Massive

Satellite imagery has emerged showing China’s two massive stealthy flying-wing high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft at its secretive test base near Malan. TWZ first identified both of the previously unseen aircraft last year in Planet Labs archived imagery of the airfield, which is known to be on the leading edge of the PLA’s unmanned combat aircraft development efforts. However, this is the first time both have been captured outside their hangars simultaneously, or on the main apron at all. Overall, the image, dated March 26th, 2026, underscores the major uptick of very advanced drone testing activity at the installation.

The flying wing with the longest wingspan (red arrow in the image at the top of the article), which some have dubbed “WZ-X,” and what we refer to as “The Monster of Malan,” is parked on the main apron next to the runway. The very large flying wing has a span of approximately 173 feet — roughly the width of a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. You can read more about this impressive aircraft in our previous coverage here and here. Other details about its true designation or its manufacturer remain unknown.

The second large flying wing (green arrow) is seen in the image sitting outside a hangar that is part of the sprawling new high-security facility on the opposite side of the complex. It features a ‘cranked kite’ planform with a wingspan of approximately 137 feet, although it would appear to have a significantly higher gross weight and likely lower operating ceiling than its wider stablemate. Based on our previous analysis, this variant is suited for the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) role, but could also work as a supersized unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) capable of performing very long-range heavy strike missions.

Both of these aircraft appear to have been flying now for a number of months. You can read about this here and here.

There is also what appears to be a stealth fighter-like drone (orange arrow) and a Xi’an Y-20 transport plane on the main apron in the image.

China has shown off a very large number of fighter-drone concepts, very loosely similar to the U.S. Collaborative Combat Aircraft initiative, in recent years. A Chinese military parade in 2025 was really Beijing’s major public thrust into this area of advanced fighter-like drone development. Since then, testing of at least one configuration has been ramped up considerably.

Just reviewing Planet Labs archived images of Malan in recent months shows the aircraft configuration seen above to be very active at the base. This relatively large unmanned ‘fighter’, analogous to a manned light-to-medium weight fighter in size, is a tailless design that features a very similar planform as the J-XDS 6th generation manned fighter. It also appears similar in shape to another CCA-like aircraft that has been photographed flying.

One drone shown off during China’s big military parade looks very similar to it, in particular. But regardless, this general design appears to be a focus of testing at the base.

Other mysterious aircraft have appeared at the installation as well, which is clearly set up specifically to run many programs within its high-security confines at any given time.

Beijing is actively pursuing a range of flying-wing drones of various sizes, including large HALE drones, designed to perform a diverse set of missions, including ISR and strike. For many years, TWZ has assessed that this was an area of the Chinese aviation industry most likely to see an explosion of investment. The WZ-X is still the largest Chinese design in terms of wingspan that we have seen in this category to date. The cranked-kite design is certainly the heaviest.

This new look at China’s two large flying wing combat drones comes as we got our first good look at America’s own RQ-180 HALE stealth drone, which has been flying for some time and is now being used operationally. It also comes as China is rushing ahead on all fronts with its next generation air combat ecosystem, and making impressively quick progress to show for its efforts. Still, a formidable looking aircraft doesn’t mean it can fight as impressively as part of a joint force as it looks, or survive against enemy air defenses. Regardless, China is clearly betting substantially on advanced and large unmanned flying wing designs.

Contact the author: ian.ellis-jones@teamrecurrent.io

OLIVIA DEAN is preparing to pull out the big guns for the follow-up to her year of triumph — by enlisting the help of hitmaker extraordinaire Nile Rodgers.

She’s become one of the UK’s favourite musicians thanks to the runaway success of her album The Art Of Loving.

Now I’m told Chic great Nile is keen to work with Olivia and personally reached out to her.

Their teams are looking for space in the schedules to go into the studio together.

A source said: “Nile has his finger on the pulse when it comes to music and thinks Olivia is just amazing.

“He was actually aware of her before her album dropped and is really keen to get in the studio with her.

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“She really does have the world at her feet and is pretty honoured that such a star wants to work with her.”

Nile has written, produced and performed on albums totalling more than 750million sales.

He has worked on tracks including David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Duran Duran’s The Reflex and Like A Virgin by Madonna.

More recently, he has contributed to Beyonce’s albums Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, and Coldplay’s tenth album Moon Music.

But Olivia doesn’t have loads of time in her diary right now, having kicked off a debut arena tour in Glasgow last Wednesday.

She has shows in London this week and will stay on the road across Europe and North America until the end of August, before jetting Down Under in October.

Released last September, The Art Of Loving has turned her into a global star, spawning the singles Man I Need, So Easy (To Fall In Love), A Couple Minutes and Let Alone The One You Love.

She proved to have the Midas touch, because after teaming up with Sam Fender on a version of his song Rein Me In, it spent eight weeks at No1 — and is on course to return there this Friday.

Olivia has also achieved career milestones including performing on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage in 2024.

On how to build her career, Olivia previously said: “Make an album, play Jools Holland and play the Pyramid Stage.

“I’ve done them now, I need to figure out some new goals.”

With Nile by her side, I’m sure Olivia will continue to dominate.

MIS-TEEQ confirmed my story that they’re reuniting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Lickin’ On Both Sides.

I revealed in January that Alesha Dixon, Sabrina Washington and Su-Elise Nash were discussing getting back together for a one-off performance.

And now Mis-Teeq’s Instagram page has kicked back into action, with a video showing their performances from 2001 – when the record came out.

The biography on their account reads: “25 Years. One Legacy.”

Watch this space.

COOPER: MY SLIM PICKIN’

COUNTRY singer Cooper Alan wants to do the unthinkable and drag Eminem into the world of cowboy music.

In an exclusive chat with Bizarre, the TikTok sensation – who has racked up 11.5million followers – revealed that the Slim Shady rapper tops his dream collaboration list.

Cooper said: “Eminem has always been my favourite. It would probably never happen, but that’d be really cool.

“Eminem on a country song, I think that would be crazy.”

He’s also got another surprise duet in mind, this time with with Scottish brothers The Proclaimers.

He added: “We’ve been covering their 500 Miles as our encore, so we’ll throw their hat in the ring too. Dream collab, The Proclaimers.”

I caught Cooper live in London last week on his To The Pub Tour, and the show was absolute carnage – in the best way possible.

The singer is wrapping up his first UK shows in Glasgow tomorrow, following the release of latest album Winston-Salem.

The New Normal singer had fans battling it out in a beer-chugging contest before pouring pints straight into the front row from the stage.

Laughing about the stunt, he said: “You’d think I’d be better at pouring the beer.

“But it comes out too fast, it goes all over their face.”

After testing their drinking skills, he was full of praise for our crowds.

Cooper said: “I was impressed with the British drinking ability, especially on a Tuesday night.”

That’s those Americans told.

If you want proper drinkers, come to Britain.

MEGAN DITCHES ‘CHEATER’

MEGAN THEE STALLION has broken up with boyfriend Klay Thompson after accusing him of cheating on her.

In a statement confirming her split from the NBA basketball player, she said: “I’ve made the decision to end my relationship with Klay.

“Trust, fidelity and respect are non-negotiable for me in a relationship.

“When those values are compromised, there’s no real path forward.

“I’m taking time to prioritise myself.”

The WAP rapper was with Klay – who’s yet to address the claims – for just under a year.

On Instagram she wrote: “Cheating, had me around your family playing house.

“Got ‘cold feet’. Holding you down through all your HORRIBLE mood swings and treatment of me during basketball season  . . .  now you don’t know if you can be ‘monogamous’???”

FOO FIGHTERS celebrated the release of their album Your Favorite Toy with a launch party in London, then performed two new tracks on Saturday Night Live.

But it looks like the band, above, will be prevented from scoring their seventh No1 album, as Noah Kahan’s new record The Great Divide has sold three times more in the UK since they were both released on Friday.

MADGE BASQUES IN GLORY

SHE might be 67, but it’s clear Madonna can still party hard as she leaves a nightclub in bridal lingerie at 2am yesterday.

Madge, in shades and knee-high boots, hosted a bash at The Abbey in West Hollywood, where she played new track I Feel So Free and also premiered an upcoming song, believed to be called Freedom.

That could well be her third track with that title.

She recorded one for her 1994 Bedtime Stories album, though it didn’t make the cut at the time, and made another during sessions in 2014 and 2015, which wasn’t officially released but did leak online.

There was some chaos at the Los Angeles nightspot as fans grappled to get close to the superstar, who was standing behind the DJ decks.

Punters were pushing and shoving, with one woman pouring her drink over a man’s head.

Celeb fans Addison Rae and Julia Fox were also there.

Let’s hope they didn’t have soggy bonces.

BOY GEORGE FACES UP TO EUROVISION

BOY GEORGE is all set to make his Eurovision debut next month – but it sounds like he’s put less thought into his vocals than how he will react when the scores are revealed.

The singer is featuring on San Marino’s entry Superstar, by Senhit.

He said in an exclusive chat at the London Eurovision Party: “I’ve been to so many awards shows where I’ve been nominated, so I will be able to deal with nerves when it comes to the points.

“You have to learn that face where you’re like, ‘I’m so happy for everyone else’.

“But I’ll be so in it. I think Senhit will be more nervous than me.

“I won’t be nervous on the night, not really. There will be nervous energy and excitement.”

The Culture Club frontman joked he better not get stage fright, adding: “Probably on the night, I’ll be like, ‘Argh, this is huge.

“What if I forget to say the right words?’. I won’t have a lot to do, but sometimes not having much to do can be worse. But I think I’ll be fine.”

He has high hopes that San Marino can beat the UK entry Eins, Zwei, Drei by Look Mum No Computer.

George added: “I’d love us to win. San Marino is a small country. Ireland is not doing Eurovision this year so, they can vote for me as I’m Irish.”

THE ROLLING STONES are having fun with the promo for their new album Foreign Tongues.

They have turned their website into a CCTV geek’s heaven with ten cameras showing them at work.

Producer Andrew Watt, who worked on their last No1 album Hackney Diamonds, features in the videos, and helped shape the ten album tracks.

Insiders said there is a top-secret – and random – collab on the new record, out later this year. I’m told no one would ever guess.

SYDNEY CENTRE STAGE

HONKY tonkin’ Sydney Sweeny squeezed into this tiny corset dress to enjoy the world’s largest country music festival.

She was spotted in the crowd during the Stagecoach event in California.

The actress, who seemed to take inspiration from Madonna’s latest corset look, was seen on top of boyfriend Scooter Braun’s shoulders as they watched Ella Langley perform on Friday evening.

She was then back on Saturday for day two and got on the mic herself, inset.

Her lingerie brand Syrn hosted a pop-up where she belted out Sweet Caroline on karaoke and was joined by showbiz pals Diplo and Lance Bass.

Perhaps a music career beckons next . 

The “forgotten” Dolomites lie to the east, far from the crowds of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Val Gardena. Belluno is the main gateway, two hours north of Venice by train or a drive up the A27. From here, the upper Piave valley leads into the quieter Friulian mountains. The land rises gently, opening into pasture, then stone lifting into spires above the meadows.

A POPULAR holiday destination could soon lose all of its Ryanair flights – due to huge queues at the airport.

Malta is just one of the destinations in Europe that recently implemented the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) at its airport, which requires new biometric checks.

However, recent reports found that passengers were left stranded on the tarmac for 20 minutes because the queues were so long at security inside the airport building.

David O’Brien, one of Ryanair’s executive officers and the CEO of Malta Air, said: “If we find ourselves with significant congestion and delay, we’d have to redirect capacity away from Malta to other destinations and that’s not something we’d like to do.”

He has since written to Malta’s Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to ensure border controls are fully staffed for this summer, according to The Times of Malta.

O’Brien added that “Europe is utterly unprepared in a general sense” and that while the airline has not yet experienced significant delays at Malta Airport, it is concerned about the upcoming summertime period.

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Last year, Ryanair carried more than half of total passengers to Malta and of those travelling to the country – with the UK being the biggest market.

To try and reduce the delays, Malta Airport has introduced new measures such as a specific Schengen corridor, as well as increasing the amount of immigration desks.

The airport has also transferred more airport staff to be working on the new system.

Alan Borg, CEO of Malta International Airport told The Times of Malta: “We are working hand in hand with the Malta Police Force to make sure we can do everything possible to support them in this important initiative.

“It is what it is. We need to find ways to improve the processing time over the summer period.”

EES is a new system used across 29 European countries to register non-EU nationals, which includes Brits, for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

And Malta isn’t the only airport suffering delays due to the newly implemented EES.

Last month, Travel Reporter Alice Penwill experienced three-hour queues at Lanzarote Airport.

She said: “The queues stretched along the corridor and zigzagged all the way through the arrivals hall that took passengers to EES registration.”

“I’d already signed up to EES, having visited Lithuania a few months ago – but that was no use at all.

“There was no separate queue for – or any staff for that matter – advising those who have registered to head straight to the passport e-gates.

“While this was frustrating, what was even more so was that only half of the EES machines were actually working.

“When I finally made it to my bus transfer, even the Jet2Holidays rep said she’d ‘never seen delays this bad’.”

Delays have also been reported at Brussels, Lisbon and Prague airports.

Greece has even decided to halt the system completely.

On April 18, a statement from the Greek Embassy announced that Brits are “exempt” from biometrics at all Greek border crossing points.

Eleni Skarveli, the director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK, said: “The exemption of British passport holders from biometric registration at Greek border crossing points, effective from 10 April 2026, is expected to significantly reduce waiting times and ease congestion at airports.

“UK travellers will no longer need to undergo additional EES biometric procedures, ensuring a smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece.“

Sun Travel has contacted Malta Airport and Ryanair for comment.

In other travel news, here is the full list of 29 European countries being hit by new travel rules.

Plus, here are nine of the European airports where Brits are facing massive queues and missed flights due to new travel rules.

SWEET stations in the lobby, statues of famous cartoon characters and a rip-roaring theme park right outside your bedroom window.  

This might just be the best family resort out there. 

The new Nickelodeon Hotel, which opened last year at the Land of Legends complex in Antalya, is bursting with fun. 

On top of character meet-and-greets at all times of day, there’s free gaming stations and an energetic kids’ club.  

And that’s before you even get to the splash park and heated pool, available for hotel guests only. 

My kids had watched Land of Legends being built on other family trips to Antalya over the years, and the excitement had grown on each visit. 

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PLAY TIME

I took my kids to the huge slime ‘playground’ at UK’s most famous toy store

But with Joshua and Jessica now 12 and nine, my partner Jo and I wondered if we’d missed the boat, or rollercoaster. 

We needn’t have worried, though.  

Land of Legends, which turns ten this summer, caters for all ages, tastes and daredevil levels. Designed to be a giant entertainment resort, visitors have access to hotels, shopping avenue, waterparks and, of course, a theme park in one place. 

Best of all, anyone staying in the onsite Nickelodeon Hotel can use a private entrance to access the theme park — meaning they can ride when they want, pop back for meals and drinks and then go again.  

Spongebob’s Bikini Bottom became a solid family favourite. The new indoor addition to the park features rides for all ages, including an interactive coaster where you shoot targets as you go. 

Young kids will also love the Star Trek simulator, Family Coaster and the crazy Typhoon Coaster where you go up in a lift before splashing down log flume-style. 

And once me and Josh got our big-boy pants on, we were ready for Hyper Coaster — a ride that rollercoaster enthusiasts travel across Europe to try. 

Trust me, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but I had to at least pretend I was being brave by laughing when Josh was next to me on the ascent, saying: “Dad, I think I’m going to pass out.” 

I couldn’t really hear him over my screams after that, as we plummeted, looped, corkscrewed and flew our way across the park. 

I’m not ashamed to say it took me a good 15 to 20 minutes to be able to feel my knees again. 

For a little less speed, there’s a neat Paw Patrol section of the park and Masha and the Bear area — a favourite of our children when they were toddlers so the boat ride was a lovely trip down memory lane for us all. 

On days when the Turkish heat gets too much, holidaymakers can get more thrills at the waterpark (open April to October). 

Dozens of flumes and the quite incredible Turtle Coaster, where you are propelled uphill in a boat by water jets at amazing speeds, were big hits. Although the group favourite was a rubber-ring ride — especially for Jess, as she found it hilarious that I seemed to go backwards the entire way down the steep slopes. 

As we went early in the season, it didn’t really matter what water attraction we went for first as there were no queues. 

You won’t need to splash out on food at the parks when you stay onsite, either. 

The Nickelodeon Hotel operates a “Full-Board+” concept, which means breakfast, lunch and dinner in La Spatula restaurant and all soft drinks are included.  

Alcohol is served at lunch and dinner times with meals, too. 

The food was tasty, fresh and plentiful — from the omelette station at breakfast to the grilled lamb kebabs in the evenings. 

Magic shows performed over breakfast added another element of fun and Jess was still trying to figure out just how the magician had done it by lunch. 

Most evenings, we were so tired that not even the multi-coloured, themed character rooms could have kept us awake.  

Rooms are spacious and our Dora the Explorer suite had a balcony overlooking the park, meaning the kids went to sleep dreaming of the next ride. You can request room types on different floors subject to availability, themed around Spongebob, Star Trek and Turtles. 

In-room fridges filled with glass bottles of pop, plus a pod-coffee machine and snacks in the drawer were a real bonus for the post-park chill before dinner. 

The “Club Nick” kids’ club was excellent, too, with art classes (we painted SpongeBob, obviously) and nightly dance and character shows. 

Included in longer stays is an afternoon trip to sister hotel Rixos Premium Belek, with a minibus laid on. 

Lunch out was good and it meant we could get a drink by the sea.  

This was our fifth visit to Turkey in three years and the destination never fails to impress. The locals delight at welcoming tourists and showing off their country. 

Not everything is still “cheap” here, but this part of the world definitely knows how to do value for money. 

And if you did want to spend a few more lira, the front of the hotel opens out on to the Land of Legends shopping avenue — a Las Vegas-style strip with a canal, high-end stores and evening shows all centred around a Disney-like castle. 

For a slightly more chilled vibe, there are dancing fountains scattered around the shopping district, which Jo and I enjoyed while Josh and Jess played on the PS5s and arcade games. 

I tended to avoid those because, you know, it’s hard to keep letting them win every game . . .  

WASHINGTON — An effort to ramp up U.S. weapons production and build more ships, planes and drones will require a massive upfront investment, President Trump’s budget director told a House committee Wednesday.

The testimony from Russell Vought jump-starts the White House’s push to increase defense spending to nearly $1.5 trillion in the next budget year, up from nearly $1 trillion this year, while cutting health research, heating assistance and scores of other domestic programs by about 10% overall. Such cuts do not cover mandatory spending, which includes such programs as Social Security and Medicare.

The debate over Trump’s proposal underscored the sharp divide that will shape some of the most significant policy debates going into a midterm election that will give voters the ultimate say on the direction of the country.

“For the industrial base to double or triple and build more facilities, not just add shifts, it requires multiyear agreements to purchase into the future,” Vought told lawmakers. “That cost has to be booked in this first year.”

The White House is calling for about $1.1 trillion for defense through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires support from both parties for approval. An additional $350 billion would come through a separate bill that Republicans can accomplish on their own, through party-line majority votes.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, said he believes in a strong national defense. But he said the idea of increasing defense by more than 40% while cutting programs that people need shows that the Republican administration’s priorities are “out of whack.”

The committee chairman, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), predicted the hearing would be more “amped up” than usual, and that proved to be true, beginning with his opening statement focused on criticizing Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency. Arrington said he did not know of any president in his lifetime who “inherited such a complete and utter mess as President Trump did in January of last year.”

Since then, Arrington said, Trump has secured the border, cut taxes and constrained nondefense spending.

It was the beginning of several back-and-forths at the hearing.

“You know how bad this economy is when we hear Joe Biden being invoked, we hear trans people being invoked. I was waiting for Jimmy Carter to be blamed next,” Boyle said in response to Arrington’s opening remarks.

Boyle said consumer confidence is plummeting under Trump and noted a gas station he passed in Philadelphia recently was selling gas at $4.11 a gallon versus less than $3 a gallon some six weeks ago because of Trump’s “war of choice in Iran.”

Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) called the proposed defense spending increase shocking.

“We’ve never in the history of this country seen spending like this, paid for by slashing healthcare, education and housing,” Balint said. “Mr. Vought, yes or no, is $350 billion for the war in Iran lowering costs for Americans?”

“It is certainly not defunding child care. We fully fund child care in this budget,” Vought said, not directly answering the question.

Balint went on to incorporate Trump’s “America first” mantra in her questioning.

She said that $350 billion could pay for an enhanced health insurance tax credit for 10 years and that her constituents are asking how the country can continue to spend money on wars and not find a solution to helping people afford healthcare.

Vought said the president has made clear he was not going to let Iran have nuclear weapons, missiles and a navy that affect U.S. national security.

“He is doing what is necessary to keep us safe, while at the same time trying to pursue diplomacy so that we can get out of wars and lower those costs over time,” Vought said.

Vought said it was unclear how much the administration would seek to fund the war during the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. That money would be part of an emergency supplemental spending bill and would be on top of the funds the White House is seeking to boost defense spending next year.

“Would it be more than $50 billion?” asked Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas).

“We’re still working on it,” Vought said. “I don’t have a ballpark for you.”

Freking writes for the Associated Press.

The proposed 76-metre arch would tower over other iconic landmarks in Washington, DC, and has attracted scrutiny.

United States President Donald Trump’s goal of erecting a colossal arch in Washington, DC, has taken another step forward, with a key agency approving his proposed design for the monument.

The US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump, gave its go-ahead to the president’s design for a lofty 76-metre-high (250-foot) arch.

If given final approval, the arch would be built on Memorial Circle, between the Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. It would tower above other landmarks in the national capital.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle hailed the commission’s approval as a “step in accomplishing President Trump’s promise to the American people from the campaign trail — to Make America Safe and Beautiful Again”.

But the arch has faced criticism, including for potentially obscuring views of the national cemetery, a resting place for war veterans.

Public Citizen Litigation Group is representing some Vietnam War veterans in a lawsuit against the proposed construction, which they argue needs congressional approval.

Even the vice chair of the Commission of Fine Arts, James McCrery II, suggested that Trump’s proposed “Triumphal Arch” ditch the winged statue and eagles on its top. He also opposed the lions at its base, pointing out that African animals are “not a beast natural to the North American continent”.

The enormous arch is another effort by the US president to leave his mark on the physical landscape of Washington, DC.

In January, he told reporters he wants the arch to be the “biggest one of all”. The commission still needs to vote on final approval for the proposal after reviewing updated designs.

Current plans show the arch would be significantly larger than the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet (30 metres) tall, and about twice as tall as the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which the design resembles.

The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” would be written in gold lettering atop either side of the monument.

About three out of every four people who delivered public comments about the project expressed opposition, many of them citing its enormous size.

But the arch is one of several Trump projects that have received public pushback.

Trump has sought to paint the granite of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white, and his allies plan to close the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a national theatre complex, for two years of renovations, after adding Trump’s name to the exterior.

One of the most permanent changes so far has been the abrupt demolition of the White House’s East Wing, in order to make room for an enormous ballroom, long one of Trump’s priorities.

But that project is likewise entangled in legal battles, with critics arguing that congressional approval is required.

On Wednesday, Judge Richard Leon clarified that construction on underground structures at the ballroom site could continue, as part of an exemption he previously allowed for national security concerns.

But he maintained his short-term injunction against construction on the ballroom itself, batting down Trump’s position that the whole project should proceed.

“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated,” Leon wrote in Thursday’s ruling.

“That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!”

The president responded on social media by calling Leon an “out of control Trump hating” judge. Leon was appointed in 2002 under Republican President George W Bush.

THE new EES travel requirement is causing chaos at many European airports from three hour-long queues to missed flights.

From Portugal to Spain and Poland, here’s where Brits have been held up since the full rollout of the new travel rules.

New travel rules require all non-EU nationals to register their biometrics instead of having their passport stamped at border control, but it has held up travellers for hours.

Portugal

At Lisbon Airport, one passenger wrote on X yesterday (April 13), that he had been queueing for two hours to get through the airport.

Over the weekend, Lisbon as well as airports in Porto and Faro actually stopped EES registration because of excessive passenger wait times.

This was on the morning of April 11 and later restarted in the afternoon.

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Spain

At Palma Majorca Airport in the capital of the island, there were reports of queues “between two and three hours” at passport control on April 11.

This was in a joint statement from Airports Council International Europe (ACI-Europe) and Airlines for Europe (A4E).

They added that some UK-bound aircraft left half-empty after boarding gates closed while passengers were still stuck in the immigration line.

On the same day, there were long queues in Tenerife South Airport – one passenger took a short video of the line.

She wrote on Facebook: “Tenerife South Airport departures for the passport stamp before boarding. I do worry about summer which is going to be another record breaker. What is the solution? The new EES system just isn’t good enough.”

Belgium

Delays at Brussels Airport on April 10 even caused passengers to miss their flights.

The Airports Council International reported that in one instance there weren’t any passengers on a plane when the gate closed.

It said one flight from Brussels to the UK was missing 51 passengers at departure.

And then, “another flight had zero passengers on board at gate closing time, and 90 minutes later, 12 passengers were yet to reach the gate”.

Italy

At Milan Airport 100 people were left stranded when an easyJet flight to Manchester left without them.

The delays due to the new EES checks meant travellers were waiting in lines over three hours long.

Some passengers left in the airport were throwing up and passing out due to the heatwave over the weekend.

easyJet spoke to The Sun and said: “While this is outside of our control, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”

Netherlands

Other passengers reported delays at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

One took to social media and wrote that hardly any passport gates were open, leaving older travellers and families with young kids stuck in lines.

Poland

In Poland, there were also problems. One traveller described passport control as a “shambles” at Krakow Airport.

They said: “Arrived an hour 10 minutes ago. Yet still have this queue to get through. I estimate another hour at least.

“Avoid Krakow if you want to: save your sanity/make a meeting/have a connection/enjoy your holiday.”

If you’re heading abroad soon, here are our seven tips for the new EES rules.

And this travel app could help you avoid massive airport queues caused by EES.

If conservative commentator Steve Hilton is elected California’s next governor, as President Trump wants, it would mark a “political revolution” for the liberal state, the candidate said.

The state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature, “after all their years of lecturing us about democracy,” would be forced to work with him “to enact the changes that Californians just voted for,” and he would be willing to work with them too, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former Fox News host said.

If firebrand Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is elected governor, he will take a decidedly different approach, he said.

“You want to know how I’m gonna work with a Democrat Legislature? I’m not. I’m gonna get every single one of them unelected,” Bianco said. “Every single day, I’m gonna stand on the steps of the Capitol, and I’m gonna tell the California voting public about the idiots in Sacramento that are ruining their lives.”

For the first time in years, the state GOP is riding into its convention this weekend on a wave of optimism about the upcoming gubernatorial race.

According to recent polling, Hilton and Bianco both stand a chance of winning more votes in the June 2 primary than any of the many Democratic candidates, who have spread thin their party’s nearly 2-1 advantage in voter rolls. If the GOP candidates do that, they would advance to a head-to-head contest in November’s general election, and one would become the state’s first Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Much could change to prevent that scenario. More Democrats could drop out. Voters could coalesce around one or two of those left. Hilton, with Trump’s endorsement, could consolidate Republican support and push Bianco out of contention.

Still, the prospect of a Republican governing California, a stronghold of the anti-MAGA movement, has captivated political experts and spectators alike.

Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on the death penalty shortly after taking office, a policy the next governor could reverse. At San Quentin, an inmate is moved from his cell on death row.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Trump, in his recent endorsement, said he has “known and respected” Hilton for many years and would help him “turn it around” in California after an “absolutely horrendous job” by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state Democrats.

“With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!” Trump wrote.

Many Democrats predict the opposite: grandstanding and gridlock as either Hilton or Bianco’s MAGA-aligned agenda meets stiff resistance from powerful state Democrats repulsed by the president’s movement.

“If the new governor decided to go hard MAGA, they would face enormous pushback,” said state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who considers it unlikely for both Republicans to advance.

“I don’t think there’s any question that the state would descend into chaos,” said Phil Angelides, a Democrat and former state treasurer who lost to Schwarzenegger in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

The limits of power

California governors hold substantial power.

They direct and appoint leaders to the state’s many executive agencies, boards and commissions, which oversee vast portfolios in vital areas, such as the environment, California’s university systems and the state parole board. They craft the state budget and have a line-item veto to eliminate legislative appropriations. They can make major unilateral decisions — such as welcoming federal troops into California cities — and command a bully pulpit to drive public opinion and policy, including through statewide ballot measures.

Demonstrators confront California National Guard troops and police outside a federal building during protests in Los Angeles in 2025 after the Trump administration sent in the National Guard. The Republican candidates for California governor said they would welcome similar orders by the Trump administration.

(David McNew / Getty Images)

California’s next governor would have the power to end Newsom’s moratorium on the death penalty, appoint state judges and grant state pardons. During emergencies the governor would be able to reshape state regulations, suspend laws and redirect funding, as Newsom did during the COVID-19 pandemic by banning price gouging, halting evictions and postponing the 2020 tax deadline.

But their power also has limits.

Many of the governor’s appointees are subject to state Senate confirmation. The Legislature can change and amend the governor’s proposed budget and pass a budget bill distinctly different from his proposal. Democrats, with their supermajority, can also override the governor’s vetoes.

The independently elected state attorney general can sue to defend state laws, regulations and residents, a power current officeholder Rob Bonta, a Democrat, has exercised more than 60 times to challenge the Trump administration. The California Supreme Court, which leans liberal, can rein in the executive branch if it determines it has violated the state Constitution or other statutes.

Trump has repeatedly pushed the limits of executive authority and benefited from having a Republican-controlled Congress and a conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority that holds an expansive view of executive power. Hilton or Bianco would face the opposite in California, where many legislators would refuse to acquiesce to a Republican governor, especially one almost certain to face a swift recall, political experts said.

Hilton or Bianco could “potentially build alliances” with Democrats on issues such as housing and affordability and drive change that way, said Kim Nalder, a political science professor and director of the Project for an Informed Electorate at Sacramento State. But “if the Democratic majority in the Legislature decides to dig in its heels, then they could oppose practically everything [the new governor] would do.”

Nalder said Hilton or Bianco could also “try to rule in a Trumpian way” by testing the boundaries of their authority. She expects Bianco would do so given his recent decision to “violate the norms of democracy” by seizing more than half a million 2025 ballots as part of an unusual local sheriff’s investigation into allegations of voter fraud that state and county officials say have no merit.

But he “wouldn’t have the public support or the hold on the other branches of government that Trump has,” she said, “so it would be much more difficult.”

Angelides said electing either Hilton or Bianco would put someone “deeply associated with the MAGA movement” atop a deeply blue state government in which many career employees hold opposing views, which would cause a cascade of disruptions.

“There’s no reason to believe it will be different than the chaos we’ve seen in the Trump administration: an evisceration of a number of state agencies, as well as the departure of a lot of talented people who will not stay and would not jeopardize their careers, their reputations, to work under a governor from the MAGA movement,” Angelides said.

State employees are protected by powerful unions with deep ties to Democratic leaders, which Hilton said he would sever.

A Bonta spokesperson said in a written statement that the attorney general “works in service of the people of California — not the Governor,” and would not hesitate to exercise his independent authority under the state Constitution.

“We hope to maintain a close working relationship with whomever California’s next Governor is, but our mission and our priorities will not change,” the spokesperson said. “Regardless of who is in that office, we will continue to enforce civil rights laws, investigate and prosecute complex crimes, protect public safety, stand up for consumers and the environment, and fulfill our duty to Californians.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón (D-Goleta) also offered a diplomatic response, saying in a statement that “it is critical that whoever our next Governor may be helps advance the lives and goals of California and its communities.”

In their own words

Hilton and Bianco both said they would radically reshape state government, in part by dismantling regulations that are hampering development and making basic necessities — housing, food, gas, electricity — too expensive.

Hilton, a top advisor in British Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government more than a decade ago, would install agency leaders who would be hyper-focused on slashing costly regulations in order to “reduce the burden of cost and hassle on California families and businesses,” he said. “Elections have consequences, and so it would be irresponsible not to use maximum aggression to make the changes as quickly as possible.”

The top two Republican candidates running for California governor said they would have a much better relationship with President Trump than Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who challenged the president’s policies in court and mocked him on social media.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

Bianco said “every single regulation in this state is leaving” if he wins, with California becoming far more business friendly. “The environmental activism, the environmental activism terrorists who are controlling state government, are going to be put in their place, which is outside where nobody hears from them.”

Both Hilton and Bianco also sharply criticized California Democrats for challenging Trump at every turn, a practice they would end.

“I would be wanting to work with the administration to help Californians,” Hilton said.

“Why would you ever push back on a president unless they were seriously trying to destroy your state?” Bianco said. “California is failing because of its own policies.”

Hilton said he expects Bonta to lose to his Republican running mate for attorney general, Michael Gates. Bianco said that if Bonta remains in office, he would completely “defund” the state Justice Department.

Hilton and Bianco also shared similar thoughts on Trump’s immigration crackdown and deployment of the National Guard to Minneapolis and Los Angeles, the latter without Newsom’s approval.

Hilton said that he “certainly would never want to see, in California, the scenes that we saw in Minneapolis, nor would I want to see repeated the scenes that we saw in our state last summer,” but that those clashes were “provoked and instigated by Democrat sanctuary policy,” which he would end.

California’s sanctuary policies largely bar local police and corrections officials from conducting or assisting federal authorities in immigration enforcement, which state leaders say is not their responsibility and could undermine community trust in local police.

Bianco said that Trump sent in troops because Newsom “was derelict in his duties to protect the people of California,” and that it is more important to address “failed Democrat policies for the last 20 years.”

“President Trump has done not one single thing to harm California in the last year,” he said.

Matt Lesenyie, an assistant professor of political science at Cal State Long Beach, said that if Hilton or Bianco becomes governor, Sacramento will see “a lot of gridlock and grandstanding, and that’s from both parties.”

But he also said he does not expect that to happen, because undecided voters are going to “figure it out” and coalesce behind a Democrat — even if at the last moment.

“That last slice of the electorate,” he said, “doesn’t wake up until the last two weeks.”

Times staff writer Katie King contributed to this report.

For nearly four weeks now, a very stealthy high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) surveillance and reconnaissance drone commonly and unofficially referred to as the RQ-180, or an evolution thereof, has been seen flying around Larissa Air Base in Greece. New, remarkably detailed videos of the uncrewed aircraft that have recently spread on social media offer insights into its sensor package and other aspects of the design. Just yesterday, TWZ also published an in-depth feature exploring the likely role of the ‘RQ-180’ in the ongoing conflict in Iran and how it ties to a secret Cold War drone program that was, in many ways, its progenitor.

The very large and very stealthy flying wing-type drone was first spotted in the skies around Larissa Air Base, also known as Larissa National Airport, in the city of the same name in Greece, back on March 18. Local spotter Efthymios Siakaras shared two new video clips offering especially good views of the uncrewed aircraft in flight, one on Sunday and another on Monday, which our friends over at The Aviationist were first to report on. Similar to the stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel being dubbed the “Beast of Kandahar” after it was first spotted in Afghanistan in the late 2000s, many are now also calling this drone the “Lady of Larissa.”

🇺🇸🇬🇷 O drone de reconhecimento furtivo americano RQ-180, de uso secreto, foi avistado pela segunda vez ontem, pousando em Larissa, na Grécia.

Esta é a melhor imagem até o momento da aeronave altamente secreta e ainda não confirmada.

Acredita-se que os RQ-180 estejam… pic.twitter.com/40JuHKUpr2

— Leo Kasura (@LeoKasura) April 6, 2026

Of the features visible in the latest footage of the Lady of Larissa, the most notable are a pair of large electro-optical sensor apertures underneath its central fuselage, right behind the main landing gear bay. The two windows are noticeably angled to the left and right. Behind those transparencies would be a large multi-spectral sensor system that can look down to the ground below and out at long slant angles towards the horizon from the aircraft’s very high perch. By having one window on each side, the RQ-180 could run racetrack patterns some distance from its target while providing continuous coverage. If a sensor is housed under each window, it could collect intelligence over much larger swathes of terrain at any given time.

As TWZ has noted for years, the RQ-180 would, with near certainty, carry a powerful radar with ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) modes as its primary sensor, along with electronic intelligence collection capabilities. Optical camera systems were always another possibility, one that seems to have proven true now.

As we wrote just yesterday:

“At its most basic, GMTI allows battle managers to see the enemy’s ground movements in real-time and then quickly adapt their game plan to counter those enemy forces before they can ever attack, or even pose a threat to friendly forces. GMTI is also a critical capability for detecting changes in force posture, establishing patterns of enemy movements over time, and identifying new targets of interest. Modern GMTI products can also be looped into a ‘kill web’ for rapid targeting purposes.“

“Some of this is also achieved through the aforementioned SAR mode, which basically provides a satellite-like image of a target area using radar. It also has the ability to see some things optical systems cannot, and, like GMTI, it can work under nearly all atmospheric conditions, day or night. When paired with GMTI, SAR can be used to help positively identify targets, as well as gain better situational awareness about the targets being tracked.“

“Passive electronic intelligence collection that allows for radiofrequency-emitters to be quickly detected and geolocated via onboard antennas and interferometry-based computing is another part of the equation. Long-range optical sensors can also provide higher-fidelity intelligence and spot movements of infrared signatures over large areas. You can imagine how fusing all these capabilities together, combined with advanced networking, on a single platform could be incredibly potent. Basically, detecting a target or target group of interest, and then training advanced sensors on it to rapidly build up a high-quality understanding of what is going on and even to provide real-time targeting data to ‘shooters’ would be this aircraft’s bread and butter.“

The drone’s electro-optical system and radar, together with the rest of its sensor suite, could offer a secondary air-to-air surveillance capability, as well.

As an interesting aside, Scaled Composites’ Proteus high-altitude test aircraft has previously been seen flying with an extremely similar-looking sensor suite with an oddly angled aperture housing. The high-flying Proteus has a long history of being used to test and evaluate new sensors and other advanced capabilities. Scaled Composites is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, widely understood to be the prime contractor behind the RQ-180.

When we saw pics of that EO aperture on Proteus years ago I said to Joe, “well that’s sure to be for the 180!” https://t.co/iGT83KX4JC

— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) April 6, 2026

In addition, the underside of the drone’s central fuselage, which is where the main array for the aforementioned radar would go, has a very pronounced bulge. This would house a rotating radar or a two-sided one so that the aircraft can scan the same area while traveling in either direction. Supplemental conformal arrays, or even load-bearing ones, could also be positioned all around the aircraft, along with communications antennas, electronic warfare gear, and electronic surveillance measures hardware.

The new views of the drone flying around Larissa underscore just how widely positioned its tricycle landing gear is, along with its very broad wingspan. As we’ve noted previously, a landing gear configuration like this allows for a large volume for payload and good stability on the ground.

It is worth pointing out that there looks to be a foreign object debris (FOD) deflector fitted around the wheel of the nose landing gear. In general, the radar absorbent coatings and the composite skins of stealthy aircraft are very sensitive. What might look to be relatively minor surface damage at a casual glance can have significant negative impacts when it comes to radar cross-section, which is critical for the aircraft’s mission effectiveness and survival. From what we can see, the drone will be sitting very low on its gear when on the ground. This only increases the potential for foreign objects to get kicked up and hit its belly during takeoff and landing. This is especially true for the low-hanging ventral bulge where sensor apertures are, right behind the nose gear. So, this debris guard makes total sense.

The nose gear strut also has what is called a trailing link or trailing arm, a feature designed to help smooth the impact of landing.

The trailing-link style nose landing gear otherwise has a two-wheel configuration very much in line with that of the B-21 Raider bomber, but in a scaled-down form. This is not all that much of a surprise, as the B-21 shares a general planform with the RQ-180. The Raider’s development was likely heavily influenced by the RQ-180, or a progenitor of the flying wing uncrewed aircraft we are seeing today.

The drone’s main landing gear looks extremely similar to what is found on F-15 fighters. Borrowing existing, proven components for experimental or low-production aircraft like this is a time-honored tradition. The use of an F-15’s main landing gear points to a high gross takeoff weight. The maximum takeoff weight of the latest F-15EX variant is 81,000 pounds, according to Boeing, and the F-15 has a much smaller, single nose wheel. For comparison, the high-flying Global Hawk drone’s maximum takeoff weight is 32,250 pounds, per the U.S. Air Force, and it has distinctly less robust landing gear to match.

At the same time, the Lady of Larissa would not necessarily need to make use of all of that capacity, or it could even have a bit higher gross weight, and various additional factors could have influenced the choice of landing gear. The overall design is likely to be light for its overall size to maximize range, endurance, and high-altitude performance. With its reconnaissance and surveillance mission sets, there would be no need for a payload bay structure to carry heavy weapons. This, along with the lack of any need to support a crew, would allow the aircraft to be absolutely packed with fuel.

While its similarities to the B-21 are glaring, the Lady of Larissa is even more optimized for high-altitude flight than the Raider, which itself is a step beyond in altitude performance over the B-2. You can read all about this in our past feature here. The drone’s overall massive flying wing shape and its very clean, laminar flow-like sculpting, along with wings that look designed to allow the RQ-180 to loiter at relatively extreme altitudes, support its penetrating, persistent reconnaissance mission set.

Furthermore, the most recent videos of the Lady of Larissa offer new looks at the control surfaces in action. Like what is found on the B-21 and Northrop’s preceding B-2 Spirit bomber, the drone has flaperons along the trailing edges of the wings and along its diamond-like empennage. There may also be a central variable geometry ‘beaver tail’ section, something also found on the B-2, but not on the B-21, although this could just be the inboard flaps being slightly extended.

Much remains to be learned about the drone’s design and capabilities, as well as why it is operating out of Greece and how long it has used Larissa as a forward base. Why such a sensitive asset continues to be seen flying in the middle of the day is also curious. After the highly exotic uncrewed aircraft was first spotted at Larissa, reports said that it had landed there after experiencing some kind of technical issue, though this remains unconfirmed. The drone could have diverted there after taking off for a mission from another operating location, even one potentially inside the United States. All that being said, as we’ve noted in the past, Larissa does look to have unique facilities that seem very well suited for hosting an aircraft like this, and that were only built in recent years.

It may be that it simply has no place to hide any longer, and more flexibility is being exercised as to when it can and can’t depart and land from wherever it’s operating from. This could also mean the Pentagon may be more willing to acknowledge its existence in the not-so-distant future.

As mentioned at the start of this story, TWZ just yesterday laid out a detailed case for why the RQ-180 would be very relevant for helping hunt Iranian mobile missile launchers. That is a mission set that likely evolved from work on a previous secret Cold War-era stealthy drone program called the Advanced Airborne Reconnaissance System (AARS), also known by the codename Quartz. There are many other roles it could execute in relation to Operation Epic Fury, as well.

Overall, we have gotten our best look at the so-called RQ-180. We now know it is capable of radio-frequency and electro-optical sensing, and we have a bit better idea of its overall size and mass. This is a very large unmanned system that is smaller in size than the B-21, but far larger than RQ-170. A very cursory guess supports a wingspan of something on the order of 130 feet or larger, but again, that is just a guess. This aircraft is clearly optimized to fly at least at Global Hawk altitudes (upwards of 60,000 feet) and possibly higher, approaching that of the U-2, giving it a huge line of sight to target areas. Being such an efficient-looking design and being so large with so much internal volume, it likely measures its endurance in days, not hours.

The videos of the RQ-180 operating in the daytime also come as China is moving forward with its own very large unmanned stealth flying wing designs.

If the war with Iran continues, we will probably be seeing more of the Lady of Larissa, with its shyness appearing to be waning just a bit.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The park is considered the largest in the UK, and among the biggest in Europe, and it’s packed with activities and things for kids to do, perfect for a last-minute Easter or half-term break

Holiday parks can be a great choice for families. Staying in a caravan or lodge means you get more space than the average hotel room, and just steps away from your accommodation you can enjoy the park’s entertainment and activities.

If you like a holiday park with a lively atmosphere and plenty to do, then there’s one option that could be perfect for your family break. Widely considered to be the largest holiday park in the UK, Trecco Bay Holiday Park in Porthcawl, South Wales, has over 2,000 caravans and lodges in its beachfront park, and it’s also among the largest in Europe.

Guests can choose from a wide range of two to four-bedroom caravans and lodges with a variety of accommodation grades from Bronze to Prestige. There are even pet-friendly options for those who want to bring their dog along to join in the fun. All accommodation includes a living area, a fully-equipped kitchen, and separate bedroom areas. You can check availability and book via Parkdean’s website.

The park has a large indoor pool complex, which includes a waterslide, and outside, you’ll find a wet play zone complete with shoots and water guns that opens in the warmer months. Families can book activities such as Aqua Paddlers, which allow kids to race around the pool, and Aqua Jets, which help you dive and swim under the water.

A high-ropes course is a fun way to balance and swing through the tree tops, or you can hire Family Karts and zip around the park together. There’s also an adventure playground, amusement arcade, soft play, plus kids’ clubs to keep little ones entertained.

While you can choose to stay in and cook in your caravan, the park has lots of restaurants, bars, and takeaways if you feel like a night off. Guests can enjoy a Burger King or Papa John’s, or family favourites at the Boathouse. There’s an Indian menu at Tandoori Kitchen, and American-style cuisine at Thunderbird Chicken among the many dining options.

Trecco Bay sits on a sandy beach, and some accommodation has sea views. This Blue Flag beach is just steps from the park and has lifeguards during peak periods, so kids can paddle and swim in the clear waters. The promenade is the perfect place for coastal walks, and you can even walk along the Wales Coast Path to nearby Porthcawl for a day trip.

The park has a 4.2 star rating on Google, with one recent review saying: “Lots of activities for the kids! High ropes, climbing wall and sport activities are great choices! Pool was fab.” However, one negative review said: “We left a day early. I had booked three nights, but we left the next morning because of the filth and the strong smell. With the cold weather, we had to open the windows because the smell was awful.”

Porthcawl has classic seaside town vibes, and here you’ll find more beaches, a charming local museum, a historic lighthouse, and a high street with independent shops and colourful terraced houses. If you’d rather stay closer to the town, there are B&Bs available such as Olivia House Guest House And Hotel which has a quirky interior, and the beachfront Seabank Hotel.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

INDIANAPOLIS — Kawhi Leonard made a jumper with 0.4 seconds remaining, and the Clippers rallied from a 24-point deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers 114-113 on Friday night.

Leonard finished with 28 points, reaching 20 for the 50th straight game. Darius Garland led the Clippers with 30.

The Clippers were run off the floor early by the team with the NBA’s worst record. The Pacers were a sizzling eight for 11 from three-point range in the first quarter to open a 42-21 lead.

It grew to 45-21 early in the second before the Clippers stormed back for their fourth straight victory, giving coach Tyronn Lue the 400th of his career.

Indiana had gone back ahead 113-108 on Obi Toppin’s jumper with a minute to play. Leonard answered with a jumper, Garland made two free throws and the Clippers got the ball back after Pascal Siakam missed a jumper. They inbounded along the left side to Leonard, who dribbled into the middle and pulled up for the winner.

Leonard become the 14th NBA player to score at least 20 in 50 straight games, a streak that began Nov. 28.

Bennedict Mathurin scored 17 points against his former team, going 12 for 15 on free throws.

Aaron Nesmith scored 26 points and Toppin had 20 for the Pacers, who have dropped two in a row since the victory that snapped their 16-game winning streak. They lost forward Jarace Walker after he was evaluated for a concussion in the first half.

Up next for the Clippers: at Milwaukee on Sunday.

Tourism chiefs are predicting a near two million jump in the number of Brits holidaying at home this Easter

Around 12.5 million Brits are planning an Easter staycation – as the Middle East war deters families from jetting abroad.

The number of people who say they intend to holiday in the UK over the Easter weekend is up sharply from 10.6 million last year. The near two million surge will help deliver a bumper £4.8billion boost to tourism and the wider economy, according to VisitEngland, which published the data.

The number saying they hope to holiday at home dwarfs the estimated 7.4 million who are planning a trip abroad this Easter. Of those definitely aiming to take a staycation during the Easter break, the majority will be short breaks of one to three nights.

READ MORE: UK drivers urged to do three-second car check as clocks change this weekendREAD MORE: UK’s ‘holiday park of the year’ is on family-run farm near beautiful beaches

It came as VisitEngland’s Trip-Tracker revealed that more than a quarter of those it surveyed, 28%, were worried about the impact of the Middle East conflict on their upcoming travel plans in April and May. The top concern was having less money to spend due to the economic impact. There have already been fears of air fare price hikes and possible flight cancellations.

The number of people planning an Easter staycation this year also marks a big jump on 2024’s 11 million, and nearly double the 6.5 million in 2023. A further 5.1 million people surveyed said they were undecided about whether to take an overnight holiday trip in the UK during the Easter weekend. The top reasons were “waiting to see if I can afford it” and “waiting to see what the weather is like”. Forecasts for the weather suggest it will be a mixed bag next week, but with settled conditions over the Easter weekend itself.

However, those driving for days out and holidays in the UK face a hit to the wallet from soaring fuel prices on the back of the Iran war. The nationwide average for unleaded has jumped to 150p a litre, up 17p since before the conflict erupted. Diesel drivers have been hit even harder, with diesel now averaging 176.68p per litre, a leap of 34p in recent weeks.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “Petrol has now broken through the unwelcome milestone of 150p a litre (150.11p), something drivers haven’t seen since mid-May two years ago while the average price of diesel is now approaching 180p at 177.68p.

“With the long-awaited four-day Easter weekend almost within touching distance, the cost of getting away by car is going to be noticeably higher this year.

“And with average prices at motorway services at 166p for unleaded and 182p for diesel, drivers on long journeys will need to plan very carefully where they refuel. The best advice remains to shop around for fuel and make use of free apps such as myRAC to never pay a penny more for fuel than is absolutely necessary.”

Some families may also think twice given another wave of bill increases – including water and council tax – from the start of April, and warnings that food price inflation could jump again.

Kate Allen, owner of Devon-based Finest Stays, said: “For now, we’re not seeing a slowdown. Bookings are up around 10% on this time last year, with more guests opting to stay in the UK rather than travel further afield to places like Dubai.

“The Great British holiday is very much in favour, as we’re a nation that prioritises getting away, and domestic breaks are benefiting from that shift. That said, there’s a nervous undercurrent. Fuel costs feel like a slow leak, pressure building rather than bursting.

“We’re expecting more guests to postpone or cancel, and that’s where it gets tricky. Terms and conditions may cover it, but it doesn’t make refund conversations any easier when the wider impact on businesses and homeowners isn’t fully understood.”

Tourism Minister Stephanie Peacock said: “It is wonderful that so many people are planning on having a staycation this Easter weekend, whether that’s spending time visiting our stunning landscapes and coastlines or exploring our vibrant towns, cities and cultural landmarks. Supporting domestic tourism helps local areas thrive – fuelling small businesses, boosting pride, and strengthening community economies.”

VisitEngland chief executive Patricia Yates said: “Tourism businesses and destinations will be looking to the critical Easter weekend for much needed cash flow so it’s encouraging to see so many of us are planning a holiday at home, with its ease, convenience and certainty of budgeting. We also know that the cost of living remains a concern for holidaymakers, leaving it difficult too for businesses to plan in advance.

“We have incredible activities, experiences and places to stay for all tastes and budgets, and there really is nowhere quite like Britain in springtime. From walks in our beautiful countryside with the promise of a pub lunch or discovering contemporary culture in our buzzing cities to enjoying fish and chips on the beach, there is something for everyone. So, a rallying cry to please go out and explore the amazing destinations and events here on our doorstep this spring. Tourism businesses will be very pleased to welcome you, you will have an amazing time and create memories to make you smile all year.”

It came as trade body UKHospitality stepped up criticism of what has been dubbed a new “tourist tax”. Labour is proposing to allow regional mayors in England to introduce a “visitor levy” on overnight stays, as already happens in some European countries. While details of how it would work are still to be finalised, it could either be a per head charge or a percentage of the cost of the stay. Small businesses – from guesthouses to B&Bs – say it could lead to closures.

Modelling by Oxford Economics, commissioned by UKHospitality, which assumed a 5% levy, warned it could lead to a £1.6billion tax increase for holidaymakers by 2030, and a £2.2billion hit to the economy.

WHEN it comes to city breaks, some of the cheapest in Europe are found a bit further east.

And Romania‘s Bucharest is not only affordable, but is getting more flights too.

Romanian airline, AnimaWings, has started six new weekly flights from London Gatwick to Bucharest.

This isn’t the only option though as there are also cheap flights with Ryanair from London Stansted with one-way journeys starting from £18.99.

Wizz Air also offers cheap flights to the city from London Luton.

With a flight time of just over three hours, Bucharest is the ideal city break destination.

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Last year, The Telegraph even named Bucharest as being one of Europe’s ‘last great cheap cities’.

It added that Bucharest has everything you need for a good city break with “expansive, tree-lined avenues, lively bars and characterful museums.”

Bucharest is inexpensive, according to Numbeo – a pint of local beer costs on average £2.55 and an average meal is around £10.18.

For a three-course meal, you’re looking at around £50 and a cappuccino is just £2.45.

It’s not just food and drink that’s on the cheaper side as public transport is the same – a typical single journey on the tram and metro network is as little as 85p.

One of the most popular places in the city to go is Therme Bucharest, a spa and waterpark.

Split into three parts, the Galaxy area is a more family-orientated with 17 water slides, a wave pool and water playground.

The Palm zone is where people go to relax – with three mineral pools and swim-up bars, it has been created for relaxation.

And Elysium is a ”restoration area’ with lots of traditional and modern treatments from hammams to infrared light therapy beds.

Sun Writer Steve Corbett visited Therme and called it one of ‘Europe‘s greatest secrets’.

He compared it to Center Parcs’ Subtropical Swimming Paradise as he tried out the water slides, high-tech treatments and poolside bars.

One woman even flew to Bucharest for a spa break at the Therme because it was cheaper than one in the UK.

Kara Wildbur booked her and her mum in at the Therme for £64 after finding out a spa break would be £400 back home.

Even with the flights being £157 return for the two of them, with the hotel costing £94 – it worked out cheaper than a UK spa day.

Another attraction is the Museum of Senses, which is an interactive museum – especially good if you’re visiting the city with kids.

It’s full of optical illusions, infinity rooms and hands-on exhibits.

Tickets for adults start from £9.33, and £6.79 for children.

When it comes to eating, there’s plenty of quirky cafes within the city.

Some top spots include The Grand Café Van Gogh in Bucharest which some visitors have said reminds them of Amsterdam.

It’s an art-themed cafe filled with Van Gogh artwork in the Old Town.

Another is Dulcinella which sells éclairs, New York-style rolls and is known for having an ‘Instagrammable-vibe’.

Caru’ cu Bere is considered the most famous restaurant and beerhouse in Bucharest and was founded in 1879.

Its house beer, called Berea casei, is brewed on-site and is still made from the original recipe – you can pick up 400ml from £4.30.

The best times of year to visit Bucharest are between April and October, with highs of 31C in June and July.

Just skip the winter months – the average temperature in December and January is around -2C.

For more on Romania, here’s another city that is one of the world’s ‘most underrated destinations’ that’s super cheap with new 3-hour flights.

And one Travel Writer visited the ‘barely-known European city that has easyJet flights – with world-famous castle’.

A POPULAR holiday destination just a few hours from the UK is getting a huge new £960million airport expansion.

Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca, Morocco is currently expanding its airport with a new terminal which will be able to handle up to 20million passengers a year.

The new terminal will be ‘H’ shaped and is expected to be operational by 2029, in time for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

It will have three levels with shops, green spaces and an airport hotel.

In addition, the terminal will be connected to Morocco‘s high-speed rail (LGV) network with links to Kenitra and Marrakech.

According to Architects’ Journal, the terminal will feature “sweeping undulations of the roof [evoking] the waves and movement of the Atlantic”.

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The project also includes a 3,700-metre runway, which will run alongside taxiways and a new 42-metre-tall air traffic control tower.

British architecture firm, RSHP – who designed London’s Millennium Dome and Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 and control tower – will design the new terminal at Mohammed V Airport.

Ivan Harbour, senior design director at RSHP, said: “The airport will be a celebration of light, warmth and human scale, undulating from grand central spaces to intimate and calming oases, a memorable experience for all travelling through it.

“It will be a state of the art, responsible, building that interprets and celebrates the landscape of its place to create a graceful threshold between Casablanca and the world beyond.”

The airport currently has two terminals and serves around 11.5million passengers each year.

Royal Air Maroc flies direct to Casablanca from London Heathrow with flights starting from £178 one-way.

Though, with the airport expansion there could be more services to the UK in the future.

Casablanca’s main attraction is the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world.

It also has a popular seaside promenade with lots of hotels and restaurants as well as Habous Quarter (known for its Moorish-style architecture, olive souks and bookstores) and the Old Medina with traditional markets.

The city is pretty cheap as well – a three-course meal for two usually costs around £23.74, while a beer is less than £3.

And the famous 1942 film Casablanca was also set in the city during World War II.

Despite mostly being filmed in studios in California, the film depicts the bustling city of Casablanca when it was used by people fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe.

In other airport news, a major London airport has hiked its drop off fees to £10 – the second highest in the UK.

Plus, these are all the new routes launching from the UK’s biggest and busiest airport this spring and summer.

RITA Ora put on a rather daring display as she attended an Oscars afterparty on Sunday night.

The Hot Right Now singer, 35, went completely braless and left little to the imagination in a daring sheer dress and massive feathered hat at Vanity Fair’s star-studded Oscars afterparty.

After Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, Rita could be seen posing up a storm on the red carper ahead of the celebratory event.

The British singer rocked a sheer embroidered floral gown from Tamara Ralph, which has the structure of a corset and the appearance of lingerie.

Though the dress had a high neckline, it was completely sheer with just a few embroidered flowers covering her modesty.

The dress then skimmed her figure with corset boning before baring her bikini line and then transforming into a black satin floor-grazing skirt.

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Trailing behind her, the skirt of the dress even had a train, which also boasted of some embroidery.

There was also a massive bow at the back of her dress, which appeared to be of the silk fabric.

She completed the look with a massive “camp” feathered hat, which dominated the entire look.

Rita wore minimal makeup, a light pink rosy-colored lip and a silver-hued eye look.

Her hair looked short and curled beneath her massive hat, and she added a pair of white pearl earrings.

Reacting to the stunning snaps of Rita’s outfit for the afterparty, one person penned on X, “Oh Rita Ora this is such a slay wow.”

“She ate this,” declared another.

“Sublime,” swooned a third.

While a fourth penned: “What a beautiful dress.”

“THE HEADPIECE IS CAMPPPP,” added a fifth.

Who won on Hollywood’s biggest night?

One Battle After Another ran away with the night with six Oscars, while Sinners, which was nominated for a record-breaking 16 awards, came away with four. See the full winners list below:

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, Weapons

Supporting Actor: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

Directing: One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson

Adapted Screenplay: One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson

Original Screenplay: Sinners, Ryan Coogler

Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Documentary Short: All the Empty Rooms

Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters

Animated Short: The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Cinematography: Sinners, Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Costume Design: Frankenstein, Kate Hawley

Film Editing: One Battle After Another, Andy Jurgensen

International Feature: Sentimental Value – Norway

Life Action Short: 

The Singers (TIED)

Two People Exchanging Saliva (TIED)

Makeup and Hairstyling: Frankenstein, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey

Original Score: Sinners, Ludwig Goransson

Original Song: Golden, KPop Demon Hunters

Production Design: Frankenstein, Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau

Sound: F1, Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo and Juan Peralta

Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire and Ash, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett

Casting: One Battle After Another, Cassandra Kulukundis

And a sixth said, “Finally an interesting serve!”

Rita was in attendance at the event solo and without husband Taika Waiti.

The couple tied the knot in August 2022 after they first met in 2018.

They reportedly began dating in early 2021.

THEY have amassed a legion of teen followers after becoming the next big boyband.

But it seems December 10 have also managed to make a fan out of Spice Girl Geri Halliwel.

This week, Biz on Sunday’s Emily caught up with the lads — Cruz, Danny, Hendrick, Sean, John, Josh and Nicolas — following the release of their latest single, Angel.

They revealed they were starstruck when Ginger Spice popped into their rehearsal at a West London studio last month, accompanied by her husband Christian Horner’s daughter.

Asked about their celebrity fans, Danny said: “The legend that is Geri Halliwell and her step-daughter came to the rehearsal studio to watch our set. They had wanted to come to our London show, but were due to be away when it was on, so we invited them to our rehearsals.

“Geri was like a pocket rocket. Petite and loads of personality.

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“We couldn’t believe we met a Spice Girl!

“She gave excellent advice, including to always enjoy the moment.

“Geri was super kind and gave us all a bag of gifts, including little speakers we always use on our phones.”

Sean said: “She showed up to rehearsals before the show and gave us advice. She’s really cool.”

Hendrik added: “The advice that she gave was, ‘That laugh that you have in your band as a group — try and keep that laugh and enjoy it’.

“That was the main advice that came across.”

December 10 found fame on Simon Cowell’s Netflix show The Next Act last year and have amassed millions of followers on social media.

Last month, they attended their first Brit Awards, in Manchester, and have told how they brushed shoulders with singers Lola Young and Sam Fender, as well as Happy Mondays maracas player Bez.

Cruz said: “I was partying with Bez in the DJ booth — he is funny. He and I have got to go to Ibiza one day.”

To celebrate Mother’s Day, the boys have been treating their mums after receiving their first big pay cheque.

Hendrik said: “I have been saving money to try and finish my mum and dad’s house. They have been wanting to finish it for years.”

Despite the global stardom that awaits, it sounds like the boys are keeping their feet on the ground.

SIMON ‘PROUD’ OF LADS

DECEMBER 10 have revealed how their mentor Simon Cowell was proud of them after their sold-out London show.

The music mogul and his fiancee Lauren Silverman attended their gig at the O2 Academy Islington, in North London, last month.

Band member Nicolas said: “He really enjoyed that we incorporated instruments into the live show, and when he spoke to us, that was one of the main things that made him really happy and proud.”

John added: “He has also always said that he just wants great songs. Over the past few months that we have been recording music, we have been working towards that.”

And the boys reckon it still feels surreal seeing thousands of teenagers queuing to hear them play.

Nicolas said: “I wouldn’t say it’s overwhelming, it’s more of a strange feeling, because the first show was a bit of a shock.

“It is a feeling for me, personally, that I don’t think I will get used to.”

WIN A SIGNED T-SHIRT

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For your chance to win the prize, email sunday features @the-sun. co.uk by March 26.

For T&Cs, visit thesun.co.uk.

HE HAZ TO SEE MATES

HE is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, but Harry Styles says he had to change his mindset so he did not become a recluse.

He explained: “When you shut out a lot of the things that are assumed can be negative, you also just unconsciously shut out a ton of positive things.

“It can be hard to go to a bar and hang out with friends because there’s maybe people who would act [in a certain] way.

“There’s also incredible people that you can meet in that bar – that you also shut yourself off from.”

He added on SiriusXM: “I was having some experiences where I was meeting some really great people that were kind of really planting the seed of, like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to shut myself off from this world’.”

It comes as his record Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally has topped the albums chart, while his track American Girls is No1 in the singles rundown.

Meanwhile, Harry’s singles Aperture and Ready, Steady, Go! are also top five.

It is truly Harry’s year.

DENISE GOES BIG

DENISE VAN OUTEN and Johnny Vaughan are creating a new Big Breakfast-style TV show 25 years after the original was axed.

I can reveal the pair, who presented the Channel 4 show in the Nineties, are working on a new format set to shake up TV schedules.

Denise said: “In my new touring show [An Evening With Denise], of all the things I’ve done, The Big Breakfast section gets the biggest reaction. I think people are still craving that chaos and the fun – we’ve lost it.”

She added: “I’m working on something with Johnny, it’s going to have that feel to it. It’s all come from the show and speaking to people. I was like, ‘Oh, people are missing this, they want this’.”

I cannot wait.

YOU’RE SO ROUGE, CHRISTINA

CHRISTINA AGUILERA was red hot on stage in this basque and matching gloves.

The US hitmaker teamed them with thigh-skimming black boots in Austin, Texas, as she headlined the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival.

Highlights included a performance of her 2001 hit Lady Marmalade, from film Moulin Rouge!, as fireworks lit up the sky.

MAYA’S VILLA TO VILLAIN

MAYA JAMA has revealed what her dream movie role would be – and it’s not what you might expect.

The Love Island host, who is set to star in the second series of Guy Ritchie’s Netflix crime-comedy The Gentlemen, said: “I’ve always said I don’t want to be what people expect me to be on camera.

“I’d want to be the complete opposite to that . . . so a monster or a mean, evil person. A villain maybe would be nice.”

DIVORCE NO2 FOR MILLIE

MADE In Chelsea couple Millie Mackintosh and Hugo Taylor have filed for divorce, I can reveal.

The pair, who married in 2018, have both appointed legal teams and have quietly started proceedings.

Reality star turned author Millie, who has two daughters with entrepreneur Hugo, has been through the process before, having split from rapper Professor Green, who she was married to from 2013 to 2016.

A pal said: “Fans will be sad to hear that their relationship is really over, but the pair just want a clean break.

“Millie and Hugo are committed to co-parenting their two young children and keeping everything stable. They are still very amicable with each other and have a lot of respect for one another.

“They want the divorce to go through as painlessly as possible and are focusing on work in the meantime.”

Professor Green has a son with model and actress Karima McAdams, who he dated for five years after splitting with Millie.

Now, he is back in touch with Millie and said: “There’s no resentment in me. She is gorgeous. We were not good for each other at that time.

“We spoke about our mutual diagnosis (ADHD) and our kids.”

MOLLY AND TOM IN SPANISH LOVE AISLE

THEY met on Love Island: All Stars in South Africa, but Molly Smith and Tom Clare are set to tie the knot in Majorca – home of the original dating show’s villa.

The couple are eyeing up Son Marroig, a stunning, 17th century, clifftop temple on the Spanish island for their summer nuptials.

The venue is popular among celebrities, with Pixie Geldof, weatherman Alex Beresford and Man City defender Nathan Ake all having held their ceremonies there.

A source said: “Majorca is a stunning destination for a wedding and there is plenty of privacy on the island. Many of the buildings are difficult to access by road and it has a secluded feel.

“There is guaranteed sun and it offers a beautiful backdrop with the most stunning sunsets.”

Tom and Molly do a weekly podcast called NearlyWeds and post regular vlogs about their planning.

Congrats guys . . . 

EX-PM SNAPS GEM OF A SHOT

GEMMA COLLINS posed with an unlikely fan at the Cheltenham races this week – as I am told that former PM David Cameron asked for a photo.

And reality favourite Gemma was only too happy to oblige David and wife Samantha in the Royal Box.

A source said: “Gemma was honoured that David asked her for a picture. They chatted about politics and her fondness of current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.”

Chuffed Gemma quickly shared the snap with her 2.2million Instagram followers.

She wrote: “It was lovely to be in the Royal Box and have a good chat with David Cameron and his lovely wife. We spoke politics and . . . what we were going to bet on next.”

Gemma, who is a face of bookmaker Paddy Power, won a mighty impressive £20,000 at Cheltenham – and £5,000 off just one bet.

The GC was spotted shouting, “I’m loaded” as she basked in her glory alongside stars including Danny Dyer and Peter Crouch.

Next year, I am asking Gemma for tips.

An Australian E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control plane is headed for the Persian Gulf. This comes as Gulf Arab states continue to be subjected to Iran’s attacks in retaliation for ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes. The E-7A is arguably the best airborne look-down sensor platform in the world at present, and will provide a particularly important boost in capability for spotting low-flying Iranian kamikaze drones and cruise missiles.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the impending deployment of the E-7A to the Middle East at a press conference yesterday. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) currently operates a fleet of six Wedgetails.

“Twelve countries across the region, from Cyprus through to the Gulf are continuing to be targeted. The United Arab Emirates alone has been forced to shoot down over 1,500 rockets and drones,” Albanese said. “This growing wave of dangerous and destabilising attacks from Iran puts civilian lives at risk, of course including Australian lives, of which there are more than 20,000 people based in the UAE.”

“In responding to requests, following a conversation that I had with the President [of the UAE,] Mohammed bin Zayed [Al Nahyan; also Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi], and other requests, Australia will deploy an E-7A Wedgetail, to the Gulf to help protect and defend Australians and other civilians,” Albanese continued. “The Wedgetail will provide long-range reconnaissance capability, which will help to protect and secure the airspace above the Gulf. The Wedgetail and supporting Australian Defence Force personnel will be deployed for an initial four weeks in support of the collective self-defense of Gulf nations.”

The E-7A is based on the Boeing 737-700 Next Generation airliner airframe. Its most prominent feature is the Northrop Grumman Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) sensor installed on top of the fuselage, which offers 360-degree coverage and can scan for aerial and maritime threats. It also has an extensive suite of communications and data-sharing capabilities, backed by modern processing power, allowing for the rapid exchange of information with other friendly assets in the air and in other domains. You can read more about the aircraft here.

Northrop Grumman MESA Radar – Boeing E-7 AEWC

“As the Prime Minister has said at the request of the UAE, we will be deploying an E-7 Wedgetail to the Gulf. This is one of the leading capabilities in the world in terms of airborne long-range reconnaissance and command. And we are one of the leading nations in the use of the E-7,” Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and the country’s Minister for Defense, also said at the press conference yesterday. “There will be in the order of 85 personnel who will go with this airframe and that’s the normal crew. The airframe will be leaving Australia today and the expectation is that it will be in the region in the middle of the week and operational by the end of the week.”

Albanese and Marles also said the Australian government planned to send a tranche of AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to the UAE. In addition to ground-based air defense, Emirati fighters have been working to intercept incoming Iranian threats.

As noted, the biggest boost in capability the RAAF’s E-7A will bring to the Gulf is its look-down sensor capability. From the aircraft’s high perch, the MESA sensor has an excellent field of view to spot low and slow-flying targets, even if they are relatively small. Wedgetail would also be able to see threats as far out into the Persian Gulf, or even possibly beyond.

So much garbage being passed around here in long jargon filled threads that sound like AI about E-7 Wedgetail and the potential RAAF deployment to the Middle East. Here is all you need to know:

it’s arguably the best low flying drone and CM detection sensor on earth.

That’s… pic.twitter.com/TRuBrmQzSC

— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) March 10, 2026

Having another eye in the sky to provide additional alerts about incoming threats and more overall situational awareness will be a boon for defenders in the air and on the ground, in general. The E-7A can also be refueled in flight, meaning it can stay on station longer.

The UAE, which is the clear focus of the Australian deployment, does have a fleet of 5 Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft, but the extent to which they are operating now is unknown. While a modern and capable design, GlobalEye does not provide the same level of coverage and capability as the E-7A, and is also based on the smaller Bombardier Global 6000 business jet, which cannot refuel in flight.

GlobalEye on operational mission

There is more airborne warning and control coverage elsewhere in the Gulf, including six U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft forward-deployed to Saudi Arabia just ahead of the current conflict with Iran. Saudi Arabia has its own E-3s and GlobalEye jets. How effective the aging Cold War-era E-3, in particular, is at this point at spotting and tracking low-flying kamikaze drones is unclear. In general, the E-7’s active electronically-scanned array MESA sensor offers clear advantages over the Sentry’s older radar, especially when it comes to smaller, slower, and lower-flying targets.

For years now, the U.S. E-3 fleet, overall, has struggled with readiness issues, which you can read more about here. As an aside, the strain on the E-3 fleet, now magnified by the current conflict, together with Australia’s deployment of an E-7 to the region, makes the Pentagon’s attempt last year to cancel the U.S. Air Force’s Wedgetail program seem even more bizarrely short-sighted.

In speaking yesterday, Australia’s Marles drew a comparison between sending the E-7A to the Middle East now and the past deployment of a Wedgetail to Poland to provide coverage along that country’s border with Ukraine. However, that mission was ostensibly focused on watching for threats to cross-border transfers of aid to the government in Kyiv.

The need for E-7A in the Gulf now is substantially more pressing.

Since the current conflict began, the UAE has been providing particularly granular data about incoming Iranian missile and drone attacks, as well as interception rates, offering a good sense of the current threat ecosystem in the Gulf. As of the last official tally from the UAE’s Ministry of Defense, the country’s forces have intercepted 1,385 kamikaze drones, 241 ballistic missiles, and eight cruise missiles since February 28.

Still, UAE authorities say that 90 kamikaze drones and 19 ballistic missiles have been able to reach the ground, causing casualties, as well as damage to military facilities and civilian infrastructure. All of this is broadly reflective of the experience of other Gulf Arab states that have been subjected to attacks from Iran over the past 11 days.

Overall, Iranian retaliatory attacks have notably slowed in recent days across the region, but they have not stopped. Based on its own data, the UAE saw a notably high number of Iranian drones get past its defenses yesterday. This comes amid persistent media reports of concerns among several Gulf Arab states, as well as the U.S. military, about the dwindling stockpile of anti-air interceptors and what has turned into a war of attrition with Iran. Publicly, American and regional authorities have pushed back on this reporting. At the same time, Australia’s plan to rush AIM-120s to the UAE is certainly evidence of demand for additional munitions.

Reasonable to ask what the raw numbers for ballistic missile and drone attempts vs. hits are, which are plotted in these figures. Again, all figures are from UAE MOD. pic.twitter.com/dhj86h6DbD

— Christopher Clary (@clary_co) March 10, 2026

There is also a question of where the Australian E-7A will be based and what threats there might be as a result to the aircraft, aircrew, and the rest of the 85-person contingent. Albanese and Marles do not appear to have explicitly said where the jet will be flying from to provide coverage over the UAE and other parts of the Gulf region.

With Iran showing no intention of halting its drone and missile attacks across the Gulf, Australia’s E-7A Wedgetail, wherever it might be stationed, looks set to bring immensely valuable added look-down surveillance coverage to the region.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Satellite imagery from Vantor shows that a site long linked to Iran’s nuclear program has been struck. A trio of very large impact points also raises the possibility that the hardened facility was hit by 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bombs. MOPs were first used operationally in U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. The Taleghan 2 site was newly encased in a concrete shell and then covered with soil in the months leading up to the current conflict, which may have created a need to use munitions more capable of burrowing down into it to have a better chance of ensuring its destruction.

Vantor’s post-strike images of Taleghan 2, seen at the top of this story and below, were taken earlier today. As noted, three very large and precise impact points are visible on top of the facility.

Vantor also shared previous images of Taleghan 2 taken on March 6, 2026, and November 14, 2025. Other parts of Parchin were notably struck on March 6, but Taleghan 2 was left untouched at that time.

Taleghan 2 had already been covered in a new layer of concrete by mid-January of this year. Soil had also been added on top weeks before joint U.S.-Israeli operations began on February 28. Iran was also observed taking steps to further harden and/or seal up a host of other key facilities across the country in the lead-up to the current conflict, but not to this degree. TWZ highlighted similar activity at Iranian nuclear sites ahead of the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes last year.

We do not know what munitions were used to strike Taleghan 2, but the impact points are at least broadly consistent with what was seen at Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites after Operation Midnight Hammer. During that operation, B-2 bombers dropped 12 GBU-57/Bs on Fordow and another two MOPs on Natanz.

When reached by TWZ, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) declined to comment on whether GBU-57/Bs had been dropped on Taleghan 2 or any other site in Iran in the course of the current campaign. The only aircraft currently certified to carry MOPs operationally is the B-2 bomber, with each one being able to carry two of the massive bombs at a time. B-2s have been striking Iran since the first night of the conflict.

From what can be seen via satellite imagery, Taleghan 2 does appear to be as deeply buried as either Fordow or the underground facility at Natanz. At the same time, it was very thoroughly and deliberately hardened against attack just in the past few months, which could have driven a decision to target it with GBU-57/Bs. That work was also done relatively quickly with a clear eye toward shielding the site from strikes.

Other aspects of the target may have factored in, as well. In the strikes on Fordow last year, B-2s dropped six MOPs each down two air shafts to achieve the desired penetration. Those air vents offered a weak channel through which the bombs could penetrate far deeper to get to the targeted chamber deep within the mountain. Though it may be shallower, there do not appear to be any similar inlets readily visible at Taleghan 2. Using 30,000-pound bombs would also have helped guarantee more total destruction of this high-priority facility. The determination that MOPs were required might also explain why it was not struck previously.

The video below is a montage of imagery from past GBU-57/B tests that the U.S. military released last year after Operation Midnight Hammer.

GBU-57 MOP test

It is possible that other munitions may have been used to strike Taleghan 2. Smaller bunker busters could be dropped in succession on the same aim point in order to create openings and then create significant effects inside. CENTCOM has previously confirmed B-2 strikes on deeply buried targets in Iran using salvos of 2,000-pound-class bunker buster bombs.

Striking Taleghan 2 otherwise fits with the U.S. military’s stated core objective of neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program. The site is tied to long-standing allegations of nuclear weapons-related work at Parchin, which Iranian officials have consistently denied. Taleghan 2 is specifically believed to have been a production facility for specialized conventional explosives required for nuclear weapons.

The Israelis previously struck Taleghan 2 in 2024 and then targeted Parchin again during the 12 Day War last year. In both cases, Iran subsequently rebuilt key facilities at the complex.

Whether the latest strike on Taleghan 2, whatever munitions may have been used, has taken it out for good remains to be seen.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Two foreign tankers were seen ablaze in Iraqi territorial waters after a strike near the al-Faw port. Authorities say they evacuated 25 crew members but have confirmed at least one death and are battling to control the flames.