Latest news with #Reaper
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Will there be Dear Hongrang Season 2? Here's everything we know about the future of Lee Jae Wook and Jo Bo Ah's Netflix K-drama
K-drama fanatics were in for a surprise when Netflix released all 11 episodes of its new original K-drama Dear Hongrang. However, fans who have binge-watched all the episodes are also left craving more. While the show closed its curtains with quiet heartbreak and breathtaking visuals, the emotions it stirred up are still very much alive. Starring Lee Jae Wook and Jo Bo Ah, the 2025 period K-drama, set against the backdrop of a noble household in Joseon Korea, wrapped up with a haunting finale — but was that the final goodbye, or will there be a Dear Hongrang season 2? Dear Hongrang: A story of lost memory, family secrets, and forbidden longing Directed by Kim Hong Seon, the series stars Lee Jae Wook as Hongrang, a nobleman who mysteriously returns after a 12-year disappearance with no memory of who he was. His return shakes the foundation of the Min household, especially for his half-sister Jae Yi, played by Jo Bo Ah, who suspects there's more to his reappearance than meets the eye. As the show unfolds, what begins as a reunion story slowly transforms into a romance between Hongrang, who turned out to be indeed an impostor, and Jae Yi, complete with a tortured hero, family betrayals, hidden secrets, and a supernatural twist in the form of a dying Soul Reaper with a mission. Dear Hongrang ending explained: What happened in the finale? In the final episode, Hongrang — now revealed to be the Soul Reaper—sets out to save his friend In-hoe from Prince Hanpyeong's cruel captivity. But the prince lures him in by abducting Jae Yi. Despite being on the verge of collapse, Hongrang defeats the prince's forces and frees the children caught in his twisted human sacrifice experiments. In their final confrontation, the prince reveals his plan to become a god by painting talismans on human bodies — a horrifying ritual that Hongrang ends by severing his hands and ending his life. Hongrang, too, dies shortly after in Jae Yi's arms. Two years later, Jae Yi is left running the household, caring for her stepmother, who has lost her grip on reality. In the final moments, Jae-yi imagines hearing Hongrang's voice one last time. She smiles gently and whispers, 'There you are,' as the scene fades into a snowy vision. Will there be a Dear Hongrang season 2? As of now, Netflix hasn't confirmed Dear Hongrang season 2. The series was released as a limited series, and the final episode wrapped up most of the central arcs, making it feel like a complete story. The creators haven't hinted at a continuation either. That said, the response has been emotional and widespread. Given how much love the show received for its storytelling, cinematography, and commitment to cultural authenticity, it wouldn't be shocking if fans continued to campaign for more. For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here.
Business Insider
17-05-2025
- Science
- Business Insider
The reign of the Reaper drone may be coming to an end
In the Global War on Terror, America's MQ-9 Reaper was the most terrifying weapon. Armed with missiles and able to stay in the air for 24 hours, the Reaper — and its older cousin, the MQ-1 Predator — became the symbols of Drone Age remote-control warfare. But the skies are not so Reaper-friendly anymore. The Reaper built by General Atomics has a 66-foot wingspan is almost double that of small, crewed planes like the Cessna 172. Many of these big and expensive drones — the Reaper costs $30 million — have been shot down over Yemen, Lebanon, and Ukraine. This has some experts questioning whether militaries like that of the UK should stop buying expensive Medium-Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones such as the Reaper. Better to purchase smaller, cheaper drones they can afford to lose, their thinking goes. "MALE drones can provide persistent surveillance, including through clouds with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), but only if they can survive," wrote military researcher Robert Tollast in an essay for the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. "And as that survivability is now highly questionable, it seems that the UK must look for alternative approaches." At least 15 Reapers have been shot down by Houthi rebels over Yemen since October 2023, with seven destroyed in March and April 2025, estimated losses at or above $500 million. The threat to the Reapers would likely be much greater against a more advanced military, which fields larger and more accurate air defenses. Houthi air defenses are far from cutting edge: old Soviet-made SA-2 and SA-6 missiles date back to the 1960s, or are Iranian weapons based on those designs. In the Ukraine war, Ukraine's Turkish-made TB2 Bayraktar drones — armed with laser-guided anti-tank missiles — initially devastated Russian armored columns that invaded in February 2022. But dozens of TB2s were destroyed once Russian air defenses were deployed, and the Bayraktar has disappeared from Ukrainian skies. Meanwhile, Israel's Hermes drones have fallen victim to Hezbollah anti-aircraft missiles. This has left Britain in a quandary. The British Army's MALE drone, the Watchkeeper, has proven a failure. Based on Israel's Hermes 450, the Watchkeeper produced by Thales Group and Elbit Systems first flew in 2010, but wasn't deployed until 2018. Delays, technical issues and several crashes spurred the retirement of the Watchkeeper fleet in March, less than seven years after it was fielded. "We are getting rid of Watchkeeper because that system has been in service since 2010 and, according to all the military chiefs, is out of date," Lord Vernon Croaker, a senior official in the Ministry of Defense, told the House of Commons in November 2024. With a range of almost 100 miles, the Watchkeeper could peer deep into enemy areas and locate supply depots, airbases and other targets for long-range artillery, missiles and aircraft. Thus the British Army is now embarked on Project Corvus, which calls for a long-endurance surveillance drone that can stay airborne for 24 hours and fly deep penetration missions. But this may only result in another MALE drone too expensive to buy in quantity, and too vulnerable to be expendable. These same issues threaten the Reaper ($30 million) and the Bayraktar TB-2 ($5 million). "Assessments in Ukraine would suggest that the point at which a UAV becomes attritable is a unit price below $200,000 for ISR [surveillance missions]," Tollast wrote. This creates a cost-benefit dilemma. Hordes of cheap, expendable first-person view (FPV) drones have become the dominant weapon in the Ukraine war, paralyzing bold battlefield maneuvers and practically driving armored vehicles off the battlefield. These are mass-produced commercial drones that can be rigged for military missions at a total cost of hundreds of dollars. Most of these have limited payload capacity, altitude and a range of only around 10 miles. On the other end of the spectrum is the airliner-sized RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude $200 million drone that is being retired from the US military. A Global Hawk was destroyed by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile in 2019. In the middle are the drones like the Reaper, which can carry a 2-ton payload of missiles and sensors, has a range of 1,200 miles, and can fly at 50,000 feet. The Reapers were essential aircraft in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as they could stay in the air hunting for targets far longer than a crewed aircraft, and be placed in more dangerous airspace because there was no risk to a human flier. For example, from September 2007 to July 2008, MQ-9 flew 480 sorties totaling more than 3,800 hours in Afghanistan. In many ways, these UAVs resemble the earliest drones, which were just modified versions of manned aircraft. For example, World War II F6F Hellcat fighters converted into remote-controlled machines for target practice. The AQM-34L Firebee that flew reconnaissance missions over Vietnam was 29 feet long, not much shorter than an MQ-9. They face a glaring problem: more adversaries are armed with air defense missiles capable of knocking out aircraft-sized drones. Drones like the MQ-9 were not designed to fly in areas covered by an enemy's surface-to-air missiles. A Bayraktar's cruise speed is only 80 miles per hour, while even a relatively speedy Reaper has a cruise speed of around 200 miles per hour. Thus even a militant group like the Houthis can down an MQ-9 with an old Soviet SA-6 surface-to-air missile. This puts drones at a fork in the road — go low-cost and large volume or even higher-cost with fewer aircraft but more capability. America's Reaper replacement may do the latter: a more sophisticated — and expensive — drone that includes stealth capabilities to evade radar; radar remains the primary means for air defenses to detect targets. For Britain, with its far smaller defense budget of roughly $70 billion, an improved MALE drone isn't viable. Tollast sees several non-drone options, including Low Earth Orbit satellites, high-altitude balloons, and tethered aerostats (such as blimps), which avoid the vulnerability of medium-altitude drones. Yet satellites and balloons may not be in position when you need them, and aerostats can't be dispatched quickly into remote areas. Unless a technological breakthrough enables small UAVs to enjoy the capabilities of their larger brethren, the inability of large drones to function reduces the huge advantage of sensing the battlefield that the US and Western militaries have enjoyed.
Al-Ahram Weekly
15-05-2025
- Business
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Trump to visit US troops in Qatar
US President Donald Trump on Thursday will visit a U.S. military base in Qatar as part of his four-day tour of the Gulf states. Trump plans to address troops at the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command. Before addressing the troops, Trump took part in a business forum in Qatar. He sat with GE Aerospace's Larry Culp and Boeing Co.'s Kelly Ortberg on either side of him on Thursday. Both praised Trump for his support for the Qatar Airways order for Boeing aircraft. Ortberg called it one of the largest orders Boeing has ever had. Later Thursday, he will travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the final leg of his Mideast tour. He will visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the country's largest mosque. The UAE's founder, Sheikh Zayed, is buried in the mosque's main courtyard. Trump will also be hosted for a state visit in the evening by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Qasr Al Watan palace. The Qatari base houses some 8,000 U.S. troops, down from about 10,000 at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The gas-rich Gulf country has spent some $8 billion over two decades in developing the base, built on a flat stretch of desert about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Qatar's capital, Doha. Trump said he and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, would also see a demonstration of American air capability, as the U.S. leader looks to boost defense exports to the region. 'You're buying a lot of that equipment actually,' Trump said Wednesday when he and Sheikh Tamim signed a series of bilateral and business agreements between the two countries. 'And I think we're going to see some of it in action tomorrow at the — we won't call it an air fair, but its going to be sort of an air fair. We're going to be showing a display that's going to be incredible. They have the latest and the greatest of our planes and just about everything else.' Among the agreements the two leaders signed on Wednesday was a document clearing the way for Qatar to purchase American-made MQ-9B drones — the export version of the Reaper. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
The Irish Sun
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Irish Sun
Donald Trump hails former terrorist warlord as ‘a young, attractive guy'
DONALD Trump yesterday hailed a former terrorist warlord as 'a young, attractive guy'. The maverick US President gushed with praise after meeting Ahmed al-Sharaa, who ousted Syrian tyrant Bashar al Assad last year. 2 US President Donald Trump is greeted by Qatar's Emir Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani 2 Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Riyadh Credit: Reuters Trump also agreed to lift US economic sanctions on Syria which have been in place since 2011. Sharaa, previously linked to al-Qaeda, spent years in US custody after being captured in Iraq and once had a £7.5million bounty on his head. Now interim Syrian president, he shook hands yesterday with Trump in Riyadh, along with Saudi Arabia's leader, Crown Prince Turkish President He described Sharaa as a 'young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.' But it puts Trump at odds with Israel, which issued warnings against the former terror master and has continued military action against its long-standing enemy. Asked if Sharaa can normalise relations with Israel, Trump said: 'I told him, 'I hope you're going to join once you're straightened out and he said yes'. But they have a lot of work to do.' Trump also asked him to deport Most read in The Sun He also claimed he 'wants to make a deal' with Iran. Trump said: 'It must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons.' He later touched down in Trump is to be controversially offered a 'gift' of a £300million 'flying palace' to replace Air Force One as he carves more huge trade deals. Reaper drones, Patriot missiles and F-35 fighter jets…what is set to be in Trump's $142bn Saudi arms deal war chest
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WH announces $1.2T in economic commitment with Qatar, including significant Boeing order
The White House on Wednesday announced that it has secured economic commitments worth at least $1.2 trillion from Qatar, including a historic deal for Boeing jetliners. President Donald Trump was in Qatar on the second stop of his Middle East trip and the White House said he "signed an agreement with Qatar to generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion." That figure includes "economic deals totaling more than $243.5 billion between the U.S. and Qatar." The White House said that Boeing and GE Aerospace landed a deal with Qatar Airways worth $96 billion to acquire up to 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 777X aircraft, which are powered by GE Aerospace engines. That marks the largest-ever order for Boeing's widebody aircraft, as well as the largest-ever 787 order. The White House said the deal "will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually," which would total more than 1 million jobs over the production and delivery cycle for the deal. Trump Says Us Moving Past 'Days Of Economic Misery' On Middle East Trip Several other private sector deals involving Qatar were referenced in the White House's announcement. Read On The Fox Business App It noted that McDermott has active energy infrastructure deals worth $8.5 billion in Qatar, while Parsons won 30 projects worth up to $97 billion for its engineering services. Additionally, Quantinuum entered into a joint venture with Al Rabban Capital to invest up to $1 billion in quantum technologies and workforce development in the U.S. The defense partnership between the U.S. and Qatar also stands to benefit from the dealmaking push, with the White House saying the signings "mark President Trump's intent to accelerate Qatar's defense investment in the U.S.-Qatar security partnership — enhancing regional deterrence and benefitting the U.S. industrial base." Trump's Middle East Trip Aims To Seal Investments In Us Raytheon, an RTX business unit, landed a $1 billion deal to provide Qatar with counter-drone capabilities, making the Gulf state the first overseas customer for Raytheon's system. General Atomics reached a $2 billion agreement for Qatar to acquire MQ-9B "Reaper" drones. The defense deals also included a statement of intent to potentially invest more than $38 billion to support burden-sharing at Al Udeid Air Base, a major base for the U.S. military in the region, along with other defense capabilities for air defense and maritime security. Trump Defends Qatar Jumbo Jet Offer As Troubled Boeing Fails To Deliver New Air Force One Fleet The announcement of economic commitments with Qatar follows an announcement that Saudi Arabia would invest $600 billion in the U.S. It comes after Qatar's royal family offered the U.S. a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet valued at $400 million to serve as a temporary Air Force One amid delays with Boeing's next-generation presidential aircraft, which is not expected to be delivered until 2029 at the earliest. Though the move has drawn criticism over a potential quid pro quo, the White House has dismissed those concerns, noting that a legal review is underway to ensure the pending deal is compliant with the law. Critics have also raised concerns about potential security concerns stemming from using a jet as Air Force One that was previously under the ownership of a foreign article source: WH announces $1.2T in economic commitment with Qatar, including significant Boeing order Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
