Exit polls in Ohio clearly showed that most voters oppose unlimited abortion on demand‚ yet that’s what 57% of the Ohioans voted for with the passage of Issue 1 on Nov. 7. Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and their allies persuaded a lot of people who believe in limits on induced abortion to vote in favor of abortions of preborn children who could survive outside the womb using a barbaric dilation-and-evacuation procedure‚ in which babies are dismembered. While the procedures permitted by Issue 1 are extreme‚ the messaging to persuade people to vote for it was not. The messaging appealed to all voters with a message that resonated with the shared values of conservatives in this red state‚ as well as that of moderates and liberals. As a physician who has practiced OB-GYN care that embraces both patients‚ the mother and her child‚ I’m alarmed that some of my fellow doctors colluded with abortion extremists and messaging specialists to promote the narrative that abortion limits restrict the care we are able to give our patients. That narrative is harmful to women‚ their babies and the practice of medicine. So many of my patients and patients of other doctors who practice life-affirming care come to us with the same story: “My child has a life-limiting condition‚ and the only option given to me was to abort.” One time‚ I delivered two babies by cesarean section. One passed away eight hours later; the other is thriving to this day. The mother treasures the time she was able to spend with the twin who only lived 8 hours after he was born. Both pre- and post-Roe v. Wade‚ most obstetricians and gynecologists—76% to 93% of us—have been providing exceptional health care for both our maternal and fetal patients without doing induced abortions. We know how to do our jobs. We are trained and desire to partner with our maternal patients during low-risk and high-risk pregnancies alike to protect both of our patients from harm‚ and there is no law in our country that prevents us from doing so. Yes‚ there are times when we must prematurely separate our maternal and fetal patient‚ and the unintended consequence is the death of our fetal patient. That’s completely different‚ however‚ from an induced abortion‚ because our intention of the intervention is to separate and save them both‚ if possible‚ not to intentionally end the life of one of them. Women deserve health care in which doctors can be trusted to try to save both the woman and her preborn child. It is unfair to women to end the life of their preborn children without presenting them with all of their options. Too many times‚ I have spoken with women who were told they needed to have an induced abortion when there were other options‚ including expectant management (waiting with careful monitoring) or perinatal palliative care (hospice) for a baby with a life-limiting condition. Women are harmed when they cannot trust their doctors to tell them about all of their options. Doing that includes connecting them with tangible resources that address any socioeconomic barriers they face that often lead to a decision to have an induced abortion. Americans do not have to say “yes” to state ballot initiatives to constitutionalize induced abortion to protect themselves or their daughters‚ girlfriends‚ or wives. Doctors don’t have to harm our fetal patients to take care of our maternal patients. What doctors do have to do‚ however‚ is allow their voices to be heard. While there were some doctors in Ohio against Issue 1 who were willing to speak up‚ many remained quiet. Yes‚ it’s scary to put yourself out there when we live in a society that would rather resort to name-calling than making a persuasive argument. Yes‚ it’s scary to work for employers who threaten your right to free speech. Yes‚ it feels like you are alone‚ but please know you are not. Most of my colleagues do not practice induced abortion and do not believe abortion is essential health care. My colleagues across all different kinds of practices and states leave abortion to a small group of providers and shouldn’t let this small group drown out our voices.  Courage is contagious. It’s time to be courageous. The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post On Ohio’s Issue 1‚ OB-GYN Debunks Deceptive Abortion Narrative appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Bari Weiss‚ the former New York Times editorial writer‚ delivered a tour de force speech explaining the West’s current war of ideas and laying out what we must do to save our civilization. Speaking at the Federalist Society’s annual National Lawyer’s Convention‚ Weiss spoke after receiving a prize named after Barbara K. Olsen‚ a victim of the Sept. 11‚ 2001‚ terrorist attacks. She perfectly encapsulated the “civilizational war” the West faces‚ a war that “too many had foolishly thought was over.” She eloquently used the dual catastrophes of 9/11 and the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel to underscore the current war of ideas‚ conviction‚ and will.Throughout her 38-minute speech‚ Weiss proved eloquent‚ poignant and self-deprecating. She used humor to disarm and challenge the primarily conservative audience to look past the reality of her same-sex marriage and support for abortion to the stark truth that she‚ and millions like her‚ are allies with them in the more profound and deeper fight to save Western civilization as we know it.  She opened by noting that the attacks of Oct. 7 were not like “previous wars or battles Israel has fought in its 75-year history.” It was a “genocidal pogrom‚” akin to the Nazi Holocaust‚ the European pogroms‚ or the Farhud‚ the 1941 massacre of Jews in Baghdad.     Comparisons between the 9/11 and Oct. 7 attacks are apt because‚ as she noted‚ “the spectacle and savagery were the point.” Yet while the West responded with due horror to 9/11‚ Weiss lamented the West’s response to 10/7 as a “moral and spiritual catastrophe‚ revealing the rot permeating our civilization. At the Sydney Opera House‚ protesters shouted “Gas the Jews.” People celebrated “on the streets of Berlin‚ London‚ Toronto and New York.”  Black Lives Matter of Chicago created an image of the Hamas paragliders as a “symbol of freedom.” Posters materialized on college campuses calling for “Israel to burn.”  Ironically‚ the same crowd had quickly condemned George Floyd’s death and Putin’s Ukraine invasion‚ Weiss noted. “In lockstep‚ the social justice crowd–the crowd who has tried to convince us that words are violence–insisted that actual violence was actually a necessity. That the rape was resistance. That it was liberation.”     She rightly excoriated university presidents who‚ in her words‚ “leapt to issue morally lucid condemnations of George Floyd’s killing or Putin’s war on Ukraine‚” but who‚ after the 10/7 attacks‚ “offered silence or mealy-mouthed pablum about how the situation is tragic and ‘complex’ and how we need to think of ‘both sides.’”  She pointed to George Washington University‚ where students projected “Glory to Our Martyrs” on campus buildings; to Cooper Union‚ where Jewish students hid in the library from a rabid mob; to Columbia‚ Weiss’s alma mater (and of one of us – Malcolm)‚ where a professor called the slaughter “awesome;” and to Harvard‚ which discriminated against Jewish students decades ago in admissions‚ where 30 student groups signed a petition to “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.” And what is the explanation for their reactions? Weiss posited that the superficial answer would appear to be antisemitism‚ which she labeled the “world’s oldest hatred.” But to Weiss‚ it’s more profound and disturbing than just that. To Weiss‚ the proliferation of antisemitism is a symptom of a much deeper crisis.  When antisemitism moves from the shameful fringe into the public square‚ it is not about Jews. It is never about Jews. It is about everyone else. It is about the surrounding society or the culture or the country.  It is an early warning system – a sign that society itself is breaking down. That it is dying. In the 20 years since 9/11‚ “educated people now respond to an act of savagery not with a defense of civilization‚ but with a defense of barbarism.” Academic theories like postmodernism‚ postcolonialism‚ and post nationalism morphed over the two decades into “nothing less than the deconstruction of our civilization from within.”  The entire concept of right and wrong has been turned upside down. These radicals’ new solution is to “decolonize” the West. Tear it down from the inside out.  Basic commonly understood concepts like good and evil have been replaced with a new rubric: “the powerless” or “oppressed” who are considered good‚ and the “powerful” or “oppressors” who are now considered bad.  This new paradigm and perverted worldview explain‚ for example‚ the rush to replace “color blindness with race obsession‚ ideas with identity‚ debate with denunciation‚ persuasion with public shaming‚ [and] the rule of law with the fury of the mob.” Weiss’s incisive comments perfectly depicted the Through-the-Looking-Glass-like place we find ourselves in as a society where up is down and down is up. Today‚ people are given authority in “inverse proportion to the disadvantages their group had suffered.” Forget about the quaint notions of merit‚ hard work‚ or other outward signs of accomplishment. Merit and excellence are now “dirty words.”  Like a kudzu vine that swallows entire ecosystems‚ this “inverted worldview” has contaminated every institution in American life‚ according to Weiss. Paraphrasing Weiss‚ it started in universities and has devoured the media‚ museums‚ philanthropy‚ high schools and elementary schools‚ and even the law.  The takeover of this pernicious worldview is so pervasive and comprehensive that Weiss conceded it’s now “almost hard for people to notice it because it is everywhere.” The reaction to the Oct. 7 attacks has “been a mark to market moment” as they show the world how deeply this cancerous viewpoint has spread and how‚ in Weiss’s opinion‚ these incendiary reactions serve as a “predicate to violence.”  To her‚ this explains why the editor of the Harvard Law Review was intimidating a Jewish student and why a Manhattan public defender was videotaped tearing down posters of kidnapped Jewish children. “That baby? He is a colonizer first and a baby second. That woman gang raped by terrorists? Shame it had to come to that‚ but she is a white oppressor.” Weiss argued that we must do four things to defeat this nihilistic ideology. First‚ we need to open our eyes to “look and discern accordingly.”  She urged us to get past the superficial and look at “the barbarism that Hamas carried out” and the reaction to it. She said we should ask‚ Why is it that the “most educated…have become the most morally confused?” She urged us to “see the world as it is” and be clear-eyed about distinctions between “good and bad‚ better and worse‚ pain and not pain‚ safety and danger‚ just and unjust‚ friends and enemies.” We don’t need a “history lesson” or “context” to know that “tying children to their parents and burning them alive is pure evil.” She noted that her allies are not people who look at the external “markers of my identity‚” but people who “believe that America is good‚” the “West is good‚” that “human beings are created equal‚” and that “America and our values‚ those are things worth fighting for.”  Second‚ we “must enforce the law.” Weiss rightly decried the election of “so-called ‘progressive prosecutors‚’” noting that it has “proven to be an immensely terrible thing for law and order.” As we have warned for years‚ choosing not to enforce the law doesn’t reduce crime‚ it actually promotes it. One of us (Stimson) even wrote a book about these rogue prosecutors. Weiss noted the cruel irony that the “same activists who pushed to ‘defund the police’ are also non-publicly harassing Jews.”    We must not allow or tolerate the “selective enforcement” of the law. Third‚ we must push back against “double standards on speech.”  Weiss noted‚ “the universities are playing favorites based on the speech they prefer‚ and the racial group hierarchies that they have established.” Public universities have been imposing “content-based restrictions on free speech” for years‚ which is unconstitutional. Conservative speakers are slapped with “security fees” or have the venues for their speeches moved off campus. Private universities‚ which can legally restrict speech‚ have enforced the rules in a “discriminatory manner.”    Fourth‚ we must “accept that [we] are the last line of defense and fight‚ fight‚ fight.” In a clarion call for a robust application of the First Amendment‚ Weiss urged us to‚ above all else‚ tell the truth. In a battle cry reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth’s St. Crispin’s Day speech‚ Weiss‚ building to a crescendo‚ implored: Do not bite your tongue. Do not tremble. Do not go along with little lies. Be the skunk at the garden party. Speak up. Break the wall of lies. Let nothing go unchallenged. Our enemies’ failure is not assured and there is no cavalry coming. We are the calvary‚ and our civilization depends on us. She wound down her speech by sharing a passage from the Torah that would be shared in synagogues the day after her speech. It comes from the story of Abraham when his wife‚ Sarah‚ dies in a foreign land. Instead of wallowing in misery‚ Abraham buys a plot of land to bury her and then finds a wife for his childless son. She quotes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks‚ saying Abraham “heard the still‚ small voice saying: The next step depends on you.” She concluded by saying‚ “There is no place like this country‚ and there is no second America to run to if this one fails.”  Like a general leading troops into battle‚ Weiss urged us to “get up and fight for our future” because it is the “fight of—and for—our lives.”  Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post A Speech for the Ages: Bari Weiss’s Battle Cry to Save the West appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Yonatan Lulu-Shamriz’s daughter was celebrating her 2nd birthday on Oct. 7 in Israel. Inside the safe room of their home one mile from the border of Gaza‚ Lulu-Shamriz’s little girl was delighted that she was allowed to eat her birthday cake with her fingers as her parents had not had time to grab forks as they fled into the safe room. The child was unaware of the Hamas terrorists outside‚ and her parents did everything they could to ensure it stayed that way.   “I told her that we were going to play a game‚” Lulu-Shamriz said‚ “the whisper game‚ that if we whisper‚ we get the balloons after.”   For the 22 hours he‚ his 7-month pregnant wife‚ his daughter‚ and their two dogs were in the safe room‚ they tried to remain as silent as possible‚ and if his daughter started to sing or talk loudly‚ he reminded her of the game and the prize of balloons if she remained quiet.   After being in the safe room for a few hours‚ Lulu-Shamriz‚ who is 33 and the oldest among three boys‚ received a text from his 26-year-old brother Alon Lulu-Shamriz telling the family he heard Hamas terrorists in his house.   “I wrote him that I love him‚ and he’s strong‚ and this is the last time we spoke‚” Lulu-Shamriz told The Daily Signal during a recent interview.   Lulu-Shamriz’s youngest brother was taken hostage by Hamas during the attack in October. At first‚ the family thought he was among the 1‚200 Israelis killed in the terrorist attack‚ but later‚ the Israel Defense Force confirmed that he was taken hostage.    Lulu-Shamriz and his brother Ido Lulu-Shamriz‚ 32‚ recently traveled from Israel to Washington‚ D.C.‚ to share their story and advocate for their little brother and the release of about 240 hostages being held in Gaza.   The oldest Lulu-Shamriz said he and his family have not found any peace since his little brother was kidnapped‚ but instead said he feels “blame all the time.”   “You wear these clothes‚ you eat food‚ you go to bed‚ you brush your teeth in the morning‚ and you always ask yourself if Alon get the same conditions‚” the oldest brother said. “When you put your blanket at night‚ you ask yourself‚ is Alon cold now?”  Alon Lulu-Shamriz was taken hostage by Hamas Oct. 7. Photo compliments of JDA Worldwide. Ido Lulu-Shamriz‚ the middle brother‚ had a different experience on Oct. 7. The middle brother is part of the civilian emergency squad in his kibbutz near the Gaza border in Israel. Every kibbutz near the Gaza Strip has a civilian squad that can respond to threats until the Israel Defense Force arrives‚ Ido Lulu-Shamriz explained.   Around 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7‚ Ido Lulu-Shamriz received a message from a squad member that someone had parachuted into his kibbutz with a gun. He then started to hear missiles go off and alarms sound and realized that “this is not just the missile attack.” “This is something unique‚ something that never happened to us‚” he said. Ido Lulu-Shamriz and the members of his civilian emergency squad were instructed via a group WhatsApp message to go to the shelter in the kibbutz where their guns are stored. He reached the shelter and got his gun and he and the other squad members began to fight “dozens of terrorists around the shelter‚” he recalled. “Seven of my friends were killed‚” Ido Lulu-Shamriz added. “Seven of them fought shoulder to shoulder with me‚ and the other seven guys survived.”   “At the beginning‚ we thought about attack‚” he said‚ but “then you realize you need to defend because there are so many‚ they were everywhere. And then you realize it’s self-defense‚ you know‚ everyone needs to rescue himself before you’re going to be dead like your friends.”   Ido Lulu-Shamriz and his good friend retreated back to his house‚ but before they made it to safety‚ Ido Lulu-Shamriz saw that his neighbor’s door was open. His neighbors‚ a husband and wife‚ had two 10-month-old twins.   “When I saw the door open‚ I realized that they are not with us anymore‚” he said‚ bluntly. Ido Lulu-Shamriz entered the safe room in his home with his friend and initially believed that Hamas terrorists had killed the parents and their twin babies. Later‚ however‚ through the walls of the safe room‚ they heard the babies crying. “They didn’t stop for 12 hours‚” the middle brother said.   He sent a message to Israel Defense Force soldiers alerting them to the twin babies‚ but “they didn’t reach them for 12 hours‚ 12 hours that I’m hearing those twins crying nonstop while their parents are dead between their beds.” Reflecting on the events of Oct. 7‚ Ido Lulu-Shamriz added‚ “Nothing can prepare you for those moments‚ you know‚ for such a battle‚ such a sight to fight with your best friends that are now alive and a couple of minutes later‚ they are dead. It’s terrible. You can’t prepare for those moments in your life.”   When asked what message they have for President Joe Biden and America’s leaders‚ Yonatan Lulu-Shamriz‚ the eldest brother‚ said America needs to put “pressure on Qatar” because the nation has a “direct channel to Hamas” and Qatar could play a role in negotiating the release of the hostages.   Victoria Coates‚ vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation‚ told The Daily Signal that “Qatar does have leverage with Hamas.” But Coates noted that the hostage negotiations are complex and that there is no simple answer to moving negotiations forward. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of Heritage.)  Yonatan Lulu-Shamriz said he hopes U.S. citizens understand that what “happened in Israel on the seventh of October‚ it’s not aimed only for Jews‚ for Israelis‚ and Zionists.” “They killed everyone‚” he said‚ referring to Hamas. “They kill Thai people‚ they kill Americans‚ they killed Russian‚ and Europe is next. America is next.”   Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.  The post ‘America Is Next’: Brothers of Hamas Hostage Issue Dire Warning‚ Plead for Help appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Thanks to a resounding wave of recent public support‚ the Texas Civil War Museum’s board of directors has decided to keep the museum in Fort Worth‚ Texas‚ open‚ reversing a decision made earlier this year to permanently close the facility to the public on December 30‚ 2023. Museum artifacts currently in possession of The Horse Soldier Antiques in Gettysburg‚ Pa.‚ and Heritage Auctions in Dallas‚ will continue to be sold and auctioned off to endow the museum. The museum’s current hours of operation will remain the same: Thursday through Saturday‚ 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Marcus Richey‚ son of retired museum president Ray Richey‚ will continue in his present role as museum director.  historynet magazines Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people‚ the wars‚ and the events that shaped America and the world. subscribe today

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While we were all tucked up in bed in the early hours of Halloween‚ Portugal was about to start a record-breaking streak. For six days in a row‚ more energy was produced from renewable energy sources than was consumed across the entire country.A record-breaking streakThe new record was set between 4 am local time on October 31 and 9 am on November 6 – 149 consecutive hours‚ breaking 2019’s record of 131 hours – during which 1‚102 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy were produced. This ended up being more than the country needed‚ with both industrial and household consumption only reaching 840 GWh.Although this record doesn’t mean that fossil fuel plants weren’t operating at all during this time‚ another national record set during this time demonstrated that may well be possible in the near future. Beating a previous high of 56 consecutive hours‚ Portugal also managed to go natural gas-free for 131 hours in a row‚ and for 95 of those hours‚ produced enough clean energy that some could be exported to neighboring Spain.Speaking of the achievement in a statement posted to its website‚ REN‚ the company in charge of electricity and gas supply in Portugal‚ said: “These significant achievements confirm that Portugal has been maintaining a sustainable trajectory in progressively integrating indigenous renewable sources‚ while upholding the primary objectives of supply security and service quality.”Ahead of the gamePortugal is something of a trend-setter when it comes to renewable energy. Whereas the rest of the European Union didn’t pledge itself to become carbon-neutral by 2050 until 2019‚ Portugal did so in 2016. It had also aimed to stop the use of coal as a fuel by 2030‚ and with the last of its coal plants having shut down nearly two years ago‚ it achieved that goal nine years early.The country’s main sources of renewable energy are wind and solar‚ which in the future could be combined into hybrid plants. “If we combine wind and solar‚ what we see is that there is a big complementarity‚” said Hugo Costa‚ who oversees the renewables arm of the state utility‚ speaking to Canary Media. “Typically‚ when we have wind blowing‚ we don’t have sun. And when we have sun‚ typically we don’t have that much wind.”As with its coal plants‚ Portugal aims to decommission all of its natural gas-fired power plants by 2040. Earlier this year‚ it also set out plans to double the country’s solar and hydrogen energy capacity – the country is already the home of Europe's largest floating solar park. All being well after public hearings‚ Portugal may be well on its way to achieving its carbon-neutrality goals.

Since living through a pandemic‚ we’ve all recently become acutely aware of the stresses associated with living in close quarters with a single group of people for a prolonged time. Spare a thought‚ then‚ for the six men and women who entered the Russian Academy of Science’s SIRIUS-23 project last Tuesday – and won’t come out again for 360 days.The team – compromising crew commander Yuri Sergeevich Chebotarev‚ flight engineer Anzhelika Anatolyevna Parfyonova‚ crew doctor Ksenia Dmitrievna Orlova‚ and researchers Olga Sergeevna Mastitskaya‚ Ksenia Sergeevna Shishenina‚ and Rustam Nazimovich Zaripov – will spend the next almost-year in a sealed-off facility at the Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow. It’s the fourth mission launched in the SIRIUS project – the name stands for “Scientific International Research In Unique terrestrial Station” – a joint endeavor from NASA and IBMP. As in previous experiments‚ the crew will nominally be on a simulated lunar mission: performing a flyby‚ multiple “landings” and surface operations‚ using a rover for investigations‚ and so on. But diverting though that all is‚ it’s not the main goal of the mission. “The research is not about exploring the lunar surface‚” NASA announced at the start of 2019’s SIRIUS-18/19 missions. Instead‚ the agency explained‚ they are “a series of missions to better understand how the human body and mind adapt to increasing durations in spaceflight missions with crews representing different countries and cultures.”The subjects are being sealed away for space science.Image Credit: IBMP (CC-BY-NC-SA)But that makes this mission rather unusual‚ in fact – because NASA is sitting it out.“The agency is not participating in the 12-month SIRIUS 23 mission‚” confirmed Anna Schneider‚ a public affairs specialist at NASA Johnson Space Center‚ in a statement to Space.com.“NASA’s Human Research Program is participating in isolation research and other Earth-based analogs‚ including the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) and the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA)‚ Antarctica‚” elaborated Schneider‚ “as well as evaluating other domestic and international analogs‚ to ensure key research goals can be completed to inform future human spaceflight missions. ”Without Americans on board‚ SIRIUS-23 is making history as the first monolingual isolation experiment for IBMP‚ with all crew members speaking Russian. It’s also noteworthy that four of the six Moscownauts are women‚ noted Anastasia Stepanova‚ a PhD student in space resources at the Colorado School of Mines and one of the scientists on the SIRIUS-19 team.“Sirius-23 is different in many ways [from] the previous SIRIUS-17‚ 19 and 21 simulations‚” Stepanova told Space.com.“One year is a challenging duration that will be filled with many biomedical experiments on board.”For example‚ she explained‚ the crew’s ability to cope with technical malfunctions of various seriousness will be studied‚ as will the physical consequences of long-term and regular extravehicular activity and night work. Also of interest are the psychological and social ramifications of spending so long in isolation – effects which have so far proved not entirely positive.After all‚ as various futurists look to colonizing the moon and Mars for humanity’s future‚ it’s experiments like SIRIUS that will decide how feasible such long-haul expeditions really are. So watch this space: in a year‚ we’ll either have confirmation that our species can cope with interplanetary missions – or‚ worst case scenario? One hell of a whodunnit.

During the early stages of their invasion of Ukraine‚ Russia experienced a significant loss when its flagship‚ the Moskva‚ was sunk by Ukrainian forces in the Black Sea. The vessel’s destruction was a surprise not only to the Russians‚ but also to many who observed this conflict at the time‚ but now researchers believe they have evidence that the Ukrainian army benefited from an unusual weather phenomenon that made the attack possible.According to the work of two radar experts at the Swedish Defense Research Agency and a meteorologist from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute‚ the Ukrainian military were only able to see and target the Moskva missile cruiser because of a temperature inversion that occurred at the time. During this unique event‚ the usual situation switched around‚ whereby cooler air was at lower altitudes with warmer air above it.This‚ they argue‚ allowed the Ukrainians' radar signal to refract off the atmosphere‚ carrying it much further than would normally be possible. This is why the Ukrainians were able to see and subsequently sink the warship.“Before launching an anti-ship missile‚” the researchers write in their paper‚ “a target must first be detected and positioned‚ for example by an accompanying radar system. However‚ when the missiles hit the Moskva she was well beyond the normal radar horizon of any ground-based radar system‚ making the ship undetectable under normal circumstances.”The fact that the Ukrainians were able to hit the Moskva was therefore something of a mystery‚ which led some to suggest that a US aircraft had tipped them off to its location‚ a rumor that has since been denied.  Interestingly‚ as the researchers note‚ an alternative explanation was offered by the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda in December 2022. According to a series of interviews they conducted with military personnel‚ weather conditions had allowed the Ukrainian’s R-360 Neptune anti-ship missile system‚ complete with its search-and-track radar (known as Mineral-U) to spot the vessel in the Black Sea.The impact the atmosphere can have on radar has been studied for almost a century. It is known that radio waves can be attenuated (weakened or interfered with) by rain and are normally refracted slightly towards the Earth due to variations in the atmosphere.The existing models used to calculate radar’s horizon in “normal” atmospheric conditions can therefore sometimes underestimate or overestimate its reach due to prevailing meteorological conditions.“In this work‚ we have examined [the Ukrainska Pravda’s claim] by calculating the atmospheric refractivity from meteorological reanalysis data and thereafter applying an electromagnetic wave propagation model‚” the authors write. “We found that at the time of the missile launch the atmospheric conditions were indeed allowing a ground-based radar to detect targets close to the sea surface at much longer distances than normal.”“The results show that atmospheric conditions must be considered carefully‚ even during warfare‚ as their impact on radar wave propagation can be considerable. With increasingly detailed and accurate meteorological reanalysis data available‚ it is now possible to perform in-depth analyses of past atmospheric propagation conditions.”The study is published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.