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Monster Typhoon in the Pacific Ocean Is Bearing Down on Group of Remote US Islands

This satellite image provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Super Typhoon Sinlaku in the Pacific Ocean, Monday, April 13, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Super Typhoon Sinlaku in the Pacific Ocean, Monday, April 13, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
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Monster Typhoon in the Pacific Ocean Is Bearing Down on Group of Remote US Islands

This satellite image provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Super Typhoon Sinlaku in the Pacific Ocean, Monday, April 13, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Super Typhoon Sinlaku in the Pacific Ocean, Monday, April 13, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

A dangerous super typhoon in the Pacific Ocean is barreling toward a group of remote US islands.

Super Typhoon Sinlaku is expected to make landfall Tuesday in the Northern Mariana Islands and bring destructive winds, widespread heavy rain and flooding, the National Weather Service said Monday.

Power outages on the islands could be lengthy, forecasters warned.

Guam, a US territory with American military installations and about 170,000 residents, also could see damaging winds and is under a tropical storm warning. The US Coast Guard issued flood and high wind warnings over the weekend.

The tropical typhoon — the strongest on Earth so far this year — was producing sustained winds of 173 mph (278 kph) on Monday as it neared the islands of Rota, Tinian and Saipan, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

While it's expected to weaken slightly over the next few days, Sinlaku should cross near the islands as a Category 4 or 5 typhoon.

About 50,000 people live on the three islands, with most on Saipan, known for its laid-back resorts, snorkeling, and golf as well as the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Saipan was the site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles in the Pacific, in which more than 50,000 Japanese and American soldiers and local civilians died.

In Guam, where Typhoon Mawar knocked out power for days in 2023, US military officials warned personnel to prepare for the storm and shelter in place. The military controls about one-third of the land on the island, a critical hub for US forces in the Pacific.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved emergency disaster declarations for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, allowing for additional help with emergency services.

A super typhoon is a name given to the strongest tropical cyclones that brew in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, where Earth’s most intense storms usually form.

Monitored by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Guam, super typhoons are the equivalent of category 4 or 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic, with winds of at least 150 mph (240 kph). There have been more than 300 super typhoons identified since the warning center started using that name nearly 80 years ago.

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Bear Mauls Man to Death in Bulgaria

A bear smells a brick of ice on a hot afternoon at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo in Mumbai on May 10, 2026. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
A bear smells a brick of ice on a hot afternoon at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo in Mumbai on May 10, 2026. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
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Bear Mauls Man to Death in Bulgaria

A bear smells a brick of ice on a hot afternoon at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo in Mumbai on May 10, 2026. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
A bear smells a brick of ice on a hot afternoon at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo in Mumbai on May 10, 2026. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)

A bear mauled to death a man at Vitosha, a mountainous region just outside Bulgarian capital Sofia, police told AFP on Sunday.

"The findings of the medical examiner and a wildlife expert show that marks found on the body are those of a female bear accompanied by her cub," a Sofia police spokesperson said.

Police did not disclose the age of the victim, but Bulgarian media reported him as being in his 30s.

His body was located Saturday afternoon near a road connecting two chalets in the northwestern part of the mountainous area around half an hour by road out of Sofia rising to 2,295 meters (7,500 feet) and located about 30 minutes from Sofia.

Vitosha is a popular hiking destination for residents of the Sofia, being home to a range of wild animals, including deer, roe deer, wild boars and wolves.

The area is believed to be home to around a dozen bears.

The last recorded case of a person killed by a bear in Bulgaria dates back to 2010, in the Rhodope Mountains in the country's south.

Varieties

Saudi Arabia: Imam Turki Reserve Authority Reaffirms Commitment to Protecting Endangered Species

The Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Nature Reserve Development Authority logo
The Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Nature Reserve Development Authority logo
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Saudi Arabia: Imam Turki Reserve Authority Reaffirms Commitment to Protecting Endangered Species

The Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Nature Reserve Development Authority logo
The Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Nature Reserve Development Authority logo

The Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Nature Reserve Development Authority reaffirmed its commitment to protecting endangered wildlife species through a comprehensive ecosystem of environmental programs and initiatives aimed at preserving biodiversity, restoring ecological balance, and developing natural habitats within the reserve, coinciding with Endangered Species Day.

The authority emphasized that its efforts align with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative through a scientific and field-based approach focused on wildlife protection, the reintroduction of endangered species, and enhancing environmental sustainability within one of the Kingdom’s largest royal reserves.

These efforts contribute to preserving the national natural heritage for future generations.

The authority explained that the reserve is home to rich biodiversity, including several wildlife species of high environmental value. Environmental protection and monitoring teams continue to track wildlife, limit practices that negatively affect natural habitats, and implement specialized breeding and rehabilitation programs aimed at enhancing the survival and growth of threatened species in their natural environments.

The authority stressed that protecting endangered species is not only an environmental responsibility, but also an investment in ecosystem sustainability and quality of life.

It added that the development of vegetation cover, protection of natural resources, and promotion of community awareness constitute key pillars of its environmental strategy.

The impact of these efforts has been reflected in increased biodiversity and improved natural habitats within the reserve in recent years.

Varieties

Spacecraft to Probe How Earth Fends Off Raging Solar Winds

This photograph shows the Smile spacecraft (gold) fixed to a Vega-C rocket adaptor (black cone) on 25 March 2026, in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for liftoff from Europe's Spaceport. (Photo by ESA / AFP)
This photograph shows the Smile spacecraft (gold) fixed to a Vega-C rocket adaptor (black cone) on 25 March 2026, in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for liftoff from Europe's Spaceport. (Photo by ESA / AFP)
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Spacecraft to Probe How Earth Fends Off Raging Solar Winds

This photograph shows the Smile spacecraft (gold) fixed to a Vega-C rocket adaptor (black cone) on 25 March 2026, in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for liftoff from Europe's Spaceport. (Photo by ESA / AFP)
This photograph shows the Smile spacecraft (gold) fixed to a Vega-C rocket adaptor (black cone) on 25 March 2026, in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for liftoff from Europe's Spaceport. (Photo by ESA / AFP)

A joint European-Chinese spacecraft is set to blast off Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the Sun slam into Earth's magnetic shield.

Particularly fierce solar storms can knock out satellites, threaten astronauts -- and create colorful auroras in the skies of northern and southern latitudes.

To find out more about this little-understood space weather, the van-sized SMILE spacecraft is tasked with making the first-ever X-ray observations of Earth's magnetic field.

The spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a Vega-C rocket at 0352 GMT on Tuesday from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America.

Lift-off was originally planned for April 9, but was postponed due to a technical issue.

SMILE -- or the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer -- is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"What we want to study with SMILE is the relationship between the Earth and the Sun," explained Philippe Escoubet, an ESA scientist working on the project.

Solar wind is a stream of charged particles shot out from the Sun. Sometimes this wind is kicked up into a huge storm by massive eruptions of plasma called coronal mass ejections.

Hurtling at around two million kilometers (1.2 million miles) an hour, these powerful blasts take a day or two to reach Earth. When they arrive, Earth's magnetic field acts as a shield, deflecting most of the charged particles.

However, during particularly intense events, some particles can penetrate our atmosphere, where they have the potential to take out power grids or communication networks. They also create dazzling auroras known as the northern or southern lights, AFP reported.

During the worst geomagnetic storm on record in 1859, bright auroras were seen as far south as Panama -- and telegraph operators around the world were given electric shocks.

Solar winds can now also pose a danger to satellites orbiting Earth, as well as astronauts sheltering inside space stations.

Given these threats, scientists want to learn more about space weather, so the world can better forecast and prepare for big blasts in the future.

To help with this endeavor, the SMILE mission plans to detect the X-rays emitted when charged particles from the Sun interact with the neutral particles of Earth's upper atmosphere.

The spacecraft will observe this phenomenon from several important locations, including the magnetopause -- where the magnetic shield deflects solar particles.

It will also soar above the Earth's poles, where X-ray photons are visible, according to Dimitra Koutroumpa of France's CNRS institute who is working on the mission.

On Tuesday, the spacecraft will be placed 700 kilometers above Earth before heading on an extremely elliptical orbit.

SMILE will be at an altitude of 5,000 kilometers when it flies over the South Pole, where it will transmit data to a research station in Antarctica called Bernardo O'Higgins.

But the spacecraft will be 121,000 kilometers above Earth when it swings over the North Pole, to take in a far wider view over a longer period of time.

Among other things, this will allow the mission to "observe the northern lights non-stop for 45 hours at a time for the first time ever", according to the ESA.

The spacecraft has four scientific instruments, including a UK-built X-ray imager, as well as a UV imager, ion analyzer and magnetometer all made by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

SMILE is expected to start collecting data just an hour after it is put into orbit.

The mission is designed to run for three years, but could be extended if all goes well.