Drone Q&A: All The Facts About Unmanned Ops

Sky News Defence Correspondent Alistair Bunkall speaks with a British officer conducting drone operations from a Middle East base.

:: How long can the drones stay airborne?

Flight-time to Syria and Iraq is around 90 minutes. The drones can stay above a target for about 13 hours.

:: How can a pilot thousands of miles away from the battlefield be as accountable as a plane right above it?

They are a weapons system but there is a man in the loop at all times. No weapon gets delivered without a decision making process. The pilot feels completely immersed. Once the pilot gets into work they get an intelligence update on what's happened, get fully briefed and then fly the mission.

:: How does the kill chain work?

The aircraft beams live pictures to a command centre in Baghdad and another one in the Gulf. Senior officers and lawyers, watching the feed must approve every strike. It's a matter for rules of engagement and laws of armed conflict. The pilot can refuse to take the shot and the missile can be steered away from the target at the last second if necessary.

:: What weapons are onboard?

The aircraft can fly to quite high-altitudes, on paper as far as 50,000ft but usually between 15-20,000ft. Where the pilot will position the aircraft in terms of its height and distance from the target will depend on what they are looking at and the weather conditions and the conditions on the ground. Urban environments, for example, are noisier and drones are less likely to be detected. In rural areas they could be more easy to detect. The crews will adjust their altitude for the mission.

:: What weapons are onboard?

The Reaper carries four laser guided Hellfire missiles and two 500lb Paveway bombs - very accurate weapons used against a wide variety of target sets.

:: How high does the drone fly?

The aircraft can fly to quite high-altitudes, on paper as far as 50,000ft but usually between 15-20,000ft. Where the pilot will position the aircraft in terms of its height and distance from the target will depend on what they are looking at and the weather conditions and the conditions on the ground. Urban environments, for example, are noisier and drones are less likely to be detected. In rural areas they could be more easy to detect. The crews will adjust their altitude for the mission.

:: What are the benefits of a drone compared to a manned aircraft?

Persistence. It can loiter in an area for a considerable amount of time. That allows us to absorb what's happening over a period - to develop a more sophisticated understanding. You can normally work out any patterns of life they might have. You can watch an individual for days, weeks, months.

:: How do you deal with firing a missile during the day and going home at night to have dinner with your family?

You're effectively entering the war every day you go to work. If you've had a long day where you might have been particularly active then there are various techniques you can use to compartmentalise what you have done. We have the Chaplaincy and Padre team on each station that allow you to discuss anything you might wish. You've got things like using the gym and even the long drive home that nicely separates what you might have just done and what you're going back home to.

You Can't Always Get What You Want, Trump

The Rolling Stones have told US presidential hopeful Donald Trump to stop using their songs at his campaign rallies.

The brash billionaire is an avid music fan and The Stones' 1969 hit You Can't Always Get What You Want was a particular favourite in a soundtrack that included Sir Elton John, opera and classic rock songs.

In a statement, the band said: "The Rolling Stones have never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately."

They are not the first musicians to distance the controversial tycoon and reality television star from their music.

In February, a spokesman for Adele said: "Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning."

The words were in response to reports that Mr Trump, who is a fan of the British singer and attended one of her New York concerts, had been playing Rolling In The Deep to fire-up his supporters.

Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler asked him to stop playing Dream On during campaigning, a request that prompted a backlash from Mr Trump, who tweeted that he had a legal right to use the song but had found "a better one to take its place".

He added: "Steven Tyler got more publicity on his song request than he's gotten in 10 years. Good for him!"

Neil Young also objected when Mr Trump used Rockin' In The Free World during the announcement of his campaign last year.

The New Day Paper 'To Close' After Nine Weeks

The New Day newspaper is to close after just nine weeks, according to reports.

The daily newspaper, published by Trinity Mirror, is understood to be publishing its final edition on Friday.

According to The Spectator's Steerpike blog, the company's chief executive Simon Fox had made clear that the newspaper would close if it failed to deliver results.

But, despite its circulation reportedly dropping below 40,000, many have expressed surprise that such a decision was taken so soon.

A Trinity Mirror spokesman declined to confirm or deny the reports to Sky News but did say that a trading statement will be made this morning at 7am, just hours before the company's AGM at the Museum of London.

When the newspaper launched at the end of February its editor Alison Phillips told Sky News: "We still believe there is still a market for newspapers and that people really enjoy sitting down and reading a newspaper.

"We're living in a rapidly changing world...but from that we've discovered that what people want from a newspaper is a sense of completeness - that this is all they need to know. And if they just read this, they'll be on top of all the important stuff that is going on."

The group had said the title would cover news and features in "an upbeat, optimistic approach and will be politically neutral".

Trinity Mirror, which also owns the Daily Mirror and a host of regional titles, initially made The New Day free of charge from 40,000 retailers, before trialling at 25p for two weeks and then selling for 50p after that.

Last year the market for daily newspapers declined by 8%, according to the National Readership Survey.

The Independent and Independent On Sunday newspapers have closed this year after three decades to go digital-only.

Nigeria billionaire 'loses' $400m within weeks

Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has lost more than $400m (£280m) of his personal fortune in the last nine weeks after stock price of his Forte Oil company crashed by 43%, the US

based Forbes magazinereports.

Forte's share price has dropped to 193 naira ($1, £0.66) from 342 naira in late February after recording consistent daily losses in recent weeks, it added.

The magazine quoted a source at Forte Oil as linking the drop in the company’s share price with massive sell-offs of bonus shares by some of the company’s retail investors.  

In March, Forbes estimated that Mr Otedola had been worth $1.6bn, but that had now dropped to $1.2bn, it said.

Kanye West: 'Closet racism' to blame for Taylor Swift’s 2009 VMA win

It’s been almost seven years since Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s VMA speech in 2009 to declare that Beyonce, in fact, had the “best video of all time,” but the rapper can’t seem to let the topic go. In a new radio interview with Steve Harvey, Yeezy brought up Swift out of the blue, even after Harvey said he “really wasn’t” trying to talk about her.

“It’s not about Kanye West. It’s not about Taylor Swift,” West said. “There’s a lot of people in America that feel like they don’t have the platform to stand up and express their closet racism. Before they had that platform, one really easy way to express it was to say, ‘Eff Kanye West.’”

West went on to blame Britney Spears’ 2007 meltdown, saying, “As soon as Britney shaved her head and they saw that money going down, they had already marked what that award was going to be that night,” indicating that the powers-that-be saw Swift as the next pop superstar.

“They ain’t expect no activist that had just lost his mama a year later, sitting there with a bottle of Hennessey,” he added of himself. “The only reason I drank the Hennessey in the first place is because I said, ‘Imma just have to get drunk to deal with all the lies I’m about to see.’”

West later apologized to Swift for the incident and she presented him with the VMA Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 show. But then earlier this year, West released a song called “Famous,” in which he rapped, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”

In a recent cover story for Vogue, Swift noted that she’s done with the feud, saying, "I think the world is bored with the saga. I don't want to add anything to it, because then there's just more."

As for some of his other beefs, West apologized again for insulting Wiz Khalifa and his ex Amber Rose earlier this year on Twitter.

“One thing I want to express to people, every day I look and I play with my daughter and I play with Saint,” the father of two said. “I’ve talked to Wiz, Amber’s talked to Kim, but I really want to stress the amount of respect I have for parents.”

After declaring he “owned” the former couple’s son, Sebastian, West told Harvey, “There is no concept of anyone, anyone being able to own someone else’s child. So every day I feel more deeply, deeply apologetic about that concept, because I only want to put out positive, positive, positive concepts.”

West went on to praise his wife, Kim Kardashian, saying, “She’s breaking boundaries on so many levels. You can’t give me an example of as popular of a mixed couple. I got friends that have had white wives that before there was a Kimye, they’d go to the amusement park and people would be talking down to them, treating them a certain kind of way. She’s broke boundaries with that, she’s broke boundaries in fashion, where designers wasn’t trying to make clothes with women with shape. And now, they’re all about really embracing and empowering women… Can’t nobody disrespect my wife, ever.”

Obama Drinks Water In Flint To Show It Is Safe

President Barack Obama has travelled to Flint, Michigan, to help reassure residents that the city is recovering from a lead-tainted drinking water crisis.

In his first visit to the beleaguered city since the crisis began in 2014, Mr Obama drank filtered water after a reporter asked him if was willing to try it.

"The water around this table was Flint water and it just confirms what we know scientifically, which is, if you're using a filter, if you're installing it, then Flint water at this point is drinkable," the President said after taking a gulp.

Mr Obama told residents it could take more than two years before the city's water pipes can be replaced.

He urged citizens to use the water filters that are being provided free of charge, and to let their water taps run for five minutes every day to flush out any contaminants.

The President also called on parents to have their children tested for high levels of lead in their blood.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Michigan State Senate approved an additional $128m to address the recovery effort.

The crisis began after Flint, a working class, mostly African-American city of 100,000 people, switched water supplies to the Flint River from Detroit's water system to save money.

The water was not filtered properly, which led to lead and other metals leaching from old pipes.

The move sparked a national controversy after blood samples taken from children showed high levels of lead, which can damage the nervous system.

Child Who Hacked Instagram Given $10k Reward

A 10-year-old boy has been paid $10,000 (£6,900) by Facebook after he identified a glitch in the company's photo-sharing app Instagram.

Jani is the youngest-ever recipient of the "bug bounty" which the social media giant offers to users and white hat hackers who report weaknesses with its services.

The boy, from Finland, told local media that he had discovered a vulnerability in the comments section of Instagram photos when malicious code was typed in.

"I could have deleted anyone's comments from (Instagram accounts). Even Justin Bieber's," he explained.

Jani's feat is all the more impressive considering he is too young to have his own Facebook or Instagram account under the company's terms of service.

He learned how to code from YouTube videos, and is now considering a career in data security when he grows up.

Facebook paid out the reward money in March - a month after Jani notified them about the vulnerability.

He plans to use his newfound pocket money to splash out on a new bike and a football.