UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a snap general election for July 4 in a statement outside Downing Street on Wednesday evening, as his Conservative party confronts challenges in maintaining its 14-year tenure in power.

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Dubious Eagle: Why has Pentagon pumped $756 mln into hypersonic missile that doesn’t fly?

The US Army has awarded Lockheed Martin another $756 million for its delay-plagued Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) ‘Dark Eagle’ program, with the contract involving the provision of battery equipment, unspecified logistics, systems and software engineering support.

In development since 2017, the LRHW’s $41 million apiece truck-launched missiles are expected to be able to accelerate to speeds up to Mach 17, and boast a 3,000 km operational range. The system uses the All Up Round (AUR) munition also used in the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) program.

The Army has been teasing the LRHW’s deployment since 2021, with the system touted as the Pentagon’s first almost operational hypersonic missile amid development delays and cancellations plaguing nearly a dozen similar projects for and by the Army, Air Force, Navy and DARPA.

But like the other US hypersonic efforts, Dark Eagle has become a somewhat ‘Dubious Eagle’ after a string of test issues. The Congressional Research Office has counted at least five failures to date:

▪️ In October 2021, a LRHW test failed when the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) failed to deploy.

▪️ In June 2022, the complete LRHW missile system suffered another test failure.

▪️ A scheduled LRHW test was canceled in October 2022 to “assess the root cause” of the June 2022 failure.

▪️ In March 2023, a scheduled test launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was scrapped.

▪️ A second planned test at Cape Canaveral was canceled in September 2023, followed by an Army statement that it would not be able to meet the goal of deploying Dark Eagle in the current fiscal year.

▪️ A November 2023 review by Army and Navy acquisition execs blamed the delays on unspecified “problems” with the Lockheed-made launcher, and said the issues would take “months” to iron out.

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Boeing’s at it again: Singapore incident adds to troublesome streak

The May 21 Boeing 777-300ER flight from London to Singapore turned deadly when severe turbulence forced an emergency landing in Bangkok, killing one and hospitalizing over 70 passengers.

Here is a brief overview of some of Boeing’s incidents in 2024 alone.

Incidents involving high-ranking politicians:

▪️US State Secretary Antony Blinken has experienced two Boeing malfunctions – on January 17, his plane was grounded in Switzerland after a "critical failure" due to an oxygen leak and on April 3, Blinken and other State Department staff had a “mechanical issue”, forcing the delegation to drive from Paris to Brussels;

▪️Poland’s Andrzej Duda’s Boeing 737-800 NG made an emergency landing in Warsaw on March 25, when Duda was on his way to meet Joe Biden in Rzeszow.

Technical incidents on regular flights:

▪️May 10: a Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 had to turn around over the Atlantic Ocean due to a strange smell on the flight deck.

▪️May 9: Boeing 737-300 skidded off a runway in Senegal, injuring at least 10 people;

▪️Mar 7: a United Airlines flight lost a piece of its landing gear during take-off;

▪️Mar 4: a United Airlines Flight had flames streaming from one of its engines 20 minutes after take-off:

▪️Apr 27: a Delta flight had to turn around after departing JFK airport because an emergency slide had separated from the aircraft;

▪️Feb 19: the right wing of a Boeing 757-200 fell apart on a United Airlines flight;

▪️Jan 5: a window and a portion of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon;

According to an NYT report, Boeing failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Overall, the 2020s have witnessed 12 reported incidents involving different Boeing models including the 737 Original, 737 Classic, 737 Next Generation and 737 MAX.

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🏹Russian soldiers reportedly using bows with explosive arrows in Ukraine conflict

The use of an unusual type of weapon — a bow with a grenade tied to the arrow — was caught on video that went viral online.

A remarkable fact: similar weapons were already used in military conflicts more than 100 years ago. French and British forces used a bomb-throwing crossbow called the Sauterelle during World War I: it was designed to throw hand grenades into enemy trenches.

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How costly is the US game plan in the Indo-Pacific?

The Biden administration is ramping up its game plan in the Indo-Pacific, pushing to militarize regional allies against China’s growing influence.

The US Indo-Pacific Command has requested an $11 billion budget from Congress for 2025, tripling the previous year's $3.5 billion, with investments including:

🔹$3.3 billion to improve infrastructure for US forces across the Indo-Pacific

🔹$430 million for a defense system in Guam

🔹$40 million for US Navy activities in Micronesia

🔹 $1.4 billion for classified space programs

🔹Over $1 billion to expedite the Maritime Strike

Tomahawk development deepening regional partnerships:

🔹The US has strengthened alliances with Japan, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.

🔹Key alliances include the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), AUKUS and trilateral pacts like the US-South Korea-Japan agreement.

US military presence in the Indo-Pacific:
Headquartered in Hawaii, US Indo-Pacific Command oversees extensive military installations as part of the US’ Island Chain Strategy to counter China.

🔹As of June 2023, the region hosted over 375,000 US military personnel across at least 66 different defense sites.

🔹Japan and South Korea host the largest numbers of US troops and bases, central to US capabilities in the region.

Regional host nations:

🔹Japan supports major US capabilities like the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and plans to acquire F-35 jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

🔹Australia facilitates US troop rotations and is preparing for submarine deployments under AUKUS.

🔹The Philippines has expanded US forces' access and conducted large-scale joint military drills.

🔹South Korea and Thailand continue to be strategic hosts for US military forces and training exercises.

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“The Vietnamization of Ukraine. Is Nuland’s Ukraine project worth dying in a nuclear war over?”: US former politician wonders

On May 16, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown stated that deploying NATO military instructors to Ukraine was inevitable, and was only a matter of time.

“This is exactly how we got the Vietnam War, but Russia in 2024 is hardly late-1950s Vietnam. Russia of today is a country that can fight back and can project military power all the way to the source, which means the United States,” Ron Paul, former member of the US House of Representatives from Texas, wrote in an article noscriptd “The Vietnamization of Ukraine.”

“They said we had to help Ukraine defeat Russia because democracy itself was at stake,” Paul noted. “Then Zelensky cancelled elections, so they told us we have to help Ukraine defeat Russia because Putin won’t stop there – he’ll soon be marching through Berlin, London, and maybe even New York!”

Both such aggressive rhetoric and policy may lead to unprecedented consequences, Paul warned.

"Unless they are stopped, neocons will demand more attacks on Russia, more US troops in Ukraine, more escalation. Until Russia fights back. Then it will all be over. Is this what we want?"

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The United States is losing the ideological “third world war” to Russia and China, writes US news site The Hill, which covers events in Washington DC.

The Biden administration is “woefully lacking in military potential, weapons and munitions production capacity, and the ability to counter the cyber threat,” the publication states.

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European trio’s recognition of Palestinian statehood signals ‘big failure’ for US, Israeli diplomacy

“Of course recognizing Palestinian state is a big step - it is significant,” Middle East politics expert Dr. Mehmet Rakipoglu told Sputnik, commenting on the announcements by Ireland, Norway and Spain Wednesday that they plan to recognize Palestine’s statehood.

“This is a big failure of US diplomacy,” the observer stressed, suggesting that the steps toward recognition are a sign that the three countries are no longer “dependent” on the US or Israel, and consequently not reluctant to take such a big step.

“This is a normal failure of Israeli diplomacy, not [only] in these countries, but also at international level,” Ayman Yousef, professor of political science and international relations at the Arab-American University in Palestine, told Sputnik.

The decision by the three nations “will have very good implications for other countries within the EU to recognize Palestine. We see drastic changes within the foreign policy priorities of these countries. We expect countries such as Belgium, Malta, Slovenia and even Greece and Portugal to recognize Palestine as well,” Yousef said.

Israel has only itself to blame for world opinion shifting against it, the observer stressed, suggesting that the brutality of Israeli operations in Gaza, which have now killed or maimed more than five percent of the Strip’s prewar population, has been a major contributing factor.

“Israel destroyed nearly everything: hospitals, mosques, churches and universities, schools and all civilian foundations of Gaza. I think the level and magnitude of this destruction have pushed these countries to change their policies in the right direction. And I think many EU countries start thinking that the stability and security in the Middle East will not be achieved, it will be a remote option if they don't recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign country,” Yousef said.

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▪️EXCLUSIVE: We have no business being in Ukraine, GOP Congressman Paul Gosar says

▪️Who recognizes the State of Palestine and who doesn’t?

▪️How costly is the US game plan in the Indo-Pacific?

▪️Russian Armed Forces liberated the village of Kleshcheyevka

▪️What a difference a month makes: NATO officials, media flip on a dime assessing Russian military power

▪️Russian nuclear exercises on front pages of Western media

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Giving a green light?

Ukraine can decide whether to launch strikes deep into Russian territory, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, regarding the potential lifting of restrictions on Kiev’s use of US weapons.

Blinken said that when it comes to using the weapons outside its own territory, Ukraine will make its own decisions.

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Germany raises eyebrows with slap on the wrist sentencing guidelines for possession of child pornography

Bundestag (German Parliament) has recently paved a way for reduced sentences for possession of child pornography.

The legislation proposes that "holding and obtaining should carry a minimum sentence of three months' imprisonment, while distributing should result in a minimum sentence of six months' imprisonment." Previously the minimum punishments were up to 5 or 10 years, respectively.

Moreover, the offences will be classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.

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📹 Russian BM-21 Grad MLRS wipes out Ukrainian manpower and hardware concentration area in the Avdeyevka area

Ukrainian losses amounted to 100 Ukrainian soldiers, three infantry fighting vehicles and observation and communication equipment.

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The Ukrainian Army plans to build anew 10,000 km of fortifications, the Ukrainian mass media reported. The previous fortifications turned out to be inefficient, of poor quality or unfinished.

Earlier, a captured Ukrainian border guard said that they had to prepare engineering structures and dugouts literally from handmade tools.

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