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US military surveillance flight crashes in Philippines, killing 4

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A U.S. military service member and three defense contractors died Thursday in the Philippines after their surveillance flight crashed, officials say. 

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the aircraft contracted by the Department of Defense went down in the southern province of Maguindanao del Sur and «was providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies.» 

«The incident occurred during a routine mission in support of U.S.-Philippine security cooperation activities,» U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement to Fox News. 

«We can confirm no survivors of the crash. There were four personnel on board, including one U.S. military service member and three defense contractors,» it added. 

The wreckage of the plane in Maguindanao del Sur province, Philippines, following the crash on Thursday, Feb. 6. (Sam Mala/UGC via AP)

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. 

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The names of those involved are being withheld pending next of kin notification. 

Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told the Associated Press that she received reports that residents saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground about half a mile from a cluster of farmhouses. 

A water buffalo on the ground was also killed as a result of the plane crash, local officials said. 

U.S. forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country’s south for decades to help provide advice and training to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants, the AP reported. 

The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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US ally accuses Biden admin of using USAID as a ‘tool to interfere with domestic issues’

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President Donald Trump’s second administration has made the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) a prime target for spending cuts. Under Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is taking a serious look at the foreign aid agency — and America’s allies and enemies alike are taking notice.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital at the United Nations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó didn’t hide his disdain for USAID. While insisting that he was not interested in interfering with US domestic issues, Szijjártó did speak about what he saw from the agency under former President Joe Biden.

«The former administration couldn’t digest that we weren’t ready to give up our national positions. We were not ready to give up representing our national interests,» Szijjártó told Fox News Digital. «And we were not ready to give up our non-liberal, patriotic, conservative type of approach.»

Former President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

‘VIPER’S NEST’: USAID ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT LONG BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN TOOK AIM

Szijjártó also accused the Biden administration of using USAID to «destabilize the situation in other countries» and to fund «programs which were totally alien and strange compared to the culture and the heritage of other countries.»

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«If you ask me whether it’s good to us that there’s a revision period of 90 days when it comes to payments regarding USAID and others, we are very happy,» Szijjártó added.

USAID HAS ‘DEMONSTRATED PATTERN OF OBSTRUCTIONISM,’ CLAIMS TOP DOGE REPUBLICAN IN LETTER TO RUBIO

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime ally of Trump, also ripped USAID after it was reported that the agency was funding Politico.

Prime Minister Orbán followed up in another tweet saying, «We had to endure for years that the ultra-progressive, self-proclaimed human rights champions of the mainstream media demonized Patriotic political forces for years. They did it because they were paid to do so by USAID and the previous, left-wing US administration. I agree with President [Trump]: this is too big and too dirty to hide from.»

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during Wednesday’s press briefing that «more than $8 million taxpayer dollars» went to Politico, adding that DOGE is «working on canceling those payments.» However, the publication denied that it has ever been a «beneficiary of government programs.»

Musk, who is heading up Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through DOGE, described the agency as a «viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.»

Elon Musk at Congress

Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

MEET THE BIDEN-ERA USAID LEADER FACING BACKLASH AMID MUSK’S DOGE CRACKDOWN

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On Monday, Trump’s White House issued a list of examples of «waste and abuse» at USAID. This included $6M to fund tourism in Egypt, $1.5M in funding for DEI programs in Serbia’s workplaces, $47,000 for a «transgender opera» in Colombia and more.

The White House also accused the agency of spending «hundreds of millions of dollars» on «irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,» adding that this was «benefiting the Taliban.»

Donald Trump and Elon Musk

Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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At the end of its list, the White House noted that the highlighted examples were part of a longer list of projects.

«Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW,» the White House added.


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