[MSN] Two young men from Massachusetts have been arrested in connection with a middle of the night explosion at Harvard Medical School, the FBI said.
Logan David Patterson, 18, and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 20, were taken into custody early Tuesday and each charged with one count of conspiracy to damage, by means of an explosive, federal prosecutors said.
No one was injured in the earth-shattering kaboom, which occurred on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building just before 3 a.m., officials said.
The explosive, which detonated inside a wooden research laboratory locker, was believed to be a Roman candle firework, according to Leah Belaire Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Patterson and Cardoza conspired to commit an "extremely dangerous act," FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said.
This is "not some harmless college prank. It's a federal crime," he said, adding that there could’ve been casualties if people were in the building at the time.
Foley confirmed the suspects do not attend Harvard. Patterson and Cardoza were apparently visiting the nearby Wentworth Institute of Technology for Halloween parties, prosecutors said.
"This investigation is ongoing," Docks said, adding, "There is no evidence of any ongoing threat to the university or to the public."
Early Saturday, surveillance cameras captured two suspects in face coverings walking near the medical school and lighting what appeared to be Roman candle fireworks, Foley said. The suspects then allegedly climbed scaffolding and accessed the building’s roof, she said.
Shortly after, campus police were alerted to a fire alarm from a kaboom on the fourth floor of the building, where there's a research laboratory for the medical school's department of neurobiology, Foley said.
Security video showed the two suspects leaving the building and fleeing the area, Foley said.
The FBI recovered video allegedly showing Cardoza taking off his pants and throwing them in a garbage can after he expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, Docks said. His pants were later retrieved by Sherlocks, he said.
Members of the public called authorities when they recognized the suspects, Foley said.
"These two men allegedly boasted about what they did to their friends," Docks noted.
48 Hour Rule.
Update at 6:40 p.m. ET: Moved from Signs, Portents and the Weather ok Page 1: WoT to Short Attention Span on Page 3: Non-WoT because it turned out to be merely an accident after a lot cigarette was flicked into a nearby pile of trash.
trailing wife for the moderators
[FoxNews] 3 firefighters were transported to local hospitals following the Bronx incident
Multiple firefighters were injured after a burning car reportedly erupted in a massive explosion Wednesday evening in New York City, a police spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Authorities said the blast originated from a vehicle at 7:13 p.m. in a mixed residential and commercial area of the Bronx, near Fox Street and Westchester Avenue.
Police said three FDNY firefighters were transported to local hospitals in stable condition, while preliminary reports from New York Post indicated that six responders were hurt.
A video posted on social media showed flames erupting near what appeared to be a white commercial van, moments before an explosion sent a massive fireball and plumes of smoke several stories into the air.
Multiple smaller explosions were also caught on camera, lighting up the night with electrical sparks into the night sky with sharp popping sounds.
The cause of the explosion remains unclear.
Can we at least assume it was not spontaneous?
The fire was reportedly under control by 8:19 p.m. NYPost added, citing the authorities.
#11
In my not expert opinion, and in no way pretend to be not expert:
First, that's a lot of trash. Windy, in a confined area, sort of makes a bellows. Something in the cargo was volatile enough to self combust.
Say, bunch of paint spray cans overheating, leaking, filling the volume, and setting off an unburned particulate air burn; that is some dirty air. Those fumes would accumulate inside the van, until it didn't.
Cannot discount Man Hole; consider the air saturation necessarily from flammables underneath the vehicle, with cover on, to come to that point with the wind, even underneath a vehicle. Unless the manhole cover was exact center of gravity, there would have been a 'spray'.
But yes, do not park over manhole covers, might get moved without permission.
I'd put my chip down on: routine urban alley contains surprise, precautionary heat/pressure change check-up.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The second solar flare of the highest magnitude X was recorded in 24 hours. The interval between the flares was approximately 4.5 hours, the press service of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported on November 5.
"A flare with a power of X1.1 was recorded at 01:01 Moscow time at the very edge of the solar disk," the laboratory noted on its Telegram channel.
The formation of two consecutive X-class solar flares is a relatively rare occurrence. Just over 240 X-class solar flares have been recorded in the first quarter of the 21st century alone. Thus, on average, they occur at a rate of less than once per month.
The event that occurred is a unique minimum on a yearly scale, scientists emphasized.
On the evening of November 4, a high-class X1.8 solar flare occurred on the Sun. It lasted from 8:15 PM Moscow time to 8:51 PM Moscow time. The radiation peaked at 8:34 PM Moscow time. The event was accompanied by a rapid ejection of plasma into interplanetary space. Scientists observed the flare for the first time in nearly five months.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] In the Kanevsky district of Krasnodar Krai, police charged a 32-year-old resident of the village of Staroderevyankovskaya with administrative responsibility for publicly displaying Satanist symbols.
A woman who called herself a witch and sorceress posted images of prohibited symbols on social media. During a search, officers seized ritual paraphernalia, including an image of an inverted cross, symbolizing Satanism.
"A witch from the Kanevsky district was convicted of displaying Satanic*symbols... The 32-year-old resident of the village of Staroderevyankovskaya, calling herself a witch, posted images of prohibited symbols publicly on social media," RIA Novosti reported today, citing the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Krasnodar Territory.
The court found the woman guilty under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of Nazi or extremist symbols). and imposed a fine, the agency clarified.
Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" reported that a Chechen state television channel aired a public apology from a woman accused of witchcraft. A state television journalist called on Chechen residents to report those providing occult services.
Chechnya has been waging a campaign of persecution against people claiming to be healers, psychics, magicians, and sorcerers for many years. Initially declared by the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, in 2013, dozens of people were detained, and some went missing.
The campaign subsequently subsided, but in 2019, persecution of residents for occult practices intensified again. Grozny State Television regularly aired reports in which local residents repented of their witchcraft practices, and Adam Elzhurkayev, director of the Center for Islamic Medicine, reprimanded them for their practices.
The key being that they continue the hunt in the background, as do new management across the executive branch, private citizens, and the DOGE committee in Congress — given there are always the foolish and the greedy, the hunt must never end.
[FoxNews] Citing frustrations with persistent crime, a trio of North Carolinapoliticians is urging Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to deploy the National Guard in Charlotte, saying the state of the city has become "increasingly dire."
"Recently, the city faced eight homicides in seven days. The murder rate in uptown Charlotte is now 200% higher than it was a year ago," the letter states. "According to the Fraternal Order of Police, aggravated assaults involving knives or guns have risen from 86 in 2024 to 111 in 2025, and personal strong-arm robberies have increased from 26 to 31 in the same period."
Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., one of the letter’s authors, said the request doesn’t just come from the state’s congressional delegation.
"This is not just my idea. This is the Fraternal Order of Police that had come, saying that they believed this is important and asking the governor and mayor to step up and do it," Harris said, alluding to a similar letter published by Charlotte-Mecklenburg law enforcement earlier this year.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The United States is actively increasing its strategic offensive weapons. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov announced this on Wednesday, November 5, at a briefing between President Vladimir Putin and the permanent members of the Russian Security Council.
"We must certainly focus not only and not so much on the statements and pronouncements of politicians and American officials, but above all on the actions of the United States of America. And these actions clearly indicate Washington's active buildup of strategic offensive weapons," Belousov said.
He noted that Washington is consistently withdrawing from strategic stability treaties and may abandon its moratorium on nuclear testing. Furthermore, the Americans are developing the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile with a new nuclear warhead and are working to replace the Columbia-class strategic nuclear submarine with the Ohio-class.
The minister added that the United States intends to decommission the launchers on 14 Ohio-class submarines and fully load them with Trident II ballistic missiles. The Dark Eagle medium-range missile system is expected to enter service by the end of 2025. The United States plans to deploy it in Germany, with a flight time of 6-7 minutes to targets in central Russia.
The US Air Force conducted a test launch of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile without a warhead. This was reported on November 5 by the press service of the US Space Force's 30th Wing, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The department noted that the test, designated GT-254, was conducted as part of a program of regular reliability and readiness checks for American strategic weapons.
The missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base and traveled approximately 4,200 miles (6,700 km) to its target on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
"GT 254 is not just a launch, it's a comprehensive test that validates the system's ability to perform its critical mission," said Lt. Col. Carrie Ray, commander of the 576th Test Squadron, according to the Space Force press service.
As the report clarifies, the LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile has been in service since 1970 and remains the only land-based component of the American nuclear triad. Such launches are regularly conducted to check the technical condition of the systems and confirm their operational readiness.
The test took place amid US President Donald Trump's announcement of his intention to resume nuclear testing. On October 29, he announced that he had instructed the Department of Defense to immediately begin preparations for such tests, stating that "other countries are also testing."
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.