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Vladimir Putin has deployed nuclear submarines to the Pacific Ocean as part of a surprise set of drills. Footage from the Russian Ministry of Defence purports to show at least one of the submarines leaving a port in Kamchatka before at least half a dozen of the submersibles are shown at sea with the coast in the background. The ministry said that the drills were intended to “test the Pacific Fleet’s readiness to repel aggression”.

The commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet has resigned, Russian President Vladimir Putin's representative in the country's Far East announced on Thursday. Putin's envoy, Yury Trutnev, said that Admiral Sergei Avakyants, 65, has been appointed the head of a group that is in charge of military sports training and patriotic education, Russia news outlet Kommersant reported. Avakyants had held the position as commander of the Pacific Fleet since 2012. News of his resignation comes a week after Russia decided to conduct missile launches and torpedo tests as part of a "surprise inspection" of its Pacific Fleet. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu...

* The hole may be leaking 'fault lubricant' that reduces stress on two plates * The fault could unleash a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest * READ MORE: Extra layer of plate tectonics could be causing tremors in Pacific ============================================================= Scientists fear a hole in a 600-mile-long fault line in the Pacific could trigger a catastrophic earthquake that would decimate cities along the northwestern US. The hole spewing hot liquid sits 50 miles off the shoreline of Oregon, on the boundary of the dipping fault known as Cascadia Subduction Zone, which spans from Northern California into Canada. This geological...

Manila apparently ran out of patience.After a decade of suffering China's aggressive acts against Philippine vessels, fishermen and energy exploration efforts in waters within the archipelago country's Exclusive Economic Zone, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently welcomed an expanded US military presence.Marcos now has responded to continued Chinese belligerence by granting US forces access to five additional military bases on Philippine territory.In a direct rebuke to China, two of these new bases are on Palawan, one of the disputed Spratly Islands, which are also claimed, as is much else, by Communist China.Philippine officials have failed to persuade China to abide by...

The large balloons sighted recently in the western hemisphere from South America, Canada, Alaska, and the continental United States, and the shooting down of the Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of South Carolina has resulted in eyes being drawn to the skies looking for further developments in the appearance of unannounced aircraft. It has also come to light that massive balloons have been sighted before near the United States, but did not previously make the news headlines. The wreckage of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off South Carolina was quickly recovered by navy...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Police are searching for two armed suspects following a shooting near a busy Waikiki intersection on Friday night that left a man critically injured. Honolulu EMS said the victim, in his 20s, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The shooting happened about 10 p.m. near the intersection of Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street. Video: The Honolulu Police Department confirmed they are looking for two armed suspects. Sources said the two are believed to have fled in a vehicle. Paramedics treated the victim on scene before transporting him to a hospital in critical condition. The road was closed in the...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- The ongoing fight against the effects of climate change took centerstage at the Honolulu City Council on Thursday. In the past, the council’s Zoning and Planning Committee has drafted bills surrounding coastal erosion and climate change. But lawmakers are now looking at creating comprehensive legislation focused on shoreline development. In an informational briefing, climate experts offered a presentation showcasing the long-term impact of global warming on coastlines throughout Oahu. In Ewa Beach, for example, models show wave inundation of 4 feet in the next 70 years. Dr. Chip Fletcher, interim dean of the University of Hawaii-Manoa School...

..... Eastern North America, Central America and northwest South America will see the eclipse underway at sunrise/moonset, while eastern Asia and Australia will see the reverse, with a dramatic eclipse rising at dusk. Catching the eclipsed Moon low to the horizon always offers a great opportunity to nab it along with foreground objects. Northwestern North America, New Zealand and the Pacific will see the see the eclipse in its entirety, with totality occurring very near the zenith for Hawai’i. .....

Known as the Palos Verdes fault zone, the system runs deep beneath the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It previously was thought to be a segmented network of smaller faults, but a closer look by scientists at Harvard University suggests it’s a system of interconnected, closely spaced planar fractures stretching from the Santa Monica Bay to the waters off Dana Point. The analysis determined the fault system, which runs beneath numerous neighborhoods as well as the ports of Long Beach and L.A., has a much larger surface area that could rupture in the same seismic event, making it capable of a far...

... "So far, we think about the Indian Ocean whenever we think about oceans. This is the limitation of our thinking that we talk about the Indian Ocean whenever we talk about maritime interest," Mr. Jaishankar said. "But more than 50% of our trade goes towards the East, towards the Pacific Ocean. The line between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean is only on the map, exists on an atlas, but there is no such thing in reality... We should go beyond the historical lines in our thinking, because our interest has increased. Indo-Pacific is a new strategic concept going...

The vessel was unable to get diplomatic clearance to make a scheduled stop in the islands. A US Coast Guard cutter was unable to get clearance for a scheduled port call in the Solomon Islands as concerns grow about China's influence on the Pacific nation. The vessel, called the Oliver Henry, was conducting patrols as part of an international mission to prevent illegal fishing when it sought to make a stop to refuel on the island of Guadalcanal, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Coast Guard Lt Kristin Kam told the paper, which provides news to members of the...

[Video] HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- Want to live longer? Living in Hawaii may help. A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr71/nvsr71-02.pdf says Hawaii residents still live the longest compared to the rest of the nation. The CDC compiled data from 2020 and analyzed life expectancy for each state and the District of Columbia. Hawaii had the highest life expectancy: 80.7 years. Life expectancy in the U.S. declined overall from 2019 to 2020, mostly due to the coronavirus pandemic and drug overdose deaths. Overall, life expectancy in the U.S. declined by 1.8 years. Life expectancy in...

For 30 days in April and May, a group of expeditionary communications technicians got together at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, with one task: Find a way for the F-35 to transfer data on remote or contested Pacific islands. Often referred to as a “flying computer,” the F-35 has sophisticated technological capabilities, but it also requires datalink connections to use and share vast quantities of information at high speed. When the F-35 lands at U.S. Air Force bases, it unloads its data to a server known as the Air Force Network, or AFNet. Maintainers and operators can then study that...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A Chinese state-owned company is negotiating to buy a forestry planation with a deep-water port and World War II airstrip in Solomon Islands amid persistent concerns that China wants to establish a naval foothold in the South Pacific country. A delegation from China Forestry Group Corp. visited the plantation that covers most of Kolombangar Island in 2019, asking questions about the length of the wharf and depth of the water while showing little interest in the trees, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported on Monday. The board of Kolombangara Forest Products Ltd., the takeover target known as KFPL...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A new plan to reroute how water moves from wetter Northern California to drier Southern California would ferry some of it through a single, 45-mile (72-kilometer) underground tunnel, wrapping around the state’s existing water delivery system and dumping it into the main aqueduct that flows south to vast swaths of farmland and millions of people. The proposal released Wednesday would build one tunnel to take water from the Sacramento River, the state's largest, to the California Aqueduct for delivery further south. It's scaled back from the two-tunnel plan championed by former Gov. Jerry Brown and the latest...

Tendril-ly, Cthulhu-looking beigeish-pinkish sea creature extends its tentacles in a clump against the dark ocean. This sea pen was an unexpected find in the Pacific Ocean by the crew of the E/V Nautilus. E/V Nautilus; video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET I'll admit, I'd never heard of a Solumbellula sea pen until today, when I saw a tweet from the Exploration Vessel Nautilus showing an intriguing tentacle-y creature with a long thin stalk reaching down to the ocean floor. I was immediately enchanted. The Nautilus team called it "a thrilling discovery." The sea pen made its appearance during a visit by...

Three Chinese warships completed a 17-day circuit around the Japanese archipelago on Wednesday, following a route similar to one taken by Russian warships earlier in June. Two Chinese guided-missile destroyers and a replenishment oiler steamed through the Miyako Strait, between Okinawa and Miyako Island, around 11 p.m. Wednesday, Japan's Joint Staff said in a news release Thursday. The Joint Staff confirmed the same ships were spotted June 12 starting a journey that took them past Japan's largest islands. A flotilla of seven Russian vessels began a similar journey June 15, of which five completed a circuit around Japan on June...

Satellite imagery revealed that the United States is constructing a new military facility in the Pacific, possibly preparing an alternative landing site for its airforce should the military bases on Guam become inoperable. Land-clearing activity has been spotted at Tinian International Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands, based on satellite images obtained by The War Zone on June 15. An annotated satellite image showing the full scope of planned construction as part of the Tinian Divert Airfield project. USAF Past satellite imagery from the Planet Lab suggests that construction work at the site started in May. This appears to correspond...

Democratic countries are proposing a new Pacific-wide pact to strengthen cooperation and development efforts in the region to combat Beijing’s influence building and hybrid warfare operations. The “Partners in the Blue Pacific” would involve the United States, Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to provide “closer, more purposeful, and more ambitious cooperation.” “Too often, our efforts have been uncoordinated, creating duplication in some cases and gaps on the others,” according to a concept note about the pact. The partnership was earmarked by U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell at a Center for Strategic and International Studies meeting on...

Wary Pacific nations are resisting ‘good brother’ China’s offer to expand its scope Round one does not go to China. It failed to convince a group of Pacific island nations to sign an agreement to keep receiving security and economic cooperation from itself. They could not shed their suspicions that China was attempting to show off its ‘partners’ in the South Pacific to square off with the QUAD’s growing presence in the Indo-Pacific. Some nations were opposed to the Chinese offer, titled ‘China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision’. What raised eyebrows were the Chinese proposals to train local police, help...