US AIR Force tanker aircraft are lined up at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv.—Reuters • CSIS report terms current convergence of US military hardware largest since 2003 Iraq war, but smaller than 1991’s ‘Desert Storm’ • Ahead of Geneva talks, Iran says it is ready to take any steps towards a nuclear deal WASHINGTON: As the world’s largest aircraft carrier sails to join a massive military build-up in the Middle East, a new study reveals that the deployment looks to be structured for “li...

Cuba is grappling with a severe crisis marked by the collapse of its crucial tourism sector and escalating energy and fuel shortages, leaving Havana feeling deserted.

Police in Thessaloniki arrested a 40-year-old man who was a fugitive and deserter, with two outstanding court decisions sentencing him to 8.5 years in prison for drug-related offenses.

Pokémon Deserted is a fangame that has some serious Zelda vibes, so fans of either series should be pleasantly surprised by what it has to offer.

A married woman was allegedly gangraped at gunpoint in Rudrapur by three armed men while returning from a fair. The attackers, known to her brother-in-law, forced them to a deserted area, committed the assault, and recorded a video. The survivor filed a complaint, and police are investigating.

Sony Tried To Lock Up ‘Crimson Desert’ As A Timed PlayStation Exclusive  Forbes

Qatar has opened its first air-conditioned outdoor forest, allowing visitors to experience comfortable 22-degree Celsius temperatures in a desert country where summer heat often exceeds 40 degrees.

South Korea experienced severe air pollution on Sunday due to dust from the Gobi Desert, prompting authorities to issue smog warnings and advise residents to stay indoors and wear masks.

The Dixie high school girls basketball team secured a win against Desert Hills in a hard-fought 4A semifinal game.

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's latest film, 'Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars,' is reviewed as a slow-burn blend of African folklore and teen horror, set against a striking desert backdrop.

Frank Sinatra's secret Yucca Valley party house was "all sex, all the time" according to his former valet. New details reveal wild Rat Pack gatherings.

A forum discussion is prompted to explore whether delivery and assembly services are experiencing a decline in quality, leading to a 'service desert' for consumers.

A California man faces a murder charge after police confirmed a decomposing leg found in the desert belonged to T’Neya Tovar, a 17-year-old who had been missing since December 2025.

(ANSA) - OSLO, 18 FEB - The "Looking Beyond" photo exhibition was inaugurated today at the University of Bergen (UiB) by the Italian Ambassador to Norway, Stefano Nicoletti, the Vice Rector of UiB Sigrunn Eliassen, and the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology Gunn Mangerud, in the presence of professors, researchers, and students from the university—Norway's third largest academic center—as well as members of the local Italian community. The exhibition, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and produced in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Telespazio/e Geos, was organized in Bergen by the Italian Embassy in Oslo and Dr. Andrea Magugliani, Honorary Vice Consul in Bergen, with the support of Vår Energi of the ENI group. Bergen is the third Norwegian stop for 'Looking Beyond', which has already been successfully hosted at the Science Museum (Vitenfabrikken) in Sandnes, near Stavanger, and at the Arctic University of Tromsø, where it was greatly appreciated by the public and teachers alike. The aim of the exhibition, consisting of 25 stunning high-resolution satellite images acquired by the COSMO-SkyMed constellation and sourced from the archives of Telespazio/e-Geos and ASI, is to stimulate reflection on the impact of human activities on the environment and the role of satellite technology in addressing global challenges such as deforestation, desertification, and pollution. But that's not all: divided into six thematic sections—agriculture, water, urban centers, climate change, natural disasters, and deforestation—Looking Beyond also aims to showcase the beauty of Earth as seen from space through spectacular images of glaciers, lava flows, megacities, cultivated fields, and waterways from different areas of the world. Italian Earth observation technology, in particular through the COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation, plays a fundamental role in environmental monitoring and risk management. The satellites support early warning systems for landslides and floods, the coordination of relief efforts in the event of natural disasters, and the monitoring of crisis areas. In Norway, COSMO-SkyMed data is used thanks to a collaboration agreement between e-Geos and Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT). In his speech at the inauguration, Ambassador Nicoletti highlighted how "Italian Earth observation technology, developed by ASI and Telespazio, is now widely used in crucial sectors, and the COSMO-SkyMed constellation also supports monitoring activities in Norway, thanks to collaboration with local partners. We are very pleased to have been able to inaugurate a third stage of 'Looking Beyond' in Norway, which confirms the great attention and sensitivity of local institutions and the public towards issues such as scientific research and environmental protection." On the sidelines of the inauguration, Ambassador Nicoletti visited some of the university's leading research centers in the fields of aquaculture and marine biology and met with a group of Italian professors and researchers residing in Bergen. During the meeting, the Ambassador pointed out that "the more than 80 Italian scholars working in Bergen today represent one of the largest communities of researchers from our country in Norway, which now numbers almost 680 people. The social events we organize every year, such as Italian Research Day in the World or the Scienza Senza Confini (Science Without Borders) project by Comites in Oslo, are important opportunities for dialogue that aim to raise the level of interaction within the community of Italian researchers in Norway, who in turn represent an invaluable resource for promoting bilateral scientific and technological relations." Read article...

A debate has sparked among gamers about whether the highly anticipated 'open-world action-adventure' game Crimson Desert should be classified as an RPG, even before its release.

Nebraska concluded the MLB Desert Invitational against Stanford. After a rough six-run first inning, the Huskers fell to the Cardinal 11-6.

Eight wrestlers from the High Desert region captured individual titles at the CIF-SS Individual Championships, with many advancing to further competitions.

An analysis delves into the Soviet Union's internal views and reactions as it observed Operation Desert Storm unfold.

Scientists in China have developed a method that uses lab-grown microbes to stabilize shifting desert sand, transforming it into fertile soil within just 10 months. The microbes create a thin, durable 'crust' that prevents erosion.

Salah Drought Raises Questions: Numbers Paint Stark PictureThere are days when a striker looks like a poet with a football at his feet, and there are days when even poetry deserts him. For Mohamed Sal

Despite requests from the sheriff's office to cease independent efforts, volunteers are continuing to search the desert for missing person Nancy Guthrie.

Rachel McAdams stars as an office worker who gets stranded on a desert island with her boss

The remains of a new type of water dinosaur have been discovered in the Sahara desert, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest coast.

The British newspaper The Telegraph has included Kazakhstan's Bozzhyra Tract in the Mangystau Region in its list of the '10 deserts you must visit in your lifetime'.

AlUla, a desert oasis in Saudi Arabia, is hosting installation art and aims to establish itself as a major center for art and culture.

A photo gallery showcases images of 'Wings Over the Desert,' likely featuring aerial views or desert wildlife.

The all-female sound team behind Spain's Oscar entry 'Sirāt' made history with their nomination, capturing desert ambiance through wind, engines, and tires.

Since 1983, wrestlers from six High Desert high schools have claimed a championship at the CIF-SS Masters. Here's a full list of those 20 champions.

Meet The Young Founders And Superstars Building In The Silicon Desert  Forbes

Qatar is experiencing a significant shift in global culture, establishing itself as a new center of gravity for art in the desert region.

Silver Valley High School's Auto Career Technical Education Program achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first high school auto team to compete at King of the Hammers.

A review praises Oliver Laxe’s Oscar-nominated film ‘Sirāt’ for its intense and mesmerizing portrayal of a desert rave.

‘The Peugeot 103 is iconic in Morocco: a symbol of social mobility. But my rider, a living sculpture, is so overstimulated he can’t choose which way to go – and ends up going nowhere’ This image, Parabomobile, shows a living sculpture I created. A man is riding through the desert on a road near Marrakech that is still partly under construction. He rides a Peugeot 103 motorcycle and carries 21 satellite dishes – each pointing in a different direction. But the person driving the motorbike is so overstimulated, he cannot choose which way to go – and ends up going nowhere. It is part of a wider multidisciplinary project, Paraboles, that is an inquiry into Moroccan people’s identity, our imagination and the way we see the world. It can feel to Moroccans – and those in other postcolonial countries – that their minds have been colonised as well as their land. Continue reading...

Greece is transforming its mountain ranges, desert islands, and forgotten valleys into global astrotourism destinations, leveraging the unique tool of the night sky.

Thirteen athletes from across the High Desert are in the running for the Daily Press High School Athlete of the Week. Who are you voting for?

Ancient rock art depicting hunters and geometric shapes, spanning a period of 10,000 years, has been discovered in Egypt's Sinai Desert.

Details emerge about Frank Sinatra's hidden California desert hangout, described as a place of constant revelry.

UTA has added British actor Lox Pratt to its roster, representing him across all areas. Pratt recently gained attention for his role as Jack Merridew in Jack Thorne’s four-part television series “Lord of the Flies,” the first-ever television adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel. The series follows a group of boys stranded on a deserted […]

A newly discovered 95-million-year-old fossil, resembling a 'dragon' with a massive skull, has been found in the Sahara Desert, captivating the scientific community.

Charred vehicles cluttered deserted streets as residents started to emerge from their homes in Guadalajara, which was hit hard by violence after the death of a cartel leader.

Andreas Berg is celebrating his 40th birthday in Manhattan amidst a snowstorm, describing the city as closed, deserted, and eerily quiet.

A recipe from Zagreb's Amelie patisserie offers a quick and easy crumble dessert, combining warm, juicy fruit with a crispy, buttery topping.

Volunteers searching for Nancy Guthrie, who went missing, discovered a black backpack just two miles from her residence in the desert near Tucson, providing a potential clue in her disappearance.

Syrian authorities have announced the closure of the notorious al-Hol detention camp, which held ISIS prisoners, after evacuating its occupants.

Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to play a couple of Cactus League games for the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers before he departs the desert to join Japan for the World Baseball Classic. “Sometimes he takes two and he feels good or he wants that third at-bat,” manager Dave Roberts said. When asked about Ohtani's travel plans, Roberts smiled and said, “I promised I'd try.”

Venus Williams is getting a wild card into the singles and doubles draws for the BNP Paribas Open next month in the Southern California desert. The 45-year-old will be making her first appearance in the tournament since 2024, when she lost in the first round as a wild card. “It’s an honor to award the first wild card of this year’s event to Venus Williams,” tournament director Tommy Haas said Friday.

The #6 Huskers Softball team is traveling to the California Desert for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, where they will face two more top-10 SEC teams.

Russia is reportedly losing more men than it can recruit, with poorly trained soldiers, low morale, and high desertion rates, suggesting that while Putin cannot win the war, he fears peace.

A review of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's latest film, 'Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars,' describes it as a desert parable that ultimately falters.

How A Water War Is Brewing Over A Drying Lake In Nevada Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times, A Nevada lawsuit trickling toward trial could determine how the nation’s most arid state balances the legal rights of upstream landowners to divert water from rivers for agricultural irrigation with the impacts those withdrawals have on downstream ecologies and economies. Water rights exceed water supply across much of the western United States. With many watersheds failing to deliver enough water for local needs, the suit is being watched by attorneys, state water managers, and federal agencies. It could potentially set a precedent in revising how states across the West regulate access to water. The Nevada case, filed by the Walker River Paiute Tribe and Mineral County, may also present an opportunity for a win-win solution, in which nonprofits and government entities purchase private water rights from willing upstream sellers and dedicate them to downstream public benefit. Without public-private intervention and the changes in state water law that the suit seeks, geologists and environmental experts agree the future is bleak for Walker Lake, a 13-mile long terminal lake about 75 miles southeast of Reno near the California state line in rural, sparsely populated Mineral County. The lake is completely dependent on diminishing Sierra Nevada snowmelt runoff into the Walker River—runoff that, for decades now, has been almost entirely diverted for irrigation by upstream farmers and ranchers. As a result, a desert oasis that once generated more than half of Mineral County’s economic activity through recreational pursuits such as fishing, migratory bird-watching, boating, and camping is now a lifeless “sludge pond,” while the town of Walker Lake faces an accelerating prospect of extinction. “The last fish was caught in 2013 or 2015, I believe. When the fish died, the fishing died; boating, recreation, that all just disappeared,” Mineral County Commissioner Tony Ruse said. “There were restaurants here. There were hotels here. There were businesses here. Now? All gone, just 300 residents struggling.” A Mineral County native, Ruse returned in 2020 after working 34 years as a Switzerland-trained chef in Europe and Asia, including 20 years in South Korea, to open The Big Horn Crossing, a restaurant and convenience store in a shuttered bait shop. It’s now Walker Lake’s only remaining retail business. “It was dead. There was nothing,” he told The Epoch Times. “We should be selling bait here. We should be selling fishing supplies. There should be boats parked in our driveway right now.” (Top) Mineral County Commissioner Tony Ruse fields a phone call at The Big Horn Crossing, a restaurant and convenience store that is the only remaining retail business in Walker Lake, Nev., in January 2026. (Bottom) Walker Lake, a town of fewer than 400 people, is anchored on the slopes of Mount Grant, but no longer supports a fishery, boat races, or the waterfront restaurants and hotels that once made it a desert oasis for tourists, anglers, and campers, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. John Haughey/The Epoch Times Marlene Bunch and her husband Glenn lead the Walker Lake Working Group, created in 1991 to ensure water reaches the lake to sustain its recreational economy. “Upstream diversions have been our nemesis, and that’s what our legal case is for,” Bunch, a former Mineral County clerk and treasurer, told The Epoch Times. Bunch.has lived in Walker Lake since the 1960s. She recalls a 1991 discussion with Nevada Department of Wildlife fisheries biologist Mike Sevon about what would happen if water levels continued to drop. Diminishing Returns Walker Lake retains water flowing east 100 miles from California’s Bridgeport and Topaz reservoirs through Nevada’s Smith and Mason valleys and the Walker River Paiute Tribe’s reservation. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, its water levels have declined more than 160 feet since 1882. Nearly 30 miles long in 1850, the lake is only 12 miles long today. The runoff provided hydrological pressure that sustained area water wells, especially in Walker Lake, where Ruse said residents are seeing “very brackish” water coming from taps, a potential death knell for the town. “It’s getting harder and harder to keep the federal standards for potable water,” he said. “So there’s going to be a day—and I’m waiting for the call—that we need to put a reverse-osmosis system in, which we couldn’t afford to do.” Walker Lake and nearby Hawthorne, the Mineral County seat, struggle in the desert—Hawthorne has seen its population decline 60 percent from 10,000 in 1980 to just over 3,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, agriculture in the Smith and Mason valleys has thrived. (Top) Walker Lake has receded well beyond the sign on U.S. Route 95, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. Decades ago, anglers could shorecast for fish that can no longer survive in the shrinking lake. (Bottom) Nevada’s Walker Lake, a 13-mile-long lake about 75 miles southeast of Reno near the California state line in rural Mineral County, was once more than 30 miles long and 160 feet higher than it is now, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. John Haughey/The Epoch Times But with mountain runoff unreliable for decades now, when upstream users divert their share, little to no water makes it to Walker Lake, leaving once-bustling waterfront businesses marooned as hulking shells far from a distant, receding shore. The case, United States and Walker River Paiute Tribe v. Walker River Irrigation District, is not a new case, but ongoing litigation arising from a lawsuit filed in 1924. It’s part of a flood of litigation stemming from Walker River allocations, going back to 1902, when rancher Henry Miller sued Thomas Rickey over water rights on the river. A 1936 Walker River Decree issued by the Nevada U.S. District Court finalized water rights for more than 500 private landowners, primarily farmers and ranchers, within the Walker River Basin, including those in the Walker River Irrigation District, under a “first in time, first in right” policy that remains the standard almost a century later. Like Nevada, most western states allocate water by the policy, known as prior appropriation. Therefore, under the 1936 decree, upstream users have legal priority to Walker River water. But in 2015, Mineral County filed a lawsuit citing the public trust doctrine, the legal principle that certain natural and cultural resources be preserved for public use. The lawsuit claimed that under the public trust doctrine, it is the state’s duty to maintain minimum inflows into public waters, such as Walker Lake, to sustain environmental, wildlife, recreational, and economic resources. The U.S. District Court ruled in the county’s favor. The irrigation district appealed. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court overturned the ruling; the public trust doctrine, it held, was a state law issue that had not been decided in Nevada. That kicked the case back to the Nevada Supreme Court, which in 2020 determined all Nevada waters will now be allocated under the public trust doctrine—but that already-issued water rights would not be, and can never be, reallocated. The Supreme Court of Nevada building in Carson City, Nev., in this file photo. In 2020, the court determined that all Nevada waters will now be allocated under the public trust doctrine. Steven Frame/Shutterstock The court directed Mineral County to recommend ways to restore the lake without reallocating water rights, and to work with the Walker Basin Conservancy, a nonprofit created in 2014 with federal funding initially secured by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Walker Basin Restoration Program. In 2021, Mineral County amended its 2015 complaint to intervene in the decades’-long parallel suit by the Walker River Paiute Tribe seeking to boost Walker River flows into a reservation reservoir and secure water rights for 167,460 acres added to the reservation since 1936. The county’s complaint includes 24 “actions … necessary to restore and maintain Walker Lake’s public trust values.” After years of procedural delays, including a requirement to individually serve more than 1,000 watershed landowners across the country, the case is set to proceed into discovery. A potential trial looms. But an alternate “win-win” solution orchestrated by the Walker Basin Conservancy is gaining traction and could, perhaps, mitigate the need for a court-ordered resolution. ‘The Only Solution’ Since its creation, the conservancy has restored public access to 33 miles along the Walker River and purchased more than 13,700 acres of water rights, enough to restore about 60 percent of the river inflow biologists maintain is needed to restore the lake’s fishery. Conservancy CEO Peter Stanton and Water Program Director Carlie Henneman did not return emails and repeated phone requests for comment about the program from The Epoch Times. Nor did the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Walker River Irrigation District attorney Gordon DePaoli, or Walker Basin Working Group’s Oregon-based legal advisers, Jamie Saul of the Wild & Scenic Law Center and Kevin Cassidy of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Earthrise Law Center. Several attorneys representing different parties would only speak off-the-record, underscoring the contentious complexities of the case. A sign of the Walker River Paiute Tribe in Shurz, Nev., on Oct. 16, 2024. Walker Lake retains water flowing east 100 miles from California’s Bridgeport and Topaz reservoirs through Nevada’s Smith and Mason valleys and the Walker River Paiute Tribe's reservation. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images Roderick E. Walston, an attorney with Best Best & Krieger in Walnut Creek, Calif., told The Epoch Times his clients above the Bridgeport Reservoir in California are apprehensive about Mineral County’s suit, which he said essentially demands the federal court to reallocate existing water rights under the public trust doctrine. “Our response is basically that the Nevada Supreme Court resolved that issue four years ago,” he said. Walston was a California deputy attorney general in 1983 and argued the Mono Lake case before the California Supreme Court. In that case, the state’s public trust doctrine was used to thwart Los Angeles from purchasing Mono Lake water rights that would have devastated the lake’s ecology and Sierra Nevada economies. “So I argued both the case in California Supreme Court 40-something years ago and then also argued the case in the Nevada Supreme Court about four years ago,” he said. Walston said the case could have “great impact” on water disputes in states that uphold the prior allocation doctrine. “This is an absolutely large case,” he said. Meanwhile, Mineral County District Attorney Ryan McCormick, who assumed his post seven weeks ago, told The Epoch Times he’s playing catch-up in reading filings “from decades and decades of litigation.” A sign is pictured at Walker Lake in Hawthorne, Nev., on Oct. 16, 2024. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Walker Lake’s water levels have declined more than 160 feet since 1882. Nearly 30 miles long in 1850, the lake is only 12 miles long today. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images “In a perfect world, if we get some specific performance and find a way to divert water back into the lake and have the levels rising again, that would be absolutely ideal,” he said, adding he isn’t privy to the reasoning behind all of the 24 actions assembled by the Walker Lake Working Group. It’s a complicated case in a long-litigated watershed but the best resolution is simple, McCormick said. “With the best interests of Mineral County, Hawthorne, and Walker Lake in mind here, we would like the lake to be receiving fresh water again. It would be nice to see some economic development right now, right?” But Walston said odds are slim the court will cast aside the state’s Supreme Court determination that existing water rights cannot be reallocated. Working with the conservancy and other groups to purchase water rights from willing landowners at $3,000 to $4,000 per acre foot—an acre of one-foot deep water—is a win-win for all involved, he said. “It’s the only solution, really. The Nevada Supreme Court has said you can’t just take water rights that have been adjudicated and take that water and put it into Walker Lake,” Walston said. “But you can go to various water users and negotiate with them and buy their water rights. In that case, then you could reallocate.” Tyler Durden Wed, 02/18/2026 - 22:35

Everything you need to know to preorder Crimson Desert, including what comes in each edition, how much it costs, what preorder bonuses to expect, and more.

Fewer than 1,000 families remain at a camp in northeastern Syria's Hassakeh that once held relatives of suspected Daesh members, its former director said Wednesday, after thou...

Four High Desert boys basketball and soccer teams, including Victor Valley, Hesperia, Sultana, and Granite Hills, have successfully advanced to the CIF-Southern Section semifinals.

Obama Says Aliens Exist But Are Not Kept In Area 51 Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times, Former U.S. President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 14 podcast interview that aliens are real but that none are kept at the secretive Area 51 military base in the Nevada desert, later adding that he didn’t see any evidence indicating that extraterrestrials have contacted Earth during his presidency. In the interview, when asked, “Are aliens real?” Obama replied, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them—and they’re not being kept in [Area 51]. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.” Obama became the first leader of the United States to affirm the existence of extraterrestrial life when questioned by progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen in a video posted on YouTube. After the interview went viral, Obama said on Instagram that he wanted to “clarify” his comments to Cohen, writing that he was “trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round” while speaking on the podcast. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he wrote. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!” In 2013, Obama was possibly the first U.S. leader to acknowledge the existence of Area 51, an Air Force base built during the Cold War, which has long been rumored to house extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Cohen did not ask Obama a follow-up question on the issue. Instead, he asked the former president what his first question had been upon entering the White House. “Where are the aliens?” Obama joked in response. Some critics, including British political commentator Calvin Robinson, said Cohen should have asked Obama for more information about aliens. “When a former President of the United States says on the record there are aliens, YOU FOLLOW UP WITH RELEVANT QUESTIONS. You do not continue reading from your script,” he wrote on X. The U.S. government first acknowledged Area 51’s existence in 2013 through a Freedom of Information request and has declassified documents detailing its history and purpose. The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the F-117 stealth fighter. Trump Admin on Aliens President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about the existence of aliens, while acknowledging that “anything is possible.” Trump addressed the subject in several media appearances during the 2024 presidential campaign. On a podcast with Lex Fridman, Trump said he would consider pushing the Pentagon to release additional UFO footage that many believe is classified. “Oh yeah, sure, I’ll do that. I would do that. I’d love to do that,” Trump said, noting that public pressure to disclose records relating to UFOs is similar to that surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination. On Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast in June 2025, Trump said, “Am I a believer? No, I can’t say I am." “But I have met with people, serious people, that say there’s some really strange things flying around out there.” Trump added that given the size of the universe, “Why wouldn’t there be something, somebody?” Vice President JD Vance has expressed his personal enthusiasm, telling the “Ruthless” podcast in August 2025 that he is “obsessed with the whole UFO thing.” “What’s actually going on? What were those videos all about? What’s actually happening?” Vance probed. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said last August that she believes aliens may exist and that the U.S. government holds classified information on the subject. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in Washington on Dec. 2, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Gabbard pledged to share disclosures from ongoing investigations into UFOs amid growing discussion of the phenomena at the highest levels of government. Pentagon Cases Unresolved The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) continues to investigate more than 1,600 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena,” an official term that has largely replaced “UFOs.” At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in November 2024, AARO’s director, Jon T. Kosloski, detailed cases the military believes it has solved—such as the widely circulated 2016 “GOFAST” video, now thought to show an object flying at 13,000 feet rather than right above the water—as well as other incidents which have so far defied explanation. Previous presidents, including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have discussed their curiosity about alien life without confirming a belief in it. Carter reported that he saw an unidentified bright object in the sky when he was governor of Georgia in 1969, although he later said it was likely a natural phenomenon. A view of Area 51. Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times Clinton said that he was curious about the possibility of extraterrestrial life and that he had asked aides to look into both Area 51 and the Roswell incident of 1947, which gave rise to much speculation about a government cover-up. After Air Force personnel recovered metallic and rubber debris near Roswell, New Mexico, the U.S. Army Air Forces announced that they were in possession of a “flying disc” before retracting the statement within a day. Clinton said he was told there was no evidence of alien life in connection with the incident. In 1995, he joked about the Roswell incident, saying, “If the U.S. Air Force did recover any alien bodies, they didn’t tell me about it.” The American public is increasingly convinced that aliens exist and have visited Earth, according to recent polls. More than half (56 percent) of Americans believe extraterrestrials definitely or probably exist, according to a 2025 YouGov poll. Democrat (61 percent) and Independent (59 percent) voters are more likely than Republicans (46 percent) to believe aliens exist, with 73 percent of Americans believing the government would hide evidence of UFOs if it had any, and just 13 percent thinking it would be transparent, according to the same survey. Tyler Durden Tue, 02/17/2026 - 17:00

The developer of Crimson Desert has confirmed that the upcoming open world action adventure game does not have a cosmetic cash shop or microtransactions of any kind.

The Sonoran desert in Mexico is credited as the origin point for some of the best variations of the hot dog, a quintessential American food, showcasing regional culinary ingenuity.