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NEW YORK — Exxon Mobil said Friday that it will wind down a drilling project in Russia in compliance with U.S. sanctions, but said it received a license to keep working beyond the sanctions' deadline in order to complete the work. U.S. sanctions against Russia over its involvement in the Ukraine require the removal of U.S. workers on projects in the Russian Arctic and other select locations by September 26.

The United States just signed contracts for Finland to build American warships, a stark admission that the world’s most powerful navy can no longer construct the specialized vessels it desperately needs.

The Arctic just experienced its hottest year since record-keeping began more than a century ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday. Rising temperatures in the polar region show no signs of leveling off, either, according to the agency, which said they are rising twice as fast as overall global temperatures. NOAA reviewed how the Arctic is faring in a warming world in the latest iteration of its annual Arctic Report Card. "To observe the Arctic is to take the pulse of the planet," reads the report's executive summary. Since the previous year's report card, climate change has continued...

Next week’s pre-winter arctic plunge might be a sign of things to come for the Eastern U.S., as several key weather patterns will converge to bring early bone-chilling cold and potentially more snowstorms to the region. According to the FOX Forecast Center, two weather patterns, La Niña and an easterly Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, will allow more rounds of arctic air that is typically trapped high above the North Pole to spill into the lower levels of the atmosphere and south into the Eastern U.S. This frigid air is known as the “Polar Vortex.” Air in the polar vortex sits in the...

Putin is amassing nuclear weapons and attack submarines in the Arctic Circle as his country prepares for war with NATO, Norway has said. Norway's Defence Minister Tore Sandvik claimed his country had found Russia had been increasing its military presence in the Arctic, particularly in the Kola peninsula. The politician also said Vladimir Putin had been attempting to take over the Arctic region where its fleet is based to block shipping routes to Nato allies if war broke out. 'Russia is building up on the Kola peninsula... where one of the largest arsenals of nuclear warheads in the world is...

3,000-year-old ivory carving depicts whaling scene From ANI London, April 1: Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed 3,000-year-old ivory carving that depicts groups of hunters engaged in whaling, which pushes back direct evidence for whaling by about 1,000 years. According to a report in Nature News, the ancient picture implies that northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory. Among the picture which depicts hunters sticking harpoons into whales, the site also yielded heavy stone blades that had been broken as if by some...

Denmark’s foreign minister had the top U.S. diplomat in the country summoned for talks after the main national broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland. Trump has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. He has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S., and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the U.S. gathering intelligence there.

The ship will be ceremonially commissioned in August in Juneau, Alaska, which is the vessel’s homeport. Until then, the icebreaker and two others will be berthed in Seattle, Washington, until infrastructure improvements are made at the ships’ homeport. ... The U.S. Coast Guard’s newest polar icebreaker is officially operational, which the agency says will bolster its Arctic operations. The 360-foot-long icebreaker departed from its assembly port in Pascagoula, Mississippi and was headed to Seattle, where it will be based until renovations are completed at its homeport in Juneau, Alaska. ... The USCGC Storis will join the USCGC Polar Star and...

The U.S. military and Coast Guard are monitoring the simultaneous appearance of five Chinese icebreaking vessels in the Arctic region near Alaska. That unprecedented presence represents two and a half times the number of icebreakers currently capable of being operated in the entire Arctic region by the U.S. Coast Guard. Another is scheduled to be commissioned on Sunday and plans are underway to build dozens more. The Chinese icebreakers, which include a number of research-focused types, are being monitored by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), a NORTHCOM spokesperson told The War Zone Thursday evening....

Last year, when winter storms revealed a previously-unknown shipwreck on a beach on Sanday Island, one of the Orkney Islands, it launched an investigation by archaeologists and historians to uncover the mysterious vessel's identity. The Herald Scotland reports that researchers from Wessex Archaeology, Dendrochronicle, Historic Environment Scotland, and other local institutions recently tracked down the ship's origins, believing the wreck to be that of the Earl of Chatham, a 500-ton whaling ship that sank in March 1788. Before it was known by that name, however, it was formerly the HMS Hind, a ship with many years of service in the...

Summary Coast Guard seeks to add as many as nine polar icebreakers for Arctic use Arctic seas are increasingly being considered for trade routes Trump has pushed for shipbuilding revival, dozens of icebreakers LOS ANGELES, July 3 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending bill earmarks more than $8.6 billion to increase the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker fleet in the Arctic, where Washington hopes to counter rising Russian and Chinese dominance.The funding includes $4.3 billion for up to three new heavy Coast Guard Polar Security Cutters, $3.5 billion for medium Arctic Security Cutters, and $816 million for procurement...

The proposal is regarding 13 million acres of government-owned Arctic land that is part of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.. The Interior Department on Monday proposed the restoration of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic after it had previously been restricted by the Biden administration. The proposal is regarding 13 million acres of government-owned Arctic land that is part of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, which is a total area of 23 million acres that former President Warren G. Harding set aside in 1923 as an emergency supply of oil for the Navy. The Naval Petroleum Reserves...

Buried for hundreds of years, ancient brains are finally speaking. What they’re saying could change everything we thought we knew. A pioneering scientific breakthrough has made it possible to extract proteins from preserved soft tissues, including human brains, revealing a vast archive of biological information that has long remained inaccessible. This new method promises to reshape our understanding of evolution, diet, microbiomes, and even the development of brain cells over millennia. Tapping Into Hidden Biological Archives Every organism is built from proteins—molecules that drive vital processes such as heartbeats and neural communication. When an organism dies, these proteins usually degrade...

Geologists have uncovered a long-lost continental fragment buried beneath the thick ice of Greenland, a discovery that offers new insight into the ancient forces that shaped Earth’s surface. This previously unrecognized microcontinent, formed tens of millions of years ago, is believed to be part of a complex tectonic rift system between Greenland and Canada. The finding not only redefines the geological map of the North Atlantic, but also deepens our understanding of plate tectonic reorganization, continental separation, and how fragments of ancient crust become stranded during the birth of new oceans. Rifting Forces Between Greenland and Canada The region separating...

A sudden stratospheric warming event reversed the winds that make up the northern polar vortex on March 9. A new animation shows the vortex also moved away from the Arctic towards Europe. Between March 1 and March 20, the polar vortex traveled from above the Arctic to above Northern Europe. (Image credit: NOAA Climate) A major disruption to the Arctic polar vortex has bumped the ring of wind that circles the North Pole off its perch and towards Europe, a new animation shows. The migration could trigger colder-than-average temperatures in parts of the continent and across the eastern U.S. over...

Democrat Delaware Sen. Chris Coons told CNN Monday that the “average middle American” is too dumb to identify Greenland on a world map. Coons criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to purchase Greenland from Denmark and make it U.S. territory for resource and national security purposes, arguing that the plan will not resonate with the average American because they do not even know where the island is. Trump said no options for acquiring Greenland are off the table, emphasizing that a takeover of the island is a necessity to protect the U.S. against the threat of Russia and China’s increasing influence...

A test rocket aimed at building the ability to launch satellites from Europe crashed about 40 seconds after takeoff from a Norwegian spaceport on Sunday. The unmanned Spectrum rocket, an orbital rocket developed by German start-up Isar Aerospace, started smoking from its sides and then crashed back to Earth with a powerful explosion after launching from Norway's Andoya Spaceport in the Arctic. The company called the test flight a success. "Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success," Daniel Metzler, Isar's chief executive and co-founder, said in a news release. "We had a clean liftoff, 30...

German start-up Isar Aerospace developed the rocket and had warned ahead of the test that the initial launch could end prematurely. The company said 30 seconds of flight was enough time to register data. "Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,"

Russian and Chinese interests don’t align on this particular issue and the dynamics associated with it...Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that “Russia Is Wooing Arctic Gas Buyers With Life After US Sanctions”. They cited unnamed sources to report that Novatek, the company behind the Arctic LNG 2 megaproject, is courting American, European, and even Indian buyers ahead of Trump possibly curtailing or lifting sanctions on their initiative as part of the nascent Russian-US “New Détente”. According to them, a senior executive pitched this as “a way to counter a rising China”, which has a certain logic to it.From those three potential...

"The Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on the planet, so the question we’re trying to ask here is: Is the Arctic going to change fast, or really fast?" NASA's most ambitious Arctic voyage to date has revealed surprisingly high concentrations of ice particles in clouds over Greenland, a clue that may help explain why Arctic ice is melting even faster than predicted. "The Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on the planet, so the question we're trying to ask here is: Is the Arctic going to change fast — or really fast?" Patrick Taylor, the deputy science...