INTERNACIONAL
US turns to drones after retiring minesweepers to reopen Strait of Hormuz amid Iran crisis
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The U.S. is racing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as Iran threatens one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes, testing a Navy that has recently retired most of its dedicated minesweepers and is now relying on a smaller fleet of unmanned systems to do the job.
President Donald Trump has warned Tehran against further escalation and signaled the U.S. is prepared to act to keep the strait open, while Iranian forces have laid mines and threatened commercial traffic in the narrow waterway that carries a significant share of global oil.
The confrontation is now testing a weakness in the Navy’s mine-warfare posture. As the U.S. moves to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian mining threats, it is doing so after retiring most of the ships once dedicated to that mission and while still relying on a limited mix of legacy vessels and newer unmanned systems to clear one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
At the current moment, any mine-clearing effort is unfolding amid an active standoff in the strait. The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, while Iran has responded with attacks on commercial vessels, seizures of ships and threats to close the waterway entirely.
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The merchant vessel Seaway Hawk sails in the Persian Gulf while transporting decommissioned U.S. Navy Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, USS Devastator, USS Dextrous, USS Gladiator and USS Sentry. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Iain Page /U.S. Naval Forces Central Command / U.S. 5th Fleet)
At least several commercial ships have come under fire in recent days, and both sides have intercepted vessels as they attempt to move through the choke point, underscoring the risks facing any operation to restore traffic.
Iran has tied further negotiations to the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, while Washington has insisted on security guarantees and reopening the strait, leaving little immediate path to a deal.
The operation comes after a major shift in how the Navy handles mine warfare. The service retired its four Bahrain-based minesweepers last year, ending a decades-long presence of dedicated mine-hunting ships in the Middle East.
At the start of the current crisis, the Navy’s remaining minesweepers were based in Japan, not the Persian Gulf, and newer littoral combat ships equipped for mine countermeasures were not all positioned in the region.
Multiple news outlets have reported Iran has laid at least a dozen mines in the strait, citing intelligence assessments, though some estimates put the number higher.
Now, as the U.S. moves to reopen the strait, some of those assets are being brought back in. Two Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships, USS Chief and USS Pioneer, were tracked sailing west from Southeast Asia toward the Middle East in recent days as preparations for mine-clearing operations ramp up.
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Image shows the Turkish Navy’s version of the mine-sweeping drone. (Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The shift has left the Navy relying on a mix of legacy ships being surged into theater and newer unmanned systems designed to detect and neutralize mines.
«To be honest, that the minesweepers retired was never a concern to me, because we had brought in newer technology,» retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, who previously commanded the Navy’s 5th Fleet, told Fox News Digital.
But analysts say the Navy is still working through a transition as it replaces its older minesweepers with newer systems.
«We’re sort of at this nadir of the Navy’s mine sweeping capacity,» Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, told Fox News Digital.
Clark said the Navy has spent years developing unmanned systems to replace legacy ships, but currently has a limited number of those systems available for large-scale operations.
U.S. forces are not sending ships blindly into minefields. Instead, the operation begins with a wave of unmanned systems scanning the seabed to identify potential threats.
Underwater drones — some torpedo-shaped — are deployed in grid patterns to map the ocean floor and detect objects that could be mines, using high-resolution sonar to distinguish them from debris.
«They kind of look like torpedoes and they map the bottom,» Donegan said.
In parallel, surface drones tow sonar systems through narrow lanes, while helicopters equipped with sensors scan for mines closer to the surface, allowing the Navy to build a detailed picture of what is actually in the water.
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But identifying mines is only the first step.
«The mine neutralization part is really the long leg of the process,» Clark said.
Once a mine is located, operators deploy remotely controlled systems to disable it — either by detonating it in place or puncturing it so it sinks. Even then, the danger is not fully removed.
«You’ve got to then retrieve this thing with EOD personnel,» Clark said, referring to explosive ordnance disposal teams tasked with clearing debris that can still pose a hazard to passing ships.
The U.S. Navy has currently launched a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz amid a standoff with Iran. (Photo by Stephanie Contreras- U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
Clearing mines remains a slow and methodical process that can stretch timelines depending on how many devices are in the water and how they are deployed.
The Pentagon has told Congress the effort could take as long as six months, according to a Washington Post report.
Clark said recent war-gaming suggests U.S. forces could identify and begin neutralizing mines within weeks, but fully removing them from key shipping lanes could take significantly longer.
«The finding part, you could do within a couple of weeks,» he said, adding that neutralizing mines could take additional time and that removing debris and ensuring lanes are completely safe could extend operations into months.
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Donegan cautioned that timelines are difficult to predict, in part because U.S. forces must first confirm whether mines are actually present in the areas Iran has claimed.
«When somebody says they mined it, you have to go validate if that’s even true, and that takes time,» he said.
us navy, middle east, pentagon, war with iran, iran
INTERNACIONAL
El sorprendente hallazgo que muestra cómo las bacterias fabrican su propio ADN sin copiar instrucciones
El ADN es la clave que define cómo funciona todo ser vivo, incluyendo los seres humanos. Sus cuatro letras, A, T, G y C, forman la receta para armar y mantener la vida en cada célula.
Este sábado 25 de abril se celebra el Día del ADN para recordar el momento en que los científicos James Watson y Francis Crick describieron la estructura de doble hélice del ADN en la revista Nature.
Eso ocurrió en 1953 y con el paso del tiempo se encontraron indicios de que la investigadora británica Rosalind Franklin fue fundamental en este hallazgo: obtuvo imágenes de difracción de rayos X, especialmente la famosa Foto 51, que permitió ver la forma real del ADN.
Este año, el Día del ADN se llena de emoción con un hallazgo que rompe esquemas. Un grupo de científicos de la Universidad de Stanford, en los Estados Unidos, descubrió que existe una nueva forma de fabricar ADN en bacterias. Este avance cambia lo que se creía posible.
Pujuan Deng, Hyunbin Lee, Carlo Armijo, Haoqing Wang y Alex Gao fueron parte del equipo que publicó el hallazgo en la revista Science.
Sugirieron que las bacterias pueden fabricar ADN de doble cadena sin copiar un molde previo, al usar proteínas especializadas. De esta manera, dieron cuenta de una nueva forma natural de crear ADN.
En diálogo con Infobae, el doctor Gao desde los Estados Unidos explicó: “Lo que más nos sorprendió fue que la proteína Drt3b lograra fabricar una molécula llamada poli(AC). No esperábamos que se pudiera hacer la segunda cadena de ADN para formar la doble hélice de esta manera, hasta que vimos la estructura en el microscopio y todo tuvo sentido». La proteína Drt3b se encuentra dentro de ciertas bacterias.
Enseguida, el científico de Stanford afirmó: “Quiero aclarar que lo que descubrimos no contradice la idea principal de la biología sobre cómo funciona la información genética, aunque algunas personas en internet lo hayan dicho”.
La proteína está hecha solo para fabricar poli(AC) y no sirve para pasar información de aminoácidos a ADN en general.
“Lo que sorprende aquí es que en este caso se logra completar la doble hélice de ADN sin copiar otra cadena que ya existía, pero eso solo pasa en situaciones muy específicas y no cambia las reglas generales de cómo funciona la biología”, subrayó.
El científico especificó entonces que la proteína Drt3b solo funciona en casos muy especiales y no convierte información de proteínas a ADN como se hace en los seres vivos en general.
El ADN es la molécula que almacena toda la información genética. En los libros de biología se enseña que para fabricar ADN nuevo, siempre se copia una cadena ya existente, al usar enzimas llamadas polimerasas. Así se mantiene la fidelidad del código.
Antes de que se realizara el nuevo estudio, los científicos pensaban que todas las polimerasas necesitaban un molde, es decir, una cadena previa de ADN o ARN, para hacer una nueva. En bacterias, el ADN también sirve como defensa contra virus, llamados fagos.
El doctor Gao y sus colegas intentaron saber si existía en la naturaleza una forma de fabricar ADN sin copiar otro ADN o ARN, y si eso tenía algún papel en la defensa bacteriana.
Se preguntaron si alguna proteína podía construir una cadena de ADN con una secuencia exacta, sin depender de un molde previo.
Los científicos de Stanford prepararon un experimento con bacterias que tienen el sistema DRT3. Extrajeron las proteínas y el ARN especial de esas bacterias para estudiarlas en detalle.
Colocaron ese sistema en otras células y comprobaron que, con solo estas piezas, se podía fabricar ADN largo y repetitivo. Las letras GT y AC se alternaban como un patrón fijo y perfectamente ordenado.
Usaron microscopía crioelectrónica para observar de cerca la estructura de las proteínas y el ARN. Descubrieron que todo el sistema se organiza como un complejo simétrico, donde cada parte tiene su lugar exacto.
Detectaron que, si alguna proteína o el ARN fallaba, la bacteria ya no podía fabricar este ADN especial. Así, la defensa contra los virus desaparecía y la bacteria quedaba vulnerable.
Los resultados indicaron que la proteína Drt3b puede fabricar una cadena de ADN al usar solo su propia estructura. No necesita copiar ningún molde, algo que nunca se había demostrado en sistemas naturales.
“Aunque todavía es pronto para saber exactamente en qué se va a usar, lo que más nos emociona de DRT3 es que ayuda a entender mejor cómo funciona la creación del ADN”, resaltó el doctor Gao en la entrevista con Infobae.
Además -añadió- demuestra que el mundo de los microbios “guarda un montón de funciones sorprendentes en sus enzimas que aún no hemos descubierto”.
El equipo de investigadores reconoció que todavía no se sabe cómo, exactamente, este ADN repetitivo protege a las bacterias de los virus.
Por eso, consideraron que se debe seguir investigando cómo funciona el mecanismo y si puede tener aplicaciones en medicina o tecnología genética.
General Health,Medicines,Science,Technology,Europe,Health / Medicine,Science / Technology
INTERNACIONAL
La tensión y el bloqueo del Estrecho de Ormuz impiden el regreso a la normalidad en las monarquías petroleras de Oriente Medio
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Senate Republicans are forging ahead with a two-step plan to end the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, but their House counterparts tell Fox News Digital they are not on board with the strategy.
A swath of House Republicans have voiced growing frustration that a forthcoming GOP-only funding package does not include other policy priorities beyond funding immigration enforcement ahead of November’s midterm elections.
«I think we’ve got one last opportunity for reconciliation,» Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital in an interview. «I know some people are talking about two, but I think we’ve got one guaranteed shot.»
«I like the idea of making it bigger,» he added, mentioning defense funding and affordability concerns. «We’ve got a lot of important stuff to do and we need to get it done.»
Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., is advocating for a larger budget reconciliation package that could include defense funding and cost-of-living priorities, but he told Fox News Digital he would ultimately defer to House GOP leadership’s guidance.
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«I’m undecided,» Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News Digital, referring to the Senate’s approach. «I’ve got issues with it. We believe it should be more expansive.»
The Senate approved a budget resolution early Thursday largely along party lines that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.
Republicans are pursuing the partisan budget reconciliation process to bypass Democrats and fund immigration enforcement with GOP votes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to fund the department without sweeping reforms added to the proposal.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is racing to pass the Senate’s budget resolution as early as next week, at which point he can afford to lose only a handful of votes. President Donald Trump has set a June 1 deadline to fully fund immigration enforcement through a GOP-only bill, forcing Republicans to act quickly with little room for error.
Before the DHS shutdown, House Republican leadership teased a budget reconciliation sequel to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would incorporate a diverse set of priorities, such as a defense supplemental package, spending cuts targeting fraud and policies aimed at lowering the cost of living.
Concerns among rank-and-file Republicans that a forthcoming budget bill will not include those provisions threaten to jeopardize that timeline.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have voiced frustration about the Senate’s «skinny» budget reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
House conservatives have also fiercely objected to the Senate passing a bipartisan partial DHS bill carving out ICE and the Border Patrol from the normal appropriations process and keeping those two agencies unfunded.
After Democrats in the upper chamber repeatedly filibustered DHS funding bills, the Senate approved legislation funding parts of the department that Democrats would support. The House has yet to take up that legislation.
«The bill the Senate sent over is totally unacceptable to conservatives,» House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said Thursday, referring to the upper chamber’s partial DHS bill. «We will never vote or support in any way a bill that puts in a zero» for immigration enforcement, he added.
«The very premise of needing a reconciliation bill to pass funding for ICE and CBP is repulsive to me,» Higgins told Fox News Digital. «That sort of thing has never been done up here, to take an appropriations bill and sort of cherry pick what you don’t want in it and isolate whole agencies … I’m against that whole premise.»
BEHIND THE SCENES OF CONGRESS’ ELEVENTH-HOUR RUSH TO FUND THE DHS
DHS warned this week it is short on funds to continue paying its employees through May. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
Senate Republicans are largely unified on keeping the package as narrow as possible out of concern that adding more to the pot could stall lawmakers’ progress.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has sought to expedite the passage of a forthcoming budget bill by involving in the process just two panels — the Senate Judiciary and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees.
«The vast majority of Republicans stuck together to do something Democrats are refusing to do: Fully fund the Border Patrol and ICE for three and a half years through the Trump presidency,» Graham said Thursday after the upper chamber adopted the budget blueprint. «As Senate Budget Committee Chairman, I am very proud of my colleagues.»
Still, some Senate Republicans agree with their House colleagues who want to supersize the forthcoming package out of fear that they may not get another shot before the midterms.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., argued that Republicans should try to beef up the package despite promises from leadership that there could be a third bite at the apple later in the year.
«I’m not saying anybody’s lying, they’re not. People probably intend to do a third reconciliation bill,» Kennedy said on the Senate floor. «But you’re not looking at Bambi’s baby brother here. There won’t be a third reconciliation bill. You know it … and I know it. This is it. This is the last train leaving the station.»
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., has argued a third budget reconciliation package is unlikely to materialize this year, adding the forthcoming immigration enforcement-focused bill is the «last train leaving the station» ahead of November’s midterm elections. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It is unclear whether the House will ultimately modify the Senate’s budget blueprint funding immigration enforcement.
Any changes to the resolution would kick it back to the Senate for reconciliation and require another marathon vote series before Congress could officially unlock the reconciliation process.
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DHS, meanwhile, has warned this week it is short on funds to continue paying its employees through May.
Earlier in April, Trump ordered the department to use existing funds to provide back pay to federal employees who had been furloughed or reported to work without their salary during the funding lapse, which began in mid-February.
government shutdown, homeland security, immigration, republicans, senate elections, budget house of representatives politics
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