[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] This is the incredible moment a Florida fisherman saved a young girl from drowning in a riptide by using a drone to drop a life preserver.
Andrew Smith, of Pensacola, was scouting the water off Fort Pickens Beach for sharks with his SwellPro Fisherman Max drone when he spotted a young girl, who was not identified, caught up in a riptide, Fox 4 Now reported.
'There was this girl screaming: "Can anybody swim?"' he recalled to the outlet.
Smith, who cannot swim, was desperate to help her when he noticed several life preservers on the beach on Thursday.
Using his drone, he grabbed one and flew it to the girl.
'I flew it out there and I missed really bad on the first drop,' he told Fox 10. 'A lady grabbed another one for me. I was pretty nervous, we flew it out there and we got it down to her.'
Video footage, shot by fellow beachgoer Robert Nay, showed Smith's second attempt of getting the floatation device down to her.
The drone can be seen dragging the device through heavy wind and gray skies as it drops to nearly water level for the girl to grab onto.
'She was way out there. If I didn’t get her with that one, I don’t know if she would have made it any longer,' Smith told Fox 10.
First responders arrived shortly after and were able to pull the girl to safety.
The young girl was swimming with two other girls when she got caught in the riptide, Nay wrote on Facebook.
A single red flag was flying on the beach that day, indicating that beachgoers should avoid going into the water.
No lifeguards are currently stationed at the beach and won't be until Memorial Day.
'[Smith] literally saved her life and bought time for fire and rescue to get there!' Nay said.
The fisherman's drone is designed to be used while fishing and has the ability to hold up to two life jackets.
'The drone has two releases on the bottom and can be used for fishing, and you can carry two life jackets on it and get to people fast. It has a camera on it too, so I could see the girl’s head on the camera,' he told the outlet.
[NYPOST] A massive Mexican navy tall ship on a goodwill visit to New York slammed into the Brooklyn Bridge late Saturday — toppling its huge masts in a horrifying scene that left two dead and 17 injured, including two critically, according to fire officials and sources.
The majestic Cuauhtémoc — which has a crew of 277, mostly cadets — apparently lost power as it was sailing out of New York on its way to Iceland and the current carried it into the road deck of the bridge around 8:30 p.m., according to Mayor Eric Adams and footage of the crash.
The collision sheared off the ship’s 147-foot masts – with alarming footage capturing numerous crew members dangling for their lives from the sails and booms after the boat hit the bridge, which has a max clearance of 135 feet.
Stray gamma rays erased the content of this post, comprised of an article from Regnum, from badanov, this NY Post link from Fred, and a Fox News link from Skidmark (I’ll add that in a moment).
— tw for the moderators at 10 a.m. EDT
“The boat was coming under the bridge, and there were sailors on top of the boat, the sails hit the bridge and then people were falling off of the boat sails,” said Elijah West, who witnessed the chilling crash at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“It was crazy. We were standing under the bridge and we all started running. Then I saw people hanging from the sails. Police boats came around fast — about five minutes later. And then police guided the boat to the (Manhattan) bridge and started the rescue. It was a shock.”
Numerous onlookers stood by the shore with cameras and filmed the ship’s departure from numerous angles — and became alarmed as the tips of the masts toppled over one by one as they hit the bridge.
Retired navy Capt. Alfred S. McLaren called the tragic incident “inconceivable.”
“I’m dumbfounded,” the former nuclear submarine captain said.
“It could lose power and drift. So the question is just how fast were they going. But why didn’t they use a rudder one way or another? One of the first things I would have done is drop my anchor or anchors.”
The mutilated ship is currently idle in the water while emergency responders work at Pier 16 to care for the wounded. It’s expected to be moved to Pier 36, sources said.
Those in critical condition were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Officials have not released the names of the two crew members who died.
Fire officials warned motorists to expect traffic delays and road closures near New Dock Street & water Street in Brooklyn.
The bridge, which suffered minor damage, has since reopened to the public.
The vessel, built in Spain in 1982 with the sole purpose of training cadets, was in New York City as part of a promotion for next year’s Sail4th tall ship event, which celebrates America’s 250th birthday.
The stop is just the third in the vessel’s eight-month voyage around the globe, which offers the Mexican cadets the opportunity to flex their sailing muscles in environments like Jamaica, Iceland, Portugal and more.
This year’s class boasts 175 cadets, the largest class the nation’s navy has seen yet.
“The classes are getting bigger and bigger. We just keep getting more and more people!” said Lt. Sg. Hugo Calvario, the ship’s orthopedic surgeon.
“We had to leave almost 40% of the crew to take on more cadets,” he continued, meaning the trainees have to pick up the slack and take on more responsibilities.
The Post watched earlier this week as they skillfully climbed the dauntingly high ropes and stretched across the towers of the ship’s three masts to conduct what in English is known as “manning the yards” — a universal sign of respect that is done every time a ship enters a port.
It is expected to be one of 30 Class A International Tall Ships that will parade through the Harbor on July 4, 2026.
The Mexican navy released a statement after the wreck.
“During the sailing maneuver of the Cuauhtémoc sailboat in New York, a mishap occurred with the Brooklyn Bridge, causing damage to the training ship, preventing the continuation of the training cruise for the time being,” they said.
“The status of personnel and equipment is being reviewed by naval and local authorities, who are providing support,” the organization added. “The Navy reaffirms its commitment to personnel safety, transparency in its operations, and excellent training for future officers of the Mexican Navy.”
I think this is Skidmark’s Fox News link.
— tw at 10:25 a.m. EDT
#4
I suspect that, like everything else Mexican, their navy has a nepotism problem, which is just as bad as DEI: instead of being chosen strictly for the boxes they check off, people are hired and promoted based on who their relatives/patrons are. Either way, ability is selected against.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2025 15:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Sinko De Mayo V2.0
/except for the sinking part
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2025 16:23 Comments ||
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#11
“We had to leave almost 40% of the crew to take on more cadets,”
There's your problem.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
05/18/2025 17:37 Comments ||
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#12
"One of the first things I would have done is drop my anchor or anchors.”"
That is actually a strategy. When I was in the Navy 50+ years ago, we were approaching the Chesapeake Bridge Tunnel when we suddenly lost power. One of the bosuns quickly dropped the anchor. We stopped until power could be restored.
[NYPOST] At least 21 people were killed in Kentucky and Missouri after devastating tornadoes and severe storms battered parts of the Midwest and South — and officials warned Saturday that the corpse count is only expected to rise.
In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said that at least 14 people had been killed in his state in the late Friday storms.
''Kentucky, we're starting today with the tough news that we lost at least 14 of our people to last night's storms, but sadly, this number is expected to grow as we receive more information,'' Beshear said in a statement on X.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[37 views]
Top|| File under:
[FoxNews] Rose Docherty, 74, was arrested for standing outside a clinic with a sign reading: 'Coercion is a crime, here to talk if you want.'
A grandmother in the U.K. who was arrested for holding a sign outside an abortion clinic is sounding the alarm against further attacks on free speech as lawmakers move to expand so-called "buffer zones" outside such facilities.
Rose Docherty, 74, was arrested in Glasgow, Scotland near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in February for holding a sign that read: "Coercion is a crime, here to talk if you want."
Docherty was the first person to be arrested and charged under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act, which went into effect in September, the BBC reported.
The law prohibits any protests or vigils from taking place within 200m or 656ft of 30 clinics offering abortion services in Scotland, but the law specifies that the Safe Access Zone could be extended if considered appropriate.
Docherty’s arrest came just days after Vice President JD Vance highlighted the law as an example of free speech being under attack in the U.K.
Now, Gillian Mackay, the Green Party parliamentarian responsible for introducing the buffer zones legislation, has now suggested that the Scottish government consider expanding the area of prohibition on "influence" outside hospitals, according to ADF International, a Christian legal advocacy group.
Docherty has rejected a formal warning from the Crown Office - arguing that it was "unjust" - and is waiting to find out what action may now be taken against her.
In her first broadcast interview since her arrest, she told the BBC she had "no reason to regret" the incident, noting it was an "alarming" and "surreal" experience.
She said she had read the law and believed her actions did not violate the legislation.
"I gave consideration to what I was doing…I looked at the law and saw what it said I couldn’t do, and thought, OK, well, this is what I can do…I can offer to listen, and if anyone wants to come and speak to me, they can do so, only if they want to come and speak with me," she told BBC’s Scotcast.
She said she is prepared to go to prison over the offense.
Docherty has also said that the government essentially wants to stamp out any opposition to abortion.
"I believe it wouldn’t matter where we stood…it wouldn’t matter how far they pushed the ‘buffer zone,’" she told ADF International, a Christian legal advocacy group.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Romanian investigative bodies believe that former presidential candidate Calin Georgescu was preparing a coup after the court annulled his victory in the first round of elections in December 2024. This was reported on May 17 by the Politico newspaper, citing case materials.
Georgescu reportedly gathered his comrades at a horse base near Bucharest. Horatiu Potra, who allegedly led a group of mercenaries, was also there. According to the newspaper, the group planned to organize unrest in order to seize power.
It is not known what exactly Georgescu discussed with his supporters at the equestrian base. One of its owners testified that the meeting was tense.
"I realized that their discussions could be somehow connected with the cancellation of the elections. This assumption was supported by their behavior. When I entered the room, they suddenly fell silent," the newspaper quoted the witness as saying.
According to the newspaper, during the searches Potra was found to have hidden weapons and more than €3 million in cash. An international arrest warrant was issued in his name, accusing him of attempting to violate the constitutional order. He was abroad at the time. Both Georgescu and Potra deny the charges, and their lawyers said the authorities were persecuting the former presidential candidate for political reasons.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the Constitutional Court of Romania in December 2024 overturned Georgescu's victory in the first round of the presidential elections. The reason given was the large number of complaints. The politician called this step a coup d'état.
New elections for the President of Romania were scheduled for May 2025. Georgescu submitted documents to participate in them, but the Central Electoral Bureau rejected his candidacy, stating that the documents he submitted allegedly did not comply with legal requirements.
The first round of new elections took place on May 4, and was won by a far-right candidate, the head of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians, George Simion. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov noted that Romanian citizens were deprived of the right to vote for the candidate they wanted, since the favorite was thrown out of the process.
#2
The EU are the ones who stepped in to put a stop to this.
Russia meddled in the election and Georgescu was ready to split NATO in half and stop aid to Ukraine. He's a traitor, 86 him.
#3
"We know Russia interfered in the election because we did not like the outcome. Besides, Georgescu is one of those right-wing populist candidates and we all know what *those* people are like."
Man, I'm so old I remember when the purpose of NATO was to stop wars.
#1
"In addition to Türkiye, sniper teams from Azerbaijan, Albania, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Qatar, Kosovo, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Libya, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia participated."
Sort of a limited field of contest. But still...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/18/2025 10:08 Comments ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Turkey has discovered a large gas field in the Black Sea, the fuel reserves are preliminarily estimated at $30 billion. This was announced on May 17 by the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Just what the world needs: a neo-Ottoman sultanate with money, instead of living on the charity of former subject Arabian territories.
"A new gas field has been discovered in the Black Sea at the Goktepe-3 well. The volume is 75 billion cubic meters, the economic value is $30 billion," he said, speaking in Istanbul.
According to the head of the Turkish state, this field will be able to provide local households for three and a half years.
Only temporarily wealthy? That’s ok, then.
In addition, Erdogan said that work on the Goktepe-3 well was completed at a depth of 3.5 thousand meters.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on May 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan expressed interest in implementing strategic joint projects in the energy sector. During the phone call, the leaders also expressed mutual interest in further expanding trade and investment ties.
In early May, the Turkish leader announced that the construction of the first reactor of the Akkuyu NPP, under the management of the subsidiary of the state corporation Rosatom, JSC Akkuyu Nuclear, would soon be completed. According to him, the nuclear power plant is scheduled to reach full capacity in 2028, which will reduce natural gas imports by 7 billion cubic meters per year and save $2.5 billion.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A magnetic storm began on Earth on May 17 and will last until May 19. This was reported by Mikhail Leus, a leading specialist at the Phobos weather center
"The solar wind began to influence the Earth's space weather last night. After midnight, the resulting change in the configuration of the components of the interplanetary magnetic field caused weak disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere, and closer to the morning they intensified to the level of an average magnetic storm of class G2," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to the forecast of specialists from the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the geomagnetic field will be in a weakly disturbed state with periodic weak magnetic storms in the next two days.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, a strong magnetic storm began on the Earth on April 16. According to meteorologist Evgeny Tishkovets, two huge solar prominences reached the planet and struck the magnetosphere. The cosmic impact caused a powerful magnetic storm, which can seriously affect the health of weather-sensitive people.
A less powerful magnetic storm was recorded on April 5. The level of magnetic disturbances reached 5.67 units. This level is higher than weak and slightly lower than average.
Earlier, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Director of the Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recalled that a magnetic storm is accompanied by a change in atmospheric pressure. Therefore, people who depend on it may experience a deterioration in their health. But the negative impact of magnetic storms should not be exaggerated.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
