An asteroid nearly 300 meters long—about a thousand times larger than the meteor that struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013—will pass close to Earth tomorrow, Thursday, the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported today.

“One of the largest asteroids of the year, 2025 FA22, will pass at a distance slightly greater than the diameter of the Moon’s orbit, reaching its closest approach to Earth around 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (1:00 a.m. in El Salvador),” the research center stated on its official website.

According to Russian astronomers, the asteroid has an average width of about 166 meters and a total length of 290 meters. “Its mass is approximately a thousand times greater than that of the Chelyabinsk meteor,” they added.

Despite its significant size, the laboratory emphasized that “the probability of this object striking the planet is extremely low,” describing the risk as “negligible.” “If its current trajectory holds, it will safely bypass both Earth and the Moon,” the scientists assured.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that American forces have struck three suspected Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean so far, not two as previously reported.

“We took down boats. It was actually three boats, not two, but you only saw two,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a state visit to the United Kingdom.

The president was asked about remarks by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who accused Washington of plotting to invade his country.

“Stop sending members of the Tren de Aragua to the United States. Stop sending drugs to the United States,” Trump responded.

The Republican leader mentioned this third vessel a day after announcing that U.S. forces had struck a speedboat in which, according to him, three “terrorists” were killed. Later, from the Oval Office, he claimed the boat had been carrying cocaine and fentanyl.

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The attacks come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas, as the U.S. military maintains a Caribbean deployment under the banner of counter-narcotics operations.

The Trump administration accuses Maduro of heading the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which the Venezuelan government denies. Washington has also offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture.

On Monday, Maduro said communications with the U.S. were “broken” in the face of what he called an “aggression” and declared that Venezuela is now “better prepared” in case of an “armed struggle.”

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in seven provinces due to what he described as “serious internal unrest,” as road blockades and demonstrations erupted in response to the elimination of the diesel subsidy and growing concerns over insecurity.

The 60-day measure applies to the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Azuay, Bolívar, Cotopaxi, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

Since Monday, partial protests have been reported in Pichincha, Carchi, Azuay, and Imbabura. On Tuesday, road blockades extended to northern Pichincha and routes in Carchi, near the Colombian border. In response, the Executive headquarters was temporarily relocated to Cotopaxi and the Vice Presidency to Imbabura.

The presidential decree states that the measure comes amid “strikes that have disrupted public order and provoked acts of violence, endangering the safety of citizens and their rights to free movement, work, and economic activity.”

According to the decree, the goal is to “prevent the radicalization of disruptive actions” in the affected provinces and to limit the impact on the population. It further emphasizes that the situation requires an “exceptional intervention by state institutions to safeguard security, guarantee citizens’ rights, maintain public order, and preserve social peace.”

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Social organizations and labor groups, including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), have strongly rejected the diesel price increase following the subsidy’s elimination.

The decree justifies the two-month duration as necessary “to ensure a strengthened state presence in the affected territories, restore order, and prevent further acts of violence against people, public, and private property.”