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UPS, FedEx Ground MD-11 Fleets after Deadly Louisville Crash

A drone view of the crash site next to a runway at the Muhammad Ali International Airport following the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, US, in this screengrab from a video released November 7, 2025. NTSB/Handout via REUTERS
A drone view of the crash site next to a runway at the Muhammad Ali International Airport following the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, US, in this screengrab from a video released November 7, 2025. NTSB/Handout via REUTERS
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UPS, FedEx Ground MD-11 Fleets after Deadly Louisville Crash

A drone view of the crash site next to a runway at the Muhammad Ali International Airport following the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, US, in this screengrab from a video released November 7, 2025. NTSB/Handout via REUTERS
A drone view of the crash site next to a runway at the Muhammad Ali International Airport following the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, US, in this screengrab from a video released November 7, 2025. NTSB/Handout via REUTERS

UPS and FedEx said on Friday they have grounded their combined fleet of more than 50 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes following a crash in Louisville, Kentucky this week that killed at least 14 people.

A UPS MD-11 crashed late on Tuesday, erupting into a fireball moments after takeoff from Louisville's international airport. The death toll from the crash, the cause of which is still under investigation, has risen to 14, according to a post on X by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg on Friday.

UPS and FedEx, the world's largest cargo carriers, said in separate statements that they grounded the aircraft "out of an abundance of caution."

FedEx said it operates 28 MD-11s and, according to a UPS factsheet, UPS had 27 in its fleet prior to the crash.

"We made this decision proactively at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer," Reuters quoted UPS as saying in its statement.

Boeing, which acquired the MD-11 program through its 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Production of the MD-11 planes ended in 2000, and passenger service officially ended in 2014.

FedEx, which has a total fleet of 700 aircraft, said it was "immediately implementing contingency plans" to avoid disruptions. UPS said that its MD-11s account for only 9% of its fleet.

Still, any potential disruptions could have far-reaching consequences as FedEx and UPS are the workhorses for transferring goods around the world for major retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart and Target, as well as for manufacturers and businesses.

UPS is the No. 1 air cargo service provider for the US Postal Service, transporting Priority and other speedy mail products.

The US National Transportation Safety Board is leading the probe into the crash of the 34-year-old MD-11 freighter at the Louisville airport. The plane reached about 100 feet (30.5 meters) above ground level before plunging in flames off the runway and destroying two nearby businesses.

One of the plane's three engines detached from the left wing as it rolled down the Louisville airport runway. On Friday, US safety investigators said that as a warning bell sounded in the cockpit, three UPS pilots had tried to wrestle control of the plane just before it crashed.

While UPS flight 2976 began uneventfully, a repeating bell was heard on the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder just 37 seconds after the crew called for takeoff thrust, NTSB member Todd Inman told reporters.

NTSB anticipates issuing a preliminary investigation report into the crash in about 30 days.

The last UPS cargo plane to crash was in August 2013, when an Airbus aircraft went down on a landing approach to the international airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing both crew members.

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World

Macron to Meet Zelenskiy, Starmer and Merz in London on Monday

A heavily damaged train station building is pictured in the town of Fastiv, Kyiv region, after an air attack, on December 6, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Photo by Serhii Okunev / AFP)
A heavily damaged train station building is pictured in the town of Fastiv, Kyiv region, after an air attack, on December 6, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Photo by Serhii Okunev / AFP)
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Macron to Meet Zelenskiy, Starmer and Merz in London on Monday

A heavily damaged train station building is pictured in the town of Fastiv, Kyiv region, after an air attack, on December 6, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Photo by Serhii Okunev / AFP)
A heavily damaged train station building is pictured in the town of Fastiv, Kyiv region, after an air attack, on December 6, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Photo by Serhii Okunev / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron said he would travel to London on Monday to meet Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy as well as the British and German leaders, to discuss the situation in Ukraine and ongoing negotiations under US mediation.

"Ukraine can count on our unwavering support. That is the whole point of the efforts we have undertaken as part of the Coalition of the Willing," Macron said on X.

"We will continue these efforts alongside the Americans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, without which there can be no robust and lasting peace.

For what is at stake in Ukraine is also the security of Europe as a whole," he added. Macron also condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the strikes that targeted Ukraine last night, in particular its energy and rail infrastructure.

"Russia is locked into an escalatory approach and is not seeking peace ... We must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it to make peace," he added, according to Reuters.

Widespread military activities overnight affected Ukraine's electricity grid and prompted operating nuclear power plants to reduce output, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday.

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the IAEA said, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.

World

Protesters Arrested after Smearing Custard and Crumble on Crown Jewels Case at Tower of London

Members of an organization called Take Back Power hold a sign as they stand after they threw food at a display case containing the Imperial State Crown, at Tower of London, in London, Britain, December 6, 2025. TAKE BACK POWER/Handout via REUTERS
Members of an organization called Take Back Power hold a sign as they stand after they threw food at a display case containing the Imperial State Crown, at Tower of London, in London, Britain, December 6, 2025. TAKE BACK POWER/Handout via REUTERS
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Protesters Arrested after Smearing Custard and Crumble on Crown Jewels Case at Tower of London

Members of an organization called Take Back Power hold a sign as they stand after they threw food at a display case containing the Imperial State Crown, at Tower of London, in London, Britain, December 6, 2025. TAKE BACK POWER/Handout via REUTERS
Members of an organization called Take Back Power hold a sign as they stand after they threw food at a display case containing the Imperial State Crown, at Tower of London, in London, Britain, December 6, 2025. TAKE BACK POWER/Handout via REUTERS

Four protesters were arrested Saturday after splattering food on the display case of a priceless diamond-encrusted crown at the Tower of London.

The Crown Jewels display was temporarily closed after members of a group called Take Back Power smeared apple crumble and poured yellow custard — two staples on British dessert menus — on the case containing the Imperial State Crown worn by King Charles III as he left his coronation ceremony in 2023 and during his speech to open Parliament in 2024.

The hefty crown, containing 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, four rubies and 269 pearls, was crafted for the coronation of Charles' grandfather, George VI, in 1937.

Police said the protesters were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. But the invaluable jewels that are a major tourist draw were unharmed, The Associated Press quoted Historic Royal Palaces as saying.

The civil disobedience group that advocates for a permanent citizens' assembly and wants to tax extreme wealth said two of its members had thrown the food and two others were also arrested and taken into “custard-y.”

The stunt is one of many that has targeted prized treasures and artworks to draw attention to a political cause. Petroleum protesters were imprisoned last year for tossing a can of tomato soup on glass protecting Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery.

Video of the act at the Tower of London, once a royal palace also known as the prison where Anne Boleyn, Thomas More and others were executed, showed two protesters attacking the case as other visitors stepped back in shock.

After an employee intervened and radioed for help, the two demonstrators unfurled a sign saying, “Democracy has crumbled. Tax the rich.”

World

Russia Unleashes Massive Drone and Missile Attack on Ukraine

An owner of a small private shop is seen through the broken window waiting for customers after Russia's night missile attack on a residential neighborhood in Vyshgorod, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
An owner of a small private shop is seen through the broken window waiting for customers after Russia's night missile attack on a residential neighborhood in Vyshgorod, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
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Russia Unleashes Massive Drone and Missile Attack on Ukraine

An owner of a small private shop is seen through the broken window waiting for customers after Russia's night missile attack on a residential neighborhood in Vyshgorod, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
An owner of a small private shop is seen through the broken window waiting for customers after Russia's night missile attack on a residential neighborhood in Vyshgorod, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after US and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet on Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.

Following talks that made progress on a security framework for postwar Ukraine, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday.

They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end the war.

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.

Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck, The Associated Press reported.

At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shut-down reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its air defenses had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.

Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces had struck the refinery. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and that drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the refinery.

Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and its western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

The latest round of attacks came as US President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.

Following Friday’s talks, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.