Global space agencies conduct largest planetary defense drill: A Test Run For Apophis?

Global space agencies conduct largest planetary defense drill as mysterious interstellar object 3I/ATLAS approaches Earth

Kevin Hughes

As the enigmatic interstellar object 3I/ATLAS hurtles toward its closest approach to Earth this December, space agencies worldwide have launched the largest planetary defense drill in history, treating the event as a critical test run for future cosmic threats.

Scheduled to pass within 170 million miles of Earth—roughly twice the distance between our planet and the Sun—the object poses no collision risk, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). However, its unpredictable trajectory and unusual characteristics have prompted an unprecedented global effort to refine asteroid-tracking capabilities.

The International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), comprising NASA, ESA and over 23 nations, initiated the drill on Nov. 27, with simulations running through January 2026. The exercise leverages 3I/ATLAS' passage to sharpen detection methods for near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could one day threaten civilization.

According to the Enoch AI engine at BrightU.AI: Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids, comets and other celestial bodies that orbit the Sun and periodically approach Earth's vicinity. NEOs are defined as small, Solar System bodies whose orbits bring them close to Earth's orbit. They are typically classified based on their size and distance from Earth as asteroids, comets, near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).

"This is an excellent opportunity for observers around the world to practice tracking where a comet is in the sky, should a hazardous comet to Earth ever be found," NASA representatives told the New York Post.

ESA's Meerkat and Aegis systems—two critical planetary defense tools—are undergoing rigorous testing. Meerkat, an automated early-warning system, scans for imminent threats within 30 days, while Aegis calculates long-term collision risks over the next century.

A test run for Apophis—and beyond

The drill serves as a critical warm-up for asteroid Apophis, which will pass dangerously close to Earth in 2029—visible to the naked eye in Europe.

"The entire world will be watching when the Apophis asteroid passes by very, very close to Earth in 2029," ESA stated. "Public interest in planetary defense capabilities will be immense."

Several space agency officials have stressed that developing asteroid deflection technology is now essential rather than science fiction.

While NASA maintains that 3I/ATLAS is a comet, its unexplained behavior has forced agencies to rethink planetary defense strategies. Whether natural or artificial, the object has already achieved one thing: uniting rival space powers in preparation for future threats.

As ESA warns, "It is no longer sci-fi—it is a skill we must hone before it is needed."

For now, the world watches—and prepares.

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Trump orders blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, escalating pressure on Maduro regime

Trump orders blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, escalating pressure on Maduro regime

 JULIA VARNIER 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ordered a blockade preventing all “sanctioned oil tankers” from entering Venezuela, escalating pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The announcement follows the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast last week, an unusual intervention that came amid a stepped-up U.S. military presence in the region. In a statement posted to his social media platform Tuesday night, Trump accused Venezuela of using oil revenue to fund drug trafficking and other criminal networks, and he signaled that additional military deployments are underway.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us.”

The military buildup has coincided with a series of U.S. strikes on small vessels operating in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. At least 95 people have been killed in 25 documented strikes, a campaign that has prompted bipartisan concern in Congress about the scope and legality of the operations.

Administration officials have defended the effort as a key tool for reducing drug shipments to the United States and rejected suggestions that the campaign oversteps legal boundaries.

While the White House has repeatedly framed the operations as counter-narcotics missions, Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, appeared to link them directly to efforts to pressure Maduro. In an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Wiles said Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”

Why Nicaragua Is Afraid Of The Bible

Welcome To Socialism: Why Nicaragua Is Afraid Of The Bible

PNW STAFF

When a government begins treating Bibles like weapons, the danger is no longer theoretical--it is fully realized.

That is the reality now unfolding in Nicaragua, where tourists traveling into the country are reportedly being barred from bringing Bibles across the border. At bus terminals operated by Tica Bus--one of the main transit routes from Costa Rica to Managua--Bibles now appear on an official list of prohibited items. They sit alongside drones, cameras, knives, magazines, newspapers, and other materials the regime considers threats.

Let that sink in: the Word of God is being treated as contraband.

Multiple representatives from Tica Bus across Central America have confirmed the ban, noting that it has been in effect for over six months under the rule of Nicaragua's co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo--leaders of the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front. What may sound shocking to Americans unfamiliar with life under socialist regimes is, in fact, a familiar pattern to anyone who has studied history.

Socialism does not merely seek to govern economies. It seeks to govern truth.

This latest restriction is not an isolated incident--it is part of a long and accelerating campaign against Christianity in Nicaragua. Since 2018, more than 1,300 religious organizations have had their legal status revoked. Public religious processions have been banned unless they are organized or approved by government-aligned groups. Pastors are surveilled, interrogated, detained, and in some cases exiled.

In 2024 alone, Christian watchdog groups documented 222 cases of religious persecution, including forced event cancellations, police monitoring of churches, and mandatory weekly check-ins for religious leaders. Forty-six pastors were detained that year. In 2025, the situation worsened: 73 Christians were detained, and over 300 churches and Christian buildings were closed, vandalized, or attacked.

Missionary Britt Hancock, speaking after the arrest of 13 pastors, described the situation plainly: "The freedom of the Gospel doesn't mix well with totalitarian regime ideology." She is right--and history proves it.

Why Socialism Fears the Bible

The Bible presents a fundamental problem for socialist and communist systems: it recognizes a higher authority than the state.

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture affirms that human dignity, moral law, and ultimate allegiance come from God--not from government. Socialism, especially in its authoritarian forms, cannot tolerate that idea. It demands total loyalty. It requires ideological conformity. And it relies on centralized power to define truth, morality, and justice.

The Bible undermines all of that.

Scripture teaches that rulers are accountable. It affirms individual conscience. It empowers ordinary people with moral clarity that does not require government permission. It teaches that oppression is sin, that truth is objective, and that salvation does not come through political systems--but through Christ alone.

That is why socialist regimes consistently move to restrict Bibles, churches, and pastors. It happened in the Soviet Union. It happened in Maoist China. It happened in Castro's Cuba. It is happening today in Venezuela, North Korea, and now--openly--in Nicaragua.

Socialism does not merely compete with Christianity. It seeks to replace it.

From Control to Silence

When Nicaragua's government lumps Bibles in with knives and drones, the message is unmistakable: the regime sees faith as a destabilizing force. And that is precisely because faith gives people courage--courage to question, to resist, to endure suffering without surrendering their soul.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide's advocacy director Anna Lee Stangl called the Bible ban "highly concerning," especially given the broader climate of repression. She is being diplomatic. What is happening is not just concerning--it is a warning.

In February, Nicaragua withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council entirely after a report exposed the regime's systematic suppression of democracy, free expression, and religious freedom. Rather than correct course, the government chose isolation--another hallmark of authoritarian socialism.

The lesson here is not only about Nicaragua. It is about the nature of socialism itself. Wherever the state demands ultimate authority, the Bible becomes a threat. Wherever government seeks to redefine morality, Scripture must be silenced. Wherever power is centralized, faith must be controlled--or crushed.

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Has Orwell’s 1984 Become Reality?

Has Orwell’s 1984 Become Reality?

Bert Olivier

To some readers it may seem like a rhetorical question to ask whether the narrative of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984), first published in Britain in 1949, has somehow left its pages and settled, like an ominous miasma, over the contours of social reality. Yet, closer inspection – which means avoiding compromised mainstream news outlets – discloses a disquieting state of affairs.

Everywhere we look in Western countries, from the United Kingdom, through Europe to America (and even India, whose ‘Orwellian digital ID system’ was lavishly praised by British prime minister Keir Starmer recently), what meets the eye is a set of social conditions exhibiting varying stages of precisely the no-longer-fictional totalitarian state depicted by Orwell in 1984. Needless to stress, this constitutes a warning against totalitarianism with its unapologetic manipulation of information and mass surveillance.

I am by no means the first person to perceive the ominous contours of Orwell’s nightmarish vision taking shape before our very eyes. Back in 2023 Jack Watson did, too, when he wrote (among other things):

Thoughtcrime is another of Orwell’s conjectures that has come true. When I first read 1984, I would never have thought that this made up word would be taken seriously; nobody should have the right to ask what you are thinking. Obviously, nobody can read your mind and surely you could not be arrested simply for thinking? However, I was dead wrong. A woman was arrested recently for silently praying in her head and, extraordinarily, prosecutors were asked to provide evidence of her ‘thoughtcrime.’ Needless to say, they did not have any. But knowing that we can now be accused of, essentially, thinking the wrong thoughts is a worrying development. Freedom of speech is already under threat, but this goes beyond free speech. This is about free thought. Everybody should have a right to think what they want, and they should not feel obliged or forced to express certain beliefs or only think certain thoughts.

Most people would know that totalitarianism is not a desirable social or political set of circumstances. Even the word sounds ominous, but that is probably only to those who already know what it denotes. I have written on it before, in different contexts, but it is now more relevant than ever. We should remind ourselves what Orwell wrote in that uncannily premonitory novel.

Considering the rapidly expanding and intensifying, electronically mediated strategies of surveillance being implemented globally – no doubt aimed at inculcating in citizens a subliminal awareness that privacy is fast becoming but a distant memory – the following excerpt from Orwell’s text strikes one as disturbingly prophetic, considering the time it was written (1984, Free Planet e-book, p.5):

‘Digital identity [is] not so your life is easier. It’s so government has total control over you.’

‘Digital currency [is] the crème de la crème of all control mechanisms…What do you think is going to happen the next time you refuse to take an mRNA shot? With the flip of a switch, they just cancel your account. You cannot buy food anymore. You cannot do anything anymore.’

Given these warnings, a case in point concerns well-known globalist Tony Blair’s recent attempt to assuage people’s fears about digital ID-systems. Needless to point out, his commendation of the system (because of its ‘amazing benefits’), in conjunction with AI and facial recognition capacity, is disingenuous in the extreme, as is palpably evident from his words (quoted from Wide Awake Media on X):

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The Surveillance State

The Surveillance State

John W. Whitehead

The Surveillance State is making a naughty list, and we’re all on it.

Long before Santa’s elves start loading his sleigh with toys for good girls and boys, the government’s surveillance apparatus is already at work—logging your movements, monitoring your messages, tracking your purchases, scanning your face, recording your license plate, and feeding it all into algorithmic systems designed to determine whether you belong on a government watchlist.

Unlike Santa’s naughty list, however, the consequences of landing on the government’s “naughty list” are far more severe than a stocking full of coal. They can include heightened surveillance, loss of privacy, travel restrictions, financial scrutiny, police encounters, or being flagged as a potential threat—often without notice, explanation, or recourse.

This is not fiction. This is not paranoia.

This is the modern surveillance state operating exactly as designed.

Santa Claus has long been the benign symbol of omniscient surveillance, a figure who watches, judges, and rewards. His oversight is fleeting, imaginary, and ultimately harmless.

The government’s surveillance is none of those things—and never was.

What was once dismissed as a joke—“Santa is watching”—has morphed into a chilling reality. Instead of elves, the watchers are data brokers, intelligence agencies, predictive algorithms, and fusion centers. Instead of a naughty-or-nice list, Americans are sorted into databases, risk profiles, and threat assessments—lists that never disappear.

The shift is subtle but profound.

Innocence is no longer presumed.

Everyone is watched. Everyone is scored. Everyone is a potential suspect.

This is the surveillance state in action.

Today’s surveillance state doesn’t require suspicion, a warrant, or probable cause. It is omnipresent, omniscient, and inescapable.

Your smartphone tracks your location. Your car records your movements. License plate readers log when and where you drive. Retail purchases create detailed consumer profiles. Smart speakers listen to everything you say. Home security cameras observe not just your property, but your neighbors, delivery drivers, and anyone who passes by.

The government’s appetite for data is insatiable.

In a dramatic expansion of surveillance reach, the Transportation Security Administration now shares airline passenger lists with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, enabling ICE to identify and arrest travelers at airports based on immigration status.

In one incident, ICE arrested and immediately deported a college student with no criminal record who was flying home to spend Thanksgiving with her family.

What was once routine aviation security data has been transformed into an enforcement tool—merging civilian travel records with the machinery of deportation and demonstrating how ordinary movements can be weaponized by the state.

Even the most personal acts—like Christmas shopping—are now tracked in real time. Every item you buy, where you buy it, how you pay, and who you buy it for becomes part of a permanent digital record. That data does not stay confined to retailers. It is shared, sold, aggregated, and folded into sprawling surveillance ecosystems that blur the line between corporate data collection and government intelligence.

Companies like Palantir specialize in fusing these data streams into comprehensive behavioral profiles, linking financial activity, social media behavior, geolocation data, and government records into a single, searchable identity map.

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