members

Democrats blast latest move by the administration to radically restructure the federal government.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has fired all 22 members of the board that sets the policies of the government-funded national science agency, according to an ex-board member and lawmakers.

The dismissals at the National Science Board (NSB), the policy and advisory arm of the National Science Foundation (NSF), mark the Trump administration’s latest move to radically restructure the government following the downsizing or effective elimination of multiple agencies, including the Department of Education and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Roger Beachy, who was reappointed to a second six-year term on the science board by Trump in 2020, said he and his colleagues were not given a reason for their dismissal.

“The termination email was brief and to the point, with a ‘thank you for your service,’” Beachy, an emeritus biology professor at Washington University in St Louis, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

Beachy said he expected the Trump administration to appoint a new board but expressed concern about the nature of the research and education that would be supported by the science agency in the future.

“The nature of the board – partisan or independent? – and how it interacts with the agency is of critical importance to the continuing success of the NSF,” Beachy said.

Democratic lawmakers, who had earlier reported hearing of the dismissals from unspecified sources, blasted the Trump administration’s action.

“This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” Zoe Lofgren, the most senior member of the US House of Representatives’ science committee, said in a statement.

“Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won’t stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries?” Lofgren said, calling the firings a “real bozo the clown move”.

The White House and the NSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside of usual business hours.

Trump has yet to publicly confirm or comment on the firings, but his administration previously targeted the NSF for sweeping cuts.

Under last year’s cost-cutting drive, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, officials scrapped or halted more than 1,600 NSF grants worth nearly $1bn.

The NSF, established as an independent federal agency in 1950, spent more than $8bn on scientific research and education in 2025, making it one of the largest individual funders of science worldwide.

Members of the Writers Guild of America have officially ratified their newest contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

More than 90% of the 11,000 voting members in both WGA East and West registered their support of the new agreement. The voting period closed Friday at noon, after the union first struck a tentative deal earlier this month.

The new contract includes a robust healthcare plan in which studios pay over $320 million to sustain the health fund, higher residual rates — including a provision for a “success bonus” for the most popular streaming shows from 50% of the base residual to 75% — and language on the licensing of work for AI training.

“The first reaction [from members] was relief that we were not going to be going into a period of labor strife or strike authorization vote, in the midst of this contraction,” said John August, the co-chair of WGA’s negotiating committee, referring to the ongoing challenges in the industry. “Members want to work, and they want to get back to doing their job.”

Negotiations between the union and film and TV studios began in March, as the union’s current contract expires May 1. August said that, at the beginning of the negotiations, expanding the healthcare plan was a top priority. The union was able to secure increases that would raise the cap that companies pay to as high as $400,000 by 2028.

Union officials say the current cap has remained unchanged for two decades as healthcare contributions have steadily declined because there are fewer working writers.

But under the new contract, members would, for the first time, have to start contributing to their healthcare costs to the tune of $75 per month. The earnings threshold to get coverage would increase by about $7,000 to $53,773, leaving many members concerned about the higher cost.

“This is all difficult. Healthcare in America is not a good situation. But we were really mindful, as we always are, of trying to make sure the career of writing is sustainable,” negotiating committee co-chair Danielle Sanchez-Witzel said.

Additionally, the contract terms have been extended from the WGA’s usual three years to four — though it is not the first time the guild has added more time to its deal with the studios. Sanchez-Witzel clarified that the four-year period for the new contract ”is, by no means, a standard. This is just what we needed this year and what we agreed to for this cycle.”

“We were here in 2026 trying to get some things that we didn’t get earlier [in previous negotiation cycles] and happy for the progress we made,” she said.

The WGA is the first of the Hollywood unions to strike a deal with the studios. AMPTP congratulated the WGA on the ratification in a statement released shortly after the vote totals were announced.

“This deal reflects a collaborative approach that supports both writers and the industry’s long-term stability,” AMPTP said.

SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America still need to negotiate new contracts.

The actors’ union began its negotiations in February and extended those talks in March, but paused to allow AMPTP to finish its deal with the writers’ union. SAG-AFTRA’s and the DGA’s contracts expire June 30.

April 25 (UPI) — The scientists and engineers serving on the National Science Board received letters from the Presidential Personnel Office Friday telling them they have been fired.

The board, which was created in 1950 to be an independent entity to guide the National Science Foundation, is made up of scientists and engineers from universities and industry. Board members are appointed by the president but serve six-year terms to help ensure they cross administrations.

The NSF provides grants for scientific research and has helped develop technology used in MRIs, cellphones, LASIK eye surgery and more.

The letters they received, according to screenshots shared with The Washington Post, said, “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I’m writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the ranking member of the Science Committee, said in a statement, “This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation. The NSB is apolitical. It advises the president on the future of NSF. It unfortunately is no surprise a president who has attacked NSF from day one would seek to destroy the board that helps guide the Foundation. Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won’t stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries? A real bozo the clown move.”

Marvi Matos Rodriguez, a senior vice president in the energy sector who works on fusion, received one of the letters Friday. She has been on the board since 2022.

“The idea of having six-year terms is you get to do something significant, impactful and go beyond administrations, political administrations,” she told The Post. “I serve the board at nights and on weekends,” Matos Rodriguez said.

It’s not clear how many members of the board were dismissed and if they will be replaced.

WASHINGTON — The Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee said some of its members would support a presidential pardon for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her assistance in the committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

But good luck getting any of them to admit it.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Politico Wednesday that “a lot of people” support the idea of Maxwell receiving a pardon from President Trump in exchange for her cooperation in the committee’s investigation.

Although Comer said he opposed a pardon himself — “other than Epstein, the worst person in this whole investigation is Maxwell” — he offered that his committee was “split” on the issue.

Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach, the top Democrat on his committee, condemned the idea of a Maxwell pardon and said Democrats on the committee uniformly oppose it.

“It’s outrageous that Republicans on the Oversight Committee are considering a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell,” Garcia said in a statement. “She is a sexual abuser who facilitated the rape of women and children.”

The Times reached out to all 26 Republicans on the committee to see who, if anyone, supported the idea of a pardon.

Although most didn’t respond, the few who did expressed outrage at the idea.

“I am absolutely not supporting a pardon for her nor have I heard that from anyone else,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

“Never in a thousand years,” said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.).

Maxwell declined to answer the committee’s questions during a video deposition in February from the Texas federal prison where she is serving her 20-year prison sentence.

She is still challenging her 2021 conviction on five counts related to the sex trafficking of minors for her role in recruiting and grooming girls for Epstein to abuse. She was accused at trial of also participating in the abuse of one victim.

At the time of her February deposition, Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus said she would offer the “unfiltered truth” if granted clemency by Trump.

Attorneys who have represented victims abused by Epstein and Maxwell strongly opposed the idea of a pardon.

“This is a woman who belongs behind bars for the rest of her life for what she did to women,” said Spencer Kuvin, who has represented numerous Epstein victims.

Sigrid McCawley, a managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, questioned the value of information Maxwell could provide.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a proven self-serving liar,” McCawley said in a statement. “There is nothing credible that she will offer the government, and the assertion that she would provide information is simply a smoke screen.”

Trump has not said he is considering a pardon but when asked by reporters he has declined to rule it out.

Epstein abused more than 1,000 girls and young women over the span of decades. He negotiated a lenient deal nearly two decades ago with federal prosecutors in south Florida that allowed him to serve 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail where he was allowed to come and go freely to settle claims that he had abused dozens of high school girls.

Following investigative reporting on that deal by the Miami Herald, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York brought new sex charges against Epstein in July 2019. He died in federal custody one month later.

Epstein and Maxwell counted members of the British royal family, multiple presidents and business titans among their friends.

They have been accused of forcing some of their victims to have sex with some of those men. But Maxwell is the only other person who has ever been charged in connection with Epstein’s crimes.

The committee has deposed numerous people who knew Epstein, including Ohio billionaire Les Wexner, who hired Epstein to manage his finances, and former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The committee has not, however, deposed Trump, who once famously called Epstein a “terrific guy” and said, “I just wish her well,” when told of Maxwell’s arrest in 2020.

The Department of Justice has also released millions of pages of documents from its investigations into the deceased sex offender in response to the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law last year.

The release of the files has led to criminal inquiries in the United Kingdom into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, and Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States, over allegations that they provided secret government information to Epstein.

So far, the files have not led to any publicly known criminal investigations in the United States.

April 14 (UPI) — The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal court to dismiss the convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members who were found guilty of leading and organizing the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The request includes 12 former members of the groups, all of whom prosecutors said were ringleaders of the attack. After his return to office in 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned most of those who were convicted for their parts in the riot, a move affecting more than 1,000 people. However, the sentences of some, including these 12, were commuted to time served instead, freeing them from prison though the convictions remained.

The group involved in the Justice Department request on Tuesday includes Stewart Rhodes, a leader of the Oath Keepers who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges. Prosecutors said Rhodes and other Oath Keepers “began plotting to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power” after the 2020 election, CBS News reported.

Others whose sentences were commuted are Proud Boys leaders Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Joseph Biggs, who were also convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role.

Appeals involving this group have continued, and the Justice Department requested Tuesday that federal appeals panels vacate the earlier convictions and drop the cases in whole.

“The United States has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Lenerz in the filing, Politico reported.

Greg Rosen, former chief of the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section, criticized the move, CBS News reported.

“It’s a reminder of what drove the pardons in the first place-the political violence is acceptable as long as your politics align,” he told CBS News. “And it’s a continuing and sad commentary on the current state of the department.”

March 27 (UPI) — An Iranian attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday injured 10 U.S. service members — two seriously — unnamed officials familiar with the incident told media outlets.

The attack took place at the Saudi military’s Prince Sultan Air Base in Al Kharj, striking a building where the U.S. service members were, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal. NBC News and CBS News also confirmed the attack, citing unnamed sources.

Iran used missiles and drones to carry out the attack, which also damaged multiple refueling vehicles.

Since the start of the war in Iran a month ago, more than 300 Americans have been injured and 13 killed.

The United States and Israel began attacks on Iran beginning Feb. 28 amid stalling talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program. On Thursday, President Donald Trump said the United States would forgo attacks on Iran’s energy sites for 10 days to give time for further negotiations to end the war.

Iran on Friday blamed Israeli for contradicting Trump’s 10-day delay by launching attacks on infrastructure sites, including an energy plant.

The U.S. Air Force’s 378th Air Expeditionary Wing has been based at Prince Sultan base since 2019.

MANY hotels claim to be big on wellness, but the recently-opened Cotswolds escape Hyll has mastered it.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Where is Hyll?

Buried deep in the Cotswolds countryside, near Chipping Campden and fancy members clubs like Soho Farmhouse, Hyll is undoubtedly as stylish as its plush neighbours – only you won’t need to sell out for an extortionate members fee.

Named after the old English word hill, meaning elevated piece of ground, rural views are pretty spectacular from this retreat’s high perch.

There’s a car park on site or the hotel can arrange transfers from the train station.

What’s it like?

Not just a hotel, Hyll is more of a sanctuary where guests are gently encouraged to switch off – whether that’s with a board game in front of a freshly-stoked fire or with a scenic stroll around the 60 acres of manicured grounds.

SUITE DEAL

The luxury Chelsea hotel with affordable suites overlooking the London Eye

ALL WENT SWIMMINGLY

The Swan at Lavenham, Suffolk

Views are just as gorgeous from within the Grade-II listed 14th century manor house thanks to its original stone frame, timber beams and framed artwork that wouldn’t look out of place in a French farmhouse.

What are the rooms like?

The 26 unique bedrooms (some in the main house and some in the courtyard) feel homely yet luxurious with plump feathered cushions, freestanding bathtubs and chic coffee table books.

If the strict colour palette of neutral browns and sandy tones doesn’t soothe you, a guided yoga nidra (a type of specific relaxation yoga) session sure will.

A series of wellness videos have been designed exclusively for hotel guests and are text to your phone ahead of bedtime.

What is there to eat and drink?

Eat in the dining room, living room, outside or wherever you please, thanks to the laid back “mi casa, su casa” ethos.

Dinner relies on local ingredients sourced from nearby farms, mills and distilleries.

Star dishes include Briar Hill Farm hogget served with salsa verde and baklava tart soaked in the hotel’s own honey.

Post dinner, retire to the marshmallow-like sofas next door with a book and signature cocktail – I liked the yuzu and plum sour, both tart and sweet.

Non-drinkers are catered for, too, with a decent selection of no and low cocktails including a sharp No-groni.

Breakfast is a farm-style mix of homemade granola and hot options like full English and scotch woodcock (scrambled eggs on toast, topped with salty anchovies) both on the menu.

Breakfast hampers can also be delivered straight to your bed.

What else is there to do?

Small books labelled ‘Do Nothing’ and ‘Do something’ are left on bedside tables with suggestions on how to fully embrace and unwind in the Cotswolds nature.

In-room massages can be booked on request and dogs are welcome in certain bedrooms and throughout living rooms and restaurants in the main house.

The essence of the place, in general, is to do very little.

I’d recommend just kicking back with a book – each of the three lounge areas are kitted out with bookshelves and artsy side tables covered in fiction and non-fictions reads that you can borrow for the duration of your stay.

Thanks to a partnership with Borzoi Books, these are refreshed on a monthly basis.

You can even arrange to take a book home with you, for a fee.

How much are rooms at Hyll?

Rooms cost from £210 per night including breakfast.

Is Hyll family friendly?

Kids are welcome but it’s not the most child-friendly of places.

Cost and additional child beds are available on request, however.

Is there access for guests with disabilities?

Although, staff are always on hand to help, Hyll is not the ideal place for wheelchair users.

Given the historic property is Grade II listed, a lift cannot be installed and therefore bedrooms are accessed via stairs.

Looking for a place to stay? For more hotel inspiration click here.

The move follows a drone strike on the Red Sea port of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s main oil export outlet, after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia has given Iran’s military attache and embassy staff 24 hours to leave the kingdom due to “repeated Iranian attacks” on its territory.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday that it had declared personae non gratae the “military attache of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Kingdom, the assistant military attache and three members of the mission staff”.

The move comes amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has seen Tehran target Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours hosting US military assets with increasingly damaging retaliatory attacks on civilian hubs and energy facilities, unleashing chaos across the region and roiling global energy markets.

Saudi Arabia, which holds the world’s second-largest proven crude oil reserves, has come under attack by hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones since the start of the war, the vast majority of which have been intercepted, authorities have said.

Among the attacks, energy facilities in the east of Saudi Arabia have been repeatedly targeted, as well as the capital, Riyadh, where the US Embassy was hit by two drones earlier this month.

On Thursday, oil loadings at the Red Sea port of Yanbu were disrupted after a drone fell on the nearby Aramco-Exxon refinery, SAMREF.

The port is the only export outlet for Saudi Arabia after Iran effectively blocked tanker traffic leaving the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.

Saturday’s statement came after Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said earlier in the week that trust in Iran had been “shattered”, asserting his country’s right to defend itself.

The foreign minister said that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states had “very significant capacities and capabilities that they could bring to bear should they choose to do so”.

Saudi Arabia’s relations with Iran have historically been rocky, but the two countries embarked on a Beijing-brokered rapprochement three years ago.

On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said that continued Iranian attacks would lead to further escalation and have “significant consequences” for current and future relations.

The statement followed Qatar’s decision on Wednesday to declare the Iranian Embassy’s military and security attaches in Doha as personae non gratae, along with their staff.

War, which saw Iran attack Qatar facility, has caused ‘high, volatile’ gas prices that could hit EU storage projections.

The European Union has urged member states to start early on meeting next winter’s gas storage targets after Iranian attacks on Gulf energy facilities caused prices to surge on global markets.

Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen sent a letter Saturday urging the bloc’s members to get to work “as early as possible” in the coming months to “mitigate pressure on prices and avoid [an] end-of-summer rush”, asking them to consider cutting their so-called filling target by 10 percentage points to 80 percent.

The move came days after Iran attacked Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City complex, which provides about 20 percent of global supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The attack, which came amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, was in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the Iranian South Pars gasfield.

State-owned QatarEnergy said that Iran’s attack on Qatar, which has been targeted throughout the duration of the war, knocked out 17 percent of Doha’s export capacity and would affect exports for up to five years.

The slowdown will mainly harm Asian buyers, including China, Japan, and India, which buy some 80 percent of QatarEnergy’s LNG.

But Europe, which only sources around 9 percent of its LNG from Qatar, will nevertheless be exposed to increased competition, with tanker traffic leaving the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz throttled by the war.

Natural gas prices in the EU have risen by more than 30 percent since the start of the war on February 28, spiking after Israel’s attack on Iran’s critical South Pars gasfield and subsequent Iranian attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan.

Jorgensen said that the EU’s gas supply, which has mainly been furnished by the United States since the bloc weaned itself off Russian energy over the Ukraine war, remained “relatively protected at this stage”.

“But, as a net energy importer on global markets, the resulting high and volatile global prices may also impact the EU gas storage projections,” he cautioned.

Jorgensen warned that developments “threaten regional and global security”, urging member states to refill stores early over a longer period.

The EU requirement for member countries to maintain gas reserves at 90 percent of capacity to meet winter heating and power demand underpins the region’s energy security.

Having cut that target by 10 percent, the energy commissioner noted that, in case of “difficult conditions” and a commission assessment, the countries could deviate by up to 20 percent.

Oil prices have also soared since the start of the war by more than 50 percent.

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — President Trump is set to pay his respects on Wednesday at a Delaware military base when the remains of six U.S. service members killed in the crash of a refueling aircraft are returned to their families.

It will be the second time since launching the war with Iran on Feb. 28 that the Republican president will attend the solemn military ritual known as a dignified transfer, which he once described as the “toughest thing” he has had to do as commander in chief.

All six crew members of a KC-135 Air Force refueling aircraft were killed last week in a plane crash over friendly territory in western Iraq while supporting operations against Iran. They were from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Washington state.

“Every person on that aircraft carried a weight most Americans will never see, and they carried it with professionalism, courage, and a level of quiet excellence that deserves to be recognized,” retired Lt. Col Ernesto Nisperos, a friend of one of those killed, said in a text message Wednesday.

The crash brought the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members. About 200 U.S. service members have been injured, including 10 severely, the Pentagon has said.

Trump last traveled to Dover Air Force Base on March 7 for the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait. He saluted as flag-draped transfer cases containing the remains of the fallen service members were carried from military aircraft to vehicles waiting to take them to the base’s mortuary facility to prepare them for their final resting place.

“It’s the bad part of war,” he told reporters afterward. Asked then if he worried about having to make multiple trips to the base for additional dignified transfers as the war continued, he said, “I’m sure. I hate to do it, but it’s a part of war, isn’t it?”

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said that the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace” over Iraq but that the loss of the aircraft during a combat mission was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.” The circumstances were under investigation. The other plane landed safely.

The crash killed three people assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida: Maj. John A. “Alex” Klinner, 33, who served in Birmingham, Ala.; Capt. Ariana Linse Savino, 31, of Covington, Wash.; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Ky.

Klinner, who left behind a wife, a 2-year-old son and 7-month-old twins, was known for his steady command and goofy nature, as well as a willingness to help others. Pruitt’s husband described her as a “radiant” woman who lit up the room. Savino was a friend, mentee and “source of positive energy” who was proud of her Puerto Rican heritage and inspired young Latinas, said Nisperos, who is serving as spokesman for her family.

“She had had this warmth that made you feel seen, a strength that showed up in everything she touched, and a spark — that spice — that made her unforgettable,” Nisperos said. “If you knew her, even for a moment, you knew you were in the presence of someone who was going to change the world.”

The three others were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio: Capt. Seth Koval, 38, a resident of Stoutsville, Ohio, who was from Mooresville, Ind.; Capt. Curtis Angst, 30, who lived in Columbus; and Master Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus.

Koval grew up dreaming of becoming a pilot, according to his wife, who described him as a loving, generous “fixer of all things.” Angst’s family said his life was defined by service, generosity and “a genuine love for people.” Simmons loved confiding in his 85-year-old grandmother and working out with her, Sen. Jon Husted said Tuesday, when he and Sen. Bernie Moreno honored the Ohio airmen on the Senate floor.

“To the mom and dad of these three young soldiers, I can’t even process what you’re going through. I can’t even imagine the emotions that you’re feeling,” Moreno said. “Just know that America is grateful beyond words for the sacrifice that your heroic young sons made.”

Superville writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

March 15 (UPI) — The Department of Defense has identified the six U.S. service members killed during a refueling mission as part of the Iran war as three members of an Air Force refueling wing and three from the Ohio Air National Guard.

The six crew members were aboard a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker — a refueling aircraft — when it crashed Thursday in western Iraq, which was considered friendly airspace.

Among the dead were four airmen assigned to the 6th Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.: Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Ga.; Capt. Ariana G. Sabino, 31, of Covington, Wash.; and Tech Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Ky. The three were part of the 99th Air Refueling Squadron based out of Sumpter Smith Joint National Guard Base in Birmingham, Ala.

Shortly after their identities were made public, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey offered her condolences on X.

“Three of the service members who lost their lives in duty to our nation were stationed at the 117th in Birmingham,” she posted. “They were not only outstanding Airmen. They were our neighbors — our fellow Alabamians. May their service and that of their families never be forgot.

Three others were assigned to the 121st Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio: Capt. Seth R. Kobal, 38, of Mooresville, Ind.; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio; and Tech Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran DeWine, were mourning the loss of the three airmen who operated out of Ohio and were trained to do work that was “critical in long-distance missions in defense of our nation.”

“Every mission they undertook involved risks that they were willing to take and the courage to put the lives of others above their own,” he wrote in a post on X.

“They served with honor.”

The Pentagon said the crash that led to the service members’ deaths was under investigation. A second Boeing Stratotanker involved in the incident declared an emergency before landing in Tel Aviv with no one on board injured.

Thirteen U.S. service members have died in connection to the Iran war, which began in late February.