Mixed Cooperation and competition are the actual scenarios of deploying multi-robot systems, such as the multi-UAV/UGV teaming for tracking criminal vehicles and protecting important individuals. Types and the total number of robot are all important factors that influence mixed cooperation quality. In various real-world environments, such as open space, forest, and urban building clusters, robot deployments have been influenced largely, as different robots have different configurations to support different environments. For example, UGVs are good at moving on the urban roads and reach the forest area while UAVs are good at flying in open space and around the high building clusters. However, it is challenging to design the collective behaviors for robot cooperation according to the dynamic changes in robot capabilities, working status, and environmental constraints. To solve this question, we proposed a novel proficiency-aware mixed environment multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (Mix-DRL). In Mix-DRL, robot capability and environment factors are formalized into the model to update the policy to model the nonlinear relations between heterogeneous team deployment strategies and the real-world environmental conditions. Mix-DRL can largely exploit robot capability while staying aware of the environment limitations. With the validation of a heterogeneous team with 2 UAVs and 2 UGVs in tasks, such as social security for criminal vehicle tracking, the Mix-DRL's effectiveness has been evaluated with $14.20\%$ of cooperation improvement. Given the general setting of Mix-DRL, it can be used to guide the general cooperation of UAVs and UGVs for multi-target tracking.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – The U.S. has killed the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in war-torn Yemen, raising questions about the jihadi group's operations and its future. President Donald Trump said the United States "conducted a counterterrorism operation" that eliminated Qassim al-Rimi, according to a White House statement released on Thursday. But what does this mean for AQAP and for Yemen, where a five-year war between the government -- backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels has crippled the country? Al-Rimi was named AQAP leader after his predecessor, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Yemen in June 2015. He was one of the group's founders in 2009 and its first military commander.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham reacts to criticism from Democrats and Republican Sen. Rand Paul on the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on'America's Newsroom.' Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday said he would not have given the order to launch the airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani if he was the commander in chief. Biden was asked about the attack during the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire. "No, and the reason I wouldn't have ordered the strike is there isn't any evidence yet of an imminent strike that was going to come from him," he said while on stage next to his Democratic rivals at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. Soleimani was killed last month in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that ordered by President Trump.

BAGHDAD – Iraq and Russia discussed prospects for deepening military coordination, Iraq's Defense Ministry said Thursday, amid a strain in Baghdad-Washington relations after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian general inside Iraq. The ministry statement followed a meeting in Baghdad between Iraqi army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Othman Al-Ghanimi and Iraq's Russian Ambassador Maksim Maksimov, as well as a newly arrived defense attache. The meeting comes during an uncertain moment in the future of Iraq-U.S. military relations, following the Jan. 3 U .S. drone strike that killed Iran's most powerful military commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and Iraqi senior militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis near Baghdad airport. The attack continues to create friction, prompting powerful Shiite parties to call for an overhaul of the existing strategic set-up between Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition. Al-Ghanimi praised Moscow's role in the battle against the Islamic State group, saying they had provided "our armed forces with advanced and effective equipment and weapons that had a major role in resolving many battles," according to the ministry statement.

The United States killed the leader of Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, the White House confirmed on Thursday. The confirmation came about a week after The New York Times first reported that the United States believed it had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the Qaeda leader, in January after months of tracing him. The C.I.A. carried out the airstrike using an unmanned drone, an intelligence official said. The White House statement had little detail about the operation, but said it was carried out at the direction of President Trump. The statement said Mr. al-Rimi's death will degrade the Yemen affiliate and the global Qaeda movement and "brings us closer to eliminating the threats these groups pose to our national security."

Drone startup Wingcopter, working with partners Merck and the Frankfurt University of Applied Science, has completed a first flight of a new drone delivery trial designed to show the benefits of using drones instead of trucks or other road-faring vehicles for moving small cargo between two physically separate office facilities. This first flight covered around 25 km (roughly 15.5 miles), taking a sample of pigments from one Merck lab in Gernsheim to its headquarters in Darmstadt in Germany. This trial is significant in more ways than one: The area it covered spanned a fairly dense metropolitan area, flying over power lines, trains, roadways and more. It also did all of this without continuous line-of-sight, something that's been required of most drone delivery trials in a commercial setting to date. The partners involved are hoping this means it can stand as a blueprint to other similar pilot projects and trials being run all over the world.

Japanese authorities are introducing a variety of measures to prevent the wrongful use of drones, which has been increasing due to many people being unfamiliar with regulations, especially tourists from abroad. Under the civil aeronautics law, a drone of 200 grams or more cannot be operated in airspace around airports or residential areas without permission from the government. In addition, the law regulating the use of drones bans flights in airspace near designated important places such as the Prime Minister's Office, the Imperial Palace and nuclear power plants. Foreign tourists and others unfamiliar with the laws continue to violate them. In 2019, 14 foreign nationals had their cases sent to prosecutors, as of Nov. 20.

ABOARD, A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT – The top U.S. commander for the Middle East slipped quietly into Iraq Tuesday, as the Trump administration works to salvage relations with Iraqi leaders and shut down the government's push for an American troop withdrawal. Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie became the most senior U.S. military official to visit since an American drone strike in Baghdad last month killed a top Iranian general, enraging the Iraqis. McKenzie met with Iraq leaders in Baghdad and then went to see American troops at al-Asad Air base, which was bombed by Iran last month in retaliation for the drone attack. Later, he said he was "heartened" by the meetings, adding, "I think we're going to be able to find a way forward." His visit comes amid heightened anti-American sentiment that has fueled violent protests, rocket attacks on the embassy and a vote by the Iraqi parliament pushing for withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.

The US Department of Defense may have a novel solution for intercepting rogue drones that fly too close to its bases. According to a report from Defense One, the Pentagon has signed a contract with Fortem Technologies to use its brand of'Drone Hunter' to nab unmanned aerial vehicle in midair. The drones reportedly use a mixture of AI and radar to track their targets in the sky and then swoop in near enough to shoot out a net attached to a rope that wraps it up mid-flight. While bases are allowed to use more forceful means of neutralizing enemy drones - namely shooting them out of the sky - one of the major advantages of using a Drone Hunter is that it lowers the risk of dangerous debris that might hurt bystanders in urban areas. 'Drone attacks on the nation's men and women in uniform are increasing.

KYIV – A leaked recording of an exchange between an Iranian air-traffic controller and an Iranian pilot purports to show that authorities immediately knew a missile had downed a Ukrainian jetliner after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard, despite days of denials by the Islamic Republic. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the recording's authenticity in a report aired by a Ukrainian television channel Sunday night. In Tehran on Monday, the head of the Iranian investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar, acknowledged the recording was legitimate and said it was handed over to Ukrainian officials. After the Jan. 8 disaster, Iran's civilian government maintained for days that it didn't know the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had shot down the aircraft. The downing of the jetliner came just hours after the Guard launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for an earlier American drone strike that killed the Guard's top general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.