US-contracted surveillance plane crashes in Philippines, killing four
CNN
A US-contracted surveillance plane crashed in the Philippines on Thursday morning, killing all four personnel on board, including one US military service member, according to US Indo-Pacific Command.
A US-contracted surveillance plane crashed in the Philippines on Thursday morning, killing all four personnel on board, including one US military service member, according to US Indo-Pacific Command. The crash occurred in Maguindanao del Sur in the southern Philippines. Images from the crash site, confirmed by a US defense official, show the wreckage of a Beechcraft King Air 350 in a rice field. The official said the service member killed in the crash was a US Marine. It is unclear if the three defense contractors were also US citizens. The twin-engine turboprop aircraft was contracted by the Defense Department to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance at the request of the Philippines, Indo-Pacific Command said. The crash occurred during a “routine mission,” and the cause of the crash is under investigation. The aircraft is registered to Metrea Special Aerospace ISR, Inc., according to publicly available data. Metrea’s website shows a Beechcraft King Air 350 – the type of aircraft that crashed – and advertises “integrated, turnkey Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (AISR) solutions to our defense partners.” The crash comes one day after new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held his first call with his counterpart from the Philippines, Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. According to a readout of the call, the two discussed the importance of deterrence in the South China Sea and enhancing the capabilities of the Philippine military.
Panama denied a claim made by the State Department on Wednesday that the Central American nation had agreed to no longer charge fees for US government ships to transit the country’s famous canal.
The one-time Georgia prosecutor accused of using her office to impede the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is set to stand trial more than four years after the Black 26-year-old’s death fueled nationwide protests over racial injustice.
Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.
Two Treasury Department employees affiliated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will keep limited access to the highly sensitive payment system within the agency, following emergency court proceedings Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns about DOGE’s access to the system.
The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk.
The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Five former leaders of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from across Republican and Democratic administrations spoke out against the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the humanitarian agency.
A month into the new Congress, House and Senate Republicans are still not on the same page on how to tackle President Donald Trump’s agenda raising the possibility the two chambers could be on a collision course that imperils Trump’s domestic priorities in the first months of his second term.
Newly released data from ground-based radar came out Tuesday suggesting an Army helicopter was higher than it was supposed to be when it collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 a week ago, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Trump administration officials are hurrying to catch up to the president’s audacious and improbable plan for the United States to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera,” trying to wrap their heads around an idea that some hope might be so outlandish it forces other nations to step in with their own proposals for the Palestinian enclave.
Guatemala has pledged a 40% increase in deportation flights carrying Guatemalans and migrants of other nationalities from the United States, President Bernardo Arévalo announced Wednesday during a press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, saying it’s likely unconstitutional and “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.”