Iran has destroyed $1bn worth of MQ-9 Reaper Drones, or roughly 20 percent of the US’s pre-war inventory of the sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a report by Bloomberg on Friday.
The report said that many of the drones were downed by Iran in flight, but that others had been destroyed on the ground when Iran targeted US military bases in the Gulf.
The MQ-9 is both a surveillance drone and capable of carrying a payload, typically Hellfire missiles or Joint Direct Attack Munition guided bombs.
Bloomberg reported that the US may have lost up to 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones in the war, a higher number than the 24 that a report released this month by the Congressional Research Service noted.
The $1bn price tag adds to the cost of the war on Iran, which a senior official at the Pentagon told Reuters in May reached up to $29bn. The MQ-9 Reaper drone is being gradually phased out by the US military, although General Atomics continues to produce it for foreign customers.
Iran destroyed 20 percent of US's MQ-9 Reaper drone fleet: Report
US temporarily bans green-card holders from entering country from African nations
US authorities have temporarily banned green-card holders from entering the country if they have traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda or South Sudan in the last 21 days.
The order issued on Friday is part of an expanding attempt to prevent Ebola from entering US borders. A previously announced travel restriction blocked only people without US passports who had visited those countries from entering but exempted US citizens and lawful permanent residents.
“HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] and CDC [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] have determined that permitting the director of CDC or other secretarial delegate the discretion to prohibit entry of certain lawful permanent residents is reasonably required in the interest of public health,” the order reads.
The order added that green-card holders may maintain stronger ties to families and communities outside the US than US citizens and nationals, “such that prohibiting their entry is comparatively less burdensome”.
US citizens returning from the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan now have a second point of entry to the US, the CDC said, in addition to Washington’s Dulles airport. The agency said on Saturday it is expanding its enhanced Ebola screening to include the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport.
GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham, Roger Wicker blast reports of 60-day ceasefire deal with Iran
Key Senate Republicans are raising concerns about a reported peace deal being negotiated with Iran, arguing it would be a disaster for the United States that would make meaningless the war launched by President Trump nearly three months ago.
“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a post on social platform X.
He said the effects of the joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel titled “Operation Epic Fury” would “be for naught” if the deal as he understood it went forward.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of President Trump who for years has pushed for U.S. military action against the Iranian regime, said a premature deal could fundamentally shift the balance of power in the Middle East in Iran’s favor.
Trump directs legal migrants to return to home country to apply for green cards
The Trump administration on Friday announced prospective immigrants would need to return to their home country to apply for green cards, a move that would stifle the most common pathway used for legal immigration.
Under the new USCIS policy, those who have already legally lived and worked in the U.S. for years would have to return to their home country to apply to return.
Meanwhile, the State Department has halted immigrant visa processing in 75 different countries.
“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a release.
GOP Senators clash with Trump over $1.8B DOJ fund (WEB)
“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes. When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency.”
Immigrants in the U.S. have been able to apply for an “adjustment of status” — a process that allows them to shift between various permissions over their time in the country. A student or someone with work authorization may seek permanent residency, for example, as could someone who marries a U.S. citizen.
Kyle Busch, two-time Nascar champion, dies aged 41
Two-time Nascar Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has died at 41 after being hospitalized with a severe illness, Nascar said in a Thursday statement.
“We are saddened and heartbroken to share the news of the passing of Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup champion and one of our sport’s greatest and fiercest drivers. He was 41 years old,” the racing organization wrote on social media. “We extend our deepest condolences to the Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and the entire motorsports community.”
No cause of death was given.
Busch’s family had announced his hospitalization earlier on Thursday, saying he wouldn’t compete as planned at this weekend’s Nascar race in Charlotte, North Carolina.
During a Nascar Cup Series race on 10 May at Watkins Glen, Busch radioed in to his crew requesting medical aid from Dr Bill Heisel and a “shot” after the race. According to the TV broadcast, Busch had been struggling with a sinus cold that was exacerbated by the intense G-forces and elevation changes at the upstate New York road course.
Jamil Smith: The Republican project isn’t to win in November. It’s to make November cease to matter
Early this month, a single pen stroke effectively ended representative Steve Cohen’s career in Congress. The man who has represented Memphis for 19 years will turn 77 later this month, but he wasn’t planning on retiring. He hadn’t lost any primary. The reason was that his district had been erased around him.
A new electoral map, passed by the Republican-led state legislature and signed by Bill Lee, the governor, divides the ninth district three ways. “Last week Tennessee Republicans silenced the Black vote here in Memphis to make Republican victories likely,” Cohen said in his statement. That’s succinct and accurate.
The new map folds a significant portion of Cohen’s Black constituents into Williamson county, which sits south of Nashville and was, until recently, the subject of a different fight.
To this day, the Williamson county seal depicts a Confederate battle flag draped over a cannon. It was adopted in 1968, at the height of the civil rights movement. A Tennessee court ruled in 2024 that the county could remove it. The state legislature responded the following year by passing a new law specifically designed to keep the flag on the seal. The vote was 70-24 in the House and 27-6 in the Senate, with no Democrats voting in favor. Lee, who is from Williamson county, signed it.
People Feared Trapped Under Debris After Russia Strikes Konotop High-Rise
A massive overnight Russian drone strike partially destroyed a multi-story residential building in Konotop, Sumy Oblast, injuring at least six people and prompting an urgent search-and-rescue operation for residents feared trapped beneath the debris, local officials said.
Konotop Mayor Artem Semenikhin said Russian forces targeted civilian infrastructure in the city, with the strike causing part of the high-rise to collapse.
“Behind me is a multi-story building. Part of it is gone. And there are people there,” Semenikhin said in a video address posted on social media.
Due to a lack of ambulances, the injured are being transferred to the hospital in civilian vehicles, Semenikhin added.
According to the mayor, there were “many” people injured in the attack. Emergency teams were working at the scene to clear rubble and search for possible survivors.
Teenagers behind mass shooting in San Diego rushed at mosque ‘fully armored’
The two teenage assailants responsible for a mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, rushed toward the mosque “fully armored” with handguns and rifles, authorities said.
A security guard shot and struck one of the shooters, according to members of the mosque – but the attacker continued charging. The guard – Amin Abdullah – also alerted administrators of the school at the Islamic Center, telling them to go into lockdown, before he was shot and killed. “If it was not for him … The carnage would be much worse,” said imam Taha Hassane. “He sacrificed his life.”
Two other victims – identified by the Islamic Center as Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad – had been on the phone calling the police, when they were killed. A witness shared details of what he saw transpire in an Instagram post from the Islamic Center. Police rushed to the scene and ultimately found the suspected shooters near the masjid, dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
The Islamic Center called the three victims “three heroes martyred” and have started a fundraiser for their families and for others impacted by the mass shooting.
American doctor with Ebola evacuated to Germany as wife and four children are monitored in Congo
By the time the American surgeon who contracted Ebola in Congo was flown to Germany for treatment Tuesday, he was barely able to stand on his own, according to two leaders of the Christian missionary group where he worked.
Dr. Scott Myhre, the East and Central Africa area director for the group, called Serge, described the scene as Dr. Peter Stafford departed.
“There were people in full — we call it PPE — the personal protective equipment, and they’re completely covered, and he’s hanging on them barely strong enough to walk,” Myhre said. “He looked really tired and really sick.”
Stafford worked at Nyankunde Hospital, which is in Congo’s Ituri province, where the Ebola outbreak is centered. Days before the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the outbreak, Stafford operated on a 33-year-old patient with severe abdominal pain, Myhre said. At the time, doctors thought the patient had a gallbladder infection.
Stafford “did an abdominal procedure and found that the gallbladder was normal and closed him up, but this patient subsequently died the next day,” Myhre said.
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