Blog

‘No easy explanation’: Scientists are debating a 70-year-old UFO mystery as new images come to light

More than 70 years ago, astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in California photographed several star-like flashes that appeared and vanished within an hour — years before the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into orbit.

New peer-reviewed research revisiting those midcentury sky plates reports that these fleeting points of light, called transients, appeared on or near dates of Cold War nuclear weapons tests and coincided with a spike in historical UFO reports. Could these things all be related? Researchers are trying to find out.

While such flashes can sometimes be traced to natural phenomena such as variable stars, meteors or instrumental quirks, several of the Palomar events share distinctive features — including some sharp, point-like shapes that appear to line up in straight rows — that the authors of the new research say defy known natural or instrumental causes.

“We’ve ruled out some of the prosaic explanations, and it means we have to at least consider the possibility that these might be artificial objects from somewhere,” study co-author Stephen Bruehl, an anesthesiologist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee who is interested in UFOs, told Live Science. Bruehl co-authored two recent papers with Beatriz Villarroel, an astronomer at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Sweden.

“If it turns out that transients are reflective artificial objects in orbit — prior to Sputnik — who put them there, and why do they seem to show interest in nuclear testing?” Bruehl added.

Not all researchers agree with this interpretation of the images, however — with some experts noting that technological restrictions of the time make this data very hard to interpret with any certainty. Michael Garrett, director of the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in the U.K. who was not involved with the new studies, praised Villarroel’s team for their creative use of archival data but cautioned against interpreting these results too literally.

“My main worry is not the quality of the research team but the quality of the data at their disposal,” he said. Before Sputnik, the data are poor — especially the anecdotal UFO, or UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon) reports, which Villarroel’s team acknowledges it did not assess for validity.

Keep reading

Missouri Locks the Web Behind a “Harmful” Content ID Check

Starting November 30, 2025, people in Missouri will find the digital world reshaped: anyone wishing to visit websites containing “harmful” adult material will need to prove they are at least 18 years old by showing ID.

This new requirement marks Missouri’s entry into the growing group of US states adopting age verification laws for online content. Yet the move does more than restrict access; it raises serious questions about how much personal data people must surrender just to browse freely.

For many, that tradeoff is likely to make privacy tools like VPNs a near necessity rather than a choice.

The law defines its targets broadly. Any site or app where over one-third of the material is classified as “harmful to minors” must block entry until users confirm their age.

Those who do not comply risk penalties that can reach $10,000 a day, with violations categorized as “unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, or otherwise unlawful practices.”

To meet these standards, companies are permitted to check age through digital ID systems, government-issued documents such as driver’s licenses or passports, or existing transactional data that proves a person’s age.

Keep reading

Tennessee Officials Reach Agreement With Hemp Industry To Temporarily Allow THCA Sales

Tennessee’s hemp industry has reached an agreement with state agencies, dismissing a lawsuit and enabling some businesses to keep selling hemp-derived products such as THCA for a short time after new restrictions take effect.

The Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association announced it entered an order with the state Agriculture and Revenue Departments allowing businesses with licenses issued before December 31, 2025 to continue using a 2023 regulatory framework until their licenses expire June 30, 2026. Such a move allows stores to keep selling many products that will be banned after a new law takes effect January 1.

Because of the agreement, a pending declaratory judgment against the Agriculture and Revenue departments has been dismissed, the association said in a statement.

Part of the new law adopted by the legislature this year transfers regulatory authority over hemp products and beverages from the state Agriculture Department to the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

The new law also bans the hemp derivative, THCA, which converts into delta-9 THC–an illegal substance in Tennessee in greater than trace amounts–when smoked or heated. The synthetic cannabinoid, THCP, is also banned under the law.

Hemp industry representative Clint Palmer, who testified before lawmakers this year, said about 75 percent of the market will be considered illegal under the new ban, which includes THCA flower and vapes. The new law will push consumers to synthetic cannabinoids, he said.

“If you ask your typical consumer, they’re gonna say gross,” Palmer said.

Palmer told lawmakers early this year hemp businesses will be forced to shut down despite spending millions of dollars to comply with state regulations.

Keep reading

Trump Declares Closure of Venezuela’s Airspace

President Trump on Saturday declared that the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela is to be closed, a sign that he might soon launch an attack on the country with the aim of ousting President Nicolas Maduro.

“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

It’s unclear if the declaration means that the US will impose a no-fly zone on Venezuela, which would be an act of war. Such a step or any military strikes on Venezuela would be illegal without congressional authorization, per the US Constitution.

The order came after the president said that he may “very soon” expand the bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the region to strikes on Venezuelan territory.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump spoke to Maduro by phone last week and discussed the possibility of meeting in person, but it doesn’t appear that the conversation did anything to slow the US military buildup in the region and push toward the US launching a regime change war.

The Times report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been leading the campaign against Venezuela, joined Maduro and Trump in the phone call. They spoke a few days before Rubio’s State Department declared the Cartel of the Suns, or Cartel de los Soles, a group that doesn’t actually exist, a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

Keep reading

Previously Unreleased Audio Recording from D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Case Revealed

An incredible previously unreleased audio recording from the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking case has been revealed, allowing listeners to eavesdrop on some critical moments during the legendary caper. Researchers Nicholas Broughton and Ryan Burns received the remarkable relic from a source, who has asked to remain anonymous. The audio is derived from badly degraded cassette tapes, which this individual had in their possession for several decades. The duo were provided with around forty minutes of total audio, but only twelve minutes were able to be restored to a listenable condition with the hope that more of the recording can be recovered in the future.

Northwest Airlines, which owned the plane Cooper skyjacked that fateful 1971 Thanksgiving Eve, created the audio by splicing together recordings of two separate radio frequencies used when the passenger jet stopped at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac). It was during this period that the passengers and most of the flight crew were released from the plane, the requested $200,000 ransom and parachutes were delivered to Cooper, and the airliner was refueled in anticipation of continuing the flight to Mexico City. In the newly released audio, Captain William Scott, Co-Pilot Bill Rataczak, and Al Lee, Chief Pilot for Northwest Airlines and chosen courier for the skyjacking spoils, can be heard initially discussing a “contingency plan” wherein the remaining crew would make a run for it “if that opportunity avails itself.”

Later in the recording, the tension of the moment is palpable as problems with the refueling process caused a considerable delay on the ground and consternation from Cooper. “We do want the fuel truck to come up, dammit,” Rataczak sternly relays to the Sea-Tac tower as the mounting issues required multiple vehicles. “He’s getting awfully antsy,” the co-pilot reports of Cooper as they wait for the airliner to be ready for takeoff. During the delay, Scott notes specific gear settings that the skyjacker requested for the flight and muses, “he seems to know a little bit about an airplane.” Shortly thereafter, the Sea-Tac tower suggests the incident could be a copy of a similar skyjacking involving a parachute that occurred on an Air Canada flight earlier in the month.

Keep reading

Poland Announces Foreign Spy Plot Busted, Involved Photographing Secretive Facilities 

Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday that five individuals have been charged with working on behalf of a foreign intelligence service, following coordinated arrests which spanned November Tuesday through Wednesday of this week by the Internal Security Agency and police.

Those taken into custody include two Ukrainian nationals – identified only as Oleksandr S. and a minor, Sofia Ch. – and in addition three Belarusian citizens identified as Viktoryia M., Anton M., and Uladzimir U.

The group is accused of targeting the Polish state for espionage purposes, with prosecutors alleging that throughout much of 2024 the team collected information on sensitive locations.

“The suspects’ activities involved establishing contact with foreign intelligence representatives via Telegram and carrying out assigned tasks, including the creation and transmission of photographic documentation of critical infrastructure facilities and locations crucial to national security,” a press release translated from Polish to English read.

“For these tasks, the suspects were paid in cryptocurrencies,” it added. Likely Warsaw believes Russian intelligence was ultimately behind the plot. In some instances, Moscow is believed to have used pro-Russian Ukrainian nationals as assets in Europe.

Poland’s investigation comes amid a wider probe into espionage activities carried out by individuals of different nationalities in Rzeszów, Warszawa, Łódź – among some other regions – between March 2024 and February 2025.

But in some instances the activities seem minor, given prosecutors have cited activities as simple as putting up posters and producing graffiti, supposedly associated with foreign operations.

If convicted under Poland’s national laws, acts of espionage can result in five to thirty years in prison.

Keep reading

Ukrainian Prosecutors Handling More Than 300,000 Desertion Cases

A Ukrainian MP recently made an unsubstantiated claim that there were 400,000 open and ongoing cases of desertion from the Ukrainian military since the invasion by the Russian Federation in 2022. It may have been hyperbole, or they may have had a source in the judiciary.

However, the General Prosecutor’s office wrote to the New Voice of Ukraine in early November that 310,000 criminal cases related to unauthorized absence from a military unit or place of service (AWOL) and desertion are currently registered, 162,000 of which came just this year. There have been over 21,000 desertions in October 2025 alone, claims journalist and former lawmaker Ihor Lutsenko – now commander of a Ukrainian drone unit.

“This is a record. A very bad record. Every two minutes, someone runs away from our army. By the time you finish reading this post, another soldier will have put on skis. Ukraine will be weaker by one defender, and the enemy will become stronger by one,” he wrote, according to the New Voice.He stressed that these are just official figures, and that the real number is only likely to be higher.

Suddenly, the widely dismissed total of 400,000 doesn’t seem impossible, and if a Ukrainian soldier downs his tools every 2 minutes, it leaves quite a lot of time for 400,000 to be reached by the end of the year.

The news comes as a 28-point plan for a lasting peace (later condensed to 19 points) in Ukraine was recently proposed by the Trump Administration in an effort to capitalize on talks with Vladimir Putin held during a summit in Alaska, and to bring the Ukrainians back to the table. Both Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have admitted that within the proposed plan points lies the framework discussed between the leaders in Anchorage without actually endorsing it. Both also acknowledged the “long pause” between the summit and the completion of this new document.

On the other hand, Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev told Axios, that published a full version of the agreement last Thursday, that he was “optimistic” and that “we feel the Russian position is really being heard”.

Keep reading

Treasury Working to Cut Benefits and Money Transfers for Illegal Aliens: ‘There’s No Place for You in Our Financial System’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Friday that the Trump administration is moving aggressively to deny federal tax benefits and suspicious money transfers for illegal aliens.

Bessent, acting under direct orders from President Donald Trump, said that the crackdown on illegals exploiting America will include banning them from the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Saver’s Match Credit.

“At @POTUS @realDonaldTrump’s direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote in a post on X.

Bessent added that the Treasury will “issue proposed regulations clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens, covering the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Saver’s Match Credit.”

Keep reading

Fluoride Lawsuit Plaintiffs Push Back Against Trump EPA In Ongoing Litigation

On November 17, 2025, attorneys representing Food & Water Watch (FWW), Fluoride Action Network (FAN), and individual plaintiffs filed its response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) appeal of U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s September 2024 ruling, which held that fluoridation at the current U.S. level of 0.7 mg/L “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children.”

The response comes nine years after the plaintiffs first filed a civilian petition under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in November 2016. After the EPA denied the petition, the groups sued, triggering a nearly decade-long legal saga between the EPA, and parents of children impacted by water fluoridation, the FAN, and FWW. In September 2024, Judge Chen ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor and ordered the EPA to take regulatory action.

In the final days of the Biden administration the EPA filed their appeal, and now, under leadership appointed by President Donald Trump, the EPA has decided to continue fighting the judge’s ruling.

Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs, responded to the three main arguments made by the EPA in its July appeal: that the plaintiffs lack standing, that the judge improperly considered new evidence, and that the district court went beyond its authority in its management of the case.

The EPA contends that at least one plaintiff’s water contains naturally occurring fluoride and that the plaintiffs therefore cannot prove injury caused by community water fluoridation. The agency also claims that the Judge’s decision to admit studies which were published after the original 2016 TSCA petition violated the act.

Regarding the question of standing, the EPA claimed in its appeal that plaintiff Jessica Trader cannot establish standing because her drinking water in Leawood, Kansas, “naturally contains fluoride at levels 0.4 mg/L, and her water utility adds only as much fluoride as necessary for her tap water to reach a concentration of 0.7 mg/L”. Essentially, the EPA is stating that the naturally occurring fluoride could be to blame for any harm caused to Trader.

Connett argues that the plaintiffs do indeed have proper standing and have demonstrated sufficient injury and connection to the case. “Even if the new “facts” are considered, Jessica Trader’s injury is still traceable/redressable: the district court found (and EPA does not dispute) that fluoridation poses a credible threat of neurodevelopmental harm to her children, and regulatory action would, at a minimum, reduce that threat, including the costs of avoiding it,” Connett wrote in his response.

He further noted that, even without Trader, the remaining plaintiffs also have standing based on credible threats of harm from fluoridation, as supported by findings from the National Research Council (NRC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and National Toxicology Program (NTP).

When it comes to the EPA’s claim that the court improperly considered new evidence in the form of studies published after the original petition, Connett reminded the court that Section 21 of TSCA provides that petitioners “shall be provided an opportunity to have such petition considered by the court in a de novo proceeding”. A de novo proceeding is a legal process where a case is heard “fresh” or from the beginning, without considering the previous court’s decision.

Keep reading

Trump Says He Is Canceling All Biden Executive Orders Signed With Autopen

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is revoking all executive orders that were signed with an autopen under President Joe Biden.

“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I am hereby canceling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.”

According to Trump, 92 percent of documents signed by Biden were done so with the autopen.

​​The use of an autopen to sign legislation and executive orders is legal, provided the president has authorized its use.

Trump, however, claimed that Biden was not aware of the signatures.

“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury,” Trump said.

His announcement followed an intensified crackdown on illegal immigration after two National Guard members were shot—one fatally—on Thanksgiving Eve near the White House, in downtown Washington.

The suspect in the shooting has been identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who had previously worked with U.S. government entities in Afghanistan, including the CIA. He entered the country in September 2021 under a Biden-era resettlement program launched after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Trump accused the Biden administration of not properly vetting these Afghan nationals before allowing them into the country.

“You can’t get them out once they come in. And they came in and they were unvetted, they were unchecked. There were many of them, and they came in on big planes, and it was disgraceful,” Trump told reporters on Nov. 27.

It is unclear whether Trump’s autopen message is part of his recent actions in response to the shooting.

According to legal scholars, U.S. presidents may revoke previously issued executive orders.

“The president, any president, has the power to revoke any and all prior executive orders that he sees fit,” legal scholar and commentator John Shu told The Epoch Times.

“President Trump has already started the process,” noted Shu, who served under Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. “On his first day in office, he began reversing some of his predecessor’s executive orders. Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama did the same.”

However, he doesn’t believe a president has the power to reverse a predecessor’s pardon.

Keep reading