Knewz

President Vladimir Putin attended the “Our Family” competition – an event aimed at promoting traditional Russian family values – and greeted the participants with a smile during his visit to the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow on July 8.

Knewz.com has learned that the all-smiles meet-and-greet came hours after Russia conducted one of the most brutal missile strikes on Ukraine, particularly destroying a children’s hospital in Kyiv.

On July 8, the Russian Day of Family, Love, and Faithfulness, the autocrat met with the finalist families of the competition and emphasized family values and the importance of working together.

“Since you decided to take part in this contest, a family contest, it means that you not only felt like a family team, but you were willing to work together to achieve a common goal. Nothing unites people like working together to achieve a common goal,” Putin told the contestants, per the official Kremlin news release.

“For us, for the state, nothing is more important than strengthening families, especially during the Year of the Family in Russia. I wish you all a happy Family, Love and Faithfulness Day. And I wish every one of you a happy life as a family.”

The “Our Family” competition was launched in 2023 to promote “traditional values, identify and support families with an active position in life,” the news release explained.

Notably, Putin’s seemingly cheerful attendance at the competition came hours after the devastating Russian missile strike on Ukraine, which unleashed nationwide death and destruction.

While the central city of Kryvyi Rih bore the brunt of the attack, the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv – the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine – saw significant devastation as a partially collapsed two-story wing of the facility left rescuers in a desperate search for survivors under the rubble.

Windows and doors of the 10-story main building of the hospital blew out and the walls were blackened, while blood was found spattered on the floor in one of the rooms.

Medical personnel and local residents worked together to remove the rubble and search for children and staff who were trapped underneath.

Smoke billowed from the building while volunteers, emergency crews, and locals formed a human chain, passing stones and debris to each other in a frantic effort to reach potential survivors, it was reported by The Associated Press.

The missile barrage included the difficult-to-intercept Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, one of Russia’s most advanced weapons, known for its speed. The Kinzhal flies at ten times the speed of sound, making it almost impossible for defense systems to react.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared the grim news on Telegram, saying the exact number of casualties was still unknown. “It is very important that the world should not be silent about it now and that everyone should see what Russia is and what it is doing,” Zelensky stated.

Prior to meeting the contestant of the “Our Family” competition, Putin met the participants of the World Youth Festival. A press release from the Kremlin regarding the meeting stated:

“Council members will participate in various youth events across Russian regions. Towards the end of the year, a forum for young journalists from around the globe is scheduled, alongside the creation of an international association of citizen journalism.”

The Russian President met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the following day, who said during the “informal” meeting that visiting “a friend in his home is a delight.”

The two leaders visited the Atom Pavilion at Moscow’s All-Russian Exhibition Center during Modi’s second day of visit, on July 9.

“The leaders toured an exhibition showcasing Russia-India cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, among other things. Afterwards, they had a brief conversation with a group of Russian and Indian nuclear engineering students,” the Kremlin.News Telegram channel reported.

The Indian news outlet United News of India wrote that the Russian state atomiс energy corporation Rosatom is currently in talks with the Indian capital New Delhi for the construction of nuclear power units and low-power nuclear plants in India.

A United Airlines Boeing 757-200 flight from Los Angeles to Denver lost one of its wheels during take off—mirroring a similar incident with the aircraft manufacturer mere months earlier.

Knewz.com has learned that in March, the same technical failure beset an aircraft taking off from San Francisco causing severe damage to vehicles in an airport parking lot.

The most recent instance involving the already embattled commercial aircraft brand, Boeing, occurred on Monday, July 8, around 07h15 local time.

The operator, United Airlines (Flight 1001) continued to its destination and is said to have landed at Denver International Airport without incident or injury to its 147 passengers and seven crew.

The airline has since released a statement indicating that an investigation is underway to determine why the wheel fell off.

A report quoted one of the passengers, Allen Stubblefield, who was onboard during the incident.

He noted that the pilot declared an emergency landing as the flight neared Denver.

“(I’ve) been through many safety procedures and you get to the point where you’re half-listening or barely listening,” Stubblefield said.

He noted that none of the passengers panicked and recalled that as the aircraft made its final approach, one of the cabin crew called “brace, brace, brace” through the PA system.

“It was not the smoothest landing and I didn’t expect that. There was a bump, but that was it,” Stubblefield said.

Back in the cockpit, the pilots were made aware of their missing wheel almost as soon as it came off the plane.

Air traffic control informed them, saying: “Tower, United 1001, we were told a tire came off your aircraft.”

The control tower, in turn, became aware of the incident after other pilots at the facility spotted it separating from the jet.

Quoted communication records reflected one of the messages alerting traffic control:

“A tire came off that B757 that took off.”

“We saw it rolling down past B7-B8.”

Notably, the same thing happened to a United Airlines flight in March 2024 after a Boeing 777 took off from San Francisco Airport.

The wheel allegedly fell into a parking area near the airport causing severe damage to vehicles. 

Consequently, the plane destined for Osaka, Japan was rerouted to Los Angeles where it executed a safe landing.

United Airlines is currently under investigation by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and has communicated that it welcomes the oversight. 

Be this as it may, the airline’s shares have since taken a dip, per Smart Karma, and the probe by the aviation agency is expected to impede its upcoming projects.

Boeing, the company that built said planes, is already the center of attention after two 737 Max passenger jets crashed in 2018 killing almost 400 people in total. More recently, on January 5, a doorplug flew off an Alaska Airlines jet in mid-air.

Despite the ensuing legal battle, the company that builds American military aircraft and missiles has expanded its portfolio to space travel.

The latter manifested in a June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in what was supposed to be an eight-day journey.

The shuttle named Starliner, is reported to have sprung helium leaks and faulty rocket engines forcing its crew of two to stay at the international space station for almost a month longer than they planned.

Boeing has since agreed to plead guilty to defrauding the United States in the case of the two overseas 737 Max jet crashes and has been fined $487 million.

Ukraine has unleashed a large overnight volley of drones wreaking havoc on numerous locations in Russia.

Knewz.com has learned that the attacks followed what was dubbed Russia’s largest bombardment in four months.

A video posted to social media captures a projectile making a buzzing noise (presumably a drone) while descending onto an already burning building. A loud explosion can be heard shortly after it disappears behind the smoke.

Other footage depicts a particularly hard-hit target, showing a large column of flame and smoke towering high above the surrounding buildings.

Said blaze was reported to be the work of five Ukrainian drones on an oil refinery in Russia’s southern Volgorod region.

Reports indicated that as a result of the bombardment, there were two separate fires prompting the local Volgograd and Astrakhan airports to close.

The region’s governor, Andrei Bocharov, weighed in on the attack claiming that the fires were the result of the falling debris after attacking drones were shot down by Russian air defenses.

He acknowledged that an electrical substation was set alight but claimed that there were no deaths or injuries in the attack.

The incursion and the subsequent blaze were part of a 38-drone bombardment affecting the far eastern Belgorod region of Russia, Kursk 91 miles to its north, Voronezh 158 miles from the battlefront, Rostov opposite the Russian-occupied territory of Mariupol, and the Astrakhan region on the banks of the Volga Delta deep inside Russia.

While there has been no indication from the Ukrainian military as to whether this bombardment was connected—it followed what was reported to be Russia’s largest missile attack in four months.

Said incursion, among other targets, struck Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital.

According to reports, heart surgeries were in progress when the projectiles hit, forcing hospital staff to move their operations outdoors.

During the bombardment, it was noted that at least 30 people (including 10 in the capital city of Kyiv) were killed and around 150 more wounded.

Notably, this missile strike by Russia followed a particularly successful drone onslaught by Volodymyr Zelensky’s drone forces a day prior (June 7).

According to a report by CNN News, the defending forces sent a UAV to the Voronezh region. There, it singled out a munitions plant and was able to set fire to the factory forcing the local authorities to declare a state of emergency and evacuate no less than 50 people.

The Kremlin, chagrined by yet another instance of Ukraine’s adept drone handling, released a statement threatening to respond.

Its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, was quoted saying: “The President said that we will react, and I am convinced that in the foreseeable future you will learn about this.”

He went on to implicate the United States in the attack saying that without its involvement the projectiles would not have “flown anywhere.”

Less than 24 hours later, reports of the strike on the children’s hospital surfaced and according to recent reports, the death toll has risen to 39.

Archaeologists have uncovered a well-preserved marble statue of the Greek God Hermes while carrying out excavations at an ancient Roman sewer.

Knewz.com has learned that the statue has been found in southwestern Bulgaria, at a site where the ancient Roman city of Heraclea Sintica once stood.

The latest discovery came nearly a week after two ancient Roman villas were discovered in the Shropshire region of England during a National Trust survey.

Archaeologists currently involved in the excavation project at the ancient Roman city believe that the 6.8-foot-tall statue of Hermes was placed in the sewer and covered with soil following an earthquake sometime around 388 A.D.

Being carefully buried in the sewer is likely the reason why the statue has been preserved so well, according to the team of archaeologists working on the dig.

“Its head is preserved. (It’s in a) very good condition. There are a few fractures on the hands,” Lyudmil Vagalinski, who is leading the team, said in a statement, via Reuters.

Vagalinski added that the statue was a copy of the original Greek iteration made by the ancient Romans.

Speaking about the condition of the statue, the team of archaeologists also theorized that the people of the ancient Roman city possibly tried to preserve the statue, despite the Roman Empire having adopted Christianity as the official religion.

“Everything pagan was forbidden, and they have joined the new ideology, but apparently they took care of their old deities,” Vagalinski commented, according to Reuters.

The ancient Roman city of Heraclea Sintica is located near what is now the village of Rupite, in Southwestern Bulgaria, near the border with Greece. The region is also known as Pirin Macedonia.

The sprawling city was founded by the ancient Macedonian king Philip II of Macedon, the father of Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, sometime between 356 B.C. and 339 B.C.

Reuters reported that the city likely fell into rapid decline following the earthquake around 388 A.D., and over a century later, by 500 A.D., the city was abandoned.

The ancient city of Heraclea Sintica was identified in 2002 after the discovery of a Latin inscription documenting the correspondence between the Roman Emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus and Caesar Maximinus II, according to Heritage Daily.

The website Ancient Bulgaria mentioned that archaeologists have been excavating the site of this significant city since 2007.

The website further noted that discoveries are made at the site every year, giving rise to newer theories about how the ancient Roman city was abandoned.

A little over a week prior, Knewz.com reported the astonishing discovery of two Roman villas, along with the evidence of several farmsteads dating back to the Iron Age, at a National Trust site in England.

The discovery was made during a National Trust survey aimed at helping the organization plan for upcoming nature conservation efforts and tree-planting schemes as part of the organization’s efforts to battle climate change.

Using ground-scanning technology, the survey attempted to map undetected features that lay underneath the Wroxeter region in Shropshire, close to the site where the ancient Roman city of Viriconium once stood.

Janine Young, an archaeologist associated with the National Trust, said in a statement via The Guardian:

“It’s a very rich area archaeologically speaking. I look after other National Trust properties as well, and there is no way you would get such a level of occupation [elsewhere]. The landscape had quite dense occupation throughout history, and it is that continuous occupation that is very exciting.”

Former NASA Astronaut, Ron Garan, returned to Earth after spending 178 days in space—with a changed worldview.

Knewz.com has learned that Garan now believes that the answer to many issues afflicting the planet may be solved if more humans were to experience what scientists call the “overview effect”. 

Garan who traveled more than 71 million miles in a total of 2,842 orbits realized that the Earth is more fragile than he initially thought.

“When I looked out the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them.”

“And I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet’s atmosphere. In that moment, I was hit with the sobering realization that that paper-thin layer keeps every living thing on our planet alive.”

“I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life,” the former Air Force test pilot continued to say.

“I didn’t see the economy. But since our human-made systems treat everything, including the very life-support systems of our planet, as the wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy, it’s obvious from the vantage point of space that we’re living a lie.”

His newfound perspective has led him to believe that humanity needs to take another look at its priorities.

“We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That’s when we’re going to continue our evolutionary process.”

He goes on to say that the world is paying a “high price” for humanity’s tainted perspective—and this can be seen through the world’s failure to fix its problems.

“We’re not going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality,” Garan noted in a video posted to Big Think.

Notably, Garan is not the only person to experience this change of perspective. William Shatner, best known for his role as James T. Kirk in the illustrious Star Trek series noted after he visited space:

“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered.”

“The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.”

“Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna … things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind.”

Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon was faced with the “overview effect” too. he said: 

“There was a startling recognition that the nature of the universe was not as I had been taught… I not only saw the connectedness, I felt it.… I was overwhelmed with the sensation of physically and mentally extending out into the cosmos.”

“I realized that this was a biological response of my brain attempting to reorganize and give meaning to information about the wonderful and awesome processes that I was privileged to view.”

A flight from the Moroccan resort destination of Agadir, destined for London, was forced to land prematurely after a massive brawl broke out among the passengers.

Knewz.com has learned that the altercation started while passengers were boarding and a man in his late 20s asked a woman to swap seats so that he could sit closer to his family.

The woman refused as she was already seated next to her daughter and the incident seemed to abate.

When the aircraft was in the air and the seatbelt signs were turned off, said man allegedly started threatening the woman whose husband then got involved.

The altercation became physical and the men started throwing punches. It soon escalated into what resembled free-for-all as numerous parties got involved.

An unnamed British witness who was on board gave their account of the incident, saying:

“They were trying to punch each other. One of the families was part of a larger group so other passengers started to join in.”

“Then a lady in the row behind started to have a panic attack because of everything going on. She was screaming and there were kids crying. It was like a snowball effect.”

Another 36-year-old passenger weighed in: “We were only in the air for 36 minutes before we had to do an unexpected landing. It was so stressful.”

“It was like a flight from hell. And it all escalated from that one passenger wanting to change seats.”

The cabin crew tried to intervene but to no avail, forcing the Ryan Air flight RUK3034 to terminate its journey 36 minutes and 127 miles later in Marrakech (also in Morocco).

Police met the aircraft and escorted nine individuals off the plane. But this was not the end of the debacle.

While the scuffle was in full swing, another passenger became ill and was administered oxygen. 

When the aircraft landed, medics came on board but soon established that he was unfit to fly and requested him to leave the flight.

Said ailing person would have none of it and rebelled vociferously. 

Footage captures the individual saying: 

“They think I’m a terrorist. That’s why they’re bringing the whole army here to take me down.”

“Give me my f****** bag. I will whack your jaw bruv.”

At this point, the crew had reached their maximum flying time and the airline canceled the flight. The remaining passengers were booked into hotels and scheduled for a flight the next morning.

This flight was also canceled. According to The Sun which first caught the story, when the crew eventually returned and boarded the flight that would finally bring the passengers to their destination in Stansted, London—they were met by a jeering crowd.

Ryan Air has since weighed in on the matter apologizing for the double delay and blaming it on disruptive passengers.

“As it took almost two hours in total to treat and offload these disruptive passengers, during which time the rest of the passengers remained onboard, the crew reached their permitted flying hours, and caused the flight to be delayed overnight,” the airline’s statement noted.

Aerospace giant, Boeing, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States following the crashes of two 737 aircraft in which 346 people perished.

Knewz.com has learned that this comes amidst the ongoing and indefinite postponements of the return of the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who have been on the space station for 33 days—25 days longer than they were supposed to.

A court filing by the U.S. Justice Department on the evening of Sunday 7, noted that Boeing would pay $487 million in fines.

This ruling comes six years after an almost new 737 crashed shortly after take-off in Indonesia killing all 189 people on board.

Mere months later, a second aircraft of the same brand and model crashed under the same circumstances in Ethiopia killing 157.

Ensuing investigations found that a new automated system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was responsible for the crash.

Said investigations also found that leading up to the first crash, pilots were not informed of the new system, which forced the aircraft downwards at a high speed.

In the second crash, the pilots were informed and turned off the MCAS system as instructed, but the aircraft failed to pull out of its nose dive which ultimately ended in mass fatalities.

According to reports, the families of the victims of both crashes demanded $24.8 billion, as opposed to the current deal reached by Boeing and the Department of Justice.

More recently, (January 2024) a door plug flew off an Air Alaska flight shortly after take-off.

Notably, Boeing is an integral part of America as it not only services commercial air transport but also builds military aircraft and missiles for the U.S. Air Force—and of late not only did it build its own space shuttle but, in concert with NASA, sent it to the international space station.

Its burgeoning collection of embarrassments in commercial aviation, however, spilled onto its space endeavors when its Starliner shuttle developed rocket engine problems and started leaking helium.

As a result, the trip that was supposed to have lasted eight days has gone on for 33 with NASA and Boeing insisting that there is no reason to panic.

“We’re not stuck on the ISS. The crew is not in any danger, and there’s no increased risk when we decide to bring Suni and Butch back to Earth” vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, Mark Nappi, said.

NASA made a statement to the same tune, claiming “We have the luxury of time.” 

He went on to say that the two companies were focused on collecting data and that they would bring the two astronauts back to Earth at a time of their choosing, per Sat News.

NASA and Boeing continue to run tests and simulations in what Dan Niedermaier (lead technician) claims is a bid to better “understand the [Starliner’s] thruster.”

Pop singer Taylor Swift and cultural icon Oprah Winfrey are likely to be some of the moderators of the possible “blitz primary”—where potential Democrats will duke it out for the presidential ballot, replacing Joe Biden in the run for Office.

Knewz.com has learned that the 81-year-old incumbent president has seemingly failed to invoke the confidence of his supporters following the first presidential debate of the year on June 27.

Biden’s performance at the June 27 debate has led to prominent Democrats calling on him to take his name out of the running, something that has infuriated the President.

Whether it was while voicing his criticism of challenger Donald Trump or trying to answer his allegations against his presidency, Biden was found stumbling his way through his statements, especially towards the beginning of the CNN debate.

While talking about border security – a rather crucial topic for this year’s presidential election – Biden’s statement became increasingly unintelligible, with Trump grabbing the chance to reply: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.”

Another notable example was when he tried to respond to a question about the national debt, and he trailed off toward the end of his response and ended his statement with another one of his verbal gaffes, saying, “We finally beat Medicare.”

Trump immediately pounced on the opportunity when it was his turn to respond: “Well he’s right, he did beat Medicare. He beat it to death and he’s destroying Medicare.”

Several senior House Democrats reportedly admitted to believing Biden should not run for Office anymore in a private meeting on Sunday, July 7.

The ones to have lost confidence in Biden as an able contender in the 2024 Presidential elections include Democrat Congressional Representatives Jerry Nadler and Joe Morelle of New York, Adam Smith of Washington, Jim Himes of Connecticut, and Mark Takano of California, sources have told The Wall Street Journal.

In the face of the ongoing turmoil regarding Biden’s candidacy, the Democrat camp has reportedly proposed a plan that would involve the incumbent president stepping down from the ballot and the party carrying out a “blitz primary” process ahead of the Democratic National Convention to determine his replacement.

It was reported by Semafor that the plan was the brainchild of Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and was a volunteer policy adviser to the Biden campaign in 2020, and Ted Dintersmith, education philanthropist and venture capitalist known to have donated to several Democrat campaigns.

“In the midst of malaise and crisis, we can forge an uplifting path,” the latter told the outlet.

As part of the proposed plan, potential candidates would be given a few days to announce their candidacy, following which the party would select six candidates with the most votes from delegates would “pledge to run positive-only [short] campaigns in the month leading up to the convention,” per Semafor.

In a bid to engage voters, the six candidates would engage in weekly forums during the month-long sprint curated by culturally relevant and popular celebrities. The list of possible curators reportedly includes names like Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

“We can limp to shameful, avoidable democracy-ending defeat. Or Democrats can make this Our Finest Hour. While we hope for help from Lord Almighty, the Lord helps those who help themselves,” the memo about the proposed plan states, according to Semafor. “We need to act. Now.”

News of the Democratic Party’s receding faith in his candidacy has reached Biden’s ears, as he dared disgruntled Democrats to run against him during a Morning Joe interview on Monday, July 8.

“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites … in the party. With any of these guys who don’t think I should run — run against me… Challenge me at the [Democratic National Convention, to be held in August],” Biden said in the interview, via OK! Magazine.

On the other hand, Radar Online reported that comedian and actor Whoopi Goldberg echoed the voices of those who still support the incumbent president on the TV show The View on July 8.

“I don’t care if he’s pooped his pants. I don’t care if he can’t put a sentence together. Show me he can’t do the job and then I’ll say, okay, maybe it’s time to go,” she said, per the outlet.

“Now, he had a bad night the first time that he went on and debated with Kamala Harris [in 2020], and everybody wanted him to quit then, saying: ‘You can’t talk to women like this’ or ‘You’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong,” Goldberg added. “He came back, said, ‘You know what? I got it,’ and gave four years.”

A hacker in Australia has come up with a unique method to bag delicious fried chicken from KFC at prices way lower than the official cost, exposing “very bad cybersecurity” at the company app.

Knewz.com has learned that the anonymous hacker shared his “hack” on the deal-fetching Australian website OzBargain.

A global conglomerate, KFC is a cornerstone of the fast-food industry with an average annual revenue of over $6 billion.

Despite the company offering special deals and discounts, users often turn to the OzBargain website in search of ways to save a bit of extra cash when buying fried chicken from the online outlets of the Colonel’s franchise.

Posting the latest hack, the anonymous hacker – who goes by the name “AwesomeAndrew” online – wrote in his OzBargain post:

“Since the previous hacks stopped working, I started looking into new methods of getting cheap chicken. I noticed that the KFC app seems to only perform client side validation of whether your cart is valid (very bad cybersecurity), so I found a new method of getting the hack which works on the KFC website ordering.”

“AwesomeAndrew” explained that his eight-step method involves “performing a replay attack on the add to cart request sent to the server,” adding that the hack only works on computers and not handheld devices.

“But I believe that it might still be possible on the app due to lack of server side cart validation.”

Notably, a lot of the posts on the OzBargain website focus on grabbing a good deal on KFC items. Since the website launched in 2006, there have been a total of 748 deals posted for KFC—including special offers launched by the company.

However, one of the first hacks posted on the site was in 2020, by a user named “drezy.”

“Just wanted to post this hack in case people were interested. You can get 4x Pieces of Original Recipe Chicken or 5x Tenders for only $6.95 in the KFC App. Get in quick before they figure it out and remove it!” drezy wrote in his post at the time.

The handle “drezy” belongs to a 42-year-old office worker named Andre, and he told the Australian news outlet Crikey that he came across the hack accidentally while ordering a meal through the KFC app.

AwesomeAndrew, who posted the latest hack, said in a message on the OzBargain website that he feels hacks like this “should exist because they inform companies of the importance of having good cyber security.”

“Big companies already make tons of profit, way too much in my opinion,” he said in the message, via Crikey.

However, one of the users pointed out in his post that the hack borders on “unauthorised modification of data,” which is considered a criminal activity.

“You are intentionally bypassing their security even though the security is obviously written by a first year computer grad as anyone else in the industry knows the very first computer lesson is never rely on client side validation,” the user wrote.

“They are unlikely to come after you for this, but make no mistake it is most definitely a crime.”

Crikey mentioned in their report that KFC has been on the receiving end of hackers’ quest to exploit the system for cheaper meals for a while now, forcing the company to repeatedly fix vulnerabilities in their online system.

While these hacks might be aimed at trying to bag a meal at a cheaper price, KFC was the target of a significant and more serious cyberattack nearly a decade ago.

The 1.2 million members of the Colonel’s Club loyalty program in the United Kingdom received an email from KFC in December 2016, informing them that a hacker had breached the website and urging them to change their passwords.

“Our monitoring systems have found a small number of Colonel’s Club accounts may have been compromised as a result of our website being targeted… Whilst it is unlikely you have been impacted, we advise that you change your password as a precaution,” the email read, per the news outlet The Next Web.

The outlet theorized at the time that the hackers could have gotten their hands on the list of email addresses and passwords of the members of the loyalty program, which would count as a significant data breach.

Anti-aircraft gunners shot down a Russian Su-25 fighter bomber jet on Sunday, July 7, near the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Knewz.com has learned that this is the second Su-25 fighter jet to have been downed by Ukrainian air defenses in 10 days.

The $11 million fighter bomber was taken down by anti-aircraft gunners from a separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine named after Colonel-General Marko Bezruchko, a decorated soldier who fought in the First World War.

The Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group channel on Telegram was the first to report the incident, where they mentioned that the downed aircraft currently lay burning on “the steppes of the Ukrainian Donbas.”

“Our Ukrainian troops have shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft, which was attacking the positions of the defense forces, on the Pokrovsk front,” the Telegram report wrote.

“The anti-aircraft gunners of the [110th] Separate Mechanised Brigade named after Lieutenant General Mark Bezruchko have destroyed another Su-25 attack aircraft, which is now burning in the steppes of Ukrainian Donbas.”

The “Sukhoi” Su-25 fighter bomber jet is a ground-attack aircraft designed to provide close-range air support on the battlefield.

Armed with one twin barrel 30mm gun in the bottom of the fuselage with 250 rounds and eight pylons under the wings that can carry about 88,18 pounds of air-to-ground weapons – including 57mm to 330mm rockets – the aircraft can attack low-altitude, slow-moving targets in the air, as well as targets on the ground, per United States military information website ODIN.

On June 28, The National Guard of Ukraine reported shooting down another Russian Su-25 fighter aircraft, also in the Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian National Guard wrote on Telegram that a team from its 31st Brigade downed the bomber using an Igla MANPAD air defense missile system. “The Su-25 attack aircraft was downed with a well-aimed shot,” the report mentioned.

The Telegram report was accompanied by a video of the successful attack that showed the launched projectile hit the enemy aircraft, with the operators exclaiming in excitement as the Su-25 went down leaving behind a trail of smoke.

The news outlet Kyiv Post explained that the Igla portable air-defense missile system “consists of a single-use transport and launch container, a launch mechanism, and a built-in radar interrogator for identifying friendly and enemy aircraft.”

“As soon as the infrared radiation from the air target is detected by the receiver of the homing head, visual and sound indicators alert the operator that the target has been fixed and captured. The operator then decides when to launch the anti-aircraft missile, which autonomously tracks and hits the target.”

It is worth noting that the latest instance of Ukrainian air defenses shooting down a Russian Su-25 fighter jet came a day before Vladimir Putin launched one of the most devastating missile strikes on Ukraine, causing nationwide death and devastation.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the strike on Monday, July 8, saw more than 40 missiles of various types targeted five Ukrainian cities—Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, and Kryvyi Rih.

The barrage included the difficult-to-intercept Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, one of the most advanced weapons in Putin’s repertoire.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko shared the latest update on nationwide casualties on Telegram, mentioning that 28 people have been found dead and 112 people have been recorded injured so far.

“Emergency rescue operations at the sites of the biggest [explosions] continue. There are rescuers, police, and communal services. Separate gratitude to all the caring people who rushed to the rescue. Unity makes us stronger,” Klymenko wrote in his report.

“It is very important that the world should not be silent about it now and that everyone should see what Russia is and what it is doing,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote about the attack on social media, adding that the exact number of casualties was still unknown.