CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — A suspected meteor that fell over the Cleveland area on Tuesday shook homes and startled residents who heard a boom that some compared to an explosion.

People hundreds of miles (kilometers) away reported seeing the bright fireball even though it was 9 a.m. The American Meteor Society said it received reports from Wisconsin to Maryland.

“This one really does look like it’s a fireball, which means it’s a meteorite — a small asteroid,” said astronomer Carl Hergenrother, the group’s executive director.

“So much stuff is being launched that a lot of times what you see burning up is just reentering satellites. But usually those don’t get especially bright,” he said.

He estimated that Tuesday’s fireball might have been the size of a softball or basketball, or perhaps even larger, and that it would have hit the atmosphere at “many tens of miles per second.”

Staff at the National Weather Service in Cleveland also heard the boom and felt the vibrations, and suspected it was a meteor. They had no early reports of any debris being found.

“There could be some small fragments, but a lot of it would have burned up in the atmosphere,” NWS meteorologist Brian Mitchell said.

Meteors typically fall somewhere in the U.S. about once a day, while smaller pieces of space dust might fall 10 times an hour, Hergenrother said. Scientists track meteors through a network of special cameras that help capture the night sky, but more members of the public are catching them on cellphones and security cameras of their own.

“Now we’re seeing them, and there’s dozens of videos popping up all the time,” Hergenrother said.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday that the bloc is consulting with Gulf countries to potentially “bring forward proposals for Iran, Israel and the U.S.” to get out of their war in a situation where “everybody saves face.”

Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, made the remark to Reuters, adding that “it would be in the interest of everybody if this war stops.”

“We have been consulting with regional countries like ‌the Gulf ⁠countries, Jordan, Egypt, [about] whether we could also bring forward proposals for Iran, Israel and the U.S. to get out of this situation so that everybody saves face,” Kallas was quoted as saying. 

“The problem with wars is that it’s easier to start than to stop them, and it always gets out of hand,” she also reportedly said, noting that the EU is willing to assist “diplomatically to bring the parties together to really stop this war.”

TRUMP SEEKS WARSHIPS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES TO HELP SECURE STRAIT OF HORMUZ

Kallas also pushed back after President Donald Trump said over the weekend that, “Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe.” 

“Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way ‌in ⁠the Strait of Hormuz,” Kallas told Reuters on Tuesday. “We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open ⁠so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy ⁠crisis as well.”

TOP COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF US WAR AGAINST IRAN

Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that, “We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.” 

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“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump wrote. “In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water. One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!” 

Etienne Davignon, 93, is the only one alive among 10 Belgians accused by the Congolese leader’s family of complicity.

A 93-year-old former Belgian diplomat has been ordered by a Brussels court to stand trial over the assassination of Congo’s first prime minister and anti-colonial icon, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961.

Lumumba, who became the prime minister of the country – now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo – upon its independence from Belgium on June 24, 1960, was ousted in September of the same year and later killed by a Belgian-backed secessionist rebel group just months later on January 16, 1961.

But in 2002, a parliamentary investigation found that Belgium was “morally responsible” for Lumumba’s death.

On Tuesday, Etienne Davignon, 93, a former European commissioner who was a junior diplomat at the time, stands trial over his death, marking the first trial related to the murder of Lumumba.

He is also accused of being involved in the murder of Lumumba’s political allies, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito.

According to prosecutors, Davignon, who is accused of war crimes, had participated in the unlawful detention or transfer of Lumumba and deprived him of his right to an impartial trial.

Prosecutors added that Davignon had subjected Lumumba to “humiliating and degrading treatment”.

If the trial goes ahead, Davignon would be the first Belgian official to face the courts in 65 years since the prime minister was killed and his body was dissolved in acid.

While 10 people were accused of being complicit in the murder of Lumumba, Davignon is the only suspect alive.

Lumumba’s family members brought the case, which Belgian federal prosecutors have since taken up.

His granddaughter Yema Lumumba told the Reuters news agency after the ruling that it was a “step in the right direction”.

“What we want is to search for truth and establish different responsibilities,” she added.

The family’s lawyer, Christophe Marchand, also told the AFP news agency that “It’s a gigantic victory”.

“No one believed when we first brought the case in 2011 that Belgium would prove capable of seriously investigating this,” he said, adding: “It’s very hard for a country to judge its own colonial crimes.”

Gold-capped tooth

As African countries pushed for independence from their European rulers in the 1960s, Lumumba rose as an anti-colonial hero, though his government lasted only three months.

At just aged 35, Lumumba was executed in the southern region of Katanga, with the support of Belgian-backed mercenaries.

The only known remains of the killed leader, a single gold-capped tooth, were taken from the daughter of a deceased Belgian officer who was involved in the disappearance of his remains.

During a ceremony in 2022, his remains were returned in a coffin to DRC’s authorities.

During the handover, then Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo reiterated the government’s “apologies” for its “moral responsibility” in Lumumba’s disappearance.