BREAKING: CENTCOM says a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft was lost during Operation Epic Fury in friendly airspace.

The incident involved two aircraft: one crashed in western Iraq while the other landed safely.

CENTCOM said the incident was not caused by hostile or friendly fire.

Rescue operations are ongoing.

Update to previous post

TheCradleMedia (X):

Inside job at Fort Campbell as US Army admits 'drone thieves' had authorized access to base
——
The US Army has been forced to acknowledge that the individuals behind the theft of four quadcopter drones from the base of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell were not outside intruders, but people who already had authorized access to the military installation and the building itself. The admission undermines early insinuations of a mysterious breach at one of Washington’s most prominent military facilities.

According to the Army’s own statement, the suspects accessed a secured government building and broke the locks on internal storage cages to remove the drones. Investigators from the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division say they have now identified two suspects and collected evidence pointing to the location of the missing devices.

The FBI had previously circulated alerts to California law enforcement warning that Iran had allegedly “aspired” to launch a surprise drone attack against unspecified targets on the US West Coast. The bulletin itself acknowledged the intelligence was unverified and that authorities had no information on timing, method, targets, or perpetrators. The warning nonetheless spread widely across US media and security circles. The admission by the US military that the Fort Campbell drones were taken by individuals with authorized access suggests the breach originated from within the system itself, raising questions about internal security at one of the US Army’s flagship bases. The investigation remains ongoing.

Zelensky about Crimea's residents who voted to reunite with Russia:

"For me, they're NOT EVEN PEOPLE"

The Prime Minister of Senegal, Ousmane Sonko has launched one of the country’s most aggressive resource sector overhauls, declaring the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyim gas contract unfair, revoking 71 mining licences, and freezing the accounts of a major Indorama subsidiary until it pays roughly €380 million ($438 million) to the state.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever:

“Since we are not capable of threatening Vladimir Putin by sending weapons to Ukraine, and we cannot choke him economically without the support of the US, there is only one method left: making a deal."
Bringing Russia to its knees would only be possible with “100% support from the US,” he said.

https://www.euractiv.com/news/belgiums-de-wever-calls-for-eu-to-negotiate-with-russia-for-ukraine-peace/

🇺🇸/IRAN - US Marines Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Deployed to Middle East

The US deployment of the Tripoli and its support ships provides the following capabilities:

1. Amphibious/helicopter/tilt-rotor landing operations;
2. Anti-shipping operations - both boarding ships and sinking them with anti-ship missiles;
3. F-35 multi-role warplanes;
4. Precision missile fire via HIMARS;

What would the US be looking to do with a primarily anti-shipping force?

1. Perhaps seize Kharg Island by holding the infrastructure itself - forcing Iran to either destroy its primary means of energy export or hope in vain to someday get it back from the US;

2. Interdict ships by boarding them or by sinking them ensuring Iran's selective passage of the Hormuz Strait becomes an entirely closed strait;

3. Additional F-35 warplanes needed to augment existing airpower in the region as maintenance walls are reached;

4. The use of HIMARS to augment current precision strikes into western Iran;

US tv: "Are our citizens safe in Iranian prisons?"

Iran’s FM Araghchi: "Are you planning to bomb those prisons?"

US tv: "..."

Araghchi: "Then they're safe."

Trump asked the world to send warships.

Here's responses he's got:

🇫🇷 France — OFFICIALLY REJECTED. Will not send warships.

🇨🇳 China — No response. Called it a "sovereign right."

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — "Discussing options with allies." No commitment.

🇯🇵 Japan — Silence. 70% of Japan's Middle East oil comes through Hormuz.

🇰🇷 South Korea — No confirmation. Seoul caught between Washington and its own oil dependency.

🇩🇪 Germany — No convoy support.

🇳🇴 Norway — Rejected.

🇶🇦 Qatar — Already STOPPED gas production. Declared force majeure. Their energy minister said "this will bring down economies of the world."

🇦🇪 UAE — Gulf states "tried to stop this war because they knew the implications."

🇮🇷 Iran — Still attacking ships. Still laying mines. Still blocking the strait.

10 countries. 0 warships.

The most powerful military on Earth asked for backup and got ghosted.

Whale_Guru (X)

British CNBC journalist Steve Sedgwick:

Is Russia providing intelligence to Iran?

Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin:

Ukraine just bombed civilians in Russia with British Storm Shadow missiles

Open letter from Jeffrey Sachs to Merz:

"Learn History, Mr Chancellor!"

"The American economist Jeffrey Sachs outlines ways for Friedrich Merz on how diplomacy could end the war in Ukraine. The letter in full.

Dear Chancellor Merz,

You have repeatedly spoken of Germany's responsibility for European security. This responsibility cannot be replaced by slogans, selective memory, or the normalisation of war rhetoric. Security guarantees are not one-way streets. They work both ways. This is neither a Russian nor an American argument; it is a fundamental principle of European security, explicitly enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE framework, and decades of post-war diplomacy.

Germany is obliged to approach this moment with historical seriousness and honesty. In this regard, your recent rhetoric falls dangerously short of expectations.

Since 1990, Russia's central security concerns have been repeatedly ignored, diluted, or directly violated – often with active involvement or tolerance from Germany. This history must not be erased if the war in Ukraine is to end, and it must not be ignored if Europe wants to avoid a permanent state of confrontation.

At the end of the Cold War, Germany repeatedly and unequivocally assured the Soviet and later Russian leadership that NATO would not expand eastward. These assurances were made in the context of German reunification. Germany benefited enormously from this. The rapid reunification of Germany – within NATO – would not have been possible without the Soviet consent based on these assurances. To later pretend that these assurances were meaningless or merely casual remarks is not realistic but revisionist."

https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/offener-brief-von-jeffrey-sachs-lernen-sie-geschichte-herr-bundeskanzler-li.10010628?utm_campaign=mrf-twitter-berlinerzeitung&mrfcid=2026031569b3c4029f27683d54532adc

Hungary Today:

During today's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, the German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul openly warned Hungary of "serious consequences" if it refused to abandon the defense of its national interests against Ukraine.

In an interview with Hungarian journalists Szijjarto explained that he had raised concerns about Ukraine's need to resume Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline. Hungary has previously responded to Kiev’s disruption of oil traffic by blocking the EU’s €90 billion "war loan" to Ukraine and warned that it would oppose any EU decisions that benefit Ukraine at Hungary’s expense. He emphasized that while Ukraine’s behavior is tolerated within the EU, Hungary’s principled stance has sparked anger, including from Wadephul.
"Today, without any ambiguity, openly, directly, and quite rudely, the German Foreign Minister threatened us," Szijjarto stated. "He warned that if we do not abandon Hungary’s national interests and cease blocking important EU decisions favorable to Ukraine, there will be very serious consequences for Hungary."

Israel's private intelligence firm Black Cube has been spying on and secretly recording center-left Slovenian officials and their allies in the months leading up to a crucial national election, according to a new investigation by the storied Eastern European magazine Mladina.

🔷️ The report says operatives posing as representatives of a fake British investment fund called “Stockard Capital” lured Slovenian political figures into meetings and secretly recorded them, including former Justice Minister Dominika Švarc Pipan, during staged business meetings in Vienna and other locations.
🔷️ Mladina also reports that senior Black Cube figures met right-wing opposition leader Janez Janša in Ljubljana on December 22, 2025. Then, roughly ten days before the election, edited videos of government figures began appearing anonymously online on a site called anti-corruption2026(dot)com. Black Cube became internationally notorious for working on behalf of Harvey Weinstein, conducting covert surveillance of journalists and attempting to gather damaging information on women who accused the convicted rapist. This operation to target government figures echoes their previous efforts.

 White House advisor Stephen Miller:
"As a thought experiment, imagine if this regime had nuclear weapons, instead had long-range missiles that could reach an American city ... think about what a terror that would be"

So he is saying Iran doesn’t actually have nuclear weapons!

The Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut is currently harboring a high-profile Israeli intelligence asset wanted by Lebanese authorities, journalist and The Cradle contributor Radwan Mortada has revealed. 
Khaled al-Aida, a Palestinian-Syrian with Ukrainian citizenship, has been implicated in bombings and assassinations across Lebanon between 2024 and 2025.

Radwan Mortada:

The Ukrainian embassy in Beirut is protecting a dangerous Israeli agent wanted by the Lebanese judiciary on arrest warrants, who sought refuge there a few days ago.

The spokesman for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters:

The outcome of war cannot be determined by tweets, the results of war is determined in the field. The very place where you and your forces do not dare to approach.”
“It’s better to name this war “Epic fear” instead of “Epic fury.”

Ukraine exporting terrorism.

India Delhi:

NIA arrests 7 foreign nationals, 6 Ukrainians and one American for providing terrorist training in Myanmar. They received 11-day custody for illegal entry, weapons and drone training, and importing drones from Europe.

Source: defencealerts