts to staff levels and grant funding at the National Science Foundation,the National Institutes of Health, NASA and other agencies, as well as slashing research dollars that flow to some private universities.
The White House budget proposal for next year calls to cut the NIH budget by roughly 40 percent and the National Science Foundation’s by 55 percent.
“The Trump administration is spending its first few months reviewing the previous administration’s projects, identifying waste, and realigning our research spending to match the American people’s priorities and continue our innovative dominance,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai.
Already, several universities have announced hiring freezes, laid off staff or stopped admitting new graduate students. On Thursday, the Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, though a judge put that on hold.
Research institutions abroad are watching with concern for collaborations that depend on colleagues in the US — but they also see opportunities to potentially poach talent.
“There are threats to science ... south of the border,” said Brad Wouters, of University Health Network, Canada’s leading hospital and medical research center, which launched the “Canada Leads” recruitment drive. “There’s a whole pool of talent, a whole cohort that is being affected by this moment.”
Promising a safe place to do science
Universities worldwide are always trying to recruit from one another, just as tech companies and businesses in other fields do. What’s unusual about the current moment is that many global recruiters are targeting researchers by promising something that seems newly threatened: academic freedom.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this month that the European Union intends “to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law.” She spoke at the launch of the bloc’s “Choose Europe for Science” — which was in the works before the Trump administration cuts but has sought to capitalize on the moment.
Eric Berton, president of Aix-Marseille University, expressed a similar sentiment after launching the institution’s “Safe Place for Science” program.
“Our American research colleagues are not particularly interested by money,” he said of applicants. “What they want above all is to be able to continue their research and that their academic freedom be preserved.”
Too early to say ‘brain drain’
It’s too early to say how many scientists will choose to leave the US It will take months for universities to review applications and dole out funding, and longer for researchers to uproot their lives.
Plus, the American lead in funding research and development is enormous — and even significant cuts may leave crucial programs standing. The US has been the world’s leading funder of R&D — including government, university and private investment — for decades. In 2023, the country funded 29 percent of the world’s R&D, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
But some institutions abroad are reporting significant early interest from researchers in the US Nearly half of the applications to “Safe Place for Science” — 139 out of 300 total — came from US-based scientists, including AI researchers and astrophysicists.
US-based applicants in this year’s recruitment round for France’s Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology roughly doubled over last year.
At the Max Planck Society in Germany, the Lise Meitner Excellence Program — aimed at young female researchers — drew triple the number of applications from US-based scientists this year as last year.
Recruiters who work with companies and nonprofits say they see a similar trend.
Natalie Derry, a UK-based managing partner of the Global Emerging Sciences Practice at recruiter WittKieffer, said her team has seen a 25 percent to 35 percent increase in applicants from the US cold-calling about open positions. When they reach out to scientists currently based in the US, “we are getting a much higher hit rate of people showing interest.”
Still, there are practical hurdles to overcome for would-be continent-hoppers, she said. That can include language hurdles, arranging childcare or eldercare, and significant differences in national pension or retirement programs.
Community ties
Brandon Coventry never thought he would consider a scientific career outside the United States. But federal funding cuts and questions over whether new grants will materialize have left him unsure. While reluctant to leave his family and friends, he’s applied to faculty positions in Canada and France.
“I’ve never wanted to necessarily leave the United States, but this is a serious contender for me,” said Coventry, who is a postdoctoral fellow studying neural implants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But it’s not easy to pick up and move a scientific career — let alone a life.
Marianna Zhang was studying how children develop race and gender stereotypes as a postdoctoral fellow at New York University when her National Science Foundation grant was canceled. She said it felt like “America as a country was no longer interested in studying questions like mine.”
Still, she wasn’t sure of her next move. “It’s no easy solution, just fleeing and escaping to another country,” she said.
The recruitment programs range in ambition, from those trying to attract a dozen researchers to a single university to the continent-wide “Choose Europe” initiative.
But it’s unclear if the total amount of funding and new positions offered could match what’s being shed in the US.
A global vacuum
Even as universities and institutes think about recruiting talent from the US, there’s more apprehension than glee at the funding cuts.
“Science is a global endeavor,” said Patrick Cramer, head of the Max Planck Society, noting that datasets and discoveries are often shared among international collaborators.
One aim of recruitment drives is to “to help prevent the loss of talent to the global scientific community,” he said.
Researchers worldwide will suffer if collaborations are shut down and databases taken offline, scientists say.
“The US was always an example, in both science and education,” said Patrick Schultz, president of France’s Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology. So the cuts and policies were “very frightening also for us because it was an example for the whole world.”


Trump says he will delay EU tariffs until July 9

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the opening bell on May 23, 2025, in New York City. (AFP)
Updated 8 min 28 sec ago
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Trump says he will delay EU tariffs until July 9

  • In early April, Trump had set a 90-day window for trade talks for the EU and the US which was to end on July 9

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey: US President Donald Trump on Sunday backed off his threat to speed up 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union, agreeing to extend his deadline for trade talks until July 9 after the head of the EU executive body said the bloc needed more time to “reach a good deal.”
Trump threatened on Friday to intensify his trade war after expressing frustrations that trade talks were not moving quickly enough, saying he wanted steep new import taxes to start on June 1. The threat roiled global markets.
Trump relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him during a phone call that the EU needed more time to come to an agreement and asked him to delay the tariffs until July, the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had granted the request. He said that von der Leyen told him “we will rapidly get together to see if we can work something out.” Von der Leyen said in a social media post that the EU was ready to move quickly in trade talks.
Von der Leyen said in a post on X on Sunday that she had a “good” phone call with Trump.
In early April, Trump had set a 90-day window for trade talks for the EU and the US which was to end on July 9.

 


Trump says US wants to make tanks, not T-shirts

Updated 5 min 18 sec ago
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Trump says US wants to make tanks, not T-shirts

  • “We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to do the AI thing with computers,” Trump said

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday his tariff policy was aimed at promoting the domestic manufacturing of tanks and technology products, not sneakers and T-shirts.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey, Trump said he agreed with comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on April 29 that the US does not necessarily need a “booming textile industry” — comments that drew criticism from the National Council of Textile Organizations.
“We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to do the AI thing with computers,” Trump said.
“I’m not looking to make T-shirts, to be honest. I’m not looking to make socks. We can do that very well in other locations. We are looking to do chips and computers and lots of other things, and tanks and ships,” Trump said.
Trump, who has upended world markets with the broad imposition of tariffs, revived his harsh trade rhetoric on Friday when he pushed for a 50 percent tariff on European Union goods starting June 1 and warned Apple he may impose a 25 percent levy on all imported iPhones bought by US consumers.

 


13 killed as Russia pummels Ukraine with biggest ever drone attack

Updated 25 May 2025
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13 killed as Russia pummels Ukraine with biggest ever drone attack

  • Ukraine’s emergency services described a night of “terror” amid a second straight night of massive Russian air strikes, including on the capital Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine: Russia launched a record number of drones against Ukraine, killing 13 people across the country, officials said Sunday, even as Kyiv and Moscow completed their biggest prisoner exchange since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s emergency services described a night of “terror” amid a second straight night of massive Russian air strikes, including on the capital Kyiv.
The attacks came as the two countries completed their biggest prisoner swap since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with 1,000 captured soldiers and civilian prisoners sent back by each side.
Those killed in the latest Russian strikes included two children, aged eight and 12, and a 17-year-old, killed in the northwestern region of Zhytomyr, officials said.
Their school named the dead children as Roman, Tamara and Stanislav in a post on Facebook, saying: “Their memory will always be with us. We will never forgive.”
“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
“The silence of America, the silence of others around the world only encourages Putin,” he said, adding: “Sanctions will certainly help.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called for “the strongest international pressure on Russia to stop this war.”
“Last night’s attacks again show Russia bent on more suffering and the annihilation of Ukraine. Devastating to see children among innocent victims harmed and killed,” she said on social media.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also denounced the attacks. “Putin does not want peace, he wants to carry on the war and we shouldn’t allow him to do this,” he said.
“For this reason we will approve further sanctions at a European level.”
The strikes came after Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 drones overnight Friday to Saturday, which wounded 15 people, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine’s military said on Sunday it had shot down a total of 45 Russian missiles and 266 attack drones overnight.
Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said 298 drones were launched, adding that this was “the highest number ever.”
Four people were also reported dead in Ukraine’s western Khmelnytskyi region, four in the Kyiv region.
Two people died in the Mykolaiv region. On Sunday evening Vitaliy Kim, governor of the southern region, said the body of a second person had been recovered from the rubble.
Emergency services said 16 people were injured in the Kyiv region, including three children, in the “massive night attack.”
“We saw the whole street was on fire,” a 65-year-old retired woman, Tetiana Iankovska, told AFP in Markhalivka village just southwest of Kyiv.
Russia said its strikes were aimed at Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex” and that it had brought down 110 Ukrainian drones.
Flights at Moscow airports suffered temporary closures due to Ukrainian drone activity but no injuries were reported, officials said.
Russia also said it had exchanged another 303 Ukrainian prisoners of war for the same number of Russian soldiers held by Kyiv — the last phase of a swap agreed during talks in Istanbul on May 16.
Russia and Ukraine had over three days “carried out the exchange of 1,000 people for 1,000 people,” the defense ministry said.
Zelensky confirmed the swap was complete.
Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday and 307 on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump on Friday congratulated the two countries for the swap.
“This could lead to something big,” he wrote on social media.
Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have so far been unsuccessful, despite his pledge to rapidly end the fighting.
An AFP reporter saw some of the formerly captive Ukrainian soldiers arrive at a hospital in the northern Chernigiv region, emaciated but smiling and waving to crowds.
“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” 31-year-old Konstantin Steblev, a soldier, told AFP Friday as he stepped back onto Ukrainian soil after three years in captivity.
One former captive, 58-year-old Viktor Syvak, told AFP was overcome by the emotional homecoming.
Captured in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, he had been held for 37 months and 12 days. “It’s impossible to describe. I can’t put it into words. It’s very joyful,” he said of the release.


French authorities blame sabotage for second power blackout

Updated 25 May 2025
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French authorities blame sabotage for second power blackout

  • Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation and were looking into a claim Sunday by two anarchist groups of “responsibility for the attack on electrical installations on the Cote d’Azur”

NICE, France: French authorities on Sunday blamed sabotage and ordered heightened security after a fire at an electricity sub-station in Nice caused the second major power blackout in two days along the Riviera.
The latest fire cut power to about 45,000 homes in western Nice for several hours, authorities said. Nice airport was briefly without electricity, the city’s deputy mayor Gael Nofri told AFP.
A similar arson attack on a power substation on Saturday partially disrupted the final day of the Cannes film festival, forcing organizers to use backup generators to keep the event going.
Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation and were looking into a claim Sunday by two anarchist groups of “responsibility for the attack on electrical installations on the Cote d’Azur.” The claim was posted on an alternative website.
“I vigorously condemn these criminal acts hitting our country,” Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said on X.
“We are making images from our monitoring center available to investigators and will strengthen the city’s network at strategic electrical sites in coming days,” he added.
“Until the perpetrators of these acts have been arrested, we will not ease up our attention anywhere,” Estrosi told reporters.
Nice’s chief prosecutor Damien Martinelli said studies had been carried out “to clarify the damage and the methods used to carry out the act” and that police were investigating “arson by an organized group.”
Police said that tire marks had been found near the Nice transformer and someone had broken into a room in the building.
An arson attack at a power substation and a bid to cut the legs of an electricity pylon near Cannes cut power to 160,000 homes in the region for five hours on Saturday.
The cut knocked out traffic lights and bank machines in Cannes, as well as threatening the finale to the film festival.
The festival “switched to an alternative electricity power supply” to keep the closing ceremony and award events going.
Firefighters battled for five hours to put out the flames at the sub-station, officials said.
In the attack on the high-voltage pylon, three of its four legs had been damaged, said prosecutors.