video

A Roscosmos cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station filmed sweeping auroras over Earth on Tuesday as a powerful solar storm set the planet’s upper atmosphere aglow with vivid color. Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, a member of Russia’s space agency, shared footage from orbit and described an intense display that washed the night side of Earth in unusual red tones. “During yesterday’s strongest storm in two decades, there was plenty of red glow. It felt as if we were literally sailing inside that light,” Kud-Sverchkov wrote on…

Irish trainee field guide rescued by helicopter as deadly floods swamp Kruger National Park PHALABORWA, South Africa — In the pitch black and pouring rain on a hillside above the Olifants River, Kim McNaughton waited for the thump of rotor blades. The trainee field guide from County Monaghan had scrambled to higher ground with colleagues after floodwaters cut off their safari lodge in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, washing away a nearby bridge and turning escape routes into impassable mud. “Survival mode just kicked…

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called an Irish journalist a “left-wing hack” during a heated exchange at a press briefing, escalating tensions between the administration and the press over immigration enforcement. The clash unfolded after Niall Stanage, a Dublin-born journalist with U.S. political newspaper The Hill, asked about the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Seeking an assessment from the White House, Stanage framed the incident…

Skiers in Crans-Montana formed a heart on a snowy slope in a powerful tribute to the victims of the New Year’s Eve blaze at the “Le Constellation” bar, where 40 people were killed and 119 others were injured, many of them severely. The heart-shaped formation, captured on video, became a focal symbol of collective mourning in the ski community after the deadliest nightclub fire in years. Organizers and participants aligned themselves across the piste, their tracks drawing a clear, white outline visible from above — a quiet…

Skiers ascend Mount Etna as eruption continues and Italy raises alert level to yellow Ski mountaineers took advantage of the Christmas holiday period to climb and carve down the snow-covered slopes of Mount Etna even as Italy’s most active volcano continued to erupt, drawing onlookers eager to witness thick ash clouds against clear winter skies. Italy’s Department of Civil Protection has raised the alert level for Etna from green to yellow, citing the potential for a rapid escalation in volcanic activity. The shift in status…

MOGADISHU — A Kenyan doctor working with a United Nations medical evacuation team in Somalia says the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has held him and other colleagues for more than a year after their helicopter crashed in militant-held territory, according to a new video appeal. In the message addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Kenyan President William Ruto and the Kenyan public, the doctor, Ambrose Kimiti, says their aircraft went down on Jan. 10, 2024, during a medical evacuation flight. He says fighters from…

MOGADISHU — Somalia’s Al-Shabaab insurgents have released a new video showing Oleynik Aleksandr, a Ukrainian national and helicopter pilot held by the group since early 2024, appealing to the Ukrainian government and the United Nations to launch talks for his release and that of fellow crew members. The footage features Aleksandr identifying himself as the captain of a United Nations–contracted helicopter that made an emergency landing in militant-held territory in January 2024 while en route to Wisil, near Ceelbuur, in…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Al-Shabaab has released a video showing a Ukrainian helicopter pilot contracted by the United Nations pleading for his freedom, in one of the group’s most prominent hostage appeals involving a foreign national in recent years. In the footage distributed by al-Shabaab’s Kataib media arm, the pilot identifies himself as Oleynik Aleksandr and says he was captured after an emergency landing in central Somalia in January 2024, in territory controlled by the militant group. Addressing the camera directly, he…

A skydiver was left dangling from an aircraft thousands of meters above northern Australia after a reserve parachute snagged on the plane’s tail during a planned formation jump south of Cairns, according to dramatic footage and findings released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The jumper cut free with a hook knife and later landed safely, while the aircraft suffered substantial tail damage before its pilot made a safe emergency landing. The incident occurred in September during a planned 16-way formation skydive…

Australia’s transport safety watchdog has released dramatic footage showing a skydiver left dangling thousands of meters in the air after a reserve parachute snagged on a plane’s tail during a high-altitude stunt south of Cairns. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) published the video after concluding its investigation into the September incident, which unfolded within seconds of a planned 16-way formation jump at about 4,600 meters. The footage, recorded by a parachuting camera operator, captures the chaos as the…