Latest News
Death toll from Kentucky UPS plane crash rises to 12, black box recovered
Federal investigators say they have recovered the flight recorder from the wreckage of a UPS cargo plane that crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least 12 people.
UPS Flight 2976 crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday as it departed from Louisville’s Muhammad Ali airport bound for Honolulu, Hawaii.
CCTV footage from the airport showed that the plane’s “left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll” before it caught fire, according to National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman.
“After being cleared for takeoff, a large plume of fire in the area of the left wing occurred during the takeoff roll. The plane lifted off and gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of runway 17R,” Inman said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The NTSB is an independent US government agency that investigates all civilian plane crashes alongside the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Inman said investigators found the plane’s engine on the airfield, but he did not explain how or why it may have detached from the 31-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-11 wide-body aircraft during takeoff or how the plane’s wing caught fire.
Authorities have also recovered the plane’s data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, which have been sent to the lab for processing, he said. It will be months, however, before the investigation concludes.
Flight 2976 hit several buildings near the airport as it crashed, leaving an 800-metre trail of fire and destruction, according to authorities.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told local news outlet WHAS-TV on Wednesday that 12 people were confirmed dead, while 15 people from the nearby area have been reported missing.
“We believe that three of [confirmed fatalities] are likely the crew, and nine others, all of whom those nine are unidentified at this time,” Greenberg said.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear earlier told a news conference that the deaths had risen to 11, but said he expected it “to reach 12 possibly by the end of the day”.
Among the buildings hit by the plane were a petroleum recycling company and an auto parts company, but it missed hitting a nearby Ford Motor factory and a convention centre, Beshear said.
“I’ve walked the line of an F4 tornado through my dad’s hometown. I’ve seen towns hit by flooding we’d only describe as biblical. What this scene is is violent,” Beshear told the media.
“Where the initial explosion happened, you have significant damage. And then, like a lot of these disasters, just five or six feet [1.5 to 1.8 metres] away, not even the paint disturbed on another vehicle.”
UPS said Wednesday that it will soon reopen its facility at Louisville airport, after suspending operations following the accident, according to the Reuters news agency.
The airport is home to UPS Worldport, a global distribution centre that processes millions of packages each day and sees upwards of 300 daily cargo flights, according to the agency.
[Aljazeera]
US President Donald Trump has filed a $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.
Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida.
The BBC apologised to Trump last month, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any “basis for a defamation claim”.
Trump’s legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech”. The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Trump said last month that he planned to sue the BBC for the documentary, which aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election.
“I think I have to do it,” Trump told reporters of his plans. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
In his speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, Trump told a crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC acknowledged that the edit had given “the mistaken impression” he had “made a direct call for violent action”, but disagreed that there was basis for a defamation claim.
In November, a leaked internal BBC memo criticised how the speech was edited, and led to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness.
Before Trump filed the lawsuit, lawyers for the BBC had given a lengthy response to the president’s claims.
They said there was no malice in the edit and that Trump was not harmed by the programme, as he was re-elected shortly after it aired.
They also said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama programme on its US channels. While the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.
In his lawsuit, Trump cites agreements the BBC had with other distributors to show content, specifically one with a third-party media corporation that allegedly had licensing rights to the documentary outside the UK. The BBC has not responded to these claims, nor has the corporation with the alleged distribution agreement.
The suit also claims that people in Florida may have accessed the programme using a VPN or by using streaming service BritBox.
“The Panorama Documentary’s publicity, coupled with significant increases in VPN usage in Florida since its debut, establishes the immense likelihood that citizens of Florida accessed the Documentary before the BBC had it removed,” the lawsuit said
(BBC)
The Situation Report issued by the Disaster Management Center at 06:00AM on 16th December 2025 shows that 70,297 persons belonging to 22,338 house holds are still being housed at 731 safety centers established by the government.
The number of deaths due to the recent disastrous weather stands at 643 while 183 persons are missing.
Latest News
Bondi Beach gunmen who killed 15 after targeting Jewish celebration were father and son, police say
New South Wales Police say 15 people, including a 10 year old girl were killed in a shooting at Bondi Beach on Sunday – their ages range from 10 to 87
The attack happened while an event was being held to mark the start of Hanukkah – police say they’re treating it as a terror incident
The two gunmen were father and son, police say. The 50-year-old man also died at the scene while the 24-year-old remains in hospital in critical condition
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls the attack “an act of pure evil” that “deliberately targeted” the Jewish community
(BBC)
Trump files $5bn defamation lawsuit against BBC over Panorama speech edit
UK and South Korea strike trade deal
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