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The U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom, members of the AUKUS partnership, are considering cooperation with Japan on advanced capabilities projects. An aim of AUKUS is identifying the optimal pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability, as well as cooperation on a range of other advanced defense technologies. Japan is being considered because of its strengths and its close defense partnership with all three countries, said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, who held a press conference today. Singh noted that this was announced in a joint statement by the three nation's defense leaders: Secretary of Defense...

The South China Sea has once again become a focal point of international attention following sudden clashes between coast guard vessels of the Philippines and China. As tensions rise, the involvement of global powers like the US and Japan adds further complexity to the situation, potentially pushing more nations to align against Beijing. Amid these escalating tensions, it becomes imperative for China to reconsider its assertive stance and respect the existing global order to avoid further international backlash The South China Sea (SCS) has once again come into focus following sudden skirmishes between the coast guard vessels of the Philippines...

Chinese spy balloon spotted over US airspace in 2023 Commercial fishermen found what is believed to be a spy balloon off the coast of Alaska. The fishermen were instructed to bring the debris ashore and meet with FBI agents waiting at the port. CNN reported: Commercial fishermen off the coast of Alaska have found what officials are concerned could be another spy balloon and are bringing it to shore with them, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. FBI agents will meet the fishing vessel when it comes into port, which is expected to be sometime over the weekend....

A Chaunax, a genus of bony fish in the sea toad family Chaunacidae, is seen at a depth of 1,388 meters (4,553 feet) on a seamount inside the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park. Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More than 100 new species have been discovered on an underwater mountain range off the coast of Chile. Among the never-before-seen critters seen on the expedition are corals, glass sponges, sea urchins, amphipods, lobsters, plus a gaggle of peculiar fish and squid that are already known to science (but no less strange). The discoveries come from an international group of scientists who recently...

The luxury ocean liner Queen Victoria became the center of an unknown outbreak after 129 passengers and 25 crew members were struck by an unidentified gastrointestinal illness, causing symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting during its grand 107-night world voyage. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported earlier this month that the widespread sickness has been ongoing throughout the ship’s journey, which sailed from Southampton, U.K., on January 11 and is set to conclude its voyage there on April 24. The itinerary includes visits to several exotic destinations, including Cape Town, South Africa, and Hong Kong, China. It...

The Melanesian Boundary Plateau was built in four different volcanic phases ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scientists have unraveled the mystery behind how a volcanic superstructure the size of Idaho formed beneath the Pacific Ocean. Called the Melanesian Border Plateau, a team of international researchers determined the more than 85,00-square-mile structure was created when dinosaurs ruled the Earth 145 to 66 million years ago and is still growing to this day. Researchers used seismic data, rock samples and computer models to identify four periods of volcanic eruptions deep beneath the surface that started 100 million years ago. The submerged structure was also found to...

An airplane crashed into the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean after 'flying erratically' near an airport south of San Francisco Sunday evening, authorities said. Sgt. Philip Hallworth of San Mateo County Sheriff´s Office said crews were searching for the plane that went down in Half Moon Bay around 7:15 p.m.. Officials have recovered some wreckage, reports ABC San Francisco, but there is still no word on possible survivors. It's not clear how many people were on board at the time of the crash. The crash occurred a few miles from the Half Moon Bay Airport on the Cabrillo Highway,...

Travis Air Force Base and surrounding land in Solano County, Calif. Image: Google Maps Since 2017, a shadowy Silicon Valley company has bought up 52,000 acres of farmland around Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif., totaling about $800 million.Flannery Associates is a company run by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader. Beyond that, nothing much is known of the company except that some of the most famous names in Silicon Valley have invested in a project being promoted by Flannery. Some backers include Marc Andreessen, Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn co-founder Reid...

Former Congressman Jim Kolbe was named by Gov. Janet Napoltano to head a task force working to get a NAFTA superhighway built from Mexico through the Southwest and Mountain West to Canada. Kolbe, who retired at the end of last year, will chair the state’s Canamex Task Force. The Canamex highway is proposed to run from Guadalajara, Jalisco, to Edmonton, Alberta. Through Arizona it would use a combination of upgraded existing highways and new highways from Nogales to the Nevada state line, south of Las Vegas

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Shandong Carrier Strike Group is operating in the Philippine Sea, being shadowed separately by Republic of China Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyers, according to both countries. Meanwhile, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday – shortly before its leader, Kim Jong Un, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia – marking the first time North Korea has conducted such a launch while its leader was overseas. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense in a Wednesday social media post stated that a total of 35 PLA...

There was a time not more than a decade ago when we could expect disasters and potential disasters in America to be televised. In 2023, the most reliable sources for information are from our peers through social media and other channels. That’s why it’s unfortunate that the best coverage I could get on the fire that’s currently raging in Wahiawa near Honolulu in Hawaii is on Twitter: 🚨BREAKING – Another fire has started in Wahiawa, Honolulu, Hawaii 🔥😨

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru Cape Sebastian in Oregon perches above two forested declivities along a rocky patch of the state’s southern coast. Travel there today, and you are likely to miss a roadside marker that reads:Spanish navigators were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast. Beginning fifty years after Columbus discovered the Western continents, Sebastian Vizciano [sic] saw this cape in 1603 and named it after the patron saint of the day of his discovery. Other navigators, Spanish, British,...

For more than 54 years, a Bay Area woman has wondered what happened to her husband, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot missing in action during the Vietnam War. Now at age 90, Joyce De Soto of Burlingame finally has answers. They were high school sweethearts at Balboa High School in San Francisco before tying the knot. "He had the most beautiful smile, and he was really sweet and really smart," De Soto said of her late husband Ernie De Soto. The De Sotos had three children and were married for 12 years before the family received devastating news: Ernie...

Though Bangladesh's incumbent Awami League Government is taking strong action, Sheikh Hasina has a very serious challenge on her hands On the face of it, any talk of Islamist terrorism posing a threat to Bangladesh or the latter becoming a global staging ground for it appears absurd. Things have been improving since the savage terrorist strike at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on July 1, 2016, which left 20 persons (guests at the eatery), all five of the terrorists, two police officers and two members of the bakery’s staff, dead. According to South Asia Terrorist Portal’s Datasheet Bangladesh, from...

"Japan has expressed 'serious concerns' after Chinese and Russian long-range strategic bombers conducted joint patrols over the Sea of Japan as far as the East China Sea and western Pacific Ocean. Both South Korea and Japan scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday when the Chinese and Russian joint patrols got underway as part of their militaries' annual cooperation plan. Four Russian and four Chinese military aircraft entered South Korea's air defence zone in the south and east of the Korean peninsula. Japan's military said it had verified two Russian bombers had joined two Chinese bombers over the Sea of Japan and...

Microsoft has uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States. The attack is carried out by Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering. Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises. Volt Typhoon has been active since mid-2021 and has targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the United States....

Over the weekend, a rapidly intensifying region of thunderstorms in the western Pacific culminated in the formation of Typhoon Mawar. The movement of this storm is projected to affect the Mariana Islands, including the US territory of Guam, as early as Tuesday. There is a risk of wind speeds above 75mph, with torrential rain.

The White House on Tuesday canceled President Joe Biden’s planned trips to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia, which were to have taken place next week on his way home from the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan. The cancellation, ostensibly necessary so that Biden could return to Washington to participate in debt ceiling negotiations, rattled observers who warned Biden was squandering valuable credibility in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Pentagon is tracking another balloon that flew over Hawaii and is moving toward Mexico, U.S. officials said, according to NBC News. Three U.S. officials told NBC that the object did not fly over any sensitive locations. It’s unclear who is behind the mysterious aerial object. The U.S. military, which has been tracking the balloon since last week, said it is not a threat to national security or air traffic, one official added.

These expert navigators sailed thousands of nautical miles long before other societies.The 2016 animated family film Moana brought the long-told story of Polynesian seafarers (along with some incredibly catchy tunes) to a much wider worldwide audience. Now, geochemical analysis is confirming the oral history of ancient Polynesia’s incredible sailors in a new study published April 21 in the journal Science Advances. Long before Europeans arrived, Polynesian wayfinders sailed to islands across the central Pacific in canoes, and the stories of their adventures have survived largely through oral history. There has been limited material evidence supporting these accounts of Polynesian societies...