News of the Force: Saturday, June 18, 2016 - Page 1

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Jun 18, 2016, 4:17:58 PM6/18/16

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Saturday, June 18, 2016 - Today is Autistic Pride Day

Iraq's prime minister declares victory in Fallujah

Iraqi forces yesterday entered the center of Fallujah, the Iraqi city longest held by the Islamic State, nearly four weeks after the start of a U.S.-assisted offensive. Fierce clashes broke out across Fallujah yesterday as the country's prime minister declared the city free - for the most part - from the grip of the Islamic militants.

Meanwhile, Kurdish rebels yesterday clashed with Iran's Revolutionary Guards for a second consecutive day in a border area between Iraq and Iran, Kurdish officials and Iranian state media said.

China seeks closer ties with Indonesia

China's plan to build military ties with Indonesia is not likely to bring any rapid changes to the two country's relationship, regional experts say. Over the long run, they say, Beijing may be seeking to build support for its claims over much of the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, China sent ships and aircraft to Vietnam yesterday to help the country search for one of its Coast Guard planes, missing with 9 personnel aboard.

Police charge man with murder of British lawmaker

Police have charged 52-year-old Thomas Mair with the brazen killing of British politician Jo Cox. Investigators are now looking into whether Mair - who is described by neighbors as a loner - had ties to right-wing extremism.

The suspect in the murder was so abusive towards Asians working at a local taxi company that the drivers demanded he be blacklisted, it has been alleged. The suspect had neo-Nazi ties and had been treated for mental illness, the police said.

Jo Cox would have been 42 years old on her birthday this coming Wednesday.

Afghans feel less secure than in Taliban years, Pentagon says

According to the Pentagon, Afghan citizens feel less secure now than at any other time in the recent past, as civilian casualties there rise to their highest level in seven years.

Former Nazi guard to hear German court's sentence

Reinhold Hanning, now 94, was an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp. He's now waiting on the jury's verdict in his Holocaust murder trial in Germany.

Update: Hanning was convicted of 170,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to 5 years in jail today. Several Holocaust survivors testified against him during the trial.

Centcom officials announce counter-terror strikes in Yemen

The U.S. military conducted three counter-terrorism strikes June 8th-12th against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in central Yemen, killing six al-Qaida operatives and injuring one, U.S. Central Command officials have announced.

Meanwhile, a senior Emirati official has withdrawn his earlier comments that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had ended its combat operations in Yemen, saying his country is still "at war."

U.S. blames Russia for Syria airstrikes

By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv

The United States has accused Russia of carrying out airstrikes in southern Syria against rebels, including forces backed by the United States, that are battling the Islamic State group.

And U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to Tel Aviv this weekend for "Cyber Week 2016."

Astronauts land in Kazakhstan

By Jim Corvey, News of the Force St. Louis

Three International Space Station (ISS) crew members - including an American, a Briton and a Russian - landed safely today in the sun-drenched steppes of Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz TMA-19M capsule, carrying NASA's Tim Kopra, Tim Peake of the European Space Agency and the Russian agency Roscosmos' Yuri Malenchenko, touched down as scheduled at 3:15 p.m., local time (0915 GMT) about 90 miles southeast of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. All descent maneuvers were performed without any hitches and the crew reported feeling fine as their ship slid off the orbit and headed down to Earth.

Helicopters carrying recovery teams were circling the area as the capsule was descending slowly under a massive orange-and-white parachute. Support crew helped the trio get out of the capsule, charred by a fiery descent through the atmosphere, and placed them in reclining chairs for a quick check-up. Squinting at the sun, Peake said he felt "elated," adding that "the smells of Earth are just so strong. I'd love some cool rain right now!" he said with a smile as he sat in scorching heat in his balky spacesuit.

After a medical check-up, the crew will change their spacesuits for regular clothing and be flown separately to their respective bases.

Major Peake, a 44-year-old former British army helicopter pilot, has become a hero at home, helping rekindle an interest in space exploration. He was not the first Briton in space. Helen Sharman visited Russia's Mir space station in 1991 on a privately-backed mission, and several British-born American citizens flew with NASA's space shuttle program. But Peake is Britain's first publicly-funded British astronaut and the first Briton to visit the International Space Station. He performed the first British space walk and was honored by Queen Elizabeth II in her annual Birthday Honors List. He excited many at home by joining the 26.2-mile London Marathon - from 250 miles above the Earth, harnessed to a treadmill aboard the ISS with a simulation of the route through London's streets playing on an iPad. Peake finished the race in 3 hours and 35 minutes, a record for the fastest marathon in orbit, according to Guinness World Records.

The trio spent 186 days in space since their launch in December 2015. They have conducted hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science. "I'm going to miss the view definitely," Peake said after landing.

NASA said the data received would help in the potential development of vaccines and could be relevant in the treatment of patients suffering from ocular diseases, such as glaucoma.

For Malenchenko, it was a sixth mission, and he logged up a total of 828 days in space, the second-longest accumulated time in space after Russian Gennady Padalka. Kopra has logged up 244 days in space on two flights.

Homeland insecurity

ISIS attacks in Brussels, California and Paris may be just the beginning of an unprecedented plot to bring America to its knees by targeting the nation's scandalously vulnerable electric grid, warn officials at the Pentagon and FBI.

The Department of Homeland Security has suggested doing away with words like "jihad" and "sharia" to help curb American millennials from becoming indoctrinated by terror groups.

U.S. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is asking Facebook to turn over material from five accounts used by Orlando, Fla., shooter Omar Mateen.

Tupelo native Jesse Leech, 23, recently graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in homeland security, but he's decided to find his career in music.

And the U.S. House of Representatives took aim at President Obama's efforts to winnow the population of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this week, approving a measure that would block the transfers of any more detainees there, even to other countries.

VA news

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of the Inspector General is investigating senior VA official Rosye Cloud for possible conflict of interest with her husband's software business, as Secretary Robert McDonald struggles to reform the scandal-plagued agency.

The Hillary Chronicles

"Crooked Hillary" is about to invade your TV with ads attacking Donald Trump. But the Republicans are preparing to fight back with ads exposing her as the subject of an active criminal FBI investigation; a weak politician who let four Americans die in Benghazi; and a crook who takes hundreds of millions of dollars from shadowy liberal donors. Hillary, the GOP says, has spent $7,349,000 to get her Trump-attack ads aired in the so-called "swing states."

FOIA reforms passed

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the bipartisan Freedom of Information (FOIA) Improvement Act of 2016, which President Obama has said he'll sign.

U.S. Air Force

The Senate Armed Services Committee issued a severe blow to transparency and fiscal responsibility last month. In a closed-door vote, they eliminated a requirement to disclose the development cost of the U.S. Air Force’s new B-21 stealth bomber.

The U.S. Air Force now has about 4,000 fewer maintainers than it needs, officials say,

Families, friends and Air Force Reserve leaders have lined up at Tinker AFB, Okla., to greet 13 citizen-airmen of the 507th Maintenance Group as they returned home in time for Father's Day from their overseas deployment.

Three members of the Civil Air Patrol's Oregon Wing have received national honors. The awards will be presented to them at the CAP's National Conference in Nashville, Tenn., in August.

The U.S. Air Force and the Air National Guard are discussing allowing enlisted pilots to perform missions carried out by Predator and Reaper unmanned air systems.

Crews from the New York Air National Guard are starting daily drone flights, primarily from Syracuse to Fort Drum. The Civil Air Patrol will fly tracking missions for the drones.

Two people have died in a rafting accident on Alaska's North Slope. The Alaska Air National Guard launched a joint search and rescue mission and safely recovered eight people from the group.

And the South Dakota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is being evaluated in Sioux Falls by the U.S. Air Force today. The Air Force evaluates each CAP wing every two years.

Cuzin Gym's Thought for the Day: Credit cards are OK, but cash is better. Cash won't come back in 30 days and bite you where you sit.

NOAA news

Planet Earth's record streak of hot weather has extended to the 13th straight month as May became the hottest month of May in recorded history, NOAA says.

U.S. Coast Guard

The Coast Guard's Aviation Program celebrates a big milestone this year. It's their 100th anniversary!

The U.S. Coast Guard's first national security cutter took to the sea yesterday, operating in concert with the service's new maritime patrol aircraft.

Oops! A Coast Guard training device left in a vehicle ignited a bomb scare in Gulfport, Miss., yesterday.

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a missing person in the waters off the coast of Eastham and Cape Cod, Mass.

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft has visited with the crew of USCGC Polar Star, which is currently in drydock.

The Coast Guard has rescued four people after their vessel started taking on water about nine miles off Hatteras Inlet, N.C.

And Rear Adm. Daniel Abel handed over command of the Coast Guard's 17th District (Alaska) on Wednesday to Rear Adm. Michael McAllister.