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An unmanned Ukrainian sea drone shot down a Russian SU-30 fighter jet near the port of Novorossiysk - home to the Kremlin's Black Sea Fleet. The downing of the £38 million jet was carried out by Group 13 on May 2, a special unit within Ukraine's military intelligence. The sea drone was reported to be equipped with a R-73 air-to-air missile, which struck the jet in midair. The SU-30 crashed into the sea. Reports suggest that the crew were able to eject from the stricken jet and were later picked up by a civilian cargo ship. In a statement confirming...

Another F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea, the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week, five people familiar with the matter told CNN. It is not entirely clear what happened yet, as the investigation is ongoing, but two of the people said there was some kind of arrestment failure as the jet was trying to land on the carrier and the pilot and weapons systems officer had to eject. They were recovered by a rescue helicopter and are both alive, but they...

Ukraine launched a devastating drone attack on Russia overnight as Vladimir Putin prepares to welcome foreign leaders to celebrate VE Day. The strikes hit Moscow and surrounding Russian regions ahead of a large military parade in the capital on Friday, May 9, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 in Europe. One target hit by Ukrainian drones was Kubinka military airfield in the west of the city, from which aircraft will launch in a scheduled Red Square flypast. The airfield holds Russian MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets as well as Putin’s aerobatic team and is often used for...

The United States has reportedly encouraged intelligence agencies to ramp up spying efforts in Greenland amid President Donald Trump repeatedly floating the idea of taking over the Arctic island.... The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two sources, that high-ranking officials working under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Habbard sent a "collection of emphasis message" to the heads of various intelligence agencies last week. Intelligence agencies have been directed to learn more about the independence movement on the island and the general attitude of the Greenlanders towards American resource extraction, the Journal added. The agencies have been asked to use tools...

HOUSTON — Half a million Texans are expected to suffer through sweltering heat with no electricity into early next week after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power throughout the Houston area Monday, generating anger at the region’s large utility for failing to defend the grid from a predictable summer storm. Food is spoiling in dormant refrigerators days after the Category 1 hurricane tore through power lines and utility poles. Hospitals are swarming with patients struggling with heat stroke. Businesses can’t function as residents are ordered to stay home, and many residents faced at least three or four more days of continued...

A crack Russian unit of fighters was almost totally destroyed during intense fighting near Kharkiv, rendering it inoperable, according to reports from the frontline. The devastating massacre took place last weekend during fighting for Vovchansk, a city located 73 km (45 miles) northeast of Kharkiv. The city has become the focus of heavy fighting after Russian troops launched a surprise attack in the Kharkiv region in early May. As of last week, the Russians claimed to control around and half of the city - but the situation on the ground remains very fluid. After making initial gains, the Russians have...

Thousands of Atlanta students stranded all night long in their schools were reunited with their parents Wednesday, while rescuers rushed to deliver blankets, food, gas and a ride home to countless shivering motorists stopped cold by a storm that paralyzed the business capital of the South with less than 3 inches of snow. The result was gridlock on freeways that are jammed even on normal days. Countless vehicles were stranded and many of them abandoned. Officials said 239 children spent Tuesday night aboard school buses; thousands of others stayed overnight in their schools. One woman's 12-mile commute home took 16...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A year ago, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in the home stretch of a pulsating White House race, belting out speeches to pumped up crowds and days away from crushing Republican John McCain. The Democratic duo, now president and vice president, are back on the stump again, but the euphoric crowds have thinned and the electrifying crusade for change seems somewhat sullied by the inevitable compromises of governing. Taking time out from multiple crises, Obama has reeled off a string of appearances, polishing his own political skills in some of the few races scheduled a year...

RIYADH (AFP) - The killing of Al-Qaeda's new frontman in Saudi Arabia means that the network's local branch is now "brain dead" after successive killings of hardcore leaders, a prominent Muslim cleric said. But while the group's militants still on the run do not compare to the likes of their notorious slain chief Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, they remain "dangerous as individuals, rather than as an organization," Sheikh Mohsen al-Awaji told AFP. The Saudi interior ministry announced Sunday that Moroccan-born Yunis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, recently named as "the head of sedition" by his comrades, was killed in a shootout with security...

The Arab and Muslim world stands at a crossroad. One direction indicates dictatorship. A mixed bag of absolute rulers and Islamists have different aims, but a common belief in their right to be wielding power and killing anyone in their way, with weapons of mass destruction if they can acquire them. Taken together, they are condemning their own and other people to permanent violence and regression. And in the other direction, reform. A different mixed bag of Arab and Muslim oppositionists, intellectuals, dissidents and exiles are trying to devise the sort of pluralist or open society that alone is able...