Battle Lines: ‘If it flies it dies'
Let's cut through the noise. Are Patriot missiles genuinely game-changers on the battlefield, or are they just a powerful symbol in modern warfare? To get to the truth, we're speaking to someone who's actually been there—Air Marshal Edward Stringer. He spent 39 years in the RAF, flew combat missions over Iraq, and went up against anti-aircraft systems himself. If anyone knows what Patriot missiles can really do, it's him.
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The Independent
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- The Independent
India to defy Trump's threats and keep buying Russian oil, government sources say
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia, despite President Donald Trump threatening to impose penalties for doing so, two Indian officials said on Saturday Officials in India, the most populous country on Earth, told Reuters and That contradicted a statement from Trump, who on Friday told reporters his understanding was that India would 'no longer' be buying oil from Russia. "These are long-term oil contracts," an unnamed Indian official told Reuters. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.' Last week, Trump said India would face unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil in addition to a 25 percent tariff on goods. However, China and Turkey, two countries that also purchase large amounts of Russian oil, have not faced similar penalty threats. India drastically increased its import of Russian oil after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022, while many other countries began to cut back it's imports. The cheap availability of Russian oil allowed India to reduce its reliance on other countries, such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, who typically sell to Asian countries at a higher price. While India faced criticisms for doing so, the general consensus around India's increase in imports has been that it helps avoid a global surge in oil prices. It's unclear why exactly Trump has targeted India in reducing its import of Russian oil. The president has recently expressed frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to come to the peace talks table to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Friday, India's external affairs spokesperson Randdhir Jaiswal said India and Russia had a 'time-tested partnership' and that India was analyzing its energy sourcing. "On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," Jaiswal said, according to Reuters. India heavily relies on energy imports to sustain the needs of it's more than one billion population. It imports more than one million barrels per day.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is transferred to a prison camp in Texas
Jeffrey Epstein 's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas as her criminal case generates renewed public attention. The federal Bureau of Prisons said Friday that Maxwell had been transferred to Bryan, Texas, but did not explain the circumstances. Her attorney, David Oscar Markus, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss the reasons for it. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the disgraced financier, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She had been held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, until her transfer to the prison camp in Texas, where other inmates include Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Jen Shah of 'The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.' Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates the Bureau of Prisons considers to be the lowest security risk. Some don't even have fences. The prison camps were originally designed with low security to make operations easier and to allow inmates tasked with performing work at the prison, like landscaping and maintenance, to avoid repeatedly checking in and out of a main prison facility. Prosecutors have said Epstein's sex crimes could not have been done without Maxwell, but her lawyers have maintained that she was wrongly prosecuted and denied a fair trial, and have floated the idea of a pardon from President Donald Trump. They have also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up her case. Trump said Friday night that no one has asked him about a clemency for Maxwell. 'I'm allowed to do it but nobody's asked me to do it," he told Newsmax in an interview broadcast Friday night. "I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons, I've given pardons to people before, but nobody's even asked me to do it.' Maxwell's case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department's statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The decision infuriated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up. Since then, administration officials have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts. Maxwell, meanwhile, was interviewed at a Florida courthouse over two days last week by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and the House Oversight Committee had also said that it wanted to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said this week that they would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to ensure immunity from prosecution. In the Newsmax interview, Trump said he did not know when Blanche would disclose to the public what he and Maxwell discussed during the interviews. 'I think he just wants to make sure that innocent people aren't hurt, but you'd have to speak to him about it,' Trump said. In a letter Friday to Maxwell's lawyers, Rep. James Comer, the committee chair, wrote that the committee was willing to delay the deposition until after the resolution of Maxwell's appeal to the Supreme Court. That appeal is expected to be resolved in late September. Comer wrote that while Maxwell's testimony was 'vital' to the Republican-led investigation into Epstein, the committee would not provide immunity or any questions in advance of her testimony, as was requested by her team. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Matt Brown and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Ukraine officials held in military drone corruption probe
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