The Shroud of Turin is widely considered the most studied, debated and controversial relic in human history.

The 14-foot linen cloth showing a photographic negative image of a crucified man is claimed by many to be Jesus' burial cloth, while skeptics hold it is a medieval forgery.

Now, a biblical scholar has highlighted a previous analysis of the shroud that places it in the same season as Jesus was said to have died on the cross.

Speaking on the Shawn Ryan Show, Dr Jeremiah Johnston highlighted a 1970s forensic analysis of the cloth that identified 58 different types of pollen.

He said that 38 of them were identified as species associated with the Jerusalem region, many of which bloom in spring around Passover

'Pollen from Middle Eastern plant species was found in the dust samples,' Johnston told the Daily Mail.

'Among them were plants that only grow in southern Israel, western Jordan, and the Sinai. Dust from the feet area of the Shroud contained a specific calcium carbonate from travertine aragonite limestone, similar to dust taken from a tomb in Jerusalem. '

He said the remaining pollen species trace the shroud's documented journey over the past 2,000 years, suggesting it originated in Jerusalem before traveling through Europe to its current home in Italy.

The 14-foot linen cloth showing a photographic negative image of a crucified man is claimed by many to be Jesus' burial cloth, while skeptics hold it is a medieval forgery

'We know Jesus is crucified...It's the best-established fact of the ancient world on April 3rd, AD 33,' Johnston told podcast host Shawn Ryan.

The date of the crucifixion is based on Bible accounts stating that Jesus died during Passover and that the following day was the Sabbath or Saturday.

Because historical records show that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death, ruled Judea from AD 26 to AD 36, scholars examined those years. 

They found that Passover fell on a Friday only on April 7, AD 30, and April 3, AD 33, now considered the two most likely dates for the crucifixion.

'The pollen, which only blooms at Passover (springtime) in Judea, along with the travertine limestone on the shroud, leave it beyond all doubt that the Shroud of Turin is authentic,' Johnston, who recently published 'The Jesus Discoveries: 10 Historic Finds That Bring Us Face-to-Face with Jesus,' told the Daily Mail.

'I believe that based on the evidence, because I am not irrational.'

Researchers say the pollen evidence suggests the cloth was present in the Jerusalem region during the same time period traditionally associated with the crucifixion.

However, skeptics continue to point to earlier radiocarbon testing that dated part of the fabric to between AD 1260 and 1390, centuries after Jesus' death.

On November 23, 1973, Max Frei was permitted to collect sticky-tape samples of dust from the shroud's surface (PICTURED)

Pictured are images of the pollen take from the shroud

Johnston, who earned his PhD at Oxford, admitted on the Shawn Ryan Show that he was long conditioned to view the cloth as a medieval forgery, a belief rooted in a 1988 study that dated a corner sample of the fabric between AD 1260 and AD 1390.

'I used to be the biggest skeptic of the shroud,' said Johnston.

'It turns out, when you look at it, the shroud of Turin is scientific proof of the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

'I believe that based on the evidence in the 102 academic disciplines that have studied over 600,000 research hours in it. So I went from skeptic to believing in it based on the science.'

Johnston discussed the work of forensic scientist Max Frei, who specialized in microscopy and forensic trace analysis and became known for applying adhesive tape sampling techniques to collect microscopic evidence, methods similar to those used in modern crime-scene investigations.

On November 23, 1973, Frei was permitted to collect sticky-tape samples of dust from the shroud's surface. He collected 12 samples, which were later analyzed under a microscope in his Zurich laboratory.

The 38 types of pollen were linked to plants typical of desert regions surrounding the Jordan Valley, including species adapted to soils with high salt content found near the Dead Sea.

According to biblical accounts, Jesus was crucified near Jerusalem, located roughly 13 miles from the northern edge of the Dead Sea.

Many of the pollen types have also been identified as microfossils in sediment taken from the Dead Sea and Lake Gennesareth, also known as the Sea of Galilee.

Only 17 of the pollen species identified on the cloth are known to grow in France or Italy, regions associated with the shroud's documented movement through Europe in later centuries. 

Dr Jeremiah Johnston, who earned his PhD at Oxford, told the Daily Mail he was long conditioned to view the relic as a medieval forgery, but after doing his own researchers is now a believer it is the burial cloth of Jesus

Some researchers argue this distribution supports the idea that the cloth traveled from the Middle East to Western Europe over time.

A more recent study in 1999 by botanist Avinoam Danin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reanalyzed the pollen samples and identified a high density of pollen from the thistle Gundelia tournefortii.

This species has bloomed in Israel between March and May for thousands of years, aligning with the spring Passover season described in the Bible.

Danin also reported evidence of another plant, Zygophyllum dumosum, appearing in floral images visible on the shroud. This species is native to the region and known for its distinctive paired leaflets.

According to Danin, Gundelia tournefortii and Zygophyllum dumosum coexist in a geographically limited area defined by lines connecting Jerusalem and Hebron in Israel with Madaba and Karak in modern-day Jordan.

The identification of a third species, Cistus creticus, through pollen and floral image analysis further narrowed the possible location.

'This combination of flowers can be found in only one region of the world,' Danin stated. 'The evidence clearly points to a floral grouping from the area surrounding Jerusalem.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

Chinese satellite with robotic 'octopus arm' passes key refueling test in orbit — making longer-lived space assets more likely

China's Hukeda-2 satellite has passed a major refueling test after its experimental robotic arm successfully docked with a target port elsewhere on the spacecraft.

(Image credit: CCTV handout)

A Chinese satellite equipped with a robotic "octopus arm" has passed a key refueling test in low Earth orbit (LEO), according to state-run media. The achievement highlights China's continued leadership with this particular technology, which NASA has not yet caught up with.

The experimental spacecraft will eventually deploy a giant balloon in LEO, which could help solve another important issue surrounding satellite "megaconstellations" like SpaceX's Starlink network.

The satellite, dubbed Hukeda-2 (also known as Yuxing-3 06 within China), launched March 16 aboard the Kuaizhou-11 rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, according to the website of Jonathan McDowell, a now-retired astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who has been tracking the movements of Earth-orbiting spacecraft for more than two decades. It was one of eight satellites deployed during this mission, and it is now orbiting Earth at an altitude of around 335 miles (540 kilometers).

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Hukeda-2 is a demonstration satellite intended to test new technologies in LEO. Its most notable attachment is an octopus-like robotic arm that "can curl, twist and wrap around objects to work in tight, complex spaces, with a nozzle-like tip at one end designed to line up and connect with a target port," according to the South China Morning Post.

The arm is made of a series of spring-like tubes threaded with cables attached to a motor, allowing it to bend in almost any direction and make the small adjustments needed to dock with another satellite while both spacecraft are traveling at speeds of around 16,800 mph (27,000 km/h).

On March 24, Chinese state media reported that Hukeda-2's robotic arm had successfully completed its first refueling test. It was initially unclear if this test involved another satellite. However, photos have since confirmed that the robotic arm instead docked with a target port located on Hukeda-2 itself.

This is the biggest milestone for satellite refueling since June 2025, when China's Shijian-25 satellite successfully connected to and refueled the Shijian-21 satellite, which had previously run out of fuel. This encounter occurred in a higher, geosynchronous orbit, around 22,000 miles (33,500 km) above Earth's surface, and was the first confirmed case of satellite-to-satellite refueling, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.

Refuel, reuse, recycle

When satellites run out of fuel, they can no longer maintain their altitude and are slowly pulled back toward Earth, before eventually burning up in the upper atmosphere. By refueling them, operators can keep the same spacecraft in orbit much longer, thus making them more cost-effective and sustainable, reducing the need to launch replacements. This has been a big aim for NASA and Western companies for several years, but has remained out of reach so far.

China will likely attempt to use similar refueling spacecraft to service its rapidly expanding Qianfan, or "Thousand Sails," constellation, which launched its first batch of satellites in 2024 and is set to rival Starlink in the coming years. (There are currently about 108 active Qianfan satellites in orbit, with plans to deploy 15,000 by 2030.)

SpaceX, on the other hand, does not appear interested in sustaining its active satellites. Instead, the company favors repeated launches of new spacecraft with its reusable Falcon 9 rocket to keep costs down.

Orbiting satellites could start crashing into one another in less than 3 days, theoretical new 'CRASH Clock' reveals

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Another issue with expanding constellations is that the number of dead spacecraft waiting to fall back to Earth is rising fast and taking up valuable space that could be occupied by new satellites. In an attempt to fix this, Hukeda-2 will deploy an 8-foot-wide (2.5 meters) balloon at the end of its mission, which will increase atmospheric drag and speed up its return to Earth.

If this works, future Chinese satellites could be deployed with similar devices that allow them to fall back to Earth without initiating a final deorbiting burn. However, it is unclear when Hukeda-2 will deploy its test balloon.

Although quick deorbiting of satellites is prudent, it is unlikely to fix the greater issue of overcrowding that is expected to occur in LEO in the coming decades, especially if SpaceX's controversial plan to launch 1 million orbital data centers comes to fruition.

Recent research has also revealed that satellite reentries release high levels of metal pollution in the upper atmosphere, which is likely triggering issues we are still not fully aware of.

"What goes up must come down," University of Regina astronomer and vocal megaconstellation critic Samantha Lawler recently wrote for Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration }

Chilling new details have emerged surrounding the disappearance of a retired Air Force general tied to UFO secrets and a string of missing or dead US scientists. 

A 911 call has been released, capturing a police dispatcher speaking with the wife of William Neil McCasland, 68, who vanished without a trace on February 27.

Susan Wilkerson is heard telling authorities that she believed the former general 'had planned not to be found' after finding her husband's phone and other personal items still inside their New Mexico home.

'He's left his phone. He changed his clothes into... I don't know what. I think he's on foot. All of our cars and bicycles are in the garage,' Wilkerson said approximately three hours after McCasland disappeared.

'He turned it off and left it behind, which seems kind of deliberate because he's always got his phone. He has a smartwatch. I don't know if that's with him or not,' Wilkerson continued in audio obtained by the Law&Crime Network.

After the 911 call, Wilkerson later claimed that 'foul play' was not suspected in the general's disappearance, but noted that McCasland left home with only a pair of boots and his .38-caliber revolver.

The retired Air Force officer, reportedly tied to both nuclear and UFO-related government programs, did not take any of his wearable devices or his prescription glasses, leaving behind any way of tracing or contacting him.

While Wilkerson pushed back on the possibility that her husband may have intended to harm himself, she revealed to 911 that he had been seeing a doctor for both physical and mental irregularities before he disappeared.

William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen around 11am Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said

The sheriff's office has issued a Silver Alert, a public notification system used in the US to locate missing seniors or individuals with Alzheimer's, dementia or other mental disabilities

When asked by the dispatcher if McCasland had been diagnosed with any type of mental disorder before vanishing, the general's wife disclosed that he had been dealing with anxiety and short-term memory loss recently.

Wilkerson also told 911 the 68-year-old military veteran had been struggling with a lack of sleep, and then revealed McCasland feared his brain was 'deteriorating.'

The dispatcher can be heard asking Wilkerson if her husband kept any guns in the home and if any of them were missing.

She replied that McCasland has a gun safe, adding that 'he has quite a number of pistols and rifles,' not knowing at the time that one of the handguns had been taken.

Wilkerson then addressed the missing general's recent comments to her about his health, saying that she did not believe he was seriously considering ending his life.

'Other than saying if his brain body keeps deteriorating, he didn't want to live like that. But it seemed to me that was just a "man, I hate how this is going" kind of thing,' Wilkerson said in the 911 recording revealed on Law&Crime's Sidebar with Jesse Weber.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office issued a Silver Alert for McCasland, typically used to find a missing senior citizen who potentially has Alzheimer's disease, dementia or another mental disability.

However, there have been no breaks in the case since that time, and no trace of the missing general since he was last seen near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque around 11am local time.

McCasland's disappearance was the most recent in a potentially sinister pattern dating back to mid-2025. 

The retired general had been in command of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, a facility tied to UFO conspiracy theories for decades.

According to UFO researchers and former government scientists, Wright-Patterson is the base where debris from the alien spacecraft that allegedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico was taken for analysis.

On Monday, Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett told WABC radio in New York that McCasland was the key figure in America's secret research into UFO and extraterrestrial technology.

Burchett said: 'He's the guy that had a lot of nuclear secrets. I've been told by several sources that he was the gatekeeper for the UFO stuff.' 

McCasland was also previously stationed at New Mexico's Kirtland Air Force Base, which has close ties to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) - one of America's most important nuclear research facilities.

In 2025, three other people connected to AFRL and LANL vanished without a trace in almost the exact same manner as McCasland.

This includes NASA aerospace engineer Monica Jacinto Reza, 60, who was directly under McCasland's supervision while she was working on the creation of a new metal for advanced missile and rocket engines.

Reza has not been seen since June 22, 2025, when she disappeared while on a hiking trip in California with two friends.

Monica Reza (Pictured) had worked on the creation of advanced rocket technology before becoming a director at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

McCasland was previously stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Pictured), suspected of being a research facility for UFO technology

Two employees from Los Alamos National Laboratory also went missing around the same time as Reza last year.

Anthony Chavez, 79, a former employee at LANL until his retirement in 2017, vanished without a trace on May 4, 2025. He was last seen leaving his home in the Denver Steels neighborhood of Los Alamos on foot.

The longtime LANL employee left his car locked in the driveway and did not take his wallet, keys or other personal items, which were all found inside Chavez's home.

Just seven weeks later, administrative assistant Melissa Casias, 54, vanished after not reporting for work at the nuclear lab on June 26, 2025.

Her family said she uncharacteristically decided to work from home that day, but was last spotted miles from their house walking alone without her wallet, phone or keys.

Chris Swecker, a former FBI assistant director, called the disappearances concerning and told the Daily Mail these cases needed to be investigated as if all of them were connected.

'The first thing you go to is it's potential espionage,' Swecker said. 'Our scientists have been targeted for a long time, especially in the rocket propulsion area, by hostile foreign intelligence services.'

'[Foreign adversaries] target individuals and try to compromise them or bribe them. So there's a whole lot of different ways that espionage occurs,' the counterintelligence expert added.

'People who are touching on technology areas that hostile foreign intelligence services want to get their hands on... This is the type of investigation that the FBI has to take over, or at least work jointly, and look for potential connections to a hostile foreign intelligence service.' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

Something sinister is unfolding, something is going on: In a span of just nine months, nine high-level scientists and personnel in the United States have reportedly died or vanished under unusual circumstances: 

Many of these scientists were connected to highly classified programs, and working on cutting-edge materials science including advanced plasma systems and the reverse engineering of exotic weaponry believed, by some, to originate from crashed UFOs. 

1. William Neil McCasland — A former U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who held several high-ranking positions in military science and technology programs, advanced weapons development and classified aerospace programs. He had oversight of deeply classified programs, possibly including investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). (Although retired it is believed that he still was working behind the scenes) — Missing. (Just three days after President Trump ordered to open all UFO files.) 
2. Monica Jacinto Reza — Aerospace engineer and Technical Fellow at Aerojet Rocketdyne, later associated with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory — Missing. 
3. Melissa Casias — Administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory — Missing. 
4. Jacob Prichard — Acquisition Project Manager at the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate — Reported suicide. 
5. Jaymee Prichard — Finance specialist at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center — Killed. 
6. Jaime Gustitus — Operations Analysis Officer with the United States Air Force, working within the 711th Human Performance Wing — Killed. 
7. Carl Grillmair — Astrophysicist at the Caltech Infrared Processing and Analysis Center — Killed. 
8. Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro — Plasma physicist — Killed. 
9. Jason Thomas — Chemical biologist — Found dead. 

According to sources,they had been studying and attempting to reverse-engineer these technologies for years. So why, all of a sudden, have so many of them disappeared or killed, the past nine months. 

This is no coincidence. As has happened time and again, when individuals get too close to the (ufo/alien) truth, they suddenly vanish, suffer fatal “accidents,” or are silenced altogether. 

There appears to be a deeper connection, one tied to classified research on UFO technologies that challenge our current understanding of physics. Although the UFO phenomenon has become far more visible and difficult to dismiss in recent years, there are still powerful organizations operating behind the scenes, doing everything they can to keep these discoveries, all made possible through recovered alien technology, hidden from the public.

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{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

Archive video of extraterrestrial beings.

Current science claims that myths and legends are invented. They have been invented by people trying to explain natural phenomena. There is very much of them, and no nation is without them. – But remember that many do not relate to explanations of natural phenomena!

They usually include a record of encounters with higher beings. -This either helps people in a faraway situation, or they represent our creators and teachers. -They bring “new learning” and want to “tell us something.” -Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Indian and other myths are proof.

A few people said, “What if it’s not invented, but it’s alien visits?” -Smartfully “supernormal” abilities would then be expressions of using their technically superior means. Creating the first people by experimenting with their genetic science. They tried to occupy the planet Earth, which they had previously seen in the universe. -Zecharia Sitchin writes about Annunakoch from Sumerian beauties and Erich von Däniken about flying machines from wall paintings of Indians and Egyptians.

They also do not forget to mention Ezekiel with his vision in the first chapter, in which they see the description of UFOs. -Which reads the original of the vision or the myth knows that they have no description of the technically advanced civilization of the cosmos.

You need a clever promoter to make them “find” in them. -She can do everything! -It only have the belief that the aliens have visited the Earth in the past. I know about people who have similar experiences today and they are neither invented nor invented by visitors of the cosmos.

{ https://ufosecret.net/ }

EXCLUSIVE - Scientists are vanishing or turning up dead. Now ex-FBI boss reveals chilling plot likely unfolding... and who he fears is behind it

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

As the string of mysterious disappearances and deaths among America’s scientists grows, a former FBI boss believes a sinister plot against the US could be unfolding.

Chris Swecker, who was the assistant director in charge of the bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division during his 24-year career, told the Daily Mail that foreign powers could be targeting citizens who have knowledge of US national security secrets.

’The first thing you go to is it’s potential espionage,’ he said. ’Our scientists have been targeted for a long time, especially in the rocket propulsion area, by hostile foreign intelligence services.’

A disturbing pattern has been developing after a former Air Force general, a top NASA scientist and two employees from one of the country’s major nuclear research labs all vanished without a trace in the span of just ten months.

The long-time FBI agent warned that, if these disappearances are connected, several foreign powers may be responsible for abducting, blackmailing, torturing and even killing key individuals to gain America’s national security secrets.

’China, Russia, even some of our friends – Pakistan, India, Iran, North Korea - they target this type of technology,’ Swecker disclosed.

Swecker warned that enemy intelligence agencies have been attempting to derail top-secret US programs for decades, using one of two main methods: finding ways to steal the information from the US or killing those who know about the programs.

’It’s been happening since the Cold War,’ he added. ’Especially when nuclear technology and missile technology was first coming to the forefront.

Chris Swecker was a member of the FBI for 24 years. The counterintelligence expert warned that the disappearance of multiple people tied to national security fields was alarming

’I think we’ve even seen instances where nuclear scientists have been taken out. They've been assassinated.’

When it comes to the first espionage tactic that may be unfolding, Swecker called the four disappearances in the US Southwest extremely ’suspicious’.

’If you were conjuring up a scenario here, kidnapping and trying to extract information out of someone is not unheard of,’ he told the Daily Mail.

The FBI veteran focused on the cases of retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland and aerospace engineer Monica Jacinto Reza, who were closely connected through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

McCasland, 68 – who disappeared on February 27 after leaving his New Mexico home with only a .38-caliber revolver and no phone – supervised research projects at AFRL and allegedly knows both nuclear and UFO-related military secrets.

Reza, 60, was the first scientist to disappear in this alleged conspiracy on June 22, 2025. She vanished without a trace while hiking with two friends in California's Angeles National Forest.

She was the director of the Materials Processing Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and previously invented Mondaloy, a space-age metal used in advanced missile and rocket engines, which McCasland oversaw the funding for at AFRL.

The third missing person, 54-year-old Melissa Casias, was last seen by her husband and daughter on June 26, 2025. She worked as an administrative assistant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which Swecker said means she likely had high-level clearance to the same sensitive nuclear information her superiors possessed. 

’[Foreign adversaries] target individuals and try to compromise them or bribe them. So there’s a whole lot of different ways that espionage occurs,’ Swecker said.

William Neil McCasland, 68, and Monica Reza, 60, were connected through the Air Force Research Laboratory and projects involving advanced missile and rocket technology

Melissa Casias worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility with ties to Kirtland Air Force Base, where General McCasland was previously stationed

Another former Los Alamos lab employee, Anthony Chavez, vanished without a trace in May 2025.

Police told the Daily Mail that Chavez, 79, had retired in 2017. However, the lab worker disappeared in nearly the same exact way as Casias, walking out of his home and leaving behind his car, phone, wallet and keys.

LANL has not commented on the nature of Chavez's work and duties at the nuclear laboratory.

Along with the four Americans still missing, four other scientists have died since July 2024, including two prominent researchers who were murdered in their own homes.

Physicist Nuno Loureiro, astrophysicist Carl Grillmair and pharmaceutical researcher Jason Thomas were all found dead.

Loureiro was a key scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was reportedly on the brink of revolutionizing the energy sector using nuclear fusion before being shot to death in his Massachusetts home on December 15, 2025.

Anthony Chavez (pictured) was an employee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory until 2017. He disappeared without a trace in May 2025

Authorities said the gunman was Claudio Neves Valente, a former classmate of Loureiro’s in Portugal, who was also accused of carrying out the mass shooting at Brown University on December 13.

Grillmair, 67, had worked on infrared space telescopes that use the same technology as military systems for tracking satellites and hypersonic missiles. He was fatally shot while standing on his front porch in California on February 16.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department named Freddy Snyder, 29, as a person of interest in Grillmair’s homicide case and later charged the man with murder, carjacking and burglary.

However, police did not release a motive in the alleged homicide and it was unclear if the two men knew one another or whether the shooting was targeted.

Scientists Nuno Loureiro (left) and Carl Grillmair (right) were both murdered in their own homes after making significant progress in the fields of nuclear fusion and astrophysics

Thomas’s remains were found in a Wakefield, Massachusetts, lake on March 17 – three months after the drug researcher vanished without a trace. Local police are still investigating the cause of death.

In both killings, police claimed the gunmen acted alone and have not announced any ties to foreign espionage. Investigators in the Thomas death said no foul play has been found.

Meanwhile, the circumstances surrounding the death of respected NASA scientist Frank Maiwald, who died on July 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, have not been revealed to the public or commented on by the space agency. Authorities have no record of an autopsy ever taking place. 

Frank Maiwald (pictured) was a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before his death in 2024. His cause of death has not been revealed and NASA has not commented on the loss

Maiwald, 61, had been a Technical Group Supervisor at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and had been the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds.

’This has to be fully investigated by the FBI, not three different local police departments,’ Swecker told the Daily Mail, urging his former agency to treat the cases as a possible conspiracy and spy operation.

’People who are touching on technology areas that hostile foreign intelligence services want to get their hands on... This is the type of investigation that the FBI has to take over, or at least work jointly, and look for potential connections to a hostile foreign intelligence service.’

As for the likeliest suspects that would be engaging in an espionage plot on US soil, the former FBI assistant director looked at America’s adversaries in Asia and the current conflict in the Middle East.

’It’s an ongoing thing in the world of espionage between countries that are essentially hostile to each other,’ Swecker said.

’China, especially, is prolific in its quest to steal technology,’ he claimed. ’They’re not good innovators. They don’t have the scientists that we have, and they don’t have the environment for innovation. And they’re very quick to steal technology.

’North Korea and Iran are always looking for it, but they’re more susceptible to being identified and countermeasures applied against them.

’I’m not saying that’s what’s happening with these [cases]. But I’m saying if you look at the mosaic of what has gone on since the Cold War, there is a constant battle of espionage and counter-espionage.

’The CIA are our spies, and the FBI are our spy catchers. This has to be a proactive investigation by the FBI.’

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/index.html }

NASA's Artemis II crew say they received a terrifying warning message as their spacecraft passed the 'point of no return' on its trip to the moon.

The Orion capsule, containing astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, is finally on its way to the moon after carrying out a 'translunar injection burn'.

This engine burn is a key manoeuvre that nudges the spacecraft out of Earth's orbit and on its trajectory towards our lunar neighbour.

But 20 minutes after the burn the team received a terrifying 'cabin leak' emergency message.

'We did get a warning message for "cabin leak suspected",' astronaut Hansen said in the crew's first live interview from space.

'This grabs your attention because… you go right from doing this burn and you're heading to the moon to thinking, "Are we going to have to cancel this burn, start getting into our spacesuits and figuring out how to get home in a day or less?"'

A cabin leak is a serious issue, as it could compromise the structure of the spacecraft and potentially expose the crew to the vacuum of space.

Luckily, investigations revealed the message was just an anomaly – and on-board cabin pressure was unaffected.

The view from the spacecraft as it carried out the translunar injection burn, nudging the Orion capsule towards the moon 

'Houston helped us out – they confirmed they were seeing good cabin pressure and so were we on-board,' Hansen said. 'We did the burn and now we're heading to the moon and feeling good.'

The launch on Wednesday evening marked the start of a mammoth 685,000-mile (1.1million km) trip around the dark side of the lunar surface.

It is the first time in more than 50 years that humans have set off towards the moon.

In the first 24 hours of its journey, the Orion spacecraft orbited Earth while the crew carried out safety checks and got some sleep.

'The Orion spacecraft recently ignited its main engine on the service module for about six minutes to provide about 6,000 pounds of thrust,' NASA wrote on X.

'Next stop: lunar flyby.'

Now that its main engines have fired, the capsule is being propelled to the moon.

On flight day six, Orion will reach its farthermost point from Earth as it sails 6,400 miles (10,299km) beyond the lunar surface.

The astronauts give their first live interview from space, making heart shapes with their hands towards the camera

NASA's mission control confirmed they were seeing good cabin pressure following an emergency 'cabin leak' message

That will surpass Apollo 13's distance record, which would make the Artemis II astronauts the most remote travellers.

'There is nothing normal about this,' mission commander Wiseman said in the interview.

'Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort and we are now only just realising the gravity of that.'

The team also revealed they had experienced some issues with the cabin being cold.

'We're wishing we had the lower temperature sleeping bags with us,' Glover said.

'Houston's been working with us to change fan speeds and temperature set points and we've actually been able to warm it up a lot better in the last half day or so.'

The crew also said they have had their first meal together in space – and described their 'comical' sleeping arrangements.

'Victor has got a nice little nook, Jeremy has been stretched out on seat one and I've been sleeping under the displays just in case anything goes wrong,' Reid said.

NASA shared this picture taken from the Orion spacecraft, with the caption: 'Earth peeks through the capsule window, reminding us that a view like this relies on the ingenuity and hard work of countless people back home'

'Christina has been sleeping head-down in the middle of the vehicle, kind of like a bat, suspended from our docking tunnel.' 

The team also described their surprise at even taking off.

'Probably one of the things that surprised all of us was when those solid rocket boosters actually lit and we left the pad,' Hansen said. 'It was just a moment of disbelief – the fact that we launched, it just totally takes you by surprise even though you're expecting it.'

After looping around the moon the Orion craft will begin its journey back to Earth.

It will take another four days to return, which the astronauts will fill by conducting key safety demonstrations, including testing procedures designed to shield the crew against dangerous radiation from solar flares.

As Orion approaches Earth, it will separate key components before plunging into the ⁠atmosphere ​at speeds of about 25,000mph (40,233kph).

The spacecraft is expected to splash down ​in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew.

The voyage aims to pave the way for a moon landing in 2028 which, if successful, will be the first time humans have set foot on the moon since December 1972.

Another picture taken from Orion. NASA said: 'We see our home planet as a whole, lit up in spectacular blues and browns. A green aurora even lights up the atmosphere in the north'

The Artemis II mission's Orion capsule leaves Earth, backlit by the sun as a crescent, on its way to fly by the moon

The moment space fans waited more than 50 years for as NASA launched its Artemis II mission to the moon on Wednesday evening

Part of what makes Artemis II riskier than NASA's standard missions is that it is testing relatively new technology.

Compared to a spacecraft such as the SpaceX Crew Dragon, which has been used dozens of times, the Orion spacecraft has only been used once, during Artemis I.

'Orion's life support and deep-space systems have never been flown with a crew before,' explained Chris Bosquillon, co-chair of the Moon Village Association's working group for Disruptive Technology & Lunar Governance.

This creates a risk that one of the critical systems might fail once Orion has already left the atmosphere.

If something had gone wrong during the first day, while Orion was still in low-Earth orbit, the crew could simply have fired the engines to make an early return to Earth.

But if part of the engines or life support system fail once the trip to the moon had begun, things would be much more complicated.

The absolute worst-case scenario would involve multiple systems failing, including the propulsion system, leaving Orion unable to alter its course.

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