
Plywood drone from Belarus crashes in Lithuania, causing alarm
Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and Speaker of the Parliament Saulius Skvernelis were briefly brought to bomb shelters in response to the object entering Lithuanian airspace, according to their spokespersons.
NATO Baltic Air Policing jets were dispatched to the area but were recalled after the object fell to the ground around 1 km (0.6 miles) from the border, armed forces spokesperson Gintautas Ciunis told a press conference.
"The object does not pose any danger now, but we don't yet know what was its purpose," he said. Investigations were continuing to determine what it was for and where it came from.
Lithuania's defence ministry said in a statement the object appeared to be "homemade".
Images and a video shared by the army showed a winged device resembling a small airplane lying on grass. Its body was cut open in two places, revealing a wooden interior compartment with wiring inside.
An emailed border guard statement said a preliminary assessment was that it was made of plywood and foam, and that there were no indications it was carrying anything.
In September last year, a Russian military drone carrying explosives likely to have been intended for use in Ukraine crashed in Latvia some 90 km (60 miles) from the border with Belarus.
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The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
Sleepy Cotswolds village swarmed by TWENTY secret service agents as Kamala Harris attends Steve Jobs' daughter's wedding
LOCALS in a sleepy village were stunned when Secret Service agents swarmed a pub to whisk in Kamala Harris for billionaire heiress Eve Jobs's £100,000 pre-wedding party. Some 20 men in suits with earpieces manned Cotswolds boozer The Bull for five hours to ensure the former US Vice President was safe. 13 13 13 They all stood with their hands together in the 'rapid response position' and came and left in a fleet of blacked-out Range Rovers and Mercedes vehicles. Punters at the pub in Charlbury, Oxfordshire - which has a population of just 3,521 - were flabbergasted when they saw the huge security detail. One told The Sun: 'I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 'There were men in black and blue suits, a guy in a leather jacket and more security outside doing frequent checks of the area. 'I was stood at the bar having a pint and there was a bald bloke sat on a stall on his own just drinking water all night. 'He was clearly part of the operation and sat quietly watching everyone around him with intent. 'It's been the talk of the village - it's the most exciting thing that's happened here for a very long time.' Democrat Harris, 60, who lost last year's US election to Donald Trump, stayed until the bash ended just before 11pm. She has been a close friend of late Apple chief Steve Jobs 's widow Laurene Powell Jobs, 61, for 20 years. Steve and Laurene's daughter Eve, 27, and her Brit husband-to-be Harry Charles, 26, hosted 48 guests at the £100,000 pub party - a warm-up to Saturday's big day. A source said: "Kamala has been a close friend of the family for many years now, and she was desperate to celebrate with them. "The security operation for the whole event is astonishing - let alone when there is a former US Vice President on the guest list. "Locals couldn't believe their eyes with all the Secret Service operatives around.' Ex-US vice presidents get Secret Service protection for six months after they leave office, however that can be extended if it is seen to be necessary. Harris left office on January 20. A sign outside The Bull said there was no on-site parking on Wednesday due to a "private event". American model Eve and show jumper Harry - who won gold for Team GB at last year's Paris Olympics - booked out the garden area of the 16th century pub, where guests enjoyed free-flowing booze. The group dined on dishes from The Bull's fancy menu - which includes a £98 sirloin steak, oysters, plus chalk stream trout with mussels and courgette. Guests were also treated to a ten-song set by Jack Savoretti, 41, who sang some of his hits including What More Can I Do? and Catapult. 13 13 13 He finished with a cover of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - made famous by Dusty Springfield's 1966 version. Jack performed much of the song in Italian - the language in which it was originally written. He told the party: "Everybody around the world knows this song. I think it's possibly the most romantic song ever written." Steve's sister Mona Simpson, 68, made an emotional speech at the bash. She spoke of how Steve, who died of pancreatic cancer aged 56 in 2011, would have been delighted to see Eve - the youngest of his four children - so happy. Mona said: "Harry, you are a lucky young man. And I know from Laurene that Eve is just as lucky. "Steve once asked me to look after Eve with special attention, because he already knew he would miss too much of her childhood. "He'd be so happy today to see her so happy and so full in herself. "You're both young and in love and you share a world and a passion." 13 13 Mona also recounted memories of when Steve and Laurene were deciding to have another child before getting pregnant with Eve. The pair share three of his four children. Mona said: "I remember the conversations before Eve was born. "Laurene, inspired by her brothers and their brave wives - who all had large, happy families - hoped for a third child. "Steve felt cautious. 'With Reed and Erin (their other children), we already won the lottery. Aren't we tempting fate?', he argued. "But as in most things, Laurene's wisdom won out. "Tempted fate was, and a few years later, Steve had to admit, 'Yep, Laurene was absolutely right, I was completely wrong. I can't imagine our family without Eve. I can't imagine my life without Eve.'" Tunes blasted all night, with hits including Ed Sheeran 's Castle on the Hill, Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club and American Pie by Don McLean on the playlist. 13 13 13 Eve and Harry are set to wed in a rumoured £50million extravaganza on Saturday - with stars and those from high society including Microsoft mogul Bill Gates 's daughters, Phoebe and Jennifer, on the guest list. Sir Elton John has been booked to perform on the day, as revealed by The Sun on Tuesday. The happy couple have hired out the £3,600-a-year private members' club Estelle Manor in nearby Witney - with the site on lockdown since Wednesday. The stunning venue has 108 bedrooms, a spa, swimming pool and four restaurants on site. Bosses contacted members in May to inform them that the club would be closed for a "private event" from Wednesday to Sunday - with the regulars offered £200 vouchers in return for the inconvenience. Eve and Harry will tie the knot at St Michael's and All Angels Church in Great Tew before heading back to Estelle Manor to celebrate. 13


Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Amateur prankster's dangerous bid to 'win' Tour de France stage ends VERY painfully - courtesy of a security guard
An amateur cyclist who dangerously tried to cross the finish line of the Tour de France moments before the race leader has been taken into custody after being sent to the floor by a security guard. The prankster, dressed in full cycling attire, hopped over security barriers and attempted to cross the finish line at the end of stage 17 on Wednesday, before a member of the security team tackled him to the concrete. In a video published to social media, the individual - who is understood by French media to be a 31-year-old man from Montelimar - explains his bid to hop the fence and finish the race in front of the peloton. Referring to the race leader, the man tells the camera: 'He thinks he's the one who's going to cross the finish line first, he doesn't know that there's a guy with a bike just behind a barrier who's going to win the race. I'm going to win the race.' The man was dressed like a professional cyclist, sporting a Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team jersey and a black helmet on his head. The video ends with the prankster jumping the barriers and cycling down the track while a sea of spectators watch on, bemused. L'interception en vidéo (via @tv2danmark et @/nikolab2e sur tiktok). #TDF2025 — Paul Moutarde (@PaulMoutarde) July 23, 2025 An amateur cyclist who dangerously tried to cross the finish line of the Tour de France moments before the peloton has been taken into custody As soon as staff noticed the dangerous track invasion, multiple security guards rushed out towards the finish line to stop him, concerned for the safety of the athletes competing. Although the incident was not captured initially by television cameras, footage was later released to social media showing the amateur cyclist's downfall. As he closes in on the finish line, the man managed to swerve the first security guard, who struck him hard on the back, before being stopped by the second. The 17th stage of cycling's most prestigious race was eventually won by Jonathan Milan, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. Slovenian Tadej Pogacar is currently sitting atop the overall leaderboard, with Jonas Vingegaard serving as his closest challenger as the race reaches the French Alps for the first time this year at the 18th stage. Reacting to the incident on X, formerly Twitter, users were quick to admonish the actions of the protestor. One user wrote: 'Hahahah what a loser'. A second added: 'Crazy. The race is tough enough without the crazy protestors'. A further comment read: 'Absolutely destroyed his shoulder - that'll never be the same again. And probably deserved it.' It comes after cycling fans expressed their outrage earlier in the event after seeing the vantage point some spectators took to catch a glimpse of the second stage. That part of the race culminated in Boulogne-sur-Mer, located in the north of the country around 25 miles south-west of Calais. The race saw Mathieu van der Poel pip Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish to give the Dutchman the leader's yellow jersey. Given the drama during the race, it appears that some fans were so eager to see it for themselves that they disregarded their surroundings to be able to watch it live. A clip posted to X, formerly Twitter, shows some fans gathering on the edge of a cemetery to be as near to the action as possible. That provoked outrage among many cycling fans, who felt the onlookers showed a lack of respect by doing so.


Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
When US soldiers based in Suffolk saw lights, triangular aircraft and 'non-humans' the MoD 'shut it down'. Now 45 years later they tell their story for first time - and astonishing truth about how clo
Did aliens land outside an American airbase in Suffolk 45 years ago to probe its secret stash of nuclear warheads? Or is the story a fisherman's tale that just gets bigger every time it is told? Clearly something unusual happened in the early hours of Boxing Day morning in Rendlesham Forest, near the twin RAF bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, that's still being talked about today. Some claim the latter Nato base was visited by UFOs, leading to a 'meet and greet' with silver-suited aliens and American top military brass that was caught on film. Others, as the Mail can exclusively reveal, are convinced the Christmas visitors were interested in a secret nuclear missile stockpile, stashed just a few miles from Ipswich, where the good people of Suffolk were obliviously sleeping off their Christmas indulgences. What everyone agrees on, however, is that the full story has never been disclosed. Until now. A new feature length documentary, eight years in the making, re-ignited the decades-old Rendlesham Forest UFO mystery when it premiered last week. Called Capel Green, after a field situated between the RAF Woodbridge airfield and the medieval Butley Priory in Suffolk, where the story is set, it re-creates the action seen through the eyes of a US airman who claims he witnessed it. As a keen UFOlogist who has closely followed the Rendlesham story for decades, I fear the truth won't be the Close Encounters tale everyone craves, but rather yet another example of the British and American governments using UFO conspiracy stories as a convenient cloak for their nefarious, top-secret activities at the height of the Cold War, as confirmed last month in a bombshell report published by The Wall Street Journal. Yet, that will be cold comfort for those Suffolk residents, who, in 1980, had no idea how close they were sleeping to the weapons of Armageddon that Christmas night. The Capel Green film includes interviews with US security police, some of whom have never spoken on camera before, plus a newly recruited US airman, Larry Warren, just 19 at the time, who claims he had a front-row seat to the whole happening. Larry Warren claims he had a front-row seat to the whole happening at Rendlesham Forest when he was 19 The Capel Green film includes interviews with US security police, some of whom have never spoken on camera before In the film, he describes how he was told to hand over his rifle and driven in a Jeep to a clearing in the forest that was covered in glowing mist. It was then, he says, that he saw a 'basketball sized red light in the sky' followed by a 'blinding flash of light'. It was then he saw a triangular-shaped 'machine, object or craft' on the ground and – most astonishingly of all – three 'non-human beings' emerging from it. These beings, he said, were then greeted by a tall man he believed was the most senior officer at the Nato complex, US air force wing commander (later brigadier general) Gordon Williams. According to Warren, footage of this incredible meeting was captured on film, the footage handed to the pilot of a F-15 jet and later flown to the US air force HQ in Germany, never to be seen again. Which is all very intriguing – and understandably greeted with a huge amount of scepticism. Wing commander Gordon Williams, it should be noted, has never publicly commented on Rendlesham, but in 2003 described Warren's claims as 'a flight of fancy'. Whatever happened, the incident wasn't a one-off and UFOs were seen around the base for at least three nights. On December 28, 1980, the deputy base commander, lieutenant colonel Charles Halt, led a team of airmen into the forest to investigate his colleague's strange report. As Halt made a running commentary of events on his hand-held tape recorder, his men gasped as they spotted a pulsing red light that resembled a winking eye between the trees. Later three star-like lights in the sky were seen low in the north and south, hovering until daybreak. Halt claims one of these projected a pencil-thin beam of light into the weapons storage area of nearby RAF Bentwaters 'like it was looking for something'. In the film, US security policeman Sergeant Steve Longero, who was assigned to protect the nuclear warheads at the Suffolk base, also claims to have seen a beam of light scanning the whole of the weapons storage area. Charles Halt's memo summarising the Rendlesham sightings was sent to the British Ministry of Defence in January 1981 and became one of the most famous documents in the history of UFOlogy when it was leaked to the media. As a teenage UFO enthusiast, I clearly recall being gripped by the headline 'UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK: And that's OFFICIAL' that broke the Rendlesham Forest story in October 1983. To many UFOlogists, the Rendlesham incident offered the exciting possibility of a 'British Roswell' right on our doorstep. The News Of The World front page from 1983 reads: 'UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK: And that's OFFICIAL' To many UFOlogists, the Rendlesham incident offered the exciting possibility of a 'British Roswell' right on our doorstep Roswell, as every UFO buff knows, was a mysterious incident in Roswell, New Mexico that happened in 1947, when a downed balloon used to spy on Soviet atomic tests was spun into a story of a captured flying saucer. For those who wanted to believe, Rendlesham appeared to have everything Roswell had: impressive military witnesses, official documentation and what appeared to be a determined government attempt at a cover-up. As an investigative journalist seeking answers, I used the precursor to the UK's Freedom of Information Act to persuade the MoD to release their own 150-page file on the case in 2001. Sadly, I found no smoking gun, although I did find a letter written by the then-defence minister, Michael Heseltine, shortly after the story broke, giving unequivocal assurance 'that there is not a grain of truth in the allegation that there has been a cover-up about alleged UFO sightings'. But remember, this was the Eighties and the height of the Cold War, where 'truth' could be subjective. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan a year earlier and tensions were high in Eastern Europe. Not so many miles away, at Greenham Common in Berkshire, the first tents were being pitched in a protest camp outside another American airbase, where cruise missiles were being stored. The protest would go on for the next 19 years and draw worldwide media attention – something the US and UK governments were keen to avoid in Suffolk. In 2002, I met with RAF squadron leader, Don Moreland, who was the British liaison officer for the two bases at the time. The question of nuclear weapons was dodged deftly. 'The MoD thing was, we don't confirm or deny it. I don't know whether there were nuclear weapons there, and I was the RAF commander,' he told me. 'I could probably guess that there might have been there but they wouldn't tell me.' But last summer a US intelligence officer-turned UFO whistleblower, Luis Elizondo, claimed in his explosive book, Imminent, that the Rendlesham incident was indeed linked to the secret stockpile of nuclear weapons at nearby RAF Bentwaters – now a Cold War Museum. He said the 'beam' described by multiple witnesses had 'hovered specifically over an underground bunker' where the stash was held. He said the visit triggered a 'flash override' that gave the US president, Jimmy Carter, direct control of the weapons in the event of a surprise attack. Many theories have come and gone over the years, the earliest being put forward by astronomer Ian Ridpath who discovered the initial sighting coincided with a bright fireball meteor that appeared to fall into the forest in the early hours of Boxing Day. Ridpath believes that once the airmen on the patrol became convinced a UFO had landed, they walked into the forest, where they saw the pulsing beam from the Orford Ness lighthouse, about six miles away on the Suffolk coast. Professor David Clarke has spoken to several key men regarding the mysterious events that took place 45 years ago Others have come forward to claim the sightings were caused by pranksters: in 2015 I received a letter from an anonymous source claiming to be a 'retired SAS trooper with inside knowledge of Rendlesham' who immediately got my attention. He claimed the UFOs were created by pyrotechnics rigged up by Special Forces in the forest, in revenge for being caught and roughed up by US security forces during an exercise to test the base defences. But, however exciting this theory might sound, the date stamp on the letter gave the game away: it was carefully timed to arrive on April 1. Four decades have passed and the basic story has become ever more complicated and exaggerated, with numerous claims and counter-claims from both believers and sceptics. Halt's straightforward, if bizarre, account of 'unexplained lights' seen in a forest at Christmas time has been transformed into a complex modern legend involving missing time, conspiracies and messages from time travellers. Even the most dedicated supporters of the UFO story have struggled to reconcile the ever-changing accounts told by the principal witnesses. Sergeant Jim Penniston's account of having approached the landed UFO in the forest on Boxing Day and made sketches of it was once regarded as good evidence. But his credibility crumbled when he announced, on the 30th anniversary, that he had received a 'download' of binary code when he touched the object that he wrote down in a notebook. He also claimed to have received a telepathic message from the craft's occupants who'd come from our future to gather genetic material. 'They are time travellers,' he said. 'They are us.' Charles Halt went on, after retirement from the US air force, to write a book and has made frequent TV appearances. In 2010 he signed a statement that said he believed the UFOs were 'extraterrestrial in origin and that the security services of both the United States and UK have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred in Rendlesham forest and RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation'. But Halt's superior officer, Colonel Ted Conrad, responded with a scathing account of Halt's credibility when we met in 2016. The Texan-born former top gun fighter pilot told me, in no uncertain terms: '[Halt] should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country and England both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He knows better.' Colonel Conrad was base commander and said he carried out the only formal investigation of the UFO sightings on behalf of General Williams, his boss and, according to Larry Warren, the man who officially greeted the aliens that night. But he failed to find any hard evidence and said the MoD decided to 'shut down' the whole incident. Despite his scepticism, Conrad admitted that something unexplained really did happen that Christmas but claimed the whole saga has taken on a life of its own. 'I don't recognise the details anymore,' he told me. 'It resembles science fiction and I have a low opinion of those telling these stories.' Then there is Larry Warren, the homesick teenage airman, whose story is the focus of the film Capel Green. The film's director, Dion M Johnson ,describes him as 'the original military witness and whistleblower' who has 'fought for the truth to be revealed'. But others have cast doubt upon his credibility, including Peter Robbins, with whom he co-authored a book about the incident, called Left At East Gate, in 1997. He later publicly disowned Warren, saying 'my former author has taken me for the ride of my life'. Former MoD UFO desk officer Nick Pope has gone further, describing Warren's story as 'largely fabricated' and 'part-stolen from other witnesses', such as Halt, that he believes are credible. Astronomer Ian Ridpath says 'on the face of it the Rendlesham story sounds inexplicable, but when broken down into its individual elements it is possible to work out what actually happened. 'As with most UFO cases, it amounts to a series of misidentifications of natural and man-made objects, namely a fireball, the lighthouse and twinkling stars. However, the UFO believers have no interest in solutions. 'For them the case has become a modern myth, and films like Capel Green simply add to that mythology.' Much like its American cousin Roswell, the Rendlesham story is likely to keep on growing as a snowball does rolling down a hillside, that keeps getting bigger and bigger with every re-telling.